this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2026
373 points (99.7% liked)

Technology

86814 readers
3826 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
top 16 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] nullspace@lemmy.world 6 points 2 hours ago

That would be terrible news if their purpose was fighting crime.

[–] Zak@lemmy.world 10 points 6 hours ago (3 children)

Sure would be a shame if someone pointed lasers into them.

[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 7 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (1 children)

Spray paint poles are cheaper and safer. Tungsten carbide sawzall blades aren’t that expensive either

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

just use a circular saw with a medium tooth count blade designed for metal.

a six inch circular blade can cut up to 300 times more than a reciprocal saw blade when you compare tooth to tooth.

[–] StupidBrotherInLaw@lemmy.world 2 points 31 minutes ago

They also cut faster, though are loud as hell.

[–] Malyca@lemmy.zip 4 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

You'd need a laser powerful enough and those are hard to get. Those are super dangerous I'd recommend people stay away from them if they don't know about how they work.

[–] Zak@lemmy.world 8 points 5 hours ago

Absolutely. 500mW+ lasers can injure human eyes in a fraction of a second, even from a reflection, similar to how they can destroy a camera sensor.

They're not particularly hard to get online in the USA though.

[–] T156@lemmy.world -1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

That's a bad idea. You don't want to get a stranger, or yourself in the eye.

Anything that would do meaningful damage to a camera sensor will easily to that to human eyeballs if it refracts or gets reflected.

Especially for cheaper high-power lasers, which may not properly filter out invisible wavelengths like IR.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 3 points 59 minutes ago* (last edited 59 minutes ago)

Anything that would do meaningful damage to a camera sensor will easily to that to human eyeballs if it refracts or gets reflected.

I don't think that's true? The lidars on Waymo have been known to damage camera sensors but are safe to the eyes. By damage, like a pixel or two go out, but that's from a random hit. If you did it right you could do more damage.

[–] soratoyuki@piefed.zip 8 points 6 hours ago

The police have been yelling for years that fighting crime is just an unwanted side effect of their actual jobs; protecting capital and killing brown people.

One of these days we should believe them.

[–] EmilieEasie@fedinsfw.app 22 points 8 hours ago

Really good at helping cops commit crimes though

[–] spacegoat@lemmy.world 12 points 7 hours ago

They’re to prevent justified civil unrest

[–] Kyrgizion@lemmy.world 50 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

That was never the objective in the first place. Blanket surveillance and getting people used to the idea of zero privacy, ever again.

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 40 points 9 hours ago

“Under observation, we act less free, which means we effectively are less free.”

-Edward Snowden

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 55 points 11 hours ago

Just like most AI, it makes the user lazier. And I'm someone who is forced to use AI for work and I can confirm.

Why would police actively try to solve a crime when they could lean on flock? Even if it gets it wrong they can say they tried and then move on.

[–] saltesc@lemmy.world 4 points 9 hours ago

Yeah, we know. Is the FBI now just the FB?