Day: November 16, 2005

Lost in an hour and 14 minutes!

The leap from tracking every vehicle movement 24/7 on UK roads and retaining the information in a database for 2 years to tracking every person’s every movement 24/7 is not that big. From license plate recognition to facial recognition just doesn’t seem that big a deal. Just a tad scary.

I hope my friends, with the office here and in the UK, that work in the camera license plate recognition business are reaping the benefits!

The only time you will ever see amy ride in a cart!

The camera shows that traffic is flowing westbound again.

News Sentinel readers give their comments on how the accident affected them. That link has a nice picture of the overturned truck. The live cam seems to be showing the truck still in the same place 9.5 hours later (but I can’t be sure).

WATE has the story (with more good pictures) explaining that "the truck [was] carrying a load of the chemical cyanox, a chemical used in the making of plastic"

Tennessee Dept. of Transportation officials say it may be all day before the truck is cleared because the chemical in the tanker must first be removed. Though officials were initially concerned about the chemical carried in the truck, they’ve determined in does not pose an explosion or inhalation danger.

Just 3 days ago, I-40 was shutdown for 12 hours. Seems we need FEMA or somebody to give us a Interstate disaster plan.

So has anyone else noticed that they’ve zoomed the West Hills camera in on the accident scene?

Interstate still blocked.middlebrook looks good.

Seems that I cannot reach TN Lottery Results which means the server that hosts my webcam captures is unreachable. So far I have figured out that another comcast user using the same name server that I use can reach the site fine. My computer and my wife’s computer cannot which means that it is unlikely (but not impossible) Comcast’s problem and it is not a machine specific problem. My focus must be on two things. 1) Is something wrong with the router or 2) Has my server host blocked me due to uploading a picture every 30 seconds (I think this is likely but you’d think they’d let me know.)

These are the cameras that you see around town. These are not red light cameras. The red cameras have not been installed yet.

The accident at West Hills could have the Interstate closed until noon or longer.

The following content reposted from June 22, 2005.

I’m an observant person. I watched the traffic cams get installed by TDOT. For a long I have intended to call TDOT and ask, "are those cameras available to the public?" Ironically, being a web guy, I never bothered looking online until one of the local news stations mentioned the 75 cameras are online (though by my count I only see 66). Have a look at a picture of a TDOT SmartWay camera.

Additional information about the TDOT $20 million SmaryWay system is available including cameras statewide and information about Tennessee 511 a service that provides traffic information from any phone. TDOT is also in Alabama.

From the Smartway FAQ:

Other benefits include:

• Providing live video to local television stations that is used during their rush hour traffic reports
• Website access to current construction and incident information.
• Shorter crash response time by emergency response agencies including TDOT HELP trucks
• Using the system to assist in AMBER ALERTS
• Radio reports of current construction and incident information available on the highway advisory radio (HAR) system.
• Use of the system to complement Homeland Security evacuation plans

Now when you want to leave the house you can check to see if I-40 is jammed or not!

 

Your Career Type: Artistic

You are expressive, original, and independent. Your talents lie in your artistic abilities: creative writing, drama, crafts, music, or art. You would make an excellent: Actor – Art Teacher – Book Editor Clothes Designer – Comedian – Composer Dancer – DJ – Graphic Designer Illustrator – Musician – Sculptor The worst career options for your are conventional careers, like bank teller or secretary.

Tanker truck overturned on interstate 40 at west hills will have interstate closed for a lengthy time.

Middlebrook near standstill due to i40 closure

Spy Journal Tech Tips turns us onto a crash test of Corsair’s new, rugged flash drive.

I’d like to fire me but I haven’t found a suitable replacement yet.