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Issues with chat room

I never even noticed there was a chat room and now that I have I'm kinda bummed that it wouldn't work for me on IE, Chrome, or Firefox!
 
I have proposed to Rich Z the idea of a chat box at the top of the home page, like some other forums have. I guess it wouldn't be _exactly_ like chat, because it would be quite public, and you couldn't talk about 18+ stuff...I don't know, I think it would be a nice way to have live banter, or for urgent questions to get immediate attention. I think it might help people get to know each other better. Talking about snakes and other interests.

But do enough people want something like this to make it worthwhile implementing it? I don't mind paying for something that people want and will use, but I'm really not all that keen on just throwing my money away if it's not going to be used.
 
Oh hell Rich.....throw money away....we know you're rolling in it! Why be different from the rest of us??? I have horses...throwing away money is second nature for me!
 
Sorry, but if I am going to be throwing money away, it will be for something that I WANT. Matter of fact I've been looking at a new toy the last couple of weeks. :)
 
Oh boy! Fly it over my house and you can see a shotgun in action though :) I liked your music choice for what it's worth! Quite the video king! I suspect this will keep you busy or a while!
 
Not that you were being serious, but pretty sure it's a felony to shoot at a drone just as if it were a manned plane.
 
Actually the law is pretty unclear about how far above your property your "air rights" extend. But honestly those cameras on these things are very wide angled lenses, so I can't see them being used in much of a spy sort of endeavor. At least not surreptitiously. They are LOUD, so it's not like you could sneak up on anyone. Think of hearing a thousand bees buzzing over your head and you'll get an idea of what they sound like. Even that little Hubsan I have is quite noisy and you can quite easily locate it if you lose sight just by tracking the sound.

Besides that, there is always going to be the issue of destruction of private property that will likely get the police involved in issues of this nature. Surely if someone shot my $1600 copter and camera out of the sky and I knew who it was, there is going to be some bad blood generated. The next quadcopter might be carrying some sort of revenge payload..... :grin01:
 
I'm sure it is illegal to shoot a drone or an Amazon drone but I guaran-darn-tee that some redneck in the woods will at some point shoot a drone showing up in his yard. Besides, it's Rich, not a business or government drone...just some guy spyin' on me! I can't imagine someone shooting down anything if it wasn't over their property....well, I can imagine it, but I wouldn't think about shooting something down over my neighbor's property....they can take care of their own stuff....however, you fly your little spy copter over my farm and I might just play trap shoot.....
 
I'm sure it is illegal to shoot a drone or an Amazon drone but I guaran-darn-tee that some redneck in the woods will at some point shoot a drone showing up in his yard. Besides, it's Rich, not a business or government drone...just some guy spyin' on me! I can't imagine someone shooting down anything if it wasn't over their property....well, I can imagine it, but I wouldn't think about shooting something down over my neighbor's property....they can take care of their own stuff....however, you fly your little spy copter over my farm and I might just play trap shoot.....

It will still be private property being destroyed. And although I won't like drones flying over my property, I doubt I could make a convincing argument before a court that I had justification for shooting it down because I felt I had secrets that such a device would be spying upon that I needed to make every effort to keep secret.

I expect that sooner or later this issue will make some interesting court cases. Remember in most cases those things are recording video and in some cases there recording takes place at the controller and not at the drone. That there is known as "evidence" in court lingo. Someone flying a drone OVER your property to get to somewhere else probably won't be a viable reason for you to shoot it down. And some of these things have a range of a mile or better, so it might behoove you to check to see where your rights end and someone else's begins.

Sure would hate to hear of someone shooting down a drone that was owned by some pissed off person with a .50BMG rifle who could lob 850 grain projectiles a good 4 miles away if the trial doesn't go their way. :grin01:
 
But you gotta admit......shooting one down would be fun.....the ultimate trap shoot....just sayin'
 
Actually unless the operator knows you are shooting at it and taking evasive maneuvers, or it is on it's way to somewhere else and in a hurry, they will be very easy targets as long as they aren't real high up. A 12 gauge should easily be up to the task even with bird shot.

Generally speaking I would likely fly around 150 to 250 feet up unless I was over some geological feature that warranted being closer to. Heck, I have trees 70 ft. tall and better on my property that I would need to clear anyway. The wide angled lenses on these things are for WIDE ANGLE views to take in as much of the scenery as possible. Even closer to the ground the wide angle lens is there so that collision avoidance will be easier. Side swiping a tree or branch will likely bust a propeller and at least put the quad into an uncontrolled tumble to the ground. There have been accounts of geese attacking these things, so it's probably a good idea to yaw the camera every now and again to take a 360 look around.

I can't speak for government use of these things, but from a hobbyist perspective they certainly were not designed for spying on the neighbors. Heck, for that matter, I'm pretty sure the government can see anything they want in your yard with their satellites. What we can see with Google Earth is likely just exposing a fraction of the true capabilities of those satellite cameras.
 
So maybe we should try to have an informal, scheduled chat, like Friday or Saturday evenings? Early enough that the east-coasters are still awake? For those of us with plenty of free time?
 
Sure. If you want me to create a section where scheduled chats can be announced and perhaps even transcripts posted, just let me know.

But is the current chat system stable enough to expect that most people will be able to access it?
 
Okay- I'm in chat right now! Hit me up!! I'll keep an eye on it till it's time for Survivor...
 
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