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Ask HN: Can you help me remove the marks for the airstrikes from Google Maps?

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Re: Ask HN: Can you help me remove the marks for the airstrikes from Google Maps?

#51

Post by invalidname »

Piskvorrr wrote: post #48
invalidname wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as I understand the Russian equipment is awful and unmaintained. As a result soldiers in the field just use cell phones and Google Maps to coordinate. Yes they have the original military equipment as the source of the commands but it's much easier to communicate via cell phones. If you know Russians this makes 100% perfect sense... The solution isn't to remove it. Just move the locations slightly to an empty f…

Given the accuracy of the Russian artillery and rockets seen so far, "move it slightly" is a no-op.

Slightly is subjective. It can be 10 miles or more. But if you remove it they will notice...

I worked for a company that worked with maps and our local authorities came over and asked us to move the locations of the bases just a bit. We did that. The logic is that they already know the base is there. Just move it a bit and if it looks close enough they will get small things wrong. If it's too much they won't make the mistake of relying on the bad information.

Re: Ask HN: Can you help me remove the marks for the airstrikes from Google Maps?

#52

Post by benatkin »

dmw_ng wrote: post #42
ketralnis wrote: post #3

It feels very improbable that a government would be using google maps for this. It feels even more improbable that even if they are, removing a mark from google maps would prevent them from launching an actual air strike. Surely a target important enough to "mark" would be worth finding an alternative way to target in case a bunch of keyboard warriors figure out your nefarious plan. None of this makes sense. I know i…

The invasion was so urgently cobbled together that many Russian forces were using amateur radios to communicate, they had no support infrastructure in place, or even fuel for the vehicles containing that infrastructure. Numerous soldiers were captured carrying off the shelf radios (literally think eBay), and there are various reports they rely on the mobile phone network to coordinate with central command. There was…

> Everything about this sadly makes sense

Especially Google not keeping their word. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30524898 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30525030

Re: Ask HN: Can you help me remove the marks for the airstrikes from Google Maps?

#53

Post by croon »

masklinn wrote: post #32
steve_taylor wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn’t it make a lot more sense to restrict this activity geographically rather than based on accounts’ language?

What would be the geographic restrictions though? “In ukraine”? Russian troops might be located there, also VPNs, and non-GPS geolocation is not exactly reliable (at least in my european experience where I’m essentially never geolocalised correctly and the subsequent localisation is always incorrect, any location within a few hundred miles of a border is a crapshoot). “Out of ukraine or russia” would be trivially byp…

No post body was provided.

Re: Ask HN: Can you help me remove the marks for the airstrikes from Google Maps?

#54

Post by axiosgunnar »

geoka9 wrote: post #19
Maxious wrote: post #9

> “Out of an abundance of caution, we are removing user contributions like photos, videos, reviews and business information and all user-submitted places from Google Maps in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus since the invasion began, and are temporarily blocking new edits from being made,” a Google spokesperson said. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/sarahemerson/russia-goo...

It still works, I've just tried.

k8s takes some time to roll out on a global scale i would assume

Re: Ask HN: Can you help me remove the marks for the airstrikes from Google Maps?

#55

Post by blitzar »

masklinn wrote: post #32
steve_taylor wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn’t it make a lot more sense to restrict this activity geographically rather than based on accounts’ language?

What would be the geographic restrictions though? “In ukraine”? Russian troops might be located there, also VPNs, and non-GPS geolocation is not exactly reliable (at least in my european experience where I’m essentially never geolocalised correctly and the subsequent localisation is always incorrect, any location within a few hundred miles of a border is a crapshoot). “Out of ukraine or russia” would be trivially byp…

Use code "Invasion2022" to get 50% off a 1 year subscription to our award winning VPN.

Re: Ask HN: Can you help me remove the marks for the airstrikes from Google Maps?

#56

Post by dmw_ng »

benatkin wrote: post #52
dmw_ng wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The invasion was so urgently cobbled together that many Russian forces were using amateur radios to communicate, they had no support infrastructure in place, or even fuel for the vehicles containing that infrastructure. Numerous soldiers were captured carrying off the shelf radios (literally think eBay), and there are various reports they rely on the mobile phone network to coordinate with central command. There was…

> Everything about this sadly makes sense Especially Google not keeping their word. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30524898 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30525030

HTTPS everywhere very much cuts both ways. We love improvements like encrypted SNI because we think it only means the evil dictator's middlebox won't function any more, when in reality it also enables shit like this.

On the whole though, I think HTTPS everywhere was still a net improvement, and we should probably be thanking Google for pushing it.

Re: Ask HN: Can you help me remove the marks for the airstrikes from Google Maps?

#57

Post by benatkin »

axiosgunnar wrote: post #54
geoka9 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It still works, I've just tried.

k8s takes some time to roll out on a global scale i would assume

If it's an update to the Docker images, that normally takes a couple minutes, if it's a rolling deploy. It is possible to turn off the rolling deploy, but there will be downtime.

Re: Ask HN: Can you help me remove the marks for the airstrikes from Google Maps?

#58

Post by [deleted] »

benatkin wrote: post #57
axiosgunnar wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

k8s takes some time to roll out on a global scale i would assume

If it's an update to the Docker images, that normally takes a couple minutes, if it's a rolling deploy. It is possible to turn off the rolling deploy, but there will be downtime.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Can you help me remove the marks for the airstrikes from Google Maps?

#59

Post by benatkin »

dmw_ng wrote: post #56
benatkin wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Everything about this sadly makes sense Especially Google not keeping their word. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30524898 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30525030

HTTPS everywhere very much cuts both ways. We love improvements like encrypted SNI because we think it only means the evil dictator's middlebox won't function any more, when in reality it also enables shit like this. On the whole though, I think HTTPS everywhere was still a net improvement, and we should probably be thanking Google for pushing it.

Fair enough, I don't know what the situation is, or even if that promise to BuzzFeed is accurate.

Re: Ask HN: Can you help me remove the marks for the airstrikes from Google Maps?

#60

Post by blitzar »

playpause wrote: post #10

I don’t know if this is true. But to everyone dismissing the idea that a military would ever use Google Maps to co-ordinate, you may have missed some news stories about what a shitshow the first few days of the Russian invasion has been. Major breakdown of their digital systems and lots of improvisation.

The rest of the world is using twitter & tiktok to get real time intelligence so why not. One could, for example, tell those sympathetic to you to use "hastag military installation blow it up" and tag it on social media and within a few hours the circling bomber get the coordinates and boom.
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