Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency' • Hacker News Board

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#571

Post by rmbyrro » Thu, Dec 12, 2024, 12:48 PM UTC

curt15 wrote: post #549

selfmodruntime wrote: post #526

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How can anyone know these aren't a threat without knowing whose they are They are - obviously - lying. This screams secrecy to me. All 3 know that these drones are not a threat. They aren't US military because they are a 3 letter agency program. They know there's nothing to worry about it, but they won't tell you any more details. Which has been the modus operandi for secret services for decades, so I'm surprised i…

Shoot one down and see who comes knocking?

Careful who you wish on your door...

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#572

Post by j2bax » Thu, Dec 12, 2024, 12:49 PM UTC

diggan wrote: post #556

addandsubtract wrote: post #544

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you wanted to find out whose they are, just follow them and see where they land, and who picks them up?

> just follow them How exactly do you follow a fixed-wing drone? Some of the high-end/industrial drones has pretty impressive ranges.

With a fixed wing drone of your own of course!

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#573

Post by rmbyrro » Thu, Dec 12, 2024, 12:51 PM UTC

diggan wrote: post #557

jahnu wrote: post #521

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even taking a picture of the moon with a typical phone results in a white mushy blob.

I like that parent said "200 meters" and then you give a "even" example with the distance of ~400,000 kilometers :)

Compared to the radius of the known Universe, it's in the ballpark

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#574

Post by almog » Thu, Dec 12, 2024, 12:59 PM UTC

potato3732842 wrote: post #570

diggan wrote: post #556

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> just follow them How exactly do you follow a fixed-wing drone? Some of the high-end/industrial drones has pretty impressive ranges.

You pay a bunch of money to someone who has a Dash 8 or similar common commercial aircraft. These drones probably don't have 1000mi range. And even if you can't follow one all the way to its destination you can still take some real good pictures with flash and plaster them all over the news and wait for someone to say "I pump fuel and sweep floors at airport X and a bunch of dickbags with black suburbans and bad atti…

>These drones probably don't have 1000mi range.

Since you're replying to a question about tracking fixed wing it's worth mentioning that their range can be well over 1000 miles as some of the Iranian Shahed drones have a range of almost 1600 miles.

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#575

Post by khushy » Thu, Dec 12, 2024, 1:06 PM UTC

1oooqooq wrote: post #539

selfmodruntime wrote: post #526

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How can anyone know these aren't a threat without knowing whose they are They are - obviously - lying. This screams secrecy to me. All 3 know that these drones are not a threat. They aren't US military because they are a 3 letter agency program. They know there's nothing to worry about it, but they won't tell you any more details. Which has been the modus operandi for secret services for decades, so I'm surprised i…

a shining example of a functioning democracy.

[dead]

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#576

Post by epr » Thu, Dec 12, 2024, 1:11 PM UTC

motorest wrote: post #466

gradus_ad wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in NJ. I've seen these drones. They are not commercial airliners or helicopters. They are loud, fly low and slow, and make abrupt turns unlike any planes I've seen. Their lights are also very different from other aircraft. I can see how it's tempting to chalk this up to hysteria, but they are absolutely large drones of some kind.

> I live in NJ. I've seen these drones. They are not commercial airliners or helicopters. They are loud, fly low and slow, and make abrupt turns unlike any planes I've seen. Their lights are also very different from other aircraft. You better crank out your camera and collect any proof at all,because what you are describing bears no resemblance to the sightings mentioned in the article. There is a reason why sighting…

There are multiple videos already, some even in broad daylight. For example, the nbc news clip on youtube about 15 seconds in.

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#577

Post by hnpolicestate » Thu, Dec 12, 2024, 1:12 PM UTC

So this is out there but the late John Keel who investigated UFO's and the paranormal during the 20th century believed that these phenomena aren't even physically there.

It's some kind of trick that an unknown entity plays on people. Like Bigfoot, lochness monster etc. It's possible the drones don't physically exist. Yet we can see and hear them.

The government might know this. Hence lack of response

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#578

Post by weard_beard » Thu, Dec 12, 2024, 1:13 PM UTC

rmbyrro wrote: post #571

curt15 wrote: post #549

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shoot one down and see who comes knocking?

Careful who you wish on your door...

[flagged]

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#579

Post by ptero » Thu, Dec 12, 2024, 1:15 PM UTC

otikik wrote: post #547

j_timberlake wrote: post #501

Quick summary after following this for a few days: FBI says they're rotary and fixed-wing drones, White House says they aren't foreign adversaries, Pentagon says they aren't USA military, all 3 insist that there's no indication of a real threat despite the drones being bigger and higher tech than retail drones. Politicians are PO'd that something about this doesn't add up: How can anyone know these aren't a threat wi…

> How can anyone know these aren't a threat without knowing whose they are? Because they are theirs, obviously. They just won't say it.

Neither FBI nor Pentagon have ability to fly drones in the US airspace at will. On the contrary, they, like everyone else, have to get FAA approvals and those always leak. And usually in fact published by the FAA who needs to warn pilots of potential threats -- one could go to the official FAA website and search those NOTAMs.

Ignoring FAA by the FBI or the military just doesn't happen, the price to pay is WAY too high.

NSA or spooks could theoretically be behind this, but why do it where it annoys people and attracts attention and not in some desert or foreign place? Something doesn't add up.

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#580

Post by bluGill » Thu, Dec 12, 2024, 1:20 PM UTC

UltraSane wrote: post #546

bsder wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the Toyota acceleration accidents were almost certainly the result of operator error. The fact that the staistical probablity increased with age gives that away. However, Toyota got convicted because their software development process was so terrible that they were effectively criminally negligent and deserved to get absolutely roasted for it.

Did they use tons of global variables?

Globals are common and even right in this application. However they didn't take proper care in other ways (i'm not clear what I've just been in embedded long enough to know globals are often required despite how hard they are to get right)