>>>I saw a CSI show last night.
>>>
>>>The security CCTV at a LV nightclub, from c 100 yds away, picked out the "vic" going to a car and opening a document on the car's bonnet (hood).
>>>
>>>The usual: "can you zoom in on that?" - "Can you enhance ...?" (forget about the fact that he typed most of this op and rarely used the mouse)
>>>
>>>They picked out the header of the doc.
>>>
>>>"That looks like a 2-D bar code, such as used by airlines"
>>
>>And the guy is of course recognizing that this is airline code, quite different from what's on the back of a driver's license. Ah so gestalt-recognizing :)
>>
>>>(we're talking of essentially a pixellated screen image of a pixellated device)
>>>
>>>"Can you scan it in?" (yeah, at an oblique angle, with perfect res)
>>
>>I've told you long ago that the miracle is in the special software which recognizes out-of-focus pixels and removes them. The rest is then easy. And, ahem, the trick in their superfast DB access across multiple networks is in the rotating text. As soon as you have the label which displays the suspect's name to rotate before being displayed in its regular position, your speed of DB access is about three orders of magnitude up from what it is from our regular universe.
>
>How about the s/w that takes a smudgy "dab" (fingerprint) image, flips it to the other database window and automatically resizes it and orientates it to fit the db image?
>
>>
>>Last night I was watching an episode of NCIS (which is more or less the same, except their characters are having much more fun, because the Navy probably doesn't feel the need to require the network to depict it as so serious),
>
>We've just started getting that now.


There was a funny throwaway line on "The Sopranos" this week. Christopher and Carmine Jr. were in L.A. pitching a screenplay. (To Ben Kingsley, playing himself). Chris named the director and Ben -- or "Sir Ben, actually" as he said later with maximum pomposity -- said "I'm embarrassed that I haven't heard of him." Chris said he's done mostly TV shows, including "Law and Order, SUV Edition." LOL

If you didn't see last night's "American Idol", it was a sad night, at least for me.