

The Good Drone - calebgarling
https://openstandard.mozilla.org/the-good-drone/

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guelo
I get annoyed when people compare the multimillion dollar military UAVs, with
jet engines and satellite guidance, with quadcopters that have 20 minutes of
battery, can carry a few ounces, and use line of sight controls.

They should have different names. The quadcopters are really just RC planes,
but everybody is calling them drones now for some reason.

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bri3d
This was true in the early days of hobbyist quadcopters, but at this point
even ready-to-fly consumer models are offering FPV and even full beyond-line-
of-sight autonomy.

I think this automation unlocks a lot beyond classic R/C flying - yes, people
have been flying beyond-line-of-sight FPV for a long time, but certainly not
as beginners while using a $550 RTF kit which can fly itself and also offers
GPS-based waypoints and a built-in camera gimbal.

I do agree that using the same word for weaponized military platforms and
little quadcopters is frustrating, but I think we're far past the "glorified
R/C plane" phase of hobbyist flying gear, too.

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kibwen
I was unsure what this had to do with Mozilla. From the site's About page:

 _The Open Standard provides online news coverage of open, transparent, and
collaborative systems at work in technology and our daily lives. Our purpose
is to showcase the positive global impact of these systems and inspire more
people to seek out, support and adopt open principles of accessibility,
participation and experimentation.

The Open Standard is published by Mozilla, a global community of
technologists, thinkers and builders working together to promote openness,
innovation and opportunity online. We will disclose and be transparent if we
take a position on or promote the products and services of Mozilla or a
partner company._

It appears to be an extension of their OpenNews initiative:
[http://opennews.org/](http://opennews.org/)

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sixothree
Just a nit-pick - I thought Ferguson, Missouri imposed a no fly area directly
above the protests so drone surveillance was not an option.

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scrollaway
Why is it web browsers can't do web font fallbacks? I had to read this stuff
in the inspector...

[https://mediacru.sh/oXZoeWraAtA7](https://mediacru.sh/oXZoeWraAtA7)

