
I replicated an $86M project in 57 lines of code - dodders
https://read.acloud.guru/how-i-replicated-an-86-million-project-in-57-lines-of-code-277031330ee9
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grammarxcore
I'm not a fan of the title, which is rather clickbaity. The author addresses
that in the article near the bottom.

> To be fair, I have absolutely no clue what the $86M figure includes — nor
> can I speak to the accuracy of my open source tool with no localized
> training vs. the pilot BlueNet system.

While I have no doubt that the author's solution is a cleaner approach more
suited to real government than the cronyism probably involved in that 86M
figure, sensationalizing the difference doesn't help FOSS government
advocates. 57 lines of code also doesn't include the libraries involved, so I
feel like this is just meant to grab attention. It's pretty rad, but the way
it's presented doesn't lend itself to credibility and adoption.

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debarshri
Having worked for a traffic enforcement company. It is actually more than what
meets the eye. ANPR and hardware is probably 5% of the actual infrastructure.
Rest of it is generally a pipeline that most of time has to be retrofitted
with their existing infrastructure. Lot of the cost into project management
and aligning the spec understanding. So when someone says a project is worth
$86 million it is not just the hardware and anpr but the whole pipeline
integrated with various complicated government workflows, assuring SLO and
various other guarantees

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mrburton
This is the 4th time this post came up.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18681759](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18681759)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21844164](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21844164)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20774985](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20774985)
(It was flagged here as a duplicate to 18681759)

Flagging it again.

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Ididntdothis
I agree that a lot of projects are too expensive but this is a little silly.
There is more to a public project besides nailing together a few lines of
code. You need documentation, maintenance, user training and lot of other
stuff. The actual tech is usually the easy part.

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dpcan
This is like saying I can replicate Google with:

SELECT * FROM websites WHERE title like '%dancing cats%';

~~~
jkoudys
Dude you've replicated alta vista at best. I'm going to take my google to
market and dominate:

    
    
        SELECT * FROM websites WHERE LOWER(title) LIKE '%dancing cats%';

~~~
notacoward
SELECT * from ad_buyers WHERE LOWER(title) LIKE '%dancing cats%';

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franciscop
Medium blog post from 2017, could we add the year to the title please?

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concernedctzn
[2017] previous discussion
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18681759](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18681759)

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luizfzs
On the first paragraph I had a feeling I have read that post before. Then I
checked the date it was posted and baaaam, 2017.

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corodra
I'd just like to say something as someone that's sold/installed security
cameras and software in both the private, gov and LE sectors.

Yes, there's a lot of "over priced" cameras (and software) out there that are
pretty much no better than a $20 usb webcam. That includes the "security"
aspect. In my experience (did it for about 3 years), most of these are the
white labeled cameras. A majority from China, but Germany and the USA have put
out some absolutely dogshit cameras as well. Especially when you factor in the
price tag. At least with the Chinese ones, you get a discount for bottom
barrel.

At the same time, there's something most people don't really understand about
security cameras, longevity. These are like servers (and technically are).
They're meant to run 24/7, without stop. Quite a few (if not all newly
manufactured one at this point... I hope) can have weekly scheduled reboots,
which I always recommend customers set. Most don't and actively refuse to
allow a 2 minute block of downtime at an obscure hour. Camera manufacturers
know that, and have to deal with it by having a product that just runs
constantly.

Next up comes physical protection. You start getting into the $300+ per
camera, it's supposed to survive someone hitting it with a baseball bat a few
times. Then comes protection from weather and generally being able to survive
120 deg f outdoor conditions or -40 deg f conditions. Your standard camera and
embedded board can't do that.

Now, there's a lot of asshole integrators that oversell to governments a lot.
My career was primarily based around fixing the last integrator's complete
fuck ups. I've seen how government agencies can be bent over and taken for a
ride in that industry. Sad part is, none of these folks were even paid off.
Just flat out duped. At least the ones I dealt with, I'm sure there's plenty
that took money under the table.

On the software side, this is tricky. Yes, the basics of LPR can be done in a
few lines of code. But there's more to law enforcement and government
accountability, even private sector when developing a case to hand over to the
police after an incident. The software company (video management system, VMS),
has to guarantee the information has not been tampered. A chain of custody of
information has to exist. Video from the VMS cannot be altered in anyway when
exported or a lawyer can just wipe his ass with it and throw it out of court.
Then there's usability, cross-platform support, driver support for a plethora
of devices (there are hundreds of camera manufacturers with hundreds to
thousands of SKUs each of devices that one software has to manage). And that's
just the tip of the iceberg. I haven't even gotten into general security so it
can't be hacked... at least easily (I think Genetec is still top dog in this,
it's been 2 years, may have changed. They use to run really good bounty
programs, don't know if they still do).

I think 86mil is still retarded as hell because there are plenty of off the
shelf solutions that accomplish exactly what they want already, from 2+ years
ago. Would only cost them a less than... maybe 8-10 mil in license fees. I
don't know how big the city is or needs spec, so it'd take me a while to
properly quote... eh, I also never did an international project. I don't know
if some of the vendors I dealt with have a different pricing structure for
Australia (I know some countries get charged more, for various reasons). So,
there's that too.

So just saying, it's a much more complicated issue than most people imagine.
The VMS companies do have a large workforce of programmers that have a job I'd
never take and do need to be paid. I also over simplified quite a bit and left
out other "fun" aspects of selling and deploying physical security... the
reasons why I don't do it anymore. Hell, I didn't realize how much of a bitch
of a problem it all was until I actually had to do it. I can't blame people
for not knowing. Just... be aware, it's not a clear cut situation like this
guy makes it out to be.

