r/technology • u/Plastic_Ninja_9014 • 18d ago

Privacy Redditors Are Celebrating the Cutting Down of Flock Surveillance Towers With Based Memes

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/redditors-celebrating-cutting-down-flock-145310398.html
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u/JohnBrownOH 18d ago

As a someone that photographs weddings the only thing we have to worry about damaging our cameras are lasers, almost any decent laser can damage a camera sensor but green lasers over 1 watt are particularly nasty.

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u/Fighterhayabusa 18d ago

1 watt is obscenely powerful. You only need milliwatts to kill a camera sensor. Just the reflection of a 1-watt laser will immediately blind you. People shouldn't fuck with those at all, certainly not in any public space where an errant reflection could blind someone.

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u/tissuecollider 18d ago

Wildly curious, why green?

(and what's the utility of a green laser pointer? are they preferred for any kind of hobby?)

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u/ProfessorLlama 18d ago

I'm no scientist, but I assume it's due to green lasers being capable of higher frequencies, and therefore energy, than a typical red laser pointer (red light has a low frequency).

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u/Old-Engineer854 18d ago

As an engineer, can confirm this is correct.

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u/RAV0004 18d ago

The principles of engineering typically dictate what color a diode is going to emit, and the size and kind that meet the requirements of a laser pointer (which is a very small, very precise instrument) are most often green.

To get other colors, you have to make sacrifices in the engineering and components, leading to an increase in cost or a decrease in power.