Behold! The Applitron!
Where's the beam line?
An amateur drone video is shedding new light on Apple's future headquarters. Shot in August with a GoPro Hero 3 camera mounted onto a DJI Phantom 2 Quadcopter drone, the video shows construction on the iStuff maker's new Cupertino headquarters. The creator of the video said that footage was shot at the FAA-approved altitude of …
"United States v. Causby 328 U.S. 256 says he doesn't have too."
Actually, no it doesn't. The way United States v. Causby is applied in the US, is that the navigable airspace is public domain. But that airspace also requires compliance with FAA. But this drone was flying below that limit, so technically it is was trespassing. Unless, they obtained permission from the land owner to fly there.
Even Causby obtained compensation from the US gov't, as the aircraft were flying at 83 ft, as the US gov't had to obtain an easement to fly planes through the immediate airspace about his property.
I just had a look at that judgement - it was about low flying military aircraft in 'navigable airspace' under the 'minimum safe altitude'. Causby was claiming damages for injury to livestock due to intense stress on them. The court determined that the government had taken an 'easement', a property right defined in law, which they have the power to do but which they must pay compensation for. That judgement would not seem to apply to this situation on a variety of counts.
[edit] Tom beat me to it.
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Immediate thoughts of a GCHQ v.4.2 Operations Base crossed my mind too on sight of that site construction, AC, therefore it is and/or if not presently, most certainly can be and therefore definitely will be.
Crikey ..... Is that Spooky Blighty Boffinry already cracked and hacked into Coffee and Cocoa for Bigger and Better Beta Future Live Operational Virtual Environment Productions with Media and IT Presentation of Virtual Reality or is that a Private Proprietary Pirate Programming for AI and Virtual Machinery into NEUKlearer HyperRadioProActive IT Generation for Sublime Command and Control of Heavenly Powers and always readily available on the most attractive and sensitive of novel affordable terms to CyberIntelAIgent State Leaderships?
And Double Crikey and Jumping Jehosophats, Batman, what if it is at least both of those at the same time in space and therefore something else and completely different too.
"I'm wondering about the idea of putting a microphone on a drone. Would it ever record anything but engine noise?"
It's probably there simply as a result of being a standard feature of the camera - pointless, really, but it just is. If you (as the operator) are bothered, you can just replace the audio with a nice (suitably licenced) piece of music, or other audio.
I'm sure there's a business case for a big campus site, but not for one that's as much form as function.
History records many examples of hubristic companies who massaged their own egos out of existance. BSkyB took on the undeniably chic Marco Polo House as their (expensive) head office, while Sky took on a functional "shed" somewhere near Romford. Both were suited to the companies needs but one was built to a reasonable budget while the other was more or less pure excess.
Activities like these don't condemn a company but they do signpost the management mindset.
If I were Cook, I'd be spending less on head office and more on testing/R&D or other activity that benefits end customers and therefore Apple's competitive position...