Modern roadside speed displays use radar to show drivers their current speed, often with segmented numerals. An earlier version, the Speed-Minder, appeared in Illinois in the late 1950s or early 1960s as equipment on a state police car. Unlike today’s radar signs, it did not measure the passing driver’s speed: it displayed the police car’s own speed through a large, non-digital speedometer mounted on top of the vehicle. The striking design is a pre-screen solution to a familiar road-safety problem, using a visible analog instrument rather than electronic digits.
The device’s purpose is uncertain. Its name implies an effort to discourage speeding, but the display may instead - or also - have helped motorists check whether their own speedometers were accurately calibrated. Little information is available about whether the Speed-Minder changed driver behavior or proved effective. Its appeal lies less in any documented claim of success than in the ingenuity and visual character of the object: a police car carrying its own speedometer as a public-facing signal. The example offers a glimpse of design ideas from before digital screens, valued for their historical context, amusement, and inspiration.
Summary generated by AI from the linked article. hn.today is not affiliated with Hacker News or Y Combinator.
Wearable devices from Meta, Google, Apple, Amazon, and others increasingly record and summarize people’s surroundings, conversations, and daily activities. The EFF argues these products make privacy a shared concern, because one person’s recording choices can affect everyone nearby. (eff.org)
A rogue Wikipedia editor, Jagged_85, made more than 87,000 edits that falsely credited Islamic Golden Age figures with inventions and discoveries. Those claims spread across the internet and even entered scholarly writing through repeated citation. (cremieux.xyz)
GNU Emacs maintainer Eli Zaretskii said the project would accept technically sound code even if it was knowingly produced through slavery. The author argues that this stance ignores how code is made and confuses software freedom with ethical responsibility. (flyingpenguin.com)
A daughter joins her father, grandmother, and uncle on a chaotic autumn road trip along China’s Yalu River border with North Korea. The journey brings family tensions and memories into focus against the region’s striking landscape. (longreads.com)
An interactive site compares all 13 versions of The Secret of Monkey Island side by side across 12 matching scenes. It uses emulator captures with consistent scaling and includes CRT effects and version details. (monkeyisland.pages.dev)
The US government will end efforts to restrict apps and Facebook groups that report Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. The groups and apps share information about ICE activity with their users. (reuters.com)
Today's best Hacker News stories, summarized and screenshotted, one email a day.