In summer of 2004, I was hassled by a Google security guard while taking nature photographs in the park which borders the east side of Google's campus on Amphitheater Parkway in Mountain View, Ca. This is a public park that was constructed when the campus was originally built, as required by the city of Mountain View. The orginal tenant of the campus was SGI.

At the moment of the hassling, I was operating a twin-lens reflex camera on a tripod. I was on the sidewalk with the Google campus at my back, photographing some trees across the street. The guard demanded to know what I was photographing and accused me of photographing the Google campus, as if that act was somehow forbidden or unlawful. Being aware of my rights, I asked the guard if I was trespassing on Google property, to which he replied, "No". I then told them that if he wished to purse the matter, he should call the Mountain View police. He left in a huff.

Needless to say, this encounter was a little intimidating and upsetting. Time passed and Google street view came out and my thought was, "How Ironic?"

Can't he be more imaginative? A whimpy Toyota by any other name, and overpriced as well. How about a nice big SUV, like my Ford Explorer that they found in my driveway when they passed by.

I would not put what happened to you down to a policy of google to not allow people to snap their building. I would say it was a bored security guard just looking to unnecessarily spoil your day by giving you a hard time. What's the point of this guy wearing that copish uniform if he can't use it to bully people?

Someone surveying the area for the best way to sneak around might well pose as a nature photographer. With an entire park, to have backed yourself up to the perimeter of the campus would seem suspicious to me, even moreso if you then seemed to be taking pictures of anything but the campus as if you were trying to hide your activity.

I've never worked as a security guard, let alone being the one who stopped you, but I know well enough that when it appears that someone is trying to hide something, more scrutiny ought to be placed on them from a security perspective.

So you didn't like being suspected of wrongdoing. Fair enough, but until that could be determined how would a guard catch anyone who was actually up to no good without waiting till that person had caused more of a breech or damage?

I'm not suggesting the guard should've said anything at all since you weren't on Google property, but perhaps kept an eye on you till you left the area.

Actually, my impression was that Google security had the entire area around the campus under surveillance, including the public park. I never set foot on Google grounds. The guard, if that's what he was, was wearing a polo shirt, slacks, and a Google employee badge. As I was in a park, not on the campus, he had to walk quite a way to harass me. This seemed like a general policy, not the actions of a bored guard. The rude confrontational manner may have been unique that guard.

Once in New York, I was asked to stop photographing in front of the CNN building, however, the guard was polite, citing "security issues". I was on their property, even though I was only a few feet off a crowded sidewalk and there were no signs or barriers. Ironically (once more), I was photographing an American flag. Here is the shot.

http://drenaud.com/photofriday/symbol.jpg

It's foist not hoist.

As in "foist by one's own petard" (a shaped charge of gunpowder originally designed to blow holes in gates and later used to remove hinges and locks etc.)

To be so pedantic indicates I don't have a life but at least it won't be appearing anywhere but online.

And who pays any attention to

Why doesn't the "none" button work?

folks knew the difference twixt THEN and THAN...

"...My SUV is bigger then your SUV?..."

i'm sure you mean 'bigger THAN'. think about it, or read this beautifully crafted idiots' guide....

http://bilgebrain.net/2005/06/11/can-anyone-else-out-there-actually-spell-and-understand-basic-grammar-or-am-i-alone/

If you are going to try and be pedantic maybe you should check your facts first, hoist is the correct term :

http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/hoist+with+own+petard

Well done! Have a cookie.

Yeah, just hit Ctrl-A and everything becomes clear...

Or just look in your address bar...

Rubbish! I have this on the authority of Shakespeare, who wrote the quotation in the first place, that the word is HOIST! See http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-pet1.htm

I have no objection to I. Aproveofitspendingonspecificprojects's "To be so pedantic indicates I don't have a life but at least it won't be appearing anywhere but online", but is does so help if you are pedantically accurate!

No it's not, it's hoist.

Tit.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/hoist%20by%20your%20own%20petard.html

Actually hoist is correct. It's quite likely a variant of the middle english "hisse" ("heave!") and in the contemporary context generally meant lift or carry away, which is usually what happens to you when a petard goes off in your hands.

Originally petards were just bombs with a slow fuse designed for undermining castle defences and it was possible to set them off accidentally, whilst carrying them, and consequently be "hoist" all over the roof of the undermining tunnel.

If you actually read the article, Larry's name is in clear 'unredacted' text right on the penultimate paragraph.

----

When we redact xxxxxxxxxxx's name from a story that shows Street View invading his own personal space, we have no problem telling you we're talking about Larry Page.

Much fan of pedantry, but I cannot find any international references to 'foist by his own petard' It's clearly in every reference "Hoist" it comes from the medieval seige engineering true enough, and is quoth in shakespeare;

"There's letters seal'd: and my two schoolfellows,

Whom I will trust as I will adders fang'd,

They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way

And marshal me to knavery. Let it work;

For 'tis the sport to have the enginer

Hoist with his own petar; and 't shall go hard

But I will delve one yard below their mines

And blow them at the moon: O, 'tis most sweet,

When in one line two crafts directly meet."

You did the two fingered salute at the car as it passed by whether the image would be disgarded as I dont want a front view of my hourse on street view.

"Larry's name is visible on the page"

No shit, Sherlock! Your deductive powers amaze us all! (Neat <span> trick, El Reg. Like it).

As to Google's "Do no evil"... like hell

...it really *IS* 'hoist'. Popularized via Hamlet, if I'm not mistaken...

The Google publicists are right; there is no privacy in this bright new century. If privacy campaigners have their way and StreetView and Google Earth are restricted, we still won't have privacy -- governments, companies, and the rich will watch us, and we won't be able to watch them back.

I've been watching out for said vehicles so I can moon them. Google only pixelate faces, but my arse is already pixelated.

As to the foist/hoist thang, has nobody here heard of the word 'troll' ?

the document in question is not just an embarrassing ironic "gotcha" - it is meant to emulate a kidnapping plan. the profile of the security guard, distance measurement, service business identification, and, most telling of all, LIST OF STOP SIGNS on their way to work are all things that would help with abduction by subterfuge or force of one of the richest men in the world.

the missing link: this is a particularly sensitive subject in Silicon Valley, where Adobe executive Charles Geschke was kidnapped for several days back in the early 1990's. this abduction was IN MOUNTAIN VIEW, before Adobe moved to San Jose, with a paltry ransom of US$650,000. the FBI recovered Geschke after baiting the kidnappers with the payment.

those were just a couple local yokels from San Jose and Campbell looking to make quick cash with a gun and a rural house. now imagine some more desperate, experienced and resourceful men from Sergei Brin's lovely home country of Russia decide to try the same thing.

this article would do well to link these two events, as this is a more sensitive issue than it seems.

(side note: fuck mandatory signups. what a fucking annoyance. you can't even get the accented a in my name, either.)

You're all wrong - the word should have been 'joisted' ie shot to the joists, but Shakespeare hit the 'H' instead of the 'J' on his keyboard.

Google that.

...and always was.

Dude, you may well Aproveofitspendingonspecificprojects but just remember that Notlookinglikeatotalasshole is just a click away if you can be arsed to do it.