Falling glass at the ASIO HQ

If it was armoured glass, chances are even ASIO wouldn’t be able to afford that building.
P.S. Glass doesn’t do much in terms of stopping electronic eavesdropping. It’s the faraday cage behind it.

Rawhide Kid Part3 said :

VYBerlinaV8_is_back said :

johnboy said :

shirty_bear said :

When I commuted past this morning, there was a Channel 9 cameraman on the median strip pointing his camera straight at said building. Wasn’t there a security kerfuffle about people taking photos there not so long ago?

The rules for the easily bullied are not the same

I’d have thought taking photos from the street would hardly be an issue. You can look at it with your eyes, why not through a camera?

Got around that one….. When security moves you on for taking photos, just say you have a photographic memory.

Or, just never take any orders from a security guard, the have no authority, no matter how rude they act towards you.

Rawhide Kid Part3 said :

I wonder if they’ll have an open day when its all completed?

yes, complete with free tiny little thumbnail size electronic devices for all who attend to take home as a keepsake. There will also be free classes instructing how to fit said electronic device in a room for optimum surveilla….. I mean “feng shui”.

Very curious that the glass could break at all without significant shock/impact.
I’m just assuming here that at the very least, this glass would have been specialist and quite robust, built to prevent electronic eavesdropping like the glass on the RG Casey Building.
GIven the street frontage and how much glass there is, I would have though it quite likely to it would be armoured glass: http://www.viridianglass.com/Products/bomb-and-blast-guard/default.aspx?ProductType=Specifier

Should be able to stand up to a worst case scenario, I’d be checking every sheet installed.

Rawhide Kid Part3 said :

I’m no architect…but I was wondering could the building have shifted or twisted. Remember the Silverton Center in Civic?

What with all this rain. Also I’m not sure how glass can shatter when not permanently fixed.

Depends on what it was impermanently fixed with.

Pretty sure Blu-Tak or velcro wouldn’t do any damage, but if you tighten cable-ties too much, they could do some damage.

I suspect the cause of the problem is Zumba classes being held at St Johns hall just down the road.

I wonder if they’ll have an open day when its all completed?

I’m no architect…but I was wondering could the building have shifted or twisted. Remember the Silverton Center in Civic? What with all this rain. Also I’m not sure how glass can shatter when not permanently fixed.

Disinformation said :

PS. If security guards tell you that you can’t take photos while you’re on public land (unless it’s a defence installation) you can safely ignore them. If they swear at you, you’re entitled to complain to their supervisor.

Even better, ask them if, in their considered opinion, the fact that seeing as a drunk teenager defeated their security, could there be any chance at all that highly trained operatives from any number of unfriendly foreign powers might just have managed to slip past them as well?

p1 said :

umehomes said :

Sometimes you have to look all factors for this kind of situation, do not blame on overseas products all the time.

I was more suggesting that this might have been in some way an act intentionally committed against ASIO by people acting for a foreign nation, .

Ah, I understood you were referring to the habit of foreign regimes of trying to introduce their own additional components into otherwise innocuous-looking building materials.

After having a look at the new ASIO building, I was hoping that at some point in the year that it would function just like the MGM Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas and become an inadvertent giant solar furnace.
I figured that the focal point would be just inside the front fence if the Sun hit the right spot.
Achimedes would be proud if it managed to reduce cars parked in the nature strip to smouldering slag heaps.

I’d be down for watching that.

PS. If security guards tell you that you can’t take photos while you’re on public land (unless it’s a defence installation) you can safely ignore them. If they swear at you, you’re entitled to complain to their supervisor.

harvyk1 said :

That said if you are not of a white European background, you may have a few more issues as the chaser proved a few years ago.

Speaking as a darkie, we tend to require a pretty good understanding of the extent and limitations of our civil liberties from an early age because it just comes up so damn often.

umehomes said :

Sometimes you have to look all factors for this kind of situation, do not blame on overseas products all the time.

I was more suggesting that this might have been in some way an act intentionally committed against ASIO by people acting for a foreign nation, but thanks, in future I’ avoid subtly so I don’t come across as racist.

I still have to wonder what was going through the architects mind when they designed a building where secret stuff happens, and then covered the outside in glass. It’s not exactly like ASIO is overly open and forthcoming with its goings ons.

As for taking photos, you are able to take photos of any building provided you do so from public land (thus not trespassing). Anyone who gives you a hard time is full of it. I confirmed this with a lawyer a few years back when I wanted to place some photos of buildings up onto a for profit website. I didn’t want to find myself on the wrong end of a law suit.

That said if you are not of a white European background, you may have a few more issues as the chaser proved a few years ago.

p1 said :

Bugger. Were the sheets of glass made in China?

Heh. Either that or the workers who installed them got their training there…

p1 said :

Bugger. Were the sheets of glass made in China?

Are the workers who install the glasses not trained well in Australia?

Sometimes you have to look all factors for this kind of situation, do not blame on overseas products all the time.

Russ said :

As I understand, the only buildings you’re not allowed to photograph are “Defence Installations” – anything else is fair game if you’re on public land at the time.

That said, most security guards will come out and attempt to give you a hard time, but in general the cops know better.

If you do want to photograph a government building where you’re concerned about getting hassled, do it on a weekend or public holiday.

That doesn’t always work either as security guards are often on reception desks anyway. It’s a load of cobblers.

A likely cause is harmonic distortion which can be triggered by events outside the building (passing aircraft for example) This could be an ongoing problem considering the total glass sheathing on this building. EMR can also create problems and this building would be bristling with electronic devices.
The integrated document shredder at the current ASIO address shakes the whole building when it is operating; maybe they were testing the new shredder when the glass shattered?

As I understand, the only buildings you’re not allowed to photograph are “Defence Installations” – anything else is fair game if you’re on public land at the time.

That said, most security guards will come out and attempt to give you a hard time, but in general the cops know better.

If you do want to photograph a government building where you’re concerned about getting hassled, do it on a weekend or public holiday.

Rawhide Kid Part3 said :

VYBerlinaV8_is_back said :

johnboy said :

shirty_bear said :

When I commuted past this morning, there was a Channel 9 cameraman on the median strip pointing his camera straight at said building. Wasn’t there a security kerfuffle about people taking photos there not so long ago?

The rules for the easily bullied are not the same

I’d have thought taking photos from the street would hardly be an issue. You can look at it with your eyes, why not through a camera?

Got around that one….. When security moves you on for taking photos, just say you have a photographic memory.

Remember, they are taking photos of you as well.

arescarti42 said :

I got told to f*** off by a security guard for taking photos of the Campbell Park offices from the Mt. Ainslie side of Northcott Drive. I complied at the time, but was pretty annoyed that he was so vulgar, and also that I wasn’t allowed to take pictures of a building from a public place.

I wonder if the driver of the Google van got abused when he drove his HD 360 degree camera down Northcott Drive.

Security guards say all sorts of interesting things. Compliance with their instructions is another matter. If you’re not trespassing I’d be thanking them for their opinion and ignoring them.

I got told to f*** off by a security guard for taking photos of the Campbell Park offices from the Mt. Ainslie side of Northcott Drive. I complied at the time, but was pretty annoyed that he was so vulgar, and also that I wasn’t allowed to take pictures of a building from a public place.

I wonder if the driver of the Google van got abused when he drove his HD 360 degree camera down Northcott Drive.

VYBerlinaV8_is_back said :

johnboy said :

shirty_bear said :

When I commuted past this morning, there was a Channel 9 cameraman on the median strip pointing his camera straight at said building. Wasn’t there a security kerfuffle about people taking photos there not so long ago?

The rules for the easily bullied are not the same

I’d have thought taking photos from the street would hardly be an issue. You can look at it with your eyes, why not through a camera?

Indeed, unless specific legislation has been enacted banning photography of this particular building from public space, doing so is perfectly legal.

VYBerlinaV8_is_back said :

johnboy said :

shirty_bear said :

When I commuted past this morning, there was a Channel 9 cameraman on the median strip pointing his camera straight at said building. Wasn’t there a security kerfuffle about people taking photos there not so long ago?

The rules for the easily bullied are not the same

I’d have thought taking photos from the street would hardly be an issue. You can look at it with your eyes, why not through a camera?

Got around that one….. When security moves you on for taking photos, just say you have a photographic memory.

Thank God there was no vital secret stuff happening inside; how would Australia survive?

‘For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.’
1 Corinthians 13:12

Now *this* sounds more worthy of Thumper’s “We’re not very good at making things here in the ACT, are we…” comment!

johnboy said :

shirty_bear said :

When I commuted past this morning, there was a Channel 9 cameraman on the median strip pointing his camera straight at said building. Wasn’t there a security kerfuffle about people taking photos there not so long ago?

The rules for the easily bullied are not the same

I’d have thought taking photos from the street would hardly be an issue. You can look at it with your eyes, why not through a camera?

shirty_bear said :

When I commuted past this morning, there was a Channel 9 cameraman on the median strip pointing his camera straight at said building. Wasn’t there a security kerfuffle about people taking photos there not so long ago?

The rules for the easily bullied are not the same

Bugger. Were the sheets of glass made in China?

When I commuted past this morning, there was a Channel 9 cameraman on the median strip pointing his camera straight at said building. Wasn’t there a security kerfuffle about people taking photos there not so long ago?