Hmm. I read that as

Drone: DJI Phantom 2 Vision Quadcopter with Integrated PIV Camcorder (White).

A camcorder to strike terror in the heart of every radfem.

I get Jerry's joke, but by 2015 Amazon will be selling detector units that will (by radar or lasers or infrared or wifi monitoring) sniff out the presence of these quadcopters around your house and destroy them (as they try to peek at your wife stepping out of the shower at night or look down her blouse as she walks the dog down the street).

The category will be something like

amazon com / Security-Surveillance-Home-Automation / Countermeasures / Projectile

This will be a fun game. Like a videogame that's live. Except probably bad when you kill pigeons and they clock people who are walking the dog.

Except probably bad when you kill pigeons and they clock people who are walking the dog. -- Amy Alkon at December 29, 2013 6:31 AM

All you have to do to kill pigeons and these drones is put up a windmill.

Anthony Cumia of the Opie and Anthony show has one of the high-end drones, and has published videos of several flights. Here's a night mission he ran:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1mDsgJaAwE

He's appeared on CNN discussing/defending drones, in a whimsical way.

Personally I think they're amazingly awesome, and like almost any item a human can own, can be used in way that are either blatantly illegal, or at least inconveniencing to others. But any restrictions should be on those activities, not on ownership of the item in toto.

Fukuyama's into it too.

Crid's prediction and Amy's game is probably scarily accurate.

And perhaps laws that give back air rights to someone's property within say 50' above ground level and within say 30 decibels might be needed to preserve privacy rights.

Since he's a favorite author I can't help but mention that Neal Stephenson predicted something similar in Diamond Age when there were so many nanobots (nanodrones) in the air around us (yes we breathed them in) that if you cupped your hands and peeked inside you could get an estimate of the current state of the nanobot wars by counting laser flashes.

Totally OT, but a question for Amy: If I go to Amazon through your link, and I'm already logged into my account, do you still get credit when I buy something?