Saturday, July 28, 2012
Systems aren't always fun
Writing this piece about the good points of Systems led to a memory....
A well-organized utility requires an immune system to protect it from viruses, hackers and free riders. Electric utilities and city water utilities have strong immune systems; the Bell landline system was the best of all until its 1980's breakup.
The internet fails miserably. You have to pay a separate anti-virus company for your security, or do without. Think public health: when many of the users are unvaccinated, the risk is vastly higher for everyone else.
Really a missed opportunity. Most people would have been willing to pay more for a net with built-in universal security. Would be faster and cheaper overall.
Back in my ham radio days I had a run-in with Ma Bell's immune system. I rigged up a rather nice ham shack in a chicken coop behind the parents' house, and ran an underground cable from the Bell entrance box to a non-standard phone in the shack. (Not as pretty as the Strowger phone that Polistra is using, but equally non-standard!)
After I'd been using the improper extension for a few weeks, we received a visit from the phone company. Since I was a kid, they didn't do anything legalistic, just forced me to disconnect the whole setup.
Wasn't a happy experience at the time, but looking back on it from a wrinkly perspective, I'm glad they had the facilities to detect and reject my 'hacking'. ¶ 3:04 PM
A well-organized utility requires an immune system to protect it from viruses, hackers and free riders. Electric utilities and city water utilities have strong immune systems; the Bell landline system was the best of all until its 1980's breakup.
The internet fails miserably. You have to pay a separate anti-virus company for your security, or do without. Think public health: when many of the users are unvaccinated, the risk is vastly higher for everyone else.
Really a missed opportunity. Most people would have been willing to pay more for a net with built-in universal security. Would be faster and cheaper overall.
Back in my ham radio days I had a run-in with Ma Bell's immune system. I rigged up a rather nice ham shack in a chicken coop behind the parents' house, and ran an underground cable from the Bell entrance box to a non-standard phone in the shack. (Not as pretty as the Strowger phone that Polistra is using, but equally non-standard!)
After I'd been using the improper extension for a few weeks, we received a visit from the phone company. Since I was a kid, they didn't do anything legalistic, just forced me to disconnect the whole setup.
Wasn't a happy experience at the time, but looking back on it from a wrinkly perspective, I'm glad they had the facilities to detect and reject my 'hacking'. ¶ 3:04 PM
