Thursday, May 26, 2016
Graybill and Github
Big tech headline this morning:
Government spending money to maintain old computer systems instead of keeping up with the latest iPhone9.99LGBTQQ1AI.
The Defense Department’s Strategic Automated Command and Control System was one of the most egregious examples highlighted in the GAO report. In a footnote, the GAO had to define “floppy disk,” noting that modern flash drives hold the equivalent storage of 3.2 million floppy disks. To the Defense Department’s credit, the report noted it started a full systems replacement in March that should be finished by 2020. The floppy disks will be replaced with secure digital cards by 2017.STOP AND THINK, FUCKHEADS. Old equipment is much harder to hack. Everyone carries USB drives and 'secure digital cards'. They're small and easy to hide and too common to notice. NOBODY carries floppy disks. If your building cop stops a stranger and sees a floppy disk, you have good reason for suspicion. Old CODE is also much harder to hack. If your system is done in C++ and runs on Unix, every hacker in the world can write or buy virus-inserters. If your system is in Fortran or Cobol and runs on an old proprietary OS, hackers can't do shit to break it. Graybill again. Globalization forces everything to use the same skills and equipment because globalization needs to hack everything. All systems must be ready for plug-n-play tyranny. If your systems use non-global skills and equipment, you have much better control. Sidenote for clarity: my STOP AND THINK was not aimed at DOD. They understand the value of reliable old equipment and code. That's exactly why they keep it. I'm only talking to the techmonsters and techjournos who constantly push for total newness and total dictatorship.
Labels: skill-estate
¶ 2:53 AM
