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The Post 9/11 Tech Boom
"The battlefield will not be physical so much as it will be digital," Rob Owens, a tech industry analyst at Pacific Crest Securities in Portland, Ore., told the San Francisco Chronicle recently. "There will definitely be people who prosper in this new environment."
Owens and other analysts point to these factors:
- A need for more secure technologies for Net traffic, business communications, computer networks, travel and building architecture, along with the predictably more sophisticated components for new weaponry.
- A huge increase in "homeland security" spending not only by governments, but among biotech firms as the country expects and prepares for attacks potentially more lethal than those on New York and Washington.
- A boon for telecom and video conferencing companies and systems. Not only will many corporations choose to do business without sending executives on the road, but such systems are seen as increasingly vital communications backups in the event of widespread attacks on an existing communications infrastructure. By the same token, it would make sense that in stressful times people will spend more time shopping, talking, amusing themselves and doing business on the Net, as they did in the days after 9/11.
- Continuing increases in sales across the tech spectrum as individuals, businesses and governments make sure their hardware and software systems can deal with the challenges and problems of a post 9/11 world.
The media are feeding these trends. Not only are the images of 9/11 horrific and continual, but the war in Afghanistan has -- correctly or not -- enhanced the idea that technologies are our only feasible response to the profoundly changed geopolitical reality that Osama Bin-Laden created last fall. The fact that we have undermined a terrorist network and overturned a repressive government in weeks, with only a handful of American casualties, has transformed the way even Americans think of technology. This isn't a time for a tech slump, but another boom, perhaps of even greater proportions than the last one.
The fact that there is a tech boom ahead is perfectly logical if you look back at history.
turning any time of threat to the country much money has been invested into tech advance... look at the computer during WWII and it's aftermath. or firearms during the civil war.
Seany
"Where ever you go, there you are"
The fact that we have undermined a terrorist network and overturned a repressive government in weeks...
Have we really? Last time I checked neither bin Laden nor Mohommad Omar had been captured, nor seen, and few if any high-ranking officials in Al-Qaeda had been captured.
I think the US was very efficient in how they handled the situation, but let's be serious: it's not even close to resolved.
The fact that we have undermined a terrorist network and overturned a repressive government in weeks, with only a handful of American casualties...
We tend to believe that our actions have had long lasting effect on this troubled region, but my take on it is quite different. US tends to wage its war and then pack its bags and go home leaving a war ravaged country and its warlords to fight the rest of the war between themselves and their common enemies.
We might benefit overall from these effects, but the moment the US Soldiers leave, every warlord in Afghanistan is gonna be on everyone else's throats. Afghanistan had some notable politicians but Taliban made a point by wiping them all out.
We cant wage a two month war and then leave all of a sudden telling ourselves that our work here is done and now this nation would pull itself together towards a road to peace. This country is far from being over from the civil war.
Rapid Nirvana
I got nothing to do but, sleep, play video games and work with some computer vision algorithms.
www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~sager/ai
Freaking would be nice to have a job. Being tied down by $50,000 in tuition debt is borderline retarded.
God spoke to me
but the war in Afghanistan has -- correctly or not -- enhanced the idea that technologies are our only feasible response to the profoundly changed geopolitical reality that Osama Bin-Laden created last fall.
not, I should say.
Sure there's things that can be done with technology to help improve security in "The Post 911 World", but there's no substitute for really good, on the ground, human intelligence.
The U.S. is notorious for relying on tech toys, eyes in the sky, etc. while neglecting to send actual people to find out what is really going on in the world.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
I'm not really sure why, but when everybody reffers to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 simply as 9/11 or even worse 911, it really bugs me. It seems like it has become just another buzzword in a culture that thrives on sound bites to keep them informed. Is this just me? Am I the only one who thinks that it trivializes what happened when we treat as just another element of pop culture?
I completely agree.
Hearing this from an employed person just makes it worse.
Hey Jon, try and look for a job, then come back and write how the jobs are about to "boom".
I know my company (consulting firm) thought things would turn around by Q1, and there were layoffs in Q1. Sorry, but things aren't turning around like planned. The only people anticipating a hiring "boom" in the computer industry is investors and stock brokers that work in tech stocks. They *NEED* a boom, so they are trying to make one.
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
You're wrong.
I work w/college kids at my church. The vast majority of them are getting good, solid degrees in engineering, CS, math etc.
It is idiotic to give security clearance to foreigners. They should not have access to these jobs and the 'need' to give more visas to people from outside the US is one created by companies in search of cheap labor.
Anyone who wants to work on homeland security should do so - in their homeland.
I'm not against immigration, and if someone becomes a citizen and resident- more power to them. But otherwise- hands off the sensitive info.
.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Tech boom?
First thing I'd do to investigate this "tech boom" is look inward. Yeah, the company that you are employed by.
If they anticipate a tech boom, then why bring in the "giant ads" or this??
Can I get links next time? Cause I know you are just quoting stock brokers (that trade tech stocks). They need you to start buying tech again....
Rob Owens, a tech industry analyst at Pacific Crest Securities
Owens and other analysts point to these factors
Yeah, these analysts need your income. They can come up with stats till there blue in the face, but tech companies aren't employing. You will need employees for a boom, right? Well, as soon as I see these tech companies hiring like wildfire, I'll still be worried if I have a job tomorrow...
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
There is always a remarkable trickle-down effect within private enterprise that occurs when massive, targeted government spending pours forth. And it's no surprise that, given the trauma of 9/11, the government is bringing its massive resources to bear to develop technological solutions to many domestic security issues (many of which are structurally almost insoluble, by the application of technology or otherwise). Interestingly, the Dep't of Defense is even resorting to open-ended solicitation of "new ideas relevant to homeland defense and security" from technology companies with which it has dealings.
All you have to do is glance at the tailfins on a 60s Cadillac to understand the unshakeable faith Americans have had in new technology over the past century. Technological progress as panacea is still a fundamental, if often unspoken, tenet of our shared culture.
However, when it comes to "homeland security", the search for technological solutions (e.g. systems to put air passengers and air cargo under x-ray and gas-cromatographic microscope) largely misses the point. Massive essentially indefensible borders, enormous reliance on a vulnerable modern communications infrastructure, the lack of internal security paranoia characteristic of a wealthy, free democratic society... these characteristics militate against easy high-tech band-aid solutions to "homeland defense."
So what's the solution? We can protect the United States from attack by consistent and forceful _projection_ of power, by eradicating from the earth those who bring violence inside our domestic boundaries, those who threaten to do so and those who aid and support such people. By doing so we relentlessly disincentivise those who might consider attacking us. Structurally, the United States will always be vulnerable to attack within its borders. A massive and massively expensive build-out of new security technology will not alter this fundamental truth.
Deployment of massive amounts of high-tech infrastructure that will do little more than inconvenience honest US citizens will not secure our nation. Judicious application of our Rooseveltian "big stick" will.
Jon, you're full of shit.
If the Valley was quite alive and well, then why did my former company go from almost 1700 people to less than a hundred in 18 months (and then I got laid off in January). IPIX wasnt one of the cruft. I helped design and implemented most of the Enhanced Picture Services (as seen on eBay.com) system, hell I ran it all singlehandedly for a few weeks at a time, and usually with a tiny ops team. If it was such a technology boom, I should've been able to hire people to help me. We also ran the Full360 real estate virtual tours system.
Now I see why everyone's tired of your same old bullshit, Jon.
"To err is human, to forgive is simply not my policy." --root
Silicon Valley is alive and well? Then how come so many tech geeks I know are unemployed or working at Starbucks, bookstores, etc.?
It's true that there is a whimper of a pickup, but it's just a whimper. Many people are running out of unemployment $ and I expect that there will be a rise in foreclosures on houses as Santa Clara county continues to have one of the higher unemployement rates of urban areas in the country.
Heck, even VA-whatever just had another, quiet round of layoffs. Most people can't even remember how many rounds their companies have had -- it's *that* bad.
And, while there are still recruiters in business, not a single contact I have from last year works for the recruiting firm they did when I received their address. It's not that they've moved -- they're laid off.
I'd give it another six months at least before declaring it even alive. It's got too much brain activity to be clinically dead, but it's not out of the ICU yet.
sorry.
Some of the actual things that we can individually do - not the government, trapped in the Big Oil is Good world - are:
(choose one - but do at least one)
1. buy a compact flourescent lightbulb at the local hardware store or Home Depot - $4 to $6, use 1/8 the energy (this is Good Tech).
2. get a furnace controller (turns heat down when you're at work, or asleep, but heats it up in time for waking or coming home) (Good Tech)
3. get a tuneup for your car (better mpg)
4. next car you buy, new or used, get one that gets 5 mpg better than your last one (off the shelf we can get 40+ mpg for cars, SUVs and trucks - but consumers need to buy it).
5. change your furnace filter (improves energy efficiency and cleaner air).
6. next time you buy an appliance - washer, dryer, dishwasher, toaster, microwave, oven, etc - get either the best or second best energy efficient one.
7. buy 50 cent rubber seals to go behind your wall outlets (you're a techie, can't you do minor electrical stuff?) - up to 10 percent of heat loss is external-facing wall sockets in most houses. At Home Depot or hardware store.
8. buy a $2 foam insulator for your hot water heater hot water pipe (going out) - keeps it warmer and less cold showers when you turn on the hot water.
9. if your old hot water heater or furnace needs to be replaced, get the most energy efficient one you can.
10. if wiring for motion detectors, consider wiring your furnace/air conditioner controller to adjust temp based on occupants - and lights too. this is good tech.
All of these save you money - and cut the supply line of the enemy who wishes us dead.
If the hundreds of millions of Americans all did this - just one thing for each person - we would change the entire energy dynamic and painlessly switch energy supplies without any government intervention, while delivering a body blow to the enemy and their supporters. Then we could stop propping up anti-democratic regimes for energy supply reasons.
But inaction is what the al-Qaeda depend upon.
--- Will in Seattle - What are you doing to fight the War?
>In Ireland they used to say: "You cannot have a >military solution to a political problem." Guess >what? They were right.
So when do you stand up and say that you actually have a millitary problem? At what point do you say you're not going to tolerate having democratic allies murdered or threatened by dictatorships with zero respect for human rights and actually do somthing about it?
Israeli destruction of an Iraqi reactor is the only reason that Saddam didn't have nukes during the gulf war and terrorists don't now have access to nuclear material. If you're really worried about terrorism, that should be important to you.
___
It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
I don't think tech failed us, we failed to use the tech properly. Only now, reactively are we implementing the types of airport scanning needed to stop weapons from coming aboard airplanes.
How old a technology is radar (useful for tracking aircraft which go of course); ditto jet fighters (useful for chasing down off course aircraft, frightening kamikaze minded hijackers and if needs be shooting said aircrafts down as the lesser of two evils when the alternative is crashing into buildings with thousands of people inside); ditto telephones (useful for telling people what is going on, including giving instructions to evacuate buildings) and fire alarms (useful for getting people out of buildings quickly.)