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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.
Post-Columbine, now Post-9/11. What other horrors can turn into tech articles?
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, 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?
- American flag manufacturers
- Bumper stickers with "These Colors Don't Run" on it
- American flag decal producers
- Record companies who make "Tribute Albums"
- Those damn flag-on-plastic-so-you-can-fly-one-out-your-car-w
i ndow things
Just a few that I've become annoyed with... er, taken notice of.Well, when the people you're searching for are Ex-CIA operatives (yes bin Laden and crew had CIA backing to fight Russia for a decade and received training), they already know most of your tricks and some new ones of their own. Makes it alot harder especially when it's not your home turf. Russia tried to invade Afghanistan for 10 freakin' years to no avail. Do you think the US can fly over there, bomb the hell out of the rubble, drop some ground troops and mission accomplished? Nope.
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
Sorry for the language, but it's what I (any most European anti-terrorist experts, which is to say, those who have some experience and understanding of what they're dealing with) think.
The only way you'll stop it happening again -- IMHO -- is to stop funding Israel and get the fsck out of the economies and political systems of supposedly "independent" states that don't want you there (the people, that is, not the rulers), and to stop backing dictatorships like Saudi Arabia just because they're "on your side". In Ireland they used to say: "You cannot have a military solution to a political problem." Guess what? They were right.
*sigh* now I'm going to get flamed to fuck. Well hopefully someone might be prompted to think... I just hope you don't wait until you're up to your waist with dead Americans and "collateral damage" (I know, they're barely human but they still count... )
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." -- Goethe
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!
On the other hand, last fall's events could also suggest a shift *away* from technology is our only feasible response. It all depends what particular trends you want to find in a given situation.
For example, my apartment is within a stone's throw of the old WTC site. On the morning of the attack, almost *everything* went offline; it was next to impossible to get a cell or landline out, transportation was shut down, broadcast antennas were gone, etc. (Heck, you couldn't even see more than a few blocks because of all the dust and smoke.)
As a result, many of us were reintroduced to the actual communities in which we live, as opposed to the virtual ones we'd created for ourselves. No longer able to rely upon the technology to which we'd grown so acustomed, we were forced to go out and interact with one another in more traditional ways. I spent a good part of that morning up on my roof, meeting neighbors I'd had no reason to talk to before, watching events unfold. Word of mouth was pretty much the only way to learn what was happening.
And now, more than half a year later, I'm finding that some -- not all, but some -- people are a lot less willing to put their entire faith in technology anymore. Not the way they used to. The friend who used to run her entire life via Palm has now gone back to the old-fashioned day planner. Old pals who once relied upon email as an easy way of keeping in touch have begun returning to phone calls and mailed letters again. The local community -- we're talking on a block-by-block level here -- has begun to reassert itself.
Am I suggesting this is a national trend? Or even noteworthy? Of course not. It's a local and probably fleeting phenomenon. The point is, you can take a series of events and make them mean almost anything you want. Katz wants to see it as a technological boom waiting to happen? Well, bully for him. Doesn't make it so, any more than what I just wrote suggests things are heading for a technological bust.
You want proof? you can't handle the proof!
No, really if you want proof that they are tracking me look here or you might see why I feel this way here
Please don't scoff at my insane perinoia!
Upon realizing the Jon Katz drivel is almost deterministic and could be pieced together with the most simplistic of algorithms, scientists devised a way to code Katz's job out with a 50 line perl script.
"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.
"OK, Agent Smith. I want you to start by taking down Al Queda's Internet access."
"Uh...sir? There is no Internet access in Afghanistan."
"Perfect! Then disrupt their cellular telephone communications."
"Right...er...they don't have cellphones."
"Well done, Smith! Now, I want to disrupt their landline network."
"Sir, they don't have -- strictly speaking -- what you would call a 'telephone network.'"
"I do say, Agent Smith, I'm very impressed! Then let's hit their power grid. I want 98% of Afghanistan to be dark within 72 hours."
"Well, sir...uh...that's pretty much taken care of, too."
"Wonderful, wonderful, Smith. This new digital warfare is really working out! Now we'll just wait a few weeks and they'll feel like they're living in caves. Join me for golf?"
-Waldo Jaquithi
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?