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Schmidt Predicts Digital Sky Is Falling
Danse writes "Former Microsoft security chief Howard Schmidt now works for the government as the vice chairman of the Critical Infrastructure Protection Board. According to this article on Security Focus, he has been touring the country, proclaiming the dangers of "zero-day viruses" and "affinity worms" that will create the kind of havoc that nothing else short of a nuclear exchange could cause. "Traffic lights, pacemakers, appliances -- all subject to outages and interruptions because in the future they're controlled via Internet, declares Schmidt. The power grid could fail catastrophically by 2005!" How do you argue with this kind of rhetoric, especially when it's being spread directly by government officials to corporate leaders?"
I think he just first time watched "Hackers"
My brain just imploded.
I'm sorry now that I ate all the peanut butter and drank the wine that I was saving for Y2K. I think I still have some of the crackers and canned beef stew, though.
Oh, I thought he said PEACEMAKER...
So how long 'till I can don my leather chaps, shave my head into a mohawk, and scour the earth looking for ammo and fertile women? How long damn you!!!! HOW LONG?????
Sweet merciful crap! If anyone ever gets one, for the love of god, do NOT post that IP to slashdot! Talk about a Denial of Service...
do not read this line twice.
Seriously, I don't see advantages to putting the toaster, blender or most household applicances in the home network? Those appliances are single use, load just before using.
I don't need the blender to start up at 5pm, so I can have a mixed drink or something when I get home, because it will have spoiled during the day. And I really don't want my bread sitting in the toaster all night, it invites pests.
Besides, with the extra money spent on these connected appliances, I could hire a maid.
$600 laser toaster with jellyjet printer, anyone?
The PVR and security systems are already electronic devices, they would benifit from communications and should be secured properly.
The heating idea is not bad, ever think X-10?
As for the other items, the $.05 whistle on the kettle works well, add a bell to the toaster, and the smoke detector can answer all your other questions.
Ah! It does this by turning your heart on and off really fast, just like the way sound was produced on the old TRS-80s?
Actually, it was a PowerBook 5300, which didn't have Airport or USB. However, they did catch on fire, so just throwing it at the alien spacecraft might have caused it to explode ;-)
-jon
Remember Amalek.