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UK Demands Sourcecode for Strike Fighters
An anonymous reader writes ""The UK has warned America that it will cancel its £12bn order for the Joint Strike Fighter if the US does not hand over full access to the computer software code that controls the jets"
Lord Drayson, minister for defense procurement, told the The Daily Telegraph that the planes were useless without control of the software as they could effectively be "switched off" by the Americans without warning."
Gee, give us a few jets and we'll get right on writing Open Source Software for them...
Well after 1776 and 1812, can ya blame America for a little fail-safe? /tongue_in_cheek
"...as [the planes] could effectively be "switched off" by the Americans without warning."
:-)
I wouldn't want to be the pilot when that happens.
*this space intentionally left blank
"One of the four pointers saying 'come and see', and I saw, and beheld a white
America's reticence to hand over the source code has nothing to do with national security and everything to do with embarrassment. Why? The plane's control software in Visual Basic.
Maybe they'll post it on Sourceforge ;)
More info about the Joint Strike Fighter's navigation software here.
Well I can't call you an American 'cause then I'd offend the people in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, etc.
They're part of America too you know.
If my call is important, why am I talking to a recording?
Lockheed's chief scientist, Dr. Gaius Baltar, stated last Friday: "There is absolutely, I repeat, absolutely, no way that the Joint Strike Fighters could be shut down with a software instruction".
There goes our secret plan to take over England.
Drats. Foiled again.
"OK, Kahn. Here it comes....."
OS Software is like love: The best way to make it grow is to give it away.
Or, would I buy something as critical as an operating system without having access to its source code...oh...wait, nevermind.
if enemy.shot_down
cockpit_announce("Top Gun!");
kill_count += 1;
if kill_count > 5
cockpit_announce("Killing Spree!");
end
end
Sir,
We will try to implement your noteworthy ideas soon.
As you may be aware the software used by US nuke companies is already coded in India.
Director
Indian Secret Service
P.S. By the way is their a nuclear plant near wherever you live ??
There are half a billion muslims of uncertain stability just to their north, and on hop further, a largish empire thats churning out killer machines at ever increasing rates.
The Ausies should pony up for a few hunter-killer subs while they're at it.
I'm cool like a fool in a swimming p-p-pfft-pool
What depressive economy are you talking about.
The US economy is just fine, thanks!
>> Why does Australia need such high power weaponry anyway?
Have you SEEN the size of those cane toads?!
Small wonder our enemies don't trust us.
If they trusted you they wouldn't be your enemy.
...the americans don't want anybody to discover that they've used chunks of GPL code
The revolution will not be televised... but it will have a page on Wikipedia
Because otherwise the Brits have loved the French for, oh the past thousand years....
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
I wonder if the licence agreement has a clause stating that if you don't agree, you can return them for a full refund.
Maybe the UK could get money back for the fighters they have already bought.
As well noted the US has a history of thieving other countries technology on the pretence that they're going to "share" the result. If I remember rightly (although I cant find any information to back this up) they asked to see alot of our development files on the Eurofighter, saw what brillient research we had done, and stole it to produce parts of the F22. Still if they share the source code on this maybe things will change. I wonder what its written in anyway!
If the security at the manufacturer is as good as the Department of Homeland Security's, I guess it will be all over teh intarwenbs within a week or so anyway.
For the third straight year, the Department of Homeland Security -- which is charged with charting the federal government's cyber security agenda -- earned a grade of "F" for computer security
It's true I tell you, feller at work's next door neighbour read it in the paper.
I can only assume you're talking about the long-awaited development of veritech fighters.
A-Bomb
So there's a bunch of Apaches in a shed and no-one wants to fly them? Errm... I'm up for it, where do I sign up? What are the hours?
Yep, the US technological advantage today is at least a decade. That's why I recorded the film on my VHS VCR last night, and I'll be tootling off home in my Austin Metro at the end of the day to play Doom on my state-of-the-art 80386 PC.
Still, at least my job's safe: my group writes the core software for a major US corporation, and as long as they have to make sure we can't take our bang-up-to-date 1990s skillsets and use them to benefit a British company, they can't fire me! I'm sure the same is true of all the major defence companies in the region, who only supply their technology to the US military and would never dream of offering it to our own as well, or even instead.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
We are at peace with the Brits; We have always been at peace with the Brits. =)
http://outcampaign.org/
Does that include the skin lute?
*ka-thud*
That was your lame joke falling flat on its face. A lute is a stringed instrument, dumbass.
A host is a host from coast to coast...
Unless it's down, or slow, or fails to POST!
Who mods up these ridiculous analogies? Does this make any fucking sense? Analogies are supposed to make things clearer by comparing them to a scenario the audience is familiar with. Is anyone here familiar with a neighbor with a crackhead son and an engine killswitch? Anyone?
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
So, basically, you're suggesting the Gentoo Strike Fighter or GSF. If I read at least part of your intentions correctly, you imply that every foreign buyer should essentially:
emerge fighter-software
on every piece of imported equipment.
"Adventure? Excitement? A Jedi craves not these things."
They should do more than give the software to the Brits they should open source it. I want a flight simulator running the exact same code the actually fighter runs. When the aliens come I will drive my RV to a desert airbase, jump in one of these bad boys and use it to inject a virus into the aliens mainframe causing it to self-destruct. That is the power of open source.
the Brits
you mean Airstrip One.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
First off all; I dont think parent tries to be funny, so stop the mad moding.
/. readers relate better to cars, remote controled alarms and crack heads than they do to high level politics and advanced military equipment.
:p
Second; I think many
Third; Even I find it rather rude comparing the us military to a crackhead. In some contries embasies are tourtched over cartoons, good knows what this could result in
www.aleo.no
We've produced the best fighter jet in existence, and it can't be turned against us. Y'know, I'm just not seeing a downside here. If they don't want the best, let them get a second rate jet without our security features. No problem. They can then turn those jets against us, but we'll have the better fighters, and they'll be raining out of the sky. Or they can be smart about it, buy the jets, and just not use them against us.
I say screw'em. In the end, they'll buy the jets.
Of course, they'll then turn a team of 12 year old hackers on them and probably have them cracked in a single weekend, but that's a separate issue.....
*** *** You're just jealous 'cause the voices talk to me... ***