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Solving Obama's BlackBerry Dilemma
CurtMonash writes "Much is being made of the deliberations as to whether President Obama will be able to keep using his beloved "BarackBerry." As the NYTimes details, there are two major sets of objections: infosecurity and legal/records retention. Deven Coldeway of CrunchGear does a good job of showing that the technological infosecurity problems can be solved. And as I've noted elsewhere, the 'Omigod, he left his Blackberry behind at dinner' issue is absurd. Presidents are surrounded by attendants, Secret Service and otherwise. Somebody just has to be given the job of keeping track of the president's personal communication device. As for the legal question of whether the president can afford to put things in writing that will likely be exposed by courts and archivists later — the answer to that surely depends on the subject matter or recipient. Email to his Chicago friends — why not? Anything he'd write to them would be necessarily non-secret anyway. Email to the Secretary of Defense? That might be a different matter."
Talk about a waste of bandwidth.
The one major issue with thi... RIM is a foreign company.
That can be solved. Once Obama pulls all the troops back from Iraq, they can invade Canada. :-)
Once Obama pulls all the troops back from Iraq, they can invade Canada. :-)
Pffft, easier said than done. If you think an Iraqi insurgent with an IED is a tough adversary just wait until you see a Canadian with a hockey stick..... besides, I don't think the Baldwin family can afford a war with Canada ;)
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
I suspect there's some reason that I noticed "DOD Root Certificates" installed on mine. :) There must be some arrangement with the gov't for security, at least of some sort. I doubt that the President should be (or would be) sending much over it though. It's not necessarily the idea that it's a smart phone, and he could lose it (as I noticed someone else said), but that the data is transiting insecure networks.
And hey, one mistyped address, and some state secret may end up going across insecure networks, to an insecure individual. He is President after all, even an innocent note like "Honey, I'll be home at 8:30, then we can watch that movie" is a huge security concern. The White House is a big place, at least big enough where a targeted attack wouldn't necessarily do much of anything. Knowing he'll be sitting on the couch in whatever room the President would watch movies, at a specific time, is a dangerous thing.
The again, so far just about everyone loves Obama. :) I'm thinking sometime within the first year, he'd be safe to sit in the front yard of the White House on a lawn chair, smoking a cigar and talking sh1t with foreign diplomats.
Hmmm, what's this text I just received?
From: 2024561414@blackberry.net
To: jwsmythe
Subject: evac
Evac ASAP. Bird inbound. ETA 10min
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
"Can we stop all this portmanteau crap? Please? It's like the imaginary label "President-Elect"... "
OK, you win. No more Obamanteaus.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Pffft, easier said than done. If you think an Iraqi insurgent with an IED is a tough adversary just wait until you see a Canadian with a hockey stick...
That, and we maintain a threatening lead in Zamboni technology!
The British set fire to the White House, yes. They did in retaliation for the torching of Parliament in Montreal by Americans, a fact that doesn't make it into U.S. history textbooks 200 years later.
(Incidentally, the White House was deserted quickly immediately prior to the visit by the British Soldiers, and they discovered a state dinner waiting for them. So they ate first and then torched the White House.
I'll be waiting.... gimme a couple days notice and I'll start icing the Keg. I'm sure the troops are thirsty.
That sinking feeling deep in your gut when you KNOW you screwed up bad summed up with: {head desk} {head desk}
Yeah, those baseball players make terrifying adversaries--except that they have to stop to catch their breath after chasing you 90 feet. :p
I guess us Canucks have to watch ourselves though; I'm sure Sarah Palin is keeping an eye on us from her house.
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Canada, eh? That's one of those unstable, oil-rich nations run by a fundamentalist dictator, that supports all kinds of terror, right?
Find environmentally and socially responsible products on http://buy-right.net
I guess us Canucks have to watch ourselves though; I'm sure Sarah Palin is keeping an eye on us from her house.
Nah, she's too busy protecting both of our countries from Putin. There's 12 other US States that share a border with Canada. I suspect that their Governors are the ones busy keeping an eye on you Canucks so don't get any ideas ;)
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Seriously? Do you think that if a foreign/hostile agent or power ever got the "First BlackBerry", they'd be so crude as to attempt a couple of passwords, have it lock, and say "aww, shit, there goes our chance"?
The one major issue with thi... RIM is a foreign company.
Depends on your point of view. From where I sit, it is a domestic company and a foreign president.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
People who don't like fangirl stories (what happened to fanboys?) have no place on Slashdot!
Oh sorry. I'll disappear into a black hole of male-dominated language now.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Well, the self-destruct feature is easy, I already have one on my Crackberry. I just open an HTML e-mail. BOOM.
I'll go with the race card... I love my caucasianberry myself.
Xaotik Designs
Really? I thought the name "Canada" came from the two folks who first discovered it.
"Great country, eh?," said the first one. "What should we name it, eh?"
"I know," said the second one. "We'll put some letters in a hat, eh, and then we'll take turns drawing the letters out, eh, and that's how we'll name the place!"
"Good idea, eh!" said the first one. He pulled off his toupe, scribbled some letters on some paper scraps, dumped them into the toupe, shook it up, and they began to draw.
"Oh, I got a 'c', eh!"
"I got an 'n', eh!"
Funny, your IP resolves to something at eop.gov.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
> Parliament is very similar to congress in that way ... original usage
> was a meeting or session - nowadays, it also refers to a place or a body.
Not quite. Parliament comes from two French words -- "Parler", to speak, and "Mentir" ... to lie.
Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?