Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: What Could Go Wrong In Tech That Hasn't Already Gone Wrong?
dryriver writes: If you look at the last 15 years in tech, just about everything that could go wrong seemingly has gone wrong. Everything you buy and bring into your home tracks you in some way or the other. Some software can only be rented now -- no permanent licenses available to buy. PC games are tethered into cloud crap like Steam, Origin and UPlay. China is messing with unborn baby genes. Drones have managed to mess up entire airports. The Scandinavians have developed a serious hatred of cash money and are instead getting themselves chipped. CPUs have horrible security. Every day some huge customer database somewhere gets pwned by hackers. Cybercrime has gone through the roof. You cannot trust the BIOS on your PC anymore. Windows 10 just will not stop updating itself. And AI is soon going to kill us all, if a self-driving car by Uber doesn't do it first. So: What has -- so far -- not gone wrong in tech that still could go wrong, and perhaps in a surprising way?
I'm a long-time developer, stuck in code maintenance role hunting down other crappy coders' bugs in a software project written in the 1980s. I already see everything in a negative light. "Get off my lawn" kind of thing. And now you submit stories like this!? May as well pass the razor blades.
The LHC hasn't created a black hole that eats the planet and sucked us all into another dimension.
Perhaps, out of sheer disappointment, this is the reason they are building an even larger collider :P
At least anonymous cowards aren't getting upvoted on Slashdot.
Two examples:
1. SalesForce charges a premium to enable encrypted-at-rest for your data. This means the company is charging to protect your data from possibly being compromised by SalesForce's own employees.
2. ZenDesk basic plans allow user passwords to be any five characters. No policy can be applied requiring more digits or types of characters (alpha, case, numbers, punctuation, etc.) unless your organization subscribes to the "Professional" or "Enterprise" level. Zendesk is using the threat of end-users having their accounts compromised to encourage customers to pay extra for the ability to enforce safe password policies.
It seems that some public cloud proprietors intend to mimic real-world ghettos. If customers want the cheapest rent for their cloud service, then thugs and criminals may break in and steal your data. Pay higher rent and you get protection.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
The general gist of this is, "Dang. Stallman was right". I wonder how much more miserable technology would be making our lives without the precedent of things like the GPL. I applaud the man for having the foresight to see the dark days that were coming and trying to hold them back with something that benefits society.