As I said, there's no single, easy and cheap solution for complex problems.:-)
Anyway, you missed the point. Sandy was a grain of dust compared to the 2009's Brazil blackout. Go to wikipedia and give a peek on the red painted map - the area is equivalent to 1/3 of the continual USA!
No one managed to borrow a plug from nowhere, as nobody (except the one with diesel generators) had power to lend in a 100 miles radius!
The problem you described ("all circuits are busy") can be overcome to restricting the service to communitarian and emergency services phones. How do you propose this can be done using cell phones?
Take in consideration that I'm not advocating the "end of cell phones". I just arguing that cell phones, ALONE, will not be reliable in emergency situations. The really bad ones.
On the other hand, cell phones are useless a few hours after a electrical blackout (as no one will be able to charge their phones), while thousand of POTS users (ha! I can't avoid smiling while typing it!) can be served using a big enough diesel generator.
Hell broke havoc in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo em 2009. Cell phones were useless because *everybody* (and the neighbor's kitten) was trying to call someone by cellphone to call for help or simply tranquilize their relatives. The ones tha managed to do that were the ones with analog phone lines (as the analog phone operators can redirect their power supplies in order to keep the phone lines working).
At that time, I already had switched my analog phone line to a VOIP one. My relatives lives far away, and I managed to call them 4 or 5 hours later, thanks to a very kind supermarket manager that borrowed me a power plug from the place (they have a diesel generator) to charge my pretty, advanced but useless smartbrick, I mean, smartphone.
There's no single, easy and cheap answers to complex problems.
It's hard to keep analog transmission lines when you can transmit thousands of times the same information using a digital channel that costs the same (or even less).
But communication is not *just* about cheapness, it's about reliability. Analog lines are far more resilient than digital lines, and a wise one should take this in consideration on the long term.
A cheap telephone line that I can't use when I really need is a useless telephone line.
by the way, are you americans happy with your broadband internet connection? What do you think it will happen with your telephone services when it will be serviced using the same technology by the same players your Internet connection is served now?
Windows RT was a failure because no geek (the ones that would be the early adopters that, then, would pull another users to the platform) would spend money on something that doesn't allow dual boot!
Common, by the price you could get a ARM Notebook totally (and relentlessly) locked down to Windows RT, you could get instead a x86 netbook where you can install, also, Linux and its plethora of applications - that aren't the best thing in the World sometimes, but are far better than the Windows RT alternatives (not a surprise, as very few Microsoft developers manage to build *real* multiplatform applications! - remember the time when a Microsoft "multiplatform application" was a program that used to run on Windows 95, 98 ME and NT?)
The tablet niche was already taken, and the x86 niche wasn't threatened by a (yet more locked down) RT system whose only selling point was being capable to stay lit for more time without having anything to run.
On the other hand, if the suit is clearly profitable once you win, any reasonably smart lawyer will do it for you without any previous payment in exchange of a good percentage of the loot, I mean, the punitive damages...;-)
If the money is good, the lawyer can even pay any fees for you (again, in exchange of a good percentage of the earnings).
And exactly from where do you think all that "good and cheap" goodies you buy around you there in America comes from? Or do you think that Cisco have any manufacturing on EUA?
Speaking frankly, buying stuff directly from China will just cut off the man-in-the-middle money sucker on the manufacturing chain, also known as U.S.A.
*OF COURSE* that most of these devices are *INVENTED* by americans on America, and on the long run these same goodies will be deprecated without a proper (modern) replacement - but, as I had said, this will happens on the long run. On the short term, however, America will be screwed up relentlessly (but don't worry, the rest of us will follow short, unless we manage to really learn how to spend money on innovations - being this the real problem on Russia and Brazil).
For a lot of time, I were using Firefox instead of Chrome because of my NetBanking plugin. Chrome was a bit faster than Firefox at that time, but not that faster - and I enjoyed my Firefox add-ons.
And then, suddenly, Mozilla start to spit new versions in a crazy way, and my NetBanking stop working after every single new (sub)version of Firefox. Hell by hell, I decided Chrome's "hell" was a bit more worthy - at least, I got some faster renderings and the Google's account syncing. Little time after, my NetBanking plugin for Chrome became more stable than the Firefox version, and the rest is history.
It keeps Chrome civilized, and feels niches where Chrome is not viable.
In this exact moment, my Atom 330 box remains useful only because FIrefox runs fine on it - I don't know why, but Chrome performs extremely poorly on it.
The way I see it, no one would be using encryption nowadays if Obama managed to be president in the nineties.
Maybe. But 90's Obama would only have 90's knowledge and technical capabilities. So for you to be right either Bush Sr. and Clinton had so much more moral backbone that they saw what encryption would enable but allowed it anyway, or Obama has so much more foresight he would have foreseen what neither of those two did. Neither option seems likely.
*OR*... Current american people are lazier or more apathetic nowadays.
Considering general quality of bug reports, I'd be surprised if even 10% of these are valid.
You probably right. But the only thing that this changes is that the reports are the cruft themselves, and cleaning up will help to correctly sort the remaining ones to be fixed (or not).
The way I see it, no one would be using encryption nowadays if Obama managed to be president in the nineties.
Were you around in the nineties? That was when Clinton used CALEA to force telecoms to build the exact infrastructure that was exploited after 9/11 by Bush, and later Obama. That was when Clinton pushed the ultimately doomed "Clipper Chip" [...]
And exactly how many people were arrested and prosecuted for teaching others the weaknesses of the cited technologies?
Slashdot Mirror
Like if someone was say breaking into your home and you hid the basement or something and did not want to be heard speaking.
Then turn on your cell phone (that you can keep turned off to save battery, if you have a analog phone line) and text for help.
If I don't have power to charge my phone, of course that battery life will be of my concerning!
Remember, we're talking about what would happens if you need emergency services while surviving a long term electrical blackout.
Interesting, I didn't knew that.
Now, all we have to have is a efficient way to keep all these cell phones working more than 6 hours without needing being charged! :-)
"Analog lines are far more resilient than digital lines" is not only false
Put your money where your mouth is. Please give some examples that corroborates your opinion.
Well, I read it. :-)
Text "HELP" to 911 with a thug breaking in on you home. Or while having a heart attack! ;-)
Be my guest. Try it. =P
As I said, there's no single, easy and cheap solution for complex problems. :-)
Anyway, you missed the point. Sandy was a grain of dust compared to the 2009's Brazil blackout. Go to wikipedia and give a peek on the red painted map - the area is equivalent to 1/3 of the continual USA!
No one managed to borrow a plug from nowhere, as nobody (except the one with diesel generators) had power to lend in a 100 miles radius!
The problem you described ("all circuits are busy") can be overcome to restricting the service to communitarian and emergency services phones. How do you propose this can be done using cell phones?
Take in consideration that I'm not advocating the "end of cell phones". I just arguing that cell phones, ALONE, will not be reliable in emergency situations. The really bad ones.
I BS your BS. :-)
For each "geek" that cares about dual booting, there're tens and tens of "non geek" users that rely on the geek to keep their system working.
Non tech users will use what the tech users know how to fix.
(or your grandma and grandpa pays someone to fix their systems?)
Yeah. Right.
Tell that to Android users. Tell that to Linux users. Tell that to retro-games uses.
Every single success product started with that blip, before making success and leaving the geek "market share".
Good points.
On the other hand, cell phones are useless a few hours after a electrical blackout (as no one will be able to charge their phones), while thousand of POTS users (ha! I can't avoid smiling while typing it!) can be served using a big enough diesel generator.
Hell broke havoc in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo em 2009. Cell phones were useless because *everybody* (and the neighbor's kitten) was trying to call someone by cellphone to call for help or simply tranquilize their relatives. The ones tha managed to do that were the ones with analog phone lines (as the analog phone operators can redirect their power supplies in order to keep the phone lines working).
At that time, I already had switched my analog phone line to a VOIP one. My relatives lives far away, and I managed to call them 4 or 5 hours later, thanks to a very kind supermarket manager that borrowed me a power plug from the place (they have a diesel generator) to charge my pretty, advanced but useless smartbrick, I mean, smartphone.
There's no single, easy and cheap answers to complex problems.
Probably both.
It's hard to keep analog transmission lines when you can transmit thousands of times the same information using a digital channel that costs the same (or even less).
But communication is not *just* about cheapness, it's about reliability. Analog lines are far more resilient than digital lines, and a wise one should take this in consideration on the long term.
A cheap telephone line that I can't use when I really need is a useless telephone line.
by the way, are you americans happy with your broadband internet connection? What do you think it will happen with your telephone services when it will be serviced using the same technology by the same players your Internet connection is served now?
Windows RT was a failure because no geek (the ones that would be the early adopters that, then, would pull another users to the platform) would spend money on something that doesn't allow dual boot!
Common, by the price you could get a ARM Notebook totally (and relentlessly) locked down to Windows RT, you could get instead a x86 netbook where you can install, also, Linux and its plethora of applications - that aren't the best thing in the World sometimes, but are far better than the Windows RT alternatives (not a surprise, as very few Microsoft developers manage to build *real* multiplatform applications! - remember the time when a Microsoft "multiplatform application" was a program that used to run on Windows 95, 98 ME and NT?)
The tablet niche was already taken, and the x86 niche wasn't threatened by a (yet more locked down) RT system whose only selling point was being capable to stay lit for more time without having anything to run.
What doesn't change anything (see the Microsoft agreements with NSA) =]
On the other hand, if the suit is clearly profitable once you win, any reasonably smart lawyer will do it for you without any previous payment in exchange of a good percentage of the loot, I mean, the punitive damages... ;-)
If the money is good, the lawyer can even pay any fees for you (again, in exchange of a good percentage of the earnings).
Yeah, right.
And exactly from where do you think all that "good and cheap" goodies you buy around you there in America comes from? Or do you think that Cisco have any manufacturing on EUA?
Speaking frankly, buying stuff directly from China will just cut off the man-in-the-middle money sucker on the manufacturing chain, also known as U.S.A.
*OF COURSE* that most of these devices are *INVENTED* by americans on America, and on the long run these same goodies will be deprecated without a proper (modern) replacement - but, as I had said, this will happens on the long run. On the short term, however, America will be screwed up relentlessly (but don't worry, the rest of us will follow short, unless we manage to really learn how to spend money on innovations - being this the real problem on Russia and Brazil).
+1 Insightful.
Easily fixable: fire the dumbass that started this mess.
The idiot is a failure as a employee, and as a lawyer (who in hell demands something publicly without checking the company policy first???)
For similar reasons as described in https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/05/criminal_intent.html it will not be usefull.
It doesn't have to.
Money is being pocketed, and fear is being spread. It's all that needs to happen.
On the other hand, that API issue is serious.
For a lot of time, I were using Firefox instead of Chrome because of my NetBanking plugin. Chrome was a bit faster than Firefox at that time, but not that faster - and I enjoyed my Firefox add-ons.
And then, suddenly, Mozilla start to spit new versions in a crazy way, and my NetBanking stop working after every single new (sub)version of Firefox. Hell by hell, I decided Chrome's "hell" was a bit more worthy - at least, I got some faster renderings and the Google's account syncing. Little time after, my NetBanking plugin for Chrome became more stable than the Firefox version, and the rest is history.
No, it's not.
It keeps Chrome civilized, and feels niches where Chrome is not viable.
In this exact moment, my Atom 330 box remains useful only because FIrefox runs fine on it - I don't know why, but Chrome performs extremely poorly on it.
Maybe. But 90's Obama would only have 90's knowledge and technical capabilities. So for you to be right either Bush Sr. and Clinton had so much more moral backbone that they saw what encryption would enable but allowed it anyway, or Obama has so much more foresight he would have foreseen what neither of those two did. Neither option seems likely.
*OR*... Current american people are lazier or more apathetic nowadays.
No. It shows 2500 submitted bug reports.
Considering general quality of bug reports, I'd be surprised if even 10% of these are valid.
You probably right. But the only thing that this changes is that the reports are the cruft themselves, and cleaning up will help to correctly sort the remaining ones to be fixed (or not).
The idea of blaming any specific administrations seems to me to be a fallacy.
So, WHY IN HELL we still waste time electing them?
The way I see it, no one would be using encryption nowadays if Obama managed to be president in the nineties.
Were you around in the nineties? That was when Clinton used CALEA to force telecoms to build the exact infrastructure that was exploited after 9/11 by Bush, and later Obama. That was when Clinton pushed the ultimately doomed "Clipper Chip" [...]
And exactly how many people were arrested and prosecuted for teaching others the weaknesses of the cited technologies?
+1 Insightful please.