In many fictional universes, you must drop out of warp drive while you're significantly far from your goal for various reasons (Niven's universe, because ships in hyperspace disappear too close to a gravity well, Star Wars and many Asimov stories, affects navigation or some such hand-waving, Drive comic, causes collateral damage, etc.). This is often for dramatic purpose, else there's no fighting your way in or out of locations, but it's become ingrained in our collective conscious to a certain degree. (Funny how a significant number of people believe something, and it turns out to be true. Maybe Pratchett was right...)
Trek has been somewhat wishy-washy about this, in some cases using impulse to get to a respectful distance, in other cases warping from wherever they happen to be, at the whim of the writers apparently.
> If someone called, there was no way we would say "that's a lie." We would confirm only the duration of employment, say that they left with no hard feelings, we wish them the best in their new endeavors, thank you very much have a nice day click!
That's very commendable.
A former boss, after a 3 month break-in period, called the entire team into a conference room, shut the door, and told us quietly that as these things required his approval, none of us would ever transfer out of the department, would never be promoted, and if we quit, he knew how to handle employment verification calls in such a way as to give the other party the impression we were worthless, while staying within the letter of the law. He made no bones about it, demonstrating to us the way to handle a call in such a way that the hiring manager wanted to hire you, and in such a way that the hiring manager would not hire you. He made it very clear that we were absolutely at his mercy.
I got out, and got a real job elsewhere. But as far as I know my former compatriots are still there, and their lives are a living hell.
Right, but they weren't stupid enough to use the Enigma machine *themselves*, knowing that it had been broken. If the NSA is planning to use the phones, the NSA must think they're secure. If they're planning to build them and not use them, the phones are bait for very stupid organizations. Either way it would be interesting to own one, although you probably shouldn't call your tax accountant with it.
And as I said in another article, if the NSA thinks they can include a back door and somehow think they can keep it secret so that they could use the phones themselves, I'd be very very disappointed in them.
If you're implying a back door, the overriding problem as far as I can see is that if you have a secret double encrypted phone with an option, no matter how secret, for someone else to listen in, as a secret organization you wouldn't dare use the phone. Because somehow, by hook or by crook, by bribery, blackmail or corruption from the richest countries and individuals of the world, that back door *will* be made available to foreign powers. It's inevitable.
And so, the NSA will have created a phone that the NSA itself could not use.
If it had been intended as a honey pot, then bravo. Otherwise, no.
That's funny. It reminds me of a company I worked for, where the network architect thought it'd be a good idea to plug all the company's internet connections into a single Wellfleet. As I recall, after about the fourth time it went south and took the entire company offline, he was invited to resign.
One possible problem I see is that with VOIP so common these days (I read recently that AT&T is converting over to VOIP en-masse and closing down a lot of their GO facilities) you can't take out internet without also taking out phone service. I guess my question should be "how does one go about destroying *just* the internet?"
The problem is, like terrorism, cyber conflict is not easily bound to a nation, and the soldiers do not wear uniforms. Even if you got past the legal and moral ramifications, whom do you bomb?
Trivially, an attack can be stopped or at least contained by simply pulling the network plug. I can't envision a scenario where we'd "lose the internet". We might lose connectivity to some areas for awhile, but it's not like there's some timed self-destruct code buried in Cisco firmware that could be activated en-masse.
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In many fictional universes, you must drop out of warp drive while you're significantly far from your goal for various reasons (Niven's universe, because ships in hyperspace disappear too close to a gravity well, Star Wars and many Asimov stories, affects navigation or some such hand-waving, Drive comic, causes collateral damage, etc.). This is often for dramatic purpose, else there's no fighting your way in or out of locations, but it's become ingrained in our collective conscious to a certain degree. (Funny how a significant number of people believe something, and it turns out to be true. Maybe Pratchett was right...)
Trek has been somewhat wishy-washy about this, in some cases using impulse to get to a respectful distance, in other cases warping from wherever they happen to be, at the whim of the writers apparently.
I thought the deflector array was for the protection of the crew, not for the inhabitants of the destination.
How do you get the glow plugs warm with no electricity? Rub two sticks together?
I grounded my pet cat in mid-January just to be safe. He's getting really pissed off.
Bender couldn't possibly do any worse.
You're absolutely right. I apologize to the carp.
Because that wasn't the internet.
Personally, I'm just going to stop buying recorded music from the big labels. It's all carp anyway.
> and for not spreading information with the same 'clarity and integrity' of broadcast journalists."
Um, I think I just threw up a little in the back of my mouth. (I hate it when that happens. It's hard on the fillings.)
> If someone called, there was no way we would say "that's a lie." We would confirm only the duration of employment, say that they left with no hard feelings, we wish them the best in their new endeavors, thank you very much have a nice day click!
That's very commendable.
A former boss, after a 3 month break-in period, called the entire team into a conference room, shut the door, and told us quietly that as these things required his approval, none of us would ever transfer out of the department, would never be promoted, and if we quit, he knew how to handle employment verification calls in such a way as to give the other party the impression we were worthless, while staying within the letter of the law. He made no bones about it, demonstrating to us the way to handle a call in such a way that the hiring manager wanted to hire you, and in such a way that the hiring manager would not hire you. He made it very clear that we were absolutely at his mercy.
I got out, and got a real job elsewhere. But as far as I know my former compatriots are still there, and their lives are a living hell.
Just saying'.
Right, but they weren't stupid enough to use the Enigma machine *themselves*, knowing that it had been broken. If the NSA is planning to use the phones, the NSA must think they're secure. If they're planning to build them and not use them, the phones are bait for very stupid organizations. Either way it would be interesting to own one, although you probably shouldn't call your tax accountant with it.
And as I said in another article, if the NSA thinks they can include a back door and somehow think they can keep it secret so that they could use the phones themselves, I'd be very very disappointed in them.
If you're implying a back door, the overriding problem as far as I can see is that if you have a secret double encrypted phone with an option, no matter how secret, for someone else to listen in, as a secret organization you wouldn't dare use the phone. Because somehow, by hook or by crook, by bribery, blackmail or corruption from the richest countries and individuals of the world, that back door *will* be made available to foreign powers. It's inevitable.
And so, the NSA will have created a phone that the NSA itself could not use.
If it had been intended as a honey pot, then bravo. Otherwise, no.
That'd be the coolest geeky thing to have. Although I suspect it doesn't do you a lot of good unless both sides of the conversation is using them.
Ok, you just ruined my day. Thanks.
But what is the alternative? Make all publicly funded research a state secret? Have publicly funded investors monetizing the products?
Have no publicly funded research?
Windows CE still exists? That's frightening.
That's funny. It reminds me of a company I worked for, where the network architect thought it'd be a good idea to plug all the company's internet connections into a single Wellfleet. As I recall, after about the fourth time it went south and took the entire company offline, he was invited to resign.
One possible problem I see is that with VOIP so common these days (I read recently that AT&T is converting over to VOIP en-masse and closing down a lot of their GO facilities) you can't take out internet without also taking out phone service. I guess my question should be "how does one go about destroying *just* the internet?"
The problem is, like terrorism, cyber conflict is not easily bound to a nation, and the soldiers do not wear uniforms. Even if you got past the legal and moral ramifications, whom do you bomb?
Even better, put a "removal violates warranty" sticker on it.
Enh... How does one go about "destroying the internet"?
> I'd hate to see something that worked poorly.
Wait a year.
Trivially, an attack can be stopped or at least contained by simply pulling the network plug. I can't envision a scenario where we'd "lose the internet". We might lose connectivity to some areas for awhile, but it's not like there's some timed self-destruct code buried in Cisco firmware that could be activated en-masse.