Flying Data

nospam@example.com (dr.phees) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:03:00 +0200

Surfing with 300 km/h

The experience of mobile computing and internet connectivity has never been that satisfying. Sitting in a highspeed train with v_max of 300 km/h and losing the internet connectivity only once in 2¹/₂h is something, that never stops to impress me. Throw that in with batteries being able to power your laptop for nearly 9 hours of continuous work and WLAN access shows a more than just a blink of the big step to an always available, personal, virtual availability and presence - unarguably with the inherent potential of good and bad effects. "Information at your fingertips" can be a new kind of knowledge enhancement to the individual user, lacking mainly a non-distracting interface.

The future is now - and tomorrow, too

New interfaces are, as visible with the iPhone effect, turning simple, technophile cell phone users into unexpected tech nerds. Access to information becomes more than just a privilege of the tech savvy, leading to higher sales numbers and lower pricings. Mobile data flats cost only as much now as DSL flats some years ago and more and more productive, helpful or simply entertaining internet connected applications show up and connect users to a huge, always available knowledge base, not only provided by "traditional" knowledge creators like news agencies, publishers or organizations, but as an emergent part of the online community itself.

Tell me and I tell you

Wikipedia as the flag ship of self controlled and organized information gathering and award-winning blogs show the tremendous potential of the connected society. In only thirteen years the landscape developed from the first AOL modem dial-up accounts to the always connected casual user, twitting (or twittering?) his or her experience to the world. Still, if you look at a vizualization of our world's data routes, you can clearly notice northern America and Europe as a technology satiated room.

The author Dan Simmons established the term of the datasphere, but clearly, we have a long way before us. But the term is good! So, use it!

Thanks for reading, and here's to technology :)

Nuclear Web 2.0!

nospam@example.com (dr.phees) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 18:01:00 +0200

As reported by the Washington Post, the "nuclear power plant ["Hatch", near Baxley] in Georgia was recently forced into an emergency shutdown for 48 hours after a software update was installed on a single computer [...] operating on the plant's business network."

WHAT?

Business network like, people without technical education?

The best part is how this happened: "[...] company technicians were aware that there was full two-way communication between certain computers on the plant's corporate and control networks. [...] The engineer who installed the update was not aware that that the software was designed to synchronize data between machines on both networks, or that a reboot in the business system computer would force a similar reset in the control system machine."

How on earth did the engineer who designed the computer system in the first place get a job in a nuclear power plant? Not just that a computer from the business network could inject data into the control network, a reboot would actually reset a control system machine, resulting in the ultimate control over a machine of the control network.
AND THEY KNEW OF IT!

You have to read the whole article for yourself, just to get an idea of the danger implied by that kind of setup. In many countries it is not allowed to have the control network connected to anything else. This kind of island network still is complex enough, even without the possibility of intentional or unintentional damage done from outside.

The last news on the powerplant's homepage are from 2000 and on the plant's main operator's homepage you will find many entries about the Southern Company's employees, but absolutely nothing about that incident.

My proposal would be to shut that plant down, until the networks have been inspected by an independent commission, but, I guess, that won't happen.
Have a nice day and don't forget to light a candle before shutting down your computer this evening, if you are working in a business network!

phees' dissections - my 2 cents

Flying Data

Surfing with 300 km/h

The future is now - and tomorrow, too

Tell me and I tell you

Nuclear Web 2.0!