The Post 9/11 Tech Boom 423
"The battlefield will not be physical so much as it will be digital," Rob Owens, a tech industry analyst at Pacific Crest Securities in Portland, Ore., told the San Francisco Chronicle recently. "There will definitely be people who prosper in this new environment."
Owens and other analysts point to these factors:
- A need for more secure technologies for Net traffic, business communications, computer networks, travel and building architecture, along with the predictably more sophisticated components for new weaponry.
- A huge increase in "homeland security" spending not only by governments, but among biotech firms as the country expects and prepares for attacks potentially more lethal than those on New York and Washington.
- A boon for telecom and video conferencing companies and systems. Not only will many corporations choose to do business without sending executives on the road, but such systems are seen as increasingly vital communications backups in the event of widespread attacks on an existing communications infrastructure. By the same token, it would make sense that in stressful times people will spend more time shopping, talking, amusing themselves and doing business on the Net, as they did in the days after 9/11.
- Continuing increases in sales across the tech spectrum as individuals, businesses and governments make sure their hardware and software systems can deal with the challenges and problems of a post 9/11 world.
The media are feeding these trends. Not only are the images of 9/11 horrific and continual, but the war in Afghanistan has -- correctly or not -- enhanced the idea that technologies are our only feasible response to the profoundly changed geopolitical reality that Osama Bin-Laden created last fall. The fact that we have undermined a terrorist network and overturned a repressive government in weeks, with only a handful of American casualties, has transformed the way even Americans think of technology. This isn't a time for a tech slump, but another boom, perhaps of even greater proportions than the last one.
Guilty Conscience (Score:1, Insightful)
tech boom ahead (Score:5, Insightful)
turning any time of threat to the country much money has been invested into tech advance... look at the computer during WWII and it's aftermath. or firearms during the civil war.
Seany
undermined? (Score:3, Insightful)
Have we really? Last time I checked neither bin Laden nor Mohommad Omar had been captured, nor seen, and few if any high-ranking officials in Al-Qaeda had been captured.
I think the US was very efficient in how they handled the situation, but let's be serious: it's not even close to resolved.
Technology, Security Threats and War (Score:2, Insightful)
Because of the type of threat, technology will be the big "winner" of the business, from detection devices, to warplanes.
I tend to disagree on one point.. (Score:5, Insightful)
The fact that we have undermined a terrorist network and overturned a repressive government in weeks, with only a handful of American casualties...
We tend to believe that our actions have had long lasting effect on this troubled region, but my take on it is quite different. US tends to wage its war and then pack its bags and go home leaving a war ravaged country and its warlords to fight the rest of the war between themselves and their common enemies.
We might benefit overall from these effects, but the moment the US Soldiers leave, every warlord in Afghanistan is gonna be on everyone else's throats. Afghanistan had some notable politicians but Taliban made a point by wiping them all out.
We cant wage a two month war and then leave all of a sudden telling ourselves that our work here is done and now this nation would pull itself together towards a road to peace. This country is far from being over from the civil war.
Until employers start hiring (Score:4, Insightful)
www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~sager/ai
Freaking would be nice to have a job. Being tied down by $50,000 in tuition debt is borderline retarded.
Tech-driven me arse (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, it's not paranoia, it's the perception that the public are paranoid, now that I think of it. Take NASA's recent, ludicrous decision [space.com] to delay announcing shuttle launch times. This is not unlike the face-scanning/whatever tech; it does nothing except convince those who don't think too hard that something is being done. Whether people are that dumb, I'm not sure.
Let Me Help (Score:4, Insightful)
but the war in Afghanistan has -- correctly or not -- enhanced the idea that technologies are our only feasible response to the profoundly changed geopolitical reality that Osama Bin-Laden created last fall.
not, I should say.
Sure there's things that can be done with technology to help improve security in "The Post 911 World", but there's no substitute for really good, on the ground, human intelligence.
The U.S. is notorious for relying on tech toys, eyes in the sky, etc. while neglecting to send actual people to find out what is really going on in the world.
Really Bugs Me (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:undermined? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Hear this before (Score:3, Insightful)
Hearing this from an employed person just makes it worse.
Hey Jon, try and look for a job, then come back and write how the jobs are about to "boom".
I know my company (consulting firm) thought things would turn around by Q1, and there were layoffs in Q1. Sorry, but things aren't turning around like planned. The only people anticipating a hiring "boom" in the computer industry is investors and stock brokers that work in tech stocks. They *NEED* a boom, so they are trying to make one.
The Tech Boom that wasn't (Score:2, Insightful)
But hey! CBDTPA will create it's own tech booms in Europe and places like India so it's not all bad. (Don't know about Mexico & Canada - they're too close to our Senators from Disney.)
Yeah, I know - off topic.
Re:Great if you've got security clearance... (Score:5, Insightful)
I work w/college kids at my church. The vast majority of them are getting good, solid degrees in engineering, CS, math etc.
It is idiotic to give security clearance to foreigners. They should not have access to these jobs and the 'need' to give more visas to people from outside the US is one created by companies in search of cheap labor.
Anyone who wants to work on homeland security should do so - in their homeland.
I'm not against immigration, and if someone becomes a citizen and resident- more power to them. But otherwise- hands off the sensitive info.
.
Re:Guilty Conscience (Score:1, Insightful)
Sure, technology can be misused. But so can many inventions. At the time the printing press was introduced in Europe, the scare was that this horrible invention, and flood of low-cost books it promised, would destroy the art of conversation and story telling.
So I don't think technology makes for a "Big Brother State". Hell, there was McCarthyism in the 50s, when U.S. technology was, well, primitive by today's standards. Instead, bad laws and bad government make for this situation.
I for one welcome the reliance on technology. I'm fluent in technologies, and look forward to the new literacy.
Enjoy the light, you candle maker.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Until I can find a job... (Score:1, Insightful)
Did you do *ANY* investigations? (Score:5, Insightful)
First thing I'd do to investigate this "tech boom" is look inward. Yeah, the company that you are employed by [vasoftware.com].
If they anticipate a tech boom, then why bring in the "giant ads" or this [slashdot.org]??
Can I get links next time? Cause I know you are just quoting stock brokers (that trade tech stocks). They need you to start buying tech again....
Rob Owens, a tech industry analyst at Pacific Crest Securities
Owens and other analysts point to these factors
Yeah, these analysts need your income. They can come up with stats till there blue in the face, but tech companies aren't employing. You will need employees for a boom, right? Well, as soon as I see these tech companies hiring like wildfire, I'll still be worried if I have a job tomorrow...
A quintessentially American solution to security (Score:3, Insightful)
All you have to do is glance at the tailfins on a 60s Cadillac to understand the unshakeable faith Americans have had in new technology over the past century. Technological progress as panacea is still a fundamental, if often unspoken, tenet of our shared culture.
However, when it comes to "homeland security", the search for technological solutions (e.g. systems to put air passengers and air cargo under x-ray and gas-cromatographic microscope) largely misses the point. Massive essentially indefensible borders, enormous reliance on a vulnerable modern communications infrastructure, the lack of internal security paranoia characteristic of a wealthy, free democratic society... these characteristics militate against easy high-tech band-aid solutions to "homeland defense."
So what's the solution? We can protect the United States from attack by consistent and forceful _projection_ of power, by eradicating from the earth those who bring violence inside our domestic boundaries, those who threaten to do so and those who aid and support such people. By doing so we relentlessly disincentivise those who might consider attacking us. Structurally, the United States will always be vulnerable to attack within its borders. A massive and massively expensive build-out of new security technology will not alter this fundamental truth.
Deployment of massive amounts of high-tech infrastructure that will do little more than inconvenience honest US citizens will not secure our nation. Judicious application of our Rooseveltian "big stick" will.
Re:Guilty Conscience (Score:2, Insightful)
However, since you've failed to give a single example of how we're turning into a "Big Brother" state. Where are the telescreens? the secret police everywhere? the cameras that monitor my every move? Do you have an real examples, or are you just another raving paranoid who is convinced off-handedly that since you don't understand the complexities of republic government and every single facet of the government's doing hasn't been disclosed to you, that there must be a conspiracy to wipe away your freedoms, since everybody in government is just inherently evil and have no thought for the wellfare of the people whom they govern over (even though they're citizens of this state too). Maybe you'll be quoting Gary Allen to me next? Grow up.
+1 for my straw man. Moderators, bring the parent post down, now.
Re:tech boom ahead (Score:2, Insightful)
As pointed out, advancements in weaponary are commonplace during times of human conflict. Aviation and nuclear technology also advanced greatly during the Second World War, as did seige weaponary during European conflicts during the middle ages.
Thankfully, it's not only advancements in deadly weaponary that are made - medicinal advancements are also made in the times of epidemics, such as the Cholera epidemic that gripped Europe.
Unfortunately, the Western world doesn't seem to notice the AIDS epidemic ravaging parts of Africa at the moment. If AIDS was to get to the same levels in Europe or North America, you can bet a little more money would be spent...
No consequences on new battlefield (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Guilty Conscience (Score:1, Insightful)
*sigh* I guess you trade one set of values for the other. As a conservative, I kind of thought that getting Clinton out and someone from the right in would slow down the massive loss of personal rights we have been seeing a trend towards in the last few years, but alas, we have simply traded the level of those rights. Gun purchases are up, as are SUV purchases, and home security systems, but quickly flitting away is your right to privacy online (which is what most of those "more secure technologies" means.. secure to joe schmoe in Idaho, but totally accessible by your ISP, your government, and your software author.) Gone is my right to wear clothing that I think is "hip" or "kewl" because some airport screener thinks that makes me a commie. Hell, even women are starting to get lip for wearing underwires, which lead to strip searches.
I dont know.. Im not sure anymore *which* one I would rather see.. loss of my privacy in my home (thank you Reno, Clinton) or loss of my freedom to think and associate freely (thank you Rumsfeld and Ridge). I dont consider myself a threat.. but at the same time, god FORBID you should "profile" based on the fact that every person involved in the hijackings was of the same basic age and physical description..
Cant we just throw this system out? As Carlin said.. "Baskin robins.. 42 flavors.. political system? 2 freakin flavors! TWO!.. which is more important to have choices in?"
Maeryk
(ac only because my password is acting six kinds of stupid suddenly)
Re:Really Bugs Me (Score:3, Insightful)
Pearl Harbor
The Holocaust
Tienemen Square
Those are all shorthands for tragic events. I don't think any are trivialized.
Re:I tend to disagree on one point.. (Score:2, Insightful)
Post-WWII Japan says hi.
Why do you think they are far and away the most capitalistic of the Eastern countries?
Silicon Valley is NOT alive and well (Score:3, Insightful)
Jon, you're full of shit.
If the Valley was quite alive and well, then why did my former company go from almost 1700 people to less than a hundred in 18 months (and then I got laid off in January). IPIX [ipix.com] wasnt one of the cruft. I helped design and implemented most of the Enhanced Picture Services (as seen on eBay.com) system, hell I ran it all singlehandedly for a few weeks at a time, and usually with a tiny ops team. If it was such a technology boom, I should've been able to hire people to help me. We also ran the Full360 real estate virtual tours system.
Now I see why everyone's tired of your same old bullshit, Jon.
What is Katz smoking THIS time? (Score:3, Insightful)
It's true that there is a whimper of a pickup, but it's just a whimper. Many people are running out of unemployment $ and I expect that there will be a rise in foreclosures on houses as Santa Clara county continues to have one of the higher unemployement rates of urban areas in the country.
Heck, even VA-whatever just had another, quiet round of layoffs. Most people can't even remember how many rounds their companies have had -- it's *that* bad.
And, while there are still recruiters in business, not a single contact I have from last year works for the recruiting firm they did when I received their address. It's not that they've moved -- they're laid off.
I'd give it another six months at least before declaring it even alive. It's got too much brain activity to be clinically dead, but it's not out of the ICU yet.
Techology isn't the answer - but the problem (Score:2, Insightful)
Sadly, you are correct. The amusing thing about all of this is that we actually know what we have to do to crush the enemy who will attack us again.
We have to diversify our energy supply for the US into American-produced energy systems, diverse ones more resistant to attack. None of these are oil (or its derivative gasoline).
If we really want to stop the attacks, we should be pushing for more American-made, American-operated, and American-maintained energy supplies like clean coal, wind energy, fuel cells (for storage and distribution, plus vehicle power), and solar energy (in remote non-wired areas). Not tomorrow - today. Right now wind energy is half as expensive as oil and takes a max of 18 months to build a new plant - and the system (the grid) can take up to about 20 percent variable power supplies. If you throw fuel cells in you can store the energy where produced and use it for vehicles (like farm vehicles, trucks, SUVs).
But at the moment every dollar we spend on oil results in 50 cents going to the terrorists and those who aid, educate, supply, and train them. And the countries behind this are known: some are our supposed "allies" like Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt, Pakistan, Malaysia, the Phillipines, and Signapore. That's where the enemy lies.
Propping up dictatorships with tech won't forestall the attacks. It will just encourage more. And propping up oil-dependent energy will do the same thing. It's their supply line - more than 90 percent of their funding (indirect and direct) - comes from oil money, while less than 2 percent comes from drug money (used mostly for field operations income).
In fact, when in the field in Europe and the US, the terrorists fund themselves from the low-tech hacker techniques, like stealing credit cards, bank fraud, offshore tax havens, free email.
Tech is not our friend in this war. Sound national policy is. Most of the useful tech is the cheaper faster better stuff like cheap bombs that have GPS, not fancy doodads that cost millions per missile.
-
Oops, forgot to mention things U can Do (Score:5, Insightful)
Some of the actual things that we can individually do - not the government, trapped in the Big Oil is Good world - are:
(choose one - but do at least one)
1. buy a compact flourescent lightbulb at the local hardware store or Home Depot - $4 to $6, use 1/8 the energy (this is Good Tech).
2. get a furnace controller (turns heat down when you're at work, or asleep, but heats it up in time for waking or coming home) (Good Tech)
3. get a tuneup for your car (better mpg)
4. next car you buy, new or used, get one that gets 5 mpg better than your last one (off the shelf we can get 40+ mpg for cars, SUVs and trucks - but consumers need to buy it).
5. change your furnace filter (improves energy efficiency and cleaner air).
6. next time you buy an appliance - washer, dryer, dishwasher, toaster, microwave, oven, etc - get either the best or second best energy efficient one.
7. buy 50 cent rubber seals to go behind your wall outlets (you're a techie, can't you do minor electrical stuff?) - up to 10 percent of heat loss is external-facing wall sockets in most houses. At Home Depot or hardware store.
8. buy a $2 foam insulator for your hot water heater hot water pipe (going out) - keeps it warmer and less cold showers when you turn on the hot water.
9. if your old hot water heater or furnace needs to be replaced, get the most energy efficient one you can.
10. if wiring for motion detectors, consider wiring your furnace/air conditioner controller to adjust temp based on occupants - and lights too. this is good tech.
All of these save you money - and cut the supply line of the enemy who wishes us dead.
If the hundreds of millions of Americans all did this - just one thing for each person - we would change the entire energy dynamic and painlessly switch energy supplies without any government intervention, while delivering a body blow to the enemy and their supporters. Then we could stop propping up anti-democratic regimes for energy supply reasons.
But inaction is what the al-Qaeda depend upon.
Actually he has a good point (Score:1, Insightful)
The HIV problem is further compounded in two ways:
Catholic missionaries say that using a condom is evil.
The HIV antiviral "cocktail" of medications that slows the HIV virus requires a healthy diet (by western standards) and must include milk. It's a little-known fact that a very large majority of Africans are lactose intolerant. As a matter of fact, it was not uncommon for newly-aquired American slaves to die from eating the cheese and drinking the milk their masters fed them.
Yes, the US got its pipeline (Score:1, Insightful)
But, of course, John Katz believes the hype and cheerleads the development of technological aids to destroy American democracy and expand the US empire.
Re:technology is not the answer (Score:3, Insightful)
So when do you stand up and say that you actually have a millitary problem? At what point do you say you're not going to tolerate having democratic allies murdered or threatened by dictatorships with zero respect for human rights and actually do somthing about it?
Israeli destruction of an Iraqi reactor is the only reason that Saddam didn't have nukes during the gulf war and terrorists don't now have access to nuclear material. If you're really worried about terrorism, that should be important to you.
Re:But tech failed us 9/11 (Score:3, Insightful)
How old a technology is radar (useful for tracking aircraft which go of course); ditto jet fighters (useful for chasing down off course aircraft, frightening kamikaze minded hijackers and if needs be shooting said aircrafts down as the lesser of two evils when the alternative is crashing into buildings with thousands of people inside); ditto telephones (useful for telling people what is going on, including giving instructions to evacuate buildings) and fire alarms (useful for getting people out of buildings quickly.)
Every last Israeli will be slaughtered... (Score:2, Insightful)
The only way you'll stop it happening again -- IMHO -- is to stop funding Israel
The surrounding Arab countries will start another Holocaust the instant America withdraws support for Israel. Every bit of rhetoric coming out of the Arab world is calling for the annihilation of the Israel and the Jews.
Don't think they're serious? Most of us didn't take Islamic terrorists seriously in America, either, before September 11.
Best,
-jimbo
Re:technology is not the answer (Score:2, Insightful)
If the cost of guaranteeing the security of our allies is terrorism on American soil then so be it. I just pray that we have the guts to pay them back in spades. I'm GLAD that backward, despotic evil regimes and their 'citizens' hate us for our support of Israel. It means we're on the right side. I'd be worried if they had a favorable opinion of us.
We've sacrificed friends in the past like South Vietnam. We've also come to their aid as we did in WWII. I prefer the latter.
I swear... Europe seems to have lost all sense of morality. More and more I get the sense that Europeans just want Israel to go away and pretend it never existed so they can get back to doing business with the likes of Saddam. What is wrong with you people?
I used to feel like we could always count on the Brits, Canada, Australia and New Zealand no matter what. You guys had our backs and we had yours. Not anymore. You know, the chips really were down last year and you guys flinched. Tony Blair did a great job but the hysterical accusations from the Labour MPs and the media about our conduct of the war hurt. I'm all for reasoned debate and dissent but you guys made us out to be worse than the Taliban and AlQueda. You know that if the positions were reversed we would have backed you without one tenth the amount of that venom.
Re:I tend to disagree on one point.. (Score:3, Insightful)
It is worth noting that US taxpayers pay for the bombs, but someone else is going to benefit from the oil pipeline.
In other words, I am willing to spend $100 of your money if it puts $1 into my pocket.