Obama To Get Secure BlackBerry 8830 191
CWmike writes "President Barack Obama is set to receive a high-security BlackBerry 8830 soon, The Washington Times reported today. The device is said to be in the final stages of development at the National Security Agency, which will check that its encryption software meets federal standards. It might not be ready for months. It was reported that Obama will be able to send text and e-mail messages and make phone calls on the device, but only to those with the secure software loaded on their own devices. The list includes First Lady Michelle Obama and top aides. The security software is made by Genesis Key, whose CEO, Steven Garrett, is quoted as saying: 'We're going to put his BlackBerry back in his hand.' The Sectera Edge was pegged in January by analysts as the top device choice because of its reputation for secure data communications when used by other federal workers. And there are many reasons why Obama might have been told 'no' on his BlackBerry. But Obama may wish he had chosen a Sectera if BlackBerry has more outage problems like its latest last week, which meant no mobile e-mail for hours across the US."
Racism is Rampant... (Score:0, Insightful)
So....he needs a BLACKberry?
Only a BLACKberry is good enough?
He can't use an iPhone?
Is it because they also come in white?
So many questions, so few goatse rick rolls....
More outage problems? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Racism is Rampant... (Score:0, Insightful)
The question I have for Obama is this: Who is stimulating the economy? Me, the guy who has provided 14 people good paying jobs and serves over 200,000 people per year with a flourishing business? Or, the single fat colored mammy sitting at home pregnant with her fourth child waiting for her next welfare check?
And as far as BlackBerries go, I'm sure B. Hussein Obama doesn't give a rat's ass. For my part, I give the BlackBerry 8830 two thumbs up.
Re:Racism is Rampant... (Score:2, Insightful)
Both actually, the single fat coloured mammy sitting at home and so forth is spending part of her welfare check to be one of your clients/customers, and that thanks to her money she's spending at your business that you can thrive and pay your 14 employees.
Now of course you probably stimulate more than she does, because if you're as successful as you make yourself sound, you have more money to spend, and therefore stimulate more. But the welfare check is stimulus money in that that's what allow people on welfare to keep on stimulating. It's the basics of economy really, it astounds me that the boss of such a flourish business such as you are would ignore that.
Um, last year (Score:5, Insightful)
The BlackBerry network does have outages from time to time. But the linked article is from April 18, 2007!
Re:Racism is Rampant... (Score:2, Insightful)
But does it stimulate the economy more than it would have done if it had been left in the original taxpayer pocket?
It's the broken window fallacy.
Re:Racism is Rampant... (Score:0, Insightful)
Hah, such naivete. Giving welfare mom more money does not necessarily mean a better life for her bastard offspring. It means she can get a new TV, dvd player or drugs...
Just look at how the welfare system is abused in NY State. The more offspring you have, the more money you make. Then the state pays for your children to have healthcare and you get WIC and you get a free house...
It sure pays to be a unemployed mooch around here.
Re:Racism is Rampant... (Score:1, Insightful)
Hah, such naivete. Giving welfare mom more money does not necessarily mean a better life for her bastard offspring. It means she can get a new TV, dvd player or drugs...
Just look at how the welfare system is abused in NY State. The more offspring you have, the more money you make. Then the state pays for your children to have healthcare and you get WIC and you get a free house...
It sure pays to be a unemployed mooch around here.
Do you have evidence, or just a caricature of a welfare queen that was painted for you by Rush Limbaugh?
Re:Racism is Rampant... (Score:4, Insightful)
but in the case of a welfare mom with 4 kids, the main difference is that by giving her more money she'll give better food, a better health but more importantly a better education to her 4 children, the difference being ultimately that these children will grow up to be more qualified and thus produce more value/wealth, but also move up in social classes.
What the heck are you basing this on? It's been my experience that welfare moms beget welfare children. And no, I'm not just parroting Rush Limbuagh. I've spent the last five years working for an agency in the human services field and my SO is a social worker with 13 years of experience. I've yet to see welfare moms produce anything other than welfare children. The welfare system in my experience creates a cycle of dependency that few people are able (or willing) to break out of.
Re:CrackBerry: Just say no ;) (Score:3, Insightful)
People will go to ridiculous lengths to avoid taking personal responsibility anymore it seems.
Of course it can't be the stupid person's fault..it has to be that evil Blackberry possessing their soul.
And turn it off? Ohhh, no! can't do that..might miss an important viagra email...from a Nigerian Prince!
At an earlier job, one of these obnoxious devices was foisted on me. It never made sense to me, as nothing in my job was 'time critical', but 'everybody is going to this' was the reason. I tried warning them it would not work with me...
So, when I got to work and after parking, I would turn it on as I entered the building, and when I left the building at the end of the day it would get turned off.
Discussions with management usually turned silly:
Boss: 'I tried calling your blackberry last night and all this morning! Where have you been?'
Me: 'Last night I was home, and this morning at my desk, right next to my office phone, working.'
Boss: 'Then why didn't you answer?'
Me: 'My office phone never rang.'
Boss: 'But I was calling your blackberry!'
Me: 'Well, it was turned off.'
Boss: '??!!?? Why?'
Me: 'Because I have a working office phone right next to me, did not need the blackberry on.'
Boss: 'What about last night?'
Me: 'What about it? I was off work at home. I have a phone there also.'
Boss:'?????'
Me: 'You only get me for the hours you pay me for.'
Boss: 'But but, it's a Blackberry!1'
Me: 'Yeah, so?'
Boss:'??????"*blank stare*
Some people just don't get it, no matter how often they get hit with a clue-stick. That crap went on weekly, until I moved on to a better job...with no Blackberry.
Re:CrackBerry: Just say no ;) (Score:3, Insightful)
I agree with the others here. (sorry, bud).
The boundary that you are on vacation, or 'not on-call', or even simply not required to respond to e-mails for, as you put it, if the situation warrants it, is just too simple to fix. I'm sure they send e-mails now, that you don't respond to (because your present mobile solution doesn't offer it), unless you spend your days off surfing your mail and responding.
full disclosure: I have a blackberry 8830, and I am one of two admins (and we are the only 2 with UNIX responsibilities) managing 200+ servers in multiple datacenters. We own the environments from rack, power, cabling to consoles, hardware, OS, uptime, performance and capacity planning. We also own the SANs, and the backup strategy.
I get e-mails all freaking day/night long, but if I'm on vacation (like today) I am not required to respond, unless I want to. If a production issue pops up, I am still not expected to respond, or jump in, again, unless I want to. If it's really bad, someone will call me, and I will still not be required to respond. There are times that I just can't pitch in, but I often do for that really important stuff. If it my week on call, I understand thats a 24x7 responsibility, but the escalation process specifically requires that the issue is a production class service or system.
I understand that many admins are the only admin, but that shouldn't stop a proper classification of systems/services into categories of 'what can wait', and 'what needs immediate attention'. Set some reasonable boundaries, and the blackberry will actually make it easier to do your job.
Re:Racism is Rampant... in my nose (Score:5, Insightful)
Give this man a point.
Moreover - blame politicians for ENGINEERING a political class totally dependent on his hand. It's brilliant - voters who depend on government assistance have practically no choice but to vote for the guy. And yes - I'm looking at republicans AND democrats.
Can anyone explain how congress can get a measly 13% approval rating and still re-elect over 90% of it's members in the same month?
How much is this going to cost? (Score:3, Insightful)
If it is relatively cheap, then ok, cool. The President wants a Blackberry and it won't be too expensive. No problem.
But that isn't what it sounds like. Take months? How many man hours at what price per hour will be required so he can read his fan mail now instead of 30 minutes later? If the price is going to be exorbitant and this is little more than a vanity item, then no. Just no.
The President is not affected by BB outages (Score:3, Insightful)
Unlike the rest of us, if the president can't make a call on his BB, there are a handful of high-security folks around that can make the call for him on some other device.