[HN Gopher] Senators issued satellite phones, offered demos on u...
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Senators issued satellite phones, offered demos on upgraded
security devices
Author : gumby
Score : 44 points
Date : 2023-05-27 17:09 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.cbsnews.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.cbsnews.com)
| rapjr9 wrote:
| >Gibson said the phones are a security backstop in the case of an
| emergency that "takes out communications" in part of America.
|
| Ummm, what about the rest of us? Large scale emergency
| preparations in the USA fell to the wayside long ago. Maybe the
| new satellite messaging features just starting to roll out would
| help, although I doubt they have been tested at scale with tens
| of millions of people trying to use them at the same time.
| poorUs wrote:
| What do you mean what about us? We got what we wanted; tech
| jobs, new phones each year, all the anime, Marvel, and Star
| Wars content we can stomach!
|
| If the public wanted security and sustainability it should have
| acted less like a drunk in a whore house.
| LinuxBender wrote:
| If cost isn't an issue there are existing commercial satellite
| phones and phone services that have been around for quite some
| time _see Iridium, Inmarsat, GlobalStar_. Or if you want a
| _middle-of-the-road_ option so to speak there is Garmin InReach
| service that would allow texting via the Iridium satellite
| network.
|
| In this case the officials are being issued phones. Some
| companies issue phones to employees. If your job is critical
| during a catastrophic event then your company should issue you
| a satellite phone. Perhaps corporations could get bulk
| discounts. Each neighborhood's CERT team should maybe invest in
| at least one phone to text others.
|
| Of course if they are planning for a full scale nuclear
| exchange then those options may be useless when the different
| layers of the atmosphere are charged. HAM radio operators or
| even CB radios may be more useful for local communications.
| Long distance would require a courier and a lot of bottle caps.
| I have no idea what they are actually planning for. Perhaps EMP
| _floated in on a few balloons_ that takes out power continent
| wide? Overload of the power grid? Halting all petroleum imports
| and re-shuffling the locally produced fuel transport networks?
| Go 100% green in 2024?
| rightbyte wrote:
| I got a feeling satellite phones wont help them, unless they
| prepare for getting lost on a hike to some forest.
|
| Like, who are you going to call. Their phones are not working
| either.
| Natsu wrote:
| It says "over 50" but... why not 100? Is there some reason any
| senator should be without one if there's a worry? I'm pretty sure
| we can afford a few more phones.
| kevinventullo wrote:
| From the second paragraph of the article: "The satellite phone
| technology has been offered to all 100 senators. CBS News has
| learned at least 50 have accepted the phones..."
| Natsu wrote:
| Thanks, I missed that because I saw several previous versions
| of this story that left that out.
| Mountain_Skies wrote:
| Makes me wonder if CBS News asked how many accepted the
| phones and were told "the majority did" with no specific
| number given.
| 0cf8612b2e1e wrote:
| Given our geriatric government, I could believe many of them do
| not regularly use phones. As of 2015, Senator Lindsey Graham
| claimed to have never sent an email [0].
|
| [0] https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/lindsey-graham-ive-
| ne...
|
| Edit: median Senator age is 65
| https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/aging-congress-boomers/
| NoZebra120vClip wrote:
| It's one thing to accept a device as an emergency backup, and
| it's another thing to know whether the device and its user
| will be ready when that emergency comes. Will the firmware be
| updated? Will the user be familiar with its operation? Will
| it be incorporated into regular drills and practice
| scenarios?
| SoftTalker wrote:
| If I could change one thing about federal office eligibility
| it would be to add a mandatory retirement age of 65. That
| would go for elected office as well as agency and judicial
| appointments. There are too many old people set in their ways
| at the highest levels of governent who need to get out of the
| way. And I say that as someone who's less than a decade away
| from that age himself.
| dehrmann wrote:
| What's interesting is they can offer experience, and while
| some is still relevant (history rhymes), some isn't.
| They're also more likely to have mental acuity declines
| (Feinstein's had a few). They might also be less invested
| in long-term policies and more concerned with near-term,
| retiree-friendly policies. Or they could be a Jerry Brown
| who comes back without political ambitions, just wanting to
| do the right thing. Or you get a Ruth Bader Ginsburg whose
| lasting legacy was the overturn of Roe because she couldn't
| step down _at 80_.
| pnw wrote:
| 65 is hardly old though, and the population of people over
| that age is only growing. You'd be better of having some
| kind of public service test every decade for everyone than
| an arbitrary age cutoff that is going to result in a lot of
| wasted human potential.
| gentleman11 wrote:
| Enough of the ageism in tech
| yarg wrote:
| Cognitive decline is a real thing.
|
| Experience counts for a lot, but it doesn't help with
| creativity.
|
| One of the things in technology is that novel problems
| often require novel solutions - and most of us aren't
| Knuth.
|
| Beyond a point age counts against you more than it helps.
| lostlogin wrote:
| They are elected. People are choosing the old. As bad as it
| is in the US, the UK's House of Lords is next level.
| [deleted]
| AlbertCory wrote:
| "set in their ways" == "have experience with life and don't
| agree with me"
|
| That said, some are just TOO old to do the job: Feinstein,
| for example.
| [deleted]
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(page generated 2023-05-27 23:01 UTC)