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Department of Defense launches open source site Forge.mil

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40hz:
Of course, this is all rather abstract thinking...
-CWuestefeld (February 05, 2009, 11:22 AM)
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But that's also one reason why I always enjoy reading your posts! :Thmbsup:

f0dder:
40hz: there's a big difference between making a dirty bomb (any monkey with enough cash and the right connections can do that) and achieving critical mass and nuclear fission. Of course the terrorist impact of a dirtybomb is bad enough, but it's destructive power is no near that of a properly done bomb. Even with complete schematics available (and ones that aren't purposefully slightly tainted, as the available ones are afaik) you need a lot of work, lot of money, and a lot of very skilled engineers.

As for reverse engineering, there's a big difference between RE'ing a piece of PC software and trying to get firmware out of sealed hardware. Stuff like missile targetting, fighter jet operating systems et cetera should imho be kept closed. And even if you got access to the hardware, you'd have a really hard time getting to the software. Sure, you can get a lot of details from the Janes catalogs or (if you have the cash and the connections) getting a sales pitch, and you might even be able to get your greasy hands on schematics. But even if you manage to build a JSF jet, you're not going to be able to use it for anything without the software...

CWuestefeld:
you need a lot of work, lot of money, and a lot of very skilled engineers
-f0dder (February 06, 2009, 09:54 AM)
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If you can't handle this yourself, I know of someone who freelances this kind of work.
Department of Defense launches open source site Forge.mil
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088763/

40hz:
you need a lot of work, lot of money, and a lot of very skilled engineers.
-f0dder (February 06, 2009, 09:54 AM)
--- End quote ---

I agree with you. But the simple fact is that there are a lot of skilled engineers (and money!) available for this sort of thing.

Just look at who has 'real' nuclear weapons these days. North Korea? They can't even keep their population fed and housed, but somehow they've managed to gather the necessary resources to build a nuclear warhead - or three.

The point I was trying to make is that the technology for weapons development is a lot more attainable as time goes on. Credit it to the overall growth in technical sophistication throughout the world. It comes as a massive hit of culture shock to a lot of my friends (in the USA) when they see people in so-called "Third World" countries developing sophisticated technologies - or re-purposing existing ones for uses never imagined by their original creators. And I'm sure many people in other "industrialized nations" are guilty of the same hubris.

I've found it's good to remember two things about technical development and deployment:

1. Most of the people we don't like (who don't like us much either) are nowhere nears as dumb as we'd like them to be.

2. When it comes to technology: "The Street finds it's own uses for things." as William Gibson so nicely put it.


But that's all kind of moot. If you talk to professionals in the weapons industry or military, the general consensus seems to be that there is nothing you can do to stop the spread of technology. All you can do is slow it down. So most of the secrecy in the defense world is geared towards protecting the 'engineering specifics' such that it becomes too expensive and time consuming for most countries to reinvent "our" wheels.

Or at least it does until somebody like Kim Jong-Il comes along.


----

To your point about dirty weapons. I agree completely. You're just as dead from one of those as you are from a state-of-the-art military weapon. And bio-terrorism would be even simpler and more cost effective.



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But either way, I doubt you're going to see anything "spicy" up on the Pentagon's repository. I'd suspect you'll find they're just doing all the things you'd expect them to be doing (i.e. database, CRM, CMS, http, VoIP, etc.).

What I find impressive about forge.mil is that it is so out of character for them to be doing something like this. Maybe a new era in "accountability and openness" is coming to the US Government after all.

But we'll just have to wait and see. www.forge.mil is still timing out. ;D

f0dder:
Just look at who has 'real' nuclear weapons these days. North Korea? They can't even keep their population fed and housed, but somehow they've managed to gather the necessary resources to build a nuclear warhead - or three.-40hz (February 06, 2009, 12:08 PM)
--- End quote ---
It's a lot easier to keep your population in check if they aren't well-fed... if their everyday is a struggle to survive, they aren't going to have much energy to launch a rebellion.

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