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The problem with a terrorist event like this is that it actually was 1) more
deadly than all the other causes of death you mention put together, on a per
day basis (i.e. more people died on September 11 in that event than from all
other causes), 2) the deaths were all concentrated in one area and one
moment in time, so are far more visible (afterall, airline crashes are
usually a statistically low cause of death, but they get a lot of
attention), and 3) they occurred in a manner in which the victims had no
real possibility of preventing their deaths (i.e. most people who die from
degenerative diseases have notice, and sometimes contribute to their higher
probability of death - drunk drivers certainly do). All these things
conspire to make the impact on people far greater than you might suppose.
The other two issues are of course the economic impact (I don't know about
you, but my company alone has lost 20% of its market value this week; 90,000
airline workers are being laid off; and the New York economy is in a mess),
and the uncertainty of future events. Before this is over there are certain
to be other attempts, some of which may be far deadlier than this one.
All that being said, I would be surprised if we could do anything in our
professional field to directly attack the problem. But it does not hurt to
discuss the options (and at a minimum may allow people to vent a bit).
Jim
-----Original Message-----
From: John Gilmore [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Friday, September 21, 2001 9:49 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [temp t13] Re: way too quiet on this list!
** This is the quasi-official and semi-temporary T13 email list server. **
> I think most of us have been pre occupied with events of the last week.
> Anyone with bright ideas on how we can use the ATA interface to fight
> terrorism?
Sure! Don't put features in your disk drives that store encrypted
files in there that can't ever be copied or read back without a
private key held by a third party.
That third party could be a terrorist. That third party could be a
record company. All I know is that I don't want anybody else
controlling what's stored or accessible on my own disk drive.
John
PS: If your question was serious, here's my 2c. Fight "terrorists" by
building better and better interfaces. Ignore these guys; there
are only ten or twenty of them per billion humans, and they only
killed a tiny fraction of the population. (In 1998, 30,575 US people
died from suicide, 42,191 from unintentional motor vehicle accidents,
and 724,859 from heart disease -- mourn THOSE people and work on THOSE
issues if you want to make a *real* difference). See:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr48/nvs48_11.pdf
Most important, if you waste your time mooning about "terrorists"
rather than contributing to society by doing what you're good at, they
win a little bit. They're like the media and the politicians, they
seek only your attention, and they'll waste as much of it as you give
them. Deny it to them and they lose. You could spend your entire
life "fighting terrorism" and never make a bit of difference, like all
the guards loitering in airports and transit stations today, (They're
highly symbolic and expensive, but in reality useless.) Turn off the
TV and the yammering "crisis" radio, and get back to what really
matters in life: family, friends, work, and pleasure. My 2c.
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