* Posts by MarineTech

6 publicly visible posts • joined 9 Feb 2022

Uncle Sam has a datacenter waste problem

MarineTech

This is the result of an organizational problem

I have no problem believing this is directly associated with the "culture" of US government.

A big part of it is going to be how department budgets "work" within the government. Basically, if you don't use it, you lose it. Any department coming in under budget, very likely will see their annual budget reduced by that amount the next year, because "obviously, you don't need it." This causes all kinds of hijinks around the end of the fiscal year. As a tech in the Marine Corps (yes, hence the screen name), back in the early 90's, I got to see it in stark contrast. We did circuit board repair in our shop. We repaired boards right down to the individual component on the board. As part of that, we had a yearly allotment of powdered gold to use for re-electroplating contacts on the boards. Come the end of the fiscal year, if we hadn't used it, we'd get a reduced allotment the next year. That would really cause issues if we had MORE boards to repair the next year. So, in typical USMC fashion, we were told to improvise, adapt, and overcome. Here's what would happen. EVERYTHING got plated until it was used up. Every circuit board we could get our hands on had their contacts plated. Standard contacts that didn't require gold got plated. Dog tags got plated. Pens got plated. Anything that would hold still long enough to get jammed into the electroplating machine, got plated.

So there's the first questionable practice.

Second comes from the fact that it is a Herculean effort to get rid of ANYTHING in government service. I have a friend that teaches IT courses in the US Job Corps system. It is an absolute nightmare to get rid of excess or outdated equipment. PCs that are 11 to 12 years old sit in stacks gathering dust because they're no longer of any use, but nobody wants to wade through the bureaucratic nightmare to get rid of any of it.

With those two behaviors in mind, is it really any stretch to imagine that government datacenters have racks crammed with equipment that is either surplus to requirement or beyond usefulness? New equipment keeps coming in whether it has a use or not, because otherwise the budget is lost and in the future they MIGHT need additional kit. Nothing gets thrown away so there are probably racks of legacy servers just sucking up power and not actually fulfilling any tasks because nobody wants to jump through the hoops required to retire it from service and dispose of it.

I am honestly surprised it's not actually worse than it is.

Europe's largest nuclear plant on fire after Russian attack

MarineTech

Re: Not fake news but…….

I was over there with 7th Marines for Desert Shield/Storm. As we got into northern Kuwait, we started seeing the stuff hanging from the lines. It's been more than a few years ago, but as I recall, it wasn't copper. It looked more like mylar strips. I remember we thought it was chaff from jets evading missile fire.

Knocking out the enemy power grid has a long history though. Even back to WW2 the Brits were sending up barrage ballons trailing cables to short out power lines. Of course, there were also the Dam Busters of 617 Squadron tasked with knocking out power generation dams under Operation Chastise.

MarineTech

Re: looks like starshell to me

Look at the video again. They're landing in the parking lot. They're not landing anywhere near containment or generating facilities.

As a matter of fact, you can SEE the "fire" that was started in the lower right of the image. Looks like one of the shells ignited a hedge.

I have friends in the Ukraine, and I fully support the Ukrainian people, but I'm sorry, this is nothing but rank sensationalism.

Cyberwarfare looms as Russia shells, invades Ukraine

MarineTech

Re: I disagree with the rationale here

As I noted previously, they are being precise, up to the level of their technology. Yes, there is collateral damage to areas around Russia's designated "military targets", but very little when compared to other actions of theirs in the past. Look at pictures from Ossetia during the Russo-Georgian War back in 08, or from Chechnya back in 92. Whole neighborhoods were flattened compared to what we're seeing now.

Russia's precision munition capabilities aren't up to many systems in the west. What they have though, they're using to good effect.

I keep seeing video of Russia artillery columns moving through the countryside. They contain quite a few BM-21 rocket launchers and conventional tube artillery. Those are not precise weapons and are used for saturation bombardment of targets. They haven't been used on urban centers yet.

Like I said. The Russians are showing uncharacteristic restraint.

MarineTech

I disagree with the rationale here

I'm going to respectfully disagree with the government line on this one. If anything, we're going to see fewer, or NO cyberattacks originating from Russia against NATO countries.

I'm a former US Marine from way back in the Cold War era. I was originally trained to fight against Soviet bloc tactics. As such, I can say one thing here. They're NOT using them.

Hear me out. Putin is most certainly not stupid. You do not get to be the head of the KGB if you are. So let's look at what's going on here. There are quite a few factors so far that show Russia is being VERY careful with its military tactics during this invasion. Russian troops are being exceedingly careful to minimize casualties against civilians and civilian infrastructure. They are using what precision capabilities they have, to their fullest. Mass artillery barrages and carpet bombing have always been a major component of Eastern Bloc tactics. They have been totally absent so far. They're minimizing damage to everything but legitimate military targets as best they can.

Why? Because Putin knows that if the news starts putting up pictures of mass casualties amongst the civilian populace, that may push the West into actual military support. Something he DOES NOT WANT. Putin's already said that Russia has been weathering sanctions for years. They're annoying, but the Russians are used to them by now. What they do not want is western military intervention. So Russian is doing everything they can to not provoke such a measure. Dedicated cyberattacks from Russia, against Western powers at this time, would certainly be seen as attacks against the State, and most likely would provoke a full military response over it. He's not going to do that and give up the advantages that they currently have.

We may see the usually cyber attacks from China, North Korea, and the various criminal organizations as normal. I'm betting though that activity from actual Russian government sanctioned organizations are going to be nil, until this thing is over.

EU directs €11bn toward European Chips Act to build homegrown semiconductor industry

MarineTech

Feasible?

I'm questioning the feasibility of this. As I recall the Reg ran a story last week or the week prior regarding European fabs shuttering because energy costs are too high and they were not profitable. Adding more fabs, without addressing the energy costs for production, means billions spent on facilities that will never be used.