18-01-2011, 02:02 AM
My sense about this "software" is a bit different from Ed's. Caveat: I know nothing ab out programming.
Computers actually have many levels of language or code. At the most basic level its binary. But like words are made up of 26 letters (in English) and letters are composed of lines and arcs... eventually you get to sentences which have "meaning" and can describe actions. At the level most people use computers the "commands" are like point and click at some "routine" and so forth. Enough of the "structure" of software.
What software does is enable processes or actions which required lots of data and computations. And these are done at "lightning speeds" which humans can't match. Think of navigating and manually processing "inputs" from observations. With computers the observations are turned to data and the navigation is done by "algorithims".
Back to the issue at hand.
What has happened in our world is that organizations have grown to enormous size and still have a pyramidal hierarchical structure for processing information and decision making. Most decisions are made without having to be send up to the top. But clearly in some systems an individual low down in the pyramid can make a decision of repercussion throughout the whole organization and "bring it down". Software has been created to mitigate such risks... and it does so "automatically" by monitoring the performance (data) produced by the system (workers in some cases).
The implication here is that if you can control the performance of the software, parameters and so forth, you can "control" or take control of the entire system.
Another key aspect of such software is interoperability which enables large organizations to communicate, hand shake and "transact". So you can pay with PayPal and get a ticket to the Opera for example. The opera and PayPal must communicate - transact.
On 9/11 our defenses seemed to have been "gamed". Most decision makers in the chain of command are looking at computer screens which tell them the "status" of what's happening. Even ATC are looking at radar screens to tell them about the planes up there.
Where does that data on those screens come from? We believe it comes from "transponders" aboard the aircraft which are send by radio frequency, received by antenna and processed to appear on those screens by computers.
Why can't a false signal be sent and received and read as "real"? It can!
In fact, what seems to have happened is that the software which runs the entire DOD, NORAD, ATC, and even the airlines was "played with" on 9/11 and confusion ensued. We have no reliable data about what happened save from some witnesses and videos.
Software is at the heart of every large organization from a bank to an air line to a navy. Whomever can access the back door of this software can do some mighty mischief if they want and know how.
We have so little to go one which is reliable.
And analysis of the videos shows many of them have been tampered with. No one saw 9/11 live on TV because it was delayed by as much as 14 seconds if I am correct. All videos were confiscated by the FBI and few if any raw footage is available.
We simply do not know what happened and the results... the evidence was destroyed before it could be carefully examined.
Computers actually have many levels of language or code. At the most basic level its binary. But like words are made up of 26 letters (in English) and letters are composed of lines and arcs... eventually you get to sentences which have "meaning" and can describe actions. At the level most people use computers the "commands" are like point and click at some "routine" and so forth. Enough of the "structure" of software.
What software does is enable processes or actions which required lots of data and computations. And these are done at "lightning speeds" which humans can't match. Think of navigating and manually processing "inputs" from observations. With computers the observations are turned to data and the navigation is done by "algorithims".
Back to the issue at hand.
What has happened in our world is that organizations have grown to enormous size and still have a pyramidal hierarchical structure for processing information and decision making. Most decisions are made without having to be send up to the top. But clearly in some systems an individual low down in the pyramid can make a decision of repercussion throughout the whole organization and "bring it down". Software has been created to mitigate such risks... and it does so "automatically" by monitoring the performance (data) produced by the system (workers in some cases).
The implication here is that if you can control the performance of the software, parameters and so forth, you can "control" or take control of the entire system.
Another key aspect of such software is interoperability which enables large organizations to communicate, hand shake and "transact". So you can pay with PayPal and get a ticket to the Opera for example. The opera and PayPal must communicate - transact.
On 9/11 our defenses seemed to have been "gamed". Most decision makers in the chain of command are looking at computer screens which tell them the "status" of what's happening. Even ATC are looking at radar screens to tell them about the planes up there.
Where does that data on those screens come from? We believe it comes from "transponders" aboard the aircraft which are send by radio frequency, received by antenna and processed to appear on those screens by computers.
Why can't a false signal be sent and received and read as "real"? It can!
In fact, what seems to have happened is that the software which runs the entire DOD, NORAD, ATC, and even the airlines was "played with" on 9/11 and confusion ensued. We have no reliable data about what happened save from some witnesses and videos.
Software is at the heart of every large organization from a bank to an air line to a navy. Whomever can access the back door of this software can do some mighty mischief if they want and know how.
We have so little to go one which is reliable.
And analysis of the videos shows many of them have been tampered with. No one saw 9/11 live on TV because it was delayed by as much as 14 seconds if I am correct. All videos were confiscated by the FBI and few if any raw footage is available.
We simply do not know what happened and the results... the evidence was destroyed before it could be carefully examined.