US agencies still using ancient technology, including 8-inch floppy disks for nuclear weapon systems

Lets think back about how open source (whatever you mean by that) the 8" floppy must be. I seriously can't imagine an 8" floppy being more secure.
I'm saying a forgotten architecture is more secure than one that everyone has complete access to. If we did something like that a liberals art's student could hack the system. Using SD cards instead of 8 in floppy is bad enough. At least the floppy's could be wiped by the magnet field created by the perpetrators vaporizer.
 
Tell me how is someone supposedly going to hack a terminal, they can't gain physical access to? The security is not in the storage medium, or the age of the system. It's in the physical location of the terminal.
 
Tell me how is someone supposedly going to hack a terminal, they can't gain physical access to? The security is not in the storage medium, or the age of the system. It's in the physical location of the terminal.
Well, this topic is another one of those "click bait non-starters". The person who released this report or what ever the f*** you want to call it, obviously knows squat about electronics, computers, or anything else related to the topic. The trouble is, John Q. Public is an hysterical imbecile, who knows less about squat, let alone the quirks and protocols of maintaining aging gear. Then too, we have a bunch of "ending is better than mending" knot heads, who genuinely have been conditioned to not be able to live without a thinner phone or a lighter tablets, along with "whiter whites", and refrigerators that think for them.

Reasonably speaking, as long as this gear is not vacuum tube based, a lot of it isn't any functionally older than the day it was commissioned. Now this sh!t isn't crammed into a tiny box that would cause heating problems, and none of it needs to fit in Hillary Clinton's purse. Nor is space or scale a problem. The air gap and armed. guards aren't going to let some 15 year old use it to download porn, or run some crap script he or she bought somewhere on the TOR network. Those guards are trained to shot to kill, another strong deterrent.

As for the programming language, if it is "FORmula TRANslation", it's the perfect language to resolve targeting problems, which are nothing but formulas for speed distance, angle of flight, and geo-positioning.

As for the hardware, there are just a few critical issues. First, any electrolytic capacitor in the system needs to be replaced, along with any heat bathed, or head producing modules. I.E. VRM modules. Fans could be renewed, along with drive motors and heads for tape or floppy disc read/record. The transistor components could ostensibly last forever, assuming the cases don't disintegrate from old age. BUT, the conditions the equipment operates in, is far, far, better controlled then the average modern home by a long shot.

Even if the stuff is shot, the smartest way to go, would be to replace it with exactly the same equipment which is there now. We have better plastics now for wire coverings than we ever did 50 years ago. Ostensibly material advancements across the board. And face it, we have less nuclear warheads than we did during the cold was, so I suppose that could mean we need less computing power to control the fleet,. FWIW , unleashing a multi megaton thermonuclear warhead, doesn't require lasing a target such as a tank or a two story apartment. Two miles away would basically be a direct hit. So, the old saying, "close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, needs to be updated to include atomic bombs! (y)

Ask yourself, would you rather have floppy discs which have survived 50 years, or a bunch of brand new sh!t a** Seagate 3TB HDDs, which it seems by the reviews, crap out after the 2 year warranty expires..

And face it, you don't actually need as much storage, (AFAIK, a guess) than a single Google data center
 
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Well, this topic is another one of those "click bait non-starters". The person who released this report or what ever the f*** you want to call it, obviously knows squat about electronics, computers, or anything else related to the topic. The trouble is, John Q. Public is an hysterical imbecile, who knows less about squat, let alone the quirks and protocols of maintaining aging gear...
beside all the above, the "older" model equipment is made with silicon and copper that is thick enough to actually last. "modern" electronics, with all the micro-sized elements has such a short planned lifetime that none of the machines we buy today are likely to last more than 6 to8 years without expected failure. electronic machines actually produce their heat from the friction, right? that shortens lifespans. MTBF looks good to statisticians and bean counters, but when you want actual reliability, use big iron.
the 'ancient' languages are actually compiled to machine level instructions, not relying on interpreters and distributed libraries. they're able to operate in isolated environments, all by their lonesome. bug fixes and algorithm refinements over so many decades must lead one to expect near total reliability.
this is an example of application importance placed above profit importance. fashion and status isn't part of the picture.
 
3/4 the budget maintaining ancient tech?

They better damn well update it then; and knock off half the budget.

No wonder we're so far in debt there's no end in sight.
 
3/4 the budget maintaining ancient tech?

They better damn well update it then; and knock off half the budget.

No wonder we're so far in debt there's no end in sight.
if the program had kept updating the hardware, the cost over the past 50 years would have been incredibly much more than it has been and constant system changes would have been needed. the old adage - if it ain't broke don't fix it, actually has real meaning.
the difference in cost of maintaining a known working system versus updating to 'new and improved' hardware is frightening to those that can see the actual cost. of course, that's why modern tech companies are making so much money by selling the 'new and improved' versions. ( Apple comes to mind foremost )
 
Just as with a lot of parents these days, knowing how to write in cursive, and their children can't even read it,
there is something to be said about using an older computer. When's the last time you saw or used an 8"
floppy disk? Not to mention its all most likely written in machine assembly language.
 
FORTRAN is far from an ancient language. In fact, go to any super computing center anywhere in the world and you will almost certainly find FORTRAN. There is even a NEW variant of FORTRAN called CUDA FOTRAN meant to run, as you almost certainly guessed, on nVidia GPGPUs. https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-fortran

As I see it, when any article mentions FORTRAN as an ancient language or technology, I have to question the article itself, and in this case, Jason Chaffetz.

What I think Jason Chaffetz does not realize is that in some cases, updating to the latest "stuff" brings with it all the vulnerabilities of the latest "stuff".

Upgrading just because it is old is not, IMO, a valid reason for upgrading in this sector where these computers are, essentially, mission critical. If there are and have been notable problems with the existing tech, then ABSOLUTELY consider an upgrade IF it will solve the problems. However, don't just sensationalize the fact that the tech is old. As I see it, this is just another effort by Jason Chaffetz to make it look like he is doing something.

if the wheel works why change it
 
if the wheel works why change it
Because if you make it square, it will break sooner. This is known as, "planned obsolescence".

That translates to a win, win situation, for consumer and wheel manufacturers alike. The wheel breaking sooner, prevents the customer from getting tired, bored, and sick of looking at the same old wheel. The manufacturer stays in business making new square wheels. Since there is likely to be quite a demand for square wheels, the stock market portrays wheel manufacturing as a thriving business. Accordingly, billions of dollars are funneled into the pockets to the company's operating officers, while the consumers perceive themselves as getting richer, watching as the pittance they have invested in the same stock matures. Of course, the private citizen stockholder is too stupid to sell the stock when it's at an all time high, and risks losing his shirt when another company, (probably Apple), takes out an inviolate patent on the round wheel and reintroduces it.

But hey, it's the customer's own damned fault for hanging onto the stock so long, and he or she simultaneously realizes their error in not selling the stock short, and replacing the stock with Apple's offering,. When you snooze, you lose, simple as that.

EDIT: The wealth also gets spread around to other industries. For example, a car with square wheels is most certainly going to display, "the worst ride ever". This provides computer and robotic control companies, along with subcontractors involved with supplying automobile suspension components, to solve the problem with hyper modern technology sic, "ultra modern computer controlled suspension". Thus, more money is doled out to even more CEOs, which is bad but, they can always brag about, and seek refuge in, "all the jobs which we have created".

Like Charlie Sheen once said, we're all, "win-ning". :D
 
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3/4 the budget maintaining ancient tech?

They better damn well update it then; and knock off half the budget.

No wonder we're so far in debt there's no end in sight.
I have to assume you have absolutely not have even the vaguest inkling, as to where your tax dollars actually go. Either that, or you don't pay taxes, so it doesn't matter to you one way or the other. :D
 
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