A scary thought
Telstra’s crippling outage on Friday cost retailers an estimated $100 million. And it was down due to the humble truck driver stranded for hours because he didn't have cash for fuel to drive home. It got me thinking how easy it would be to invade and conquer this country, especially as Morrison becomes the wagging tail on Trump’s dog and his looming threat of war with Iran.
No need for bombs etc just hack the daylights out of the Internet and we would grind to a halt within an hour or two. With only 23 days of fuel supplies against the recommended 90 days nothing would move.
What do you think?
I disagree Yup I Know
Anyone who doesnt ever wonder 'What If' is living a life in a bubble
"Worry gives a small thing a big shadow."—Swedish Proverb.
“Worry is like blood pressure: you need a certain level to live, but too much can kill you. At its worst, worry is insidious, invisible, a relentless scavenger, roaming the corners of your mind, feeding on anything it finds. It sets upon you unwanted and unbidden, feasting on the infinite array of negative possibilities in life, diminishing your enjoyment of friends, family, achievements, and physical being—all because you live in fear of what might go wrong. People who worry too much suffer. Worriers just cannot achieve peace of mind.” (Borrowed from Psychology today).
Worriers live in a bubble of chaos.
That is true Sophie but one should only worry about something within your control. If you have no control over that issue then be aware of it and perhaps concerned but not worried.
That is true Sophie but one should only worry about something within your control. If you have no control over that issue then be aware of it and perhaps concerned but not worried.
Quite so Tanker :)
Modern technology is wonderful, when it works but when it stops it is a nightmare. One of the facts that cannot be ignored is that with so much being controlled by computerised systems should they be interfered with then all hell will break loose.
There are government employed "hackers" in virtually every country in the World and if you think we are 100% safe from such an attack then that is dellusional. In a sense it is a ongoing war with defenders battling attackers and we can only hope that either we are not worth attcking in this way or that our defenders keep our defences strong.
Tanker you are very right, this is the world are control by computerised net work so we had to live with it.....
I think the biggest worry is food not being delivered, if we see the amount of food that has to travel, would take awhile with a horse and cart. How did people live before we got so dependant on the system?
Personally, I've often thought along these lines, how easy it would be to cripple a country by shutting down the internet. Just about everything relies on it these days.
And Musicveg's point about food delivery is interesting. Only yesterday we were talking to a truck driver who works for an organisation that delivers fresh food to the markets, as well as directly to Woolies and Coles. It was very interesting to hear how quickly fresh food gets to the supermarkets these days, and how cleverly it is organised to have it all work so well, using a kind of relay approach with multiple trucks involved.
In his experience food is able to get from the farm to the supermarket in just a couple of days, around four at the very most, even when coming from the far north of Queensland to as far south as Melbourne. Imagine how quickly that clever organisation would fall apart if the petrol bowsers that are no doubt computer operated just stopped working and the truckies couldn't fill up.
We have moved on from the way it used to happen not so long ago. I grew up in an area of Brisbane that is now considered inner city real estate but back then it was a relatively self-sufficient area of houses interspersed with various small and some quite larger farms. All the fresh produce that my parents purchased came from those farms, a horse and cart would have been ample. In some instances, they were actually still used for delivering said produce, and I'm not 100 years old, not quite. LOL
Good to know that food is fresh most of the time and it is not being stored as we thought (although I am sure out of season food has been stored). Although some areas have community gardens they are too few, imagine all the nature strips growing fruit and veggies. The modern world is designed to keep us dependant on the system.
I am one of those odd people who carries cash on me - for emergencies - such as this - ha ha! Was able to complete supermarket shop for weekend, do Lotto and buy wine - so to all those who usually rely on tap and go - and couldn't tap and couldn't go - ha ha ha!!
Double ha ha ha! No problems for me either. Followed Mom's advice always wear good undies and carry cash. Won't be voting for a cashless society any time soon!
I shopped at Woolies, using my credit card I was asked to sign a voucher. "Why" I aked and was told the link to the bank was down. I signed and went on my way to the service station for fuel, same thing. The only difference to the 'norm' was being asked to sign a voucher. Hardly a hardship. Why did not traders revert to pre-internet days and ask for a signature on a voucher, or have they forgotten what it was like in the 'olden days'.
You have a point there Eddy
Tanwin:
No need for bombs etc just hack the daylights out of the Internet and we would grind to a halt within an hour or two.
Just take out the power grid and we'd grind to a halt even quicker IMO.
Yeah RnR
We are on NBN Fibre to the Node too .... take out the power and we have NO phone or internet ...if it rains, both phone and internet drop out ....and they call it progress.
We do need anybody to drop a bomb on us, or hack our internet we are doing the job of crippling our country with our brainhaired schemes that are not thought out properly.
I agree RnR and YES Suze my NBN is similar to yours - thanks Malcolm- but its no faster than my former ADSL2+. I have been with Westnet since 2005 on the old ADSL2+ and now NBN. They were bought out by iinet and then by the bottom feeders TPG who took 14 MONTHS to fix my landline phone. Apparently because they could phone me the simpletons thought my phone was OK but I tried telling them for months I could NOT ring out.
Eventually I went to the Telecommunications Ombudsman to get it fixed and received a months credit from the big hearted dills at TPG. whom I wouldnt recommend to my worst enemy.
They offered to release me from my contract but with the larger ISP's buying up the smaller ones I didnt know who to go to
always pull out cash for houskeeping...outages never worry me...use credit cards for purchases other than food. love credit cards as I pay in full every month...for those who don't it is a real worry if you are only paying the minimum every month and paying 20% interest.
Being an 'oldie' I dont carry cash fearing some drug addled imbecile would relieve me of it. I cant remember the last time I actually paid cash for anything, doing it all online or by direct debit
Ardnaher, I love your way because you don,t had to carry alot of cash....Also credit cards give you points to use as cash when it count up...so it,s a very good ideal....
Since my wife increased my weekly pocket money, I was all right Jack.No worries, had enough for a Piccolo latte and a slice of cake and thanked my stars I wasn't in the big apple the other day LOL.
haha, well someone's got to keep you in line.
We are governed by Muppets!
How true GeorgeM and what an exceptional slogan for a T shirt
Yesterday we had an unexpected power outage from Toronto to Wyong, which is about a 50 km radius .... started about 5pm and went till after pm ..an unpleasant number of hours being cold and dark ... no landline phone ... no internet ... no hot dinner ... no hot drinks .. no heat or light.
What can you do ? so after a couple of hours go to bed and just as you fall asleep the electriity came on ..it was like a circus with lights flashing everywhere ... hard to get back to sleep again.
Yes RnR"Just take out the power grid and we'd grind to a halt even quicker"
I know exactly how it felt
Can be very frustrating Suze.
Would be totally devastating if over a large area for several days.
I'm lucky here ... I have a gas cooktop, 3 camping lanterns, a very efficient camping cooler box plus a laptop and smartphone usually kept fully charged. Enough to tide me over for around 12 hours.
Only pain is the electronic garage door but it does have an emergency release.
and just imagine how it will be when we get all these electric cars charging overnight at home...all of a sudden an unexpected outage....lots of fun ahead
Ardnaher... Electric Cars is out of that... you cant have Chargers in it of the parking space and so many level of the apartment block... so Electric Cars dont work...unless it,s Wireless Charging using 5G or 6G network other wise it,s not quick enough...technologi it,s not up to that yet....
This is dumb. Negativity breeds negativity