Out in Front: If We Only Know Then What We Don’t Know Now
December 1, 2012
Some of you have been asking questions, and while it is generally our business to provide answers, in […]
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Some of you have been asking questions, and while it is generally our business to provide answers, in […]
By Alan Cameron. It was thirty years ago today, Cheremisin taught the band to play. They’ve […]
We have heard it before, in various fora and in various forms: the GPS program is a victim […]
By Alan Cameron Dear Senator _______________, Senator __________________, and Representative _____________, I write to you as my elected […]
The 2007 action film of that name concerns a domestic criminal plot, disguised as a terrorist attack upon U.S. infrastructure: an Internet-based hack into Federal Bureau of Investigation computers, the transportation infrastructure, the stock market, national video broadcast channels, the utility power grid, the National Security Agency, and the Department of Defense nerve center. One of the film’s two heroes recognizes this as a fire sale, an attack upon the nation’s computer controls, an attack in which “everything must go.”
Maybe we should take it as validation, an acknowledgment of the worth, maturity, and promise of the GNSS industry, that profiteers show up trying to make a fast buck. A prompt pound, a quick quid. Or perhaps we should be angry at this violation of international trust, this grasping effort to monetize the free and open exchange of scientific ideas, this contravention of the very spirit and tradition of global navigation satellite systems and signals.
It’s not been done before, so we’re going to do it now. In the September issue of this magazine will appear the very first State of the Industry report. On the GNSS industry, of course. It will cover such topics as the global economy and how it affects business in your sector. Customers’ availability of capital to invest is top-of-mind for most industry professionals, whether designers, manufacturers, integrators, suppliers/dealers, or end users.
‘We have virtually no defense against the cyberattacks that are targeting us now, and will be in the future.” Richard Clarke served three U.S. presidents as counterterrorism czar. He wrote a fascinating — and terrorizing — article in the April issue of Smithsonian magazine, from which comes that quote. I posted it on my LinkedIn page and asked for input for this editorial.
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