As it turns out, and I guess this makes sense though I hadn't thought about this before, the Defense Department is the largest consumer of energy in the United States. And suppose that's perfectly reasonable, they use up more fuel, what with their jets and all... So I suppose it's super-huge news when the DoD says they're going green.

The US department of defense in fact plans to use millions in stimulus dollars to tackle many cool green projects. Among them is a device that converts base waste material into biofuel and then runs a 60 kilowatt generator with it. That seems reasonable enough to me, and what with fuel convoys making up about half of the operations where casualties have occurred, it seems to me anything to make the base more self-sufficient and less dependent on outside sources of energy has to be a good thing. Other projects include solar arrays that roll up for easy transport to forward bases and some foam that can be used to insulate tents, though I'm going to go out on a limb here and say since they didn't mention it being a uber-ecofriendly foam, it probably is terrible and doesn't break down for millennia.

All and all good things to research I believe, and I hope that some level of this technology is declassified and open for use in the private sector as I'm sure they've got a pretty good thing going if they think they can turn the ton of trash a base can produce per day into energy.

"IOActive, a professional security services firm, has concluded that with $500 of equipment and materials and a background in electronics and software engineering, a hacker could infiltrate the advanced meter infrastructure and cause a massive manipulation of service to homes and businesses."

You know, as something of a computer geek, I read a few technical blogs and a have a few techie RSS feeds set up, and so something like this comes up and I'm not surprised. The infrastructure of the internet, even most intranets, is woefully inadequate. I hear about it a chuckle. I shrug it off thinking that if it were anything really sensitive, they'd be extra careful. However, this is nothing to be shrugged off. Obama has pledged to spend something like 11 billion dollars on building a "smarter" energy grid, so it seems like this thing could become a reality. If only 11 billion were anywhere near what it should actually cost.

I'm reminded of a movie, something like diehard 3 I think. This is not something only diehard 3 is guilty of, but its still especially bad in the film. One of the protagonist's cohorts is, predictably, the obligatory hacker. What is surprising about his hacking skills is that he often manages to hack devices not only too fast to be believable, but even hack devices that AREN'T NETWORKED. For instance, he manages to hack traffic signals, but as we all know, when one of those go down, they have to send a guy out there to fix it and it takes hours. Why? because it isn't networked! If it were, then there would be a possibility that all traffic lights might go down at the same time! The more complex you make something the more there is to go wrong I suppose.

In the case of America's power grid, improving it is one of the sagest things Obama has suggested. However, "improving" it with anything less than rock solid security would jeopardize national security in ways only hollywood has ever dreamed of. (Like in Eagle Eye where they hack the power lines to make them explode) Regardless, these changes are needed, however I would put more money into the air force's cyber command before investing in a fancy new networked energy grid. Lest we lose said grid to some asshole who just wants to watch the world burn, and has nothing better to do than infiltrate systems and make some sysAdmins job, and indeed life, miserable.