epic fail It would be really funny if this wasn't our government and our money...

http://rt.com/usa/news/texas-1000-us-gov....

There are a lot of cool things you can do with $1,000, but scientists at an Austin, Texas college have come across one that is often overlooked: for less than a grand, how’d you like to hijack a drone?

A group of researchers led by Professor Todd Humphreys from the University of Texas at Austin Radionavigation Laboratory recently succeeded in raising the eyebrows of the US government. With just around $1,000 in parts, Humphreys’ team took control of an unmanned aerial vehicle owned by the college, all in front of the US Department of Homeland Security.

After being challenged by his lab, the DHS dared Humphreys’ crew to hack into a drone and take command. Much to their chagrin, they did exactly that.

Humphrey tells Fox News that for a few hundreds dollar his team was able to “spoof” the GPS system on board the drone, a technique that involves mimicking the actual signals sent to the global positioning device and then eventually tricking the target into following a new set of commands. And, for just $1,000, Humphreys says the spoofer his team assembled was the most advanced one ever built.

“Spoofing a GPS receiver on a UAV is just another way of hijacking a plane,” Humphreys tells Fox. The real danger here, however, is that the government is currently considering plans that will allow local law enforcement agencies and other organizations from coast-to-coast to control drones of their own in America’s airspace.

“In five or ten years you have 30,000 drones in the airspace,” he tells Fox News. “Each one of these could be a potential missile used against us.”

Domestic drones are already being used by the DHS and other governmental agencies, and several small-time law enforcement groups have accumulated UAVs of their own as they await clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration. Indeed, by 2020 there expects to be tens of thousands of drones diving and dipping through US airspace. With that futuristic reality only a few years away, Humphreys’ experiment suggests that the FAA may have their work cut out for them if they think it’s as easy as just approving domestic use anytime soon. After all, reports Newser, domestic drones are likely to use the same unencrypted GPS signals provided to civilians, allowing seemingly anyone with $1,000 and the right research to hack into the system and harness a UAV for their own personal use.

“What if you could take down one of these drones delivering FedEx packages and use that as your missile?” Humphreys asks. “That’s the same mentality the 9-11 attackers had,”

­Correction: this story has been modified to clarify that the drone used in the U of T experiment was not a government drone, but a UAV owned by the university. (yeah, right)

Anyone here read Heinlein's "Friday" ? From the first pages...

Quote:

A Public Eye was floating above and beyond me.

No reason to jump out of my boots. Nine times out often an Eye is cruising at random, unmonitored, and its twelve-hour loop may or may not he scanned by a human before it is scrubbed. The tenth time— A peace officer may be monitoring it closely . . or she may be scratching herself and thinking about what she did last night.

So I ignored it and kept on toward the exit end of the corridor. That pesky Eye should have followed me as I was the only mass in that passageway radiating at thirty-seven degrees. But it tarried, three seconds at least, scanning that locker, before again fastening on me.

I was estimating which of three possible courses of action was safest when that maverick piece of my brain took over and my hands executed a fourth: My pocket pen became a laser beam and "killed" that Public Eye—killed it dead as I held the beam at full power until the Eye dropped to the deck, not only blinded but with antigrav shorted out. And its memory scrubbed—I hoped.

Makes me think I need to shop more at www.wickedlasers.com

Lumpen, sweet quote. Somehow, it reminds me of some good ole fashion Isaac Asimov script.

Loved that book, Lumpen. I thought I was the only one on Earth that had read it.

Rjazz: You thought you were the only one to have read "Friday"?!?!?

It was one of my favorite books when I was a kid.

Asimov...I'm almost serious there. Nobody I've ever spoken with has even heard of it, despite some of them claiming to be HUGE Heinlein fans. I've kept that book "my little secret" for years, as nobody seemed to have read it, or have any interest in it.

I've probably read that book 25 times - no exaggeration.

In a few years, when my daughter is a bit older, I'd love to get her to read it, but at 11, it's got a bit too much sex.

[Edit: I can see it sitting on my bookshelf from where I sit. :P]

I only read it once, in my 20s, and it is sitting in a box in the basement, with the other books I have that nobody else wants to read.

I read it first when I was 12-13 probably. That's when I first started reading a lot of sci-fi.

When we did the big move, we pared down our book collection... From what we kept, the books by Heinlein, Niven, and Spider Robinson were a large percentage of the non-work related books.

add: probably have re-read Friday maybe three times now.

There is a large Science Fiction community that appreciates these things. You guys just happen not to have a connection into it. Most evenings I have a AIM window open to a 'baenbarchat' room that is sometimes very active in winter and less so in hot weather. When there is a major con it can be depopulated.

There are as the name implies a lot of readers and authors from Baen publishing. Mike Williamson often makes an appearance. I have five books published on Kindle not Baen. We have some very high powered IT people, scientists and engineers and a few weirdos who do things like keep miniature horses. If I'm online just request an invite from riteturn. Some nights it is active until 3am ET.

You will also find a great deal of free Science Fiction in the Baen Free Library on their site. They follow the theory most pushers use of the first one is free...It tends to be military and action based SF with a bit of fantasy, and God help us, one book that won a romance award...

Baen free library has gotten me hooked on LOTS of good authors. LOTS.

Asimov -

I also read that for the first time at age 12. It was the cover art that grabbed me... and I'm also waiting patiently for the day when I can unleash my Heinlein collection on my pre-teen boys.

Heinlein seems to resonate well with the TF crowd.

Tsberts: he resonates because he was VERY much a believe in many of the things we are. Personal responsibility, TANSTAFL, basically some hard core libertarianism in some ways.

His sexual liberalism turns many off, but I think the science of the time eliminated the danger and through the series of stories in the same universe, you can see the societal mores changing because of it.

I keep telling my kids that we're living in "The Crazy Years" but deep down I fear, for their sakes, that the period hasn't even started in earnest yet. Maybe this is the summer to re-read his future history alongside them.

I don't remember the direct quote, but it's also from friday. One of the things she researches is a sign of a civilization failing. One of her conclusions I will *NEVER* forget and agree with 100%:

Dirty public bathrooms.

I'm glad I'm not a woman. Traveling across the American West with my wife, daughter and sons this summer I realize, that women are so much dirtier than men when it comes to public bathrooms. It's counter-intuitive, but so universally true, no matter where we go. I have no idea why.

Ts: Yea, when I managed convenience stores, I found that out too.

I have not read "Friday." I believe I shall have to, now - off to find a random free file found it in my collection already. To the Kindle it goes!

As for restrooms... yeah. I managed a department FULL of women at an industrial bakery of all things, and all they would bitch about is how nasty the other women were there when it came to their bathroom. I *knew* the men's was nasty, but it was kept useable more or less.

From the stories I heard about the women - NFW I'd walk in there. Huh-uh.

We NEED these drones hacked, by the way, to either crash-at-base or run into each other. It's ... beyond ****ing ridiculous. This is OUR country (at least it was supposed to be) - I miss that Constitution thing.

Frat: Yes, read it.

Has anyone here read "The Marching Morons?" It was written in the fifties. Covered general dumbing down of the populace. Because so much dumbing down has happened the speed limits are set low and in metric so the dummies can't figure out that they are driving slow. *Speed limit in many western states was unlimited on open highways back then.
In short it was "Idiocracy" written in the 50's.

Marching Morons is by Isaac Asimov, unless I'm mistaken.

I've read everything Heinlein wrote. His editors early in his career forced him in the Young Adult peg. He never identified his work that way. Later when he was a big enough name he could force less editing of his work and included more sex. I never felt that was the best aspect of his writing except a few times he had interesting discussions about how sex was treated in specific historical periods. His commentary on human nature and economics was usually more interesting. Face it - sex is common if it isn't bizarre stuff. Very few balanced, sane people are virgins late in life. There are more interesting things to write about.
I've avoided in your face sex in my writing because I like my readers to be able to share the story with their kids. I feel you can tell the story without being vulgar, unless the sex IS the story. In which case you write it and market it as porn from the start. Or erotica which is porn without all the sweat and yelling, ball gags and safe words.

Marching Morons was written by C M Kornbluth. I liked the premise of the story... (the stupid breed faster than the intelligent, which resulted in a lowering of the population IQ). This premise has an analog in some religions policy on breeding.