
I've Seen the Future, and It Has a Kill Switch - nreece
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/commentary/securitymatters/2008/06/securitymatters_0626
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marvin
Installing killswitches in our engines is a fucking stupid idea. Isn't the
stereotype criminal hell-bent on pimping his automobiles? It will be a
cakewalk for a determined criminal to install an older engine. Unless laws are
put into place (and likely even then) engines without computers will always be
available, and in the end only criminals and enthusiasts will have ungelded
engines. Perhaps the effort will affect a few desperate black carjackers, but
not a determined criminal.

Only bad can come of this. You can see the real motivation for this push by
the fact that terroristm is used as a justification. But although bullshit
like this is technologically possible, it's users and politicians (and in the
end "the people") who determine whether technological features like these will
become a curiosity or a straitjacket. Oppression stems from politics, not
technology.

In the worst case we will have the problem of DRM all over again: A lot of
average people screwed over, while people like us are able to steer clear.

~~~
tx
Agreed. I am sticking to my car forever: just because it never locks my doors
when it wants and doesn't bitch when I need to cover a distance of 10 yards
without seatbelts.

Amazing, but it's a 2006 model, one of the last non-moronic vehicles.

~~~
ConradHex
I know what you mean about the "locking the doors" bit. Our minivan locked our
toddler in once (he was in his carseat), and we had to call 911 and get the
firemen to break in.

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streety
"Buses are getting the same capability [kill switches], in case terrorists
want to re-enact the movie Speed."

I may be wrong here put didn't the bus in speed blow up when it stopped?

~~~
jgrahamc
Yes, that was the entire plot.

~~~
coglethorpe
Movie Exec: So, I didn't have time to read the script, what's the plot of this
"Speed" movie you're looking to make.

Producer: If the bus stops, it blows up.

Movie Exec: That's it? The "Hey Verne Guy" movies had better plots than that!
What the he...

Producer: We've got Keanu all set to star if we get sign off.

Movie Exec: OH! Why didn't you say so. I bet we can get 50mil for production.

Producer: Make it 60 and you're on.

~~~
mechanical_fish
You laugh, but I thought _Speed_ was a pretty good movie for as long as the
bus was running. It was oddly compelling. There is something to be said for
momentum in storytelling. You can bridge amazingly large gaps of logic if you
just _keep the plot moving_.

Before the bus is running the movie is completely unmemorable, and after the
bus stops running the movie falls apart and starts to suck. Which is pretty
ironic.

~~~
ConradHex
>You can bridge amazingly large gaps of logic if you just keep the plot
moving.

I seem to remember the bus leaping an amazingly large gap in a bridge at one
point, if that's what you mean. ;)

~~~
sealedidentity
LOL, the direction in which this conversation turned is funny.

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imgabe
I'd give it 1 month on the market, max, before someone hacks a way to spoof
the signal from a supercontroller device, giving anyone with internet access a
way to control all the devices they want, if they so desire.

~~~
pavelludiq
Cool, imagine this, I type something in my phone, all the phones in school
start ringing and vibrating and nobody can turn them off because the keyboards
are blocked, everybody panics and takes off his battery. I start laughing and
end up in the principals office. This is the most innocent use of this
technology that i can think off. Here's another one. Terrorists kill a train
in the middle of a tunnel and blow up 2 bombs at the two ends sucking all the
air and suffocating all the people to death. Of course if the people survive
the extreme change in pressure, if they don't, they won't care that they have
no air to breathe. Cool. O, and lets not forget police taking control of your
car, making it drive you to a secret location and torture you and make you
confess that you are a communist/terrorist/liberal/hippie or something. Some
of us learned the lessons of totalitarianism the hard way you know.

~~~
dmoney
I don't think you'd need the kill switch for the train scenario.

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natch
Forget about wild terrorist threats.

The important thing is that self updating features are a bad idea for any
product, hardware or software, that might someday be the target of litigation.

I met the Slingbox founders at an EFF event once, and one of them told me that
they deliberately left a self-updating capability out of the Slingbox, on the
advice of an EFF lawyer.

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musiciangames
Putting aside the fact that any control mechanism will be broken, I've often
thought that this would be handy in weapons.

Imagine the UN providing free quality weapons to poor but legitimate
governments, but being able to disable them remotely should the government use
them against its own people, or aggressively against a neighbour.

