MS Windows has the Launch Codes
I don’t have a lot of time to comment on this, but I thought you might be horrified by this Slashdot article.
Apart from the shrieking terror of “combat systems” being entrusted to a computer operating system which is not Internet-safe, as-shipped, I am bothered by this common government/contractor ploy referenced in the summary:
‘Submarine Command System Next Generation (SMCS NG)’ which apparently consists of Windows 2000 network servers and XP workstations. In the article, it is claimed that this decision will save UK taxpayers £22m over the next ten years. The installation of the new system apparently took just 18 days on the HMS Vigilant. According to the BAE Systems press release from 2005, the overall cost of the rollout was £24.5m for all eleven nuclear submarines of the Vanguard, Trafalgar and Swiftsure classes.
OK, it cost 24.5 million Pounds, but will save the taxpayers 22 million Pounds… so… the net savings is negative 2.5 million Pounds. Further compounding the bullshit and confounding the public, they spread that savings over 10 years. What?! So, they’re saving -250,000 Pounds a year… on eleven subs… so.. the net savings per sub per year is -22,727.27 Pounds. Well, that was worth the trouble.
Oh, and that name… SMCS NG… do you pronounce that “smICK-seng”? Talk about a name rooted in lowest-common-denominator consumer appeal!