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Luke James Social Links Navigation Contributor Luke James is a freelance writer and journalist. Although his background is in legal, he has a personal interest in all things tech, especially hardware and microelectronics, and anything regulatory.
bit_user Yikes! That sounds like they're probably working with antiquated equipment on a shoestring budget. Given how much IT infrastructure depends on it, it really ought to be bomb-proof, with multiple failovers at each point. Stuff like a power gap, when switching to a generator, sounds pretty amateur. They say there's geographical redundancy, but how much? Reply
kanewolf bit_user said: Yikes! That sounds like they're probably working with antiquated equipment on a shoestring budget. Given how much IT infrastructure depends on it, it really ought to be bomb-proof, with multiple failovers at each point. Stuff like a power gap, when switching to a generator, sounds pretty amateur. They say there's geographical redundancy, but how much? The current federal administration does not believe in funding basic scientific things like NIST. They probably ARE years past due for recap on something. Reply
thisisaname bit_user said: Yikes! That sounds like they're probably working with antiquated equipment on a shoestring budget. Given how much IT infrastructure depends on it, it really ought to be bomb-proof, with multiple failovers at each point. Stuff like a power gap, when switching to a generator, sounds pretty amateur. They say there's geographical redundancy, but how much? I think they dream of having a shoestring budget 😮 Reply
jp7189 For some reason this phrase made me laugh: "lost utility power at approximately 22:23 UTC" . I mean wouldn't NIST of all people have a pretty specific idea about what time it was when the power went out.. or did all the clocks just start flashing 12:00? Reply
Konomi Well, if you're several nanoseconds late for work, now you have a valid excuse. Reply
DS426 kanewolf said: The current federal administration does not believe in funding basic scientific things like NIST. They probably ARE years past due for recap on something. If these systems are year s past due for recap, then this problem began with the prior administration. I don't think it would take that long for standby generators to start having issues though; even getting six months behind on proper maintenance could probably result in something like this, or staff being terminated without proper succession/re-assignment of remaining employees to perform the occasional self-tests. In other words, I don't doubt that cuts from the current admin are the main culprit here. Reply
bit_user DS426 said: If these systems are year s past due for recap, then this problem began with the prior administration. I think US Federal budgets have been getting squeezed since the 1990's, but actually the 2013 US Federal Budget Sequestration bill did quite a lot of damage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_States_budget_sequestration In general, budgets of most federal agencies have not kept pace with inflation, while demands for new services have continued to arise. DS426 said: I don't doubt that cuts from the current admin are the main culprit here. I don't know and I sort of don't care, because I definitely see a situation where important government services are not understood by lawmakers or the public, which has contributed to rot. That's the bigger story, IMO. Everyone seems to understand how vital something like the FAA and air traffic control is, but that's just the tip of the iceberg in government services that support a complex and technologically advanced society & economy. DOGE is yet another symptom of this, albeit one that has itself compounded the problem. Reply
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/nist-warns-of-potential-inaccuracies-on-boulder-time-servers-after-power-failure#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.