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For insurance, USAA has god tier support. I've never had to wait more than a minute to get a US based rep that knows what they're doing.

Edit: That minute includes going through the "Press X for Y services" menu.


And they are so kind and usually sound genuinely pleased to help.


Should we be marking key infrastructure, utilities don't distribute this information for a reason.


People used to get really upset about such datasets because terrorism/vandalism/etc. But eventually more sane opinions prevailed as attackers don't use this type of data - they either have insider knowledge already or just drive around to scope out targets.

DHS now publishes a ton of open datasets to help with disaster planning, emergency response, and infrastructure hardening. https://hifld-geoplatform.opendata.arcgis.com/search?collect...


Used to?

A lot of that still happens, just instead of "terrorism", it's "crime". FOIA requests for locations of camera, alpr, and other massively used and unaudited surveillance equipment are routinely denied because it will "allow criminals to circumvent". It's all silly and benchmark moving.


Yes, used to. 15 years ago trying to publish research on critical infrastructure vulnerabilities would get you a visit from the FBI (ask me how I know). Now you get invited to DC to present it in person and your remediation suggestions are taken seriously.


...that still doesn't mean they've stopped as a practice, on the whole, or through other intimidation methods. Hell, I'd argue that its current and subtle manifestation is more harmful on-the-whole than it used to be. Like, sure, the DHS voluntarily releases information, but that's discretionary and at their will. Eg, I sued the Chicago for database columns and table names after they argued it would be a security risk -- DHS gives that info about their own systems voluntarily. And that's even with case law from an ICE lawsuit that says schemas are exempt.


Ok, mike_d, but how do you know?


Second that!


:+1:


Yes we should. Security through obscurity is a myth


And any above ground stuff is rather visible in any case, and mapped extensively on OpenStreetMap.


Doh, thinking about it through that lens makes it obvious!


I rather appreciate knowing where the key electrical substations are in my area: helps me to understand exactly who can screw with things and where they would do it -- which makes me pay closer attention when I pass by substations and see someone lurking about. Not knowing that the location is critical I wouldn't think twice about someone loitering; knowing the location is sensitive and critical makes me look twice, take an active interest, and perhaps phone in a suspicious activity reports. Some people while about this information enabling terrorists: I think it enables all of us to open our eyes and protect our own interests.


I get the feeling an adversary who wants to know where they can cause the most mayhem of this nature already does. I think a map is ultimately unnecessary anyway; I'd guess it's more appealing to sabotage remotely using computer networking vulnerabilities than to risk a field agent.


The Denver Post is $6 for an entire year.


Thanks!


Just because we messed it up in the past doesn't mean we didn't learn from it and can't adapt our strategies in the future as new data comes in.

Changing nothing is the most harmful strategy right now.


This really pissed me off. Half of the trees in RMNP were/are dead standing since the Park Service had put out all natural fires for a century and did not allow logging of the dead wood. We hit the point where the fuel situation is so bad that fires are no longer controllable, and the fires burn so much hotter that it permanently scars the land by burning seeds that usually would make it through just fine.


Couldn't they remove some of the underbrush?


This comment got downvoted but I think it's an important question.

Answer is: probably not, for the other reason stated. But it is sort of the wrong question too. Is underbrush removal the problem? Not really. There are a lot of things fire removes, besides underbrush, and restores to a natural state.

What we need to wrap our heads around is _fire is natural_; it's been here eons before humans walked the earth, and the native trees and forest have long evolved to take advantage of it.

The question we might ask instead is: why are so we so opposed to a natural process? Fire is definitely bad inside things like cities. However, a prescribed burn has enormous benefits that have been detailed in science literature ever since we noticed a decline in forests.


Yeah I get that. But removing underbrush (ignoring the impossibility of the scale of it) would make controlled burns again possible.

Currently there's so much that any controlled burn would get out of control and turn into a real one. At least that's how I understood it


I think you underestimate the scale of the problem by a few orders of magnitude.

That park is over a thousand square kilometers, mountainous, and with very few roads.


It would be interesting to see some stats on what you guys are see performance wise, how much storage the project takes up, and what framework you are using. Honestly you guys have a lot of head room for speed improvements.

Btw the server implementation I could find was archived?



https://www.wsj.com/articles/pandemic-learning-slide-continu...

Looks like a lot of it can be attributed to covid.


Factory must grow


Did anyone else think Pinball?


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