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What industry secret are you aware of that most people aren't?
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this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2024
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Asklemmy
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I want to comment here so bad but given that I am one of two people that know and one of maybe a dozen that suspect, it would definitely violate multiple NDAs.
ProTip: Invest in off-grid solutions for your home.
Sure, not-13-year-old-kid-trying-to-sound-cool
As an NDA signer, they could be legit. I would like to comment also, but I don't like law suits.
But without the suits for law people, how will tailors stay in business?
There are more than 2 people that know that Texas's power grid is a teetering disaster waiting for the right event to crumble and break in unfixable fashion
(Or water, water's probably even more sketchy. Look up the incident in the UK where they accidentally put a shitload of treatment chemicals in the main water supply and a whole bunch of people got poisoned. Harder to do off grid solutions for though.)
OP asked for a secret. The Texas grid sucking is not a secret.
Fair enough. I read your other comments and my current guess is abysmal cyber security coupled with clear indications that hostile state actors are trying to fuck it up, and showing no sign of having any more trouble than would an NFL team pushing past the volunteers who have signed up to work the door at the senior center social hour
In which case if that's accurate I would say that yes that fits the brief
All the cybersecurity in the world won't matter if a handful of ~~manipulated idiots~~ people shoot a bunch of unguarded and remotely located substation transformers.
If you just want it for emergency purposes or irrigation, rain water harvesting can be fairly cheap and easy. Even a proper cistern, with a pump, and plumbed into your house is probably cheaper than whole-house off-grid solar. Probably want good filters for PFAS though.
The Bucees logo tells me this is probably going to affect Texas more than other regions.
Ha! I used to live in Austin and I don't fly, so Buc-ee's and Cracker Barrel hold a special place in my heart. Unfortunately what I am talking about is a US thing, not just a Texas thing.
In what time frame would you say we'll all know?
Hopefully never. I am trying to solve the problem by relieving this single point of failure, but I am not having any luck.
Worst case scenario: let's say that what I fear happens tomorrow. Given what I have seen so far, some people (regional) will notice system degradation within a week, and nationwide within one or two months. Time to find a work around is about a year, but that could be me just applying hopeful thinking to cope. I have not idea how long a permanent fix would take.
I'm smelling an awful lot of bullshit here. If the power grid (or any other major infrastructure) had a known single point of failure that would cause the entire system to collapse, there would be more than 2 people who know about it, and they certainly wouldn't be vague-booking it to Lemmy.
I'm gonna be honest, this sounds about right for 2024. Skeleton crews a dick hair away from disaster as far as the eye can see.
It's less bs than you think, still unlikely sure, but not a non zero chance.
For awhile their was a single point of failure in telcom for the midwest in the us. Because the core router was so old and didn't play well with failover. It took them several months and a lot of intermittent issues to get it replaced and working as expected.
That would be the sane assumption, yes.
The power grid does have a major point of failure, in that vital components are on backorder for years out so most places don't have the spare parts to get back up and running if widespread attacks on the grid occur.
So you’re not describing the issue where internet connected EV chargers can be easily hacked, and potentially told to dump the charge of the connected vehicle’s battery on the grid en masse, causing overloads and transformer explosions.
But a slow moving issue like that sounds like a frequency or voltage issue - something goes under or over enough and isn’t detected via monitoring, causing premature equipment degradation, and potential system collapse. Definitely a lot of expensive damage, though.
(Basically, a stuxnet-style attack on the utility grid - and we’ve already seen evidence that SCADA/PLC’s can be hacked in the water supply system.)
A destabilizing push, rather than a hit with a hammer.
The reason the problem I am talking about exists is because it is terribly boring and mundane. It is also 100% a cost center, meaning that it provides only cost and no possibility of profit. Things that explode or can explode are very high profile and people notice them. Mundane problems go unchecked until after the shit has hit the fan and politicians are looking for a scapegoat.
I deal with information security. Initially when I type that people instantly think "hackers". True, information security does deal with a lot of "keep out the baddies", but more than that we also make sure that data reaches its intended destination when it is supposed to reach its intended destination. For example, you might want your fire suppression system to trigger as soon as a fire is ignited and not after everyone in the building is burned alive or dead from smoke inhalation.
Right now I have a situation where everything is working well but I know that if something happens to this one thing, a very mundane system is going to collapse and literally nobody can fix it adequately. For the past five years we have done everything within our power to add redundancy but as I mentioned before, this is a mundane cost center. Nobody wants to spend money to fix something that works. So, when the thing no longer works, service will be tremendously degraded, people will figure out that it cannot be fixed, and the search for a replacement will begin. Eventually they will succeed but in the meantime things are going to suck and some people might die.
"Greed is good" -- Gordon Geko
" Greed is self-defeating " -- JoMiran
When everything works: “What do we even pay IT for?”
When everything’s broke: “What do we even pay IT for?”
“When you do your job right it’s as if you didn’t do anything at all”
When they start looking for a scapegoat, I hope you find yourself far away from the eye of Sauron there.
Sounds like e911 or pots lines.
Scary.
Water, electricity, or both?
Water, electricity and gas but I am sure this type of problem is present in many other sectors.
As an indigenous person who grew up without running water or modern plumbing for the first ten years of my life in Canada .... I always appreciated this quote ...
Will Durant Quote: “From barbarism to civilization requires a century; from civilization to barbarism needs but a day.”
so you're saying a fire sale is coming... got it
Water, electrical, sewer, gas, trash, internet, cable, mail, plumbing, drywall, stairs, air. It's all the government man.
Offgrid Internet..... Hmmmm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC67FoXVRPE
They mean having a lan with your friends
Just get tor browser, make a throwaway account, post your comment and delete the browser.