Re: LOTS of US Water Plants Hit by Hacks

On Wed, 5 Aug 2026 02:47:27 -0400, c186282 wrote:

>  Have a married-in relative, astronomer. He
>    is WELL versed in using FORTH to control instruments. It's maybe all
>    we have in common, but it's something.

One of the big wins for FORTH was Kitt Peak. A person I worked with who 
had moved on to UA astronomy department tried to recruit me. They have 
other sites on Graham, Bigelow, and others including Kitt. I'd spent 
several winters in Why, AZ, which is west of Kitt just after you leave the 
Rez but didn't want to be a year round AZ resident. Nice place to visit. 
At least UA is in Tucson, which is semi-bearable.

>    Relay logic isn't THAT transparent. If it's really SIMPLE then yes
>    ... but not when it get really detailed. The common 'ladder' diagrams
>    - I find them NOT informative,
>    a poor rep of what's going on IMHO.

In 1971 the 8080 and other MPUs were a dream on the drawing board. 
Industrial applications were all about relay logic. Solid state slowly 
advanced but the first steps were shaky. An industrial forklift charging 
station or a motor controller starting a 50 HP induction motor tend to put 
some nasty spikes on the plant wiring. With 120 VAC relays nobody 
noticed. 

Logic is logic. If you can do ladder diagrams you can do TTL. You can also 
do  if 
(a && b)
{
     activate_solenoid();
}

It's all the same. 


>> There is a huge body of apocalyptic literature but those scenarios are
>> fiction, aren't they?
> 
>    Ummm ... maybe NOT so much 'fiction' anymore ...
> 
>    What can we DO about that, if anything ......
> 
>    This is kind of an 'existential' issue now.

Not to get into the pros and cons but covid proved how easy it is to 
generate a huge cluster fuck.