[engi_nerd]

Then why does Lockheed have hundreds of people involved with writing and testing avionics software for this aircraft? Why does Northrop Grumman have hundreds of engineers working on avionics hardware? Why does Lockheed Martin have an entire B737 that it heavily customized to test all of this hardware and software? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_CATBird

[MichaelCrawford]

You have a wooden head.

[engi_nerd]

...No need to be insulting and condescending. I understand that you were making a joke. But the fact is, your joke example was poorly chosen.

[MichaelCrawford]

I can see your point.

However a problem we really do have is that we have lost our expertise. The COTS mandate lead to less demand for the kinds of engineers who could have prevented this breach.

My friend Murray Sims is a naval civil service coder. He rang me up once to beg me to work for the navy:

"People are dying because of software bugs."

Id love to but I get a little loopy sometimes so have no hope of getting a clearance, instead I write technical articles.

http://www.warplife.com/tips/

[engi_nerd]

I admit I was a little saddened to be insulted by someone whose work I admire.

Your friend definitely has a point. People are dying because of software bugs. And process bugs. And outdated hardware.

I agree with you that we have lost our expertise. I think the defense industry in general has a demographics problem. There's a lot of old guys who are about to retire. A lot of young, inexperienced people. And not enough of the mid-career engineers.

[MichaelCrawford]

Is there some way I could do military computing without a clearance?

I applied to the US Air Force Cyber Command as well as all manner of military computer security jobs. I received but one response, that my application to be an encryption machine trainer was declined.

http://www.warplife.com/mdc/resume/

[engi_nerd]

I am not an absolute authority on this. But my decade of experience in the defense industry tells me "probably not".

[MichaelCrawford]

I offer my heartfelt and humble apology for insulting you.

That was not my intention though I do understand why you took it that way.

I intended to insult the United States Congress.

[irishcoffee]

A well-met insult. The government is putting itself into a corner with their current policies on hiring criteria. If you have an idea on how to change that, I'd support you however I could. If it matters, I really admire your apology, not many people have the "balls/vagina/both/neither" to admit, at the very least, a mis-interpretation of a comment.

[engi_nerd]

Thank you for your apology. I see how I misunderstood.

[comrade1]

Humor is not allowed on HN. It's for our own protection - most of the people here are so autistic a simple ironic statement could lead to the end of the internet as the HN readers spaz out all at once.