Readers weigh in on . . .

Re: Feds probe possible holes in critical infrastructure (April 21)

Since I joined the federal government in the 1980s I have witnessed the adverse effects of government downsizing

and sweeping budget cuts on redundancy and reliability of government systems and networks.

At one time we had two national weather centres with fully redundant processing capabilities, alternates routes, network paths and backup services including UPS, generators, physical locations and hot sites right down to the local level in many communities.

Many communities had converted bomb shelter facilities into disaster hot sites. Most of these have now been mothballed. Although I am encouraged that this study is taking place, I suspect it will take time, money, patience, planning, and education of the public to regain the ground that has been lost over the past 15 to 20 years. I have been an advocate for addressing these issues for many years, but my voice was drowned out by the political will to cut at any cost. Hopefully this will change. As a public servant and a concerned citizen I will continue to do what I can to help find and implement solutions to protect and improve our critical infrastructure.

Pierre Laframboise
Sr. Informatics Specialist
PWGSC/ITS


Re: Skype reaches out to mobile users (April 19)

Why not work on making a mobile data connection that can support the use of cell phones via GPRS? It would make house phones mobile Internet and cell phones all merge into one, plus I would not have to pay for cell, data and house phone separately. And no more annoying cell drops when I enter my house because the Wi-Fi would pick it up. I really don’t know what I am talking about but just thought I would throw in my opinion. I guess what I really want is that merge between cell, home phone and mobile data I spend like $100 a month on those three, not including broadband or my wife’s cell phone and I am sure that is on the cheap end for some folks.

Jeff Dobrowski

Re: Skype reaches out to mobile users (April 19)

A few thoughts come out of this article.

1. Hotspots: So here we are encouraging everyone to batten down the hatches and make sure their Wi-Fi is secure, while all these hotspots are open to the public and therefore not secure. There is something amiss here.

2. Laptop users will become upset if VoIP users are tying up their Wi-Fi access, no sorry, make that their FREE Wi-Fi access. Get over it.

3. Skype becomes the de-facto standard for VoIP phones. God forbid! Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with their interface, it is just that it is sorely lacking in some areas. For instance, there is no tie-in to the contact list on your e-mail program. No voice mail. No hold. And the list goes on. There are better interfaces out there.

4. WiMAX is still a ways off from being implemented.

5. The final point: Who is to pay for all this? Ultimately, the end user will have to foot the bill. Handing off a call from cell to Wi-Fi and back would seem to be a logistical nightmare from a billing perspective. Since most carriers charge per minute, would you pay for a full minute when you wander into and out of cell range spending only seconds on their circuits?

Ahh, all the questions, and so few answers.

Let the games begin!

Farokh Monajem
The I.T. Group
Toronto


Re: DND tackles global e-health record mission (April 11)

EHR for DND is a great idea. My question is, are they (the DND) thinking beyond just while the personnel are in the military? What happens when the person goes to a civilian doctor? Will the civilian doctor have access to their military medical information? What happens to the medical record when the military personnel are discharged and enter civilian life?

Military medical information is very important when they are discharged because what happened while they were in the forces could affect their health in later years.

Just some thoughts.

Rod Pohl
Director
Information Technology
Brandon Regional Health Authority
Brandon, Man.


Just a quick note to say thank you, I enjoy reading your articles.

Keep up the good work!

Greg Murias


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