Live data from Hacker News

U.S. Defense Budget May Help Fund “Hacking for Defense” Classes at Universities

spectrum.ieee.org

21–30 of 34 posts

Re: U.S. Defense Budget May Help Fund “Hacking for Defense” Classes at Universities

#21
post #3

Hacking for defense? Is that like how the Department of Defense is now more like the Department of War? Will "preemptive hacking" happen a lot, too? EDIT: Also, this sounds a lot like propaganda to me: "Don't worry - just because we hack into other nations, doesn't mean we are the bad guys. We're the good guys hacking for our preemptive defense!" The US gov has had a hard time trying to lure talent for the NSA and su…

[deleted]

Re: U.S. Defense Budget May Help Fund “Hacking for Defense” Classes at Universities

#23

Still to be charged at the full rate to the student, of course. This is just to get them started. I have to say, out of all the things the DoD pays for with its massive budget, things like paying the NFL to fly F16s over stadiums, or TV ads, or sponsoring college courses are what really grinds my gears.

I have no problem with them sponsoring college courses. Nobody is forcing anybody to take those courses, and if a particular subject domain is important for national defense purposes, it makes sense for the military to subsidize its study.

Re: U.S. Defense Budget May Help Fund “Hacking for Defense” Classes at Universities

#24

What's the relevance of watered down SEAL training to H4D?

A big theme in the class was the importance of understanding the real experiences of potential beneficiaries. The specific team in the picture wanted to understand what it was like to be in SEAL training since their project specifically dealt with that problem area.

Re: U.S. Defense Budget May Help Fund “Hacking for Defense” Classes at Universities

#25
post #3

Hacking for defense? Is that like how the Department of Defense is now more like the Department of War? Will "preemptive hacking" happen a lot, too? EDIT: Also, this sounds a lot like propaganda to me: "Don't worry - just because we hack into other nations, doesn't mean we are the bad guys. We're the good guys hacking for our preemptive defense!" The US gov has had a hard time trying to lure talent for the NSA and su…

To be clear, "hacking" in this context doesn't mean breaking into other people's computer systems. It means solving a problem using technology in a quick, iterative manner.

[deleted]

Re: U.S. Defense Budget May Help Fund “Hacking for Defense” Classes at Universities

#27

Still to be charged at the full rate to the student, of course. This is just to get them started. I have to say, out of all the things the DoD pays for with its massive budget, things like paying the NFL to fly F16s over stadiums, or TV ads, or sponsoring college courses are what really grinds my gears.

I don't understand how the third is like the other two examples -- you seem to be implying it is, but I don't see it.

Could you elaborate?

Re: U.S. Defense Budget May Help Fund “Hacking for Defense” Classes at Universities

#28
Important info from Steve Blank on Hacking for Defense here: https://steveblank.com/category/hacking-for-defense/

Steve's dedication to direct public service is impressive, and sets a high bar for other Silicon Valley leaders to reach.

Re: U.S. Defense Budget May Help Fund “Hacking for Defense” Classes at Universities

#29

Still to be charged at the full rate to the student, of course. This is just to get them started. I have to say, out of all the things the DoD pays for with its massive budget, things like paying the NFL to fly F16s over stadiums, or TV ads, or sponsoring college courses are what really grinds my gears.

>things like paying the NFL to fly F16s over stadiums

Actually those are training flights that pilots volunteer to move to coincide with the event. The net cost to the tax payer is zero as those flights would of simply happened on another day. If you have an event you can request a fly over yourself.

http://www.airshows.pa.hq.af.mil/PublicSite/Index.cfm?fwa=ho...

Re: U.S. Defense Budget May Help Fund “Hacking for Defense” Classes at Universities

#30
post #6

Those are my classmates! I took the Hacking for Defense class with them this past Spring at Stanford. I found that fundamentally the class trains students to apply the iterative, quick-moving, need-based approach to product development often found in startups to military problems that have traditionally had lots of bureaucratic overhead. We were exposed to a ton of different people through our interviews and were con…

May I ask the name of the rightmost girl? She's Indian probably.
Post reply on HN