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Oracle Donates Software for Big Brother Database
8onal writes: "C|Net is reporting that Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has followed through with his threat, I mean promise, to assist with Uncle Sam's crimefighting efforts. "...Ellison said he has delivered Oracle's 9i database management software to a U.S. government agency for national security, but he declined to give further details, such as which agency or for what usage." Seeing as how he has already supplied the CIA with software, I bet it went to another 3-letter group."
I love you, Lum! Calculus is fun, too, and Katy is mean.
Oracle Donates Software for Big Brother Database
"Primary Key" option voted out by all data types.
Will somebody please kill Katz? Soon? I know this article isn't by him, but that's got nothing to do with it.
Roadkill is yummy.
Seems to me Larry Ellison is being rather opportunistic here, plus, this fits in well with his world vision, which has always been centralistic and in favour of control - I remember Oracle giving me a presentation once about their expense system at Oracle: all expense reports worldwide! go to (and are approved in) one central database in the US head office. Not for good database reasons but for control reasons. See also the NIC (thin client)- central control, again.
Having said that, opportunism in the light of Sep 11 is not restricted to Oracle. Companies like Siebel, MS, and many others have also tried to gain market share. I am sure we all see through this.
Michael
---
BDOS ERR ON A:>
please let me into the octogon!! please!?!?!
The court was tired of recounts, and demonstrated how to take care of it.
05 December 2001 : Names of Two US Soldiers Killed in Martyrdom Operation
AZZAM PUBLICATIONS WOULD LIKE TO REQUEST ALL THOSE WHO ARE DISTRIBUTING OUR NEWS TO MENTION AZZAM.COM AS THE SOURCE OF THE NEWS. WE WOULD ALSO LIKE TO ENCOURAGE YOU TO PRINT OUT THIS NEWS AND PASTE IT IN YOUR MOSQUES, NOTICEBOARDS, ETC. AND TO SEND IT ROUND ON YOUR E-MAIL LISTS, DISCUSSION BOARDS AND WEB-SITES. PLEASE MENTION AZZAM.COM AS THE NEWS SOURCE WHEN DOING SO.
AFGHANISTAN: The following information has been provided by Mujahid Sheikh Abu Khalid Abdullah Al-Waleed as a challenge for the Pentagon to refute it. He said that the Mujahideen possess all the necessary proof and evidence for the information given here, which will be publicised if Allah makes it possible. It is one of the series of authentic news reports from Afghanistan that have been related over the Internet to heal the hearts of the Muslims and boost their morale.
On Monday 26 November 2001 (10 Ramadan 1422), Sheikh Abu Khalid Abdullah Al- Waleed conducted an interview with the husband of the martyred sister, after the Isha Prayer. There was a convoy that was getting ready to depart areas surrounding Kunduz, so the brother of the martyred sister suggested that they wait until the Americans arrived. The brother and sister had in their possessions passports whose names suggested that they were Jews of British nationality. They planned to inform the enemy troops that were not Mujahideen, in order to save themselves from being killed or captured. When they initially arrived in Mazar-i-Sharif, they were able to successfully protect themselves by using this cover story. However, they were advised not to leave without weapons with which they could defend themselves if the situation demanded it. However, the husband suggested to his brother-in-law that instead of carrying weapons, he should give some explosives to his wife which she can detonate if they are captured, thus killing the enemy soldiers along with them. Thus they did as they had planned and the sister strapped a belt of explosives around her waist.
The brother and sister thus went to the positions of the Shiite Hizbi-Wahdah faction and General Dostum's forces. Since they were on foot, the enemy fired upon them and they then jumped to the floor and did not return fire. When the enemy saw that they were not acting in a hostile manner, one enemy soldier approached them and they addressed him in English. The soldier thus shouted out to those behind him: "Hold your fire, these are Americans." They then picked up the brother and sister and took them in their jeep into Mazar- i-Sharif where they found an American soldier. The American soldier asked them what they were doing in an area between Kunduz and Mazar-i-Sharif where they had captured many prisoners. The brother replied that they were aid workers for Oxfam. He praised Allah when the American soldier believed them, not knowing that Oxfam had ceased operations in Afghanistan a long time ago! However, he informed them that he would have to verify their credentials by taking them to his headquarters in Kabul, where hopefully everything could be quickly sorted out. He thus arranged a special car with guards to take them to Kabul.
As the brother managed to get a few quiet moments with his sister, he rehearsed the plan with her. He told her that there were no chance that they could return to either the Mujahideen or the Taliban positions; and nor could they wait until they arrived at Kabul since they would be exposed there. They sat in a truck filled with Russians and accompanied by four armed Shiite Hizbi-Wahdah fighters. In the cabin were two Americans. The brother brought his face closer to the noble face of his sister and she whispered to him, "I am ready. He then told her to repeat "La ilaha illallah..." behind him, which she did in a faint whisper, faint in volume but high in certainty and Iman. He then told her to say, "There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. Upon this we live, upon this we die, upon this we wage Jihad and upon it we hope to be raised up." She repeated this and then put her hand on the detonator button and pressed it.
A roaring tremor shook the truck, which was travelling at 25mph, and it overturned. The brother of the martyred sister managed to jump out of the truck as it left the road, having been injured by the explosion. From his other eye, however, he caught sight of a bright, concentrated, beam of light shining from the truck into the sky whilst the truck was otherwise in flames, in a ditch by the side of the road. Whilst part of the truck was burning, the brother made his way to the cabin to confirm that the two Crusaders did not survive. He saw that the two had perished due to the accident (not the fire) and the bodies of the Shiite fighters were strewn across the road far from the truck. As for the martyred sister, he saw her noble, pure body largely in tact despite the explosion, and he was satisfied that perhaps that beam of light he saw earlier must have taken care of her body.
As it was very late into the night, no-one came on the road. Four hours later, the brother prayed the Fajr Prayer, then he prayed for his martyred sister, the Mujahideen and finally, himself. By that time, the flames around the cabin had died down and the brother returned to it and saw the bodies of the two Americans, covered in blood. He took their sidearms: a 9mm Beretta pistol from one and a German pistol from the other. He then searched their pockets and found their personal identification cards, which read:
NAME: Ronald Stephen Leigh
CITY: Houston, Texas
NAME: Michael Simon Watkins
CITY: Los Angeles, California
Abu Khalid urged the Pentagon to refute these claims and stop hiding information from the American public and the families of the above two Americans regarding US casualties in this war so far. He repeated that the Mujahideen possess the proof of their identification, which will be distributed if Allah makes it easy.
"Jihad will continue against America at all costs, whether Kandahar remains in our hands or not." Taliban Commander Dadullah
KANDAHAR (Daily Islam): The great Taliban commander, Mulla Dadullah said that America should know that this is just the beginning of the war, a war which might last forever and will prove to be the worst nightmare for the Americans, even worse than the former war with the Russians. This war will rid the victims of the whole world from the cruelty and vice of America. In an interview to the 'Daily Islam', he said that the temporary retreats, arrests, wounds, injuries and martyrdoms are all a part of Jihad and that they and all fellow Mujahideen will never let the Muslim Ummah down. He further said that they all are UNITED under the strong leadership of Amee-rul- Mumineen, Mulla Muhammad Umar and that they will not rest in peace until the biggest enemy of Islam (America) is utterly crushed to its end.
Dead Bodies of 30 Gul Agha's Soldiers Reach Baluchistan
KANDAHAR (Islam News): The dead bodies of 30 of Gul Agha's soldiers have reached Baluchistan. They were killed during the first attempt to reach Kandahar, by the enemy. Gul Aga has been smuggling drug barons and gangsters from Baluchistan to Afghanistan to fight against the Mujahideen.
COMING THURSDAY...EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH TALIBAN COMMANDER MULLAH DADULLAH, COMMANDER OF TALIBAN AND MUJAHIDEEN IN FORCES IN KUNDUZ...EXCLUSIVELY ON AZZAM.COM
My question is, did the XXX agency ASK for a copy of the software, or did Larry just up and give it to them.
I think its more likely that he tracked down an address and just mailed it out so he could get in the CNET headlines.. as well as increase pressure to implement his proposed system.
Even with the software, the database still has to be built... I assume some of the radical [domestic, non-terrorist] militias [/cults/political activists] the ATF would love to watch aren't going to be nice enough to forward dirt on themselves in electronic format...
For us carnivores, "Sucking the marrow out of life" isn't a transcendentalist philosophy but a practical instruction.
If the US governement really falls for this obvious marketing technique, they are dumber then I allready thought they were. Having worked within the Dutch government I know that once a database has been addopted, it hardly ever gets replaced for another dbms. They might build another front end, upgrade the dbms, but switching from vendor is just not an option. It is too scary to make such a big step. Oracle knows this and supplying the database for a national ID-card will mean business for life.
Also don't forget, that there will be many government agencies that want to tie in their database with the national ID-database or base their database on it. Oracle will have a foot and a leg in the door there as well.
Use Adsense for Charity
Oh dear.
credit cards are among the easiest systems to defraud.
And here Ellison is touting them as an example for the national ID system to follow?
It's just more proof that Ellison is hitting the crack pipe especially hard these days.
And AFAIK Ellison has still not answered those simple questions that were posed to him, eg "what terrorists, if any, would a national ID card system have stopped?"
Ein folk, Ein reich, Ein RDBMS?
What? The form you must fill as you enter the US asking if you're a terrorist, nazi or have participated in any genocides recently isn't enough?
Wax-Museum Fire Results In Hundreds Of New Danny DeVito Statues
Don't companies give software to the govt all the time, or am I missing something? I know they're donating it but I don't think the problem here is this. I think the problem is Ellison's continued push for those id cards and mass public data records (bettering those of the fbi, etc). I'm sure this is unconstitutional somewhere involving privacy, etc. I'm just waiting for microsoft to roll out Windows XP smartcard edition, so not only will .NET passport book you a flight online but you'll need it to get you on the damn plane.
can't sleep slashdot will eat me
] post
post
posty post post posting like a posty poster feel my post, all my post are belong to meeeeeee post post post
post
In the morning when I wake up, I have a post.
Roadkill is yummy.
..that he doesn't have a choice in the first place? Remember, in America you're only allowed to code what the government can -use- now.
"Ellison has followed through with his threat, I mean promise,"
What's so bad with that?
Control isn't bad itself.
If I put a Troll or an Off-topic I get a -1 and if I put an interesting comment I get a plus.
That's control, and is good. Moderation is used very bad sometimes. But the goal is fine.
What matters is not that the CIA has that information, but what does with it.
-= If you fight Dragons long enough, you will become a Dragon =-
Seeing as how he has already supplied the CIA with software, I bet it went to another 3-letter group
Not AOL?!! They are the people we fear the most!
1. If Larry Ellison offered you a free copy of arguably the #1 database server (and the most expensive) on the market, would you turn him down?
2. The article makes no mention of what kind of data will be stored in the database server.
Even if there is no 'National ID card' information, Ellison saved our government lots of money by giving us expensive software. Lobbying the legislature, writing congress letters, etc. is up to us.
IMHO, the government probably listened to his schpiel, said thanks, and used the software for something else besides the ID card.
.net
!!!
Microsoft could have "donated" their passport "technology" to the government, and we all know that could lead to very bad things. Damned be the day that my hotmail account is bound to a National ID Card!
"I hate people, but i love Gatherings. Isn't it ironic?" -- Randall Graves, Clerks
One of the most popular uses of the Social Security Number is stalking your ex-spouse. Larry's database should make this... easier?
/. choir is pointless. There's only one number the politicians will look at. And it's this one.
Then there's the ACLU's stance: There must be no national ID system -- either in law or in practice.
But all of this means nothing, and preaching to the
If you want to do something proactive, try to do something about that.
Question, we have the right to privacy, but do we also have the right to anonymity?
I think it's too much fuss about the inevitable.
Regards...
Like EFF? Or FSF?
Please, we must not allow our emotions to take over, or we might start hating ALL groups of three letters, which would be a tragedy...
We've had it with people working in medicinal areas (they developed the Hippocratic oath to make sure only to help the people), and with scientists (remember Hiroshima?).
It seems like programmers are in the focus now. Would you write software that will be used in military devices (to kill people)? To observe people and violate their privacy? How can you know what your software is used for?
We should take care of what we are doing when we publish and/or write a piece of software.
This also has some interesting aspects for open source licenses like the GPL. There's no part of the GPL forbidding the use of the licensed software for militaristic purposes (wrong?) or privacy intrusion (to stay on topic). Since most hackers are friendly people and the GPL reflects a big part of the hacker ethics, it should probably restrict the use of your software for the "wrong" purposes.
On the other hand, if you're not as pacifistic and freedom-loving as I am, you might say that the GPL shouldn't restrict the use of software so much. But then I think programmers should consider NOT to release a program if it could be used in a bad way.
Hackers are putting so much love and work and spare time into their projects that they are thinking about its possibilities anyway, so maybe the only danger here is commercial software, written only to earn money.
Two Worlds - One Sun [Spirit]
The data is already available for anyone in at least three individual states.
Blah blah blah...
But which platform did he provide the software for!?! That's the important question. He better be insisting that the government be running their Oracle database on Linux... or atleast some UNIX platform.
:)
.. that starting your post in the Subject line is obnoxious, and pisses a lot of people off? It's like the whole "Two Words: Bill Gates" or "Two Words: Pay Raise" thing. Two words my sphincter.
Aside from that, keep up the good work. You are a valuable member of the slashdot community, and I appreciate your input.
Sincerely,
Fucky.
Roadkill is yummy.
That can only mean the most terrifying, powerful, and secretive agency in the whole of the government... .
The I.R.S!!!
Ahhhhhhhh!!!!
With Oracle's powerful software they'll be able to haggle happles taxpayers over previously unimaginably complex, nuanced, obscure articles of tax code!
Why couldn't the NSA just use it implement some sort of Big-Brother national ID card thing?!
Dear god Ellison...have you no heart?!
Of course, one of the biggest reasons for the data fragmentation is that that intelligence agencies don't cooperate -- if anything, they're notorious for their turf wars. Ellison is downplaying the organizational battles in order to pitch his technical solution.
One of the causes of the turf war is that the intelligence agencies are poorly defined and poorly monitored. Once an intelligence agency is created, it tends to have a life of its own. Case in point: The CIA was originally chartered to help the U.S. fight the Cold War, something it did with laughable incompetence at times. But when the Cold War ended -- an event which took the agency entirely by surprise -- nobody at the CIA thought "Since our job is done, let's tell Congress to shut us down so we can be unemployed." No, of course, they looked around for other threats to pitch to the White House. With terrorism, they seem to have found it.
Except for the fact that much of the anti-terrorism work will be domestic, and that therefore it falls under the aegis of the FBI, instead. But can you imagine the CIA bosses, always anxious about Congressional funding and eager to get into the anti-terrorism spotlight, staying out of the fray? Forget about it.
Do domain names matter?
There is nothing i can think of to make me feel better about our goverment sometimes. I understand safety. But I also feel like i am loosing my freedom. Like if i fart wrong someone will read my email.
I know i must sound paranoid. I just feel that the goverment is going to eventually fuck me and all the peolple like me and the only thing i would be able to do, if i wanted to be a "computer savy" person, Is to move to another county.
There is nothing i did. I am just affraid of a Hackor witch hunt one day. Stupid people who understand nothing about the net, computers, selling you out to get on the news for 15 minutes of fames. Innocnet newbies sniifing aroung the wrong area getting arrested for innocent crimes.
The net society might get crazy in the next 10 years. We as techies/geeks help build the current economy but as soon as we are deemed a threat, we will be elliminated...
If we refuse to be flexible, we are in effect opting out of the game of life. The world moves on without us.
Sure, it may be a marketing gimmick, but in reality, what does this change? If the gov't wasn't planning on creating a national ID card system, getting a complete Oracle system isn't going to change their minds.
On the other hand, if they *were* planning on creating a national ID card system, it's a pretty safe bet that they'd choose Oracle as a platform.
So, other than Ellison making sure his name stays in the headlines (There's an entire industry that revolves around keeping people's names in the headlines, so this is nothing new), what's the harm here? This act alone is not going to create a national ID card system.
So it looks like all the movies made years ago are going to be true. The govt is going monitor every living soul in the US, and probably the world (sorry to those of you outside the country, but... it is the US). So with that in mind... I surrender. Give me my card and my new name. Give me my own personal observation satellite and spyware dental work. From what I've seen... they go easy on you if you just give in. So... are you listening my beloved republican govt? I give up... (sorry suckers... but I got dibs on this first... might as well be a subservient asskisser before it gets trendy)
can't sleep slashdot will eat me
The DMV have finally got a database... how will we ever cope with the government knowing who owns what car/van/truck...
wait a minute...
who cares... what better place to keep all the goverment fantasy football/basketball/any other sport information...
Not only americans are observed by Echelon.
US wins Spain's favour with offer to share spy network material
ETA (a terrorist group from Spain) is one of the tarjets of Echelon.
And I'm sure that CIA is not planing to get information only about Americans but about any person in the world that get caught in his net.
Even worst: "Unlike information on US citizens, which officially cannot be kept longer than a year, information on foreigners can he held without time limit."
So Echelon is a WWP not only USA.
-= If you fight Dragons long enough, you will become a Dragon =-
I don't see why he bothered. Relational databases suck major buttocks. Model 204 is the workhorse database of choice for the United States Government.
--- even the safest course is fraught with peril
Larry is a munchkin-megalomaniac. He can't afford to not get his grubby little fingers into every piece of cake, especially if its a money cake. Who cares' who's birthday it is...
IMHO, I believe Larry's doing this for one of the following reasons:
1) Free publicity. (I'm saving America from the Taliban).
2) The 52-page license agreement the NSA was forced to sign which stipulates that Oracle will provide all custom development, installation, and configuration at an hourly rate of an employee's first born.
3) You get this huge mondo database, but you have to share the information with me!!! THe Oracle-backdoor trojan virus which allows Larry to peruse the addresses of hot chicks to invite over to his private jet getaway.
Then the US Gov would'nt have to, (as one developer told me once) "...put up with all that Oracle crap." Dirty writing is cool.
You're telling me that the agency that focuses on the nation's electronic security didn't already have a version of one of the most-widely used databases in their labs? Maybe we should be worried.
Ha ha ha ha ha !!!
:)
I am Big Brother! Your profiles are mine! Your social numbers! Credit card! Who you voted for! All your international Echelon flagged phone calls! And your mother!
Thanx Larry.
00XX
Note that this is just Ellison at a customer conference, and nowhere did the article mention the government's opinion. I recently read (sorry, no link) that few in the government is taking this the least bit seriously, including Congress. Remember that it wasn't too long ago that some House members (a few Republicans) were advocating not filling out the 2000 census form or lying on it, despite it being required by the Constitution.
In terms of cost, I would think the cost of the hardware is a pittance compared to the difficulties in organizing disparate agencies, each with their own data formats.
I can see it now: All Your Personal Information Are Belong To Us. You have no chance to survive make your time.
Interesting the medium by which they access/assess you.
/. crowd were perhaps in gifted programs throught elementary/secondary education. Guess who they start up a file for as soon as you enter special education. Don't believe me? Neither does Larry Ellison. Which is why it'll all be alright
Even more interesting is the extent to which they do.
Anyone ever get you FBI file throughout the freedom of information act? You don't have an FBI file? You do now.
Also of interest: many of the
But I do suggest checking out whats churning through the soon to be oracle tentacles. You may be surprised.
Or else, that I was only a hairsbreadth away from being able to do the same kind of things. (-:
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
I wake up and still in a haze I check /. to find a headline containing "Oracle" "Donates" and "Big Brother." So I assume that Oracle is donating software to help children's charities... only to be brought back into the cynical reality when I read the article and realize the Orwelian reference. Too bad
The rich folks aint gonna let that mean ol Big Brother take over. You know why? No, you don't, but I'll tell you why: because if everything were known (transparent society, such as would be provided by Big Brother, and national IDs), then the rich folks would not be able to exploit our jointly owned property (the USA) as they have been doing. And then do you know what would happen? You. the little guy (with the lil peabrain) would actually get more of the beenfits accruing from your share of the joint ownership of the USA. The rich folks would have to pay more for nannies, dishwashers, programmers, etc. But like I said, don't worry, cuz the rich uns pay the TV people to keep you lil guys all stirred up about "Big Brother". That way they can keep ripping you off. So like I said don't worry your lil pea brain, just turn on the TV. There ya go...
Sig:
Navy nuke sub lifestyle?
You honestly think that they would Oracle for data storage?
These people practically invented the term! They already have the largest intelligence database in the world - and no, I'm not a crackpot conspiracy theorist (it says so on the nsa/gchq website).
If you want to know more, read the great book "Body Of Secrets" by James Bamford.
When you connect your Oracle boxen to the internet Scarey Ellison can access your data.
From you slashdot user info site: "Thirty something geeky cartoonist with the flair and personality of Eeyore. Oh bother. ;)"
You are 30-something?!! Your comments read like *thirteen*-something!
Sig:
Navy nuke sub lifestyle?
Do we really want any database that contains the kind of information we are talking about running on a piece of software developed by a corporate entity.
I may be a Black Hellicopter KOOK here, but I am thinking back the the movie, "The Net"(Bad movie, good story)
If the US Government sets up this database, running on software developed by any third party, then security will always be a problem. How many "Easter Egg" type bugs exist in most of today's software. What happens if one of the coders at Oracle was having a bad day, and added a backdoor to the database, and then publishes the path to it on the Internet?
I don't pretend to have a solution to this, short of not doing anything, which is probably the best thing we can do. Knee-jerk reactions to the events of 9/11 will end up costing us more than the actual events.
I think someone should propose to Ellison to have all of his personal data (credit card #'s, SSN, financial statements, "real" income, not what is reported to the IRS)stored in an Oracle database that is web-enabled. That will tell us all we need to know.
Scary stuff....
Mine says (In article 1, section 2)
"The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct."
Where does it say that people are constitutionally required to fill out a census form? Perhaps I'm being too literal, but this seems to be directed at the Congress, not the people, on what they *have* to do.
"...to a U.S. government agency for national security, but he declined to give further details, such as which agency or for what usage."
Hmmm, an Agency for National Security....I wonder which agency...
.
..**Gazz churns his neurons**
...
I've Got it! maybe it's the National Security Agency!
it's the taking apart that counts
Did anybody else reading the Slashdot headline for this story think it was about The Insidious Big Brother Database (BBDB)?
>"What? The form you must fill as you enter the US asking if you're a terrorist, nazi or have participated in any genocides recently isn't
:-) Ellison would sell the American people in a heart beat to buy yet another retirement home. And I'll work diligently the
enough?"
Actually, that's just there to recruit potential central bank executives
rest of my life to make sure the companies I work for use alternative's to Oracle software.
"They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor justice."
-- Benjamin Franklin
And they wind up with neither...But Ellison and the rest of the jet set crew could care less, since they just get on a leir jet and fly to a country where they can buy safety... chicken shits is what they are- the lowest form of SCUM on this planet
The first one is always free, little girl. heh heh heh.
policy in all us govt agencies, particularly those dealing with intelligence and security is to _not_ accept donations from vendors, including demoware from tech conferences. Part of this is security interests but also integrity. The gov't doesnt want vendors freely supplying software in hopes they would buy more licenses.
so given that, whenever ellison's donation arrives at whatever agency he donated them to, they'll probably tell ellison "thanks, but no thanks" and toss the box in the trashcan.
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
A certified, industrial-strength wingnut with a billion buxors. When this "War On Terrorism" crap goes away, I certainly hope people remember the individuals who chose to align themselves with the forces of repression. That high-pitched whine you hear in the distance is the sound of the Founding Fathers spinning in their graves...
Office of Home Security's Highly Invasive Technology
aka. OH SHIT
Sapere Aude - Homer
Sorry, no Oracle there. IRS is an IBM big iron shop (DB2) and has been for decades.
A Big Brother database? Neat. I'm all for it, as long they don't let that guy Will win again. He's evil!
------
Let me give you the lowdown
I mean seriously.. if the price of the Oracle software is what stands in the way of the powers that be rolling out such a system, they have a serious problem already.
I also don't see the big controversy. The government already HAS huge databases, analyzed by supercomputers, to figure out things like taxes, and whatnot.. what's another database? The issue is how things are used, not that they exist.
Look up Oracle's history. They produced the first ever commercial relational database -- under contract to the CIA for a project called Oracle that got cancelled. Then they decided to market it, and took the name Oracle.
In fact, Larry Ellison was fired from Oracle in his early years there. :)
o/~ Join us now and share the software
What would happen if Microsoft did this today?
Shouldn't we be fair, has the government done research to find out which database software would best fit their requirements?
Intelligence is a matter of opinion.
liberty and justice for all
Bah, I'm quite happy with the current version of the Insidious Big Brother Database ;-)
like what, irs? fbi? ibm? mci? zdn? ogl? aes? bmw? gla? thx?
A country which has a president who wants to install secret military tribunals shouldn't be worrying about if Oracle is able to access data inside governmental databases, but should be worrying about what the difference between the USA WITH secret tribunals and a 3rd world country with a dictator and secret tribunals really is.
Never underestimate the relief of true separation of Religion and State.
Give the database to the goverment, then make big bucks on development tools, support, and maintenance contracts.
And for our next government policy: we all have a right to "Heads" but "Tails" will be outlawed.
ATF? Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
IRS? Internal Revenue Service
UPS? United Parcel Service
NBA? National Basketball Association
NFL? National Football League
NHL? National Hockey League
ISP? Internet Service Providers
DMV? Department of Motor Vehicles
FSF? Free Software Foundation
OSI? Open Source Initiative
ACM? Association for Computer Machinery
LUG? Linux User Groups
AAA? American Automobile Association
CNE? Certified Novell Engineers
MCP? Microsoft Certified Professionals
Okay the last few were stretching it...
Oh... you meant the FBI... uhhh didn't you?
"It takes many nails to build a crib, but one screw to fill it."
Recently in Canada, the Ontario Tories were embarrassed by a news story pointing out that the databases recording sensitive information about Canadians was suddenly combined into one accessible mass. Even the social insurance number info, the centre of all federal services in Canada (every Canadian carries a card with this on it). One poor old veteran of the Korean Conflict was denied pension because he appeared on a voting list showing he recently voted for the Liberals in provincial election.
It turned into a federal issue and a screaming match in the Commons.
Shame, shame, shame !!!
A database on the citizens of a community is wrong, if only because one can never predict what a given government will do with that information. All databases, in order to protect information properly as well as the human rights of the individual, must be specific about the info it has on a person. Only pertinent info, no links to further information, databases, etc. It could be used to "profile" a person. Not good.
What about personal privacy? Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness? I have a few four letter words for those three letter agencies.
Echelon is nothing. My dad sold them computer equipment and serviced it, too (well, they didn't tell him it was Echelon, but what else would you have a server with a database that searches through the email of the whole country for?). Sure, Echelon is spying on all of our electronic communications, but what we should really be worried about is MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL!!! (the MLBB part is from the Simpsons)
So far the website initiative we are developing using Oracle Portal has been one disappointment after another. While I understand the 9i database software is working fine, other components of the package have simply fallen flat on its face, particularly a serious compatibility issue with Solaris servers.
The way I see it, the government is probably, for once, getting what it's paying for. Nothing.
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
Just take a look at Larry's proposed National ID card.
Free software databases have been available to the US Government and everyone else for a long time now. It's telling that this didn't make headlines here.
Oracle obviously isn't making their software free software, so why should the US Government trust that the Oracle software doesn't have back doors or other problems? One would think the US Government would want to know every detail about the software they're being asked to run a national service on. But I guess this isn't much of a surprise: every day US Government offices put sensitive data on computers running proprietary software.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
I'm betting that while the software is "free", there's probably some condition that says Oracle Consulting will have to do the work.
As everybody in the Oracle Financials world knows, buying Financials is only a small percentage of it's cost. Just wait until you see how much it costs to get it installed and configured!
Larry is a lot of things, but stupid isn't one of them.
$0.02 (CDN)
ETA is a Terrorist Group.
Kills policement and politics, but also children, men and women.
Oracle was founded to provided the CIA with an implementation of the Relational Database invented by IBM. So there willingness to provide the government with big-brother software is no suprise, it's consistent with their roots. Why IBM spent millions of dollars inventing the concept of Relation Databases (System R*Star?), published the specification for anybody to use, and then didn't develop a product themselves (DB2) until after Oracle proved it could be commercially successful has always been beyond my comprehension. Yes, Oracle was built on an idea ripped off from IBM, but all I can say is shame on IBM for letting them get away with it.
So you trust yourself, but not the government. Fine, the government trusts itself, and but you.
I definately do not trust the government! The government is the only entity with the legal right to use force to acheive its goals. Unless the government is comprised of infallible angels, it needs less power, not more.
In the past 100 years, over 180 MILLION people have been killed by their own governments. What makes you think that current governments are going to be any better? The humans who lead the current governments are drawn out of the same barrel of "fallible humans" that the humans who led the Stalinist, Maoist, Khmer Rouge, and Nazi regimes were drawn from.
I don't make the rules. I just make fun of them.
What is supposed to be so outrageous about these news? I guess that the media-crazed Ellison is being a bit opportunistic here, but his move will certainly save the CIA and NSA loads of money. Anywhere but in SlashdotLand or the pages of Le Monde, especially since 9-11 has shown us that the NSA isn't so omniscient after all, this would be good news.
Ah, but yes.
Michael and his co-paranoids think that the NSA, CIA and the rest of the "military-industrial complex" have nothing better to do than snooping on their PGP- (oh sorry, GPG-) encrypted mail, or hacking into their computers to scan their porn and mp3 collections for copyright infringements. Ergo, let's abolish the CIA and the NSA!
Don't you guys know that there's a war going on and that the intelligence agencies are actually quite busy now finding and precision-bomb terrorists? And that, if they have some spare time, they might prefer to try to find out what the Chinese, Saudi, or Iraqi governments are up to?
Oh well. September 11 didn't changed everything.
He can't lose.... Unless it's the America's Cup.
:)
I saw him with his boat on CNN today. He is going to be the driver.
Even if there is no 'National ID card' information, Ellison saved our government lots of money by giving us expensive software.
It is not "saving money" to give "free" software to a newly-created government program. "The program may cost $40 million, but hey, we got a free database!" It seems clear to me that saving money would have happened by never creating the program in the first place.
If we really wanted our government to save money, we'd end the War on (Some) Drugs immediately and release any prisoner who was convicted solely on drug possession charges.
I don't make the rules. I just make fun of them.
If big brother depends on Oracle to retrieve and consolidate your data, rest assured your privacy is safe...
:)
Oracle convinces Gov to use national ID card
Microsoft signs deal to merge Oracle database with Passport and .Net services
Oracle controls the largest personal information collection ever.
Microsoft convinces Government that Windows is required on all computers to keep information confidential
Government forbids the use of any other OS
Of course some see them as opposites.
Would National ID cards raise the advertising revenue for /. by showing me adds that fit my profile?
Hmm.... so you mean the CIA chips in my Amiga *weren't* Complex Interface Adapters? No wonder serial.device was so damn slow, it was sending my cache file to Washington the whole time.
Antti
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
or did they use the already well established paper storage and tracking methods of the time? Mmm... me thinks that this is yet another example of confusing ideas and implementations. Nothing new here folks... move along!
..I bet it went to another 3-letter group.
FBI, DoD, NSA ??!