Slashdot Mirror
DoJ - Making Data Public Would 'Crash System'
orthogonal writes "The Justice Department today denied Freedom of Information Act requests to make public data on foreign lobbyists, claiming that '[i]mplementing such a request risks a crash that cannot be fixed and could result in a major loss of data, which would be devastating'. The requestor responded that '[t]his was a new one on us. We weren't aware there were databases that could be destroyed just by copying them,' Bob Williams of the Center for Public Integrity said Tuesday. Maybe we should tell John Ashcroft about open source database and copying solutions?"
And that's why you shouldn't use Access for your Enterprise Solutions.
Now available in Server 2003, keeping your data safe from prying eyes
Well we could, but then he would have to come up with ANOTHER bogus reason. Cut him some slack, the man works hard enough as it is.
In other news, I won't be paying my taxes this year as I firmly believe the influx of cash will "Break the Bank".
Come and see the violence inherent in the system!
Hmm, so I guess they don't keep backups of their own data, if making copies of it would cause the data to be lost. I guess we just have to hope (or not) that their computers or hard drives never fail.
then it must be running Microsoft(tm)!
Does this mean that they never make backups either? Sounds like just a bad excuse...
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
or hard copies. "Irreplaceable data" -- hah!
Seriously. If this is where we've arrived, where public officials try such a blatant lie...their incompetence is unmeasurable! Please, please, won't the aliens take me home?!?
This sounds like something I would make up to get someone to go away.
...in 5...4...3...2...
Sector not found on Drive C:\
Abort, Retry, Ignore?
// Agent Green (Ian / IU7 / KB1JQO)
// IEEE 802.3: All 10base Are Belong To Us
... Excel spreadsheets to store its data or something?
Here we see the typical Slashdotter over-simplified solution: smugly link to an open source product.
Life in Orange County
Maybe we should get people in office that knows what the hell is going on? This sounds similar to, that $40 program can recover anything..... except for our data.
What this REALLY means is that they have already suffered a "major loss of data" but never made any backups and have been trying to hide the fact that the database has been GONE for weeks, months, or even years under grade school-level excuses.
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
Wow, i think I broke something whilst picking my jaw up off the floor.
If the computer will crash by accessing these records, then this implies the records are inaccessible. Not to mention that if the records magically 'disappear' all they have to say it "look we told you so"
I dont think anyone is gonna believe this for a second. More like a lot of people want this information permanently buried as to avoid letting the public know whats going on.
...I will provide them a special "government edition" of drive image or ghost.
How will the FBI put all that old information on these new systems then?
Open Source Sushi
particularly because the policy allows withholding information due to "foreseeable harm" to the Administration, and not necessarily to the country.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
The government said an overhaul of the system should be finished by December and copies should be available then.
Not available until after the November election, eh? How conveeeenient.
I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
This paces the Justice Department on par with Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf, the recently retired Iraqi Information Minister in it's inovation of repartee in the face of fact!
I hope they do not copyright this reason as it is so good I think I will use it (if I can) when the circumstances arise.
Web Sig: Eddy Currents
afterall, they might be using Access.
This makes me glad that I live in a state that utilizes MATRIX and seems to strive against individuals' digital personas being kept close to the individual's chest. *sigh*
On a more serious note, perhaps the government should look into being this tight-lipped when it comes to combining, merging, and actively data- and text-mining databases and data sets ... you know, such as those that paint a complete and full picture about a person from individually innocuous bits of datum. Maybe EFF ought to get involved in this (don't flame - I've not hopped over to EFF for soem time now; I'm sure that they actually *are* involved). Then again, hopefully the INDIVIDUAL would ultimately attain/retain ALL IP over their OWN data.
Yeah, I know. I can hear 100,000 people muttering, pipedream, along with me.
Sounds like an RFC from April 1.
You are not the customer.
I am sure there are pr0n websites with backend databases more relieable than what the government is using.
MySQL, PostgreSQl, and FireBird SQL are mentioned. Has someone compared the features and reliability of these?
Let's blame Ashcroft!!! Whether he's actually involved or not!!!
You mean software that's expensive and clearly doesn't work?
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
One of my Linux machines is currently suffering from some substandard SCSI equipment and some DMA problems on one of the hard drive controllers; until I can schedule the downtime for software upgrades and hardware troubleshooting, I'm leaving things the way they are. As long as that's the case, the system mostly works, but certain disk-intensive operations (such as searching hundreds of MB of logs) degrade performance enough to make the system nearly unusable.
I doubt that this is terribly relevant to the computing problems experienced by massive government databases, but I can at least conceive of how a "mass export of all stored images" (to quote the article) could significantly interfere with the database's everyday usage on a sufficiently poorly-designed/maintained/updated system.
The article also states that the government plans on having the upgrades completed, and the data available, by December. (I'm not going to touch the issue of how accurate this statement is.)
Ashcroft is saying he doesn't know how without opening up the computer and copying it all using pencil and paper.
The system is already crashed. The Attorney General, head of the Department of Justice, is nothing but an incompetent liar. When faced with our open society, all he has is lies about fear. kill -9 this zombie process and start flushing the buffers while we prepare to reboot in November.
--
make install -not war
This warning just in from John Ashcroft:
"Whatever you do, do not vote for Senator John Kerry in the upcoming presidential election. Implementing such a vote risks a crash that cannot be fixed and could result in a major loss of data, which would be devastating."
SIG: TAKE OFF EVERY 'CAPTAIN'!!
You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!
it's all just another lie told to us by our government. it's nothing new, but i think this republican majority government is realizing that all this access to information is not beneficial to the government powers which widely conflict civil liberties.
it seems they've simply given up and just make up blantant lies which are served to the american public as excuses.
In my IT job I use the, "Sure, I could do that, but it would blow up the entire system," all the time.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go back to the important work playing City of Heroes.
Whatever process they use to look at the data could be used to copy it and give it to the FOIA petitioners.
Or maybe they just put stuff in there and don't look at the data, because it would crash. That would make a lot of sense.
WWJD? JWRTFA!
Maybe the system they are talking about isn't a computer system. Maybe it's the subsequent fallout from such a release of data. That would resolve the crash statement.
A major loss in data? Maybe they're afraid of losing their desktops and/or access to TIA. Good times.
There's this great new invention they could use that wouldn't risk crashing anything: it allows you to transmit data without using an electronic connection. (Of course, then they'll just release a sanitized version anyway.)
Maybe we should tell John Ashcroft about open source database and copying solutions?"
With the Patriot Act in effect, and all of your lines tapped, I'd say John Ashcroft already knows.
Perhaps the DoJ is using a database that only allows a limited number of copies before it determines that the user is a copyright abuser and self-destructs.
We weren't aware there were databases that could be destroyed just by copying them,' Bob Williams of the Center for Public Integrity said Tuesday. Maybe we should tell John Ashcroft about open source database and copying solutions?
Actually, they probably already are using MySQL! I've had some pretty nasty crashes and corruptions with it. One crash using INNODB tables was unrecoverable.
PostgreSQL OTOH has had 0 problems.
John Kerry is a Joke!
What this is, is perjury, and Ashcroft should be brought to task for it by Congress (*sigh* As _if_ they could be expected to do their job...).
Ashcroft issued a directive upon taking office that F.O.I.A. requests should be obstructed as far as possible, in line with the secrecy that has surrounded this entire administration. This is merely one more crass lie in furtherance of that ideology. The man has lied constantly since taking office and has been allowed to get away with it. Why?
Have we stopped caring about transparancy and republican values at home, whilst at the same time singing the praises of 'democracy' abroad? Are we all content to allow this proud nation to slip slowly but surely into a permanently-militarised social order? Will _you_ accept the suspension of habeus corpus, or of the entire Constitution, and live happily in a police state?
Me, I'd rather die on my feet, with my fist in the air, than my knees. I refuse to trade my freedom for cold comfort.
+++++++
"Look, dear, it's a crazy hairy scary man!"
Charitable donations result in a tax *deduction*, not a tax *credit*, at least here in the U.S.
I hereby call for the resignation of John Ashcroft on the grounds that his ineptitude in responding to legitimate FOIA requests clearly causes "forseeable harm" to American democracy.
Not to mention that the excuse he gave is *not* one of the reasons permitted to be cited by the government to avoid giving us -- the American people, who paid for it all -- *our* information.
Mr. Ashcroft is from Missouri, the "Show Me" state. Tell me, Mr. Ashcroft: what part of "Show me the public records" do you not understand?
DNA is a Turing machine. You, however, being dynamic and emergent, are not.
That's like a request being denied because the clerk was too tired to go down in the basement to find the files.
If fulfilling the request somehow breaks something, then the response should be to fix the damn thing and then fulfill the request.
-- I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist. It's not my fault that life sucks so much. --
They might as well cut to the chase and just destroy the data... But then again, they'd lose track of all the favors they need to hand out after the elections. I guess they can wait till (hopefully) some court forces them to share the information. Then they can use that "The data was destroyed" excuse.
Deltron 3030 - Virus (music video)
The FBI is spending nearly $600 million to modernize its antiquated systems.
Call it hubris, but how many people here think they could modernize their systems for a tiny fraction of that?
What they mean is their database runs on "EasyDB123 Trial Version" and they cant give more than 10 queries per day or they will be forced to upgrade.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
I can't beleive they'd lie this blatantly. Even Exporting the information in their database wouldn't cause a crash. If that were the case, they wouldn't be able to perform a search in the databases as exporting generally uses the same indexing methods for queries. This was a horrible response. I mean, if they stated that the 4,000 hampsters who power the DOJ mainframes, can't move their wheels fast enough to export the data, it would have been far more plausible than this rediculous answer taken from the ID-ten-T book of computer phrases.
Lets say the information is held on magnetic tape, now after a while I suppose it starts to get a bit brittle.
Running it through a reader without first restoring the tape could degrage the data and tape to the point where it could no longer be reconstructed, e.g. all the ferite comes off of the tape and floats accross the room in a plume of dust.
So, if the data's stored on old tapes they may have a case.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
Government departments and agencies run in totally different ways than we are accustomed to in the private and academic settings.
The bulk of the agency remains from administration to administration and form their own little dark empires and hide all these problems and this seems much more likely than John Ashcroft thinking lets protect the administration.
You probably had some pinheaded bureaucrat make the decision to use Crappy, Inc.'s CantcopyDB 20 years ago because his brother works there and now someone is finding out that this decision was rather unwise.
Well, here is another way for the current administration to stimulate the job market. Hire an american born and bred DBA to go fix this now.
Heck, I bet you could even find one who would be willing to do it for real cheap.
Fantasy remains a human right; we make in our measure and in our derivative mode... -- JRR Tolkien
If they could do it then, why can't they do it now?
--Mike--
0 problems, oh kay...
What next? Can I send a request that says "I would like a copy of every piece of paper ever produced by the US?" Do I then have the right to moral outrage when they refuse?
Seriously, this is freaking ridiculous. There's plenty of reason to go after Ashcroft without resorting to silly crap like this.
I would see nothing wrong with a $.01/page fee for FOIA request. Pay up if it amounts to more than $10.
They have to handle high load, but the people that run adult websites are tight-fisted and not likley to have any kind of substantial redundancy or backup - after all, you can always make more porn.
The feds can't handle the /. effect, eh? :)
My MythTV HowTo
I'll probably be labeled as a terrorist for this post
:-P
No, you'll be labeled "informative"
Vote against this administration. The reason they are doing this is that revealing the information would loose votes for the current administration. In order to balance the scales of democracy and make the election more fair, everybody who reads this article should vote against Bush. Because this administration has already admitted by its actions that it is corrupt.
Mathematics is not a crime.
How do they know that the records will be destroyed by accessing them? Have they accessed the records already and destroyed them?
More importantly, if they can "fix" the records in time for December, by their logic, wouldn't this process endanger the records from destruction in the first place?
Only government would pull a paradox out of its ass as an excuse.
You will pay for TIA just like everyone else. I wish it were not so. Either they are incompetent or dishonest, and both are unsettling.
I doubt they are up to the task. These jokers can't keep track of foreign lobbyists, people who register themselves and make themselves as conspicuous as possible. How on Earth are they going to keep track of terrorists? Can we be sure they can keep terrorists and foreign powers from reading it and planting false information?
A sad parody, from Neiven's Fallen Angels, comes to mind. Technical incompetents had taken over. Their databases of "technophiles" were filled with entries like "Sherlock Holmes".
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Infidel! :P
I couldn't read the article because it was slashdotted, but I think he must have been talking about our form of government: the feudal system.
Liberals call everyone Nazis yet they are the closest thing to it.
The guy that did the programming many years ago is no longer around. And apparently no documenttion for the code either.
LETS DECOMPOSE & ENJOY ASSEMBLING
Obviously you've never worked in a government agency. The rule of thumb in the government IT department at the agency I once worked for was this: "If it's inexpensive (or free) it can't be good. If it's not made my Microsoft or Oracle, it can't be good. If it contributes to a heterogeneous environment in any way, it can't be good. If you came up with a solution to a vexing problem on your own and it doesn't cost millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours to complete, you're fired."
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
...Has anyone ever seen John Ashcroft and Comical Ali at the same time?
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Hmmm....
So that's what happened in Florida in 2000.
No, sir. Not a terrorist.
..." doesn't qualify as "Information".
;)
Simply not "+5, Informative"
Moderators, get a clue. Your job, when moderating something as "Informative", is to promote posts which, when viewed with a reasonably objective eye, actual contain (get ready now...) Information.
Perhaps I'm just not enough of a lib-leftie wing-nut, but "ultra-right wing Jesus freak who actively hates gays, black people, non-Christians,
If, to the liberals in the group, this does indeed qualify as "Information", then please accept my humble apology...
-- -pjk Perry Kundert perry@kundert.ca http://kundert.2y.net
What we have here is a card index file.
Seriously. Copy that all out by hand probably would 'crash the system' which in this vase would equate to a bad case of writer's cramp.
By the way, take a look at Bush's interview with an Irish journalist. A real journalist, not one that has to submit questions three days ahead of time.
Toon toon! Black and white army!
DEEP VOICE: Unfortunately, no one can be -told- what the data on contributions from foreign lobbyists is. You have to see it for yourself. This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back.
(shows a blue pill.)
You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe about the FOIA.
(a red pill is shown in his other hand)
You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how fucked up the DOJ really is.
(you begin to reach for the red pill) Remember -- all I am offering is the truth, nothing more.
NOW it makes sense. i thought he annointed himself with oil before his swearing-in for *religious* reasons...
(no, seriously, this jesus-psycho actually annointed himself with oil.)
pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
Please, please, won't the aliens take me home?!?
There happens to be a religion which teaches general distrust for governments, the development of an individual moral code, and a final escape into a world that actually makes sense.
These beliefs were all part of one of the earliest flavors of Christianity, which happened to be one of the very first to be declared heretical by the government-backed version of the church.
bored? why not check it out?
when their Xerox copier started
"eating" the originals. So, there!
I agree. I just needed to vent. I wasn't intending to be informative at all. Anybody with a clue should already know that Ashcroft is the worst thing to happen to this country since McCarthy.
Wow, you got modded up to "informative" with that litte tantrum. I'm amazed. I'm now seriously considering a permanent retirement from Slashdot...
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
Ha!
Sounds like the message was lost in a powepoint presentation somewhere along the road. You know, someone who knew what they were talking about made a presentation, and it was sent to a bunch of people who had no idea what they're doing technically, and low and behold, databases that self destruct when you open them! I'm not sure it's it's funny or sad.
This signature has Super Cow Powers
checking the gzip link, I find:
gzip 1.2.4 may crash when an input file name is too long (over 1020 characters).
-J
Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
One CPU cycle wasted on digital restrictions management is ONE TOO MANY.
Come on, it happens to us all. I recently wrote to Tony Blair saying I couldnt' pay my 180 pounds sterling for the Iraq war since everytime I take my wallet out of my pocket, my pants catch file.
Give 'em a break.
What a coincidence! My financial information is stored in the same kind of database, so I cannot risk giving a copy of it to the IRS.
Hear hear.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
" We weren't aware there were databases that could be destroyed just by copying them,' Bob Williams of the Center for Public Integrity said Tuesday."
Maybe they're using a quantum database?
(thanks to m-w.com)
You must be affiliated with the democratic campaign! Why, this is despicable! Why aren't Democrats everywhere outraged by this post? This shows exactly how low the level of discourse has become! Organizations like slashdot are ruining the national civility in this country. Every democrat everywhere should denounce slashdot and speak to all my other talking points! Right away!
[/sarcasm]
WWJD? JWRTFA!
it's about more than just "Select * from foreignlobbyists order by date desc"
They undoubtedly have thousands and thousands of scanned images of documents, records, transcripts, etc. Inserting new data and adding things is a heck of a lot less of a load than getting all of it out.
I do think it's pretty absurd of an argument... but if they were truly trying to hide all of it, don't you think they'd come up with something more clever than, 'uhh, well... it'll crash our system'. Maybe it's rediculous enough to be true.
Man! And to think I used "the dog ate my homework" all through my high school years. The DoJ definately gets an "A" for creativity on this one.
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
I've written enough letters to my congresscritters that the probably have me filed under "wacko" in several different categories. Their replies show a polite distain for my pitiful rights and nearly-useless vote.
Knowledge is power, and those in power are determined that we lemmings be kept ignorant of the the deeds done in our name for our own good. The only thing more dependable than finding our representatives have sold us down the river for personal profit, is that keeping such dealings quiet is a matter of national security. After all, if all the little lemmings figured out they were being cheerfully led over a cliff they might not follow so blindly. Computer malfunction my arse. I work as an Oracle DBA -- if I EVER responded to a request for data this way I'd be canned on the spot, and rightly so. Somehow, I doubt anyone is suddenly unemployed at the justice department.
Personally, I'm beyond disgusted. I'm voting again EVERY encumbent, since I don't think there's a human being in office worth the air they breath. Maybe if everyone voted against all incumbents for a decade or so we'd flush the professional policiticians out and take back our country.
On the other hand, I'm seriously considering emigration to a land where freedom means something, like Russia!
There.. it is now "+5 insightful"... happy?
come on back.. we need less of 'monopinion' and more thought!
.. at least it would if a link was posted to it on slashdot.
Clearly PETA managed to take the cat out of the apparatus and put in ashcroft's database instead.
Other possible excuses:
1) Um, we sent the data to you but a dog...er...terrorist ate it in transit.
2) I would supply you the information but I'm afraid I left it in my other supercomputer.
3) We're doing the best we can but until GW gets back, he says we're not to touch the punch-cards.
4) Bill Gates says divulging this sort of information will harm national security.
5) "Please excuse my son (and his data) from truancy. He was suffering from flu-like symptoms."
... and it disappears when you look at it.
Translation, for any non-techies visiting today:
Seriously folks, I firmly believe that another four years under this administration threatens our physical security, as well as our civil liberties. I'm not one to usualy cry "Special Interests!", but this is exactly the kind of data that must be made public for a democratic republic to work. December is just too late to allow voters to make an informed decision, but I suspect thats the point.
"...such a request risks a crash that cannot be fixed and could result in a major loss of data, which would be devastating"
Dear IRS:
Thank you for the kind note reminding us about payroll tax withholdings (yes, we do remember that the S in IRS stands for 'service' though the little pamplet you sent about all that was appreciated).
Regarding the issue of us not submitting any payroll tax payments, well, you see our database gurus got together and discovered that the process of running such reports through our employee database actually risks a crash that cannot be fixed and could result in a major loss of data which would be devestating.
I'm sure you'll appreciate this difficulty (if not, please contact the Justice Department and they can fill you in on the details). I'm sure there's enough other taxpayers to chase that the loss of our money is of no significant matter.
Good luck with your own database issues, by the way. I see you too have your hands full - apparently several billion dollars spent upgrading things didn't work after all. If I were you, I'd stop sending out those tax deliquency messages or else you too could be affected by these nasty database crash problems!
And the MPAA for that matter. The Government has found a truly uncopyable storage media and I'm certain both of these organizations will be overjoyed to put it to good use.
They must have computers that use that most elusive of beasts: Write Only Memory.
So,
It is illegal for a citizen of the United States to know what foreign powers have purchased his government out from under him?
If USA Government Officials have accepted large sums of money from foreign powers, and then execute policies that are damaging to the United States of America (but helpful to the foreign power) - are they not covert operatives in service of a foreign nation?
(i.e. Spies and Enemy Combatants - under the Patriot Act?)
It seems MOST vital to National Security to Expose those officials in Government who are on the Take by a foreign power.
Would exposing their conflict of interest be grounds for treason? (or is taking bribes ok?)
'Stop Asking Questions Citizen.'
- That doesn't seem like the kind of Freedom George Washington and Abraham Lincoln fought for,
now does it?
The second someone resorts to the lazy intellectual copout of calling someone a "Nazi," not only do they dilute the real tragedy of what happened in history as a result of real Nazis, they reveal themself as the lame thinker that they are.
Read up on what real Nazis did. Denying some information request for a technical reason (witness all of Slashdot pretending to know the "real" reasons when it could very well be a database-in-transition issue) has nothing to do with being a "cocksucker," believing in Jesus (not that it's a bad thing, right, "open-minded" liberals?), or being a Nazi. Take that gutter ball political garbage somewhere else.
Has anyone McCarthy accused of being a commie been cleared?
Has anyone McCarthy accused of being a commie been found guilty using records from the ex-Soviets or declassified US info? Oh wait, I know that one, yes.
There were serious forces trying to undermine the US government under the direction of the Soviet government from the mid-30's on, including FDR cabinet members. This man was determined to root them out.
09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0
I don't know quite how these things tend to play in the states, but over here I would read this as "that database on which we spent X millions of your money is in fact total crap and we couldn't find our arses with both hands"
While most readers will [probably correctly] take this to be a rather poor government whitewash, it could equally be a sign that the government's IT strategy has been fragmented and piecemeal for ages.
This tends to happen in democratic nations because big IT contracts, like other government contracts, tend to go to companies favoured by the extant administration (despite all the charming fiction about open tendering).
When a new administration is eventually voted in, it's time for them to pay back various favours to certain friendly companies, and so new expenditure will be announced.
The end result of this is government departments and organisations each with their own mishmash of systems with no thought at all given to interoperability.
The chances of them ever getting their shit together enough to collate everything into a massive uber-database with every record on every citizen in the UK is nil, so I'm not that worried.
Like I said, I don't know the situation in the States vis-a-vis government records, but everywhere in the world, governments all share the same founding principles of confusion and inertia.
That, and there's waaay more people in the USA. 5x population = at least 5x records = a lot more than 5x complexity.
All that being said, this remains a transparent and contemptible display of ass-covering by Ashcroft..
"I refuse to trade my freedom for cold comfort."
If you don't want it.? I'll take your Air Conditioning.
gzip directory/* | //network/share/file.gz
Overloading the DOJ servers at this crucial time during the War on Terror could bring critical network communications to a halt, making America vulnerable to terrorist activity.
To justify anything nowadays you have to use the "t" word.
It's intended to give the Government full access to information across it's many levels - not so the public can access it..
Really, who are we trying to fool here? The Gov't is not going to release anything it considers useful for at least 50-100 years.
Sorry, I guess I dont have much faith in the legal system when Judges and Gov't officials can outweigh the will of the people - this is not the America I was born in....frankly its more like the Russia I remember as a kid and thinking 'I sure am glad I live here in a Free Country'..... Now I sit here and wonder when an 'honest' Judicial/Governmental system will come around and really think about the people's needs instead of who's lining their pocket book..
I'm not holding my breath on this being released - because the Gov't is more paranoid about giving up data than p2p users are in sharing in public places, lol.
"Free speech exercised both individually and through a free press, is a necessity in any country where people are themselves free."
-- Theodore Roosevelt, 1918
"The truth is found when men are free to pursue it."
-- Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1936
"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."
-- George Orwell, 1945
"Any time we deny any citizen the full exercise of his constitutional rights, we are weakening our own claim to them."
-- Dwight David Eisenhower, 1963
"What is objectionable, what is dangerous about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant."
-- Robert F. Kennedy, 1964
"Go fuck yourself."
-- Dick Cheney, 2004
First of all, I can't believe anyone with a brain would try to use an open database during a software upgrade. I know ours won't let anyone log in during the upgrade process. I can't believe how lame this whole discussion is. Even though I *really* don't like some of Ashcroft's decisions, he's still better than the former by far. Anyway...
B A C K U P
Hasn't anyone thought about this??? Good grief. I NEVER work on a live database. We ALWAYS work from backups no matter what we're doing with them. I'm stunned that an excuse like this would even be spoken by someone in IT. "Oh yeah, it'll crash my system if I make that BACKUP/export that information... so I don't make backups or do exports...". Backup, export, whatever. If the system is that unstable whoever's running it should have a backup every hour or a darned good alternative job plan when it does crash.
I'm sorry I sound pissy, but it just irritates me to no end when people don't use simple common sense.
Have you hugged your penguin today?
> use software which has contractual support, is secure and massively scalable
From all indications, it seems pretty safe to say you're wrong on all 3 counts.
Or maybe they want to use something cobbled together by the company run by someones nephew, who really did such a nice job with the campaign posters in the last election cycle, and you know what? he promised he would just give a huge chunk of the money right back to the party, anyways.
Remember Jonny: Only Satan blows smoke up peoples' asses.
One of the scariest things about this administration is the sheer lack of transparency. While all governments like hiding things, this one seems to think that the public has no right to know anything, of course for their own good. Even Congress seems to be out of the info loop! Everytime someone tries to ask them for transparency or information they stonewall them sometimes with ridiculous reasons like this (or by swearing at them aka. our vice-president). Combine this with laws that reduce rights of ordinary citizens (aka. Patriot Act) and how they are trying to increasingly concentrate power in the hands of the President (who seems to think that Congressional and Judicial oversight of his activities is a bad thing) who professes the theory that a President is legally allowed to do anything to foreign and US citizens eg. torture, infinitely holding them, invading a country etc. and the only reason he doesn't do it is because he's nice (rather than because it's say illegal to torture someone) and America is heading towards dangerous waters.
Officials subject to Constitutional Advise and Consent are impeachable. However, as we know, getting a blow job and not sharing is the only impeachable offense currently recognized by the Greedy Old Perverts.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
I post humorously. That really improves my karma.
___
It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
How long ago were you running MySQL? I've never used the INNODB table handler but when my DB have been running on a stable system the DB has been fine... when the whole system was unstable there were problems but never unrecoverable. Postgres never seemed to have the SELECT performance we needed but I have not re-checked in a while.
Underloved Movies and Pub Quiz: donotquestionme.org
... and not the spirit of the law all they have to do is make access available over a single 300 baud modem line where no one entity can be on for more than 5 minutes.
Security through obscurity. A government tradition.
We have how many unemployed IT professionals in this country and those idiots can't even replicate to a read only database.
I'll probably be labeled as a terrorist for this post, and summarily arrested and imprisoned without a trail
Would you be so kind and give us, Mr. 99, your name and address? We have some problems to track your real irentity...
Sincerely,
Ashcroft
why the rest of the world believes you are not living in a "free society". Maybe NATO should invade your country and free you for your opressors.
So maybe this implies the DoJ keeps their records on a quantum computer? ;-)
make world, not war
"Has anyone McCarthy accused of being a commie been cleared?"
Fred Fisher.
And fuck you.
The next remark is false. The previous remark is true.
http://www.usdoj.gov/oip/foia_updates/Vol_XVII_4/p age1.htm
"Second, the amendments will require agencies to use electronic information technology to enhance the availability of their reading room records. They specify that for any newly created reading room records (i.e., "records created on or after November 1, 1996"), an agency must make them available to the public by "electronic means." 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(2). The amendments embody a strong statutory preference that this new electronic availability be provided by agencies in the form of on-line access, which can be most efficient for both agencies and the public alike, and they allow until November 1, 1997 for it to be provided. To meet this new requirement through on-line access, agencies should have Internet or World Wide Web sites prepared to serve this "electronic reading room" function by no later than that date. "
What am I missing here? Why are they allowed to act like the FOI act and the Internet were just invented last Tuesday, and they haven't had time to comply?
Perhaps it's not as simple as that. From what the DOJ seems to be saying, extracting and compiling a report of this size using the existing interface could, quite understandably, render the system unstable. In theory, then, such a system may behave unpredictably and could potentially damage the database. That would, of course, imply that the DOJ database is built on unstable, outdated technology--but we already knew that. They're working to improve that, but it will take many years and millions of dollars.
The reporters aren't asking for (nor are they entitled to) a complete backup of the database. That would be comparatively easy to provide, but is obviously out of the question, as it would include much more than just the authorized content.
Perhaps they'd have better luck if they made a whole bunch of small queries: Instead of saying "send me everything you've got", they could say "Send me all relevant content for August 1947", then "Send me all relevant content for September 1947", and so on.
You could argue that the instead of forcing the reporters to take the time and money to make thousands of small, separate requests, they should be able to make a single blanket request and have the government office subdivide it internally. However, such an assumption would not take into consideration the fact that you're working with a government office that is only helping you because they're required to by law. Give them a single excuse to say no and they won't hesitate to give you nothing at all.
"With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine. However, this is not necessarily a good idea...."
RFC 1925
when he said "will crash the system" he really ment "will crash The System" .... ie having the people know more about what the government is doing is inherently bad for having a well run govt. and besides if we find out who's paying off who it might be made to stop
lie thru your teeth about somthing you know nothing about..WTG US GOVt.
If the data is so bloody critical IT HAD BETTER BE BACKED UP ON A REGULAR BASIS, Make one of the backups available for retore and public perusal, I'd think that 30 day opld data would be sufficient for most uses.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
I was going to add SCO, but I was worried that by referencing SCO I might destroy records critical to the effort against SCO.
Maybe they're quantum databases containing all possible information, and actually looking at them to copy them would collapse the possibilities into only one state.
Best. Comment. Ever. Enjoy!
There one was a datavault built on compartively unusual hardware which operated post-maintenance for many years, it was an insanity to empty because the vendor did not do Gigabit ethernet for it and the 100 MBit cards were scrounged from the vendor's junk-pile. Sucking terrabytes of data from crappy, second qaulity NICs took months. So negligence rather than conspiracy might be the actual reason.
Xix.
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
Pizza pie!
Creative Demolition
Florida pulled a really fast one on the entire nation. While everyone was talking about hanging chads, dimpled chads, and killer-ninja chads, we missed the real point. The chads made a few thousand votes indeterminate.
But we got so caught up in them that we missed the 10's of thousands of black voters who were erroneously classified as felons and denied their right to vote. It's a simple search on Google to see some things about it, and the classification was done in what appeared to be a deliberately incompetent manner.
So maybe the electronic voting machines will be used to throw the election.
Or maybe the electronic voting machines will be a smokescreen for some other shenanigans.
Or maybe we're all seeing conspiracies where there are none.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
I believe they misquoted Thomas J. McIntyre at the top of the article. This should have read:
"Implementing such a request risks a crash of our Administration that cannot be fixed and could result in a major loss of credibility, which would be devastating to our hopes of being reelected."
Notice that they will be able to supply this information in December, which is conveniently after November.
This could work out like Nixon's tapes though; the fact that this information exists and the current administration is withholding it from us could be enough evidence to damn them in the court of public opinion.
Back at home like about 20 years ago the city building code inspection and enforcement team was visiting the house like once every 6 months.
Long story short it was during finals and when someone would get on the roof to fix it.
Once the requests got petty (Example: Repaint the house) she went to the city to get a complete copy of the building code.
They had nothing but excuses. "It's too expensive, too hard, Can't be done".
So she got ahold of one of a city counclemen and he informs her they had the book behind the desk to give to anyone who asked.
That was 20 years ago. A few years later once he's out of office he mentions realistate fraud in the city offices.
Today it's not a problem. It's all on the city website.
I think this time ALL the DB venders could get together to deminstrate how it's not a problem with the products THEY sell.
High time someone challanged them on the "the computer can't handle it" excuses.
I don't actually exist.
Homework that eats itself? That's at least college level material.
I mean co'mon, it used to be you took at least ten seconds to figgure out exactly how the government was BS'ing you, they're not even trying anymore!!
I stole this Sig
oh man this is TOO FUNNY!
"The government said an overhaul of the system should be finished by December and copies should be available then."
Hmm, lemme see here, big ole elections are in NOVEMBER.
foreign lobbyists, uh huh, sure.... all on the up and up... no shenanigans here with letting FOREIGN PEOPLE give money to DOMESTIC politicians. Nope, don't need to see no data there! I'm sure it's all in order and it's just a temporary glitch!
Another AMAZING coincidence produced for your enjoyment by DieNeoConStarBold
Remember Citizens! Trust us, or the terrorists have won!
heh heh heh heh heh
Just another example of how the government and private compinies don't know how to properley use technology. Haven't they ever heard of BitTorrent? If they used that then there would be no problem making this information available.
411 Y0UR 8453 4R3 8310NG 70 U5!! -NSA
Just more BS coming out of our DoJ. Hahaha DoJ what a joke. In my opinion this cannot be fixed by voting people into office, the only fix is revolution (evolution perhaps).
This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it. -- Abraham Lincoln
Where do we start? How do I sign up? (hello echelon)
*DrugCheese rants*
If you can't handle the mod system on Slashdot, FARK is always in need of another moron to post in in their threads.
That which can be explained by incompetance.
Really, the amount of conspiracy theories and Ashcroft bashing here is really ridiculous. I suspect that the system probably is FUBAR'd, possibly beyond the chance of recovery. We've all seen before how government agencies let their computer systems slip into really bad shape if it has nothing to do with getting revenue.
Odds are it's some proprietary database format some senator's son came up with and sold them, and it really can't handle massive downloads. Or worse yet it has been wiped by accident and they're just playing CYA.
I think he meant to write SSN# No. Number.:)
Is this a sigs-optional kind of place? 'Cause I am totally down with that if you know what I mean.
From your post ...
...
Please equate Ashcroft to being a "Nazi,"
From the FA
The Center for Public Integrity sought information about lobbying activities available under the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act, a 1938 law passed in response to German propaganda before World War II.
At the time (1938), for those of you too young to know, Germany was run by the Nazis.
I know there's a conspiracy in there somewhere, but I'd probably have to file a FOI request to find it.
Infuriate left and right
... and then down. And then up a couple of times, then down one more by a stickler for on-topic posts. Then down to zero by one pissed off moderator using all his points at once. Slowly climb back to +3. Down again. Up again. Down. Up. Down. Finally, when the story is 13 days old and the editors have already posted a couple of duplicates, sneak in and mod it up to +5, Insightful.
Hey, if they won't give me mod points, I can at least be a Back Seat Moderator!
I read it as "You can have the data, but not until we've removed anything you may be remotely interested in".
Relevant quote from article: Ashcroft's policy lets officials withhold information on any "sound legal basis." Under looser policies issued in 1993, agencies could hold back information to prevent "foreseeable harm."
DJ kRYPT's Free MP3s!
FOIA requestors are required to bear the reasonable additional costs of information rerieval and transcription. Try it sometime.
Phbt, as if.
Justice Dept management: "So what do we use to store our stuff on?"
Tech: "Well, at the moment, just a bunch of disks."
Justice Dept management: "well shit, that's not going to sound very good in the report. Just a...hmm..we'll call it, JABOD!"
Assistant: whisper whisper acronym-making regulations (AMRs) whisper
Justice Dept management: "Right! JBOD!"
Please help metamoderate.
Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity.
The Cheney administration can't even lie competently.
Actually, I think the whole 'enemy combatants' thing (Guantanamo prisoners outside both US, and International law) is another great example of how ready the Executive is to side-step the established systems of the country, whenever they feel like it. Remember that we put these guys in power to work for us! Actually...
"lib-leftie wing-nut, but"
:)
Evil right wing conspericy conservitive pagan here
I have a theroy as to why so many Slashdotters are Democrats and folow blindly.
1. The democratic party tends to have this "We are experts do as we say or else" addatude.
2. The alterntive (the republican party) has this whole bent of "Well Microsoft is a company and people can choise to not buy Microsofts product".
Of that I can only say:
1. Why support a political party who is usually in support of censorship and other agendas where Slashdot is usually on the other side.
2. Yeah right I chouse to buy Microsoft Windows when I buy my PC to install Linux. Yep. Becouse I can see all those OsLess and Linux PCs at the computer store and wow look at all those PCs with out Windows preinstalled.
Last time I went to the store I think I saw ONE Macintosh and it was hidden away from the rows on rows of PCs the salemen always take people when they ask about getting a new computer.
"No sir thats all we have".
Actually there IS 1 other reason...
The CDA drafted and crafted by the democratic party actually won strong and vocal support from the REPUBLICAN party.
(The CDA for those with short attention spans was the law to censor the Internet of "objectionable" matreal).
The democrats knew most people would misunderstand what "objectionable" would mean in law. Sadly the entire republican party were amoung those people. However Slashdotters were not.
I don't actually exist.
Yes, it's true that not all fascists are Nazis.
It must also be true that Hitler wasn't really Hitler until the six-millionth Jew was murdered by the state. Up until that time he wore his "Gott Mit Uns" beltbuckle with pride and proclaimed "I'm not really Hitler so stop saying that!"
Heaven forbid any "good German" should actually look at the conditions and attitudes that led inexorably to the atrocities of autocratic power (that corrupts) in order to prevent any such abuses, regardless of scale, in the future. Let's just wait until the six-millionth 'evil-doer' is murdered, huh?
Yeah. That's rational. (Sheesh!)
He's finally down to "-1 Troll". Good...
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
Why does annointing himself with oil make him a "jesus-psycho"? This is normal practice for many Pentecostal Christians. They were common in my home town so this practice doesn't strike me as unusual. If you've never encountered Pentecostals before, it might seem weird. But from my perspective it's no more unusual than Catholics not eating meat on Fridays or Amish growing beards.
Ashcroft is not asking anyone else to annoint themselves. It is not a requirement for anyone in the Justice department. It is his own personal decision. It affects no one else.
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
"I've never used the INNODB table handler but when my DB have been running on a stable system the DB has been fine"
Well he did say he was using INNODB, which is required if you want transactions, etc.
If you're not using transactions, you're probably better off using a database like SQLite.
(Also, MySQL with InnoDB is slower than PostgreSQL. Rollbacks are O(n), etc. It's horrible.)
They set us up the dirty bomb!
You know what?
Better sooner than later.
Well as the AG of the US, Ashcroft is in charge of the Justice Department and along with his boss, Dubya, is ultimately responsible for the policies that drive such decisions. So it's perfectly fair to bring up his name in an article relating to the actions of DoJ.
Fine I won't make fun of the fact that he believes in Jesus, but can I still make fun of his fear of calico cats, fear of the breast of Justice , the ritual annoiting in cooking oil for every office he takes or for his musical stylings?
"Listen: We are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you any different!" - Kurt Vonnegut
... would seem to be obvious. Require that they cease and desist in the obsessive collection of massive amounts of surveillance data that does not serve the public interest. They're clearly in possession of far more data than they can resonably use in the interests of Justice.
Most Slashdot visitors are Democrats? Out of what orifice did you pull this anecdotal statistic? See, because in my experience, most Slashdot visitors seem to be libertarians who probably vote Republican. But I bet it's really about half and half like the nation at large. Not counting the international Slashdot visitors...
The government said an overhaul of the system should be finished by December and copies should be available then.
Yes! Right after the Elections!
Funny how that works
to be fair, i think they're all psycho :-)
pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
The internal memo that describes the "technical problem" that prevents releasing the data.
Ummm.... I'm liberal and i didn't find the above really all that funny or informative.
I think instead of assuming that the people that mod such tripe up are "liberal" you might want to consider the possiblity that they might instead belong to the "stupidity" party. There are plenty of both liberal and conservative members.
Trust me, stupidity and ignorance is hardly a market the slashdot lefties have cornered.
Rumor has it executives from Digital::Convergence have been meeting with Bush administration officials. Could a proposal to re-activate the 'Cat' as a mechanism for tracking every taxpayer be in the works? Imagine a government and big business ploy to track every consumer/taxpayer with a barcode on their physical person!
Certainly barcoding each tax return would be nonunique; with a social security number uniquely identifying a filer. Could a more intrusive human barcode be in the works? In 1999, the USPTO issued a patent for an invisible human barcode. Armed with millions of CueCats, tax men and merchants worldwide could track the movement of money (and people!).
According to MoveOn.org (and posts on AlGoreDemocrats.org), Michael Moore has been circulating a draft of a script to follow Sicko (currently in the works about the US medical system) called 'Beep This' which exposes the Bush administration's bar code plans with Digital Convergence. Rumor has it part of Microsoft's DoJ settlement with the Clinton Justice Dept. involved Microsoft's endorsement of bar coding plans already under consideration. Of course, Kerry's big business connections (including campaign contributions from major chinese barcode manufacturers) doesn't look good either.
I can't show the IRS my records, because they'll vanish if I access them. But trust me, I've paid all my taxes.
The political excuse of this time appears to be something like "I'm a useless idiot so it isn't my fault - and I didn't know about the money no matter how many people told me". An excuse like that should not be acceptable.
This current excuse that letting people look at things will let all the smoke out of the magic box is just childish.
In the city where I live a state government department (not in USA) has a wharehouse full of boxes with dates marked on them, and no other form of identification. These boxes have been building up for decades, and all of the paperwork is effectively inaccessable.The paperwork involving lobbying is undoubtably a different story - we got to see the Nixon-Saharto connection (Indonesion president - big donation one day proir to the invasion of Timor) when the paperwork was released recently, but the information would have been a tightly gaurded secret back in 1975 since it could have brought down the government sooner.
"If men strive and hurt a woman with child so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow, he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life."
The verse literally says 'seed depart from her'. This doesnt bring to mind visions of a miscarrage to me. Rather, its refuring to a premature birth.
So men fight and hit a pregnant woman. If this forces her into labor early, but the child is fine, the man pays whatever fine the judges determine. However, if mischief follows, (the child dies) he's to pay life for life.
The punishment for killing someone, intentionally or on accident is already layed out. If this is just the same thing, and the child doesnt matter, why state it again? Rather, it's put there to emphasize the point of the child's life being important as well.
See, as a friend of the RIAA and MPAA Herr John has already implemented internally at the Justice Department the iLobby database that only allows the key to a purchased Senator to be Authorized two three computers.
.Lacky file out on a P2P basis they will have to repurchase the .Lackey at full price. They will also be subject to prosecution for Unlawfully Acting in the Public Interest, a class 1 felonly only slightly less severe than Hanging Offense of Copying "The Little Mermaid" onto disposable disk so your 3 year old won't destroy the original.
The FBI, the CIA, and the RNC alrealy have their coppies and if they let the
(No wonder these people think copying data is a crime, they think the Xerox(tm) machine is a deeper mistery.)
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
- Rigged electronic voting machines? Check.
- Restore voting rights to grateful felons? Check.
- Mass citizenship for right-wing Cubans? Check.
- Janet Rehnquists's phone number? Check.
- Out-of-state alibi for election eve? Check.
Yep, Florida has its shit together. Bring it on!
We can, at least trade one group of bad leaders for another. There must be a lot of embarrasment potential for pre elelctions in there.
I would guess the Bin Laden/Saudi-Bush entries would cause a bit of a problem...Rumsfelds Iraqi bio-chem weapons sales to eradicate Iranians, etc.
I think if they just said, 'Fsck off! We are above any more disclosure, peasants!' I would respect them more.
Must have a hair trigger on that database. I hear that can blow enough sectors out of a cylinder to take down a domain at full gallop.
Doesn't this imply that they never backup their system because that would make it crash? And if they do make backups why not just hand over one of those?
Of course the real answer is that they just don't want anyone to have that information.
Why do we still have to make a request for government information in this digital age we live in? If it's not classified as secret, why isn't the information just always available on-line?
gzip directory/* | //network/share/file.gz
I don't even know where to begin telling you what's wrong with that.
Hard to say, over-rated IS an abused mod, I've seen it. Pretty shure I got hit once or twice myself.
The problem isn't really whether he is over/underrated (currently 1,insightfull). It's the fact that under/over-rated don't get meta-modded.
If a moderator honestly thinks a post deserves to be modded down, (s)he should have the guts to subject himself to meta-mod. Also over/under-rated should be fixed. There are, rare, valid reasons to use them, but with the no-metamod glitch they get abuse as political tools rather than honest moderating.
Mycroft
https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4c3ed6600b6ea
'Knows not to press 'Complete database download' button...
....
Job Title: Information Technology Specialist
Announcement Number: 04-01-WV034
Salary Range: $48,947 - $76,261 (GS 11/12)
Vacancies: 3
Occupation Code: 2210
Promotion Potential: GS 12
Opening Period: 06/17/2004 - 07/01/2004
Duty Location: Clarksburg, WV
Area of Consideration: All Sources
Salary:
GS 11: $48,947 - $63,629
GS 12: $58,665 - $76,261
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
GS 11/12: Assists with the development, implementation and management of the CAU
Information Technology (IT) security audit program to ensure that system, network
and data users comply with the Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS)
Security Policy. Performs pre-audit preparations by assisting with the design of
IT system queries/test scenarios based on having thorough knowledge of the
outcomes that would result from those queries/test scenarios when CJIS security
policies and procedures are being complied with. During the audit, instructs
agency personnel to execute the IT system queries/test scenarios or
interrogatories prepared above to assess, evaluate and verify that CJIS system
users and contributors IT systems' hardware, software, etc., are in compliance
with CJIS security policies and procedures. Reviews CJIS system users and
contributors IT systems' security contingency plans and disaster recovery
procedures to identify additional actions/planning required for compliance with
the CJIS Security Policy and/or industry standards and requirements. Conducts
security policy risks assessments of CJIS system users and contributors, and
compiles data for the Contract Administration Office's risk assessment that
ensures continual certification and accreditation of all CJIS systems. Prepares
post-audit recommendations for changes/improvements to CJIS system users and/or
contributors IT practices, policies, and procedures when system queries/test
scenarios demonstrate that the IT systems are not in compliance with the CJIS
Security Policy.
QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS:
APPLICANTS MUST MEET THE QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS BY THE CLOSING DATE OF THIS
ANNOUNCEMENT.
GS 11: One year of Specialized Experience (as described below) equivalent to at
least the GS-9 level or three full years of progressively higher level graduate
education or Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree. Also, see Selective Placement
Factor below.
If attempting to qualify by substituting education in lieu of Specialized
Experience, copies of college transcripts must be attached to the Basic
Requirements Sheet. Education completed in foreign colleges or universities may
be used to meet the above requirements provided you can show that the foreign
education is comparable to that received in an accredited educational institution
in the United States.
Education used to qualify for this position must demonstrate a Major study in one
of the following fields: computer science, information science, information
systems management, mathematics, statistics, operations research, or engineering,
or course work that required the development or adaptation of computer programs
and systems and provided knowledge equivalent to a major in the computer field.
GS 12: One year of Specialized Experience (as described below) equivalent to at
least the GS-11 level. Education is not applicable at this level. Also, see
Selective Placement Factor below.
SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE:
GS 11: Experience that demonstrated accomplishment of computer project
assignments that required a range of knowledge of computer requirements and
techniques. For example, assignments would show, on the basis of general design
criteria provided, experience in developing modifications to parts of a system
that required significant revisions in the logic or techniques used in the
original development. Accomplishments, normally involve
sig mind freed
he's not wearing his tin foil hat
"He's the Attorney General. The American people deserve better than this."
OK, so he's a modern day J. Edgar Hoover.
The truly telling part is that they say they will be able to release all the requested data AFTER THE ELECTION.
But before then:
1 - They can not release CURRENT data on FOREIGN influence peddling.
2 - Pay no attention to the movie/documentary Fareinheight 9-11, which SHOWS EVIDENCE of the President of being BOUGHT by BILLIONS in Saudi Arabian dollars.
They must be using write-only memory.
You know, kinda like read-only memory; only different.
The article does not go into how old the information is, but if the information is on very old, brittle tapes or some other type of dilapidated media, then simply reading from that media might cause physical damage, in the same way that turning the pages of a very old book might cause the page to crumble to pieces.
It really was some security script they used that they don't want to tell us about that really could start wiping the database if a request ever came to dump all. In that case an earlier post that said smaller requests should be made and that would be the solution.
The Justice Department's IT division has been one of the great success stories of WOM technology.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
The DOJ's response would be grounds for filing a motion for contempt of court.
"We're in the middle of a system upgrade, wait until December -- the election should be over by then."
well ?
and make a spare copy while we are at it ?
you think it's easy, but you're wrong...
probably a lot, considering I don't use it.
Then again, someone refreshing my memory would help.
from Dictionary.com
lien
The right to take and hold or sell the property of a debtor as security or payment for a debt...
Best regards,
"Foreign Lobbyists"
Maybe that explains why nothing ever changes in the bureaucracy that is our government: Everyone in IT is too scared to migrate off of the antequated and obfuscated LISP and COBOL which keeps everything running. When you work for the state, time and technology move along at _very_ different paces.
"The government said an overhaul of the system should be finished by December and copies should be available then."
:)
Umm.. if ya'll can wait til after the election, we can give you all the info you want
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
Everything in Dean's book could very well be true or it could be compleat fiction. Save doing all the research yourself you don't know.
Actually DO read it so you know where he stands and how he thinks. If you agree with him then vote for the guy. Vote with knowladge.
But in that for goddess sake DO NOT take anything the guy says for the gospel truth.
Don't take anything Bush says as the truth.
Yeah it gose for Ashcroft but I don't think anybody needs to be told that now....
As you read this, you are likely to have a trillion bacteria feasting on your dead skin. If you shower or bathe, especially if you use soap, you'll kill several billion of them. Each of these bacteria are ALIVE!
Lincoln's act was equally indefensible. The Civil War was completely unconstitutional and, contrary to high school history myth, was _not_ fought to defeat slavery. No provision of the Constitution bars states from leaving a union that they freely entered into, and the express implications (from the Founders' writings) would indicate that the opposite was true--that the individual states would always retain this privilege.
As for Lincoln, he knew that he lacked the authority to abolish slavery, and he never did so. Have you read the Emancipation proclamation? It did _not_ free the slaves and was intended only as a temporary economic punishment for the rebellious states. Note that the three slave states that remained in the Union did not lose their slaves until the passage of the 13th amendment.
Besides, even had Lincoln wished to carry on with an illegal war against American citizens*, he could just as easily have re-located the capital to New York (where it was initially) and let Maryland secede; suspending the Constitution to 'save' it sounds like fragile and specious reasoning to this historian.
* Note that, as the Confederate States were never recognised as an independent nation, the United States Army was utilised in a 'war' against American citizens, in flagrant violation of the Constitution. Lincoln was indeed a great man in many respects, but his actions shredded the Constitution and completely re-fashioned the executive branch and its purview.
+++++++
"Look, dear, it's a crazy hairy scary man!"
This implies that they are not backing up the database. If they are, then just hand over a backup. How can handing a tape to someone cause the backed up system to crash?
Or maybe it's not the software that is the "system" that they are saying will "crash." Maybe it's their system of keeping secrets that will crash. (paranoid enough for ya?)
While I lament you spell-check woes I you missed the best part of this troll's post.
No, then we'd have government run by professional bureaucrats who are all appointed, and completely unanswerable to the voters.
I'm not sure how this would work. If you continue to always have every office filled by someone who had never been there before, IE always voteing the incumbents out, then how would you end up with a "government run by professional bureaucrats?"
There is another reply to your orignal post that goes along these same lines as if voteing against incumbents will leave our goverment in chaos. And while I will acknowladge that to a point it is not a great idea to fill up our "leadership", my there is a laugh unto itself, positions with a bunch of noobs the bottom line that I think your driveing at is that you don't reward incompetence and/or not acknowledge accountability.
It takes a blind man, or a brainwashed one by the media who sadly are very skilled at that trade right now, to see that the system is broken. I have to fight the urge every day to become like you, someone who writes letters only to see them dismissed because I'm just some pleeb. Somehow if I don't become too much a part of the system I can hate it more efficently. But the sad truth is that unless I try and do something nothing will change at all and that will not work either. Ok, I've ranted enough and now I need a drink.
Really, I know what I'm doing...Ohhhh, look at the shiny buttons!
Now there's an established precedent for other large databases to be non-discloseable, i.e. ;-)
"No, Mr. Ashcroft, I can't give you {my list of '2600' subscribers} / {my ISP customers' DHCP logs} / {my library-card-holders' book-borrowing history}
because it would crash my database."
As for the responder who said od Ashcroft, "but I've had it with this guy": how can anything like this really surprise you by now? It's an anti-populace [sic] mentality that starts at the top and pervades throughout this President's administration. To paraphrase , "It's turd-els, all the way down." They no longer have even the decency to feign shame or embarassment at the lameness and transparency of their evasions. ("We don't need no stinkin' justifications!")
Another responder said, "the FOIA requestor isn't entitled to request the entire DB backup".
Errmmm, why not? How is that different from having the right to request all the separate entries individually? It's a DB of FOREIGN LOBBYISTS, for pete's sake -- what could be in it that we shouldn't be allowed to see?
A suggestion for the original FOIA requestors: change the form of your request. IANAL, but I know of nothing in the FOI Act which bars requests for info which didn't exist until the day *after* the request is made. "OK, Mr Ashcroft, let's do this instead. Surely your people must be using this DB for something, right? OK, my request is, for the next week, whenever your people update or access the DB, I'd like a hard-copy. A screen-print will be fine, thank you. I'll even loan you a camera to capture the screen image. And btw, I'll be back each week with an identical request, until your DB is 'stable'."
Message to John Ashcroft: Go fuck yourself.
InnerWeb
Freud might say that Intelligent Design is religion's ID.
That is just absolutely dumbfounding. I hope my fellow americans take into account that voting for Bush or Kerry won't help. Find an alternative you can live with.
I guess they discovered a new "feature' to Windows. It is possible however that the information they are speaking of is not completely under their control, but perhaps under the control of another party against the release of the requested information. But I think it is more logical that the government has a special build of windows that destroys everything if anything is copied. This is not a bug, its a feature!
... memory and had to rewire it, using cheap PRC labor with suitable profits for crony middlemen. (It fills a couple of old blimp hangers near a hydroeletric dam and has the side benefit of warming a few swimming pools.)
But they forgot about the write-after-read circuits.
Ooops!
If he read Hebrew, he'd understand that Old Testament annointing oil is Kaneh Bosim, or hempseed oil.
Ben Masel: 51,282 votes for US Senate in the Wisconsin Democratic Primary
You accuse liberals of not arguing, yet you site not a single fact. And you don't even come close to the topic. The topic was the DoJ not releasing information. The conversation turned to Bush because so far he has fought the FOIA many times to hide things from us, the reasons are up to you. What you said is unnecessary, and close to libel. Hence I think it was fair that you recieved that rating. (btw. party affiliation, and "sexual skeletons" do not go hand in hand)
RIAA and the MPAA, putting the "F U" in "fair use".
I believe Juanita
Or maybe the FIFA was really just intended for the commoners to feel like they are informed, while in reality it was never intended for US to use.
The hero or villain (as the case may be) pulls too much data out of the computer system too fast and soon sparks fly and the whole thing goes up in smoke. This kind of "system overload" is going to be a real problem with computers 10-20 years down the line, as Hollywood has shown us. The computers at the DOJ are just a little ahead of their time.
Seriously.
If they try to extract the named data, the database will crash. Of this I have no doubt. Why? Hehe.
It's not a bug. It's a feature.
--Dan
I'm utterly ashamed that I am from a country that would so blatantly lie to their people like this. It's totally insulting to the intelligence of anyone who's evolved beyond a single-celled creature. Then again, this is a sad, poigniant testimonial to how ignorant and apathetic Americans have become. It's really a shame that people aren't outraged that their government would act so despicable.
You can probably get a glimpse as to what they reveal by going to see Michael Moore's movie, "Fahrenheit 9/11" which documents a number of Bush's funding sources and lobbyist friends, not the least of which is the entire Bin Laden family. No doubt this BS the DoJ is feeding people is designed to hide that fact, but Moore's film exposes it. Go see the movie and tell your friends to go see it - it's obvious FOI will be useless while Bush is in office, and Moore's movie also documents changes in FOI policy that have begun to be implemented to further hide Bush's ties to foreign lobbyists. Even if you don't like Moore, you can't deny the evidence that is overwhelming in this movie that the mainstream media is conveniently ignoring.
Some get marked "classified" instantly. Some of the classified stuff may actually get downgraded (because of age or lack of relevance in the current time period). Some formerly public stuff (that at one time was classified, then made public later) has actually been made classified again. In some cases, this was wholly successful (and we will never know what cases those were), all public copies having been retrieved or destroyed. In other cases, the public has won (or been sceded to) - such as the case of the Economist and the H-Bomb plans...
Those papers that are allowed through, then have to be copied, read, blacked out (ie, redaction), then copied again. Most of the stuff isn't even on computer - it is still large warehouses of paper and tons of copy machines.
One huge, ancient, creaky and wasteful system - just like every other part of our lovely government...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
If you want to get an idea of what information they have in their database, go see Michael Moore's movie, "Fahrenheit 9/11" - it details a lot of the information that these FOI requests would likely provide, and he documents some interesting cases of censorship specifically designed to hide Bush's dealings with lots of Arab benefactors.
A flat SSN does not make sounds. In the way of becoming flat though because of the pressure exerted by water at these depths, a submarine makes sounds.
I guess like a coke can, just lasting longer.
I'm still trying to figure out what people mean by 'social skills' here.
Now, would you please help me explain it to the apathetic morons who make up the majority of the American public?
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
"See, because in my experience, most Slashdot visitors seem to be libertarians who probably vote Republican except when Republicans threaten their civil liberties"
It sucks that I'm going to have to vote for Kerry, but I'd vote for Micky Mouse* if I thought he could beat Bush
*that'd be close, though, since I hate Disney (for copyright extensions) too
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Yeah. Um.. Those responsible for the abuses aren't U.S. Troops.
They're independent, private contractors.
So, technically, The Solicitor General wasn't telling a lie. Welcome to politics, where your aversion and misunderstanding of doublespeak is something you'll have to check at the door, but only if you're a Citizen.
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
However, from the phrasing it sounds like data loss would be permanent and irreversible. I think that answers my question.
This brings new meaning to "working within the system". I foresee a flurry of unusual requests from the public to assorted government agencies.
The difference is that he made it part of a public ceremony.
What it says to me is "I'm entering power as a representative of Pentacostal Christianity," rather than "I'm entering power as a representative of all citizens of the United States"
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Said Ashcroft, "I don't pretend to understand Ashcroft's Law, I merely enforce it."
"Oppression and harassment is a small price to pay to live in the land of the free." -- Montgomery Burns.
Usually I use the over-rated option where I'd really like to use an Incorrect option.
The over/under-rated options are there to correct bad moderation as it happens, the meta-moderation to correct for the future.
I never realised moderations of over/under-rated were not meta-moderated.
"A goldfish was his muse, eternally amused"
Germans voted for Hitler, reluctantly.
Of course, it's more convenient to only point fingers at those whose politics you disagree with.
Almost as convenient as making unfounded and incorrect claims to defend your favorite politician.
Read some discussion on the differences beween the Ashcroft and Reno DoJ and come back and tell me that the Bush administration smells as sweet as the Clinton administration.
May we never see th
Also over/under-rated should be fixed. There are, rare, valid reasons to use them
Rare? What about the common case where someone is modded Informative but their post is heavily flawed and liable to mislead? They aren't trolling, it's not flamebait, the post isn't offtopic... it's just wrong. What's a moderator to do?
The DOJ outsourced this DB architecture
in the early 1990's to a then little
known foreign company, al something,
run by a nice looking guy, named Ben,
in a small middle eastern country and
the price was really cheap. The DOJ was
so happy to have saved so much money
for the taxpayers. Only one problem with
the finished work was that they
forgot to include a routine for
making backups.
Female Prison Rape in NY
If God says 'before I formed you in the womb' this contradicts, rather than supports, the notion that life begins at conception. Emphasis on "before." Of course, guys can do what they want. It's not until the problem becomes a woman's problem that people actually want someone to be responsible for their actions.
___
It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
Maybe we should tell John Ashcroft about open source database and copying solutions?
And he'd listen?
Just do your job and vote the summabitches out of office and the world will thank you.
It's been a long four years and the planet can't survive four more and neither can you.
No, the left has fallen apart in this country because the right succeeded in making minimum wage heartland American's in trailer parks believe that the left enjoys killing babies, loves to make baby Jesus cry, spends their enourmous taxes on pornographic art while painting the right as the moral authority in Gods Own Country.
Umm, its pretty damned hard to obfusticate COBOL that is one of the languages strongest points its so verbose that it almost has to say sane. COBOL is very wordy so if you want to write something more complex then it has to be you make it sound really stupid to read you code. COBOL is very good for some applications. Most of business transactions are handled best with simple control-break processing, COBOL excels at that, its also not half bad to read and write form a database back-end in COBOL. I assure you that its possible to write an accounts payable package with COBOL more quickly and with fewer bugs then you could with C, C++, Java, C# or anything else. Its also a lot quick to gain an understanding of most COBOL applicaitons then it is to really learn someone elses C app in an out, that is big important when the lead developer winds up in the ER and you have to maintain it all of a sudden.
They are, but seldom, and one has no contextfor the moderation so most meta mods don't do anything about it. I personally tend to rate any negative mod unfair just for that reason.
Just a Tuna in the Sea of Life
And when taking office as Attorney General, he called on Clarence Thomas to do the anointing. These are truly inspirational times for secular rule in America.
Or how about those songs? The "Let the Eagle Soar" thing that shows up in the previews for the Michael Moore movie is just the tip of the iceberg. This guy writes his own patriotic songs, which he wants his staff to join him in singing for inspiration at morning meetings. You've seen Tony Robbins on the infomercials and attended mandatory High School "Pep Fests," but the Attorney General of the United States outdoes them both in grotesquely bizarre "true believer" motivational techniques.
But what would our Attorneys General be without the Republican party? Don't forget your former KKK member who held the office: Ed Meese. Reagan was feeling especially "optimistic" the day he appointed Meese to uphold our nation's laws. It's a rich vein of history, that trail of Christian Right-appeasing Attorneys General...
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
Aschcroft needs to go - he couldn't even beat a dead guy for re-election.
Anybody who has anything to do with these computers and keeping of these records should be fired on the spot. How can our information that we payed for can be kept on such an unreliable system.
Oh but wait in december it will be better. what a joke - does this adminstration think we are all two years old and can't see through their lies.
everyone should vote every incumbant out of office in november - get the fricken corporations out of washington.
lets all re-defeat bush again in november. or wait maybe if we vote him in then he won't be reelected - I am so confused - these elections used to be so easy.
I always liked Deuternomy 25:11-12 myself. :->
PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
...
But the reaction I always get when I use that line of argument is: "But that feeet-hus could be the next Einstein!"
Blar.
In this action, he was following the law. Releasing the data would be in violation of the legislation that created the NICS system.
Good grief! NEVER work on your backups. What if something happens to the live database? You should have a clean backup you know hasn't been messed with. Oh, but you never work on your live database.
So your live database is actually a clean backup to your backup which is live since that's where you do all your work. I just hope when you backup/export you go from the backup to the live, rather than from the live to backup which would over write the work you've done on the backup.
But I hope we can all agree this is a load of B.S. If the excuse given by the DoJ isn't true, those responsible should be locked up for breaking the law. If the excuse is true, someone should be locked up for incompetence of an extreme degree.
If you're a USian, one more reason to register and vote.
Here is the actual letter "denying" the request. The relevant bits are, IMHO:
"ITM advises that the current application was not designed for mass export of all stored images, and thus, the information is not readily available in the format requested." (emphasis added)
So it is not as simple as copying the database, but exporting a large number - thousands? millions? - of image records out of the DB into some format the requester asked for.
Also, "this is a new feature request which would be costly and take a considerable amount of time to implement."
So the requesters asked for something in some format the DB is not designed to deliver. I couldn't find the original request. They may have asked for all the documents in TIFF format sorted by dollar amount contributed, or any other thing.
So this is not a case of "we won't answer your question" but "what we have wasn't designed to answer your question the way you want it answered." By today's standards, the DB in question may be very lame, but that doesn't imply a conspiracy.
- Jasen.
Don't forget to mention that we're doing God's will; just like the radical muslims.
I have mixed feelings about that one. Certainly, Ashcroft is a boob, but if it was a female AG covering up the statue because it "degraded women", you know Rush, Sean et al would be all over it and we'd be trying to defend the action.
--
E_NOSIG
Now go back into your troll hidey-hole, dipshit.
Sure there is a use for overrated. Factually wrong information.
Often, I have found posts with outright lies (I'm not talking opinions, I'm talking idiots spouting technobabble) that has been modded as Informative. Often, they're refuted clearly in later posts, but they obviously do not deserve a +5. Yet, I can't in good faith hit the with "Troll" or "Flamebait". So, overrated. Until the good folks at Slashdot see fit to include a (badly needed, in my opinion) -1, Wrong.
And guess what! Because posts are given to more than one metamoderator, if you're in the minority with your 'unfair' you get to lose karma! Isn't that nice?
It would be nice to be able to metamod your conscience, but it'll cost you and it won't affect anything if you're in the minority.
YHBT. YHL. HAND.
Love,
bonch (aka Overly Critical Guy)
I have a hard time imagining some database queries consistently causing a computer system to crash while other queries do not.
What sounds much more likely is that the concern is not about computer systems crashing, but that other non-computer "systems" might "crash" as a consequence of disclosure.
For example, a system in which foreign influence is peddled to affect U. S. government policy.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
if so, I guess that means that a foreign terrorist leader and an insane dictator care more about the future of the US than our President does; considering the last four years, that sounds about right.
P.S. I'm sure a lot of people would like to know how you talked to these two. One is in hiding/dead for three years, while the other is in a country even more closed than Asscroft's mind. How did you get on their mailing lists?
See http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/errors/backslash.h tml
You instructed your novice to press "full stop" Are you using one of those new automobile keyboards? (If it still says "h tml", I did not do it!)
it's that he thinks everyone else should have to, as well.
Religious beliefs are a part of what makes someone who they are. The problem with Ashcroft is that he has decided that people sould believe what he wants, and that others should be shown the errors of their ways. While cloaking the statue of Justice at the DOJ (an eerily symbolic act), he has been extraordinarily resistant to furnishing information to the public (a precondition for democracy) while being selective with his targets in the "war on terror": porn is a good target, while people who send anthrax are not, a position seemingly inconsistent with a stance taken for "public security". His "phantoms of lost liberty" comment was priceless, too - while Ashcroft claims to preserve freedom, he attempts to censure its exercise as being un-American.
Ashcroft acts as a man who believes his power does not come from people, but in spite of them; such people are dangerous, regardless of their religious beliefs. The country exists to respect the rights of its people, one of the most fundamental of which is religious freedom. His actions are in opposition to the freedoms that allow people such as he to believe what they do and to exist as believing people.
In addition, Ashcroft acts inconsistently with what he claims to believe. If God had wanted to force people to believe in Him, He could have - after all He makes the rules. God wanted people to choose freely to follow Him - a message repeated over and over in the Bible. Forcing people to believe and behave how Ashcroft believes they should contradicts this - it ultimately reinstates the falsity of the Pharisees who Jesus criticized so long ago, and might not even work anyway (because forcing actions disconnects souls from acts, and thus means that people won't know where they stand with God anyway).
So, his religious beliefs are not a problem in themselves - his insistence and his willingness to suborn democracy to make his beliefs real are.
Or you could call the forward slashes "virgules." Not only will they not make the mistake, but they'll likely have no idea what you're talking about and will stop talking to you. :)
The Air Force documentation around here often refers to them as virgules and it generally confuses people at first.
This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.
I really never heard not being able to copy data. If the High tech method of copy does not work why don't they just copy it into a other mainframe physically .. more expensive .. and time consuming but i bet it would work ? Opps i said more expensive .. it will never happen never mind cheap B*st*rds I bet there are many other methods available to copy the data ... O well
"The Center for Public Integrity sought information about lobbying
... members of the ... of a designated
activities available under the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act,
a 1938 law passed in response to German propaganda before World
War II. Database records describe details of meetings among foreign
lobbyists, the administration and Congress, and payments by foreign
governments and some overseas groups for political advertisements and
other campaigns."...
"The government said an overhaul of the system should be finished by
December" after the election.
Among whom is Prescott Bush, Senator, father of GHW Bush and grandfather
of G W Bush
http://www.tarpley.net/bush2.htm
George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography --- by Webster G. Tarpley &
Anton Chaitkin
Chapter - II - The Hitler Project
Bush Property Seized--Trading with the Enemy
In October 1942, ten months after entering World War II, America was
preparing its first assault against Nazi military forces. Prescott
Bush was managing partner of Brown Brothers Harriman. His 18-year-old
son George, the future U.S. President, had just begun training to
become a naval pilot. On Oct. 20, 1942, the U.S. government ordered
the seizure of Nazi German banking operations in New York City which
were being conducted by Prescott Bush.
Under the Trading with the Enemy Act, the government took over
the Union Banking Corporation, in which Bush was a director. The
U.S. Alien Property Custodian seized Union Banking Corp.'s stock
shares, all of which were owned by Prescott Bush, E. Roland ``
Bunny '' Harriman, three Nazi executives, and two other associates
of Bush.@s1
The order seizing the bank `` vests '' (seizes) `` all of the
capital stock of Union Banking Corporation, a New York corporation,
'' and names the holders of its shares as:
[ see the webpage for list ]
`` all of which shares are held for the benefit of
Thyssen family, [and] is property of nationals
enemy country.... ''
By Oct. 26, 1942, U.S. troops were under way for North Africa. On
Oct. 28, the government issued orders seizing two Nazi front
organizations run by the Bush-Harriman bank: the Holland-American
Trading Corporation and the Seamless Steel Equipment Corporation.@s2
U.S. forces landed under fire near Algiers on Nov. 8, 1942;
heavy combat raged throughout November. Nazi interests in the
Silesian-American Corporation, long managed by Prescott Bush and his
father-in-law George Herbert Walker, were seized under the Trading
with the Enemy Act on Nov. 17, 1942. In this action, the government
announced that it was seizing only the Nazi interests, leaving the
Nazis' U.S. partners to carry on the business.@s3
These and other actions taken by the U.S. government in wartime were,
tragically, too little and too late. President Bush's family had
already played a central role in financing and arming Adolf Hitler
for his takeover of Germany; in financing and managing the buildup
of Nazi war industries for the conquest of Europe and war against
the U.S.A.; and in the development of Nazi genocide theories and
racial propaganda, with their well-known results.
The facts presented here must be known, and their implications
reflected upon, for a proper understanding of President George Herbert
Walker Bush and of the danger to mankind that he represents. The
President's family fortune was largely a result of the Hitler
project. The powerful Anglo-American family associations, which
later boosted him into the Central Intelligence Agency and up to
the White House, were his father's partners in the Hitler project.
President Franklin Roosevelt's Alien Property Custodian, Leo
T. Crowley, signed Vesting Order Number 248 seizing the property
of Prescott Bush under the Trading with the Enemy Act. The order,
published in obscure government r
Don't you have anything better to do, Disevidence?
> To me, a rather damning part of the whole statement was that the data would be available in December -- basically, "You can have the data, but not if you plan to use it to investigate the candidates' integrity for this election".
Like he said, he didn't want to break the system.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
hmm, yeah I guess rare was a bit overstatement, less common maybee.
I have seriously seen so many false informative I suspect they became background noise and I just tuned out the obvious use for over-rated.
Still it's used far more often for drive by modding, and since you can't meta mod it, it's a problem.
Mycroft
https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4c3ed6600b6ea
Don't you have anything better to do, bonchly Critical Guy? Why are you still here? Haven't you done enough to destroy any shred of what might have been your credibility by posting a front page troll?
BTW, that wasn't Disevidence you stupid piece of shit. And neither is this. So go fuck yourself.
Really, Your the first person I've ever heard claim over/under rated can be meta modded.
I've never ever seen over/under rated in MM, and I usualy MM 4-5 times a week. at ten mods per mm that makes 40-50 a week, or about 250-300 times this year sofar. And that is just me, lots of other people say largely the same. I don't think it happens. Perhaps you missremember? or are relying on 2nd - 3rd hand info?
As far as context, the current score of the post is obvious context. if a post is sitting about where it should be (in the meta mods opinion) the obviously it was higher or lower, thus the mod is likely reasonable. If however an on topic post that is not a troll or flaimbait is at -2 overrated then you can be pretty shure its wrongly modded overrated, or if a gnaa troll is at +5 underrated, then yeah that's probably wrong to.
Mycroft
https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4c3ed6600b6ea
And it's not because the government is evil, you can't trust them because they are screw ups!
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
If their database truly risks crashing, self-destruction, and Bad Things happening by allowing the public to retrieve the public's data from it, then they're being totally irresponsible by not maintaining adequate backups. If the news articles are correct and this is running in some proprietary system on a Windows 95 machine, then all they need to do is back up the disk drive to another machine (if necessary by plugging the drive into another machine.) Then make a copy of that copy and go to work - that will give them a safe environment in which to extract data from their currently write-only database environment, because if it crashes, you re-ghost the test drive and try again.
Furthermore, they can copy it to a newer machine that has a CD-ROM or DVD writer, and burn copies for the public at less than $0.50 for the entire database, as opposed to $0.50 per page of dead trees.
They might argue that the data is in some proprietary database format and copying it would violate the license - but this is clearly Fair Use, if they need to make backups of the data and aren't able to do so without risking crashing the system.
If the newspaper articles are incorrect and the database is on some antique mainframe-like thing, not a Win95 box, then they still need to extract a backup copy and make copies of the backup copy available for forensic analysis. If nothing else, running "strings" on the data would be a good start...
Of course, that doesn't mean they can expect the copy to survive Slashdotting...
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Oh, poor guy.
Yes he's poor like me; forced and coerced to pay taxes for services he is able-bodied to provide for himself.
Having to pay taxes on the goods you buy to support the roads you use,
Show me the appointment of CalTrans (a private corporation) or even the State of California (another private corporation, existing within a dejure state/California) to build roads.
the police who protect you,
A gun in your hand is better than a cop on the phone.
the judges and district attorneys who fight for your rights against much more corruptable institutions than even government.
They are not judges, but executive administrators. There haven't been any judges since the year 1789 when the condederacy was lost and these several Republic states had installed each a federated State. If the people were intent to preserve the Republic, while the false judges/executive administrators and their BAR esquires/militant attornies operated with lineage to the federation; a conflict of interest arises and they are against the people and vice versa.
KJV is also the only interpretation that puts all faith towards God.
KJV is also one of the few that are Public Domain: sincere.
KJV is also the one of the few that proves and continues the truth that all faith and devotion be towards God, while other interpretations put forth dreams and wicked incantations to parallel God and as well exalt things of mankind in repugnance to scripture given by God.
KJV is the most stolen from version whereas the derivitave is copyrighted or patented. For example, the New International Version stole from King James Version (Authorized Version) and changed various meanings from Isaiah and Revelation to be repugnant as though Jesus would be cast into the pit of hell. NIV's terms of use also says you can't quote NIV scripture of certain size without their express written permition. Imagine that...a corporation owns a bible and says what you can and can't do with it.
= 9J =
A1 rather. After all, it's how steak (or fetus) is done.
"flock bug"
-- I could tell right away that she was impressed with my HUGE Slashdot Karma.