Slashdot Mirror
AT&T Invents Surveillance Programming Language
An anonymous reader writes "AT&T has long been associated with advances in the programming arts as well as communications. They've recently brought those disciplines together to create a powerful datamining language called Hancock. Hancock is a C variant developed to mine gigabytes of the company's telephone and internet records for surveillance purposes. 'The manual for the language includes a Hello World variant that shows you how to write a program that will parse logs of IP addresses and record them into permanent hashes. The program for parsing millions of records as they flow into permanent data farms sounds oddly close to the data mining the NSA performed after 9/11 to find targets for its warrantless spying on American citizens calls and emails."
LISTEN UP, PEOPLE
THIS IS THE NATURE BOY COMING TO YOU LIVE FROM THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE, A LITTLE PLACE WE LIKE TO CALL BOSTON MASS
What the hell did we just witness here, Rockies? You call that a series, it's a shellacking. Yeah, you told us all about your streak: 21 of 22. Well you're on a new streak now Rockies, 0 FOR 4. How's that treating ya. I've taken dumps that had a better shot at winning a World Series game. Colorado must be pretty clean right now because the Red Sox just swept the place for you. And don't even get me started about the tickets. Have you lovable losers ever heard of Ticketmaster? Oh, no, "we'll sell them ourselves" you said. Right before your server melted down. Nice job. Denial of service? Yes, it's called people trying to buy tickets, and you deny them service. And what the hell was up with the dorky costumes, Rockie fans? Stormtroopers? George Lucas called, he said "get a life retards." And he also wants a handjob. Your best pitcher gets slapped for 7 runs in the first inning, how'd you like them apples. They're going to rename Coors Field to Fenway West, because we own it now. Colorado RedSoxies...That has a nice ring to it doesn't it. This has to be the most embarrassing series of baseball the world has ever witnessed. Slapped around like a bunch of stooges by the undeniably best team in baseball. Big Papi, Manny being Manny, the Papelbon dance, Dice K. I hope you enjoyed it, Rockies, and took lots of pictures, because it's over for you. We won't be holding our breath for "next year." So Rockie fans, when you finally get around to taking the training wheels off and get a real baseball team, give us a call. But until then, please refrain from stinking up the post-season for the rest of the country and just go ahead and root for the best team in baseball, the BOSTON RED SOX. In parting, let me just say YOU DON'T HAVE TO LIKE IT, BUT YOU WILL LEARN TO -- WHAT -- LOVE IT, OR MY NAME ISN'T THE NATURE BOY. wooooo woooooo wooooo wooooo wooooo
Normally I don't comment on stuff like this, but the incessant trolling by Zonk at the end of summaries is too blatant. As TFA itself states, this language was written for marketing and business reasons. That sounds like a tool. Now if if someone is using a tool in a way you don't like, then just say so, don't try to cast aspersions on the tool itself. It makes Zonk and /. by association appear downright Luddite. The summary might as well end with an appeal for people to think of the poor children exposed to the dangerous PSTN. Which is a series of tubes, filled with trucks.
If thou see a fair woman pay court to her, for thus thou wilt obtain love
In Europe, Hancock is the name of a famous British Comedian, Hancock's Half Hour
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
Seriously, why would you be curious about something as mundane...oh, wait, geek, /., anal retentive...nevermind.
Sorry, just my kettle and pot moment. Ooops.
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong fix.