US Virtual Border Fence Doesn't Work

lelitsch writes "The Washington Post reports that the initial pilot of the Virtual Border Fence planned by the DHS and subcontracted to Boeing has been a miserable failure. A lot of the points in the report have the hallmark of death-march software development projects. Some choice quotes include 'did not work as planned or meet the needs of the U.S. Border Patrol,' 'DHS officials do not yet know the type of terrain where the fencing is to be constructed,' and 'the design will not be used as the basis for future... development.' The article notes that Boeing was forced to deliver 'something' early as President Bush pushed for immigration reform in Congress in 2006. That reform effort died last year in the Senate."

Comments

Re:forced to deliver early, for political reasons

[Anonymous Coward]

Umm, no. Bush's cabinet is nothing more than Reagan era cronies in a last ditch effort to model the world to their image before they take their long dirt nap. This is nothing more than pumping money into US companies to keep them artificially large, and hire more people. It's a make-work program, and the Republicans have been doing that for just as long as the democrats have been. The repubs are just better at hiding it.

this is probably the most disappointing thing ever

[DragonTHC]

First thing that came to mind when I read the headline was, they ran a simulation. Every time they ran it, the mexicans broke through the virtual fence like some an angry horde of mongols a la south park. This really is disappointing to me. I'm going to seriously consider whether I want to board an aircraft made by the company who couldn't engineer a fence within hours. It's a fence. I can engineer a fence that will stop mexicans. My mom could engineer a fence that will stop mexicans. The issue isn't really a fence though. Since we saw that Anderson Cooper special where he went into a tunnel built by drug mules, we know a fence won't stop them entirely.

Re:forced to deliver early, for political reasons

[mcpkaaos]

I could be that he was responding to demand from the people.

There may be a first for everything, but I doubt it in this case. Their 7 year track record of taking from people and giving to business makes it very difficult to agree with you.