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Trying To Find White House Missing E-mails

Posted by samzenpus on from the they-were-right-here dept.

Gov IT writes "On Wednesday a federal court ordered all employees working in the Bush White House to surrender media that might contain e-mails sent or received during a two and a half year period in hope of locating missing messages before President-elect Barack Obama takes over next week."

6 of 437 comments (clear)

  1. What is to Respect? by mfh · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Most of the world believes Bush is a war criminal, and that is not an overstatement. Bush claimed he had fun, while he was destroying the American economy, crippling any chance for true American peace, and while he was launching a lavish war against a CONCEPT, irrespective of Bush's theft of two elections.

    MISSION ACCOMPLISHED - if it was to have an epic fail for freedom.

    --
    The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
  2. Re:Contempt of Court by sumdumass · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    I seriously doubt you work in IT as all. Maybe your taking classes or something somehow think your mom and dad's network at home makes you an authority or something.

    You see, you don't need to keep more then one years data on the live drive being backed up. So after about, the emails and other data gets removed and you count on the backups if you ever need them. A lot of times, this doesn't go back further then 6 months because it is expensive to keep large volumes of unneeded data sitting around.

    Now tapes get mixed up and over written all the time, someone doesn't realize what's on them and thinks it's just something that can be rotated in or someone thinks the information is in another place and the tapes are redundant or something. Next thing you know, they are gone and no one know why. The problem comes from backup media being expensive plus it degrades over time. Almost all magnetic media starts losing it's luster after about 5 years and needs refreshed from time to time so it isn't like throwing them into a box and forgetting it forever actually works. If you think it does, your in for a rude awakening.

  3. Re:Contempt of Court by sumdumass · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Like I said, Im sorry that you also are in an environment where you think this is normal.

    This environment is called the IT industry. One that you obviously don't participate in much. Shit goes wrong all the time. People who know better get complacent and don't do what they are supposed to. This all adds up and you cannot say that it has never happened in your company unless it is 2 months old of something. Give it 8 years or more and you will sing another tune.

    Personal attacks aside, the point is that 700 days of email server records dont just vanish. If your job is to make backups and ensure data integrity, then that is your job. Period. Its quite easily doable, and there are options available other than 'tapes'. It all depends on your personal cost/benefit profile.

    Your talking about the government here. The people who hire incompetent people to do things that probably could have been outsourced cheaper and more reliably only to later outsource it to not the most competent bidder but the cheapest one that has connections to the most powerful senator at the time. That's how government seems to work.

    If you arent willing to do what it takes to ensure your data integrity, then it isnt very important data. It is not wise to apply your life experiences to the rest of the world. What you are describing sounds like some backwards office in a strip mall. Im just guessing here, but I would think the requirements for U.S government duties when it comes to backing up and insuring integrity of data are spelled out pretty clearly in a law somewhere. I wont quote Title/Section for you, as Im sure you can look it up yourself if you so desire. Oh, I'm willing to do what it takes, the people with the money aren't. BTW, if you really were in IT for longer then a day, you would know it to be your life experiences too. You might be the one perfect person out there sans Jesus Christ or something but that doesn't make you the norm. It doesn't even remotely make you close to the norm. There are so many things that can and sometimes do go wrong it is unreal. Even when doing everything right there are outside influenced that are simply out of your control. The vehicle transporting the backup is in an accident and the tapes aren't accessible, or the climate controls went off line at the storage facility for a day and the humidity reached more then 60% and mold or fungus started growing on the tapes. Perhaps a disgruntled employee tosses the tape away. You certainly sound link someone who pisses employees off. Perhaps they made the mistake of not verifying the data on a few tapes thinking the backup was perfect when it wasn't. You do verify all your backups right? Then there is the ages old MS operating system or even Unix and Linux where sometimes whit happens. I know older versions of Exchange used to be keen on loosing data quite regularly.

    Yep, your either clueless or naive if you think the government or any other industry can protect their data 100% over the same time spans.

    Unneeded data? Your choice of words betrays your mindset, as it applies to your understanding of the subject at hand.

    I was talking about data on the servers. You would have realize it if you had real experience in IT and not just some pompus ass managing their parents network so you can play WoW in the basement on their cable internet while staring at the MSCE certificate on the wall. In most real life situations, the data older then 6 months generally gets purged from the system unless it's something that will be needed in real time in the future. This generally mean Email goes.

  4. Re:Your an idiot. by overbaud · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I didn't say the NAS had been running 10 years, I said it had files on it 10 years old. They were migrated there a few years ago. I also note you cherry picked which FACTS I presented to reply to eg. NOT mentioning storage costs (another WRONG generalisation). Further more your not in a position to comment regarding if the government does or does not hire the best and brightest for this particual role in the whitehouse. But thats ok, it's become apparent that you ARE the kind of person that throws around generalisations to cover your own OBVIOUS lack of knowledge and experience. Which was somewhat apparent in your earlier posts. Parent is still right and your still an idiot.

    BTW I just put my rose colored glasses on and your getting laid. Go work out that pent up frustration somewhere else, no one here cares. Oh and happy new year. :)

    --
    Users... the only thing keeping 1st level support from being the bottom feeders.
  5. Re:Finding Stuff by ScaledLizard · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    They are unable to find Iraqi WMDs either - maybe the emails have also long since been destroyed.

    The iraqui WMD's must have been lost during shipment to Iraq.

  6. Re:Contempt of Court by neomunk · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    ROFL!

    Least Common Denominator thinking FTW!

    -or-

    "I do things half-assed because I'm a lazy shit, and since I'm the greatest IT guy that ever lived, the way I do it isn't just the standard, it's the Gold Standard."

    The fact that you think the way you handle things is "normal" shows YOUR lack of IT experience there buck-o, and the hostile arrogance is indicative of insecurity (which, I'd guess from your description of procedure, is well-earned) not competence. For your sake I hope your boss believes your story about sloppy standards and "aww fuck it" disaster planning.