Prankster Calls NSA To Restore Deleted E-mail

First time accepted submitter manu0601 writes "Since the NSA snoops, intercepts and store our e-mails forever, why not use it as a backup service? It just lacks the API to restore files, therefore this guy [YouTube video] called the NSA to ask for a backup restoration. Guess what? It did not work." After all, why should we have to pay twice for services already performed with tax dollars?

Comments

No service.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm telling you, the government just isn't providing service. So what are we paying them for, anyway?

Re:No service.

[h4rr4r]

I thought it was to build roads, sanitation and the basics of civilization. Your local mafia does that?

Re:No service.

[TheSeatOfMyPants]

If your state is like mine (CA), the county can't keep up with the roads & education has gone down the drain because the state has been taking/keeping a massive percentage of the funds usually allocated for that... The state in turn is doing so in hope of covering the budget shortfalls caused by a mixture of:
-- rising costs, due in large part to the needs of the massive wave of low/no-income immigrants, including the explosion of kids needing expensive bilingual teachers full-time for several years
-- a weak tax base related to both the high number of low-paid/unemployed residents and various loopholes for corporations & affluent residents/citizens

Hmmm ...

[gstoddart]

It's funny, but could you get yourself into legal trouble with this?

I'm sure they could come up with some trumped up charges under the Patriot Act or something.

Boring

[Acid-Duck]

Rather boring and uneventful. How did this ever get posted anyways?

Now on the No-Fly list...

[tekrat]

Just wait until this individual attempts to travel in the near future. If you phone the NSA and acknowledge that they have your email, they will retaliate.

After all, the government right now is persecuting a "leaker" who they "claim" is lying because after all, they swore up and down that they weren't reading email and listening to phone calls of average Americans. And the government wouldn't LIE, now would they? So the leaker has to be wrong. And yet, they pursue him like he has some relevant information that can cause damage.

What are we paying them for?

[Overzeetop]

Is the water you drink clean?
Is your food supply safe?
Do the lights come on when you flip a switch?
Can you travel through the air at nearly the speed of sound for a few hundred dollars?
When you turn on the radio in your car, do you hear voices/music coming out of the speakers?
Can you read this message?
Are you speaking English?

Because if you are, you can be assured that your government is doing at least some things you find useful. There are places - quite a few actually - for which the above do not all apply. The taxes there are exceptionally low, and you may wish to consider relocating to take advantage of the savings and buy the above items yourself. Note: if you form a group to provide such services, that's cheating. another word for that kind of cheating is called "Government."

Re:What are we paying them for?

[butchersong]

Most of those services are provided by state and county government. The federal government does not educate you for instance... Several of them (like electricity) are typically provided by private companies though there are a few large federal projects left over from earlier last century. The stuff you cited that does apply to the federal government applies to regulation. The vast overwhelming (pretty much all) majority of our taxes do not go to anything in this list.

Re:What are we paying them for?

[drinkypoo]

Is the water you drink clean?

Yes, but that's because it's a well on an underground river, which I then run through a series of three filters before it's allowed to come into the house, and which then goes through four more filters before it is used for food or drinking water.

Is your food supply safe?

Yes, but that's only because I don't just eat anything that the government approves, and cook most of my food myself.

Do the lights come on when you flip a switch?

Yep. Working towards doing it on a totally off-grid solar system.

Can you travel through the air at nearly the speed of sound for a few hundred dollars?

Only after ritual sexual abuse.

When you turn on the radio in your car, do you hear voices/music coming out of the speakers?

Only if I play an mp3. I don't listen to the dirty, dirty radio. Commercials are disgusting. Literally.

Can you read this message?

Snicker snort.

Are you speaking English?

This then is a feature?

Because if you are, you can be assured that your government is doing at least some things you find useful.

You mean like preventing me from being able to purchase carbon-neutral 1:1 replacements for gasoline? Wait, that's not useful. You mean deciding what I'm allowed to put into my body? Hmm, I'm not a big fan of that. I do appreciate national defense, but I would prefer it to be less offensive...

There are places - quite a few actually - for which the above do not all apply.

At this point, I feel like I'd especially like to live in one of those places where the last item on that list is not the case.

The taxes there are exceptionally low, and you may wish to consider relocating to take advantage of the savings and buy the above items yourself. Note: if you form a group to provide such services, that's cheating. another word for that kind of cheating is called "Government."

Why is government cheating? This government is shitty. It has grown well past its original mandates and has perveted many of those. That doesn't mean government is a bad idea, it just means you have to be vigilant. Americans weren't and it went off the rails even as far as we went, let alone anyone else in the world.

Re:What are we paying them for?

[internerdj]

My electricity is provided by a government corporation because the private sector failed to reliably do so. Just because the private sector can, doesn't mean they will.

Re:What are we paying them for?

[Hobadee]

Yes and no...
> Is the water you drink clean?
In some places, the local government is in charge of the water supply. In others it's subsidized and regulated by them. Either way, the government is in the loop.

> Is your food supply safe?
While this is always provided by private industry in this country, it is rather heavily regulated by the government at all levels to ensure a safe food supply.

> Do the lights come on when you flip a switch?
Again, in some places, the local government is in charge of the electricity supply while in others it's subsidized and regulated by them. Either way, the government is in the loop.

> Can you travel through the air at nearly the speed of sound for a few hundred dollars?
While the actual air travel is provided by private industry, you can thank the government for not having to worry about crashing into other planes midair, parts falling off the planes, (Due to safety regulations) and safety from terrorists and other baddies on planes. (#3 is debatable, although they are *trying*...)

> When you turn on the radio in your car, do you hear voices/music coming out of the speakers?
This is another area where, although private industry provides the actual service, the government makes it possible. The FCC licenses frequencies to certain groups and ensures they don't interfere with each other. Think of the madness if anyone could broadcast anything they wanted on any frequency!

> Can you read this message?
> Are you speaking English?
Although there is private education in this country, there is also free public education. It's highly likely that a person picked at random went to public school and learned to read and write there.

The government may not be perfect - none is - but it is functioning on some level and you are getting services from it, whether you like it or not. Your job as a citizen is to try to fix the parts of it which are broken.

Re:Anonymous Troll

[NatasRevol]

The opposite of providing that thing ... poorly.

See water, food, electricity.

Re:Cant help you, give me your information

[girlintraining]

I love how the lady kept trying to get this guys information even tho they supposedly couldnt help him. WE HAVENT BEEN KEEPING TRACK OF YOUR EMAILS BUT WE SURE WOULD LIKE TO.

Well yeah... it's like the guy that called the BATF to ask which assault rifle would be better to use for destroying his computer, which he was upset with. The agent dead panned with a reply of, "Well sir, that depends... how much have you had to drink?"

But I will admit... if someone rang me and wanted to restore deleted e-mails, and I was a law enforcement officer, I'd want to know what kind of e-mail could be so important it'd compel people to call me too. If nothing else, I'd want to investigate the guy just to make sure he really was just another harmless drunk, and not one of the perenially stupid people who buzz the police to complain about being ripped off by their drug dealer, or who gave money to a prostitute who then left without rendering service. Take enough phone calls from the general public, and you will have no faith left in humanity to speak of... at which point you just dutifully take down the information, be as polite as possible, and then file it under "Yet Another Probably Drunk Person, But Since It Could Be A Really Stupid Terrorist, Please Sign This Search Warrant" and move on to the next idiot caller.

Re:Anonymous Troll

[clovis]

Well, sort of. one government service is protecting water rights.
I cannot dump my sewage in the stream upstream of you, nor can I dam up the stream and keep all the water for myself while you die.
Nor can I dump the waste from my factory or hog farm into the watershed.
This is a problem going back for millennia, and one of the reasons that people formed governments.

It has to do with what economists call "tragedy of the commons", a problem that governments are probably the only workable solution.