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US Spends $1bn Over a Decade Trying To Digitize Immigration Forms, Just 1 Is Online (washingtonpost.com)

Bruce66423 writes: A government project to digitize immigration forms succeeded in enabling exactly one application to be completed and submitted after 10 years of work because of the botched software and implementation. The Washington Post reports: "This project, run by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, was originally supposed to cost a half-billion dollars and be finished in 2013. Instead, it’s now projected to reach up to $3.1 billion and be done nearly four years from now, putting in jeopardy efforts to overhaul the nation’s immigration policies, handle immigrants already seeking citizenship and detect national security threats, according to documents and interviews with former and current federal officials."

305 comments

  1. What this means for me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Last time I had to digitize a legal form, it took 3 weeks and cost the guy something like $4,000. I think I undercharged.

  2. I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by AntronArgaiv · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is there ANY government IT project that has been completed on time, under budget and exceeds specifications?

    1. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and exceeds specifications?

      Setting the bar too high, let's start with meeting specifications for once.

    2. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      The Hoover Dam. It may not seem IT related, but it supplies electricity to lots of computers.

    3. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by bfpierce · · Score: 1

      This is what happens when you can't say 'No' to feature creep, they are the federal government after all.

    4. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      So you had to go back to 1936 for an example. That in itself speaks volumes.

    5. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      Not feature creep. Payroll budget creep. The "features" on the form are exactly the same, if not less. But you have a lot more people sitting around drinking coffee, having meetings so they can determine which meetings to have, and extra long lunch hours.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    6. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is there ANY government IT project that has been completed on time, under budget or exceeding specifications

      Fixed that for ya.

    7. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by bfpierce · · Score: 2

      Well I'm basing this on RTFA. If they're blaming waterfall, you know exactly what happened.

    8. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by somenickname · · Score: 1

      Is there ANY government IT project that has been completed on time, under budget and exceeds specifications?

      You are assuming that those things are desirable outcomes.

    9. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by gstoddart · · Score: 2

      The company's initial approach proved especially controversial. Known as "Waterfall," this approach involved developing the system in relatively long, cascading phases, resulting in a years-long wait for a final product. Current and former federal officials acknowledged in interviews that this method of carrying out IT projects was considered outdated by 2008. "The Waterfall method has not been successful for 40 years"

      LOL ... wow, now that's quit the claim. Sounds like utter bullshit to me.

      Reading the article, it sounds like DHS had unlimited cash, little oversight, and no clue.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    10. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is there ANY IT project that has been completed on time, under budget or exceeding specifications

      FTFY. No need for redundancy.

    11. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      As my late father used to say, the Golden Gate Bridge could never be built today.

    12. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by blogagog · · Score: 2

      NASA did it up until ~1969. No other government entity has since though, including current NASA :).

    13. Re: I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by DrLang21 · · Score: 1

      "The Waterfall method has not been successful for 40 years"

      What?? Every successful company I have ever worked for used and continues to use waterfall. Even for software. Clearly they are looking for a scape goat or, maybe more likely, have no idea how the waterfall method works in practice.

      --
      I see the glass as full with a FoS of 2.
    14. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by zAPPzAPP · · Score: 2

      What I simply don't understand with these projects:

      If they fail to meet the specifications, why are they paid?
      Why are they paid even more afterwards?

      If the company could not deliver what was specified, sure the forms are not there which is bad, but it should also cost nothing.

    15. Re: I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I know, on behalf of those of us who have been on many successful projects which used Waterfall, I find myself thinking "no wonder that clown didn't want his name used".

      Anybody who says it doesn't/can't work literally has no experience in running projects, and is so utterly unqualified to talk about it as to defy belief.

      This is finger pointing, and claiming how your new methodology is going to be so much better. Right up until the replacement project fails as well.

      But to say it hasn't been successful in 40 years? Sorry, you immediately lose all credibility and can't be taken seriously.

      Go ahead, build a bridge or a house without Waterfall. Let's see what you end up with.

      A bunch of people randomly doing some subset of what you need for completion and then trying again next week? That's no guarantee of anything, it's just smaller tasks to almost get right.

      Agile is no magic bullet, and Waterfall isn't some method which has been so badly discredited that nobody uses it.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    16. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by mlw4428 · · Score: 1

      Is there ANY private IT project where the LOWEST BIDDER (regardless of capability) completes a project on time, under budget, and exceeds/meets specifications? Fast, Cheap, Useful -- pick any 2.

    17. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by DFDumont · · Score: 1

      Yes I agree there should be a breach of contract litigation effort against IBM. However I think the greater good could be served by firing every government worker who had any part of the approval for the project, the oversight of the project itself or requests for additional funding. I do see a pattern. It seems ever since we have left the mainframe, the federal government has failed in all cases with any form of IT project. I suspect it is because those in charge either can't spell there own name the same way twice, or because we have people whose core competency is in something other than IT making IT decisions.

      Oh wait. That isn't unique to the federal government.

    18. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by kellymcdonald78 · · Score: 2

      Apollo 11 may have been on time, but it was over budget (particularly the LM)

    19. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The original air traffic control software.

    20. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, all the ones that I run.

      Perhaps you meant "Is there any government outsourced job completed on time etc".

    21. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Of course not, the existing one is in the way.

    22. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      The contractors are paid for the work they perform. While they're generally scum-sucking shitbags, they have nothing on us (I say this as a USG program manager) on our amazing ability to fuck up everything we touch. By and large, the IT contractors deliver exactly what we tell them to. However, they haven't got a prayer when we re-write the requirements documentation faster than they can decompose it, put in irrational requirements, hold them to draft standards that are dynamically changing, impose an accounting system that's both byzantine and archaic, and subject them to acquisition law that is, I shit you not, so large that the Government Printing Office has given up on trying to print it.

      I am, however, very good at ensuring, as a program manager, that none of the failures, delays or overruns can be pinned on me, and as continue to be promoted for my excellence at avoiding any risk of success.

    23. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by gaudior · · Score: 1

      Funniest thing I've read all day, and I've spent most of today on Fark.

    24. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by meerling · · Score: 1

      Any time you let bureaucrats and politicians tell you how to do your job, if it ever gets 'completed' it will take many times longer and even greater multiples of cash to make something that at best, only halfway works, and often can't even fulfill the original stated requirements properly.

      It's very similar to other software projects where your boss let's the customer start making whatever changes to the requirements he wants after you've already completed 20% or more of the project. The 'requests' never stop, often conflict, and have made many programmers contemplate murder/suicide.

    25. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by tomhath · · Score: 1

      Most of them finish on budget and schedule. But you never hear about those, you only hear about the fiascoes.

    26. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      Very likely, this project was a victim of the budget crunches. Whenever you make a project take longer than planned, it will grow in cost. When they have to shut down for a month and then a week over the course of a few years, like the budget crises did, you end up with budget overruns.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    27. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't know what the budget was (other than close to infinite), but the US landed people on the moon before 1970 + walked around and collected rocks (exceeding expectations).

    28. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by roca · · Score: 1

      You can apply for an ESTA (visa waiver) on the Web. It's not the greatest Web site ever but it's been there for years and works well enough. So they've got at least one successful project under their belts.

    29. Re: I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by merky1 · · Score: 1

      No claiming the old way is a failure, lets try the new way allows for multiple things...

      1 - Eliminating incumbents
      2 - Allow a complete project reboot
      3 - Time until the customer realizes your incompetent also

      This is why the current government outsourcing model will fail, and continue to fail. There is no incentive to "measure twice, cut once."

      --
      --WooooHoooo--
    30. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've been involved in number of them. Unfortunately they are politically unpopular because they make people look bad. Also I've been told that coming in under budget is worse (for reasons I don't feel like repeating) than over budget. Another also is that management performance is rated on a percentage of budget it controls. Why build a part for $20 and get $1 bonus when (and if you can get away with it) you can build it for $2000 and get $100 bonus. It really does work this way inall dozen r so companies I've done work for. You'll see managers stuffing their payrolls with people they don't need and in reality, negatively impact deliveries. Anther also, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost-plus_pricing

      The things they don't teach in school.

    31. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      To be fair, at the time, no one had ever built a craft to travel to the Moon, or a module to land on it, or a vehicle to drive on it. I can see how cost estimates might have been too low.

      Digitizing forms, setting up databases, making websites, etc., is all old hat now.

    32. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by asylumx · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Is there ANY IT project that has been completed on time, under budget and exceeds specifications?

      FTFY

    33. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by nickweller · · Score: 1

      Government IT project are designed to maximize spending without producing any practical results.

    34. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yes, how about the project bid to an Open Source provider for $1 and delivered on time. (mentioned the other day on /.)

    35. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by andy1307 · · Score: 1

      Govt contracts are paid to work, not to deliver products. The more they "work", the more they get paid.

    36. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 1

      I know that at one place I was a contractor at the managers level was determined by the number of people that reported to them. That led to the higher up managers trying to steal projects from one another and the mid-level managers hiring like crazy. I swear there were a few new-hires that were doing good to turn on the computer and they were supposed to be programmers. But it was all about the head count.

    37. Re: I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Agile is no magic bullet

      That's because you clearly aren't doing Agile "right".

      aka, the No True Agile fallacy - no matter what you do, any failure will be blamed on the idea that you're doing it wrong, rather than the fucked up nonsensical methodology.

    38. Re: I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      When, I worked at ITT the only departmental approved method of IT design was Waterfall. My group pretended to follow Waterfall; but, it reality used no real model; I think using Agile or Waterfall method would either have worked better than following no method like my group did. Tim S.

    39. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lost in your snarkiness is the fact MOST government IT projects are contracted out to private companies, who fail to deliver a product on time and within budget.

      For every government dollar spent, there is a corporation happily cashing the checks, delivering late and charging more.

    40. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is there ANY government IT project that has been completed on time, under budget and exceeds specifications?

      We probably never discuss it. It is hard to sell ads around a headline "Government web site is useful and completed within budget."

      You see the same thing in private industry where the idiot who spends all his time putting out fires gets the recognition while the quiet guy who puts in procedures to prevent fires is ignored.

    41. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by hambone142 · · Score: 1

      Nor could we go to the moon again, let alone Mars.

      The government can't do anything right today.

    42. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by turbidostato · · Score: 1

      "As my late father used to say, the Golden Gate Bridge could never be built today."

      What!? Didn't you rebuilt it after Magneto's mess?

    43. Re: I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We have a live memory here. Just stay where you are sir.

    44. Re: I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No. It has been studied and from large projects 90% fail. From small projects only 30% fail. Large is measured by costing over a million.

    45. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Making APK lose his mind one post at a time.

      It's a little late for that. He has had NPD or worse since about 2000.

    46. Re: I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by Dr_Barnowl · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I've seen enough hideously expensive subcontracted projects that produce enormous bodies of crap code for multiples of my annual salary to form the opinion that the best option is in-house development. It's much easier to form a productive working relationship with someone that you know will be around in a few years to support the software you're developing for them, and you don't resent them for being paid a multiple of your annual salary.

      But the point about waterfall sucking is true as well. Waterfall only works if you really are measuring twice, cutting once, and that only works for projects where the desired outcome is plain and simple. That does not describe modern software projects of any magnitude. Landing on the moon? You have a simple constrained goal, you only get to try once, you are willing to spend the budget required for the process to ensure that quality is baked in.

      "Digitizing immigration forms" ought to have been simple, but I'm willing to bet it's all the hidden rules that live in institutional memory that sunk it. Agile is entirely appropriate for this kind of project - produce something that works on a basic level, keep making incremental improvements. Even just a plain version of the forms that you fill in with a keyboard instead of a pen would have been better than the paper ones because they would be guaranteed legible and easier/cheaper to copy.

      An initial budget of $500M is utterly, utterly ludicrous. A budget like that is a problem for any project unless it's very very well planned out and very definitely necessary. Otherwise you have a huge cadre of middle management all struggling to justify their existence, inventing make-work. What we have here is a project that took that $500M and used it to get really good at inventing work to justify deadline extensions.

    47. Re: I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by DarthVain · · Score: 1

      If my memory serves (and sometimes it doesn't) a good example is the Health Care system they tried to build in the UK. They used Agile methodology. What they got cost billions of dollars, and a whole lot of smaller components that didn't work together, and in the end nothing.

      From what I have heard Agile isn't the best method to use on very large scale systems, It can still work if done right apparently, only that the overhead needs to be spent to make it work. Waterfall in those instances might still be a better way to go, though again it too needs to be done properly.

      Personally, I think it has less to do with the method, than a lot of other factors at play, particularly when trying to develop in a government environment. Particularly when everything you do is done with various contractors. Other things like yearly budget issues, and political interference either actively trying to make you fail, or timelines that cross political change, and then there is management that is more interested in their next position than any project... None of those things are technical, but I would bet they all play a much larger role in the success or fail of a project regardless of what methodology you choose.

    48. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      It got destroyed again when Godzilla came to town. With apes and terminators running all over the place, government decided to let it go. Like everything else in America.

    49. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by Cthulhu's+Physicist · · Score: 1

      Yes, most of them were done in Scandinavian countries...

    50. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by micahraleigh · · Score: 1

      This ... wish I had mod points.

      The probability of a human going back to the moon diminishes exponentially with each country that starts a space program.

    51. Re: I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Waterfall is very unsuited for situations where the design requirements change a lot in any given phase. If you know exactly what you need, it's great.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    52. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not necessarily. For most contractors, it's a nice paid vacation.

    53. Re: I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Go ahead, build a bridge or a house without Waterfall. Let's see what you end up with.

      I have built many a bridge and buildings on time, under budget and exceeding specifications without a waterfall.

    54. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by jwhitener · · Score: 1

      It isn't just government IT. Any sufficiently large IT project will be behind, cost more than thought, take years of fixes to make stable, etc...

      There have been studies that basically 'proved' that beyond a certain level of complexity, all software projects 'fail' initially.

  3. But... by MagickalMyst · · Score: 1

    Where did the money go?

    A billion dollars to put one form online? I would have done ALL of them for a mere fraction of that - in under a year!

    Perhaps the contract was given to the same company who built the Obamacare website?

    --
    Political correctness is really just herd psychology pushed by insecure people who desperately seek social conformity.
    1. Re:But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The contract was with IBM.

      Apparently, it takes something like 2 billion dollars worth of server hardware to run a website that will get 10 million hits a year.

    2. Re:But... by MagickalMyst · · Score: 1

      "2 billion dollars worth of server hardware to run a website that will get 10 million hits a year."

      I have to assume you are being sarcastic!

      --
      Political correctness is really just herd psychology pushed by insecure people who desperately seek social conformity.
    3. Re:But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Where did the money go?

      Hookers and blow. It's a hard life, but man what a ride!

    4. Re:But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have to assume you have never worked with IBM!

    5. Re:But... by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Agency officials did not complete the basic plans for the computer system until nearly three years after the initial $500 million contract had been awarded to IBM, and the approach to adopting the technology was outdated before work on it began.

      OK, so the cheap shot here is IBM.

      But I often see these things and think to myself, there's probably a list of reasons why shit like this happens.

      Stupid conflicting policies, politicians angling for a little pork for their constituents, politicians who want to fuck up the system to show why government can't do these things, bad vision to start with, departments dickering over their own little information silos, competing agencies trying to get you to use their system to help them pay for their own mistakes.

      I frequently think this kind of thing happens as much from mismanagement and meddling by the people who started the process as anything.

      And I've seen a few cases where people want to blame the vendor because it's just easier, but the vendor had to put up with tremendous amounts of dithering an inability to make decisions from the players.

      Yes, sometimes the vendor falls short. Yes, government can fall short. But sometimes it seems like there's too many competing agendas, and individual players dropping in and trying to redefine everything. Delivery of anything is doomed from the start because they don't know what they want.

      You never get to know the real truth, but in a lot of ways I bet an objective understanding of how things go so horribly wrong would be interesting. Usually, however, it's almost impossible to get an honest evaluation of what really happened ... because so many asses have been covered the truth has been buried under an avalanche of finger pointing.

      Hell, I've see these kinds of things fail because the original sales people lied to badly what was being offered had no chance ... and I've seen customers redefine what they're looking for so often as to make it impossible to actually deliver the contract.

      Invariably some new PM or stakeholder wants to scrap everything done so far and use the technology they're most comfortable with.

      These projects fail, often spectacularly. And the difference between what the low-level people think happened, and what management things is often staggering. Because the higher up the org chart you go, the less reality is defined by what is true, until you get to a level where facts don't even enter into anything.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    6. Re:But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am not the GP, but I don't think he is being sarcastic. Technically, you don't need $2 billion worth of hardware, but financially, that is a bare minimum. Those yachts and private jets are expensive, and when you add the bribe money in there, the costs really add up.

    7. Re:But... by Raseri · · Score: 1

      Perhaps the contract was given to the same company who built the Obamacare website?

      You mean H1B workers from India who never wrote a line of code before being assigned to a massive government project with a million moving parts? Seems likely, considering:

      the initial $500 million contract had been awarded to IBM

      and the fact that it's years overdue and billions of dollars over budget.

      --
      Writhe your naked ass to the mindless groove.
    8. Re:But... by Notorious+G · · Score: 2

      I worked for IBM over 15 years on many large scale projects. The second I read the headline, I knew IBM would be in there somewhere. This has kind of become the SOP for IBM in the last decade or so (State of TX, Disney, ServiceMbr Hilton, etc).

    9. Re:But... by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      Also consider, the government was shut down twice in this time period due to the national budget not getting approved. When you have to shutdown and restart a project, and the schedule starts to creep due to things like that, it costs big money, and can cost serious cost overruns.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    10. Re:But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I'm going to AC this one, because it's badmouthing both present and former employers so... In every organization you have people pulling forwards and backwards, where those pulling forwards are often interested in bonuses, prestige and progress while those pulling backwards are looking to protect security, formal requirements, their own jobs and so on. There's a lot of dysfunction both in the private and public industry, but in the private industry it all gravitates towards making money, for better or worse. When I was a consultant and showed up at a client and they were having trouble providing me with a PC and login and were like apologizing, I was like "Not my problem, the meter is running" and then they realized it wasn't about me. It was about somebody in IT having to explain my project's manager why there's a cost overrun. I've been hired with less than a week's interview process because the company saw a profit opportunity. To get employed in the public sector took me over two months. To get my logins took three weeks. Nobody really gives a shit about running it effectively, it's all about not being caught at failing some kind of formal paperwork or process.

      For example, when I started there wasn't any test server, all the changes were essentially made straight to production with no source control. So as a stop-gap measure to at least get some sanity, we wanted a test server. But that got central IT involved, which was like oh that's no good you need test, QA and production with separate environments and ADs and logins and whatnot. And we said maybe we do but can't we just start by getting a damn test server in the environment we have? And if you think they said yes, you haven't been paying attention. So for the next year or so we spent going back and forth with not having the hardware, the licenses, the resources to manage it and so on - all the while, doing everything straight in production. They could not approve of a solution that wasn't up to their standards, even though what we had was undoubtably much worse. Not to mention the all-hands staff meetings, somebody needs to tell them that spending two hours of sixty people's time is three weeks' work. Yes, it's nice to involve employees in the process. No, it's not nice to listen to the plan for how the process is going to be run, when there's no actual information or opinions wanted at that point.

      The government doesn't want leaders, they want managers. And you need some of those just to run the organization but they don't drive the organization. Somebody has to man up and make some executive decisions that say we're cutting through and doing it even though a few feathers get ruffled and everything's not perfect before the 1.0 release. But I have to date not seen any of my superiors take any decision that is even marginally controversial. It's all middle of the road, don't rock the boat until everyone's agreed we can proceed at a speed I would basically call glacial. The most hilarious case was a reorganization we did, honestly nobody was getting fired and we added one more section redistributing responsibility but it was literally many manmonths of work wasted on it. In the private sector it was "This section is too large, we're splitting it in two. Existing manager A continues taking areas X and Y while new manager B takes over Z, here's your new boss say hi." Nobody takes blame for being sand in the machinery dragging things out far longer than they need to be.

    11. Re:But... by mrchaotica · · Score: 1

      Considering that this was a system for processing immigration paperwork, you'd think it'd be the one thing that a firm like IBM would be motivated to be competent at!

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    12. Re:But... by Raseri · · Score: 1

      You would think so, but then you would remember that there is a 100% chance that IBM has farmed out the actual work to InfoSys, Tata, or some such shit-tier company.

      --
      Writhe your naked ass to the mindless groove.
    13. Re: But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They may have even outsourced the work to IBM... they are already really shitty. I wouldn't hire them to make a sandwich.

    14. Re:But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also consider, the government was shut down twice in this time period due to the national budget not getting approved.

      You know what's really a bitch for these projects? The weekends. Those federal holidays are a close second.

    15. Re:But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The government has a lot of spinning gears and so many levels of approval for everything it's absurd. Part of it is the government itself, part of it is the taxpayer. The taxpayer wants accountability for how the gov spends money.... That means 7 layers of approval to by a $0.10 pencil. No wonder it costs $300 for a hammer.

      The national budget may or may not matter. It depends on the color of the money. Research dollars are 2 year funds, with enough in the wallet the sequestration wouldn't impact them for long. However, the continuing resolutions can really hurt... and those happen damned near every year. Those guys in the great white daycare on capitol hill clamp down the purse strings and force all projects to burn at between 10% and 50% of their normal rate. You're now getting paid half your salary, or half your time, yet you still have a deadline. What is gonna give?

    16. Re:But... by MagickalMyst · · Score: 1

      Bad assumption.

      --
      Political correctness is really just herd psychology pushed by insecure people who desperately seek social conformity.
  4. This is why we don't trust them with anything by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    "We can have the federal government handle X, the Euro's do it, after all!"

    Except we don't have a European bureaucracy, we have an American one. There is just about nothing they can get right. Ever. Mass transit, health care, food subsidies, infrastructure, education, you name it: they fuck it up. They are incompetent, brainless boobs. They are trustworthy with nothing. Hand over the immigration budget to the border states and let them handle it.

    1. Re:This is why we don't trust them with anything by viperidaenz · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I reckon it's because your country is run by campaign contributions and lobbying.

      You should start by putting limits on campaign spending and making all party donations public.

    2. Re:This is why we don't trust them with anything by DarkOx · · Score: 1

      I don't think there should be limits on contributions private property and the disposition there of it, is the very corner stone of liberty. Once you start telling people how they can spend their own money, freedom is just a joke. I also generally support peoples right to be anonymous, because I think that can enable a freer expression of ideas. If someone independently and anonymously wants to run issues ads, I think that is okay and their should be no limits on their downing so.

      I do think though as we have a representative democracy, the public has a right to know just who is being represented by whom, to that end I think we should require all campaign contributions to individuals or recognized political parties be public information. We also need to end the Super PAC nonsense. That is tricky one though. Its a bit like holding the Beeb responsible for the actions of his unofficial fan club. You can't or should not prevent people from running a private supporters group but yet you have to keep it that way. Right now most of the candidates control their Super PAC even if there is thru nods and winks.

      --
      Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
    3. Re:This is why we don't trust them with anything by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is no Constitutional facility for limiting campaign spending all that much. There is nothing you can do as long as the First amendment is there. Contrary to the "progressive" talking point on this matter, corporations are not people but they do _consist_ of people and those people, individually or collectively, have freedom of speech.

      Best you can do is limit direct contributions, require disclosure, etc... But ultimately if MegaCorp wants to pay for a spot (independently) advocating for policy XYZ and candidate ABC who supports it, then you can't stop them under our current legal framework (i.e. the US Constitution.).

    4. Re:This is why we don't trust them with anything by jpapon · · Score: 2

      I don't think there should be limits on contributions private property and the disposition there of it, is the very corner stone of liberty. Once you start telling people how they can spend their own money, freedom is just a joke.

      So you think bribery is necessary to keep freedom from being "a joke"???

      If someone independently and anonymously wants to run issues ads, I think that is okay and their should be no limits on their downing so.

      You don't see the problem with people being able to run issue ads with no accountability? What's to stop people from just saturating the airwaves with disinformation and outright lies?

      --
      -- Let us endeavor so to live that when we pass even the undertaker shall be sorry. -- M. Twain
    5. Re:This is why we don't trust them with anything by kaiser423 · · Score: 2

      Once you start telling people how they can spend their own money, freedom is just a joke.

      You cannot legally buy votes. You cannot legally pay to have someone killed. You cannot legally buy another person. Obviously freedom is just a joke and we should be allowed to do these things. Or, one could realize that freedoms among people are various balancing acts, and that striking the right balance is a good one. I don't think that you should be able to effectively buy a politician's vote. It's corrosive to our government, and our government is whom we charge with enforcing our notions of freedom. Hence, more freedom is preserved if we restrict this one; similarly with slavery, contract hit jobs, etc.

    6. Re:This is why we don't trust them with anything by kaiser423 · · Score: 2

      I fail to see how this is the case. I can't provide bagels to anyone in the US Government during my meetings because various laws do not allow it -- it would be seen as currying favor, and they must pay for it all themselves (well, you can give them up to $50 a year or something, but that's just one breakfast+lunch out of many in a 5-day meeting on the East Coast). But you can effectively donate $MILLIONS to a politician? I say that if there truly is a 1st Amendment issue at stake here, then the various government procurement officers should at least get in on the game too. Let the graft commence!

    7. Re:This is why we don't trust them with anything by Dragonslicer · · Score: 1

      So you think bribery is necessary to keep freedom from being "a joke"???

      True freedom means having the freedom to bribe our legislators.

      That's The American Way (TM).

    8. Re:This is why we don't trust them with anything by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I dunno, where I live, they outsourced public transit to a French company on the theory that Americans can't do it.

      The French company forgot it snows here, and the trains didn't work over the winter.

      So, uh, yeah.

    9. Re:This is why we don't trust them with anything by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

      You have a corrupt government that is entirely influenced by money.

      The only way to fix it is to publish where the money comes from, to inform the voters and to limit campaign spending.

      We limit campaign spending based on how many candidates are running. Seems to work.
      Advertising is also restricted in the weeks prior to an election

    10. Re:This is why we don't trust them with anything by Grishnakh · · Score: 2

      This is why we need to outsource our government to the Europeans.

    11. Re:This is why we don't trust them with anything by mrchaotica · · Score: 1

      I reckon it's because your country is run by campaign contributions and lobbying.

      It's because of the way our voting system was designed. You guys get proportional representation, so your anti-corruption fringe gets a voice. We have a system that's probably designed to marginalize all but two parties, so there's no check on corruption.

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    12. Re:This is why we don't trust them with anything by Al+Al+Cool+J · · Score: 1

      This is why we need to outsource our government to the Europeans.

      Germany offered to do this for you as far back as 1941, but you Yanks objected for some reason :-P

    13. Re:This is why we don't trust them with anything by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      Well to be fair, back then the tables were turned; we actually didn't do such a shoddy job governing ourselves, and the Germans were terrible at governing in the best interests of the whole population, including its minority groups.

      These days, we've become just plain incompetent at governing. Considering how well Denmark and Finland are doing, I think we should outsource our governance to them. But even Greece could do a better job than us.

    14. Re:This is why we don't trust them with anything by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      From what I've read, the US system was not designed to marginalize all but two parties. A lot of idealistic assumptions were obviously invalidated by the time John Adams became President.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    15. Re:This is why we don't trust them with anything by mrchaotica · · Score: 1

      I think I misspoke. I didn't mean to say that the Framers intended it, but rather that the first-past-the-post voting system allowed the two-party system to take hold and then gerrymandering and ballot-access rules allowed the two parties to solidify their position.

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    16. Re:This is why we don't trust them with anything by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Agreed. I'd like some other voting method, such as ranked-choice, which would help third parties. The proportional representation system, where people vote for parties and the legislators are chosen from lists supplied by each party, has its attractions. As it is, a two-party system is pretty well locked in, except that we have had a transitional time before the Civil War when the two-party system fell apart, and was replaced by another two-party system shortly thereafter.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  5. LOL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    Taxpayer dollars wasted, what else is new.

  6. Start going after incompetent contractors by QuietLagoon · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I think it is about time the government starts to legally chase after the contractors who are just incompetent.

    1. Re:Start going after incompetent contractors by AntronArgaiv · · Score: 2

      But then the elected officials who voted to approve the projects wouldn't get cushy jobs when they left office...

    2. Re:Start going after incompetent contractors by doconnor · · Score: 1

      I'm sure it takes a lot of skill it milk so much money out of contracts like these.

    3. Re:Start going after incompetent contractors by BradMajors · · Score: 1

      They are not incompetent. They will make over $3 billion from the project. From IBM's POW it is a great success.

    4. Re:Start going after incompetent contractors by zm · · Score: 1

      You think incompetence caused this? How cute.. Anyway, wanna buy a bridge?

      --
      Sig ?
    5. Re:Start going after incompetent contractors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They need to do something to shore up their bottom line.

    6. Re:Start going after incompetent contractors by mu51c10rd · · Score: 1

      Why would the government go after cases like this when much of that funneled money is to secure them jobs with these companies when they leave their government job.

    7. Re:Start going after incompetent contractors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not to let the contractors off the hook, but doesn't the government have a responsibility to get what they're paying for? If you're a manager and you did this in private industry you'd be out of a job, and no one would hire you. Criminal prosecution would be likely. How do you spend $3.1B with no deliverables, and no management of time or expectations?

    8. Re:Start going after incompetent contractors by turbidostato · · Score: 1

      "If you're a manager and you did this in private industry you'd be out of a job, and no one would hire you."

      On the other, hand, if you were a CEO instead of just a manager, you'd end up with a golden parachute and people fighting to be the next hiring you.

    9. Re:Start going after incompetent contractors by Xyrus · · Score: 1

      I think it is about time the government starts to legally chase after the contractors who are just incompetent.

      I think it's about time that the people legally go after incompetent government.

      The standard operating procedure when the government mismanages a project is to throw the contractor under the bus (and the government has more buses than Greyhound). In fact, one of the reasons why the government employs so many contractors is for that very reason. CYA is big in the government.

      And it's not a two way street. It is very difficult to go back to the government and tell them they're fucking up a project. It is incredibly difficult to get a civil servant removed from a project for mismanagement, and it essentially takes and act of $DIETY to get them fired. And because of that civil servant longevity and invulnerability, if you burn that bridge it will almost certainly come back to bite you at some point in the future.

      Of course, there are cases where the blame falls squarely on the contractor but I don't think it's nearly as common as people think.

      --
      ~X~
  7. clueless about waterfall by mrego · · Score: 1

    The unauthorized, anonymous official does not have a clue what he is talking about: "The company’s initial approach proved especially controversial. Known as “Waterfall,” this approach involved developing the system in relatively long, cascading phases, resulting in a years-long wait for a final product. Current and former federal officials acknowledged in interviews that this method of carrying out IT projects was considered outdated by 2008. “The Waterfall method has not been successful for 40 years,” said a current federal official involved in the project, who was not an authorized spokesperson and spoke on the condition of anonymity."

    1. Re:clueless about waterfall by yodleboy · · Score: 1

      bah humbug. there's nothing inherently wrong with waterfall. Except that's not what happens. Oh, the project planning adheres to waterfall pretty well, but then, short sighted, impatient people start saying "can we do that a little sooner?" and "can we cut some of this testing out?" and my favorite "can we be a little more agile?". So then, you end up with a waterfall+agile+confusion methodology. No different than private companies that can't see past the next quarter

      That said, IBM sucks. They take "over-promise and under-deliver" to a new level these days. The only thing that gets them work, IMO, is the IBM name, and in another 10 years, no one will want to touch THAT with a 10 foot (3m) pole.

    2. Re:clueless about waterfall by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Agile is just weekly iterative waterfall with extra meetings. Always has been.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    3. Re:clueless about waterfall by Altus · · Score: 1

      The note resting thing here is that this seems like a reasonable place to use waterfall. Didgitize a bunch of forms that haven't changed in forever. Perfect. The requirements are fixed. They should be easy to understand. You can break the requirements down so you come up with a design for both the back and front end that works for every form/section/ question. Finally you code that up.

      Done properly it could be modestly more efficient than agile for this type of project.

      --

      "In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson

    4. Re:clueless about waterfall by BradMajors · · Score: 1

      Agile is a scam to increase the amount of time spent in meetings.

    5. Re:clueless about waterfall by chipschap · · Score: 1

      Over-promise, under-deliver (if they deliver anything usable at all) ... but by golly, they're great at counting up billable hours!

    6. Re:clueless about waterfall by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bullsh*t. There is no such thing as "waterfall". See here: http://www.idinews.com/waterfall.html

      Everyone who blames waterfall is an idiot who does not understand the process.

      Yes, it is difficult to create project specifications that meet the needs of day-to-day users, power users, AND management.
      Yes, it is difficult to get a user to describe what he/she needs.
      Yes, it is difficult to work with users and developers who want to protect their knowledge and power.
      Yes, it is difficult to work with arrogant management that pretends to know more than they do.

      I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but it is difficult to create a successful IT project. The fact that so many spin-offs exist (such as agile and extreme programming, among others) confirms this. Instead of finding a competent project manager who knows how to manage the difficulties mentioned above, people created "new and improved" processes, which still fail.

    7. Re:clueless about waterfall by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If done right, agile can work wonders, and *reduce* meeting time.
      If done *wrong*, agile can be a living hell where you never seem to be *out* of meetings.

      Hell, if done right, *any* methodology will work, and if done wrong *any* methodology will be a nightmare.

  8. Re:Geez... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Were comments on /. less atrocious and appalling in the past or am I just getting old?

  9. Re:Geez... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't even joke about land mines. They are one of the nastiest devices, deployed easily and cheaply, and undeployed in a manner that rarely removes them. Twenty to thirty years later, they're still claiming the lives of children and the poor who are unfortunate enough to be "pushed" into areas where the wealthy fear to trod (due to explosions).

  10. are you kidding? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    WTF.

  11. They should have used the simplified form by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Here's what it looks like from the cheap seats these days.

    Question #1: Which political party are people from your country and socioeconomic background most likely to support once they have attained citizenship?
              a) Democrat
              b) Republican
              c) Independent or Other

    If you answered "a" in Question #1, you're all good - c'mon in! (Or should I say, "feel free to stay, amigo.") If you answered "b" or "c" prepare to sit the better part of a decade in an obscure queue, punctuated with long in-person visits to official offices and annual threats of deportation.

    1. Re:They should have used the simplified form by mlw4428 · · Score: 0, Troll

      You're either a bit racist, amigo, or have no clue on how immigration works. The political party has less to do with "check your box here" and more to do with popular conservatives/Republicans telling everyone that, for example, all Mexicans are rapists. Boy, I'm sure a lot of hardworking 2-3 job holding legal Mexican-American citizens are sure to vote Republican hearing that stuff and seeing the cheers coming from its party's members. I'm not sure if you're racist, but you're certainly not intelligent.

    2. Re:They should have used the simplified form by siphonophore · · Score: 1

      (a) includes those who go around immigration law because either (1) laws are arbitrary and unimportant, concern that is secondary to convenience (slightly democrat POV), (2) borders are arbitrary and unimportant, concern that is secondary to convenience (overwhelmingly democrat POV), or (3) USA is unjust and took the land anyway (overwhelmingly democrat POV).

      Going around the law gets you much better treatment than following the law, so I'd say the numbers check out in his post.

      --
      Dance like you're hurt, Love like you need money, and work when somebody's watching.
      -Scott Adams
    3. Re:They should have used the simplified form by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Keep repeating the narrative; that's what you've been told to believe.

    4. Re:They should have used the simplified form by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not like flooding a country with cheap labor suppresses wages. I mean, it's not like tech companies want would ever encourage visa immigration to get cheap labor, am I right?

    5. Re:They should have used the simplified form by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Anyone who's been paying attention to elections notices a theme: real Americans are Republicans and vote for conservative ideals. Just look at the last few elections.

      Why do you think the Democrats are so gung-ho about "immigration reform?" Because they know they're completely fucked without bringing in new Democrat voters. It's how they got Obama into office, and it's why they're so dead-set against laws to prevent voting fraud. Democrats know that they need new voters and that they can't win over real Americans, so they have only one other option: trucking in "new" voters from overseas.

      It's a simple fact that anyone paying attention to elections and demographics can see.

    6. Re:They should have used the simplified form by Sri+Ramkrishna · · Score: 0

      Gosh I bet your great grandpappy would have loved to have that shit come out of your mouth. Perhaps he came off the boat to seek his fortune and found one. Immigration is what gave this country the edge over two world wars. We imported the best of the best, the brightest because of the quality of life and the freedoms that we provide. That's why we have a goddam statue of liberty welcoming immigrants to this country. So honestly, shut the fuck up about real americans. Also several indian tribes would like to talk to you about real americans.

    7. Re:They should have used the simplified form by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      The Republican PoV here is that illegal immigrants can be used for cheap abusable labor, making more profits for the shareholders.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  12. Coders vs. Engineers by ememisya · · Score: 1

    This is what you get when you get a bunch of drag and drop coders and a bloated budget.

    1. Re:Coders vs. Engineers by bfpierce · · Score: 1

      I don't know a single 'drag and drop' coder that knows what waterfall is, let alone any that would actually implement it.

    2. Re:Coders vs. Engineers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No... it's what you get when placing a brunch of engineers who can't code a line... ;)

  13. Try Harder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Clearly, more money needs to be allocated so that the program can be expanded. If our government would only apply itself, I am confident we can double the output over the next decade.

  14. What failure? by Daemonik · · Score: 1

    Put a project that should have been done in house into the hands of a private contractor? Check!

    Stage a long series of cost overruns to ensure maximum profit? Check!

    Screw over immigrants? Check!

    Sounds like the program did perfectly.

    1. Re:What failure? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly, the billion dollars are smart profiteering by collusion between the contractor and some government insider. There's no one overseeing government spending so something that should cost no more than $10 million ends up costing 100 times more.

  15. The waterfall is dead. by bfpierce · · Score: 1

    "The company’s initial approach proved especially controversial. Known as “Waterfall,” this approach involved developing the system in relatively long, cascading phases, resulting in a years-long wait for a final product. Current and former federal officials acknowledged in interviews that this method of carrying out IT projects was considered outdated by 2008. “The Waterfall method has not been successful for 40 years,” said a current federal official involved in the project, who was not an authorized spokesperson and spoke on the condition of anonymity." Long live the waterfall.

    1. Re:The waterfall is dead. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I always knew the fact that people in my CS classes were zombified by buzzwords like this must be having a horrible effect in the outside world of industry.

      Waterfall is what I liked to think of before cs-brainwashing-courses as "non-iterative plan-and-implement", which I always thought was the perfect fit for uptight government bureaucrats. Plenty of time to get paid working on obsolete ideas, etc. (this is why it becomes obvious to any undergraduate programmer that waterfall is useful as a theoretical model, but something to be iterated as fast as possible. "Spiral" development, or some similar term, fits that idea).

      This has "pork barrel spending" written all over it. It was engineered specifically to absorb as much money as possible while laundering it in the eyes of the ones being ripped off with reams of technical documentation. This is IBM's greatest business skill, and the foundation of most of their contracts.

  16. The applicant's name... by Lendrick · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...was Test Test. from the town of Testville, Testistan. Interestingly, his postal code was 90210.

    1. Re:The applicant's name... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I use that zip code for everything, but the kids these days don't seem to catch on very well.

      Best Buy 1996: "Zip Code?"
      Me 1996 "90210"
      Best Buy 1996: *chuckle* shakes head, puts it in any way

      Best Buy 2014 (don't ask why): "Zip Code?"
      Me 2014: "90210"
      Best Buy 2014: types in 90210 like a zombie, no reaction

      I live in Michigan, where zip codes start with 4's. And the only thing I'm jealous about in Virginia Beach is they have the zip code 12345.

    2. Re:The applicant's name... by colinrichardday · · Score: 1

      What kind of idiot would set a zip code to 12345? With apologies to Spaceballs

    3. Re:The applicant's name... by OzPeter · · Score: 1

      I live in Michigan, where zip codes start with 4's. And the only thing I'm jealous about in Virginia Beach is they have the zip code 12345.

      Um .. the 12345 Zip is not even in VA. It's NY zip ... Schenectady to be exact, and apparently GE Headquarters

      --
      I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
    4. Re:The applicant's name... by antdude · · Score: 1

      Hey. That was mine. ;P

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  17. Re:Geez... by halivar · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's a 6-digit UID you're replying to. But on the bright side, we have 50% less goatse.

  18. Make it like tax returns by subanark · · Score: 1

    If there is one thing that comes to mind when it comes to good online submission in the government it is tax returns. The government contracts out to online businesses and essentially offers a bounty for each successful return filed. Simply adopt a similar solution for other forums, make it so the bounty is only given for a form that results in being processed (instead of rejected for errors) and companies will put in their own reasonable filtering.

    P.S. Please no comments about the complexity of the tax system in the US.

  19. But that one for is really current by pseudorand · · Score: 1

    To be fair, the lawmakers required the project to always be updated to the very latest web-based standards. They were therefore legally bound to redo the entire thing every 3 months. The history of their git (originally RCS) repository includes code in everything from c-based binaries that implement the CGI standard to angular and d3-based single page apps.

  20. Squeaky Clean by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They are not incompetent, in fact they are really good at their job – laundering money!

  21. US Debt per day by FlopEJoe · · Score: 2

    The national debt has continued to increase an average of $2.25 billion per day since September 30, 2012. Losing a billion in a decade is practically frugal.

  22. Fraud. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There's really no other explanation for fraud. I know..attribute not to malice and whatnot, but you simply could not be that incompetent.

    Realistically me and 2 other guys could do this in a year. And that's assuming it's a hell of a lot more complicated than it sounds. Let's bloat it up a bit, let's assume it's even 4X harder than that. Let's say we need (still ridiculous) $1M in server hardware and other infrastructure.

    Back of the envelope, 12 people working full time with generous $200k run rates (salary + benefits) + hardware + $5 million just for shits and giggles, teambuilding in Hawaii, nice workstations, etc.. for 2 years. Oh, and we'll pretend this is all per year, even the hardware and Hawaii teambuilding money.

    (12 * 200000 + 1000000 + 5000000) * 2 = $16,800,000

    Let's be generous and say IBM charges an additional ~$3M on top of that.

    If you could not do this for $20M within 2 years then someone has literally committed a fucking crime. I don't mean "haha so incompetent it ought to be a crime haha", I mean an actual literal crime of defrauding the US government, bribery, graft, or something in that realm.

  23. Re: Geez... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not military snipers. Capitalist snipers.

    Use a Raspberry Pi & Arduino combo with servos & a web cam to operate the rifle. Lather, rinse, repeat. Put a web front end up for the rifles, something like Google maps API to pick your spot then switch to webcam view with tilt, pan & fire. Use a feed and another Arduino to reload. Charge $X/shot, put ads on it and scrape 30s on either side of each shot and upload to YouTube(API) as "highlight" reels. More ads.
    Then buy a few ads of your own on some right-wing nutter sites, like Fox News.

    Then sit back & whatch the world lose its frighten mind... from your new island.

    Oh, and only put these on the northern border, but have google maps show the southern.

    "Sure are a lot of trees in the desert Jeb!" "Look, there's a notter one Don! Git em!" /scarchasm

  24. Re:Geez... by cayenne8 · · Score: 1

    Don't even joke about land mines. They are one of the nastiest devices, deployed easily and cheaply, and undeployed in a manner that rarely removes them. Twenty to thirty years later, they're still claiming the lives of children and the poor who are unfortunate enough to be "pushed" into areas where the wealthy fear to trod (due to explosions).

    I"m not talking about placing them randomly all over the place.

    Clearly mark out a wide trench, maybe half a mile wide or so, and within there and there only, load it up with mines. No need to harvest them back up, there are there to deter anyone illegally crossing there, period.

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  25. Sorry, we the computer people are to blame. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I know governments are inefficient and corrupt, I know contractors are greedy and corrupt, I know committees, feature creep, mythical man month, etc. etc. I've heard it all before.

    Look at it from a different perspective: a website that sits on the front of a database. How hard should that be to create? In this day and age it should be completely simple and automatic.

    Because, forget about the government, set up your own webserver to run a wiki or whatever on a database. Could you build something that would stay up and scale? No, you can't, without making it your fulltime job. How many software (engineers, programmers etc.) have worked on the sum total of the internet (datacenters, NOCs, clouds, whatever: *.com)? a million? A million engineering efforts have amounted to squat in terms of solving the simplest and most basic of our needs. Everybody wants to work on the latest, the bells and whistles, and the suits sure as fuck don't care about the basics, with the result that we have produced, open or closed source, giant steaming piles of crap.

    1. Re:Sorry, we the computer people are to blame. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Rubbish. What are you comparing reality to, some made-up computing utopia?

      A competent programmer can create "a website that sits in front of a database" in a few days. Make it look a little better in a few weeks. Make it maintainable in a few more weeks. Add resiliency, high availability, etc.. in a few more weeks, etc...

      That's the reality. Scale up as complexity goes up. Just because you can imagine a world where some idiot can sit in front of a drag and drop interface and create a nice production quality app like a set of immigration forms and workflow automation to push the forms through the correct process in a day or two doesn't mean that reality "should" exist.

      Stop using the word "should" so much. It's generally a word idiots use.

      That said, this is an extreme case and necessarily includes fraud or malice. There's no other viable explanation.

  26. Slashdot...getting dumber by the day since 1995... by TiggertheMad · · Score: 1

    ...for that kinda money, we could have lined the border with Mexico with a ton of land mines, and solved a lot of the illegal crossings problems.

    Teabag much? Did it ever occur to you that we might want some immigrants, some of who might even be Mexican? This is about legal immigration applications and forms, and really has nothing to do with dealing with the problem of illegal border crossings. But thanks for contributing your tangential and borderline racist POV to the topic at hand.

    You should really consider your own signature quote before you post stuff like this.

    --

    HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
  27. Wrong end of the telescope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't think there should be limits on contributions private property and the disposition there of it, is the very corner stone of liberty. Once you start telling people how they can spend their own money,

    We don't want to tell private individuals how they can spend their money. We do want to tell public servants what kinds of gifts they can accept.

  28. Re:Geez... by HornWumpus · · Score: 2

    Liberal pansy.

    The only solution is to simply take everything down to the Darien gap, than build a wall and minefields, which will be much shorter.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  29. Not IBM's or Waterfall's fault by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    From the bloody article:

    "The Government Accountability Office has blasted the immigration service for shoddy planning, saying the agency awarded the IBM contract “prior to having a full understanding of requirements and resources needed to execute the program.” As a result, basic planning documents were incomplete or unreliable, including cost estimates and schedules. The basic requirements for the project, the report said, were not completed until 2011 — nearly three years after the IBM contract was awarded."

    Basic requirements.....three years after the contract was awarded.

    Come on now, guys. How stupid can you be?

    1. Re:Not IBM's or Waterfall's fault by Tailhook · · Score: 2

      Come on now, guys. How stupid can you be?

      How naive can you be? This isn't about "shoddy planning" or missing requirements. Those are symptoms.

      Immigration is a political football. The immigration service is completely politicized, employing bureaucrats that bend to the will the prevailing administration, overlooking whichever laws need to be ignored and neglecting whichever projects need to be neglected, to avoid getting fired. The Powers That Be DON'T WANT an efficient, cost effective system, or they'd have applied the necessary attention to achieve it. They prefer the unmanageable, un-measurable, un-traceable mess just as it is.

      The project was doomed before it started.

      --
      Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
    2. Re:Not IBM's or Waterfall's fault by Sri+Ramkrishna · · Score: 1

      They should all be fired. If I could arrest them for incompetence, I would.

  30. I'll do it on time and under budget by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Send me $100 million and I'll get it done in less than a year. I'll even send your whole family to Tahiti for a week *and* all your kids to the college of their choice for awarding me the contract.

    1. Re:I'll do it on time and under budget by neminem · · Score: 1

      No, pick me, I'll do it for 75!

    2. Re:I'll do it on time and under budget by SQLGuru · · Score: 1

      Great.....the race to the bottom again, just like that guy who bid $1 for that Open Source government thing......

  31. Several Causes for Failure by Ulthanash · · Score: 1

    Incompetent program managers - probably received MBA from University of Phoenix, Park University or Western Governors' University.

    Greedy contractors - IBM in this case, but Booz-Allen, Lockheed-Martin, Boeing, Northrop-Grumman, and British Aerospace all have government software divisions.

    Flawed processes - Use the waterfall method and draw out the process for as long as possible (already identified).

    Incompetent programmers - Hired former enlisted military software engineers that learned all the languages and operating systems, but none of the theory.

    Changing requirements - Added and deleted dozens of fields requiring redesign of the database, web forms, etc.

    Political wrangling - The goal is to make coming to this country harder not easier!

    --
    May the force be with you.
    1. Re:Several Causes for Failure by will_die · · Score: 1

      What a bunch of crap!
      If the former enlisted programmers had learned even a reasonable portion of the computer languages or operating system I as a one who has to work with them would be surprised.

  32. under budget, about same $ as environmental by raymorris · · Score: 1

    Yeah way back in 1936 the Hoover dam was under budget. Today, about the same amount of money is spent on the repeated environmental studies of the Keystone pipeline upgrade. Sad.

    What's extra sad is that 99% of people don't realize Keystone already runs from Canada to Texas. The upgrade would have meant newer, safer pipes and fittings (along with larger pipe).

    1. Re:under budget, about same $ as environmental by Coren22 · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      It would also take a shitload of oil off of rail. All those recent oil spills by railroad accidents were because of the Democrats blocking the Keystone XL. I am surprised they don't just put another pipe right next to the existing one, but I guess it is a waste of materials due to the longer path.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    2. Re:under budget, about same $ as environmental by StevenMaurer · · Score: 1

      I am surprised they don't just put another pipe right next to the existing one, but I guess it is a waste of materials due to the longer path.

      They have. There are dozens of much more low-key pipelines. The difference is, they're not transporting bitumen, which is particularly noxious stuff - terrible if it leaks into the water supply.

      But mostly, have you seen the price of gas lately? Frankly, at this point, it's more a point of conservative political pride to whine about Keystone-XL, than it has anything to do with economics. The numbers simply don't justify it. And that's not even pointing out that abusing eminent domain to force US land owners to sell, almost purely for the benefit of a foreign corporation and foreign customers (TransCanada and Canada respectively) - is absolutely odious. And frankly should be ruled unconstitutional, because that is not "private property taken for public use", it's private property taken for private use.

    3. Re:under budget, about same $ as environmental by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All those recent oil spills by railroad accidents were because of the Democrats blocking the Keystone XL.

      No, all those recent oil spills were caused by transporting oil in the first place. Blocking Keystone XL was phase 1; blocking rail shipment of oil is phase 2.

    4. Re:under budget, about same $ as environmental by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      The price of gas is a temporary thing. It is OPEC trying to strangle the US's and Russia's oil industries, it will come back up, and be $4-5 again.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    5. Re:under budget, about same $ as environmental by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also a new route that threatens the aquifer. But you were told that the other day weren't you. Yet you still forget that as a relevant point.

    6. Re:under budget, about same $ as environmental by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      You walking everywhere and turning off your computer because of lack of power is phase 3. You don't understand that the oil needs to move either way, but I guess you will turn off your computer and revert to a preindustrial society on your own right?

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    7. Re:under budget, about same $ as environmental by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'll just be using solar baby!!!

    8. Re:under budget, about same $ as environmental by afxgrin · · Score: 1

      >almost purely for the benefit of a foreign corporation and foreign customers (TransCanada and Canada respectively)

      To my understanding the price it is being sold at is considerably below market price. That would be beneficial to the buyer as well if they want cheaper feed stock oil. Canada gets some profit from selling partially processed bitumen. America gets some profit from selling the output distillates.

    9. Re:under budget, about same $ as environmental by silentcoder · · Score: 1

      The pipeline won't make any difference either way even if it was built. It doesn't go to the US, it goes THROUGH the US to the gulf of Mexico and would sell oil on the international market.

      Any oil in the US from the pipeline would actually be coming in via oil tankers anyway.

      --
      Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
    10. Re:under budget, about same $ as environmental by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      http://keystone-xl.com/keyston...

      The Keystone XL terminates in Nebraska. The existing pipeline terminates in Patoka, Illinois, and Nederland, TX, with a branch proposed to Houston. It is running to refineries, but we can just assume that none of the oil products will end up being used in the US and Canada. That however makes no sense, it is oil being refined by US companies.

      Oil products for most of the country come from tankers, what is your point there? This despite the Democratic party being the party of environmentalists, they hate the environment when it is something the Republicans support. I guess it is just better to keep having the oil spills.

      http://www.nbcnews.com/news/in...

      That is the Democratic Party's legacy in refusing to approve the improvement of our oil pipeline infrastructure.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    11. Re:under budget, about same $ as environmental by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      So, you and everyone you know has an affordable electric car already?

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    12. Re:under budget, about same $ as environmental by kmoser · · Score: 1

      That could just mean they were better at forecasting back then. If the estimate for the Hoover Dam had been botched, the actual cost would have been considered an overrun.

    13. Re: under budget, about same $ as environmental by silentcoder · · Score: 1

      Oil that stays in the ground contributes to zero oil spills.

      --
      Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
  33. Re:Geez... by avandesande · · Score: 1

    And Jon Katz.

    --
    love is just extroverted narcissism
  34. Easy fix... high volume scanner, PDFs, and Splunk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Easy fix for this. A high volume scanner that can generate PDF files, then jam the files into a Splunk indexer.

    Problem solved.

  35. The one? by PPH · · Score: 1

    Don't tell me, let me guess. It's the INS form to apply as a candidate for the US presidency.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  36. Government scale projects are HUGE by mutherhacker · · Score: 1

    Some people might this it's easy to bring a form online but when you're dealing with government magnitudes you're playing on an entirely different level. Huge databases, security, storage, sync, backups etc. It's not an easy task.

    1. Re:Government scale projects are HUGE by blue9steel · · Score: 1

      The problem with these sorts of projects is they keep trying to build the pyramids when their planning capacity is only sufficient for a small condo. Break it down into multiple small projects and you'd be much more likely to succeed.

    2. Re:Government scale projects are HUGE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      YOU are forgetting the even bigger scale of backhanders.

    3. Re:Government scale projects are HUGE by mutherhacker · · Score: 1

      I don't disagree that it can be broken down with proper management. It's just that people in government lack the necessary skills...

    4. Re:Government scale projects are HUGE by blue9steel · · Score: 1

      I've worked with plenty of competent government people, the problems usually aren't the staff, it's the leadership. Failure to set clear and achievable objectives and then adequate follow through to make sure that it happens.

    5. Re:Government scale projects are HUGE by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

      The scale of idiots that try to inject themselves into an engineering project is probably the biggest barrier and why these projects cost so much.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  37. Re:Geez... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...for that kinda money, we could have lined the border with Mexico with a ton of land mines, and solved a lot of the illegal crossings problems.

    Or even just put up some US military snipers and let them take practice on anyone stepping over the border...kill two birds with one stone so to speak...

    Nah, land mines are stationary and can't tell a native from an immigrant.

    Let's just give a billion dollars in military equipment to the Native Americans.

    I'm sure they'll be able to sort out this "illegal immigrant" problem North America has had since 1492.

  38. Umm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Insightful? how about nonsensical. As in that's some weird troll-ish nonsense right there.

  39. Re:Geez... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You seem to support the extrajudicial killing of illegal immigrants.

    Think about that for a minute the next time you can't fathom why someone might consider your stance on this subject to be unreasonable.

  40. To be Pedantic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I live in Michigan, where zip codes start with 4's. And the only thing I'm jealous about in Virginia Beach is they have the zip code 12345.

    Virginia Beach has zip code 23456 (among others). Schenectady, NY has zip code 12345.

  41. But you should see it! by OakDragon · · Score: 2

    It's one helluva form!

  42. Why? by goombah99 · · Score: 2

    Article doesn't answer the question of why?
    Even the initial premise it would cost half a billion to digitize 90 forms and keep a data base seems absurd. What is so special that it has needs that would cost that much. A high school class project could do that it a month. Survey monkey could do it.
    Sure it might be shitty and scaling the backend tricky. But not very tricky. Now spend a million ir even two and you could do it well.

    A billion? Why?

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    1. Re:Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      How much would it cost to digitize a 1040 and all the dependent schedules from scratch today? I think that's an apt comparison.

      In 2012 a co-worker of mine was assigned to a project to work on his company's bid to be part of this fiasco. They finally decided there was no way they were going to get involved. It's not just a handful of forms. It was dozens of large complex forms with intricate underlying business rules driven by volatile legislation and ICE policy.

    2. Re:Why? by I+kan+Spl · · Score: 2

      The market cap today for NASDAQ: INTU, the maker of Turbo Tax is ~27 billion.

      I would hazard a guess that even the government can likely digitize all the forms with that kind of budget.

      --
      My UID is prime and so is this number: 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0.
    3. Re:Why? by JoeMerchant · · Score: 2

      The challenge of digitizing the 1040 and related forms is that, as soon as (perhaps even before, if you bother to do thorough research) you've got it digitized, the laws change. Perpetually moving target, changing at least quarterly - sometimes more often, with most changes lacking complete definition, potentially nuanced by case law.

    4. Re: Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      But someone still manages to create the paper form.

    5. Re:Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The IRS DOES release PDFs of all tax forms. However, thanks to lobbying from TurboTax et al., they're only allowed to release the blank forms that you then have to fill out yourself, and are prohibited from providing their own portal through which to file your federal income taxes online for free. Instead, you get to use one of several third-party services, helpfully provided for free* by such illustrious companies as the makers of TurboTax!

      * under a certain AGI, only for certain categories of income, otherwise it costs $$$

    6. Re: Why? by Dr_Barnowl · · Score: 1

      Exactly. People get so hung up on having a "perfect" system. I see this all the time in healthcare.

      Start with something that's "no worse than paper". Just the fact that the form is guaranteed legible, can have basic field validation, and is capable of being copied and transmitted instantly pretty much gets you there straight away.

  43. 2011 - three years by tomhath · · Score: 1

    Think about what happened in that time period. There was no way the current administration was going to let this project go forward with requirements from the previous administration. Hope and change.

  44. Stupid response by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Did it ever occur to you that legal immigrants, of which we have a lot from Mexico, do not in fact cross over by ground but by air or road - which would not be mined?

    How can people like you be so stupid as to equate legal and illegal immigration? They are utterly separate. It's amazing that you cannot fathom that someone who is totally for legal immigration to increase, to be equally opposed to illegal immigration.

  45. Re:Geez... by Coren22 · · Score: 1

    I haven't seen Rick Astley in a while.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    --
    APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  46. Re:Geez... by Coren22 · · Score: 1

    But how will the Clovis civilization kick out the "Native" Americans?

    --
    APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  47. I can fix this! Really, I can! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    All I need is a green card.

  48. Re:Geez... by DutchUncle · · Score: 1

    Hey, I was wondering where the goatse went. And the alt.sex.hamsters.ducttape.

  49. Re:Geez... by merky1 · · Score: 2

    Ahhh.. the old days of natalie portman and hot grits... Which I still don't fully get to this day...

    --
    --WooooHoooo--
  50. Yes, but not using huge contractors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, but not using huge government contractors.

    Those guys all know to
    * bid low.
    * allow feature creep
    * never finish

    Sorta like any Oracle CRM/Financials/ERP project.

  51. Just the tip of the iceberg by XB-70 · · Score: 1
    This has caused an even bigger problem: There are trailer-loads of boxes of applications which have not been processed.

    That's.. TRAILER-loads.

    --
    *** Don't be dull.***
  52. Never mind by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    Turns out actually all of the forms are online; it's just they concatenated them into this one document, and you can just fill out whichever of the 6000 pages you find relevant.

    Note however it's just a PDF to download, you must print all 6000 pages in triplicate to file. Don't forget to initial every other page or your application will be denied.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  53. Acrobat is your friend . . . by swell · · Score: 1

    Not sure I understand the problem. I frequently face forms that are not digitized. My handwriting is terrible so I scan the pages of the paper form and OCR them, whip out Acrobat Pro and convert them to a fillable form. Then I correct any errors and save the blank form. This blank fillable PDF form can be used by anyone on any standard computer. Any data entered via keyboard is easily legible and can even be spell checked. Similar forms are used by many government agencies and millions of businesses.

    Next, I type out whatever data is requested of me, add an image of my signature, and email it to whoever requested it. Altogether this takes ~2 hours because I am not proficient with Acrobat.

    I suspect that with practice I could do 10-18 forms a day depending on complexity.
    I could probably design and produce a form from scratch within one day.
    So what's the problem at Immigration Services?

    --
    ...omphaloskepsis often...
  54. $500,000,000 == $3100,000,000 in computer money :) by nickweller · · Score: 1

    I can understand a company padding out a government contract, after all, as far as the people running the Immigration Services, it's not their money, but this is taking the piss.

  55. Re:$500,000,000 == $3100,000,000 in computer money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's just one number added and one changed. Couldn't be much smaller change than that. What's your problem?

  56. not according to the EPA or state department by raymorris · · Score: 1

    The EPA and State Department both issued reports saying there was no significant net environmental concern. Some of Obama's donors (especially one who ones the railroad) didn't like that, so they had the study done again. Still, no worries. Still, the guy who owned the railroad didn't like it. So Obama had the EPA and State department keep re-doing the study until one of them got the answer his the railroad owner wanted.

    Normally, saying a study is "railroaded" is just a figure of speech. In the Obama administration, it's LITERALLY true.

    1. Re:not according to the EPA or state department by Var1abl3 · · Score: 1

      Wish I had mod points to give to you! Follow the money!

  57. Digitizing would brek their business model by Registered+Coward+v2 · · Score: 1

    If they digitize, they could no longer request the same formsevery six months so as to drag out the process years. The current way lets them send you a letter saying they need form X. Sfter you send it in a second time you get another letter months later asking for form Y that you've sent in originally. Finally, the ask for more information not in the original list of required information. After several years later you go for an interview and dicover none of the updated information was sent to the embassy and all they have is your years old package.

    --
    I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
  58. Agreed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I was thinking that I just wrote a entire CAD program and a web store to sell designed items with approximate 40 forms in 3 months, about 45,000 lines of code and if I charged myself my normal hourly rate of about â180, I still would have done it for under â150,000 and I'm excessively expensive. I am sure it will cost less than $10,000 a year to host. I may hire an accountant and IT guy soon. So I expect a total CapEx and OpEx over 3 years (from conception) to be less than $1,000,000.

    I am 100% positive a CAD program is substantially more complex than a web forms site. So why in the name of hell does this cost so much?

    1. Re:Agreed by ILongForDarkness · · Score: 1

      My guess is that forms code can actually be much more complicated. My work ~300k lines production and another 200k of tests.This is something that is basically a combination on SharePoint, GoogleDoc, and Live + support for some in house accounting products to "sync"/collaborate online. Anyways, about even 8 each over the last 7 years of UI and backend devs. So either you are using a lot of libraries, you are really that good, or CAD is much, much less complicated.

      My guess some combination of 1 and 3. CAD basically things have to touch. Business rules: can be all over the place. Fill in lines 10-15, and 20 except if a non-profit and then only 12, except if you incorporated before 2008 in the UK or are a resident of New Zealand. ... things are a lot less structured when it comes to forms I think and each different combination adds a branch that needs to be unit tested and opportunities for regressions that have to be tracked down and fixed every time you touch something.

    2. Re:Agreed by tibit · · Score: 1

      I worry about conflating storing forms in digital format with their validation. These are separate concerns. If you're literally replacing paper with digital storage, you don't need to validate anything. The users still need to do their due diligence in filling out the forms, and the govt. monkeys still need to do whatever they do to check compliance with law. Except that now no paper is involved in handling the form itself.

      --
      A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
    3. Re:Agreed by ILongForDarkness · · Score: 1

      The cost (hopefully) of up front doing the obvious validation means you don't need a lot of manual checking and/or you save a lot of back and forth getting the right data. I think that is why it is linked: the whole point of digitizing isn't to get rid of the paper it is to automatize.

  59. I laugh at the 'We Need Higher Taxes' crowd. by superdave80 · · Score: 1

    You idiots really think we need to shovel more money into organizations (I use that term loosely) like this?

    1. Re:I laugh at the 'We Need Higher Taxes' crowd. by drooling-dog · · Score: 1

      If you're referring to IBM, I would say no, we don't.

  60. Re:Slashdot...getting dumber by the day since 1995 by cayenne8 · · Score: 1

    Did it ever occur to you that we might want some immigrants, some of who might even be Mexican?

    I have no problem with legal migrants, some of which might indeed be Mexican.

    Those coming in legally, via the official border crossings, would not have any problematic encounters with the minefields I mentioned earlier which would be clearly marked, and span the rest of the border. Those are there ONLY as a deterrent from people sneaking in illegally.

    I still fail to see what your problem is?

    I don't mind people immigrating into this country....I just want them to officially sign the fucking guest book on the way in.

    :)

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  61. Coren22 likes telling lies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "APK doesn't think that DNS servers are worth running and seems to believe that somehow Microsoft Active Directory can run without DNS." - by Coren22 (1625475) on Tuesday October 27, 2015 @12:58PM (#50811615)

    Where'd I say AD will run minus DNS Coren22? I've said AD = internal network DNS dependent as far back as 2007 http://forums.tweaktown.com/wi...

    (Searching this in BOLD "To warn users who have ActiveDirectory/AD LAN-WAN setups to NOT use external DNS servers!" referring to OpenDNS suggestions for those using AD stupid in the POSTS BEFORE IT in my security guides for users (geared to stand alone single machines no less), & right there on that page proves it stupid - so even if you posted as myself someplace here on /. "impersonating me", I have your ass NOW, shithead!)

    I've also stated MANY TIMES I use remote DNS in OpenDNS @ home (but not @ work on AD networks + exchange/outlook: Free OpenDNS model doesn't work with AD dependent Exchange + Outlook specifically you lying little imbecile).

    I also don't hardcode in "every site there is under the sun" is why, so I have to use DNS, but OpenDNS & rarely.

    I also RARELY MISS A LOOKUP since I put where I spend a good 95++% of my time online in my favorite sites into hosts @ the TOP of hosts for utmost LOCAL FASTER RESOLUTION SPEEDS and more reliability vs. Open DNS (not OpenDNS) resolvers being abused, Kaminsky redirect poisoned DNS servers (of which 99.999% of ISP DNS are not proofed against to this very day even though a patch exists which OpenDNS uses), rogue DNS servers, and yes ROUTERS with bushwhacked by malware DNS settings (happening a LOT lately).

    Hardcodes in hosts are faster than remote DNS, waste less resources than local dns in power, cpu cycles, RAM, & other I/O by FAR considering ALL THE PARTS of such a setup in programs, data, I/O, & power (especially if setup as a separate machine).

    APK

    P.S.=> You're a disgusting liar... apk

  62. Coren22 likes getting bitchslapped 65++:1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "I guess we should avoid your crap, it looks like it is marked as malware. Good luck getting that removed." - by Coren22 (1625475) on Monday November 02, 2015 @03:52PM (#50850445)

    It's safe proven by 57 antivirus programs recently in BOTH its 64-bit model https://www.virustotal.com/en/...

    +

    Its 32-bit model too https://www.virustotal.com/en/...

    &

    More "SALT IN YOUR WOUNDS" -> http://f.virscan.org/APKHostsF...

    ---

    MalwareBytes' hpHosts Admin (MalwareBytes employee) hosts & recommends it -> http://hosts-file.net/?s=Downl... & MalwareBytes = BEST antivirus per this VERY recent testing of them all http://www.av-test.org/en/news...

    APK

    P.S.=> /.'ers say my work is good too:

    "his hosts program is actually pretty good" - by xenotransplant (4179011) on Monday August 10, 2015 @03:34PM (#50287195)

    "I like your host file system." - by Karmashock (2415832) on Wednesday September 09, 2015 @03:57PM (#50489401)

    "APK is kinda right... I've given up on JS based adblocking and gone to blackholing in /etc/hosts, just like it was back in the 90s. The computational load has gotten intolerable for any ad-blocking using JS. I've tried his hosts file generating software. It works." - by bmo (77928) on Thursday October 15, 2015 @11:30AM (#50736071)

    "his hosts tool is actually useful for those cases in which one does indeed want to locally block stuff outright while consuming minimum system resources" by alexgieg (948359) on Friday September 25, 2015 @09:57AM (#50596461)

    ... apk

  63. Coren22 likes failing security & coding by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Coren22 says "hosts=bad" (they add security, speed, & reliability) & bitches on admin priv to UPDATE vs. threats:

    "So, have you figured out why privilege escalation is a bad thing yet?" - by Coren22 on Tuesday September 22, 2015 @05:15PM (#50577809)

    Yet admits using admin priv

    &

    How else can I programmatically update hosts minus it in Windows?

    ---

    "Of course it requires elevation to write to the hosts file" - by Coren22 (1625475) on Wednesday September 23, 2015 @05:35PM (#50585879)

    You FINALLY later admit there's no other way!

    FACT:

    Even MalwareBytes AntiMalware (best one) DEMANDS you use admin privelege (you saying it's "bad" too?) it can't do its job fully otherwise, like many security tools do!

    APK

    P.S.=> Lastly - Coren22, there is a CURE for your "outism" due to your retarded by assburgers clearly defective brain (lol) - quit making childish sigs about me & sockpuppet accounts as well as telling lies about me - I'll stop OUTING you, troll... apk

  64. Coren22 likes telling lies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "APK doesn't think that DNS servers are worth running and seems to believe that somehow Microsoft Active Directory can run without DNS." - by Coren22 (1625475) on Tuesday October 27, 2015 @12:58PM (#50811615)

    Where'd I say AD will run minus DNS Coren22? I've said AD = internal network DNS dependent as far back as 2007 http://forums.tweaktown.com/wi...

    (Searching this in BOLD "To warn users who have ActiveDirectory/AD LAN-WAN setups to NOT use external DNS servers!" referring to OpenDNS suggestions for those using AD stupid in the POSTS BEFORE IT in my security guides for users (geared to stand alone single machines no less), & right there on that page proves it stupid - so even if you posted as myself someplace here on /. "impersonating me", I have your ass NOW, shithead!)

    I've also stated MANY TIMES I use remote DNS in OpenDNS @ home (but not @ work on AD networks + exchange/outlook: Free OpenDNS model doesn't work with AD dependent Exchange + Outlook specifically you lying little imbecile).

    I also don't hardcode in "every site there is under the sun" is why, so I have to use DNS, but OpenDNS & rarely.

    I also RARELY MISS A LOOKUP since I put where I spend a good 95++% of my time online in my favorite sites into hosts @ the TOP of hosts for utmost LOCAL FASTER RESOLUTION SPEEDS and more reliability vs. Open DNS (not OpenDNS) resolvers being abused, Kaminsky redirect poisoned DNS servers (of which 99.999% of ISP DNS are not proofed against to this very day even though a patch exists which OpenDNS uses), rogue DNS servers, and yes ROUTERS with bushwhacked by malware DNS settings (happening a LOT lately).

    Hardcodes in hosts are faster than remote DNS, waste less resources than local dns in power, cpu cycles, RAM, & other I/O by FAR considering ALL THE PARTS of such a setup in programs, data, I/O, & power (especially if setup as a separate machine).

    APK

    P.S.=> You're a disgusting liar... apk

  65. Consider track records of previous projects by myid · · Score: 1

    Suppose a company bids $x on a new government project. The government should state that the bid is not complete unless it includes information about the company's track record of previous government projects:

    1) List all government projects in the last 10 years, for which the company got paid at least $x/2. This list must include the name and contact information of the project customers (the government organizations that paid the company for the projects).

    2) How did each of these projects turn out? Was the product or service delivered, on time and within budget? (The government organization that's receiving the current bid should also ask the customers how the projects turned out.)

    3) If the project did not complete successfully, on time and within budget, then why not?

    4) If the project did not complete successfully, on time and within budget, then did the company warn the customer, before the contract was signed, that there might be problems?

    5) In each of the listed projects, what did the company do to protect the project from loss of power and communications, flooding, hackers, etc.?

    Governments should consider this information, when they decide on which company to award a new contract. And this information should be made publicly available - both as a public service, and to shame companies that have a bad track record.

    1. Re:Consider track records of previous projects by micahraleigh · · Score: 1

      Oh, I see ... if only the government had more records to keep track of. If only they had more information. If only they had binders and cabinets full of papers bursting at the seems only to be held together with red tape. Clearly this is the only thing standing between them and success.

      Successful companies that actually make software systems that work must surely do this all the time, and the government only has to start!

  66. What happened to the green card forms? by Shados · · Score: 1

    Or do they not count the ones partially rolled out? I filled up my green card application online, and got my interview, etc, through it.

    It wasnt rolled everywhere at the time, and there was a few minor hiccups while on site (my stuff was in the system, but the person doing the interview didnt have access to it, whoops!), but it seemed like they were pretty close to having an end to end solution.

    Most of the rest of the process was online and worked fine though.

    Did that go away?

  67. Part of the reason.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Have you worked with anyone in government lately?
    Certainly not the best and brightest; likely to have some condition vying for disability status and all unionized against us, the general public trying to do our thing and wanting to be left alone.

      Just think of the good we, the people, could do with all that money.

  68. Re:Geez... by aaronl · · Score: 1

    Meh, there's the better part of a million of you 6-digit folks. Plus, there's only 50% less goatse because there's 15x more beta sucks posts. For the real classic experience you have to browse at the secret -2 setting.

  69. Where's OOG anyway? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He may be running out of open-source CDs to smash.

    http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/7/7/181327/0748

    Come back OOG!

  70. Re:Geez... by lister+king+of+smeg · · Score: 1

    Liberal pansy.

    The only solution is to simply take everything down to the Darien gap, than build a wall and minefields, which will be much shorter.

    Shush!!! Don't say that aloud you will give presidential candidates ideas.

    --
    ---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
  71. Have in-house gov't developers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    A ton of extra complexity comes in when you (whether "you" are the federal gov't, a state, or some company) contract out a task to some company, but it's not a commodity type of service or product. It means that you still have to set the requirements and basic design, you have to coordinate with your contractor, and you have to keep them in line as far as meeting your requirements, budget, and schedule. When they have a delay or cost overrun (and legally speaking, there is some big or small change order you made they can point to as an excuse) you have to scratch your head and try to figure out whether it's legit or it's the contractor milking you.

    The saving grace of contracting is the idea of "fulfill everything promised on time under budget or forfeit payment". In theory that keeps everyone honest and actually shields the client from risk. But it doesn't work on complex projects because there is usually at least a couple big or small change orders the client had to make at some point, and the contractor can point to those as a legal excuse for all overruns and delays. Seattle Tunnel Partners (a company that totally screwed up a road construction project in Seattle) is doing that right now. Even if you do a good up-front design and stick to it, a large project will end up needing a couple changes. That's not a big deal for an in-house project but it complicates a contracting process immensely.

    Then on top of that, government and large organizations are more at risk of corruption than very small companies, because the people making the decisions aren't the owners. So there are processes in place to minimize corruption but that also make things more cumbersome and bureaucratic.

    This all boils down to the this: as you move along a scale from small, simple, and conventional to large, complex, and new, the contracting process becomes less and less efficient and effective. For both the client and the contractor, as you move to bigger projects a higher and higher share of total effort gets sucked into just administering the contract, until that is the overwhelming focus of effort and actual productive work is a side task.

    So what's the solution? For these big, tough projects, just drop the contracting method altogether. Do it in-house. Have a federal agency that does in-house software development for the other agencies. For big agencies or departments, give them their own in-house development team. When you need something developed, give it to them. But crucially, don't treat it as a contractor. Run it like a lab. Fill the agency with talented people who are permanent employees--when they finish a project they move on to a new one. Have a rough idea of what time and resources tasks will take but let the team just work on it and take however long they need. If you treat them well and make the work seem valuable you don't need to crack the whip; the developers will advance the project of their own free will.

    Give the developers reasonable control over the work. Give them objectives and try not to give too many constraints. These developers don't have the conflicts of interest contractors have so you don't have to fuss as much over holding them to the contract. Just tell them what you need and let them do their thing. Have them iterate the product--make something preliminary that works, then improve it and add features over time, at whatever pace they can manage. This is a better way to do software, and it is much more feasible when you don't have a contract with fixed requirements and a fixed schedule. This method both accommodates and resists feature creep much better too. Instead of "Include Low Priority Feature X in Version 1, because once the product is delivered we won't be able to add it to the requirements!" you can just say, "Feature X is desired but low priority. Focus on getting Version 1 out soon and then we will have you continue development for followup releases until all desired features are complete."

    Just get some decent developers, give them a ta

    1. Re:Have in-house gov't developers by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

      I've faced all of these issues in a medium sized corporation. Contractors milking you, corruption (including insider trading regulations making it difficult to get paid, which is not something a government employee normally faces in their daily personal finances), etc. And if you want scale, try getting 5 billion components purchased, delivered, warehoused and assembled on a budget. If you fail that budget, your business is gutted and sold to a bigger company.

      In-house probably makes sense for an entity as large as the government if they have enough consistent work for a staff that is large enough to take on the bigger projects, and if they are able to lead and manage projects effectively. Normally the government doesn't do this well, neither does private business, but businesses are allowed to fail until a one rises up that has the right combination of ability and luck. It's a bit harder to replace your bankrupt, corrupt or failed government without a war.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    2. Re:Have in-house gov't developers by ksheff · · Score: 1

      Do it in-house. Have a federal agency that does in-house software development for the other agencies. For big agencies or departments, give them their own in-house development team. When you need something developed, give it to them. But crucially, don't treat it as a contractor. Run it like a lab. Fill the agency with talented people who are permanent employees--when they finish a project they move on to a new one.

      Some government contractors already are considered "in-house" developers like what you are describing. They go to work in the same building as the Federal employees who are often are the managers for those projects. They also have contractor managers who handle all the HR and resource allocation stuff (Jim the DB is working on project Y, Laurie the coder is on project X, etc). Once a phase of a project is complete, they go to work on the next phase or a new project all together. This is nothing new.

      --
      the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
  72. Coren22 likes lying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "APK doesn't think that DNS servers are worth running and seems to believe that somehow Microsoft Active Directory can run without DNS." - by Coren22 (1625475) on Tuesday October 27, 2015 @12:58PM (#50811615)

    Where'd I say AD will run minus DNS Coren22? I've said AD = internal network DNS dependent as far back as 2007 http://forums.tweaktown.com/wi...

    (Search this in BOLD there "To warn users who have ActiveDirectory/AD LAN-WAN setups to NOT use external DNS servers!" referring to OpenDNS suggestions for those using AD stupid in the POSTS BEFORE IT in my security guides for users (geared to stand alone single machines no less), & right there on that page proves it stupid - so even if you posted as myself someplace here on /. "impersonating me", I have your ass NOW, shithead!)

    I've also stated MANY TIMES I use remote DNS in OpenDNS @ home (but not @ work on AD networks + exchange/outlook: Free OpenDNS model doesn't work with AD dependent Exchange + Outlook specifically you lying little imbecile).

    I also don't hardcode in "every site there is under the sun" is why, so I have to use DNS, but OpenDNS & rarely.

    I also RARELY MISS A LOOKUP since I put where I spend a good 95++% of my time online in my favorite sites into hosts @ the TOP of hosts for utmost LOCAL FASTER RESOLUTION SPEEDS and more reliability vs. Open DNS (not OpenDNS) resolvers being abused, Kaminsky redirect poisoned DNS servers (of which 99.999% of ISP DNS are not proofed against to this very day even though a patch exists which OpenDNS uses), rogue DNS servers, and yes ROUTERS with bushwhacked by malware DNS settings (happening a LOT lately).

    Hardcodes in hosts are faster than remote DNS, waste less resources than local dns in power, cpu cycles, RAM, & other I/O by FAR considering ALL THE PARTS of such a setup in programs, data, I/O, & power (especially if setup as a separate machine).

    APK

    P.S.=> You're a disgusting liar... apk

    1. Re:Coren22 likes lying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is there a convenient way to treat all APK posts as -1 Offtopic?

    2. Re:Coren22 likes lying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Coren22 it's not looking good for you after you ran here http://slashdot.org/comments.p... and with you now trolling ac after telling others to troll apk by ac too http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

  73. Coren22 likes being bitchslapped 65++:1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "I guess we should avoid your crap, it looks like it is marked as malware. Good luck getting that removed." - by Coren22 (1625475) on Monday November 02, 2015 @03:52PM (#50850445)

    It's safe proven by 57 antivirus programs recently in BOTH its 64-bit model https://www.virustotal.com/en/...

    +

    Its 32-bit model too https://www.virustotal.com/en/...

    &

    More "SALT IN YOUR WOUNDS" -> http://f.virscan.org/APKHostsF...

    ---

    MalwareBytes' hpHosts Admin (MalwareBytes employee) hosts & recommends it -> http://hosts-file.net/?s=Downl... & MalwareBytes = BEST antivirus per this VERY recent testing of them all http://www.av-test.org/en/news...

    APK

    P.S.=> /.'ers say my work is good too:

    "his hosts program is actually pretty good" - by xenotransplant (4179011) on Monday August 10, 2015 @03:34PM (#50287195)

    "I like your host file system." - by Karmashock (2415832) on Wednesday September 09, 2015 @03:57PM (#50489401)

    "APK is kinda right... I've given up on JS based adblocking and gone to blackholing in /etc/hosts, just like it was back in the 90s. The computational load has gotten intolerable for any ad-blocking using JS. I've tried his hosts file generating software. It works." - by bmo (77928) on Thursday October 15, 2015 @11:30AM (#50736071)

    "his hosts tool is actually useful for those cases in which one does indeed want to locally block stuff outright while consuming minimum system resources" by alexgieg (948359) on Friday September 25, 2015 @09:57AM (#50596461)

    ... apk

  74. Coren22 likes failing security & coding by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Coren22 says "hosts=bad" (they add security, speed, & reliability) & bitches on admin priv to UPDATE vs. threats:

    "So, have you figured out why privilege escalation is a bad thing yet?" - by Coren22 on Tuesday September 22, 2015 @05:15PM (#50577809)

    & admits using admin priv himself

    +

    How else can I programmatically update hosts minus it in Windows?

    ---

    "Of course it requires elevation to write to the hosts file" - by Coren22 (1625475) on Wednesday September 23, 2015 @05:35PM (#50585879)

    You FINALLY later admit there's no other way!

    FACT:

    Even MalwareBytes AntiMalware (best one) DEMANDS you use admin privelege (you saying it's "bad" too?) it can't do its job fully otherwise, like many security tools do!

    APK

    P.S.=> Lastly - Coren22, there is a CURE for your "outism" due to your retarded by assburgers clearly defective brain (lol) - quit making childish sigs about me & sockpuppet accounts as well as telling lies about me - I'll stop OUTING you... apk

  75. Re:Geez... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Here's a capture of the hot grits fad circa 1999:

    http://messagebase.net/Home/Read/168

    Exerpt:
    I really really want to remove natalie portman's pants, touch her buttocks, and transform her into a stone statue, then i will have a petrified and naked natalie portman, with a butt that i can touch anytime i want!!!!

    Plese help me to do this!!!!!

    I really really want to remove natalie portman's pants, touch her buttocks, and transform her into a stone statue, then i will have a petrified and naked natalie portman, with a butt that i can touch anytime i want!!!!

    Plese help me to do this!!!!!

  76. AMA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I worked on the most recent iteration of this ( the second successful version) if anyone has a real questions about it (that I can actually answer). One thing is it wasn't just 1 large shit of an IT project. About 3 full architectures were completely scrapped and MANY people fired. IBM itself were assholes who architected an IT project to include as many of their licensed middleware solutions as possible...then that failed miserably too and ...back to the drawing board. There was one moderately successful version of it that was migrated off of. This is the current reference to the project: http://www.uscis.gov/uscis-eli... (and the current design supports about a dozen forms and counting ).

  77. Re:Coren22 likes failing security & coding by Pikoro · · Score: 1

    Haven't you worn out your CTRL, V, and C keys yet? (Or CTRL, SHIFT, and INSERT)?

    --
    "Freedom in the USA is not the ability to do what you want. It is the ability to stop others from doing what THEY want"
  78. This One by Etherwalk · · Score: 1

    Is there ANY government IT project that has been completed on time, under budget and exceeds specifications?

    This one, obviously. $100 for a scanner, $1B for black projects.

  79. I'll do it by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

    And I'll do it for only $10m. Should be a nice way to spend 6 months before I retire early.

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  80. Re:Slashdot...getting dumber by the day since 1995 by dave420 · · Score: 1

    I think you meant "pay the thousands and thousands of dollars for every attempt to file" instead of "sign the fucking guest book". Don't pretend it's a quick trip to the DMV to immigrate legally. As long as money can flow across that border more easily than people there will be illegal immigration. You are calling to protect the status quo which guarantees illegal immigration will continue. This is not difficult to understand.

  81. Coren22 likes lying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "APK doesn't think that DNS servers are worth running and seems to believe that somehow Microsoft Active Directory can run without DNS." - by Coren22 (1625475) on Tuesday October 27, 2015 @12:58PM (#50811615)

    Where'd I say AD will run minus DNS Coren22? I've said AD = internal network DNS dependent as far back as 2007 http://forums.tweaktown.com/wi...

    (Search this in BOLD there "To warn users who have ActiveDirectory/AD LAN-WAN setups to NOT use external DNS servers!" referring to OpenDNS suggestions for those using AD stupid in the POSTS BEFORE IT in my security guides for users (geared to stand alone single machines no less), & right there on that page proves it stupid - so even if you posted as myself someplace here on /. "impersonating me", I have your ass NOW, shithead!)

    I've also stated MANY TIMES I use remote DNS in OpenDNS @ home (but not @ work on AD networks + exchange/outlook: Free OpenDNS model doesn't work with AD dependent Exchange + Outlook specifically you lying little imbecile).

    I also don't hardcode in "every site there is under the sun" is why, so I have to use DNS, but OpenDNS & rarely.

    I also RARELY MISS A LOOKUP since I put where I spend a good 95++% of my time online in my favorite sites into hosts @ the TOP of hosts for utmost LOCAL FASTER RESOLUTION SPEEDS and more reliability vs. Open DNS (not OpenDNS) resolvers being abused, Kaminsky redirect poisoned DNS servers (of which 99.999% of ISP DNS are not proofed against to this very day even though a patch exists which OpenDNS uses), rogue DNS servers, and yes ROUTERS with bushwhacked by malware DNS settings (happening a LOT lately).

    Hardcodes in hosts are faster than remote DNS, waste less resources than local dns in power, cpu cycles, RAM, & other I/O by FAR considering ALL THE PARTS of such a setup in programs, data, I/O, & power (especially if setup as a separate machine).

    APK

    P.S.=> You're a disgusting liar... apk

  82. Coren22 likes being bitchslapped 65++:1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "I guess we should avoid your crap, it looks like it is marked as malware. Good luck getting that removed." - by Coren22 (1625475) on Monday November 02, 2015 @03:52PM (#50850445)

    It's safe proven by 57 antivirus programs recently in BOTH its 64-bit model https://www.virustotal.com/en/...

    +

    Its 32-bit model too https://www.virustotal.com/en/...

    &

    More "SALT IN YOUR WOUNDS" -> http://f.virscan.org/APKHostsF...

    ---

    MalwareBytes' hpHosts Admin (MalwareBytes employee) hosts & recommends it -> http://hosts-file.net/?s=Downl... & MalwareBytes = BEST antivirus per this VERY recent testing of them all http://www.av-test.org/en/news...

    APK

    P.S.=> /.'ers say my work is good too:

    "his hosts program is actually pretty good" - by xenotransplant (4179011) on Monday August 10, 2015 @03:34PM (#50287195)

    "I like your host file system." - by Karmashock (2415832) on Wednesday September 09, 2015 @03:57PM (#50489401)

    "APK is kinda right... I've given up on JS based adblocking and gone to blackholing in /etc/hosts, just like it was back in the 90s. The computational load has gotten intolerable for any ad-blocking using JS. I've tried his hosts file generating software. It works." - by bmo (77928) on Thursday October 15, 2015 @11:30AM (#50736071)

    "his hosts tool is actually useful for those cases in which one does indeed want to locally block stuff outright while consuming minimum system resources" by alexgieg (948359) on Friday September 25, 2015 @09:57AM (#50596461)

    ... apk

  83. Coren22 likes failing security & coding by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Coren22 says "hosts=bad" (they add security, speed, & reliability) & bitches on admin priv to UPDATE vs. threats

    "So, have you figured out why privilege escalation is a bad thing yet?" - by Coren22 on Tuesday September 22, 2015 @05:15PM (#50577809)

    & admits using admin priv himself

    +

      How else can I programmatically update hosts minus it in Windows?

    ---

    "Of course it requires elevation to write to the hosts file" - by Coren22 (1625475) on Wednesday September 23, 2015 @05:35PM (#50585879)

    You FINALLY later admit there's no other way!

    FACT:

    Even MalwareBytes AntiMalware (best one) DEMANDS you use admin privelege (you saying it's "bad" too?) it can't do its job fully otherwise, like many security tools do!

    APK

    P.S.=> Lastly - Coren22, there is a CURE for your "outism" due to your retarded by assburgers clearly defective brain (lol) - quit making childish sigs about me & sockpuppet accounts as well as telling lies about me - I'll stop OUTING you... apk

  84. Coren22 likes lying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "APK doesn't think that DNS servers are worth running and seems to believe that somehow Microsoft Active Directory can run without DNS." - by Coren22 (1625475) on Tuesday October 27, 2015 @12:58PM (#50811615)

    Where'd I say AD will run minus DNS Coren22? I've said AD = internal network DNS dependent as far back as 2007 http://forums.tweaktown.com/wi...

    (Search this in BOLD there "To warn users who have ActiveDirectory/AD LAN-WAN setups to NOT use external DNS servers!" referring to OpenDNS suggestions for those using AD stupid in the POSTS BEFORE IT in my security guides for users (geared to stand alone single machines no less), & right there on that page proves it stupid - so even if you posted as myself someplace here on /. "impersonating me", I have your ass NOW, shithead!)

    I've also stated MANY TIMES I use remote DNS in OpenDNS @ home (but not @ work on AD networks + exchange/outlook: Free OpenDNS model doesn't work with AD dependent Exchange + Outlook specifically you lying little imbecile).

    I also don't hardcode in "every site there is under the sun" is why, so I have to use DNS, but OpenDNS & rarely.

    I also RARELY MISS A LOOKUP since I put where I spend a good 95++% of my time online in my favorite sites into hosts @ the TOP of hosts for utmost LOCAL FASTER RESOLUTION SPEEDS and more reliability vs. Open DNS (not OpenDNS) resolvers being abused, Kaminsky redirect poisoned DNS servers (of which 99.999% of ISP DNS are not proofed against to this very day even though a patch exists which OpenDNS uses), rogue DNS servers, and yes ROUTERS with bushwhacked by malware DNS settings (happening a LOT lately).

    Hardcodes in hosts are faster than remote DNS, waste less resources than local dns in power, cpu cycles, RAM, & other I/O by FAR considering ALL THE PARTS of such a setup in programs, data, I/O, & power (especially if setup as a separate machine).

    APK

    P.S.=> You're a disgusting liar... apk

  85. Coren22 likes being bitchslapped 65++:1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "I guess we should avoid your crap, it looks like it is marked as malware. Good luck getting that removed." - by Coren22 (1625475) on Monday November 02, 2015 @03:52PM (#50850445)

    It's safe proven by 57 antivirus programs recently in BOTH its 64-bit model https://www.virustotal.com/en/...

    +

    Its 32-bit model too https://www.virustotal.com/en/...

    &

    More "SALT IN YOUR WOUNDS" -> http://f.virscan.org/APKHostsF...

    ---

    MalwareBytes' hpHosts Admin (MalwareBytes employee) hosts & recommends it -> http://hosts-file.net/?s=Downl... & MalwareBytes = BEST antivirus per this VERY recent testing of them all http://www.av-test.org/en/news...

    APK

    P.S.=> /.'ers say my work is good too:

    "his hosts program is actually pretty good" - by xenotransplant (4179011) on Monday August 10, 2015 @03:34PM (#50287195)

    "I like your host file system." - by Karmashock (2415832) on Wednesday September 09, 2015 @03:57PM (#50489401)

    "APK is kinda right... I've given up on JS based adblocking and gone to blackholing in /etc/hosts, just like it was back in the 90s. The computational load has gotten intolerable for any ad-blocking using JS. I've tried his hosts file generating software. It works." - by bmo (77928) on Thursday October 15, 2015 @11:30AM (#50736071)

    "his hosts tool is actually useful for those cases in which one does indeed want to locally block stuff outright while consuming minimum system resources" by alexgieg (948359) on Friday September 25, 2015 @09:57AM (#50596461)

    ... apk

  86. Coren22 likes failing security & coding by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Coren22 says "hosts=bad" (they add security, speed, & reliability) & bitches on admin priv to UPDATE vs. threats

    "So, have you figured out why privilege escalation is a bad thing yet?" - by Coren22 on Tuesday September 22, 2015 @05:15PM (#50577809)

    & admits using admin priv himself

    +

      How else can I programmatically update hosts minus it in Windows?

    ---

    "Of course it requires elevation to write to the hosts file" - by Coren22 (1625475) on Wednesday September 23, 2015 @05:35PM (#50585879)

    You FINALLY later admit there's no other way!

    FACT:

    Even MalwareBytes AntiMalware (best one) DEMANDS you use admin privelege (you saying it's "bad" too?) it can't do its job fully otherwise, like many security tools do!

    APK

    P.S.=> Lastly - Coren22, there is a CURE for your "outism" due to your retarded by assburgers clearly defective brain (lol) - quit making childish sigs about me & sockpuppet accounts as well as telling lies about me - I'll stop OUTING you!

    ... apk

  87. Coren22 likes lying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "APK doesn't think that DNS servers are worth running and seems to believe that somehow Microsoft Active Directory can run without DNS." - by Coren22 (1625475) on Tuesday October 27, 2015 @12:58PM (#50811615)

    Where'd I say AD will run minus DNS Coren22? I've said AD = internal network DNS dependent as far back as 2007 http://forums.tweaktown.com/wi...

    (Search this in BOLD there "To warn users who have ActiveDirectory/AD LAN-WAN setups to NOT use external DNS servers!" referring to OpenDNS suggestions for those using AD stupid in the POSTS BEFORE IT in my security guides for users (geared to stand alone single machines no less), & right there on that page proves it stupid - so even if you posted as myself someplace here on /. "impersonating me", I have your ass NOW, shithead!)

    I've also stated MANY TIMES I use remote DNS in OpenDNS @ home (but not @ work on AD networks + exchange/outlook: Free OpenDNS model doesn't work with AD dependent Exchange + Outlook specifically you lying little imbecile).

    I also don't hardcode in "every site there is under the sun" is why, so I have to use DNS, but OpenDNS & rarely.

    I also RARELY MISS A LOOKUP since I put where I spend a good 95++% of my time online in my favorite sites into hosts @ the TOP of hosts for utmost LOCAL FASTER RESOLUTION SPEEDS and more reliability vs. Open DNS (not OpenDNS) resolvers being abused, Kaminsky redirect poisoned DNS servers (of which 99.999% of ISP DNS are not proofed against to this very day even though a patch exists which OpenDNS uses), rogue DNS servers, and yes ROUTERS with bushwhacked by malware DNS settings (happening a LOT lately).

    Hardcodes in hosts are faster than remote DNS, waste less resources than local dns in power, cpu cycles, RAM, & other I/O by FAR considering ALL THE PARTS of such a setup in programs, data, I/O, & power (especially if setup as a separate machine).

    APK

    P.S.=> You're a disgusting liar... apk

  88. Coren22 likes being bitchslapped 65++:1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "I guess we should avoid your crap, it looks like it is marked as malware. Good luck getting that removed." - by Coren22 (1625475) on Monday November 02, 2015 @03:52PM (#50850445)

    It's safe proven by 57 antivirus programs recently in BOTH its 64-bit model https://www.virustotal.com/en/...

    +

    Its 32-bit model too https://www.virustotal.com/en/...

    &

    More "SALT IN YOUR WOUNDS" -> http://f.virscan.org/APKHostsF...

    ---

    MalwareBytes' hpHosts Admin (MalwareBytes employee) hosts & recommends it -> http://hosts-file.net/?s=Downl... & MalwareBytes = BEST antivirus per this VERY recent testing of them all http://www.av-test.org/en/news...

    APK

    P.S.=> /.'ers say my work is good too:

    "his hosts program is actually pretty good" - by xenotransplant (4179011) on Monday August 10, 2015 @03:34PM (#50287195)

    "I like your host file system." - by Karmashock (2415832) on Wednesday September 09, 2015 @03:57PM (#50489401)

    "APK is kinda right... I've given up on JS based adblocking and gone to blackholing in /etc/hosts, just like it was back in the 90s. The computational load has gotten intolerable for any ad-blocking using JS. I've tried his hosts file generating software. It works." - by bmo (77928) on Thursday October 15, 2015 @11:30AM (#50736071)

    "his hosts tool is actually useful for those cases in which one does indeed want to locally block stuff outright while consuming minimum system resources" by alexgieg (948359) on Friday September 25, 2015 @09:57AM (#50596461)

    ... apk

  89. Coren22 likes failing security & coding by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Coren22 says "hosts=bad" (they add security, speed, & reliability) & bitches on admin priv to UPDATE vs. threats

    "So, have you figured out why privilege escalation is a bad thing yet?" - by Coren22 on Tuesday September 22, 2015 @05:15PM (#50577809)

    & admits using admin priv himself

    +

      How else can I programmatically update hosts minus it in Windows?

    ---

    "Of course it requires elevation to write to the hosts file" - by Coren22 (1625475) on Wednesday September 23, 2015 @05:35PM (#50585879)

    You FINALLY later admit there's no other way!

    FACT:

    Even MalwareBytes AntiMalware (best one) DEMANDS you use admin privelege (you saying it's "bad" too?) it can't do its job fully otherwise, like many security tools do!

    APK

    P.S.=> Lastly - Coren22, there is a CURE for your "outism" due to your retarded by assburgers clearly defective brain (lol) - quit making childish sigs about me & sockpuppet accounts as well as telling lies about me - I'll stop OUTING you

    ... apk

  90. Coren22 likes lying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "APK doesn't think that DNS servers are worth running and seems to believe that somehow Microsoft Active Directory can run without DNS." - by Coren22 (1625475) on Tuesday October 27, 2015 @12:58PM (#50811615)

    Where'd I say AD will run minus DNS Coren22? I've said AD = internal network DNS dependent as far back as 2007 http://forums.tweaktown.com/wi...

    (Search this in BOLD there "To warn users who have ActiveDirectory/AD LAN-WAN setups to NOT use external DNS servers!" referring to OpenDNS suggestions for those using AD stupid in the POSTS BEFORE IT in my security guides for users (geared to stand alone single machines no less), & right there on that page proves it stupid - so even if you posted as myself someplace here on /. "impersonating me", I have your ass NOW, shithead!)

    I've also stated MANY TIMES I use remote DNS in OpenDNS @ home (but not @ work on AD networks + exchange/outlook: Free OpenDNS model doesn't work with AD dependent Exchange + Outlook specifically you lying little imbecile).

    I also don't hardcode in "every site there is under the sun" is why, so I have to use DNS, but OpenDNS & rarely.

    I also RARELY MISS A LOOKUP since I put where I spend a good 95++% of my time online in my favorite sites into hosts @ the TOP of hosts for utmost LOCAL FASTER RESOLUTION SPEEDS and more reliability vs. Open DNS (not OpenDNS) resolvers being abused, Kaminsky redirect poisoned DNS servers (of which 99.999% of ISP DNS are not proofed against to this very day even though a patch exists which OpenDNS uses), rogue DNS servers, and yes ROUTERS with bushwhacked by malware DNS settings (happening a LOT lately).

    Hardcodes in hosts are faster than remote DNS, waste less resources than local dns in power, cpu cycles, RAM, & other I/O by FAR considering ALL THE PARTS of such a setup in programs, data, I/O, & power (especially if setup as a separate machine).

    APK

    P.S.=> You're a disgusting liar... apk

  91. Coren22 likes being bitchslapped 65++:1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "I guess we should avoid your crap, it looks like it is marked as malware. Good luck getting that removed." - by Coren22 (1625475) on Monday November 02, 2015 @03:52PM (#50850445)

    It's safe proven by 57 antivirus programs recently in BOTH its 64-bit model https://www.virustotal.com/en/...

    +

    Its 32-bit model too https://www.virustotal.com/en/...

    &

    More "SALT IN YOUR WOUNDS" -> http://f.virscan.org/APKHostsF...

    ---

    MalwareBytes' hpHosts Admin (MalwareBytes employee) hosts & recommends it -> http://hosts-file.net/?s=Downl... & MalwareBytes = BEST antivirus per this VERY recent testing of them all http://www.av-test.org/en/news...

    APK

    P.S.=> /.'ers say my work is good too:

    "his hosts program is actually pretty good" - by xenotransplant (4179011) on Monday August 10, 2015 @03:34PM (#50287195)

    "I like your host file system." - by Karmashock (2415832) on Wednesday September 09, 2015 @03:57PM (#50489401)

    "APK is kinda right... I've given up on JS based adblocking and gone to blackholing in /etc/hosts, just like it was back in the 90s. The computational load has gotten intolerable for any ad-blocking using JS. I've tried his hosts file generating software. It works." - by bmo (77928) on Thursday October 15, 2015 @11:30AM (#50736071)

    "his hosts tool is actually useful for those cases in which one does indeed want to locally block stuff outright while consuming minimum system resources" by alexgieg (948359) on Friday September 25, 2015 @09:57AM (#50596461)

    ... apk

  92. Coren22 likes failing security & coding by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Coren22 says "hosts=bad" (they add security, speed, & reliability) & bitches on admin priv to UPDATE vs. threats

    "So, have you figured out why privilege escalation is a bad thing yet?" - by Coren22 on Tuesday September 22, 2015 @05:15PM (#50577809)

    & admits using admin priv himself

    +

      How else can I programmatically update hosts minus it in Windows?

    ---

    "Of course it requires elevation to write to the hosts file" - by Coren22 (1625475) on Wednesday September 23, 2015 @05:35PM (#50585879)

    You FINALLY later admit there's no other way!

    FACT:

    Even MalwareBytes AntiMalware (best one) DEMANDS you use admin privelege (you saying it's "bad" too?) it can't do its job fully otherwise, like many security tools do!

    APK

    P.S.=> Lastly - Coren22, there is a CURE for your "outism" due to your retarded by assburgers clearly defective brain (lol) - quit making childish sigs about me & sockpuppet accounts as well as telling lies about me - I'll stop OUTING you...

    ... apk

  93. Re:Slashdot...getting dumber by the day since 1995 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    *** SMACK*** is the sound of dave420 going down eating his words bitchslapped by apk http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

  94. government by DarthVain · · Score: 1

    I love how government gets the blame here. Government doesn't actually develop anything in house anymore. When everything you do is done through consultants and firms trying their very best to bleed and suckle the taxpayer teat dry it is hard to do anything right. Private sector to the rescue.

    That isn't to say that government hasn't had their hand in mismanagement, they probably do, stuff like political interference do come into play. Not to mention that any very large project of that scale is difficult to do for anyone, including the private sector.

    1. Re:government by ksheff · · Score: 1

      That depends on the agency and facility in question. The Federal installation where I worked, most of all the managers were Federal Govt. employees, but the staff scientists, software developers, and other workers were employees of whatever contractor won the bid. When it came time for the bid to up for competition again, if some other company won it, most if not all those people would be terminated by the old company and hired by the new contractor. For the most part, things stayed the same except for the contractor management, the benefits plan, and any misc forms the contractors' HR departments used.

      --
      the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
  95. Length of project by DarthVain · · Score: 1

    I can't disagree with anything you said, but will only add that many if not most of those things are made worse the longer a project goes on for. You get actual changes in government with different agendas, new staff assigned from project managers to content experts, etc...

    Many times due to the procurement rules, contractors bid ultra low, then pump up the costs by making everything a change order. Is that the fault of government or the contractor?

    Anyway I have seen both sides, with about an equal measure. Many times a contractor or company will oversell what they or their software can do. I've been to some development meetings that were more like sales pitches (which makes me roll my eyes). At the same time I have seen requirements flip back and forth because they can't decided what the policy is or what upper management will agree to... I've also seen new management basically take a new "direction" or "strategy" that basically destroys pretty much all your previous work, making you start over, somehow declaring it a "success", then immediately moving on to their next high paying job, leaving the mess to the next manager, who will take a new "direction" or "strategy"...

  96. Coren22 likes being bitchslapped 65++:1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "I guess we should avoid your crap, it looks like it is marked as malware. Good luck getting that removed." - by Coren22 (1625475) on Monday November 02, 2015 @03:52PM (#50850445)

    It's safe proven by 57 antivirus programs recently in BOTH its 64-bit model https://www.virustotal.com/en/...

    +

    Its 32-bit model too https://www.virustotal.com/en/...

    &

    More "SALT IN YOUR WOUNDS" -> http://f.virscan.org/APKHostsF...

    ---

    MalwareBytes' hpHosts Admin (MalwareBytes employee) hosts & recommends it -> http://hosts-file.net/?s=Downl... & MalwareBytes = BEST antivirus per this VERY recent testing of them all http://www.av-test.org/en/news...

    APK

    P.S.=> /.'ers say my work is good too:

    "his hosts program is actually pretty good" - by xenotransplant (4179011) on Monday August 10, 2015 @03:34PM (#50287195)

    "I like your host file system." - by Karmashock (2415832) on Wednesday September 09, 2015 @03:57PM (#50489401)

    "APK is kinda right... I've given up on JS based adblocking and gone to blackholing in /etc/hosts, just like it was back in the 90s. The computational load has gotten intolerable for any ad-blocking using JS. I've tried his hosts file generating software. It works." - by bmo (77928) on Thursday October 15, 2015 @11:30AM (#50736071)

    "his hosts tool is actually useful for those cases in which one does indeed want to locally block stuff outright while consuming minimum system resources" by alexgieg (948359) on Friday September 25, 2015 @09:57AM (#50596461)

    ... apk

  97. Coren22 likes failing security & coding by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Coren22 says "hosts=bad" (they add security, speed, & reliability) & bitches on admin priv to UPDATE vs. threats

    "So, have you figured out why privilege escalation is a bad thing yet?" - by Coren22 on Tuesday September 22, 2015 @05:15PM (#50577809)

    & admits using admin priv himself

    +

      How else can I programmatically update hosts minus it in Windows?

    ---

    "Of course it requires elevation to write to the hosts file" - by Coren22 (1625475) on Wednesday September 23, 2015 @05:35PM (#50585879)

    You FINALLY later admit there's no other way!

    FACT:

    Even MalwareBytes AntiMalware (best one) DEMANDS you use admin privelege (you saying it's "bad" too?) it can't do its job fully otherwise, like many security tools do!

    APK

    P.S.=> Lastly - Coren22, there is a CURE for your "outism" due to your retarded by assburgers clearly defective brain (lol) - quit making childish sigs about me & sockpuppet accounts as well as telling lies about me - I'll stop OUTING you troll... apk

  98. Coren22 likes lying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "APK doesn't think that DNS servers are worth running and seems to believe that somehow Microsoft Active Directory can run without DNS." - by Coren22 (1625475) on Tuesday October 27, 2015 @12:58PM (#50811615)

    Where'd I say AD will run minus DNS Coren22? I've said AD = internal network DNS dependent as far back as 2007 http://forums.tweaktown.com/wi...

    (Search this in BOLD there "To warn users who have ActiveDirectory/AD LAN-WAN setups to NOT use external DNS servers!" referring to OpenDNS suggestions for those using AD stupid in the POSTS BEFORE IT in my security guides for users (geared to stand alone single machines no less), & right there on that page proves it stupid - so even if you posted as myself someplace here on /. "impersonating me", I have your ass NOW, shithead!)

    I've also stated MANY TIMES I use remote DNS in OpenDNS @ home (but not @ work on AD networks + exchange/outlook: Free OpenDNS model doesn't work with AD dependent Exchange + Outlook specifically you lying little imbecile).

    I also don't hardcode in "every site there is under the sun" is why, so I have to use DNS, but OpenDNS & rarely.

    I also RARELY MISS A LOOKUP since I put where I spend a good 95++% of my time online in my favorite sites into hosts @ the TOP of hosts for utmost LOCAL FASTER RESOLUTION SPEEDS and more reliability vs. Open DNS (not OpenDNS) resolvers being abused, Kaminsky redirect poisoned DNS servers (of which 99.999% of ISP DNS are not proofed against to this very day even though a patch exists which OpenDNS uses), rogue DNS servers, and yes ROUTERS with bushwhacked by malware DNS settings (happening a LOT lately).

    Hardcodes in hosts are faster than remote DNS, waste less resources than local dns in power, cpu cycles, RAM, & other I/O by FAR considering ALL THE PARTS of such a setup in programs, data, I/O, & power (especially if setup as a separate machine).

    APK

    P.S.=> You're a disgusting liar... apk

  99. Coren22 likes being bitchslapped 65++:1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "I guess we should avoid your crap, it looks like it is marked as malware. Good luck getting that removed." - by Coren22 (1625475) on Monday November 02, 2015 @03:52PM (#50850445)

    It's safe proven by 57 antivirus programs recently in BOTH its 64-bit model https://www.virustotal.com/en/...

    +

    Its 32-bit model too https://www.virustotal.com/en/...

    &

    More "SALT IN YOUR WOUNDS" -> http://f.virscan.org/APKHostsF...

    ---

    MalwareBytes' hpHosts Admin (MalwareBytes employee) hosts & recommends it -> http://hosts-file.net/?s=Downl... & MalwareBytes = BEST antivirus per this VERY recent testing of them all http://www.av-test.org/en/news...

    APK

    P.S.=> /.'ers say my work is good too:

    "his hosts program is actually pretty good" - by xenotransplant (4179011) on Monday August 10, 2015 @03:34PM (#50287195)

    "I like your host file system." - by Karmashock (2415832) on Wednesday September 09, 2015 @03:57PM (#50489401)

    "APK is kinda right... I've given up on JS based adblocking and gone to blackholing in /etc/hosts, just like it was back in the 90s. The computational load has gotten intolerable for any ad-blocking using JS. I've tried his hosts file generating software. It works." - by bmo (77928) on Thursday October 15, 2015 @11:30AM (#50736071)

    "his hosts tool is actually useful for those cases in which one does indeed want to locally block stuff outright while consuming minimum system resources" by alexgieg (948359) on Friday September 25, 2015 @09:57AM (#50596461)

    ... apk

  100. Coren22 likes failing security & coding by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Coren22 says "hosts=bad" (they add security, speed, & reliability) & bitches on admin priv to UPDATE vs. threats

    "So, have you figured out why privilege escalation is a bad thing yet?" - by Coren22 on Tuesday September 22, 2015 @05:15PM (#50577809)

    & admits using admin priv himself

    +

      How else can I programmatically update hosts minus it in Windows?

    ---

    "Of course it requires elevation to write to the hosts file" - by Coren22 (1625475) on Wednesday September 23, 2015 @05:35PM (#50585879)

    You FINALLY later admit there's no other way!

    FACT:

    Even MalwareBytes AntiMalware (best one) DEMANDS you use admin privelege (you saying it's "bad" too?) it can't do its job fully otherwise, like many security tools do!

    APK

    P.S.=> Lastly - Coren22, there is a CURE for your "outism" due to your retarded by assburgers clearly defective brain (lol) - quit making childish sigs about me & sockpuppet accounts as well as telling lies about me - I'll stop OUTING you, troll... apk

  101. Coren22 likes lying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "APK doesn't think that DNS servers are worth running and seems to believe that somehow Microsoft Active Directory can run without DNS." - by Coren22 (1625475) on Tuesday October 27, 2015 @12:58PM (#50811615)

    Where'd I say AD will run minus DNS Coren22? I've said AD = internal network DNS dependent as far back as 2007 http://forums.tweaktown.com/wi...

    (Search this in BOLD there "To warn users who have ActiveDirectory/AD LAN-WAN setups to NOT use external DNS servers!" referring to OpenDNS suggestions for those using AD stupid in the POSTS BEFORE IT in my security guides for users (geared to stand alone single machines no less), & right there on that page proves it stupid - so even if you posted as myself someplace here on /. "impersonating me", I have your ass NOW, shithead!)

    I've also stated MANY TIMES I use remote DNS in OpenDNS @ home (but not @ work on AD networks + exchange/outlook: Free OpenDNS model doesn't work with AD dependent Exchange + Outlook specifically you lying little imbecile).

    I also don't hardcode in "every site there is under the sun" is why, so I have to use DNS, but OpenDNS & rarely.

    I also RARELY MISS A LOOKUP since I put where I spend a good 95++% of my time online in my favorite sites into hosts @ the TOP of hosts for utmost LOCAL FASTER RESOLUTION SPEEDS and more reliability vs. Open DNS (not OpenDNS) resolvers being abused, Kaminsky redirect poisoned DNS servers (of which 99.999% of ISP DNS are not proofed against to this very day even though a patch exists which OpenDNS uses), rogue DNS servers, and yes ROUTERS with bushwhacked by malware DNS settings (happening a LOT lately).

    Hardcodes in hosts are faster than remote DNS, waste less resources than local dns in power, cpu cycles, RAM, & other I/O by FAR considering ALL THE PARTS of such a setup in programs, data, I/O, & power (especially if setup as a separate machine).

    APK

    P.S.=> You're a disgusting liar... apk

  102. Coren22 likes being bitchslapped 65++:1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "I guess we should avoid your crap, it looks like it is marked as malware. Good luck getting that removed." - by Coren22 (1625475) on Monday November 02, 2015 @03:52PM (#50850445)

    It's safe proven by 57 antivirus programs recently in BOTH its 64-bit model https://www.virustotal.com/en/...

    +

    Its 32-bit model too https://www.virustotal.com/en/...

    &

    More "SALT IN YOUR WOUNDS" -> http://f.virscan.org/APKHostsF...

    ---

    MalwareBytes' hpHosts Admin (MalwareBytes employee) hosts & recommends it -> http://hosts-file.net/?s=Downl... & MalwareBytes = BEST antivirus per this VERY recent testing of them all http://www.av-test.org/en/news...

    APK

    P.S.=> /.'ers say my work is good too:

    "his hosts program is actually pretty good" - by xenotransplant (4179011) on Monday August 10, 2015 @03:34PM (#50287195)

    "I like your host file system." - by Karmashock (2415832) on Wednesday September 09, 2015 @03:57PM (#50489401)

    "APK is kinda right... I've given up on JS based adblocking and gone to blackholing in /etc/hosts, just like it was back in the 90s. The computational load has gotten intolerable for any ad-blocking using JS. I've tried his hosts file generating software. It works." - by bmo (77928) on Thursday October 15, 2015 @11:30AM (#50736071)

    "his hosts tool is actually useful for those cases in which one does indeed want to locally block stuff outright while consuming minimum system resources" by alexgieg (948359) on Friday September 25, 2015 @09:57AM (#50596461)

    ... apk

  103. Coren22 likes failing security & coding by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Coren22 says "hosts=bad" (they add security, speed, & reliability) & bitches on admin priv to UPDATE vs. threats

    "So, have you figured out why privilege escalation is a bad thing yet?" - by Coren22 on Tuesday September 22, 2015 @05:15PM (#50577809)

    & admits using admin priv himself

    +

      How else can I programmatically update hosts minus it in Windows?

    ---

    "Of course it requires elevation to write to the hosts file" - by Coren22 (1625475) on Wednesday September 23, 2015 @05:35PM (#50585879)

    You FINALLY later admit there's no other way!

    FACT:

    Even MalwareBytes AntiMalware (best one) DEMANDS you use admin privelege (you saying it's "bad" too?) it can't do its job fully otherwise, like many security tools do!

    APK

    P.S.=> Lastly - Coren22, there is a CURE for your "outism" due to your retarded by assburgers clearly defective brain (lol) - quit making childish sigs about me & sockpuppet accounts as well as telling lies about me - I'll stop OUTING you retarded imbecile troll... apk

  104. Australia by countach · · Score: 1

    Australia spent a ton of money (figures of 1 billion were rumoured, but may be exaggerated) on an immigration system called GVP, (Generic Visa Processing) and then canned it a couple of years ago because they couldn't make it work properly.

  105. success !! by micahraleigh · · Score: 1

    A form was set up successfully.

    Now that the government has demonstrated its reliability, let's hand over all health care activity to unelected officials.

    This is clear, irrefutable proof that single payer, political oversight by the IRS, and the treasury confiscating all bank accounts exceeding $10k will usher in the perfection of society and the shared prosperity as described by HRC, BHO, and Walter Mondale.

  106. Re:Coren22 likes failing security & coding by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Apk wore out Coren22 who ran http://slashdot.org/comments.p... + you on hosts http://slashdot.org/comments.p... oddly defending Coren22 there like now too (can you say Pikoro = Coren22 sockpuppet? We can).

  107. Coren22 can't keep his word... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject & links where I tried to make peace - says it all w/ proof of it from his trolling "signature boy" mouth http://slashdot.org/comments.p... & here too http://slashdot.org/comments.p... + here http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

    * :)

    (I've discovered that trying to make peace with a mental retard due to assbergers & OUTISM is a difficult thing & largely apparently unachievable...)

    APK

    P.S.=> You brought it on yourself Coren22, nobody else - you sow the wind? Here comes the whirlwind, & all your sockpuppets, signatures, & fellow trolls can't stop it (lol, you're 'outta bullets' in downmods) - so "the beatings will continue" until you stop your immature childish signature bs... apk

  108. Coren likes to be crushed (crushing himself) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject: Says it all & this link, dismantling him point-by-"so-called 'point'" of his publicly http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

    * :)

    (Coren22, I tried to give you a chance, 3x no less - you're a fool: You mistake mercy for weakness, like cretin brutes in the streets do... you paid the price!)

    APK

    P.S.=> I notice you stopped responding there - "Gosh, golly gee - why's that?" (not) - but I expect you'll TRY some more b.s. as that's all "your kind" (trolls) understand - crap like downmodding my posts (which you & your sockpuppets OR fellow trolls have here already NOW TELLING OTHERS TO TROLL ME BY UNIDENTIFIABLE AC POSTS http://slashdot.org/comments.p... as I've torn you ALL up 1 by 1 every time as I have yourself above... you did this, to yourself "signature boy")... apk

  109. LOL! Arstechnica: Home of the loser online by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You/Ars got proof of my mental condition by a psychiatric clinic by licensed/degreed pros in psych sciences? No. That's libel you know. It's not true.

    See subject - that's all you are & all you'll EVER be (& you know it) - now, I DO KNOW from Coren22's own mouth he is mental. Assburgers & Outism, lol.

    * :)

    I also WIPED ARSTECHNICA OFF THE MAP in 2003-2006 @ Windows IT Pro easily - Jeremy Reimer got his website removed by Shaw of Canada his ISP & hosting provider + he was put on a tracking ticket by them for email harassment... his "henchman" Jay Little said "I am an EXPERT on Exchange" which much to his dismay worked against him @ "The Memory Optimization Hoax" where I proved to them AND Dr. Mark Russinovich (former "co-worker" of mine @ Sunbelt where we retailed our wares there & he bitched I outsold his work, awww) that that technology unhalted & sped up frozen Exchange Servers USING MICROSOFT'S OWN DOCUMENTATION TO DO IT (clearmem.exe is the same tech, but not GUI, & I designed the 1st program of that nature in GUI no less).

    Jay Little then trolled & stalked me to other websites where I annihilated him on ramdrives as well - he was banned + had his website @ CrystalTech removed by that hosting provider for libeling me.

    FOOLS... you're the same kind of scum, but you're just as easy to dispatch with truth & facts.

    APK

    P.S.=> Bad move bringing up the DOLTS of Arstechnica - all they can do is "gossip" like old biddies behind my back, BUT OUTSIDE THEIR "PRIVATE PLAYPEN"? The results are QUITE different, see above, lol... apk

  110. Re:Geez... by ksheff · · Score: 1

    don't forget the apk spam.

    --
    the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
  111. Coren22 can't keep his word... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject & links where I tried to make peace - says it all w/ proof of it from his trolling "signature boy" mouth http://slashdot.org/comments.p... & here too http://slashdot.org/comments.p... + here http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

    * :)

    (I've discovered that trying to make peace with a mental retard due to assbergers & OUTISM is a difficult thing & largely apparently unachievable...)

    APK

    P.S.=> You brought it on yourself Coren22, nobody else - you sow the wind? Here comes the whirlwind, & all your sockpuppets, signatures, & fellow trolls can't stop it (lol, you're 'outta bullets' in downmods) - so "the beatings will continue" until you stop your immature childish signature bs... apk

  112. Coren22 gets crushed (& he ran) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject: Says it all & this link, dismantling him point-by-"so-called 'point'" of his publicly http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

    * :)

    (Coren22, I tried to give you a chance, 3x no less - you're a fool: You mistake mercy for weakness, like cretin brutes in the streets do... you paid the price!)

    APK

    P.S.=> I notice you stopped responding there - "Gosh, golly gee - why's that?" (not) - but I expect you'll TRY some more b.s. as that's all "your kind" (trolls) understand - crap like downmodding my posts or ac troll me!

    (Which you & your sockpuppets OR fellow trolls have here already NOW TELLING OTHERS TO TROLL ME BY UNIDENTIFIABLE AC POSTS http://slashdot.org/comments.p... as I've torn you ALL up 1 by 1 every time as I have yourself above... you did this, to yourself "signature boy")... apk

  113. Coren22 can't keep his word... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject & links where I tried to make peace - says it all w/ proof of it from his trolling "signature boy" mouth http://slashdot.org/comments.p... & here too http://slashdot.org/comments.p... + here http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

    * :)

    (I've discovered that trying to make peace with a mental retard due to assbergers & OUTISM is a difficult thing & largely apparently unachievable...)

    APK

    P.S.=> You brought it on yourself Coren22, nobody else - you sow the wind? Here comes the whirlwind, & all your sockpuppets, signatures, & fellow trolls can't stop it (lol, you're 'outta bullets' in downmods) - so "the beatings will continue" until you stop your immature childish signature bs... apk

  114. Coren22 gets crushed (& he ran) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject: Says it all & this link, dismantling him point-by-"so-called 'point'" of his publicly http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

    * :)

    (Coren22, I tried to give you a chance, 3x no less - you're a fool: You mistake mercy for weakness, like cretin brutes in the streets do... you paid the price!)

    APK

    P.S.=> I notice you stopped responding there - "Gosh, golly gee - why's that?" (not) - but I expect you'll TRY some more b.s. as that's all "your kind" (trolls) understand - crap like downmodding my posts or ac troll me!

    (Which you & your sockpuppets OR fellow trolls have here already NOW TELLING OTHERS TO TROLL ME BY UNIDENTIFIABLE AC POSTS http://slashdot.org/comments.p... as I've torn you ALL up 1 by 1 every time as I have yourself above... you did this, to yourself "signature boy")... apk

  115. Coren22 can't keep his word... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject & links where I tried to make peace - says it all w/ proof of it from his trolling "signature boy" mouth http://slashdot.org/comments.p... & here too http://slashdot.org/comments.p... + here http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

    * :)

    (I've discovered that trying to make peace with a mental retard due to assbergers & OUTISM is a difficult thing & largely apparently unachievable...)

    APK

    P.S.=> You brought it on yourself Coren22, nobody else - you sow the wind? Here comes the whirlwind, & all your sockpuppets, signatures, & fellow trolls can't stop it (lol, you're 'outta bullets' in downmods) - so "the beatings will continue" until you stop your immature childish signature bs... apk

  116. Coren22 gets crushed (& he ran) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject: Says it all & this link, dismantling him point-by-"so-called 'point'" of his publicly http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

    * :)

    (Coren22, I tried to give you a chance, 3x no less - you're a fool: You mistake mercy for weakness, like cretin brutes in the streets do... you paid the price!)

    APK

    P.S.=> I notice you stopped responding there - "Gosh, golly gee - why's that?" (not) - but I expect you'll TRY some more b.s. as that's all "your kind" (trolls) understand - crap like downmodding my posts or ac troll me!

    (Which you & your sockpuppets OR fellow trolls have here already NOW TELLING OTHERS TO TROLL ME BY UNIDENTIFIABLE AC POSTS http://slashdot.org/comments.p... as I've torn you ALL up 1 by 1 every time as I have yourself above... you did this, to yourself "signature boy")... apk

  117. Coren22 can't keep his word... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject & links where I tried to make peace - says it all w/ proof of it from his trolling "signature boy" mouth http://slashdot.org/comments.p... & here too http://slashdot.org/comments.p... + here http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

    * :)

    (I've discovered that trying to make peace with a mental retard due to assbergers & OUTISM is a difficult thing & largely apparently unachievable...)

    APK

    P.S.=> You brought it on yourself Coren22, nobody else - you sow the wind? Here comes the whirlwind, & all your sockpuppets, signatures, & fellow trolls can't stop it (lol, you're 'outta bullets' in downmods) - so "the beatings will continue" until you stop your immature childish signature bs... apk

  118. Coren22 gets crushed (& he ran) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject: Says it all & this link, dismantling him point-by-"so-called 'point'" of his publicly http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

    * :)

    (Coren22, I tried to give you a chance, 3x no less - you're a fool: You mistake mercy for weakness, like cretin brutes in the streets do... you paid the price!)

    APK

    P.S.=> I notice you stopped responding there - "Gosh, golly gee - why's that?" (not) - but I expect you'll TRY some more b.s. as that's all "your kind" (trolls) understand - crap like downmodding my posts or ac troll me!

    (Which you & your sockpuppets OR fellow trolls have here already NOW TELLING OTHERS TO TROLL ME BY UNIDENTIFIABLE AC POSTS http://slashdot.org/comments.p... as I've torn you ALL up 1 by 1 every time as I have yourself above... you did this, to yourself "signature boy")... apk

  119. Coren22 can't keep his word... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject & links where I tried to make peace - says it all w/ proof of it from his trolling "signature boy" mouth http://slashdot.org/comments.p... & here too http://slashdot.org/comments.p... + here http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

    * :)

    (I've discovered that trying to make peace with a mental retard due to assbergers & OUTISM is a difficult thing & largely apparently unachievable...)

    APK

    P.S.=> You brought it on yourself Coren22, nobody else - you sow the wind? Here comes the whirlwind, & all your sockpuppets, signatures, & fellow trolls can't stop it (lol, you're 'outta bullets' in downmods) - so "the beatings will continue" until you stop your immature childish signature bs... apk

  120. Coren22 gets crushed (& he ran) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject: Says it all & this link, dismantling him point-by-"so-called 'point'" of his publicly http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

    * :)

    (Coren22, I tried to give you a chance, 3x no less - you're a fool: You mistake mercy for weakness, like cretin brutes in the streets do... you paid the price!)

    APK

    P.S.=> I notice you stopped responding there - "Gosh, golly gee - why's that?" (not) - but I expect you'll TRY some more b.s. as that's all "your kind" (trolls) understand - crap like downmodding my posts or ac troll me!

    (Which you & your sockpuppets OR fellow trolls have here already NOW TELLING OTHERS TO TROLL ME BY UNIDENTIFIABLE AC POSTS http://slashdot.org/comments.p... as I've torn you ALL up 1 by 1 every time as I have yourself above... you did this, to yourself "signature boy")... apk

  121. Coren22 gets crushed (& he ran) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject: Says it all & this link, dismantling him point-by-"so-called 'point'" of his publicly http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

    * :)

    (Coren22, I tried to give you a chance, 3x no less - you're a fool: You mistake mercy for weakness, like cretin brutes in the streets do... you paid the price!)

    APK

    P.S.=> I notice you stopped responding there - "Gosh, golly gee - why's that?" (not) - but I expect you'll TRY some more b.s. as that's all "your kind" (trolls) understand - crap like downmodding my posts or ac troll me!

    (Which you & your sockpuppets OR fellow trolls have here already NOW TELLING OTHERS TO TROLL ME BY UNIDENTIFIABLE AC POSTS http://slashdot.org/comments.p... as I've torn you ALL up 1 by 1 every time as I have yourself above... you did this, to yourself "signature boy")... apk

  122. Coren22 gets crushed (& he ran) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject: Says it all & this link, dismantling him point-by-"so-called 'point'" of his publicly http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

    * :)

    (Coren22, I tried to give you a chance, 3x no less - you're a fool: You mistake mercy for weakness, like cretin brutes in the streets do... you paid the price!)

    APK

    P.S.=> I notice you stopped responding there - "Gosh, golly gee - why's that?" (not) - but I expect you'll TRY some more b.s. as that's all "your kind" (trolls) understand - crap like downmodding my posts or ac troll me!

    (Which you & your sockpuppets OR fellow trolls have here already NOW TELLING OTHERS TO TROLL ME BY UNIDENTIFIABLE AC POSTS http://slashdot.org/comments.p... as I've torn you ALL up 1 by 1 every time as I have yourself above... you did this, to yourself "signature boy")... apk

  123. Coren22 likes lying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "APK doesn't think that DNS servers are worth running and seems to believe that somehow Microsoft Active Directory can run without DNS." - by Coren22 (1625475) on Tuesday October 27, 2015 @12:58PM (#50811615)

    Where'd I say AD will run minus DNS Coren22? I've said AD = internal network DNS dependent as far back as 2007 http://forums.tweaktown.com/wi...

    (Search this in BOLD there "To warn users who have ActiveDirectory/AD LAN-WAN setups to NOT use external DNS servers!" referring to OpenDNS suggestions for those using AD stupid in the POSTS BEFORE IT in my security guides for users (geared to stand alone single machines no less), & right there on that page proves it stupid - so even if you posted as myself someplace here on /. "impersonating me", I have your ass NOW, shithead!)

    I've also stated MANY TIMES I use remote DNS in OpenDNS @ home (but not @ work on AD networks + exchange/outlook: Free OpenDNS model doesn't work with AD dependent Exchange + Outlook specifically you lying little imbecile).

    I also don't hardcode in "every site there is under the sun" is why, so I have to use DNS, but OpenDNS & rarely.

    I also RARELY MISS A LOOKUP since I put where I spend a good 95++% of my time online in my favorite sites into hosts @ the TOP of hosts for utmost LOCAL FASTER RESOLUTION SPEEDS and more reliability vs. Open DNS (not OpenDNS) resolvers being abused, Kaminsky redirect poisoned DNS servers (of which 99.999% of ISP DNS are not proofed against to this very day even though a patch exists which OpenDNS uses), rogue DNS servers, and yes ROUTERS with bushwhacked by malware DNS settings (happening a LOT lately).

    Hardcodes in hosts are faster than remote DNS, waste less resources than local dns in power, cpu cycles, RAM, & other I/O by FAR considering ALL THE PARTS of such a setup in programs, data, I/O, & power (especially if setup as a separate machine).

    APK

    P.S.=> You're a disgusting liar... apk