Apples, meet oranges.

Oranges, meet Government.

/works for the government so is yadda yadda yadda.

The whole point of the list isn't to stop terrorists. It's supposed to make it look like the government is doing something. And they are. They're wasting tax dollars and inconveniencing everyone in the process. It's what they do.

That sounds like a huge clusterfark. I'm glad the company I work for had nothing to do with it.

The list is only a million or so names plus associated errata, and they can't manage to store it all in a standard SQL database?

Yikes.

Government contractors are even worse than I suspected.

The problem here is Lockheed Martin. And the government lackeys who throw them any contract they can.

Why does this surprise anyone?

This was the perfect opportunity to distribute tax dollars to politically connected friends, and create a national registry that you can put anyone on to track them, with nothing theu can do about it.

It's win-win!

patrick767: That sounds like a huge clusterfark. I'm glad the company I work for had nothing to do with it.

In 1995, I worked on a government contract. It was a personnel database for high level (GS13 and up) accountants. People would enter their "audit resume" which is all their experience. Other people would enter available positions. The program would match positions with job candidates. This was 1995. The location I was at, and all the locations involved were on a large government network, which was four-way redundant. Yet, the specs called for FedEx'ing floppy disks around the country with this information, and then FedEx'ing the printouts of the candidate lists. One step involved a nightly printing of thousands of pages. Someone asked what the contingency plan was if the printer ran out of paper or jammed. The only response was "there is no place in the schedule for printer problems. It won't happen."

My first task was to write a section of code to ask which flooy drive the disk was in (A or B), read in the data into the master database, and verify that it was added before telling them to eject the disk. I looked at it and estimated 8 hours with codinge, testing, and documentation. I asked, "When is this due, tomorrow?" "OH no! You have 8 weeks!"

I work at a government agency. Part of my job is to help users find specific data.

I usually to tell them to google it. It almost always works.

Sometime when I'm alone I google myself.

/with sexy results

Whamdangler:

Apples, meet oranges.

Oranges, meet Apple's Spotlight.

And you people want the same government to manage you health care?

The FCC telecommunications office of tariffs had rotary desk phones as late as 2004.

So don't expect fancy high-tech computer stuff from the government. Ain't gonna happen.

Father Jack Hacket: Oranges, meet Government.

/works for the government so is yadda yadda yadda.

But all those failed contracts are done by private corporations, not by the government.

Dancin_In_Anson: And you people want the same government to manage you health care?

The private sector does those contract not government.

And what candidate is asking for government to manage health care?

Neither are.

Dancin_In_Anson: And you people want the same government to manage you health care?

Among the flaws in the database, which was quickly built by Lockheed Martin Corp.

So when has Lockheed Martin been "the government".

Well I feel safer, don't you?

Software. The new $10,000 hammer.

See what happens when Rupert Murdoch buys a media property? It starts publishing lies.

Corvus: Dancin_In_Anson: And you people want the same government to manage you health care?

Among the flaws in the database, which was quickly built by Lockheed Martin Corp.

So when has Lockheed Martin been "the government".

Since September, 2001.

/Former LMer.
//Not always the contractor's fault, though.

Corvus: The private sector does those contract not government.

So when has Lockheed Martin been "the government".

Who wrote the specs?

Nice to see that my tax money is being well spent as usual

Dancin_In_Anson: And you people want the same government to manage you health care are surprised that, as usual, Republicans intentionally mismanage government in order to privatize it?

FTFY

Peter von Nostrand: FTFY

Well I can't wait to see how things get cleared up in the coming years.

The sad part is you probably believe this. I on the other hand won't be holding my breath.

Dancin_In_Anson: And you people want the same government to manage you health care?

Well, they didn't do a very good jerb with your edumacation...

Dancin_In_Anson: And you people want the same government to manage you health care?

THIS.

/Chuckle

Corvus: So when has Lockheed Martin been "the government".

Since November 22nd, 1963.

So how upset are conservatives that the Republican Party has been in charge of the biggest expansion of government - and government waste - and debt - since FDR?

in any instance of government mismanagement Republicans have pointed to in the last 8 years, I can point to the private contractor to whom the Republican administration farmed the task out to.

Brazlian Fart Porn

Dancin_In_Anson: Peter von Nostrand: FTFY

Well I can't wait to see how things get cleared up in the coming years.

The sad part is you probably believe this. I on the other hand won't be holding my breath.

The sad part is blah blah blah the government can't do anything right blah blah blah but everything has been great the last 7 years blah blah blah Obama is a muslim.

Dancin_In_Anson: Who wrote the specs?

Having worked at places like that usually the private company does.

I guess you are saying that private industry just can't do a good job.

Death to America: Dancin_In_Anson: And you people want the same government to manage you health care?

THIS.

/Chuckle

Who is suggesting that? Serious question.

And you people want the same government to manage wars?

Marcus Aurelius: The whole point of the list isn't to stop terrorists. It's supposed to make it look like the government is doing something. And they are. They're wasting tax dollars and inconveniencing everyone in the process. It's what they do.

i don't know why but when i read that it sounded like someone speaking a Scottish accent.

Death to America: Dancin_In_Anson: And you people want the same government to manage you health care?

THIS.

/Chuckle

Too bad there is no candidate who is actually suggesting for the government to manage health care.

It can't be a FAIL tag if the result is what you expect, or is at least status quo.

Corvus: Dancin_In_Anson: Who wrote the specs?

Having worked at places like that usually the private company does.

I guess you are saying that private industry just can't do a good job.

This has been my experience with spec writing also.

But I am sure thta makes me a lib.

Dancin_In_Anson: Corvus: The private sector does those contract not government.

So when has Lockheed Martin been "the government".

Who wrote the specs?

I can't name who but a company I worked for took a very important government contract and screwed it completely. They didn't meet any of the contract requirements, and didn't bother telling the agency involved that they didn't have any workable solution until the contract was about to come up for rebid. In a fluke of nature they were actually forced to repay the contract, but that's the exception not the rule. I've worked for many contracting companies and now I work for the Federal Government. More actually gets done in a timely manner in the Government, and that's not a positive thing either.

Corvus: I guess you are saying that private industry just can't do a good job.

Massive failures of software initiatives by EDS, Andersen Consultants (Accenture) etc. When it comes to body shops like these, yeah...they don't do a very good job but it's very expensive.

False positives (innocent citizens identified as possible terrorists): 1,000,000 and counting.

False negatives (terrorists not identified as terrorists): ?

False sense of security: priceless.

"Security" is not the same thing as "safety".

"Information", "data" are not the same thing as "knowledge" or "understanding".

You've thrown your civil rights and liberties out of the window for nothing, less than nothing.

Because of the way money is allocated you've thrown tens or hundreds of billions of "homeland security" dollars away as well.

Remember the list of possible terrorist targets that was drawn up and included, among other bizarre things, a petting zoo (IIRC) and a popcorn factory?

Every state has to get some of the federal pot even if there isn't a single real hard target for terrorism in the state. Every county. Every municipality. Alaska ends up getting more per capita than New York City, which has more hard targets than the entire Mid-West and possibly all of Canada.

This kind of stupidity transcends partisan Republican-Democrat, liberal-conservative categories. It transcends even humanity.

It's stupidity on a cosmic scale. It's maya, as the Buddhists call it, illusion.

Still, there's traditionally more stupid in an army platoon than the entire medical system, so I'd stick to worrying about the lessons of this for homeland security and let somebody else worry about State health insurance, even though I'm sure that private sector bureaucracies are just as dumb as public sector bureaucracies. If you can believe Dilbert cartoons they may be even more stupid--and you know you can believe even the most absurd cartoon, because Scott Adams gets many if not most of his ideas from his career experience and from readers who happily report back to him.

If Adams were really crooked he would be more dangerous than J. Edgar Hoover's private files in the hands of Dogbert--he has more spies on the inside of every conceivable operation, tickled pink at exposing their co-workers, employees and bosses, than any totalitarian government ever managed.

Corvus: So when has Lockheed Martin been "the government".

My cynicism says quite some time, I would think. Among others.

Dancin_In_Anson: Who wrote the specs?

A good analyst/programmer can take badly written specs and still deliver what the business side needs. It's part of the job to interpret a document written by an extremely non-technical person and still provide a quality deliverable.

Darconix: vernonFL: So how upset are conservatives that the Republican Party has been in charge of the biggest expansion of government - and government waste - and debt - since FDR?

Pretty upset, actually. Look at Congress' approval ratings. Still, if your choice is bad or worse, you choose bad. I'm not thrilled with McCain, but he's not Obama.

They must not be too upset since the same ones win their primaries if they are even challenged in them.

PascalsGhost: This has been my experience with spec writing also.

But I am sure thta makes me a lib.

We all know facts have a liberal bias.

A private company screws up a government contract for the 1 billionth time and it's "The government screwed it up!!!"

Asa Phelps: The problem here is Lockheed Martin. And the government lackeys who throw them any contract they can.

We have a winner!

I'm not positive, but most likely Google wasn't designed and implemented for free.

Freakpower: Sometime when I'm alone I google myself.

/with sexy results

That made me giggle uncontrollably.

What is funny is that Lockheed Martin pays my rent and keeps me fed. They give my family and I a lot of business.

So, the government gives LM money, and they give it to me. I'm therefore a beneficiary of government waste and fraud? (what they pay me for is hardly needed - I decorate their offices with expensive shiat.)

PascalsGhost: Death to America: Dancin_In_Anson: And you people want the same government to manage you health care?

THIS.

/Chuckle

Who is suggesting that? Serious question.

Again, who is suggesting that government manage my health care?

I used to work for the company that developed the search engine described in the article, so I'm really getting a kick...

//Did QA work at the time.
///There were numerous bugs with approximately matching Arabic names.