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DevilsReject

DevilsReject

Cleveland, OH
February 2007

MAR 23, 2008 11:01 PM

The White House is under investigation by a non-profit group about e-mails that may contain information about controversial government activities.

The White House IT Department is controversial enough, let alone anything contained within it.

This is what the White House had to say today:

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Older White House computer hard drives have been destroyed, the White House disclosed to a federal court Friday in a controversy over millions of possibly missing e-mails from 2003 to 2005.




"When workstations are at the end of their lifecycle and retired ... the hard drives are generally sent offsite to another government entity for physical destruction," the White House said in a sworn declaration filed with U.S. Magistrate Judge John Facciola.



Okay, you destroyed them, but the data is backed-up right?

Facciola proposed the drastic approach of going to individual workstations of White House computer users after the White House disclosed in January that it recycled its computer backup tapes before October 2003. Recycling _ taping over existing data _ raises the possibility that any missing e-mails may not be recoverable.



Wait. What? The fawking White House can't afford to buy new tapes for the tape drives they use to back up their systems? They have to recycle tapes? Something. Seriously. Wrong. Srsly.

It would be costly and time-consuming for the White House to institute an e-mail retrieval program that entails pulling data off each individual workstation, the court papers filed Friday state.



In other words. "We don't want anyone to know what is really going on, so we are just going to go ahead and say it's really expensive and no one is really sure it can be done."

Something. Fishy.

scylis

scylis

Anchorage, AK
November 2004

MAR 23, 2008 11:16 PM

it probably was something so little and stupid that started it all, too. somebody just didn't want a reprimand for their section and it all just spiraled out of control. which is telling of how thoughtful and future-minded i think the administration is.

DevilsReject

DevilsReject

Cleveland, OH
February 2007

MAR 23, 2008 11:28 PM

I just can't believe how far behind the White House must be when it comes to servers and workstations if they can't produce official e-mails that should by all means be backed up. I can honestly see saying "Hey we need a week to get you these things" buy saying "Well we don't even know if we can retrieve them" is just completely insane to me.

I keep picturing George Bush playing "Oregon Trail" on an Apple IIc.

scylis

scylis

Anchorage, AK
November 2004

MAR 23, 2008 11:35 PM

DevilsReject said:
I just can't believe how far behind the White House must be when it comes to servers and workstations if they can't produce official e-mails that should by all means be backed up. I can honestly see saying "Hey we need a week to get you these things" buy saying "Well we don't even know if we can retrieve them" is just completely insane to me.

I keep picturing George Bush playing "Oregon Trail" on an Apple IIc.



"Heh. I'm a real hunter. Heh. Heh. Yeah."

lil_tuffy

lil_tuffy

MODERATOR

San Francisco, CA

MAR 23, 2008 11:37 PM

I wish I could disclose the work I did for various gov't agencies a few years ago. All I can really say is that very, very, very important decisions were made based on an individuals power point presentation.Seriously. Like global impact type of decisions.

TheRedBaron

TheRedBaron

Cambridge, MA
November 2003

MAR 23, 2008 11:58 PM

lil_tuffy said:
I wish I could disclose the work I did for various gov't agencies a few years ago. All I can really say is that very, very, very important decisions were made based on an individuals power point presentation.Seriously. Like global impact type of decisions.



Flagged.

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

Seriously, though. Want to go for drinks?

scylis

scylis

Anchorage, AK
November 2004

MAR 24, 2008 12:49 AM

lil_tuffy said:
I wish I could disclose the work I did for various gov't agencies a few years ago. All I can really say is that very, very, very important decisions were made based on an individuals power point presentation.Seriously. Like global impact type of decisions.



was it a well done presentation, or half-assed?

AceT

AceT

Portland, OR
April 2004

MAR 24, 2008 02:16 AM

At the Future of Web Apps conference I spoke with a member of the intelligence community about their systems; I was shocked at how lo-fi their setup was, and how they were actually looking at the tools we use to provide better intelligence.

Here's a good article on the subject.

By way of contrast, every night when Burton went home, he was reminded of how good the everyday Internet had become at connecting dots. "Web 2.0" technologies that encourage people to share information - blogs, photo-posting sites like Flickr or the reader-generated encyclopedia Wikipedia - often made it easier to collaborate with others. When the Orange Revolution erupted in Ukraine in late 2004, Burton went to Technorati, a search engine that scours the "blogosphere," to find the most authoritative blog postings on the subject. Within minutes, he had found sites with insightful commentary from American expatriates who were talking to locals in Kiev and on-the-fly debates among political analysts over what it meant. Because he and his fellow spies were stuck with outdated technology, they had no comparable way to cooperate - to find colleagues with common interests and brainstorm online.

Burton, who has since left the D.I.A., is not alone in his concern. Indeed, throughout the intelligence community, spies are beginning to wonder why their technology has fallen so far behind - and talk among themselves about how to catch up. Some of the country's most senior intelligence thinkers have joined the discussion, and surprisingly, many of them believe the answer may lie in the interactive tools the world's teenagers are using to pass around YouTube videos and bicker online about their favorite bands. Billions of dollars' worth of ultrasecret data networks couldn't help spies piece together the clues to the worst terrorist plot ever. So perhaps, they argue, it' s time to try something radically different. Could blogs and wikis prevent the next 9/11?



They are now actively using MediaWiki and Wordpress, and there actually exists an Intellipedia. But even now this person says that a lot of this information doesn't make it to all the levels because you have to copy and paste the information into each one, so the information gets fractured.

lil_tuffy

lil_tuffy

MODERATOR

San Francisco, CA

MAR 24, 2008 08:23 AM

scylis said:

lil_tuffy said:
I wish I could disclose the work I did for various gov't agencies a few years ago. All I can really say is that very, very, very important decisions were made based on an individuals power point presentation.Seriously. Like global impact type of decisions.



was it a well done presentation, or half-assed?



The clip art stealth bombers were to die for.

Chainlink

Chainlink

Dickeyville, WI
August 2005

MAR 24, 2008 08:40 AM

lil_tuffy said:

scylis said:

lil_tuffy said:
I wish I could disclose the work I did for various gov't agencies a few years ago. All I can really say is that very, very, very important decisions were made based on an individuals power point presentation.Seriously. Like global impact type of decisions.



was it a well done presentation, or half-assed?



The clip art stealth bombers were to die for.



ha ha tongue

Kindle

Kindle

Seattle, WA
March 2006

MAR 24, 2008 09:43 AM

lil_tuffy said:

scylis said:

lil_tuffy said:
I wish I could disclose the work I did for various gov't agencies a few years ago. All I can really say is that very, very, very important decisions were made based on an individuals power point presentation.Seriously. Like global impact type of decisions.



was it a well done presentation, or half-assed?



The clip art stealth bombers were to die for.


Was this one of them?

zoom image

This kind of excites me.

Salieri

Salieri

Montreal, QC
July 2004

MAR 24, 2008 10:53 AM

Kindle said:

lil_tuffy said:

scylis said:

lil_tuffy said:
I wish I could disclose the work I did for various gov't agencies a few years ago. All I can really say is that very, very, very important decisions were made based on an individuals power point presentation.Seriously. Like global impact type of decisions.



was it a well done presentation, or half-assed?



The clip art stealth bombers were to die for.


Was this one of them?

zoom image

This kind of excites me.



I'm sorry, I'm going to have to lock this thread. Classified Government Clip Art is not to be shown outside of Sectors A-23 and C-22.

Thank you.

starbuck42

starbuck42

I'm lost
February 2007

MAR 24, 2008 01:08 PM

Sounds like the government could use a gmail account. We shoud all send them invites. tongue

dreamergirl

dreamergirl

Montserrat
September 2007

MAR 26, 2008 08:57 PM

#1 They were not destroyed.
#2 They are in the hands of Homeland Security.
#3 They are also in the hands of others who had motive.



Subrosa

Subrosa

San Francisco, CA
July 2004

MAR 26, 2008 09:00 PM

lil_tuffy said:
I wish I could disclose the work I did for various gov't agencies a few years ago. All I can really say is that very, very, very important decisions were made based on an individuals power point presentation.Seriously. Like global impact type of decisions.



As your attorney, I recommend you not disclose U.S. government defense agency secrets.

scylis

scylis

Anchorage, AK
November 2004

MAR 26, 2008 09:32 PM

Subrosa said:

lil_tuffy said:
I wish I could disclose the work I did for various gov't agencies a few years ago. All I can really say is that very, very, very important decisions were made based on an individuals power point presentation.Seriously. Like global impact type of decisions.



As your attorney, I recommend you not disclose U.S. government defense agency secrets.



as somebody with an IQ above 7, i recommend you not to disclose U.S. government defense agency secrets.

Stiles

Stiles

New York, NY
November 2002

MAR 26, 2008 09:34 PM

When you buy equipment via bid contract and take several years to write the specs and requirements in the process, you're gonna get hardware that is obsolete years before you get it out of the box...

...not to mention the need for sometimes moronic levels of backwards compatibility with comparatively stone age pre-existing hardware and software already in use.

Some companies subcontracting repair and troubleshooting for the government hire people proficient in obsolete computer languages exclusively for government work, kind of like having to learn Latin to read the owner's manual on an Abacus.

adjunct

adjunct

Philadelphia, PA
July 2002

MAR 26, 2008 09:38 PM

Stiles said:
not to mention the need for sometimes moronic levels of backwards compatibility with comparatively stone age pre-existing hardware and software already in use.


Man, how do I get this copy of Corel Draw to import Powerpoint presentations so we can open them in our WebTV viewer? Damn this Information Superhighway!

Fixer

Fixer

Los Angeles, CA
October 2002

MAR 26, 2008 10:15 PM

dreamergirl said:
#1 They were not destroyed.
#2 They are in the hands of Homeland Security.
#3 They are also in the hands of others who had motive.





sure they were destroyed, that's what you do when you don't want it coming back up for discussion or inspection later.

zenFish

zenFish

Calgary, AB
August 2004

MAR 26, 2008 10:17 PM

Stiles said:
When you buy equipment via bid contract and take several years to write the specs and requirements in the process, you're gonna get hardware that is obsolete years before you get it out of the box...

...not to mention the need for sometimes moronic levels of backwards compatibility with comparatively stone age pre-existing hardware and software already in use.

Some companies subcontracting repair and troubleshooting for the government hire people proficient in obsolete computer languages exclusively for government work, kind of like having to learn Latin to read the owner's manual on an Abacus.



+1

As a friend of mine who is ex-Navy (canada).

"This guys were so far behind [in computers/networking/software] everyone else, they thought they were first."


Tritone

Tritone

Saint Paul, MN
May 2004

MAR 26, 2008 10:46 PM

lil_tuffy said:
I wish I could disclose the work I did for various gov't agencies a few years ago. All I can really say is that very, very, very important decisions were made based on an individuals power point presentation.Seriously. Like global impact type of decisions.



Did they use lots of sparkly transitions?

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

I shock and awe with lens flare.

fountainofdreams

fountainofdreams

Mokena, IL
January 2005

MAR 27, 2008 05:11 AM

starbuck42 said:
Sounds like the government could use a gmail account. We shoud all send them invites. tongue



This sounds like an AMAZING idea for a protest. Anybody else wanna do it? I'm seriously considering it.