FBI Delays Computer-System Contract 112
Carl Bialik from the WSJ writes "The FBI postponed until 2006 the awarding of a huge computer-overhaul contract, gun-shy after a $170 million failed first effort, the Wall Street Journal reports: 'Much is riding on the project's success. Congress and other overseers pilloried the FBI for its reliance on paper records, forms and file cabinets. The FBI only last year completed the rollout of the Internet to its agents and analysts. And even though the bureau installed a computerized case-management system in the mid-1990s, it relied largely on aging, less-agile technology to do so. And it did little to eliminate the department's notorious number of paper forms -- currently numbering more than 1,000.'"
huh? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:The cheapest solution is readily available! (Score:5, Interesting)
It's amazing (Score:5, Interesting)
Jerry
http://www.cyvin.org/ [cyvin.org]
They're waiting to give the bid to Microsoft. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:The cheapest solution is readily available! (Score:1, Interesting)
For a country that preaches Freedom, you guys sure are well controlled.
I have to agree. As a citizen of ROTW (Rest Of The World), the 8 months I lived in the USA was an amazing experience.
I had people tell me that you have the Right to Bear Arms so you can rise up and shoot your politicians, which I applaud, yet everyone who's tried gets arrested or assassinated.
Just after the walls stopped shaking from a flight of F14s passing very low overhead I had someone tell me how lucky we were to be near them - "It makes you feel safe".
I saw neighbours presenting a petition of complaint to their neighbour because his door was a different colour! This was in Rancho Penasquitos, where there are rows of houses that all look nearly identical. And this is a Wealthy suburb!
My six year old son had to sign a contract that he wouldn't bring guns or drugs to school!
Disneyland was of course the epitome of control. I was astonished by the Stormtroopers in their uniforms enforcing the rules - lines had to be straight, no standing on the grass, or leaning against a fence. I was admonished for having my 3yo son sit on my shoulders to watch the parade, even though we were at the BACK of the crowd!
Nowhere in the world (apart from Japan) where I've been have I seen people who spend so much time standing in lines.
And it's not just the Men in Gray Suits who enforce these rules - as a society I saw many times where the people would castigate someone who broke one of these rules - particularly rules about standing in lines and related crimes.
We went camping at a lake somewhere in California with some friends. We had other campers complain to me that my tent wasn't lined up properly! We had people complain that our kids were too noisy at mealtime - this is at 5pm, and we're talking about a 3yo and 6yo here!
My wife, who was 8 months pregnant at the time, got kicked out of a swimming pool for going down the ramp instead of the stairs!
From what we saw, almost any white American seemed to be infected with this extreme legalism. It seemed that amongst the people of colour, only the poorest people seemed to actually have any freedom in any sense, although they were struggling with poverty that I frankly didnt expect in a country like the USA.
I also noticed that all the teenagers I saw looked stressed or stoned. I think it was something to do with all the rules.
I've also noticed a lot of Americans who come to my country claim that they love the fact that everyone is so relaxed. I think it's because we have a lot more practical freedom, even without legal Rights such as we keep hearing about from you poor Americans.
I found the USA quite Orwellian. It's as if you've all been told so many times "You are Free! You are the Most Free!" that you believe it. This is possibly not so surprising, since for most of you it's all you've ever known.
I met a whole group of people in La Jolla that were living in their cars - a family to each car. They told me that they were living like this because they got in trouble due to their credit cards, and they spend the nights around La Jolla because it's a really safe area. I still remember the confusion on their faces when I pointed out that in Cuba they'd be provided with housing (not nice housing by any means, but walls and a roof at least!) in their situation (I am not a citizen of Cuba btw.). They said to me "But at least we're free here!", as they tucked blankets around their kids stacked in the back seat of their Mercedes. Is that freedom? Slavery to a finacial and economic machine such that middle class family people live in cars parked on the side of the road because there's no effective Social Security system to protect them?
At risk of being very trollish, I'd also like to point out that the above are all reasons why the Rest Of The World don't want American culture to invade their countries. Most of us simply don't want your brand of Freedom, as we're quite happy with our own.
Re:The cheapest solution is readily available! (Score:1, Interesting)
There is no way anything other than a federal agency can work on counter-intelligence and the CIA and military both are only used outside the country because of their heavy handed methods which shouldn't be used against the citizenry.
Cybercrime crosses all state and even country boundaries making it extremely difficult for a state agency to pusue criminals in another state. Also, the average state or local agency doesn't have the resources neccessary to carry out effective cybercrime investigations on the scale that are needed. In fact, even the FBI has inadequate resources to police anything but the tip of the cybercrime iceberg.
Corporations can easily hide illegal activity by spreading out the information neccessary to discover the crimes across several states so that no single state would have the authority to gather all the information needed to prosecute the company. The same applies to white collar crime commited by those who work in corporations.
Local and state governments also don't have access to the neccessary information to effectivly track down potential terrorists and prevent their activities. They don't have access to other state's information and they don't have access to a number of federally regulated, top secret technologies and information which is only disclosed to state and local agencies when it is known to be neccessary.
Overall, the problem is not the FBI as much as it is legislation that people have a problem with. People do not like the way the FBI uses the rights granted to it, or more specifically they don't like the idea of how the FBI could use those rights. The obvious solution is to fight the laws, not the FBI.
It is true the FBI has abused its power or gone beyond its power in the past, however that is true of any law enforcement agency. A degree of corruption is inevitable in any group of people with power. The key to minimize it is supervision. This is another reason that the removal of the FBI is a horrible idea. As I have previously explained, state and local government don't have the sufficient resources or information to handle the role currently held by the FBI. If you were to give those agencies the neccessary power, information and resources to do this job, they would all be equally open to corruption and abuse of the new power they would be granted. At that point you now have 50 different agencies (assuming only state agencies get the FBI's current authority) which would all require more oversite rather than only one. Also you would have 50 different agencies which would have to try to coordinate information to get anything done rather than only having to move information within one organization.
Re:My favorite (Score:3, Interesting)
"Stranger, obey our laws. We have both swords and shovels and doubt anyone would miss you."
Frankly, I think that's how we ought to handle crimnals that move about.
You already have the death penalty. What more do you want? That sign sounds more like a call for vigilantism, if something bad happens while you're in town we're going to blame it on you and string you up in nearest tree. Who's going to complain?
Kjella
Northrop Grumman (Score:1, Interesting)
Classic project failure (Score:3, Interesting)
Reads like a classic project failure, with the classic failed project start: It was managed by someone who created "their own" database. i.e. A manager who thinks he knows better than the experts being hired, who overrides their estimates and recommendations, and who blows off any technical issues they raise because he "did it himself" in less time with an underpowered single-user tool.
I've worked on three similar projects -- only one succeeded. The one success was because the manager in question got yanked half way through and there was still enough time for a competent manager to be hired who'd let the team do their job properly.