Re: Top Secret DOD Data over the Public Internet? Thoughts?

[Christopher Hicks <chicks () chicks net>]

On Sun, 22 Aug 2004, Marcus J. Ranum wrote:
> As a citizen and taxpayer, I was horrified by the tiny toe-dip
> I took in researching how the government does its computing.

Once you know how hot dogs are made you may not want to eat them anymore.

Hopefully with all of this 9/11-inspired scrutiny on security there will 
be some realistic efforts to improve the security and long-term 
maintainability of government computing.  One good sign is that Linux is 
penetrating and even being standardized on.  (But so is PHP... bleck.)

> Most Americans have no idea how dysfunctional bureaucracy really is, 
> because - so far - it has managed to avoid collapsing under its own 
> weight.

The ability for dysfunctional organizations to perpetuate themselves is 
truly awe inspiring whether it's in governement, business or academia.  I 
used to say "oh those jerf-offs won't make it another five years" when I'd 
see awful organizations, but then they're still going ten years later. 
It'd be less painful to watch if we could put them out of their misery, 
but alas usually not.

--
</chris>

There are two ways of constructing a software design. One way is to make 
it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies. And the other way 
is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies.
 -- C.A.R. Hoare

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