Re: Urgent News Flash

Oh, Niall, what am I to do with you?

The Impenetrable Cube of Bureaucratic Obstructive Time Consuming Force is only to be invoked when either you suspect something fishy, or when in your judgment you feel the request is totally insane, or when you know they already have that report on their desk or in their PC. Or when it passes all those tests but you know its going to take about 5000 lines of code to do it and they want it while they are standing there waiting.

Didn't you ever play Dungeons & Dragons?

As guardians, IT and telecom people have that last defense few others are granted.

Tell them they're NOT going to get what they want, but use about 1000 words to do it, that condenses to something that means neither yes nor no, nor we have it or we don't, , while scheming a way to get a hold of your boss 3 levels up and give him or her the high sign.

"Yes, Minister!" should be required viewing for all Oracle people.

S.

"Niall Litchfield" <n-litchfield_at_audit-commission.gov.uk> wrote in message news:3cfe314f$0$8508$ed9e5944_at_reading.news.pipex.net...
> "RSH" <RSH_Oracle_at_worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
> news:dMdL8.23947$UT.1644131_at_bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
> > But get real everyone.
> >
> > There's been all sorts of direct and circumstantial evidence indicating
> that
> > terrorists and the like have been making use of the Internet for quite
> some
> > time in coordinating their plans, and there's even web sites with Martha
> > Stewart [No aspersion or offense meant to Ms. Stewart] "How to Build A
> > Horrible And Devastating, Yet Decorative Bomb" recipes. After September
> 11,
> > someone had to unleash the bloodhounds.
> >
> > I honestly do not know what to think or say, as an American, or as an IT
/
> > Database / Telecomm / Defense person. I know numerous freedoms are being
> > infringed in unprecedented ways (for Americans; the Official Secrets
Acts
> > and such give some of our friends a bit more muscle). And all of our
> militia
> > groups are up in arms about it all (not in the literal sense,
hopefully.)
>
> I do think it is right to agitate against unreasonable infringement of
> individual liberty which many of the laws now being passed by liberal
> western govts around the world are currently doing. Technology should (in
my
> idealistic dream) bring freedom and empowerment to the individual not the
> powers of a tyranny to the state. Never the less it is daft for me to
> protest about the US acts since they do not apply to me.
>
> >
> > Any random idiot knows all telephone calls placed or received within the
> > greater Washington DC area have been on intercept for years (widely
> rumored,
> > I haven't seen the actual process, and therefore could not attest to it
> > factually).
>
> Same applies here. In fact it is illegal in the UK for phone companies to
> carry communications which cannot be decrypted by GCHQ within a reasonable
> timeframe. It is also not beyond the powers of the security services to
tap
> whomsoevers phone they like - though they cannot rely on such evidence in
a
> court unless preceded by an injunction to obtain the tap.
> <snip>
>
> > But not all bets are off.
> >
> > The people like us that have been entrusted with the ultimate
> responsibility
> > for personal information, medical data, and other records that could be
> > abused in the wrong hands, have a duty to "Question Authority", ask all
> > these people who the hell they are, get clearance [in written form, if
> > you're smart] from Corporate Legal, Medicolegal Records Retention, the
> > office of the Judge Advocate General (or whatever you non-Colonists call
> the
> > base lawyers/investigators) that stipulates specifically, in detail,
what
> > information is wanted, in what form, the reason for the demand, and the
> time
> > frame in which it is wanted, and stipulates and instructs you, in
detail,
> > how you are to provide it.
>
> Hmm Might try that one next time I'm presented with an unreasonable
demand.
> Most times people don't actually know what info they want *in detail*
>
>
> >
> > It was always AT&T/Bell policy to tell any government geek with any kind
> of
> > legal paperwork to go to Hell, and after they got done with that, go see
> > Corporate Legal to have them write out orders, and nothing without a
> > signature from a Bell/AT&T lawyer, on proper forms, would be acceptable.
> >
> > (After which they were thankful for the brief sojourn in Hell, where the
> > coffee is at least hot, they have better donuts, and at least the Sports
> > Illustrateds and People and Time are less than 20 years old.)
> >
> > Even with this dreadful threat (or series of threats) hanging over us,
we
> > still have a duty to the people that entrust us to protect their data
and
> > communications against improper intrusion, examination, duplication, or
> > worst of all, alteration.
> >
> > I don't think that's any kind of oath they make you swear in Oracle
> School,
> > but perhaps, it ought to be.
>
> Well said.
>
>
>
Received on Wed Jun 05 2002 - 17:20:27 CDT