Next New FBI Computer System To Be Declared Obsolete On Arrival In 3.5 Years

Computers

from the sigh dept

Remember how the FBI was working on that fancy new computer system to help them fight terrorists? This would be the same computer that it took them over four years to realize (oops) wasn’t actually useful in fighting terrorism, unless they were tracking down fictional organized criminals from video games. Then, it took them another seven months to decide that, based on this discovery, they should ditch the system. So what does the FBI do now? They put together another four year plan for another massive computer system that you can bet will have its own problems on delivery (the claim is actually 3.5 years, but when has the government ever delivered anything like this on time?). This time, though, they’re going to focus more on seeing if they can buy off-the-shelf software to do the job. Sounds like they’ve been talking with Nicholas Carr, who was suggesting exactly that. Of course, if they’re going with off-the-shelf software… why is it going to take so long?