Re: [PLUG] Help with Lawsuit

[gabriel rosenkoetter <gr@eclipsed.net>]

On Thu, May 01, 2003 at 05:44:55PM -0400, William H. Magill wrote:
> However, if you want to get a record from the "other end" (where 
> "other" means the opposite of where the tape is presently positioned) 
> you have to either fast-forward to that point or rewind to it.

... and this assumes that you've got a double-ended tape cartridge
that remembers the index. Many mainframe tape setups are single-ended
(the tape drive grabs a tab and pulls the tape straight out past
the heads; when it lets go, a spring-loaded system inside the
cartridge retracts the tape... yes, the tabs DO break off frequently),
and indexes are at the beginning, meaning that if you want two
separate pieces of data off the same tape but the requests come in
in sequence (with maybe some other requests in between, but not
enough that the tape in question needs to be unloaded), the first
will get serviced (pull tab out, read index, scan tape to end to
verify validity, retract, pull tab out, scan to proper point, read
data, retract), then the second (from the top!).

On Thu, May 01, 2003 at 10:27:15PM -0400, Chris Hedemark wrote:
> IMHO, he wasn't asking for *any* interface, but for the raw data (i.e.  
> a one line sql statement dumping the tables onto a CD image or 
> something)

Getting that raw data REQUIRES an interface, no matter how
inconsequential. And implementing that interface requires a city
worker's time. And burning to a CD the same.

> Again, this is a one line SQL statement to get the non-protected fields.

And several weeks of security testing and examination of their DB
model to make sure that they're not exposing records it's NOT okay
for an random person to have.

It's really just not a simple thing to do. It looks like it on the
surface, but there are a wide variety of political and privacy
considerations that the city would have to take into account if they
were going to open up their database in any way other than they have
already done. And they're bureaucrats (it's not ALWAYs a bad thing;
it keeps things in order pretty well), so add an extra three weeks.

-- 
gabriel rosenkoetter
gr@eclipsed.net

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