Re: [PLUG] City Lawyer: We Don't Store Data on Hard Disk

[Barry Roomberg <broom@voicenet.com>]

On Sunday 18 May 2003 01:02 pm, Edmund Goppelt wrote:
>> Gabe's:
> > Their "lie" is very plausible to both Barry and me. We don't think
> > that they're telling the whole truth. We do think that there exists
> > work that they don't want to do, that it is, in fact, not totally
> > trivial, and that if they don't want to do it, you can be stuck
> > asking them to for *years* with no result. It won't get you
> > anywhere.
>
> If the City isn't lying, then why won't they say what is preventing
> them from copying their database records to CD?  It seems to me they
> have nothing to lose and everything to gain by explaining what the
> technical hold up is.

Because there is a political motivation not to give you that particular
bit of information.  This is what is critical in the assement of taxes, right?
If you plot all these values you will be able to determine that they have
been BSing concerning their usage of them, which in turn will make
their life very difficult.

If you spider their site, and call them on it, then they will say the
values change all the time, which will invalidate your analysis.

They are setting you up for a no-win situation.

You really need the formula that drives the creation of these
fields, or you need to know how often they are refreshed.  Most
likely you will never have access to all the source pieces of data
that drives the creation of the field.

I say you make friends with some underappreciated programmers
in that department, get them drunk, and pump them for info.  Find
out the real path of the data and the update schedule.  This will 
drive where you then try to get it from.

>
> For somebody who doesn't care, you sure write a lengthy email!  
>
Gabe types faster than most people talk.  Listening from the distance
it sounds like 2 or 3  people tap dancing at the same time.


>
> > What's more, how does Linux-use prove competence at *anything*? I
> > drive a VW Jetta. Does that make me qualified to work on its air
> > conditioning system, let alone rebuild its engine?
>
> The point I was responding to was Barry's assertion that City computer
> folk are incompetent.  IMO, it's unfair and wrong to assume that the
> City IT people are idiots.  They're not.  At least not in my
> experience.

I didn't assert that.  I merely listed it as a possibilty why you would
not be able to get it from them.  Never ascribe to malice that which can be
explained by incompetence.  So I also listed the malice motivation above.
Take your pick.


_________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group        --       http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.netisland.net/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion  --   http://lists.netisland.net/mailman/listinfo/plug