DUMB REIGNS SUPREME!!!

As a disabled American veteran, the following caught my eye:

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Reuters
Published on ZDNet News: June 29, 2006, 12:03 PM PT

A stolen laptop computer containing sensitive information on more than 26 million U.S. military veterans has been recovered and a preliminary review indicated no data was taken, the FBI and Veterans Affairs Department said on Thursday.

Both the laptop and the external hard drive that were stolen in early May from the home of a VA employee were recovered, federal authorities said in an announcement along with the Montgomery County, Md., Police Department.

"A preliminary review of the equipment by computer forensic teams has determined that the database remains intact and has not been accessed since it was stolen," the agencies said in a statement. "A thorough forensic examination is under way, and the results will be shared as soon as possible."

[Balance omitted]

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Now here is the question up for discussion: Who is dumber? The Federal employees responsible for that press release, or the people who will read it and believe everything is just fine?

I must ask those of you who really understand how computers and software work to understand that I am not addressing this to you. But for today's average computer user, there are facts that the Feds have excluded.

1. A computer can log each time it is turned on; that doesn't mean every computer is set up to do that. It also doesn't mean that the laptop in question was set up to log each access.

2.
(a) A database might be able to log each time it is accessed, but I wouldn't bet that was the norm.
(b) Further, a database can be accessed and read millions of times without any harm being done to it (i.e. it will "remain intact"). That's how they are designed to work, and they'd be pretty worthless if they lost data every time someone read the files!

3.
(a) It is very likely that the database in question was stored on that removable hard drive they are mentioning for the first time. A database that size isn't going to fit on a 20GB internal hard drive, or however big the one in this particular laptop is.
(b) An external hard drive can be plugged into ANY COMPATIBLE COMPUTER, and anything and everything copied from the external hard drive to (an)other hard drive(s) rather quickly and easily.
(c) No external hard drive I am aware of -- or even an internal one transferred to another computer (Oh, did I forget to mention *that* possibility?) -- can log how many times it has been "read" for any reason, including the copying of the entire hard drive's contents.

Given the foregoing technical info, read the news release again.

Then tell me if it is most likely a ploy to relieve the Federal Government of the cost of protecting the credit lives of close to thirty million veterans and active duty personnel included in that database or elsewhere it could be copied from.

Finally, consider whether or not "filtered truth" is truth at all, ever could be, or ever was.

A Sure Cure

For decades I've read and heard people say "Why don't you just quit?" It is a term which has been used for everything from nail biting to waging international wars. It is normally said by those who have no idea what they are talking about, little contact with the real world as others see it, and have nothing they can use or abuse -- other than the people around them.

Well, I've decided their question is worth answering in my own way.

I have lived with chronic pain for over two decades, gone from upper middle-class homeowner to one step from ending up homeless on the streets, have had every career I started crumble around me, seen a drunken ex able to live high on the hog while I struggle to keep food in the house, and have consitently lost battles with government agencies that are supposed to be there to help. I've lived with depression that pills don't really help, because I'd be insane if I were not depressed under the circumstances I find myself in. And I've become so tired of the every day, every week, every month struggle to survive. I've also just about given up dreaming and hoping.

Since the struggle, the hope, are the sources of the greatest pain, it just makes sense to just quit. Quit screwing with a budget and struggling to keep bills paid. Quit thinking about "when things get better," because I know that day will never come. Just quit!

It's not as easy as they think. The urge to survive is pretty deeply ingrained, the integrity and responsibility to self and others has been part of me for more than half a century. But I'm tired, so very very tired.

It's too much work to even contemplate suicide, and all the collateral work it would involve. So quitting giving a damn about anything seems to me my only recourse. But who knew that quitting something could be so damn much work? I don't think I have the strength to do it, but I want to so much, am so tired of hurting, so tired of trying, so tired of dreams being smashed, so tired of bad things making things worse at the worst possible moment.

Isn't there any easier way to quit