NSA building super database to...

L

Lvl_32_Bard_LFG_sl

shitlord
375
8
Compile all digital data exchanged. I'm no tech guy, and I'm not exactly paranoid, but this article scared me. I apologize if this is old news, but I recently came across it:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...nsadatacenter/

Former programmer for the NSA, turned whistle blower quit claiming the current op is "unconstitutional."
Supposedly, the NSA is compiling everything. So, those of you in the IT industry etc, is this true?

The program's activities involve data mining of a large database of the communications of American citizens, including e-mail communications, phone conversations, financial transactions, and Internet activity.[1]
 
Oldbased

Oldbased

> Than U
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I watched Enemy of the State last night for the first time since 1998.
Back then it was ya right good movie though bro.
Last night it was ahhhh fuck.
 
Alkorin

Chancellor Alkorin

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The idea of compiling "everything" in any one place is a bit unbelievable. "Everything" on the internet is of an order of magnitude that probably couldn't fit in one place for long, and even then, how long would you have to data mine before you had anything resembling enough data for contextual searching?

The wikipedia article claims that the data center may be capable of storing one or more YB of information. I mean, really? I know storage is getting cheaper and denser all the time, but that's insane.
 
Stosh

Stosh

Bronze Knight of the Realm
201
12
Yottabyte. That's like 250 billion, 4GB hard drives worth of storage. Wikipedia says that hardware and software is expected to cost $2 billion. It also says that the building will be 1 million square feet, which means that each square foot of that building would have to hold 250,000 4GB hard drives's worth of storage space assuming every square inch of the building was used for data storage and nothing else.

Obviously they aren't going to to use 250 billion hard drives, but that Wiki article seems exaggerated as far as storage space and wishful thinking if they can do all that for the dollar figures they have quoted.
 
Alkorin

Chancellor Alkorin

Part-Time Sith
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Oh, yeah. I remember posting "they can't possibly be doing this". Oops, my bad.
 
fanaskin

fanaskin

Well known agitator
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Stosh_sl said:
Obviously they aren't going to to use 250 billion hard drives, but that Wiki article seems exaggerated as far as storage space and wishful thinking if they can do all that for the dollar figures they have quoted.
Click to expand...
not really, storage technology is the fastest growing part of computers, a thumb drive today can hold 16gb, the space required to do that even 10 years ago was like the size of a book.

http://www.mkomo.com/cost-per-gigabyte
 
Skanda

Skanda

I'm Amod too!
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Speaking of fast growing storage capabilities some group of peopleclaimsto have figured out how to cram 1 Petabyte of data onto a DVD. It may be time to dust off those old optical drives again.
 
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