Originally Posted by
paraclete
When you build software you start with a set of signed specs, but often the brilliant mind in the corner decides there is more, and more, and more until the whole thing must be redesigned. So we start with a data base of say fifty million items and then someone tacks on the need to allow every citizen to have a record, then every resident and cross reference to IRS, existing insurers and register of births and deaths, Before long the bemouth is housed under several city blocks and needs the equivalent of several dozen CRAYS. To do the job Why you didn't just use the NSA systems I cannot say but perhaps they were doing something useful, like listening in to France, Brazil, Germany and who knows where