DB Kim

More on Databases:

Kim du Toit has an excellent post on how massive databases are developed and used. I hadn't realized he was such an expert on the topic, but he is. It's a good read, to go with the posts by Froggy two items down.

There's quite a debate in the comments of Froggy's second post, by the way. That's good, although I'm a little astonished at Allan's remarkable suggestion that former-SEAL/Special Agent Froggy is part of UBL's fifth column. OSO has some interesting objections that are worth reading.

At this poing in the debate, reading these things is important not to verify what you already believe, but to inform yourself for the slog forward. There are three separate questions, and if you read these posts you'll be in a better position to think about all of them:

1) How, and how well, would such a system work?

2) What rights and protections apply to each part of the process?

3) Is the program legal, and if not, should it be?

You'll be smarter about all of that if you read those links.