By request, this comment gets its own post.--Doug
From the DOE Is Searching For LANL's Budget post:
"The so called "A" students are the reason LANL and the US are in so much trouble. They think they are so smart that the rules do not apply to them. I say to hell with them, no more Ph.ds for LANL, Wall Street or the Pentagon. If you have an "A" average as a college student you should also not be considered for a job since they will think they are so great. The D students as you idiots call them will get things done and do by the rules. The rules are there are a reason people what is so hard to understand about that? If you cannot understand than maybe you are not as smart as you seem."
Pete? Pete Nanos? Is that you, buddy? Hey, you *know* reading the blog is bad for your blood pressure. C'mon now, calm down.
There, better now? How are things at DTRA, BTW? Got all your CREM accounted for? Oh, and be careful using that laser pointer...
There, better now? How are things at DTRA, BTW? Got all your CREM accounted for? Oh, and be careful using that laser pointer...
Dear D,
ReplyDeleteJust curious: Whom do you think
makes the rules, C or B?
--Maybe an A?
Clearly, the fucking "C" students are making the rules. How else would we have "don't slip, wear shoes that grip!"?
ReplyDelete'Nuff said.
Well, somebody has to give LANS straight A's in the survey. Here is one idea for you Mr. D. Pull your head out of your ass before you open your eyes to see the great big world around you.
ReplyDeleteYes, excellent point. We all know that all A students act only one specific way, and all D students act only another specific way. Life is so simple! Once we start tracking the grade point average in conjunction with gender, race and nationality we'll have it all figured out. Great!
ReplyDeleteI'd be willing to bet that at least half of LANL's current staff didn't even work here in July, 2004 when Nanos shut the whole place down. Institutional memory is very short around here. And convenient.
ReplyDeleteThis is a brilliant idea! Only D students need apply here. In the spirit of total compliance with anything coming out of the NNSA these days, I propose that we implement it immediately.
ReplyDeleteSpecifically: We already ask all our postdoc candidates to provide transcripts. We can use these transcripts to safely weed out any applicants with the 3.0 or greater Grade Point Average. The postdoc committee would then order the remaining applications starting with the lowest GPA. I suppose, slightly higher grades may be considered, as an exception, but the recommendation letters would have to explain how the applicant who did not fail calculus 101 in his freshman year could still serve this Nation in this Lab.
The "top" applicants (lowest GPA + worst recommendations) would be awarded Director's fellowships, on a competitive basis. In fact, the 6 absolutely lowest scores should be good enough for JRO/Feynman/Reines Distinguished Appointments.
This will serve to accelerate the transition of LANL into the entity NNSA wants: A National Laboratory for and by "D" students. Morale will be good, all shoes will GRIP, and these characters will be looking out for each other, at least in dark hallways.
Come to think of it, I probably just qualified for a special DOE/NNSA award, for "incredible progress".
People tend to forget that Nanos is a Ph.D. and therefore presumably got A's a good chunk of the time.
ReplyDelete"We all know that all A students act only one specific way"
ReplyDeleteYes, apparently we all act like arrogant jackasses.
I miss Pete. I can assure you that Terry Wallace would NOT be a PAD today if Nanos were in charge. He hated the back-stabbing, two-faced, rock-museum curator and called him on his credentials. Terry simply ran to Momma and got his job. Say waht you will, but Pete did have good instinct about some of the biggest losers who have risen up the LANL food chain after he left ... Wallace, Sattleberger, Bishop, Neu, etc....
ReplyDeleteLANS selected WinMagic SecureDoc for the new Full Disk Encryption (FDE) requirement. This was an interesting choice, as SecureDoc reviews typically rate the product as mediocre at best and the product is more expensive than most of the other competitors. PGPDisk full disk encryption is usually rated the best, fastest and cheapest of the group by most professional software reviewers.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the excerpt below is one reason why LANS selected the WinMagic product. This comes from the latest WinMagic SecureDoc brochure:
www.winmagic.com/
kw/download.php?url=/datasheets/
securedoc_whatsnew_in48_20090729.pdf
--------------------------------
"SecureDoc Disk Encryption - What’s New in version 4.8?
...Web Reporting Tool – online access to audit reports -
SecureDoc Enterprise Server now offers access to audit logs via the World Wide Web. SES can display audit log history for objects including folders, computers, users, key, packages, and the SES recycling bin. This increases the amount of tracking capability within the system for improved accountability and audit purposes. With this new application, administrators can assign someone to view/monitor the audit log without using the SES main console. Hence, these reports are now available to the assigned user remotely by simply logging into a secure website available online."
--------------------------------
You might want to reconsider using a LANL supplied laptop with FDE while on travel or at home to visit this blog. After all, reading this blog is frowned upon by upper management and only makes for poor employee morale... plus, LANS may be watching you! Posts written on lab laptops by an "arrogant jackass" scientist denigrating Mikey's performance as the lab's benevolent Director might not be such as wise idea any longer.
What, they didn't tell you about this when they loaded FDE onto your laptop? How thoughtless of them. It must have slipped their mind, what with the September 30th deadline and all.
Bwaa, haaa, haaaa, haaaa, haaaaaaaa!!!
No wonder my FDE modified laptop is so SLOOOOW!
ReplyDeleteI thought it was the damn disk encryption, but I guess it was all that "phoning home" going on in the background. I guess I shouldn't be opening files entitled "Mikey Sucks.rtf".
Yeah, maybe all we seeing at LANL today is just the revenge of the D students, who throughout their lives have always been envious, to the point of madness, of their A and B-level peers. With the present system, they've been put in charge of the A's and B's and are inflicting as much pain as they can. You can read the sadistic satisfaction in the intonations of the lead post.
ReplyDeleteSo LANS is infecting all lab laptops with a corporate trojan?
ReplyDeleteBrilliant. I'm awe struck! Morale should hit new lows with this stunt.
Perhaps the result you see today is due to the arrogant idiots who think they are smarter than anyone else. It is long past due that we need to drain the swamps at the labs, higher office and the universities.
ReplyDeleteIt does not matter if you are an A or a D it is if you can get the job done, and by the looks of it the A's cannot. I am so glad that I am a Beta.s
Sarah Palin 2012! The perfect D-class candidate for a declining America.
ReplyDelete"Pete? Pete Nanos? Is that you, buddy?"
ReplyDeleteNo, it's probably not. Pete Nanos is laughing all the way to the bank. He could care less about following the gory details of the downfall of this national lab.
9/23/09 10:33 AM: I think you mean D-cup. Although if we've already decided on brainless let's just go for DDD. And XXX while we're at it.
ReplyDeleteWhen you go to pick up your FDE modified labtop, you'll note that they need to hook it up to the internet to finish to SecureDoc password registration process.
ReplyDeleteOnce you finally get it back and log in a time or two, SecureDoc (SDPin.exe) will try and "phone home" back to the LANL SecureDoc web servers. Just thought you all might like to know about this, as no one on the installation team mentioned a word about this to me during the installation process. The latest SecureDoc brochures indicate that logs with information about files opened, other activities, etc., can be sent back to the SecureDoc servers.
Perhaps some lab hackers out there can try and decipher exactly what is currently being transmitted in those packets that are going to the LANL SecureDoc servers.
The SecureDoc login splash screen presents a strongly worded "Notice to Users" informing them that "Users have no explicit or implicit expectations of privacy" on these FDE modified machines, so beware! Big Daddy is watching and he's looking for any reason he can find to help beef up next year's attrition rate at LANL.
Oh, and don't forget you have only 5 business days left to give LANS your opinions on how they are doing at LANL.
Geeze, typing in the words:
ReplyDelete"Mikey sucks" or "Bechtel morons"
seems to immediately instigate a bunch of IP packet transfers to the LANL servers on my new FDE encrypted laptop. I wonder why that is?
Wow, SecureDoc ("SDPin.exe") has been making over 8 attempts to talk to the internet with only 5 minutes of laptop usage. That little bugger is *REALLY* active!
ReplyDeleteThe one or two real computer scientists left at LANL should have no trouble reverse engineering the LANS keystroke logger, er, encryption laptop "security" module.
ReplyDeleteGo for it! Open source those specs!
Uh, oh. An ugly splash screen just came up on my FDE encrusted laptop with the picture of a fuzzy Ewok who is loudly yelling at me:
ReplyDelete"You're in big trouble now, buster. Stop that! My bonus is in danger!"
Sending posts to this blog seems to make "SDPin.exe" go wild with activity!
ReplyDeleteAlthough it hasn't reached academia or many of the non-profit FFRDCs, this "no expectation of privacy" policy on company computers is something that's common in corporate America.
ReplyDeleteImplementation of computer snooping at LANL via software like SecureDoc is therefore merely a component of ongoing cultural change from the old UC-style quasi-academic culture to the corporate world, something that (in 20/20 hindsight, at least) was to be expected -- and will continue.
Still, such cultural change is difficult to implement, and, as seen here, often resisted at various levels in the organization. It seems to me that a worry for LANL brass should be that people will begin to use their personal systems (without SecureDoc) for an increasing amount of LANL R&D. This, as I recall, is verboten, but that's unlikely to stop it. Thus, it's only a matter of time until some (more) classified material is discovered on personal systems, once again putting LANL into the spotlight of bad publicity.
And this means that the cure is worse than the disease. Hang in there, folks.
"Hang in there, folks." - 6:33 AM
ReplyDeleteHang in there? For what? LANL is becoming a sick joke. Best to start polishing up those resumes to work at some other non-NNSA lab. Leave LANL to the Bechtelites.
Sig Hecker's shocking "LANL is like a prison" comments of two years to the Senate Committee is becoming more of a reality. Heckavajob, NNSA. When do they start handing out the ankle straps to all the scientists with the GPS tracking devices?
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't worry about SecureDoc or being monitored on the network soon. Thank heaven that we have "A" students who invented miniturized RD technology. LANL Management("D" students) will be requiring RFID chips to track our every keystroke and where we are. It will probably become condition of employment in the near future. Its the "A" students who invent better technology, but its the "C&D" students who ultimatly use it to suit their needs. I'm glad I am a "B" student.
ReplyDelete11:15 am: "Sig Hecker's shocking "LANL is like a prison" comments..."
ReplyDelete"Shocking" ??? Where the hell have you been? Besides obviosly not at LANL. If you had been here, you'd have felt it, big time, for years. Sig is (as usual) trying to, within his sphere of influence, do what he can to help the problem. I hope, now that he has new-found world fame, that he feels that he can renew his call for focus on the ever-faster declining US nuclear weapon design and development capabilities.
One of my greatest memories during my many years at LANL was the day Sig sat across from me, after his then-recent return from his first trip to NK, and described his feelings at being accorded access to their Pu production reactors even the UN had been denied. Priceless.
If I were needing a computer on Lab travel these days (no longer since I'm retired), I'd sure as hell be using my personal laptop. As for the compromise of classifed or sensitive information, I'd be damn sure I knew the boudaries, and then jubilantly thumb my nose at LANS management. If I needed more capability than I could get that way, I'd just do without, and go have a drink at the hotel bar instead. Jerks.
ReplyDeleteDoes anybody know Mike Anastasio's current salary as lab Director?
ReplyDeleteWhen LANS took over back in June 2006, Congress demanded a list of lab executive salaries and the published info seemed to indicate he was making around $600 K in total.
I'm guessing his salary (and those of his PADs and ADs) has gone up considerably since that time. Is he making over $1 M? $2 M? It would be interesting to find out.
* Nuclear Agency Network Falls Short Of Requirements *
ReplyDeleteInformation Week - September 25, 2009 08:00 AM
www.informationweek.com/
news/government/enterprise-architecture/
showArticle.jhtml?articleID=220200111
The National Nuclear Security Administration set about replacing its classified network in 2000. Now, three years after its due date and up to $180 million later, the network still isn't up to snuff.
That assessment, coming from NNSA's inspector general, stands in contrast to the agency's own sense of accomplishment. In April, the agency held a ribbon cutting ceremony for the network, which, by its estimate, cost about $60 million.
-
The discrepancies over total cost are the result of improper cost tracking between 2000 and 2007, leading to a lack of visibility into cost, according to the report. The agency didn't put in place the ability to capture ESN-related spending on anything other than cybersecurity until 2006. After a review, NNSA found that the network actually cost between $153 and $180 million.
The delays and cost overruns stem largely from poor project planning and management, the inspector general concluded. The project management controls the agency used were designed for projects one-seventh the cost of the new network.
~~~~~
Sounds a bit like the NNSA's entrance gate boondoggle at LANL.
This just in from NNSA's Twitter site....
"NNSA Secure Network making INCREDIBLE PROGRESS and done under budget and on-time!!!"
Has everyone seen these two LANS "Executive Advisor" Jobs posting. You can pull in up $240K in these perfunctory jobs. It's funny how they don't mention who the "one of it's parent company" is ...come on, Bechtel. It looks like Bechtel needs jobs for two of it's wing-tipped Armani "Executives". Talk about waste, fraud, and abuse. LANS is nothing more than brothel.
ReplyDeleteThe Executive Advisor provides leadership and overall management serving as the liaison including planning, coordination, facilitating, networking, and communicating with one of the parent company organization. Participates in Peer Reviews of Laboratory organizations and capabilities including external review committees. Provides parent organization reach back experts for review/evaluation of business and project management processes, Functional Management Reviews, AIM teams. Participates as LANS-LLC representative in Laboratory reviews and other meetings such as Performance-Based Incentives (PBIs) and Performance Evaluation Plan (PEP) reviews. Liaison with LANS/LLNL Board of Governors Committees.
"It looks like Bechtel needs jobs for two of it's wing-tipped Armani "Executives". Talk about waste, fraud, and abuse." - 5:05 AM
ReplyDeleteSound like 2 more reserved parking spaces will be needed next to Mikey's to hold a pair of expensive sports cars for these 2 new Bechtel Armani "executives".
LANS upper management continues to never disappoint with its total sell out to the LANL profiteers.
The LANS "Executive Advisor" jobs sounds like the creation of yet more expensive management overhead for the TSMs to deal with in taxes. The research FTE rates will need to climb even higher.
ReplyDelete5:05 am: "The Executive Advisor provides leadership and overall management..."
ReplyDeleteWait, isn't that what actual management is supposed to do? I guess Bechtel has decided that it will outsource what it cannot do internally, i.e., lead and manage a scientific institution. Yikes!
Will these two new Bechtel "executive advisers" that LANS is hiring have a direct 24 hour phone line to Riley Bechtel?
ReplyDeleteLANS #1 unspoken goal for the next fiscal year... shut this blog down? Look what's happening over in Austin, Texas:
ReplyDelete###########
Texas Police Take on Blog Commenters - CNet News
September 26, 2009 12:01 PM PDT
Everyone in Austin, Texas always seems unusually charming to me.
The people in Starbucks always have time for a chat. And the staff at the wildly gothic Mansion at Judges Hill (which, I am told, used to be a very fine rehab facility) can induce a smile by merely looking at you.
However, it appears that when certain citizens of Austin get behind their computers, they turn into monstrous villains.
This, at least, appears to be the view of Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo. According to the Austin American-Statesman, the chief is considering pursuing commenters on blogs who have either impersonated him or his officers or maligned them beyond the boundaries of legal tolerance.
Options under discussion appear to be not only libel suits, but also criminal charges if the police believe these are warranted.
"A lot of my people feel it is time to take these people on," Acevedo told the Statesman. "They understand the damage to the organization, and quite frankly, when people are willfully misleading and lying, they are pretty much cowards anyway because they are doing so under the cloak of anonymity."
###########
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10362248-71.html
The headhunter looking for PhD level talent just emailed again. The deadline for contacting me if you are interested has just moved up from Friday to Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteClearly, the fucking "C" students are making the rules. How else would we have "don't slip, wear shoes that grip!"?
'Nuff said
Well, if people would heed bacis common sense, and not sue based upon their own carelessnes - - we would not have ladder training, and other such BS!
"Well, if people would heed bacis common sense, and not sue based upon their own carelessnes - - we would not have ladder training, and other such BS!
ReplyDelete9/28/09 12:53 AM"
Ya I am with you brother, A students have no common sense and think they are so smart, that is why they need ladder training. C and D students who are much smarter than A students know they are not smart enough to think they know better and will use common sense instead. Maybe LANL should only have C and D students and all of our problems would go away.
A students are the ones lost the disks, stole mustangs, started the fire, sold the data for meth, hid disks, fried eyes and so on. Think about it, all A students. I may be a D student under your definition but common sense tells me that if you get rid of the A and B students none of these things would happen.
Let's observe how to discover a 'C' level student at LANL:
ReplyDelete---
"Well, if people would heed bacis (SIC) common sense, and not sue based upon their own carelessnes (SIC) - - we would not have ladder training, (SIC - Punctuation) and other such BS!
9/28/09 12:53 AM
---
The 'C' level students now rule this lab. They have infested many of the support and managerial positions at LANL. The ongoing Bechtel-ization process at LANL will only serve to strengthen this trend.
A students are the ones lost the disks, stole mustangs, started the fire, sold the data for meth, hid disks, fried eyes and so on.
ReplyDeleteSuuure... Especially because neither the lost disks nor the mustang ever existed, and the Crem de Meth lady was not quite an 'A' student really.
9/28/09 8:03 AM wrote .... A students are the ones lost the disks, stole mustangs, started the fire, sold the data for meth, hid disks, fried eyes and so on. Think about it, all A students.
ReplyDeleteActually, a couple of "C" students inhaled some Aqua Regia fumes by violating an IWD and dismanteling some engineering controls. So ... your point is?
Ye gads! From the looks of many of the posts on this blog, LANL is quickly becoming the home of the barely literate!
ReplyDeleteUh, yeah, 9:17. And where, exactly, is the surprise factor?
ReplyDeleteYe gads! From the looks of many of the posts on this blog, LANL is quickly becoming the home of the barely literate!
ReplyDelete9/28/09 9:17 PM
Uh, yeah, 9:17. And where, exactly, is the surprise factor?
9/28/09 9:25 PM
Yep, it is obvious in today's society that access to computers should be controlled to those who actually understand how they work. If we had done that with automobiles back in the 50's, we'd have many fewer problems today. No more cell-phoning, texting assholes behind the wheel.
"Ye gads! From the looks of many of the posts on this blog, LANL is quickly becoming the home of the barely literate!
ReplyDelete9/28/09 9:17 PM"
Yes and that is a good thing as C students will comply.
"Compliance" begins with "C".
ReplyDelete-LANS Motto
Winter will be here soon. Time for LANS to get all those "Wear shoes that GRIP!" signs back up at LANL.
ReplyDelete"Compliance" begins with "C".
ReplyDelete-LANS Motto
9/29/09 6:24 PM"
That is great!, I bet you anything that we will really start seeing this sign soon.
Ye gads! From the looks of many of the posts on this blog, LANL is quickly becoming the home of the barely literate!
ReplyDelete9/28/09 9:17 PM
So the commenters to the post are the D students?
Ye gads! From the looks of many of the posts on this blog, LANL is quickly becoming the home of the barely literate! -- 9/28/09 9:17 PM
ReplyDeleteYe gads? Are we back in the 1940s now? Who uses that expression in todays world...other than a fossil that is.
11:59 am: "Ye gads? Are we back in the 1940s now? Who uses that expression in todays world...other than a fossil that is."
ReplyDeleteSlow day at work, huh? Having to scrape the bottom of the barrel for something to get annoyed about.
Oh, for the love of Pete! Why choose the colorful and evocative expression "Ye gads," when you can use the infinitely more tedious and overexposed "OMG" instead? My stars!
ReplyDeleteNNSA's recent PR offensive continues at full blast when, in reality, the nuclear weapons complex continues to fall apart under NNSA.
ReplyDeleteNotice how most of these recent NNSA releases always make sure to have prominent mention of the name... Tom D'Agostino !!! :
Nuclear Material Pulled From Livermore Lab (GSN)
Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009, Global Security Newswire
“The removal of two-thirds of LLNL’s nuclear material demonstrates real progress and is the result of some very hard work,” NNSA Administrator Thomas D’Agostino said in a statement. “NNSA continues to make tremendous strides in transforming a Cold War nuclear weapons complex into a 21st century nuclear security enterprise that is smaller, safer, and more efficient. Staying on schedule in meeting our commitment to remove all special nuclear material from Livermore is a major part of that effort” (U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration release I, Sept. 30).
From what I hear, DARHT is about to be on time, under budget and exceeding expectations...again. Good job Tom D., Mike A., and Brett K..
ReplyDelete8:26 PM: "From what I hear, DARHT is about to be on time, under budget and exceeding expectations...again. Good job Tom D., Mike A., and Brett K.."
ReplyDeleteBONUS TIME!!!
God, this is sooo easy! As soon as DARHT is back up again, someone will need to see to it that it breaks once again so that me and my buddies can keep playing this wonderful game.
- MIKEY
I'm sure DARHT will break on its own.
ReplyDelete