a lot of this stuff is more going to virtual servers (consolidation) than a massive centralized data center.
for instance, my battalion has three data centers (over three physical installations) and theyre dumping one of them by relocating as many physical servers to virtualized ones (and physically moving ones that cannot be virtualized at this time) in one of the other two. gets rid of a lot of servers and saves a lot of money on electricity/lifecycle/service contracts/backups/etc, but doesnt get rid of any sysadmins (though a few have to move offices). regardless of manpower, thats $datacenters - 1 in the grand DoD scheme of things.

other stuff like the "cloud" (bullshit term for a DoD owned centralized data center) exchange server migration does remove a lot of servers, but most working IT in the DoD know that everyone does dozens of jobs already and losing one server (even an exchange server) just means you have more time to focus on all your other projects. we also get bigger mailboxes and it costs a lot less, seems like a good deal.

iED

Not certain where you work, but I believe there are laws against firing or making life unlivable if you are selected by jury duty. Somehow millions of people a year seem to do jury time and not come out the other end selling window washes at the stoplight.
My previous employer paid me my regular salary during the time I was on jury duty. YMMV, but I would talk to a lawyer to be certain.

I agree that some of the decisions that come out of high-profile jury trials are absolutely baffling, but we also have idiot judges ruling on stuff they dont even comprehend, lawyers arguing technical cases with information that makes no sense, and "expert" witnesses that present illogical conclusions to sway that judge or jury member that doesnt know any better. the whole thing is a roll of the dice.

And your comments about the people who serve on juries... what the hell? because you arent "clever" enough to lie or think of some excuse as to why you cannot participate in jury duty, you are "not smart enough"? i hope you never go to trial, if all the people you would deem intelligent enough to entrust your future were also "too smart" to serve.

Some of us are IT professionals working for the US government... seems kind of relevant to me, even if it doesn't to you.
I don't own any apple products, yet I don't complain about all the apple stories that get posted.

Get over it and move on.

Yes, the right wing media's vicious anti-insect meat campaign. cant get away from that one...

it is worth it to save the planet? i dont know if it tastes good or not (havent had the opportunity to try it yet), but what is the point of living if you're forced to eat things you think are disgusting? its one thing to be forced to use a different vehicle technology or lightbulb, its another to mandate a new way of life, especially one that eschews a large part of a person's culture.
what other ways should people have their lives made unenjoyable to save the planet?

For those that dont know, this guy (among others of course) has been integral to opening up the Wii and now the PS3 for homebrew.
Very interesting writer too, explains on his website much of the details of working around the various "fixes" Nintendo applied to try and close the holes in their code.
He is definitely not an asshole, and those of us who care about openness on these consoles (or just enjoy running homebrew on them) owe a lot to him and the teams he works with.

</deserved asskissing>

As much money goes into defense, i can see how this is the popular opinion. However, the Army does indeed have a budget, and things like ipods and other PEDs are in no way considered disposable except in extreme circumstances (such as special forces on active deployment).

They might like to spend $75 million on a single plane, but there isnt enough money in our IT (Signal Battalion) budget for a desk that isnt from the 1950s and falling apart for one of my soldiers to sit at.

doesnt matter if something was Wikileaked or not, unless it was declassified, it is classified and must be treated as such. making classified documents public does not declassify them and thus does not complicate spillage procedures at all. perhaps it makes it "redundant", however consider the following: Forunately/unfortunately, when classified documents are leaked online they typically retain their classification markings. The fortunate part is that it makes detection easier. The unfortunate part is that it makes publicly leaked classified documents indistinguishable from non-leaked classified documents until a formal review has been done. the end result is the same, and this wastes our tax dollars by keeping me and my soldiers at work late.

regarding a major pacific northwest software company source code leak: there's always Tor, usenet, limewire, etc... we all know that stopping Assange will do absolutely nothing to curb anything but the wikileaks.org domain name. im not advocating anything, simply acknowledging the fact that in this day and age, if someone wants to release data anonymously, there are too many ways to stop them from doing so once they have their hands on it.
damn, they do make my job a lot more difficult though...

No. is not.

How does one determine classification? Only the originator or an uninterested third party is allowed to even VIEW the document, as need-to-know disallows even the highest information security officer (going by Army reg, at least) from even looking at the contents.
When a content or perimeter scanner catches a file based on SECRET markings, it doesnt automatically tell us what the file is and if its on WikiLeaks or not. it needs to go through a formal identification, classification, and possible necessary sanitizing procedure.
keeping classified data off nonclassified systems SAVES taxpayer dollars because we arent wasting our time doing spillage procedures against data that has been either intentionally or unintentionally "declassified" (quotes only for the latter).

though if you want, you can continue to pretend to know what the f*ck youre talking about as you continue to give your tax dollars to people like me who do this for a living.

I'm actually FROM Sitka and I don't see how this story is important.