....is that you?!

I am currently working in the 'project management' office at the FBI on a similar project. Internally its referred to in the usual 4-5 letter acronym format. While I tend to agree with most of your reasons listed for failure, the FBI has recently (past year and a half) finally started listening to professionals in the project/program management field. They are forcing projects to be managed by a central department that is held accountable for all issues and risks. Almost nothing is green level in meetings anymore. If I am a PM (which I am not, just want to make that clear) and bring a report to the high-ups that lists budget, schedule, and risk as all green, there is a big problem. They WANT to know what any possible risk will be to the project, if anything is under or over budget, etc. It is no longer about spraying perfume over a pile of dog crap and hoping your boss doesn't notice its dog crap. Now he wants to know the possiblility of a dog getting into the yard to take a dump months before that might happen. It's a slow process changing people's minds, but it IS happening. Will it be perfect? Of course not.

If you are in the category of shoppers that would even consider buying something from Apple like this, then yes, support is a BIG factor. That was the point I was trying to make with regards to warranty.

From watching the video in the article, I can see this being useful for someone that needs to keeps his eyes on something (cut open patient being operated on) while giving him extra information. In other words, he can see an image on the screen of what the organ looks like while simultaneously seeing the tissue he's cutting through trying to get to it. You can modify that to other scientific uses as well. That will be further down the road though.

I don't have a Time Capsule, but I can say that the time and effort involved in a homebrew version would tack on to that 200 price tag. Also, the warranty and support you get from Apple far outmatch Western Digital, TigerDirect (shudder), etc. I learned a long time ago that sometimes you have to spend a little extra money to avoid a lot of extra headache down the road. This goes for many things in life.

Blue Coat devices already block it. That's why I use a Tor Browser Bundle. :)

Also of note is that a vast majority of their actual subject matter experts that the agents actually get help from are actually contractors that are paid very well and know what they are doing. That is why people generally do not join a government agency directly. They go through a contracting company and make a lot more money. A lot of the contractors actually scratch their heads trying to figure out why the government does this. They would join those agencies directly if they paid anywhere close to what the contracts paid.

From fbijobs.gov: 12. How much are FBI Special Agents paid? Special Agent trainees at the FBI Academy are paid as GS-10, step 1 ($43,441) plus the Quantico, VA locality adjustment (17.50%) during their time at the FBI Academy. This equates to $51,043 on an annualized basis (or $1,963 per each two-week pay period). Newly assigned Special Agents are paid as GS-10, step 1 ($43,441) plus locality pay and availability pay. Locality pay (which ranges from 12.5% to 28.7% of base salary depending upon office assignment) is additional compensation to account for differences in the labor market between different areas. Availability pay is a 25% increase in adjusted salary (base salary + locality pay) for all Special Agents due to their requirement to average a 50-hour work week over the course of the year. Thus, with the locality and availability pay adjustments, new Special Agents in their first Field Offices earn between $61,100 and $69,900, depending upon the region of the country to which they are assigned. New Special Agents assigned to certain designated high-cost offices (New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Washington D.C., Boston and Newark) may also be paid a one-time relocation bonus of approximately $22,000 to help offset higher real estate and living costs. In order to qualify for the relocation bonus, new Special Agents must be assigned to one of the designated high-cost offices and they must be moving from a lower cost area to a different geographical area with a higher cost of living. For example, a new Agent assigned to Washington, D.C. would make a base salary of $43,441 (GS-10, step 1 on the Law Enforcement Officers' salary table) + locality pay of $7,602 (based on Washington, D.C.'s locality adjustment of 17.5%) + availability pay of $12,761 (25% of base + locality) for a total salary of $63,804 their first year. If the new Special Agent qualified for the relocation bonus (e.g., moving from Atlanta to Washington, D.C.), they would also receive a one-time payment of approximately $22,000.

Believe it or not, but there are a lot of govies that read and post on Slashdot. Sure, you have to take everything said online with a grain of salt, but not everything is purely nonsense.