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A comment on Computer Crash Wipes Out Years of Air Force Investigation Records. Parent comment

Re:Computer Crash Wipes Out Years of Air Force Investigation... by sverige on Tuesday June 14, 2016 @09:49PM (#11906705)
Yeah, forgive me if I'm too cynical, but Hanlon's razor fails when this sort of thing involves criminal investigations of government employees.

Edit: it also inspired a variation on an old joke about how the same word means different things to different people. For example, suppose the order goes out to "secure the data center."

Marines report back, "We have destroyed the data center."

Army reports, "We have killed everyone in the data center and are holding the position."

Navy: "We locked the doors when we left for the day."

Air Force: "We signed a three-year contract with an outsourcing company, with an option to extend at the same price for ten more years."

Which of course means that just because I don't think Hanlon's razor applies doesn't mean I think they're competent.

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Re:Computer Crash Wipes Out Years of Air Force Investigation... by jMyles on Wednesday June 15, 2016 @02:00AM (#11907411)
> Yeah, forgive me if I'm too cynical, but Hanlon's razor fails when this sort of thing involves criminal investigations of government employees.

I've had this thought before. Can you think of a general, defensible clause to add to Hanlon's razor to account for this?

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Re:Computer Crash Wipes Out Years of Air Force Investigation... by thaumasiotes on Wednesday June 15, 2016 @05:45AM (#11908153)
"There is no point in trying to distinguish incompetence from malice when it directly benefits the party committing the error."

You need to treat it all as malice.

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Re:Computer Crash Wipes Out Years of Air Force Investigation... by jMyles on Wednesday June 15, 2016 @04:05PM (#11911761)
This seems like a very reasonable standard when the power of the state is being wielded.
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Re:Computer Crash Wipes Out Years of Air Force Investigation... by thaumasiotes on Thursday June 16, 2016 @05:06AM (#11914900)
It applies at all times. Given that it's very easy to disguise your behavior as incompetence, it doesn't make sense to give the benefit of the doubt to people who do something that gives them a huge payout. Trying to forgive the incompetent people while punishing the malicious ones just brings you a huge epidemic of mysteriously incompetent people.
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Re:Computer Crash Wipes Out Years of Air Force Investigation... by jMyles on Thursday June 16, 2016 @01:57PM (#11917741)
But what if it's not about punishment, but prevention?
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Re:Computer Crash Wipes Out Years of Air Force Investigation... by Bartweiss on Wednesday June 15, 2016 @09:35AM (#11909202)
The usual formulation I hear is:

"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. But don't rule out malice."

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Re:Computer Crash Wipes Out Years of Air Force Investigation... by sverige on Wednesday June 15, 2016 @05:53AM (#11908193)
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by carelessness."

Unless that malice is aimed at keeping an individual out of trouble rather than harming others.

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Re:Computer Crash Wipes Out Years of Air Force Investigation... by pfortuny on Wednesday June 15, 2016 @08:49AM (#11908965)
It only applies to physical persons, not to groups.
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