Re:HBGary, Palantir, Prism, Facebook and The Industrial Surv...
by glesica on Tuesday July 02, 2013 @05:23PM
(#5980833)
That's fine, I'm not saying Palantir is poorly run, just that we should be suspicious of their actions. Money is a powerful motivator, especially big money. Even the strongest principles can collapse under the weight of enough zeroes. My point is that Palantir deserves scrutiny, just like everyone else who profits from bad things happening or threatening to happen, and just like everyone else who is entrusted with great power.
Re:HBGary, Palantir, Prism, Facebook and The Industrial Surv...
by aclevernickname on Wednesday July 03, 2013 @03:25AM
(#5982976)
That's slightly disingenuous, though I don't think you did it intentionally.
Oracle was the name of the software database Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oats created, named after the CIA project they all worked on together [1]. Imagine a world where Edward Snowden got excited about the NSA surveillance, and dorked out on it. That's these guys. Products of the government, who found a way to sell products to the government.
Palantir smells a lot like the same sort of beast, I think. Just my opinion, though.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation#Overall_tim...
New, large scale software never gets adopted in the private sector, because the suits that run them are too myopic to think technology can solve core issues that have never been solved with technology before. They only invest in improving the technology they already have in the segments of the business which are already automated.
Oracle sold its first relational database to the United States Air Force. Nobody else thought they needed it at the time.
Palantir actually offers a very general purpose toolset, but it is the intelligence agencies which were the first to have a giant pile of money and a problem that never goes away.