From the guidelines of submission:
"Type of organization: e.g., profit, nonprofit, educational, Historically Black College or
University, Minority Institution, small business, small disadvantaged, small woman-owned, etc.
4"
As the example setter for curing social ills of all sorts, the Federal Government is actually required to prefer small businesses, minority-led business, etc. when possible on contractors of a certain size. This requirement extends to prime contractors as well for large enough contracts IIRC.
The requirement is easily evaded, of course. Big Contractors typically help a minority or disabled veteran start a business and land the contract at some inflated rate, and then the small contractor buys the service from Big Contractor and keeps the overhead costs.
I have known Big Contractors to actively seek out Small or Minority contractors in order to actually get the job. The little guy ends up with a agency type fee, once he hires the big contractor as a sub on the government job.
Not really. Pressure group set-asides have been part-and-parcel for government contracts for centuries. Minorities have been the most popular candidates in many countries for decades now.
Another common one is veteran preference for civil service jobs, though that inefficiency is less massive.
Right, but they are obviously still maintaining their unsolicited proposal effort. The "Guidance for the Preparation and Submission of Unsolicited Proposals" linked to on the page was updated in April 2013.
Depends, can I encrypt my data before I back it up with them?
I am reasonably satisfied with PGP/GPG. I don't assume that they absolutely cannot crack it, but I am confident enough that it is expensive to do. I would be willing to back up some of my data with them, after encrypting it. (Mostly stuff the IRS could get anyway).
"NSA will accept and evaluate unsolicited proposals submitted in accordance with the Guidance for the Preparation and Submission of Unsolicited Proposals..."
Proposal #1: Cut the crap.
Just cut the self-inflicted bullshit out of the data collected - and you'll end up working with much less data.
The most scalable way to collect your data is to pipe it to the quantum wormhole device called /dev/null. Please consider using this to transfer all data back to your data centers.
What about crowd sourcing ? Setup a big data server named NSAleaks. Change data like phone numbers, names and locations so that only NSA can map them back to the real value. Then let people search it. Offer a reward for finding abnormal patterns or terrorist plots from it.
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[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 71.4 ms ] threadJump to 3:00 and feel free to act on all that advice she gives.
So many questions about this....
The requirement is easily evaded, of course. Big Contractors typically help a minority or disabled veteran start a business and land the contract at some inflated rate, and then the small contractor buys the service from Big Contractor and keeps the overhead costs.
Not really. Pressure group set-asides have been part-and-parcel for government contracts for centuries. Minorities have been the most popular candidates in many countries for decades now.
Another common one is veteran preference for civil service jobs, though that inefficiency is less massive.
No data? No problem.
Unfortunately, the footer suggests it dates back to 2009.
http://www.nsa.gov/business/_files/unsolicited_proposals_gui...
[sudo] password for clapper: No4thAmd
SELINUXTYPE=mls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrOZllbNarw
It would be useful if they tell us what those technology challenges are :)
"Lost all your data? Don't worry, we have a backup!"
Which begs the question, if the NSA did offer such services, on their own systems, so great security, what would the take up be?
I am reasonably satisfied with PGP/GPG. I don't assume that they absolutely cannot crack it, but I am confident enough that it is expensive to do. I would be willing to back up some of my data with them, after encrypting it. (Mostly stuff the IRS could get anyway).
Proposal #1: Cut the crap. Just cut the self-inflicted bullshit out of the data collected - and you'll end up working with much less data.
The most scalable way to collect your data is to pipe it to the quantum wormhole device called /dev/null. Please consider using this to transfer all data back to your data centers.