back to article Eye-o-Sauron™ border beam barrier tech too crap to keep

Functionaries at the US Department of Homeland security (DHS) have officially confirmed that the troubled first-generation Eye-o-Sauron™ huddled-mass tracking border protection system - aka Project 28 - is too useless even to use as a basis for future equipment. A just-accepted $20m pilot barrier in the Arizona desert will be …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    They have vibration sensors

    They use at a certain Groom Lake facility why don't they just use those.

  2. Stuart Van Onselen

    Scale

    Erm, I THINK the US/Mexico border is just a *little* bit longer than the Groom Lake airbase perimeter. If you get a vibration at GL, a MP Hummer can quickly drive past the area and check it out. With something as long as an international border, you need to confirm that you're not dealing with a false alarm (or a deliberate diversion) before you can dispatch your limited border policing force on what might otherwise be a wild goose chase.

  3. Stuart Van Onselen

    2nd chance?

    Do I understand this correctly? The bunch that created such a FUBAR system that it's not even good enough to be worth improving, is allowed to "try again", from scratch, with yet more govt pork (taxpayer money)? Instead of being barred from ever even *looking* at a Federal building?

    Sux to be a Yank taxpayer, don't it?

  4. thedave
    Alert

    First Generation Americans do not immigrate

    Two things that irritate me on these conversations:

    1. First generation Americans do not immigrate. They are the first generation of children born in the United States to immigrant parents.

    2. Immigration is the legal process of entering a foreign country. The term illegal immigrants is as fallacious as pro-abortion. The correct term is illegal aliens (and pro-choice).

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Go

    Pro-abortion

    Theres nothing wrong with "pro-abortion"

    In blighty we like to call a spade a spade, and need no rosy sounding wording for a fundamental human right.

    You will be getting out the joss sticks and the whale song music next.

  6. Joe K
    Coat

    People still want to get *into* America?

    What on earth for??

  7. Elmer Phud
    Happy

    Builders

    Could it be possible that they worked out the only way to manage to economically build the entire system was to use workers from over the border?

  8. Tim

    @joe

    Have you been there? My reasons would include... (a) average US IT wage is >$72k (b) amazing landscapes to see (c) great cultural diversity (d) cheap housing compared to UK (e) petrol 40p/litre (f) civil liberties taken seriously, and (g), most importantly, some incredible independant eateries. There's more too.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    To quote Wiggum

    All right, men, here's the order of deportations. First we'll be rounding up your tired, then your poor, then your huddled masses yearning to breathe free

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Immigration...

    ...is the process of migration into a country, the opposite of emigration. It can be done legally by following the procedures, or illegally by following a trafficer. Illegal aliens are a product of the latter and a synonym for "illegal immigrants".

  11. amanfromMars Silver badge

    Slush Funding Speak

    "The costs of the new generation of kit to prevent the illegal generation of first-generation Americans have yet to be revealed." .... a Gallant Pleasantry for the Euphemism ... "We haven't a f****** clue"?

    "Have you been there? My reasons would include... (a) average US IT wage is >$72k (b) amazing landscapes to see (c) great cultural diversity (d) cheap housing compared to UK (e) petrol 40p/litre (f) civil liberties taken seriously, and (g), most importantly, some incredible independant eateries. There's more too." .... By Tim Posted Friday 25th April 2008 10:11 GMT

    Tim,

    Who wants just average whenever there is excess pimped and pumped into the Dream to keep the masses struggling and toeing the imaginary line, Creating Paper Tiger Heroes and their Molls/Sinners and Saints/ Hookers and Johns/ Black and White/Rich and Poor, whenever we are all Born Equally with Nothing and Take Nothing away with us whenever we Move On? You gotta get out more, Tim, your Mind's playing tricks on you, for your brain ain't functioning at all as well as it can/could/should. Don't believe what you Read and See and hear for it is invariably only IT Feed to Hide what is Going On behind the Scenes in the Great Game Production called Life in Strife. It is not the Real Thing if it is controlled by Others

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Horns

    $$$$... For some reason the The Title field doesn't like dollars?

    And this cost how much for them to work that out?

    I wonder which defence contractor pocketed those millions!

    ...

    Perhaps the US (or UK) Gov should just pose their simple questions on El-Reg and we can tell them how retarded the ideas for free!

  13. Alex
    Coat

    @nut job tim

    "(f) civil liberties taken seriously, "

    are you bloody insane?

  14. Steven Hunter
    Alert

    @Alex

    "'(f) civil liberties taken seriously, '

    are you bloody insane?"

    They're taken seriously by everyone, except for the government. Bit of a catch-22 that...

  15. ratfox
    Happy

    Maybe I should propose the next generation

    I can propose another failed system which will cost much less!

    Okay, I want only $5 millions, then I'll build you a camera on a stick

    Oh it doesn't work? That's too bad, better luck next time

    ...But think that it cost you much less this time ^^

  16. Ned Ludd
    Coat

    Cheap Labo[u]r is the answer!

    Why don't they hire a few thousand illegal aliens at below-minimum-wage to look after the border?

    Or simply move the border to India.

  17. Jesse
    Pirate

    RE: People still want to get *into* America?

    "What on earth for??"

    To terrorize our potato harvesters, duh! (Death to freedom fries and all that)

  18. Huw Gently
    Paris Hilton

    project 28?

    I prefer project 343...

    http://project343.blogspot.com

  19. Andy Bright

    I always said this would fail..

    .. if they didn't build the obligatory paper mache nazgul and hang from the towers as deterrents to foolhardy folks that dream of working in a Walmart Layaway office.

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