OLYMPIC SECRETS to stay locked up for 15 YEARS

Anyone who wants to investigate just how London 2012 ticket sales were set up and run (or other mysteries of the recent Olympic and Paralympic Games) will have their chance: Blighty's National Archives has agreed to house and publish all the digital records arising from the Games. Unfortunately, in many cases outsiders will have …

[ravenviz]

50km if they were printed out...

What is this '50km', can we have standard Reg units please?

[dotdavid]

Re: 50km if they were printed out...

About 3846 double-decker buses long.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: 50km if they were printed out...

28,901.73 Paris Hiltons.

[Efros]

Re: 50km if they were printed out...

If "28,901.73 Paris Hiltons." were all laid in a row, no one would be surprised.

[StephenD]

Re: 50km if they were printed out...

The 0.73 might raise a few eyebrows.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: 50km if they were printed out...

It does include the paralympics after all - maybe she's up for 400m T43 in 2016?

[Kane]

Re: 50km if they were printed out...

"The 0.73 might raise a few eyebrows."

Nah, someone got tired before the end and couldn't finish.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: 50km if they were printed out...

Bahh - beat me to it. I was going to suggest that El Reg measures it in "Usain Bolt seconds". 1km = 96 seconds therefore if it was all printed, it would total 4800 Usain Bolt seconds.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: 50km if they were printed out...

>What is this '50km', can we have standard Reg units please?

Roughly an area half the size of Wales - assuming you're going by iOS6 Maps.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: 50km if they were printed out...

Roughly an area half the size of Wales

Is that the area of the country or Jimmy's ego?

[davemcwish]

Re: 50km if they were printed out...

You can convert them yourself:- http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/page/reg-standards-converter.html

Linguine 357142.8571

Double-decker Bus 5423.5817

Brontosaurus 361.5717

[John P]

15 years...just enough time for the people in charge of the fiasco to have retired with their cosy Government pensions.

[BoldMan]

Which particular fiasco did you notice? I thought it went off with very few problem considering...

[Hayden Clark]

Ticket fiasco, perhaps?

@Boldman

What about all those empty seats, caused by the pigsnouters reserving so many good seats for corporate boondoggles and VIP packages that there were not enough for ordinary punters. The VIPs and boondogglers could not be bothered to show up, so the stadiums were half-empty.

And don't forget the hotel chains that donated cheap hotel nights to Locog, only to find them re-sold to the VIP package sellers.

[opaque]

Re: Ticket fiasco, perhaps?

From what I saw on the times I was at the Olympics most of the seats not filled weren't the businesses (they gave most to their customers as it was an amazing publicity thing) but the OBS and media partners. And of course noone wanted to see anything but the biggest teams and events.

Not to mention that with a lot of the foreign visitors at games once their team had played they buggered off!

I was at a double women's basketball game and after Australia had played several hundred people just left.

It's not as simple as some people think it is.

[Anonymous Coward]

Group 4 security contract.

Seats empty much of the time.

People from the IOC trying to illegally sell corporate tickets.

[I. Aproveofitspendingonspecificprojects]

Optional

But plenty of time for a decent hacker to get them online.

(18 months to 2 years tops.)

((Less than 6 weeks if they actually get put on whatever servers they are going to be put on straight away.))

Timelineprobabilities:

3 years (first row of retirees) to get the data handed over.

2 years to find out some are missing.

1 year to second branch of retirements and find missing links.

6 weeks to get some of them out of the gaol.

2 years to plod along finding (and losing and getting more hacked) yet more unhanded over data.

6 years before the next scandal.

How many's that?

Another year to decide to open the databanks early.

46 weeks bickering over that in Parliament.

1 y...Ah... never mind, we weren't expecting any better.

No icon in protest at having no grinning, smarmy, Thatcher icon.

[Anonymous Coward]

It would be nice if there was legislation to enable me to hide my mistakes for 15 years

The next best alternative i've fonud is to put the code Live. :-)

[Anonymous Coward]

NINE BILLION POUNDS

spent and no effective public scrutiny as to whether any of that was spent wisely, unwisely or fraudulently for at least 15 years?

[Peter2]

Re: NINE BILLION POUNDS

We aren't allowed to look for 15 years.

What does that suggest?

[Tom 7]

Re: NINE BILLION POUNDS

probably that it was a lot more than 9Billion - I'd bet there's another 3 in there somewhere.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: NINE BILLION POUNDS @Tom 7

"I'd bet there's another 3 in there somewhere."

Well, at least two, if we trust the Grauniad:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/datablog/2012/jul/26/london-2012-olympics-money

However, with all the miserablists in this thread moaning on about how much was spent, why not think about how much the Olympics has improved this country's international reputation? Previously our reputation has been for *not* delivering big projects, for riots, and dodgy journalists.

There's also some very important things to consider, like we did this for half the cost of the Beijing Olympics (despite their full state control and slave labour wages). We look likely not to have the legacy of white elephant assets that Athens had. We've made some real infrastructure improvements to a part of London that was previously a semi-derelict s***hole. And we stand a modest chance of raising the profile of and engagement in sport in this country. Now, what's £11 billion between friends? That's about the same as we now spend on foreign aid each year, literally giving money away. Or twice the cost of cancelled Nimrod programmes (MRA4 and AEW3).

And finally, moaning at this point in time is merely to sitteth in scorner's chairs. When Red Ken "won" the Olympics, were on the hook for several billion, with no prospect of wriggling out of it. I wasn't happy then, but that is water (or cash) under the bridge.

Why not celebrate the positives?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: NINE BILLION POUNDS @Tom 7

"Why not celebrate the positives?"

Because it's simply not British old boy.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: NINE BILLION POUNDS @Tom 7

> However, with all the miserablists in this thread moaning on about how much was spent, why not think about how much the Olympics has improved this country's international reputation?

That's one hell of a marketing budget you have there.

Is that the best you can say about the Olympics that the world thinks nicely of the UK now?

Sorry, but that's not a particularly persuasive argument for justifying that (by any stretch of the imagination) truly enormous sum of money.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: NINE BILLION POUNDS @Tom 7

I celebrate 'getting it right'. I don't give a flying fuck about what 'someone else' thinks about it; not entirely but noteably nonetheless because that's what breeds phoney-ism. If a politician praised you, would you be pleased, or just assume it was lying?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: NINE BILLION POUNDS

'probably that it was a lot more than 9Billion - I'd bet there's another 3 in there somewhere.'

Before or after the nine?

[Will Godfrey]

Re: NINE BILLION POUNDS

Buggritt! I was going to say that. I even had a patent on it too.

See you in court, and don't give me any of that prior art rubbish.

[Homer 1]

Re: NINE BILLION POUNDS

"I'd bet there's another 3 in there somewhere."

Pounds or digits?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: NINE BILLION POUNDS

that the maximum time for prosecution / investigation is 14 years, 9 months, 30 days and about 23 hours. Obviously ;)

that said, those power that be can access the records at any time and it is my infallible conviction they're just itching to bring those responsible to justice.

[I. Aproveofitspendingonspecificprojects]

Re: NINE BILLION POUNDS

That you won't find 15 years if you fall over it?

[Da Weezil]

Another Government Whitewash then huh?

[mickey mouse the fith]

15 years eh?, by which time most of those responsible will be either dead or sunning themselves in the grounds of their country piles.

The whole thing was a fiasco, with so many snouts in so many troughs, no wonder they want to bury it until they hope noone will remember or care.

[Anonymous Coward]

Brazil

"but they'll stay closed for up to 15 years"

Come on, share all the data with the Brazilians, it might be useful.

This is government we're talking about - they should follow their own mantra - provide data because if all is legitimate then what has anyone got to hide ?

[Roger Varley]

Re: Brazil

What is it that our gubberment keep saying ....? Oh yes, 'If you've nothing to hide, you've got nothing to fear' .

[ShaggyDog]

Rip, Old Boy Network Britain

15 years - wtf? I can understand for military operations, etc, but the Olympic Games? Come on. They're taking the biscuit with this one, or might revealing the information be dangerous to law and order. My arse.

I wonder if FoI requests can get this info.

Bloody farcical that it can't be scrutinised.

Cold shower coming up.

[Peter Ford]

Re: Rip, Old Boy Network Britain

But it *was* a military operation: how else do you explain the missiles on roof-tops, gunships in the Thames and soldiers on the gates??

It was all an inter-services exercise to test our response to terrorist threats - very successful, as it turns out :)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Rip, Old Boy Network Britain

FoI can't get data 'intended for future publication' - be it in 15 or 50 years.

[Anonymous Coward]

OLYMPICS

HAVE THEY FINALLY FINISHED YET?

[LinkOfHyrule]

This is a really crap forum comment

But you are not allowed to downvote me for it for 15 years - mahahahaha

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: This is a really crap forum comment

There's nothing funny about comment votes, son.

[LinkOfHyrule]

Re: This is a really crap forum comment

I'm a bit eccentric so laugh at things that are not funny, dad

[Spoon Monkey]

Is it all on one line with a 3846 double decker bus long line? Perhaps it is printed on A4 Sheets of paper and 3846 double decker busses long, and if so is the paper arranged lengthways or side by side?

[Anonymous Coward]

with any luck...

some twat will leave the unencrypted discs on a chair in a pub somewhere.

[Anonymous Coward]

Did I miss something - why 15 years - why not 15 minutes / days / weeks... seems a (suspiciously) l-o-n-g time?

[1Rafayal]

does this have anything to do with the security fiasco and getting soldiers in to do the job properly?

Bringing in soldiers means that they would not have been doing their day job somewhere else, like in Afghanistan. I wonder how interested the Talibannies would be to read that sort of information...

[Paul Webb]

"up to 15 years"

Does this work in the same way as broadband advertising in that the reality is closer to one year?

I bet they have printed it all out too.

<- Coat of many cubits.

[pisquee]

So, there seemed to be the plan always of having the warship in the Thames, and the missile launchers on roofs. Then not long before the actual event G4S own up to apparently having failed to employ enough staff - maybe they had, or were told not to, as the government wanted/needed the military and police there instead in case of problems (protesting, rioting, terrorism) and paid off G4S to be the cover-up and scape goat. Maybe the police/military security was planned all along, or maybe was a last minute reaction to new intel on a potential threat - we'll find out in 15 years.

[Chris Rowland]

I can just imagine it in 15 years...

"Does anyone know how to read these 15 year old disks?"

"Let's see - - no, we haven't used those for ages, I think the last reader died about 5 years ago".

[Pirate Dave]

Secrets kept for 15 years?

So we have to wait 15 years to find out who was getting head from Lisa Simpson? Pity..

[LaeMing]

A modest proposal

Rather than wait 15 years for all those involved to retire or die. Why not sack or execute them all now, then the data can be released immediately.

[P. Lee]

15 years

By which time this government believes it will be so unpopular that it has no hope of being elected anyway?

Or is it the olympic committee which is demanding this?

[Anonymous Coward]

Locog logo

The one they want to look at is why they created the logo,

Every time I see it I think of a variation on a Clapton song.

Lisa I have on your knees,

Lisa forgive me Darlin please,

Lisa................................. Omfg!