The all-seeing database?

Total Information Awareness (TIA) is the Bushies plans plan to monitor everything we buy, what books we check out at the library, our credit cards, medical history, etc, so they can (ostensibly) be on the lookout for terrorists.

Well, of course it's a noxious, Orwellian, probably unconstitutional plan and should be fought as hard as possible.

It also can't work.
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I wondered about the data conversion issue. I've only been around databases a little bit but I was involved with data conversion isues with Computer Aided Design (CAD). Data conversion is a bitch.