Ranting to /dev/null

Not all that interesting without a subpoena

So the infamous "DC Madam" has published her phone records dating back to 1995. Political types in Washington have been absolutely adamant that this not happen, for they don't want their peccadilloes exposed.

Well, I downloaded a year's worth of records. They're not very interesting. The list includes the locality in which the number was based and the number itself, but no names. So unless you already know someone's number, it's just a list of numbers, mostly in the DC metro area, but some a little farther out and with regular calls to Escondido. In fact, without a court subpoena directed at telephone companies, ordering them to reveal the names attached to the numbers, they're hardly worth reading, as most of the numbers are probably cell phones which don't show up in any directory.

To make it even less useful, it's a "Microsoft Office Document Imaging File". I have no idea what that is, but I assume it's some scanner output default. The file is just a raw image, no search capabilities. This is what paralegals and 1st year associates are for: "Here, we've got ten years of telephone records in image format. Parse that into an Excel spreadsheet for me."

Eventually, someone is going to be able to get useful information about this, and I predict a handful of careers and probably a few dozen marriages are going to be ruined.

INSTANT UPDATE: Apparently "eventually" should be read as "immediately" in this case. It's already come out that the number of Louisiana Senator David Vitter is on thte list. He's made a public apology.

Kinda morbid, but watching these heads roll could be entertaining. Watch the news throughout the day.