MoxyDave, I'm not sure if you've had any experience with .gov computer contracts and/or usage, but the world of government computer usefulness is an entirely different universe. Over-bidding and under-delivering (or maybe it's Under-bidding and under-delivering) is just the way things seem to be in .gov computer contracts. I was amused by the "revelations" concerning how a government contracted system couldn't keep up with demand when the ACA system was rolled out, especially when so many states didn't start their own system (note: this is independent of actual opinions of ACA as a law).

Some examples I've "enjoyed" over my last 16 years include:

-A service wide computer system where you can log into any computer anywhere in the world and have access to your account. Sounds great, except that over the course of many years, the company that bid on the continuing maintenance wasn't able to actually keep up with bandwidth or even actual usefulness of the workstations. 512 MB of RAM and a Celeron processor isn't going to make Win2K run any faster. Again, under-bid, over-promise.

-Numerous web-based user interface systems to allow end users to pull info from various places to conduct business. The UI almost always starts out as less than intuitive and then someone starts injecting Web 2.0 stuff into it. Not helpful when you're running a version of IE that's at least 2 versions behind what's out there for the general public.

-Being told to log in and conduct <insert important, time-critical training>, only to find out that the training software (usually Shockwave/Flash/etc) was too far ahead of the installed software on said international computer system.

The list goes on and on. I've used the ATF's eFile for one Form 1 so far. It was pretty horrific and was (and still is) incredibly slow. I don't blame the poor people at NFA branch, as this crap happens well-above everyone's paygrade. But it's just another chapter in our very broken government acquisition system.