FedScope v1.0 Released Today

Keith writes "FedScope Development announced today that it has released a free, open-source program called FedScope v1.0 that designed to log and analyze visits from government agencies. FedScope provides the site owner with detailed statistics on previous visits, and prints the last visit to webpages as specified by the website owner. More info at http://www.fedscope.com."

Not released today

[BusterB]

From the website:

FedScope v1 was released on May, 12, 2002

Re:Not released today

[theCoder]

What web page are you looking at? According to http://www.fedscope.com/index.php [fedscope.com]: "FedScope v1 was released on October 6th, 2002". Last time I checked, that is today.

Glad I checked the source before moderating this post as Informative. Too bad more moderators don't do the same.

next version?

[Vodak]

Now we need BigBusinessScope. =]

GPL?

[cpuffer_hammer]

If you read the FQA you would think software was writen at Microsoft. At first glance they seem to be GPL clueless at best.

The FQA (incase of a slashdoting)

[cpuffer_hammer]

This page contains commonly asked questions we hear about FedScope and their answers. Please read this page before you contact us or post in the user forums for assistance. Nothing is more annoying than answering the same question countless times.

Q: How much does FedScope cost?
A: FedScope made available to you free of charge and any further development is supported only by donations. To make a donation, click here.

Q: Can I use FedScope as a plug-in in my own program?
A: No. You may only use FedScope in your website and must not make it part of any other program without written permission of the authors to do so.

Q: Can I sell FedScope?
A: No. If we catch you selling FedScope you can rest assured you will be hauled into a court of law to answer for copyright infringement. We, the authors of FedScope, choose to make the program available to the masses without charge or obligation. You are not permitted to sell this program, nor are you permitted to include it in any compilation of software that will be sold for any amount.

Q: How did you come up with idea for FedScope?
A: This is a good question. I have always wanted to have a method for gathering information on specifically what federal agencies visit my websites, when they visit and how often they visit. I decided to allow others to benefit from the software program that I had asked the folks at Vereor to create for this purpose. And thus FedScope was born.

Q: Who actually wrote FedScope?
A: FedScope and this website were designed and created by Nick Mahon at Vereor Studios.

Q: Will you ever release a new version of FedScope?
A: Depends. If we receive lots of great suggestions for improvements, and if you donate to our development team, we will be able to make the additions you want.

Re:The FQA (incase of a slashdoting)

[John Hasler]

That is not what I see at http://www.fedscope.com/faq.php

Re:The FQA (incase of a slashdoting)

[jon787]

Thats cause I post a message on their message board about it.

The New FQA (change is good)

[cpuffer_hammer]

This page contains commonly asked questions we hear about FedScope and their answers. Please read this page before you contact us or post in the user forums for assistance. Nothing is more annoying than answering the same question countless times.

Q: How much does FedScope cost?
A: FedScope made available to you free of charge and any further development is supported only by donations. To make a donation, click here.

Q: Can I use FedScope as a plug-in in my own program?
A: Yes, as long as you leave some credit to us in the code.

Q: Can I sell FedScope?
A: Yes, although as we offer it for free, you probably won't be successful at all. You can sell the script as long as you leave some credit to us in the code.

Q: How did you come up with idea for FedScope?
A: This is a good question. I have always wanted to have a method for gathering information on specifically what federal agencies visit my websites, when they visit and how often they visit. I decided to allow others to benefit from the software program that I had asked the folks at Vereor to create for this purpose. And thus FedScope was born.

Q: Who actually wrote FedScope?
A: FedScope and this website were designed and created by Nick Mahon at Vereor Studios.

Q: Will you ever release a new version of FedScope?
A: Depends. If we receive lots of great suggestions for improvements, and if you donate to our development team, we will be able to make the additions you want.

Bleh.

[JeffMagnus]

This program is dumb.

i got a better way...

[jeffy124]

grep "\.gov" http_access_log

Kind of silly

[0x0d0a]

I mean, cute idea, but if the Fed really honestly wanted to check you out and stay private, they could quite happily go through a private provider -- same as the RIAA doesn't spam P2P from riaa.org addresses.

What you're most likely to get is people surfing on their lunch breaks.

Yes, but...

[GoRK]

Who watches the watchers?

Besides, if they really even cared to monitor you, they wouldn't hit your website from their own addresses.

What a useless piece of garbage. If we're just wanting to get the conspiracy theorists all riled up, why dont we get the program sending hit information to a central repository where we can see how the fed's move around and spider us? That's much better information than just knowing when the last secretary in podunk's county clerk's office pulled up some inane flash game.

Re:Yes, but...

[John Hasler]

> Besides, if they really even cared to monitor
> you, they wouldn't hit your website from their
> own addresses.

You assume that they care if you know they are monitoring you.

Doubtful

[ehlo]

This isnt going to help very much. Government agencies dont do the dirty work themselves. They use their muscle of hired goons.

Slashdot ran a story on this not too long ago (and after a half an hours worth of sifting through archived pages, i finally found it:

1. http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/09/19/19 26222&mode=thread&tid=103
2. 
   So, if this app DOES pick up government agency adress hits, theyre either forged (spoofing) or because someone at said agency has a personal interest in your site (in a good way.).
   
   But what do I know? Maybe this is like, the all seeing eye. Or something. Hope this gave some insight into the fact that this application is just a waste of your time. I have a better solution (which is both time and space saving): tcpdump | grep -i .gov >> dotgovhits.txt && tcpdump | grep -i .mil >> dotmilhits.txt
   
   Thats my two cents. Adios. /ehlo