RUrudedogg·Oct 22, 2017
I wouldn't bet my life or anyone elses on this code being correct https://github.com/propublica/nyc-dna-software/blob/master/F...
In Federal Judge Unseals New York Crime Lab’s Software for Analyzing DNA Evidencepropublica
nyc-dna-software
C#2017–2017
propublica / nyc-dna-software
nyc-dna-software
The source code, acquired by ProPublica, for New York City's Forensic Statistical Tool.
6Distinct people
7Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
324GitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
The source code, acquired by ProPublica, for New York City's Forensic Statistical Tool.
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use has been verified yet.
What people are saying
No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:56:07 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by 3-hour interval7 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2017-10-20 19:01:48 UTC to 2017-10-22 18:48:50 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 20, 18:00 | 2017-10-20 18:00:00 UTC | 2017-10-20 21:00:00 UTC | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Oct 20, 21:00 | 2017-10-20 21:00:00 UTC | 2017-10-21 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Oct 21, 00:00 | 2017-10-21 00:00:00 UTC | 2017-10-21 03:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Oct 21, 03:00 | 2017-10-21 03:00:00 UTC | 2017-10-21 06:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Oct 21, 06:00 | 2017-10-21 06:00:00 UTC | 2017-10-21 09:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Oct 21, 09:00 | 2017-10-21 09:00:00 UTC | 2017-10-21 12:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Oct 21, 12:00 | 2017-10-21 12:00:00 UTC | 2017-10-21 15:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Oct 21, 15:00 | 2017-10-21 15:00:00 UTC | 2017-10-21 18:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Oct 21, 18:00 | 2017-10-21 18:00:00 UTC | 2017-10-21 21:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Oct 21, 21:00 | 2017-10-21 21:00:00 UTC | 2017-10-22 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Oct 22, 00:00 | 2017-10-22 00:00:00 UTC | 2017-10-22 03:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Oct 22, 03:00 | 2017-10-22 03:00:00 UTC | 2017-10-22 06:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Oct 22, 06:00 | 2017-10-22 06:00:00 UTC | 2017-10-22 09:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Oct 22, 09:00 | 2017-10-22 09:00:00 UTC | 2017-10-22 12:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Oct 22, 12:00 | 2017-10-22 12:00:00 UTC | 2017-10-22 15:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Oct 22, 15:00 | 2017-10-22 15:00:00 UTC | 2017-10-22 18:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Oct 22, 18:00 | 2017-10-22 18:00:00 UTC | 2017-10-22 21:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
What Hacker News says
7 sourcesSource on github: https://github.com/propublica/nyc-dna-software
I wonder if the username/password listed here is still in production: https://github.com/propublica/nyc-dna-software/blob/master/F...
In Federal Judge Unseals New York Crime Lab’s Software for Analyzing DNA EvidenceLooks pretty bad to me. Null conditional doesn’t really matter because the code likely predates its existence. But...
https://github.com/propublica/nyc-dna-software/blob/master/F...
1. Knows how to use "using" but doesn't use it for myConnection.
2. myConnection.CreateCommand would be more idiomatic than new SqlCommand ... cmd.Connection = myConnection;
3. Doesn't know how to use "using"! using (DataTable myDt ... then goes on to "return myDT"
4. Also just noticed the oddity of myAdapter.SelectCommand = cmd although cmd is immediately disposed after that, then Fill is called later.
That's one function although the rest seem to repeat similar sins (CTRL+C, CTRL+V).
In The Source Code for NYC's Forensic DNA Statistical Analysis ToolI'm all for using the right tool for the job. WebForms code is not possible / extremely difficult to unit test.
The actual codebase itself may be pretty old so WebForms isn't a surprise - the SLN file indicates it was saved with Visual Studio 2010 (https://github.com/propublica/nyc-dna-software/blob/338a1b86...).
In The Source Code for NYC's Forensic DNA Statistical Analysis ToolLink for those interested:
https://github.com/propublica/nyc-dna-software/blob/master/F...
In The Source Code for NYC's Forensic DNA Statistical Analysis ToolOn first glance it uses very old frameworks (for example, ASP.NET WebForms) and there are 0 unit tests.
A concerning thing is that a dev database username and password was committed to multiple files, like this: https://github.com/propublica/nyc-dna-software/blob/master/F....
In The Source Code for NYC's Forensic DNA Statistical Analysis ToolThe Source Code for NYC's Forensic DNA Statistical Analysis Tool
134 points · Open discussion