Argh

I hate it when information is supposed to be out there, but isn't.

A co-author is asking me to look up some particular geographic information on a project that we're working on. Well, I try the various GIS files I have - nothing there. I try finding a link to a file online - there's a link, but you follow it and it's broken. Okay, so I tried an interactive online mapping service - one which, incidentally, is probably paid for my your tax dollars and mine. It's BROKEN! It doesn't work! I get timed-out errors, "Fatal flaw" errors, other errors. (And that was after trying it in BOTH Firefox and IE 6)

I called an office that I thought might have the information and the receptionist said she'd have to hunt someone down and see if they had any ideas.

This is one of those headdesk moments - I came in today figuring, "I can get the information, getting through it will be tedious but routine." I've spent the entire morning trying to find a SOURCE for that information, and haven't even started processing my way through it. This should not be so hard.