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Steve Ballmer serves up a data trove about government spending in the US

nytimes.com

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Re: Steve Ballmer serves up a data trove about government spending in the US

#141

Post by ekianjo »

dragonwriter wrote: post #109
jliptzin wrote: post #53

Today I filed my tax return showing all the money that came in and every minute expense required to make that money. Why can't we hold the government to the same standard? There should be one (huge) annual spreadsheet published showing how much money came in (federal, state, and local levels), with a detailed accounting of where every penny went, just like I am required to do for my business to claim deductions.

> There should be one (huge) annual spreadsheet published showing how much money came in (federal, state, and local levels), with a detailed accounting of where every penny went, just like I am required to do for my business to claim deductions. Except for some things like certain national security parts that are specifically protected by law from detailed disclosure, federal, state, and most local governments make a…

they could put a black box for such expenses and still give the detail for everything else.

Re: Steve Ballmer serves up a data trove about government spending in the US

#142

Post by phreeza »

JamieF1 wrote: post #112
roymurdock wrote: post #48

I have found this website very helpful in the past few years when researching government financial info: http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/total_spending_chart I reached out to the website developer/maintainer/creator, Chris Chantrill, telling him I appreciated his work on the site and asking if he needed help (seems like a 1 man operation?) - here's how he responded: Thanks! I started the site in 2007 when "I coul…

Can't believe I'm posting something positive about the Irish government but they recently launched this site which is actually pretty decent. Pity other governments don't do the same. http://whereyourmoneygoes.gov.ie

Germany has something very similar, only in german though. It tracks income and expenses, as well as the actual and planned budgets for the past years: https://www.bundeshaushalt-info.de/

Re: Steve Ballmer serves up a data trove about government spending in the US

#143

Post by moomin »

jedberg wrote: post #131
ido wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then why did Microsoft stagnate under his leadership, once Gates left?

COOs don't make good CEOs in general. They are great at executing someone else's vision, but not great at coming up with one on their own.

I'm not saying Microsoft didn't need a change by the end of Ballmer's reign, but it is seriously underrated. Yes there were many mis-steps, especially in the consumer space, but he never put a foot wrong in the enterprise space and got a lock few would have credited would be possible with a Windows-server-only strategy.

Re: Steve Ballmer serves up a data trove about government spending in the US

#144

Post by efuquen »

shimon_e wrote: post #98
CalChris wrote: post #34

And in related news, Trump killed open.gov today. https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20170414/13382037153/trump...

The article you link to says it was last week. This was the selective publication of White House visitor logs online. Those logs still need to be submitted to the national archive. You can freely object to such changes. But the second people start spinning it into something much worse than what it is. I feel like they are playing politics and don't really care.

What exactly was the spin? The administration is literally killing the site open.gov, I don't see any bias with stating it exactly as it is:

"White House officials said the Administration is ending the contract for Open.gov, the Obama-era site that hosted the visitor records along with staff financial disclosures, salaries, and appointments."

As to your extra claim that visitor logs will be submitted to the national archive, do you have some reference to back that up? Regardless there are a number of ways that could make access more difficult. For example, you have to physically go to the national archive to look the records up, national archive of the logs aren't made available until much later after the visits occurred, etc. I'm really not familiar enough with it to know the implications, but I highly doubt multiple organizations would be suing over this if it wasn't an important difference:

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/328058-dhs-sued-f...

Re: Steve Ballmer serves up a data trove about government spending in the US

#145

Post by Nition »

roymurdock wrote: post #48

I have found this website very helpful in the past few years when researching government financial info: http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/total_spending_chart I reached out to the website developer/maintainer/creator, Chris Chantrill, telling him I appreciated his work on the site and asking if he needed help (seems like a 1 man operation?) - here's how he responded: Thanks! I started the site in 2007 when "I coul…

Since everyone's posting their country's version of this, this is one for New Zealand: http://www.wheresmytaxes.co.nz

Re: Steve Ballmer serves up a data trove about government spending in the US

#146

Post by hoodoof »

hdra wrote: post #54
hoodoof wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems to me lots of companies make $ Do they all get a derogatory psuedonym? adob$ amaz$ face$ goog$ mailchim$ etc etc etc or is the negativity reserved for M$ Suggesting there is something wrong with a software company because it makes money seems to be a blow in from 1990's militant open source philosophy and probably best left in the 1990s.

They are doing a public service for anyone reading their comments. Doesn't take much cognitive function to know you can ignore what they are saying if they use juvenile words like "M$" or "Crapple".

Right on.

Re: Steve Ballmer serves up a data trove about government spending in the US

#148

Post by Clownshoesms »

nl wrote: post #133
roymurdock wrote: post #48

I have found this website very helpful in the past few years when researching government financial info: http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/total_spending_chart I reached out to the website developer/maintainer/creator, Chris Chantrill, telling him I appreciated his work on the site and asking if he needed help (seems like a 1 man operation?) - here's how he responded: Thanks! I started the site in 2007 when "I coul…

This in one some people did fro GovHack in Australia: http://theopenbudget.org

Interesting thanks, hadn't seen it.

I delve into the Treasury Portfolio wedge and I get a sinister "Outcome 1" looking as big as our welfare budget (I think from a quick squiz this says 120 billion for welfare but I thought it was closer to 180 billion).

What's all the stuff under the Treasury portfolio?

Re: Steve Ballmer serves up a data trove about government spending in the US

#149

Post by kikimaru »

JamieF1 wrote: post #112
roymurdock wrote: post #48

I have found this website very helpful in the past few years when researching government financial info: http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/total_spending_chart I reached out to the website developer/maintainer/creator, Chris Chantrill, telling him I appreciated his work on the site and asking if he needed help (seems like a 1 man operation?) - here's how he responded: Thanks! I started the site in 2007 when "I coul…

Can't believe I'm posting something positive about the Irish government but they recently launched this site which is actually pretty decent. Pity other governments don't do the same. http://whereyourmoneygoes.gov.ie

I wonder how many Americans will see this & get confused when "Defence" isn't a main column (it's in "Other", <1% of GDP)

Re: Steve Ballmer serves up a data trove about government spending in the US

#150

Post by gonvaled »

praneshp wrote: post #55
gonvaled wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

M$ will never, ever, be forgiven for the FUD that put OS in dire straits.

O$ is not in dire straits. No point in hating on them if that's the reason.

Without the forces that were pushed against OS for the good part of the 90s, it would have arguably taken over the software world.

In that situation, Apple would not have succeeded as a walled garden, as it has.

So, although OS-the-product is still going strong, OS-the-movement was effectively stopped on its tracks. Which is a very bad thing, in my opinion.

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