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Ireland donates contact tracing app to Linux Foundation

nearform.com

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Re: Ireland donates contact tracing app to Linux Foundation

#71

Post by newscracker »

tpush wrote: post #65
dividuum wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure where you get the 1000 lines from. That's ridiculous. `cloc` counts 16k lines of Kotlin for the Android app and 22k lines of Swift for the iOS app. That does not even include other aspects like the server side code or support documentation. Also it's not only the app that had to be build: It required all the notification infrastructure and coordination to deliver test result to the app. This is really one of…

If only the app were available on the US App Store. Can't use it here in Germany because of my US Apple ID.

I really can’t understand this for a COVID-19 contact tracing app. You should find out how to give feedback on this to make them change availability to global.

It boggles my mind that I have to remind many app publishers that we live in a globalized world and that it’s a natter of a few minutes work to just select the countries to make the app available in. More so for free apps where the publisher doesn’t have to worry about taxes and payments.

Even for apps that are not localized to English or other languages, the publishers should prefer to get them out to as many people as possible in the whole wide world who may be visiting or on a long stay in a specific country.

In this case, the app developer can surely include help text that explains where the app is meant to be used or would be useful (it’s also not like people with a German App Store account living in some other country would be able to use this app effectively).

Re: Ireland donates contact tracing app to Linux Foundation

#72

Post by leommoore »

This pandemic is global so anything that helps countries to combat the virus is a good thing. The Irish app seems pretty good but the great thing about open source is that you can branch it to make your own app or just use the code to learn how others resolved the technical issues associated with creating a decentralized contact tracing app.

Of course an app is not a panacea but as developers we can't create vaccines or provide medical assistance. Its not perfect, as it depends on getting enough people to use it. No mean feat when there are people who don't even believe Covid exists or think it is only dangerous to older people and don't want to take any precautions like wear masks or socially distance. Even then, there are lots of technical challenges trying to use a technology like Bluetooth for a purpose for which it was never intended.

There will be a vaccine at some point (plenty of anti-vaccine people too, which might be a problem for the future) and there will be better treatments in the medium term but right now, speed is important and if it helps States to save time and get a contact tracing app quickly then it has to be a good thing. That way we are all safer.

Re: Ireland donates contact tracing app to Linux Foundation

#73

Post by [deleted] »

number6 wrote: post #50
quonn wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Peanuts compared to the cost of COVID? How is that a valid measure?

I think a lot of people could have made a good working app for a lot less. But on the other side: if SAP and Telekom had failed no one would have blamed the government. And if the both had failed their reputation would have suffered a lot. Well it's not the best as it is, so well. They have a top team and delivered on time. Thats rare in software development. And 20 million are nothing compared to the tax break which…

[deleted]

Re: Ireland donates contact tracing app to Linux Foundation

#74

Post by IncRnd »

Kinrany wrote: post #21
ericlewis wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked on this project a bit and have a deep understanding of how it went about, though, I am not sure how much I can talk about that. edit: I guess what can be said was it was a highly efficient project, and there weren't so many fingers in the development pot so to say.

Is this HN-speak for "it was a clusterfuck and there were too many stakeholders with incompatible requirements"?

It sounded like the opposite of what you wrote.

Re: Ireland donates contact tracing app to Linux Foundation

#75

Post by jamil7 »

tpush wrote: post #65
dividuum wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure where you get the 1000 lines from. That's ridiculous. `cloc` counts 16k lines of Kotlin for the Android app and 22k lines of Swift for the iOS app. That does not even include other aspects like the server side code or support documentation. Also it's not only the app that had to be build: It required all the notification infrastructure and coordination to deliver test result to the app. This is really one of…

If only the app were available on the US App Store. Can't use it here in Germany because of my US Apple ID.

Intermediate solution might be to build it locally and install it if you have a developer account.

Re: Ireland donates contact tracing app to Linux Foundation

#76

Post by rkachowski »

johannes1234321 wrote: post #43
quonn wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn‘t work great. I actually run it on my phone. It has silly bugs, despite the simplicity. Additionally, for that price you could have easily have 3 independent teams develop it and take the best one and still be cheaper and better. I hope someone will challenge this in court. I don‘t think they can get away without a call for bids which should have been done (across Europe, as the law requires).

Yes it has bugs, but most bugs are from the system framework ... they could have handled those better, but the cause is often out of their control

In what sense are most of the bugs from the "system framework"?

Re: Ireland donates contact tracing app to Linux Foundation

#77

Post by ruiseal »

rsynnott wrote: post #27
ponker wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s a little misleading though because the percentage of people who install the country’s contact tracing app is driven much more by the quality of the people than the quality of the app. So this app might be garbage, I don’t think this statistic says much one way or the other.

I think it's more about public trust in the app than anything else. Nearform, and the government, were quite effective in establishing public trust; I think it helped that it was open source.

There's still a fair amount of people that are suspect that the published binary doesn't match the source and the app could be doing nefarious things. It will be interesting to see how this sentiment progresses. Reproducible builds would help in this regard.

Re: Ireland donates contact tracing app to Linux Foundation

#79

Post by riffraff »

tlarkworthy wrote: post #40
quonn wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I said a few 1000 and I actually browsed the code on Github when it came out. There were just six weeks to develop it. And the concepts where developed before by public research institutes for a tiny fraction of that price (not included). (If you insist, here is a small calculation. Let‘s say we charge a whopping 500 Euros per hour per engineer. In other words an engineer that costs 1 million per year. And we have 6…

20M for the boost of Germany's worldwide status is a drop in the ocean. The money was well spent, Germany did not embarrass themselves by penny pinching. It needed to work, and it appears to. Compare this to the UK who is still flapping around.

I mean, if there was a public tender there's little to complain, if there wasn't then it seems right to, even if it's "a drop in the ocean".

And frankly nobody thinks "wow, Germany has a working COVID app" since almost everyone else has it too. Even Italy, amongst a ton of screw ups, has managed to produce a perfectly fine open source contact tracing app.

Re: Ireland donates contact tracing app to Linux Foundation

#80

Post by tlarkworthy »

riffraff wrote: post #79
tlarkworthy wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

20M for the boost of Germany's worldwide status is a drop in the ocean. The money was well spent, Germany did not embarrass themselves by penny pinching. It needed to work, and it appears to. Compare this to the UK who is still flapping around.

I mean, if there was a public tender there's little to complain, if there wasn't then it seems right to, even if it's "a drop in the ocean". And frankly nobody thinks "wow, Germany has a working COVID app" since almost everyone else has it too. Even Italy, amongst a ton of screw ups, has managed to produce a perfectly fine open source contact tracing app.

Many do not https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_apps#List_of_countrie...

US, UK, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico, Chile, Belgium, Sweden are significantly affected countries without one.

I don't expect Germany to get a wow, only abscense of negative press.

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