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Out of prison after 30 years and people telling him to find forms on the web

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Re: Out of prison after 30 years and people telling him to find forms on the web

#61

Post by adamrt »

flohofwoe wrote: post #46
Larrikin wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Budgeting using a tool like YNAB has allowed me to manage monthly funds more effectively, pay off debts faster, and save up more quickly for the things I want to buy. It's possible to use it by inputting all your receipts in manually but it's such a time sink. Automatic importing let's me see exactly where my funds are and budget quickly in a few minutes at the start of my day. When cards are not importing correctly…

That's good for you, but it sounds like you are spending way more time managing finances online, than I do offline ;) I have an average weekly budget that I keep track of in my head, and that's it. That's also the reason why I prefer paying in cash. Easier to keep track of the outgoing money.

> Easier to keep track of the outgoing money.

It definitely is not. How is keeping track of random cash purchases in your head easier than a computer doing it for you automatically and instantly?

Re: Out of prison after 30 years and people telling him to find forms on the web

#62

Post by rickspencer3 »

Farbklex wrote: post #7

In contrast, I am sure we all know some older people who were not in prisson for the past 30 years and still don't know how to write an email, what a zoom call is or when it's appropriate to double-click vs single click items on a computer. I know people in their 50s who pretend that "they don't need this technology" or "I can just go to the bank if I need something". Sure, if you're in your 80s you might want to dod…

My wife teaches basic computer skills to older people (think 65+). I hear her teaching sometimes, and I find it remarkable what "basic" actually means to these people. She takes a lot of pride when her students are able to reply to an email, or find content and services online.

Re: Out of prison after 30 years and people telling him to find forms on the web

#63

Post by JxLS-cpgbe0 »

> Everything was hard--the icons & cursor, the touchpad, hovering over something for options, closing and opening tabs

This is part of what "accessibility" covers, it's not just providing alternative text for images. A11y also deals with overcoming cognitive barriers, for example people with ADD benefit from a clear, easy-to-follow hierarchy of information.

For this person (and many others) accessible means easy to learn, and easy to follow.

Re: Out of prison after 30 years and people telling him to find forms on the web

#64

Post by PragmaticPulp »

ballenf wrote: post #48

Unpopular opinion: I think government services and offices should remain offline-first forever. They should offer online equivalents, but they should never assume or require digital adoption. I think this has two big benefits: - Minor point: Greater resilience to downtime, interruptions to service - Major point: a check on becoming a faceless entity with no exposure to the public. Think Google or FB if you get flagge…

Government services are available offline or via phone as well. The government has some of the strictest accessibility requirements for everything they do. It’s one of the reasons that it’s so expensive to roll out new government services.

People are directed to the online versions first because it’s fastest for everyone involved. We should be pushing everyone toward efficient online self-service first, while leaving the limited in person and call staff to handle the rare cases who need them.

The mistake here was that the person was only informed of the online version, rather than being told where to go or who to call to handle this offline.

Re: Out of prison after 30 years and people telling him to find forms on the web

#66

Post by tim333 »

ballenf wrote: post #48

Unpopular opinion: I think government services and offices should remain offline-first forever. They should offer online equivalents, but they should never assume or require digital adoption. I think this has two big benefits: - Minor point: Greater resilience to downtime, interruptions to service - Major point: a check on becoming a faceless entity with no exposure to the public. Think Google or FB if you get flagge…

I guess both is the way to go though I'm not sure paper form filling produced much accountability. Being able to contact humans is good though especially for edge cases and screwups.

Re: Out of prison after 30 years and people telling him to find forms on the web

#67

Post by AcerbicZero »

It’s in fathomable that the government would put a person in jail for 30 years and dump them back into society without even a PowerPoint briefing on the state of the world.

Isn’t incarceration a two way street? If government takes away (for good reason or not) your personal freedom aren’t they liable for your well-being during that time? And more importantly, responsible for the person “their” system returns to society at large?

Re: Out of prison after 30 years and people telling him to find forms on the web

#68

Post by tempest_ »

tyingq wrote: post #14
davnn wrote: post #9

I can't imagine that prison life is so disconnected from the rest of society; it certainly isn't in Europe.

Depends on which prison in the US. Angola, in Lousiana, for example is pretty notorious for refusing medical care, recreation limited regularly, forced labor in the fields, etc. Edit: She mentions "Corrlinks" which provides a sort of "email" like service to Federal prisons. So this person was in a US Federal Prison.

I was just poking around the wiki for that place.

Pretty crazy.

Re: Out of prison after 30 years and people telling him to find forms on the web

#69

Post by gpvos »

adamrt wrote: post #52
flohofwoe wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a software engineer yet I don't do online banking (I literally "just go to the bank if I need something"). I don't consider myself a "luddite", I just don't see the advantage over traditional "offline banking". Same with shopping and all the other little nuisances of daily life.

A few: - being able to mange banking while traveling internationally (or to a state/province that does't have a branch) - 30 second transfers between accounts (or to other banks) - few minutes to open a new account - see posted (and pending) charges within a day or two instead of a month (I regularly import for my budgeting software) I'm a developer and actually do consider myself a little bit of a luddite. But onlin…

Open an account in minutes? How many accounts do you use per month? I have had six in 49 years. Only the first and last of your list seem very useful to me.

Re: Out of prison after 30 years and people telling him to find forms on the web

#70

Post by CodeGlitch »

flohofwoe wrote: post #25
Farbklex wrote: post #7

In contrast, I am sure we all know some older people who were not in prisson for the past 30 years and still don't know how to write an email, what a zoom call is or when it's appropriate to double-click vs single click items on a computer. I know people in their 50s who pretend that "they don't need this technology" or "I can just go to the bank if I need something". Sure, if you're in your 80s you might want to dod…

I'm a software engineer yet I don't do online banking (I literally "just go to the bank if I need something"). I don't consider myself a "luddite", I just don't see the advantage over traditional "offline banking". Same with shopping and all the other little nuisances of daily life.

What country do you live in?

Here in the UK, the only time I've needed to step into a bank in the last 10 years is to have a meeting about my mortgage. Our online banking services are so good there's literally no reason to have brick-and-mortor banks for day-to-day tasks.

For me, not having to travel to a bank and wait in a queue to do basic tasks such as transferring money is such an advantage.

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