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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

#101

Post by Macha »

fuball63 wrote: post #80

I'm sure many people here have experienced frustration helping older relatives or friends use computers. Recently though, I realized, that computers are just way too hard to use. In our pursuit to avoid cryptic black screens with command prompts, a user must now understand that their computer has Windows with all of its menus and functions, a browser window with all of its menus and functions, running a webapp, with…

Even appliance computers are not immune to this. Had an elderly neighbour asking for help after struggling to forward a message sent by one contact on whatsapp to another contact on facebook. Having to explain:

> Well there's usually an icon that looks like this, and sometimes it will bring up the android share menu, but sometimes it opens up something that only shows you contact in that app, and having someone on facebook is not the same as on whatsapp.

> And oh look, apparently whatsapp and/or facebook has a bug where you select to share the video and you end up at the whatsapp contact screen but selecting a contact loses the video.

> Well I guess you can go into your gallery and share from there. That seems to work. But not every app is going to expose its images in your gallery.

And it became clear that even the simple devices aren't.

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

#102

Post by AlwaysRock »

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…

A lot of people don't have reliable internet access still.

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

#103

Post by nickysielicki »

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…

My drivers license expires later this year, which is the first time that I have ever needed to renew it. Due to COVID, my license could be renewed online. I did it last night.

The problem? I couldn’t update any of my info from when I was 16 unless I went in person.

What this ultimately means is that I will be 34 when this new license expires, using a baby faced teenage photo from 18 years prior, with physical descriptions that are out of date and inaccurate.

Oh well.

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

#104

Post by zodiakzz »

meddlepal wrote: post #27
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.

The US prison system is all about punishment not rehabilitation. Theres a very strong “lock them up and throw away the key” mentality in many Americans view of justice.

Worse. Many Americans for some reason think prison rape is the funniest thing in the world.

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

#105

Post by npteljes »

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…

>ffs sit down and learn the in-depth tools and tricks in the tools over the span of two weekends

Even IT people don't know their tools as much as I'd like them to. Taking time out like this, to get to know the tools, is a worthy effort for all.

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

#106

Post by duckfang »

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…

> 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.

The converse is that the government should provide free internet access to all citizens and immigrants, IF that is the primary way to communicate with the govt.

I also reject that "mail is an option" when mail takes 6-8 weeks to get to a federal/state inbox, and takes that much time back. Even contacts at agencies I work with have me send DVDs to their contractors to bypass federal months-long delays in sending required resources.

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

#107

Post by mindcrime »

Verdex wrote: post #74
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 think it makes accountability easier as well. And this is actually the reason why I don't do online billing as much as possible. A stack of papers going back years showing that the corporate entity you're dealing with confirms that you payed them on time for years feels a lot better defense than: Me: your honor, I swear I paid them Corp: our computer thingy says you didn't. also it's a tangle of 50 different sql da…

A stack of papers going back years showing that the corporate entity you're dealing with confirms that you payed them on time for years feels a lot better defense than:

I do agree with this sentiment, but I would like to point out that one can achieve the same effect (or very nearly so) by saving the "receipt" page or confirmation page that you usually get with online transactions. You could either save a directory full of PDF's and only print them out if there actually is a need for them in court, or you could even print them as you encounter them and build up that "big stack of papers" over time.

Yes this imposes extra friction, which does suck, but it's something.

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

#108

Post by JustSomeNobody »

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 agree.

I also think that if Government keeps pushing everything to the internet, then the internet needs to be a utility.

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

#109

Post by klyrs »

sandworm101 wrote: post #49
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…

>> if you're in your 80s you might want to dodge most of the digital stuff. If you are in your 80s today, you were in your 60s in 2000 and 50s during the 90s .com boom. I have no sympathy. Unless you were living under a rock you would have at least known of the internet. If you have reached your 80s today without "doing email" you are either Amish or repeatedly chose to avoid learning about technology. Once upon a ti…

TFA is about people in prison, aka, living under a rock. Your attitude here is completely inappropriate.

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

#110

Post by psychlops »

ddtaylor wrote: post #89
psychlops wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. In the US, the public also is pretty happy to lock people away for extended periods of time.

For the most part that's a product of lobbying to increase minimum sentences and overall increase the prison population, since that increases the number of correctional jobs and the sales of the various contracted companies that provide their products. I was in federal prison until just 3 months ago I can safely say this is exactly what I saw while there.

While I don't disagree (i was joking in my first comment :), I think that's a one dimensional point of view. The majority of people do not interact with the prison system at all and assume that everything is done correctly (if they consider it at all).

I don't think there is a concerted conscious profiteering effort and it's just "Tuesday" business for municipalities and contracted corps. I'd contend more that the emotional appeals for tough on crime laws and media crime porn drive the mentality of imprisonment in the US.

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