This is one area you don't want to hack a solution quickly, but want to use something that's been tried and tested in the field. You can be on the bleeding edge when you have time to iterate and fix things, not when you have just one shot. When it comes to having just one shot no one does it better than NASA - http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/9/3232160/curiosity-mastcam-2...
Inside Team Romney’s whale of an IT meltdown
171–180 of 200 posts
Re: Inside Team Romney’s whale of an IT meltdown
#172How effective these things actually are in US? Why am I asking... I am in from Czech Republic, where I can't imagine anyone knocking door over door and asking people to vote. Actually, this behavior is so connected here to Jehova's Witnesses (yeah) that it would have only the negative effect. Similarly, I can't imagine any candidate seriously considering calling random people and persuading them to vote. Again, this…
Our land-line telephone received at least six calls each day for two months, from political organizations representing candidates at the federal, state, and local levels. We never answer that phone, only let the answering machine take the call and return it in the very rare event it is someone "real". But we did not get calls on election day because we live in a state (CA) that both parties assumed (correctly) would…
There are very few countries where voting is mandatory, perhaps none. And still The USA has lower voter turnout than most, probably more because of the separate registration step than anything else.
But the biggest difference is the per-state first pas the post mechanism, which is what creates the phenomenon of "swing states" where relatively few voter decide everything, and almost any expense of effort by campaigns is worthwhile.
Re: Inside Team Romney’s whale of an IT meltdown
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes and no. On one hand, management consultants are typically working with the executives of a company, and usually one of those executives will have been a former consultant (the executive boardrooms of companies are filled with them). Not to mention that both consultants and executives usually have the same set of "skills." On the other hand, one former management consultant I spoke to told me that executives would…
Sadly it's not only management consultants doing that one: there's a certain proportion of the engineering-consulting business that consists of management calling in someone with an engineering degree to give a PowerPoint presentation to validate a point or provide political cover for a decision. I don't have any experience in that myself, but more than one of my friends are in jobs like that, which pay well but don'…
As a physician, I routinely do this. I may know the answer, but the patient just sees me as a primary care guy. This is quadruply true if it is a friend or ten times true if it is a family member. Politically far more favorable for me to consult. The specialists (aka, consultants), especially in private practice, are often happy to get an occasional easy consult, and the patient/friend/family appreciates me "recruiting big guns for the problem". If I stuck to insisting I know and I'm right, then I lose credibility, no matter how much evidence I cite. It's a social/political problem, not a scientific problem. And specialists consult each other constantly. There have been days in training I wrote more consults than orders (eg: meds, tests).
Re: Inside Team Romney’s whale of an IT meltdown
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
Heck, I remember a Republican candidate who was amazed by the scanner at the supermarket checkout.
You remember a report. Or a report of a report. The reporter wasn't even there. http://www.snopes.com/history/american/bushscan.asp
If you're the prez and express a significant reaction to common scanner technology that's 12 years old, that's news, whether it's "amazed" or "curious".
Re: Inside Team Romney’s whale of an IT meltdown
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
Due to security policies ordered by a 48 yo REMF.
Is there really an age gap in basic understanding of the Internet? I submit most 18 yo kids know as little as most 48 yo management types. Or 48 yo teachers, or 48 yo anything-other-than-hacker types. If there is any function that filters Internet literacy, it's self selection of certain people (mostly men) into CS/IT.
I'm referring to SIPRNet security policies that gave millions of its users access to the same "Top Secret" data, and where the DoD decision tree strongly correlates to seniority.
Re: Inside Team Romney’s whale of an IT meltdown
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
Leaders have to allocate attention to detail based on the strategic importance of that detail. The innovative application completely supplanting traditional Election Day strike list processes? The CEO had better be assured that's going to work by several different checks, and by multiple sources. Even then he probably had better have some backups in place. I voted for Romney and yeah, this does have me reconsidering…
Are we sure that Romney thought this system was that critical? It could be reasoned, for instance, that it was more of a fallback mechanism than anything else; it's not very likely fervent Romney supporters were just going to forget about Election Day. The article says the system was conceptualized by two deputies, and complex organizations like this one have many moving parts; it is entirely plausible, imo, that Rom…
Serious politicians study GOTV the way serious generals study logistics. The technical capacity to maintain a supply line is a crucial strategic detail and is carefully monitored by the most senior military officers. They don't manage it themselves but they make quite sure that it is being managed and managed properly.
Several accounts state that Orca positively thwarted traditional Election Day GOTV efforts. Campaigns think those matter enough to put considerable effort into them. So yes, this could well have made the difference, and its failure does have me rethinking Romney's actual management ability.
Re: Inside Team Romney’s whale of an IT meltdown
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
Using the MS stack for a situation where you will have huge spikes of activity on an app with an expected lifespan of less than 24 hours is not best practice.
I'm an open source developer – working on Linux servers since 1997 or so, etc. etc. Please stop what you're doing: it's not very funny and it's not helpful, but it does give OSS people a bad reputation. You can host plenty of high volume things on Microsoft's code – Azure, Bing, etc. have proven scale. We can argue about cost, ease of use, etc. but a decent team should have no trouble making a serious service. The pr…
Hey, dogs can swim but that doesn't mean I use them to pull a barge up the river.
I will not shut up about the ground truth I and many other people know about Microsoft and their software.
Re: Inside Team Romney’s whale of an IT meltdown
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indeed. Particularly in contract to the Obama machine, which was built by passionate technologies motivated mostly to help Obama win, not make money.
Interestingly, Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said they built something similar in 2008, and it crashed too. http://www.buzzfeed.com/rubycramer/messina-obama-won-on-the-...
I'm kind of scratching my head on this. This is little more than a secure system that tallies information, and generates work items, with a user base in the tens of thousands. Why is it so filled with fail?
Re: Inside Team Romney’s whale of an IT meltdown
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
Let me try: The United States has the following federal executive departments: * Agriculture * Commerce * Defense * Education * Energy * Health and Human Services * Homeland Security * Housing and Urban Development * Interior * Justice * Labor * State Transportation * Treasury * Veterans Affairs Now there is literally no way you can micromanage you way through this. Nobody, and I mean nobody can possibly single hande…
But he wasn't president. Romney was managing a campaign. And a function critical to his campaign - you gonna tell me he wasn't involved? Or at least briefed? I mean, wasn't he expecting to see the results?
It seems this is a particularly difficult topic to talk about. We all seem to agree with each other.
Re: Inside Team Romney’s whale of an IT meltdown
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
Our land-line telephone received at least six calls each day for two months, from political organizations representing candidates at the federal, state, and local levels. We never answer that phone, only let the answering machine take the call and return it in the very rare event it is someone "real". But we did not get calls on election day because we live in a state (CA) that both parties assumed (correctly) would…
There are very few countries where voting is mandatory, perhaps none. And still The USA has lower voter turnout than most, probably more because of the separate registration step than anything else. But the biggest difference is the per-state first pas the post mechanism, which is what creates the phenomenon of "swing states" where relatively few voter decide everything, and almost any expense of effort by campaigns…
Voting is mandatory in Australia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_system_of_Australia#...