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My hell as a 911 operator

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Re: My hell as a 911 operator

#121

Post by jowiar »

milhous wrote: post #46
greghinch wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was freelancing, I did some government work. I was flabbergasted by the slow pace at which things moved, and that I had to create accounts in 3 separate systems to submit and get paid for even very basic invoices. Government is a place that is ripe for disruption, but the walls around it are so high, I don't know how to really breach them. There is a huge machine in place of contractors and lobbyists which ess…

Large scale disruption is impossible because the government and its employees are protected by guns and the force of law, permitting special interests, cronyism, and incompetence to flourish. We in the marketplace (minus Industrial Military Complex) have no such protections, and actually have to produce value to make a living in a fair exchange of goods and services. Most government employees are unemployable in the…

> Most government employees are unemployable in the marketplace, so it's in their interest to follow orders, at whatever cost, to keep their jobs.

Citation needed.

If you actually have evidence, I'll bite, but my anecdotal evidence tends to indicate otherwise. Generally, issues are caused by good people being hamstrung by ridiculous rules, not by bad people.

Re: My hell as a 911 operator

#122

Post by jrockway »

ams6110 wrote: post #82
readme wrote: post #50

looks like someone needs 911.io -- replacement emergency 911 system using mongodb, node.js, and twitter bootstrap. ultra reliable, super scalable

Fad technologies do not a reliable, scalable system make.

You may want to adjust your sarcasm detector.

Re: My hell as a 911 operator

#123

Post by ams6110 »

briandear wrote: post #113
ams6110 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fad technologies do not a reliable, scalable system make.

So apparently the existing legacy technologies make reliable and scalable systems? A 'fad' technology that works is better than old technology that doesn't.

I'm just saying, you can't just take a currently popular software stack and think "problem solved."

Re: My hell as a 911 operator

#125

Post by crististm »

crististm wrote: post #110

wtf emergency system costs one billion dollars???

For those who don't understand my amazement: they build aircraft carriers for this amount of money! Don't tell me it's the same amount of engineering, knowledge and effort in building an emergency response system?

Re: My hell as a 911 operator

#126

Post by potatolicious »

snitko wrote: post #106
loopdoend wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. The government monopoly, as broken as it is, should not discriminate in matters of health and safety, whereas a corporate system that you're proposing would. I am Canadian and am not interested in defending the American system. We have free healthcare (so long as you're a resident paying taxes, and others of course are billed after receiving care). 2. So, in your world, the guy who seemed to have alcohol on his br…

1. I respect the fact you don't want to discriminate when it comes to matters of health and safety. I, on the other hand, would like to discriminate. If a person who led unhealthy lifestyle knowingly requires medical attention, I want to have a default option of not paying for this out of my own pocket, because I don't know that person at all. Now, say I'm a Canadian citizen too: would you give me the same amount of…

> "If a person who led unhealthy lifestyle knowingly requires medical attention"

It's interesting how, when this particular viewpoint comes up, the hypothetical individual is always deeply irresponsible, borderline malicious. But the person making the argument never is.

> "Now, say I'm a Canadian citizen too: would you give me the same amount of respect and not require me to pay tax money for the things I have no intention of supporting and allow me to only pay to my insurance company?"

No, because this is a fundamental philosophical difference that runs to the core of who we are. I value the collective, and am willing to make sacrifices to my individual in order to advance the whole.

As a Canadian citizen myself, stay on your side of the border, please.

Re: My hell as a 911 operator

#127

Post by briandear »

thezach wrote: post #31
siculars wrote: post #17

Twitter can handle north of 4k tweets per second on virtually entirely open source software and these morons can't record phone calls. If this is not a glaring example of government mismanagement and waste I don't know what is. Where are the criminal indictments?

Comparing twitter to a 911 call center is like comparing a monochrome display to a 4k display 911 call centers have to interface with many different computer systems (for example the National Criminal Information center, department of motor vehicles, FBI CJIS, in house databases, court records systems, mapping, computer aided dispatch, weather information, etc. Many of these systems (the NCIC, and CJIS have very stri…

911 doesn't need to interface with the NCIS. That isn't helpful for a 911 dispatch. The police systems need that access but this whole discussion isn't about the police system, it's about triaging calls to the appropriate responding agency. FBI data is irrelevant. The FBI is never dispatched via 911, FBI dispatch would happen only after the local agencies deemed it necessary (at least in this context.) 911 operators do not have access to the NCIS.

Re: My hell as a 911 operator

#128

Post by [deleted] »

blackprawn wrote: post #119

So let me get this straight: You (and I) truly believe that the telcos have proof positive location on our landlines and cells, and this data is collected whole hog by the govt, but BUT somehow they cant locate a caller having a heart attack on long island. You know, the govt has the systems it deserves, and I really dont care to hear whining about pencil and paper. It takes no longer to write down on pencil and pape…

[deleted]

Re: My hell as a 911 operator

#129

Post by ampersandy »

ams6110 wrote: post #116
ampersandy wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently attended a lecture about developing shutdown software for a nuclear power plant. The development process involved three key stages: Formal Requirements Documents, a Software Design Document, and finally, Coding. Each step in the process is accompanied by formal verification processes and an audit which produces a Hazard Analysis Report. Code also goes through code review and verification. I wonder if Inter…

I think that mil-spec or nuclear QC standards are probably overkill for civilian systems such as 911. Granted there should be some high standards in place, but the systems are a) not secret/classified and b) not as high liability. Yes, failure to handle a 911 call is serious problem, but not like a failed nuclear reactor shutdown in terms of cost, number of people affected, and as a last resort, ability to fall back…

I agree that this process might be overkill for a civilian system, but it seems to me that an ongoing failure to respond efficiently to 911 calls (over the course of weeks, months, years) is quite worthy of a development process that reflects the life or death nature of the software's purpose. Regardless, hopefully Intergraph fixes their software quickly so that the operators aren't put under more stress than they need to be.

Re: My hell as a 911 operator

#130

Post by moocowduckquack »

snitko wrote: post #109
moocowduckquack wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Emigrate and revoke your current citizenship. People do it all the time.

To where? To another country which is going to tax me the same or more?

You could try Monaco, though you might not like the fact that they have socialised health care. Those billionaire commies.
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