131–140 of 273 posts
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One thing that gets wrong is calling Gates the genius. Ballmer is the smarter of the two.
Then why did Microsoft stagnate under his leadership, once Gates left?
I have found this website very helpful in the past few years when researching government financial info: http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/total_spending_chart I reached out to the website developer/maintainer/creator, Chris Chantrill, telling him I appreciated his work on the site and asking if he needed help (seems like a 1 man operation?) - here's how he responded: Thanks! I started the site in 2007 when "I coul…
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Hehe that might be part of it, I actually feel claustrophobic reading it. A neutron star of text and links.
The font size is "wrong" for everything and completely inconsistent and all over the place. White spacing is all wrong too. The font color is non-contrasting, because gray on blue is a brilliant idea. I'd literally fire someone if they submitted this as graphics design.
I have found this website very helpful in the past few years when researching government financial info: http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/total_spending_chart I reached out to the website developer/maintainer/creator, Chris Chantrill, telling him I appreciated his work on the site and asking if he needed help (seems like a 1 man operation?) - here's how he responded: Thanks! I started the site in 2007 when "I coul…
The UI is actually making me feel angry, for some reason I can't put my finger on.
And in related news, Trump killed open.gov today. https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20170414/13382037153/trump...
And he wonders why people are increasingly skeptical of his administration.
Especially if it was "selective" to begin with...
I have found this website very helpful in the past few years when researching government financial info: http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/total_spending_chart I reached out to the website developer/maintainer/creator, Chris Chantrill, telling him I appreciated his work on the site and asking if he needed help (seems like a 1 man operation?) - here's how he responded: Thanks! I started the site in 2007 when "I coul…
Can't believe I'm posting something positive about the Irish government but they recently launched this site which is actually pretty decent. Pity other governments don't do the same. http://whereyourmoneygoes.gov.ie
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> federal, state, and local levels (don't forget the counties!) The reason that cannot work is that when you get below the state level, you're dealing with governments that might or might not have enough money and motivation to do proper accounting, staffed by people who might or might not have actually gone to college. Mandating they contribute to the "national spreadsheet" would represent an unprecedented impositio…
At the individual & small business tax filing level, you're also dealing with people who might not have money or motivation to do proper accounting, who might not have actually gone to college. But they're still required to file everything properly, no matter how complex their personal/business taxes get.
I am definitely very excited about this. Blanket statements like "government is too inefficient and such a waste" or "we need to raise more taxes to fix this problem" are statements that are irrefutable due to the convoluted nature of government. Now we can have a little more insight into what is efficient and what isn't. Also the opaqueness and division of data makes it difficult to make meaningful and economical de…
Sadly, many people who make those blanket statements (such as myself) also believe governments, especially big-centralized ones cannot be fixed. These kind of data is good, it may be an eye opener for some. But governments will find loop holes to make those spendings look like justified. Most people will be fine with it anyway. Look at the authors response: "Oh there are 10 million public school teachers, those are n…
Soon he'll realize the slim margins that go to actual teachers, and see that most of it goes to boards, etc.
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> federal, state, and local levels (don't forget the counties!) The reason that cannot work is that when you get below the state level, you're dealing with governments that might or might not have enough money and motivation to do proper accounting, staffed by people who might or might not have actually gone to college. Mandating they contribute to the "national spreadsheet" would represent an unprecedented impositio…
> The reason that cannot work is that when you get below the state level, you're dealing with governments that might or might not have enough money and motivation to do proper accounting, staffed by people who might or might not have actually gone to college. Because of state and federal funding rules, local governments are generally not only already providing detailed public accountings in documents that nobody both…
The smaller you are, the more "downhill" you are from the folks making the important regulations, and the more you're required to adhere to strict and closely monitored books. (Corruption still happens, of course, but at least there are numbers that add together and some form of reasonable audit trail for financial events. And don't get me started about whether or not good accounting principles have anything at all to do with good governance)
ADD: Here's a link for reference: http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/23/politics/us-army-audit-account...
(I could also tell personal stories from my time with the federal government, and there are plenty more links to find for those interested. The point is that more political power and money movement, at least in the states, usually is associated with fewer and less reliable financial controls, which is counter-intuitive)