Software Trouble

[NQ6U]

Not me, Mitt Romney.

It appears that his IT department really dropped the ball (http://www.sdtimes.com/blog/post/2012/11/10/Orca-the-Romney-campaign-and-the-lessons-of-an-interesting-disaster.aspx) when it came to their campaign software by not sufficiently beta testing it, waiting until 6:00 am on election day to deploy it and limiting training to a single ninety-minute video.

Full article at the Software Development Times site: http://www.sdtimes.com/blog/post/2012/11/10/Orca-the-Romney-campaign-and-the-lessons-of-an-interesting-disaster.aspx

It's a perfect example of what not to do when deploying any sort of mission-critical software.

UPDATE: Far more detail at Ars Technica: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/11/inside-team-romneys-whale-of-an-it-meltdown/

[n2ize]

I read this earlier. It was hilarious.

[WØTKX]

I hope the consultants overcharged them to the hilt.

[n2ize]

To build Orca, the Romney campaign turned to Microsoft

That says it all right there.

[w0aew]

"The end result," Ekdahl wrote, "was that 30,000+ of the most active and fired-up volunteers were wandering around confused and frustrated when they could have been doing anything else to help. The bitter irony of this entire endeavor was that a supposedly small government candidate gutted the local structure of [get out the vote] efforts in favor of a centralized, faceless organization in a far off place (in this case, their Boston headquarters). Wrap your head around that."

You mean, even non-government organizations can act like bloated bureaucracies and be incapable of long-term planning or responding quickly and intelligently to problems? Who would've thunk it?

[KC2UGV]

Wait a minute, I thought Romney was a master of business processes...

[w0aew]

Wait a minute, I thought Romney was a master of business processes...

He is...and we've just witnessed a sterling example of modern business processes.

[KG4CGC]

had not been tested under real-world conditions Reminds me of working in a factory. When they say, ''send it out'' or ''just do it'' you almost have to fight for your life because you know who it's going to come back on.

[W1GUH]

You mean, even non-government organizations can act like bloated bureaucracies and be incapable of long-term planning or responding quickly and intelligently to problems? Who would've thunk it?

Actually, private enterprise can act considerably more like bloated bureaucracies than the government.

Fact is, the government part of going on Social Security and Medicare was very, very efficient and well done. Each and every government employee I had contact with was very competant, very personable, and could take care of what needed to be done immediately.

OTOH -- private enterprise Medicare supplement plans were a jungle of confusion. Each phone call to a private insurer took MUCH longer than calling Social Security, and the quality of the people varied widely. Some were good, others didn't seem to have a clue. The overall impression to me is that the government is there to serve us individuals and does that very well. OTOH, the private companies are there solely to serve the pockets of the CEO's - and they only put the bare minimum into customer service.

Dunno, really, if the government is, in fact, bloated, or if that's just another Republican neo-con myth that's been spread to try and make us believe that they (the CEO's) need not pay their fair share, and at our expense.

[W1GUH]

Not me, Mitt Romney.

It appears that his IT department really dropped the ball (http://www.sdtimes.com/blog/post/2012/11/10/Orca-the-Romney-campaign-and-the-lessons-of-an-interesting-disaster.aspx) when it came to their campaign software by not sufficiently beta testing it, waiting until 6:00 am on election day to deploy it and limiting training to a single ninety-minute video.

Full article at the Software Development Times site: http://www.sdtimes.com/blog/post/2012/11/10/Orca-the-Romney-campaign-and-the-lessons-of-an-interesting-disaster.aspx

It's a perfect example of what not to do when deploying any sort of mission-critical software.

UPDATE: Far more detail at Ars Technica: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/11/inside-team-romneys-whale-of-an-it-meltdown/

It's going to be nice when the hi-tech industry grows out of adolescence and into adulthood. So far it's been in a euphoric state with much hubris about how "epically awesome, Dude" all this hi-tech stuff can be. But....by itself, it has no clue as to how to properly design, test, and deploy software. Seems the testing phase is always short-changed drastically because the hubris of the cats in charge just won't let them admit there might be something wrong (I see examples of that all over the place).

Microsoft would appear to be on the cutting-edge of the maturation I'm looking forward to. Guess they gotta be to keep their base.

[NY3V]

Actually, private enterprise can act considerably more like bloated bureaucracies than the government.

Fact is, the government part of going on Social Security and Medicare was very, very efficient and well done. Each and every government employee I had contact with was very competant, very personable, and could take care of what needed to be done immediately.

OTOH -- private enterprise Medicare supplement plans were a jungle of confusion. Each phone call to a private insurer took MUCH longer than calling Social Security, and the quality of the people varied widely. Some were good, others didn't seem to have a clue. The overall impression to me is that the government is there to serve us individuals and does that very well. OTOH, the private companies are there solely to serve the pockets of the CEO's - and they only put the bare minimum into customer service.

Dunno, really, if the government is, in fact, bloated, or if that's just another Republican neo-con myth that's been spread to try and make us believe that they (the CEO's) need not pay their fair share, and at our expense.

Then why does the GOP insist on Gov't outsourcing all services?

They insist it saves Money and is more efficient.

I think the Gov't should Reverse-Outsource functions by Nationalizing.

The only thing the Gov't should outsource is Congress.

That would both save Money & be More Efficient!
;)

[W1GUH]

Then why does the GOP insist on Gov't outsourcing all services?

They insist it saves Money and is more efficient.

I think the Gov't should Reverse-Outsource functions by Nationalizing.

The only thing the Gov't should outsource is Congress.

That would both save Money & be More Efficient!
;)

"Then why does the GOP insist on Gov't outsourcing all services?

They insist it saves Money and is more efficient."

Oh, I forgot that! Thanks....

But seriously (That was sarcasm)...

Been hearing this since at least the early 90's when the company I worked for (and a LOT of others, I believe) started outsourcing functions like security, custodial, and IT workers, always because, as they said, it "saved money." Employees in those positions, who were previously direct employees with the same benefit plans we all had became contractors working for another company...usually (maybe even always) with reduced benefits.

Guess that's how they saved money....but reducing expenses at the expense of the workers. The officers pocketed the difference.

[n2ize]

Microsoft would appear to be on the cutting-edge of the maturation I'm looking forward to. Guess they gotta be to keep their base.They don;t seem to be on the cutting edge of maturation to me. If anything they have repeatedly fallen short of the mark and had to play catch up and quite frequently missed the ball.

[NQ6U]

They don;t seem to be on the cutting edge of maturation to me. If anything they have repeatedly fallen short of the mark and had to play catch up and quite frequently missed the ball.

They are also, at least in part, the developer of the software that this whole thread is about. There has never been anything "cutting edge" about Microsoft.

[W1GUH]

I beg to differ. You get a Windows machine and it comes with lots and lots of support and "hints" or "tips" built into it; and there is copious, [usually] easily findable answers to FAQ's. Not talking cutting edge of technology, but about user friendliness.

This is is in sharp contrast with *nix flavors and Android -- can take hours and hours of google-fu to get information or to find that that information just doesn't exist. THAT's the state-of-the-art of which I speak.

But...it's true...that isn't very important to some for whatever reason.

And I'll STILL stick with windows.net for Windows applications. Nyea nyea!

[NQ6U]

I beg to differ. You get a Windows machine and it comes with lots and lots of support and "hints" or "tips" built into it; and there is copious, [usually] easily findable answers to FAQ's. Not talking cutting edge of technology, but about user friendliness.

This is is in sharp contrast with *nix flavors and Android -- can take hours and hours of google-fu to get information or to find that that information just doesn't exist. THAT's the state-of-the-art of which I speak.

But...it's true...that isn't very important to some for whatever reason.

And I'll STILL stick with windows.net for Windows applications. Nyea nyea!

And you're still missing the point. Microsoft was the developer of the software that caused Romney's operation so much grief. And as far as user friendliness goes, try a Mac sometime. Most of those hints and tips that Windows 7 uses? Copied wholesale from OS X, which was using them ten years ago.

[n2ize]

And you're still missing the point.
Microsoft was the developer of the software that caused Romney's operation so much grief. And as far as user friendliness goes, try a Mac sometime. Most of those hints and tips that Windows 7 uses? Copied wholesale from OS X, which was using them ten years ago.

Most modern day Linux distros such as fedora and ubuntu are very well documented They are also much more intuitive than they ever were and work right out of the box with little need for tweaking and configuration. fedora in particular is very bleeding edge. I generally never have to spend more than 2 or 3 minutes on Google before I find an answer to any questions I have.. For more elusive problems I have even found myself speaking to a member of its worldwide development community. That's because the knowledge base is widely distributed and the code is open. .Ditto goes for Android and Mac. I know many persons who are not tech-saavy yet they rarely have problems finding info and getting issues straightened out. There is an enormous knowledge base out there. Matter of fact it is mainly the Windows users who are always asking me, "why does my Windows keep crashing for no apparent reason", "Why is my system suddenly so slow", "why am I having problems with WGA" ? etc. etc. and are having difficulty finding answers... and eventually end up just re-installing the whole thing.

But it reallly depends on what you are doing. If you are running some sort of specilized hardware/software combo that was designed for a Microsoft platform and for which all third party developers, etc. are strictly locked out then Winders may be the only answer, Or, software that will only run on Windows.. Of course it also depends on what you prefer on a personal basis.

Me, I prefer Fedora. it does what I want and it does it well. Otherwise I would probably use a different distro or maybe try a Mac.. I also prefer using software that is free (as in beer) open source, and developed and maintained and supported by a worldwide community from individuals to corporations as opposed to a single large monolithic corporation.

Actually I use both Linux and Windows here as most of my systems are dual boot and derived from systems that came with Windows. Why throw away good software that I paid for ? Soo I make them dual boot although I spend 99.9% of the time booted into Linux.

[WØTKX]

Windows Eight!
Slate is Great!

:evil:

[n2ize]

Windows Eight!
Slate is Great!

:evil:
My Dad recently bought a new desktop system. It came with Windows 7 Pro pre-installed. The first thing he said to me when i was checking it out was , "Get busy and put the Linux on this thing". So I repartitioned the drive, turned it into a dual boot with Winders 7 and Fedora 16. My Dad prefers using Linux. But from the looks of things it does look like Microsofty has improved on their Winders platforms.

[KC2UGV]

My Dad recently bought a new desktop system. It came with Windows 7 Pro pre-installed. The first thing he said to me when i was checking it out was , "Get busy and put the Linux on this thing". So I repartitioned the drive, turned it into a dual boot with Winders 7 and Fedora 16. My Dad prefers using Linux. But from the looks of things it does look like Microsofty has improved on their Winders platforms.

Winders 7 was the first version of Windows I've actually enjoyed using in a loooong time. Since Server 2003.

[n6hcm]

"Get busy and put the Linux on this thing".

lol! that's a thing of beauty, it is.

[n2ize]

lol! that's a thing of beauty, it is.
Both my parents are near 80 years old and both avid Linux users. I got the started on Linux back in the 1990's when I built a network and a computer so they could get online They got used to it and now prefer it to using Winders. What I find interesting is the manner in which a lot of older people adapt to both the technology and the Internet. After all when they were in school computers were more of less unheard of. Yet these days there are resources on the web that they will discover and tell me about them. I only wish my grandparents could have experienced the Internet and todays technology. They would have loved it.