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Submission + - Canada's Disastrous ArriveCan App Received a Procurement Award

belmolis writes: During Covid, the Canada Border Services Agency created ArriveCan, an app that allows travelers entering Canada to electronically submit travel documents and customs declarations. The app was so buggy that many could not use it, and erroneously ordered thousands of travelers to quarantine. At C$59.5 (US$48.4) million it was far more expensive than the initial C$80,0000 estimate.The procurement process was recently severely criticized by Auditor General Karen Hogan in a scathing report. It has now been reported that the team responsible for ArriveCan received an Unsung Heroes award from the Canadian Institute for Procurement and Material Management for its work.

Comment Is this really a good idea? (Score 1) 84

I wonder whether this is a good idea, for several reasons. First, air traffic control and congestion is already a problem in many areas. Are we in a position to handle a significant increase in air traffic? Second, does this make sense in terms of use of energy and environmental impact? Third, if "flying cars" means vehicles more like cars than helicopters and airplanes, this presumably means vehicles that can also travel on roads. Is it possible to build vehicles that both provide adequate survivability of crashes on land and that are airworthy and energy-efficient? Maybe such issues can all be solved in the long run, but at least in the short run I suspect that this is a terrible idea.

Comment how does this help the investigation? (Score 4, Insightful) 169

In addition to the privacy issues, I don't see how this helps the investigation. It makes sense to track people viewing something like child porn, or perhaps videos advocating terrorism, but how does tracking the viewing of innocuous videos unrelated to the alleged crimes help? This would seem to be pointless or at best very inefficient. (If the answer is in the Forbes article, it is pay-walled.)

Comment Re: Whyyyyyy??? (Score 1) 50

But why do these devices accept wireless input at all? If their job is logging, they just need to record data and have some means of off-loading it. That could be via a physical connection, but even if for some reason a wireless readout is required, there should be no need for it to accept wireless input.

Comment moving targets? (Score 1) 83

The post and some commenters refer to moving targets as a problem. Archimedes was concerned with the defense of Syracuse. In that situation, the attacking ships would mostly be stationary, and if approaching, would generally not be maneuvering but heading toward the defenders, meaning that there would be only one degree of freedom in their position and that, since their speed would likely be fairly constant, it would be possible to lead them. Aiming the heat ray would therefore not be a big issue in the situation for which Archimedes is said to have invented it.

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