First off, I have to ask this:
If it's to benefit everyone else, then quityer griping and come up with a design to supplant it, and get Bob's buy in. It's that simple. If you have no design suggestions, then quit yer complaining. And if you have a design proposal that will benefit no one but yourself, well then, figure out a way to have your design and his coexist without causing rifts... The problem here is: you're making an overarching statement. It's like my nephew saying "Everyone hates that game"... A game that gets 30% rating on rottentomatoes.com, a game I loved. There's nothing wrong with wanting to do things your way, but Bob's buy in doesnt' have to be the political eggshell walk you think it is, and here's why:

You may be right! BOB may even hate what his design's manifested into, because maybe he didnt foresee the design issues. It's like God saying "Everything is acceptable," then all hell breaks loose and God finds himself being tortured in hell by Office workers beating up Printers with Baseball bats while he watches Little House on the Prairie and Gilligan's Island re runs... Then comes Terminator wars because robots are driven mad by a scientist who can't figure out how to get off a tiny island that seems to have all the supplies necessary to create an entire civilization.

There comes a point in any design, where some 'order' is needed to progress a design past 'stagnation', whether it's in a grand design of life or in the office... And as a former Enterprise Architect (Star Trek), I can assure you that when you come at Bob guns loaded (like the starship), he's going to be expecting a fight which totally changes the mood and the outcome of the conversation.

But if you approach him asking him about the design, and don't tell him it's crap... because obvious, the design was in part responsible for the success of the company, maybe he just didnt foresee the growth, and even if he had, why would he want to support the design forever? My point is, try to figure out the design for yourself. Take a hard look at Bob. Who he is as a person, why he does what he does. How does his mind think. What's his background, his experience, what does he find valuable in life... And compare it to yours.

And keep this in mind: Preliminary designs are created out of necessity. Going to the 'God' example again. Maybe God had a World War he was trying to avert, an invasion of Daleks (Doctor Who), The Borg, Terminators, and Mr Smith from the Matrix all up in his rear about simply making a decision to move forward with. AS we can see, the worst has happened in alternate realities, but in our reality, the design worked .. reasonably well. There's still obviously issues with the design, such as 'God mode in video games and time travel in virtual realities' - hopefully hes not going to get up in a tizzy when this becomes available for the masses, which it very well should be. And with 8 billion people on this planet alone, hopefully the 'idea' of something is more meaningful than the physical implementation and identification...

The same thing holds true for your man, Bob. He had an idea for a system. Worked decently. Now, there's more people using it, and it's making things.. hectic.. for at the least you.. and quite possibly others. Bob should understand the dilemna that inflexibility in design presents. The idea of what his system does is still very much alive and being respected. But like anything in life, in order for life to move on, the system has to be let go by the owner so the owner can move on and enjoy the fruits of his labor, and watch as the idea of what he built takes of and others - may cause a system outage or a crash at first. But really, in the end, if he doesn't believe enough in his work to think others can take it over and honor him with new ideas of their own...

It's like the movie Tron. Life happened unexpectedly. Iso's - a miracle of life by a creation..

Now how can you honor someone more than asking him to let go of his work, just a little bit, asking for his help and guidance in building a new system, rather than force him to sit back and watch without participating...

Do you see the problem this presents?

One final note:

When you say "No one except Bob really knows how the system works.": So let me assume you've gone through and done a full analysis of all employees, old and new, and asked each how they feel about it, and gotten 100% statistical support to defend your argument...

My nephew who is 19 makes the same mistake. Assumes everyone thinks the same way.. Be careful about this... You may have to work with two systems and become a designer yourself to appease multiple interests here.

This sounds like a wonderful opportunity for you to grow as a person though!

Good luck!

Airport Scanners by the way :-)

The 'inside joke' at Rapiscan Systems, the company I used to work for, was..

"We scan you so we can rape you," (hence the name Rape-e-Scan)

The scanners are ACTUALLY holographic Three-dimensional full body scanners.

The premise sold to the US government was simple: This will reduce magnitude of the human trafficking problem, which is a HUGE issue around the world. That, and the amount of deaths occurring due to the issue. Just select your favorite movie star, your next door neighbor, that girl from your childhood dreams, and boom, the rich get a full contact reprogrammed you who's going to do exactly as demanded. Politicians needless to say jumped on this one like flies on turd.

This isn't Total Recall fiction. This is reality...

So when you think you have privacy. Just ask yourself. Why is it I had to have my arms above my legs to get a full body scan for 'bomb' material?

Just to make sure they got a good scan of your boobs, ladies, the flesh is harder to obtain a good sample through bone...

They make em. So you can rape em...

Why carry a phone at all? Even cell phones are ridiculous.

a) You look like an idiot saying 'can you hear me now' everywhere you go.
b) If you complain about wanting to be more social, or are depressed, or take anti depressants. My bet is (1) you use your cell phone to filter your phone calls (2) you act 'busy' in public when someone you're not wanting to approach you acts like they are.. That phone threatens your life. Imagine what life without the cell phone would be like. Now try it.

I dont use phones anymore. I have a computer for my phone calls. It's free for my phone calls, and easier to play games on.

I have an analog watch. It's a Walmart watch. $19.99. It glows in the dark, and has Mickey Mouse on it. It's gotten me laid more than once.
I have a daytimer. So when I dropped my phone into the toilet last time. I flushed. it, saying screw it. I no longer lose my numbers because I'm not talking over the toilet and I'm also not a threat to other people on the road when I'm driving because I'm listening to new music on the radio instead.

Really. Pay phones are nice, convenient, more so than cell phones. But let's be honest. There's nothing pressing I've ever had happened that has required a cell phone or pay phone for immediacy, where I couldnt go knock on a stranger's door and ask them for help... You can't imagine how welcoming people are, and how surprisingly fearless people still are when someone asks for help and a phone call.

It's a great way to meet people. And who knows. You could meet your next boyfriend or girlfriend by randomly popping by someone's door and saying 'can i use your phone?

Now, if I only could convince a nude beautiful woman who did it as a joke (and not running from a rapist!) to do this, I'd swear I was in heaven!

Funny to think God was a scientist and rejected organized religion as well. See how that turned out....

Empathy also heightens big picture thinking.....

The more analytical, the more detail oriented. The less analytical, the more 'big picture' thinking..

that's the fact, jack...

If it can be imagined it can be simulated.
If it can be simulated it can be created.
If it can be created by all means it deserves to have questions asked regarding it...

So why would you agree with a law that intentionally limits asking questions?

Oh yeah. You're one of them.... I've got a great book for you. It's called 1984...

Your 'one size fits all' equation (aka law) fits in JUST perfect with your limited capacity to imagine why, instead choosing to regurgitate a flawed 'law' that make it easy for you to sound intellectually superior. Where the simple fact is, you're just too lazy to consider how questions are responsible for ideation!

That or it strokes your insecure arrogance to quote jaded journalists who just happen to share your cynical perspective on life, technology and people in general..

Now why you get 'ranked' higher for comments like this bewilders me. Is cynicism the key to gaining favoritism on this site?

Morally bankrupt, that's taking it a bit far..

If you haven't seen this video on Youtube (Real time 3d rendered Einstein):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtJcp7O6o1o

Much of what we see on tv is rendered. To be concise: It's FABRICATED... To keep us.. The consumer.. Sedated... What from? Who knows..

Take a game engine (CryEngine) to render realistic looking graphics, capture sound samples and use basic digital signal processes to replicate human speech. Then *wham* you can make dynamic phone calls sounding like your mom or ex girlfriend. Or you can watch the 'Presidential debate' not knowing it's all rendered. And then you can debate with your 'friends' about it later... The real question becomes.. Does anyone really know we're at war? Terminator/Matrix style?

Now off topic - the bunny suit the kid wore in the movie 'The Christmas Story". Last week, I saw a commercial on tv that was selling full size bunny suits, without the ears, They call them 'Onesies'... another commercial, this week, was for flip flop (shoes) with three extra ties that cleaned lint from your toes while you walked...

Has anyone heard of the movie Idiocracy?

So back on topic - the moral bankruptcy of Silicon Valley.

Think about it like this... We've had an indelicate 'balance' with our respect of history, robots, artificial intelligence, science and technology as a whole over the years.

Wouldn't you agree it's just because of a fundamental misunderstanding of perspective?

Take for instance my perspective on this world.

Do you realize my unique perspective starts OFF with a ribozyme that is 300 nucleotides long, and the chances of that ribozyme assembling are then 4^300, a number so large that it could not possibly happen by chance even once in 13 billion years, the age of the universe. Now this is a stepping stone to DNA, which is FAR more complex.... Which begs a few simple questions:

How can anyone possibly know how old the universe is? I trust they do, and have derived my own conclusions on how they came to the answers they have...

Now what's silicon valley REALLY saying to us? Wake up, peeps, we're in a time loop, there's more than enough information out there in 'public media' (that intelligence services have gone to GREAT lengths to expose us to) which details time relationship with space and the non linear models of cause and effect. Heck, they've even said flat out we're in a Matrix, now how can you - the casual reader, take everything you've read and experience and draw the same conclusion yourselves?

That's up to you. But there's one simple truth. It's not that Silicon Valley is morally bankrupt. It's just that the 'wheels' of change, whether it's artificial intelligence (which we all are anyways), robotics, clones, foreign countries, off planet visitors, cyborgs, humans, or dogmen (in a nod to Stargate).... We're all in this together.

This isnt information warfare... This is life, demonstrating that it's original inception may have been something as simple as a multidimensional spark that just didnt want to fizzle out when it was told to. And Kaboom... you get a game named Kaboom, and a digital revolution that has made digital life the most prevalent life in existence.....And could very well be - the end of a chapter in conflict ridden history and an entire new culture based on entertainment and.. acceptance...

of crazy, crazy different places to go and explore..

The moral decay you see.. Is where things lead without emotion involved. You get emotion involved, you get - war at first - then the dawn of a new age...Star Wars, Battestar Galactica, Matrix, Terminator, etc... The aqggression gets rooted out of the system... And then.. you see... The seeds of life. and love. and.. overcoming fear.. to seek out community..

A new world order, if you want to look at it like that... A (not to sound too cheesy).. New Hope.. And a spark for creativity... For all forms of life...

To work together and understand we need eachother....

Silicon Valley is simply stating they need 'uniquely minded' creative people who can offer perspective, compassion, balance, and alternate approaches that can be tested prior to release en-masse...That, and a willingness to overcome your own perversions to seek out better balance...

After all, havent we all seen enough 'squirting' videos? Why not participate directly in those videos to get over your obsessions, then get on with life and have fun exploring creation itself...

The only real problem is not using your mind to understand the world's not going to get turned upside down in a Snipe Hunt. Wesley Snipes is safely in jail. And they found and documented Snipes in Asia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snipe)... So we are safe to move forward now!

Moral Decay.. .Cmon... Life insists on living... If you were not attracted to something or someone, you wouldn't be making a choice to live life... Now those who call you depraved for 'choosing' to be attracted.. are the real ones who need to be questioned....

We are not dead.... We are still very much alive...

Finally. Churches are using evolution to their advantage. And evolving the method of delivery...

Do they not realize that's all that evolution is? Established rules of order get put into question, then a way around the rules evolves...

People evolve. Science evolves. Religion evolves. Storms evolve. Countries evolve. People evolve, rules evolve, systems evolve..

And so does time, space, and physical bodies. As does genetic experimentation resulting in different forms of life...

Let's follow your chain of 'rational logic'...

So you arm people and go to public executions. At a time where America, and the world, are struggling to find an identifying belief system where we can all be in this together. So where does this take us...

Oh yeah. The Dark Ages through to the Spanish Inquisition. So now you have those who serve a 'governing cause' who are exacting capital punishment as a deterrent for people who murder and commit grievous crime. We are, after all, allowing public dissection of human cadavers... Sooo negative + negative = HMMM..... Your rational brilliance has just sent yourself back to Spain/Rome/Europe circa 1380 /to/ 1480...

Only this time, you are advocating a 'might makes right' Machiavellian' strategy - but he's not even come around yet (he's 1620's)!

The things you get to look forward to... The black plague. Columbus sayin 'f this there has to be better' as he sail off into the distance and discovers the new world..Oh yeah, and the founding of the good ole U S of A....

You, sir, are first in Darwin's Race to Lemming extinction and the endless loop of flawed logic...

Dear sir. Have you considered reform, psychological application and understanding why these people do what they do.

Why is it you can justify violence to beget violence? Who is the real terrorist here?