As an engineer that could have been affected by these shenanigans, I hope that each of these companies gets spanked and spanked hard. A message needs to be sent that abusing their talented, non-union labor force will have stinging consequences.
In a system where your rewards are based on the look of powerpoint presentations that are delivered to directors, you end up spending all your time optimizing the data on the slides. The same principle is applied all over the place, in almost every human endeavor. Using the wrong measure of progress means we waste time and effort. It also has a side effect of making everyone miserable, like the guy in this story. See health care, prison system, etc.
By the way, this isn't a problem unique to the government. His gripes sound very similar to my reality. I work in a large aerospace company.
"We've had only a few major redesigns since 1997; we think it's time for another. "
Why? This is precisely why everyone is so mad. You have a site that (mostly) works. You should get feedback from the users about THAT interface and look at new techonologies, then identify specific issues that you want to improve. Then, improve those things but keep everything that is good. This is a basic business process. Know exactly what your goals are before you start. Redesigning for the sake of redesigning is a waste of time. To put it another way, don't fix what ain't broke.
s/quite/quote/
I still count IBM. I believe that quite was, "Every company that made computers when we started the Mac, they're all gone."
IBM is still around. Maybe they sold their business, but the company is still around and the business they sold to Lenovo is still going strong.
Likewise for HP, Dell, hell even Atari are still around. Sure their businesses have changed, but so did Apple's. Mac has far less mindshare than iPhone and iTunes these days.
Wow, a Slashdot posting about Linus that doesn't include swearing, name-calling, or flame-baiting. Today is a good day.
Maybe users don't want to upgrade, like Mr. Froyd says. But maybe they would upgrade if you gave them a reason to. I'm definitely not a large scale user, but I've never encountered a situation where an older version is more attractive in any way.
That comma usage makes me want to cry
Grab that karma!
Why were you so annoyed by texting? It doesn't effect you at all.
What really got your jimmies rustled was that she was openly flouting the stupid rules, and you had to get up in her business about it because you don't have the balls to do it yourself.
Wake up, buddy. You're the jerk. Cell phones are not bad for planes and a cell phone jammer will do nothing to damage it in any way. All it will do is inconvenience a few hundred people because you are so selfish and self-centered.
Not cell phones, but there have definitely been phones available. Some planes even had handsets embedded in the back of the headrests.
Also, I have always left my phone on in flights. It doesn't get a signal at altitude, and definitely not over the middle of the ocean. It's really only when you are near takeoff or landing.
Why is it that the people who schedule these underhanded surprise hearings go unnamed? People need to know that these guys are working for special interests in back-room deals.
... Cops kill people
I would have used Bing and DuckDuckGo. The other two aren't relevant anymore. Or, was that the point?
Perhaps an open source project to map and publicize the personnel of these agencies, as an exercise in democratic resistance to creeping tyranny.
They'd throw you into a black hole and you'd never be seen again.
Old programmers never die, they just hit account block limit.
