1. A single, unified intranet with various services and uniform oversight.
2. A patchwork of outsourced-to-the-lowest-bidder Daily-WTF worthy enterprisy "commerical" websites for every separate service (HR, Payroll, Benefits, travel, documents, petty cash etc. etc.). Because that's my reality in the system. Uniform interface? Uniform security policy? Uniform uptime? Try three-times daily outage notices from one-system-or-other, weekly password resets (every one with different rules), piss-poor interface design, etc.
It's not about size-of-government or any other libertarian bullshit fantasy; even a government shrunk by 90% would still need these services. It's the constant drive to privatize these functions driven by the "ooh, the private market is magic and never does anything wrong" mantra that leads to this ugly, wasteful, and inefficient patchwork. Inefficient government? No, it's a government that only gets exactly what this idiot-driven free-market religion allows it to pay for.
Alternative IF NBC wrote the script and the government found it to be accurate(*), then fine.
No, maybe not fine.
Fine is: Government wants to produce a message. Government writes the message. Government puts production services out for bid, NBC is best by fair assessment (not just on price but possibly quality services). Video is made.
NOT fine is: Message is essentially a corporate message from NBC following NBC interests, so they give/donate/underbid their services in such a way that their corporate message is being sent and endorsed using the government as a mouthpiece.
How many locks have you seen made of wood?
Ones that float.
So why didn't you donate them to your local public library instead?
You can also donate them to individual classrooms, I know many teachers who happily accept books for their in-class reading without these sorts of hoops.
Or should the last one here just turn out the lights again?
My own favorite case of proving non-obviousness to myself...
Old mathematics joke: A famous mathematician was lecturing in class: "It is obvious that X..." He paused, stared at the board in silence for a minute, then walked out of the room without a word. The students looked at each other and shrugged. Twenty minutes later he walked back into the class: "It is now obvious that X..."
specs can change dramatically in most cases
Moreover, the very act of scientific progress is questioning and experimenting with the assumptions in the spec.
Some of the most inept people I know are serious chess players. How many of them do you know? They spend all their time studying chess, when they could have spent their time learning something useful.
Exactly. My father grew up in that neck of the woods. Basically, every male he knew wasted college/early 20s sitting in Cafes playing chess. It was his generation's WoW. He was a dammed good player, but one thing he told me, many times, was that he regretted the hours of his life wasted on chess. Of course, that was *after* he'd taught me the game...
In Dr. Who fandom it's commonly said: "You never forget your first Doctor."
You mean your first companion, if you're 13 and the companion is Leela.
Jews don't celebrate the biggest day in the Capitalist calendar? Aren't you guys supposed to be good with money?
True quote this year (at the supermarket):
"Are you open on Christmas Day?"
"Yeah, all the Jewish guys come in and make triple-time."
6. I'm too ignorant and lazy to work it out, so I'll just bash the US unit system instead
Actually, this is clearly for those who prefer the French Revolutionary Calendar. Happy Frimaire!!
My data is my loved ones
Strange, my loved ones are my data. Who let them out of the experimental tank? Come back, my children!
The flow chart is a most thoroughly oversold piece of program documentation. -- Frederick Brooks, "The Mythical Man Month"