Because Sibelius's HHS bureaucrats decided that they could play system integrator. System integration is a VERY difficult task, its taking pieces of code from different programmers and getting them to play nicely with each other, and testing the entire system to make sure it works, doesn't crash, and gives the right answers. I have done this in my past life. It's the trickiest part of getting a software product running.
Commercial practice is to have the system engineer of the prime contractor to do this. Until the system passes system acceptance test, the prime contractor doesn't get paid.
HHS decided to play the prime contractor role themselves. A job which they are totally unfitted for. You need programming experience and leadership experience on at least a couple of big software jobs to gain the necessary experience to integrate even a kid's game program, let alone something as as big and tricky as Obamacare.
They should have selected a competent contractor (Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo, someone with a national rep) to serve as prime. Selection should have been by sealed bid. Lowest bidder gets the job. With the government retaining the right to disqualify bidders who clearly don't have the right stuff. The winning prime contractor gets to select what ever subcontractors he likes. The prime doesn't get paid until the system passes system acceptance test, so he will be careful to select sub contractors who know what they are doing.
HHS bureaucrats probably selected subcontractors from a list of Obama supporters.
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Monday, October 28, 2013
The Problem with NSA
It's not that they tapped Angela Merkel's phone, it's that they couldn't keep it secret. America has long profited from snooping. H.O. Yardley's black chamber decrypted everyone' diplomatic cables from the Washington Naval Conference in the 1920's. The American delegates, armed with Yardley's decrypts, were able to make the conference come out favorable to US and British interests, not so favorable to the Japanese. Breaking the Japanese "purple" cypher in WWII led to decisive victory at Midway, and the killing of Japanese admiral Yamamoto.
But we were able to keep these deals secret.
Today, NSA issues clearances to flakes like Snowden, and when they flake out and spill all, it hurts. It's not all about technology. People count too.
It's also about need-to-know. Snowden was given access to a whole bunch of stuff that he had no business seeing. So was Bradley Manning.
But we were able to keep these deals secret.
Today, NSA issues clearances to flakes like Snowden, and when they flake out and spill all, it hurts. It's not all about technology. People count too.
It's also about need-to-know. Snowden was given access to a whole bunch of stuff that he had no business seeing. So was Bradley Manning.
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Coming from behind
Someone in Missouri is doing a web poll on the most famous Missourian. This morning, some MD who invented "osteopathy" was on top. This afternoon Robert A. Heinlein has pulled ahead, partly from a mention on Instapundit. Anyhow, now is the time for all you Heinlein fans to go to the Missouri website and vote for the Grand Master.
Hacking your electric company
National Geographic will air a TV docudrama where in enemy hackers cause electric power failures nationwide. With the juice out, water systems stop delivering water, cell phones stop celling, gasoline pumps won't pump, freezers thaw out, the Internet goes off the air, along with TV and radio. Wired phones may last longer, but don't count on it. In short, Western Civilization crumbles.
One simple rule would prevent this. No control signals of any kind may be transmitted over the public internet or the plain old telephone system (POTS). Companies must be required to string private wires, preferably optical fibers for all remote control and monitoring.
Reason. Connect anything to the public internet, and every hacker on the planet has access to it. All the hacker needs is to learn the control codes and he can order the remote controled machinery to do anything he likes, go off line, shut down, blow up, you name it. Whereas with a private line, the hacker has to get a ladder and climb a pole to tap into it. Fiber optic is even better, you cannot tap fiber optics, you would have to cut the fiber, insert a splitter, and then rejoin the cut fiber. Few hackers will climb a pole, let alone splice optical fiber. And you have to be there, you cannot climb an American pole from your basement in Lower Slobbovia.
Companies won't like this, it's expensive. Using the public internet or POTS is free, where as a private line costs you, for installation and maintenance. The power companies won't comply unless the public utility commissions demand it.
If they don't, better check out your backup generator.
One simple rule would prevent this. No control signals of any kind may be transmitted over the public internet or the plain old telephone system (POTS). Companies must be required to string private wires, preferably optical fibers for all remote control and monitoring.
Reason. Connect anything to the public internet, and every hacker on the planet has access to it. All the hacker needs is to learn the control codes and he can order the remote controled machinery to do anything he likes, go off line, shut down, blow up, you name it. Whereas with a private line, the hacker has to get a ladder and climb a pole to tap into it. Fiber optic is even better, you cannot tap fiber optics, you would have to cut the fiber, insert a splitter, and then rejoin the cut fiber. Few hackers will climb a pole, let alone splice optical fiber. And you have to be there, you cannot climb an American pole from your basement in Lower Slobbovia.
Companies won't like this, it's expensive. Using the public internet or POTS is free, where as a private line costs you, for installation and maintenance. The power companies won't comply unless the public utility commissions demand it.
If they don't, better check out your backup generator.
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Regulation of Diet Supplements
Must be a slow news Saturday. Fox News ran a long piece on this. Not a product that I ever buy. But the Fox news chick felt they were terribly important. She dumped out two shopping bags of empty bottles, making a pile two feet high, and then said this was her monthly usage, and she paid $1400 a month for it. Wow. I don't spend that much on groceries. Must be powerful stuff.
Anyhow the FDA wants to regulate them like prescription drugs, require doctor's prescriptions and all that. The diet supplement people said regulation would skyrocket the cost and kill the industry.
Since they have been selling this stuff for a long time, and it doesn't seem to hurt anyone, I don't see a need to give the FDA another field to grow fat bureaucrats in.
Anyhow the FDA wants to regulate them like prescription drugs, require doctor's prescriptions and all that. The diet supplement people said regulation would skyrocket the cost and kill the industry.
Since they have been selling this stuff for a long time, and it doesn't seem to hurt anyone, I don't see a need to give the FDA another field to grow fat bureaucrats in.
Friday, October 25, 2013
So what's so wrong with the Gerrymander?
We hear pundits of both the left and the right claiming that Washington's dysfunction is all because of gerrymandered election districts. They wax eloquent about the evils of districts controled by the other side. Districts controlled by their side are clean and virtuous, districts controlled by the other side are dark and evil.
The gerrymander was invented by Elbridge Gerry, a governor of Massachusetts back in the Federal period. Gerry was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, a signer of the Articles of Confederation, and was present at the constitutional convention in Philadelphia. He refused to sign the original Constitution because it lacked the Bill of Rights. This resume makes Gerry as American as apple pie. Maybe not quite in George Washington's class, but plenty respectable enough.
While Gerry was governor of Massachuetts after the Revolution, the commonwealth redistricted. (Massachusetts is not a state, it's a commonwealth, ask any native) One of the new districts came out looking like a salamander, kinda long and thin, and curvy. Gerry's political opponents called it a gerrymander and the name has stuck to this day.
When redistricting, which happens every ten years, sometime after the federal census, the party in power gets to draw the new district lines. Principles are simple. For "my" districts, include only enough of "my" voters to win the district. For "their" districts, pack in as many of "their" voters as possible. There is only one seat to be won in each district . A district of 90% "their" voters only wins one seat. The same district redrawn to move a lot of "their" voters into "my" districts might win lots more seats. Anyhow, an experienced politician can come up with new district lines that give his party an edge. The edge is probably in the order of 10%, which is enough to win a lotta elections.
The real objection to gerrymandered districts is loss of control of elected representatives. A compact district, where the voters know each other from face-to-face contact, can rally behind some issue and tell their rep which way to vote. If the district is all stretched out and fifty miles long, it's harder for the voters to get together on issues. I mean, how many people do you know who live fifty miles away, as opposed to next door neighbors. The rep from a real gerrymander district has a much freer hand than the rep from a compact district.
If we the voters, really wanted to end gerrymanders, we could with one simple law. Require a 2:1 aspect ratio, or less for all districts. By this we mean the longest distance across the district shall not exceed twice the shortest distance across the district. Of course, the politicians don't want this, and we the voters don't really care that much, so it hasn't happened yet.
My own district in the back woods, used to be just two neighboring towns. Then my good friend Paul Mirsky, in charge of the 2011 redistrictings, gerrymandered it. My district now is five towns, running from here to the Vermont border, some 30 miles away. Paul thought that the new district would return a Republican rep. Did not happen, we are currently represented by Rebecca Brown, a Democrat. Door to door campaigning is easier to do on your home turf than in a rural town 30 miles away.
The gerrymander was invented by Elbridge Gerry, a governor of Massachusetts back in the Federal period. Gerry was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, a signer of the Articles of Confederation, and was present at the constitutional convention in Philadelphia. He refused to sign the original Constitution because it lacked the Bill of Rights. This resume makes Gerry as American as apple pie. Maybe not quite in George Washington's class, but plenty respectable enough.
While Gerry was governor of Massachuetts after the Revolution, the commonwealth redistricted. (Massachusetts is not a state, it's a commonwealth, ask any native) One of the new districts came out looking like a salamander, kinda long and thin, and curvy. Gerry's political opponents called it a gerrymander and the name has stuck to this day.
When redistricting, which happens every ten years, sometime after the federal census, the party in power gets to draw the new district lines. Principles are simple. For "my" districts, include only enough of "my" voters to win the district. For "their" districts, pack in as many of "their" voters as possible. There is only one seat to be won in each district . A district of 90% "their" voters only wins one seat. The same district redrawn to move a lot of "their" voters into "my" districts might win lots more seats. Anyhow, an experienced politician can come up with new district lines that give his party an edge. The edge is probably in the order of 10%, which is enough to win a lotta elections.
The real objection to gerrymandered districts is loss of control of elected representatives. A compact district, where the voters know each other from face-to-face contact, can rally behind some issue and tell their rep which way to vote. If the district is all stretched out and fifty miles long, it's harder for the voters to get together on issues. I mean, how many people do you know who live fifty miles away, as opposed to next door neighbors. The rep from a real gerrymander district has a much freer hand than the rep from a compact district.
If we the voters, really wanted to end gerrymanders, we could with one simple law. Require a 2:1 aspect ratio, or less for all districts. By this we mean the longest distance across the district shall not exceed twice the shortest distance across the district. Of course, the politicians don't want this, and we the voters don't really care that much, so it hasn't happened yet.
My own district in the back woods, used to be just two neighboring towns. Then my good friend Paul Mirsky, in charge of the 2011 redistrictings, gerrymandered it. My district now is five towns, running from here to the Vermont border, some 30 miles away. Paul thought that the new district would return a Republican rep. Did not happen, we are currently represented by Rebecca Brown, a Democrat. Door to door campaigning is easier to do on your home turf than in a rural town 30 miles away.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Questions they ought to ask, but didn't
Washington is grilling the Obamacare software contractors today. Medium rare at least. Someone should have asked about the specifications for the job.
When was the final signed off specification released to the programmers? Was the website user load specified? Who signed off for the government? How many change orders were issued AFTER the specification was released to the programmers? Who signed off on the change orders? How long was the specification? Fifty pages is about right. By the time you get to a hundred pages nobody understands it. Who wrote the spec, government or the contractors? What kind of contract was it, firm fixed fee, cost plus incentive fee, or plain old cost plus? How many programmers did your company have on the job? When did they start? How much has your company been paid? What milestones were set for payment? What testing was required? Did the program pass those tests before Oct 1? How many lines of code were delivered? Does the program run on Windows?
When was the final signed off specification released to the programmers? Was the website user load specified? Who signed off for the government? How many change orders were issued AFTER the specification was released to the programmers? Who signed off on the change orders? How long was the specification? Fifty pages is about right. By the time you get to a hundred pages nobody understands it. Who wrote the spec, government or the contractors? What kind of contract was it, firm fixed fee, cost plus incentive fee, or plain old cost plus? How many programmers did your company have on the job? When did they start? How much has your company been paid? What milestones were set for payment? What testing was required? Did the program pass those tests before Oct 1? How many lines of code were delivered? Does the program run on Windows?
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