Why is it the Republicans want to cut back on health care for their own citizens but feel it is important to spend billions of dollars and thousands of American lives to care for corrupt governments?
Showing posts with label Obamacare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obamacare. Show all posts
Sunday, June 25, 2017
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Modern Medicine and Let Them Eat Cake Politicians
I finally received a bill for my open heart surgery in April. See I’m back!
The bill for the initial surgeon’s visit and the operation is $20,280.50. The five days of hospital stay are not included. My bill for three-plus hours of surgery after Medicare and supplemental insurance: $50.50!!
What I pay monthly for insurance is $178.90 for Medicare and supplemental insurance plus $83.70 for prescription drugs. This is deducted from my Social Security. My wife pays the same amount.
According to https://resources.ehealthinsurance.com/affordable-care-act/much-health-insurance-cost-without-subsidy, individual coverage averaged $321 per month and family plans averaged $833. The annual deductibles were $4,358 and $7,983.
To pay the individual deductible, a person would have save about $84/week or two dollars an hour. For the premiums, a person would have to save about $74/week. Together that is $158/week or $3.95/hour. At a minimum wage of $9/hour, that doesn’t leave much for food and rent. Without insurance, a year’s wage of $9/hour would not even cover the above bill.
And lots of politicians and millionaires think these individuals should be happy with what they get. I don’t wish Marie Antoinette’s fate on these “let them eat cake” thinkers, but someday there will be a widespread realization that the people at the bottom of the economic are being taken advantage of. Let’s hope they find better “champions” than Donald Trump and his ilk.
The bill for the initial surgeon’s visit and the operation is $20,280.50. The five days of hospital stay are not included. My bill for three-plus hours of surgery after Medicare and supplemental insurance: $50.50!!
What I pay monthly for insurance is $178.90 for Medicare and supplemental insurance plus $83.70 for prescription drugs. This is deducted from my Social Security. My wife pays the same amount.
According to https://resources.ehealthinsurance.com/affordable-care-act/much-health-insurance-cost-without-subsidy, individual coverage averaged $321 per month and family plans averaged $833. The annual deductibles were $4,358 and $7,983.
To pay the individual deductible, a person would have save about $84/week or two dollars an hour. For the premiums, a person would have to save about $74/week. Together that is $158/week or $3.95/hour. At a minimum wage of $9/hour, that doesn’t leave much for food and rent. Without insurance, a year’s wage of $9/hour would not even cover the above bill.
And lots of politicians and millionaires think these individuals should be happy with what they get. I don’t wish Marie Antoinette’s fate on these “let them eat cake” thinkers, but someday there will be a widespread realization that the people at the bottom of the economic are being taken advantage of. Let’s hope they find better “champions” than Donald Trump and his ilk.
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Corporations and governments: can’t have one without the other
Considering some of the shouting, one might think that politics has divided into two camps: government is bad and corporations are for the common good, or corporations are greedy and government is for the common good.
As too often is the case, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
First, let’s look at the similarities.
Corporations and governments are organized by people for a large number of reasons. The people who organize these entities do so to provide goods and services, to make money, to be famous, or to push certain views, both altruistic and selfish. Neither type of organization is any better than the people who run the organization. Success depends more on the leadership and the resources available than on the form. Success also depends on the circumstances of the time. If a large segment of the population is not interested in an idea, it will take a lot of effort to promote the idea, whether a new product or a new law. On the other hand, if a very large segment of the population is interested in an idea, somebody in corporations or government will be working overtime to fulfill the population’s wishes.
The big difference is that the corporations are run by the few and governments are run by the many, if the many show up and vote.
As many misinterpret Adam Smith’s “invisible hand”, many misinterpret Milton Friedman’s the only purpose of a corporation is to “increase profits”.
“[t]here is one and only one social responsibility of business–to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud." - Milton Friedman, “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits”, The New York Times Magazine, September 13, 1970
Many interpret this as the only purpose of a corporation is to increase shareholder value. Unfortunately, they ignore “rules of the game” and “without deception or fraud”. But what is shareholder value? Is it a continued gain in stock price? Is it a continuous stream of increasing dividends? Or could it be the long-term provision of a good or service? For example, do investors want to create a product that could take years to bring to market? Do investors want to insure that medical services can be provided to a community for decades rather than maximize profits for the short-term and destroy the community long-term?
Many point to the problems of MNSure and ObamaCare as examples of government inefficiency. But guess who provided the computers and software for these health insurance programs? Private companies!
And private companies have not been known for efficient, trouble-free rollouts of new products. How many auto recalls are there every year? Has every computer program or system you purchased or downloaded been free of bugs? It seems every time I get a notice of an app update, the description includes “bug fixes”.
In the “bad old days” of mainframes, it was really a major milestone when a computer ran a whole day without a crash. Now things are much better. My laptop, which is more powerful than any mainframe I worked on, might go a whole week without some kind of frustrating error, including freezes.
MNSure and Obamacare are massive systems requiring massive co-ordination of many pieces. As we don’t give up on our computers, we shouldn’t give up on massive projects that don’t work perfectly on the first day.
"I'm as confident of this as I would be that when the first cars didn't work well, it wasn't time to return to horses and buggies; it was time to improve the cars. This is the new technology; there are kinks to it and it's going to take some time to work them out.”
Joel Ario, quoted in “Contractor’s report slams MNsure weaknesses, readiness”, Elizabeth Stawicki, MPRNews, 2014-06-18
Are you collecting Social Security? Is your check posted to your bank account on the promised day every month? But it was not always so. Like getting computers to not crash, the rollout of Social Security was not without glitches or without critics who claimed dire consequences. Like “nationalization of wheat fields would soon follow” and Americans would be reduced to passive servility. It would take forty years of tinkering to have ninety percent of Americans covered by Social Security.
See “What about Social Security’s rollout?” Bruce J. Schulman, 2013-10-29, Reuters
An interesting contrast to the call for less regulation and taxes is the call by some of the same people for government subsidy. How many stadiums for billionaires have been built without government subsidies? How many companies have chased after the best subsidies and tax breaks to determine the location of a new office or factory? Are these the same people who say government shouldn’t be picking winners and losers?
Consider the big howl from Congress when Solyndra collapsed. But nothing was said about the success of Tesla. Both received start-up subsidies from the Federal government. Tesla paid its loans back! Also among those who received subsidies were Compaq, Intel, and Apple. Now Apple is the largest company in the world in capitalization! And looking for ways to avoid paying back its benefactor through taxes.
For a lot more on how government has fostered many other successful innovations, see “The Innovative State: Governments Should Make Markets, Not Just Fix Them”, Mariana Mazzucato, Foreign Affairs, January/February 2015.
- Mel wishes a few far-sighted Republicans and Democrats would start a Pragmatic Party.
This was also published in the Duluth Reader, 2015-03-26 at 2015/03/26/5005_corporations_and_governments_cant_have_one_without
As too often is the case, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
First, let’s look at the similarities.
Corporations and governments are organized by people for a large number of reasons. The people who organize these entities do so to provide goods and services, to make money, to be famous, or to push certain views, both altruistic and selfish. Neither type of organization is any better than the people who run the organization. Success depends more on the leadership and the resources available than on the form. Success also depends on the circumstances of the time. If a large segment of the population is not interested in an idea, it will take a lot of effort to promote the idea, whether a new product or a new law. On the other hand, if a very large segment of the population is interested in an idea, somebody in corporations or government will be working overtime to fulfill the population’s wishes.
The big difference is that the corporations are run by the few and governments are run by the many, if the many show up and vote.
As many misinterpret Adam Smith’s “invisible hand”, many misinterpret Milton Friedman’s the only purpose of a corporation is to “increase profits”.
“[t]here is one and only one social responsibility of business–to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud." - Milton Friedman, “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits”, The New York Times Magazine, September 13, 1970
Many interpret this as the only purpose of a corporation is to increase shareholder value. Unfortunately, they ignore “rules of the game” and “without deception or fraud”. But what is shareholder value? Is it a continued gain in stock price? Is it a continuous stream of increasing dividends? Or could it be the long-term provision of a good or service? For example, do investors want to create a product that could take years to bring to market? Do investors want to insure that medical services can be provided to a community for decades rather than maximize profits for the short-term and destroy the community long-term?
Many point to the problems of MNSure and ObamaCare as examples of government inefficiency. But guess who provided the computers and software for these health insurance programs? Private companies!
And private companies have not been known for efficient, trouble-free rollouts of new products. How many auto recalls are there every year? Has every computer program or system you purchased or downloaded been free of bugs? It seems every time I get a notice of an app update, the description includes “bug fixes”.
In the “bad old days” of mainframes, it was really a major milestone when a computer ran a whole day without a crash. Now things are much better. My laptop, which is more powerful than any mainframe I worked on, might go a whole week without some kind of frustrating error, including freezes.
MNSure and Obamacare are massive systems requiring massive co-ordination of many pieces. As we don’t give up on our computers, we shouldn’t give up on massive projects that don’t work perfectly on the first day.
"I'm as confident of this as I would be that when the first cars didn't work well, it wasn't time to return to horses and buggies; it was time to improve the cars. This is the new technology; there are kinks to it and it's going to take some time to work them out.”
Joel Ario, quoted in “Contractor’s report slams MNsure weaknesses, readiness”, Elizabeth Stawicki, MPRNews, 2014-06-18
Are you collecting Social Security? Is your check posted to your bank account on the promised day every month? But it was not always so. Like getting computers to not crash, the rollout of Social Security was not without glitches or without critics who claimed dire consequences. Like “nationalization of wheat fields would soon follow” and Americans would be reduced to passive servility. It would take forty years of tinkering to have ninety percent of Americans covered by Social Security.
See “What about Social Security’s rollout?” Bruce J. Schulman, 2013-10-29, Reuters
An interesting contrast to the call for less regulation and taxes is the call by some of the same people for government subsidy. How many stadiums for billionaires have been built without government subsidies? How many companies have chased after the best subsidies and tax breaks to determine the location of a new office or factory? Are these the same people who say government shouldn’t be picking winners and losers?
Consider the big howl from Congress when Solyndra collapsed. But nothing was said about the success of Tesla. Both received start-up subsidies from the Federal government. Tesla paid its loans back! Also among those who received subsidies were Compaq, Intel, and Apple. Now Apple is the largest company in the world in capitalization! And looking for ways to avoid paying back its benefactor through taxes.
For a lot more on how government has fostered many other successful innovations, see “The Innovative State: Governments Should Make Markets, Not Just Fix Them”, Mariana Mazzucato, Foreign Affairs, January/February 2015.
- Mel wishes a few far-sighted Republicans and Democrats would start a Pragmatic Party.
This was also published in the Duluth Reader, 2015-03-26 at 2015/03/26/5005_corporations_and_governments_cant_have_one_without
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Excessive Corporate Inefficiency
This afternoon I got a call from the Essentia Health Fitness Center that I have not made the annual payment for use of the facility. We never received any notice that this was due. Last year we were told at the reception desk, and we were able to pay there.
This year, the phone call was my first notice from anyone, Essentia, Medica, or Silver&Fit. The administrator said we had to pay Silver&Fit directly.
Now the fun begins.
I called the 800 number for Silver&Fit. I was told by the pleasant recorded voice that there was a very long wait. Have you seen anything in the papers about this like you’ve seen about MNSure’s wait times?
I went to the Silver&Fit website. When I began the registration process, it knew my address and phone number just from my name, but then efficiency disappeared.
I had to enter my birthdate in a specific format; the format was not described next to the box. I was asked to select a security question and give the answer. I clicked “Next” and then I was told how to enter my birthdate. But then it would not go any further until I selected a security question again. It showed my answer, but it wouldn’t show the drop-down list again. It said I needed to select a security question??
I gave up and started a new session. I ran into similar problems again. On the third try I found the form for paying by money order. No form for check or page for using a credit card.
I gave up on that and sent an email of dissatisfaction. At least there was a link to do so.
I went to the Medica website and managed to find a form for paying by check.
So we each filled out a form, wrote our checks, and put them in a single envelope. That will probably screw things up at Silver&Fit. One of us will be credited with another year’s membership and the other not.
With Congress screwing up the Postal Service, it will probably take more than three days to arrive at Silver&Fit, two more days to get to a clerk to open the envelopes, and two more days for Silver&Fit to notify Essentia Health.
It is not the form of an organization, it’s the personnel and management. Good and bad of these are found in both government and corporations.
BTW I went to St. Louis County Auditor’s License office last week to renew my driver’s license. The longest part was filling out the form. Somebody waited on me right away, had me sign the form, took my money, gave me a copy, and asked me to step over to the eye exam device and the camera. It took me longer to take off my coat than to have my picture taken. And all this was done with cheer and courtesy.
This year, the phone call was my first notice from anyone, Essentia, Medica, or Silver&Fit. The administrator said we had to pay Silver&Fit directly.
Now the fun begins.
I called the 800 number for Silver&Fit. I was told by the pleasant recorded voice that there was a very long wait. Have you seen anything in the papers about this like you’ve seen about MNSure’s wait times?
I went to the Silver&Fit website. When I began the registration process, it knew my address and phone number just from my name, but then efficiency disappeared.
I had to enter my birthdate in a specific format; the format was not described next to the box. I was asked to select a security question and give the answer. I clicked “Next” and then I was told how to enter my birthdate. But then it would not go any further until I selected a security question again. It showed my answer, but it wouldn’t show the drop-down list again. It said I needed to select a security question??
I gave up and started a new session. I ran into similar problems again. On the third try I found the form for paying by money order. No form for check or page for using a credit card.
I gave up on that and sent an email of dissatisfaction. At least there was a link to do so.
I went to the Medica website and managed to find a form for paying by check.
So we each filled out a form, wrote our checks, and put them in a single envelope. That will probably screw things up at Silver&Fit. One of us will be credited with another year’s membership and the other not.
With Congress screwing up the Postal Service, it will probably take more than three days to arrive at Silver&Fit, two more days to get to a clerk to open the envelopes, and two more days for Silver&Fit to notify Essentia Health.
It is not the form of an organization, it’s the personnel and management. Good and bad of these are found in both government and corporations.
BTW I went to St. Louis County Auditor’s License office last week to renew my driver’s license. The longest part was filling out the form. Somebody waited on me right away, had me sign the form, took my money, gave me a copy, and asked me to step over to the eye exam device and the camera. It took me longer to take off my coat than to have my picture taken. And all this was done with cheer and courtesy.
Thursday, October 16, 2014
Government too big or too little? Make up your mind!
Republicans seem to be at the forefront in complaining about "big government". Then they turn around and complain about the Federal government not doing enough.
The attack ads and phone calls from Republicans are overwhelming about the overreach of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), Among their statements are the Federal government should not be between you and your doctor.
Now Republicans in Congress are complaining that the Federal government is not doing enough about ebola. In other words, the Federal government should get between ebola patients and their doctors.
See "Congress Scrutinizes Handling of Ebola Cases in Texas", New York Times, 2014-10-16.
The attack ads and phone calls from Republicans are overwhelming about the overreach of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), Among their statements are the Federal government should not be between you and your doctor.
Now Republicans in Congress are complaining that the Federal government is not doing enough about ebola. In other words, the Federal government should get between ebola patients and their doctors.
See "Congress Scrutinizes Handling of Ebola Cases in Texas", New York Times, 2014-10-16.
Thursday, October 09, 2014
Programmer, heal thyself
The New York Times recently had a link to the Wired story, “Why the New Obamacare Website is Going to Work This Time” by Steven Levy, originally published in the June issue of Wired. Levy almost gushes how the Ad Hoc team, a small group of young programmers from Silicon Valley and President Obama’s election campaign, greatly simplified the Website. “[T]hey worked 80-hour weeks to salvage the botched creation of thousands of technocrats employed by 55 different contractors,”
Duh! A small team can make breakthroughs that a large group cannot. Think of the original Macintosh team, much smaller and squirreled away in a small building away from all those working on Apple II software.
IBM trumpeted it had a thousand programmers in seven cities on OS 360. We in Univac smirked that we had less than 40 programmers working in one city on EXEC I. Even then a contractor built a leaner OS (EXEC II) to build and test the FORTRAN and COBOL compilers they had contracted to build. EXEC II was much more popular among customers than EXEC I and even its successor EXEC 8.
Making deadlines? Hah! We were always shifting ship dates later.
What I wonder is if these same programmers from private industry are so great, why are software “user community” boards so filled with questions, often unanswered? If these programmers are so great, why are reviews often mixed, some love the program, others hate it.
Way back in the 80s when the Macintosh was the latest “hot thing”, I was eager to get the latest version of the software and found the enhancements great. Thirty years later, I am reluctant to move up to a major new release. To often things that worked fine are changed to something that is more difficult to use or doesn’t even work anymore.
With each generation it seems that programs run slower and slower. Maybe it’s because I’m using a three-year-old Mac with one-year-old software. I have found suggestions for “cleaning up the system”, but they involve a whole day of backing up data and then another day of creating a “clean install” disc and actually running it.
Consistency of design often seems to be lacking. If my iPhone is asleep and I get a call, the screen only gives me the option of swiping to accept the call. However, if my iPhone is active, the screen gives me the choice of accepting or rejecting the call. Buried in the instruction manual, or was it in the “user community”, in the first case I can reject the call by holding the sleep button and the home button at the same time. Only a bureaucracy would allow different actions for the same result.
In one of the recent releases, certain buttons may or may not appear for starting and stopping a podcast. The intent is to have a right-pointing triangle to start or resume a podcast and a double bar to momentarily stop it. When these symbols suddenly started disappearing, I was glad that I knew where they were supposed to be. And I have no idea why these buttons sometime appear and sometime don’t.
I have a new problem to research: why does the return button no longer work on my Logitech Solar Keyboard folio for my iPad? I’ll have to set aside some time to check out the Logitech community about this.
I love all this technology because of all it does for me. I can write this column on my laptop and email it to the Reader. I can keep notes and to-do lists on my laptop, phone, and iPad and keep them synched. I can call my wife from the grocery store to remind me what it was she wanted. I can use my iPhone as a hot spot at our cabin to write and email this column.
BTW, I’m not writing this at our cabin as planned because another simple technology became an irritation. Our smoke alarm started going off randomly. Sometimes it would beep and beep, sometimes it would only give off one set of beeps. I had a lousy night Saturday night! Could it be too much moisture in the small tight cabin? Well, I brought the alarm home, closed the battery compartment, and put it on the bed. Within twenty minutes it gave off a single set of beeps. We bought the seven-year warranty alarm in March!
Much is made about about government bureaucracy and corporate efficiency, but corporate bureaucracy in GM led to many deaths because of faulty ignition switches.
To err is human, but to really screw up it takes a computer. Humans and computers are both in corporations and governments.
Mel considers himself perfect; he never makes mistakes. Oops, the computer won’t let him misspell mistakes as “misteaks!
Also published in the Reader Weekly, 2014-10-09 at http://duluthreader.com/articles/2014/10/09/4191_programmer_heal_thyself
Duh! A small team can make breakthroughs that a large group cannot. Think of the original Macintosh team, much smaller and squirreled away in a small building away from all those working on Apple II software.
IBM trumpeted it had a thousand programmers in seven cities on OS 360. We in Univac smirked that we had less than 40 programmers working in one city on EXEC I. Even then a contractor built a leaner OS (EXEC II) to build and test the FORTRAN and COBOL compilers they had contracted to build. EXEC II was much more popular among customers than EXEC I and even its successor EXEC 8.
Making deadlines? Hah! We were always shifting ship dates later.
What I wonder is if these same programmers from private industry are so great, why are software “user community” boards so filled with questions, often unanswered? If these programmers are so great, why are reviews often mixed, some love the program, others hate it.
Way back in the 80s when the Macintosh was the latest “hot thing”, I was eager to get the latest version of the software and found the enhancements great. Thirty years later, I am reluctant to move up to a major new release. To often things that worked fine are changed to something that is more difficult to use or doesn’t even work anymore.
With each generation it seems that programs run slower and slower. Maybe it’s because I’m using a three-year-old Mac with one-year-old software. I have found suggestions for “cleaning up the system”, but they involve a whole day of backing up data and then another day of creating a “clean install” disc and actually running it.
Consistency of design often seems to be lacking. If my iPhone is asleep and I get a call, the screen only gives me the option of swiping to accept the call. However, if my iPhone is active, the screen gives me the choice of accepting or rejecting the call. Buried in the instruction manual, or was it in the “user community”, in the first case I can reject the call by holding the sleep button and the home button at the same time. Only a bureaucracy would allow different actions for the same result.
In one of the recent releases, certain buttons may or may not appear for starting and stopping a podcast. The intent is to have a right-pointing triangle to start or resume a podcast and a double bar to momentarily stop it. When these symbols suddenly started disappearing, I was glad that I knew where they were supposed to be. And I have no idea why these buttons sometime appear and sometime don’t.
I have a new problem to research: why does the return button no longer work on my Logitech Solar Keyboard folio for my iPad? I’ll have to set aside some time to check out the Logitech community about this.
I love all this technology because of all it does for me. I can write this column on my laptop and email it to the Reader. I can keep notes and to-do lists on my laptop, phone, and iPad and keep them synched. I can call my wife from the grocery store to remind me what it was she wanted. I can use my iPhone as a hot spot at our cabin to write and email this column.
BTW, I’m not writing this at our cabin as planned because another simple technology became an irritation. Our smoke alarm started going off randomly. Sometimes it would beep and beep, sometimes it would only give off one set of beeps. I had a lousy night Saturday night! Could it be too much moisture in the small tight cabin? Well, I brought the alarm home, closed the battery compartment, and put it on the bed. Within twenty minutes it gave off a single set of beeps. We bought the seven-year warranty alarm in March!
Much is made about about government bureaucracy and corporate efficiency, but corporate bureaucracy in GM led to many deaths because of faulty ignition switches.
To err is human, but to really screw up it takes a computer. Humans and computers are both in corporations and governments.
Mel considers himself perfect; he never makes mistakes. Oops, the computer won’t let him misspell mistakes as “misteaks!
Also published in the Reader Weekly, 2014-10-09 at http://duluthreader.com/articles/2014/10/09/4191_programmer_heal_thyself
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Is There a Tech Staff Shortage?
Is There a Tech Staff Shortage?
Melvyn D. Magree
Originally published in
the Northland Reader
now the
Reader Weekly
October 14, 1999
Melvyn D. Magree
Originally published in
the Northland Reader
now the
Reader Weekly
October 14, 1999
Minnesota needs information workers (Star Tribune, August 25, 1999)
"Twin Cities metro area must solve its shortage of skilled workers." (Star Tribune, March 30, 1999)
"In a continuing effort to tackle the labor shortage conundrum, the Minnesota High Tech Association (MHTA) said ... it will spend $300,000 on an initiative to attract and train workers for the fast growing tech industry." (Star Tribune, March 5, 1999)
From my own unsuccessful search for a programming or other computer-related job, I have found that the shortage is self-induced.
The first cause is the selection process by employers. They either scan resumés for certain keywords or have applicants fill out "skill" sheets with similar keywords. Almost all of these keywords are the names of products: software applications or computers. A very few are the names of concepts like client-server or object-oriented programming.
If the applicants don't have the right keywords in their resumés or don't check off the right items in the skill sheet, they are passed over.
Employers are not interested in the types of work that applicants have done. Employers are not interested if applicants have used a spreadsheet, a database, or a word processing program. Employers want to know if applicants have used Excel, Access, or Word. Employers ignore that knowledge of one product is easily transferable to similar products.
A letter writer to the San Jose Mercury News complained that employers are not interested in technical writers. Employers are interested in technical writers who can use Frame Maker. He went on to say that any computer-literate writer can learn to use Frame Maker in a couple of weeks and even be using it productively the first day. (Letters to the Editor, San Jose Mercury News. January 24, 1998).
For programmers the situation is worse. Employers are not interested in the kinds of programming applicants have done. Employers are not interested if applicants have used object-oriented languages or visual compilers. Employers want to know if applicants have used Java or Visual Basic. Employers ignore that programming skills are easily transferable to similar products.
Another letter writer complained that employers aren't interested in the range of experience an applicant may have. Employers are interested in programmers that have at least six-months' experience in Java. He went on to say that he has used languages far harder than Java and he could be up to speed in Java well before he was up to speed in the business of the company. (ibid.)
Yet another letter writer gave the simile that employers are looking for white eggs in green boxes. There are brown eggs in purple boxes, so they say there are no eggs. (ibid.)
It is as if anyone who has driven a Chevrolet for the last five years is not allowed to drive a Ford. Or as if anyone who has driven only four-door compact sedans for the last twenty years is not allowed to drive a pickup truck or heaven forbid, an 18,000 pound moving truck. Fortunately, the state and rental companies are more lenient than many employers; anyone with a valid driver's license may drive any of these vehicles.
My own experience includes many years of learning, adapting to, and promoting new computer technology. Oh yes, I've also ignored a few ideas that really took off. In general, when I've had a need to know, I've plunged in and tried a product, generally by skimming the manual and then going back for details. I think I've had only one formal course, "Advanced Programming Techniques" in graduate school.
I started in programming with a summer job between my junior and senior years of college. I took the job to learn computer programming, but I was assigned clerical work instead. Halfway through the summer, I borrowed Elliot Organick's Programming the IBM 650 from the company library. I wrote a program in assembly language to calculate square roots and presented it to my supervisor. He didn't know what to do with the program and passed it on to another department. Shortly thereafter I was assigned to write a simple program to show how well dealers had met their quotas. With a few questions to others, I completed the program by the end of the summer, handing in the documentation on my last day.
The next summer I started as a graduate assistant at the computer center of Case Institute of Technology. The graduate assistants' first assignment was to learn ALGOL on the Burroughs 2000 so that we could help sophomores in the computer lab in the fall. We were handed the ALGOL manual and pointed to the computer. We had a ball!
Two and a half years later I started my first full-time corporate job at Remington Rand Univac (now Unisys). From manuals and fellow employees I learned to use the assembler for the Univac 1107 and a rather arcane operating system.
Within a few months I was assigned to maintain a FORTRAN compiler and its runtime system. None of us in the group had programmed FORTRAN before, but we learned quickly. Our supervisor, who was the brightest of the bunch, never bothered to learn FORTRAN, but he came to know the inside of the compiler almost as well as the original designer did!
Later I was assigned to maintain an ALGOL compiler with a strange add-on called SIMULA. SIMULA wasn't called object-oriented then, but it certainly added a powerful abstraction that solved more problems than simulating the behavior of real-life objects. I thought SIMULA was the be-all and end-all of computer languages. I fought a lonely battle for many years before the concept of object-oriented languages caught on.
Within a year or two I began contributing to the high-level design of the next operating system for the Univac 1108. Eventually I was assigned as lead programmer to a group working on one part of the operating system. None of us had any formal training on operating systems; we just read what we could and went ahead and did it.
After five years with Univac I transferred to Europe to support this operating system. As part of living in Switzerland and then Italy I learned to read and speak German and Italian from books and practice; I had only a few informal tutoring sessions in Italian.
After two years in Italy I transferred to Sweden. I learned to read and speak Swedish from books and practice with only a few informal tutoring sessions. After one year in Sweden, I was appointed the supervisor of a technical support group. Our daily language was Swedish. I also taught a few classes and gave some presentations using Swedish.
One of my most interesting trouble shooting episodes occurred in Sweden. One customer had system crashes in which a part of memory was overwritten. Nothing was obvious to any of us from the memory dumps. We sent a few back to the States but received no resolution. The problem was raised to the level of a management meeting.
The attendees were Swedes, a Canadian, myself, and another American. Most of the Swedes made introductory remarks in English, a couple did so in Swedish, the Canadian and the other American in English, and I in Swedish. One of the Swedes exclaimed with a sigh, "Du talar svenska!" meaning "You speak Swedish!" with the unspoken meaning, "I won't have to try to speak English!"
We reached no conclusions in the meeting except that a certain program was frequently present. The customer brushed that idea aside saying that the program didn't work.
I persisted in pursuing that program as a culprit in the crashes and finally received a copy. When I took the program to another site, it crashed without harming the system. The program was written in COBOL, of which I had only rudimentary knowledge from a book. I was able to establish that the COBOL runtime system had an illegal memory reference which matched the pattern in the system crashes.
This story gets bizarre, but let me just say that I wrote a simple program that would make the same illegal memory reference. I took it the site with the problem, it was run, and the system crashed. Looking at the dump of the system, I showed that the memory protection circuit was not functioning. The technicians later found that two wires were crossed in this circuit. When they fixed the circuit, the offending program definitely "didn't work."
When I returned to the States after six years in Europe, I continued to learn and troubleshoot. I learned more about telecommunications, databases, transactions systems, and recovery. I sat in on design meetings on all of these concepts and did troubleshooting on some of them. I managed a computing center. I learned APL, BASIC, and Pascal. I did design reviews and code reviews. I never used a company derivative of JOVIAL, but in a code review I recognized that the programmer was abusing it by programming as in an assembler.
Eight years after returning from Europe and just about as many jobs within Univac, I joined the microcomputer revolution and founded my own company. I learned a variety of now-orphan computers and the Macintosh, and I designed, implemented, and marketed seven products for them. I learned object Pascal, HyperCard, and Prograph (a visual data flow compiler), and a few other development products that never got a big following. I avoided C and the PC; why make work complicated when the computer can do it for me?
After fifteen years on my own of looking for the simple, elegant solutions that would become popular, I folded the company and made several attempts to find a full-time computing job.
Did you think that I described an impressive work history? Think again. I did not write in the traditional resumés style. I wrote too much. And I did not have many of the buzzwords that employers look for. As I like to say, I don't have the right alphabet soup. In fact, notice that my only reference to C and the PC were a bit derogatory, and I didn't even mention C++ or HTML.
I included this biography to demonstrate that a multi-faceted background is not desirable in today's over-specialized environment. Employers want instant experts, not learners. It is not just my loss but theirs.
One Twin Cities company had a "technology" fair. One young programmer was demonstrating a project to be used by travel agents around the world. He pointed out that the agents would be able to use their own languages. I asked if they were using Unicode, the 18-bit character code that can provide for almost all known character sets. He looked confused and said that I should speak to his manager. His manager was initially enthusiastic but lost interest when he found I didn't have the right "alphabet soup" and that I didn't want to be explicit about which job title I was interested in. I wonder if the Japanese travel agents using this system have to read and type Romanji.
I have long assumed that my difficulty in finding a computing job was only the narrow requirements of employers. I sometimes suspected another problem, but brushed the notion aside.
Did you add up the years that I spent in these various activities and places? It comes to thirty-seven years, which means I am well over fifty.
In researching this article, I discovered that the complaints of ageism in information technology are quite widespread. According to some who have looked at this problem, "Unemployment among IS professionals over 50 is about 17%." (IT labor boom a mirage to some, ComputerWorld, August 10, 1998 [no longer available online])
These professionals are probably not unemployed according to labor statistics. They have jobs such as Radio Shack manager, interior designer, or bus driver. They just have difficulty finding jobs to match their experience.
Programmers over the age of 50 are not the only unemployed programmers; many in their 40's and even 30's have difficulty finding jobs.
James Wick, 62, feels lucky to be employed on the year 2000 problem. Before he found that job, he had just about given up trying to convince recruiters nearly half his age that he had any worthwhile experience from a thirty-year career with several major corporations. (Too Old to Write Code?, US News, March 16, 1998 [available in archive])
Alan Ezer took time off in his early 40's to go to graduate school. When he reentered the job market, he trained himself in one of the "hot skills", Java. He created a Web page showing his skills. He selectively responded to 150 ads in which he thought there was a fit with his experience. He received one interview in two years. "Even though I had spelled out my background on my resumé, when they saw me, they decided I didn't have the work experience they required," Ezer says. (Too Experienced to Get a Job?, Wired, Feb. 25, 1998)
Ed Curry, 39, closed his software business and took a month off. Two years later he had no permanent job, even though he is proficient in seven computer languages. He said that recruiters told him that it would take too long to place him but that they could place an entry-level programmer immediately. (IT labor boom a mirage to some, ComputerWorld, August 10, 1998 [no longer available online])
A survey by the National Science Foundation and the Census Bureau found that 57 percent of computer science graduates were working as programmers after six years, 34 percent after 15 years, and 19 percent after 20 years. Most would be in their early 40's after 20 years. On the other hand, the figures for civil engineering graduates are 61 percent, 52 percent, and 52 percent. (Norman Matloff, New York Times, January 26, 1998)
Norman Matloff is a widely published critic of technological hiring practices. He has been called anti-immigrant because he questions the need to hire more foreign workers for technology jobs. I found most of the information for this article with a web search on "Norman Matloff" which gave me given 300 references. Just two of the first ten led to the list of articles that I cited in this article. However, in the less than ten articles that have been published on the "tech staff shortage" problem in the Star Tribune in the last eighteen months, Matloff has been mentioned only once. And views similar to his and of those whom from direct experience find the shortage non-existent have been mentioned just about as often.
The Star Tribune article on October 15th mentioned that Matloff had a web page but didn't give it. It is http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/itaa.html.
I hope that the Star Tribune will probe this subject deeper in future articles. If someone reports that the sky is falling, please determine if it is just an apple from a tree.
A couple of additional Web pages of interest are:
http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/pub/Immigration/ImmigAndComputerIndustry/SDUT.html
http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/mercltrs.html
©1999, 2007 Melvyn D. Magree
2014 Postscript:
Professor Matloff is still writing about hiring practices in the computer industry, including their effect on the computer systems for the Affordable Care Act. Hint: The H1-B programmers have not been among the “best and brightest”. See “Coding Geeks Can’t Save ObamaCare” among many, many others.
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Software systems working incorrectly? What's new?
I'm cleaning up lots of old notes and I found this feedback that I sent to Apple on 2002-12-18. Sorry, the referenced article is not available on Yahoo.com anymore. You can find it at http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=728071 with lots of sarcastic commentary.
Beginning of feedback
I concur with Mike Berman's article at http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nf/20021218/bs_nf/20277. Although I don't have the degree of problems he has, there are many things in OS X and software written for OS X that definitely do not provide "seamless" operation.
Instead of putting flashy new interfaces or applications into OS X, I wish Apple would devote far more resources to making OS X a truly effortless operating system. For example, when I select a server to access a computer connected to mine by a single Ethernet cable, it takes a long time and then OS X starts dialing the phone!!!!
Second, it would help users greatly if Apple certified third-party software as being "seamless". For example, Microsoft does not have a consistent handling of text among Office products (Word to Entourage is worst). For example, I can click on Send Messages in Entourage and it will connect with Internet Connect and wait for the connection. If I select a site from Favorites in Internet Explorer, it starts the connection but says the server can't be found when the connection is made.
Third, it would help if Apple would certify major web sites as being "seamless" for Macintosh users. Try using Ameritrade.com with a Macintosh; many of the fancy features just don't work or can be erratic.
I don't see any point to upgrading to OS X 10.2 at a cost of $200 for two computers for features I don't have any great need for and I don't have any guarantee all the little gotchas in 10.1 have been fixed.
Apple has been a leader in user friendly software for 18 years. I hope Apple will now turn its focus to being a leader in software reliability.
End of feedback
Has it been eleven years since I learned to be a late adapter? Well, I haven't completely learned my lesson. iOS 7 had a huge learning curve, and I still encounter many annoyances. And in 29 years they still haven't learned to "do it right" on the first release. And people expect the ACA systems to work seamlessly on the first day?
Beginning of feedback
I concur with Mike Berman's article at http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nf/20021218/bs_nf/20277. Although I don't have the degree of problems he has, there are many things in OS X and software written for OS X that definitely do not provide "seamless" operation.
Instead of putting flashy new interfaces or applications into OS X, I wish Apple would devote far more resources to making OS X a truly effortless operating system. For example, when I select a server to access a computer connected to mine by a single Ethernet cable, it takes a long time and then OS X starts dialing the phone!!!!
Second, it would help users greatly if Apple certified third-party software as being "seamless". For example, Microsoft does not have a consistent handling of text among Office products (Word to Entourage is worst). For example, I can click on Send Messages in Entourage and it will connect with Internet Connect and wait for the connection. If I select a site from Favorites in Internet Explorer, it starts the connection but says the server can't be found when the connection is made.
Third, it would help if Apple would certify major web sites as being "seamless" for Macintosh users. Try using Ameritrade.com with a Macintosh; many of the fancy features just don't work or can be erratic.
I don't see any point to upgrading to OS X 10.2 at a cost of $200 for two computers for features I don't have any great need for and I don't have any guarantee all the little gotchas in 10.1 have been fixed.
Apple has been a leader in user friendly software for 18 years. I hope Apple will now turn its focus to being a leader in software reliability.
End of feedback
Has it been eleven years since I learned to be a late adapter? Well, I haven't completely learned my lesson. iOS 7 had a huge learning curve, and I still encounter many annoyances. And in 29 years they still haven't learned to "do it right" on the first release. And people expect the ACA systems to work seamlessly on the first day?
Thursday, January 09, 2014
Let's give Gov. Chris Christie some slack
Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, a Republican, is getting a lot of heat and blame for staff members who did really dumb stuff. They caused traffic snarls around Fort Lee as retaliation against a Democratic mayor who didn't support Christie for governor. When Christie asked them directly if they had anything to do with the snarls, they denied it.
Now many people are giving Christie a lot of heat for something he had little control over. Let's give him slack. He is not a king who can command exact obedience. Just as Obama makes statements like keeping your current insurance plan, he must rely on others to give him correct and timely information.
If we expect our leaders to know everything they need to know by their direct experience, they will never be able to lead because they are spending so much time gathering information. Why do you think there are briefing books and executive summaries?
Do we blame the small business owner for the shenanigans of a trusted bookkeeper who siphoned off funds for years? Without trust, any organization large or small would become inefficient with a burden of checks and cross-checks.
Now many people are giving Christie a lot of heat for something he had little control over. Let's give him slack. He is not a king who can command exact obedience. Just as Obama makes statements like keeping your current insurance plan, he must rely on others to give him correct and timely information.
If we expect our leaders to know everything they need to know by their direct experience, they will never be able to lead because they are spending so much time gathering information. Why do you think there are briefing books and executive summaries?
Do we blame the small business owner for the shenanigans of a trusted bookkeeper who siphoned off funds for years? Without trust, any organization large or small would become inefficient with a burden of checks and cross-checks.
Friday, December 27, 2013
Obamacare and careless corporations
I sent the following letter to the Duluth News Tribune. It was published 2013-12-24. You can also find it at http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/286844/publisher_ID/36/.
Enough already about Obamacare glitches
Please, enough letters about the computer problems related to Obamacare. A truism of any organization, government or corporate, is that people tell the boss what they think he or she wants to hear.
When customer complaints about installing Windows7 came rolling in, did the press call it “Windows Steven” after Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, or Steven Sinofsky, then head of the Windows Division?
Complaints are rolling in about Apple’s latest operating system, Mavericks. Has the press called Mavericks “Cookware” after Tim Cook, CEO of Apple?
Creating software is a messy business; the more that is promised, the less that works right. Way back in the 1960s I was part of a team developing a new, groundbreaking operating system. New releases were never on time and never took care of all the reported problems. Very few customers had a day without crashes. That software was simple compared to what we have today on our computers and even in our smartphones.
President Barack Obama was educated in law, not computer science. He has to rely on others, including all the private contractors, to give him correct and timely information. Do you think Steve Ballmer got as much bad news as he should have? Do you think Tim Cook got as much bad news as he should have? I know we were under a lot of pressure to report good news about that ancient operating system.
The designers of HealthCare.gov were probably behind before they even started. Few, in or out of government, fully appreciate the complexity of the task.
Enough already about Obamacare glitches
Please, enough letters about the computer problems related to Obamacare. A truism of any organization, government or corporate, is that people tell the boss what they think he or she wants to hear.
When customer complaints about installing Windows7 came rolling in, did the press call it “Windows Steven” after Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, or Steven Sinofsky, then head of the Windows Division?
Complaints are rolling in about Apple’s latest operating system, Mavericks. Has the press called Mavericks “Cookware” after Tim Cook, CEO of Apple?
Creating software is a messy business; the more that is promised, the less that works right. Way back in the 1960s I was part of a team developing a new, groundbreaking operating system. New releases were never on time and never took care of all the reported problems. Very few customers had a day without crashes. That software was simple compared to what we have today on our computers and even in our smartphones.
President Barack Obama was educated in law, not computer science. He has to rely on others, including all the private contractors, to give him correct and timely information. Do you think Steve Ballmer got as much bad news as he should have? Do you think Tim Cook got as much bad news as he should have? I know we were under a lot of pressure to report good news about that ancient operating system.
The designers of HealthCare.gov were probably behind before they even started. Few, in or out of government, fully appreciate the complexity of the task.
Sunday, December 08, 2013
Computer glitches? What's new?
Many, especially Republicans, are complaining about the computer problems with the rollout of the Affordable Care Act. What did they expect? Version x.0.1 to be ready on day one?
They should look at the software on their iPhones. Everyday I seem to receive an update to one of the apps that I downloaded. What is the main reason for the update – bug fixes!
Many think of Germans as being superefficient. Consider one of the reasons for the latest update for the Die Zeit newspaper app update: “Generelle Stabilitäts-Updates!” In other words, the previous version of the Die Zeit app crashed.
We often do our own screwing up. I received a letter from my bank that they had moved money from my savings account to my checking account. On my first try to access my account, the bank’s system was unavailable. When I finally got on, I found that there had been yet another transfer made. As I reviewed the online statement, I found that I had transferred money from checking to savings instead of the other way around. At least I have an account that makes sweeps rather than overdraft charges.
That grand and glorious new iOS 7 for the iPhone and iPad is now at version 7.0.4! Apple’s customer help forums are filled with questions on how to fix this problem or that problem, many of the questions unanswered.
I have been using Microsoft’s Outlook and Apple’s Address Book and iCal for years. Outlook for email and events, Address Book for other purposes such as envelopes, and iCal for events. Supposedly they should sync with very little effort.
Some time ago I found that I was getting more and more duplicated events and two items for every person in my address book. If I remember correctly, my daughter’s birthday was duplicated 800 times! After I cleaned that mess up, I stopped using Outlook’s calendar.
I also had duplicate names in my address books. As with the calendars there was a sync that went bad long ago with the Outlook and Apple address books. I gave up on syncing them and kept updates to each manually. This past week I cleaned up the Apple address book on my laptop with Contact Cleaner. It eliminated all the duplicates. The duplicates were eliminated on my iPhone but almost all the names disappeared from my iPad. There was only one entry for each of a dozen or so letters of the alphabet! Needless to say, I did not sync my address book to my iPhone.
Then my iPhone would not turn on! Off to the Apple Community. Rather quickly I found a customer comment that said to hold the power and home buttons at the same time. This is now happening on my iPad! Could it be iOS 7.0.4 for this and the disappearing contacts?
My bluetooth keyboard would not sync with my iPad. It had been working fine and made life much easier than typing on the screen. Off to the Apple Community. I had to “forget” the keyboard and then look for it again. Thank you, Apple Community.
On top of all these other problems, I spilled coffee on my laptop keyboard recently. I tried holding too many things at the same time. Now the shift key on one side wouldn’t work and neither option keys worked.
I took my laptop to Best Buy to find out if the Geek Squad could repair my keyboard with little time and no charge. I found out that I still had a service warranty that covered all hazards. The agent recommended that I take my laptop home and back up everything. He wasn’t sure if my laptop would be repaired or scrapped. I’m glad that I backed most of the stuff up because I could then use my wife’s iMac to do all the computer tasks I’m accustomed to, including writing this column.
On Friday the Geek Squad called me that my computer was back. Now we’re seeing some corporate efficiency. Instead of the “safe” promised one month, the Geek Squad did the repair within a week.
It often seems that if one has a problem, one hears of others with the same problem. Pamela Jaskoviak, a Swedish writer, spilled coffee on her MacBook Pro late at night working on a past due deadline. She did worse than I did; the computer quit and she had to have her hard drive copied to a new computer. If you understand Swedish, you can find her “Godmorgon, världen” monologue at http://sverigesradio.se/sida/default.aspx?programid=438
So many companies cannot be satisfied with their websites. They seem to regularly roll out “exciting” new sites, sometimes they provide some useful new features, sometimes they are no big deal, and sometimes they are major screw-ups. Recently Yahoo Finance did a major makeover of its website. To me, they removed some clutter and replaced it with other clutter. It took me awhile to figure out how to get quotes for a list of stocks, but once I did Yahoo Finance provided the request data in the format I was accustomed to.
Then, poof! It didn’t work at all. Every time I clicked the return button, it added a string of nonsense to what I had copied or typed in the quote box, and it told me it couldn’t find what I requested. Off to “the community” to seek answers. Hoo boy! The critics of ACA should see the long list of bitter complaints, and some of these complaints come from people who make their living with timely stock quotes!
All those complaining about the ACA rollout should remember two bits of folk wisdom:
Murphy’s law: If something can go wrong, it will.
To err is human; to really screw up it takes a computer.
Also posted on the Reader Weekly website at http://duluthreader.com/articles/2013/12/05/2582_party_of_one-7.
They should look at the software on their iPhones. Everyday I seem to receive an update to one of the apps that I downloaded. What is the main reason for the update – bug fixes!
Many think of Germans as being superefficient. Consider one of the reasons for the latest update for the Die Zeit newspaper app update: “Generelle Stabilitäts-Updates!” In other words, the previous version of the Die Zeit app crashed.
We often do our own screwing up. I received a letter from my bank that they had moved money from my savings account to my checking account. On my first try to access my account, the bank’s system was unavailable. When I finally got on, I found that there had been yet another transfer made. As I reviewed the online statement, I found that I had transferred money from checking to savings instead of the other way around. At least I have an account that makes sweeps rather than overdraft charges.
That grand and glorious new iOS 7 for the iPhone and iPad is now at version 7.0.4! Apple’s customer help forums are filled with questions on how to fix this problem or that problem, many of the questions unanswered.
I have been using Microsoft’s Outlook and Apple’s Address Book and iCal for years. Outlook for email and events, Address Book for other purposes such as envelopes, and iCal for events. Supposedly they should sync with very little effort.
Some time ago I found that I was getting more and more duplicated events and two items for every person in my address book. If I remember correctly, my daughter’s birthday was duplicated 800 times! After I cleaned that mess up, I stopped using Outlook’s calendar.
I also had duplicate names in my address books. As with the calendars there was a sync that went bad long ago with the Outlook and Apple address books. I gave up on syncing them and kept updates to each manually. This past week I cleaned up the Apple address book on my laptop with Contact Cleaner. It eliminated all the duplicates. The duplicates were eliminated on my iPhone but almost all the names disappeared from my iPad. There was only one entry for each of a dozen or so letters of the alphabet! Needless to say, I did not sync my address book to my iPhone.
Then my iPhone would not turn on! Off to the Apple Community. Rather quickly I found a customer comment that said to hold the power and home buttons at the same time. This is now happening on my iPad! Could it be iOS 7.0.4 for this and the disappearing contacts?
My bluetooth keyboard would not sync with my iPad. It had been working fine and made life much easier than typing on the screen. Off to the Apple Community. I had to “forget” the keyboard and then look for it again. Thank you, Apple Community.
On top of all these other problems, I spilled coffee on my laptop keyboard recently. I tried holding too many things at the same time. Now the shift key on one side wouldn’t work and neither option keys worked.
I took my laptop to Best Buy to find out if the Geek Squad could repair my keyboard with little time and no charge. I found out that I still had a service warranty that covered all hazards. The agent recommended that I take my laptop home and back up everything. He wasn’t sure if my laptop would be repaired or scrapped. I’m glad that I backed most of the stuff up because I could then use my wife’s iMac to do all the computer tasks I’m accustomed to, including writing this column.
On Friday the Geek Squad called me that my computer was back. Now we’re seeing some corporate efficiency. Instead of the “safe” promised one month, the Geek Squad did the repair within a week.
It often seems that if one has a problem, one hears of others with the same problem. Pamela Jaskoviak, a Swedish writer, spilled coffee on her MacBook Pro late at night working on a past due deadline. She did worse than I did; the computer quit and she had to have her hard drive copied to a new computer. If you understand Swedish, you can find her “Godmorgon, världen” monologue at http://sverigesradio.se/sida/default.aspx?programid=438
So many companies cannot be satisfied with their websites. They seem to regularly roll out “exciting” new sites, sometimes they provide some useful new features, sometimes they are no big deal, and sometimes they are major screw-ups. Recently Yahoo Finance did a major makeover of its website. To me, they removed some clutter and replaced it with other clutter. It took me awhile to figure out how to get quotes for a list of stocks, but once I did Yahoo Finance provided the request data in the format I was accustomed to.
Then, poof! It didn’t work at all. Every time I clicked the return button, it added a string of nonsense to what I had copied or typed in the quote box, and it told me it couldn’t find what I requested. Off to “the community” to seek answers. Hoo boy! The critics of ACA should see the long list of bitter complaints, and some of these complaints come from people who make their living with timely stock quotes!
All those complaining about the ACA rollout should remember two bits of folk wisdom:
Murphy’s law: If something can go wrong, it will.
To err is human; to really screw up it takes a computer.
Also posted on the Reader Weekly website at http://duluthreader.com/articles/2013/12/05/2582_party_of_one-7.
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Flipped quote of the day – assurances not to be trusted
“It’s another broken promise and more proof this administration’s assurances have no credibility,” said House Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio. “This law has been an absolute disaster, leaving us to ask ‘what’s next?’ “
– "Small-business rollout for Obamacare postponed for a year", Noam N. Levey, Star Tribune, 2013-11-27
“The war in Iraq is another broken promise and more proof the Bush administration’s assurances have no credibility,” never said John A. Boehner, R-Ohio. “This war has been an absolute disaster, leaving us to ask ‘what’s next?’ “
“The release of Xbox/Playstation is another broken promise and more proof Microsoft's/Sony's assurances have no credibility,” never said House Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio. “These products have been an absolute disaster, leaving us to ask ‘what’s next?’ “
"[In] 2007 [Microsoft] has spent more than $1 billion to repair the problems associated with the Xbox 360."
– "Xbox, PlayStation deal with launch glitches", Derrick L. Lang, Associated Press, from Star Tribune, 2013-11-28
I wish that those who complain about government inefficiency or corporate missteps would realize that both are organizations of people and people are bound to over-promise and under-deliver.
– "Small-business rollout for Obamacare postponed for a year", Noam N. Levey, Star Tribune, 2013-11-27
“The war in Iraq is another broken promise and more proof the Bush administration’s assurances have no credibility,” never said John A. Boehner, R-Ohio. “This war has been an absolute disaster, leaving us to ask ‘what’s next?’ “
“The release of Xbox/Playstation is another broken promise and more proof Microsoft's/Sony's assurances have no credibility,” never said House Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio. “These products have been an absolute disaster, leaving us to ask ‘what’s next?’ “
"[In] 2007 [Microsoft] has spent more than $1 billion to repair the problems associated with the Xbox 360."
– "Xbox, PlayStation deal with launch glitches", Derrick L. Lang, Associated Press, from Star Tribune, 2013-11-28
I wish that those who complain about government inefficiency or corporate missteps would realize that both are organizations of people and people are bound to over-promise and under-deliver.
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
PANIC! My iPhone won't turn on!
Boy! All those complaining about the glitches about the Affordable Care Act should go to the discussion boards of almost any hardware or software company. Dozens and dozens of people complain about problems and the companies never respond directly.
This evening my iPhone would not turn on after my not having used it for an hour or so. I held and held the power button or the home button. Nada. I planned on going to Best Buy tomorrow about it, I have a two-year warranty contract. But first, why not try the Apple Community?
Ah ha! People have been complaining about this problem for over a year. I found at least four threads about the problem. The solution provided by other users is simple: hold the power button and the home button down at the same time. I think my screen came on within a few seconds. Some had to hold it even longer. Some had no success.
By the way, when I had my iPhone working again, I noticed I had an App update. The reason for the update? Bug fixes. When was that app updated last? About a week ago. The reasons? Bug fixes!
This evening my iPhone would not turn on after my not having used it for an hour or so. I held and held the power button or the home button. Nada. I planned on going to Best Buy tomorrow about it, I have a two-year warranty contract. But first, why not try the Apple Community?
Ah ha! People have been complaining about this problem for over a year. I found at least four threads about the problem. The solution provided by other users is simple: hold the power button and the home button down at the same time. I think my screen came on within a few seconds. Some had to hold it even longer. Some had no success.
By the way, when I had my iPhone working again, I noticed I had an App update. The reason for the update? Bug fixes. When was that app updated last? About a week ago. The reasons? Bug fixes!
Sunday, November 03, 2013
Letter - ACA and Murphy's Law
Almost two weeks ago I sent to the Duluth News Tribune about the computer problems with the Affordable Care Act. I had given up on its being published because of the huge number of election letters the DNT has been publishing.
At a meeting this morning, a friend said he liked my letter in the DNT. I was surprised and checked with my iPhone. It was below the last letter I looked at when I read the DNT online this morning. I would have seen it if I had just scrolled a bit further down.
You can find the published version at http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/282477/. Chuck Frederick, the opinion editor, did a good job of editing my letter, adding a phrase and some punctuation. What I actually sent follows:
A major computer system has problems; what's new? In this case, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) software for signing up. I've been working with computer systems for over fifty years and Murphy's law is still in force. If something can go wrong, it will!
Decades ago a customer computer crashed regularly. It was my job to find out why. It took months of asking questions until I received sufficient information from the customer to isolate the problem to a single program. That information allowed me to determine the crash was related to a hardware problem.
Murphy's law is working today in almost every computer and every program we use. How often do you install version x.0 of some software and within weeks you receive version x.0.1?
Those working on the ACA software have my sympathy. May you ask the right questions.
At a meeting this morning, a friend said he liked my letter in the DNT. I was surprised and checked with my iPhone. It was below the last letter I looked at when I read the DNT online this morning. I would have seen it if I had just scrolled a bit further down.
You can find the published version at http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/282477/. Chuck Frederick, the opinion editor, did a good job of editing my letter, adding a phrase and some punctuation. What I actually sent follows:
A major computer system has problems; what's new? In this case, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) software for signing up. I've been working with computer systems for over fifty years and Murphy's law is still in force. If something can go wrong, it will!
Decades ago a customer computer crashed regularly. It was my job to find out why. It took months of asking questions until I received sufficient information from the customer to isolate the problem to a single program. That information allowed me to determine the crash was related to a hardware problem.
Murphy's law is working today in almost every computer and every program we use. How often do you install version x.0 of some software and within weeks you receive version x.0.1?
Those working on the ACA software have my sympathy. May you ask the right questions.
Thursday, October 03, 2013
What if Senate demands compromise on PATRIOT Act?
What if the U.S. Senate demands that the House of Representatives compromises on the spending bill by removing certain aspects of the PATRIOT Act?
Wednesday, October 02, 2013
Quote of the day: Popularity of Affordable Care Act
"When Apple’s Web site crashes because of demand for a new version of the iPhone, it is not because people hate iPhones." - Anne Steinmann, retired physician, letter to the New York Times on the difficulty some people have had accessing the health insurance exchanges, 2013-10-02.
Tuesday, October 01, 2013
Let's compromise!
I'll compromise with the House Republicans. They increase my Social Security by 50% and cut their salaries by 50%.
Monday, July 22, 2013
Second quote of the day - health care
"[W]ho do you trust more, the company that is answerable to a few shareholders or the government all citizens can choose to elect or choose to fire?"
- "Real Doctor Smacks Down Koch Brothers Obamacare Ad (Video)", Egberto Willies,
Another thought, who elected the Koch brothers or Grover Norquist to make public policy. Aren't they among those who "live by profit" and "deceive and oppress the public."
- "Real Doctor Smacks Down Koch Brothers Obamacare Ad (Video)", Egberto Willies,
Another thought, who elected the Koch brothers or Grover Norquist to make public policy. Aren't they among those who "live by profit" and "deceive and oppress the public."
Monday, June 17, 2013
King Canute and the House Republicans
King Canute, king of England, Denmark, and some other places had followers who thought he could do anything. He had his throne placed way out on a beach at low tide and commanded that the tide not come in. Of course it came in and he had his throne moved back a bit. The tide kept coming in. Repeat move. Repeat incoming tide. Finally Canute declared that only God could control the tides. One hopes that his followers were appropriately chastened.
The House Republicans have followers who want them to do certain dogmatic things. The House Republicans have voted 37 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The Senate has not acted on this or has voted against the repeal. The House Republicans are ignoring the tide of history that eventually most of the world will have universal healthcare, where rich and poor will have adequate health care at a minimal personal cost. Will this tide drown the Republican Party?
The House Republicans have followers who want them to do certain dogmatic things. The House Republicans have voted 37 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The Senate has not acted on this or has voted against the repeal. The House Republicans are ignoring the tide of history that eventually most of the world will have universal healthcare, where rich and poor will have adequate health care at a minimal personal cost. Will this tide drown the Republican Party?
Friday, March 30, 2012
Corporations hate free markets
Many corporate cheerleaders claim that corporations represent the "free market". Some do, sort of; but too many corporations do everything they can to get around a true free market.
A headline issue is "plnk slime" beef. Meat processors claim it is lean, finely textured beef and 100% beef. See "Beef Products Inc. Comeback: It's Not 'Pink Slime'; It's Safe, Nutritious, and 100% Beef". How can it be "100% beef" if it is treated with ammonia? Ammonia is not beef. In other words, the meat companies don't want consumers to have full information on their products. Full information to make a buy decision is one of the four requirements of a free market.
Many conservatives want "truth in taxation" from all levels of government, but they are often strongly opposed to "truth in lending", "truth in labeling", and "truth in advertising" for corporations. See above about full information.
Many food and chemical companies don't want products labelled GMO-free or rBGH-free. If genetically modified organisms or bovine growth hormone are truly safe products, why should companies fight labels that state products don't have these attributes? If they fight such labels, they must have something to hide, and thus they want to violate the free market principle of full information.
Many health insurance companies claim that the "Affordable Care Act" is against the free market and forces people to buy insurance. OK, the government is forcing people into the market. But the current insurance system keeps many people out of the health care market. And a parent is not free to leave the market when a child is sick. A requirement of a free market is being free to enter and leave the market.
A headline issue is "plnk slime" beef. Meat processors claim it is lean, finely textured beef and 100% beef. See "Beef Products Inc. Comeback: It's Not 'Pink Slime'; It's Safe, Nutritious, and 100% Beef". How can it be "100% beef" if it is treated with ammonia? Ammonia is not beef. In other words, the meat companies don't want consumers to have full information on their products. Full information to make a buy decision is one of the four requirements of a free market.
Many conservatives want "truth in taxation" from all levels of government, but they are often strongly opposed to "truth in lending", "truth in labeling", and "truth in advertising" for corporations. See above about full information.
Many food and chemical companies don't want products labelled GMO-free or rBGH-free. If genetically modified organisms or bovine growth hormone are truly safe products, why should companies fight labels that state products don't have these attributes? If they fight such labels, they must have something to hide, and thus they want to violate the free market principle of full information.
Many health insurance companies claim that the "Affordable Care Act" is against the free market and forces people to buy insurance. OK, the government is forcing people into the market. But the current insurance system keeps many people out of the health care market. And a parent is not free to leave the market when a child is sick. A requirement of a free market is being free to enter and leave the market.
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