Jane's Addiction

A new phone in town - Pic by blogSpotter

by blogSpotter

THE ADDICTIVE PERSONALITY

Jane is an Apple addict with more money than sense -- that is if Jane were a 55 year old male software engineer living in Dallas. I have @ 5 iPods, an iPad, a mac mini, an iBook and an iPhone. Despite my previous blog where I dissed the iPhone 5C, I must confess that I checked it out at the Apple Store and fell in love with it. I got the bright green one, unlocked. Then I fitted it out with a black jacket -- the Green Hornet color combo. Next I went over to the AT&T store where they gave me a nano sim; they also transferred the phone number and contents from my tired old 3GS to the new 5C. What’s not to love on the 5C -- it gets LTE speed, or 4G at the slowest. It has the bright, large retina display. And it has the new iOS7. Once I restored my apps and contacts from the iCloud I was back in business. The 5C’s width is ergonomically perfect for an adult hand, unlike the Samsung Galaxy “phablets” which will give their owners a lifetime of hand cramps.

The 5C was all of my good news. Now let's turn our attention to the shut-down and healthcare.gov ...

THE SHUT-DOWN

Words cannot explain the ire I have for House Republicans who dwell in a sad land of denial. They are trying to use the budget process to circumvent not just Obamacare, but every other project they dislike. They are not behaving like adults, and the shut-down is their doing. I have no idea how this will resolve itself -- we have another debate about the debt ceiling coming right on the heels of this. It would help Obama’s case if the healthcare rollout were smooth; this brings us to the next topic..

THE HEALTHCARE.GOV FIASCO

Obama, what happened? The much-touted health care exchanges came on-line October 1, 2013. Prospective shoppers were asked to create an account even before browsing the offerings. With the crush of 5 million hits, the site was overwhelmed. The most dogged customers could never get past a screen that said in essence “Please come back later”. By day 5 (that is TODAY) it still was not fixed. The “Please Come Back” screen advised customers to call a toll free number for faster turn around. In Dallas, the only instance of people being registered was via paper forms at local hospitals.

This is completely unacceptable. The administration had 3 years to prepare this application -- wouldn’t they have hired system experts? Wouldn’t they have known that millions of people would be trying to access it? Giant-scale operations are not an impossibility by the way; Expedia and Google have had such large-scale throughput for years.

Already this is such a fiasco that IT schools will use it as a negative example of scalability. Business and policy schools will use it as a negative example on product roll-outs. There should be a thorough post-mortem of what went wrong. Who hired these consultants and what kind of oversight was there? I may become more temperate about this down the line, but blogSpotter has these recommendations:

o The consulting company that designed this system should be FIRED. They’re lucky they aren’t tarred and feathered.
o Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, should tender her resignation if it appears she oversaw this train wreck -- and it appears that she oversaw this train wreck.
o The Admin should quickly and forthwith get the ablest, best consultancy for large computer infrastructures to come repair this horrid system.

Given the snarling nostrils of Obamacare enemies, it was crucial that the roll-out be smooth and relatively painless. This utter failure we’ve had reinforces every negative stereotype of government programs. Not every government program is so fraught with incompetence -- the military can tie its shoes and chew gum at the same time. Government can do right when it has the right resources. Obama -- we’re looking at you. Make healthcare.gov a well-oiled machine. To borrow from Shakespeare, “All’s well that ends well” and maybe there could be a redemption of sorts if we come away with lessons learned and a computer system that finally works.

© 2013 blogSpotter