Obamacare has been ripped by critics for its computer technology failures and huge cost overruns, but this seems to be a problem related to big government bureaucracies. Now the Department of State computer has crashed and it has been impossible for a foreigner traveling to the United States to get a visa for at least two weeks. We are looking more like a Third World country. The Bayern Munich football club has been prevented from coming to America to play! But it also has deprived thousands of other legitimate travelers access to America. But maybe they should fly to Mexico City and just cross the Rio Grande?
The US Consular Consolidated Database (CCD) at the State Bureau of Consular Affairs “is currently experiencing technical problems with our passport/visa system,” US State Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf revealed at a media briefing, adding that the database has actually been“experiencing intermittent performance issues for several months” now.
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Friday, August 01, 2014
Saturday, July 26, 2014
OBAMA'S ELECTION VICTORIES
Time discusses how the Obama team successfully used data mining to bring in money and also to get out the vote and influence those most likely to vote for him.
But from the beginning, campaign manager Jim Messina had promised a totally different, metric-driven kind of campaign in which politics was the goal but political instincts might not be the means. “We are going to measure every single thing in this campaign,” he said after taking the job. He hired an analytics department five times as large as that of the 2008 operation, with an official “chief scientist” for the Chicago headquarters named Rayid Ghani, who in a previous life crunched huge data sets to, among other things, maximize the efficiency of supermarket sales promotions.
Exactly what that team of dozens of data crunchers was doing, however, was a closely held secret. “They are our nuclear codes,” campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt would say when asked about the efforts. Around the office, data-mining experiments were given mysterious code names such as Narwhal and Dreamcatcher. The team even worked at a remove from the rest of the campaign staff, setting up shop in a windowless room at the north end of the vast headquarters office. The “scientists” created regular briefings on their work for the President and top aides in the White House’s Roosevelt Room, but public details were in short supply as the campaign guarded what it believed to be its biggest institutional advantage over Mitt Romney’s campaign: its data.
But from the beginning, campaign manager Jim Messina had promised a totally different, metric-driven kind of campaign in which politics was the goal but political instincts might not be the means. “We are going to measure every single thing in this campaign,” he said after taking the job. He hired an analytics department five times as large as that of the 2008 operation, with an official “chief scientist” for the Chicago headquarters named Rayid Ghani, who in a previous life crunched huge data sets to, among other things, maximize the efficiency of supermarket sales promotions.
Exactly what that team of dozens of data crunchers was doing, however, was a closely held secret. “They are our nuclear codes,” campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt would say when asked about the efforts. Around the office, data-mining experiments were given mysterious code names such as Narwhal and Dreamcatcher. The team even worked at a remove from the rest of the campaign staff, setting up shop in a windowless room at the north end of the vast headquarters office. The “scientists” created regular briefings on their work for the President and top aides in the White House’s Roosevelt Room, but public details were in short supply as the campaign guarded what it believed to be its biggest institutional advantage over Mitt Romney’s campaign: its data.
Thursday, June 19, 2014
RACE & TECH WORK FORCE
Recent headlines have argued that "whites" dominate the tech industries and that somehow racism is in play. But this is far from accurate because Asians play a very large role in high tech.
So why does the “mostly white” meme persist about tech companies? I think it’s because those who are obsessed with diversity for diversity’s sake have a hard time reconciling one very inconvenient truth: If you want to equalize the races—be your concern tech companies or colleges, the two places this argument seems to pop up more than anywhere else***—you must do so at the expense of Asian Americans. Rather than saying “Ugh, these institutions are disproportionately Asian,” the diversity set says “Wow, these places are mostly white!”
So why does the “mostly white” meme persist about tech companies? I think it’s because those who are obsessed with diversity for diversity’s sake have a hard time reconciling one very inconvenient truth: If you want to equalize the races—be your concern tech companies or colleges, the two places this argument seems to pop up more than anywhere else***—you must do so at the expense of Asian Americans. Rather than saying “Ugh, these institutions are disproportionately Asian,” the diversity set says “Wow, these places are mostly white!”
Saturday, January 04, 2014
GOVERNMENT BUREAUCRACY LACKS COMPETENT TECHIES
The government does not have enough computer competent people to deal with Obamacare. One wonders who government bureaucracies have been hiring and what other techie problems may exist in other agencies. Big government seems to keep on failing.
Tuesday, December 03, 2013
EMP WEAPON
Boeing has successfully tested an EMP weapon which knocks out electronic transmissions. Warfare will change drastically.
A recent weapons flight test in the Utah desert may change future warfare after the missile successfully defeated electronic targets with little to no collateral damage.
Boeing and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Directed Energy Directorate, Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., successfully tested the Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP) during a flight over the Utah Test and Training Range.
Update: A collection of videos showing the impact of an attack.
A recent weapons flight test in the Utah desert may change future warfare after the missile successfully defeated electronic targets with little to no collateral damage.
Boeing and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Directed Energy Directorate, Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., successfully tested the Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP) during a flight over the Utah Test and Training Range.
Update: A collection of videos showing the impact of an attack.
Monday, November 25, 2013
IRS CYBERSECURITY PROTECTIONS QUESTIONED
From CNBC. Tax returns at the IRS are not safe and can reveal private information to hackers. But it also raises questions about security at state sites and notes that South Carolina's Department of Revenue also revealed private information on taxpayers. And now it will be responsible for Obamacare financial data that is supposed to be private.
A new report released by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) found that although the IRS claimed it had implemented 19 fixes to secure the system recommended by the auditor in previous years, at least eight (or 42 percent) of them "had not been fully implemented," and should not have been checked off as completed.
he auditors said the IRS never tracked its progress on the repairs, and in many cases, it closed cases without submitting documentation to prove the fix was complete. The auditors blamed it on "weakened management controls."
And a hacker says no security features were built into the Obamacare web site. So there are no security features to fix! And the government is not required to tell you there was a security breach so a person would not know they had a potential identity theft problem to watch for!
A new report released by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) found that although the IRS claimed it had implemented 19 fixes to secure the system recommended by the auditor in previous years, at least eight (or 42 percent) of them "had not been fully implemented," and should not have been checked off as completed.
he auditors said the IRS never tracked its progress on the repairs, and in many cases, it closed cases without submitting documentation to prove the fix was complete. The auditors blamed it on "weakened management controls."
And a hacker says no security features were built into the Obamacare web site. So there are no security features to fix! And the government is not required to tell you there was a security breach so a person would not know they had a potential identity theft problem to watch for!
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
OBAMA GOES TO MASSACHUSETTS TO LOBBY FOR OBAMACARE
This is a bit ironic! Obama goes to Massachusetts to rally the troops around the success of a state health insurance plan that was implemented by a Republican governor (Mitt Romney). Maybe Romney should have been elected so that national healthcare would be the same success as what happened in Massachusetts.
President Barack Obama wants Americans to believe this about his health care law: It’s just like Mitt’s.
After all, the White House used the 2006 Massachusetts health program signed into law by Republican Mitt Romney as its blueprint for the national model. And in case anyone missed the message last year during the presidential campaign, Obama will repeat it again Wednesday.
President Barack Obama wants Americans to believe this about his health care law: It’s just like Mitt’s.
After all, the White House used the 2006 Massachusetts health program signed into law by Republican Mitt Romney as its blueprint for the national model. And in case anyone missed the message last year during the presidential campaign, Obama will repeat it again Wednesday.
Monday, December 31, 2012
DELETED TWEETS
The top 20 deleted tweets from liberals in 2012. I guess people tweet without thinking, but it must somehow show what is in their hearts. It reveals the violent aspect of those who so often publicly try to come across as caring individuals concerned about life and justice.
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