Another Government Tech WTF



  • Gotta love this part "Those running the project "basically took equipment, put it on towers and put it out there without any testing as such" because of the tight deadline." 

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/27/AR2008022703747_pf.html 



  • [url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/27/AR2008022703747_pf.html ]http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/27/AR2008022703747_pf.html [/url]



  • Can't we just setup a giant dog pod grid around the entire country?



  •  

    Another Government Tech WTF

    Sounds like DHS and Boeing both own the blame. But Boeing gave DHS a $2,000,000.00* coupon sounds like.

    * Cash Value 1/15 of $0.01

     



  •  

    It estimated in 2006 that it would spend $7.6 billion through 2011 to secure the entire 2,000-mile southern border, an ambition that was meant to win support from conservatives for legislation creating a guest-worker program and a path to legalization for 12 million illegal immigrants.

     The US is spending 650 bucks per existing immigrant on this fence; the cost per actually potentially immigrating immigrant is bound to be even higher, and that's not even accounting for cost overruns. What exactly is the economic impact of an illegal immigrant? Especially if you get them legalized so that taxes can be paid etc.? But hey, it's not too high a price to pay to show the voter that you're doing something against illegal immigration, so I guess that's ok.



  • It estimated in 2006 that it would spend $7.6 billion through 2011 to secure the entire 2,000-mile southern border, an ambition that was meant to win support from conservatives for legislation creating a guest-worker program and a path to legalization for 12 million illegal immigrants.

    If the government can't even build a fence without spending billions of dollars while delivering late and still not solving the problem, why is it that people think the government can do healthcare?

    US Government = The Real WTF.



  • @clively said:

    US Government = The Real WTF.
     

    Presidents from Texas == TRWTF.



  • @mendel said:

    What exactly is the economic impact of an illegal immigrant? Especially if you get them legalized so that taxes can be paid etc.? But hey, it's not too high a price to pay to show the voter that you're doing something against illegal immigration, so I guess that's ok.
     

    You're not taking into consideration the fact that Medicare and most State Medicaid programs cover illegal immigrants, as do a lot of State's welfare departments. So you have illegal immigrants who are draining the resources available to taxpaying legal residents, but not paying anything in taxes to help cover any of those costs.

    Illegal immigrants also reduce the wages paid for some types of employment, because they're willing to take less money to be able to work without paying taxes (which, of course, they can't do, because they're not here). The BS about them doing jobs that legal residents won't do is crap; legal residents won't do them because they can't earn a living and pay taxes on the wages they'll get for doing those jobs. If the illegal immigrants weren't here to take the jobs, the wages for those jobs would have to rise (the companies couldn't just stop having the work done now, could they?) and then legal residents would be willing to take them.

    The bottom line is that, if you're willing to follow the laws and properly become a US citizen, you have a right to live and work in the US. If you want to get a work visa, you have a right to live and work in the US. If you don't want to follow the laws, you have no business being here; why would we want to allow our borders to be crossed by criminals? We have enough of those already, without wholesale import from other countries. 



  • @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    @clively said:

    US Government = The Real WTF.
     

    Presidents from Texas == TRWTF.

     

    Agreed, people who think the government is the real WTF were probably too young to remember the clinton years. 



  • I think we should try to keep the political discussion out of this thread (plenty of other forums for this) and focus on The Real WTF.  Why do we need a multi-billion dollar fence in the first place? 

    Instead of super advanced nightvision cameras hooked into "battlefield management software," can't we just get a couple of guys to sit at the top of these towers to just point out people running across the border?  This is the political equivalent of taking a spreadsheet, dumping the contents into XML, sending it via SOAP to a web service, printing the report out, taking a picture on a wooden table and e-mailing it to the president.  Unless these towers shoot laser beams at people don't we need guys on the ground to arrest them anyway?



  • @Outlaw Programmer said:

    can't we just get a couple of guys to sit at the top of these towers to just point out people running across the border? 
     

    I would rather see them with sniper rifles solving the problem, rather than just pointing...



  • @Jonathan Holland said:

    @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    @clively said:

    US Government = The Real WTF.
     

    Presidents from Texas == TRWTF.

     

    Agreed, people who think the government is the real WTF were probably too young to remember the clinton years. 

     

    Or just don't like to remember Waco and Ruby Ridge. 



  • @Kederaji said:

    Or just don't like to remember Waco and Ruby Ridge.
     

    Yeah I really wish we had more cults with illegal weapons around...

    If only we could get someone to light the Scientologists on fire...



  • @Outlaw Programmer said:

    I think we should try to keep the political discussion out of this thread (plenty of other forums for this)

    But it has been agreed that there are multiple WTFs in politics, specifically, US politics.

    "Because more things make us ask WTF than just code"



  • @Outlaw Programmer said:

    Why do we need a multi-billion dollar fence in the first place? 

    Instead of super advanced nightvision cameras hooked into "battlefield management software," can't we just get a couple of guys to sit at the top of these towers to just point out people running across the border?

    Considering the calibre and therefore probable financial situations of people that you'd need to 24/7 monitor such a fence, I'd go for the cameras any day. I've yet to successfully bribe a camera, nor do they fall asleep or lose concentration watching the same unchanging patch of land 40+ hours a week.



  • @RayS said:

    Considering the calibre and therefore probable financial situations of people that you'd need to 24/7 monitor such a fence, I'd go for the cameras any day. I've yet to successfully bribe a camera, nor do they fall asleep or lose concentration watching the same unchanging patch of land 40+ hours a week.

     

    What about the people watching the cameras?



  • @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    @RayS said:

    Considering the calibre and therefore probable financial situations of people that you'd need to 24/7 monitor such a fence, I'd go for the cameras any day. I've yet to successfully bribe a camera, nor do they fall asleep or lose concentration watching the same unchanging patch of land 40+ hours a week.

     

    What about the people watching the cameras?

    They could be anyone, anywhere in the world. Hard to contact someone with bribes for lots of monies when you don't know who they are.

    I'm assuming (yes yes I know) that the "battlefield management software" does at least some alerting of movement with cool flashing lights that some half asleep guy might miss.

    You can also more easily add redundancy into the system. E.g. 20 people, 100 video feeds. Everyone gets 10 (possibly random to also help counter the bribery aspect) video feeds to monitor, so each feed is covered by 2 people.

    Any reasonable (and we're talking government here, so maybe that's a big expectation) system is going to be better than a 100% manual system where you can, from the fence, see and follow the minimum wage guy who can get you through for the right price.



  • @RayS said:

    They could be anyone, anywhere in the world. Hard to contact someone with bribes for lots of monies when you don't know who they are.

    I don't see how your assumptions would be any safer or less corrupt than having people at the border. 

    To clarify, I am not even for having the people at the border either, but your assumptions really don't hold water.


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