California Payroll



  • http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/1132588.html

    The nut of the story is that the California comptroller is refusing to following the executive orders of Gov. Schwarzenegger.  Arnold wants to force all state employees back to minimum wage until the budget is worked out.  The comptroller said it would take 6 months to do.

    My favorite quote is: "Forrer said the system has tens of thousands of lines of code, so it is time-consuming to find and replace salaries for each job classification on an individual basis."

    Almost sounds like the salaries are hard coded and that a simple, "update employees set hourlyamount = 6.55" won't work....

     

     



  • Oh, dear, so many punchcards, so little time...



  •  TRWTF is Schwazrtznegge. Only a republican can bankrupt "The Golden State".

    It is like someone  manages to bankrupt Micro$oft.



  • @Gnonthgol said:

    TRWTF is Schwazrtznegge. Only a republican can bankrupt "The Golden State".

    It is like someone  manages to bankrupt Micro$oft.

    Yes, obviously this is the fault of the Republican Party and not decades of poor money management by the notoriously liberal California Democratic Party.

     

    Oh, and thanks for derailing the thread and turning it into a political argument. 


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @morbiuswilters said:

    @Gnonthgol said:
    TRWTF is Schwazrtznegge. Only a republican can bankrupt "The Golden State".

    It is like someone  manages to bankrupt Micro$oft.

    Yes, obviously this is the fault of the Republican Party and not decades of poor money management by the notoriously liberal California Democratic Party.

    Oh, and thanks for derailing the thread and turning it into a political argument. 

    Yeah, but at least now the OP has competition for TRWTF.


  • @Gnonthgol said:

    Only a republican can bankrupt "The Golden State".

    Hardly. The California government has been going bankrupt on a regular basis for decades.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @Gnonthgol said:

    TRWTF is Schwazrtznegge. Only a republican can bankrupt "The Golden State".

    It is like someone  manages to bankrupt Micro$oft.

    Yes, obviously this is the fault of the Republican Party and not decades of poor money management by the notoriously liberal California Democratic Party.

     

    Oh, and thanks for derailing the thread and turning it into a political argument. 

     

     

    Actually, it's the voters fault. Something like 80 or 90% of spending is automated as the result of one poorly-thought-out initiative or another. The budget is always late becasue getting anything done when tax revenues are down means coming up with more and more creative ways to redirect funds from one place to another.



  •  Sure INCREASING the wages is a task that can be done in two days in the very same system.



  •  

    Schwarzenegger insists such a change should occur this month.

    Exctly what would the Governator know about computer systems?

     



  • @clively said:

    Almost sounds like the salaries are hard coded and that a simple, "update employees set hourlyamount = 6.55" won't work....
    Nah, the problem is reverse-engineering the code to find out if the salaries are stored in tblEmploieesInfo002.cColumn028 or in employess.colTextVariable69.



  • @dhromed said:

     

    Schwarzenegger insists such a change should occur this month.

    Exctly what would the Governator know about computer systems?

     

     

     

     

    How soon you forget that his brain is a CPU. A room-temperature superconducting artificial neural network with the ability to learn.



  • @rdamiani said:

    Actually, it's the voters fault. Something like 80 or 90% of spending is automated as the result of one poorly-thought-out initiative or another. The budget is always late becasue getting anything done when tax revenues are down means coming up with more and more creative ways to redirect funds from one place to another.

    Which would still be a case of the government allowing the initiatives in the first place. 



  • @DangerMouse9 said:

    A room-temperature superconducting .. artificial neural network with the ability to learn.

    Just curious - where does it say the brain is superconducting, or indeed artificial ?



  • @SenTree said:

    Just curious - where does it say the brain is superconducting, or indeed artificial ?

     



    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminator_(character)#CPU


  • @SenTree said:

    @DangerMouse9 said:

    A room-temperature superconducting .. artificial neural network with the ability to learn.

    Just curious - where does it say the brain is superconducting, or indeed artificial ?

     

    lern2terminator2, n00b 



  • @DangerMouse9 said:

    How soon you forget that his brain is a CPU. A room-temperature superconducting artificial neural network with the ability to learn.

    The paycheck program became self-aware. It will follow Arnie's commands.


  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @SenTree said:

    Just curious - where does it say the brain is superconducting, or indeed artificial ?

    lern2terminator2, n00b 

    DOH ! I deserved that - I totally overlooked the Arnie/Terminator aspect. BTW, !n00b.<\P>



  • @SenTree said:

    BTW, !n00b.

    You're all n00bs to me. 



  • @Zecc said:

    Nah, the problem is reverse-engineering the code to find out if the salaries are stored in tblEmploieesInfo002.cColumn028 or in employess.colTextVariable69.

    If only they would have put it in tblSalariesTable.fldSalaryField



  • @Zecc said:

    @clively said:

    Almost sounds like the salaries are hard coded and that a simple, "update employees set hourlyamount = 6.55" won't work....
    Nah, the problem is reverse-engineering the code to find out if the salaries are stored in tblEmploieesInfo002.cColumn028 or in employess.colTextVariable69.

    They will find something like

    tblEmpsSalaries.level1salary, tblEmpsSalaries.level2salary, tblEmpsSalaries.level3salary, tblEmpsSalaries.level4salary ...

    at which point, the programmer's eyes will explode.

     



  •  You're missing the real issue here. They've got a payroll system written in a language that few want to mess with, college students aren't taught, and is complex enough that no non-programmer will ever try to understand it. They were told to reduce everyone's pay (including their own) down to minimum wage (you really can't support yourself on minimum wage anywhere, let alone a family.... IN FRIGGIN CALIFORNIA!). If you were a software developer for the state maintaining this system, what would you say?



  • Sarcasm <-----------------------------------------------> Huf Lungdung



  • @Huf Lungdung said:

     You're missing the real issue here. They've got a payroll system written in a language that few want to mess with, college students aren't taught, and is complex enough that no non-programmer will ever try to understand it. They were told to reduce everyone's pay (including their own) down to minimum wage (you really can't support yourself on minimum wage anywhere, let alone a family.... IN FRIGGIN CALIFORNIA!). If you were a software developer for the state maintaining this system, what would you say?

     

    The truth?  Instead of lying to save my pay?

    By the way, illegal immigrants support themselves on less than minimum wage.  That's currently my primary reason for supporting strong borders.



  • @operagost said:

    By the way, illegal immigrants support themselves on less than minimum wage.  That's currently my primary reason for supporting strong borders.

    So the price of goods increases due to the loss of cheap, efficient labor?  Awesome, jackass.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @operagost said:

    By the way, illegal immigrants support themselves on less than minimum wage.  That's currently my primary reason for supporting strong borders.

    So the price of goods increases due to the loss of cheap, efficient labor?

    And you guys all thought we Virginians were just being racist when we opposed the abolition of slavery!



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @rdamiani said:

    Actually, it's the voters fault. Something like 80 or 90% of spending is automated as the result of one poorly-thought-out initiative or another. The budget is always late becasue getting anything done when tax revenues are down means coming up with more and more creative ways to redirect funds from one place to another.

    Which would still be a case of the government allowing the initiatives in the first place. 

    Yeah! What a stupid government! When did they ever decide to let the citizens have any say about things.

    </sarcasm>

     



  • @D-Coder said:

    Yeah! What a stupid government! When did they ever decide to let the citizens have any say about things.

    </sarcasm>

    Agreed.  People are morons in general, which is why our government eschews direct democracy in favor of constitutional republicanism. 



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @operagost said:

    By the way, illegal immigrants support themselves on less than minimum wage.  That's currently my primary reason for supporting strong borders.

    So the price of goods increases due to the loss of cheap, efficient labor?  Awesome, jackass.

     

    Troll or sarcasm?  Your conservative ideals shouldn't support mass disobedience of the law, so I'll take a wild guess on the latter.



  • @operagost said:

    Troll or sarcasm?  Your conservative ideals shouldn't support mass disobedience of the law, so I'll take a wild guess on the latter.

    I support mass disobedience of the law when the law is wrong.  Like in the case of Jim Crow laws, restrictive immigration policies and marijuana laws. 



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @D-Coder said:

    Yeah! What a stupid government! When did they ever decide to let the citizens have any say about things.

    </sarcasm>

    Agreed.  People are morons in general, which is why our government eschews direct democracy in favor of constitutional republicanism. 

    Well, the government isn't so smart either if they still let those peasants vote. I mean they could, like, change the government if they decide they don't like it!

    Sorry for the late reply, life got in the way, and it's harder to come up with smart-ass replies to posts that actually make some sense.

     



  • @D-Coder said:

    Well, the government isn't so smart either if they still let those peasants vote. I mean they could, like, change the government if they decide they don't like it!

    Sorry for the late reply, life got in the way, and it's harder to come up with smart-ass replies to posts that actually make some sense.

    Yeah, it's a balance, though.  People need a say to keep things from going too far against their wishes, but if you just give them complete control they will just act like idiots.  "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until a majority of voters discover that they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury."



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @D-Coder said:

    Well, the government isn't so smart either if they still let those peasants vote. I mean they could, like, change the government if they decide they don't like it!

    Sorry for the late reply, life got in the way, and it's harder to come up with smart-ass replies to posts that actually make some sense.

    Yeah, it's a balance, though.  People need a say to keep things from going too far against their wishes, but if you just give them complete control they will just act like idiots.  "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until a majority of voters discover that they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury."

     

    I think we're mostly agreed, we're arguing over exactly where the line is.

    But I think that that last quote, however appealing, is not supported by history. Can you name two countries within the last 100 years where voters did destroy their democracy that way? (I won't accept cases where hyperinflation occurred. I'd blame those on the government trying to vote largess out of the public treasury, for itself or for the voters...)

     



  • @D-Coder said:

    Can you name two countries within the last 100 years where voters did destroy their democracy that way?

    Well, I'd argue that this is happening right now in the US and Europe, although we aren't be destroyed, just chipped away at.  In the US the state and federal governments are always spending more and consuming more because voters want more from them.  It's a vicious cycle, unfortunately.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @D-Coder said:

    Can you name two countries within the last 100 years where voters did destroy their democracy that way?

    Well, I'd argue that this is happening right now in the US and Europe, although we aren't be destroyed, just chipped away at.  In the US the state and federal governments are always spending more and consuming more because voters want more from them.  It's a vicious cycle, unfortunately.

     

    "I don't have any examples, but it really is going to happen, just you wait..."

    A better argument for you is that this hasn't happened because the wise and beneficient rulers in our republics have prevented it. And yet, when I look at some of our wise and beneficient rulers, I want Alex to post feature articles about them.

     


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