Forum Overview :: ELECTION WATCH 2012
 
"I think he's going to get most of the techies" by Ice Cream Jonsey 11/12/2012, 11:09pm PST
Stephen King gets shit on, and sometimes he deserves it, but he also did "On Writing" and "The Stand." The Stand is great, though I roll my eyes when Glen (the sociologist) states that he thinks the technical people and engineers are going to throw their lot in with the antagonist, due to the structured, regimented life the bad guy is going to give them. While King is fucking writing it, all the great innovations in computers and electronics are being dumped on the world from hippies and lunatics like Wozniak, Torvalds, Bushnell and Lawlor. REALLY what King is saying is, "Computers are beyond me, so here is why I am not going to write about any engineers" but one bad bit in a million-page book can be forgiven.

If you weren't convinced by my argument there, then the Romney campaign also shows why these goddamn idiots can't do anything right with computer systems. Apparently ORCA was so shitty that even Lauren Wainwright only tweeted two or three hashtags to support it. You might be thinking I am exaggerating things when I compare the pure evil side from The Stand with the Republican party and you'd be right: Randall Flagg, for instance, actually once let a guy out of jail. TO THE ARTICLE


http://www.businessinsider.com/romney-project-orca-disaster-2012-11

What is Project Orca? Well, this is what they told us:

Project ORCA is a massive undertaking – the Republican Party’s newest, unprecedented and most technologically advanced plan to win the 2012 presidential election.

Pretty much everything in that sentence is false. The "massive undertaking" is true, however. It would take a lot of planning, training and coordination to be done successfully (oh, we'll get to that in a second). This wasn't really the GOP's effort, it was Team Romney's. And perhaps "unprecedented" would fit if we're discussing failure.

The entire purpose of this project was to digitize the decades-old practice of strike lists. The old way was to sit with your paper and mark off people that have voted and every hour or so, someone from the campaign would come get your list and take it back to local headquarters. Then, they'd begin contacting people that hadn't voted yet and encourage them to head to the polls. It's worked for years.

From the very start there were warning signs. After signing up, you were invited to take part in nightly conference calls. The calls were more of the slick marketing speech type than helpful training sessions. There was a lot of "rah-rahs" and lofty talk about how this would change the ballgame.

Working primarily as a web developer, I had some serious questions. Things like "Has this been stress tested?", "Is there redundancy in place?" and "What steps have been taken to combat a coordinated DDOS attack or the like?", among others. These types of questions were brushed aside (truth be told, they never took one of my questions). They assured us that the system had been relentlessly tested and would be a tremendous success.


Now, this is all hilarious, and these stupid dickheads got what they deserved. You never, ever ever release shit like this a day before the deadline. Fucking video games have their shit together to a greater extent than these dumb fucks. But the best part of any election article at the moment is the delicious, nutritious and utterly delectable Republican tears, and we got that, too:

Glenn Watson wrote:

Glenn Watson on Nov 8, 9:52 PM

My experience with this project could be more different than what is portrayed in this article. I joined the team late, had no training prior to the election, but the app was up and running at 0645 on Tuesday, and while there were occasional systemic bandwidth issues that aligned with the timezone changes, my app worked very, very well, resulting in being able to submit actual data to HQ all-day-long. There was a contingency element built, should the system overload, and approximately 20 percent of my data was seamlessly transmitted in that form on my 3G iPhone. The app allowed for hourly commentary on turnout, demographics of turnout, to be used as HQ saw fit for late ad buys, or whatever.

For Team Romney to have the foresight to roll out a technology application of the size and scale of Orca is probably something only a person in finance, consulting or I-banking can fully appreciate, but my fingers personally supplied real-time voter data for 12 hours, no break. And if those"active and fired-up" sitting on their hands types couldn't figure it out, then they were the wrong people to be tasked to the effort. It was brilliant in concept, worked for the most part, and if you couldn't figure it out, despite it being clearly laid out, then jump in your minivan next time and drive people to the polls while we figure out how innovate when the country needs it.


Once more, because this is the greatest fucking statement regarding the election that I have read and it deserves another play:

For Team Romney to have the foresight to roll out a technology application of the size and scale of Orca is probably something only a person in finance, consulting or I-banking can fully appreciate

Annnnnnd I came.


the dark and gritty...Ice Cream Jonsey!
NEXT REPLY QUOTE
 
"I think he's going to get most of the techies" by Ice Cream Jonsey 11/12/2012, 11:09pm PST NEW
    That asshole is all over the comments! by Worm 11/13/2012, 6:02am PST NEW
        Re: That asshole is all over the comments! by Ice Cream Jonsey 11/13/2012, 7:31am PST NEW
        Guy who doesn't need to work has multiple degrees? I'm impressed! NT by motherfuckerfoodeater 11/13/2012, 9:07am PST NEW
 
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