11 thoughts on “Monday Open Thread”

1. Today's ACA software train wreck update:

   Some federal contractors say Obamacare's online heath insurance marketplace may not run smoothly until after the Dec. 15 deadline to sign up for coverage that begins in January, according to a New York Times story published Sunday.

   But one specialist told the Times that as many as five million lines of code may have to be rewritten for the health care portal to run smoothly. As one person involved in the repairs put it to the newspaper, "the account creation and registration problems are masking the problems that will happen later."

   Here's another suggestion. Find the state with the best architected working system. Grab a copy of that, add anything additional needed for the multiple states part, and use that. Fixing a badly architected system is the approach that will take the longest. Extending a well designed system that works can go very quickly.

   At a minimum Hick should annouce that Colorado will give a copy of their software for free to the feds – that would give him a very nice boost in nationwide name recognition.

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   1. Something the top people in the Obama Administration should read, and almost certainly are not – The Mythical Man Month.

      Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.
      in a suitably complex system there is a certain irreducible number of errors. Any attempt to fix observed errors tends to result in the introduction of other errors.
      The bearing of a child takes nine months, no matter how many women are assigned
       

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2. Thought for the day:

   Why is patience a virtue. Why isn't get it fucking done now a virtue?

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   1. Second thought for the day:

      Give it a rest aready.

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3. I am struggling to understand why anyone is listening to the complaints about the rollout of healthcare.gov by the people who repeatedly attempted to dismantle it.  Yes, there are big problems but the phony ass concern trolling is getting harder and harder for me to stomach.

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   1. I'm struggling to understand why, after the giant political fight where we barely won this, the Obama Administration then did such a piss-poor job of implementing it. A prime example of how we Dems win the battle and lose the war.

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      1. If you don't like th ewebsite – call the toll free number. Deal with a live person.

         sheesh. Sometimes lo tech is best tech.

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         1. Somehow I don't think they'll get 7 million people signed up that way.

            As for me, I don't need it. My company provides really good healthcare to everyone. My worry is if the number who can sign up is too low, they'll have to delay it until they get this fixed. And that could take a decade or two (like CBMS).

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         2. For the most part the call center personnel are using the exact same web site to process you.  All you are really gaining is they have more practice at it, it doesn't really solve the structural problems inherent in the system.  

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4. Sane Republican, former Kansas Governor, has had enough of Tea Party nutters:

   The trucking association’s PAC spent $724,500 in the 2012 election cycle, with more than three-quarters of that money going to GOP candidates, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. But Graves said he believed the tea party’s willingness to launch primary attacks on Republican incumbents for insufficient fealty was damaging the GOP.

   “Political change is underway and many of the traditional allegiances the business community has had within the Republican Party are necessarily going to need to be re-evaluated,” he said. He later predicted that Democrats would continue to win presidential elections and control at least one chamber of Congress for the foreseeable future.

   Graves’s comments also served to separate the trucking industry’s mainstream from the group of truckers who tried and failed to clog the Capital Beltway 10 days ago, aiming to force Obama’s resignation and start a nation-wide general strike. Some later participated in a rally at the World War II Memorial with former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. The ATA disavowed any participation in the protests.

   Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/trucking-industry-tea-party-98620.html#ixzz2iOMZ078K

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5. This just in —

   In case you are one of those panty-waist wimps that cynically thought Bush/Cheney went to war just over Iraq's oil, it turns out it was for a much better reason:

   Former Bush Official: We Went Into Iraq Because 'We Were Looking For Somebody's Ass To Kick'
   

   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/20/bush-official-iraq_n_4132719.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

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