It’s a tar pit, a way to pay for extensive renovations to software that you do not own, and now feel that you cannot leave, because the sunk cost fallacy is real.
Tag Archives: government
Why governors put this over here, with the rest of the fire.
When presented with a disastrous, multi-year, failing, mission-critical software project, a governor will double down on the failing strategy. Here’s why.
I want you to become a government tech vendor.
Hey, competent tech folks: your country needs you. Your knowledge, your experience, and your connections can improve the United States for everybody. I’m not asking you to go work for the federal government. I’m not asking you to go work for a non-profit. I’m asking you to become a government technology vendor. I want you to sign up at …
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Obama’s secret UN-led mind-control plot revealed.
So says Republican leaders in Georgia. The UN! Agenda 21! Rural broadband! RAND! Obama’s 2008 election yielded the Tea Party. His reelection may breed an even stupider brand of nutjobs. →
OpenCourt Wins Legal Battle Over Streaming Proceedings
The Massachusetts Supreme Court has ruled in favor of allowing OpenCourt to expand their streaming video feeds of court proceedings beyond Quincy District Court. The WBUR project has been running since last year, allowing anybody to watch what’s going on in the courtroom. It’s been a success by any measure, but when they tried to …
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Why the USPS is running out of money.
I thought that the USPS was in financial trouble because they’d over-promised pensions. Nope. It turns out that a law passed by Congress in 2006 requires the USPS to save up enough money to pay 100% of their pension obligations for the next 75 years by 2016. That’s unheard of. So why require that? To …
Why you can’t infer the content of a law from the legislation on which it is based.
On the blog for my State Decoded project, I explain how a bill becomes law. Hint: It’s not how you think. →
The final vote on 2008’s budget bill (SB30).
Remember in 2008, when every Republican senator in the General Assembly voted against the the budget bill, how they were labelled “obstructionists”? Yeah, me neither. →
An archive of reports issued to the General Assembly.
The state legislature routinely puts together commissions that conclude by issuing a report about its assigned topic. Dozens of reports have been published this year, on topics as varied as “Management of State-owned Bottomlands on the Seaside of the Eastern Shore” and “Misclassification of Employees as Independent Contractors in Virginia.” Although most of the older …
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Congress has earmarks again, they just call them something different.
Earmarks are back. Now they’re in the form of specific funding riders attached to spending bills. Congress’ budget for the Army Corps of Engineers had $507M tacked on for 26 separate projects that were not requested by the Army, not part of the president’s budget, and weren’t previously part of the spending bill. →