[james4beach]

Necessity is the mother of invention. I think the government needs a hair cut. It would improve the service.

Ah I see. So you want to cut back on the staff and funding of these departments, while simultaneously demanding new services and capabilities.

In that case, you're not going to get what they have in Sweden and Denmark.

 

[gardner]

That likely wasn't a smart move!

Flash only JUST went away. And it long since morphed into Flex and later Air, for this sort of target application. Air is still a thing.

AIR (software) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[afulldeck]

Ah I see. So you want to cut back on the staff and funding of these departments, while simultaneously demanding new services and capabilities.

In that case, you're not going to get what they have in Sweden and Denmark.

A fatalism, its so sad its so deeply embedded in our country's mind set. Were's the grit, the smarts, the pride, the ingenuity of our people and by extension our public service? Anyone can be a manager with unlimited resources, but the best, the ones who excel, are those that achieve the new goals with their hands tied behind their proverbial "constrained resources" back. Constraint is a prime mover for positive change- not the unlimited resources. When the resources are unlimited there is no need to change. We continue, as is, on our merry way. When resources are limited-- one is forced to change in order to pursue better. Under the current GoC ideology with their new MMT unlimited resources there is no reason to change. I say cut back and demand better.

 

[james4beach]

A fatalism, its so sad its so deeply embedded in our country's mind set. Were's the grit, the smarts, the pride, the ingenuity of our people and by extension our public service? Anyone can be a manager with unlimited resources, but the best, the ones who excel, are those that achieve the new goals with their hands tied behind their proverbial "constrained resources" back. Constraint is a prime mover for positive change- not the unlimited resources. When the resources are unlimited there is no need to change. We continue, as is, on our merry way. When resources are limited-- one is forced to change in order to pursue better. Under the current GoC ideology with their new MMT unlimited resources there is no reason to change. I say cut back and demand better.

Translation: you want a fleet of people to do the hard work of adding new capabilities to the system, with all the man-hours that comes with doing that work (and its testing and refinement), but you don't want to pay for any of that.

"Were's the grit, the smarts" - indeed.

 

[off.by.10]

Translation: you want a fleet of people to do the hard work of adding new capabilities to the system, with all the man-hours that comes with doing that work (and its testing and refinement), but you don't want to pay for any of that.

No, I think he has a point. The government has too much inertia and needs disruption to improve. covid-19 has shown us that. A great example is access to a doctor around here. For decades it has worked roughly in the same, inefficient way. Now comes the pandemic and in just a few weeks doctors are suddenly able to do appointments over the phone/internet. This greatly improves access for users with little extra cost. Without that major kick in the rear end, we probably wouldn't have had that for another 10-20 years, and several billions. It took longer than that just to get our medical file online and I'm not even sure that works correctly yet.

 

[afulldeck]

No, I think he has a point. The government has too much inertia and needs disruption to improve. covid-19 has shown us that. A great example is access to a doctor around here. For decades it has worked roughly in the same, inefficient way. Now comes the pandemic and in just a few weeks doctors are suddenly able to do appointments over the phone/internet. This greatly improves access for users with little extra cost. Without that major kick in the rear end, we probably wouldn't have had that for another 10-20 years, and several billions. It took longer than that just to get our medical file online and I'm not even sure that works correctly yet.

Thank you. Your point is well served. Its ridiculous that medical files and solutions are still in distress. It reminds me of the early 80's when commercial email systems had a tough time communicating among disparate commercial systems- only fixed in the late 90's with the adoption of POP, IMAP via vendors through IETF rfc's. This medical file adoption problem should not exist, its a relic of having too much resource in areas that needs to adapt, but the bureaucracy is holding on to the old ways keeping expenses high because change is not required.

 

[afulldeck]

Translation: you want a fleet of people to do the hard work of adding new capabilities to the system, with all the man-hours that comes with doing that work (and its testing and refinement), but you don't want to pay for any of that.

"Were's the grit, the smarts" - indeed.

No. I want less people doing the work-to which I would be willing to pay. These must be motivated individuals up to the challenge.

This is a quote from a piece in HBR from 2019 Why Constraints Are Good for Innovation

"...As a simple illustration of the principle, consider GE Healthcare’s MAC 400 Electrocardiograph (ECG), which revolutionized rural access to medical care. The product was the outcome of a formidable set of constraints imposed on GE engineers: develop an ECG device that boasts the latest technology, costs no more than $1 per scan, is ultra portable to reach rural communities (i.e, should be lightweight and fit into a backpack), and is battery operated. The engineers were given just 18 months and a budget of $500,000 – a very modest budget by GE’s standards, given that development of its predecessor cost $5.4 million. Our research suggests that GE engineers were not successful despite these constraints, but because of them. Constraints can foster innovation when they represent a motivating challenge and focus efforts on a more narrowly defined way forward...."

Now with this thread we are only talking about software....

 

[bgc_fan]

The government has too much inertia and needs disruption to improve. covid-19 has shown us that. A great example is access to a doctor around here. For decades it has worked roughly in the same, inefficient way.

I wouldn't say it's a government thing. It's more of a human nature thing. Think of curb-side pickup, and click-n-pick up type arrangements that stores are offering now. The services are more convenient for the consumers (assuming you just want specific items ahead of time), but it took COVID to add this to retail offerings due to necessity.

Unless there is an external pressure to change things, people are just going to go ahead with "good enough", until it doesn't work.

As for telehealth and electronic medical data, those have been in the process for years. It's just that events are making them more pertinent.

 

[MrMatt]

I wouldn't say it's a government thing. It's more of a human nature thing. Think of curb-side pickup, and click-n-pick up type arrangements that stores are offering now. The services are more convenient for the consumers (assuming you just want specific items ahead of time), but it took COVID to add this to retail offerings due to necessity.

Unless there is an external pressure to change things, people are just going to go ahead with "good enough", until it doesn't work.

As for telehealth and electronic medical data, those have been in the process for years. It's just that events are making them more pertinent.

I've been using "curbside pickup" for years at
Best Buy
Home Hardware
Canadian Tire
Walmart.

The only one I hadn't used before lockdown was
Scholars choice
ToysR Us