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'Best and brightest' techies drafted to fix Obamacare computer glitches
Christian Science Monitor ^ | 10/20/13 | Brad Knickerbocker

Posted on 10/20/2013 6:14:01 PM PDT by NormsRevenge

Two big problems hit the Obama White House on Oct. 1: the government shutdown, which saw hundreds of thousands of federal workers furloughed, national parks closed, and other disruptions. And the launch of the Affordable Care Act, which was always going to be tricky.

The first problem was solved – temporarily, at least – when Republicans and Democrats worked out a stop-gap spending deal, also heading off (for now) a government default on its debts. By most accounts, the White House came out the winner, although President Obama was careful not to beat his chest too much about it.

The second problem – the president’s signature achievement so far, known as “Obamacare” – has only gotten worse.

The White House reported this weekend that about 19 million people have visited HealthCare.gov and 476,000 individuals have applied online for health insurance.

But officials have yet to say how many people have actually bought a policy. In any case, it's a long way from the 7 million people the administration wants to see enrolled for health insurance through online exchanges during the six-month sign-up period.

Computer “glitches” seem massive. USA TODAY reports that "the federal health care exchange was built using 10-year-old technology that may require constant fixes and updates for the next six months and the eventual overhaul of the entire system."

Obama, presumably, has been asking sharp questions of his staff.

"I think that there's no one more frustrated than the president at the difficulty in the website," Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said on NBC's “Meet the Press” Sunday.

The coming week should see significant political activity surrounding Obamacare.

Obama is scheduled to speak about it at a health care event Monday.

(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bestandbrightest; drafted; fix; glitches; obamacare; techies
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To: SueRae
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks's_law

Brooks's law is a principle in software development which says that "adding manpower to a late software project makes it later".[1] It was coined by Fred Brooks in his 1975 book The Mythical Man-Month. The corollary of Brooks's Law is that there is an incremental person who, when added to a project, makes it take more, not less time. Brooks adds that "Nine women can't make a baby in one month".


21 posted on 10/20/2013 6:34:20 PM PDT by RightGeek (FUBO and the donkey you rode in on)
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To: dfwgator

22 posted on 10/20/2013 6:35:02 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (21st century. I'm not a fan.)
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To: NormsRevenge; All

And a lot of GOPe support ObamaCare, refused to fight for defunding and even postponement


23 posted on 10/20/2013 6:37:05 PM PDT by SeminoleCounty (Fact Is: GOPe want ObamaCare.)
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To: Sacajaweau

In my experience it is much more difficult to fix someone elses code than it is to write it correctly in the first place.


24 posted on 10/20/2013 6:37:35 PM PDT by ully2
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To: ClearCase_guy

25 posted on 10/20/2013 6:40:28 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: cicero2k
They spent $600 million and did’t have the best and the brightest?

As with everything else with this administration, they no doubt looked to give the contracts to political cronies.

These cronies likely bought their BMW's and travelled to the Caribbean on our dime; why should they feel compelled to do the work after getting free money?

26 posted on 10/20/2013 6:41:34 PM PDT by what's up
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To: RightGeek

if you’re approaching a critical deadline... and the system is pure failure... adding more people can work. I say this with decades of experience

the trick is to identify and remove the failing pieces as you add new ones thru a strict filter to insure capability

I’ve been brought into many projects and turned certain failure into stunning success in short order.


27 posted on 10/20/2013 6:45:12 PM PDT by sten (fighting tyranny never goes out of style)
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To: NormsRevenge

...The second problem – the president’s signature achievement so far, known as “Obamacare” – has only gotten worse...

The president’s signature achievement is working as planned. Destroy the private insurance industry and extort single-payer from the rubble.


28 posted on 10/20/2013 6:53:04 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer (The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.)
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To: sten
Think of what they're having to model, though. We're blaming the programming (quite justifiably - nothing like that should ever break under first load) but in fact if you're trying to model the mess that is 0bamacare with all of its contradictions and exemptions, you've got your hands full before you ever write the first line of code. I wish the techies luck but I'm sure glad the thing didn't get dumped into my lap.

It could get interesting, though. What actually is happening is that programmers are going to have to rewrite legislation, or pick which pieces will be acted on and which, ignored. That's not exactly how government is supposed to work around here...

29 posted on 10/20/2013 6:54:18 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: NormsRevenge

Are they choosing repair people thru the same set of lenses that they used to draft the original language?

If so (and that’s probably the case), I expect more of the same incompetence with no remedy.


30 posted on 10/20/2013 7:01:07 PM PDT by Rembrandt (Part of the 51% who pay Federal taxes)
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To: NormsRevenge

and remember how in 2009 how angry the right/GOP got whenever we were seeing Obama/Pelosi/Reid pushing everything thru before even reading/testing it? LIKE SOLYNDRA and THE CHEVY VOLT !!!!


31 posted on 10/20/2013 7:03:23 PM PDT by Cruz_West_Paul2016
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To: NormsRevenge

This “glitch” is just another scheme to steal millions and give it to people who already have millions.


32 posted on 10/20/2013 7:04:11 PM PDT by VerySadAmerican (".....Barrack, and the horse Mohammed rode in on.")
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To: SueRae

Actually if you put 9 women in a room and stagger their pregnancies, nine months down the road you could start having a baby a month. And that’s probably what will happen with obamacare. They’ll stagger it into the future.


33 posted on 10/20/2013 7:05:49 PM PDT by VerySadAmerican (".....Barrack, and the horse Mohammed rode in on.")
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To: Billthedrill

the rule base shouldn’t be a big deal ... and can be done almost in parallel by teams of people

the core system interfacing to the users would also be trivial.

hell, during the same week they barely got 50,000 thru their system... a system I’ve got running at home was managing numerous requests, live, for 200k+ across the US and the EU. 200k+ unique people... multiple requests each.

all on a win7pro box that I got from a Panasonic division shutdown for $200.

I could easily get their bs running... or at least design / coordinate the teams to bing it together... but then I’d be no better then 0failure and crew.

sorry, but I won’t help bury my country for any price. unfortunately, there are many that will. principal and integrity are in short supply these days


34 posted on 10/20/2013 7:14:58 PM PDT by sten (fighting tyranny never goes out of style)
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To: sten

Nice that your so confidant, but I doubt it. It has to interface with a dozen fed systems and some of the data it needs is in flat files....


35 posted on 10/20/2013 7:33:50 PM PDT by babygene ( .)
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To: NormsRevenge

36 posted on 10/20/2013 7:38:03 PM PDT by rawhide
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To: NormsRevenge

Drafted, eh?

Slave labor is always the most motivated. Or not.


37 posted on 10/20/2013 7:45:52 PM PDT by Professional Engineer (I am not cynical. /s)
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38 posted on 10/20/2013 8:41:43 PM PDT by dsrtsage (One half of all people have below average IQ. In the US the number is 54%)
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To: NormsRevenge

The best and brightest techies are the hackers so we can expect lots of embedded problems.


39 posted on 10/20/2013 8:54:43 PM PDT by fella ("As it was before Noah, so shall it be again,")
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To: sten

I’m an attorney and a code jockey. The legislation is incomprehensible. The regulation is worse. How do you get usable requirements from a web of interconnected, cross-referenced, external law referenced, and intentionally vaguely written liberal fantasy law that nobody gets except their personal favorite parts? That’s where the rule base is going to come from? Not likely. No doubt that’s where at least some of the garbled data is coming from for the insurers. Other data issues are probably based on trying to match fields in assorted remote dbs that have a myriad of different normalizations, and fields that should match have the data in incompatible formats. But nothing is so irresolvable as unknowable requirements.


40 posted on 10/20/2013 8:57:05 PM PDT by Springfield Reformer (Winston Churchill: No Peace Till Victory!)
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