Daily Archives: February 17, 2020
Déjà Vu All Over Again?
I’m sure you’ve all read about the vote-counting mess that occurred during the recent Iowa Caucus. And I’m not talking about it from a political viewpoint, but from a computer one.
Based on what I read at the time about the app, I told Jan I could certainly write one in a day or so. And it would work too.
The teachers of several high school coding classes proved my thoughts by assigning the app as a weekend programming assignment. And the kids had no problem successfully completing the test either.
And it appears that assigning the app to a bunch of kids was pretty apt.
When some computer journals got ahold of a copy of the app, they found out that it constructed using React Native, a programming framework allowing coders to create an app that will work on Android, IOS(Apple), the Web, and other platforms.
No problem.
But it seems that the version of React Native that they used was the classroom version, used for teaching beginning coders to use the program. In other words, the app was programmed in the ‘kiddie’ version.
And for this they paid a company called ‘Shadow’ a total of $63,000.
I would have done it for $62,000. And it would have worked, too.
And in that Déjà Vu moment, Nevada was supposed to be using the same app for their upcoming caucus this coming Friday.
Ruh Roh!
So now they’re scrambling to create an entirely new app at the last minute. But caucus volunteers are predicting a ‘complete disaster.’
What could possibly go wrong?
It really makes you wonder what’s really wrong with a pencil and a piece of paper.
The Corona Virus, now called COVID-19, had been in all the news recently. But it might help to put it into a little perspective.
According to the CDC, flu deaths in the US average between 50,000 and 60,000 per year. However in the 2018-2019 season, being a really bad one, over 80,000 people died of the flu in the U.S.
Flu and its companion, pneumonia, kill more people in the U.S. than any other infectious disease.
So all of you out there be sure and get your flu shots so I don’t have to.
While Jan and I were up in Alabama, our son Chris, his wife Linda, and our granddaughter Piper came down to visit Brandi and brought her a present, a set of his large yard wind chimes.
And they’re tuned perfectly. They make a soft ‘gong’ sound for a nice background without being obtrusive.
Really neat!
Thought For The Day:
Armageddon won’t be pretty, but it’s not like it’s the end of the world or something.
fgsdfg
