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Japanese Government Requires Java and Internet Explorer 11 X86
Long time reader AmiMoJo writes: Japan has introduced "My Number", a social security number assigned to citizens and used to access government services. Unfortunately, the My Number management web portal requires the Java plug-in. Because this plug-in is deprecated in many browsers, only Internet Explorer 11 (32 bit) and Safari on Mac are supported. The explanation (translated) given for this is that in order to access My Number contactless card readers Java is the only option. Some browsers support IC card access but it seems that it is not mature enough to be viable.
They have a lot of paper and are pretty useless with computers. Usually the opposite from what you see in the news about Japan. They aren't that of an advanced nation if you look at the common man. So this shouldn't be a surprise. It's good that they're trying to automate some stuff but it will take some time and they will make some mistakes. Even dumb mistakes like this one.
Yawn, IE11 defaults to 32 bit anyway. You get both 32bit and 64bit installs on windows. And many times 64 bit version has many issues especially with compatibility. In fact, many enterprises disable the 64 bit IE entirely.
Kinda like how MS themselves recommend NOT using 64 bit office, but only 32 bit office installs, because it's full of issues that MS doesn't bother to fix.
The x86 IE 11 requirement is a non story.
The java requirement on the other hand...
That's exactly what you're supposed to think. It's having the intended effect.
(ie. Making you want to purchase the "professional" version - at twice the price for two extra features that you'll probably never use)
No sig today...
The point may have been but the execution was anything but! Every version on evey platform have changes... Some of these were deal breakers. Most enterprises have different virtual desktops for management of Network devices, storage devices and virtual servers because they all require specific and different (and mutually exclusive) versions of java!
South Korea mandated the use of an ActiveX control for online payments in the 1990s, which has locked companies and banks there into a deprecated and dangerous technology. Only in the last couple of years has the government there started the process of getting rid of the damn POS system.
Someone please tell the Japanese government that what they are doing is a REALLY bad idea.
I worked for years as a contractor developing software for government agencies, and in my experience they're often running software that is years out-of-date. This is a result of government budgets operating in a cash rather than accrual mentality -- i.e. that a penny saved is a penny earned. Taken to the extreme "a penny saved is a penny earned" is false.
Can you make do with a version of software that's EOL? Sure, but it'll cause problems. How can we solve those problems? Well, throw staff time at them. Would that be new hires? No, they're people whose salaries we're already paying. So the view you can minimize the immediate cash outlay by running obsolete software. This would not be reckoned by a private enterprise as a legitimate cost savings, but that's why the IT guys in government have to contend with.
So you have to look at government platform decisions like they were being made 10 years ago. Then allow for the development time for the project and this is how the calculation goes: 2017,minus three years for project development time, minus ten years for government lag time, and this is like a corporate in-house developer choosing applets as a platform in 2004.
Government IT guys run the gamut from incompetent to high competent, just like their private sector counterparts. But if you were to give them a letter grade (ABCDF) you have to deduct one letter grade from their ability to perform to account for the irrational financial incentives they have to deal with.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Oh, you'd be surprised. I've worked many places that consider employee time to be "free". We can buy a library that will solve problem X or just build it ourselves. The library costs money, but building it ourselves is free! After all, we're paying our programmers anyway!
That's a more complicated question, because it's not just about staff time spending vs. license fees. When you build dependencies on a closed source library into your work that's an act of faith in the vendor's future support policies. Once I had a vendor who raised the distribution fees on downstream licensees from $5/seat to $1000/seat. Oh, and don't forget the vendors who simply abandon products that aren't making money and leave their customers dangling.
Even if you don't buy into the ideology of Free/Libre software, the risk of being tied to a vendor's future goodwill is a sufficient reason never to buy proprietary libraries. If you do buy a proprietary library you need to protect yourself both contractually (if possible) and architecturally.
Now as for using "free" staff time, at the risk of sounding like I'm contradicting myself, intelligent and creative use of slack developer time is one of the most important things you can do for your long-term success. Far from treating slack time as "free", however, I see it as treating slack time as too valuable to squander. You should set aside time to do things purely for extending the capabilities of the team. That might involve reinventing the wheel, if you have good reason to believe you can make a better one.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Mostly because there have been so many security holes found in java plugins that no other browsers even support it any more. Even Oracle doesn't think it's a good idea these days. Fee free to contemplate the irony of using the java plugin for a security application.
I have a My Number card. It's spelled in Katakana. Literally "Mai Nambaa". There is no translation to English. They literally wanted to use the English phrase "My Number" as the name of the system.
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