The AU Government has rules that require it to have a percentage (I don't remember the figure, but it's around 40%) of its business able to be conducted online.
If it implements this, it gets its quota.
The ATO isn't in the business of making things easier for taxpayers. It's in the business of complying with cross-government rules on how much of its business is done online.
As for your comments that:
"Equivalent applications could be written in Java, or (preferably) could be completely web based.
Both of these options would work for all users. Neither of these options would be more expensive.
What happened is very simple. The government hired a company that poorly engineered their software.
You are right, it probably doesn't matter to 90% of the people. But don't pretend it would have been harder or more expensive to do it right and have it work for 100% of people."
Simple - you have no clue how things work in the Tax Office.
QuantumG said: How can a government ever justify not releasing source code to the public? It's developed with public funds, therefore we own it.
Using the same logic, we should never have to pay tolls for roads owned by the government, pay for phone calls on a government owned telecommunications carrier, pay to ride public transport.
Clueless Noob!
As someone who worked in the ATO for two and a half years, I can assure you that this decision is probably only because their systems people are so retarded they were incapable of developing anything for Linux or Mac.
My wife worked in the ATO's computer systems area as a tester. The product they were developing was due to be released for beta testing the day before she went on maternity leave. Our son is now six and a half, and the product is still awaiting release, or was when she left that area in February this year.
This is just and example one project within the ATO's systems, but having worked there myself, I do not believe that there is any likelihood it is an isolated incident.
Another example (from the same area) is that they hired an IT firm to design the specs for this project, with a timeline of 8 months. After 32 months, the ATO decided this IT firm (It's a big name, so I wont name it here) was unlikely to deliver the result, so the consulting firm was dismissed. But the total cost to the ATO - and hence the payment to the IT firm - was more for this botched job than for the original contract (the ATO has bad lawyers too!).
Another example of ineptitude at ATO IT - I was asked to help with a 'disaster management' plan when I was there in 1996. And we discovered that the backups for ALL the ATO's data are kept in the same building as the originals. So if you were a terrorist (for example) wanting to bring down the AU govt, you wouldn't need to kill anyone, just burn down their IT building - all records, and backups, of the tax debts etc would vanish.
I am not surprised the ATO couldn't develop something for Linux or Mac. I AM surprised they managed to develop a product for Windows!
To protect workers against exploitation.
You're being exploited, and you aren't in the union? You're on your own. Why do you think other people *are* in the union?
I have experienced this in a number of ways, and always concluded that North Americans think we in places like Australia are not aware we have electricity, postal services or the ability to exchange local currencies for foreign ones.
In an email discussion group I operate for an old DOS-based computer game, we recently discussed this issue and have set up networks to get items shipped to local addresses, and then the purchaser gets the 'receiver' to ship the product to them and pays things between the two of them. Sure, it requires trust, but we're a discussion group that has existed for several years, and mostly trust each other.
But it's a cruddy system that we're having to work around this, when we keep being told about globalisation, and a lot of businesses cannot handle simple overseas transactions through ebay....
This article is based on the premise that wars can be won without significant ground forces.
And in the case of Afghanistan, there *ARE* significant numbers of ground forces - they just aren't wearing American uniforms.
The US is/was not fighting the war alone. They were merely providing air support to locals who were doing the ground fighting.
Does any of this come as news to anyone here? Every time we do anything linked to a public network like the net, we should consider that our actions are not secure. So Magic Lantern story is just highlighting that.
Nothing is secure. That's life.
The ALP's platform at the recent election was halfway to meeting the Kyoto protocol - agreeing to reduce the rate of growth of carbon emissions, but not to reduce the emission levels themselves.
While the Kyoto protocol has been signed by Australia, it has not been ratified, nor will it be.
Australia will not comply with Kyoto regardless of the colour of its government, and with 400 years of coal supply, this project will never go anywhere except in theoretical discussions such as here
First amendment? second amendment? What are you talking about?
Australia's Constitution doesnt HAVE first and second amendments. SO how can we have rights under them?
We don't have a Bill of Rights. Our constitution is not about the people and the government, but is a document to divide power between our Federal and State Governments.
The whole world doesn't live under the US Constitution Chope!
Slashdot Mirror
The AU Government has rules that require it to have a percentage (I don't remember the figure, but it's around 40%) of its business able to be conducted online. If it implements this, it gets its quota. The ATO isn't in the business of making things easier for taxpayers. It's in the business of complying with cross-government rules on how much of its business is done online. As for your comments that: "Equivalent applications could be written in Java, or (preferably) could be completely web based. Both of these options would work for all users. Neither of these options would be more expensive. What happened is very simple. The government hired a company that poorly engineered their software. You are right, it probably doesn't matter to 90% of the people. But don't pretend it would have been harder or more expensive to do it right and have it work for 100% of people." Simple - you have no clue how things work in the Tax Office.
QuantumG said: How can a government ever justify not releasing source code to the public? It's developed with public funds, therefore we own it. Using the same logic, we should never have to pay tolls for roads owned by the government, pay for phone calls on a government owned telecommunications carrier, pay to ride public transport. Clueless Noob!
As someone who worked in the ATO for two and a half years, I can assure you that this decision is probably only because their systems people are so retarded they were incapable of developing anything for Linux or Mac. My wife worked in the ATO's computer systems area as a tester. The product they were developing was due to be released for beta testing the day before she went on maternity leave. Our son is now six and a half, and the product is still awaiting release, or was when she left that area in February this year. This is just and example one project within the ATO's systems, but having worked there myself, I do not believe that there is any likelihood it is an isolated incident. Another example (from the same area) is that they hired an IT firm to design the specs for this project, with a timeline of 8 months. After 32 months, the ATO decided this IT firm (It's a big name, so I wont name it here) was unlikely to deliver the result, so the consulting firm was dismissed. But the total cost to the ATO - and hence the payment to the IT firm - was more for this botched job than for the original contract (the ATO has bad lawyers too!). Another example of ineptitude at ATO IT - I was asked to help with a 'disaster management' plan when I was there in 1996. And we discovered that the backups for ALL the ATO's data are kept in the same building as the originals. So if you were a terrorist (for example) wanting to bring down the AU govt, you wouldn't need to kill anyone, just burn down their IT building - all records, and backups, of the tax debts etc would vanish. I am not surprised the ATO couldn't develop something for Linux or Mac. I AM surprised they managed to develop a product for Windows!
To protect workers against exploitation. You're being exploited, and you aren't in the union? You're on your own. Why do you think other people *are* in the union?
I have experienced this in a number of ways, and always concluded that North Americans think we in places like Australia are not aware we have electricity, postal services or the ability to exchange local currencies for foreign ones. In an email discussion group I operate for an old DOS-based computer game, we recently discussed this issue and have set up networks to get items shipped to local addresses, and then the purchaser gets the 'receiver' to ship the product to them and pays things between the two of them. Sure, it requires trust, but we're a discussion group that has existed for several years, and mostly trust each other. But it's a cruddy system that we're having to work around this, when we keep being told about globalisation, and a lot of businesses cannot handle simple overseas transactions through ebay....
This article is based on the premise that wars can be won without significant ground forces. And in the case of Afghanistan, there *ARE* significant numbers of ground forces - they just aren't wearing American uniforms. The US is/was not fighting the war alone. They were merely providing air support to locals who were doing the ground fighting.
Does any of this come as news to anyone here? Every time we do anything linked to a public network like the net, we should consider that our actions are not secure. So Magic Lantern story is just highlighting that. Nothing is secure. That's life.
The ALP's platform at the recent election was halfway to meeting the Kyoto protocol - agreeing to reduce the rate of growth of carbon emissions, but not to reduce the emission levels themselves.
While the Kyoto protocol has been signed by Australia, it has not been ratified, nor will it be. Australia will not comply with Kyoto regardless of the colour of its government, and with 400 years of coal supply, this project will never go anywhere except in theoretical discussions such as here
First amendment? second amendment? What are you talking about? Australia's Constitution doesnt HAVE first and second amendments. SO how can we have rights under them? We don't have a Bill of Rights. Our constitution is not about the people and the government, but is a document to divide power between our Federal and State Governments. The whole world doesn't live under the US Constitution Chope!