You are completely wrong! The homeless are tracked. Congress required all agencies receiving funding from HUD to be using a Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) to track the homeless and their use of services. Communities are then required to report this information and are often required to collaborate with neighboring communities to provide regional information. In my state of Massachusetts, some homeless agencies have been using HMIS for as much as 6 years. Excellent statistics for the city of Boston are available as they have required all agencies in the city receiving city funds to use HMIS for at least 5 years. The published statistics do not specifically tell who was where when for what. They do give detailed demographic information and types of services received. The city of Cambridge is beginning to use HMIS to do a gaps analysis, creating statistics to see the difference between the need and what is provided.
More information can be found at HMIS
You are right, RUP is overdone and too complicated and in the end a little meaningless (though you do get that nice Ph.D. certificate to hang on the wall of your cubicle). But I'm a little surprised that I have read any comments on MDA. It is a RUP-like process (you can even use Rational Rose), but it is not necessarily as complicated as RUP. You can do a core MDA training in less than a week. Not to mention, MDA projects scale much better than XP projects. Furthermore, proper MDA does take into account many of the XP concepts just not so XTREME.
Seeing as you are from LA, I see why you don't totally understand the scenario.
While you raise some good points about the 2 hour minimum pay versus the 4 hour, I think your story is a little off. First, it would not take the average plow driver 45 minutes to get to work. In the city (Boston), most of the state highways are being plowed by state employees, not contractors. The contractors are used for suburban and rural areas. This is not L.A. During a snow storm when the roads are empty, a plow driver could get a 1/4 of the way across the state in 45 minutes. To get to a common assembly point, it probably would only take 15-20 minutes to get to the local point, if they are being required to meet a general assembly point.
Also, 2 hours of pay is no small chunck of change for the plow drivers. You made it sound like the average contractor is working a 40+ hour work week and then on top of that has to go plow for 2 hours. Unfortunately, up here in the bitter cold NorthEast, that is not the case. Most plow drivers are eagerly waiting for the first snow storm because it is their first chance to make any money since October. Many contract plow drivers are landscapers and construction workers. However, that is seasonal work which typically ends sometime in October. Their primary source of income over the winter is plowing. What else are they to do with their pick-ups all winter long?! But they are typically not working 40 hour weeks and then plowing. They are morer often working 0-20 hour weeks at a lower wage. Then the snow comes and they'll work 20 hours in a day if needed. And you mentiond getting double pay to come in on a Saturday. Try more like quadruple pay. I believe the hourly wages range between $80 and $200. Even at two hours of pay, I don't know many that will balk at $200 to drive their truck around, even on a Saturday morning when they could be sleeping. You talk to the average plow driver in Massachusetts, and they don't care if they are plowing from 5am til 1am. It's good money and the only money they get all winter.
I was personally elated to hear that the Commonwealth would be using GPS for the plow drivers. At the wage they ar getting paid, I want to make sure that my tax money is getting properly spent. While most drivers will not be effected, I do not like to see that small percentage of the contractors who try to take advantage of the system and steal my hard earned tax money.
>> Besides, how in the name of the gods do you
>> implement such a tax?
>By requiring ISPs to purchase licenses, keep >records, and file reports, in the same way sales >taxes are collected. The government would, of >course, find other uses for those records and >reports.
Additional bureaucracy, now that's the way to go.
But what if my ISP is outside of government regulation (i.e. foreign ISP)?
>> Suppose people work around it by creating VPNs
>> and just tunnel their email to members of the
>> VPN by encrypted means.
>Tax evasion is illegal.
It's not tax evasion. If I decide to not take the toll road in favor to take another road that takes me to the same place, I'm not guilty of tax evasion. I simply am choosing a different path.
But this still doesn't clarify how they define email. Is it email as we currently know it? Then new protocols would be in place before the law is signed.
Then maybe all communication over the Internet needs to get taxed? And how long after that law is signed does some court rule that that is un-Constitutional because you cannot tax a whole PUBLIC space. You don't see every public road being taxed, do you? Some roads may be taxed with tolls, but I can drive down Main Street anytime I want.
The Internet vs. Roads is not a perfect analogy, but I think it helps make the point.
I strongly suggest that you check out www.ctcnet.org. It is a collaboration of people who run computer centers across the country. They will have some very insightful information on this topic that they can speak about from experience. As you probably know, there are many more issues in running a computer center than just what courses and trainings to offer. The site has numerous resources, including a Center Start-Up Manual. I believe there is also a listserv for the members, and much information can be learned there.
Slashdot Mirror
You are completely wrong! The homeless are tracked. Congress required all agencies receiving funding from HUD to be using a Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) to track the homeless and their use of services. Communities are then required to report this information and are often required to collaborate with neighboring communities to provide regional information. In my state of Massachusetts, some homeless agencies have been using HMIS for as much as 6 years. Excellent statistics for the city of Boston are available as they have required all agencies in the city receiving city funds to use HMIS for at least 5 years. The published statistics do not specifically tell who was where when for what. They do give detailed demographic information and types of services received. The city of Cambridge is beginning to use HMIS to do a gaps analysis, creating statistics to see the difference between the need and what is provided. More information can be found at
HMIS
You are right, RUP is overdone and too complicated and in the end a little meaningless (though you do get that nice Ph.D. certificate to hang on the wall of your cubicle). But I'm a little surprised that I have read any comments on MDA. It is a RUP-like process (you can even use Rational Rose), but it is not necessarily as complicated as RUP. You can do a core MDA training in less than a week. Not to mention, MDA projects scale much better than XP projects. Furthermore, proper MDA does take into account many of the XP concepts just not so XTREME.
Seeing as you are from LA, I see why you don't totally understand the scenario.
While you raise some good points about the 2 hour minimum pay versus the 4 hour, I think your story is a little off. First, it would not take the average plow driver 45 minutes to get to work. In the city (Boston), most of the state highways are being plowed by state employees, not contractors. The contractors are used for suburban and rural areas. This is not L.A. During a snow storm when the roads are empty, a plow driver could get a 1/4 of the way across the state in 45 minutes. To get to a common assembly point, it probably would only take 15-20 minutes to get to the local point, if they are being required to meet a general assembly point.
Also, 2 hours of pay is no small chunck of change for the plow drivers. You made it sound like the average contractor is working a 40+ hour work week and then on top of that has to go plow for 2 hours. Unfortunately, up here in the bitter cold NorthEast, that is not the case. Most plow drivers are eagerly waiting for the first snow storm because it is their first chance to make any money since October. Many contract plow drivers are landscapers and construction workers. However, that is seasonal work which typically ends sometime in October. Their primary source of income over the winter is plowing. What else are they to do with their pick-ups all winter long?! But they are typically not working 40 hour weeks and then plowing. They are morer often working 0-20 hour weeks at a lower wage. Then the snow comes and they'll work 20 hours in a day if needed. And you mentiond getting double pay to come in on a Saturday. Try more like quadruple pay. I believe the hourly wages range between $80 and $200. Even at two hours of pay, I don't know many that will balk at $200 to drive their truck around, even on a Saturday morning when they could be sleeping. You talk to the average plow driver in Massachusetts, and they don't care if they are plowing from 5am til 1am. It's good money and the only money they get all winter.
I was personally elated to hear that the Commonwealth would be using GPS for the plow drivers. At the wage they ar getting paid, I want to make sure that my tax money is getting properly spent. While most drivers will not be effected, I do not like to see that small percentage of the contractors who try to take advantage of the system and steal my hard earned tax money.
>> Besides, how in the name of the gods do you >> implement such a tax? >By requiring ISPs to purchase licenses, keep >records, and file reports, in the same way sales >taxes are collected. The government would, of >course, find other uses for those records and >reports. Additional bureaucracy, now that's the way to go. But what if my ISP is outside of government regulation (i.e. foreign ISP)? >> Suppose people work around it by creating VPNs >> and just tunnel their email to members of the >> VPN by encrypted means. >Tax evasion is illegal. It's not tax evasion. If I decide to not take the toll road in favor to take another road that takes me to the same place, I'm not guilty of tax evasion. I simply am choosing a different path. But this still doesn't clarify how they define email. Is it email as we currently know it? Then new protocols would be in place before the law is signed. Then maybe all communication over the Internet needs to get taxed? And how long after that law is signed does some court rule that that is un-Constitutional because you cannot tax a whole PUBLIC space. You don't see every public road being taxed, do you? Some roads may be taxed with tolls, but I can drive down Main Street anytime I want. The Internet vs. Roads is not a perfect analogy, but I think it helps make the point.
I strongly suggest that you check out www.ctcnet.org. It is a collaboration of people who run computer centers across the country. They will have some very insightful information on this topic that they can speak about from experience. As you probably know, there are many more issues in running a computer center than just what courses and trainings to offer. The site has numerous resources, including a Center Start-Up Manual. I believe there is also a listserv for the members, and much information can be learned there.