4 ms·

> legal, technical, and regulatory Three things.

by mkr-hn 13y ago

jrockway 13y ago
Regulatory issues are legal issues. Why do people comply with regulations? To avoid the ire of the law.
- mkr-hn 13y ago
  I think I'm just frustrated with this whole ordeal of Silicon Valley Knows Best that we see when any kind of problem comes up. People get hung up on their pet theories and solutions and never stop to consider that they might be wrong. It's impossible to solve a problem before knowing what the problem is. How can anyone here even begin to consider a solution before we know the problem? It's ridiculous. Maybe they're not allowed to use your favored solution. The solution is probably political, not technical. You can't fix an outdated/flawed policy with nginx. It's just...weird. Half the posts in any politics thread at HN is people complaining about politicians coming up with pet theories and pet solutions for problems before understanding the problem, but they're so eager to do the same when the roles are reversed.
  - DennisP 13y ago
    I wouldn't presume to suggest a solution to the larger problem of getting people signed up for plans. But the problem right now is, people are very curious about what plans are available. It's public information that doesn't require personal data. The whole point of the exchanges is to give the public clear data on the available plans. Distributing public information is a problem that has been quite thoroughly solved. The technical people didn't seem to realize that they had two problems to solve, not one. And my frustration right now is that part of Congress is trying very hard to defund the whole program before people are able to gain access to that information, and it should be too late for that. If someone has screwed up the regulations so badly that this information intended for the public is not actually public, then of course that's where the problem is, but that seems unlikely to me. It would make for a very interesting news story, if true.
    - mkr-hn 13y ago
      > If someone has screwed up the regulations so badly that this information intended for the public is not actually public, then of course that's where the problem is, but that seems unlikely to me. It would make for a very interesting news story, if true. Healthcare.gov is covered in HN-popular libraries, software, and toolkits (like Bootstrap, jquery, and Drupal[1]), so the problem is apparently not that they just don't know any better. It appears they went as far as they could with the latest and greatest tech. Someone somewhere along the chain of command failed to include a "provide any kind of useful information on the plans" provision in the design document. All signs point to this being either politics or negligence, not technology. [1]I'm assuming on this one since WhiteHouse.gov has been covered in Drupal in the HTML and JS since the Obama administration took it over.
      - DennisP 13y ago
        Drupal generates pages dynamically, usually from a database, which is the exact opposite of what I just suggested. Static pages are the way to go for very high volume. (And as dynamic frameworks go, PHP didn't actually do that well in the techempower benchmarks, though Drupal wasn't one they tested.) Certainly the design is the root of the problem. You have to "apply" before you get any information. When I say that the team screwed up, I definitely include the people who designed it, not just the programmers who implemented it.
        deleted 13y ago
        [deleted]
        mkr-hn 13y ago
        I was right: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6514775 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6514775 Poorly-implemented technology was at the core, but it happened because of a flawed and entirely political process.

> legal, technical, and regulatory Three things.

by mkr-hn 13y ago

> legal, technical, and regulatory Three things.

jrockway 13y ago

Regulatory issues are legal issues. Why do people comply with regulations? To avoid the ire of the law.

mkr-hn 13y ago
I think I'm just frustrated with this whole ordeal of Silicon Valley Knows Best that we see when any kind of problem comes up. People get hung up on their pet theories and solutions and never stop to consider that they might be wrong. It's impossible to solve a problem before knowing what the problem is. How can anyone here even begin to consider a solution before we know the problem? It's ridiculous. Maybe they're not allowed to use your favored solution. The solution is probably political, not technical. You can't fix an outdated/flawed policy with nginx. It's just...weird. Half the posts in any politics thread at HN is people complaining about politicians coming up with pet theories and pet solutions for problems before understanding the problem, but they're so eager to do the same when the roles are reversed.
- DennisP 13y ago
  I wouldn't presume to suggest a solution to the larger problem of getting people signed up for plans. But the problem right now is, people are very curious about what plans are available. It's public information that doesn't require personal data. The whole point of the exchanges is to give the public clear data on the available plans. Distributing public information is a problem that has been quite thoroughly solved. The technical people didn't seem to realize that they had two problems to solve, not one. And my frustration right now is that part of Congress is trying very hard to defund the whole program before people are able to gain access to that information, and it should be too late for that. If someone has screwed up the regulations so badly that this information intended for the public is not actually public, then of course that's where the problem is, but that seems unlikely to me. It would make for a very interesting news story, if true.
  - mkr-hn 13y ago
    > If someone has screwed up the regulations so badly that this information intended for the public is not actually public, then of course that's where the problem is, but that seems unlikely to me. It would make for a very interesting news story, if true. Healthcare.gov is covered in HN-popular libraries, software, and toolkits (like Bootstrap, jquery, and Drupal[1]), so the problem is apparently not that they just don't know any better. It appears they went as far as they could with the latest and greatest tech. Someone somewhere along the chain of command failed to include a "provide any kind of useful information on the plans" provision in the design document. All signs point to this being either politics or negligence, not technology. [1]I'm assuming on this one since WhiteHouse.gov has been covered in Drupal in the HTML and JS since the Obama administration took it over.
    - DennisP 13y ago
      Drupal generates pages dynamically, usually from a database, which is the exact opposite of what I just suggested. Static pages are the way to go for very high volume. (And as dynamic frameworks go, PHP didn't actually do that well in the techempower benchmarks, though Drupal wasn't one they tested.) Certainly the design is the root of the problem. You have to "apply" before you get any information. When I say that the team screwed up, I definitely include the people who designed it, not just the programmers who implemented it.
      - deleted 13y ago
        [deleted]
      - mkr-hn 13y ago
        I was right: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6514775 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6514775 Poorly-implemented technology was at the core, but it happened because of a flawed and entirely political process.