I think that I know what happened in Iowa Caucuses, it is all about software validation or the lack of it.
Before I retired I ran a test department for a global engineering company that made ultra reliable control systems. One of the last system that my department was testing was a system that used four parallel computers running simultaneously, it used 2 out of 3 logic*. What that means if two our of the three computers detected a problem it shut down the plant. My department’s responsibility was to verify that it worked as designed.
Apps… I do not like them. You are getting a pig-in-a-poke and I doubt that any app undergoes any meaningful validation testing. Does it even do what it is supposed to do? Does it work with other apps on a smartphone? Does it crash the server? What are they tracking? Can it be hacked? These are just some of the questions that apps should tested for.
Back to Iowa… I think I know what happened.
The company that makes the app probably got invited to showoff their app to a group of business people from the Democrats that are running the caucus, they all sat around a table listening to the salesperson’s spiel. They all probably got a copy of the app to play with and check out. Period.
The people buying the app probably had no experience in buying software and didn’t know the questions to ask. The company making the app were probably all business people with no real experience in software and they probably never checked out the app with ten thousand users.
Then BINGO the app went into use for the first time with thousands and thousands of users and the system couldn’t handle that massive amount of users and it does what all lousy software does… it crashed. It was a major SNAFU.
Back to apps in general.
The apps that you get bundled in the phone are probably good, but the apps in the app stores I doubt very much that any validating is done on the apps. Do they do what they said that the app does? Are they easily hacked? Do they work with other apps? What data do they collect? Does the company that makes the app share the data with companies? Many of those answers are probably buried deep within the teams and conditions that people click "I agree" without reading.
On my Android machines and Laptop I try to limit the apps on them. I delete all the kids apps and keep those that I may use. The way I see it the less apps the better, deleting them frees up memory and because many of them run in the background they use up the battery and slows down the machine, who knows what else they are doing. Some apps track you even when are not using them and tracking I mean location and your web surfing.
In Iowa it doubt very much that it was sabotage by any candidate or party, I doubt very much that it was done with evil intentions. I bet that it was because the app didn’t goes through any sort of meaningful validation.
*The fourth computer was for redundancy, during maintenance you could shutdown one computer to do work on it and you will still have 2 out of 3 logic. All four computers ran simultaneously so if one crashed you could fix it while still being in compliance with the 2 out of 3 logic.
Before I retired I ran a test department for a global engineering company that made ultra reliable control systems. One of the last system that my department was testing was a system that used four parallel computers running simultaneously, it used 2 out of 3 logic*. What that means if two our of the three computers detected a problem it shut down the plant. My department’s responsibility was to verify that it worked as designed.
Apps… I do not like them. You are getting a pig-in-a-poke and I doubt that any app undergoes any meaningful validation testing. Does it even do what it is supposed to do? Does it work with other apps on a smartphone? Does it crash the server? What are they tracking? Can it be hacked? These are just some of the questions that apps should tested for.
Back to Iowa… I think I know what happened.
The company that makes the app probably got invited to showoff their app to a group of business people from the Democrats that are running the caucus, they all sat around a table listening to the salesperson’s spiel. They all probably got a copy of the app to play with and check out. Period.
The people buying the app probably had no experience in buying software and didn’t know the questions to ask. The company making the app were probably all business people with no real experience in software and they probably never checked out the app with ten thousand users.
Then BINGO the app went into use for the first time with thousands and thousands of users and the system couldn’t handle that massive amount of users and it does what all lousy software does… it crashed. It was a major SNAFU.
Back to apps in general.
The apps that you get bundled in the phone are probably good, but the apps in the app stores I doubt very much that any validating is done on the apps. Do they do what they said that the app does? Are they easily hacked? Do they work with other apps? What data do they collect? Does the company that makes the app share the data with companies? Many of those answers are probably buried deep within the teams and conditions that people click "I agree" without reading.
On my Android machines and Laptop I try to limit the apps on them. I delete all the kids apps and keep those that I may use. The way I see it the less apps the better, deleting them frees up memory and because many of them run in the background they use up the battery and slows down the machine, who knows what else they are doing. Some apps track you even when are not using them and tracking I mean location and your web surfing.
In Iowa it doubt very much that it was sabotage by any candidate or party, I doubt very much that it was done with evil intentions. I bet that it was because the app didn’t goes through any sort of meaningful validation.
*The fourth computer was for redundancy, during maintenance you could shutdown one computer to do work on it and you will still have 2 out of 3 logic. All four computers ran simultaneously so if one crashed you could fix it while still being in compliance with the 2 out of 3 logic.
i like this. Validation is imperative in most areas. In this area of politics, filled with emotions and perceptions and disinformation, one must validate, verify everything. Especially something as important as a tool to report voting results.
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