21 September 2017

SET UP FLOOD SENSORS BUT DO NOTHING ABOUT THE FREQUENT FLOODING

This is a typical case of IT scheiss - ie. "IT bullshit".

Penang has been regularly affected by flash floods over the past few years, with 100 areas affected by the worst flash floods of them all due to the tail end of Typhoon Doksuri which was pretty far way over Vietnam.

The Penang state government blames the Malaysian federal government for not providing the funds to widen the storm drains and deepen the rivers in order to solve or mitigate the flooding, whilst environmentalists and other people blame the Penang state government for not doing enough to stop property developers from clearing away the forestation especially on hill slopes to make way for condo and other building projects. This is pretty evident from muddy brown water flowing down from the hills to the low land areas, as can be seen in the video and photos in Penang-based environmental activist Anil Netto below:-

http://anilnetto.com/economy/development-issues/penang-floods-price-control-irresponsible-development/

In Malaysia, land matters come under the purview of the respective state governments and some people want the Penang state government to do something to improve the drainage and also curb the clearing of greenery by the property developers.

Then on 20 September 2017, Star TV reported that the Penang Island City Council plans to set up flood sensors around the city to warn of impending floods.


https://www.thestartv.com/v/Penang%20plans%20to%20set%20up%20flood%20sensors%20next%20year

How wonderful !!! Set up a system which alerts the authorities that flooding in imminent but do nothing to prevent or at least lessen the extent and frequency of flooding.

What will the Penang Island City Council do when faced with an imminent flood - command the floods to receded, like how King Canute commanded the sea tide not to come in?

This is typical of Malaysia, whether under the Barisan Nasional or the Pakatan Harapan  (Pact of Hope),in the case of Penang - i.e. throw gee whiz information technology, including Internet of Things, Big Data Analytics, cloud computing, virtualisation, associated smart phone applications, Enterprise Architecture, etc, etc, etc at real world problems but do nothing concrete on the ground to solve or mitigate the occurrence of problems.

Well, that folks, is a load of "IT scheiss"  

Former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was right in saying that Malaysians have a first world infrastructure but a third world mentality.

Welcome to the Information and Services Society! 

IT.SCHEISS
http://itsheiss.blogspot.my/


08 September 2017

WE ARE HEADING TOWARDS A IT-MEDIATED DYSTOPIAN FUTURE

We are heading towards this dystopia and we can see it happening right now.

If you have dealt with helpdesk, customer support or whatever call centre agents, you will realise that they are following a standard script, with an "if, then, else" process of answers to your questions which the call centre agent must stick to, with all thinking, personal initiative and decision making denied by the system.

About two weeks ago, I banked in a cheque via a cheque deposit machine and I expected to see the sum reflected in my account balance within a few days.

When no funds appeared in my account after about a week, I called my bank's customer support call centre and asked about this payment and was informed that whilst the name of the recipient (I.E. me) written on the cheque was my full name - i.e. first-name, middle name and family name, however my alias was missing.

I then told the agent, "C'mon, I rarely use my alias and few people write my alias on cheques in my favour, so why now?"

The agent replied, "Sorry sir but the computer rejected the cheque because it did not have your alias".

By his reply, it seems that my bank has begun to scan cheques using character recognition technology, so I then told him, "A human handling clearance of the cheque would be able use their discretion to decide that I am the right person by my full name without my alias and clear the cheque, whilst your dumb computer system has more authority over human discretion".