(no subject)

[vicarz]

First, a cute spellbound review linked by Phil: http://dscene.wordpress.com/2008/03/15/a-creepy-little-party-called-spellbound/

A rare post from me about government waste:
I just went and picked up the lincpass. Lincpass is a great little idea, where somebody important thought: "We have all these new technologies, and each Agency seems to have their own type of physical badge and process to issue and retrieve them - why not standardize them gov-wide, and while we're at it, take advantage of some new electronic gizmos like door entry, biometric data verification, and electronic signatures?" Problem is, somebody designed the spec sheet and gave it out for contracting...and either some congressman in AK had a friend who owned a tech firm, or some Agency head's nephew runs a contracting firm, and these morons were given the contract. OR, some twit was put in charge of the project who a) had no idea what they were doing, b) was wholly unqualified to judge this type of project, and/or c) is one of those morons that thinks powerpoint presentations are cool yet informative.

I was handed my badge, for which I had to click something saying I agreed to keep the thing secure, not misrepresent myself or defraud...return on ending service, etc. The machine sat there processing the card in a reader for over ten minutes - I'd love to see the idiot who watched this thing demo, and thought that 10 minutes to imprint the info was reasonable.

Then I was warned about the card:
1. Do not put in your wallet
2. Do not put near credit cards, metro cards, or any electronically read cards
3. Do not put near other id badges
4. Do not get near electronic readers such as door entry, metro entry, etc.
5. Please allow up to 20 seconds for the card to register with door entry, and do not try doors as it may set off alarms if you don't wait
6. Do not attempt to use the badge before receiving an email, expected in October
7. Do not taunt happy fun ball
8. If happy fun ball starts vibrating, leave the area while covering eyes and face
I mean this thing is just absurd. It's worthless on issuance. It's an id I _can't put in my wallet_ It's an id card I _can't have near other cards or other card readers_ Brilliant. It can't be around other cards or electronic readers, although all my credit cards, metro card, and even my laundry room card have no such problem. I'm thrilled that the might of the US government, through contractors, can't keep up with my laundry service.

By the way - my current ID card has no such problems either. So the USDA on its own was at least as good as our laundry room. The government-wide project was not so adept.

The icing on the cake is that the thing is on a break-away neck-strap. So, if the strap breaks as it is designed to do, I am liable for the thing disappearing. However, if they issue me a non-breakaway band the fear is I'll be assaulted or killed, and me or my next of kin will sue the contractor, manufacturer, and government for the loss. Fucking lawyers (by which, of course, I mean fucking sue-happy fuckers who think that everytime a tree falls in the forest someone is to blame and that someone should be held financially liable and hire lawyers to represent those views, so that all future trees are forced to insure against losses caused by falling in forests, who in turn hire lawyers (often the same lawyers) to defend against any future such claims)