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From Waldo Jaquith:

It’s happens at least once in every gubernatorial administration: presented with a disastrous, multi-year, failing software project that’s preventing an agency from accomplishing its mission, the governor awards a big contract to a big vendor, maybe even the vendor that’s the source of the problem. Some major culprits are unemployment insurance, enterprise resource planning, Medicaid, child welfare, and payroll—all load-bearing systems for their agencies. Solving these failures by signing another big contract nearly always makes things worse. So why do governors do this?

I was born with extra wide feet. That means when buying shoes the correct width for me is a 4E. For regular shoes this meant most makes and models would not fit me. I would choose the shoe that fit. As a runner this is also limiting. Many running shoes only have a first run in a wide width, and in one color, and then they’re gone.

The blog is off for the holiday weekend, to return on Tuesday. So I leave you weekend links.

• Paramount Plus is raising prices when it merges with Showtime. Just in time for the last season of Picard to finish. Most of the new Star Trek shows have been disappointing to me. Not sure I will keep this one.
• A Conversation with Bing’s Chatbot Left Me Deeply Unsettled was a bit disturbing. However you have to remember that AI does not feel, it is acting.
• The popular Mastodon client Ivory is releasing a Mac version. Ivory remains a reason I like/check Mastodon, but it still feels a bit empty in there compared to twitter.
• Best Wide Foot Running Shoes for 2023 is a decent collection of reviews of running shoes for wide footers. Being a 4E in shoe width, my options always feel limited.
• Currently Reading: Tracers in the Dark. Finally a well written non-fiction crime novel that actually understands the technology behind Bitcoin.

A small company called Input Labs in Finland has developed an interesting open source game controller. Instead of the typical create a product and manufacture it route, they built out the schematics and compiled links to places you can order the parts. It is up to you to assemble it all and install the software.

Despite being many years into building software, government still manages to blow it. The federal government has commissioned experts to build de-risking guides, specialists work with agencies and states to do things right, and projects stubbornly fail. Mistakes are repeated. How can this be?