“The NYPD has to scrap the 36,000 smartphones it gave cops over the past two years because they’re already obsolete and can’t be upgraded, The Post has learned,” Tina Moore reports for The NY Post. “The city bought Microsoft-based Nokia smartphones as part of a $160 million NYPD Mobility Initiative that Mayor Bill de Blasio touted as ‘a huge step into the 21st century.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Idiots.
“But just months after the last phone was handed out, officials plan to begin replacing them all with brand-new iPhones by the end of the year, sources said,” Moore reports. “The move follows Microsoft’s recent decision to stop supporting the operating system that runs the NYPD’s devices and nearly a dozen custom-engineered apps.”
“Law enforcement sources blamed the boondoggle on NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Information Technology Jessica Tisch, with one saying, ‘She drove the whole process,'” Moore reports. “‘Nobody purchases 36,000 phones based on the judgment of one person,’ a source said. ‘I don’t care if you’re Jesus f- -king Christ, you get a panel of experts.'”
MacDailyNews Take: That source certainly sounds like a genuine New Yorker. 😉
“Technology experts had long questioned the NYPD’s decision to choose Microsoft-based phones,” Moore reports. “CNET, the popular site for tech news and reviews, also expressed dismay at the NYPD’s choice. ‘You read that right. Life and death situations rely on outdated phones running Microsoft’s Windows Phone software,’ read an October report, which was posted with the headline, ‘This is NYPD’s official crime-fighting phone.'”
“The NYPD bought two models of Nokia phones: the Lumia 830, first released in October 2014, and the Lumia 640XL, which was rolled out in March 2015,” Moore reports. “Both of the NYPD phones — and their Microsoft-engineered apps — run on the Windows 8.1 operating system, which the company announced it would no longer support after July 11.”
“Sources said Tisch, whose late grandfather co-founded the Loews Corp. conglomerate, insisted on Microsoft-based phones in part because the NYPD was already using Microsoft software to run the video surveillance program at its Lower Manhattan Security Initiative Command Center,” Moore reports. “‘She was in charge. It was her project, no question about that,’ a source said. Even then-NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton acknowledged Tisch’s role in the decision-making process when officials announced the smartphone plan in October 2014. ‘She’s a terror if she doesn’t get her way, so I usually let her get her way,’ Bratton had joked. ‘So she’s certainly getting her way with this technology.'”
MacDailyNews Take: The very definition of “IT doofus.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yet another stellar example of your tax dollars at work.
The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away. — Ronald Reagan
While I commend NYC for their commitment to diversity and inclusiveness, they should not be putting the mentally retarded into high level positions like the mayoralty or even NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Information Technology.
Thank God for grandpa, daddy, and rampant nepotism and cronyism, right, Jessica?
Loews Corporation:
James S Tisch, President & CEO, Jessica’s daddy
Jonathan Tisch, Co-Chairman, Jessica’s cousin
Andrew Tisch, Co-Chairman, Jessica’s uncle
Obviously no diversity in opinions on technology.
Well NYPD were clearly idiots in this matter but are we sure this Jessica Tisch person was as well? I mean if she had such a influence on purchasing of 36,000 phones, why not leverage it? It’s certainly possible she is laughing all the way to the bank on this fiasco.
She must have received a nice kickback from someone. Love and kisses from Satya Nadella. These people make me sick. One of the many reasons Microsoft has a higher valuation than Apple. I suppose at the time the decision was made to go with Windows Phones, everyone was sure the iPhone was doomed.
I’m sure she was paid off by Microsoft, but I’m surprised she had the wits to pull it off since she looks like the result of five generations of inbreeding.
I’m sure she was paid off by Microsoft, but I’m surprised she had the wits to pull it off since she looks like the result of five generations of inbreeding.
While agree that the abilities of her ancestors don’t seem to have flowed through to Jessica, it would be wrong to characterize Loews leadership as nepotism. James, Jonathan and Andrew built a very large and very successful theater chain/entertainment group. They were financial partners in the Company, each having contributed to the startup.
The nepotism is that Jessica got her job because of her name and her connections to a powerful, wealthy NY family, not because of her IT ability, obviously.
Those who know nothing about IT always pick Microsoft.
Political hacks doing what political hacks do best, hiking taxes and supporting irresponsible spending.
“Two Morons and a Dinosaur.”
😀
Same thing happened at my wife’s company. The only positive from that fiasco is that we’ve now given one of those poor Windows phone to our daughter who just started highshool. It has the very basic function she needs, and if she looses it or breaks it, it won’t be a big loss. Also, no need to worry about all the new trendy apps that she might download. Once she gets older and more responsible, she’ll receive an iPhone. Thank you Microsoft. I never thought I’d ever say that.
Oh Man, I wouldn’t do that to my daughter:( no matter how bad she’s been
She may want to contact child protective services…
Tisck, Tisck. Very bad.
Windows Phones! A huge step backwards into the 20th century. Now the NYPD is finally moving to the future with iPhones. Thank you, Jeebus.
The same Bill de Blaz is considering taking down Chris’ statue b/c some are offended. It’s relevant to ask where will it stop.
Most IT departments across the world are still anti Mac, iPhone, and Apple.
… And therefore pro-TechTardiness.
Yes, it’s still The Dark Age Of Computing. 😛
Anti-Mac yes. But iPhone is sweeping corporate America.
Radio Silence by John Joyce is an interesting story about how NYC made a similar mistake with Motorola radios for fire fighters. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/934620.Radio_Silence_FDNY
I remember that horror. Once again, rampant TechTardiness. 😛
I fell so bad for her, you expect that some now that ugly is at least smart, but she is freaking ugly and dump.
Don’t be a sexist boob. You wouldn’t have made that comment if she was a guy.
TechTardiness remains rampant.
#MyStupidGovernment remains stupid for, among other things, demanding to still use Microsoft garbage. The US wouldn’t have hundreds of thousands of cybersecurity jobs to fill if it got off the Microsoft poison.
Wake Up And Kill Your Tech Ignorance!
Even when presented with a clearly superior solution (robust UNIX platform) so many out there will fail to see it for what it is and go for something familiar, even if it’s bug ridden spaghetti code with endless amounts of holes that can be exploited in an open network environment. It’s the human condition.
Steve Jobs was right: Lemmings.
Human behavior is a deep subject, well beyond our apparent abilities or interest in perceiving. I consider psychology to still be a juvenile science with blunt practitioners using blunt concepts to wield blunt treatments. At least it’s improving, or had been until the recent claw back created by primitive politics.
I can at least point out that:
– Few programmers are willing to work at the level of assembly code.
– Even assembly code programmers have trouble with computer memory management, the source of the vast majority of code security flaws.
– The rest of us are still stuck with poorly designed coding languages and tools.
– Human laziness dictates that we stick with the original tools we’re taught, rather than strive joyfully forward to develop and learn superior tools.
– Those who don’t know or don’t want to know the complexities of computing are left to ride the waves of mere opinion and marketing media when making their technology opinions.
– Even worse, the infusion of faulty financial gaming systems into our lives dictates that what we perceive as cheaper is better.
– Stepping outside these faulty financial gaming systems, the world is a profoundly different place of seemingly infinite complexity beyond the comprehension of our animal minds. Therefore, we retreat back into our far more simple gaming systems. Meanwhile, the real world suffers from the blundering results of those gaming systems.
At least, that’s one brainstorm at 9:30 AM on a Tuesday. 😉
Someone else apparently shared your opinion about software developers…
“I observed something fairly early on at Apple, which I didn’t know how to explain then, but have thought a lot about it since. Most things in life have a dynamic range in which average to best is at most 2:1. For example if you go to New York City and get an average taxi cab driver versus the best taxi cab driver, you’ll probably get to your destination with the best taxi driver 30% faster. And an automobile; What’s the difference between the average car and the best? Maybe 20%. The best CD player versus the average CD player? Maybe 20%? So 2:1 is a big dynamic range for most things in life. Now, in software, and it used to be the case in hardware, the difference between the average software developer and the best is 50:1; Maybe even 100:1. Very few things in life are like this, but what I was lucky enough to spend my life doing, which is software, is like this. So I’ve built a lot of my success on finding these truly gifted people, and not settling for ‘B’ and ‘C’ players, but really going for the ‘A’ players. And I found something… I found that when you get enough ‘A’ players together; when you go through the incredible work to find these ‘A’ players, they really like working with each other. Because most have never had the chance to do that before. And they don’t work with ‘B’ and ‘C’ players, so its self policing. They only want to hire ‘A’ players. So you build these pockets of ‘A’ players and it just propagates.”
Steve Jobs – The Lost Interview
I strongly suspect it has to do with the relief one experiences when in the presence of someone with the same personality and intelligence as one’s self. The Heinlein term (‘Stranger in a Strange Land’) was ‘Grok’. Then add in same talent and skill level, you get the *DING* effect.
One has to be careful in this situation, however, as the resulting cliche may spiral into a monocultural black hole. A good dose of diversity, hopefully competent diversity, is required to keep our brains open and active outside our most-favored-thought-realm.
Diversity of thought, background and skill set is a strong asset to any team. But not so much diversity of skill in the same field. My experience is that Steve was right about the wide diversity of skill between great and average SW engineers.
I went to CMU, one of the top schools in SW engineering. I was not a SW undergrad but I did take the challenging intro to programming 15-111 course as I has some interest and aptitude in programming. During those years I learned quite a bit about programming both inside and outside of class.
Then I got out into industry and I was shocked to see how little most of the coders I worked with understood about the fundamentals of good programming and SW architecture. They weren’t from CMU, Stanford, Berkeley or MIT. And the difference was stark. It still is today.
Here’s a critical need for diversity within a coding team: OLD versus NEW (young) coders. Have both!
There’s a tendency, if not a biological mandate, that as we humans get geezerly, we get more intransigent. (I’m sorta/kinda lucky in that my intransigence is that I refuse to stop being a futurist. Learning new stuff is my play time).
We know full well that OLD coding methods are going to result in vast numbers of security flaws. The favorite is crap memory management. The entire series of ‘C’ code version is fraught with memory management traps that very few older coders bother to address. I.E. beware of their code.
Newer (younger) coders have now lived through the initial wave of software security HELL and they’re witnessing the incredible nightmare that is IoT security HELL. Because they have a lower intransigence factor, they’re willing if not demanding to use safer coding techniques and tools. Bringing such modern method coders into a group is critical for a coding team in order for that team to have a future AND to keep abreast of new/better methods.
I had a professor while I was studying Software Project Management who was constantly deriding the use of frameworks when coding for a platform. “We’ve learned that frameworks never work.” Maybe it was his Microsoft Windows orientation. But he was incredibly WRONG. If one checks out the number of frameworks used in macOS 10.12.6 System, the number is now past 130, depending upon what one has installed into one’s System. IOW: Modern coding for at least macOS absolutely demands the use of Apple (another other developer) created frameworks. Therefore, he would require a swift kick up the back orifice if he was on my coding team. I’d have the new kids (how humiliating?) TEACH him to use frameworks. He’d have to adjust or depart the team.
Etc.
Of course, the above indicates that motivating a team to be continuous learners is critical. We know these days that positive reinforcement is the way to do it (versus negative, pound it into their heads). Therefore, joy and humor have to become part of the team culture. ‘You arrogant little puissant / pissant ‘college boy’ know-it-all kiddie coders’ bad attitude has to be entirely derailed. It helps to continually feed the team with newer stuff than even the new kids know. As you indicated, graduating from a coding school means you’re already behind the current curve. You’re already out-of-date.
IOW: Total agreement.
Heh. Note how my concept above pertains to the PoliTard monoculturalism that sadly dominates MDN. I enjoy being a catalyst of alternative thought.
Obvious this was a bad decision and the police and taxpayers both lose. Where is the accountability?
On another note:
The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away. — Ronald Reagan
In the case of the unprecedented historical win of President Trump — the reverse is true …
I hate to break it to you but the most likely reason that Trump has not released his taxes is that everyone could see how badly his businesses have performed (not to mention all the losses he claimed).
He is no brilliant businessman. He does not understand economics nor the true engine of growth in the economy, which is small business and not the big businesses that he has been courting. The one area where Trump has shown an aptitude is as a showman and salesman. He has reached the pinnacle of the art of the con. And you’ve been had.
All though I respect and thanks for your opinion — I don’t agree.
You don’t ascend from working class to billionaire class by being a bad businessman. Certainly he made mistakes, plenty of them. He pivots and learns on his feet.
Regarding his taxes he is smart not to release them. Do you have any idea how many Democrat reporters at WashCompost, NYslimes and FNN are working full-time to take the President Trump down on a daily basis?
He has business dealings all over the world completed years and decades ago that no one has shown has anything to do with present day.
He is smart not to feed the HATE media …
Snowflakes.
Basketballs.
Wonder how much Microsoft had to pay for this one. Just as stupid as the National Football League not using iPads. Microsoft bought them off too. Both technology losers.
No one here likes M$. But even they wouldn’t stoop to this. Much more likely a local reseller with an angle. You’d have to follow the money trails, if it hadn’t already gone cold, to see if there’s a connection. Otherwise, its unsupported here-say.
I am an Apple die hard, so please do not assume I am trolling…
Both of those phones can easily be upgraded to Windows 10 Mobile (or what ever the new silly name is). It is ridiculous how stories like this omit that detail. MS is not exiting the phone market, at least not yet.
The best alternative to Windows Phone is iPhone just as the best alternative to the very failed and costly Obamacare is Single Payer.
Yes, That worked out so well for Charlie Gard.
https://townhall.com/columnists/pauljacob/2017/07/30/charlie-gard-singlepayer–both-dead-n2361970
The only reason you are in favor is so others can pay for your insurance instead of you.
My extensive search on iPad revealed that Single Payer would be approx. 30% less costly to implement and run. This is because private insurance skims that much right off the top of your premiums to pay its suits, Wall. St. investors, big banks, and Sarah Palin’s “death panels.” Her death panels often deny life saving procecures because suits determine that they cut into insurance profits too much. That’s why I am for Single Payer.
Besides, Jesus who likely would be using the Jesus phone if he were walking amongst us now, and who healed the poor in Galille at no charge, is my role model so he would be for Single Payer and we may look upon Him as the original Single Payer doctor.
Seek much professional mental help. But fucking pay for it yourself, for a change.
Bozo Bill
Amazing blunder! Hope the public aware of and realizes how much money was wasted.
NYC better lock this genius down before she gets hired away. Clearly a visionary.
THEN THIS HAPPENED:
NYPD head of IT doubles down on Windows smartphone idiocy
But, but, but they gave them to us for free, says tech boss
“We assessed that the Windows platform would be most effective at achieving our goal of securing 36,000 devices that would be used for sensitive law enforcement operations,” argues Deputy Commissioner for Information Technology Jessica Tisch in a blog post, somewhat ignoring the fact that Microsoft stopped supporting them just two years later.
JUST LAUGH :LOL: 😆😂🤣😺😸😹
You can’t stop stupid.
TechTardiness is rampant.
Ad nauseam.
:-Q*****