Nandor on IT
January 31st, 2006 at 9:41 am by David FarrarThe NZ Herald has a good interview with Nandor on IT issues. I did have to laugh at his battles with The Parliamentary Service to get Firefox installed on his PC. PS are very risk averse to any non standard software going on the system. Of course Firefox should be standard!
When I worked there somehow I ended up with a user profile which gave me administrator rights to local PCs. This made me very popular with my colleagues as I could install MSN Messenger for them, despite the best attempts of PS to ban it.
On more important matters, good to see Nandor focusing on local loop issues. Very much in agreement there. Not so keen on a hardware levy though.
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January 31st, 2006 at 10:00 am
It would be great for Nandor and Rodney to form an alliance on this topic. At the very least Rodney can show Nandor how to install Linux on his laptop (hint – Ubuntu 5.10).
Vote:January 31st, 2006 at 10:00 am
PS run the whole network these days don’t they? When I was there (DIA, working for Ministerial Services…), the network was rather factionalised with DIA runnins dome, PS running other bits, and every agency in the complex with their own IT “vision”. How email ever got to anyone was rather misaculous at the time.
While we had very strict rules about non standard applications & hardware, there was this one Minister called Maurice, who used to install all sorts of crap that vendors sent him. With all sorts of weird consequences…
Vote:January 31st, 2006 at 10:03 am
Man… shitty typing there. “some”, “miraculous”..
you get the drift.
Vote:January 31st, 2006 at 10:09 am
I assume the parliamentary IT service are, like most IT departments, tasked to provide an agreed level of service to enable people to do their jobs.
The most economical way to do this is to give everyone a standard desktop loaded with core applications. That way, helpdesk people and service techs all know what they are dealing with and don’t get confronted with unusual issues. In addition, if a machine fails or reaches end-of-life, swapping it out is just a matter of loading a standard build.
IT departments run on these lines are very loath to add new software – the downside is that it will cost money and if it causes problems it will reflect badly on them. If the current software enables people to do their jobs, then just being “better” isn’t enough upside to justify a change.
Now this is annoying to those with technical skills who want to run their own choice of apps. One solution would be to offer two levels of service. Normal users can take a standard desktop and accept the services provided. Geeks, and those with access to geeky skills, can choose to take a bare machine, acquire and install their own software and receive an ISP-like central service (email and a firewall).
Vote:January 31st, 2006 at 10:10 am
I was in Australia for a couple of weeks, and was amazed at how far ahead of us they are (OK – not really, but it puts it in perspective). Broadband uptake at least double ours; many ISPs starting to implement ADSL2 (and most of the others working out plans for it, including broadband-over-powerlines) and on a bit of a tangent, they are also broadcasting HDTV. When will that happen in NZ?
Vote:January 31st, 2006 at 11:13 am
I agree with Rich, in that many organisations try to maintain a Standard Operating Environment to enable a consistent delivery of service.
It costs time and money to keep networks running.
This translates to not spending hours of time trying to fix some-one’s copy of Word because it has a strange conflict with some third party macros downloaded to make the user more productive (but didn’t), or the PDF genrator they downloaded trashes that trashes the default printer driver (and they needed a document printed urgently), or the Britteny screen saver that made the entire machine run 50% slower, or the Peer to Peer skype-like tool that highjacked bandwidth and suddenly relayed external traffic through the agencies internet connection.
The whole article was a very nice “battle of the underdog vs. the supposedly non-caring departmental autocrats who probably don’t respond fast enough when said user has trashed their machine, lost documents saved locally instead of to the network (or by-passed the EDRMS) etc.
Usual standard of reporting – not to include any comment from the other party to provide any balance. Or was the sole purpose a PR campaign by the Greens to rebuild their profile?
I’m all for user driven demand towards IT, and allowing a degree of flexibility in the IT environment. And go Firefox! But what was Nandor’s business case for Firefox? Because its free? Because it is sticking one to Microsoft? Because the PS folks haven’t made it a priority to test it in their environment? I hope he had a better reason than that (and there are lots of reasons, I just didn’t hear any from Nandor other than he supports open source. (viva la revolution).
Maybe the next time he catches a plane he can see if they’ll retro-fit this cool open source flight nav gadget, and over-ride the auto pilot with the open source “suits all airbus” one with output to the passenger video system? Its got better graphics and provides passenger feedback. I think the Airbus Proprietary shit is over-rated
Vote:January 31st, 2006 at 11:29 am
Spam, ADSL2 is damn fine and I agree in some respects Australia is ahead but in one area at least, Australia seems miles behind; international tolls. It costs a hell of a lot more to call internationally from Australia than it does in NZ, why is this; I’d have thought prices were in part a function of volume and that Australian volume would lead to some savings… to use an Australian venacular, it shits me!
Vote:January 31st, 2006 at 11:43 am
Heh… Zen, that really does remind me of a previous IT minister & his (inaccurate) bleating to the press about what the parliamentary network couldn’t do at the time (it could).
it just didn’t come from Microsoft.
But I agree, by necessity most networks have to run efficiently & guarantee security & that can most easily be done by applying some rigid standards. Irregardless of whether there are arguably better products elsewhere.
there’re quite a lot of “standard” applications I’d like to take off my users (must be getting more hardline in my old age) in the interests of security, consistency & accuracy.
MS Access comes to mind, and all the time wasted fixing half arsed databases.
Vote:January 31st, 2006 at 1:21 pm
DPF, you “somehow” ended up with administrator rights…?
You are too modest!
Vote:January 31st, 2006 at 6:05 pm
Everytime the Greens come up with a policy they either want to ban it or put a levy i.e. a tax on it – unless it is drugs.
Vote:January 31st, 2006 at 6:14 pm
God you’re an idiot tim barclay.
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