Someone's Shooting At Me! Where's The ALT Key?!?
from the whooops dept
Remember that "new" government SAP system that made people go through fifteen steps to save a document? Well, at least that was just a nuisance, but didn't put anyone's life at risk. Police in San Jose, California are complaining about their new police car computers that require too many steps to "call for assistance" in an emergency -- among other problems. The basic issue seems to be that San Jose went with off-the-shelf Windows-based tools (yes, it goes without saying that it crashed, big time), and no one bothered to actually ask the cops who would be using the system how they used their existing systems, and whether or not the design made sense. As for the "call for assistance" issue, originally it was easy -- too easy. Apparently, too many people were calling in with false alarms for assistance, so they made it more difficult. That's just dandy until you're the cop who needs assistance now and don't want to go hunting for the "alt" key. Next thing you know, they'll join with the cops in Philly complaining about adware in the cruisers.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Too many false alarms
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Too many false alarms
[ link to this | view in chronology ]