E-voting machines to be scrapped

Environment Minister John Gormley said a task force is being set up to oversee the disposal of the voting and counting equipment and the end of storage arrangements
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Why does it need a task force to chuck them in the electrical skip in the nearest local Bring Centre? Chances are we entered long term leases and will still have to pay for empty warehouses.
 
Towger said:
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Why does it need a task force to chuck them in the electrical skip in the nearest local Bring Centre? Chances are we entered long term leases and will still have to pay for empty warehouses.
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There was a story in last Sunday Times which gave the impression that, Monaghan Council anyway, were looking at the legality of the storage contract. Probably with an eye on breaking the leases.

The long and short of the story was that the Returning Officer was in charge of allocating the contract. She gave to her nephew who was storing them in a building built (zoned?) for agricultural uses. The contract was for 25 years even though the machines had a 20 year lifespan.

I suspect every Council in Ireland has the inside track on the backhanders here and that the rental contracts can be easily broken.
 
Did these machines not do what they were supposed to? Were they wrongly ordered? If the former, the makers should be sued, if the latter, whoever was responsible for their arrival should be carpeted. But throwing good money after bad (setting up a new quango) is not the way to go.
 
these machines are now almost part of irish folklore ... the government should ebay them ... I'm sure pubs around the country would love to have one as a talking point!
 
Henny Penny said:
I'm sure pubs around the country would love to have one as a talking point!
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This is the best idea I've heard. Maybe the Oirish pubs round the world would buy one each?

This really was a scandalous waste, particularly as all of the problems with the machines where publicly highlighted before the contracts were signed.
 
Chocks away said:
Did these machines not do what they were supposed to? ...
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They actually worked quite well, but had security issues, leaving them prone to hackers.

They were based on Motorolla 680x0 processors which were state of the art 15 / 20 years ago and used in old Apple Macs in the late 1980's and early 90's. (!)
Chocks away said:
... whoever was responsible for their arrival should be carpeted...
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Shoulda coulda woulda but it wont happen.
Chocks away said:
... But throwing good money after bad (setting up a new quango) is not the way to go.
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Of course its not but thats what'll happen.
 
Maybe we can sell them to a corrupt country that's looking to rig an election

Better to get something then throw them in a skip
 
Apparently, the Zimbabwe government are interested in buying the e-voting machines. With a minor amendment to the software, every button can be made to record a vote for Robert Mugabe.
 
mathepac said:
They were based on Motorolla 680x0 processors which were state of the art 15 / 20 years ago and used in old Apple Macs in the late 1980's and early 90's. (!)
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The 68040 Processor, also used in the better Commodore Amigas. But the real killer was the fact that the counting software, apart from having bugs was written in Microsoft Access!!!
 
Towger said:
The 68040 Processor, also used in the better Commodore Amigas. But the real killer was the fact that the counting software, apart from having bugs was written in Microsoft Access!!!
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Sounds like WE were the corrupt country looking to rig an election who bought them off someone else who made the initial mistake in purchasing them. How old were these when they fell into our hands?
 
Towger said:
But the real killer was the fact that the counting software, apart from having bugs was written in Microsoft Access!!!
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Far be it from me to defend this pile of poo, but this isn't quite true. While the counting application did use an MS Access database, the application was written in some object-oriented front-end language. And it did have lots of bugs. And no version control. And no use of formal methods.
 

It was always stated that it uses MS Access, which is the front end graphical tool/design environment. Not JET which is the database engine used by Access.
 
mathepac, thanks for explaining in #7. The mind boggles at such a major gaffe
 

Give me strength...
 
No, a design methodology is a formal method: requirements, functions, designs, code, test, fix. Code and Fix only is setting yourself up to fail.
It's lesson 101 in software or any project world I would imagine.
Version control is best practice, but not even using a methodology is cowboy behaviour.
But the developer isn't entirely to blame for that - it's up to the client to ensure that good practices are adhered to...
 
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