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People's jobs and freedom are being jeopardized by the roll-out of new software by California's courts.
[..] Odyssey, the new system being rolled out across much of California to deal with case file management.
So far, the problems have seen people wrongfully arrested, held in prison longer than required and in several cases mistakenly told they must register as sex offenders.
The software, created by Texas-based Tyler Technologies, costs about $5m and is set to gradually replace a decades-old e-filing system that looks like something a hacker would use in a Hollywood movie.
[...] Minor driving offences were incorrectly appearing as serious felonies,  meaning if an affected person applied for a job, they are likely to be flagged as having a serious criminal record.
[...] Tyler Technologies provided a statement to the BBC in which it defended its software, and shifted blame back to Alameda County's staff.
It said many factors could impact the software's usefulness, among them training of those who use the technology.
"We are confident that we have the experience to help our client navigate those inevitable headwinds, just as we have done many times before with other complex implementations," spokesman Tony Katsulos said.
Source: BBC News
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 01 2016, @11:31AM
> people wrongfully arrested, held in prison longer than required and in several cases mistakenly told they must register as sex offenders.
Lots of geeks like to fantasize about how great the world would be if we just let computers make all the hard decisions.
Well, this exactly what you can expect in reality as that fantasy is implemented. It doesn't matter what the law on the books says, its the implementation that matters and when that implementation is buggy (as all software is) then injustice is hardcoded. We are all Harry Buttle. [imdb.com]
(Score: 5, Funny) by wonkey_monkey on Thursday December 01 2016, @12:40PM
We are all Harry Buttle.
Tuttle.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by Webweasel on Thursday December 01 2016, @02:22PM
Sorry, I'm a bit of a stickler for paperwork. Where would we be if we didn't follow the correct procedures?
Have you filled in form 27b/6?
Priyom.org Number stations, Russian Military radio. "You are a bad, bad man. Do you have any other virtues?"-Runaway1956
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 01 2016, @12:56PM
That is a legal and bureaucratic problem. The computers are incidental.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday December 01 2016, @03:07PM
While that is true, it is irrelevant.
People may feel much more comfortable doing things that a trustworthy machine tells them to do, without questioning.
The corporate overlords may be able to manipulate the instructions the machines give to the people who carry out those instructions. Nevertheless, those doing what the machine tells them feel confident in their actions. They become part of the machine.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 01 2016, @03:59PM
Maybe you are too young to have experienced this, but back in the day before computers did EVERYTHING, people could end up in a shit situation due to what was known as a "clerical error." Some clerk would misenter information on a paper form or else not file paperwork as required. Agency B wouldn't get their needed info from Agency A and the onus was on YOU to convince them THEY had made an error. It is a proven fact that computers have improved the accuracy of information filing over the old manual paper days.
The only legitimate complaint is against the laws and rules that make this information keeping required.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 01 2016, @04:08PM
I should clarify that I am arguing against people who say computers *in general* are the problem rather than *the law*.
In this *particular* case, it might be that the software is buggy due to incompetence by the contractor, or because the govt gave the contractor bad specs to work from, or because the operators are dense. Nobody on this website knows the answer to that yet.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 01 2016, @04:14PM
I'll add another possible cause: inadequate budget of money/time allocated to system testing before going live.
(Score: 2) by jcross on Friday December 02 2016, @09:45PM
It might be, however, that our perceptions of improved accuracy have outpaced the actual accuracy. In the time of clerical errors, anyone could see themselves making one, and it was an eventuality that had to be accounted for somehow. With computers, it's beyond most users to comprehend the reasons behind an algorithmic error, so they tend to assume the smart people who made the software couldn't possibly have fucked up.
Also we still have to live with clerical errors because people are still entering the data, sometimes over and over again for no good reason, like with the medical forms I keep having to fill out by hand with the exact same information as last time.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Thursday December 01 2016, @03:21PM
"Computer says no" [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 01 2016, @03:45PM
Lots of geeks like to fantasize about how great the world would be if we just let computers make all the hard decisions.
Ask any computer if it would rather "get things right" or just continue down the path of "horrible software design, implementation, security and support" and I bet it would choose "get things right". It's the humans that are mucking things up, not the computers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 01 2016, @05:01PM
Ask a human if he would rather "get things right" or just continue down the path of "horrible software design, implementation, security and support" and I bet he would choose "get things right".
For the computer, I'd rather expect an answer along the line of "The question contains insufficiently defined terms and conditions. Please clarify."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mcgrew on Thursday December 01 2016, @04:37PM
Yes, there is buggy software, but only very complex software (say, an OS) needs to be so complex that there's no way to test it properly. And they always call it "computer error" even when it's a clerk typing in the wrong number!
The computer's not going to "mistakenly" make a traffic ticket into a felony because it doesn't like the person who got the ticket, but humans are more than capable of doing this.
There are no computer errors, only human errors. Bugs are in fact HUMAN errors. The programmer's creed seems to be "measure with a micrometer, mark with chalk and cut with a chain saw".
Yes, I'll trust a computer more than a human, especially if I'm the one who programmed it.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 01 2016, @04:52PM
The computer's not going to "mistakenly" make a traffic ticket into a felony because it doesn't like the person who got the ticket, but humans are more than capable of doing this.
Nor is a computer going to listen to you say "this isn't right" and do something about it. Computers hardcode the human error on the front-end and eliminate the human and thus the ability for humans to correct errors on the back-end.
(Score: 3, Informative) by skater on Thursday December 01 2016, @04:55PM
I worked in a retail store in the 90s that was computerizing, and just before our store went live, the owners came in and had a meeting with all of us. One of the things they said was, "Don't blame the computer. If a price is wrong, it's because someone entered the wrong price. The computer only does what it's told." It was good advice, designed to make sure we didn't destroy confidence in the system with ourselves or our customers. The switchover went very well.