File under: Office Annoyances, IT

This has happened to me twice this week: I get in to work, logon, have just enough time to open my email program, read a few messages, wonder why my computer is so slow this morning, get several spreadsheets open to do some research in order to respond to those emails, hit reply on the first email of the day...and then: "Beep! Automatic Updates. Do you want to restart now or later?" Actually, I do not, since I just started making progress on something. Since "No" is not an option, I generally go with later so I can finish what I am doing, but soon enough it is back again, popping up in the middle of the screen to prevent anything useful from being done. So I close down everything and restart. Then I open everything back up again and take 5-10 minutes to get back to where I was. Great.

Today's annoyance was compounded by the dreaded: "Beep! You have 7 grace logins remaining before you must change your password." upon initial login. After automatic updates..."Beep! You have 6 grace logins remaining before you must change your password." I just want to make it through Friday without changing to a new password so I don't forget it over the weekend, leave me alone! I think our password expiration period has gotten shorter, but I know other companies have way more cryptic password r3q_1Remen+5, so I won't complain too much.

I can't decide if a slow computer & forced restart right after you login is better or worse than the old way of pushing updates which involved IT sending everyone 5+ high priority emails the day before saying "LEAVE YOUR COMPUTER ON TONIGHT - REQUIRED UPDATE!"

Public Transit is Screwed - Even More Than You Think!

I came across a link to a segment of the PBS series Blueprint America just now. The segment examined the funding gap that most public transit systems are experiencing with the present state of the economy. I watched the clip, and thought it was interesting so I went looking for the next part of the series. Found it, and it exposes quite the story. Since I work in public sector finance, I know what it feels like for these agencies to be under massive pressure to cut budgets and services or raise rates or skip maintenance. However, many public transit systems are doubly screwed by the financial meltdown in a way I would never have expected. Here is the clip (embedding is not working for some reason).

My initial reactions:

• A single subway car costs $4 million?!
• Why is the federal government encouraging public agencies to foist their assets off on the private sector to circumvent the tax system? Shouldn't they discourage that type of behavior?
• Agencies should be able to depreciate their assets. If they are not paying taxes, give them some other kind of credit such as reduced interest loans...
• Why do they keep calling track maintenance a capital project? That clearly should fall under an operations budget (I'm no accountant...but I know that's not the way we do it.)
• STAY AWAY from anything labeled as an "Innovative Financing Technique"!!! Remember Credit Default Swaps and Sub-Prime Mortgage Backed Securities?
• What in the world are these agencies doing getting into contracts which contain provisions for $50 million penalties in the first place? No matter how unlikely that seems, that is a consequence most systems simply cannot handle (hence the court battle here).
• The disclosure of the use of public funds is being shielded by some agreement with the bank? Get ready to be sued over that when you deny the public disclosure request!
  
• The DC Metro system already has more elevator outages than they can get on a reader board most of the time. How can they possibly handle more?
  
• Oh crap, everything is even more screwed over (and by none other than AIG) than I thought!

What are your thoughts? I really love reports like this, I hope they keep coming!

This links to the first segement, which left me wondering: Ridership up = Budget Crisis, Ridership down = Budget Crisis. How can it be both ways? There must be a tipping point at which more riders cause a need for increased service etc, but up until then they should be helping the system. Also, raise the freakin' fares! It's ugly, but it has to be done.