I think it was a big ask to expect an online census system to cope with the potential volumes.
The ABS made people believe that the census had to be completed on the evening of the 9th August. Given that 90% of the population live within a 30 minute time zone difference, most people would have attempted to complete their census after dinner, probably at 8:00 PM when the television national news has finished and people are told, "don't forget it's census night". I was at work that evening and had completed 1/2 of the census. When my wife tried to complete her section, it was inaccessible. The telephone help desk was useless, they gave her a new access number and told her that the old one was now obsolete. Not true! I completed the census today without a problem. No doubt a CICS pseudo-conversational web app would have coped with the workload. On Tue, Aug 16, 2016 at 7:19 AM, Kirk Wolf <[email protected]> wrote: > I can't predict the future for IBM's Australian cloud, but it seems > unlikely that "C" will be as dead as a dodo anytime soon. I think that > there are a couple of operating systems that still use it :-) > > I would agree with you that "C" is a lousy choice for application code, but > not because of efficiency. Better choices are generally less-efficient > than "C", but thankfully the efficiency of an application rarely depends on > the programming language. > > Kirk Wolf > Dovetailed Technologies > http://dovetail.com > > On Sun, Aug 14, 2016 at 6:23 AM, Clem Clarke <[email protected] > > > wrote: > > > Re the Computer problems with the Census at the Australian Bureau of > > Statistics in 2016, I submitted these notes to one of the major > Australian > > Newspapers "The Age" today. > > ====================== > > A computer language that I designed and wrote in the 1970's was used by > > the Australian Bureau of Statistics to control and run all their > computers > > for some decades. The language - Jol - ran many of the largest computers > in > > the world for many decades. > > > > The ABS ran a superb system on their mainframe (read BIG) computers. They > > then moved to a different type of computers. One of the main problems > with > > computers these days is that they use computer languages that are not > > really suited to commercial applications. Further, the base language of > > these newer computers are based on a language called "C". "C" is > > extraordinarily inefficient when moving and comparing characters, and > > dangerous too. One of the main reasons viruses infect so many computers > is > > because of this failure. I spoke to Bill Gates briefly in Melbourne > around > > 1988 and wrote to him about this problem, and he responded. > > > > However, the "C" problems were never fixed, and cause all computers to > run > > more slowly than they should, and with the possibility of problems. > > > > You can read more of this at www.Oscar-Jol.com < > http://www.Oscar-Jol.com/> > > > > Clement Victor Clarke <https://www.facebook.com/clemclarke> > > > > > > > > > > David Crayford wrote: > > > >> The Australian prime minister has just given a press conference and > >> pointed the finger directly at IBM for this debacle. It's entirely > >> predictable in this day > >> and age that a high profile event like an online census will face some > >> kind of cyber attack. It happens all the time. IBM, the service > provider, > >> did not have adequate > >> measures in place to deal with the attack, fundamental measures like > >> geo-blocking. It's a bloody disgrace! > >> > >> IBMs reputation is already in tatters in Australia after the Queensland > >> government health payroll disaster. The Queensland government is still > >> refusing to budge on a > >> sector-wide ban on new contracts with IBM and who can blame them. After > >> this fiasco their brand is toxic. This is a company who government and > the > >> private sector > >> would 100% trust to get the job done with integrity. Unfortunately, > those > >> days are past now. Too many high profile failures and accusations of > >> underhand dealing have > >> ruined their credibility down here http://www.itnews.com.au/news/ > >> ibm-should-never-have-been-appointed-finds-qld-payroll-inquiry-352362. > >> > >> Maybe what IBM needs is a change in leadership. > >> > >> > >> On 10/08/2016 12:37 PM, Edward Gould wrote: > >> > >>> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/09/australian_census_sl > >>> ips_in_the_ibm_cloud/ > >>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > >>> For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > >>> send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > >>> > >> > >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > >> send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > >> > >> > > > > --- > > This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. > > https://www.avast.com/antivirus > > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > -- Wayne V. 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