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Comment by mc32 | Hacker News Reader

It seems they this kind of system would benefit from a more user friendly interface; however, I don’t think all decades old software necessarily needs to be uprooted and replaced because it’s old, so long as it’s functional.

BaRT, I wonder if they’ve upgraded their system software to more modern software? They certainly could add more intelligence (system health, wear, etc.) and begin automating more aspects, so it could make sense to upgrade here, but I’m sure there are lots of places where upgrades are not necessary and the old software is good enough, so long as it’s still supported by a vendor.

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>> I don’t think all decades old software necessarily needs to be uprooted and replaced because it’s old, so long as it’s functional.

I'd say that's especially true in places like power plants. The old stuff is impossible to hack remotely because it's not on any networks. The rush to put everything on the network has made these types of systems vulnerable and places are only now trying to figure out how to secure them.

Which old software are we talking about? Is it the Clipper Card system that has tens of thousands of business rules that prevent transit agendcies from rolling out new passes and pricing strategies? Or are we taking about the software that runs the trains and currently causes a bottle neck through the transbay tube?

Not everything needs to be rewritten in React using Google’s Material UI design standards, but my god, our public software really sucks.

Even as the article talked about the tax assessors office... I know someone who bought a condo, but SF can’t collect property tax because their office is so backlogged. So instead they told the owner to make sure they save the money because in a couple of years they’re going to come asking for it.

The Clipper Card system _must_ fall into this category. I recently called because I was certain my card was being fraudulently used--the value would dip $5-10 for a single ride, and there were top-up credit card transactions that didn't correspond even remotely to my credit card statement.

Turns out SF Muni and Clipper Card (and possibly Clipper Card's billing vendor?) are two/three completely independent organizations. Everything is passed between them in batches with up to a several-month delay, with batches often arriving out of order. This makes auditing nearly impossible and is what made me think something sketchy was happening. It's a miracle it works at all.

The software is not the issue with the tube. It's the fixed block system imposing minimum 1 minute headways.

Is it the Clipper Card system that has tens of thousands of business rules that prevent transit agendcies from rolling out new passes and pricing strategies

You're putting the cart before the horse there. It's the transit agencies themselves that advocate for the lack of prices. BART, for instance, held out on implementing TransLink/Clipper for ages because they wanted their own BART-only cash purse on the card. Clipper is still fairly new and I don't think the fare rules have changed much, if at all, since its inception.

> SF can’t collect property tax because their office is so backlogged

IME they're able to collect property tax, no problem.

Clearly the truth lies somewhere in between both these statements. Something like:

"SF can't collect the full and accurate amount of property tax in a timely manner from properties that were recently reassessed because their local assessor office is backlogged due to use of old and inefficient software."

Which is basically what this whole article is saying.

>add more intelligence (system health, wear, etc.)

Of course, telemetry is the first thing that comes to mind about modern software.

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