by Dwayne Phillips Thanks to recent legislation concerning health insurance, we have a new way to calculate take-home pay. In the old days, whenever that was, take-home pay was calculated as: income minus taxes Now, however, take-home pay is calculated as: income minus taxes minus what you pay for health insurance in your job based […]
The New Take-Home Pay
December 21st, 2015 · No Comments
Tags: Employment · Government
Logical Implication, Lying, and Distrust
December 5th, 2015 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips I explore another aspect of logical implication and how lying permits people to construct all sorts of crazy stories. Background: If logical implication makes no sense to you, and it made no sense to me for years, I point to two prior blog posts that I hope will help you understand this […]
Tags: Adults · Authentic · Communication · Government
Google Search Results and Lawsuits
October 1st, 2015 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Google is often sued for its free search results. I am missing something here. India is investigating Google search results for antitrust violations. I don’t understand how any of this works. I pay nothing for Google search results. They are free advice that are often worth every penny I pay. Yes, sometimes […]
Tags: Government
Citizens and Citizenry
September 24th, 2015 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes citizens of the U.S. working for the U.S. become separated from the rest of the citizenry at everyone’s loss. Recently, heads of agencies of the U.S. Intelligence Community met to discuss the types of things they discuss in public. Several of them lamented the protests of many citizens against their efforts […]
Tags: Culture · Employment · Government
The Death of Agile
July 9th, 2015 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips The Federal government is using agile development (or so they claim). Agile will be dead and gone in ten years. Agile development is hot. Everyone is using it. The Federal (state and local) government is using it now. At least government agencies say they are using it, but anyone who can tell […]
Tags: Agility · Government
Stolen Garbage
June 16th, 2015 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Someone stole a copy of the OPM database. That database is full of errors. The thieves might make good money with an algorithm that finds and corrects the errors. Someone recently hacked the OPM database. I am certain that all sorts of good information about me is in that database. I’m not […]
Tags: Competence · Government · Privacy · Security
The FCC and the Open Internet
March 24th, 2015 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips I read the FCC’s document on Net Neutrality (“Report and order,” 2015) and provide my comments. The FCC recently released the full text of their document on the Open Internet (the full document is available in PDF here). I read all 400 pages of document and assenting and dissenting views of the […]
Tags: Government
Drones, Remote-Controlled Aircraft, and Reality
November 27th, 2014 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Can we stop the silliness surrounding drones and come back to reality? This recent story decries coming regulations that may require a pilot’s license to fly a drone. Let’s repeat a bit of reality: Today’s drones are not autonomous flying robots are remote-controlled (RC) flying vehicles For decades, hobbyists have flow RC […]
Tags: Government · Technology
Progressive Government IT—Decades Behind
October 23rd, 2014 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips A look at 21st century Digital Government shows that government is still decades behind. Look at this ground-breaking document from our Federal government. It describes how to achieve 21st-century excellence in IT services for the citizen. Okay, enough of the hyperbole. Let’s look at the document. It shows IT in three layers: […]
Tags: Government · Systems
Why Innovation Doesn’t Occur in Government
October 9th, 2014 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Here is a brief explanation of why innovation doesn’t work in government. Too bad as there are clever, innovative people in government. I worked several decades inside the US Federal government. There are plenty of dedicated, smart people working inside government. They often have good ideas for things and gadgets the government […]
Tags: Agility · Competence · Government