Oracle Sues 5 Oregon Officials For 'Improper Influence' 83
SpzToid writes: Following up on an earlier Slashdot story, the Oracle Corporation has filed a rather timely suit against five of former governor John Kitzhaber's staff for their "improper influence" in the decision to shutter the Cover Oregon healthcare website, while blaming Oracle to defuse the political consequences. Oracle argues the website was ready to go before the state decided to switch to the federal exchange in April.
"The work on the exchange was complete by February 2014, but going live with the website and providing a means for all Oregonians to sign up for health insurance coverage didn't match the former-Governor's re-election strategy to 'go after' Oracle," Oracle spokeswoman Deborah Hellinger said in a statement.
Kitzhaber resigned last week amid criminal probes into an influence-peddling scandal involving allegations that his fiancée used her position in his office for personal gain.
"The work on the exchange was complete by February 2014, but going live with the website and providing a means for all Oregonians to sign up for health insurance coverage didn't match the former-Governor's re-election strategy to 'go after' Oracle," Oracle spokeswoman Deborah Hellinger said in a statement.
Kitzhaber resigned last week amid criminal probes into an influence-peddling scandal involving allegations that his fiancée used her position in his office for personal gain.
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LETTERS ON AN ELK HUNT
By a Woman Homesteader
Copyright, 1915, by Elinore Pruitt Stewart
http://www.gutenberg.org/files... [gutenberg.org]
Inproper influence (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Inproper influence (Score:5, Insightful)
There should be an investigation into why Oracle was ever tendered the contract in the first place. It couldn't have been on merit. I have never met, or heard of, anyone who outsourced to Oracle and was pleased with the result. They have the worst reputation in the business. I trust Microsoft more than I trust Oracle.
Re:Inproper influence (Score:5, Interesting)
That's not nearly as true as you'd think. Besides which, there's a difference between Oracle's database (which is widely used), and Oracle's consultancy arm which while used has never put out a decent project in their history.
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Seems like a pretty easy case to make.
1) Oracle is one of the largest, most effective, powerful, and most used database systems on the planet.
The decision process went probably something like this: "We're trying to build the largest health care database system on the planet, and we're using Oracle database technology, seems it might be a good idea to have them actually build then thing rather than some random contractors". Which was probably just lazy on the part of management, or an ass saving move, as the
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Makes sense, considering their CEO does not have an ethical bone in his body.
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Now that they're people, I don't see why not.
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Exactly. Kitzhaber was a Democrat on paper, but he is a Republican. That party rules this state with an iron fist. They control nearly every aspect of our day to day lives. They decided that only the rich are entitled to healthcare so they kept it from us. Oracle was ordered to make a site that didn't work. Kitzhaber recently had to resign in disgrace after getting caught being involved with tax fraud. The IRS is investigating him. That obviously makes him a Republican. He might not be on paper, bu
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He did say he got caught being involved with tax fraud. The IRS is investigating him. We know that doesn't happen to democrats. Well, we know nobody pays attention and little is ever done about it because excuses like the tax software was confusing works good enough for them to keep their offices. It's just the republicans who seem to implode and lose their seats when caught despite studies say the democrat tax cheats outweigh the republicans 72% to 28%.
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studies say the democrat tax cheats outweigh the republicans 72% to 28%.
So for every 150 lb Republican tax cheat, there's a 385 lb Democrat tax cheat?
That sounds about right.
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The statistic is hardly representative of anything because the bulk of Republican are just poor gullible minimum wage idiots sucked in by 1% rich Republicans, those poor Republicans don't earn enough to pay tax worth cheating on, now that is known the world over.
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Gotcha... greedy Democrats don't understand principles.
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There is a word for persons who place their idealism above what is good for the country, and that word is "Republican".
There is a word for those persons who fight so strongly for their ideals that they are willing to destroy democracy, and that word is "Tea Party".
Discuss. Do try to keep it civil.
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There is a word for persons who place their idealism above what is good for the country
Gotcha... discuss. Do try to keep it intellectually honest.
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It's interesting that he declares something is good for a country without qualifying it. What he means is it is good for the idealized country he wants which is the same as putting your idealism above what is good for the country.
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Who the Frick modded this "insightful"?
Re:Inproper influence (Score:5, Insightful)
Whatever Oracle is accused of, if the accusations are related to incompetence, they are probably true. However states and businesses keep keep handing over billions in dollars in contracts to these large IT organizations because those organizations can check all the boxes on the paperwork. The core competency of Oracle, is winning bids which has nothing to do with delivering the end product. Winning the bid and building the system/service are 2 completely different and unrelated enterprises. 2 entirely different parts of both the customer and vendor organizations are involved in these 2 unrelated efforts. Oracle is a sales organization. For Oracle, the project is over when the contract is signed and the sales team has already moved onto the next meal. Everything is then shipped off to low cost armies of credentialed people who are experts in process and ass-covering 6 timezones away....The funny thing is that the customer is then "shocked" when the project blows up.
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I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks exactly that.
My biggest frustration is that I'm excellent at planning and execution but don't have that sales edge, resulting in no work.
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The core competency of Oracle is winning bids
Daaaaaaaaamn, mod parent up.
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The sad part is that the huge corporate screw-ups keep winning the contracts because small but capable shops can't afford the costs of the paperwork designed to keep screw-ups out of the process and they can't afford the lawyers needed to actually get paid when the customer changes directions 5 times and makes the project late.
If they would allow pay as you go contracts with small shops they would get a lot more successful projects (or at worst, fail cheaply enough to try again) but again they're so paranoi
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That's not just Oracle. That's every IT consultancy. I've never heard of a large outsourced IT project that wasn't overbudget, behind schedule, and ultimately did not do what it was supposed to do. Of course most in-house projects suffer the same fate. And there's positively zero correlation between certificationed personnel and project success.
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Some say that if time travelers and extra terrestrials existed we'd have men them by now, and we haven't so therefore they don't.
Perhaps they're just keeping away in case Oracle try to sell them something.
I'd consider North Korea over Oracle (Score:1)
At least there's a chance North Korea's position would have a shred of truth to it.
lmfao (Score:2, Informative)
Oracle was getting sued for taking Oregon's money, and not having the exchange be fully functional when it was required in 2013. Oregon had to process all apps by hand or over the phone, because the website wasn't functional.
That sounds like a reason to can Oracle in favor of another option. Oracle defrauded and scammed Oregon, selling us a faulty product.
obamasweapon.com [obamasweapon.com]
Re:lmfao (Score:4, Informative)
Here was the reason for needing the exchange. As ObamaCare was brand new, there was an anticipation of a huge wave of sign ups. And needing a way to process those requests. Oregon did its usual bidding thing, Oracle was the bidder selected for the project saying they would provide a working exchange by the 2013 sign ups. The site was incomplete and didn't work. Oregon scrambled, ended up doing all the work by hand/phone. Oracle's promises never came true and they delayed and delayed, by Feb 2014 sign ups were practically done and over. The need for the site was done, and they set up the alternative ways of doing sign ups in order to meet the deadlines.
There oracle is with its project no one wanted anymore, and it had less value because Oregon already got through its first wave of health care sign ups. Subsequently there was less need for a health care exchange going forward, Oracle bombed. Oregon decided to sue oracle to recooperate the money paid to Oracle for the failed project, which amounted to Oracle being paid for nothing. Oregonian's felt their tax money had been squandered by Oracle, I don't know of anyone who doesn't feel that way.
obamasweapon.com [obamasweapon.com]
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I don't know of anyone who doesn't feel that way.
The Oregon governor Kitzhaber created a panel of subject matter experts that were involved with every step of the process. Also, he created a large group that was involved with user acceptance testing. The state was most certainly involved with every step of the process from writing the requirements to the technical specs that were sent to Oracle to the software testing to the final user acceptance. They signed off on it. The site was what they asked for, and they approved it. The people of Oregon shou
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The site was not what they asked for, because it wasn't working and required more and more money to be invested. They failed on the contract.
You are a nut fuck because Oregon is more liberal than other states. Yes it's shit still, poor as it is, but we weren't one of the states that tried to bail out on Medicaid expansion or challenged the law in court. We embraced and fully implemented it.
During 2013 I observed that, everyone was given the heads up to get on Medicaid, and the state did aggressive enrollmen
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Oregon had to process all apps
Which was Oregon's fault because they approved the site after user acceptance testing. 42.15% of that state voted for Rmoney in the 2012 election, so they deserve what they got. They are asshole Republicans so they don't deserve health insurance. As many Americans were, I was happy to see them shoot themselves in the foot with this disaster. Also, their governor at the time was a DINO. He was certainly acting like a Republican in the latest scandal that resulted in him resigning in disgrace just like N
Can someone explain this? (Score:2, Interesting)
I read TFA and I still am confused about what Oracle is alleging, exactly. Can a lawyer or someone who understands it better explain it? Is Oracle claiming libel or something? I'm honestly sympathetic to the nature of complaint, but don't understand what leverage they have legally--what is their legal argument?
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This is so funny. You are so invested in your worldview that you must create a fiction in order to blame the failings on your enemy. Of course the no true scottsman is a valid fallacy even being a fallacy, but you take it to the point of absurdity making you the king of la la land.
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You do understand that cheating at taxes is more of a democrat thing than a republican thing right?
http://taxprof.typepad.com/tax... [typepad.com]
I know it's hard for the delusional to find their world isn't as they thought, but the fact of the matter is that it would seem that either someone is lieing to you or you are ignoring reality all together. So please, look up the suicide prevention number in your area, make sure you are near a phone, then read that link. You can also do searches for words groups together like "
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You didn't know it was greenwow the whole time? Goodness.
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hipster??? probably the first time ive ever been called that... thanks?
Re:Can someone explain this? (Score:5, Informative)
What they're alleging is that political staffers interfered with the project to help the governor's election chances.
As much as I believe Oracle is the spawn of Satan, if the governor's aides and staffers did that Oracle would have a reasonable complaint. When you sign a system development contract you agree to deliver a system and the client agrees to pay you. If you someone induces your client not to accept a system that meets the criteria, that's what lawyers call a "tort". It's something you can justifiably sue over.
Likewise there are many ways political operatives could potentially sabotage a project, and that'd be actionable too. Any non-trivial development project is dependent upon the client acting in good faith. They have to act as if they want the system. It's extremely easy for a client to cause a project to fail, by raising an endless stream of trivial complaints or by dragging its feet in its responsibilities like acceptance testing or giving feedback. It'd be all to easy for well-placed political operatives to undermine the bureaucracy's willingness to cooperate.
That said, in *this* particular instance the suit sounds like business as usual for Oracle, in other words acting like bastards.
Re:Can someone explain this? (Score:5, Insightful)
I must admit that I'm torn on this one. Who to cheer for? A corrupt politician or Oracle? Can we have a no-holds-barred cage match and shoot the winner in the head?
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Can't we just hang everyone and their families, raze their homes, and salt the earth?
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I think the only thing that matters here is the timing of the suit after the governor's resignation. Once the governor resigns, even if the allegations surrounding the resignation turn out to be true, the governor has a cloud over his head making it trivial to tie anything and everything to his "corruption" even if the actual allegations have nothing to do with ancillary claims made against him, such as Oracle's suit.
"Let's blame Oracle" also sounds like a lousy political strategy that would motivate few v
As someone who recently filed MD Health Insurance (Score:5, Interesting)
(I am a software developer)
I recently helped my parents to file for Health insurance using Maryland Health Exchange website. What a clusterfuck !!!!!!!! Website used Oracle + Java.
1. Non-intuitive website, cryptic. Looked as it time traveled from 90s.
2. Gave parsing error (page filled with Java Exceptions with line numbers !!!!!!, in other words, site was compiled in debug mode !!!!!!!) when entered information which had spaces at the end, like social security with space at the end.
3. Made a typo in SSN or any other personal info ? Shit, touch luck ! There is no way to go back and edit personal info after you have filled information about household members. You need to call support line.
4. My brother and father share same first name. So, system added my brother as son, and head of household, making household of 4 people, instead of 3 people. Called support line. I was told that it is alright !!!!! "At the backed, they will fix it"(actual quote). Well, insurance cost was be calculated based on number of household members, making it significantly more expensive.
5. Forgot password and tried 3 times to log in ? Site locks you out, you call support and they will give you temp password that might not work !!! (this is what I was actually told). Temp password did not work !!!!!! You have to wait 24 hours, call them once again, and they will give you new password that might/might not work !!!
Recently, someone exceptional shadotter left great comment about US patent office, let me paraphrase it. "If the Oracle worked on this (patent office approves), they should be lit on fire, dipped in shit, shot and then fired."
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All production Java applications are compiled in debug mode. This way the problems can be properly debugged. Some application frameworks even require debug compilation to be able to do their runtime AOP.
That said: it is incompetence to show stack traces or other confusing errors to users. They are supposed to go to a log file.
That said: Some people are always incompetent, but after weeks of overtime, everyone will be incompetent.
How could the project work? (Score:3)
According to this talk
http://blogs.technet.com/b/cdn... [technet.com]
By Steve McConnell who presumably has no skin in the game, Oregon's website was extremely poorly managed. Including using bad coding practices, staff that didn't have proper training and several other problems. McConnell just wonders how anybody could think that the project could work in the first place.
(the talk is very interesting by the way)
So if McConnell is correct in his appraisal of the situation, Oracle is just trying to get itself out of a lawsuit for a grand screw up caused by their own poor judgement.
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Oracle is just trying to get itself out of a lawsuit for a grand screw up caused by their own poor judgement.
Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!
Think about healthcare benefits first (Score:1)