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Understood. But in fact, (Jump in Jeff) Jeff Dean
repeatedly stated that we don't want to be in the business of developing our own
products for these functions - we want to use off the shelf items.
Our response (Frank and myself) has been "There are no off the shelf products to
fill this need". But the need is still there. As you know we've
discussed this time and again, and I accept that internally we will have to make
the AccuVote-TS fulfill this function, which is why I'm telling Jeff how I
approached it. The issue is that if someone doesn't say something
management will continue to think we have a solution when we don't. I
believe we'll eventually develop an acceptable alternative, but only because
people speak up and say what's really happening here.
As a philosophy, the "off the shelf" approach sounds
good right up until the customer asks about maintenance costs, at which
point we are dependent on 3rd party manufacturers (Journada, etc) who will only
guarentee maintenance for 3 years, while our customers are requiring support
contractually for 15 years. This means we can't guarantee suppport of our
products which is a problem. I see both sides, but our "inaction" over the
past year is what is killing us, not one solution or the other. And so we
are in the situation of having what we have today, where project managers and
sales folks are trying to figure out solutions in the field in real time.
This issue is not yours or Jeff Hintz' or mine, but does reflect the past year
rather handily. Jeff needs some help, and our existing management now
in charge needs to know that we don't have a complete product
solution.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, February 08, 2002 9:16
AM
Subject: Re: Network Hub for Downloading
from GEMS to AVTS units
Steve,
I do not think any of us in
development have said "we don't want to develop one". What we have said
is "we do not currently have the resources to develop one". There are
many technical and procedural issues that need to be addressed when developing
a better download solution for the AccuVote-TS. I totally agree that the
current solution of using many AccuVote-TS units for downloading a large
number of memory cards is not a good one but is does work (knuckle crushers
and all). Further more we need to improve the access to the PCMCIA card
and other hardware issues but these enhancements also take
resources.
Tab
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, February 08, 2002 7:31
AM
Subject: Re: Network Hub for
Downloading from GEMS to AVTS units
This is a long standing discussion. That is why we came to
the conclusion that EITHER we need to use the AccuVote with self sticking
labels (ala AccuVote with same card/printer) or we need to develop a device
for same. We have been asking for a "card burner" with printer
capability for mass burning, but have always been told that "we don't want
to develop one". Now the reality of the situation is upon us and in
say Alameda's case, our solution is to use $30,000 of AccuVotes, with an
ethernet connection that is almost impossible to access easily with the dual
eject button and two slots right next to each other. It is a knuckle
cruncher as is, much less doing hundreds in a row on it that way.
Again, we don't have a solution for some of the basic functions that we
need.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, February 08, 2002 6:25
AM
Subject: RE: Network Hub for
Downloading from GEMS to AVTS units
Could GEMS support printing labels on a small label printer, say an
Eltron 600? These units would be similar to the ones we tried to
used as report printers on the earlier pollbooks. But if you
envision this function, there's a potential problem.
When printing multiple labels, how do you figure out which
label goes onto which card?
Ian
Without trying to be facetious, I don't think there is
anyone in the company who is "configuring" based on the parameters you
described. We certainly need someone. In the interim, I can
only guess that the real issue here is getting a few pieces of info such
as:
1. Length of time of upload
2. Length of time to label card via printer (are you
using a self sticking label or old AV method)
3. Number of cards to do
4. Double the time you think it will
take.
5. Decide how much time you actually have
6. Divide 5 into 4 and that will indicate number of
units required for time you have.
That's how I configured Alameda, but its all still
just theory. The idea of self sticking labels in the
printer
is appealing, but do we have such a
thing?
Let me know where you go with this.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2002
8:47 PM
Subject: Network Hub for
Downloading from GEMS to AVTS units
With
our current software GEMS 1.17.17, AVTS 4.1.6, and our TSText files
with audio; the only fast way of doing a download is via network.
What would be the
recommendation for the size of Network Hub, (number of ports), to
use. For instance,
Johnson County Kansas will have to download almost 900 AVTS
units. In the state of
Maryland, there are two accounts that are just under 2000 AVTS units
and the other over 2000 units. We need to order the Network
Hubs and cabling and get this installed and tested to meet the RFP
requirements.
Thanks,
Jeff
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