I believe this is highly arguable. If this were true, we would expect poll stations in Nairobi to be done by transmission on 4th, right? That's assuming Nairobi has a better data network coverage than the rest of the country.
But,
I agree that knowing the failure symptoms would assist us to plan, test and execute better in 5 years. That's if one of us wins the tender.
./bernard
For what its worth, here is one of the problems that IEBC is facing.
Poor mobile network affects transmission of results
Proposed Solution: Call a committee to tender the construction of many boosters in that area, Tender awarded to yadayadayada.
Next issue?
My two cents,
Stephen
On 03/06/2013 11:21 AM, Bernard Owuor wrote:
You seem to agree that the issue is "we do not know."
And I've proposed a fix for this going forward.
I am probably biased, so feel free to propose anything as it comes to mind.
From: Rad! <conradakunga@gmail.com>
To: Skunkworks Mailing List <skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke>
Sent: Wednesday, March 6, 2013 11:07 AM
Subject: Re: [Skunkworks] IEBC Systems
Nobody knows what the issue is ... That is the point, we do not have sufficient information to make any calls. It could be a database issue. It could be a code issue. It could be a network issue. It could be that SIM cards don't have airtime. It could be a process issue. It could be a load issue. We don't know.
Ergo it is premature to start throwing stones.
On Wednesday, March 6, 2013, Bernard Owuor wrote:
Rad,
So what is the heart of the issue? And how would you fix it?
Don't waste time with the technical problem - which none of us noise-makers have any opportunity to fix - and would be speculation at best.
Try to focus on fixing the bigger picture. We've had similar large failures on publicly procured systems, yet most privately built systems eg mobile banking, agency banking etc cost 1/1000 times the price and carry a million times the load and value.
Don't get side-tracked by the windows 2008 server bashing either.... I'm using a windows machine to type this email :)
From: Rad! <conradakunga@gmail.com>
To: Skunkworks Mailing List <skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke>
Sent: Wednesday, March 6, 2013 10:40 AM
Subject: Re: [Skunkworks] IEBC Systems
As usual - any technical debate eventually loses issues and descends to open source vs closed source.------------
It is not in order to allege the issue is the openness of the code or the operating system in use without knowing the facts.
On Wednesday, March 6, 2013, Bernard Owuor wrote:
Erik, thanks for the link.
(And great job with the http://results.uchaguzi.co.ke/index.php/senator.)
This can never be a disk space issue... the error gives it away:
"Database Error: Unable to connect to the database:Could not connect to MySQL"
It's a case of using Windows 2008 server - without tweaking - when a LAMP server would work out of the box :)
Which points to the bigger problem of using closed source systems for public interest software.
After paying KES 9B (or some happy figure) for it, and with the very detailed RFP in the public domain, IEBC should be able to own the software. They should open-source it - since it's paid for with public money. (I understand it is still proprietary to IFES)
For such a system, the cost of implementing the solution far outweighs the price of the software, so IEBC will still pay a lot of money for it. However, we get better quality, future-proofing and some savings (in future elections). Biggest payoff is the trust engendered by openness.
From: Erik Hersman <erik@zungu.com>
To: Skunkworks Mailing List <skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke>
Sent: Wednesday, March 6, 2013 9:09 AM
Subject: Re: [Skunkworks] IEBC Systems
http://iebctechkenya.tumblr.com/
On Mar 6, 2013, at 8:59 AM, Patrick Kariuki <patrick.kariuki@gmail.com> wrote:
Who said scaling MYSQL is necessary when the cheque and traffic comes
once every 4 years?
On 3/6/13, joe mwirigi <joemwirigi@gmail.com> wrote:
Lets just say its a KES 9B lesson to the government that hires 'foreign
companies' because they are 'big'
I hear, the 'weed' tells me one had to login to the same server(database)
to send the results. Am not sure they did run tests
with 30,000 concurrent users so the db kept giving way, halafu mnajua zile
logs za mysql on error. They filled the
disk like crazy! -- just speculating -- I in no way know these guys! Then I
can imagine the conversation
Boss: vhat is happening Signh (shaking his head)
Signh: donno databes only 10 MEg. Just chekin.
Boss: Vy data not coming in u nno.
Signh: dh -f
$ unknown commandFilesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
$ df -h
/dev/sdb1 2000G 1999.2G 0.6G 99% /
varrun 393M 144k 393M 1% /var/run
varlock 393M 0 393M 0% /var/lock
procbususb 393M 123k 393M 1% /proc/bus/usb
udev 393M 123k 393M 1% /dev
Signh: They send too much, too much data, see
Boss: Yeah, too much sending 2Tb full already, patel, vhere is that 4
Tb disk! just plug it and ve ar in business!
Signh: >$sudo /etc/init.d/mysql restart
$password: **through socket '/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock' (2)
$ wrong password try again:***
$ ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server
$
On a lighter note though
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