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GPS Tracking Your Ride?
Politicians in London are thinking of equipping cars with GPS units that will actively prevent speeding. In return for drivers installing these, they will get a reduction in taxes. Whenever I read something like this, I remember back to a comedian on TV, Flip Wilson, who used to say "The Devil Made Me Do It!" It's the old "Please save me from myself" -- Does this ever work?
If it did work, what a brave new world that would open up for us. Perhaps devices could detect if we're smoking, or eating too much, and adjust our taxes accordingly. Modern technology is a great thing, but at some point aren't we making a monster?
I see the same thing in large companies. Lots of times the guys at the top will "decide" that such-and-such is a big problem. How they decide this is an open question -- mostly by consensus of a few "wise" people. Then when implementing these decisions prove non-trivial, they purchase software to force users to behave. Unified Change Management (UCM) is a good example of this. If you set UCM and have a mean streak, you can make developers complete a dozen pages of paperwork just to fix a one-line bug. While I've never seen it that bad, it's not uncommon to see developers very frustrated.
It's also not uncommon to see developers ignoring or circumventing the system. What's the old saying? "The tighter you squeeze your fist, the more that will slip through your fingers." There might be a lesson there for all of us, no matter how well-intentioned our motives are.
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