Thursday, January 22, 2009

Obama Meets Flintstone White House: New Staff Find White House in Tech Dark Ages

- Wilma Flintstone's Shorter Version of Michelle Obama's Jason Wu Inauguration Gown-

-Wilma Flintstone Boogies to Ashford & Simpson with Fred-




-President & First Lady Michelle Donning Longer Version of Wilma Flintstone's Dress-



Were those pterodactyl Bush administration staffers talking on shoe phones for the past eight years or what? Were these cavemen using smoke signals to place their midnight pizza orders? Are the automatic windows in the Oval Office still powered by monkeys?


Ann E. Kornblut reveals in this Washington Post article how incoming Obama staffers encountered a few pre-historic technology gaffes that arguably would make Fred Flintstone look like Steve Jobs:


“One member of the White House new-media team came to work on Tuesday, right after the swearing-in ceremony, only to discover that it was impossible to know which programs could be updated, or even which computers could be used for which purposes. The team members, accustomed to working on Macintoshes, found computers outfitted with six-year-old versions of Microsoft software. Laptops were scarce, assigned to only a few people in the West Wing. The team was left struggling to put closed captions on online videos.”


Former President George W. Bush’s 2005 Internet director, David Almacy, recalled having a week-long delay between his arrival at the White House and getting set up with a computer and a Blackberry:

"The White House itself is an institution that transitions regardless of who the president is," he said. "The White House is not starting from scratch. Processes are already in place."
Another newly-minted White House official, who arrived “breathless yesterday after being held up at the exterior gate”, discovered that he had *shock* no computer or telephone number! Recently called back from overseas duty, he ended up using his foreign cellphone."
For shame!

And how bad is this?

“A White House official whose transition cellphone was disconnected (not sure why) left a message temporarily referring callers to his wife's phone.”

(Haha! I’ll bet his wife was receiving hundreds of calls on the first day. Or none.)


For the few American white collar professionals or “ordinary people” (as President Obama refers to them) out there who ARE still working, there is still demand (at least from the White House) for technology software and solutions, despite at least 5,000 layoffs from profit hording companies like Microsoft, led by the infamous Bill “give me infinite numbers of H-1b visas” Gates, despite the layoffs, anyway.

To be sure, the heat is on and the Tech Lobby/Indian Lobby backed Obama will ensure that the White House will slay the Wooly Mammoth by soaking taxpayers for gazillions of dollars of all kinds of futuristic, techno-savvy IT software and gadgets for U.S. Government agencies which will be dispatched to break the Fourth Wall.

Yabba-Dabba-Do!

-2Truthy




8 comments:

Anonymous said...

OMG, the dress. That's it.

Wilma Flinstone.

You're good, t.t.

Anonymous said...

Things are bad?

WHITE HOUSE IN TECHNO DARK AGES
This is scary.

http://portal.lacaterinca.com/obama-staffers-white-house-is-a-barbaric-technological-wasteland-without-im-or-macs-obama/

2Truthy said...

Well, the dress does bear a striking resemblance to Wilma's. I wonder if designer Jason Wu watched a lot of Flinstone episodes.

GVregor, thanks for the link. Let's hope Obama doesn't make them all use Vista.

Citizen Carrie said...

Good God! Next we'll find out that the latte maker is broken!

When I think of primitive working conditions, I think of peeling paint and plaster and puddles of water from leaky roofs.

Obama & Co. - welcome to public service! You got what you wanted, now you have to learn how to live within the budgets set for you by U.S. taxpayers.

2Truthy said...

Haha about that broken latte machine:)

It is not uncommon at all for employees of *hot* Silicon Valley companies and start-ups to have to use their cell phones in lieu of desk phones. I'm not talking about ten person shops, either.

Perhaps the press is preparing Joe Sixpack for a round of releases that scoop all the new techno goodies budgeted for a few Silicon Valley tech boyz? Or will the Climate Change buzz hit the media circuit first? It's all so exciting;)

The article reports that most of Barry's staffers are MAC heads, and that's A-Okay in my book!

Betty Rubble said...

Here in Colorado Springs, I can see November from my window.

Anonymous said...

Lincoln, Nebraska say YABBA DABBA DOO DOO!

Zutphen said...

yoohooo from this place now what is the hype of this, which hook nose ugly pantysniffing sociopath today