Sometimes e-everything does not solve all your problems

Update: Cowboy has a view on this, and Seth does not agree with him. And Anthony thinks the "E" in "E-Filing" stands for "error".

I recall having a conversation with a friend who had to deal with a Government agency determined to take everything online and make everything electronic. Not only that, but to take the existing offline procedures off the menu.

When asked how are the Uncles and Aunties who do not own PCs are going to use this new E-system, the agency officials insisted that they can go to the Community Centres where there were PCs and IT volunteers that would help them. Electronic payment/processing/anything was seen as more efficient, and dammit, the peasants will learn the E-Way, even if we have to drag them kicking and screaming into the Ingterneck.

Devoted Netizen and musician, Vanessa, is vexed by Income Tax. The IRAS e-filing system user experience has been less than ideal for her. I know the feeling. When I tried to change the password given to my Mom and me, I kept getting an error message. So we decided to file by phone. (Mr Miyagi also found out that the the e-filing system had operating hours!)

Faced with an e-filing system that does not seem to be able to take the increased loads, Vanessa did what a true Netizen would do. Look at the code.

Excerpt:

A few years ago, e-filing was 'revolutionary'. However, with each passing year the online user base grows, and I really wonder if their server(s) can take the load now. For financial transactions particularly, it is very, very important that nothing crashes.

Surely something can be done. Millions more people visit Amazon.com. Why can their system cope so much better? It's not like the e-filing website displays lots of images of books, either. I can access my local bank accounts with less problems. If the private sector can do it for their customers, why can't IRAS?

I examined their code and it was wasteful.