White House stuck in Dark Ages of technology

He's already got a new basketball court, what else does he want?

I work in federal government on a computer system developed in the 1960s that uses magnetic tape. It is insanely stupid.

This doesn't surprise me. Our government always tends to be 10 years behind it's people.

well i guess we'll just have to communicate with each other in a manner where the communication is spoken and heard versus lost in the vast expanse known as the internet.

Gmail FTW!

That aside, this story is just another example of how outdated, going on obsolete, this whole bureaucratic system is.

it's inconceivable how a presidency could be effective without access to twitter...

Not surprising. In my consulting experiences with several high profile companies, this is, surprisingly the norm.

But wouldn't the world be a more interesting place if the White House had an unsecured W-Fi network?

What kills me is that the VP house is more high tech. It has a virtual catalogue of all available furnishings accesible inside of the residence. Al Gore personaly did that ten years ago and the Cheneys (shudder) kept up with that.

Also Amazing is the fact that Bush and Clinton didn't use email during thier presidencies and the president has never had a computer in the oval office.

All things in good time.

This is so backwards. I want our president to be connected.

this does not surprise me at all. i work for the government, i know what technology i do not have to do my job everyday.

I dunno, I think it's important they upgrade but I don't like adding authority figures on facebook anyways. lol

I think they should probably work on getting upgrades in the public school system before they focus on themselves.

"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."

Six year old software?! Get them some Macs!

I hope they upgrade to Macs, they're quick, slick and dual platform. Hackers seem to stay away from Macs, I've had one for nearly 10 years and have never been hacked, and NO viruses.

Add all the "we've been doing it this way for years" syndrome, and there is/will be a big problem.

They should check to see if Bush left piles of sugar in dark corners too just incase!

Too bad he didn't say most major corporations have the same safeguards. It's normal to block all outside e-mail and networking sites. People, however moral, will spend company time doing personal stuff.

The new "Geek in Cheif" the CTO will be responsible for such upgrades. Upgrading the tech and energy efficiency of healthcare and public facilities is part of the stimulus package. Also Obama just got a james bond style NSA blackberry with a personaly tailored decryption suite that only he can use. Thats wired.

did anyone read the article...i mean the fact that the washington post wrote that the President and his staff were used to using Macintoshes (sic) makes me laugh uncontrollably

now i know that they meant Mac products but no one uses a Macintosh anymore....my sits on a shelf with graffiti all over it

instead of the new popular executive branch taking a pay cut as a sign of leveling with people, maybe they should keep the money and commit to switching 100% to green energy , both personally in their homes and also all official buildings.
that can definitively be done in 4 years.
its not about not spending, but spending smartly, its been said enough times, "do what you say, say what you mean" now.
such development only goes hand by hand with communication technology. not only the white house needs updating

http://current.com/items/89739055/obama_freezes_salaries_of_some_white_house_aid...

how about we cancel production of one or two b-2 bombers and pay for all new tech with the resulting 1.2 or 2.4 billion dollars that saves us.

when it comes to spending on personnel and office equipment, the U.S. Government is not known for spending money to stay current.

in other words, they're cheap!

when i worked for the DOE, i had a better computer at home than what i was using at work. i think their philosophy teeters on the motto of, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", but lets not forget that when it comes to the military, CIA, and the FBI, those are the agencies/branches that get top notch equipment.

hopefully, technology upgrades will be on the list of things to do along with the updates to our infrastructure. and they should though, because i think they'll go hand in hand.

McCain would have felt right at home, not knowing about the internet and any other technology.

There are definitely security issues with updating technology, but I think the White House should be the most advanced house in the country, not the least. Hopefully Obama will be able to rectify the situation.

This is something that his administration knew they were going to have to contend with. What I'm not sure of is why he as the president at this point can't step in and change things around. We are constantly living in the past in regards to the policies and laws by which we abide. Changes eventually need to be made, who better then to make them then the administration that is all about change.

They should make a reality show out of refurbishing the White House like some of the ones they have now. They already pimped his ride now they need a house make over as well.

Unfortunately, Technology does go as far as how much power you have, but technology stands on the other side. It can be a threat for Obama and his team to start building on Technology that could make a security breach much easier to obtain.

Well, considering the great "intellectuals" who had been occupying the offices before it's not surpising that the entire operation was constructed ass-backwards and held together with spit and bailing wire.

Did they have KBR or Haliburton come into "upgrade" the place back in 2001?

If they did then that would certainly explain why it cost $12 billion dollars and all they got in return were some Commodore 64 desk tops and a few ticker-tape machines from 1927.

Thank God Obama is in office now!

Can you imagine if Old Man McCain had gotten in there?

He would have looked at those Commodore 64's and said, "Do we really need computers this fancy? I don't even know how to turn on this blasted contrapation!"

This is why you still had to pay court fees w/ money orders until a few years ago.

Can we say upgrade?

No surprises here considering w had the solar panels quickly removed fron the roof of the White House after the Clinton's had them installed. They don't run on oil ya know.

I am surprised that the "O's" were not pried from the computer keyboards - and - errr- the typewriters.

There must be a reason why they have to stick to analog equipment. You can say minus the hackers. etc.

he is the prez now. can he just snap his fingers and boom, new tech?

If there is any goal I hope that the Obama administration does make reality it would be bringing the government into the 21st century. Yes the start up costs or expensive, but the government has always been 10 years behind technologically, and we always have to pay for it with inefficient government services with bloated employment to make 3 people do the job of one with a computer.

Sounds like they managed, it won't take long to get some new technology in there.

That must be very frustrating.

I'm not surprised really. I like to think I should be, but i'm not.