Well, sort of. New Jersey has a pretty huge homeless population. I assume this is what that show, Jersey Shore, is about. And that noble institution, the New Jersey Homeless Management Information System, has introduced a finger-printing system so they can keep track of when homeless folk are using the government-funded soup-kitchens and spas.

I’ll be honest, I was thinking that this was more of a catch-and-release system, where they tag homeless folk and return them to their natural habitat, but instead it’s a way of making sure sufficient Social Service funds are going to the kitchens that support the homeless demographic. The New Jersey count paid about $90,000 for the system, so it’s not an entirely practical system for poorer regions which typically have far larger homeless populations, but it’s nice seeing the disenfranchised benefitting a little from technology, albeit in a creepy, vaguely Orwellian way.

Also, everybody got unreasonably excited when they were told they were getting a new homepage. Embarrassing misunderstandings all around.

[govtech]