Posts by Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

@ Scope creep...

Possibly. But I agree with the sentiment of the article in that it's not necessarily scope creep that causes projects or programmes to fail, but the lack of an adequately scaled or robust programme framework with the rigorous functional governance in place to manage and control it.

"The most insidious way this happens is when the client's idea of what they've asked for gradually changes without them realising it. Because we're all supposed to be agile now the requirements can be as vague as they like"

But this isn't "Agile". It sounds as though your organisation (like many) don't understand the method. You reap what you sow though right...

@ Dan Wilkie...

I agree. Nothing new here in terms of technology, or approach.

No great loss.

No great loss as far as I see it...

ITV.com, Channel 4oD, City AM, The Telegraph and Mirror Group.

Spewers of ad-laden shite the lot of them.

But why would any smaller SME want to...

Not withstanding the huge time and cost that needs to be accounted for to jump through the ludicrous procurement and supplier management hoops and general bureaucracy; in terms of getting paid, any smaller supplier would need to be nuts to consider working under any larger programme framework when due to no fault of theirs, they are unable to deliver due to the whole programme going tits-up further up the food chain.

Don't care. Episode VII was crap. But...

I do quite like Rian Johnsons work. The quality of Episode VIII won't be judged around the director however, it'll be judged by the story and script, which if later Star Wars films are anything to go by - appear to be overly underwhelming. If it has dialogue similar to Johnsons movie "Brick" however, it could be fun...

Generic Empire baddie: You've helped the Empire out before.

Generic character: No, I gave you Skywalker to see him eaten, not to see you fed.

Generic Empire baddie: Fine. And very well put.

Generic character: Accelerated English, Mr. Yoda.

Generic Empire baddie: Tough teacher?

Generic character: Tough but fair.

How do you make a lightsabre...

Someone ask Jeff Vader. I think you'll currently find him in the queue of the Death Star canteen.

It should be called "The Professional Service"

With a motto above the bar that in big friendly letters states that "We're not satisfied until you're not satisfied..."

Re VPN

I trialled the AirVPN service (3 days free trial if you email them asking for it).

I DDWRT'ed my WDR4300 router as I wanted all devices sat behind the router encrypted as part of my tests - and the DDWRT firmware has the various VPN clients inbuilt. The problem I found is that routers for home use generally don't have the CPU grunt to chew through the AES256 encryption cipher quickly enough, hence the overall speed via VPN seems limited by the router (i.e. 1/5th of the non VPN throughput).

If anyone can recommend a SOHO or lower cost small business device device that could replace it then I would appreciate it. I was initially looking at a Zyxtel USG or Zywall device or similar...

And what is being done...

To make sure that this doesn't happen again, and again, and again...?

Just when I thought service couldn't get any worse...

My favourite is when they close existing SRs or Product enhancement requests without even providing any form of response.

Awesome.

Ahhh Windows 3.11 for Workgroups...

And that 27 3.5" floppy disk install set.

I'm not going anywhere near 8 or 10 though. I think it's time I went back to Fedora, or to try Korora.

Watershed indeed...

Never will so many tears be shed over such crap customer service.

One can only hope that...

Perhaps they'll use this as the central story arc for the next series of Braquo or Engrenages?

Yes, it is a Quantum computer.

Oh, err... but since I've now observed it I'm not so sure. Oh heck - to be honest I've no idea as I don't actually understand half of the blurb on their webpage.

Colour me very interested though. But I'd refute the statement about not having to blow things up. Surely it's always much more fun to blow things up. Small countries and brown people and the like?

I once spent...

36 hrs straight in a datacentre - diagnosing, planning, reinstalling/reconfiguring to PROD status a 6 frame AS/400 and integrations for a large media company after a total and complete systems failure. To this day I still get chilling flashbacks whenever I hear "JD Edwards" mentioned.

They gave me sweet FA. But I did get paid day rate x 1.5 in full rather than TOIL so that was nice - although I admit, not quite as nice as free membership to a local political party :-$

Hmmm, this could ultimately lead to a blockade on key trade routes...

Best send in a couple of Jedi. If you can't find any Jedi, then I guess Liam Neeson and that Scots twerp will suffice.

* sigh *

So I currently pay £24 per month to Virgin for 50meg BB which includes a phone line that I have not ever used. Yes it annoys me that I receive an email stating that I am getting a "free" speed increase, but it is inevitable that I will end up paying for it somewhere down the line. I will phone them up and demand to not pay for the increase - and generally, once you do manage to get through to someone at VM, I've found them very reasonable.

The issue though is - where else do you go if you do decide to leave them, when the rest of the cartel are all as bad as each other... or worse.

I hate to say it, but...

I have a sad, dark feeling that the reason that our Illustrious Home Secretary has ommitted a lot of the safeguards and cross-referencing and aligning to other "higher ranking" fundamental bills of civil right is that this bill is essentially fait accompli.

I'm not sure I want to overplay it too much, and looking at in the context of the overall political processes currently in play surrounding the civilian referendum on the EU exit, to my mind this bill as it currently stands represents nothing less than the rape of our democratic process unless a similar referendum is allowed on this insidious piece of "potential" legislation.

@ Christoph...

I'm not sure that is how it works - and I am more than happy for anyone more knowledgeable to correct me here. But I believe that up to a certain threshold the "victim" gets their entire monetary award immediately (i.e. after 30/60 days etc.) from a state restitution fund or similar - or at the very least, as staged payments if it is a larger amount.

The perp on the other hand has to pay back the fund that has paid out the award to the victim - hence balancing those scales - but usually on an affordability / monthly repayment basis. So I assume he'd been paying back a set amount per month or similar.

The net affect is that I don't think the victim has to wait until the perp pays the fine (in part or in full), prior to receiving their award.

Still, I agree with other sentiments - surely the charge should have been "intent"... but I recognise that the "intent" had already transgressed to "conspiracy" the moment he engaged with the undercover cop.

I, err...

I can't remember the last time I received a call from any of the service providers or banks etc that I use - whether that be from a real representative, or a cockwombling scammer.

I'm starting to feel a bit left out now :-(

Rewrote it for you...

A representative who we can now only assume will be from TalkTalk claimed it was "contacting all our customers straight away to let them know what has happened and to update all of their nice scrummy payment and user credential information. We might keep them up to date as we learn more. But we might not. As might not actually be us."

Just wait...

This is exactly the issue that the Daily Mail reading idiots seem to be ignoring in their "UK out of EU" rants. If we are forced out of the EU by the reactive uninformed masses, then this (or similar) will be one of the very first draconian policies that will be implemented in the UK.

Sorry to be pedantic...

But in my experience of being an IT bod at a large well known F1 company, the IT supplier and sponsorship arrangement wasn't just about, as you put it "making the car go faster" it was also very much about getting the equipment and funds to just keep the racing team and associated "businesses" solvent so they could build "a" car in the first place.

But what the Capita spokesperson should have said was...

"More than 60 per cent of the work under Contingent Labour 1 is awarded to SMEs. Of the 348 suppliers on the framework, 322 are SMEs. The framework has been designed, and is run, in the manner required by the senior government officials that also have a large stakeholding or board level directorship at Capita. But take it from me, there IS no conflict of interest here. Honestly... 'ish"

Not a chance!!!

Kurt Russell barely escaped with his life after a stint down there.

Click on this story, you won't believe what happens next...

Yay, you've been clickjacked. Welcome to the internet.

1kg

And there was me thinking that the SI measure for 1kg was the ubiquitous bag of Tate & Lyle.

Who knew.

Doh!!!!

I now have the Space Harrier theme tune stuck in my head.

Fnarr!!!

Dry your eyes princess, this is a serious business...

*cough* *cough*

As per Sir Bedevere in Monty Python and the Holy Grail...

Oh... ummm... look, if we built this large wooden badger...

At what point do you realise...

That (A) the marketing space for consumer comms if spaffed full of similar "hip and beardy" post-modern sounding companies shilling this stuff to the point of overload; that (B) the majority of people are just past caring because it'll be a shit service - despite what the marketing says otherwise, and (C) most likely seem to prefer to make do with what they get from their current mobile provider because it's just less hassle that way?

Perhaps it's just the way I read the story, or perhaps it's they way it is written - but I sensed a germ of that insidious self-entitlement creeping into their statement.

Where do I start...

Firstly, in my gaming experience (which may have either started with Snafu on the Mattel Aquarius, or a ZX81 version of Star Trek), UC2 - Amongst Thieves is probabaly the single most complete "experience" I have had as a gamer. It is stunning from beginning to end - almost a proper interactive movie. I've not had the chance to play TLOU yet, but I hear that is pretty damn good also.

As to should you buy this if you already have them on PS3? IMHO - I can't really see why you would. I have seen UC2 running on the PS4, and for me, whilst it looks pretty - there is something more gritty and "real looking" to the 30fps PS3 version. The 60fps anmations look "jerky" and unnatural compared to the smoother 30fps version also - that's how it appears to me anyway.

UC4 on PS4 is definately making me want to upgrade, however the amount of existing PS3 games that are being re-done and sold at full cost all "sparkly sparkly" on PS4 is cause for concern.

Pretty sure...

The first real "CGI" in movies was done on a CRAY XMP. The Last Starfighter and such like...

HP Sauce

Way to go Mike. This utter fiasco is just another example of HP doing BAU.

Anyone know when this actually goes to court? Looking forward to following the progress.

Expensive, but the service is always first class...

I once had to get back to London from San Fran in a great hurry. I booked a last minute ticket with Virgin only to be told that the plane was full when I turned up to board (i.e. overbooked). Nothing they could do about that apparently - I just had to wait for the next flight (3hrs later).

After approaching to BA desk to see if they had anything - they walked me straight through the airport security, straight onto the plane, into the jump seat, and home for free. I even got a bottle of champers.

Class.

We're the social network for people who hate people...

We don't have a large number of users.

Perhaps he has an attitude problem...

Maths grads generally believe they are smarter than the average bear or above the general churn of life. Until it comes to finding a job or more "common sense" tasks. Don't even get me started on my view of the MBAs that I have had the pleasure of watching fail when they have been faced with practical or complex tasks in real world situations.

I may be being a little harsh, but if he was that good then surely he wouldn't be working on the helpdesk? And if he has worked on bigger and better things in the past, then perhaps he needs to look at himself in the mirror for the answers rather than acting like a child as it appears in this case.

Chip on his shoulder you say? I say it's the entire timber yard.

Oh no, let me shed a little tear...

“If the agreement becomes invalid, businesses such as Google and Facebook will need to significantly restructure how they manage and use data. The cost implications could be huge, with many of them having to extensively expand their data centre capacity throughout Europe,”

Shame. My heart is err... bleeding.

What a way to spin it...

"Capita is making the redundancies because it noted a change in the habits of O2 customers seeking support, with traditional call volumes dropping in favour of other channels."

In English, what that means is that under the auspices of the standard response when you phone them up of "Sorry, we are experiencing an unexpectedly high volume of calls, please wait." (Really??? At 7:30 am???) Capita have either actually already reduced the number of call centre staff, or have introduced a mandatory call transfer delay when you phone them up (which by the way you are paying Xp per minute for) which actually forces people to give up trying to call and try these other channels of communication.

So I call this a sham. "Noted a change in the habits"?? Yes, I agree - but a change in habit actually engineered by O2 and Capita as a cost saving measure by making the experience of phoning them an utterly futile and pointless exercise.

Have another upvote AndyS

Pretty much mirrors what I would have written.

So, like the actual "spectrum" itself...

Conjured up out of thin air?