Posts by Roland6

Re: I very much doubt razor handles are or were ever sold at a loss

>I wouldn't be too sure about razor handles not being a loss leader.

Trouble is, yo probably think the handle is worth more than it actually is.

Going through the catalogues of marketing giveaways, I suspect the true cost of many mass market premium razor handles is sub 50p.

Re: EPOS isn't just the terminal in the shop

> That’s why they couldn't/can't just modify an off-the-shelf retail EPOS system.

Current generation EPOS systems are obviously a lot more limited than the systems I used and greatly modified/enhanced circa 20 years back through the use of EAI tools…

> (in over 11,500 branches, each of which might have two, three even four active terminals at any one time)

Based on a own datacentre system I designed and installed in circa 2004 that’s:

A top end Z-Series fronted by 4 mid-range “Unix”(*) boxes, double it for failover and add a third as a spare/tertiary failover configuration in a different data centre.

Although with the number of back end integrations required, I would probably replace/supplement that Z-Series with a two-tier configuration of high-end Unix servers, making it easier to add/remove bespoke servers for specific product/service lines.

Obviously the in-branch server will also be a reasonable “Unix”(*) box, so most of the traffic will be transactions rather than terminal sessions.

Alternatively, you could go the web server approach, which would require a larger server infrastructure. in which case the in-branch server is minimised, but has the limitation that a loss of service would mean the counter closing rather than not being able to process particular services.

I suspect cloud providers will push this load on their rebranded version of IBM cloud.

The issues in development and testing is that, at this scale, is you don’t use the apps and dev tools out-of-the-box to build the production system, so many of the developers will have had no experience of this style of development.

I remember from that project the main DB application provider saying stuff could be done overnight, until we confirmed they had only used their toolset on DBs up to circa 400GB; we were going to be using them on a 4TB DB…

(*) By Unix I mean a Unix/Linux box actually designed to be a server to support high levels of I/O, rather than a beefed up PC running Windows/Linux.

Impossible, only the post masters have access to the data, so they must have altered it ….

Re: EPOS

> POL and Royal Mail are different organizations.

I seem to remember the in Post Office systems are operated through Post Office Counters Ltd.

I suspect this permits greater clarity over transactions and avoids monies destined for say Royal Mail appearing on and thus distorting Post Office Ltd accounts.

Re: EPOS

> Furthermore, the systems used in Asda for monitoring sales and reordering stock are going to be very different from the integration required at the post office for renewing passports, currency exchange, parcel tracking, etc

They are just back end integrations driven by the barcode. However, some do require front end integrations, which can be achieve in the same way web browsers run applets for passports, phone credits etc. with the applet selection also being driven by the barcode…

Re: EPOS

> ASDA PoS will not simultaneously be handling sales for Tesco and Morrisons as well as their own.

Suggest you visit Asda’s, Aldi et al.

Aldi are a concessionary for the National Lottery, to buy a ticket, just scan the bar code and the till will generate a lottery ticket as well as a sales receipt.

Asda etc. whilst being a consessionary for National Lottery, also enable you to top up mobile phones, buy iStore, Amazon etc. vouchers

Just because it goes through a single till doesn’t mean it is handled the same way in the backend and accounts.

Re: Irony

> apologies if this gets too much into nitpicking waffle

Accepted, apologies for not correctly labelling my comment as nitpicking mockery about the status of the Isle of Man.

Totally, agree over the decades TeamGB selectors have been flexible with the nationality requirement, when it comes to outstanding athletes. Yet we all cheer when they win for TeamGB.

Personally, having met and spoken with the guy (several times), Mark Cavendish is a really good ambassador for cycling. A few years back he spent an afternoon at Silverstone individually talking to a couple of dozen young riders (8~16 year olds), giving each 5~10 minutes and having his picture taken with each of them, one of those 12 yo kids subsequently went on to become the UKs junior road racing champion and is now targeting Los Angeles 2028, she still remembers that afternoon.

Re: Irony

:)

I was alluding to actual zero carbon emission(*)ie. Nuclear rather than accountancy zero emissions …

(*) just to be up front, nuclear does have emissions, just not CO2.

If we locate the bit barns and population directly next to Sizewell, we are basically saying we don’t need nuclear to be miles away from people…

Re: Did you ever hear about...

Lots of people until you start counting full-time equivalents…

Just been through this locally, with a bit barn development, now it’s been constructed and populated total on-site full-time head count 20 people.

Re: Did you ever hear about...

Re Apple sweet heart deal

The Irish government wanted its cake and to eat it. Then got upset when, to be expected, things didn’t t work the way they thought they did and they got found out…

The issue wasn’t t the EU, it was Ireland deliberately deciding not to honour pre-existing undertakings it had made. By making such arrangements in private etc. just confirms they knew what they were doing was wrong.

Re: Economics are a PITA, aren't they?

> Then they don't create tax revenues either, because they're almost always a cost centre.

Trouble is, as we learnt from the fall out from the Apple sweet heart deal, Ireland doesn’t actually want the tax revenues. Clearly Ireland doesn’t want to be another Kuwait…

Personally, I would increase the rate of tax on bit barn energy and accept that most of the actual business profits will be whisked away to some tax haven.

Re: Economics are a PITA, aren't they?

> It's inevitable it WILL happen, it's only a matter of time.

Dear children, sorry we burnt the planet and used up all the resources, but believe me it will be worth it, just think in a 1,000 years your descendants will be able to enjoy a lifestyle you can only dream about…

Having written that, it reminds me of the “god squad”: your life is and will be hell, but think of the reward awaiting the faithful in heaven….

Re: Irony

But the Isle of Man is part of the British Isles, hence why Mark Cavendish could ride and win gold for TeamGB.

Re: Irony

> Anyway, they would have bags of fibre.

Wool fibre?

Round here the bags will be full of a different fibre; the fields are growing wheat for weetabix…

Re: Irony

> If I was building a Bit Barn . I'd put it West of Sizewell, Suffolk.

Or fund the building of a new zero carbon emission power plant near to where there are data centres in use and under construction eg. West London. The only question is whether a bit barn is more profitable use of land than an airport…

Interviewer missed asking the obvious follow on question: are Northern Data Group also going to democratise access by providing public (for free) access to their “ state-of-the-art generative AI cloud platform”…

What isn’t entirely clear is how Kincaid thinks Google giving AI stuff away for free will generate the revenues and market demand necessary to purchase the hundreds of HPCs she is hoping to sell.

Re: If Google puts AI search behind a paywall

They can be applauded for their ethical management (of AI) decision.

Kincaid totally fails to convince; I suspect Northern Data Group are worried Google’s actions may result in reduced demand for HPCs…

Re: The problem is that AI costs a lot of money

Whilst a good pre tax etc. margin, not excessive; Microsoft’s was 42%, Apple 30%.

Re: As usual, it's cover for taking advantage of old people

The house we grew up in the 1960s had the original roof from when it was built in 1903. Interestingly, a bomb dropped in WWII caused some movement of the timbers, it some additional bracing stopped further movement. Had reason to visit early this year, still had the old clay tile roof…

It would possibly be more useful as it will have read the articles rather than just looked at the covers and a few flicked through pages.

Re: Cloud

> GCloud would be running into a wall of patents already held by the usual suspects.

Not really, as the government would be funding the R&D, it will naturally be engaging “experts in the art” and thus any patents enforcing Ed can be dismissed as being obvious to those skilled in the art.

Re: Cloud

> Show me the commodity equivalent of AWS Nitro System

Trouble we are comparing current cloud offerings….

If the UK government had gone with an in-house G-cloud based on open source, from the outset, there would most probably be an equivalent now.

It is perhaps noteworthy, that with Covid vaccines the UK government decided to do the upfront investment rather than simply let the market come up with a vaccine…it can be argued that had the government invested in open source cloud, the market would look very different today.

Re: Good news

Which means they will be susceptible to a new discount pricing structure and warm words about openness etc. ie. An approach that can be announced as a success which requires little investment by the new government.

Re: shocked

I think you meant 45 years: 1979-2024, but as you note we’ve effectively had 45 years of Tory policies…

But don’t disagree with the prognosis…

Whilst people may dislike Blair and what his government actually did and achieved, in the run up to the 1997 election he was able to make people feel good and want to vote Labour; dont get the same vibe from Starmer…

Re: Cloud

> a (massively underfunded, underskilled, underpaid) public sector workforce

That’s a political decision, made by those that don’t like the idea of a vibrant public sector…

Re: Those who fail to learn from history

> Is there any reader who remembers the CCTA writing about all this in about 1995

The CCTA still had teeth in the 1980s - remember GOSIP, ITIL etc. until Thatcher removed them in 1989…

Re: shocked

The die was cast by Thatcher, who removed the teeth from the CCTA based on the idea that government should be a consumer subject to “market forces” not a market maker.

Re: Cloud

No it’s an indication of the scale of progress.

In the mid 1990s it was a little awkward facing down a mainframe salesman, looking to sell a £17M mainframe replacement contract, and telling them that with a little redesign the workload could be handled by a dual processor NT box…

Obviously, we didn’t actually propose an NT box to the customer, but it forced people to think about the customer’s existing business processes the IT system would be supporting and the new processes it would be enabling.

Re: Outlook/Exchange ?

> You might have a chance with 80, but 800?

Personally, in the absence of any other information, I took the 800 figure as a raw figure from the device management system.

A client uses a small (circa 12) set of desktop applications, however, the device management system reports a few hundred different applications because it regards application xyz 10.1.1.1 as being a wholly different application to xyz 10.1.1.2, obviously this happens because each system is at a slightly different stage of the regular patch cycle.

Re: It wont be technical issues which sink this

> I'm amazed that the NHS hasn't, considering their size.

Legacy and (Tory) government policy.

Remember, the NHS, like government in general, has a lot of legacy dating back at least as far as Windows XP/2k3. Back then Linux wasn’t anywhere as good as Windows, so applications got developed for the Windows platform.

What is sad is that many missed the wake up call when XP, when EoL and MS messed up with W8, and invest in enterprise open source. Perhaps if this had happened, LibreOffice (or Calligra et al) for example would be much more of an Office killer.

However, given the wakeup call the UK government has been given ( https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/04/uk_cddo_admits_cloud_spending_lock_issues_exclusive/ ) things might change (not holding my breathe).

Re: The burden of proof

> in the hands of a judge who may be a political appointee

If this is the case, you don’t have an independent judiciary…