* Posts by nemo183

13 publicly visible posts • joined 9 Feb 2015

Dido queen of carnage steps down from TalkTalk

nemo183

Re: Baroness?

Having read through most of this, three years later the phrase that springs to mind is "Well, you're not laughing now". Or, as a friend would say, "Christ on a bike... misery on stilts",

Health secretary Matt Hancock assembles brains trust: OK, guys. Let's cure NHS IT

nemo183

Real Time bed booking system hell.

Some time ago, my company was supplying an expensive team of software engineers to a firm of management consultants ( who shall remain nameless) to install a real-time bed booking system in a London hospital. A real-time system was costing far, far more than an online service seemingly for no benefit to anyone and it's purpose was a constant cause of speculation amongst the team and was a complete mystery to all involved. As time went by, more and more engineers were thrown at the project to the point additional office space had to be found.

Eventually, our company became seriously concerned at the sheer size of the monthly cost of running the contract and our financial director was having to seek larger and larger amounts of working capital just to keep the show on the road.

Just why it had to be real-time and not online was never explained officially but it became increasingly obvious that some senior manager didn't actually appreciate the difference between real-time and online. Vast amounts of money were thrown at an increasingly vain attempt to implement the system, and at no time was any money spent on disaster recovery or even a robust backup system.. Towards the end, it had become obvious to everyone involved that what was required of them was impossible to achieve, and several representations were made to the management that the plug should be pulled, however these were ignored, possibly because everyone involved was making more and more money from the doomed project.

Eventually, the whole thing collapsed leaving absolutely nothing in usable code and a small mountain of unusable hardware. The strange thing was the seemingly inexhaustible budget.

Just as an aside, at the same time we had people working with London Transport to developed the London Underground train arrival boards that are positioned on the platforms to provide information for customers on the next train arrival time. This was not going well for all sorts of seemingly unsolvable ireasons until one of the team (who's name I believe was Maureen) had the somewhat genius idea of making a London Underground minute 90 seconds long, thus removing all the grief instantly. This is why to this day "two minutes until arrival" notice seems to take far longer than two minutes, especially as back then the 90 seconds was not fixed and could change according to circumstances.

British defence minister refuses to rule out F-35A purchase

nemo183

Please stop being beastly...

Look, can we please stop all this beastliness about our armed forces? Nothing but negative, mean and cruel comments. Anyone would think there was only bad news to be had.

Why, just the other day the Navy managed to coax one of our six Type 45 destroyers into life in order to neutralise the threat of a mighty Russian warship that could have presented a considerable threat to the nation had it turned right and powered up the Thames, rather than potter down the channel. Think of the devastation there could have been had it unleashed its deadly weapon system - three deep-sea submersibles, each of which was almost 9m long.

Joking apart, press reports say that HMS Diamond was "scrambled". Last time I looked, all six non-functioning Type 45's were neatly lined up in Portsmouth, looking the part at least. Imagine the scene when the order came down from the Admiralty to "scramble" one. Panic must set in amongst the six captains. It's been so long that they've been at sea that half of them have lost the keys. Another two can't remember the last time they filled up the tank, leaving the remaining intrepid mariner desperately searching for the manuals on how the thing works and trying to remember if "port" is on the left side or the right side? Meanwhile, the crew are running a sweepstake on how far they'll get before they either overheat or the propeller falls off.

And to think we could have had twelve of these broken ships, rather than six. Whoever allowed for that piece of logistical planning/procurement should be given a medal. Oh, I see they have - sort of. Des Browne was the minister for defence in 2008 when they finally whittled the order down from twelve to eight to six. He was an MP then - he's a Lord now. Unfortunately, whilst saving a few quid on destroyers, in a moment of madness he seems to have been the man who ordered two aircraft carriers..... Please tell me I'm wrong...

Basic minimum income is a BRILLIANT idea. Small problem: it doesn't work as planned

nemo183

Bigger problem. It must work.

It's pretty clear in the direction in which we're heading. The economy is "Uberiszing". Middle management has gone. Systems are dumbed down to make their management by computer easier. The two-tier economy will polarize further, with any benefits going to the top 15-20%, and the rest of the population earning less and less each year.

And then the first self-driving truck appears, in about 2024/2025.They are already running in test mode. Driving is the number 1 occupation in 22 of the American states. It costs $30k to convert a truck to a self-driving one. Apart from the lost jobs, the roadside economy will go through lack of custom. Once this juggernaut gets rolling, it's going to really motor. Things will change very quickly.

Enough of this good stuff. Noam Chomsky's film "Requiem for the American dream" - bloody brilliant - and the economist Robert J Gordons' theory of "growth is over", coupled with James Lovelock's view of the future, this is the stuff we're heading for, and that civil servants are worried about.

Sooner we wake up to this the better, and start planning. We simply don't know the effect robotized systems will have on the scale we're going to see. BMI may be a no-brainer, or just look ridiculous. Time will tell.

.

nemo183

Good argument and well aired. Your PS made me laugh - I was determined to track down the originator of a particularly erudite quotation for inclusion in a report. It took the shine off to find it wasn't Kahneman as I thought, but myself.

Warning! Your information is not secure - the first words on the Maudsley Hospital website

nemo183

Warning! Your information is not secure - the first words on the Maudsley Hospital website

Hi. Sorry to butt in, but could anyone who reads this check this link, which is the Maudsley Hospital in South London: https://www.national.slam.nhs.uk/services/adult-services/affectivedisorders/contact-us/

Is it just me, or do you get a series of dire warnings not to go on? I have a page with a warning triangle, first telling me my information is not secure (or similar) and inviting me "back to safety". If I click advanced, the warnings are even more severe, and I must press "proceed to unsafe site" to continue.

This is a mental health hospital & they were told about this over a day ago. Seems to me there may be a problem. How serious could it be, and how has this happened? How long should it take to fix, and how difficult is it?

'Evidence of Chinese spying' uncovered on eve of Trump-Xi summit

nemo183

Off topic but urgent.

Hi. Sorry to butt in, but could anyone who reads this check this link, which is the Maudsley Hospital in South London: https://www.national.slam.nhs.uk/services/adult-services/affectivedisorders/contact-us/

Is it just me, or do you get a series of dire warnings not to go on? I have a page with a warning triangle, first telling me my information is not secure (or similar) and inviting me "back to safety". If I click advanced, the warnings are even more severe, and I must press "proceed to unsafe site" to continue.

This is a mental health hospital & they were told about this over a day ago. Seems to me there may be a problem. How serious could it be, and how has this happened? I've already wasted a day trying to tell them.

Second UK teen suspect arrested over TalkTalk hack

nemo183

Re: flailing around to find the actual hacker

"Inclined to believe" - I think you put that well. Just so long as you aren't influenced by anything she says. The truth is a foreign land to TT that nobody visits.

TalkTalk CuffCuffs 'ScamScam CrimCrims'

nemo183

Re: This is trivial. TalkTalk have has an even bigger truth to hide.

Moi? Bitter? I think not. I'm just sickened.

nemo183

This is trivial. TalkTalk have has an even bigger truth to hide.

I've worked for TalkTalk for the last five years, and maybe the customers (you suckers) may finally "Get It". You fools think that we're incompetent. Helloooo. Dunstone and Dido, or AH and CF as we call them, are two of the sharpest cookies around.

AH is worth over £1.5 billion, starting from scratch in 1989 with a loan of £8k, and 3 A levels.

CF bloused over £6 million in 2014. She was a director of McKinsey, Tesco, and Sainsbury's before joining WalkWalk. She is a non-exec of the Bank of England. She went to Oxford, where she studied alongside the Prime Minister.

Do you idiots think these two can't run a company? Everything you see around you is designed to be exactly like it is.

Now here's the biggest laugh. Last year, every customer made us a profit of £12,50. Despite all we'd done, we still trousered that money.

Think, how much grief did we cause you personally, this year, or any year? Was it more or less than £12.50's worth of pain? Checking the bank, checking the credit report, hanging on for support, finding you've broadband operates at half the speed we said it would? And you know how clever we can be in so many other ways.

Do you not get it? Without you suffering and working unpaid for us, there is no TalkTalk. The whole business model depends on ripping out costs, regardless of the consequences to you mugs.

Do you think we give a toss what our Trust Pilot rating is? Each time it goes down, we have a beer. It means we've found another way of making a bit more profit by cutting costs. If we can save a quid, but it means it's more hassle for you, so what?

If your router catches fire, your house is burnt down with all your possessions, when you phone us all we'll want to know is if your YouView box is OK and demand it's immediate return, while reminding you that you're on an unbreakable contract.

I'll do you all a favour. Don't get worked up and start thinking you'll complain. You'll write to the board. Threaten this, promise that. Do you not think we get hundreds of this kind of letter a month? Do we give a flying f**k? I think you know the answer. You are tiny , little people who don't matter. You'll even renew your contract when we offer you a deal to say "sorry". You'll think it's too good to say no. But not realise that whatever it is, we know we'll make money in ways you don't get.

And here's the worse thing. This whole poisonous company contaminates everything and everyone it encounters. You know we can't be trusted, We lie about small things, we lie about big things. Honestly we' don't even notice.We diminish you all. And you've allowed it to happen. You have created this ghastly, perverted system by not realising you're effectively working for us for free.

I've decided it can't go on. This is why I'm resigning and leaving my unpaid job because my contract runs out next month. Yes, I am an idiot, fool, sucker - call it what you want. But I wouldn't want to be the piece of work you two are, AH and CF. You can take your Chipping Norton set and shove it up your jacksies.

nemo183

Re: Truly they are the Ryan Air

No, you're wrong. Ryan Air can change. And when costs are passed on to customers, they are obvious. With TalkTalk, nobody notices.

nemo183

Re: "We are also reviewing our relationship with Wipro."

You see, It's taken me years to get it, but you're absolutely right.. I don't know if you meant this as a joke, but WalkWalk will do anything to save costs and ignore the possible consequences for customers. It's the business model.

Flip board fails to get science right...

nemo183

Re: Flip board fails to get science right...

There's not much time in supporting a cranky minority view like evolution if 40% of your users are creationists. I looked this up the other day thinking they'd have under 5%, but it's been 40% for decades.