Database Crazy
I was "invited" (actually an appontment was sent to me simmarily,with several hoops to jumo through should I wish to decline).
At first it seemed like a good idea. I don't live far from the hospital, and don't have a fear of various medical tests.
Attending the appointment, ad the University Hospital of Wales, wouild merely mean taking a half-day (unpaid) off work, and leaving the company short staffed in the IT dept. (er.. thats me!) It would be easy to either walk a couple of miles in the rain to the hospital, wait for a few hours, get prodded and give up my secrets, physical, psychological, and sexual, then I too could have had a (possibly) free but-disgusting instant coffee, trudged back in the rain with blood/bruising down my arm, possible MRSA and whatever else diseases the patients had borught in that day. No problem.
I/could/ have ridden over on my lovely motorcycle, however, "Car Parking" at the hospital is stricly controlled by a private company, with an Italian-sounding name, that I expect would either fine or clamp whilst ribbing their sweaty little hands in glee. Or I guess I could "Pay and Display".. Oh.. Can't really do that with a motorcycle, cos the tickets tend to just "dissapear" into nearby cars. And I wouldn't be at all suprised to find both fine and clamp (and subsequent damage to every expensive aluminium/wire race wheels) as a reward for my payment. The streets for miles around are "Residents Only".
I must confess, the proposition was not /that/ attractive, however, progress and all that.
NuLabr had been banging on about getting everyone into as many "joined-up" databases, so that the populations every thought could be tracked from womb to grave, so, after having the priviledge of "participatign", I'm sure the government would never simpyl change the law, and add the participents DNA samples and other personal details to the uber-database, burn it onto CD/DVD in Excel format, and leave copies on the shelves in Tesco by mistake. Or would they?
So I decided to decline anyway.. But the phone number to cancel was always answered (at my cost on mobile - the only phone I have)) by a machine that told me that nobody was available at the moment, and asked my to call back, the web site did not work (under Linux, which is all I use!) and there was no SAE.
I gave up.
Whole project is a masterpiece of mis-engineering. A bit like everything else really.