Do tell again...

...you are going to protect the olympics if you can't keep one little website safe?

I'm only here because of the picture on the front page.

There I said it.

...because it was a well written contract without the scope for change requests to make up for buying the business at a loss...

Fixed that for you.

Here's my position for what it is worth...

...climate changes. It changes a bit by the actions of us humans. How much is up for grabs but I'm going with .3 degree C per century.

Then I look at dire predictions from the 1980's and compare them to observable effects. There are undoubted gaps. I'm looking at the Maldives whose government claims they are sinking while investing in coastal developments. I'm looking at snow near Madrid in March. I'm looking at glaciers which refuse to melt fast enough.

Then I think of past extinction events. Mainly caused by cold periods. Then I think of the periods where things were burgeoning, mainly warm times.

Then I think of subsidised 'green' schemes that fail to deliver. PV, windmills, wavepower. Then I remember I am paying for the failures.

Then I look at climategate and fakegate. And I think how much power the catastrophe lobby have over policymaking and wonder why. I then remember reading Henny Penny to my kids and understand that we are programmed to believe the worst. Even if it kills off all our friends. And turns out not to happen. That quadrant of the precautionary principle for No Threat/Do Something doesn't look appealing to me.

I look to scientists and commentators who are willing to argue a case. And I mean argue. Not on the basis of 'the science is settled.' Not on the basis of 'the models say.' And I see the folks that want to engage are much like me. Interested in clarity.

And then I think about the energy poor world that making a change demands. And I think what if I'm wrong and there is warming and it will cause drastic population reduction. And I wonder whether a self-inflicted return pre-industrial living is worse than a natural (believe it or not man is part of nature and not outside it) decline which will correct itself over time. Perhaps not. Perhaps the time of the cockroaches is approaching.

I choose to live a low impact life. For 6 months of the year I live without electricity in a tent. Using an earth closet. Scavenging for firewood. Doing forestry. That's a choice. I don't seek to impose it.

So I am pleased to call myself a skeptic. My skepticism is about the nature of the catastrophe or, indeed whether there actually is one.

There is no doubt that I will get downvotes, I usually do. If you are hovering over that button, do tell me why. Demonstrate it is not just a zealous faith in the science.

Long post thank you for reading this far.

DPA principle no 8

I suppose it is up for dispute that looking at data wherever it is stored is transfer.

http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_organisations/data_protection/the_guide/principle_8.aspx

There's a limited number of countries that are compliant. India isn't one of them.

For the price...

... I'd want 500 quid change.

This could be the tipping point...

...that means I have the argument for investing in a keyboard for my tablet.

Reeeesut!

In medicine it is called...

...Iatrogenic illness.

In simple terms, the cure is worse than the illness.

Except in this case there might not be an illness to cure.

I'm still waiting for a diagnosis based on symptoms and repeatable tests instead of witchcraft.

I'd be interested to know why...

...the dissenting voice at 13:15 has been silenced.

Every drop of rabid spittle is another nail in the coffin.

And I spend ages on a witty response that is stuck in the moderation pile.

AC 13:18

500k should be enough budget for a dictionary and thesaurus.

Rebutting or refuting would be a better choice.

And ITYM interested.

And wipe the foaming spittle from your lips.

And no on this basis I wouldn't commission a report from you.

HTH HAND

Italian Guard Dog...

...anyone?

They are not in competition...

...and they offer the same services.

There should be a single template. Properly done. Everyone chips in a bit for setup and a usage charge. ODPM came closest with the BVP stuff but it died from lack of interest.

Unfortunately there is a lot of dickwavery about who won this award etc so they won't work together. Not even in a single organisation.

And anyone who has not been there would not believe the complexity of the back office apps. None of which are designed to work with anything else. There's a mess of database dumps, file imports, spreadsheets and post-it notes. I'm currently struggling with getting a common payments system in a County. There are currently 4. Each has its champions. None want to see theirs dropped. Decisions made in one meeting are reversed in the next because there's a new opinion every week.

And it looks like the only 'acceptable' way to get information from webforms into one back office is to email it to someone who rekeys it because the process maps dictate a manual entry and checking step. And the process maps are sacrosanct. I have even been informed they are dictated by law.

It's not rocket surgery but the capacity for the civil service* mentality to complicate something simple should not be underestimated.

* I know they are not but they come from the same stock.

I reserve the right...

...to panic now as I will almost certainly not see 2040.

Thank you.

end of an era

Good machines are hard to find. And very poorly maintained. Shame really.

I'm on my way to a meeting to explain why...

...fast, cheap and right first time is not possible.

How do JPA do it?

They seem to get good launches with 2 ballons.

Still Unity desktop though?

...about as business-like as my fisher-price laptop.

Bored now...

...stopped looking when it got to 9989. I have chainsaws to play with.

World government...

...what could possibly go wrong.

I might have been harsh...

...congratulations whoever got them away from waterfall.

What could possibly go wrong...

...see title.

Dunno about anything else...

...but the occupants of sheffield are up in arms.

Perhaps...

...Tescos may be persuaded to bring back proper cream soda with proper sugar in it.

Powermapper report...starting from Bank Holidays page

Category Benchmark against sites

Overall Quality

6 pages with quality issues worse than average

Errors

1 pages with broken links or other errors worse than average

Accessibility

2 pages with accessibility problems better than average

Compatibility

0 pages with browser specific issues better than average

Compliance

4 pages with compliance or legal issues worse than average

Search

5 pages with search engine issues worse than average

Standards

0 pages have W3C standards issues better than average

Usability

4 pages with usability issues worse than average

Totals 10 pages and files checked

The evaluation version is limited to checking 10 pages and images.

It's a load of...

... lip flap.

e-GIF is/was a attempt to come to a standard for government schemas and stuff. No one paid much attention to it and as far as I know it is pretty well dead in the water.

If this falls short of removing all IT budgets from the whole public sector and moving to central procurement it'll be forgotten by this time next year.

A suggestion...

...for the public sector.

Spend less time specifying and more time making stuff.

The big boys will blow any budget you have with expensive consultants who produce little. And then try to get the cash for development (or configuration as they will want to call it) from change control because they know they underestimated. And putting another layer between you and the coalface can only cost money.

Contract the team yourself. Write proper use cases and an FRS that specifies forms, processes and data at the field level. Get a estimates from the person who is going to be the technical lead and don't try to horsetrade to get the price down. He has nothing to gain by inflating it and you both look good if it comes in early and under budget.

Stop changing your mind. Changes to your signed off FRS have untold consequences.

Get coders making stuff as soon as there is an FRS. If you feel you need a detailed design write it as the coding is happening. It's the only way it will reflect reality.

If you have an existing apps platform make sure it can do 100% of what you want it to. If you do the 80:20 rule plan on the 20 to take 90% of the time not 20%. Working around COTS and trying to bend them to you will is pain for everyone.

If the coders think there is an application or tool that will help them get it for them.

If the coders say they are struggling with an application in the platform give them the freedom to look at a different way.

Have Boardroom Pilots every week. Have the Tech Lead justify everything you see against the FRS. Tick off use cases to measure progress.

Listen to the people who are making it. If they offer different ways to do things to make implementation easier and quicker consider them. The only reason not to do things a different way is if they don't meet the requirements. In short let the technical people decide the technical issues.

Most of these projects are a bit of web stuff, some workflow and some data. It's not hard.

My current contract ends at the end of the month...

The important question...

...another server side language is needed because?

Especially one based on Javascript.

The budget will be blown...

...trying to get the requirements.

Been there done that.

I can see...

...that mental air waving Alphas style might work well for some stuff, scrolling through libraries and stuff but I can't see it replacing the mouse for fine control.

The strategy in confusing. Or moneygrubbing at the cost of an easy route to market. I'd have thought you'd get some acceptance through a low resistance route, which is using the hardware base that exists. Even if there are some constraints. When the mental arm waving becomes accepted you can enhance the experience with pair of xspecs (I said it first) that go over the lenses to give you closer focus.

If the target is gamers. Why don't they just get an xbox. I suppose there will be more titles eventually, if you can get the development done.

If the target is the early adopters. I think takeup would be much better if I could unplug the one from my xbox to play around with it on the PC. THEN I might give it a try and still buy a second one if I found decent application for it, Shit I might even buy an xbox kinnect just to get the kinnect to play with on the PC. If it all goes Pete Tong I still have a usable controller on my games console.

If the target is developers initially you should be able to play with the hardware cheaply and if they have a box they should be able to use it. Getting them playing with it is critical. Getting them to invest is a bit more tricky.

Give it a year I'm guessing you will be able to pick up second hand units for a handful of magic beans because the applications will not be on the shelves.

Not saying the chaps at MS haven't thought about this and weighed up the balance and come out with what they think is the best strategy for them. Just seems odd to me.