Posts by eamonn_gaffey

Re: Insert meme here

Yes, but the old man in question knows a lot more about efficient and highly profitable allocation of capital than almost anyone else, as demonstrated by his investment track record. Personally, I'll take the shouting if I can have the returns :-)

.... and the Chinese are gonna pay for it :-)

Re: Test before deployment ?

That, plus it sounds like they may not have a test rig that reflects production on the Hubble....or if they do, adequate testing was not performed.

Still, sounds like they had sufficient contingency/resilience to enable a fix, which is impressive given the nature of the live environment.

Re: Sure thing

...and there are so many examples of such incompetence in IT, that this could be an entirely believable defence. However, there must be rules/law on corporate responsibility around things like DR that make a business a going concern that apply. At least, one would hope so...........

Re: Proof reader

I nearly always find errors on reading the printed version, even after having done the same on screen.

My explanation is those of us who grew up with paper will find proofing a printed copy fruitful, and the kids of the digital age won't ever need to look at one.

Agree that marking up is so much better on paper, Word Review is just plain awkward.

Re: Blackmailed

The US has already made the decision on innocence or guilt. That is a major issue the UK should be considering....but then we need a trade deal some time soon...(notwithstanding potential criminal acts by US citizens with 'dimplomatic immunity').

Re: Harassment and mobbing on the job

..maybe data scrubbers :-).

You would expect at least some empathy, but unfortunately, being female does not exclude such crass, odious and illegal behaviour. These "managers" were motivated by an internal culture that brooks no dissent. What an awful place to work.

All power to Ms Davidsen for having the courage to take them, and the company hierarchy on - very brave.

Re: sequence Numbers on punched cards

George3 : best development environment I ever worked on. Part of the ICL VME OS as I recall, a great piece of British software that unfortunately was rolled over by the IBM juggernaut....that and a sad lack of technological foresight, awareness and interest from various UK governments.

Re: Highly sophisticated

...this is how it happens folks. Pursuit of cheap and nasty outsourced IT "services", means you will get what you pay for - one day. The dicks who set up such, no doubt got nice pay rises and bonuses, and are long gone elsewhere. What fun, indeed.

Re: Dreaming up barriers to adoption...

Well, as it turns out we are getting Corbynism by stealth ...and that from the most right wing Tory gov. in my life time - what irony !! Universal Basic Income here we come :-)

To be fair, even if Plod had the resource their historical clear up rates are so dire I'm not sure it would make much difference (not entirely their fault as they have been badly blunted by the PC brigade of smart arse law people and misguided liberals) . I stopped believing in the fantasy of someone being there to help years ago - everyone for themselves now unfortunately.

Re: Who needs gooey?

Why noy go the whole hog and bring back CP/M ?.....or maybe even some tally sticks ?

Re: Let's not go into...

I think we ought to......

Re: Meaningless Group Of Statements Made Up Out of the Air

Agreed, this dross is not up to the usual Register standards...better not to publish it at all. Must be anxious to fill up content space (sort of understandable in these times).

Re: The real world

The testing legacy has been replaced by the mentality of : "sling any shit live because my bonus depends on it", in an "agile" fashion, because we need to "act fast and break things(literally)" yawn, yawn, yawn..... Some things are fundamental, like a comprehensive test pack.

Re: "[HMRC] has predicted the reforms will recoup £1.2bn a year by 2023"

...especially with all those expensive and rate chasing 'contractors' :-)

This is the most common sense I have seen on this thread. 'Contractors' (i.e. permanent staff dressed up as such for tax avoidance) have had it so good for so long, but this was always going to happen - someone has to pay for the increasingly lower UK tax culture.

There will be no 'mass exodus' as economic reality becomes apparent. - where are they going for a start ? EU looks like a big risk currenlty. As previously pointed out, there are loads of very well paid permanent jobs in UK currenlty. Be thankful.

Contractors won't sue RBS or anyone else over this, because they would lose. All that money on expensive QC's (also contractors) would be wasted.

Hirers of contractors are free to pay whatever rate they want, so if contractors (who claim to run their own businesses) don't like it, then look elsewhere.

All this complaining is starting to sound like permanent staff who actually are covered by employment laws - but contractors aren't, because they are not permanent. You can't have it both ways.

I suspect most of the complaining is coming from "contractors" who are de facto permanent staff, but have arranged recompense to avoid paying their fair share of tax.

Re: Once is an unfortunate cockup. Twice needs stamping on

Even a one time 'cock up' is no excuse. Companies this shoddy and dangerous deserve a response from their customers.... who should take their own privacy seriously and vote with thier feet.

Re: Man it must be hard for Cisco

This latest example from Cisco may expain why UK Govt. persiists with Huawei. They would rather the risk of the PRC Communist Party spying on us, than the shambles from the likes of Cisco. A novel risk based approach I guess :-)

Re: Coming soon

Wrong side of the Pennines...........that's Lancashire slang.

Re: That's Chromebook right out of my buying list then

Disgusting as it is, that is the business model for the IT supplier industry, and it is no wonder they now own the earth. There have been notable exceptions in the software industry, where suppliers support everything they have ever released, but these are exceptionally rare.

As mug punters, we all (reluctantly) have go along with it. Maybe we should vote with our feet, except there are not a lot of places to go. As my (futile) little protest, I hang on to "stuff" until they are broken, putting up with ever decreasing functionality and performance, and only upgrade when I absolutely have to.

Re: "Google will take £7.99 a month off you for 2TB of space"

Agree. Spend GBP 50.00 on a 2TB portable device if needed. Otherwise, spend GBP 100.00 on a 2TB home NAS that can be accessed remotely. Take reponsibility for your own precious data !! :-).

Re: Uber, Lyft and a good few others

Yet another bubble, and a definite sense of "deja vu". Neither Lyft nor Uber make profit, or are even projected to - so unless you are speculating (in which case your problem if you get burned) why would any sane, rational person buy their stock?

This is the current owners of venture capitalists, founders, employees etc. dumping essentially worthless equity on the market, which eagerly gobbles it up. These people are incentivised to market their "product" in any which way they can to dumb investors.

Find something better to do with your cash, and leave it to the snakes to fight it out amongst themselves - just say NO !!

Oh I don't know...think of all the contract hours you could rack up on a project with a hard(ish) end date, and therfore deep(ish) pockets. "Candy from a baby" springs to mind.....

Re: They used to joke the Sales team dress code was "Sharkskin Grey"

Sharks is the right analogy. CA treated their 'customers' appalingly, more like cash cows. Their account mamagers were a bunch of spivs, and truly awful people.

Re: … FFS

We need to be worried by a lot more US 'overspill' than election language, although that is the tip of an insidious iceberg. If the mob lead by Johnson/Rees-Mogg get their way, after they have screwed us with Brexit, the NHS will be re-born a la US privatised/medical insurance style. NHS 'staffers' pissing about on social media will be the least of our worries.

Re: Why???

...and it comes at a "lower cost", at least in terms of pounds/dollars - undoubtedly a significant driver behind outsourcing this rather crucial system. Unfortunately you get what you pay for, and the exec leading the project, thus achieving his/her inflated bonus for that year, will have long departed.

Re: I wonder...

The service contract might make for interesting reading.......

Re: Pah! Away with your namby-pamby hobbyists

...man after my own heart - which is currrently being investigated for coronary disease :-)

...and would need double the high end of that to walk into the shitstorm, and work for a management team headed by the likes of Pester. On second thoughts, take the job as a 12 month contract, undercut IBM by 15%, and still walk away with enough to buy a retirement home in France...........

Re: "Load Balancer Errors" is the clue

As a veteran of many such migrations of bigger proportions, I can attest this this is the only sensible approach. To go 'big bang' on something like this is just too risky. I'm guessing the reason TSB did it was because some megalomaniac in charge decided to go for the macho high risk approach, and fucked it up royally.

Interesting to hear Paul Pester,TSB CEO, on BBC Radio 4 this morning. Sounded very upbeat, almost smug (if you can beleive it), now that he has a global IBM team on board !. I'm sure that will be productive for TSB's customers (or rather, IBM in terms of fees generated).

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Re: Years of under-investment

100% correct......and there are many "non sane" IT depts. that do spiral down this plughole. There is a reason why all the big vendors (IBM, MS, Oracle, HP, AWS..........) have concentrated on Global 'Services' and Outsourcing over the last decade - because it is a licence to print money. Moreover, it is like taking candy from a baby as they have their friends strategically implanted in many corporate IT set ups. Some people might say it borders on corruption................