Can BBC’s Simon Spark Spell?
Image
Reply
The Blurred Horizon Post Office Project
Fujitsu looked at the UK National Lottery and saw a cash cow, so bought ICL.
I’m not in the business but know a good deal when I see it. So apparently did Fujitsu.
ICL had a longish history when that deal was done, that goes back to the days of punched cards to program a computer. Good stuff in it’s day.
There had been one previous abortive effort to modernise the Post Offices 19th century rubber stamp business practices, and I can’t comment further on that.
After a short contract with the Midland Bank I attended an interview and was awarded the post of Technical Design Authority (TDA) for the Post office project at ICL Pathway in Feltham.
The existing ‘design’ documents amounted to no more than ‘wordy’ wish lists. The authors, some of whom I met, were familiar with client-server technology and damn-all else. My conclusion, a collection of ICL dinosaurs, that should have been extinct fifteen years before.
The coding team were mostly Visual Basic ‘programmers’, sporting MCP badges. (Microsoft Certified Professional) Experience with them demonstrated that they couldn’t have programmed their way to escape from a paper bag.
There were two teams that were exemplary, that of Configuration Management, and the Security Team.
The pilot scheme was running and there were a large number of problems, I asked Configuration Management for access to their ‘fault’ stack and gave advice on fixes. One idiot in the coding team had specified the name of the Post Office printer, rather than using the default. A replacement printer didn’t work. The fundamental issue was communications with the Post offices The software was proprietary, and I was disallowed from reviewing it. A visit to the manager of this debacle and my statement to him that my title of TDA was a stupid joke, was dismissed. I did not renew my contract.
Previously I cooperated with Epson on the development of the FORTH programming language on their laptop. This was with Japanese engineers.I could not fault their knowledge or co-operation.
It grieves me that it is always Fujitsu’s name that is constantly mentioned. The only mistake they made was buying ICL, and the bunch of no-hopers that worked for it.
Sky News, Hitally -Elephant digs for 11 hours
Look at this: Digging Elephant
Unfortunately, the content is interrupted so many times with Ads, I suffered from finger fatigue, and gave up trying to read the content. A quick scroll to the end, and her calf had fallen into a hole.
Much ado about nothing. This isn’t ‘news’ Sky, it’s CRAP.
Deep in your DNA, you know?
Take a look at this: AI sparks creativity
Apparently ‘We are programmed deep in our DNA to be comforted by the authority and the reliability of big brand names, and that applies more than ever to the names of big writers.’
These are the words of the chief executive officer of Bloomsbury Mr.Nigel Newton.
Well Nigel, in my recollection DNA is a molecule carrying genetic instructions for an organism’s development, functioning, and reproduction. There is more, much more but it has eff all to do with comfort about any authority, including names of big writers. (Are these writers oversized Nigel?)
Go home and play with your teddy bear Nigel.
I didn’t do it, I wasn’t there..
I didn’t do it. I wasn’t there. I didn’t wannit. I wouldn’t dare.
With grateful thanks to 10cc.
Well good morning Judge, how are you today?
I’m in trouble, please put me away
A pretty thing took a shine to me
I couldn’t stop it so I let it be
Adding a comment
Wordpress apparently expect readers of my posts to understand the rubbish about ‘blocks’, given when you attempt to make a comment. Simply ignore the inane instruction ‘Type / to choose a block’ and make your comment.
Google Translate – Beware Of The Holier Than Thou AI
Hi Google.
A recent translation of ‘bag of shit’ into Portuguese was ‘translated’ into ‘pagina horrivel’.
While I might agree that a bag of shit is unpleasant, it isn’t a ‘horrible page’.
If this is an example of what we have to put up with from your adoption of AI – another misrepresentation, you can stick your translation service up your rectum – yes I can be offensive without using anglo-saxon.
Nicola Cafe, Coimbra
Como as coisas mudam, e não para melhor.
Este era o Café Nicola antes de 2015.
[English]
How things change, and not for the better.
This was Cafe Nicola pre-2015
Na minha última visita, não estava assim. Infelizmente, não estava com a minha máquina fotográfica.
O TripAdvisor tem algumas fotos, incluindo uma de uma sanita com o assento solto e encostado à parede, juntamente com fotos de pratos — que tentação…
O Café Nicola tem um site, uma apresentação de diapositivos aborrecida e irritante de embalagens e chávenas de café – aparentemente nada para mostrar os seus cafés – ou será que temos de entrar naquela saco de merda Facebook para ver o que oferecem?
[English]
Last time I visited. It didn’t look like the above. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera with me.
TripAdvisor has some photos, including one of a toilet, with seat detached leaning against the wall, alongside pics of dishes – how tempting..
Nicola Cafe have a website, a boring, irritating slide show of packets, and cups of coffee – nothing apparently to showcase their cafes – or do we have to login to that bag of shit Facebook, to see whats on offer?
What price a game of Cricket?
Qual o preço de um jogo de críquete?
M4011M-1402
Take a school, All Saints in Gateshead UK (Now gone thankfully)
Take a so-called game of Cricket, a stupid teacher batting, and a group of unprotected small boys fielding.
A visit to hospital, x-rays, a broken cheekbone a near loss of an eye.
No-one held to account, no action by parents NAFF ALL.
Imagine uma escola, a All Saints em Gateshead, no Reino Unido (que felizmente já não existe).
Imaginem um suposto jogo de críquete, um professor incompetente a rebater e um grupo de rapazes desprotegidos a defender.
Uma visita ao hospital, radiografias, uma fratura no osso da face, quase perda de um olho.
Ninguém foi responsabilizado, nenhuma ação por parte dos pais. NADA DE REGRESSO.
Green Man Review
It isn’t often I refer directly to another site, other than to pass an opinion. But I suggest folks look at A Green Man Review.
The theme rings very true. Though I find it very hard to think kindly of several folks, starting with His Most Absurdly PumpedUpNish, Mr Donald Trump. What are the the good folks of America thinking about? All he and his cronies see, is more dollars, and more power to themselves. Screw everyone else.
What are you? ‘Sinistro’ or ‘Destro’
The BBC have posted an interesting article on the merits or demerits of being left-handed.
The main reason for reserving one hand for eating and one for using a pebble to clean yourself after the waste has been expunged, was one of simple good sense. No-one I know enjoys eating shit.
Sadly, even when good facilities for cleaning both hands became available, folks who preferred to use their left hand were stigmatised. My experience as a child, an example of ignorance and stigma by my father. Picking up my knife with my left hand at the dinner table resulted in being struck on the knuckles with whatever he held in his right hand, and I was lambasted as being ‘cack-handed’ – IOW shit-handed. Even later there were similar remarks when I used a screwdriver to remove a screw. ‘They never made anything for left-handed people Joe!’. Probably true, but turning a screw anti-clockwise is easier with the left hand, than it is with the right – at least for me. I drive a screw in with my right hand and remove it with my left.
Later on, I worked with him on open steel work, building the extension to a switch-house at Blyth Power station (another project I’ve out-lived) He was embarrassed when I unloosened a reluctant nut, using a spanner in my left hand – one he couldn’t budge.
The simple truth is he’d created a ‘monster’ someone who made best use of his body, irrespective of the nonsense preached by others.
The BBC article highlights the use of latin in language. Sinistro and Destro are Italian adjectives for left and right. In the UK left-handed folks are ‘sinister’, right-handed folks are ‘dexterous’.
So good sense in early human behaviour has been handed down to us as an insult and a compliment. Complete twaddle.
Intelligence? IQ tests demonstrate how good you are at IQ tests. They serve no other purpose than to categorise folk, and provide yet another label that psyche’s love to stick on people. If I was wearing them all, I would resemble a badly misdirected parcel by the once-Royal Mail.
Me? I thank my father’s ignorance and stupidity for making me virtually ambidextrous. I thank myself for the endless irritating questions I asked him, and for cross-questioning the rubbish told by some teachers at school.
joesportugal 