Posts by Chinamissing

UK mulls making employers ask before installing bossware

You can be a brilliant manager, your staff can still take the piss. Workers are no saints and not all managers are shit.

All very true but given the rise of people talking about how many side gigs they are running, the demands to work from home, the social media posts about taking time on the beach, the requests for 'personal time', the UK's productivity being at an all time low and you can see why companies do this. The assumption increasingly seems to be that the worker is paid and the company is lucky to get the benefit of that pay in a timely or productive manner.

As for consulting with the unions, they are out for one thing, more power for themselves, they do not need to be given even more power, we are already moving into the 70's at pace, those heady days of hard work, a booming economy, low taxes, efficient public services and great manufacturing output. Oh wait, that's the opposite of what happened, silly me.

Germany went off the rails as wireless outage saw all trains cancelled

Re: SNAFU

Because the nationalised British rail was such a fine example of a network working well, delivering great customer service and never having the staff go on strike every other day, mostly because they were being asked to work? Or because they used the microwave and they demanded their doctors appointment...

US Army picks out Vampire to fill a gap in its layered drone defenses

Re: Why?

Why not have fun with the name? Easier to remember than N784gHzc or 'insert dull name here'

UK defense startup to supply drone interceptors for Britain and allies

Re: Wow.

Do you know that they did/didn't?

Bank of England says it can run £431M settlement system without Accenture

Re: NAO happy or unhappy?

According to the BoE, it was £21M before and now it is £40M and that is because they brought it in house and added technical expertise. So it would appear that it is essentially double the cost of the previous iteration that was (implied by the language used in his answer) outsourced. Not exactly the incredible panacea that many Reggie's proclaim will happen if only the public sector ran everything.

Then again the cost overrun was minimal and it is amazing that we actually own anything, perhaps the BoE could set up the new clearing system for the UK and run that. Would rather them than a subsidiary owned by Mastercard, which seems to me to remove the point of setting up a new clearing system that is independent of Mastercard...

Sopra Steria sues UK government over £958M Capita outsourcing award

Re: As much as I dislike Crapita

Or of course having competent civil servants who deliver value for money and are efficient, rather than declining and lower than before covid. Given the public sector accounts for 25% of GDP now you would hope that they could actually deliver what they promise rather than asking for more money, more time, more resources.

Given that it is more likely that a civil servant will die in service than be sacked you have to wonder what they would have to do to actually be disciplined. Perhaps their job?

Re: Parasites

I mean have you seen the output of the 'nationalised' systems? Ever lived in Cuba or the USSR or the PRC, Vietnam? Or perhaps had the benefit of living in the UK and dealing with your local council? Or perhaps watched your tax bill rise and rise, whilst services decline but their salaries go up? Tried to get planning? Perhaps we can say if it is nationalised and you fail to deliver value for money for the tax payer (not the union nor yourself) then you will be required to repay everything that has been paid so far to the tax payers and you will be fired.

Doctors told to give Palantir's NHS data platform the cold shoulder

Re: BMJ - ICE

The irony of writing about doing the right things for patients and mentioning the BMA in the same sentence is spectacular. They have not cared about patients for years now. This is nothing to do with concern for patients and entirely due to the union deciding to deflect from their own utter contempt for patients.

DWP considers chatbot work coaches as AI-fueled job losses loom

Re: Mass Dickensian destitution inbound?

In many ways our current benefits system is a form of UBI, you can stay on it for life, if you try to get a job you lose so much that unless the job pays you huge sums you may as well not get off benefits and housing and all the rest and I don't see some glorious utopia of self fulfilment and all that. In fact if you want a shining example of where UBI (in a different guise word wise) has failed is Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Where the state doles out large sums, houses and healthcare and still people complain and people do not have satisfaction and fulfilment, where unemployment is high.

As for big business not paying tax, we and several friends all run/own/work in small businesses and we are taxed to hell and back, have you looked at the costs that small businesses pay for anything? From labour to services and the absolutely nothing that they receive in return? When you can buy and import food made in Lithuania or Columbia and it is cheaper than making it in the UK then you know things are totally screwed. Labour costs and Energy costs in the UK have driven manufacturing (food in particular, where no one actually wants to pay the real price of it) abroad. That is a direct result of tax and spend policies that totally punish anyone who tries to set something up and then keep it going. Or anyone who just wants to produce something in the UK.

Marching orders delayed: Veterans' Digital ID off to a slow start

Re: What exactly were the politicians/civil servants expecting?

They don't just go out there and decide to build some system. They get paid by the numpties (government and civil service) to do so, those people make the choice, not the companies.

Birmingham pauses Oracle relaunch to get staff on board

Re: Why

There is a more than fair chance that the IT department are also incompetent, not sure about the blanket assumption that they will have been competent.

Brussels plots open source push to pry Europe off Big Tech

But that is not strictly correct. You might need only to conform to 1 master set of regulations for the whole of the EU (good luck with that, most countries add their own extra items) but that doesn't help if those regulations are so onerous that you are unable to compete globally. So just having a single set of regulations for the whole of the EU is not necessarily helpful, especially if all countries have had an input..

Devs say Apple still flouting EU's Digital Markets Act six months on

Re: Lawless

That's simply not true. The civil service and its ilk have insane amounts of power. All they need to do is disagree, then clog the system with paperwork and just move incredibly slowly, eventually the law/item will be forgotten and not occur. It is a, at least in the modern era, a very obvious amount of power, perhaps best viewed in 'Yes, Minister'...

Britain plots atomic reboot as datacenter demand surges

Re: it's hard to see how slashing regulations is going to cut down that timeline by much.

Not sure about the downvote, have checked and you are correct and frankly that is amazing. Having just read the Times article on Hinkley points £700M Fish Disco to save less than 1 salmon per year, you have to wonder how anything will ever be built again.

Brussels weighs banning China from major EU research scheme

Re: Amusing.

The use of equivalency here is depressing. Yup the USA under Trump is no longer the beacon it was but they share a general outlook on life with the UK and the EU that is significantly similar and in a few years an election will happen and change can occur. China is not the same. The 'Great Wall', the work camps, the wholesale theft of IP, the oppression of Tibet, theft of waters off the Philippines and Vietnam and the suchlike are all clear and present dangers to the UK and the West in general. If you look at where refugees tend to run to, it is most definitely not the PRC but then again all you need to do is try and find out about Tiananmen square and see who comes to your door or even if you can within the PRC.

AI startup Augment scraps 'unsustainable' pricing, users say new model is 10x worse

Probably only 1, once you factor in pension, tax and all the rest, in the UK, I was taught to use 30% of the total salary to calculate govt related additional costs. Based on that figure 1 person and some spare for when they go sick and you hire a contractor. In which case, do they have a use case?

JLR stuck in neutral as losses skyrocket amid cyberattack cleanup

Re: So the Hackers were no good, it is entirely the Management?

There are lots of indications that the hackers have made money from their attacks around the world and given their skills, perhaps led a nicely brought up life (or not, supposition on both sides) but decided that Lolz were more important and fun than long hours, high tax for minimal return or support.

I totally agree that when companies fail then they should be held accountable but most of this discussion board is a lot of people ranting about the evil management but based on not a huge amount of information. These particular hackers seem to be pretty special at what they do and have now got into a US bank after taking out various other companies. I would suggest that this is not a case of 'evil management' but of it being easier to be an attacker who needs to find one flaw in monumentally complex systems and then escalate from there. Than a defender trying to hold it all together, sure the management might not have budgeted enough and perhaps that will be the learning, however what is enough? How much do you need to put in before prices have to rise (or you don't give your staff the pay rise they want to cover these rising costs?)

So the Hackers were no good, it is entirely the Management?

Reading the comments above here you would think that the hackers did absolutely nothing and were entirely the beneficiaries of the evil company management. Clearly the public sector is filled with the best and the brightest, who work long hours and heroically throughout the day and night to deliver the incredible services that we in the UK benefit from. We should nationalise everything immediately, it worked so well for the USSR and Cuba, let's do it.

I am not saying that security decisions that were made were the best (and frankly none of the posters here really know much about what happened) but the tirade of abuse about the company and demands that the company pays for all the suppliers is ridiculous. Not one comment on the hackers and the damage they did? Not one comment demanding that they are hunted down and any funds they made (I believe they have retired now to live on their golden earnings) be paid to the suppliers and workers that go bust? Seriously?

Science confirms what we all suspected: Four-day weeks rule

Re: Every. Single. Study.

Not strictly true, the 4 day working week in public sector organisations showed a distinct decrease in productivity and in many customer facing organisations, productivity (as defined as being available to customers and responding to queries also declined.) You also have to wonder how long before the 4 day week benefit wears off and we are pushing for a 3 day week. Much like the benefits from working from home all wore off and productivity and issues with company culture and the loss of intrinsic company information all came to the fore with the work from home option.

And as for people being upset about it, of course they are, working from home is a great way to have a couple of jobs on the go and do all you want at the expense of the company. UK productivity is some of the worst in the world.

Greater Manchester says its NHS analytics stack is years ahead of Palantir wares

Re: Follow the brown envelopes or funny handshakes

That is very true, ironic that all these people ranting about the evil tories and the private sector, conveniently ignore how GPs have gamed the system, private sector control (i.e. themselves) with public sector money, pensions and security. So all those people ranting about the evil private sector and the saintly NHS might want to check out how many of those 'saints' are in fact the demons they are foaming about. All thanks to Blair, who when I last looked was Labour, pretty sensible labour too.

Re: Wait...

Surely all you can take from this, is that one ICB has apparently done a very good job and has paid for a report that proves they have. I am not saying that they have not done what they say but there are a few telling mentions as well.

1. The input from the unions on not wanting to work with Palantir, even if what they do is any good

2. Some of the stuff is good and some will be better than GM can do/will do over time. - So integrate that into the solution

3. The comments on trust would indicate that there are also political concerns around the use of Palantir that are nothing to do with the solution. Pretty much exemplified by the rant from AC just below the initial post

As for the posts, it is incredible how many knowledgable keyboard jockeys there are on here, well informed on the complexities of massive systems, the public sector and its incredible productivity at all levels and not just foaming keyboards, management evil, union amazing, writers.

If they have this incredible system, then can it be scaled, added to the system, adopted across the NHS, does the Trust and its partners have the skills and support and cash to roll this across entirety of the NHS? And time to deal with all the petty politics in every region that might have their own version? I mean will Leeds give up theirs to use Manchester's..... Perhaps Manchester looked at this with NHS England and privately said, we do not want to get involved and we do not want to share this because it is too much a pain and we can see what is going to happen when you try to roll out a national system in an organisation filled with people defending their own little pieces of turf.

UK 'extremely dependent' on US for space security

Re: Good article

Then again will Germany and France be reliable partners? Fairly certain Italy and Spain will have issues (you cannot even call a defence fund that it is to be renamed as the buying flowers and hugging invaders fund I believe) with war/defence/supporting allies.

Microsoft tastes the unexpected consequences of tariffs on time

Re: The BREXIT Bonus

I mean Italy and Germany are shining examples of how wonderful PR is, decisions being made are absolutely and totally in the best interest of the country and not the minority party founded by a single issue group of people who absolutely must have their project funded at all costs.

Medusa ransomware group claims attack on UK's Gateshead Council

Re: ? do they understand UK councils

I mean these are councils, there is no need to hire any management consultants to waste money, they can pay their chief exec an additional £x00,00 PA plus create a raft of new jobs that do little, have suitably ridiculous titles and then invest in a great property deal, I've got here....

Operation Synergia II sees Interpol swoop on global cyber crims

Suspect the beloved Xi would disagree with you, he might even have a special camp for you. He is also taking his inspiration very clearly from Mao and has any number of progressive policies, including a number of education idea's that are right from central casting for communism.

The comment clearly holds water and unfortunately for us all, the election this year in the USA is very much a democratic one, votes were counted and the orange one is elected. It is also pretty free compared to most countries in the world. Is this nice? Is it great? Who knows but the fundamentals in place are some of the things that let him get in. Though he and his republicans will now subvert and potentially break it is a risk but as of today, the USA was a democratic society.

Euro execs extend net zero timescales amid energy cost and supply crunch

Re: Increased demand is being held back by rising energy costs…

Then throw in the relative size of our economy, 'carbon outputs' and general environmental impact and you realise that unless the USA, China, India and probably one or two others do something, everything we do will move the world's health not a single % point. I am all for recycling and use public transport and do take holidays abroad, no shame there. But the constant b*llocks spewed by governments of all hue about being 'a world leader in green tech and showing the way to decarbonisation' is tiring. All it really means is we lose businesses, increase costs, cover the RnD costs of the rest of the world who watch what happens to us and even if we hit our goal, we will not have helped the world move significantly enough but will have ensured a broken economy and no 'green jobs' of any significant number. It is depressing and now that Trump is in power, we truly are in trouble. Will be interesting to see what the reaction is to US states starting to sue the UK over our ESG policies in the USA. Combine this with wars, Labour's incredible budget 1 (read the BoE amongst others) and life is not looking overly chirpy.

Row erupts over data sharing function in UK doctor software

Re: What GP?

> Well you're a registered patient of the *practice*, not of a particular doctor...

Wow, so one of those doctors, who doesn't know you (because, as you say, you are not seen by a doctor but the practice), can decide to not input information from an outside source but another in the practice might decide it is needed. How does that work for the benefit of the patient?

And surely that point also removes pretty much every argument above your post that talks about how the GP need's to know their patient and support them in the community? If it is the practice that owns the patients then there is no personal relationship and so it is even more critical that the system can be updated or used by outside partners to ensure that a total picture is available to the patient.

Reading the BMA's stance on this it is nothing to do with workload or protecting patients but ensuring that jobs are protected because the more our systems are joined up, the more chance there is of outcomes improving, people being able to manage their own health and perhaps needing less gp's.

The BMA might once have been a respected organisation that had the interests of both the patients and the medical staff at heart but that is long past.

Re: Amanda Doyle -comment.

That is assuming your local gp is reading everything and then deciding what to input. Given they are so overworked at the moment, they surely do not have the time to do this? And at the various practices friends and family use, the gp does not read your test results or notes. In fact nothing happens unless you call up and ask where the results are, then the receptionist will say, 'oh nothing there'. Great GDPR and frankly if they can do the diagnosis, then why do we bother with GPs? And if there is something there, then we get a call from a nurse, anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks from the first call asking what is going on.

Re: The clue's in the word "controller".

So a GP, who is a generalist, can choose to ignore advice from a specialist and not to include it in the notes and that is a good thing? As a patient I want all related medical information on me in one place, so that a total review can occur, not just what a gp decides I need. Especially when they are impossible to get hold of, do not follow up calls and in our practice no one knows who their gp is.

Airbn-bye: Barcelona bans short-term apartment rentals for tourists

I mean you can't have rich locals? And there is nothing wrong with people owning properties and renting them out, there are all sorts of reasons for people to own 2 properties. The issue is with hyper short term lets that only cannibalise hotel/BnB rooms and remove properties from the longer term rental market. I agree with the mayor's actions, even if they are not perfect, I have yet to see any other solution actually work.

A tale of two Chinas: Our tech governance isn't perfect, but we still get to say no

And then get voted out and the rule overturned. Court cases will challenge it and people will protest and change will happen. There is a massive difference between the West (and in this instance the UK) and China. I mean, China doesn't need Rwanda when it has its own concentration camps housing millions in Xinjiang.

There is no moral equivalency here, we have a system of checks and balances, that right now feel imbalanced and imperfect but they survive and they evolve because our system has them and because we still (for how long) have the rights and the people to check government and courts. China does not have that and will never have it. Technology will keep the CCP in power forever and oppress its people forever.

Except in many ways it has, countries united to defeat Hitler, Stalin and the such like. The United Nations may well be a talking shop but it is better to talk than war even if right now China and Russia are doing their level best to initiate a global war, either by directly invading a sovereign state (Russia) or by stealing land and islands and preventing countries from landing on their own territory (China) or by breaking international rules on overflying sovereign nations (China again.)

On another scale, reparations, sharing of medicine and global conferences and laws that have had an impact on climate, on investment and the such like. Sure it is not all perfect and there are a lot of gaps but humans do collaborate and things do get better. Life expectancy? reduction in various illnesses and others.

As for not seeing China as worse or better. It is categorically worse, one party state, mass incarceration of entire regions, concentration camps, people who disagree with the party line, vanishing (anyone want to be a female tennis player in China?), total removal of right to protest (HK) and the destruction of their legal system and way of life.

I totally agree, a world where we act in the best interests of the world is a brilliant goal and people are working towards it and over time we will see significant changes and I like to think overall improvements. But to say that China and the West are equivalent is blinkered and wrong. You protest in China about your water companies polluting your river or the power/chicken farms destroying the environment and you will be shut down and possibly arrested. Certainly your social cohesion score will be impacted and so your ability to work, receive benefits reduced. None of this happens here. In fact the power of protest has forced companies and governments to change.

Back from the dead: LockBit taunts cops, threatens to leak Trump docs

Re: NCA

Not sure they blew it? Did you really expect an organisation that makes hundreds of millions and possibly billions to suddenly die? Especially given their locations and undoubted resources. I mean they are clearly not dumb and so would have a back up plan in place (the irony) but what the NCA and the FBI and all the rest have done is disrupt, assist some organisations and shown that they can be defeated (at least once.) Not sure I think the PR was so well handled but other than that, the cops did well. Made a good read after the interminable and never ending reads on organisations being hacked and ransomware etc. But to assume that one victory is the end of the war is naive at best and utter stupidity at worst.