Posts by zappahey

Capita hears demand for pension scheme cleanup 'loud and clear' – but won't say yes

"which includes 40 people beyond the surge team, would amount to £12.5 million for the 2026-27 financial year"

are we sure ? my poor maths say £312,500 for each of the 40 people ... I must join the civil service

Not quite.

"Minister for the Cabinet Office Nick Thomas-Symonds said the government deployed 140 officials in a pensions recovery team" so, adding the 40 makes 180 people.

That comes to just under £70k per person which isn't unreasonable given that will be capitation rates rather than salary rates.

Re: Two options for Crapita

Because, of course, civil servants are a homogeneous blob who all work as one.

Capita tells civil servants to wait for chatbots to fix pension portal woes

Re: If it's not Fushitsu being s***, it's Crapita being crap

Yes, we, the users are to blame, having been told we had to check our details with two weeks to go before bang time.

I wasn't told at all. The first I knew of it was when I tried to log on the the old system to get my payslip.

The Y2K bug delayed my honeymoon … by 17 years!

a test showed 15 nuclear reactors would shutdown

I did see a senior manager report that his nuclear-qualified crane was Y2K-compliant up to 31/12/99.

DVSA's clapped-out booking system gets bot slapped as new boss rides in

There's always the Irish solution

Until relatively recently, if a Belgian passed their car test it also gave full entitlement for riding motorcycles. My Belgian brother-in-law passed his car test and then immediately bought a 1000cc Honda. Oddly, he's still alive.

The air is hissing out of the overinflated AI balloon

Re: Dot Dumb

That was 2008, not the Dot Com bubble, which crashed in 2000

Re: Dot Dumb

CDO and SIV? I think you have your stock market crashes confused.

Prohibition never works, but that didn't stop the UK's Online Safety Act

Re: Ignorant politicians

It's a quandary, isn't it?

This feels like a bad idea. Oh, wait a minute, Farage doesn't like it, can it really be that bad?

I just deleted my entire social media presence before visiting the US – and I'm a citizen

Re: wtf

“ If you are applying for a Visa then yes, they will check you out! As long as you're not some whacko supporting terrorists then you probably have no worries!”

The fact that you felt you had to add “probably’ speaks volumes.

User said he did nothing that explained his dead PC – does a new motherboard count?

Re: Friends & Family are all Tech Illiterate

It’s been many years since I could call myself technical but I always found “my rate is £35 an hour” (in late 1990s pounds) tended to act as a discouragement.

Ford pulls the plug on EV strategy as losses pile up

Re: Once upon a time....

I keep a can of diesel in my boot, part of my "just in case" kit.

Not really sure of your point. The type of person who's going to carry spare fuel isn't really the type of person who's going to run out through negligence.

Too big to live, too loved to die: Big Tech's billion dollar curse of the free

The difficulty with Telco provided email addresses is that you lose them when you change telephone or internet company. I understand the US market is pretty restrictive in terms of options but much of Europe has real competition.

Voice assistants failed because they serve their makers more than they help users

Re: My voice assistant doesn't understand me....

"It is traditional at this point in a forum chat to add the following link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMS2VnDveP8"

I'm not even going to click that link but I will point out that last night I said "Alexa, lights aff" and she understood.

Braking news: Cops slammed for spamming Waze to slow drivers down

Re: I have no problem with this.

"Auto gearboxes are not good at engine braking if just left in drive, so downhill requires a bit of braking."

That might have been true in the 1970s, not so much these days with modern boxes that actually drop gears when going down hill.

California asks people not to charge EVs during heatwave

"Why not use a more efficient source of energy? E.g. burning fossil fuels in your petrol engine?"

Since when did the internal combustion engine become greater than 60% efficient?

'This is the new normal,' Microsoft tells US workers: Work from home until further notice

Re: Leftanistan

Well done for maintaining the tradition of posting idiocy behind the veil of anonymity.

Activist millionaires protest outside Jeff Bezos' homes to support tax rises for the rich

" it is why everyone from Lulu to Sean Connery moved abroad."

OK, that's the upside, what about the downside?

Very little helps: Tesco flashes ancient Windows desktop on Scan-As-You-Shop device

"Funny you say that, the Polish and Lithuanians I work with all voted out of the EU."

Funny you say that, as EU citizens were not given the vote in the referendum.

In which case they must have been naturalised citizens and thus British, or you're running your own special line of what, in the current parlance, is known as fake news.

How to lose a UK contractor in 10 days: Make them commit after upcoming IR35 tax upheaval, apparently

Re: Contractor envy is annoying

And, as a bonus, you've had no need to learn any social skills.

Attention all British .eu owners: Buy dotcom domains and prepare to sue, says UK govt

Re: Wow, it's almost...

We don't vote for a Prime Minister, that is the position awarded to a person nominated and elected by the MPs that we elected. I would hate to see a system where people pay £3 to be allowed to vote for a leader.

That's not true, the PM is typically the leader of the majority party in parliament. In both of the largest parties, the final decision on the leader is taken by the party membership. I understand that it costs a lot more than £3 to be a member of the Conservative party. Or was that your point? Only the wealthier should choose?

Julian Assange to UK court: Put an end to my unwarranted Ecuadorean couch-surf

"Lets say they dedicate 6 officers to cover always having 2 staking it out at any one time on 8 hour shifts,"

You're looking at 10 people just to cover working hours for two full time posts 24/7/365 on 8 hour shifts and that's before you allow for sickness and training, so probably closer to 12. Though it still doesn't get close to £11M.

Proposed Brit law to ban b**tards brandishing bots to bulk-buy tickets

Re: Promoters culpable?

"It would be ridiculously easy to stop bots from buying tickets from a web site, a simple captcha would probably suffice. I wonder why they don't bother"

Not even remotely sufficient. There's a great freakonomics podcast on the topic of ticket touts.

freakonomics.com/podcast/live-event-ticket-market-screwed/

What is the probability of being drunk at work and also being tested? Let's find out! Correctly

Re: A certain bias, there

In the UK, the drink driving limit, roughly, for a 12 stone man, is around 4 units,

Except for readers in Scotland.

Oh no, Silicon Valley! Failed startup CEO on fraud rap after allegedly bullsh*ting staff and refusing to pay them

Re: Also know as...

"And once he starts sharing a cell with Bubba, he can add another name to hus collection. "Yusuck Meorf"."

Because, of course, sexual assault jokes are always funny.

Douglas Coupland: The average IQ is now 103 and the present is melting into the future

Re: Automation

"So why the hell are we still working 5 days a week?"

On average, we're not, it's just that it's not evenly distributed.

UK copyright troll weeps, starts 20-week stretch in the cooler for beating up Uber driver

Re: "He'd better make sure he never drops the soap"

Even scum don't deserve jokes about male rape.

US tech college ITT is not pining for the fjords. It is no more. It has gone and met its maker

Re: Half the schools in the USA

"'Punctuatuion is free, you know? :-)"

And so are spellcheckers. ;-)

Blighty cops nab Brit teen for 'hacking' CIA Brennan's AOL email

"suspicion of conspiracy" is just saying there's enough evidence to suggest it was you but the case isn't yet made.

Things you should know about the hard work of home working

My solution to the problem of domestic interruption was to wear my work access badge when I was working and to remove it when I was taking a break. That way there was a visual cue that saved any potential for domestic discord.

Me give you $14 squillion gadziddly-dillion

Only the gullible

I quite like the freakonomics theory that the scammers know their ploy is blatantly obvious and it's a tactic to filter out all but the super-gullible.

http://www.businessinsider.com/why-nigerian-scam-emails-are-obvious-2014-5