Posts by NeilMc

Who fancies a billion-quid bonanza? Just flog the Home Office some shiny walkie-talkies

Re: RE: This will be completely successful, and will come under in under time and budget.

Like many on this forum I have been on the other side of such Govt Contracts.

The issues always seem to be

are poor requirements specifications by the client.

cheap as chips penny pinching / contracting

zero accountability in Govt once the contract is signed

constant changing of the specification once the contract is signed

constant rewrites of specifications, pricing and contracts as the cycles of change hit the project

NAO comes in waves big stick cos £millions has been spent for zero benefit

Govt soils itself and underlings get side ways moves

Minister, secretaries and Civil Service Grandee's dodge yet another bullet

the contract is cancelled

the supplier is pillaried, tarred and feathered and blacklisted from future contracts

Govt / Civil Service allow dust to settle

and then the whole cycles starts all over again....

The single biggest contributors to this cycle of waste is that the Govt bites off more than it can deliver and the Govt departments that contract for these services try and buy a solution that is future proof rather than incrementally improving things......

Contracting 20 years into the future when we are looking at such rapid and disruptive change is foolish at best and irrelevant at worst.

Never mind the HORSE MEAT, trading standards cuts'll hurt IT crowd, too

Re: Warm and cuddly

A quality and insightful retort AC....

Most of the comments perhaps predicatably are about Tech, Software and IP theft.

I believe there needs to be equal focus (perhaps not on this forum) for the work that TSI do on Horsemeat scandals yes, but also other fake goods as well as poor traders, scam artists in all their forms, consumer protection in general.

This is what the Government is short changing the public on yet again.

It seems to me all we hear about is service cuts and yet the government perpetuates the message that this is not effecting the front line and they are purely cutting Public Sector fat.

Bollox to that Boy George the truth will out just like it did with Labour of spending when there is no income and immigration.

Apple has THREE TIMES as much cash as US govt, TWICE the UK

Most of those in the Senate are the so called billionaires or are on the payrole of the Billionaires.

So those Turkeys will not be voting for Christmas

HP exec: 'CYOD' will TEAR APART the IT dept as we know it

This is the Tech sector sowing seeds in the minds of IT Directors, CTO's and FD's.

"Let promote BYOD / CYOD and shift a substantial amount of IT hardware cost to clients employees".

Lets face it most Users will get their €500 voucher and then go and buy a better / higher spec machine than was specified and will pay the additional monies themselves as their employer will reject paying for over specc'd machines.

Happy days another FUBAR business idea with no real benefit or value other than to serve parties with vested interests.

UK.gov back-office battle may see British Justice offshored

Re: No to offshoring for certain aspects of public sector

You make a strong and fine arguement;

Certainly we can reflect on the various and growing number of data loss scandals many eminating from offshore providers with very lapse security.

I too believe that any savings by sending work offshore are under-estimated in terms of the total loss to the UK economy of retaining the jobs in the UK and providing employment opportunities for the 1m or so UK unemployed.

These shared services facilities are precisely the type of work that can be relocated into areas of the UK with high unemployment. Therefore providing employment, economic stimulus to the local economy, valuable input to the wider UK economy and reducing the benefits bill for all tax payers.

The simple truth is that our "Celebrity Government" is too full of self servicing wannabee TV hosts that they are simply not up to the task of addressing such matters; instead they take the easy way out and offshoring jobs without even considering the wider impact.

Whitehall and Microsoft negotiate NHS Windows XP hacker survival plan

Re: How about

To my esteemed peers and contributors HollyHopDrive, AC's Various, Akeane, JP19, MJI, Malagabay, Grease Monkey and others.

Some simple failings of the public sector (including the NHS) which are possibly the most significant contributory factors in this monumental cockup.

No one is accountable

No one is responsible

There are no consequence when things go wrong. (except for the taxpayer that is £120bn of waste per year was the figure reported this week = £4.5k per year per household).

Public Sector are chronically poor at accurately scoping contracts and negotiating fair value.

Once contracts are agreed they cannot help tinkering with the solution ultimately creating a frankenstien solution that cannot be economically or technically implemented.

There is no F in Strategy - that is the NHS has no effing IT Strategy at all.

Therefore NHS Trusts are able to unilterally invest in IT on a sporadic basis depending on the Trusts view of the value of IT and how its supports patient health or not.

Often these decisions are made by crusty "consultant types" straight out of a 1950's movie who appear to weald power beyond their value to patient care.

I personally experienced that on NCRS project which became Connecting for Health which after over selling on the Supplier side, chronically poor NHS sponsorship at the executive level resulting in divisive relationships between NHS trusts and suppliers. To wich the NHS Ivory Tower response was JFDI to both suppliers and trusts.

However there are other factors which need taking into consideration:

Microsoft sold a duff product and we should not pay for failure.

NHS IT and Trust and Central levels should have acted faster inline with product retirement warning which were given in plenty of time.

NHS central IT strategy should be looking over the horizon and defining standards for new systems that Trusts must comply with before budgets are invested.

Bottom line private sector corporate accountability and governance is required in the NHS. NHS top brass want the private sector level remuneration but wringle out of the consequences that come with such high rewards.

We should not standard for this attitude.

HELLO LENOVO. Do you really, really want to make smartphones?

Re: Taking on an awful lot at once

I too share your concerns.....

However Lenovo's timing on the PC business acquisiton was masterful and they do not appear to have missed a beat with taking on that business, stabilising it and then growing it.

Therefore I must assume that based on the length of time taken to secure the deal with IBM for the X Series server business that they have a good plan in place for that too and most likely the same for the Moto acquisition.

I guess time will tell.

Army spaffed millions up the wall on flawed Capita online recruiting system - report

I also asked myself the question of why wouldn't they look at :

Totaljobs

Monster

or any other mass market recruitment portal which already has the tech and processses baked in

what about HR and Recruitment BPO players like Alexander Mann......

Why reinvent the wheel with a player plainly not up to the job

Certainly without a shadow of doubt the Public Purse should not be paying for failure; and PAC should be all over this ensuring that we do not throw good moeny after bad.

I at least gave G4S some credibility after the Olympic fiasco; they were contrite and waved some costs proportional to the screw up they caused.

Re: Delivering supporting technology ..

Another great private sector trick.

Imagine the scene................

Hi we are money grabbing IT/IS provider (might be Capita, Serco, G4S, EDS, Cap Gemini, Atos or.....) we know and can do very little but we will be your Prime Partner cos we have ex Govt and ex MOD people who can ensure we are the prime contractor even though we know and do nothing.

Then we will bring in experts in the field e.g. Kenexa or as it is now IBM and they will deliver the solution along with our many other value adding leeches.

We will mark-up all their costs which already include their profit and provide absolutely no added value other than billing your sad Govt ass's.

If you are nice to us we might take our contract awarding friends from the Govt out for expensive meals to congratulate each other on another great deal for the UK Public and Govt.

Sound familiar to anyone?

Re: Same old suspects every single damn time..

Indeed how many senior players at Capita are ex Govt or Ex MOD.....

Re: 1.3 billion?????

Sounds like the costs for replacing light bulbs in Government Buildings that came to public realisation some years ago now. I believe the figure was £98 per bulb to supply and fit..............

As ever context is important to understand the relative value for money for such a service

SIM-free unlocked iPhones coming to a channel near you...

interesting point

So if one extrapolates that viewpoint the decision on whether the UK stays in / out or indeed shakes it all about regarding EU membership will come down to a fight between the "corporates" many of which pay no taxtaxes and yet demand all the benefits of membership........

e.g. Banks, Financial Institutions, Car Manufacturers etc will lobby for the UK to stay in the EU to retain access to the large market, whilst Apple and others will lobby for us to leave so that they can carve up the EU into discreet markets and pricing for its products.

The UK's population with our major concerns regarding immigration, population explotion and the resultant pressures this is placing on the NHS, our education system, affordable housing and the social security system will not even get a vote......................

Euro chief of scandal-smacked Serco leaves as cop probe continues

is it me or is this article inaccurate?

Really Serco only amassed £1.82m in Govt contracts last year...................

should that be £1.82bn?

Maybe £1.82m is what Stafford is getting as a pay off.....................or

May be if Serco provided the numbers for this article then perhaps the editorial team and the MOJ need to look wider.............Serco unable to provide the correct numbers for anything!!.....................

Doh!!

What does the NHS’s new IT plan really want to extract from us?

Re: Great, more unsecured data

A scub bag hackers wet dream.

ah an dlets not forget the Chinese Govt Hackers and

Eastern European Criminals meal ticket to a millionaires lifestyle of riches borne from exploiting the wealth of unprotected data.

and thats before the Govt or NHS decides to off-shore its storage to a mud hut on Guam

another FUBAR project

CEO of bloated outsourcing firm Capita quits after 26 years

Re: Capita confirmed that Pinder will "receive no payments for salary after his retirement"

I bet most of the employees would like to give him a Golden Shower on his way out the door.....

After all thats what he appears to have done to them in recent years...........

Goldfingers indeed..

Burnt-out Comet's VC backers are looking for more cash

Vince Cable and the Govt will find nothing and do nothing

Another sorry tale of greed, misrepresentation, pre-packaged failures, tax evasion and huge self interest on the part of the VC.

The impact as we can all forsee are job loses no doubt ahead of Christmas, personal hardship for those unlucky people employed by those companies, loss of pensions and pay and a consequential impact on their families.

The investors in such a vehicle will no doubt be insulated from such trauma if not rewarded for their investment while everything burns around them............

Moral compass off point........................nah

Will small biz get a bite of mega UK.gov IT pie? Yes: if it can pass the bulls**t sniff test

Govt contracting - cluster fecks and the public money tree

Govt contracting is infected with billy big bollox, wanting an all encompassing solution to world peace, for a cheap as chips price, for a decade long contract term with no accountability in Govt and all risk transferred to the successful bidder

and yet

they cannot articulate the need, the benefit or scope of the requirement; often compounding this situation by seeing no value in the preferred bidder doing a detailed needs analysis before final contracting.

That how we get all too common HS2 projects / contracts, Aircraft Carriers contracts and PFI hospital deals..........PFI schools blah blah........

All too depressing when one reflects on the fact that these tossers squander so much public money.

Contract for lightbulb supply and installation at £2000 a pop anyone?.................please!!!!

Infosys set for $35m fine over US visa naughtiness

Re: Typical behaviour?

Indeed having worked in Global IT Outsourcing and Consulting for over 10 years this practice is very common even in the mature markets; where do you think companies like Infosys got the idea from.

Its a big race to the lowest price point or lowest common denominator across most industry sectors and countries.

Along with the very passionate forum post about 18th century coal mine owners and haves and have nots; the other aspect that needs to be considered is Societies "rampant consumption" of all natural resources without consideration for how sustainable this practice is; Energy being the latest example.

If we consume based on Wants and not Needs

If we consume without a care for where the resources come from

If we consume without questioning the sustainability of our behaviour

If we fail to understand and act upon the laws of supply an demand

Then we are sealing our own fete and that of future generations.

Perhaps paying more for energy might be the catalyst for a behavioural change in Society?

So should the Government take action on the Energy companies?

Microsoft: You've got it all WRONG. It's Apple's iPad playing catch-up with our Surface

Re: And some sour grapes too.

Perhaps since MS acquired Nokia's mobe business there is an opportunity to integrate the two products streams and rebrand.

What about the Microsoft Lemon?

It is sour, pithy, makes your eyes water when you part with money or look at someone else with an Apple.

It performs like a Lemon; built badly on a Friday afternoon when the Roberts on the production line are already dreaming about the first weekend beer or WD40.

Nah............. that would be too sensible.

Cogs whir in MS HQ nah feck it lets just retain two competing products lines and self distruct instead!!!!!!!!!!!!

The new definition of "literally getting things done"............yeah right on man

It's the '90s all over again: Apple repeats mistakes as low-cost tablets pile up

Re: Resale value

You get what you pay for; 2 weeks short of the warranty expiration on my iPhone5 the wake sleep button start to play up intermittently; worst kind of nightmare, no consistent fault scenario, how do they sort this.....

I booked a slot at the local Apple Store Genius Bar; Beardy Genius saw me within minutes of my time slot (on the weekend too), ran some diagnostics and immediately swapped out the handset for a new one. No questions......

Microsoft, HTC or Samsung or BB would have given me the runaround for 3 weeks and then said you are out of warranty "feck off" or pay for a new handset.

For the time being Apple have attractive, quality products with good customer service at aspirational price points that are just about in reach of a good slice of market share that sustains their business vision / goals.

The issue for them is simple do they

A: follow the mass market into a death spiral of over supply of evermore capable products that Consumers rarely use to their full extent or

B: stay at the premium end of the market which no one can touch them at, work on brand loyalty (evidenced by the recent appointment of Ahrendts from Burberry) and watch the bottom feeders devour each other or drown in the over supply product inventory.

mmmmmmmm tough choice..........

As I say for the near future Apple have my business.

Meg Whitman asks HPers to drag their asses into the office

I agree with most of what you have said.................

This is clearly a topic you feel strongly about and I agree with most you have written

WFH is not for all personality types or indeed types of work.

As you said in one of your posts the Football fans would feel isolated on WFH and it would drive them to endless IM chats or to leave the company. Many managers cannot effectively manage if they cannot count the widget production per head at the end of the day....

I have also WFH extensively since 2000 and find it useful as you say when you need to concentrate, crack a problem or write proposals but its not for everyone.

I also think that in some cases a team needs to be together to bond as a team and reach optimal performance. Now this does not mean permenant co-location does it does mean that the managers or leaders have a strategy that takes the team through the Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing phases.

Otherwise I think you are spot on in terms of your assessment of these moves by HP and Yahoo.

Investor lobs sueball at BlackBerry, says it 'misled' shareholders

Re: they should have purchased Nokia

So are you saying that sometime ago Microsoft decided Nokia was an aquisition target.

Did they plant Elop in there as a Trojan Horse to get the full skinny on whether it was a financially attractive target.

He may have advised Microsoft to only go for the Device's business unit as the rest had no real value to Microsoft.

Maybe in return for his "vast" Golden Handcuffs payout from his Microsoft contract and his Golden Hello return to Microsoft contract Elop might have been tasked with driving the Nokia Share price down 60%.

This could have in effect funded the purchase price of Nokia Devices for Microsoft.......

Anything underhanded about that?.............

All above board?............

Nokia shareholders disadvantaged?............

Wonder if Mr Pearlstein backed this horse as well?

next claim in his pipeline perhaps

Hundreds of hackers sought for new £500m UK cyber-bomber strike force

Re: Hardly a deterrent - ah how do you spell detergent

Most squaddies have left school before completing formal education and have by the MOD's own records a reading age of an 11 year old child.

Many when I was involved in the MOD DIIF project needed help with PC literacy, simple word processing, email writing and online self service MOD benefits claims.

Yeah Dads Army sets the right tone and expectation......I can see them tripping over themselves as they try and get both left feet in front of the other whilst wielding their pitch forks which they have managed to snag their capes on...............lol

Or is it

Keystone Cyber Cops running in ever decreasing circles.....

MPs slam bumpkin fibre rollout, demand halt to further £250m cash spaff

And lets not forget that Fujistu were late the NHS NPfIT nose in the Govt Trough party and if I am not mistaken they were the first provider to be binned by the Govt for poor contract performance.

So, yes the Broadband contract terms must have been very onerous for them not to bid.

MPs: This paperless health service plan isn't worth the paper it isn't written on

Re: "poor negotiating capability"

I too was at the Coalface as you put it.

The primary cause of the contract failure could be put down to a NPfIT vision that was not fully supported by the SHA's let alone the Trusts.

When we started to engage the Trusts they were in the dark regarding the Vision, contract and the impact on them. we had to sell the Vision all over again to those Trusts; many of which had already made investments of commitments to local suppliers or some of the big players.

Then the "individual" who headed the negotiations for NPfIT left and the rest is history........

Big bang solution rather than implement and iterrate

Poor contract management on both sides

Scope creep of monumental proportions

Software solutions unproven and delayed in development

Trusts undermining the Vision and Contract as they had already made a local decision for a solution

Delays driving Trusts to dis-engage with the NPfIT programme

The lord god that is Clint Eastwood had a term for this "CLUSTERFUCK"

But hey, no harm...... no one died.........no accountability.......... wait for the dust to settle and try again next decade......

Re: A lot of paper ...

However the issues with the NHS is one of arrogance, convenience and luddites.

After all we have been talking about the paperless office for deacdes and no commercial business has acheived it; so why would a Public Service with no commercial incentive to do so trail blaze this issue. Especially one that has a history of having Change forced on it resulting it a concerted effort to undermine and resist the necessary Change.

It simply wont happen and we will look at another £10bn wasted and more public sector halfwits and government types walking away shrugging their shoulders saying "nowt to do with me mate".....not my fault.

Quite simply without hard Acoountability these guys should not allowed to have access to such funding at all; they cannot be trusted with just pocket money.

Whether its Government and Civil Service spending £millions with 1000's of suppliers of paper clips, pens, printer paper, light bulbs.

MOD buying choppers that cannot fly in clouds and fog, attack helicopters when they have not ticked the box for pilot training, building the SA80 rifle instead of buying the AR15.

Police forces this week being called to accoiunt for why the dont consolidate their purchasing power for simple equipment like boots, stab vests, handcuffs, cars etc.

Quiet simply Public Sector offers poor value for money and that is the principle reason Taxes go up to pay for their poor performance and value for money.

Bin the lot and start again...................

CSC boss post-NHS IT flop, Ford CEO 'pitched' as the next Steve Ballmer

Re: So the man who helped the NHS wast £10Bn should be in charge of MS?

Small but important correction, I believe the article states that Lawrie joined CSC in 2012, by which time the NHS contract was well and truly toast.

If anything Lawrie ended a contract that was not working since its incept in 2003; and in some respects it was a contract that was doomed to failure. Designed and contracted by the NHS Ivory Tower and imposed on the SHA's and Trusts..... immediately establishing a multi-level game of them and us divides that could not bridged by the contract winners to achieve consensus to make the contract work.

Small biz isn't finding it any easier to bag govt IT contracts

Re: Is this really surprising

To which I hope your response is................

Well if you did they job properly first time you would not need my services.

closely followed by.................

24/7 emergency plumbers charge extra for such services, thats the business I am in.

and closed by......................

well do ya what me to fix your mess and help you keep your customer without paying penalty fee's or what?

Nice darts mate

Re: It's all about arse covering or as they might say Risk Management

With so many Govt Contracts..............

1. going spectacularly wrong

2. going over budget

3. failing to deliver

4. delayed

5. offering poor or no real value

cant wait for HS2 as the lord god Client Eatswood would say "its a cluster feck" in the making

money better spent on airport capacity inline with the Govt mantra that our economy will only grow through export to emerging economies................ something that they appear to have forgotten about.

Comet brand yanked from its grave: Tycoon vows to open EIGHTY new stores

Re: Hmmmmm

I agree; having been in Retail, IT Service and Consulting for a few decades now, the High Street or indeed Bricks and Mortar are far from dead.

What is very well demonstarted by Apple Stores is the social / personal sales experience, the service, the product quality and warranty.

I can only imagine your situation; however taking the time to visit and Apple Store and benefit from in my opinion the well trained and enthusiastic staff; also benefit from the many informal training sessions are the types of service that will define High Street stores of the future. Its the only way they can compete.

I would also agree that Richer Sounds also fit into this same category of high street survivors that are defining the new bricks and mortar sales experience.

Interesting that along with all the brands mentioned in this string that Jessops has not been mentioned........it has rather quietly come back to the high street................

particularly when it is Govt that in some cases also get "stiffed" with picking up the tab for the pension schemes of such companies.

So to summarise the the Liquidator / Adminstratot vultures you can iamgien generate just enough cash to cover the secured debtors and their own fee's and frankly screw anyone else.

Perhaps a bit of risk and reward for the Adminsistrators might not go amiss. Word hard, harvest all the cash and liquidate all the assets to the max that way you get paid.

Instead of taking the easy option of selling a "pre-package" adminstration service which seems the original creditors and HMRC cheated out of £millions only for the same owners to buyt the assets back and start the scam all over again.................

Morally and Ethically corrupt at best. Criminal most likely..........

Re: Modern commerce, UK stylee

Count me in,

then lets crowdfund the stock acquisition and sit back and...................

either what the revenue / profit roll in or more likely..............................

the debt pile up to kill the seed capital...................

then we can just walk away having not risked any of our own money......genius

perhaps even try the whole thing again until someone catches on and we need to do a runner.......

How con men snatched £100,000+ in iPads and other kit from IT disties

Re: Greedy sales people

You hit the nail on the head oh wise one............. I watched Wall Street 2 film yesterday which if you listen to the dialogue it makes some interesting points about a massively corrupt society.......

which I feel boils down to a simple distinction

Socialism > Capitalism > Greed.

Sadly there is too much greed and self serving self interest all over the place; MP's pay rises, massive pay off's for so called public servants, CEO's not just with their noses in the trough but practically immersed, even regulatory bodies.................massive payouts for ex FSA staffs as that Quango is closed.

No doubt we will hear in the coming weeks how many of those that got paid off from the FSA have immediately found new jobs in the Treasury, Bank of England or replacement organisation. Just like yesterdays stories of NHS payoffs as 174 departments as part of the restructure / cost cutting were closed to be replaced by 214 new ones.

Thats apparently progress..........................EPIC FAIL!!!!!! again

HP techies reject latest pay offer, closer to industrial action

Re: A union doing what it should be doing...

Unite, yeah vote rigging and unionised pay deals that seem out of touch with reality. Way to go!!!

Just read how Unites people at DHL who are a subbie to JLR are about to call a strike as they try to secure pay deals for various closed shop staff types of 20% and 13% over the next 2 years.

Reality check anyone at Unite?

Are they really trying to kill what little business growth the UK economy has?

MoD signs Microsoft mega licensing deal for 180,000 PCs

Re: One Hundred and Eighty ?

Another fine example of screwed UK Public procurement.

Dont know how many you want

Dont know the solution options

Dont know who owns the budget

Get a load of suppliers who are all rigging the market to bid

Get loads of proposals in that are all the same price and spec

Professional Procurement play a game of "ip dip dog shit" and choose ............ the winner

which strangely enough is the bidder that has won the contract for the last 3 tenders

Same old same old.......

We commission aircraft carriers with no planes available to fly off them

we then change our minds and respec the aircraft and the carrier and huge addtional expense

we procure attack heliciopters that cannot be flown because we did not tick the box for pilot training

we procure transport helicopters that cannot fly if its cloudy because we did not tick the box for radar

we design and build and inferior rifle for the Army rather than buy an off the shelf product like the AR15

The list is endless evidencing a profligate public sector who continue to dip their hand in our pockets via taxation when their procurement projects over spend. This sorry mess is all headed up by shadu mandarins and celebrity politcians who are all in it fr themselves.............

A sorry state indeed.

Re: Margin might be thin

Do KIA still honour the 7 year warranty on a Pride even after its been hit by 17 depleted uranium tipped shells?

Does that come under the anti corrosion and perforation warranty?

Ex-Systemax veep cuffed, charged with $230m fraud

The Americans really know how to deal with greed, I wish the UK would grow a "pair"

This is the correct course of action; although it looks like the brothers have been carved from the same stuff.

It kind of looks like Gilberto got off lightly having "allegedly" paid everything back. In doing that so readily and easily it suggests that he made sooooooooooooo much more in kickbacks and bribes.......

No pain so whats the deterant for next time.............. mmmmmmmmm

PC makers REALLY need Windows 8.1 to walk on water - but guess what?

Re: It's not that hard to see the problem

So in summary there are many effects that are causing the drop in PC sales of frankly any type.

1. We are pretty much all cash strapped... Governments, Companies and individuals all are

2. Hardware is lasting longer....... or perhaps we see no genuine advantage in following each and every minor tech upgrade.

3. The PC market is staturated in terms of both supply and a declining demand

4. The green agenda is growing so people are recycling and exploiting older technologies as there is no compelling reason for change.

5. Windows 8 is therefore a train wreck in slow motion as a result of all of these factors; its the wrong product at the wrong time in the cycle of the global market. What I mean by this is when most of your User base are still happy with XP or Windows 7 and the hardware manufacturers haven't yet created the market for touch screen PC's and Laptops........ why oh why would you launch Windows 8.....................

Answer.................

Cos you are Micrososft and you believe that you can walk on water and create the market on your own......... I believe the Yoof's call that an "EPIC FAIL"................... bye bye Balmer!!

Microsoft to open Windows Stores inside 600 Best Buy locations

Re: Backtrack much?

Agreed, Apple know how to market to maximum effect Microsoft clearly have no clue at all.

However I have to disagree on a couple of points; I use MS for work and productivity apps and Apple for mobile devices and entertainment. So I think the decision on what to buy and from where is a little more complex.

But yes, no one in their right mind is going to be fooled by this market move. First they have to fix Windows 8 or junk it and start again. However as a sign of their poor marketing capability; launching a touch screen based OS when touch screens have not reached the appropriate tipping point was a big mistake.

Perhaps they missed a trick in cutting a deal with major hardware manufacturer to launch a bundled solution rather than go it alone with the Surface when they have such a poor track record in hardware development...................

Perhaps Ballmer should stick to speccing and ordering Super Yachts.................Doh!!!!

Network Rail axes hundreds of tech suppliers

Re: Train wreck in waiting

I prefer Train wreck in slow motion...........

Allows the bidders to "rinse" network fail for more money as the project delays and then subsequently gets cancelled with out delivering any tangible value. NHS care records system me thinks; HMRC benefits programme.

As regards where do they get these people from simples.......................... offer enough Wonga and the flies start circling...........................

Multi-billion pound gov tech contracts could end up in toilet - MPA

Re: nhs

Yup I was there......... initially called Patient Records and then as the shitstorm grew due to Homer's car design changes and failure to deliver frankly anything on time so...... lets re-brand and call it Connecting for Wealth.... sorry Health.

That bought the suppliers and the Labour party at least till the 2010 general election. Then it became the Coalitions job to wield the axe after which the blame game starts with no one held to account for the cluster feck that the project became.....

It all started with such good intentions too...........

Re: Same old story the anatomy of the fail

The projects need to be smaller and not allowed to grow to "Homer's Car" proportions (google homers car for a great picture). Yes; risks have a cost and should be reflected in the price (yes I have been on the dark side of private supply to the public sector)

They need to be evolution not revolution; deliver something and when you do iterate rather than try and nail a solution for the next decade in the first attempt......

The projects need to be protected from political party influence and disruption. Sadly in ages now far gone we could get consensus across Government and the political landscape to invest in the countries infrastructure and needs.

Sadly nowadays it seems to me that celebrities like Brown, B-Liar and Cameroon are too caught up in celebrity politics and their own personal gain to care about the country they claim to represent.

Dell's PC-on-a-stick landing in July: report

Re: Ophelia?

Had the Dell Marketing Team asked me I would have suggested:

Project Iona ................... Stick

Project Sh1t ...................on a Stick

Project Sticky ................... Sticky Stick

Re: Love to get one of the USB sticks but.......

Here yah go dual core stick from Japan; better made than the Chinese variant, more useful and reliable.

http://www.bamboogarden.com/Sinobambusa%20intermedia.htm

Surface Pro to hit Blighty priced 25% up on top-o-the-range iPad

Re: For that money . . .

Hi AC,

I agree MS are targeting the wrong market segment with the wrong product. Kind of like the scene out of the film The Untouchables "bringing a knife to a gun fight".

The Surface should indeed be positioned against the MBA as that is the only way it will gain market share. Going head to head with iPad when already "years too late to the party" is just insane and will certainly see Balmer dethroned............... perhaps in more just one way...... ;-)

Euro PC shipments plummet into bottomless pit of DOOOOM

Re: Why renew anyway?

The trouble with this point of view is that "PC are not a necessity".

I suggest very strongly that PC's are "increasingly" a neccessity as evidenced by them being included in "baskets" when calculating the inflation rate.

They are included in these "baskets" as we are increasingly "reliant" on PC's to access banking, local government services, insurance provisions, pensions, online food shopping and communicating with loved ones.

Therefore is the PC a neccessity? if not now then very soon. As regards how that drives retail buyers behaviour; well if it starts to run slow, generate errors or fail then it will get replaced.

But that will not be driven by any balance sheet depreciation calculation or IT strategy for example.

What an intelligent approach;

I am not as technically proficient as you but nonetheless I have still bought by last two PC's from the Dell Outlet and variously over time increased the RAM or replaced the OS with Win7 Pro.

Currently I am looking to replace my desktop and have been looking once more at Outlet / Refurb type hardware rather than New.

Certainly after all the press and forum traffic I am body swerving the "train wreck" that is Win8.

What I find most confusing though is the Intell / AMD processor roadmap / specs. Now trying to focus on Intell i3 > i7 generation 2................. I think.

Kr

Neil

You thought only Google dodges UK taxes? So do all the Brit firms

Re: @Pete 2

@Jason H,

I agree with you..............

We had all the Bankers threatening to leave the UK financial services sector for more sympathetic countries when they got bashed and taxed for "significantly contributing" to the causing the banking crisis.

I ask you how many actually left? Few.........

Has it damaged the performance of the Financial Services sector in the UK? No!!

Are we feeling the pain? No!!

Should we have already prosecuted and jailed some of those Feckers? Absolutely

Such as action would once again re-establish the "moral hazard" or fine tune their "Moral Compass"

Finally corporations did leave the UK when we had through necessity apply higher corporation taxes to allow us to recover from the "banking led economic crisis". This was only right and proper as clearly based on other posts on this forum; Corporations have clearly profited massively in the good times. Now its payback.

That said now that Corporation and other taxes are coming down how many of those corporations are coming back to the UK.

In short the UK Government has to "grow a pair" and get tough rather than lube up and flash the sheriffs badge each time Corporates make threats.

Re: News Flash!!

The UK Govt keeps most of what it steals.....mmmmmmm not sure about that.

Apart of course from the Billions it pays to be part of that corrupt club called the EU and the Millions it contributes in Aid to countries that are growing bigger and faster than the UK, or that have such endemic corruption that the Aid doesn't actually benefit anyone other than the Tyrants and WarLords......

Re: No real surprise

Oh and dont forget the fact that even the "doorman" at HMRC towers seems to be empowered to cut Goldman Sachs a massive Tax rightoff without any approval from Govt or higher powers in HMRC.