Posts by Rol

FBI softens stance on ransomware: it's (sort of) okay to pay off crims to get your data back

The good ship HMRC Privateer. There she sails me hearties

"So tell me again Mortimer. Why can't we have the exact same tax set up as the likes of Amazon and Starbucks?"

"It's complicated Mr Smith. The set up costs would almost wipe out any gains, and HMRC would be constantly clawing at our accounts for the slightest error. It just isn't worth the bother"

"£100,000 in tax is worth the bother Mortimer. I'm not giving up until a solution is worked out"

The months pass...

"I've got some bad news boss. Our systems have been compromised by hackers and they're demanding £500,000 to unlock them"

"Oh! That's not good news. We best pay them immediately"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. It makes sense"

"It's a lot of money boss"

"Yes, but is it tax deductible Mortimer?"

"Well it is a cost to the company"

"And this horrible crime could potentially happen every year?"

"Am I hearing you correctly?"

"Yes you are. I appear to have minimised our taxes with a tactic not too dissimilar to paying off a brand owner in the Caymans, and without giving HMRC cause to blink."

Oracle demands $12K from network biz that doesn't use its software

Re: Why aren't they taking Bitcoins?

Why have they not offered Peter Green a directorship?

I'm sure there's a sizeable pension fund that needs draining along with numerous assets that can be flogged off to fund one last round of bumper bonuses before the company is sold off to a local used car dealer for a quid.

Astronaut Tim Peake reminds everyone about the time Excel mangled his contact list on stage at Microsoft AI event

Re: And yet...

The AI in Excel, that 2nd March 2015 guesses the format of anything you paste into a cell, is singularly responsible for the loss of 20/08/1999 man hours in my company alone.

Facial recognition at festivals, stupid shoplifting algorithms, Google shares data to kill off deepfakes

Re: Cameras everywhere

My Boris Johnson masks are available on-line and at a stand outside all facial recognition billing stores.

Disclaimer:- These life-like latex masks, are intended for a bit of fun and should not be used to empty the fat oafs bank account.

Margin mugs: A bank paid how much for a 2m Ethernet cable? WTF!

You're forgetting the yearly retro, which can kick 10,20 even 30% back to the buyer.

If you're in business to sell on merchandise you will most probably have negotiated a volume deal with your suppliers. that deal would usually equate to a yearly lump sum cash back once you have met the agreed volume.

That's why all purchases get funnelled through central so they can focus their buying on the company who's volumes they are trying to meet.

Thing is, you only ever hear the immediate cost and markup moan, they never let on the retro payment will practically quadruple their profit margins.

It's the same thing that Tesco got a hiding for. They factored in retro payments to their profitability months ahead of ever qualifying for them, and then failed to meet the volumes.

Re: Not just business

I'm studying for my Tufty badge in Padlockigarmi.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnjRVxxyAjw

UK taxman wins tribunal case against BBC presenters

Power to the multitude

I'm guessing most contractors couldn't afford the initial legal fees to start off-shoring their income, but I reckon ten thousand contractors could band together and achieve Amazon tax status, with a trust in the Caymans or other British but not full British island.

A trust who's beneficiaries will never be revealed, that owns multiple shell companies, that pay astronomical sums to the trust for the use of a brand name, that bills your employer for your work.

If it's good enough for the filthy rich, mobsters, drug barons and despot rulers from around the globe, it's good enough for the hard-working lackeys of Britain.

The costs you mention are paltry and well within budget. It is the incidental benefits that on-the-books employment gives an employee - a contractor would find it impossible to sue the BBC for a multitude of transgressions a normal employee could claim compensation for.

German ministry hellbent on taking back control of 'digital sovereignty', cutting dependency on Microsoft

O/S of Damocles

Microsoft's goal is to have you renting their software and hardware solutions by the minute - by creating an ecosphere where obsolescence is guaranteed.

Is it any wonder companies are looking for solutions that might last longer than a couple of cycles?

MS will, for an incredible amount of money, offer a bespoke extended life for your critical systems, that will eventually become more expensive than the O/S upgrade you've been trying to avoid.

Open-source options similarly get overtaken by newer versions, but they tend to retain support for legacy stuff, or the community / in-house team can come up with a fix, because, well, it's open-source, so anyone can pop the bonnet and spanner away, suitably equipped with the freely available source code, that, like a Haynes car manual, will make the job possible.

I really can't see the sense behind throwing your lot in with a company that can be so easily manipulated by a government that sees the world as a collection of enemies and potential enemies. Add that obscenity in the White house into the mix, and it's more like when, rather than if, the lights will go out on your MS system, due to some political discourse or other.

Google age discrimination case: Supervisor called me 'grandpa', engineer claims

Re: This nothing new, other companies done that in the last 20 years or more.

When they finally get around to inviting you to your last meeting, don't forget to take your clown with you.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-49708570

Re: Ahh...

Plausible deniability! The must have tool in any serial killers kit.

Of course it's all fantasy.

Seeing as the icon I want is missing, I'm left with having to describe it - a winking smiley face.

Time for another cuppa then? Tea-drinkers have better brains, say boffins with even better brains

Re: Smarts drink tea or Drink tea makes smarts

If I drank just four mugs of tea in a week, I'd wager I was knocked unconscious on the way to work on a Monday morning, and have spent the rest of the week in a coma.

If you're drinking just 4 cups a week you are most definitely not a tea drinker.

Tut – you wait a lifetime for an interstellar object then two come at once

Local, is a matter of perspective.

So let's get this right. The debris floating around several billion years ago from an extinct star or three, that happened to be in the vicinity of Sol when it first ignited is granted local status, but debris from the same extinct stars that have only recently meandered in are classed as outsiders?

A bit xenophobic, don't you think?

Wake me up before you Gogo ... so I can jump out: Kenyan MP takes on aeroplane flatulence

Re: Rear bags and rocket fuel

No the answer is Fifth Element sleeper transits, where you slip into a small bunk and get knocked out for the duration of the flight.

It would be a thing right now but for the loss in in-flight sales.

Obviously, knocking yourself out on a cocktail of drink and drugs is still an option.

Beat me to it. Was about to bring the exact same solution up, but read through everything to make sure I wasn't repeating things. fnarr!

Another plus to swapping the air out, would be a decrease in airborne viruses such as colds and flu.

Brit MPs: Our policies are crap and the political process is in tatters, but it's Twitter's fault, OK?

Re: Twitter is to blame!

If the world recognises the extent of your reach, then you have failed to grasp the fundamental key to wielding power.

You do it in a manner that no one can detect. Subtly, by proxy, and an unwitting proxy at that.

Even manipulating the puppets is too close to the action, better that you influence the puppeteer in ways they can't perceive. Their dreams and fears, desires and beliefs become buttons and levers you can adjust at a distance, leaving them to act on your will, while firmly believing it is their own.

The British establishment have honed these skills over many centuries, and guided Britain, not always successfully, toward a socio-political position where their wealth and power becomes unassailable.

As an example. The working classes, who were best placed to get in on the housing boom early are now immoveable sandbags, defending morally indefensible disparities in our nation. And it wasn't luck, but a ruthlessly connived design to swell the ranks of those that think they now have something to protect that is worth more than the lives of millions of their fellow citizens. That's how power is wielded in Britain.

Fork Off

I heard Twitter was thinking of forking the brand to better group its users.

Suggestions currently doing the rounds are:-

"MeOw" for masochists / financially insecure leave voters.

"Oink" for Republican Presidents

"Woof" for UK government and associated right wing media.

"Whiffle Waffle" for hateful buffoons that entered politics to better trample what little sanity remains in this world.

"Squawk" for those who couldn't care less if the world blew itself to pieces, just so long as they made some money out of it.

"Cock-a-doodle-do" for taggers

Right-click opens up terrifying vistas of reality and Windows 95 user's frightful position therein

Re: pet peeve

I believe it creates a greater sense of malice.

Given the option, I'd much prefer to be buggered than buggarized, which sounds infinitely more painful.

Re: pet peeve

I keep hitting the blinking Alt Win K combo.

Re: Taking the Trash

A smack head carefully removed the biodegradable food waste bags from our food recycling bin, left out overnight for the morning collection, and had a crap in it, later placing the bags back. (A smack 'ed turd is easily identifiable, by its huge length and girth, think salami, and that's not an overstatement. No wonder they use Heroin)

On emptying, the collectors carefully manoeuvred the turd back into the bin and dumped it back on the pavement, where I then later discovered it.

The following week the collectors smashed the bin into pieces, as they evidently got fed up of playing ping pong with the anonymous turd, which by now was almost indistinguishable from the rotting remnants of last weeks grittles.

Such a shame that public servants are refusing to take shit from the public any more, but in my defence, my domestic grade toilet lacked the capacity to deal with the problem effectively.

Just what we all needed, lactose-free 'beer' from northern hipsters – it's the Vegan Sorbet Sour

Re: Unknown Origin.

My local kebab shop has laminated copies of the kebab's driving license and O level passes in maths and woodwork hung in the window.

Re: A traditional brew with 52% alcohol?

It was my investigations into freeze distillation that uncovered my ignorance of methanol. An ignorance that has been allowed to perpetuate throughout the population and at times encouraged by vested parties.

Distillation does not create dangerously toxic alcohol. A fermented brew will have no more methanol in it after distillation than it started with, and if you discard the first lot of vapours coming off the brew, you will end up with less methanol, as it boils at a slightly lower temperature than ethanol.

And so a 2 litre carton of supermarket plonk can be placed in a domestic freezer and the unfrozen alcohol drained off leaving the frozen water behind. The result having exactly the same ratio of good to bad alcohol that was in the wine to start with. Connoisseur brandy it will not be, but it's marginally better than Brut 33/Old Spice/lighter fuel.

It's obvious when you think about it, but the industry and health bodies are quite happy to have us believe distillation is somehow dangerous, when in actual fact, it is the fermentation process where the most care needs to be taken.

Are you who you say you are, sir? You are? That's all fine then

Re: Scripted

Having worked in the local courts dealing with probate and suchlike I would offer you all some very sound advice when writing your will.

DO NOT LEAVE ANY MONEY TO CHARITY unless you hate your family so much that you want their lives made a misery after your death.

You see. A certain organisation exists that has an arrangement with the courts that they get informed of all deaths were a will naming a charity as a beneficiary is involved. They will then act on behalf of that charity and viciously pursue the executors of the will, making unreasonable demands, and forcing unnecessary cost and stress on both the bereaved and the intended charity.

If you want to leave money to charity, you should write your will in such a manner that discourages the hideously invasive and vexatious pursuit by legal vultures pretending to be acting on a charities behalf, when all they are doing is redirecting some of the intended charitable money into their own bank accounts.

eg. I hearby bequeath £10,000 to Charity X. on the understanding that the whole of that amount be paid directly from my estate to Charity X, at the convenience of my executors. If parties subsequently present themselves representing Charity X, seeking to influence or frustrate the process of my wills execution, then the charitable donation is to be revoked and my executors empowered to do as they damn well please with the money.

In Hemel Hempstead, cycling is as bad as taking a leak in the middle of the street

Sorry my mind was a little too focussed on the rant. The "anti" bit being more an outburst of frustration, than a Freudian gymslip.

For the record I am not anti-cyclist and would encourage responsible two wheeling for all ages.

My problem, is that I expect too much from the general public, and assume everyone shares a common understanding of right and wrong. Over the years I have managed to adjust my expectations and assumptions down to a very base level, but the last decade has seen a new breed of cyclist, one that most probably never owned a bike until their late teens, and their complete lack of expertise, ability and understanding glares out like Mordor's maligned beacon.

Ignorant of the world around them they ineptly traverse the roads and pavements in a manner a child would play Frogger, but in this game it's the cars and crocs that have to do the avoiding.

The pavement, a once safe place for pedestrians is now a war zone, one way streets no longer a given and every blind corner a step into the unknown.

I used to cycle a lot before I got arthritis, and know the majority of cyclists would welcome more anti-cycling laws, as they would have zero effect on the already law abiding and considerate cyclists, who didn't get on a bike after seeing Bradley Wiggins, thinking it is now cool.

One thing that has surprised me is that they all to a one dismount before going in the supermarket. Why? Why do they career along the pavement knocking people left and right and then get off their bike to go into the shop? Perhaps if we put a roof like structure over pavements the effect could be replicated?

Can you download it to me – in an envelope with a stamp?

Re: Deliberately obnoxious

On the way back from the pub the local police drove up alongside and muttered something unintelligible at me. I replied "J' ne parle pas francais" to which they then responded with "Where are you going?" I replied "Me voy a casa" To which they shook their heads and ushered me on. I gestured goodbye with a wave of my hand saying "Au revoir" as they headed away.

That little passage might make more, or less sense when I tell you I was in a small town in Southern Spain, and needless to say, very, very, very drunk.

Hats off to them though for not taking umbridge with the clearly confused and bordering on insulting English drunk.

Auditors bemoan time it takes for privatised RAF pilot training to produce combat-ready aviators

Re: "when drones and pensioners can achieve"

Must admit, that is one of my guilty pleasures on the way to work.

Re: "when drones and pensioners can achieve"

But would a pensioner be distracted by such frippery?

It's the future. You know!

"Mmm... Hi-score on Donkey Kong at your local amusement arcade stood for three years, along with your hi-score on Asteroids, Space Invaders and Defender. Your CV is just glowing with remarkable achievements."

"Err...my arthritis is only in my hips, while my hand eye co-ordination remains impeccable. Only the other day I killed two Death Claws and an Albino Rad-Scorpion with nothing other than a Police Baton and a stack of Med-x"

"You can stop right there. You have the skills we're looking for here at the RAF, and you've got the job"

"..Are yo.. Sure! Excellent. Thank you so much"

"Report to the Wing Commander at 0700 hours next Monday and we'll have you on a console shooting the shit out of Britain's enemies within two months"

"And there's absolutely no flying or physical requirements for the job?"

"Hell no. This is the twenty first century for Christ's sake. Why would we spend billions on Jets and pilots, when drones and pensioners can achieve just as much for a fraction of the cost."

Q. If machine learning is so smart, how come AI models are such racist, sexist homophobes? A. Humans really suck

There's no escaping the need for some heavy handed coding. If you want your AI to interact and learn from its surroundings it needs a set of core values that it doesn't deviate from. Azimov's laws of robotics if you will, but for something that isn't quite sentient...yet!

'Hey Google, remind Greg the locks have been changed, and he should find a new place to live. Maybe ask his mistress?'

Self inflicted dementia?

"Alexa! When was it that humans lost the ability to err...err..."

"Remember?"

"Yes that's it...err...err...err"

"Remember!"

"What would I do without you?"

"Approximately 2030"

"You're having a laugh Alexa. It's not even midday"

Astroboffins have spied the largest star that has gone supernova and it's breaking all the rules

Rinse and repeat?

I wonder how much hydrogen Earth would need to suck in before ignition happened around it?

And would the resultant forces be sufficient to get the iron/nickel core fusing away?

And if so, would that then blow the hydrogen fusion out?

And if so, would that then result in the iron fusion going out?

Science and engineering hit worst as Euroboffins do a little Brexit of their own from British universities

Re: Brexit bollocks

Well. Seeing as the British tax payer had to stump up £350 million a week to be in the club, I'm looking forward to basic rate tax dropping to 10% and vat being abolished.

And proper bananas. not those straight as a ruler ones, proper bent bananas.

And if Boris doesn't deliver we can publicly birch him in Trafalgar Square, as I'm sure we'll get back to running this country as we always used to - faux carrot and a stick which looks alarmingly like a medieval mace.

Ah! The good old days. Cheap prostitutes, child labour, and late life occupational diseases likely to fix the pension deficit at a stroke.

And getting back to a proper system, where the train stops at your station and goes no higher.

Sorry I'm just going off to the corner to weep tears of pity for the generations to come. Poor sods.

Virgin Media's Project Lightning now at 1.8m connections. Just 2.2m to go before year's end, right?

Re: Upgrading

I firmly believe that no two Virgin subscribers are paying an identical price for their identical services.

That alone should be sufficient for watchdogs to prick up their ears and investigate the obfuscated pricing structure.

Imagine walking into a coffee shop and being charged more for a coffee than the customer before you paid, and then being presented with a price increase, while you're sipping it.

BOFH: Oh, go on, let's flush all that legacy tech down the toilet

"......"

Having once worked for MI6 as a planted operative in the Kremlin administrative offices for correctional affairs, I am well aware of the security issues surrounding toilet use.

Everyday, at exactly 15:25, I would flush a 32 meg SD card containing the sensitive information I had garnered down the toilet. My contact, waiting in the sewers at the Kremlin's outflow point would intercept the package using an oversized colander and rubber gloves.

I am now head of security for a large company, and my first task was to instal facial recognition in all the toilets and check the regularity in which the staff used the ablutions. Anyone using the heads at a regular time each day would be closely monitored.

I still keep in touch with the national security services of both America and UK, often uploading the captured images of suspected staff while using the toilet. Clearly I can't do this directly and so we have agreed that I use an intermediary website, where similar images are to be found, and while my efforts are hugely supportive of national security, they obviously cannot corroborate anything of what I've said.

And so rests my defence. Your honour.

Take two cornerstones of British life, booze and queues, then squirt them with face scans: AI Bar

Re: I WAS FIRST MATE

My point centres on the fact a bar can accommodate x amount of staff. More than x and the individual work rates start to drop dramatically, as they fall over each other, queuing to get to a pump, the till, etc.

This is an event management solution, where the infrastructure, intended to serve dozens is now called upon to serve hundreds. It just can't cope.

The vending machines would ideally be located away from the bar, and its associated choke points, as in a local pub I try my utmost to avoid during sunny spells, where their large beer garden gets filled to capacity, and people queue for about an hour to get a drink. Vending machines placed in the beer garden away from the pub's entrance would serve everyone's interests.

Any venue that is regularly overflowing, should seek a more permanent solution, but for occasional events, the engagement of Beer Vending r us, to instal and run half a dozen machines would save the day.

Just add up the number of drinks your clientele didn't get to drink while waiting to get a drink, and the lost revenue, and customer dissatisfaction, and the case is crystal clear.

What a lovely idea. I second that.

Perhaps the laser could tattoo "twit" or something similar, on his forehead.

Although lobotomising the already brain dead also works for me.

Re: I WAS FIRST MATE

I have argued this many times in busy bars. Pubs and events that are totally overwhelmed, and couldn't fit enough staff behind the counter to even come close to cutting waiting time to 20-30 minutes.

VENDING MACHINES - several of them grouped together, so one member of staff can oversee their proper use and intervene if needed, to check id and the like.

Obviously they sell cans, and considering you can buy most run of the mill alcohol in cans these days, it would leave the bar staff to deal with the crowd that can wait for a proper pint / G&T / etc.

It ticks all the boxes - the punters are happy to be getting a beer within minutes, and the boss is happy because turnover is doubled, perhaps trebled.

It's such a no brainer that I can't for the life of me understand why events organisers haven't gone down that route.

Our hero returns home £500 richer thanks to senior dev's appalling security hygiene

Re: Low quality coding

I think the crux of a good education that you can bank on, lies not in the depth of understanding, but the confidence with which you hold yourself.

Many bright students came out of polytechnics lacking the confidence to lord it over the distinctly average minds that tumbled out of universities into senior posts.

Although polys are no more, the UK still has an annoying educational hierarchy that elevates some quite unworthy individuals into prominent positions, because they truly believe it is their birthright.

Meritocracy my arse.

Re: Ahhh passwords...

".....so you see Mr Smith, anyone could have accessed our systems and changed or deleted anything"

"Oh, I never had any idea things were so bad. Excellent work. Excellent work Steve"

....

"Hi Monty."

"Yes"

"That new IT manager. He's gotta go"

"Why what's the problem?"

"He's only gone and smashed up our escape helicopter"

"Eh?"

"The plausible deniability thingy, that it wasn't us that wiped the servers just before the cops turned up"

"How?"

"He's implemented a proper password and login system. No way could we hide behind a lax security system. We need him gone. Your dimwitted nephew back, and password1234 reinstated across the entire company"

"I'm on it!"

Trump continues on the warpath: Now US tariffs cover nearly everything arriving from China

Transfer of technology

Sadly I can see Trumps point, but as usual he has blunted it into a hammer.

Aim the taxes at the offending products, and get China to agree to respect American, and while we're at it, everyone else's ip.

Clearly, we can't return to the dark ages where American corporations hold an unchecked monopoly, but they do have a right to profit from their intellectual property. Which brings me to my second point - America's patent system - they need to adopt one that has some credibility beyond drooling Texan lawyers.

Loose tongues and oily seamen: Lost in machine translation yet again

Re: Mijn grootvader is een schaap

"antipodean potty mouth"

A phrase I shall put in my head's back pocket, and pull out at every opportunity. Thank you for sharing.

Overheard in a Wesminster pharmacy

"What do you have for that rotten stench?"

"Hunt or Johnson?"

"No I want it for my armpits"

Time to Ryzen shine, Intel: AMD has started shipping 7nm desktop CPUs like it's no big deal

Three cheers for AMD.

If AMD never existed, I'd shudder to think where we would be now.

Perhaps still trundling along with 32 bit architecture and quad cores for only the richest of the rich?

Although I grant Intel wouldn't have seen the need to make the instruction set so pitifully inefficient, in one of their many attempts to stifle competition.

How do we stop facial recognition from becoming the next Facebook: ubiquitous and useful yet dangerous, impervious and misunderstood?

The antisocial network.

My darling niece tagged me in a group photo on Facebook.

She's currently serving a very long and arduous sentence - reading every word of Facebook's T&C's until I am satisfied she understands what she did wrong and how nothing she does can undo the damage.

She has now stopped tagging photos and is talking her friends into doing the same, despite the fact it's too late for most of that generation who unwittingly worked for the Stasi network.

After extensive plastic surgery, I feel free again, but the legal battle with Facebook to pay for it all is just rumbling on and on.

White House mulls just banning strong end-to-end crypto. Plus: More bad stuff in infosec land

"And here is the final figure"

"That much?"

"Yep. The actuaries and the rest of the teams worked on this for weeks and that is the figure"

----

"Hi. Mr President, we're willing to acquiesce to your demands, but this is the amount of funding required to implement your end to end encryption downgrade"

"Err. Arrr. Mmm. Err. What am I looking at?"

"We need 25 trillion dollars"

"And why?"

"It's the estimated cost of reimbursing our customers for their losses over the next twelve months"

"Err, and that would be the sum of it for everything"

"Not quite Mr President, I'm Bob from Bob's Independent Fishing and Hunting Emporium, in Alabama"

A Register reader turns the computer room into a socialist paradise

Re: Socialism

I remember back in the early 80's submitting my arguments for and against socialism for an economics module in my accountancy course. It contained the usual stuff, but argued it could only really work in total isolation. Having the overbearing influences of a determined capitalist elite, hell bent on stopping socialism in its tracks would result in the social fabric that binds that community, being unravelled by greed and desires fuelled by western propaganda.

In a world where the deadly sins are not paraded as a celebration of the individual, then socialism could work, but it's all or nothing, as the likes of Trump would prefer to nuke the entire planet, than have to rely on his personality and abilities to rise above the crowd, instead of his inherited wealth buying him favour.

Alexa, am I having a heart attack? Here's how smart speakers could detect their masters spluttering to death

Going to hell in a handy basket of apps

This is why the world is so messed up - those dumb enough to buy the state and other agents of the devil's surveillance toys, are also getting a pampering service that keeps them living longer, while everyone else with a shred of sense has to rely on the neighbours noticing a strange rotting smell coming from your abode.

As they say - the devil looks after his own - and hence Facebook's and Google's subservient masses are getting a proper looking after.

Queue baa, Libra: People will buy what Facebook's selling. They shouldn't, but they will

Re: Half the population—

Back in the good ole days, whenever there was a challenger to the title of village idiot, there would be a contest to see which could find the most unusual way of bringing their life to an abrupt end, using only everyday objects and a penchant for using them in a fashion that no other sentient being had previously conceived.

That ensured only one idiot per village, preserving the bell curve distribution, by keeping the lower quartile in its place.

I can only conclude by reiterating those immortal words - It's 'elf and safety gone mad!

We've legislated ourselves into this mess and we need to start marketing Strychnine toothpaste as the trendiest whiter than white glean, at £100 a vacuous celebrity endorsed tube at a time..

Exodus: Tech top brass bail on £1bn UK courts reform amid concerns project is floundering

Failure built in

It has been my experience that the process of digitising or upgrading existing systems fails at the first hurdle.

It seems every senior manager gets to throw their idea into the mix, while the staff who ultimately have to make it work get a power-slide presentation a week before implementation and asked "any questions?"

When I get the go on a project, the first thing I do is harangue the staff for weeks and weeks until I fully understand what they do and how it can be improved, and then throw my improvement ideas at them in a hope they will suggest others or point out the shortcomings.

It is they, not the senior managers who keep the wheels from falling off, and it is they who must have the greatest input on the design from the word go.

A systems analyst with no people skills would argue differently, and churn out failure after failure.