Posts by oldsteel

UK finds itself almost alone with centralized virus contact-tracing app that probably won't work well, asks for your location, may be illegal

Government, privacy and the NHS app

The nefarious statements about the ability to join databases and identify individuals by 'the government' to do nasty things are all just noise. If 'the government' wanted to do this they have much to go at, HMRC, passport agency, DVLA, ANPR cameras and all the other databases used to track our activity much more effectively should they wish to do so. And Facebook gathers more data about you than this ever will. The main point in the article for me is the technical failings of the app and the way bluetooth will be used, differently, in Android and IOS phones, and how this might impact the effectiveness of the app. It has been stated over 50% of the population must use the app for it to work. Personally I have many times turned off bluetooth to save battery, that added to the foreground/background limitations described make it look distinctly flaky. And we have all seen at first hand how 'data', 'science' (and data science!) can be interpreted incorrectly due to assumptions made, partial reporting, ways of reporting etc etc, and this app will simply add to the mass of partial data out there. I have sympathy with those tasked to make decisions, but fear this app will end up as yet another piece of 'corona-junk'.

Distie bosses tuck 7-figure settlement into Cisco's top pocket

I once worked for a global company buying IBM mainframes, yes OK this was while back but it shows how little has changed. We wanted the mainframe installed in the UK so IBM said it will cost us around 20% more than the same machine installed in our USA office. So - we said to IBM - we want the same deal. IBM say 'we don't do global purchasing deals - you are buying from IBM UK so you pay UK prices'. OK we say, we will buy machine in USA and ship it across. IBM UK say they wont support it. And so it goes on, a stitch up driven by market dominance and profiteering. They are all at it, its about time the EU made it illegal - oh wait though ....

MPs slam mandarins over failed GP IT system

jrchips you are spot on. Whilst everyone bangs the same old accusations back and forth regarding the outcome, the problem lies in the tender process. Lowest price wins after weeks of handling huge bundles of paperwork written to tender requirements. During implementation, flexibility should be the key (er .. Agile?), if the contractor finds something isn't working or is unexpected, they should be able go back and re-negotiate the contract to handle it. But the terms of the tender don't allow for that, if they did then the public would be crying 'blank cheque for the supplier'. Dilemma.

Shame of all this is that our money is wasted, and projects that need to be implemented don't get done - especially in the healthcare sector. Of course there is corruption, nepotism and incompetence as well, but that will always be there.

Has anyone in the world got a successful public service IT tendering system? If so we should swallow our pride and go and look at it. Today's process isn't working.

Big Blue's big iron daddy Gene Amdahl dies aged 92

End of an era

What a sad day - Gene Amdahl RIP - we used to call him the Godfather. Those were the days, when men were men, computers occupied rooms, and young upstart Amdahl beat Big Blue at its own game. Did you know Amdahl were the first to market with virtual machines back in the early 80s with their Multiple Domain Facility? The greatest company I ever worked for, with the best people, but alas was never the same after Gene sold out. If he had stayed - who knows - it might have been up there with Apple today.

Surface Book: Microsoft to turn unsuccessful tab into unsuccessful laptop

Redmond is indeed getting its act together. Not perfect, I am an early Win10 adopter on a Lenovo Yoga (cheapskate always) and its raw in places still - but I like it. I Iooked at Surface but the price tag was too high - I probably looked at Mac Air too and drew the same conclusion - so they are now playing in the same pricey ballpark! But at least now Apple doesn't occupy the high end, with credible alternatives from Dell, Lenovo and MS.

I raised a support ticket this week for Outlook 2016, got a phone call within 1,5 hrs and after nearly two hours on the line my problem was fixed. I haven't paid a cent as I am still in free trial. I can recall not too long ago when it was a case of " ... call Microsoft? Don't even bother ..".

Apple Watch RIPPED APART, its GUTS EXPOSED to hungry Vultures

Might be being naive here, but Kinetic watches have been around for years now. While it take probably more current to drive a display, could one of those smart Apple tekkies take the kinetic technology and upgrade it so that it will charge the watch simply by movement of the wrist? I agree, having a watch that needs charging every day makes no sense.

NetApp layoffs loom as biz 'operationalizes strategy', 'prioritizes investments'

Every well managed tech company turns over a small percentage of it's staff occasionally, but the numbers here, like 30%, have a sniff of panic. Growth requires investment in the right places, if that means sacking a few here to make way for a few there, that's normal business. As a well meaning marketing director once said in a company I worked for (and got the sack for saying it to the CEO) 'no company ever saved its way to greatness'.

Enterprise storage: A history of paper, rust and flash silicon

Thanks Chris for the potted history. I too noticed the omission of drum-based storage, I worked with both the Sperry (or was it Univac?) FastRand and later with the DEC VAX mini which had drum storage. The FastRand was fast but as a previous poster said it weighed tons, and was slow to boot/load. An old colleague of mine, engineer on standby, always used to avoid an overnight callout by asking the ops to reload the Fastrand and call him back. That guaranteed he wouldn't have to travel until the next morning!