Posts by pharmacyst

Is it the beginning of the end for Visual Basic? Microsoft to focus on 'core scenarios'

Nexphase

Nexphase has gone. It's been replaced by 'Columbus'.I liked Nexphase. You just copied a registry key, copied the program and you could run it on any Windows box.

VB6 runs on the Component Object Model (COM). Peering into the Windows boxes in every Boots store it looks as though COM is alive and kicking whilst being programmed now in, er , C#. (Their Nexphase prescription labelling program runs on thousands upon thousands of COM IDispatch interfaces.) And poking around in my own Windows boxes I see a huge number of GUIDS which show me COM isn't yet moribund. What I don't quite understand is why they didn't run a COM based Visual Basic alongside the .NET version. Unless they were afraid the punters wouldn't use the .NET version

Mueller bombshell: 13 Russian 'troll factory' staffers charged with allegedly meddling in US presidential election

Ukraine means something like "edge" , hence "from the edge"

Hackers emit 9GB of stolen Macron 'emails' two days before French presidential election

The 'Russians are coming' has been a fact of life for the past 70 years. I still haven't yet seen a horde of unshaven, unwashed Cossack invaders watering their horses in the Thames - maybe it's all hysteria and fake news ?

Here's how the missile-free Royal Navy can sink enemy ships after 2018

The Swordfish was the TSR1, hence the sophisticated (for it's time) 1960s jet strike plane became the TSR2.

The reason the Swordfish were successful against the Bismarck was, according to one of it's crew, because the ship was turning hard first one way then the other and heeling over very substantially thus making aiming FLAK guns rather difficult, whilst the Swordfish were also maneuvering violently to avoid damage. Hard to believe the Kriegsmarine really thought the Swordfish was capable of more than 200kph. The Albacore - a Swordfish with a more powerful but heavier engine was not so nimble and so the Bismarck's sister ship Tirpitz managed to shoot some down.

Why can't the anti-aircraft missiles be designed and equipped to hit surface targets ? The old Seaslug could with MICAWBER -Missile In Constant Altitude While BEam Riding.

Open Sorcerers: Can you rid us of Emperor Zuck?

There's a Russian knockoff of Facebook - vk.com, and it's in English. Anyone is free to join,though it's Russian, it's not like you're putting confidential data on these pathetic, ghastly websites, is it ? Unless you have no brains. I'm signed up, though solely to get access to website addresses for software & films.

NHS e-prescription service goes TITSUP: Problems since Monday

Re: Patient? What patient?

Absolutely correct as regards the egos of pharmacists. I've been a pharmacist for 35 years and prefer to avoid fellow professionals. The humour and irony that I read in El Reg is totally lacking amongst this collection of health service workers. But it's partly due to the ignorance of the public who mistake pharmaceuticals for miracles, thus boosting the status of those involved in handling these items of often dubious value.

Who's to blame for the NHS drug prices ripoff?

Whilst we have a positive balance of trade in pharmaceuticals, the government won't do much. Why debilitate one of the few export industries that are left in the UK ?

Microsoft: It's TIME at LAST. Yes - .NET is going OPEN and X-PLATFORM

VB6 open sourced, anyone ?

Hunt's paperless future: NHS watches £60m vanish down plughole

pharmacyst

If the item is not in stock and the prescription was sent via the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) then we print off a prescription-like document on a white form (technically an "EPS token" ). This has a barcode on it so the patient can take this EPS token where they want and any pharmacy can then use this barcode to download the prescription onto their computer. Alternatively, we can "return" the prescription electronically and the patient can request ( at their surgery, presumably) that the prescription be sent elsewhere.

BTW, the pharmacy system we have here is called "Nexphase", written with VB6 and using the freetard version of SQL server. Use by Boots and Sainsbury's, amongst others. 1Gb database to store the details of several thousand prescription labels ? It's s-l-o-o-w.