Posts by Simon Wright

RAF shoots down 'terrorist drone' over US-owned special ops base in Syria

Surely it's better to compare the cost of the missile against the potential cost of the drone succeeding at its mission.

Fixing a printer ended with a dozen fire engines in the car park

Finally! I have a story...

About 25 years back, (ex-pat) living in Staten Island, client in Orange, NJ. They made wooden shims (quite ingeniously at that time) and I had developed a custom small business application for them (Mac fans, I used 4D). Had regular "enhancements" for them and one on occasion in January was there in their tiny, dust filled office installing said update. Office doubled as snack room, conference room, server room, business office, the works. I looked up after initiating the file copies and saw, much to my puzzlement and alarm, several 1 inch holes drilled into the glass door of the microwave oven.

Checking that the oven was not actually running, I asked the owners (two brothers) about the holes. The inventor-creative brother (the other was the "business" guy) admitted about seeing if it would help warm up the office a bit. Well, it WAS January in NJ. During subsequent visits, I'd always observe from a great distance before entering the "warmed" area to see if the microwave oven was in use. True story.

Patientline backs down on price rises

Appalling Service

I spent several months with my terminally ill father in and out of hospital in 2005 and the PatientLine system was universally despised. Trying to call in from the USA was an exercise in futility, especially if you wanted to use low cost calling plans.

The equipment was shoddy and the staff were trained to spot mobile phone users from 100 yards to make sure they weren't used to circumvent this abomination.

We called the system: "PatientCrime".

Simon