Posts by old_n_grey 41 publicly visible posts • joined 26 Jul 2019
I used to work for HPE, an SI for Oracle ERP. I even worked on a couple of successful Oracle based projects. But, crap pension aside, I am really happy that I took the offered VR just before we were merged with DXC.
BTW I note the usual Oracle-bashing but surely this is all about DXC profiteering from the council's uselessness.
... whether I have misread this article.
It seems that BoE contracted with a systems integrator, "Version 1", who, according to their website are "trusted cloud transformation experts with a future-focused, value-led approach and deep sector experience." So shouldn't they take some/most/all of the blame? Certainly back in my implementation days for several SIs, if stuff went belly up, it was our fault (happily the only real belly up I was aware of was when Oracle blatantly lied during the pre-sale and promised far, far more than it could deliver. I wasn't involved in the pre-sale so have no idea how come the the pre-sale was done by Oracle with us as the implementation organisation. Or maybe we sent our sales team who only cared about the size of their commission.
"As with the Edinburgh University fiasco"
A pity that successful Oracle implementations in universities are forgotten.
And yes I have personal experience of one. Back in 1998 I was working for a large systems integrator and was the Oracle team lead at a leading university. We implemented R10.7 NCA (I think, it was a long time ago) as 11.0 was only released about a month before go-live. And who in their right mind ever implements a point zero release?
We implemented GL, AR, AP, CE (Cash Management) & PO but failed to implement FA as the university had some peculiar requirements for that. There were also a number of bespoke processes and reports. I went back a couple of years or so later and got my hand dirty by implementing FA. There was a level of opposition to change, and a level of opposition to Oracle (it was thought to be too big - maybe it was but it was what we were contracted to supply). Despite a late start to the project it went live on the original go-live date.
Did it work - yep! OK, maybe CE needed a lot of bespoke code around the edges to make it work, the standard module was crap!
And for good measure, the university's internal IT team have upgraded the system over the years and it is still working 26 years after initial implementation.
Perhaps it was a one-off. If so, I can only assume that it was due to my presence on the project as I subsequently led several successful Oracle ERP implementations in both the private and public sectors. Hence the icon, no point in being modest.
Maybe I ought to come out of retirement and offer my services to the highest bidder ...
of my last role as a beancounter. The company I had joined ran their accounts/SOP on what was referred to as a network. However, this was in the mid-late 1980s and server was an IBM XT, albeit with an external 28MB disk with integrated tape drive, also on the network was an IBM PC and a Compaq portable. I soon discovered that if one person was using the system, no other bugger could! It didn't take long for me to threaten to throw the server out of the window if we didn't upgrade to a proper multi-user system. Happily the software house informed me that they also did a Xenix version that would work fine on the XT. I also bought a number of VDUs so all the staff could access the system. Come the upgrade day and the s/w house took our data and converted it for use on the new version.
It all went really well until a coupe of months or so later when the system decided that our data was bad and refused to work. A quick phone call to the support team and quick as a flash came their response - restore to backup. Happily we backed up every night so I didn't anticipate any issues. Being an inquisitive chap, I took a quick look at the backup script and noticed that the very first thing it did was to delete all existing data files. And then, for some reason I checked the previous night's backup tape. We backed up using tar with the -v so could watch the file names scroll up the screen. So I was a little surprised when I listed what was on the tape to find the answer was - nothing! I tried the previous night's tape. Again nothing. In fact none of the tapes we had contained a single bit of data. Had I just run the restore script I would have deleted the only copy of our data (I don't recall whether undelete was a thing in Xenix back then).
After some unsatisfactory telephone support I told them I was driving down with the server. Not only did they fix the data, they also identified some kind of device conflict that Windows didn't mind but that Xenix objected to. So a happy ending, although I was disappointed not ot be given a huge bonus for saving the business.
First, an admission. For the 21 years prior to my retirement, I worked for three system integrators implementing Oracle ERP.
1) The comments here put the criticism/blame for this clusterf*ck at Oracle's door. However, what isn't clear is who provided the original cost estimate. In my experience, it was the SI (often me personally) who did the resource requirements and added the licence/support costs provided by Oracle. Was this the case here? Or did Oracle do all of the pre-sale? At the very least, I would suggest that even if Oracle were the prime contractor, they would have to work with the SI to get to the final cost/timescale. And back in the day of Oracle Consulting, if a project needed their skills, we'd either poach the right person, suggest that person became a contractor, or as a last resort we'd have to cost in the Oracle bodies.
2) However, I did work on one project where all of the pre--sale was handled by Oracle and the SI I worked at did the implementation. That did cause the odd problem where Oracle promised simple functionality that did not exist in any shape or form. Plus this functionality was to solve some incredibly complex requirements. Needless to say, the client really didn't take kindly to being told that Oracle had lied and it would be an expensive mini-project. It even went to arbitration, which the client lost thus further souring relations (the project was eventually canned by the client). So thanks Oracle.
3) Continuing the theme, I was horrified to be part of a demo when the Oracle used a mix of the existing character based software, with the about to be released graphical UI, plus screenshots of a future release.
4) Back to the council - I note that one of he council's documents said: "The council has an implementation partner and a data migration partner alongside Oracle" Many hands make chaos!
5) The project is now on its third SI partner. Never a sign of well thought out set of requirements.
6) The suggestion that all councils could use a single system makes perfect sense, except having been involved in several public sector bids/projects I've found that they all think they are unique.
7) Just about every client I have ever known has at some point said: "I know that is what we asked for in the requirements but that isn't want we really wanted. Can't you just change it for free?"
8) I've been retired for eight years but back when I was working, Oracle ERP was never a great fit for public sector.
9) That said, back in 1998 I implemented Oracle ERP for a leading UK university. They still use it, albeit it has obviously been updated.
10) Sometimes a potential client cuts back their initial requirements to hit a particular capital budget with the intention of using change requests. i.e. via the P & L, to get what they really want. One of my employers fell foul of one potential client. The initial bid was maybe £3-£4 million. There was a day when all the hopefuls on the shortlist popped over to Rome to give a presentation. That evening my manager was given the nod that we'd be awarded the contract. The second day was to give the Best And Final Offer based on what had been learned from the previous day. My manager, and her manager, decided that as we were in prime position, we'd include everything that the organisation actually wanted. Our BAFO went to £15 million and, surprise surprise, we didn't get the contract.
OK, I've bored myself. I'll stop
... re changing a motherboard.
A couple of decades ago my daughter was at University of Sussex and I got the inevitable: "My computer isn't working" call. I failed to fix it over the phone so that weekend saw me drive from Oxfordshire to Brighton for a bit of on-site support. The details have long since dropped from memory but the fix was to replace the motherboard. Put it all back together again and booted up. Windows XP reported that it couldn't boot as this was not the PC that it was registered to. So I obviously tried booting it again a few times with added expletives but to no avail.
Next job was to phone M$ support who informed me that I must have changed more than three(?) components in the PC and that counted as a new PC and I'd have to buy a new version of Windows. I explained that I had only changed one thing, the motherboard, and the fact that modern technology meant I no longer needed separate components wasn't my problem. Alas, that logic was lost on the poor support assistance person AKA sap. So after a few minutes of arguing with the sap (at least the saps were all human back then, albeit soulless) I said I wanted to talk to their manager. Again, back in the old days that was always possible.
To cut a long story short I argued my case up the management chain until someone actually agreed with me and arranged for a new copy of XP to be delivered to my daughter. RESULT!
Devine icon because that's how I felt beating M$
of all the times I'd be in the office/hotel/restaurant/pub, at the other end of the country when I'd get a call from home telling me that the computer wasn't working. So a tortuous question and answer session wold follow (luckily the family were reasonably computer literate) until whatever problem they had was fixed. Also did a reasonable amount of support for friends.
Then there was the time when I was between my old career as a bean counter and becoming an IT consultant. I was temping for a company and ended up doing a bit of support for my manager and also for his friend. Mainly setting up new PCs and installing various progs (and me "donating" some games for the kids). Somehow, despite me trying to be professional with an hourly rate, Ithey always seemed to get away with underpaying me. But as it was in cash, I didn't complain too much. Revenge was to be mine when, having moved on to a career in IT, I got a call from a frantic ex-manager. He, and his friend, were owners of a currently nursing home somewhere in Surrey. Their admin clerk had just formatted their hard disk instead of the floppy. Could I fix it? Tomorrow (which was a Sunday)? "No problem" said I as I had Unformat in my toolbox, and informed him of my charges. After an hour or so drive, I arrived at what appeared to be a mansion and was met by the admin person (who was understandably distraught) and shown into the office. At which point I was left to get on with it. I pooped my 5.25 in floppy disk into the drive, typed A:Undelete and watched as the magic happened. After a few minutes I recreated the FAT for the root files (happily not too many of those). Checked it all looked OK and then formatted the hard disk again. After a while my ex-manager turned up and asked how it was gong, I said it was coming along fine and shouldn't take too much longer. Another wait and then I fixed it again and let folk know it was all back to normal. I figured the delay in fixing it recompensed me for:
a) being underpaid previously;
b) because it was a bloody Sunday;
c) because it might teach them to be more careful and to take backups!!!
BTW should anyone recognise themselves as that ex-manager, the above is a work of fiction. Honest!
Well, the ERP I implemented (I was functional team lead) at a leading university back last century was reasonably OK. In fact it has been upgraded a few times over the decades as new versions were released and it is still in daily use today. But that doesn't make particularly good headlines.
FWIW I've also implemented Oracle at a number of sites quite successfully and remained on good terms with the users even after changing jobs. But again, no-one cares about those sorts of stories. I can't help wonder whether the rot on large ERP systems started when system integrators started to use the cheapest possible resources, regardless of where they were located. I say that having worked for one multinational who subcontracted a lot of development work to a large international organisation based on another continent. Some of their developers were fine, some were sent home almost immediattely as they could barely spell PL/SQL let alone write code in it.
Buy cheap, buy twice.
I'll now go and polish my halo
I once very, very foolishly actually asked "Can I maintain the website?" (Note to self, at you age you really, really should know better!). Said website had been created with Wordpress and looked bloody awful.
It looks rather good nowadays. Nothing whizzy, which is just as well as it is handcrafted using a text editor and simple HTML. Probably just as well that I'm retired.
Not in the same league but back in the late 1980s, before I had seen the light and was still a beancounter, I had replaced the useless Windows Network that we used (albeit only one person at a time!) with a shiny Xenix multi-user system plus lots of dumb terminals. Thus we had a small pile of redundant (other than the dot matrix printer that we used) but still useable equipment. The company had leased everything and we were now paying a peppercorn rent for this pile that was sitting in my office. Having read the lease agreement I noticed a clause that I felt I could turn to my advantage. Our current options were to keep the pile of useless kit or find someone that would buy it. I decided that someone would be me. The deal was that the lease company retained 10% of the sale amount and my employer received the rest. I had a word with one of the directors to ensure that they were OK with the deal and I also said that as we still used the printer, I would rent it back to them. I waited with baited breath for the answer which was in the affirmative.
So I paid £50 to the lease company, who then transferred £45 to my employer. I then invoiced my employer for that £45 to cover the use of my printer. Meaning for a fiver I bought:
1 x IBM PC with 256Kb motherboard and twin floppies and IBM monitor
1 x IBM XT with 10Mb hard disk and IBM monitor
1 x external 28Mb hard disk with integral tape drive
1 x Compaq Portable
1 x printer (can't remember the make now)
I still have the IBM PC and Compaq in the vain hope that one day I can sell them for a huge amount of money. I upgraded the XT over the years (usually to allow the kids to play the latest games) until there was nothing left but the case. The external hard disk was ditched when we measured disks in gigabytes. I retrieved the printer when the company folded but it stopped working so I replaced it with an inkjet.
All in all, not a bad haul for a fiver
"What's the strangest reason you've been forced to stop work?"
Maybe not that strange but from my perspective, most enjoyable.
Cast your minds back to 1997 when, just as today, a general election resulted in a change of ruling party. I was employed by a large organisation that had just started to implement a new system at a central government department. However, the new government decided to merge this department with another one. For reasons long since forgotten, thee head of the other department wasn't keen on having the new system. So while coins were tossed and back-handers received to decide who would be the big boss, we humble workers literally had nothing to do. However, we were allowed to book out time to a "Waiting Time" code meaning, meaning we were 100% productive. Alas, in all too short a time the head honcho was announced and the project was cancelled. So it was back to finding, and doinng, some real work again.
One minor amusement during this time was that one of the newly employed consultants was spied playing solitaire by our practise manager. When he moaned to me about it I explained that the guy had nothing to do. At which point the manager went all pointy-haired boss and said that, and I quote, "He should look busy". More "how not to be a manager" examples ensued when said employee resigned but that's a long and even more boring story than the tripe above.
I'm retired now but for those remaining wage slaves who can afford it, almost time for one (or more) of these ===>
No doubt there'll be a bit of Oracle kicking but maybe one ought to look at the client.
According to the article the changes are "necessary and largely a result of additional requirements and internal requirements changes,"
As a now retired Oracle implementation consultant I still remember trying to establish what the client actually needed as opposed to what the requirements asked for. All too often those doing the job aren't involved in defining the requirements.
The result was often me trying to convince the client that, because they didn't understand what they needed, they would have to stump up more cash. Obviously the client might think I'm just trying to increase our revenue.
Sometimes they would agree and raise the necessary change requests, other times it was "Implement per requirements!" only for that to cause more problems later on.
Of course Oracle ERP isn't the right option for every organisation (although I implemented Oracle ERP at one public sector client back in 1998 and they are still using it). Sometimes it's the client that causes problems. And sometimes it's the implementor, especially when trying to keep costs low.
Bugger I miss work sometimes
> "Nice little printer you got there. Shame if something bad happened to it..." Right out of The Sopranos.
The Sopranos??? Us old wrinklies would suggest something somewhat older. How about from Monty Python, December 1969
Luigi: You've... you've got a nice army base here, Colonel.
Colonel: Yes.
Luigi: We wouldn't want anything to happen to it.
"How's that a good deal?"
One reason might be because you could print 100 A4 photos every month for that £5.49. But in the real world, if you do a lot of printing every month, especially if that includes colour graphics, it seems very reasonable to me. Of course, because the sub covers pages printed, it's a real bugger when you print a document and the last page has only a couple of lines on it.
YMMV
I think the HP Inkjet fairy lives nearby. When I bought my first printer about 30 years ago, it was the Deskjet 500C - the one that required removing the black ink cartridge and replacing it with the tri-colour cartridge if you wanted to print anything in colour (you also then had to accept that you weren't going to get proper black). Other than that little foible, and even then the eye-watering cost of replacement cartridges (but not restricted back then to HP), it worked like a charm. So when the time came to replace it, it made sense to stay with HP. And because every darn machine just worked I stayed with HP. As I have said elsewhere, I was an HP employee before my retirement so printers and ink could be purchased cheaply. Although I did buy my current printer post retirement but got 9 free months of ink so it cost me very, very little.
Nowadays I also pay for Instant Ink. It has worked for me and I have never been left without ink. If the printer wants me to waste ink cleaning or aligning, not a problem. If I want to print loads of A4 photos (quite good enough even with a crappy tri-colour cartridge), I don't even think about it. Based on the number of times I used to buy cartridges (in years gone by I tried refilling and non-OEM cartridges but they were always substandard) I'm spending less on ink than I used to.
Just hope that fairy doesn't move for a while ...
"I've always struggled to get my head around the fact that HST was built on the ground under laboratory conditions, and all the relative luxury of a ground-based exercise, but still had a fault....yet it was fixed so quickly in the challenging environment of space."
I suppose the one thing they couldn't do under laboratory conditions was to focus on something many light years away without the earth's atmosphere getting in the way. That said, for something that expensive, you'd think everyone would be very careful to ensure that everything was 100% correct.
FWIW "so quickly" required an almost seven hour spacewalk. It also required a more than two year design and build process; again without the luxury of a test environment that was identical to where it was going.
I bet there were an awful lot of fingers and toes crossed back in 1993
"I know two people whose HP laptop did not last a year before it died. "
First a confession, I had just joined EDS when HP bought them. So was an HP employee for a while then an HPE employee (functional consultant - implemented Oracle! I knew how to enjoy myself). So it made sense for me to get HP printers and ink as I received a very decent discount. Having retired, sorry that should be having taken advantage of the monotonously regular voluntary redundancy scheme, a few years ago I still have an HP inkjet and am one of that small band of happy users that have Instant Ink. If I don't make the most of the monthly subscription (often by printing loads of A4 photos) that's my own fault. Although as the years have gone by the family is definitely not printing as much as we used to. However, the reason for this reply is not to defend HP. Just to mention that this response is being typed on an HP Probook laptop that is at least a dozen years old. Other than the installation of an SSD, it is still going strong, and still useable because it's running Linux Mint.
When the printer finally dies, I will probably buy a Canon with ink tanks. Not sure what I'll get when the laptop dies. Might just restrict myself to my desktop in the study.
Many moons ago I was part of the team that implemented an ERP system in a leading UK university. I was warned that one particular professor could be very difficult to deal with. It seems that when the existing system was implemented, the in-house IT department trained all of the departmental heads in the system. This particular professor, who was taking his turn as dept head, phoned IT support at 9am on day 1 after go-live. When asked what was the problem, he responded that he couldn't use the system as the menu on his PC was different from the one on which he was trained. The support person explained that the menu on the training course was the standard menu and included many options that he wouldn't need, so the menu on his PC was specific to his department. Alas, that wasn't a good enough excuse and the professor just repeated "I cannot use this system as it is different from the system on which I was trained" and put the phone down. It took a few days for other senior academics and admin staff to convince him to use the personalised menu.
All those brain cells ...
"I've never seen or heard of one"
Do you think that might be because no-one ever bothers to report successful implementations? I used to be an Oracle functional consultant and worked at three large system integrators and I can say without fear of contradiction that none of the projects on which I worked went five times over budget (obviously I do realise that the hyperbole was not meant to be taken literally). Did any large projects go over budget? Yep! Sometimes because we, the integrators, got something wrong and others because the client kept changing the requirements - "I know that is exactly what we asked for but it's not what we wanted"! But I also worked on several that went live on time and on budget. But who wants to read about those?
The other thing about Oracle and SAP projects is that they are likely to be the large projects, with complex requirements and so more likely to be problematic.
Mind you, I am trying not to defend Oracle the corporation, who used to be only too happy to agree that the system could do everything the potential client wanted. On one particular project, that cavalier attitude to real life caused me an enormous amount of grief when I had to tell the client that the system really did not do what Oracle said it would. Of course, not all integrators were squeaky clean either. Nor indeed were clients who sometimes preferred a lower initial cost based on a set of requirements that had had functionality descoped that would need to be added during the project via change control. And, unfortunately, change control never comes cheap!
"3% of global users might be 15-20% of users in developed countries." Except it isn't. I recommend looking at the Statcounter figures for the various breakdowns.
I'm no power user but have always preferred FF to the vested interest browsers, IE & Chrome.
Back in my pre-Linux days I used to get infuriated when installing a piece of software that also installed Chrome, without asking, and made it the default browser. I ran out of expletives when telling Google why I had uninstalled their intrusive browser.
... an ERP supplier tells the potential client what it will cost to satisfy all of the requirements. Potential customer realises that huge amount would never get board agreement. So a compromise is agreed where chunks of requirements are taken out of scope and a much lower initial cost results. Headline news, for example, might be a £20m contract. Next all the descoped functionality is brought back via change control. Costs rocket back to the original figure (albeit maybe not £100m) and inevitably continue to rise. Plus go-live date slips into the distance.
As a retired consultant who worked for (hmmm, 'employed by' might be more accurate) several Oracle systems integrators: been there, done that, got the T-shirt.
Have to admit it's many years since I last played with Oracle but I seem to recall that, while one couldn't necessarily prevent someone spending "crumbly roof" money on something else (subject to a number of unless ... or except if ...) what one could do would be to define multiple budgets in the General Ledger. Hence the account for "crumbly roof repairs" would be allocated a budget, as would all specific funding expenditure types. Implement budget control in Purchasing and folk could only spend the funds allocated. Should it be agreed that money from fund A could be used to spend on something else, the organisation would make a virement to transfer the cash, i.e. a budget journal.
As I said, it's all a long time ago but the mush that was once my brain suggests that I designed a system to do exactly that, except the Purchasing manager decided at the last minute that the various departments had to have the ability to use purchasing cards to satisfy an urgent need or to take advantage of a special price or do whatever they liked as the Purchasing Manager didn't think they could stop them anyway!
Out of interest, are you aware of any accounting system that would prevent the "crumbly roof" money from being spent elsewhere? Even further back in time I was a company accountant and I never came across software that would have prevented the situation, other than by the use of budgetary control.
" - so why are they force-fed business software?"
Oh, I hadn't realised that the public sector had absolutely no choice in what software they had to implement! Certainly when I was an Oracle functional consultant we were always involved in competitive bids with other implementers (and yes, sometimes some of the competition were also bidding Oracle). I guess much has changed over the last decade.
Having implemented Oracle ERP for several large public sector clients, I admit that standard Oracle wasn't necessarily always suitable for public sector clients; mind you, I could say the same about some of the private sectors clients I worked on. Obviously the core functionality is exactly the same regardless of type of organisation. They buy stuff and have to pay for it; they "sell" stuff/services and have to collect the cash; they have to create income statements and balance sheets; they have staff that need paying. So far, so standard. However, they did all seem to have specific processes and requirements that often required some, or a lot of, custom code to satisfy.
So why did Oracle or SAP win do many public sector projects? Maybe because the client already had some experience of one of the big two. Or perhaps they felt that the alternative applications weren't up to the job. Don't forget, some public sector clients, with their huge budgets, are the equivalent of large companies with complex requirements so genuinely needed large, complicated software. Or maybe they simply believed they were so big and complex that only SAP or Oracle applications would be capable of handling their needs. Or possibly none of the smaller, potentially more suitable, suppliers even made a bid. FWIW I was once part of the pre-sale team on a bid for a university. Initially there were three organisations bidding but the other two withdrew and we ended up as sole bidders. I subsequently implemented Oracle ERP there and they are still using Oracle, albeit having gone through a number of version upgrades, more than 20 years later. So maybe not all Oracle public sector implementations are total disasters.
Before I saw the light and moved into IT, I was beancounter (in my defence it was because aged 16 it was the only job available. Plus I never bothered to qualify). In the late 1970s I investigated the feasibility of buying a mini-computer and headed off to be wowed by numerous sales folk. Most minis/financial apps were much of a muchness, as were the companies desperate to flog them. They made the shortlist if they answered in the affirmative to: "Does it play games?" The game was invariably Colossal Cave and so the remainder of the demo was the sales droids and I failing to get very far in the game.
I made my first trip to the US late last century, along with my wife and three kids. The immigration officer asked how many nights we were staying and I replied "15 days". A very stern looking officer replied "I didn't ask how many days, I asked how many nights" and waited for me to work out the answer (which I managed without the aid of a spreadsheet or even a calculator).
Every trip since has seen me being very subservient to the humorless (cos they are 'mericans) person holding my passport.
"... a salesman saying "You're different and special so need expensive customization"."
First, an admission: I spent the final 21 years of my working life implementing Oracle ERP & HR for three different integrators. It was quite common for a client to insist that they were unique and that they couldn't possibly change their processes to fit the software. Seemed a very prevalent belief in public sector organisations. Sometimes we persuaded them to do so (yes really! Process re-engineering also generates revenue), other times we simply earned more money developing bespoke code (as amended by the many change requests from the client when they realised that what they asked for isn't what they needed - alas, the customer is always right).
Ah, the good old days ...
Even in retirement it appears to be beer o'clock.
" There's at least double the applicants" - true but if you look back twenty rather than ten years ...
Government numbers, see https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-year-ending-september-2021/how-many-people-do-we-grant-asylum-or-protection-to, show that there were over 84,000 asylum applications in 2002. Looks like 2003 was also higher than 50,000 and 2004 around 50,000.
"Corbyn did achive one thing - without him Boris wouldn't have achived such a majority."
There is an alternate viewpoint that highlights the only real difference between 2017 (when Labour made gains) and 2019 (when they lost loads. Despite achieving a higher percentage of the vote than in 2010 & 2015 they won fewer seats).
Seems the shadow Brexit Secretary decided that Remain would be an option on a 2nd referendum. The result was that 46 of the 47 English seats that Labour lost, the so-called Red Wall, had all voted Leave.
But I guess as party leader Corbyn should take the blame, mainly for not telling the shadow BS to STFU.
Daft really as history has shown that the shadow BS is happy to renege on any commitments made during an election!
I always thought that the film and novel of 2001 were developed at the same time. Kubrick worked on the film script, with Clarke's assistance, and Arthur C turned it into a book. So it is possible that it was young Stanley that decided on Clavius Crater. FWIW Clavius does not feature in The Sentinel.
However, according to the infallible Wikipedia, there was a Clavius Base in Erich Dolezal's "Mond in Flammen", published over a decade earlier in 1954.
I'll get my coat, it's the anorak.
Sorry for being a bit po-faced but can we not refer to Johnson as "Bojo". Makes him sound like a loveable clown instead of the self-serving, right-wing, lying (been sacked twice for being a liar -and don't get me started on the £350m per week lie), racist, elitist Old Etonian that he is.
I'll get off the soapbox now
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
