Early Risers.

[81C]

Morning All 

overcast 

It was 3am again this morning before I got off to sleep another zombie day on the cards I'm crackered.

My daughter has texts she needs to go shopping so I have asked her to pick up a few things.

I've not had breakfast yet so I'd better move my butt.

Stay safe  N.A.C. Card

[Coombe Barton]

3 hours ago, TheQ said:

Like John, I fight Excell regularly,  it doesn't help when once in a blue moon MS delete some "unused" function, that we have written into a spreadsheet.  All our MS software is updated automatically by IT to the latest version,  but they don't write the working software or spreadsheets. 

They usually provide an updated function that is supposed to be more correct. I haven't found it a problem, but it really does depend on the specialist functional group.

[AndrewC]

I have to disagree with the Doc around people being educated beyond their station. It's my experience the opposite is true. The over official jobsworth is generally only taught to follow a set process. Schools are the same, they aren't taught to think or learn but they are programmed to be able to pass an exam in order for the school to tick a box and meet their required pass rate.

 

Support desk and customer service people are taught the absolute minimum needed to follow a set script and process. Any deviation leaves them out of their ability to cope. See Virgin Media as an example. You can go through 90% of their script before calling them but they don't have the independent thought process to enable them to skip ahead on their own and so have to play along until they catch up. Everything these days is a scripted process. If a customer wants to add fields to a specific form, they have to follow a change management process. Even if the actual change effort is 5 minutes, the process can take weeks and cost £££. Agile my arse. 

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

The second lot of binmen have bin this morning so that's the garden bin finally emptied - all I need to do now is search the road for it and disinfect the handles etc before bringing it back in.  The delay with the recycling bin yesterday was probably down to one of the recycling wagons catching fire last week because some half baked idiot had put some batteries in with his recycling.

 

Of considerable interest was a piece in yesterday's financial pages from the Head Grifter of some insurance company talking about motor insurance.  He noted that claims are down because of reduced mileage but he expects that social distancing and lock down will lead to increased joy riding and vandalism therefore there's no chance of any rebates or reductions.  Oh, and dividends will be unaffected.  

 

As far the paperwork emerging from the EU and our own Civil Paper Generation Service is concerned I am reminded of the Working Time Directive where in my final big railway employer I had the task of going through it line by line to see if it affected us in any way because I happened to be the expert on working hours for traincrew who were most likely to be affected.  The official English language version from the EU consisted of 16 pages and took something between 2 and 3 hours to go through in line-by-line detail.  The official UK 'job creation for Civil Servants' version arrived some weeks later and consisted of 64 pages which also had to be gone through in mind numbing detail to make sure that in its effect on us it was no different from the EU version - 2 days of my life I've never got back, and it was a load of total carp.  Official advice from the EU to synchronise the dates of clock changes throughout the EU - less than half a page of text; official advice from (alas) our Civil Servants that an additional day had been declared a Bank Holiday - 4 pages

 

Today of course is normally faux Friday but due to the current national emergency, or whatever it's called to avoid the risk of insurance claims, it will shift to Friday this week because that is a 'wrinklies hour' day at Tesco and it immediately follows wrinklies hour at Waitrose.  The Good Doctor/Station Cat seems to have passed a reasonably quiet night on the ward and at least she hasn't been punched again by the demented old lady who hit her on Tuesday night,  and she does now seem to have got the idea of how to sleep when working nights.

 

Enjoy your day one and all and me the sunshine be with you as you endeavour to stay safe.

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

The apocryphal tale of British officaldom is that of the insignificant 3 page memo from our then lords and masters in Brussels which was turned into a gold plated 3 volume, hand crafted  set of rules and regulations written in virgin's blood on vellum. 

 

The civil service at it's finest!

 

 

It has been going on for ages.  The Offences against the Person Act of IIRC 1862 took 2  or 3 lines to create each of the 3 main offences of assault.  If they were replaced nowadays each would probably take up at least 2 sides of A4.  Certainly the example from Europe is actually true though slightly exagerated. Most regulations come from Brussels as a short paragraph but end up as many pages of regs once translated in Whitehall.

 

Anyway I have replenished the stock of red falling down water and have been to the Supermarket.  Contrary to the gloomy predictions of a certain person sitting near me, I was able to both write and follow a shopping list. 

 

Jamie

[Barry O]

The ones to watch for are those who think they are more educated than others... but are not....and a PPE degree should be reclassified as "fit for a politician" only. 

 

As it happens the queue at moreasons was enormous..because it is "closed on Sunday" FFS it always is. Why is it a concern? Her indoors was spitting feathers as people were wondering round buying the odd Easter Egg, clothes peg bag etc..no food or essentials! And wandering around in groups of 3 adults with two trolleys..  I had to make her a large mugatea to calm her down. Waiting of a news report of "vexed women takes out 36 people in moreasons"

 

Baz

 

 

 

 

 

[Coombe Barton]

12 minutes ago, Barry O said:

The ones to watch for are those who think they are more educated than others... but are not....and a PPE degree should be reclassified as "fit for a politician" only. 

 

[newbryford]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

You certainly can't and my efforts towards model railroads will stay in my mind's eye.

 

GP9, GP38-2, short line stuff:  Newbryford will be slavering at the bit once more!

 

Any news on that front Mick?

 

 I am at work doing a bit of service stuff that can't be done at home. ( I am also answering emails/phonecalls - which can be done at home - but as I'm here already)

 

In the background - on my test circuit, I have a NS high hood GP38-2 and a NorthStar F59PHI burbling away . They are circulated once in awhile to get me away from the desk...………...

[newbryford]

7 hours ago, AndyID said:

Our car insurer and several other insurance companies in the US have announced that they will be giving us a refund because of the greatly reduced number of road accidents. Are the UK insurers doing that too?

 

 

Have you not heard about the Iranian Insurance salesman?

 

Asif...…..

[Coombe Barton]

1 minute ago, newbryford said:

 

Have you not heard about the Iranian Insurance salesman?

 

Asif...…..

Groan button, please.

[grandadbob]

Back of shed now painted and having a break for some lunch. One end left to do.

Twit over the road has a removal van there so is definitely going.  

Found out that the lady who died in our road is a lovely woman who Chris and I were chatting to in Sainsbury's a couple of weeks before the lockdown.  Apparently she had cancer which we had no idea about. Her husband is a really nice chap who I often chat to and is one of the longest serving "inmates" of the road. Before they were married he lived in the house next door to us with his mother, about 50 years ago.

The Boss is calling so lunch must be ready.

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, AndrewC said:

I have to disagree with the Doc around people being educated beyond their station. It's my experience the opposite is true. The over official jobsworth is generally only taught to follow a set process. Schools are the same, they aren't taught to think or learn but they are programmed to be able to pass an exam in order for the school to tick a box and meet their required pass rate...

I would certainly agree with that, Andrew. It's a pity that so many organisations seem afraid to trust their employees.... A good example would be a Swiss company I worked for. On the Swiss site, the company restaurant had wine and beer available and it was not unknown for people to have a glass of wine or beer at lunch - the company trusting its employees to behave like mature adults, whereas on the American affiliate site (run mostly by Americans, although some Swiss were seconded there for tours of duty) if you were found with any alcohol on the company site - even if in a sealed container - it was an immediately sackable offence....

How much of this attitude was down to the US management team not trusting the employees; local, state or national law or the rather funny love-hate relationship that exists in America for alcohol, I couldn't begin to speculate upon...

Edited April 9, 2020 by iL Dottore

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

Certainly the example from Europe is actually true though slightly exagerated.

 

 

Sorry,  I should have guessed you'd spot the exaggeration:

 

It was really written in virgin's blood on parchment.

 

I do apologise.

[iL Dottore]

53 minutes ago, Lantavian said:

 

Stop being such a snob.

I think that you missed the implied quotation marks....

[Tony_S]

I must be one of the people educated beyond my station. I had to walk past Clevedon station to get to my infant school. More seriously when I had a careers interview at age 16 I was told to go to somewhere like GKN or Rover or try to become a plumber. Careers advisor seemed amused at my idea of going to university to study physics. 

[jamie92208]

19 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Sorry,  I should have guessed you'd spot the exaggeration:

 

It was really written in virgin's blood on parchment.

 

I do apologise.

I have to wonder where you found the virgin. You might struggle for the wise men as well. 

 

Jamie

[AndrewC]

38 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

I would certainly agree with that, Andrew. It's a pity that so many organisations seem afraid to trust their employees.... A good example would be a Swiss company I worked for. On the Swiss site, the company restaurant had wine and beer available and it was not unknown for people to have a glass of wine or beer at lunch - the company trusting its employees to behave like mature adults, whereas on the American affiliate site (run mostly by Americans, although some Swiss were seconded there for tours of duty) if you were found with any alcohol on the company site - even if in a sealed container - it was an immediately sackable offence....

How much of this attitude was down to the US management team not trusting the employees; local, state or national law or the rather funny love-hate relationship that exists in America for alcohol, I couldn't begin to speculate upon...

American and mature adult seems to be an oxymoron at times. A company I worked for in Houston kept wine, beer, and champers in the kitchen fridge always. Nobody abused it. Nobody touched it before 4:30. Then some new sh*tweasel came along and whinged that there shouldn't be booze in the office. Note: this sh*tweasel was only a minion but some sort of evangelical wingnut. After a few weeks of his constant complaining the higher ups decreed no booze in the office. At least he was told to fork off when he said the office needed to have a lunch time prayer session. That just meant everyone forked off to the nearest bar instead. They also went at lunch time to avoid the SW trying to drag them into a conference room to pray. Bits of work and last minute trade deals in the late afternoon over a beer stopped and so did the productivity. Needless to day as soon as the SW left, the fridge was restocked.  Texas, the state where you can buy guns, booze, pills, without ever getting out of your car, and then use all 3 on your way home but god forbid if you want a beer in the office after work. Even more stupid was Guinness was illegal back in 97 as the max allowed strength of a beer was 4.5% and Guinness was 4.8%. Fortunately that has changed, but there are still some strange alcohol laws on the book in the States. 

 

At one time WA, ID, and MT all had different drinking ages. Made camping and weekend "excursions" a lot of fun. Needless to say the grocery store on US 2 in Troy MT saw a lot of business from Idaho. Especially us when wee camping by Sandpoint. In those days in ID booze had to be transported in the trunk (boot), while open alcohol wasn't illegal in Montana so technically you could drink while driving. 

[Joseph_Pestell]

4 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

To be fair, I spoke to our insurance provider about this years quote for the multicover (cars/buildings/contents) and ended up paying less than I did last year.  I'm sure they send out automated renewal quotes in the hope that some will just pay it because they can't be bothered to argue the case.  Even more so if you have an automatic renewal/payment with the company.

 

I know the insurance industry make huge profits, but they have taken a bit of a hammering from all the claims for the floods in the UK, and as we all know, these impact on  all insurance policies, not just those that have made claims.

 

 

 

When I changed car a couple of months ago (mistake as it is now sitting doing nothing), I applied to my existing insurer for an insurance quote. Not good news with my change in marital circumstances but I was expecting a bit of an increase.

So then I went on to a price comparison site and found insurance that was 20% cheaper - from the same insurer. So, by the time they pay the opera singer, they will be getting perhaps 25% less. Why not just offer a loyal customer the right price to start with?

[Simon G]

16 hours ago, Barry O said:

 

 

Surprisingly enough our British Gas payments seem to be fine. We make use of a smart meter and the bills are just about spot on. Our water is run off a seperate less smart meter . That seems to work ok as well.

 

I used Eon for the energy supply in Barrow. Despite giving them meter readings (the house was empty) they clocked up about £450 in overcharges. I had to threaten them with court action to get the money back. They know exactly how far they can bend the law to their advantage.

 

 

I too have been having fun with BG over the last few weeks.  We used them as electric suppliers to our MRC rooms up to 30 October last year.  I told them we had moved, and have been receiving estimated bills ever since, despite repeated phone calls and emails about our move.  After yesterday’s phone calls, I think they are finally getting the message.  I have since had 16 emails from them telling me to log on to see our final bill, and asking me to pay the outstanding sum - which is actually in credit!

 

It is the warmest day of year so far here, so I have finally ditched the thin fleece and am gardening in shirtsleeves.  Parsnip seeds have been planted, and leeks planted out.  The latter is very hard work, as you need to make a six inch deep hole for each plant, then all the dry soil falls into the hole, so then you water the area to prevent that, remake the holes, plant out the leeks and finally water in each plant.  I have planted about 60 today, in a square, with the carrots going inside the square next.

 

I had just dug up some strawberry plants, which were growing in the wrong place, when friends turned up with shopping for us, and also some home made scones and chocolate brownies.  I was able to give them the strawberries as a thank you for the baking.  The scones were eaten at lunchtime and were delicious!

[Ian Abel]

BIN day - all done.

 

Nothing remarkable yesterday, so on to today.

 

As a "reminder" for us Minnesotans as to why you NEVER plant anything before at least the second week of May, we currently have the following - the back garden right now;

Snow and strong winds which can result in white-out conditions on the roads (for those few out...) with temperatures going down to -4 to -6 the next few nights. Arrrrggghhhhh….  

 

+1 and sunny (VERY briefly) first thing, rapidly changed to snow and a high of 4 expected - AT MOST!

 

Carry on...

[grandadbob]

The Shed is now painted and I am sitting down enjoying tea and cake! I have told Management that I have finished for the weekend* unless our bedding plants turn up on Saturday as it has been suggested they might.

 

*Haven't had a response to that.... yet. 

[Chris116]

9 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

The Shed is now painted and I am sitting down enjoying tea and cake! I have told Management that I have finished for the weekend* unless our bedding plants turn up on Saturday as it has been suggested they might.

 

*Haven't had a response to that.... yet. 

A very brave man!

[Ian Abel]

9 hours ago, zarniwhoop said:

Wow. As an inveterate late-riser (I was an analyst programmer and now hack on linux code and scripts for my own interest) I hesitate to reply to ER comments, but really. For financials, COBOL (at least on IBM mainframes) was the bee's knees (COMP-3 storage - binary coded decimal - so decimal currency could and should add up without rounding errors if all the variables were sized correctly).

 

For idiot graphical interfaces, COBOL is not the right tool. But for financials it should be more rigorous than putting things through spreadsheets or whatever is the current flavour of the month in business circles.

 

${DEITY} (Anoia, the goddess of things stuck in drawers, in my case ;-) What is with this "newer, shinier, must be better" attitude ? And how many of these newer languages will still be usable for applications in even 20 years time ?

 

Stay safe, and  stick to VSAM, IMS/DB or DB2.

 

PS - like the 4-COR in your signature, but by your standards should it not be something more modern ?

Ken,

  In reality, the systems my company are primarily engaged in are health-care financials using a product from "INFOR", formerly "Lawson Software". The product is actually STILL based on COBOL, though an enhanced version, running on either Unix/Windows platforms and a strong competitor for SAP and Oracle Financials.

So, even though more of my work is with more modern components I still spend some time maintaining/modifying  the COBOL base. Having a web front-end (html, Java, blah-blah) makes the late-80s COBOL code work - they may eventually change that over but it's been discussed/suggested for the past 20 years (I worked for the provider for 10!) to no avail, mostly the "why change what works" scenario.

 

The 4-COR fits my era/standards and is shot where I grew up, at Weybridge, and I'm in eternal hope that someone actually makes one that I can use - talk about pipe-dreams

 

[The Stationmaster]

57 minutes ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

When I changed car a couple of months ago (mistake as it is now sitting doing nothing), I applied to my existing insurer for an insurance quote. Not good news with my change in marital circumstances but I was expecting a bit of an increase.

So then I went on to a price comparison site and found insurance that was 20% cheaper - from the same insurer. So, by the time they pay the opera singer, they will be getting perhaps 25% less. Why not just offer a loyal customer the right price to start with?

Oddly I seem to get that every year with my car insurer.  

1. The quote for auto-renewal l arrives in the post, I let if t fester for a while

2.  With only a few days to ge before renewal I call the insurer and imply that I have been checking prices elsewhere and their price is looking like a bad deal,

3. The  person on the 'phone is obviously keen for the company not to lose business so goes through all sorts of ideas about how to shave the cost which have a couple of times included 'well as you're a regular customer I think I can do something more for you'.

4.  Net result is that this current year's car insurance is about £50 + cheaper than last year's insurance which was in any case cheaper than the cover for the year before that.  Similarly - apart from being billed twice - this year's travel insurance was £100+  cheaper than last year's travel insurance (before I cancelled the policy, and got two refunds).

[newbryford]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

I have to wonder where you found the virgin. You might struggle for the wise men as well. 

 

Jamie

 

Are you describing Settle?