Computerised MOT's

Re: I fail to see what the colour of the Government has to d

Is that the BBC or BBC (Brown Boveri Corp) ?

Seem to recall from a job I had years ago that BBC (the latter) were tulipe and they were German controlled too and the missus has a Braun hair dryer twenty years ago and that was tulipe and I got a Braun shaver for Xmas that's tulipe that is and my van has a Volkswagon gearbox the external links kept popping off - tulipe all German products are tulipe and don't get me started on the Frogs I had a

I fail to see what the colour of the Government has to do wi

Going back to the above comment, it has a hell of a lot to do with NL. For my sins, I have spent a couple of years working in Gov't projects and I can tell you half a dozen or so companies are doing the merry-go-round of contracts.
Siemens BS who are behind the MOT PFI, were behind the passport fiasco (remember the queues outside the Home Office) and the even bigger Asylum&Immigration fiasco at the IND/HO. The Home Office under Blunkett got so fed up with them last year that did not extend their lucrative contract for another 7 years (!) to go ahead with more of the same (Asylum Reports) and the new terrorist stuff (finger printing, iris scanning) that will go into the new passports. This will now be done by Atos Origin, an American company (at least they should know what the US wants from the UK)
To sweeten the pill, a couple of months later Siemens got the BBC contract whereby all BBC IT staff has now become part of Siemens, hence they are up in arms). There is no real saving from this, other than lining the pockets of a 'friendly' company that in turn may (or may not) have donated towards the NL pre-election coffers
I haven't even got to EDS, but you all know about them.
Also, what can you say about IBM, that hasn't been said already ?

Re: db

AtW. Don't sweat it mate. Just focus on that SKA.....

db

> AtW, here's a challenge for you. If it is so simple, write one. If
> you can do it you stand a decent chance of making a lot of money.

Dude, I've done enough database and UI work -- the task at hand is simple, its a no brainer.

> Then you need to prove that no one will get injured by using
> the system - RSI etc. can be expensive.

Bullcrap -- they dont care about RSI. The problem with Child Credits was that system was not calculating values correctly. Just how many fecking variables they had to deal with? Family income, number of children and a few more FFS >:

Re: failures

AtW, here's a challenge for you. If it is so simple, write one. If you can do it you stand a decent chance of making a lot of money.

However, I suspect you will be caught out by the usual imposed crap such as... It must be able to be used by dyslexic one fingered lesbians (less than one finger disqualifies you from being a lesbian) with no command of the English language and no interest in working.

Oh, and it must work in Bengali, Swahili, Punjabi and Portuguese - English is an optional extra.

Then you need to prove that no one will get injured by using the system - RSI etc. can be expensive.

I could go on, but I hear a pint calling my name.

Good luck

Re: failures

I like the MOT system a mate of mine operates. £60 and no need to bother bringing the car in. Say no more.

failures

Something is just very wrong with big projects that have lots of people involved and thus nobody is responsible. The stuff that IR needs is trivial, say Child Credits thing -- ffs, all you need is a bunch of tables with people details, simple interface for peopel who call in or send forms or even change them online, and monthly calculation of amount of money due -- thats fecking it.

Even with bloody redundancy and expensive Oracle database I just can't see how the f\/ck it can cost more than £1 mln to develop it, and best of all -- just how fecking stupid EDS should be to actually fail to make it work FFS! >:

"faults discovered during extensive testing led to repeated delays"

Testers 1 - 0 Developers

Hands together for my fellow testing brothers.

It's the incestuous nature of the New Lie and their "friends". Too many on the make, back handers and non-exec board members who happen to be Labour MP's now. Fecking disgraceful, but the media is owned by the New Lie, so the truth remains firmly under wraps....

They can't afford to upset EDS - if they pullled the plug and walked out the IR would have to work out all our tax bills using paper and pencil.

True that would be quicker and cheaper but there isn't enough sustainable forest left in the UK to produce all that paper.

Can anyone explain how EDS etc keep getting away with it???

When I used to work for a biggish IT company that supplied systems, the contracts we signed often had draconian clauses regarding failure to deliver on time. Mostly we pretty decent at delivering but on a few occasions when we really overan we were into massive penalty clauses and we had to pay them.

Why is it so difficult for the government to come up with proper contracts that protect the taxpayers' interest??

I do believe NL tilted the playing field in the direction of preferred suppliers.

EDS have been responsible for the last 12 major systems @#%$ ups but still manage to win more Govt. contracts.

The Tories put everything out to competetive tender so we at least got the cheapest @#%$ up.

Ok so where exactly do I have to take my computer for an MOT?

I fail to see what the colour of the Government has to do with this.

This was just (another) Government department implementing (or rather overseeing the implementation of) a database with a few million entries and failing to do it correctly.

Happened all the time under the previous Tory Gevernment and it will happen all the time with the next (whenever that might be). Civil Servants are just rubbish at doing this function whichever party is in charge.

tim

Now how hard can this be to implement?

Database of vehicles. Simple UI for garage owners to work with. It doesn't strike me as rocket science.

management.silicon.com/government/0,39024677,39131366,00.htm

The MOT computerisation project, which aims to take a million illegal and dangerous cars off the road, will now not be fully rolled out to testing stations and garages until at least next March - nearly three years after it was due to be delivered.

The original date for the first MOT stations to be computerised was May 2002 but faults discovered during extensive testing led to repeated delays. The first garages finally went live with the system in April this year but the government has now admitted it will not reach all 18,500 MOT garages until the end of March next year at the earliest.



Pathetic and all at tax payers expense. Is there no limit to the incompetence of the New Lie gravy trains?