2014 — 28 January: Tuesday
And to think, I used to bank with these bozos:
<Sigh>
As is often the case, ...
... the comments attracted by this depressing1 piece are a lot more insightful than the original text. Source and typical example:
The fundamental problem is a lack of understanding of what a bank is.
The people at the top of banks are chosen because they look good in a suit, went to the right schools and know the right people. They still believe that banks are imposing buildings that
store your money (even though they know that's not true). To realise that a bank is a computer system with a banking license is a paradigm shift too far for them, particularly as
they look on people who understand technical stuff such as IT as a sort of inferior.
So they bring in third party consultants who also look good in suits and know the right people. These consultants add a layer of "reassuringly expensive" to any change, so the concept of
building a new system to take over from these antiquated, creaking and badly-documented systems is too much risk and expense.
Next step is to try offshoring it to somewhere cheap and invisible. But that didn't go well. Neither cheap nor good. So now the chickens and antique systems are coming home to roost.
Nailed it, if you ask me. The geek have still yet to inherit the earth. Perhaps (love of) offshoring and outsourcing is the new root of all IT evil? I knew IT managers who initially disagreed very vehemently. I wonder what they think nowadays? (Assuming they still have a job.)
I received an email from my bank while I was typing the above. They have my next monthly statement ready for my inspection. And, about two or three months ago, their online interface began showing my current account transactions "in real time". I love the conceit that "real" time has a special meaning in IT that Joe Public is now expected to grasp.
What's next?
A quick nip out for some motion lotion for the car, breakfast, and then patiently await the arrival of my two passengers. Not necessarily in that order. The sun is shining.
Their predicted arrival time is now 11:30 as they're only just setting off. Still, the traffic was quite light when I whizzed out for petrol earlier. I also swung by Halfords with the intention of getting new door guards (three of the original four have now fallen by the wayside). But I ended up buying a fleecy high-visibility jacket instead. It's very bright yellow. Very.
I never thought...
... while being driven in a taxi from Winchester railway station (to a day of job interviews and aptitude tests with IBM in Hursley) in March 1981 that, almost exactly 33 years later, I'd be a long-retired widower driving myself along exactly the same route. I was taking a detour today to drop off a paperback with Roger. He has a hankering to re-read "Three corvettes" by Nicholas Monsarrat and I have a copy passed along to me by a programming contractor in 1988 (who assured me it was the best book ever written).
A heavy shower just after I'd put the car away has now been replaced by bright sunshine but with some quite dark clouds knocking around. Time for a bite of lunch, methinks.
When my kindly...
... young neighbour handed over the parcel he'd fielded from Mr DPD this morning while I was gallivanting out and about I nearly dropped it. What on earth had I ordered that was so heavy?
A TED Book Club selection, it seems. The cover is dark, and reflective, and way too big to be scanned in a single operation.
It seems that...
... things have gone so smoothly in surgery this afternoon that I may even be driving out to the hospital again a bit later on tonight, rather than tomorrow morning. They don't seem to want to hang around once they get going!