NPfIT ignored NHS culture, says Halligan • The Register

NPfIT ignored NHS culture, says Halligan • The Register

An interesting article from Professor Halligan but I don't think that most people in the NHS would agree with this comment of his in the article:

Halligan said that the NHS had received too much money in the last decade.
"Bring on the recession, is what I say. We've had too much of it," with high
levels of funding allowing the introduction of new projects without fundamental
rethinks of how things work. "There will be more change in healthcare in the
next five years than in the last 10," he said, adding: "IT will be at the heart
of it."

Cheapest Petrol?

This is a rather unlikely looking picture of a petrol station that I regularly pass. Unfortunately, the prices aren't as generous as they seem - there's a missing pound sign hidden by the angle of the shot (you may have to view the image full sized - I think my HTC Magic Android phone's seriously brilliant generally but the camera isn't by any stretch of the imagination a good one I fear, especially when taking photos from the top deck of a bus :-)).

Despite the fun thrill of seeing a petrol station offering petrol at only a penny and diesel for tuppence, this petrol station is still one of the cheapest around with both 'only' a bit over a pound (approximately ~$1.50 at current exchange rates).

Snow Days Are Here

Well, England has had its worse day of snow for 18 years this week with more to come apparently, and as usual, the country grinds to a halt. Although, in fairness I have to say the local traffic conditions I was involved in were actually rather good. The oblivious student who dashed out right in front of our bus was the luckiest person I know of - the bus managed to brake before he was hit, and didn't skid.

Now, you're saying 'Where are the great snow scenes?'. Unfortunately, while there were some really cool (sorry!!) scenes on the way to work and when I got home, my phone's camera wasn't playing ball and while I was going to take my proper camera with me to work, the snow had, by and large, disappeared by the following morning! It's this fact that indicates why England in particular of the countries in the UK seems to get taken short whenever we get a decent snow fall; it's not a regular occurance so the local authorities can't afford to keep the specialist equipment around in the less severe decades.

With climate change an acknowledged phenomenon, though, the British Isles are slated to get cooler in the near to medium term so we might be seeing more of these colder winters...

Cyclists

On the way to work, on the bus, we often see plenty of cyclists travelling the same route as the buses and innumerable cars.

Now, the cyclists are always yapping on about how the rest of the traffic don't take account of their presence but if the actions of these four this morning are the norm, it has to be said the cyclists are their own worst enemies. Not one of these four bothered stopping at the red light that clearly stopped the lane they were in.

If something had happened to them (assuming they'd been lucky enough to survive it) due to this stupidity, it wouldn't have there fault, oh no!

Where's the space gone?

Over the last few weeks, I've been trying to sort out the massive number of books that have accumulated around the house (we'll politely draw a veil over the magazines - 4 sci fi magazines and 4 computer magazines...).

The vast majority were scattered over the floor of my 'spare' bedroom in roughly alphabetical order so I bought 4 billy bookcases from Ikea (light oak finish - very neat!). When these arrived flat packed I was nearly straight on the phone to Ikea asking where the ones I had ordered were - these appeared to be far too small a package. Fortunately, I opened the packing on one first and found out how they'd managed the trick - a concertinaed back panel!

Next problem - finding the room to assemble them. I have the room height (and then some), but floor space is limited even after clearing away those piles of books.

I've managed to assemble two in the front 'spare' bedroom before just running out of space there. Looks like the front living room's next. At least I'm getting quicker at assembling them...

And then I can start shelving the books though I don't think I'm going to get everything on even then but hopefully I'll get enough on so I can make sure my database agrees to the physical books :-)

Where's My Privacy?!

‘If I have done nothing wrong why should I have anything to worry about?’ is the constant cry of those advocating ever increasing infringements on our privacy.

You may not think that you have done anything wrong, but who’s to say what the definition of wrong is? You, or the government? Can you guarantee that the stated uses of the ID card database will be the only uses to which it is put? Already we’ve seen how RIPA (supposedly only to be used against terrorists) has extended it’s murky tentacles into the lives of such hardened criminals as people putting the wrong item in their recycling boxes.

Then there’s the vexed question as to who’s going to have access to the data and whether they can send it through the post…

And, finally, maybe, this is a government project – underfunded and with impossibly great expectations, so I would doubt that the database would actually be able to perform to spec and this is something that you’d want to be right from day one.

Prince Caspian

I've just seen the latest film in the group of Narnia films this morning and enjoyed it quite a lot.

The film is a bit different to the book, particularly in the way that the film shows a conflict between Caspian and Peter as to whom was the leader of their merry band and the attraction between Susan and Caspian.

Some reviewers have commented that the girls don't get much action in this, but they must have seen a different version of the film. If anything, they are more involved than in book, particularly Susan. The reviewer also seemed to miss that it was both Peter and Susan who were stopped from coming back to Narnia.

Now we just have to wait until The Voyage of the Dawntreader comes round...