Uncategorized – Page 31

After working through the whiskey samplers the past few months a winner has emerged…

Really didn’t like Jim Beam and Jack Daniels, rough fire water. Wasn’t greatly impressed by the single malts either, tasting like they were meant to be mixed with something.

The Southern Comfort however is smooth and has a nice sort-of-orangey taste and aftertaste. No need for ice or water, just dangerously easy to go for seconds!

It’s not just me though, if anything The Duchess is more of a fan! Chin chin folks!

Stubbed my toe last night, any guesses which one? Proper bite-your-knuckles pain for about 10 minutes, no idea why you instinctively do that.

Penny has been a bit under the weather this week, barking us awake through the night for a shit in the dark.

I took her to the vets today to get her checked out and they gave me this to administer to her. My first thought was “neither of us is going to enjoy this”

Thankfully he explained that it’s a food supplement and that I just squirt a dose onto her food. Phew! Disaster averted.

Penny enjoying her new chew toy, that we have unimaginitively called Bully. It’s super tough, double lined and stitched. So I give it 6 months before she’s ripped the stuffing out of it.

In other doggo news she’s returned to doggy daycare after her recuperation and (apparently) loved it.

Have been struggling with an increasingly sore neck and shoulders for a month, and finding it is taking over my life.

So far I have

* signed up with a Chiropractor to correct structural issues

* had regular massages to loosen the tight muscles

* tested out a $200 orthopaedic pillow (very uncomfortable, went straight back to the shop)

* made ergonomic improvements to my work and home office workstations

None of it seems to be helping, the pain just gets worse each day. It could be work, the train commute, my sleeping position, the new sofa or a combination of all of them.

I suspect the lack of decent sleep is getting me grumpy – though my current and soon to be ex client aren’t helping.

When a part of you is hurting you can’t distract your mind from it, like you tongue returning to a loose tooth, which just amplifies the discomfort.

Need to get on top of this within the next couple of weeks as I will be starting a new contract and need to be on top of my game.

Anyone that works in IT will have worked on projects that failed – I worked on the failed NHS Spine project in the UK and Novopay in NZ to name but two – but this case involves an IT system so bad that innocent people were sent to prison, were falsely convicted or even took their own lives.

Twenty years ago Fujitsu were contracted by the UK Post Office to install a computer system for automating benefits payments, that they called Horizon. The system had serious accounting flaws that resulted in thousands of false fraud accusations being made to sub-postmasters across the country.

A review produced by third party CK Sift as early as 2013 produced clear evidence that at least a couple of dozen of the convictions were unsafe; Post Office Management kept the information secret from MPs and the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance, leading to hundreds more false prosecutions. This could well be deemed to be perverting the course of justice. Further the Post Office spent millions on prosecutions and sent legal threats to journalists.

This goes way beyond lousy Management, this is arrogant and corrupt behaviour that needs to be thoroughly investigated and people held to account. Unfortunately we know from the Global Financial Crisis – from which not one person was prosecuted – that the Government, the Law and Business all look after each other. The most likely outcome is that a lot of convictions will be overturned and a “don’t do it again” slap on the wrist be issued to Post Office. And of course nobody’s going to hold Fujitsu to account for their useless system …

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56718036

https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252500167/Post-Office-CEO-either-knew-what-was-going-on-in-Horizon-scandal-or-was-asleep-at-the-wheel

Holy Moly – Post Office are contacting 540 criminalised Subpostmasters and others whose convictions might be unsafe. Given it prosecuted 736 and 45 have already had their convictions overturned we’re now into slam dunk biggest potential miscarriage of justice ever.
— Nick Wallis (@nickwallis) May 7, 2021

One of my colleagues way back used to avoid swearing by exclaiming “Get to Falkirk!” whenever something disagreeable happened. Now I’ve just discovered something that makes me want to go (apologies if this is common knowledge).

I want to see The Falkirk Screw, a very clever piece of engineering that connects two canals at different heights. Cleverly weighted to only need minimal power to rotate (equivalent to 8 boiled kettles), it’s beautiful yet practical.