Jump to content

My eye! Sweet Jesus, Ouch!


Sledge

Recommended Posts

All couriers are *Ubarflock*.

 

All of them.

 

Mostly.

 

The ones that aren't, the bloody bean counters won't pay for. Meanwhile, I'm putting out fires with customers who have taken days off work to wait in for collections that haven't shown up despite being booked for at least 48 hours and deliveries that have been returned to depot with no explanation.

 

 

Turns out, a business can put a price on it's reputation... Head office have done the maths.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • Replies 24.2k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Genuinely, I've never known a courier firm to provide consistent good service. The odd one here and there, but mostly bad.

 

They are as bad as each other and know this. They also know businesses have no choice but to use one of them.

Link to post
Share on other sites

DPD are good.

 

They text you with a delivery slot, and they stick to it. Delivering outside of this slot is considered breach of contract with the customer, which a driver only gets 3 allowable per year before they're gone.

 

GF's brother in law works for them.

Link to post
Share on other sites

DPD over here is a bunch of wankers. I think I've already mentioned how they shafted me that one time they were entrusted with a parcel from the UK.

 

Also, exchange rates over here are going bonkers. 5.60 PLN for 1 GBP, 3.80 PLN for 1 USD. And the fact that the Euro exchange rates barely budged is worrying.

Link to post
Share on other sites

The mind does boggle when stuff like defence get stuck with *suitcasey* outdated systems.  I get money e.t.c. But surely you want the most up to date, secure systems that are a challenge to attack when we are dealing with the protection of our country?

Link to post
Share on other sites

Maybe the MOD hasn't realised that we don't really fight wars with guns and bombs anymore.

 

Now it is all about drones and laser guided this and that. :D

 

Still I do recall asking this when I was on a course. The only company with an older system than the one my last job was on was the guy from the MOD base.

 

'FireKnife'

Link to post
Share on other sites

The mind does boggle when stuff like defence get stuck with *suitcasey* outdated systems.  I get money e.t.c. But surely you want the most up to date, secure systems that are a challenge to attack when we are dealing with the protection of our country?

It's because they are older that they are used. There has been several years of loopholes and back doors being found by hackers, and it's had several years to become polished and stable. They take the base OS and software, and make it more protected and robust.

 

It might not be the shiny shiny latest stuff, but it will have had years of security updates and fine tuning put into it.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Yes but then you reach now, the program is no longer supported and hacks can be made as not everything will be accounted for.

 

The best way is to stay in that sweet spot of about four or five years behind rather than seven or eight. By that time many of the major issues have been found but you are still guarenteed a good four years or so support afterwards. Like people I work with in the ATM business are switching to Win7 as of the last few years as much of the major issues are fixed but they know it will probably hold support until say 2018, so by 2016-7 they will shift on again to something else.

 

Many however are doing it because it is cheap and no amount of reasoning will excuse that. We have all heard that comment of 'remember your kit was made by the lowest bidder' and in some cases it is just that, lowest cost, best option.

 

'FireKnife'

Link to post
Share on other sites

Same reason why Windows XP still runs 90-odd percent of ATMs in the world, why industrial process control is often done by computer hardware that's decades old, why the computers on the space shuttle were basically antique. Stuff might be old, but that just means its operators fully understand all of its little quirks and can run it extremely reliably, or in the case of the military plug every last hole and fortify security. Staying (well) off the bleeding edge is pretty much necessary in those environments.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I would disagree with regard to security as the main reason; vulnerabilities tend to be more common within older systems as they start to go EoL, support slips etc; basically what Fireknife said.

 

The main reason why most large organisations are years behind, is due to the sheer scale of upgrade projects. You're not just turning off one system and turning on another, you're turning off 8 million processes in such a way that no production systems are affected. When you've got hundreds of databases/programs all interacting with each other in a big messy web, decommissioning in the wrong order can be fatal. This is made worse when you consider the systems can often not afford to go down - especially when national security etc comes into it.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Yup, ATMs are a bit of a different beast though as they have about twenty other countermeasures to use. Hacking the actual PC on an ATM will only get you so far as then you will have to send the exact XFS code with exactly the correct triple layered number for it to recognise that it needs to change values. It is all timed as well so if it is out by a second it shuts off / an alarm is triggered.

 

In short best way to steal from an ATM is still the old fashioned way as they have the digital side near enough locked down.

 

But yes upgrades and switchover is the biggest *badgeress* of them all. My old IT job in a paper mill we had a system using a program called PowerTerm. The version we use last got updated in 2000 and only just runs on XP by way of compatibility mode. However even with the new system setup it would require all of the 250 machines to have the new system installed, would take a day to power down the old system, a further two-three days to get the new system up to optimal and then a further few months to iron out and train staff. Now for those three-four days the business can't keep records and thus can't make paper as it is required by law to have a digital copy of all records along with various other safety and sales info. The loss of business would be about £150,000-200,000 in a 24hr period, in four days of that the business almost wouldn't be worth starting back up again.

 

Saying that I personally still use XP and find it quite nice and stable. But then it isn't like I am using it to house the secrets of the UKs defence, just some very, very dodgy porn.

 

'FireKnife'

Link to post
Share on other sites

Well, I've had an in growing hair in my neck for 5 days now. It's been pissing me right off.

 

Tried squeezing and manipulating etc, to no avail. I'd had enough.

 

Took a large needle and a sharp knife, and performed surgery. Stuck the needle into the skin near the hair, pulled it taught and used the knife as a scalpel to slice flesh open. Removed needle and used it to fish out the hair and then removed it with tweezers.

 

Grr.

 

Was going to put this in the manly thread, but it's been archived. I feel so much happier. I could feel it moving under my skin when I rolled it between my fingers. It's about an inch long.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I've never had it, but if you're a hairy *fruitcage* it's quite common to get in growing hairs in you're *albartroth* crack.

 

Can cause no end of problems.

 

I'd just use a mirror and a knife and dig it out too though because I'm manly like that.

 

I basically slit my own throat to get a hair...

Link to post
Share on other sites

Ingrowing hairs arnt a sign of poor/bad hygene, but definitely a sign your body loves to *fruitcage* itself up. I get a few in my beard area most weeks. If I grow a beard they don't seem to form. Shave it off and all of a sudden they reappear. Bastards.

 

Sometimes they look like tiny horns, as if my body is a frustrated Rhino wannabe.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and the use of session cookies.