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Re: [LUG] The missing tax discs
I have recently joined the LUG and have followed this thread with
amusement. So that's how its done! I didn't understand how
difficult IT was these days.
I was introduced to computing through PLAN (program language nineteen
hundred - machine coded and compiled to produce an object program on
paper tape!) I worked with a Local Authority ICL 1902S having
progressed from a ICL1901 that had 16k of core. Heady days! How I
miss those whirring tape drives and the punched paper tape. I remember
the first exchangeable disc drives - we almost needed a crane to mount
them!
Circa 1960 we did the system analysis, wrote out the programs on paper for punching by the punch room girls. We then came in at night after the computer's normal operations had finished to do the testing, etc. operating the big beast thro' teletypewriters - no VDU's in those days.
We had an enquiry program this had the database field definitions described on 80 col punched cards that were recycled (note the modern jingo?) for each new enquiry. The fields that we were interested in reporting on were punched into a
parameter card.
The card pack was then thrown into a card reader and surprise,
surprise, whir, whir, out poured a box, or two, of 12" listing with the
required data thereon. We had not heard of outsourcing in those days and I guess a £25 charge would have shown a good profit for the IT Dept had it been run as a business unit in those days.
I'm now ending - honest - as an 'old wrinkly', I staggered thro' the MS era without being exposed
to UNIX so I am rather hesitant to move my (home) XP machine to Linux.
MS has made life very easy for me. Could anyone suggest a 'starter'
book to tempt me to play with Linux? I did try setting it up on my PC
a year or so back but as there were no suitable drivers for my
printer, net cards, etc., at that time, I did not pursue it further and
it did seem rather complicated whereas the MS option was plug and go.
Sorry, this diatribe is a bit longer than I had intended
Be gentle with me, please
Creekfella
On 23/11/2007, Martinus Scriblerus <
martinus.scriblerus@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Nov 23, 2007 12:47 PM, James Fidell <james@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Henry Bremridge wrote:
>
> > As a nontechie, am I missing something?
> >
> > If the details were in a database then all it would require is for
> > someone to delete 3 fields: ie 2 minutes of tech time plus computer
> > time to remove the fields from 25m records
> >
> > £5000 seems a bit extreme
>
> I imagine they'd have to write some sort of proposal, submit it to EDS
> for a quote, get the quote approved by all the necessary people, get
> the work done and pay EDS, get EDS to do the job properly this time,
> pay them again and then extract and send the data. £5k seems quite
> cheap, really.
I work for a certain civil service department that has been quite busy
this week...
Every so often we get a new release of our software. There is
invariably a delay while it is installed, then a few days more while
it is corrected. During one of these intervals I took a call from
somebody in the IT business.
I told him how long until we could access his account. He said that if
he had told a client the system would be down for so long he would
have been laughed out of the building. What I should have told him was
that when our contract was negotiated we didn't have that luxury.
--
Martinus Scriblerus scripsit ex 50º 21' N, 4º41' W
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