markwilson.it

Category: Waffle and randomness

  • Why the UK’s National Rail website is an IT disaster

    In a few weeks’ time, my wife is taking the kids to her parents’ house by the seaside for a week. I’ve got the week off work too but I’ve got a huge list of outstanding jobs to do at home, so I’m only spending part of the week with them. It’s daft to take two cars (especially as we will be travelling together in one direction), so I thought I’d try public transport…

    Problem number one is that I live in a rural area so public transport is not exactly plentiful – even though I’m just 12 miles from the thriving new “city” of Milton Keynes we have just one or two buses an hour, which run infrequently (and unreliably) and take at least 40 minutes for an indirect route to a location that is still just over a mile from the station. Not exactly convenient – and, at £3 (single fare), not exactly inexpensive either!

    Then, after a brisk mile-long walk from the shopping centre to the railway station, I’ll be catching a train to London, tube across London, and then another train to sunny Dorset. The rail journey will take just over 3 and a half hours – which is not bad really (it would take me about 2 and a half to drive using a much more direct route – or around 5 hours by National Express coach) but Cheapest available fare - £56.60 (or is it?)the National Rail Journey Planner tells me that the cheapest available fare is £56.60 with no advance fares available (at which price taking the car is suddenly sounding more economical). (RailEasy and The Trainline also reckon that the lowest cost single fare is £56.50, despite the latter site The Trainline claims to save travellers 39% on average compared with buying a ticket at the station on the dayclaiming to save travellers 39% on average compared with buying a ticket at the station on the day!

    Luckily, I spoke to my father, who knows far more about UK railways than would generally be considered healthy – and his advice came up trumps – instead of buying a single ticket for the entire journey, it seems the thing to do is to use the journey planner to work out which trains to catch, and then try again for each leg of the journey.

    Using this method, I found I can get the Milton Keynes-London leg for £14.50 (off peak return… not using the return portion), then cross London on the tube for £4 cash or £1.50 with an Oyster card and I can currently buy an advance single from London to my eventual destination in Dorset for £9 or £17 (depending on the time of day I travel). Using this method, £56.60 becomes £25 – and that is not really bad value at all (especially when compared with £41.50 for the significantly slower coach journey).

    Why is this relevant on a technology weblog? Well, if a travel website that is incapable of accurately calculating the lowest available fare is not bad enough, the next stage of the process is an IT disaster – the sticking plaster that bonds together the various websites used to provide this “service”. The National Rail website has the ability to hand off to third parties for ticket purchase, which sounds great – web services in action – except that I got more than my fair share of failed fare lookups (retrying seemed to result in success) and when I was passed across to the two train operating companies that I used (London Midland and South West Trains), I had to register with each website individually – despite the underlying infrastructure being hosted under the oddly-named trainsfares.co.uk domain by The Trainline (where I also have an account) and an error page after my session timed out referring to yet another train operating company (with which I do not)! I could almost excuse the National Rail website for being aesthetically dull (I find its basic colour scheme and busy layout presents a navigational nightmare – in web terms rather than its intended purpose as a travel aid!) but the results it produces are not even consistent – the train that I’ll be using for the Milton Keynes to London leg of the journey disappears from the list if I use the earlier and later links to navigate back and forth through the available journey options!

    Is it too much to ask that, now that train fares in the UK have (finally) been simplified, the systems should be able: to calculate the the various legs of the journey and find me the absolute lowest fare; reliably integrate to provide consistent results; and, where several train operating companies use the same service provider, for a single online account to be able to buy tickets for the entire rail network?

    Maybe I just want too much…

  • MVP = Mark’s Very Pleased

    MVPI’ve just heard that my Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Award nomination for 2009 was successful and I can now say I’m an MVP for Virtual Machine technology.

    Thank you to everyone who reads, links to and comments on this blog as, without your support, I wouldn’t write this stuff and therefore wouldn’t be getting the recognition from Microsoft that I have.

    For those of you who skip over the Microsoft-focused content, don’t worry – it doesn’t mean that it will all be Microsoft from now on – I’ll still continue to write about whatever flavour of technology I find interesting at any given time, and I’ll still be trying to remain objective!

  • Account lockouts and software updaters

    CA eTrust update configuration, with no option to use the browser settings<rant>Why can’t application developers use the default browser settings for Internet access via a proxy? For two months now, I’ve been struggling with account lockouts whenever I visited the office (thankfully that’s not too often) and then today I discovered, purely by accident, that my anti-virus client was out of date and that I had it configured to use the corporate proxy server using what was probably an old password. Coincidence? We’ll see next time I visit the office. As you can see from this screenshot, I can enter proxy settings, even proxy authentication details but I can’t elect to use the browser settings (which I change according to whether I’m at home or in the office). Gahhhhhh!</rant>

  • There is no such thing as a stupid question… yeah, right?

    There is a saying that there is no such thing as a stupid question – only stupid answers.

    Really?

    Well, I thought the rules for comments on this blog were pretty clear, but maybe not…

    Hi How to fix Windows Crash? Thanks

    This comment was left a couple of weeks ago by someone in an English-speaking country (at least, they use a UK-based ISP) and it is a stupid question. Especially when left as a comment on a post from 2 and half years back about some of the highlights from Microsoft’s annual technical conference for IT Professionals. I did wonder if it was spam but they didn’t even put a link in the comment, so I guess not…

    [Ridiculing readers is probably not a good way to increase the popularity of this site but I honestly don’t think this person is a regular reader… none of you would really leave a comment like this… would you?]

  • In case the UK Government’s record on IT wasn’t already bad enough…

    I’m not sure how I missed this one, but the UK Government‘s latest public relations stunt is the Prime Minister’s blog. Yes, that’s right – since Monday, Gordon Brown has been blogging at Number10.gov.uk (for those outside the UK, number 10 Downing Street is the traditional London home and office for the Prime Minister of the day – and in case you hadn’t noticed, Tony Blair got out while the going was reasonably good and left the former Chancellor as a caretaker PM until the next election… [sorry, nearly broke my own golden rule for no politics on this blog there]).

    Given this administration’s record on matters of an IT nature, I would hope they had better things to do (of course, the PM is not churning this stuff out himself). With Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube feeds (as well as the Brightcove-based Number 10 TV) he wouldn’t have much time left to run the country [on second thoughts, maybe that is what he is doing… it would explain a lot about the state of the nation…].

    Of course the site is, at worst, a thinly veiled PR exercise and, at best, an attempt to engage an increasingly disillusioned electorate in discussion with the Government of the day. After all, the standard response to most e-petitions seems to be a condescending e-mail from the appropriate department which can usually be paraphrased as “yeah, yeah, we heard you but we’re still going to carry on regardless”.

    Still, at least they’re using WordPress as their CMS (albeit without any kind of acknowledgement)!

  • It goes all the way up to 11

    There’s a well-known phase used to describe things that go one better – they go up to eleven – and the idiom originates from the cult film “This is Spinal Tap” (which I really must watch one day…). Well, clearly someone at the BBC has a sense of humour as I noticed tonight that the volume control on the BBC’s media player for online viewing maxes out at, not 10, but 11.

    BBC Media Player volume goes to eleven

  • Calling all photographers – stand up for your rights

    For a while now, it’s become increasingly difficult to take photographs without suspicion and stories like the one of the father-of-three who was branded a pervert for photographing his own children in public park are extremely alarming. Admittedly this story was reported in the Daily Mail (a fine example of balanced reporting – not!) but nevertheless it is a perfect example of political correctness gone mad.

    I’m a parent too and I have to admit that I am always very self-conscious when I photograph my children playing with their friends. Thankfully, their parents take no issue (indeed some find it strange that I even check with them first). I even have some great pictures of my kids that were taken by other people. But unfortunately it’s all too easy to accuse someone of wrong-doing – generally being a pervert or a terrorist – and the authorities will generally act first and reason later.

    There are very few restrictions on taking photographs in public places but it won’t take long for that to change. Indeed, the current UK Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith has stated in a letter to the National Union of Journalists that:

    “[…] there is no legal restriction on photography in public places […and…] there is no presumption of privacy for individuals in a public place.”

    That’s sounds good until she continues by writing:

    “Decisions may be made locally to restrict or monitor photography in reasonable circumstances. That is an operational decision for the officers involved based on the individual circumstances of each situation.”

    Basically, she’s said that it’s not illegal but that the authorities will act if they feel it is appropriate and that, even though Chief Constables will issue guidance, the decision is down to local officers.

    I spent a large chunk of my formative years watching trains and, whilst I realise that the social stigma that is attached to such activities will make readers think I’m weird now, that’s practically outlawed these days (the police will soon move people on who are seen hanging around a major railway station). Then, when I flew to the States last year, I took some pictures of aeroplanes at Heathrow (my young son has only seen them high in the sky – he had no idea what the plane Daddy was going to fly on looked like) – thankfully no-one tried to stop me but it won’t be long before that is considered a security risk.

    The UK Government’s petitions site is little more than a publicity exercise but nevertheless it is an opportunity to demonstrate the strength of public feeling on this. If you are a UK citizen and you would like to see a public statement on clarifying the law as it relates to photography then I urge you to sign the e-petition on Photography Law:

    Through history, we have documented the world around us, whether through written word, art or photography.

    Photography in particular has provided fantastic insights into the past and present, and is a hobby enjoyed by millions of people worldwide.

    But today, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to take photos of our surroundings, particularly in cities like London.

    In recent years, the price divide between professional and consumer equipment has blurred, and it’s quite common these days to see amateurs and hobbyists carrying around tripods, SLR cameras and a backpack full of equipment.

    Yet, we are constantly harrassed [sic] by security guards and police officers in the name of preventing terrorism. They seem to be operating under a different interpretation of the law to the rest of us, believing that somehow the length of your lens, or size of your camera is relevant.

    We would like clarification by the goverment [sic] on the law regarding photography of buildings and landmarks from public locations.

    If you don’t, then you’ll only have yourself to blame when the current power-hungry administration forces through the next phase of nanny state laws that restrict an individual’s ability to capture a photograph in a public place.

  • I hate blog spam…

    As I write this, Akismet is telling me that it has trapped 1988 spam comments in the last 7 days and Bad Behavior has blocked a further 5437 access attempts from known “bad” IP addresses over the same period. That’s pretty alarming – given that this is a pretty small blog run by one bloke in his spare time (albeit one with quite a lot of posts)… thank goodness I have these tools to help me out (I’ve long since given up checking for false positives).

    I do moderate comments on the blog and some of the spammers are pretty blatant – stuff with suspect links like the spam e-mails we all get in our Inbox – but, as far as I know, none of those are live on the site. There are others that are more devious and, despite my rules for comments being pretty clear that I don’t welcome blog spam, if their product links are relevant to the discussion, then I’ll generally turn a blind eye (although one guy did repeatedly spam me to promote his product and then had the nerve to e-mail and request a direct link – as you can imagine, my answer was not a positive one).

    Then, this afternoon, I noticed a very sly spammer. Some time back, I wrote a post that commented on how, after Nationwide Building Society suffered the theft of a notebook PC with several million customer records, they wrote to my two-year-old son and asked him to show the letter to his parent or guardian! I (somewhat provocatively) titled the post “a lack of business intelligence” and this seems to have grabbed the attention of a blog spammer…

    You see, when someone leaves a comment on this blog, WordPress tells me their IP address (as detailed in the privacy policy and data protection notice for this site). I’ve removed the commenter’s personal details but do you notice anything strange about the following comment?

    Author : [name removed] (IP: [IP address removed] , inetgw04.unx.sas.com)
    E-mail : [e-mail address removed]
    URL :
    Whois : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=[IP address removed]
    Comment:
    I have just taken a job as a CIO at midsize corporation and have been tasked with implementing BI within the organiztion. This is new territory for me as I was working at a smaller company basically insuring that the essential computing infrasture was in place to insure day to day operations. One book I was going to mention that has been helpful to me is Business Intelligence Books – Successful Business Intelligence: Secrets to Making BI a Killer App [link removed]. I would be intersted to hear what others are reading out there.

    It’s the reverse lookup on the IP address that gives it away. So you are a CIO at a midsize corporation are you? Well your e-mail seems to have coming from a pretty large business intelligence company (although it’s not clear what they have to do with the book that is being promoted).

    It’s not the first time that a large company has spammed this blog. After I criticised Dell for their customer service (and to be fair they worked hard to rectify the situation – for which I gave them credit at the time), someone called “Anonymous” left a comment which linked to a forum post showing HP in a negative light. I smelt a rat and checked their IP address – sure enough it was registered to Dell Computer Corporation.

    I really do hate blog spam…

  • Bill Gates’ last day at Microsoft

    So, after a 2 year transition, today is the day that Bill Gates steps down from his full-time job at Microsoft (although he will remain Microsoft’s chairman and will be involved in select projects based on direction from CEO Steve Ballmer and the rest of Microsoft’s leadership team).

    The original founders of MicrosoftI commented on Gates’ departure a couple of years back and more recently wrote about Mary-Jo Foley’s concept of Microsoft 2.0.

    It’s 33 years since Microsoft was formed and 30 years since the famous photo with most of the founding employees was taken in Albequrque. 30 years is a long time in IT. The remaining Microsoft Founders- shortly before Bill Gates' retirementCome to think of it, 30 years is most of my life (I’m 36) and I was interested to read about how the famous photo had been recreated for 2008.

    Meanwhile, Stephen Levy has written an article for Newsweek entitled “Microsoft After Gates. (And Bill After Microsoft.)”.

    There’s a Microsoft video looking back at Gates’ life – and forward to the future but I prefer the version from the 2008 CES keynote:

    Some people love to hate Microsoft. Some people can’t stand other people being successful – and it’s difficult to deny that Gates has been successful. For 14 years now, I’ve followed a career in IT, during which I’ve worked largely with Microsoft products, so I’d like to say “thank you and good luck” to the world’s most famous geek as he does what all of the world’s richest people should do at some stage in their life and changes his focus to work with helping those who are less fortunate.

  • So much for APACS’ Faster Payments… it’s easier to write a cheque

    In recent weeks, I’ve come to the conclusion that the UK banking system is in chaos. New technology is great – I just wish that the banks could get it working properly.

    On 27 May 2008, APACS, the UK payments association launched its new Faster Payments service. Faster Payments – that sounds good – faster than what? Well, faster than BACS Direct Credit. As I understand it, the Bankers’ Automated Clearing Services (BACS) system is 40 years old and dates back to times when the big clearing banks literally exchanged tapes with outgoing transfers batched up on day 1, sent between banks on day 2, and transferred in to the receiving bank on day 3. For a long time, that’s been the reason that transfers took 3 business days; however in the days of electronic transfers, what has really been happening is that the banks have sat on our money for a few days and earned some interest whilst we wait for it to be moved. When we need to move money quickly (for example, when buying a house), the banks use a system called CHAPS – and customers are charged for it.

    According to APACS:

    “The Faster Payments Service enables electronic payments, typically made via the Internet or phone, to be processed in hours rather than days.”

    It sounds great. My bank is part of the scheme, so is my wife’s bank but the bank where we keep our savings (to get a better interest rate) isn’t so we’re stuck with BACS for a while longer. That’s not so bad, but then I tried to make a payment between two UK banks and the sort code was reported as belonging to as a bank in France. Err, “Non! Ce n’est pas correct”, thought I. So I called Bank A and they told me that I had the wrong sort code for Bank B. When I explained that the same page on the website showed an existing link to another account at Bank A with the same sort code they acknowledged that there was a problem and asked me to try again the next day.

    It worked the next day and I put it down to an isolated incident but then I tried to make a payment from my account (at Bank B) to my wife’s account at Bank C. Both banks are part of the Faster Payments scheme. And Bank B wouldn’t let me pay money to Bank C because they said I had the wrong sort code. When I explained that I didn’t and that I was reading the details from my wife’s bank card and statement they said there was nothing they could do about it as Faster Payments doesn’t let them override incorrect details and that I’d need to get my wife to call Bank C (why? what could they do about problems with Bank B’s systems?). I guess I could always write a cheque! So much for Faster Payments!

    The next day I was in town and, after making a purchase at the Apple Store in Milton Keynes, I needed some change to pay for car parking. One of their staff, “Bill”, who was clearly not employed for his social skills said that they could not help. So I went to the bank. This particular branch of HSBC has no counter staff but does have a few people standing around next to a line of machines where people can interact with the bank’s computers and withdraw/deposit funds. Very 21st century. Or it would be if it didn’t need so many staff to show people how to use the machines. One of those machines is supposed to issue coins in exchange for notes but it was not working. So I asked if the bank staff could change a £10 for some coins. No – the staff don’t have access to any money. After all, it’s only a branch of one of the UK’s largest banks…

    Thankfully the staff in the nearby Gap store (where I didn’t buy anything – I just explained the situation and asked for help) were more than happy to open the till and change my tenner… then, as I passed the Apple Store, Bill asked if I had got my money and I said “Yes, thank you. No thanks to the Apple Store.”, to which he replied “woooooooooo!!!” (how very professional…).

    So, it seems that Faster Payments don’t work. And that my bank can’t change notes for coins because the machines have taken over. First Direct also wants me to switch to paperless billing but the statements I can download from their Internet banking service are in formats that are pretty useless for local storage (only American Express seem to have a clue on how that should work – with 6 months of statements available for immediate download in PDF format and all others available from archive on request). Add to that the excessive bank charges, the fact that they seem to have totally lost their way on the customer service front (although at least their call centres are in the UK) and that none of the banks seem to be able to get their heads around secure logon for their Internet banking sites and it seems to me that the whole industry is a mess.