peaceful-jp-scenery posted a photo:
Mt.Nishiazuma (2,035m)
西吾妻山
This is a wind passage between the little monsters. I thought the design was interesting.
リトルモンスターの間にできた風の通り道です。造形が面白かったので。
Kita-shiobaramura, Fukushima pref, Japan
Besides running tech operations at the UK's Post Office, their interim CTO is also removing and replacing Fujitsu's Horizon system, which Computer Weekly describes as "the error-ridden software that a public inquiry linked to 13 people taking their own lives."
After over 16 years of covering the scandal they'd first discovered back in 2009, Computer Weekly now talks to CTO Paul Anastassi about his plans to finally remove every trace of the Horizon system that's been in use at Post Office branches for over 30 years — before the year 2030:
"There are more than 80 components that make up the Horizon platform, and only half of those are managed by Fujitsu," said Anastassi. "The other components are internal and often with other third parties as well," he added... The plan is to introduce a modern front end that is device agnostic. "We want to get away from [the need] to have a certain device on a certain terminal in your branch. We want to provide flexibility around that...."
Anastassi is not the first person to be given the task of terminating Horizon and ending Fujitsu's contract. In 2015, the Post Office began a project to replace Fujitsu and Horizon with IBM and its technology, but after things got complex, Post Office directors went crawling back to Fujitsu. Then, after Horizon was proved in the High Court to be at fault for the account shortfalls that subpostmasters were blamed and punished for, the Post Office knew it had to change the system. This culminated in the New Branch IT (NBIT) project, but this ran into trouble and was eventually axed. This was before Anastassi's time, and before that of its new top team of executives....
Things are finally moving at pace, and by the summer of this year, two separate contracts will be signed with suppliers, signalling the beginning of the final act for Fujitsu and its Horizon system.
Anastassi has 30 years of IT management experience, the article points out, and he estimates the project will even bring "a considerable cost saving over what we currently pay for Fujitsu."
After over 16 years of covering the scandal they'd first discovered back in 2009, Computer Weekly now talks to CTO Paul Anastassi about his plans to finally remove every trace of the Horizon system that's been in use at Post Office branches for over 30 years — before the year 2030:
"There are more than 80 components that make up the Horizon platform, and only half of those are managed by Fujitsu," said Anastassi. "The other components are internal and often with other third parties as well," he added... The plan is to introduce a modern front end that is device agnostic. "We want to get away from [the need] to have a certain device on a certain terminal in your branch. We want to provide flexibility around that...."
Anastassi is not the first person to be given the task of terminating Horizon and ending Fujitsu's contract. In 2015, the Post Office began a project to replace Fujitsu and Horizon with IBM and its technology, but after things got complex, Post Office directors went crawling back to Fujitsu. Then, after Horizon was proved in the High Court to be at fault for the account shortfalls that subpostmasters were blamed and punished for, the Post Office knew it had to change the system. This culminated in the New Branch IT (NBIT) project, but this ran into trouble and was eventually axed. This was before Anastassi's time, and before that of its new top team of executives....
Things are finally moving at pace, and by the summer of this year, two separate contracts will be signed with suppliers, signalling the beginning of the final act for Fujitsu and its Horizon system.
Anastassi has 30 years of IT management experience, the article points out, and he estimates the project will even bring "a considerable cost saving over what we currently pay for Fujitsu."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The government plans to halve the attainment gap in England
The education secretary is asked about the growing anger of the cost of student loans which has escalated since the chancellor’s decision last November to freeze the salary threshold for “plan 2” student loan repayments for three years.
Rachel Reeves said the salary at which plan 2 student loans must be paid back would be frozen at £29,385 for three years starting from next April. It means borrowers will have to pay even more towards their student loans as they benefit from pay rises.
Now I get the problem. I see the issue. In reality, as a government, you have to look at a question of priorities and what you can do and how fast you can do it. Given the shape of what we have in the public finances, this is really hard.
Part of what we’ve seen is that support for children with Send has been treated almost as an entirely separate issue, rather than it being integral to our school system. Lots of children at some point during their school lives will experience some form of challenge, will need extra support.
But the system that we have at the moment… is one that has made it the case that in order to get the support that children need, parents have to fight really hard to get that education, health and care plan. I’ve heard from so many parents just how difficult, how devastating that has been. It can take years. It’s really adversarial.
Yes. We will make sure that children get support much, much more quickly than is the case right now. And the commitment that I give to parents is that when they see all of the documents published tomorrow what they will see is a government that is focused on delivering better outcomes for their children. I am fiercely ambitious for every child in our country.
Continue reading...‘De landen in het Midden-Oosten maken zich grote zorgen over een mogelijke aanval van de VS op Iran’
Confidential complainant details passed to local politician following debate
A UK councillor has dubbed her local authority's data breach "crazy" after the personal details of individuals behind a series of complaints were revealed to her.…
Iran en de Verenigde Staten plannen begin maart nieuwe gesprekken over het nucleaire programma, meldt een hoge Iraanse functionaris aan persbureau Reuters. "De onderhandelingen gaan door, en er is een kans op een voorlopig akkoord." De Iraanse minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Abbas Araqchi zei vrijdag dat hij binnen enkele dagen verwachtte een conceptvoorstel klaar te hebben.
De Amerikaanse president Donald Trump dreigt met militaire acties om Iran tot een akkoord te dwingen. Volgens de functionaris hebben beide landen verschillende ideeën over hoe en in welke mate de sancties moeten worden opgeheven. Iran zou de controle over zijn olie- en minerale bronnen niet willen opgeven.
Het land zou wel overwegen een deel van het verrijkte uranium te exporteren en de zuiverheid ervan te verlagen. In ruil daarvoor wil Iran dat het recht op "vreedzame nucleaire verrijking" wordt erkend. De Verenigde Staten willen voorkomen dat Iran kernwapens in handen krijgt.
KYIV (ANP/AFP) - Nadat de Oekraïense autoriteiten in Kyiv in de nacht van zaterdag op zondag hadden gewaarschuwd voor een Russische ballistische raketaanval, hebben verslaggevers van persbureau AFP in de stad meerdere krachtige explosies gehoord. Inwoners waren opgeroepen naar de schuilplaatsen in de stad te gaan.
"Let op! Er is een luchtalarm afgekondigd in Kyiv vanwege de dreiging dat de vijand ballistische wapens inzet," meldde het militaire bestuur in de stad rond 04.00 uur. Zij riep inwoners op in de schuilplaatsen te blijven tot het alarm weer wordt opgeheven. Iets later bevestigde hetzelfde bestuur de aanval op Telegram: "De vijand valt de hoofdstad aan met ballistische wapens."
De luchtmacht breidde het alarm later uit tot het hele land. Volgens de regering waren de droneaanvallen gericht op energie-infrastructuur. Een persoon zou in de regio Kyiv om het leven zijn gekomen, vijf anderen raakten gewond.
De aanvallen hebben ook tot verhoogde waakzaamheid geleid langs de westgrens van Oekraïne met Polen. Het Poolse Operationele Commando meldde zondagochtend dat het gevechtsvliegtuigen heeft laten opstijgen nadat het waarnam dat Rusland "aanvallen uitvoert op het grondgebied van Oekraïne".
If you're planning on flying out of the US during this partial gov shutdown, plan for more time at the airport.