tabris

Unfortunately BT's systems are a hodge podge of different systems written and built over the last 40+ years, in various states of development from brand new, bleeding edge, to abandoned, running on an excel spreadsheet. To say the overall system was "designed" is to misunderstand the size and complexity of BT and its legacy systems. The fact that it works at all is a miracle borne out of the sweat and talent of great engineers hampered by busybody managers.

How does he still have any assets at all? He would only be allowed enough to eat gruel for the rest of his life.

Originally as a hobby, but I've been a professional web developer/software engineer for over 2 decades now.

As someone who has been programming web apps since the mid 90s, this is a great article and I learnt a lot that'll I'll be using from now on. Thanks for that.

Don't forget laziness.

and when a corporation rolls out lazy software with obvious flaws, who’s responsible for the damage?

Google. Google is responsible for the damage. Sue them. Please.

Personally I wouldn't start with The Colour of Magic, as it's not the best. He was very much trying to find his style with that one, and while it is a decent book, most would say to start with either Equal Rites or Mort.

The great thing about the Discworld books is that you don't really need to read them in order and can jump around the series without spoiling anything. Check out this image, it shows the series within the whole. I'm very fond of The Watch series, as well as The Witches, and Death series.

You hate the army training, and that's fine.

Where did I say that?

I said that after the university system was destroyed, that offering this (in my opinion, weak and divisive) alternative isn't going to help create more jobs, which is what is sorely needed.

Ffs Labour, fix the issue that there are not enough jobs, otherwise these "transferable skills" aren't worth the paper they're printed on.

Oh the university system has completely broken down due to the last 10 years of fucking them over? Let the armed forces train them. That'll fix employment!

When I do commute to work, I unfortunately take a bus after my train, so I'm affected by the traffic. I avoided commuting in December because the traffic was so bad it more than doubled my commute time from 1.5 hours to well over 3 hours. Thankfully I can work from home, but I do like working in the office with my team when I can.

I've had so many conversations with coworkers about not having a car, and most of them just don't get that yes public transport is slow, but it's only as slow as it is because everyone has a car. If more of those who are able to use public transport did, traffic would be so much less for everyone and public transport would be a fast option.

It's not about subliminal messaging, it's more the Illusory Truth effect, where a lie or misinformation is repeated enough that it is believed. Some people are more resistant to this thanks to critical thinking skills, but none of us are immune to it.

Terry Pratchett didn't write in chapters, instead breaking each section with a line of asterisks, which a reviewer used as a knock against his books. Pratchett happily included that review on his book covers, taking the slight as praise. His direct response to this was: "Life doesn't happen in chapters - at least, not regular ones."

He also enjoyed a good footnote, sometimes including several per page, and just occasionally a footnote inside a footnote.