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British Airways: All flights cancelled amid IT crash

bbc.com

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Re: British Airways: All flights cancelled amid IT crash

#191

Post by mkempe »

isostatic wrote: post #178
mkempe wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same thought here. Ten years ago the UK foiled a terrorist plot to bomb 6-7 airplanes in flight from the UK to the US. That's the origin of the ban on bringing large amounts of liquid on board. [1] The recent bomb in Manchester was apparently made using peroxide, too. Assuming they identified a real, immediate, and massive threat, I can see why they would prefer to ground all planes until they've sorted things out. […

Half the planes taking off at Heathrow are not BA. If they wanted to ground the planes, shutting down ATC would be the better way.

You're assuming the hypothetical threat is not specific to BA.

Re: British Airways: All flights cancelled amid IT crash

#192

Post by m-j-fox »

> "We believe the root cause was a power supply issue."

I mean, fuck you. Whoever built this system to run an airline that can't tolerate someone tripping over a power cable. There should be a way to get planes in the sky using hand-written paper tickets and you know it, Jeremy. You know it god-damned well.

Re: British Airways: All flights cancelled amid IT crash

#194

Post by ajeet_dhaliwal »

justinclift wrote: post #189
ajeet_dhaliwal wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In that particular case I contacted them by email, introduced myself and explained why I had contacted them specifically, what I knew about what they were doing and the problem I was solving and asked if they wanted to discuss it. They responded and said they were not interested. I replied and said that's fine, if they change their mind to get back in touch. They wrote back again with the 'foad' response as you sugge…

Well, it certainly sounds like you spammed them. :(

There is a distinction between spam email and a personalized targeted sales email. Mine was most definitely not spam.

Re: British Airways: All flights cancelled amid IT crash

#195

Post by m-j-fox »

ivan_gammel wrote: post #141
tudorconstantin wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've worked in outsourcing for 9 years in Romanian companies as a software developer. I had the impression that the goal was to have the customer satisfied, not to fulfill a contract (as long as the customer was also reasonable, of course) and for pragmatic reasons: a happy customer pays you longer. My longest project was for 4 years, with the same customer. And my former employer keeps working on that project, 2 yea…

To make customer happy you don't have to build reliable software. Corporations are not machines, there's a lot of people with their own interests, who make important decisions. You have to make these people happy, first of all. They can be bribed, convinced or fooled to achieve the desired outcome for your business. And if something bad happens, you have to dodge the bullet together, because you are in the same boat.…

Cynical much?

Re: British Airways: All flights cancelled amid IT crash

#196

Post by davidf18 »

taway_1212 wrote: post #109
davidf18 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I can't speak to the exact circumstances, IBM when it takes over operations often hires the IT staff of the firm it is taking over operations from and runs systems on multiple-year contracts. At any rate, I believe few would contest that IBM in general is a more reliable vendor than Tata, other Indian suppliers or say, offices in Poland. EDIT: Details on IBM and Australian census. http://www.abc.net.au/news/201…

It's pretty funny how in this thread IBM is conflated with decent quality IT outsourcing and Poland with poor quality, while IBM's outsourcing is done out of Poland (among other countries). https://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/32469.wss

IBM has the resources and infrastructure others firms don't have. It can afford to pay higher rates for the top IT people and it has the software and management and the backup in the US to ensure that projects are performed properly.

But as a rule, Poland, India, ...other cheaper locales don't offer the quality of the US, Israel, ....look to the places where the world's top software/computer chip design/hardware is being designed and built. There is a correlation.

For example, Israel has a population of only 8 million yet creates more original software and startups (purchased by developed nations) than all of India. India buys hi-tech military technology from Israel (and the US).

Re: British Airways: All flights cancelled amid IT crash

#197

Post by davidf18 »

RekentonBot wrote: post #114
davidf18 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I can't speak to the exact circumstances, IBM when it takes over operations often hires the IT staff of the firm it is taking over operations from and runs systems on multiple-year contracts. At any rate, I believe few would contest that IBM in general is a more reliable vendor than Tata, other Indian suppliers or say, offices in Poland. EDIT: Details on IBM and Australian census. http://www.abc.net.au/news/201…

India I can understand, but what is your deal with Poland? Historically Poland has excelled in stuff like mathematics and Polish programmers are very skilled. A Polish team even came in second in the ACM International Collegiate Programming Competition recently, so wtf dude?

Interesting, I hear of outsourcing software dev to Ukraine, Russia, Bulgaria, but not Poland. Might just be connections.

Re: British Airways: All flights cancelled amid IT crash

#198

Post by davidf18 »

justinclift wrote: post #155
alanbyrne wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> IBM when it takes over operations often hires the IT staff of the firm it is taking over operations from and runs systems on multiple-year contracts. I've seen this happen many times and it's always been successful. They can replicate the business processes they've honed over time whilst keeping that important business knowledge. It's also often better for the staff as they can hand off that knowledge and move inte…

Interesting. In IT circles IBM is generally regarded as "worst of class", due to continual waves of firing competent employees, outsourcing, and many other dodgy practises. A recent example (there are many, many more): https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/26/ibm_asks_contractor...

May 5, 2017: Warren Buffett selling his stake in IBM. http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/05/cramer-warren-buffetts-decisi...

Also May 27, 2017 https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/05/27/is-management-real...

Re: British Airways: All flights cancelled amid IT crash

#199

Post by bitmapbrother »

davidf18 wrote: post #62

By using IT outsourcing in India (Tata?), Poland, BA and its parent is revealing some important information: They are cutting corners to the point of risking airline operations. The question is, where else are they unnecessarily cutting corners? Are they cutting unnecessary corners on airplane maintenance? Other quality airlines have outsourced IT or part of their IT operations, but they are careful about choosing th…

>Quantas, the airline of Australia, outsources its IT operations to IBM. They did not choose the cheapest alternative, but a reliable one

And where do you think that work awarded to IBM is being done? Chances are it's India. As for IBM being reliable - are we talking about the same company known for its brazen incompetence in Australia?

Re: British Airways: All flights cancelled amid IT crash

#200

Post by sdfhbdf »

gaius wrote: post #142
funkyy wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you should not put IT specialists from India and Poland in the one bag. Polish engineers are sometimes a bit late when it comes to the new technologies, but are very good compared to ones from, for example, Ireland.

Polish engineers are sometimes a bit late when it comes to the new technologies, but are very good compared to ones from, for example, Ireland. It doesn't matter. They are no smarter than BA's original British engineers, but with decades less experience on those systems. Even if they were smarter - and in general the talent prefers to work for real companies, not bodyshops, so that's unlikely - they can't compensate…

> They are no smarter than BA's original British engineers, but with decades less experience on those systems

Wow you really believe Poland is some third world country where we ride horses to our farms? They have experience, in some ways Poland is way ahead of UK in digitalization of many services. In great part because of thriving economy, great schools and excellent developers.

Poland has some of the best programmers according to a study conducted by hackerrank https://blog.hackerrank.com/which-country-would-win-in-the-p...

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