Wish we knew more details.
Maybe helpful for people that don’t know... Xls excel has a 64k row limit. Newer xlsx has 1mm row limit.
Or maybe they were putting people in by columns and hit the 16.3k column limit?
Missing Covid-19 test data was caused by the ill-thought-out use of Excel
11–20 of 834 posts
Re: Missing Covid-19 test data was caused by the ill-thought-out use of Excel
#12Professionalism has been entirely absent from the top-level handling of the pandemic. It's not entirely clear from the article who's responsible for this, but I note that the so-called "NHS" test and trace is in fact an outsourced organisation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHS_Test_and_Trace run by Tory placewoman Dido Harding. > "She is a former chief executive of the TalkTalk Group where she faced calls for her to…
For those not in the UK, Dido Harding was already on front pages a couple of weeks ago when she was grilled by a Parliamentary committee about the shambolic Covid testing organisation and her reply was "no-one could predict such a strong demand for Covid tests"...
As the NY Times said yesterday, sometimes it feels like "Britain is operating without adult supervision".
Re: Missing Covid-19 test data was caused by the ill-thought-out use of Excel
#13It's unlikely this will have had much impact since most reported cases were only a few days late but come on guys, really? Using an Excel sheet as a database? In week 1, that would be "not great" but could be accepted as being a fast solution that everyone could work with. This far into a pandemic I think we can expect a little more professionalism in data handling.
People use excel sheets as databases all the time because it doesn't require any specialist knowledge to build or use. Sure, we techy types prefer a proper database with a web frontend and an API, but that requires significantly more skill to build than an excel file. No database has the flexibility and flat learning curve that excel has. Until a database manages to meet these goals, it remains a good tool for certai…
> People use excel sheets as databases all the time because it doesn't require any specialist knowledge to build or use.
Test and Trace is a multi billion pound programme of work, involving huge companies (eg, Serco) interfacing with national governmental bodies (Public Health England).
We've had months to get something in place. One of the reasons organisations like Serco is used is their apparent expertise with IT.
Re: Missing Covid-19 test data was caused by the ill-thought-out use of Excel
#14Professionalism has been entirely absent from the top-level handling of the pandemic. It's not entirely clear from the article who's responsible for this, but I note that the so-called "NHS" test and trace is in fact an outsourced organisation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHS_Test_and_Trace run by Tory placewoman Dido Harding. > "She is a former chief executive of the TalkTalk Group where she faced calls for her to…
I mean let's call a cat a cat: this is cronyism thus corruption. Unfortunately, voters never care about these immoral practices. When a social system/administration is dysfunctional, corruption is often the first cause of these disfunctions. The result of corruption is always sheer incompetence.
Re: Missing Covid-19 test data was caused by the ill-thought-out use of Excel
#15Professionalism has been entirely absent from the top-level handling of the pandemic. It's not entirely clear from the article who's responsible for this, but I note that the so-called "NHS" test and trace is in fact an outsourced organisation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHS_Test_and_Trace run by Tory placewoman Dido Harding. > "She is a former chief executive of the TalkTalk Group where she faced calls for her to…
For those not in the UK, Dido Harding was already on front pages a couple of weeks ago when she was grilled by a Parliamentary committee about the shambolic Covid testing organisation and her reply was " no-one could predict such a strong demand for Covid tests "... As the NY Times said yesterday, sometimes it feels like " Britain is operating without adult supervision ".
She was also CEO of ISP TalkTalk when they had a massive personal data breach and told an investigation that she didn't know if the data was encrypted or not.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/people-want-to-know-wh...
Re: Missing Covid-19 test data was caused by the ill-thought-out use of Excel
#16We did a bit of work for laboratories this year and csv is not an uncommon exchange format between labs.
In general almost all exchange formats are text based, with labs saying they will upgrade to „modern xml formats“ at some point in the future.
So seen in this context a csv or an excel file doesn‘t really surprise me and should probably also be seen in this context.
Re: Missing Covid-19 test data was caused by the ill-thought-out use of Excel
#17It's unlikely this will have had much impact since most reported cases were only a few days late but come on guys, really? Using an Excel sheet as a database? In week 1, that would be "not great" but could be accepted as being a fast solution that everyone could work with. This far into a pandemic I think we can expect a little more professionalism in data handling.
To be fair, there hasn't been any massive irretrievable data loss yet, so not too bad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_FrQnQv0Vw (probably an accurate depiction of what's going on in Whitehall right now, though)
At this point I think I'd rather have Peter Capaldi acting as Malcolm Tucker running Whitehall over the shower of incompetent people we have now. At least he might get something done in between the flaying
Re: Missing Covid-19 test data was caused by the ill-thought-out use of Excel
#18The real, visceral tragedy that is COVID-19 notwithstanding, I think it brings a marvelous example of why statistics, the importance of accuracy in data collection, and the effects of exponential growth are a must-have in today's highschool curriculums.
Re: Missing Covid-19 test data was caused by the ill-thought-out use of Excel
#19Professionalism has been entirely absent from the top-level handling of the pandemic. It's not entirely clear from the article who's responsible for this, but I note that the so-called "NHS" test and trace is in fact an outsourced organisation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHS_Test_and_Trace run by Tory placewoman Dido Harding. > "She is a former chief executive of the TalkTalk Group where she faced calls for her to…
I mean let's call a cat a cat: this is cronyism thus corruption. Unfortunately, voters never care about these immoral practices. When a social system/administration is dysfunctional, corruption is often the first cause of these disfunctions. The result of corruption is always sheer incompetence.
OT: are you French? AFAIK, calling a cat a cat is a French idiom. The English equivalent would be calling a spade a spade.
Re: Missing Covid-19 test data was caused by the ill-thought-out use of Excel
#20Professionalism has been entirely absent from the top-level handling of the pandemic. It's not entirely clear from the article who's responsible for this, but I note that the so-called "NHS" test and trace is in fact an outsourced organisation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHS_Test_and_Trace run by Tory placewoman Dido Harding. > "She is a former chief executive of the TalkTalk Group where she faced calls for her to…
I mean let's call a cat a cat: this is cronyism thus corruption. Unfortunately, voters never care about these immoral practices. When a social system/administration is dysfunctional, corruption is often the first cause of these disfunctions. The result of corruption is always sheer incompetence.
I think the voters do care, but can't keep track of the details and only know what the media choose to focus on. This is why Donald Trump's "drain the swamp" pitch was so effective, despite the reality of the far worse corruption in his campaign.
Voters want less corruption, but their own tribalism leads them to unhelpful positions of "everyone is corrupt", "none of my tribe are corrupt", and sometimes both of those at once.