Due to failure in the IT system, it is not possible to run any trains today • Hacker News Board

Re: Due to failure in the IT system, it is not possible to run any trains today

#111

Post by chii » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 4:38 AM UTC

acomjean wrote: post #96

xyst wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have seen “SAP” tossed around in this industry and still have no clue what they do to earn money. Are they the equivalence of “salesforce”?

Basically SAP is a large database/software package that runs all aspects of your business. From accounting to billing. Your business probably needs to change a lot if you’re going to use it. When I did a time card application for a big company we interfaced our app with a backend some sap engineers made available to us. I have no idea how it works, but apparently it does.. sometimes… https://www.computerweekly.com/ne…

> that runs all aspects of your business.

i think this is under-emphasized for people unfamiliar with them.

I think SAP and related modules are "solidified business processes", and their consultants and sales persuade your CxO level people that switching business processes will improve overall efficiency (and somewhat hint at standardization, so that the CxO will have experience at that domain when switching jobs!).

But of course, it's not really true - best practice business processes are an illusion imho, and it will turn out that the subtle differences have to be implemented individually.

Re: Due to failure in the IT system, it is not possible to run any trains today

#112

Post by ant6n » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 4:39 AM UTC

lmpdev wrote: post #85

xyst wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have seen “SAP” tossed around in this industry and still have no clue what they do to earn money. Are they the equivalence of “salesforce”?

SAP are more known for ERP than CRM They're absolutely colossal in size My ex-girlfiend's father is an engineer there in Baden-Wurttemberg - I'd characterise them as closer to something like Oracle rather than Salesforce

> I'd characterise them [SAP] as closer to something like Oracle rather than Salesforce

They feel more like IBM, but more crusty, more conservative and more corporate.

Working for a railway on anything touching SAP sounds like an absolute nightmare of wasting decades threading water with nothing to show for it.

(I saw a bit of SAP inside DB… nope nope nope)

Re: Due to failure in the IT system, it is not possible to run any trains today

#113

Post by Saser » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 4:41 AM UTC

Agentlien wrote: post #110

This reminds me of the story one of my university teachers used to introduce himself. He was the most brilliant educator I've had, really passionate about making sure people could actually follow and so humble. The course was called "Digital and Computer Technology" and it was a first year course teaching you to build a CPU starting from logic gates and then program it with assembly. He said that when he had recently…

Rolf Snedsböl? :-) Agreed that he was one of the best educators (if not _the_ best) I had

Re: Due to failure in the IT system, it is not possible to run any trains today

#114

Post by joenathanone » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 4:41 AM UTC

Agentlien wrote: post #110

This reminds me of the story one of my university teachers used to introduce himself. He was the most brilliant educator I've had, really passionate about making sure people could actually follow and so humble. The course was called "Digital and Computer Technology" and it was a first year course teaching you to build a CPU starting from logic gates and then program it with assembly. He said that when he had recently…

'Those who can, do; those who can't, teach'

-George Bernard Shaw

Re: Due to failure in the IT system, it is not possible to run any trains today

#115

Post by bmitc » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 4:41 AM UTC

More and more we are seeing "the computer says no" in our lives. We've replaced human activity and decision making with computerized versions, which are nothing more than the automation of stored human knowledge and routines.

Re: Due to failure in the IT system, it is not possible to run any trains today

#116

Post by pjmlp » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 4:42 AM UTC

supernova87a wrote: post #108

While having algorithms and computers dictating every aspect of train movements, crew scheduling, resource allocation is efficient and in a sense optimal, I think there's something compelling to be said about having a system that can survive with human-rememberable patterns when such an optimizer fails. That it can fall back on (or have at the core) simple patterns that people can still operate without algorithmic in…

There is an Isac Asimov book about this.

A crew is stranded in space, because of a computer malfunction and no one on board remembers how they used to be programmed.

Re: Due to failure in the IT system, it is not possible to run any trains today

#117

Post by rendall » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 4:44 AM UTC

throwawaylinux wrote: post #75

xiphias2 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not simply voting by mail, it's voting by mail by not even using official the post office in Romania. I know that you're probably refering to US, but I don't make any comment about it, because I don't live there, so I don't know what really happened in US. In Romania some people found partially burned ballots with only opposition votes next to a garbage bin before the elections ended. The proofs of voter fraud c…

Well that is just an isolated case. There is simply no evidence to support the baseless conspiracy theory that postal voting results in widespread fraud. This has been well established by the experts and journalists.

> There is simply no evidence to support the baseless conspiracy theory that postal voting results in widespread fraud.

You're applying US culture-war stuff to another country and culture.

Re: Due to failure in the IT system, it is not possible to run any trains today

#118

Post by sveme » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 4:49 AM UTC

samstave wrote: post #101

xyst wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have seen “SAP” tossed around in this industry and still have no clue what they do to earn money. Are they the equivalence of “salesforce”?

Think Oracle, with business logic on top. (JDEdwards, Oracle, SAP) were the OGs of BI. (and bloat, and McKinsey infiltration into many a large F100+) -- They are old school, entrenched, but yu would jump off a cliff supporting any of this legacy stuff. It will persist as the inertia on huge systems is heavy. But yeah - I wonder if they are signing any NEW business... aside from military bunker grade stuff (which will…

Google switched to SAP two years or so ago.

Re: Due to failure in the IT system, it is not possible to run any trains today

#119

Post by boomboomsubban » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 4:49 AM UTC

xiphias2 wrote: post #94

boomboomsubban wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a relatively free election, there's a strong incumbent bias that undoubtedly helps him win but there's no evidence the entire thing is rigged. Dictators can be popular, the best example is Napoleon.

Each opposition party gets 5 minutes per 4 year election cycle by the state controlled media (and a lot of other media was bought from stolen EU money). I dare you to watch 5 minutes of news on the government media channel (the only channels that can be accessed in the free TV tear, that poor people are able to watch) and say that it's not rigged. 4 year ago the joke party used that 5 minutes for being a chicken to s…

All your saying can be described as a "strong incumbent bias that undoubtedly helps him win." International poll watchers agree, the elections themselves are fair but the blurred separation of party and state leads to an undue advantage. 2014, but I don't see evidence of the situation having changed. http://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/hungary/121098?download=...

Maybe I should have said "fully rigged." Real opposition candidates do get to run, they just have almost no shot of victory. And it's possible that if they did have a shot, the elections would be outright rigged.

Napoleon was my example of a popular dictator, I didn't want to use other examples as people will debate whether they're dictators. I never said that's a good thing, Napoleon was horrible despite remaining popular in France.

Re: Due to failure in the IT system, it is not possible to run any trains today

#120

Post by dt3ft » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 4:50 AM UTC

There is a swiss company based in Zürich that develops this kind of software. I believe it was a c#, wpf application, the last time I spoke with them. The schedules that their software produces is calculated and set for several years ahead. That baffled me! The tracks and infrastructure is booked up so far ahead! I think they mentioned that the german railway uses their software, nut only the sbb.