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.
Due to failure in the IT system, it is not possible to run any trains today
281–290 of 365 posts
Re: Due to failure in the IT system, it is not possible to run any trains today
#282Earlier quoted context omitted.
They are so colossal that switching to SAP usually means reworking company's processes to match SAP's, not the other way around.
I read recently that not using SAP - or heavily customizing it - in markets where it’s prevalent can break big(ish) companies. Apparently the interface to other companies (from which to buy or sell) is so much easier to setup when all have the same system, that using any other system is prohibitive. If you need to interface with hundreds of enterprises that all implement standard SAP, you become the expensive outside…
Re: Due to failure in the IT system, it is not possible to run any trains today
#283Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is Europe. Credit card imprinters are rare if they were ever used at all. I've never seen one. The most resilient back up (especially in the face of national crises) is cash of course, but a growing group of people have stopped carrying any cash at all, and a lot of people in power are doing their best to make sure a cashless future is nearer each day. I don't mind paying with a debit card; I just want to have a…
I'm in Europe too, and I have never seen an imprinter either, but I keep being issued cards with embossed numbers, so I figure they must be good for something, if not imprinting, what else? I'm concerned about the phasing out of cash too as a separate issue, I just don't think the cashless options should have to be subject to artificial limitations like requiring electricity or a network connection to be able to be u…
Re: Due to failure in the IT system, it is not possible to run any trains today
#284Earlier quoted context omitted.
Rolf Snedsböl? :-) Agreed that he was one of the best educators (if not _the_ best) I had
An absolute legend! My favourite of his jokes: "when I moved to Sweden from Norway, the average IQ went up in both countries".
"Did it get a bit late last night? Can't keep your eyes open?"
Again, the student agreed. Rolf flashed a huge smile and in a singsong voice said "then I have something for you!". He walked over to his bag, pulled out a stuffed animal and a tiny embroidered pillow. (I have a grainy photo of them somewhere).
Rolf tiptoed up to the student, put the pillow in front of him, and as the student rested his head on the pillow Rolf gave him a pat on the head.
After this Rolf went back, said that if you're that tired it's better to sleep in your own bed. He resumed the lecture, picking up in the middle of the sentence where he'd stopped. No one slept in his class for the rest of the course.
Re: Due to failure in the IT system, it is not possible to run any trains today
#285It wasn't the IT failure that kept the trains from running. It was management failure, not ensuring they could run without the IT system.
Re: Due to failure in the IT system, it is not possible to run any trains today
#286The fact that it happened on a Sunday suggests to me that this is the result of a service outage gone awry. Realize that the trains failing on a Sunday is really not a big deal. However, if the trains don't run for Monday morning rush hour that is a big deal. I bet they made a change Saturday night and something broke Sunday morning. It's now Monday morning here and the trains are back to normal in time for rush hour…
Re: Due to failure in the IT system, it is not possible to run any trains today
#287Earlier quoted context omitted.
> sidenote: If anyone out there is an SAP specialist ns.nl looks like a pretty great place to work: 36hr week, 5 weeks vacation, pension, and free unlimited 2nd class + low cost 1st class train travel. And we can assume that a position in the IT department just opened up...
Blameless culture! Firing people for (one-off) mistakes or issues is much more a thing in the US than in most EU countries.
Re: Due to failure in the IT system, it is not possible to run any trains today
#288Earlier quoted context omitted.
'Those who can, do; those who can't, teach' -George Bernard Shaw
Maybe if we paid those who teach better, we'd attract the best of the best to teach. Instead we drive good people out by making the job unbearable.
Re: Due to failure in the IT system, it is not possible to run any trains today
#289Earlier quoted context omitted.
>36 hours is considered fulltime by most employers How standard is that in the private sector or non former state owned enterprises? I haven't looked at the NL market in a while but most tech jobs I saw back then were 40h/week.
Most private sector tech jobs in NL are 40 hours per week. But many private sector jobs are also flexible in ways that I've never seen in the USA. For example, allowing an employee to work 40 hours in 4 days instead of 5.
Re: Due to failure in the IT system, it is not possible to run any trains today
#290My curiosity is killing me as to what exactly went wrong. And as someone living in The Netherlands I'm also kind of mad at the apparent fragility of this huge chunk of our infrastructure. If this had happened on a work day, it would have been a real national emergency, rather than just a huge national inconvenience. I would appreciate one of those post-outage "what happened" reports like with the AWS and Facebook out…
My very good guess is that you had a database failure caused by a crypto virus. They will not wish to announce that this was the root cause until A. A plan of action to avoid a future infection can be enumerated. B. They can be certain they will restore the functionality of the trains. The other part of my guess is that they have a SQL db which is stored on /likely/ a windows server instance. I’d even surmise that th…