A very, very long NHS appointment waiting
list
Downtime has long suspected that the
NHS IT programme may be rather unfairly picked on - it is,
after all, a fairly sizeable project and a few things are always
bound to go wrong. However, a letter from a reader may have forced
us to change our mind.
Said reader was trying to book a hospital appointment using
Choose and Book, but came up against a bit of trouble in that
he could neither choose, nor book. After being offered no
appointment slots, one month, three months, or even a year ahead,
our intrepid reader searched for appointment slots up to 2056.
"When that came back empty I had a slight suspicion that something
might be wrong," writes our reader.
"Realising that they had not quite mastered web services, I gave
the phone number a try. I was then informed that because I had
recently used the online system, the adviser at the NHS was locked
out of their system for half an hour! I tried back an hour later,
only to be told that they had the same problem as me - ie. no free
appointments from now until eternity. So now my details will be
sent to the hospital, which will contact me directly (by phone) to
arrange an appointment. Technology - don't you just love it!"
Indeed.
South Korean scientists announce Wedding
2.0
Darwinian devotee
Richard Dawkins may have made some pretty sharp observations in
his book The God Delusion, but Downtime believes that there will
always be a place for religion, even in the 31st century.
What is more, scientists in South Korea seem to agree with us.
The country has played host to the world's first cyber-wedding
conducted by a robo-vicar - a robot that officiates the ceremony.
Unlike the antiquated human-style vicar, the new and improved
version will come with a handy fast-forward button.
Presidential hopefuls embracing youth again
Snatching votes from young 'uns with attention spans shorter
than a game of two-card snap means American presidential candidates
must embrace some new technology, namely
YouTube.
All this should make the 2008 presidential campaign even more
exciting than normal. In among the normal political debates, voters
with strong stomachs can watch Hillary and Bill attempting to spoof
the last ever scene of the Sopranos.
The youth of today demand interaction with their presidential
hopefuls in order to feel out the leader of the free world, which
is somehow a little reminiscent of a well-known episode at the
White House.
Taking IT sabotage to the realms of outer
space
"Set phasers to kill, boys - we have got ourselves a traitor on
board!" That is what engineers at Nasa could have said upon
discovering that a computer due to be flown to the
International Space Station aboard the space shuttle Endeavour
had been sabotaged.
An unidentified employee cut wires inside the computer in what
the US space agency said was an intentional and obvious act of
vandalism.
Downtime thinks the event could provide the perfect inspiration
for the world's first IT-detective show. The story writes itself:
rogue network administrator James McByte takes matters - as well as
infrastructure cabling - into his own hands as he attempts to bring
his bespoke brand of justice to the IT industry.
Each week, the "tech-no-prisoners" cop solves a variety of IT
crimes, gets the girl and rolls out an ERP system, all in the space
of half an hour. Suggestions for villains and crimes should be
e-mailed to the usual address.
If you have a funny IT related story, we want to hear from
you.
E-mail computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk