Today's Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

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#2902752 15-Apr-2022 19:04

networkn:
Original cost was supposed to be $800M and I believe we are past the 3.5B mark now.

Some of that is due to cost blowouts but a good chunk of it is also due to the way the process is run: The bidders submit unreasonably low bids on the assumption that once they've got their foot in the door they can scale them up to more realistic levels, and the politicians lowball the costs to sell it to the electorate. It pretty much guarantees cost overruns right from the start.

Rikkitic

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#2902773 15-Apr-2022 20:52

Shouldn't there be some kind of penalty for cost overruns? Otherwise what is the point of a quote?

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neb

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#2902774 15-Apr-2022 20:56

Rikkitic:
Shouldn't there be some kind of penalty for cost overruns? Otherwise what is the point of a quote?

A friend of mine's wife wrote a penalty clause into a government contract, apparently the first time it'd been done (this was twenty-odd years ago). It bankrupted the contractor.

So no, penalty clauses in government contracts are either not done or a token slap on the wrist, never enough to discourage bad behaviour.

neb

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#2903253 17-Apr-2022 18:38

A bit further seaward from Mother Neb's is a large villa which, if you look closely, has an odd sort of discontinuity where the two portions meet. Found out today that this isn't just an illusion but arose because the owner is American and he got a California architect to draw up the plans. As a result they were all specified in inches and fathoms and foot-pounds and gallons and cubits. In addition due to the size of the build two groups worked on the two wings at the same time, and due to assorted tweaks and rounding and whatnot that had to be performed to make things work in metric, once they got to the midpoint...

Rikkitic

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#2903255 17-Apr-2022 18:51

Sounds like the billion dollar Mars probe that got squashed because metric wasn't the same as imperial.

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neb

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#2907919 28-Apr-2022 14:44

Not directly a W T F, but close: This Kickstartered project, a music player that senses someone in the bathroom and plays various sounds to cover up, well, various other sounds.

Unless it's playing a brass band with tubas and the like I think it's facing an uphill battle...

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#2907967 28-Apr-2022 16:43

neb: Not directly a W T F, but close: This Kickstartered project, a music player that senses someone in the bathroom and plays various sounds to cover up, well, various other sounds. Unless it's playing a brass band with tubas and the like I think it's facing an uphill battle...

Oompah, oompah, parp, parp parp, tinkle, tinkle, trombone glissando...

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#2908183 29-Apr-2022 10:04

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300575291/credit-card-details-stolen-from-iconic-bar-in-string-of-auckland-burglaries

Stuff:

The Shakespeare Hotel, Restaurant and Bar was broken into in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Offenders trashed the office and left with a variety of items, including a hard-drive containing information from guests.

The information included check in and check out times, as well as phone numbers and customers’ financial details including credit card and account numbers.

The real 'What The ...' for me here is where the business owner goes on to say:

Kaushal:

“This is why business trust in the authorities is so low – offenders know they can get around it,”

yet he expects the public to trust his business that includes the shoddy practice of storing, presumably unprotected/unencrypted by the way the article reads, customers' credit card details.

Sometimes I use big words I don't always fully understand in an effort to make myself sound more photosynthesis.

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#2908191 29-Apr-2022 10:24

floydbloke:

yet he expects the public to trust his business that includes the shoddy practice of storing, presumably unprotected/unencrypted by the way the article reads, customers' credit card details.

Yup - breach of PCI DSS and clearly still doing things the way they used to in the 90's.

I wouldn't give them my card details - I'd rather go somewhere else.

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Ge0rge

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#2908193 29-Apr-2022 10:28

Handsomedan:
Yup - breach of PCI DSS and clearly still doing things the way they used to in the 90's.

I wouldn't give them my card details - I'd rather go somewhere else.

While I understand the sentiment, I wonder how you would know? Do you ask every time you use your CC if and how they store the details? Not snarky, genuinely curious.

MikeB4

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#2908202 29-Apr-2022 11:02

Handsomedan:

Yup - breach of PCI DSS and clearly still doing things the way they used to in the 90's.

I wouldn't give them my card details - I'd rather go somewhere else.

I never let my cards out of my hand. If they want to handle my card they wont get my business.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

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#2908206 29-Apr-2022 11:18

Ge0rge:
Handsomedan:

Yup - breach of PCI DSS and clearly still doing things the way they used to in the 90's.

I wouldn't give them my card details - I'd rather go somewhere else.

While I understand the sentiment, I wonder how you would know? Do you ask every time you use your CC if and how they store the details? Not snarky, genuinely curious.

I put it thru a terminal that looks legitimate. If they want any details off the card then that is a hard no to giving them my card details.

If its online, I only put it in sites that redirect to a legitimate payment processor. If the form is on their own website, again, I will use the expendable card that I dont use for things that matter and if its compromised I dont have to update all my stored payments.

Really this is all the banks fault for not getting out of the 1970s with cards but the like to make silly rules about cards, not enforce them and still force me to walk about carrying a plastic trinket with all the details needed to charge it printed and embossed into it in the open.

Richard rich.ms

Handsomedan

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#2908207 29-Apr-2022 11:20

Ge0rge:
Handsomedan:

Yup - breach of PCI DSS and clearly still doing things the way they used to in the 90's.

I wouldn't give them my card details - I'd rather go somewhere else.

While I understand the sentiment, I wonder how you would know? Do you ask every time you use your CC if and how they store the details? Not snarky, genuinely curious.

Having worked in the payments space for 25+ years, yes - I'd know. By providing my card details online or over the phone, I'd suspect that they are not following PCI and are simply writing the details down somewhere and storing them for use.

Use a trusted gateway that is secure, look for the padlock, blah blah blah.

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Rikkitic

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#2908262 29-Apr-2022 12:31

I keep a separate payments account linked to my card and only top up as needed. I never let any site store my card details. I am happy to take the extra trouble to type them in again when I make a payment.

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neb

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#2908425 29-Apr-2022 19:26

The headline says it all really:

Panic at the airport after American family tries to board plane with souvenir bomb

American tourists find an unexploded artillery shell (not a bomb, it's an artillery shell) and decided to take it on their flight back with them as a souvenir.

And as a crossover for the dumb headlines thread: Given that military service is compulsory in Israel, you'd think there'd be someone there who can tell the difference between what looks like a 25pdr howitzer shell and a bomb.

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