Binge Watching Series Recommendations

[Paul Jacobs]

I think that the government is guilty of lack of oversight. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-67892045

What is strange about this case is that the Post Office has, for more than 300 years, the tradition of initiating and conducting its own criminal prosecutions without going through the Crown Prosecution Service.

https://theweek.com/law/how-the-post...ecution-powers

[vertical_doug]

Post Office only agreed to accept reduced charges in some cases if accused accepted 'nothing wrong' with Horizon, inquiry told
Back at the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry, Julian Blake, counsel for the inquiry, asks about another prosecution of a post officer operator. He shows the inquiry a document showing the Post Office indicated that it would accept a guilty plea on a less serious charge provided the defendant agreed to accept that there was “nothing wrong with Horizon”.


There seems to a serious urgency within the Post Office to make sure no one spoke badly of the Horizon IT system. The whole stonewall as a robust system. I think before the Crown Prosecution goes after a former subPostMaster, they will want to investigate the what and more importantly the why of the HorizonIT system coverup.

In the series, whenever a subPostMaster asked a support system, the reply was always 'no one else is experiencing problems' Talking points like this going to support and suppression of the support logs, seems to point to something else going on. When the facts don't make sense, you obviously don't know the facts.

This will be interesting if it ever gets investigated. (Although ironically, because of GDPR record retention policy, stuff may have been destroyed.)

Although, I'd think Fujitsu has the support logs. Or potentially the auditors hired in 2012. Bug and issue reports are an important part of any new system deployment.

1. Support
2. Programming
3. Relationship Managers

It all goes against what they would normally do.

I suspect someone very senior in the Post Office could not afford for the system to be a failure and they sent the order down.

[Cosmic Cycle]

Boy Swallows Universe on Netflix is worth a look .

[Cosmic Cycle]

Agree that Endeavor is ab fab.

Much much better than Morse.

[Chik]

Boy Swallows Universe on Netflix is worth a look .

I couldn't finish the first episode. Not for me.

[BBB]

Boy Swallows Universe is a very Australian novel. It was a debut novel by the author and slots someone in between the works of Tim Winton and Marcus Zusak. It is also a novel set in a particular time in suburban Australia (or suburban Brisbane). Boy Swallows Universe was critically and commercially well received in Australia and that it has been made into a TV series does not surprise me. That it has been made into a Netflix series does surprise me a little as it is very Australian and that may limit the market. I enjoyed the book and enjoyed the TV series. I thought they did a good job bringing the 80s to life on the screen with a few minor exceptions, and the main characters were by and large well acted.

[rwsaunders]

Season 8 of Shetland…pretty well done, even without Jimmie Perez. With all of the murders on the show though and with a population of 23,000, Shetland seems like a down right nasty place to live. ;{

[Chik]

On the Post Office saga, it will only get messier:

£100m tax bill could make Post Office insolvent: Post Office may owe £100m in tax after incorrectly deducting compensation payments to subpostmasters in the Horizon scandal.


Working with ‘dim’ Paula Vennells ‘like dealing with a mosquito’, former colleague claims

[vertical_doug]

Season 8 of Shetland…pretty well done, even without Jimmie Perez. With all of the murders on the show though and with a population of 23,000, Shetland seems like a down right nasty place to live. ;{

Everyone in the south of England knows the north in the UK is a nasty place where everyone deals drugs and is a murderer. See season 2 of a tourist for details.

[echappist]

I suspect someone very senior in the Post Office could not afford for the system to be a failure and they sent the order down.

What’s so special about Fujitsu that it kept on getting contracts despite series of failures? It doesn’t even to be greasing the wheel that much, though perhaps behind the scenes it is?

From an op-ed piece by a barrister representing the subpostmasters.

Accountability is, more broadly, a foreign concept for Fujitsu. It has a history of failing to deliver on its UK contracts but rarely faces consequences. In 2011, Fujitsu was fired from a £6.2bn project to revamp an NHS IT system after repeatedly failing to achieve its objectives. Fujitsu sued the government. The eventual payout was never disclosed, but it could be as much as £628m. In 2021, the Foreign Office determined that a communications system provided by Fujitsu had “significant deficiencies resulting in a technical solution that is likely to be unfit for purpose”. It renewed Fujitsu’s contract anyway. In December, the company was awarded a new contract by the Environment Agency for a flood alert system; Fujitsu’s product reportedly failed to alert people until their houses were already flooded. Between 2010 and 2015, civil servants tried to stop commissioning Fujitsu because of its history of poor performance. They found the UK’s archaic public procurement rules wouldn’t permit it.

[Chik]

What’s so special about Fujitsu that it kept on getting contracts despite series of failures? It doesn’t even to be greasing the wheel that much, though perhaps behind the scenes it is?

From an op-ed piece by a barrister representing the subpostmasters.

Good question.

I also wonder why they ever got the first job, given a wealth of US and Europe based solution providers for whom, I might add, there are armies of experienced consultants and techies to support implementation and maintenance. My guess is that they may have submitted the most economical proposal.

[vertical_doug]

It's funny, the UK Gov had no law for suspension/debarment from Gov contracts for poor performance. If you investigate, you will find the soul criteria effectively comes down to cost-control. The debarment act was passed in 2023.

The same game is played on transportation infrastructure. All you have to do is look at cost overruns and delays for HS2 and the Elizabeth Line. Elizabeth line (Cross Rail) was originally budgeted at £14.8 billion and National Audit estimates it actually cost £18.9 billion. But I am sure there is slight of hand going on there.

HS2 was originally budgeted at £33billion and it is somewhere in the range of 53-71 now after being scaled back and projected to hit 100b before completion. The mother of all white elephants.

[j44ke]

Not a series, just a movie but it got good suspense and Benicio del Toro. And Alicia Silverstone. It is called Reptile.

[bigbill]

Another pitch for Fargo on Hulu. The season that just finished was amazing.

[vertical_doug]

I don't know if it is in the US yet, but Scrublands on Stan in Australia is pretty good. Nordic noir set in the outback. It's only 4 episodes so moves pretty quickly.
Luke Arnold (John Silver from Black Sails if you were a fan of that show) stars. It's pretty twisted in an outback inbred kinga way.

[bironi]

I became a big fan of the original anime, Avatar: The Last Airbender during the covid shutdown.
It originally was presented on Nickelodeon.
The story is now on Netflix with humanoids.
Forgive my forgetfulness on the film terminology.
I watched the first episode tonight and was very surprised to find it equally satisfying.
And my wife would say that's a rarity.
And I would readily agree.

[bigbill]

Resident Alien on Netflix. Steve the Pirate, I guess he was on Firefly too, Alan Tudyk, is an alien in a small Colorado town. Weirdness and hilarity ensue.

[htwoopup]

Not entertainment but a must see…a documentary. Netflix. “Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War”.

Even if you think you know all of this stuff, watch it. Chilling, frightening, enlightening.

Incredible people they interviewed (some like Daniel Ellsberg who passed away right after being interviewed for the film) including the guy who started the CIA station in Germany right after WWII to the interpreter for Gorbachev (when it was just Gorby and the interpreter and Reagan and the interpreter) to Condeleezza Rice.

Incredible footage, both archival and new.

So well done. Should be required viewing.

It is only 8 episodes so doable in a rainy day or two nights.

[rec head]

It sounds interesting. Do you think that 8 episodes was the right number? I feel like so many documentaries (and plenty of regular shows) are an episode or two longer than they need to be and it ruins the whole thing for me.

[72gmc]

Resident Alien on Netflix. Steve the Pirate, I guess he was on Firefly too, Alan Tudyk, is an alien in a small Colorado town. Weirdness and hilarity ensue.

Friends love this series, so I’m eager to try it. I will try not to think about how his ship could be called Serenity.