Video download link | md5sum 998661b08883fcceda48a018ad44c466
Sirius Treats Some Tech Staff Like Peasants
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

Summary: Shortchanging technical staff seems like common practice, but some companies push that very far; As noted last night in this meme, Sirius ‘Open Source’ really does not like this series; but it was forewarned for years already about several issues (before trying to witch-hunt the messenger), including the rights of staff and the standards of pay

THE early parts of this series explained how things were in 2011 and prior to that year. Sirius had generously (or for self-promotional purposes) given money to KDE and to the FSF. It also recruited high-calibre staff which certainly received a decent salary.

When it comes to the NOC, things were different. As we shall see and show later, NOC staff was treated as disposable; no wonder staff turnover was very high there (for a position occupied by 4 or 5 people we’ve had about 20 members of staff already). When recruitment went on the official (but internal) wiki of the company compared NOC staff to “monkeys”. For the same number of hours covered I could easily earn 5 times as much in another company, so surely I’m no “monkey”… my solace was, once upon a time we did in fact support Free/libre software. It felt like an ethical job.

The salary I received in 2011 was higher (per hour) than at the time I left, in spite of being more than 11.5 years apart. How did this happen? How many employers fail or refuse to keep up with inflation (at the very least)? Set aside promotion ladders that typically come with increments in base pay.

Either way, the company really does not want me to talk about this. Last night it sent me a letter after more than 10 days of complete silence. What did the letter say? It is described in the video above, but the impression one gets is that it’s a low-grade censorship attempt. It almost looks like the company “Sirius Open Source” is trying to ‘bribe’ us, basically saying something like (not actual quote), remove all those articles and we’ll pay you for some holidays (that we never took). Well, we’re not sellouts, we won’t stop, and the Sirius ‘UK’ CEO (pretending to be based in two continents) does not seem to grasp what he’s dealing with. Paying (shall we say ‘bribing’?) while making veiled threats is legally bad and makes the company look even worse. Better to just say nothing than send frivolous letters. For sure we’ll return to this at the end of the series, probably some time next month.

Network Operations Center by Alan Levine the from United States. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Video download link | md5sum 9615f8b17fcd94145474e78b9654c947
Sirius as Just an Account
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

Summary: Sirius ‘Open Source’ has turned into a virtual company; it’s just some AWS account with a bunch of people working on their personal computers (not company computers) from home; even accounting is missing in action (MIA), failing to correctly pay a salary for about a quarter and sometimes missing pension contributions — an indication of extreme negligence or gross mismanagement

THE potentially frustrating vision of “clown computing” is that all computing is centralised, even more so than in the mainframe era. Back in the golden age of mainframes the companies at least got their own mainframes, which could be maintained by locally-sourced and privately-employed staff.

Sadly, the company I left this month is almost entirely centralised — albeit not within itself but rather the opposite. There are virtually no assets left in the company, not even a server or a chair.

Video download link | md5sum b592f88498af1b6093b6cc3fffbb8a02
Why I Left My Job Today
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

Summary: One very important (and perhaps lifelong) lesson learned in my last job is that clients and agenda can change rapidly as a result of rotation in management and a loss of moral compass; it’s critical to check not only what employer one works for but who the upstream and downstream entities are (their nature can change for the worse when the employer becomes desperate and neglects ethics in pursuit of money)

IN INDUSTRY, there is a chain of suppliers and providers. Microsoft, for instance, gives “products” and provides “services” to companies, governments, militaries and so on.

In the case of the company where I worked (until today), we had provided services for companies in the private sector and many in the public sector too.

For software development firms, there are typically “users” or firms/people who purchase the software, license it etc.

What about the morality of those whom you provide for? Never mind suppliers, though that’s an important but separate subject (for firms that resell things and fund potentially unethical suppliers).

When Microsoft bought GitHub many employees left as they refused to work for Microsoft. Not too long afterwards many left GitHub (both users and employees) because of the ICE controversies (Microsoft insisted that GitHub should supply “services” to ICE). It quickly became a major crisis of brain drain (one colleague followed another, leaving GitHub with a lack of geeks, sort of like in Twitter last month) and Microsoft resorted to planted/seeded distractions in the media (“Arctic Vault”) in order to change the news cycle.

Today, a Friday, I officially left my job. The video above explains some of the background but future videos will delve into the lessons learned, not just based on personal experience. Many of the underlying issues seem rather common and they’re worth explaining in a generalised way that many people can relate to and study when assessing potential employers.

For instance, do people walk into a job interview and ask who the suppliers/providers are? Or who the buyers/users are? Maybe they should. Also check if management actually understands the products/services offered. If not, that’s a big red warning sign.

In my personal case, the chain has changed profoundly. Instead of spreading Free software there was a bunch of stuff like AWS being promoted. Instead of working for public sector clients (very ethical and moral agencies whose functions service to protect the vulnerable people) we started to accept business from objectionable groups. Merely pointing out such problems was framed as the real problem. That transition led to tensions and confrontations, culminating in resignation. It had been planned for months.

“He does not possess wealth; it possesses him.”

–Benjamin Franklin

Latest official NHS figures:

Percent tested positive twice as bad as July 2021 and about 10 times worse than in July 2020!

or a while now I’ve noticed something that’s really not good. Heck, it’s very backwards, even disturbing. Years ago my wife sent a parcel and it ended up inside the recipient’s bin. It took days to get to the bottom of what had happened. It turned out, after many hours wasted, that the courier placed the parcel inside the bin. Not kidding! It was just sitting there for several days, deep inside a large garbage can!

This is part of a rather bad trend here, albeit I suspect the same has happened in other countries as well. The courier does not knock on doors, instead putting through the door a slip that says the parcel is “INSIDE THE BIN!” (Even the handwriting isn’t so legible, and not every person here can read English!)

What are the consequences of this practice? You can easily have it thrown away into a landfill. Incidentally, news reports said that Amazon had been sending returned items right into the landfills. This was seen as more “efficient” than properly handling “unwanted” but perfectly functional products, likely produced in hard-hitting sweatshops by hard-working people, maybe even kids (child labour is rampant in Indonesia for instance).

Lazy approaches of nihilists, pushed through with “cost-cutting” mindsets, are ruining the planet. And yet worse, they ruin the service! This harms both senders and recipients (I witnessed this firsthand one hour ago).

These UK couriers, who merely follow instructions from their managers, ought to understand that people’s BIN is NOT a mail box. It doesn’t specify this, either. It’s not designated a postbox. Don’t put any parcels inside bins. It’s not secure and periodically it gets emptied into garbage trucks.

People pay shipping fees for a service, not for you to dump objects of value into BINS. Worse yet, this practice will encourage petty thieves to go through your trash, making a mess in pursuit of treasures. This is the new “key under the doormat” lunacy.

Now, some cynic might say they try to knock on the door first, or try to ship to one’s neighbours. But no! They did not bother this time; all they had to do was knock on the door as both my wife and I had our headphones off for the entire day (9AM to 4PM) just in case they deliver and we need to hear knocking. These couriers love to underestimate the importance of the job. All for the sake of profit. They externalise the risk and the toll.

Today, fortunately, I only knew they came because I heard the mouth of the door opening for the slip to fall in. What if I hadn’t heard that?

With all the supposed “technological advancement” (wherein asking the client to become a till operator is considered “progress”) we only got worse. We’re worse off when Bezos et al (or in this case Royal Mail, the national courier) are playing ‘treasure hunt’ with things you already paid for.

This causes a lot of angst and anxiety. But what do they care? To them, it’s the “cost of doing business” and in case of a lost parcel you may have to spend hours chasing them before some sort of compensation gets issue at all. They’ve passed the burden and risk to the clients at both ends, the sender and the recipient.

Another rather important aspect is, bins are naturally dirty. That’s what they’re typically there for. In this case, today, Royal Mail left the parcel next to cat’s poo. And that says a lot about the quality of service. How was the delivery? Poo!

Yesterday: 100 Million New COVID Infections Could Be Just Months Away

s noted here yesterday, testing levels are falling to all-time lows in the context of COVID-19 lock-downs and mass testing. We’re meant to think everything is OK now (even though it evidently isn’t the case). Mayday and Easter (cessation of counting) were seized upon to promote this illusion that things were calming down, rather than things not being properly tracked. They have a ‘backlog’ and every now and then they’ll throw 3,000 ‘missing’ or “additional” deaths (my dog are my death certificate?) while the media pays no attention. Within less than a month there will be over 200,00 British death certificates with “COVID-19″ on them.

Earlier today the following got published in the government’s official portal:

Scotland and UK headline data now updated on Mondays and Thursdays

From 9 May 2022, Public Health Scotland moved to reporting data on Mondays and Thursdays.

This means UK headline figures are also updated on Mondays and Thursdays.

Up-to-date data for England, Wales (excluding vaccinations) and Northern Ireland are on the cases, deaths, healthcare, testing, vaccinations and postcode pages.

Screenshot as they’ll deprecate the page out of existence one day:

So over time they redefine what they measure to belittle the severity of the situation. And then they stop updating during weekends; now they lower the frequency some more…

Suffice to say, hardly anyone gets vaccinated anymore. The latest figures show well under 10,000 vaccine doses per day (both for first and second; even “boosters” aren’t pursued much anymore).

So has the problem actually been solved? Let’s see…

Oh, sorry, no information for you today (“N/A”). It’s the same in the page for deaths.

NHS/Tories: Maybe if we stop publish data, then people will stop blasting our fatally stupid policy.

Video download link | md5sum 728f8975caf57a0e4d05b0a67e49cf71
Ripping Off Customers, Asking Them to Work Harder
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

AST year I wrote about my exceptionally bad experiences with e.ON or ‘E.ON Next Energy Limited’ (they seem to use pseudonyms with these spin-offs), which had taken over our longtime energy provider, nPower. The acquisition did not get blocked. It looked like it was going to be prevented, but nPower was eventually scooped up by some tentacle of e.ON ‘next’, which claims to be a new and small company. It’s a lie. It’s probably part of an elaborate shell game (dodging regulation or cheating financial auditors).

Things have not improved since; the prices shot up (gone through the roof), they try to compel clients to have an Internet connection and “apps” (spies) and/or spy meters etc. They want to blame the customers, who already pay extra not to have those things, for wrong bills. They keep nagging those clients, despite having paid to not be nagged, to provide meter readings. Well, if they want more meter readings, then they should send out their staff more frequently, just as they used to do before the pandemic started.

“COVID profiteers” seem to nowadays include energy companies, which moreover exploit the crisis in Ukraine to send the prices sky-high (while their profits too go sky-high). This is not acceptable. I’ve begun challenging the nags from e.ON or ‘E.ON Next Energy Limited’. It has led to the following discussion, which is still ongoing.

e.ON:

If you’ve done this regularly, or in the last few months, then just reply to this email and we’ll look into it.

Me:

I am paying you EXTRA to send staff to take readings and NOT bother me with false emails like these. Please do not email me again.

e.ON:

Hello,

I would like to sincerely apologise for the time your query has been left unanswered.

This is not to my own or E-on Next’s expectations and for this we apologise and take this an opportunity to do better.

Energy companies are only legally obligated to take meter readings once in a two year period, which means the onus falls upon the bill payer to provide these readings, should they wish to not be billed to an estimation.

You are not obliged to give these readings however, your energy account will be estimated and things such as EAC/AQ (yearly estimations), tariff quotes, payment adequacy and much more will not be as accurate as your energy provider and yourself would like.

May I ask if your query has been resolved?

If not please can you confirm your account number (A-), property address, name on the account and more information in related to your query, and I will be happy to assist you further.

Alternatively you can contact E-on Next via phone on 0808 501 5200 (Monday-Friday 09:00-16:00).

Jack

Energy Specialist

E-on Next

Me:

Dear Jack Platten,

You need to send people to take meter readings a lot more often.

It seems like you have exploited the lockdowns to never restore proper service, only increase your prices by like 30-40% (while making services worse, probably to cut your own costs at our expense).

If this carries on, Jack, you too might be on the company’s “chopping block”.

So please relay my concerns upwards to your bosses. If I pay EXTRA* to secure the job of people who take meter readings, they should be dispatched regularly. Now a couple of times a year.

Do not send me emails nags trying to get me to do their job instead. I already pay extra for that not to happen**.

Regards,

Roy

___
* The lower tariffs are only available if the job your company used to do (or NPower before the takeover) is outsourced to me.

** Companies come and go. Companies that mistreat their clients go away faster.

e.ON:

Hi Roy,

I hope you are well,

Energy companies are only legally obligated to take meter readings once in a two year period, which means the onus falls upon the bill payer to provide these readings, should they wish to not be billed to an estimation.

You are not obliged to give these readings however, your energy account will be estimated and things such as EAC/AQ (yearly estimations), tariff quotes, payment adequacy and much more will not be as accurate as your energy provider and yourself would like.

If you are on the priority service register, these data collection readings can be taken more frequently, however without confirmation of your account details, I would be unable to look into this further.

E-on Next offer a very good service package for customers, with renewable energy at the forefront of our operations, market leading customer service (14,000+ 5* trust pilots) and extremely competitive tariff agreements in the current energy market, and for these reasons and so much more, do not charge exit fees at this time.

Jack

E-on Next
Jack from E.ON Next

Me:

Hi,

Your response fails to actually address the points I made in my previous message — maybe it intentionally bypasses them.

Could you please consider responding to my message not like a lawyer but as a person?

Thanks in advance.

Update: Further communication below.

e.ON:

Hello,

“Your response fails to actually address the points I made in my previous ?message — maybe it intentionally bypasses them.” -

If you can kindly provide the section of your query in which your questions were not answered, I am more than happy to provide further information. Further to this, you have yet to provide the security answers which will enable me to locate your E-on Next account:

Account number (A-)
Property address
Name on the account

Jack

E-on Next
Jack from E.ON Next

e.ON:

Evening Roy,

Thank you kindly for providing your details to locate your account.

I can see that no user reading has been provided for 365 days for both gas & electric.

I can see an RD1 (data collector) reading was taken on 21/01/2022, and I have added your user profile to the list of customers unable to read their meter, which means a data collector will be out to take another reading, however this unfortunately cannot be scheduled.

Are you able to take a meter reading at all? If not, I would advise to review this information on the OFGEM website about the priority service register, if this applies to your situation, I am able to add you to the register which includes quarterly readings: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/getting-extra-help-priority-services-register, however these cannot be scheduled.

Are you interested in free smart meter installation? If you were to have a smart meter, this would send your reading in each billing month, so that you are billed to the physical amount of energy used, and no estimates will be needed.

Would you like me to add your email address to the account also? This will provide you with access to your account online.

Let me know if you have questions,

Jack

E-on Next

Me:

> Evening Roy,
>
> Thank you kindly for providing your details to locate your account.
>
> I can see that no user reading has been provided for 365 days for both
> gas & electric.

I never send readings. I pay extra to not have to do this.

> I can see an RD1 (data collector) reading was taken on 21/01/2022, and I
> have added your user profile to the list of customers unable to read
> their meter, which means a data collector will be out to take another
> reading, however this unfortunately cannot be scheduled.

We work from home, so almost any time would be OK. This was never a
problem in the past.

> Are you able to take a meter reading at all? If not, I would advise to
> review this information on the OFGEM website about the priority service
> register, if this applies to your situation, I am able to add you to the
> register which includes quarterly readings:
> https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/getting-extra-help-priority-services-register
> https: //www.ofgem.gov.uk/getting-extra-help-priority-services-register, however
> these cannot be scheduled.

Why is it a "priority" to get the same service we always had prior to e.ON?

> Are you interested in free smart meter installation? If you were to have
> a smart meter, this would send your reading in each billing month, so
> that you are billed to the physical amount of energy used, and no
> estimates will be needed.

No, like I said before we pay extra to not have these. I already
discussed this in great length with a manager at e.ON last year.

> Would you like me to add your email address to the account also? This
> will provide you with access to your account online.

No. No E-mail,  no account other than one you use for communication by
post and seldom by phone.

> Let me know if you have questions,