Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
Offshoring is becoming less popular in IT for that exact reason. The companies employ inexperienced, poorly trained staff who build poor quality software, generally speaking. It is proving a false economy.
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Comedic "things you would ban": minor things that irritate you
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Merle Haggard
Established Member
Forms that require me to enter my 'first name' and 'second name'.
I've only had one, and don't intend to change it.
I've only had one, and don't intend to change it.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
"Second name" means surname. Don't you have one? That's possible but incredibly unusual.
I don't have a middle name but have never found a form that required me to enter one and I've been around 42 and a bit years!
Merle Haggard
Established Member
I've got a Christian name and a surname.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
For fairly obvious reasons (i.e. the majority of the UK population not being practicing Christians), "Christian name" is no longer usable, so "first name" is the generic replacement.
I'd agree surname is a better field label than second name, but you know what it is
The problem is that some people are "offended" if you use the term "Christian name".
So you would think that "First Name " and "Second Name" or "Surname" would be sufficient.
Oh no.
Some cultures put the "Family Name" (ie. surname) first, and the "Christian" name second, ie. "Bloggs Joe" rather than "Joe Bloggs."
So to avoid "offending" anyone, some organisations use "Family Name" for surname, and "Given Name" for Christian Name.
Talk about treading on eggshells.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
Sounds reasonable. I'd forgotten those ones.
It's not about "offending" people with "Christian name", it's just not a sensible term any more.
gg1
Established Member
It's nothing to do with not offending anyone.
In addition to being factually incorrect to call a non-Christian's first name a "christian name", there's a very real possibility someone originally from a country where christianity isn't the dominant religion won't know what the term "christian name" actually means.
That is what we tended to use on forms when I looked after a large corporate 'people' directory. As far as I recall, every country had a convention for how to fill in those fields, even if they didn't really suit the local naming conventions.
D821
Member
I once worked for a company where a customer changed their name from a standard first name - surname to a single word, novelty one at that. It cost the company a couple of thousand in IT work to get the system to handle the name and then we found that HMRC wouldn't accept a single word name via their IT systems. When we had to split the customer's single name into two words to get it to HMRC the customer complained. We told them to take it up with HMRC as there was nothing we could do about it.
Serves them right for picking such an attention seeking name.
Serves them right for picking such an attention seeking name.
The Passport Office can cope with a single name, I have seen one. Dissapointing that HMRC cannot.
D821
Member
This was a few years back, they may well do so now.
Paul Jones 88
Member
Loud teen girls on the bus, three of them on my bus today screeching at each other, I dreamt of shoving them into Edmonton incinerator.
People having video calls on the bus, with the sound turned up full volume so that you can hear everything the person on the other end of the line is saying.
People having video calls on the bus, with the sound turned up full volume so that you can hear everything the person on the other end of the line is saying.
Absolutely this!
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
People having video calls on the bus, with the sound turned up full volume so that you can hear everything the person on the other end of the line is saying.
On the train this IS a Byelaw offence, we just need someone to enforce it!
I 'enforced' this once on a XC service a couple of months ago, by politely asking the gentleman in question if he had a set of headphones he could use, rather than broadcasting his conversation down the carriage in my direction. His solution was surprising yet effective:
61653 HTAFC
Veteran Member
How on earth did we manage before Christianity reached these shores? Were we just more formal and had to refer to each other as "Mister Smith" and "Miss Jones"? Aren't we lucky that Jesus invented names... [/sarcasm]
This may be equally valid in the "annoying adverts" thread, but can we ban companies from using voice-over artists with whatever accent is considered "most trustworthy" at the time? A few years ago it was always a soft Scottish accent encouraging me to bank with a certain company. Currently it seems that a slightly over-exaggerated Yorkshire accent is the key to parting people from their money.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
I have noticed that. "Talktalk...it doesn't make sense sense" - I have never heard one single good thing said about this company!
Add "renaming companies to try to get rid of bad reputations" - Hermes isn't any less awful just because they've renamed it to "Evri". It's awful because they can't be bothered managing their couriers properly, so the many bad ones continue to get away with being bad. Just like "Home Delivery Network Ltd" didn't get any less awful when they painted it a garish shade of pastel green and renamed it to "Yodel".
Gloster
Established Member
Or Windscale became Sellafield.
gg1
Established Member
The Home Delivery Network name itself was a result of a rebranding exercise too, they used to be known as White Arrow but after earning a very poor reputation decided to rename themselves Home Delivery Network.
I'm fully expecting another name change in the not too distant future.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
They seem to be fading into obscurity, to be honest. They used to be common, but these days if you want cheap rubbish you go with Hermes and if you want decent but a bit expensive (well, least worst) you go with DPD.
I'm actually surprised they're still in business.
It is the other way round. Surnames are the relatively recent invention. Your examples might have been known as Brian and Brigit.
adrock1976
Established Member
Regarding family names/surnames, Iceland has a simple and straightforward system, which is -sson (Male) or -dottir (Female).
It is the Icelandic for son of or daughter of.
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Or First Great Western became Great Western Railway…
Gloster
Established Member
Which had the interesting result that an Icelandic family with four children could have different surnames for all four. If the first child had been born in Denmark before the parents married, it would take its mother’s surname according to Danish law. If the parents then married and had a second child, it would take its father’s surname. If they then returned to Iceland and had one of each, they could then have yet more surnames. I think they have some practice which means that in such a situation a first born son is not permanently called -dottir and a second born daughter -son.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
Though to be fair we have stuff like Johnson, Williamson etc which just come from John's Son, William's Son etc. British ones tend to either follow that pattern (e.g. Williams and Jones are further corruptions of those) or relate to the profession of the father (e.g. Baker, Butcher etc).
Can we ban useless journey planners, that don't give you a sensible answer unless you put in the information a precise way.
I wanted to find out how long it would take to get from St Werbergh's Road to Salford Quays on the Manchester Metrolink.
At my first attempt I put in St Werbergh's Road as the start point, and it came up with an answer of four hours, because it thought the start point was somewhere in Nottinghamshire.
Then when I put in St Werbergh's Road (Manchester Metrolink) as the start point and Salford Quays (Manchester Metrolink) as the end point, it's recommended route was to go by bike.
Hello - there is a reason the start and end points were specified with Manchester Metrolink, because that is the mode of transport I wanted to use.
There is a similar issue in London, where any journey from Heathrow to Central London is always routed via the Heathrow Express, just to try and fool people into thinking it is the quickest method of transport.
Rant over.
I wanted to find out how long it would take to get from St Werbergh's Road to Salford Quays on the Manchester Metrolink.
At my first attempt I put in St Werbergh's Road as the start point, and it came up with an answer of four hours, because it thought the start point was somewhere in Nottinghamshire.
Then when I put in St Werbergh's Road (Manchester Metrolink) as the start point and Salford Quays (Manchester Metrolink) as the end point, it's recommended route was to go by bike.
Hello - there is a reason the start and end points were specified with Manchester Metrolink, because that is the mode of transport I wanted to use.
There is a similar issue in London, where any journey from Heathrow to Central London is always routed via the Heathrow Express, just to try and fool people into thinking it is the quickest method of transport.
Rant over.
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