VLM 2010 Ballot live NOW!

12 watchers

Watford Wobble Apr 2009 12:19pm, 29 Apr 2009 550 posts	0 Watford Wobble Your right HB. The hardwork hasn't even started yet.
Apr 2009 12:26pm, 29 Apr 2009 21 posts	0 Collie, 10 years in IT, currently doing QA for web based systems... It's true though - it's all relative. And anyway, I really need another London Marathon consolation prize jacket to add to my current collection of 2.... They're quite useful for gardening in though. :0)
Apr 2009 12:34pm, 29 Apr 2009 39 posts	0 Well HollyB, I really do hope you get a place. Let's hope someone up there is benevolently smiling down on you.
teddy-o Apr 2009 1:26pm, 29 Apr 2009 843 posts	0 teddy-o Virgin have as much to do with the entry system as Flora, Mars, Gillette and any other brand which has been associated with the LM over the years. The entry problems haven't made the news, ergo, no-one except us running geeks will know about it. Whatever Dave Bedford's events company is called should is responsible, and their systems should have been able to cope but weren't, and there's really not much you can do to predict how much traffic you're going to get when a site goes live. The weakest link in the chain broke by the sounds of it (the hosting company) so you live and learn. Holly, if you're still having problems, get someone else to apply in your name. It works fine from my end.
HayleyB Apr 2009 1:56pm, 29 Apr 2009 275 posts	0 HayleyB I think they should have had a pretty good idea of the traffic to expect.
Apr 2009 2:12pm, 29 Apr 2009 22 posts	0 Thanks Illegal Saucepan - I'm in now, so I'm happy. I agree with HayleyB - they should have had an idea, and planned contingency. The buck stops with whoever paid the money for the web developement and associated project costs. Do they feel they got value for money from it? If thay paid peanuts, maybe they do. The technical contact registered for the address is a company called Savvis out of the US. No idea who in this merry shebang they're affiliated to without further digging. Due dilligence in cluding risk assesment was clearly not done, and neither was the appropriate development lifecycle, which normally includes several sets of testing. Mind you - it's easy to criticise from the sidelines with 20:20 hindsight. :0)
SteveX Apr 2009 2:13pm, 29 Apr 2009 1,190 posts	0 SteveX In my opinion the entry sytem has been poor for many years compared to other big city marathons. What is needed is a rival company to bid for the franchise. That way you might see some competition and a better service. As things stand DB has a monopoly product which is over subscribed and therefore little incentive to do better.
Apr 2009 2:17pm, 29 Apr 2009 23 posts	0 Oh - found some stuff (not very flattering) about Savvis on wikipedia... Just FYI - nothing particularly relevant to us in there though. en.wikipedia.org
teddy-o Apr 2009 4:21pm, 29 Apr 2009 844 posts	0 teddy-o Yeah but whenever a major news event happens, the BBC site grinds to a halt, and they have some seriously f'ing huge bandwidth (paid for by your licence fee, ho hum) and that falls over periodically when it gets over a few million hits per hour. So, in this case, yes it's annoying but at least no-one else could get in whilst it was taken down and fixed. I really think there is nothing more Dave B Ltd could have done about it. As for DD, risk assessments etc, that's all bollocks and a waste of time, only makes nonsense jobs for people. Usually in government-funded IT projects. As someone with a lot of IT experience and a fairly successful business, I can safely say we don't do such nonsense. We use our heads instead of filling in forms and having meetings about meetings all day long. As for a rival company bidding to run it, that's exactly what happened with British Rail, the electricity/gas/water companiesl and look what we got. Higher prices and crap customer service. DB does a good job, anyone else coming in would screw it up big time for the first few years and probably do a runner (no pun intended) with the profit after 3 years.
Cliffy tc Jun 2009 4:49pm, 16 Jun 2009 3,880 posts	0 Cliffy tc Does anyone know what the entry fee is?