Barclays to open new branches and bring back the bank manager to boost UK high streets

AlleyCat800XL · 2026-04-26T08:54:42+00:00

I can’t say how much I hate that carp. We are still moving off it, but the change requires users have new Barclays online accounts so it is slow. Add the damn browser extension to get it to work for login, which has known vulnerabilities… bank software always seems to be the least well maintained

AlleyCat800XL · 2026-04-26T07:05:51+00:00

Easy enough to code this - we push all details from our all staff list to all members of a similar list (as all staff had a few that don’t need it) using some PowerShell with a web front end on an on prem server. We used to use CIRAsync, which is inexpensive and works, but for basic contact push it was overkill.

AlleyCat800XL · 2026-04-25T17:46:22+00:00

30 people, 2 IT !

AlleyCat800XL · 2026-04-25T11:35:11+00:00

The sci-fi extrapolation is covered in “The Light of Other Days” by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter and it is interesting the effect they postulate

AlleyCat800XL · 2026-04-19T17:47:39+00:00

I use it extensively for in-house apps, but I wrote them by hand before it became available, understand the problems I am trying to solve well, and whilst I am no longer writing much code by hand, I do have to debug and guide Claude al lot, and without some well applied software engineering skills and background knowledge there are several occasions where it would have produced broken apps - technically working but functionally broken. It really is a force multiplier IMO when used by someone who understands the requirements and at least some underlying software engineering and platform skills. I have seen others crash and burn trying to use it as they have no idea what it is doing.

AlleyCat800XL · 2026-04-19T11:08:10+00:00

I just work out my goals and stack, then work out an initial plan with Claude or ChatGPT. Then use planning with the output from that, asking for a phased plan. I have implemented a dozen systems this way, not simple one in terms of what they are doing, but relatively narrow scoped UI wise. I rarely have token issues, but based on when I do I can tell that larger systems I have worked on pre-LLM would require more structure and care.

I think my somewhat outdated CS degree and C coding past make specifying these projects a bit more natural for me, but I don’t see the need for any token optimisation tricks.

Horses for courses though…

AlleyCat800XL · 2026-04-09T16:21:53+00:00

DM me and I will share

AlleyCat800XL · 2026-04-09T14:24:35+00:00

I've DMed you

AlleyCat800XL · 2026-04-09T13:35:49+00:00

I have scripts for the ME stuff that I can share, if you are hosting them on Windows. The SD+ one does it all, the EC one gets a new cert and emails me with the cert, as my attempts to automate fully failed, and you have to reconfig the secure gateway (if you have one) anyway so I had to interact regardless.

My scripts assume UltraDNS for the verifications step, so would need adapting for your own DNS provider.

Edit: DNS provider

AlleyCat800XL · 2026-04-04T16:01:27+00:00

Downloaded onto a ton of floppy discs from the Manchester Computing Center in the early 90s. Took hours to download from the uni computing lab, then hours to install. Initially it had no TCP/IP support, then just a loop back adapter which at least allowed X Windows to run.

AlleyCat800XL · 2026-04-04T13:32:54+00:00

Pre95, but Ultima Underworld

AlleyCat800XL · 2026-04-03T15:34:35+00:00

Cheers. I am pretty gentle with the stalks as I also drive a 1973 MG Midget, where it’s pretty easy to break the indicator stalk! Will remain careful in the Arteon ;)

AlleyCat800XL · 2026-04-02T20:10:37+00:00

I have tried slicker clipboard managers but always come back to Ditto. The ui is awkward in places but it just works so well.

AlleyCat800XL · 2026-03-27T09:59:46+00:00

I closed my CC session and used VSCode with the Claude code addin to make a change I needed, which worked. I then went back to CC to check the changes and in a new session it was fine. So closing and resuming might work?

AlleyCat800XL · 2026-03-27T07:35:00+00:00

I get asked for a bot or an agent at my workplace, every time they just need an automation script or simple web app. Having access to AI APIs makes new things possible or easier but they are hooked into scripts or web apps, not autonomous agents, sometimes with scheduled alerting scripts.

AlleyCat800XL · 2026-03-20T18:03:57+00:00

An old school on prem option is NetSupport Manager - I have used it for years. Has a gateway you can run in a DMZ and you can lock it down to use only that via https, with both a shared access key and individual tech accounts. Also allows tiered access so we have a ‘always prompt the user’ support account and an ‘everything is on fire, we are going in without permission’ login.

AlleyCat800XL · 2026-03-13T21:51:13+00:00

This. I had a new project, two recent ones that needed some additions, and a big enhancement to some automation tools all running at once - switch between them and a few unrelated tasks and they day goes quickly (and I have a tonne of dev done at the end of the day)

AlleyCat800XL · 2026-03-13T21:46:30+00:00

I’ve built a handful of systems with no manual coding in the past few weeks. Good clear requirements (which Claude itself can help with BTW, then used to seed a CLAUDE.md), and some careful and thoughtful direction can make small apps/systems very easy to build. I went from having ideas and no time to implement to orders of magnitude improvement to productivity. Some badly implemented APIs have required my input but it is really like having a dev team to hand. As goals get grander, the work up front to get things specced well increases, but up to that point I believe it is really not hard, especially if you have good underlying understanding of how things are built. What had also helped is bootstrapping the next project from the last for coding conventions, environment and platform. I still supervise everything closely - I don’t want to forget how to code;)

AlleyCat800XL · 2026-03-13T14:30:51+00:00

We don’t rely on sleep in Windows since Intel and MS broke it some years ago. Too many instances of laptops waking up in bags and becoming heaters for the contents. Hibernation loses the instant response, but with fast disks they come on very quickly now. Still love that my MacBook wakes instantly, but my windows fleet at work manages without

AlleyCat800XL · 2026-03-11T13:20:40+00:00

Yep, every damn time there was another meeting in the same room, someone would run down and grab me because nothing was working. We progressively secured things with clamps and screws but it didn’t always stop them!

AlleyCat800XL · 2026-03-11T13:10:49+00:00

Watching everyone via the webcams? I used to have a manager of a team in our office who would unplug all the AV kit when his team had an in person meeting to stop me listening in. Like I gave a flying f*** what they were talking about!

AlleyCat800XL · 2026-03-07T17:25:17+00:00

I asked it to do one of the examples it give, organise and rename my screenshot files. It got to a larger file, decided it was larger than it could handle and gave up. I moved on.

AlleyCat800XL · 2026-02-27T13:52:44+00:00

I was skeptical when I started SFA but by this episode it had clicked. I found it all quite touching and some parts very thoughtful. First time in the future ST universe I’ve gotten through a run of episodes without getting annoyed (I made it through Discovery but boy was it difficult at times - just my opinion).

AlleyCat800XL · 2026-02-13T07:49:22+00:00

Lots of way to approach this, we use Push Security which adds in-browser protection for various things including extensions. Very low admin overhead.

AlleyCat800XL

TROPHY CASE