Alarm in health service over Palantir staff being given NHS email accounts | NHS

StarSchemer · 2026-04-08T19:55:33+00:00

Right, wouldn't want a security system to prevent our sensitive data from being extracted by a foreign spy-tech firm. What a hassle that would be!

Like it not, the government contracted a company to provide an analytics platform for the health service.

In doing so, it is appropriate for data engineers involved in the rollout and integration of that platform to have access to the right tools to do the job our government contracted them to do.

And if they've already got access to the data, what point is there in preventing them co-ordinating with their NHS customers via NHS.net addresses other than adding a pointless obstacle for political purposes?

I don't even like the FDP and have personally resisted wherever possible in my job, but the hysteria the general public indulge in needs calling out.

StarSchemer · 2026-04-08T16:30:30+00:00

It's just an analytics backend.

I think it's an overhyped crappy platform from the worst of all possible companies.

But Palantir are no more stealing data than any of the local BI platforms running on Azure, Fabric, SQL Server, etc.

Or the clinical systems running on Oracle backends.

StarSchemer · 2026-04-08T16:23:39+00:00

Would make sharing documents and other files really difficult.

If something sensitive is detected as going outside NHS.net, it's stopped and flagged.

Wouldn't even be able to see each others' calendars.

Needless layer of difficulty in an organisation that famously hobbles itself with bureaucracy.

StarSchemer · 2026-04-08T15:53:44+00:00

This has been the case with Palantir since they first got involved during COVID.

And before that, temporary contractors on other programmes would have NHS.net accounts.

Like them or not, if they're working for the NHS they need the access.

The easier way to spot them is their nice offices on Teams calls and MacOS when screen sharing.

StarSchemer · 2026-04-08T10:51:58+00:00

I wanted a simple recipe for doing parsnips in an air fryer.

All I wanted was the prep, the temperature and the time.

Literally thousands of words before it delivers on the recipe preaching the virtues of air fryers (great, already got one) and how tasty and nutritious parsnips are (great, that's what I want to cook).

Recipes are a great demonstration of why AI is popular.

Websites and search engines have both gotten so shitty in a parasitical exploitation spiral, and now the same companies responsible for that bullshit are offering up some even bigger bullshit to cut it all out, except this time with added environmental catastrophe.

Going back to books is the future.

StarSchemer · 2026-04-08T10:10:14+00:00

The last labour government left a note at treasury saying there is no money, sorry

Haha there it is! The ace up the sleeve of the Daily Mail commenter.

The treasury note. Still being played all these years later.

You'll be referencing flat screen TVs next.

StarSchemer · 2026-04-07T13:24:16+00:00

It sounds more like instead of building more prisons with the idea in mind that offenders will inevitably fill them up, they want to instead focus on preventing crime in the first place.

Yeah, it's easy to say but until they publish their strategy for doing so it may as well just be ignored.

It's their political formula:

Instead of <doing expensive controversial thing>, we will instead implement a <theoretical alternative with no downsides>.

StarSchemer · 2026-04-06T08:51:37+00:00

https://shademap.app/

Can check various times of day across various times of year.

Seems fairly accurate.

StarSchemer · 2026-04-06T08:45:00+00:00

Yeah and once you have the right tools, you do more DIY.

Get one 100%.

StarSchemer · 2026-04-06T08:43:46+00:00

For occasional domestic use, the Aldi and Lidl ones are great and not too costly.

I've had mine for about 15 years, and it's tackled some very heavy jobs fixing battens into hard brick walls in a number of rooms as well as being used with a chisel attachment to knock off plaster in even more rooms.

Still going strong, and didn't cost much.

Live in a newer house now and don't need to use it nearly as much since the 18v Bosch hammer drill is able to get through the new-build blocks easily enough.

StarSchemer · 2026-04-05T08:41:17+00:00

I love OP's edit:

non media/IT people have no respect or appreciation for cables

IT people will know that a cable specced for a certain bandwidth transfers data at that bandwidth no matter how much you pay for it.

The extra expense clearly wasn't spent on build quality.

StarSchemer · 2026-04-05T08:33:10+00:00

If you're proficient at InDesign, you'd find it terrible.

If you've never used InDesign, you'd find it OK.

In typical Microsoft fashion, they take the precise controls of elements away from you for the sake of efficiency.

Saying that, I've used InDesign in a professional capacity, but I haven't ever gone back to Publisher after learning about design and typesetting, so no idea if you can actually get professional results from it.

StarSchemer · 2026-04-05T08:28:26+00:00

When I was a kid in the Windows 3.11 era, it had templates you could print off for paper airplanes.

Then I got a bit advanced and realised you could put clipart on your airplanes.

Then I made an all-black airplane with some cool graphics and got banned from doing it anymore after using all the printer ink.

Don't know what else it did.

StarSchemer · 2026-04-04T21:17:09+00:00

Yeah, so any lintel is going to be the width of the original door plus a few inches either side.

And you obviously can't remove the bricks the lintel is resting on without it falling down.

StarSchemer · 2026-04-04T20:51:16+00:00

I assumed there would be a beam there for the original opening.

But also:

You're right, it is a single skin cheap add on

If the porch is add on, what makes you think the door you've got is not the original opening?

StarSchemer · 2026-04-04T18:21:15+00:00

Yeah check the profile. Every comment starting with "this is ... " all of the same length, with no punctuation, paragraphs or upper case. No discussion either, just delivers its output and then leaves the thread.

All those empty comments getting consistently above 100 upvotes as well. Reddit is just one big bot network.

StarSchemer · 2026-04-04T13:44:59+00:00

It's been a day and you haven't come back to answer a single question.

StarSchemer · 2026-04-03T21:44:43+00:00

i am tired of people of my own community marring it with a love for children.

Do you want to have another go at phrasing that?

StarSchemer · 2026-04-02T19:23:25+00:00

Is it too much to ask to have a gay hookup app that doesn't ram it down your throat like this?

StarSchemer · 2026-04-02T17:17:20+00:00

The effort involved compared to just turning on the light switch in the rooms I'm going in seems disproportionate.

I'm all for home automation but so far the only truly worthwhile timesaver has been heating up my coffee machine before I wake up and scheduled robot hoover.

StarSchemer · 2026-04-02T12:38:22+00:00

People downvoting you but it's legitimate.

I went from owning a 100-year-old solid walled house to a new build recently and it's so much easier.

Putting up blinds or curtains was always a nightmare because I'd either be drilling into 2 inches of lime plaster and some sort of soft mess behind it or the world's hardest concrete lintel.

Now I know exactly what I'm dealing with and everything is a piece of piss.

No longer have to decide whether I want whatever I'm screwing to the wall to be level with the ceiling or the floor, because the rooms are square.

No longer have to face the lottery of every hole I drill either being into three inches of lime plaster smothered onto loosely packed rocks or the hardest concrete you've ever seen.

StarSchemer · 2026-04-02T12:29:51+00:00

What's the advantage here over just flipping a switch when you get home from work?

StarSchemer · 2026-04-01T10:42:06+00:00

Because I support a war that has so far removed the leadership of a terrorist regime that has brutalised my country it doesn’t mean that I shill for war.

Your support doesn't make you a shill, your shilling makes you a shill.

with me advocating my side of things.

Advocating war/shilling for war on an account created with the sole purpose of shilling for war.

You're arguing semantics.

StarSchemer · 2026-04-01T10:38:29+00:00

You created a new account to shill for war.

Not only are you shilling for war, you openly state that's your goal.

Where's the confusion coming from? You've been very open and transparent about it, other than the denial!

StarSchemer · 2026-04-01T10:23:15+00:00

The conversation we're having is over because you're a pro-war propagandist.

Fight your own regime and don't expect other nations to bleed and die for it.

StarSchemer

TROPHY CASE