Comments on: Companies house webcheck closed on Sundays http://303s.com/2006/03/13/companies-house-webcheck-closed-on-sundays/ 303s - named after the Roland Transistor Bass 303 which bought us dance music Wed, 08 Sep 2010 21:53:06 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: alspar.org » Blog Archive » Yet More Proof The UK Government Doesn’t Get Computers http://303s.com/2006/03/13/companies-house-webcheck-closed-on-sundays/comment-page-1/#comment-57 alspar.org » Blog Archive » Yet More Proof The UK Government Doesn’t Get Computers Thu, 06 Apr 2006 00:51:25 +0000 http://303s.com/2006/03/13/companies-house-webcheck-closed-on-sundays/#comment-57 [...] Went to the Companies House website online company search just now. I got a message saying they are only open 7am till midnight. Realising that this had to be a joke I did a bit of searching and fount out that actually it isn’t. Their computer system sucks so much apparently that they have to run batch processes in the evening that stop the website from functioning. Apparently, according to Companies House, “Most Web Services that offer 24/7 access have fixed information”. Really? Google, slashdot, digg, wikipedia, etc etc etc…… all contain fixed information. Maybe not. Maybe they’re more dynamic than Companies House. Companies House tracks 2 million companies. Thats nothing compared to google. [...] [...] Went to the Companies House website online company search just now. I got a message saying they are only open 7am till midnight. Realising that this had to be a joke I did a bit of searching and fount out that actually it isn’t. Their computer system sucks so much apparently that they have to run batch processes in the evening that stop the website from functioning. Apparently, according to Companies House, “Most Web Services that offer 24/7 access have fixed information”. Really? Google, slashdot, digg, wikipedia, etc etc etc…… all contain fixed information. Maybe not. Maybe they’re more dynamic than Companies House. Companies House tracks 2 million companies. Thats nothing compared to google. [...]

]]> By: Andrew http://303s.com/2006/03/13/companies-house-webcheck-closed-on-sundays/comment-page-1/#comment-37 Andrew Tue, 14 Mar 2006 10:04:55 +0000 http://303s.com/2006/03/13/companies-house-webcheck-closed-on-sundays/#comment-37 Thanks for the comment Pete. I agree that a snapshot of the data would be a way forward. Being government related probably means they have archaic rules to adhere to that restrict what they can do. Thanks for the comment Pete. I agree that a snapshot of the data would be a way forward. Being government related probably means they have archaic rules to adhere to that restrict what they can do.

]]> By: Pete Connolly http://303s.com/2006/03/13/companies-house-webcheck-closed-on-sundays/comment-page-1/#comment-36 Pete Connolly Mon, 13 Mar 2006 22:53:44 +0000 http://303s.com/2006/03/13/companies-house-webcheck-closed-on-sundays/#comment-36 Hi Andrew - thanks for the comment. I can see why they might have to take their systems offline for a night or so if they're updating things. I think it would be better if they could provide a static snapshot via their public servers, and an alternative 'live' snapshot that went offline while the statutory stuff was being generated. As long as you tag the information as being older than tonight then you'd be ok. Look at google maps - those picture were taken months ago, but people are ok with it. It should be the same in these circumstances. Hi Andrew – thanks for the comment. I can see why they might have to take their systems offline for a night or so if they’re updating things.

I think it would be better if they could provide a static snapshot via their public servers, and an alternative ‘live’ snapshot that went offline while the statutory stuff was being generated. As long as you tag the information as being older than tonight then you’d be ok. Look at google maps – those picture were taken months ago, but people are ok with it. It should be the same in these circumstances.

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