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The health minister overseeing it suggested it could be delayed until winter yesterday citing both concerns about public response to the method (which sounds li

by mrkwse 6y ago

The health minister overseeing it suggested it could be delayed until winter yesterday citing both concerns about public response to the method (which sounds like a bit of a vacant excuse) and unspecified 'technical challenges'.[1] I'd speculate that this is a case of the original technique not being a success on the Isle of Wight tests and a change of approach to lean on the device/OS manufacturers rather than try and work around them. [1]: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/coronavirus-contract-tracing-app-uk-nhs-a9571461.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/coronavirus-c...

Theodores 6y ago
There is a certain stillborn quality to the app. I don't think the Isle of Wight has much to do with it. They got VMWare/Pivotal to write an app people could install on their phones and that was never updated. The NHSX GitHub repo of the code exists but there is little activity. A few updates to URLs in the documents is as far as it goes. A crypto coin project from a few years ago has a similar feel to the code. Nothing is going on. The symptoms were changed over the last few weeks to officially accept that loss of taste/smell was a defining characteristic. The app could have been updated to include this updated self diagnosis information. That would have at least indicated progress. But not even these basic updates have happened. Pull requests are few and far between. The ones that exist are not dealt with. Again, a sign of a project far from active. With software we all know that you can do stuff client or server side to a certain extent. We don't know how much of the server side of this app is built. I suspect they put a minimum effort app together just because. There is no evidence of it hooking up to call centres and contact tracing. The people in the call centres are allegedly idle. The public mood has changed and people are using their common sense rather than following government guidance to the letter. The opportunity for everyone to be running this app has gone. Only a change such as a requirement to have the app if using public transport or entering shops can make it an app people want to use.

by mrkwse 6y ago

Theodores 6y ago

There is a certain stillborn quality to the app. I don't think the Isle of Wight has much to do with it. They got VMWare/Pivotal to write an app people could install on their phones and that was never updated. The NHSX GitHub repo of the code exists but there is little activity. A few updates to URLs in the documents is as far as it goes. A crypto coin project from a few years ago has a similar feel to the code. Nothing is going on. The symptoms were changed over the last few weeks to officially accept that loss of taste/smell was a defining characteristic. The app could have been updated to include this updated self diagnosis information. That would have at least indicated progress. But not even these basic updates have happened. Pull requests are few and far between. The ones that exist are not dealt with. Again, a sign of a project far from active. With software we all know that you can do stuff client or server side to a certain extent. We don't know how much of the server side of this app is built. I suspect they put a minimum effort app together just because. There is no evidence of it hooking up to call centres and contact tracing. The people in the call centres are allegedly idle. The public mood has changed and people are using their common sense rather than following government guidance to the letter. The opportunity for everyone to be running this app has gone. Only a change such as a requirement to have the app if using public transport or entering shops can make it an app people want to use.