6 ms·

16,000 coronavirus cases missed in daily figures after IT error

58 points by trwhite 6y ago

thih9 6y ago
Other recent discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24685911 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24685911
- mellosouls 6y ago
  I think this link is a better source - and the title isn't editorialised as in the other, though this is one occasion where the journos seem to be missing the main point, perhaps waiting for an authoritative source and confirmation?
  - trwhite 6y ago
    That's fair & I agree. I'd simply shared it because it was the _main_ headline. I've hidden it so that people use the other one (also on the front page.)
    - mellosouls 6y ago
      Yes, to be clear I mean the link in your OP (BBC) is the better source compared to the other discussion. I think hide will only hide it for you, I just searched on it?
      - trwhite 6y ago
        Ah OK, understood. Admittedly I've never hidden anything before
mellosouls 6y ago
It was caused by some data files reporting positive test results exceeding the maximum file size Also being reported in various local news items like that in the other discussion linked.
- disgruntledphd2 6y ago
  Maximum file sizes are a curse. It's very odd though, as the numbers aren't high enough to hit any common thresholds, right? Anyone have any thoughts on what could have gone wrong here?
  - Taniwha 6y ago
    It was the maximum number of columns in Excel ....
    - dtech 6y ago
      That somehow makes it even worse
    - andi999 6y ago
      Columns or rows?
      - steepben 6y ago
        Columns, they were using a column per case instead of a row per case.
        dividedbyzero 6y ago
        Is that definitive?
        steepben 6y ago
        Nope! Actually going off better info now it looks like they WERE using rows, but it was in the old .xls format instead of .xlsx which limits to 2^16 rows https://twitter.com/standupmaths/status/1313149987707072512?s=20 https://twitter.com/standupmaths/status/1313149987707072512?...
      - maxerickson 6y ago
        Columns. Row limit is over 1 million.
COVardsStayHome 6y ago
If this was so dangerous you wouldn't need such detailed tracking.
orf 6y ago
Specifically, an excel sheet “running out of columns”: https://mobile.twitter.com/MaxCRoser/status/1313046638915706880 https://mobile.twitter.com/MaxCRoser/status/1313046638915706...
- Oras 6y ago
  but they have mitigated the issue, by spiting the data into multiple files!
- mellosouls 6y ago
  That is actually coming from the Daily Mail, and it's not clear where they get the Excel claim from, it's not sourced.
  - wlll 6y ago
    THe only other report I can find is from the BBC: "It was caused by some data files reporting positive test results exceeding the maximum file size." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54412581 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54412581 Still not too clear.
- BillinghamJ 6y ago
  It sounds to me much more likely that they ran out of rows - it would seem fairly difficult to split up the files by column
vmception 6y ago
Honestly, I don't find this that bad. A global emergency and the biggest news is one country missed a daily record because their futuristic computerized logging system wasn't as optimal as possible. Like sure, yeah its funny to us that they aren't using some nice GUI over SQL with a memcache, automatically synced with all hospitals via REST and JSON and the tacked on ability to export to excel. But I mean, think about it. Its awesome what we have too and how accessible all that is.
- zimpenfish 6y ago
  Serco have been given (without competitive tender) £345M to run this system. I dunno, I expect things to work for that amount of free money.
  - lloydatkinson 6y ago
    It's serco. Them, alongside, for example, Crapita are one of the big corporate disaster companies the government inevitably gives software contracts to and inevitably they fail. Given their track records it is beyond incompetence, I honestly believe they only care about profits and barely disguise that fact.
  - vmception 6y ago
    oh lol. not surprised there but yeah its annoying because the rest of us hone our skills an exchange time for much less.
  - malux85 6y ago
    Ok Serco, you just made The List
  - giancarlostoro 6y ago
    That's more than healthcare.gov's colossal screw up to build a site that couldn't register more than ten people or whatever the figures were.
  - juliansimioni 6y ago
    One of the hard things about computers is that things often work perfectly right up until they don't. If you're driving a car a little bit too far between maintenance checkups, it might start making some concerning noises, feel off, etc. But no one not intimately familiar with spreadsheets would think anything is near failure when they have 65534 rows (showing my age, it's a bit higher now, right? :) ). This has happened to lots of people that "should know better", like when Slashdot hit a 16M comment limit in 2006: https://slashdot.org/story/06/11/09/1534204/slashdot-posting-bug-infuriates-haggard-admins https://slashdot.org/story/06/11/09/1534204/slashdot-posting...
person_of_color 6y ago
Whatever happened to the simulation code that advocated lockdown??

58 points by trwhite 6y ago

thih9 6y ago

Other recent discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24685911 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24685911

mellosouls 6y ago
I think this link is a better source - and the title isn't editorialised as in the other, though this is one occasion where the journos seem to be missing the main point, perhaps waiting for an authoritative source and confirmation?
- trwhite 6y ago
  That's fair & I agree. I'd simply shared it because it was the _main_ headline. I've hidden it so that people use the other one (also on the front page.)
  - mellosouls 6y ago
    Yes, to be clear I mean the link in your OP (BBC) is the better source compared to the other discussion. I think hide will only hide it for you, I just searched on it?
    - trwhite 6y ago
      Ah OK, understood. Admittedly I've never hidden anything before

mellosouls 6y ago

It was caused by some data files reporting positive test results exceeding the maximum file size Also being reported in various local news items like that in the other discussion linked.

disgruntledphd2 6y ago
Maximum file sizes are a curse. It's very odd though, as the numbers aren't high enough to hit any common thresholds, right? Anyone have any thoughts on what could have gone wrong here?
- Taniwha 6y ago
  It was the maximum number of columns in Excel ....
  - dtech 6y ago
    That somehow makes it even worse
  - andi999 6y ago
    Columns or rows?
    - steepben 6y ago
      Columns, they were using a column per case instead of a row per case.
      - dividedbyzero 6y ago
        Is that definitive?
        steepben 6y ago
        Nope! Actually going off better info now it looks like they WERE using rows, but it was in the old .xls format instead of .xlsx which limits to 2^16 rows https://twitter.com/standupmaths/status/1313149987707072512?s=20 https://twitter.com/standupmaths/status/1313149987707072512?...
    - maxerickson 6y ago
      Columns. Row limit is over 1 million.

COVardsStayHome 6y ago

If this was so dangerous you wouldn't need such detailed tracking.

orf 6y ago

Specifically, an excel sheet “running out of columns”: https://mobile.twitter.com/MaxCRoser/status/1313046638915706880 https://mobile.twitter.com/MaxCRoser/status/1313046638915706...

Oras 6y ago
but they have mitigated the issue, by spiting the data into multiple files!
mellosouls 6y ago
That is actually coming from the Daily Mail, and it's not clear where they get the Excel claim from, it's not sourced.
- wlll 6y ago
  THe only other report I can find is from the BBC: "It was caused by some data files reporting positive test results exceeding the maximum file size." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54412581 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54412581 Still not too clear.
BillinghamJ 6y ago
It sounds to me much more likely that they ran out of rows - it would seem fairly difficult to split up the files by column

vmception 6y ago

Honestly, I don't find this that bad. A global emergency and the biggest news is one country missed a daily record because their futuristic computerized logging system wasn't as optimal as possible. Like sure, yeah its funny to us that they aren't using some nice GUI over SQL with a memcache, automatically synced with all hospitals via REST and JSON and the tacked on ability to export to excel. But I mean, think about it. Its awesome what we have too and how accessible all that is.

zimpenfish 6y ago
Serco have been given (without competitive tender) £345M to run this system. I dunno, I expect things to work for that amount of free money.
- lloydatkinson 6y ago
  It's serco. Them, alongside, for example, Crapita are one of the big corporate disaster companies the government inevitably gives software contracts to and inevitably they fail. Given their track records it is beyond incompetence, I honestly believe they only care about profits and barely disguise that fact.
- vmception 6y ago
  oh lol. not surprised there but yeah its annoying because the rest of us hone our skills an exchange time for much less.
- malux85 6y ago
  Ok Serco, you just made The List
- giancarlostoro 6y ago
  That's more than healthcare.gov's colossal screw up to build a site that couldn't register more than ten people or whatever the figures were.
- juliansimioni 6y ago
  One of the hard things about computers is that things often work perfectly right up until they don't. If you're driving a car a little bit too far between maintenance checkups, it might start making some concerning noises, feel off, etc. But no one not intimately familiar with spreadsheets would think anything is near failure when they have 65534 rows (showing my age, it's a bit higher now, right? :) ). This has happened to lots of people that "should know better", like when Slashdot hit a 16M comment limit in 2006: https://slashdot.org/story/06/11/09/1534204/slashdot-posting-bug-infuriates-haggard-admins https://slashdot.org/story/06/11/09/1534204/slashdot-posting...

person_of_color 6y ago

Whatever happened to the simulation code that advocated lockdown??