Spreadsheets

[vetran]

Having worked around this in the early stages of Covid in a different jurisdiction, I have a great deal of sympathy for anyone who decided on Excel with a password on a secure server to get off the ground. This was at the point when parts of Spain and Italy appeared to be on the point of meltdown.

It is the failure to migrate which should see P45s issued.

completely agree, the first month using sellotape & chewing gum was acceptable. As usual the techies were probably screaming and the managers were busily ignoring it.

[Old Greg]

I know why they have an exemption as above, now how long will that be acceptable if they spaff all the information to the publc?

But that's a breach regardless of the legal basis (including consent) for processing the data. I was just pointing out that consent is not required.

[Old Greg]

completely agree, the first month using sellotape & chewing gum was acceptable. As usual the techies were probably screaming and the managers were busily ignoring it.

Well, week one we had army cadets with pieces of paper. Excel was an upgrade. But it soon moved on from there.

[NickFitz]

hmm

How to Remove, Crack, or Break a Forgotten Excel XLS Password

I agree its probably part of the transfer process as well so whichever idiot designed that needs a P45. CSV/XML is the best for such things.

CSV is what they used. The labs send their data in CSV files to the central place, which then imports the CSV into Excel to produce the stats. However, the stats place had created their spreadsheet based on a .xls template rather than a .xlsx template, so it had the old limit on the number of rows and silently discarded the excess when the CSV file had too many rows. At least, that's what seems to have happened, as far as one can tell by trying to extract the signal from within the tremendous amount of noise surrounding it.

I suppose they could try to blame Microsoft for maintaining backwards compatibility in their products

[Andy2]

They should have hired contractors for this work

[vetran]

CSV is what they used. The labs send their data in CSV files to the central place, which then imports the CSV into Excel to produce the stats. However, the stats place had created their spreadsheet based on a .xls template rather than a .xlsx template, so it had the old limit on the number of rows and silently discarded the excess when the CSV file had too many rows. At least, that's what seems to have happened, as far as one can tell by trying to extract the signal from within the tremendous amount of noise surrounding it.

I suppose they could try to blame Microsoft for maintaining backwards compatibility in their products

The cool kids use XML now


what can I say about what they are doing? oh yes!

[vetran]

They should have hired someone with a brain for this work

FTFY

[darmstadt]

Probably did, on an hourly rate of 8.60

They should have hired contractors for this work

Sent from my 5g carrier pigeon

[Uncle Albert]

If any government interns are reading this, please get in touch as I can assure you that I can do this much better and almost certainly for less than you are paying AccentPwCTata for this.

Oh, and ignore Bob. His cheapness is not worth the spreadsheet he has typed it into.

[SueEllen]

I just learnt today - according to the Prime Minister - that a manual error isn't also an excel error.

Did the PM ever have a job?