Thought for the day:"I am giving up drinking for the month.
(the importance of punctuation)
I am giving up. Drinking for the month"
LINK JOHNS HOPKINS
Office of National Statistics
In other news it is Friday the 13th - and a day when Peter Sutcliffe died - refusing to be treated for Corvid.
The man who changed much of my life - though indirectly.
Sutcliffe highlighted to the country that the existing systems were unacceptable internally, and when dealing with someone who covered more than one police area - the system ground to a halt. Remembering 1985, Computers were at their simplest, if in existence at all. Police National Computer was at Headquarters in Carmarthen. All police checks were conducted through the Headquarters Control Room. Communication from Headquarters was to station via VHF Radio. Communication to Officer was by UHF local Radio. I remember working in Llanelli Control Room when the ticker tape would come from Headquarters, and the ticker tape to HQ was a different size and had to be output (a tape with holes in it - coded as words) and then fed into the local system tape sender - so it could be received locally. And the main messages usually were relating to "hoisting South Cones" - Storm warnings!!
The realisation that Sutcliffe had slipped through the fingers of more than one force led to the Creation of H.O.L.M.E.S. Someone in the Home Office had great fun with making that acronym - probably got a Knighthood. Home Office Large Major Enquiry System.
And there were a number of ways to provide this facility - though there were only two main contenders in the software as I recall - Honeywell and Burroughs - I may be proven wrong - but for a small Police Force like Dyfed-Powys Police - under 900 officers at the time - with the largest force area for any force in England and Wales (Scotland was covered by different law and methodology for procurement), this provided additional problems and demands. South wales Police next door had a main frame computer centralised system. It was in the early years but as a large force they had managed to procure systems to meet their administrative requirements - and also had the rudiments of network communications as they were working with a central system with dumb terminals distributed across the force area.
Dyfed Powys had nothing. Seriously. Two terminals for the Police National Computer at Headquarters in Friar's Park Carmarthen.
And so young Sergeant Sewell, recently appointed to the Organisation and Planning Department in that same headquarters was summoned to the Chief Constable's Office....
I recall to this day the conversation ...
CC : "Ah Sewell. I want you to write me a D.O.R. for some Computer Systems"
Me : (Blankly) "Yes Sir"
CC : "Can you do that ?"
Me : "D.O.R. Sir ? "
CC : "Yes - A D.O.R. You know what a D.O.R is don't you!" It didn't seem like a question.
Me : "Sir ?" Best way to answer this sort of question - Damned if you do damned if you don't.
CC : "D.O.R. Detailed Operational Requirement" Why did I get the impression that he had got the terms from a memo to Chief Constables?
Me : Silence is the best option here.
CC : "You do know about them?"
Me : Silence is still the best option here.
CC : "You did go to University didn't you?" This is the point when I mention that I was THE University Graduate in the Force at the time. Certainly I was the first and there may have been a few recruits but I was at that time the "ranking" Graduate, and in Headquarters.
Me : "Yes Sir. University College Aberystwyth, Sir"
CC: "Well there you are then !" As if the matter was closed.
Me : " I studies History and Politics Sir"
CC : "But you do know Computers?" A touch of Panic
Me : "I have a Spectrum 48K Sir !"
CC : "Right - that is sorted! " Clearly he was not an expert in the field.
I had never touched a computer in University until after I had left a friend had taken me to the Computer department where I played a game of 3 dimensional noughts and crosses with the main frame there.
CC : "What I want is one of these murder computer systems because there is money out there from the Home Office. But we don't need one really. We get about one murder a year - usually domestic and easily solveable - and maybe every three or four years we get a "runner" - one which needs a full investigation. But what I do need is to sort out the Shotguns and Firearms Register - it is practically impossible - and more than anything I need something to sort out the Accident And Crime Statistics for the force. "
I mentioned that there were two lead players at the time. One was Burroughs - later Unisys. They had a platform for distributed small processors that plugged together to make local network running off a single Hard Drive system using a 4GL programme generation. That appealed to my Chief Constable./ He thought we could set up the computers in the offices for Statistics and Firearms and if we had a murder we could move the computers to the local incident room and set up without requirement for infrastructure and networking and expensive things like that.
and so I found myself in a new job - learning everything there is to know (in a short period of time) about computer systems. I had no hand in the programming requirements for HOLMES - that was in the hands of the boffins but I managed my DOR's for the other systems and set the Force on a course that for many years kept computer systems coming in doing the job they were asked to do as specific by the users, coming in on time and under budget. I was proud of those years - though as a single person responsible for computers in the force I got little sleep but became expert and computer repair .. "Have you switched it off and on again?"
Managed a promotion and a Chief Constable's Commendation for introduction of Computer Systems.
Oh and Acronyms?? As my system was designed to provide support for but was larger than HOLMES - I called my project MYCROFT - it didn't stand for anything but was support for Holmes as was the detective's elder brother...
Never managed to shake off the label of "the Computer whizz kid" even though I did nothing in the technical field for the last 15 years of my service, but I can certainly look back on the 23 systems I brought into play - 9 of them written by myself, and the impact upon the policing of the country.
And so - today the world is a different place - but my life changed as a result of one evil man who died today...
In other news..
I completed Idris 2 - and secured him in to the churn.
Two screws undone - one being stubborn. Couple of doses of WD40 so far and half a turn managed before the screwdriver starts slipping. Will try again tomorrow...
Sign of the times I fear..
 |
| Sutcliffe |
The rise of the Yorkshire Ripper caused a sea-change in the ways that police forces dealt with major crime across the country. In these days it is hard to remember or imagine conducting a murder investigation with cards, hand written and sorted in carousels. Major Incident rooms were hives of activity but sadly, though many tried to provide efficiency the amount of information would always defeat, except in the most simple of cases.
Sutcliffe highlighted to the country that the existing systems were unacceptable internally, and when dealing with someone who covered more than one police area - the system ground to a halt. Remembering 1985, Computers were at their simplest, if in existence at all. Police National Computer was at Headquarters in Carmarthen. All police checks were conducted through the Headquarters Control Room. Communication from Headquarters was to station via VHF Radio. Communication to Officer was by UHF local Radio. I remember working in Llanelli Control Room when the ticker tape would come from Headquarters, and the ticker tape to HQ was a different size and had to be output (a tape with holes in it - coded as words) and then fed into the local system tape sender - so it could be received locally. And the main messages usually were relating to "hoisting South Cones" - Storm warnings!!
 |
| Ripper Enquiry |
But the embarrassment of Peter Sutcliffe caused the world of investigation to change - and not everyone agreed with the innovations. Information gathered in one enquiry needed to be transferable to other investigations.. Sad to say the intentions far out-stripped the abilities of computer systems at the time.
Add to that the Home office involvement - which meant that innovation in systems was frowned on, and established and proven technology was the only thing that would be permitted, add to that the archaic tendering procedures and rules at the time, the limited budgets and frankly the lack of imagination of senior members of Force and Home Office. We were not far from the days that to talk of "Computers" was frowned on by my Chief Constable RB Thomas, and we were advised to always refer to them as "Electronic Devices!"
Add to that the Home office involvement - which meant that innovation in systems was frowned on, and established and proven technology was the only thing that would be permitted, add to that the archaic tendering procedures and rules at the time, the limited budgets and frankly the lack of imagination of senior members of Force and Home Office. We were not far from the days that to talk of "Computers" was frowned on by my Chief Constable RB Thomas, and we were advised to always refer to them as "Electronic Devices!"
 |
| Ripper Incident Room |
The realisation that Sutcliffe had slipped through the fingers of more than one force led to the Creation of H.O.L.M.E.S. Someone in the Home Office had great fun with making that acronym - probably got a Knighthood. Home Office Large Major Enquiry System.
And there were a number of ways to provide this facility - though there were only two main contenders in the software as I recall - Honeywell and Burroughs - I may be proven wrong - but for a small Police Force like Dyfed-Powys Police - under 900 officers at the time - with the largest force area for any force in England and Wales (Scotland was covered by different law and methodology for procurement), this provided additional problems and demands. South wales Police next door had a main frame computer centralised system. It was in the early years but as a large force they had managed to procure systems to meet their administrative requirements - and also had the rudiments of network communications as they were working with a central system with dumb terminals distributed across the force area.
Dyfed Powys had nothing. Seriously. Two terminals for the Police National Computer at Headquarters in Friar's Park Carmarthen.
And so young Sergeant Sewell, recently appointed to the Organisation and Planning Department in that same headquarters was summoned to the Chief Constable's Office....
I recall to this day the conversation ...
CC : "Ah Sewell. I want you to write me a D.O.R. for some Computer Systems"
Me : (Blankly) "Yes Sir"
CC : "Can you do that ?"
Me : "D.O.R. Sir ? "
CC : "Yes - A D.O.R. You know what a D.O.R is don't you!" It didn't seem like a question.
Me : "Sir ?" Best way to answer this sort of question - Damned if you do damned if you don't.
CC : "D.O.R. Detailed Operational Requirement" Why did I get the impression that he had got the terms from a memo to Chief Constables?
Me : Silence is the best option here.
CC : "You do know about them?"
Me : Silence is still the best option here.
CC : "You did go to University didn't you?" This is the point when I mention that I was THE University Graduate in the Force at the time. Certainly I was the first and there may have been a few recruits but I was at that time the "ranking" Graduate, and in Headquarters.
Me : "Yes Sir. University College Aberystwyth, Sir"
CC: "Well there you are then !" As if the matter was closed.
Me : " I studies History and Politics Sir"
CC : "But you do know Computers?" A touch of Panic
Me : "I have a Spectrum 48K Sir !"
CC : "Right - that is sorted! " Clearly he was not an expert in the field.
I had never touched a computer in University until after I had left a friend had taken me to the Computer department where I played a game of 3 dimensional noughts and crosses with the main frame there.
CC : "What I want is one of these murder computer systems because there is money out there from the Home Office. But we don't need one really. We get about one murder a year - usually domestic and easily solveable - and maybe every three or four years we get a "runner" - one which needs a full investigation. But what I do need is to sort out the Shotguns and Firearms Register - it is practically impossible - and more than anything I need something to sort out the Accident And Crime Statistics for the force. "
I mentioned that there were two lead players at the time. One was Burroughs - later Unisys. They had a platform for distributed small processors that plugged together to make local network running off a single Hard Drive system using a 4GL programme generation. That appealed to my Chief Constable./ He thought we could set up the computers in the offices for Statistics and Firearms and if we had a murder we could move the computers to the local incident room and set up without requirement for infrastructure and networking and expensive things like that.
and so I found myself in a new job - learning everything there is to know (in a short period of time) about computer systems. I had no hand in the programming requirements for HOLMES - that was in the hands of the boffins but I managed my DOR's for the other systems and set the Force on a course that for many years kept computer systems coming in doing the job they were asked to do as specific by the users, coming in on time and under budget. I was proud of those years - though as a single person responsible for computers in the force I got little sleep but became expert and computer repair .. "Have you switched it off and on again?"
Managed a promotion and a Chief Constable's Commendation for introduction of Computer Systems.
Oh and Acronyms?? As my system was designed to provide support for but was larger than HOLMES - I called my project MYCROFT - it didn't stand for anything but was support for Holmes as was the detective's elder brother...
Never managed to shake off the label of "the Computer whizz kid" even though I did nothing in the technical field for the last 15 years of my service, but I can certainly look back on the 23 systems I brought into play - 9 of them written by myself, and the impact upon the policing of the country.
And so - today the world is a different place - but my life changed as a result of one evil man who died today...
Seems we are going to keep having rain. We had a few breaks and Susie managed to sow some onions and put her garlic out and tried Duffy the Root slayer and overdid is as usual.
And had another fight with the guttering outside the Kitchen/Bedroom. An incessant drip at the join. Tried the Gorilla Tape that is meant to be waterproof and sealing, and can be applied in the wet etc etc etc doesn't work! So raised the whole gutter set to get a better flow - there is only one drainpipe at the end so need to ensure that the water does not gather in the centre. So I have flow - but having taken a lot of the sealant away - the drip is still there. Next step is to get some of the magic spray that is meant to seal everything. We shall see!!
And so, I started trying to get into the inspection hatch...
In other news... my Vollsanger's View Birthday Card was fact checked by Facebook and found to be partly false !! Only Partly !!!
So have the original..
Cheers !
Thought Sutcliffe died of Covid or was he bitten by a crow?
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