Grombles

I have been building companies in the software services sector for over 30 years. Basically there are two types of companies selling such services. Those who offer proprietary products (ie everyone gets the same thing, today usually known as Software as a Service or SaaS), and those who offer bespoke solutions (ie they will build what you need... or at least you hope they will). India for example is  awash with firms offering bespoke development. SaaS is far cheaper to buy and use than Bespoke and will be easier and more reliable to operate long term. But SaaS offerings usually won't do everything you require, and they're all available to your competitors. However, commissioning bespoke software is complicated to do well and always painful. There are countless examples of governments spending fortunes on projects that overrun and sometimes have to be cancelled. It happens a lot in industry as well, but you don't hear about them for obvious reasons. The bigge...

Anyone who walks across Westminster Bridge next to the Houses of Parliament in London will have experienced small groups of people playing the betting game that uses three cups and a ball. The ball is placed under one cup (apparently), the cups are moved around, and passing tourists are invited to guess which cup the ball is under. Most people apparently guess correctly and have their money doubled... these are members of the same gang as the person doing the trick. At some point the gang will be told that the trickster has palmed the ball and will be waiting for 'the mark', probably a tourist, to make their guess in the belief that several 'ordinary' people before them have made easy money. They always lose, perhaps not with their first bet - so suckering them into making larger bets, but the whole theatre is designed to extract money from gullible tourists. It's a very old con trick. In Romania it's known as Alba-Neagra . The team members also have names. Th...

The following is an unfinished autobiography written by my father who passed away earlier this week at the age of 93. Cheerbye Dad (you were the only person I knew to use this expression). You were a huge influence on my life. Thanks for taking the time to record so much that I never knew about your own life and those of our immigrant ancestors. Dad's the one in the middle ;-) The HorBraJacSac Saga by Norman Horwood  9th June 1926 (or possibly earlier!) - 27th June 2019 The Families' Backgrounds. We have four families; Abrahams/Horowitz/Horwood; Bralofsky/Braley; Jacobs and Tchaikofsky/Sacof. Taking my pair, the (Abrahams) Horowitzs/Horwood and the (Bralofskys) Braleys. They escaped from different parts of "Mittel Europe" at different times. Abraham and Rachel Abrahams, nee Gess, (Horowitz), had been in England longer than the Bralofskys, having come here from Lithuania in about 1897 as a married couple without children. It is certain that Abraham ...