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Thread: Malware found on free laptops for UK's vulnerable children

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    Malware found on free laptops for UK's vulnerable children

    And these '£100 value' GeoBook 1E laptops cost the tax payer over £200 each.
    Read more.

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    Re: Malware found on free laptops for UK's vulnerable children

    Don't worry. The Trumpian Conservative party will simply hand billions to another backer who's business expertise is in plumbing to sort this one out.

    You get what you vote for.

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    Re: Malware found on free laptops for UK's vulnerable children

    ^^This. And wow, what idiot in the Govt wrote the specs? "Processor - Intel or AMD Integrated Graphics" - yeah, that won't get abused at all.

    Also I guess Win 10 Home is the same as Pro Education! Yikes.

    The specs on this thing is atrocious. Celeron... well, that's a lot more of our money going to the Tories' chums.
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    Re: Malware found on free laptops for UK's vulnerable children

    You would think that things would be checked thoroughly before being sent out, especially given their intended destination, but this would suggest otherwise in this case.

    I bet many companies love government contracts, as it seems that they never have to offer actual value for money and (in many cases) can even cost more than they were meant to, and even then there is the possibility of still failing to actually deliver the intended outcome.

    I'm not saying that is actually the case for all companies, but with stories like these and the news reports you always hear about government contracts over the years, it does make you wonder if there is value for money being gained anywhere.

    And while I am not saying that it is because of party donations that companies are subsequently picked for government contracts, the circumstances can't help but provide that avenue of speculation.

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    Re: Malware found on free laptops for UK's vulnerable children

    The name Computacenter says it all.

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    Re: Malware found on free laptops for UK's vulnerable children

    This seems like blatant corruption when they give tax money to a company that is owned by a major Conservative party donor. This is like when the Health Secretary give his local pub landlord a contract worth £30M to supply PPE when he was never in that business in the first place.

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    Re: Malware found on free laptops for UK's vulnerable children

    Is anyone surprised with the clowns currently in charge that the deliverables are poorly briefed/spec'd and then poorly executed? I'd be more surprised if the headline was "government scheme nails it and performs better than required, on time and within budget".

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    Re: Malware found on free laptops for UK's vulnerable children

    Looks like the typical response from this government - how cheaply can we do 'something' to make us look like we care while enriching our mates. (My wifes 6 or 7 year old 2in1 laptop is similar specs to this and cost £200 back then...)
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    Re: Malware found on free laptops for UK's vulnerable children

    Quote Originally Posted by ik9000 View Post
    Is anyone surprised with the clowns currently in charge that the deliverables are poorly briefed/spec'd and then poorly executed? I'd be more surprised if the headline was "government scheme nails it and performs better than required, on time and within budget".
    Aircraft carrier project? They learnt from all the expensive screw ups with the Type 45s....


    Giving the other side of the argument perhaps, you are asking for a huge number of laptops, quickly and at a time of peak demand and component shortage. You're going to pay a lot more. Additionally, what is included in that cost? Is it just the hardware or is there some support, software, etc in there as well? The government website says that a software package can be installed and that needs specifying at the time of order - so is this included in the cost or not?

    Yep the specs are terrible, but they'll do the job using cheap and available parts. They aren't meant to be performance machines, but the minimum viable spec to get kids through the next few months.

    That's not necessarily what I think, but it's considering the other side rather than just raging when we only have surface level detail.

    The PPE rant above - lots of companies which weren't in PPE manufacture in the first place are now churning it out. Surface level detail makes this sound ridiculous when there is surely more to it.

    Another example of this kind of thing from recent US politics is "Biden reverses Trump executive order reducing the cost of epi-pens and insulin". That is all I've heard of it, but I'm assuming he's not a monster and there's a good reason for it, rather than going "DEMON!"

    Another consideration with donors is that, even if they were blind to who was and wasn't a donor, they'd eventually give contracts to donors. The question that I think needs asking is whether a particular government issues more contracts to donors than any other recent Tory government. It is the rich people who make significant contributions to parties. Certainly to the Tories as their policies promote large business. Labour gets its cash from trade unions, and it is infuriating that to get representation at work you have to be supporting political activism (you can check a box on application but it's obvious how they work around it) in any way. Regardless, they'll end up with fewer big business donors and so it's hard to compare one government to all governments.

    Example : Biden recently axed this pipeline contract. The oil is still coming in by train (obviously in lower volume and there's a lot of other considerations). The train company is owned by a large Biden donor. How much effect did the presence of the donor have on this decision? Or did the decision land the donations? All that is a huge question in itself. But all you have to say is "oh yeh, the pipline gets cancelled and a Biden donor has the contract to bring in the oil by train" and it sounds awful.

    No offence but there's more to this than the surface level figures.

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    Re: Malware found on free laptops for UK's vulnerable children

    Quote Originally Posted by 567 View Post
    This seems like blatant corruption when they give tax money to a company that is owned by a major Conservative party donor. This is like when the Health Secretary give his local pub landlord a contract worth £30M to supply PPE when he was never in that business in the first place.
    lol as if that sort of thing goes on, what conspiracy theory is this....

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    Re: Malware found on free laptops for UK's vulnerable children

    I think its less about what the government could afford and more about what they could get ahold of. Imagine a post brexit government proceeding to not buy 800,000 laptops from within the UK. I'd imagine Computacenter (go back to 1985 please) probably dictated a lot of the price/performance for a stupid profit, knowing the government would just pay.

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    Re: Malware found on free laptops for UK's vulnerable children

    eMMC 32GB/64GB - I just HOPE that they're 64gb, otherwise the next version of Windows 10 will fill the drive and most people won't know what to do.

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    Re: Malware found on free laptops for UK's vulnerable children

    Quote Originally Posted by PlusNomad View Post
    I think its less about what the government could afford and more about what they could get ahold of. Imagine a post brexit government proceeding to not buy 800,000 laptops from within the UK. I'd imagine Computacenter (go back to 1985 please) probably dictated a lot of the price/performance for a stupid profit, knowing the government would just pay.
    This. It's about supply and demand.

    I know you've all got your technical heads on saying wow what a s**t cpu I could have got a better computer for quicker, (I was in this camp too), but could you have got 100,000 of them within a short time frame? The government were caught between a rock and a hard place, people criticise no matter what they do - they could have got 1 million decent specced laptops in a decent timeframe but people would still criticise.

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    Re: Malware found on free laptops for UK's vulnerable children

    This has got to be the most blatantly corrupt kleptocratic government in the history of this country. How they're still in power, let alone not behind bars, is utterly beyond me. Brexit could be the biggest ever fraud perpetrated on a western country. Anyone who identifies themselves as a Tory - specifically supporting this government - can go diagf.

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    Re: Malware found on free laptops for UK's vulnerable children

    Quote Originally Posted by PlusNomad View Post
    I think its less about what the government could afford and more about what they could get ahold of. Imagine a post brexit government proceeding to not buy 800,000 laptops from within the UK. I'd imagine Computacenter (go back to 1985 please) probably dictated a lot of the price/performance for a stupid profit, knowing the government would just pay.
    Knowing what we know about this government - eg, giving out a shipping contract to a friend of a ministers company without them having any ships, and the most recent 500% profit margin on a paltry amount of food for starving kids, again going to a mate - it would be extremely rose-tinted to assume that this was just a case of a private company bilking the taxpayer while the government hold their hands up and say 'nothing we could do'. They are actively taking every penny they can out of the taxpayer, they're doing it in plain sight, and the working class will keep on voting for them, because the right-wing media are in their pockets too.

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    Re: Malware found on free laptops for UK's vulnerable children

    Quote Originally Posted by wazzickle View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by PlusNomad View Post
    I think its less about what the government could afford and more about what they could get ahold of. Imagine a post brexit government proceeding to not buy 800,000 laptops from within the UK. I'd imagine Computacenter (go back to 1985 please) probably dictated a lot of the price/performance for a stupid profit, knowing the government would just pay.
    Knowing what we know about this government - eg, giving out a shipping contract to a friend of a ministers company without them having any ships, and the most recent 500% profit margin on a paltry amount of food for starving kids, again going to a mate - it would be extremely rose-tinted to assume that this was just a case of a private company bilking the taxpayer while the government hold their hands up and say 'nothing we could do'. They are actively taking every penny they can out of the taxpayer, they're doing it in plain sight, and the working class will keep on voting for them, because the right-wing media are in their pockets too.
    You do realise Labour do this too?

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