IT Cutbacks For 2012 London Olympics

Slatterz writes "The IT backbone for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games is to be cut. According to the Games' chief integrator, Michele Hyron of Atos Origin, each section of the computing infrastructure will be made more efficient in order to minimise redundant equipment and hopefully reduce energy consumption. Unlike the Beijing Games, the results will be relayed via the public wireless network which will be available in the Olympic Park — this means cutting out the 2,500 results terminals. The team of workers will deliver more than 1,000 servers, 10,000 PCs and 4,000 printers."

Comments

Good

[SchizoStatic]

Maybe this time we won't see a giant BSOD on the ceiling of the event.

In other news...Recession cuts back Olympics Games

[syousef]

Now instead of an International sporting competition in London, 3 guys from Yorkshire will come down and play rock, paper, scissors. To save face 1000 rounds of RPS will be played, and for each one a different combination of paper hats with different national flags printed on them will be worn by the 3 guys. The IOC is requesting donations as paper hats and printing costs money, as does travel to and from Yorkshire.

Of course!

[B5_geek]

According to Monty Python (Meaning of Life); Yorkshire is "The Third World", so this only makes sence that they would make cutbacks.

Personally I think it's courageous of the IOC to grant these impoverished and lower class of civilized existence a chance to exist within the glorious umbrella that the IOC bequeaths.

Unfortunate wording

[Y-Crate]

"The IT backbone for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games is to be cut"

Ouch.

This won't reduce fat intake.

[Anonymous Coward]

"But unless humans get their wifi implants before 2012 this will just move the cost of the energy consumption to different parties."

Like cellphones?

Craplympics

[Roland Piquepaille]

The team of workers will deliver more than 1,000 servers, 10,000 PCs and 4,000 printers.

It always makes my blood boil to see how much money is funneled into sporting events such as the olympics without flinching, while at the same time public research, schools, etc..., people of real value to society, have to cry and beg for resources...

Re:Craplympics

[theaveng]

>>>The olympics encourage people to take up sports and get fit.

Since the Olympics were installed people are MORE fat than ever, not less. The Olympics have done nothing of what you claim.

>>>They promote tourism.

Not really. Most of the cities that sponsored the Olympics are still deep in debt. There are a few exceptions like Atlanta which was mostly paid by corporations, but then there are others like Toronto who, even thirty years later, are still in debt. Tourism does not make-up for the huge expense of throwing this "huge sports party" known as the Olympics.

>>>you can pump as much money as you want into schools and research and it tends to dissapear into a black hole.

The fact that we are both sitting here with college degrees, and now contributing back to society with our respective design expertise, belies that claim. Schools contribute for the simple reason that people walk into kindergarten going "duh" and they come out with the ability to read, write, and do basic math (or go onto college).

That's better than what sponsorship of Olympic-level sport produces (a broken worn-out body in most cases & a way to sell Fruit Loops in national advertising).

Rant

[Kupfernigk]

The London Olympics is pure pork barrel. It was intended to allow Government to divert funds to one of the more undeveloped parts of London while allowing an unsavoury collection of washed up politicians to enjoy lots of jollies. It is distorting the infrastructure of South-East England and spending still more money in an area that already gets more than its fair share.

Londoners go on about how London subsidises the rest of the country, but this has actually always translated as "controls the banking system and so rips off your profit and claims it as its own". This has just gone massively pear shaped...so now the Government wants the rest of the country to pay for the Olympics through general taxes.

Don't get me wrong, I am an expat Londoner. But the mismanagement of London, where some of the most deprived areas of the country are next to some of the richest, and people earning £1 million a year try to avoid paying their cleaners even minimum wages, is truly horrible. I'm glad to live in a much more egalitarian part of the country where we don't have the resulting crime and drug problems.

GB cannot really afford the Olympics, which has become completely bloated owing to the ludicrous over promotion of the IOC. We should either tell the IOC to go deflate itself and run a Games that London can afford, or let Beijing have it a second time, thus helping them to pay for all those facilities. I favour the first option...in which case this should only be the start and there should be rigorous pruning of excess. Beginning with replacing Tessa Jowell and Sebastian Coe with Second Life avatars who won't be able to spend lots of public money on entertaining corrupt functionaries.

Re:As an East Londoner...

[jandersen]

May I apologise in advance for the state of the London 2012 Olympics? I have absolutely no faith in the Government bringing this in on time, or on budget.

You certainly may - apology accepted.

In other new, one of the first Olympic venues for 2012 games opens today, ahead of schedule and under budget:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/7753734.stm

Sorry. You just don't understand money or politics

[Colin Smith]

It always makes my blood boil to see how much money is funneled into sporting events such as the olympics without flinching, while at the same time public research, schools, etc..., people of real value to society, have to cry and beg for resources...

You see, money is created from nothing. There is an infinite supply of money, it however doesn't grow on trees, someone has to go to the laborious task of typing the numbers into a computer. Or writing them into a book.

Bankers can get as much money as they like, they just pay the politicians a little bit up front and the politicians pay them back... Well, we're well into the trillions now.
 

Re:Sorry. You just don't understand money or polit

[dontmakemethink]

No, money is created from something. What bankers do that makes money insubstantial is called leverage. A typical leverage structure in a functional economy is 10:1, where there is 10 times as much money issued on loan as there is in actual existence. Sounds crazy, but it works.

The current economic fiasco is due largely to excessive leverage, just like the crash of 1929. Currently, American banks that have either collapsed or are begging for bail-outs were leveraged over 100:1.

The shit hasn't quite hit the fan in Europe yet. Most major European banks are leveraged far more than 100:1, most notably German banks that exceed 400:1. So when European banks start to go tits up (and they will), keep in mind there is no treasury for the Euro. The only bailout funds are from individual countries, who are no doubt going to care more about themselves than an economic union that failed to protect them. So imagine changing currencies in the middle of the greatest economic crisis in 80 years. Think that's a good thing, or bad?

in other news

[smoker2]

Boris (don't look at the hands, look at the eyes) Johnson, has scrapped the western extension to the London Congestion charge. He asked a survey of 28000 what they wanted and apparently between 67 % and 86% of businesses wanted it scrapped. Sounds democratic, but I think that mob rule better fits the bill. Since the extension was introduced, roughly 30,000 fewer vehicles a day have passed through that zone. That's a line of cars over 55 miles (90km) long that haven't been clogging the streets on their way somewhere else. If you take into account the reduction caused by the original zone (70,000 vehicles), and you can add 131 miles (210km) to that figure. 186 miles of traffic NOT entering an area roughly 10 miles in diameter every day. I would have thought that was a good thing, but apparently not. What about the other 250,000 vehicles who still enter the area daily ?

Still, as long as he's popular ...

I worked the distances out using 1 car = 3 metres long. If some of those were trucks, then the line gets longer, and most cars are longer than 3m anyway.
Yes this is relevant to the Olympics. Efficient transportation is kind of essential at large events.