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Microsoft Wrongly Gives Britain the Day Off
Barence writes "An error in Outlook's public holidays calendar has incorrectly given Britons the day off work. Today was originally meant to be a Bank Holiday in Britain, but the holiday was postponed for a week to coincide with the Queen's diamond jubilee next week. However, Microsoft Outlook and Windows Live services are still reporting today as Britain's Spring Bank Holiday, potentially tricking Britons into believing they have the day off work."
Cancel or post-pone some actual holiday because their kings/queens have done something else. It's hardly Microsoft's fault. And this would not be mentioned in news if it wasn't USA or UK Kingdom.
"potentially"? How about you find some git that skipped work because of it.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
That sent us back to 1792. I couldn't even have toast since sliced bread hadn't been invented yet.
Seems odd to post this *after* normal work hours in the UK. Did someone actually complain about this?
Why not bill Microsoft for all those "lost" work hours?
After all, Microsoft does own England.
...well, luckily in GMT the work day is over by now.
My Dilbert calender says today was a holiday in the UK as well. DAMN YOU SCOTT ADAMS!
So the real story here is that people are so stupid that they believe whatever a computer tells them.
If the brits don't already know their holiday was moved, why should they expect MS to be on top of that?
Most linux users don't know this, but the man pages were named after Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris fsck'ing hates noobs!
Windows Genuine Advantage
1. Google calendar has the same issue which is more embarrassing since Google calendar is online by definition and can be fixed more easily than outlook.
2. Apparently you can download an updated holidays file and patch Outlook.
3. Now that we've had our daily Microsoft-is-the-stupidest-and-evilest-company-on-the-planet-for-not-accurately-predicting-an-arbitrary-holiday-date-change-years-in-advance post, I'd like to see some more stories about how Americans are stupid and evil and some scientific studies showing that Christians are genetically inferior to the Atheist master race.
AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
but the holiday was postponed for a week to coincide with the Queen's diamond jubilee
In their defense, I must point out that the Queen of England writes terrible VBScript code. It probably is still being reviewed. If she wants to postpone a national holiday, she needs to get her changes committed at least 2 weeks prior to the hotfix release date.
Oh, this will be interesting. So far nobody ever got fired for believing Microsoft...
Let us thank those who maintain calendar apps for giving us a quasi-plausible excuse for staying home on a Monday.
How many people actually rely on Outlook to tell them what days they have off, particularly something like "Spring Bank Holiday"?
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
It's Memorial Day and not everybody gets the day off work. It's up to you to know which holidays, if any you get off work from.
I was going to write a long diatribe about human error and consequence in our tech. connected world, but I'll just leave it to this sentiment: if you rely solely on Outlook Calendar for when you have days off, you deserve to look like an idiot for taking off the wrong day.
See subject, & about MS having date problems? They're not alone.
I don't pay any attention anyway.
Microsoft insists in referring to England as the UK when in fact they mean England.
Scotland has different holidays to England, but these aren't available to Scottish users according to MS.
Last year Windows UK had a UK tour, which only toured English cities. Nothing in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.
A peeved UK citizen in Scotland.
the only legal implications of a bank holiday is that you cannot be held to pay a debt on that day. there's nothing about a day off. that's a contractual matter between you and your employer. My employer doesn't automatically grant a day off on a bank holiday, if I want it off I have to book it as part of my annual vacation time.
if you cant think enough for yourself and don't know when a holiday really is, you have bigger problems.
Same sorts of people that will drive into a brick wall when the GPS says to turn right.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
No way are we that dependent on MS Outlook.
Wait--who relies on Microsoft to tell when they have off work? Since when is Microsoft the authority? Whatever MS may or may not say about holidays, it's your own fault if you listen to anyone other than your employer as to when you've got off work.
So following the announcement of the postponement, MS decides to include the updated calendar info in a patch.
Since the patch isn't a critical or security patch, a large portion of end users -- and a larger portion of systems administrators would not install the patch.
Still not a news item.
I gave up on the holidays calendar years ago due to an overabundance of errors -- primarily inclusions of US holidays in the Canada calendar.
I suspect most Outlook users in the UK did the same.
It isn't raining.
I gave up on the holidays calendar years ago due to an overabundance of errors -- primarily inclusions of US holidays in the Canada calendar.
Wait, what's the problem with that?
no text
People could use an extra day off from work to futz around trying to get Winbloz to work properly and to run those virus scans.
Us windows phone owning suckers in the UK had the same problem. My wife ruined my morning poop wit the news that it wasn't a bank holiday :(
Microsoft have never really cared about getting calendar details right. Whenever a colonial (maybe should I say yank to really annoy them - even though I know they're not all yanks) sends a meeting request it arrives saying GMT as the timezone for London instead of BST. You would have thought that they could get the hang of daylight saying as they have it too. You actually have to confirm with the other end and say: you know that meeting that says 1:00 pm GMT is really 1:00pm BST or noon GMT (actually I normally translate to whatever zone they're in) e.g 8:00 am EDT.
I'm in the UK and I worked today, but I get double pay for working public holidays, so thank you M$!
Remember the good old days when Microsoft prevented you from working because its software crashed?
When I picked up my Samsung Omnia 7 this morning it gleefully had on my main screens Calender App that I was on Holiday today. Luckily my wife was on hand to shout at me to get out of bed and get the kids up as she has a Palm Pre.
I'm all about the Linux, and I'm not a fan of Microsoft. I haven't used Windows since XP, and it hasn't been my primary OS since Win98. But if a regularly scheduled holiday is postponed by decree, does not being informed of that count as "a mistake"? The way I see it, the entity ordering the change is responsible for informing the media, and the mistake was not considering Microsoft (or Google, apparently) part of the media. How often is a holiday temporarily postponed? I can't remember such a thing happening in the US. What we've all learned is that the information infrastructure is not equipped to handle this extraordinary case.
I don't give a fuck about their decrepit, fossilized coprolite throwback to an archaic system of governance based upon inheritance of authority as if people were the personal property of their useless, pampered, over-privileged, over-indulged, inbred "royal" family.
A celebration of the continued existence and adoration of that parasite by those ignorant peons is to be ignored. I'm with Misro$oft on this one.
The depressing thing is that our anachronistic, out-of-touch, hereditary monarch is probably the sanest and best informed member of our government...
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
In most countries, you are a citizen of that country, and that's that.
That the UK/ Great Britain/ England/ whatever has a crazy patchwork of overlapping national identities, allegiances, and historical intricacies is your fucking problem, not the world's.
Don't expect us to know about your petty nationalistic bullshit, keep track of it, or fucking care.
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Some people actually use Outlook?
Love these guys...
The depressing thing is that our anachronistic, out-of-touch, hereditary monarch is probably the sanest and best informed member of our government...
Not to mention the most popular.
And the least corrupt.
(Spudley Strikes Again!)
I gave up on the holidays calendar years ago due to an overabundance of errors -- primarily inclusions of US holidays in the Canada calendar.
Iti s a good bet that a Canadian will live within commuting distance of the American border or will have business and personal contacts in the states.
I've a suspicion that some of those aren't independent variables. It would be interesting to know how they connect, because then instead of having to get depressed, you'd know why the rest of government was so flawed on such a consistent basis and what was actually needed in the way of reform. Discovery is only depressing if you never do anything with it.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Suck my dick, faggot.
Thanks, but no thanks.
We all know how much Microsoft likes to Embrace, then Extend, but that'd be pushing the metaphor a little too far.
Agreed. The Far North states are just as much a part of the good old United States as the Far South states (Mexico & friends).
We only let them think they are independent (with their own provincial government) so that they are easier to control. It's basically the same deal the UK has with the United States.
I am John Hurt.
And how much of the World is involved in the World Series? My point? None that I can think of
If it only hit Missouri, it would still be called a US Tour. It happens all the time.
Is that how they named the "World Series"? :)
To be fair, I guess all the teams are actually in "the world"
Paul "Say no to feeping creaturism"
And the least corrupt.
When you have ammassed as much wealth as the Queen legally, you don't need to be corrupt.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
The article makes no mention of whether those hard-working Britons in Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man get the day off either. :)
They try soooo hard.
So often, they almost get it right.
Yay them!