Top all-time · #10951
James Christie
Personal blog · clarotesting.wordpress.comprogrammingcareer
James Christie's personal blog at clarotesting.wordpress.com covers programming and career. Since 2015, 7 different Hacker News readers have linked it 7 times, most often “The Post Office Horizon IT scandal, part 1 – errors and accuracy”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-03-11, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (2) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
The linked posts concern the Post Office Horizon IT scandal, including the 'Dalmellington Bug', where a frozen screen let a £8000 transfer repeat. The comments discuss the bug and do not assess the blog's writing.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 2 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
My name is James Christie. I am a software testing consultant based in Perth in Scotland. My main area of interest is the governance issues associated with testing. I am also very interested in user experience and incorporating usability testing into conventional testing. Over the last few years mos
Most-linked posts?
- The Post Office Horizon IT scandal, part 1 – errors and accuracy2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-01-08
What Hacker News says?
I don't know of any actual technical reports but this is interesting, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/09/how-the-post... . "One, named the “Dalmellington Bug”, after the village in Scotland where a post office operator first fell prey to it, would see the screen freeze as the user was attempting to confirm receipt of cash. Each time the user pressed “enter” on the frozen screen, it would silently update…
Comment linking /tag/dalmellingto-bug/
on “British Post Office Scandal”Submitted Y2K – why I know it was a real problem (2015) as a story · 50 points
HN discussionThe 'Dalmellington Bug' was particularly interesting: - While transferring £8000 from the main branch to a sub-branch, the system screen froze, the user pressed enter three more times, and each time they user pressed enter the system repeated the £8000 transfer, ending up with £32000 transferred, while the screen remained frozen, hiding what had occurred from the user. - The investigation showed that there were 112…
Comment linking /2020/05/27/the-post-office-horizon-it-scandal-part-1-errors-and-accuracy/
on “Ex-PO operator is first Horizon IT victim to launch legal action against”Submitted The First Law of Cybernetics as a story · 8 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Post Office Horizon IT scandal, part 1 – errors and accuracy as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Has opposition to ISO 29119 really died down? as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted A single source of truth? as a story · 1 points
HN discussion