The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Now theres a can of worms!

Gaz wrote:
I hadn't thought of it as a full-cost-of-ownership thing, it makes more sense if you lump in all of the infrastructure and training. The quote made it sound as if they'd bought software alone priced at £18k.

As for the actual headline, this might be the only occasion in history when "sniper" is accurate - the gun in question was a Mauser sniper rifle. Shame they then screwed up by calling it a "K89"...

Ah now I guessed that Gaz! It was my suggestion for the more accurate article that you will no doubt write Gaz

Unfortunately people have a poor understanding when it comes to the value of some things, to the average Joe on the street £18,000 is a huge amount of money! In a commercial database sense taking in account full cost of ownership it is peanuts.

Just be glad the NRA haven't done what many a small organisation has in the past and got somebody who says they are a dab hand at Access to knock something up...well unless that is what they did whereupon the headline would be:

NRA get fleeced buying inappropriate and insecure database!

Browning_grrl wrote:That's interesting, mostly because I didn't know that the UK had a "NRA" as well. I guess not the same sort of thing as ours though? :)

Dude, it's not even close.

I do not understand how a data base will help security..presumably security depends on keeping the guns under lock and key...a paper register, properly kept, should suffice. The EU Directive 2008/51 indicates that computerised records are required for an RFD from December 2014, but the Home Office directive of 23/12/2014 indicates that either paper records or computerised records may be maintained by an RFD...I assume this applies to the NRA. £18000 seems a lot of dosh to me..better spent on decent locks and a limited access to the keys. How many people have access to the keys?

Mike95

To be honest Mike95 wasn't a paper register, stout locks and limited access to keys the system they already had in place and totally failed.

As already pointed out £18,000 is cheap for a database in a commercial sense, any organisation that processes and holds a large number of items should have a computerised database.

Databases are expensive.

SQL enterprise costs more than 18K for pretty much any configuration, so it easy to spend that much. 18K is cheap!

By contrast MySQL is free, so swings and roundabouts. It can get expensive if you've got barcode hand held scanners as well.

They're probably running an Excel spreadsheet with a couple of Macros created by "Dave" the "IT Guy" (probably someone's nephew or brother-in-law) who knows all about computers from his days hacking Xboxes while he coasted through some mickey-mouse IT degree.

Demonic69 wrote:mickey-mouse IT degree.

Degrees in digital cartoons?

Whatever next?

I contracted for one of the banks at Canary Wharf and I can confirm their business runs on Excel.