Posts by Diez66

Psssst

It's reported the US Navy picked up the implosion days ago using a top-secret microphone system but kept quiet about it so as not to give away this special submarine-detecting capability.

GAS!

So my mate bought his new, old, house and within seconds of the removal firm asking for a tea the smell of gas was overwhelming.

Yup, they had taken the gas cooker/stove and just cut the pipe which was now open ended.

Laws around gas and safety are old and quite draconian it appears. The gas was turned off, the repairs safely made and the previous owner was tole he was a very naughty boy. That and the cost, the slap on the wrist and a fine. He could have even been jailed apparently.

Gas, such fun.

This was many years back now but I understand gas is still, I think rightly, very heavily regulated.

Wot, no redundancy for you young man, well old git.

So, we were shedding staff left right and center and I was planning on retiring early so I put up my hand and Nope!

I tried really hard, I had had a few months of no real work. I was a technical trainer but no courses. I spent time learning all the new stuff that the move from copper TDM telco to VoIP was bringing, well you never know.

In the end I managed to get 5 months more with only 1 days training delivery plus they sent me to Munich to learn the new products ?????. Sweet, paid holiday and a chance to say Hi! and Bye! to all my old German friends.

Such Fun!

No redundancy but no work, happy bunny.

Maybe too late but hey, so is Windows

It's an XXXXXL, so, Bloatwear.

Loved it

Thanks, cheered me up wandering just along the thought train. Happy Days

Big wall, small red button

So, we are bad people, big test lab set up to run rests throughout the weekend but it was ok for us to be there as our work did not clash.

So finished up, empty building and a football.

No, we were very careful. Just bounced it along the corridors and all was well until it was time to break for lunch, luxury.

Chuck us the ball, clunk, silence.

Gas, Cut those pipes, no worries!

OK, not at work, not even data but it is part of a network.

My parents house still had two capped off pipes where gas lights were once equipped.

They decided to redecorate, it really was time.

OK, gas off, cut the pipe; Hissssssssssssss.

Turns out they were connected to the neighbours house, laugh, well we did later.

At the time we ran away and got the man in.

Wrong Solution, oh!, just do what he wants.

Large, was Telecom, now all sorts company and was asked to write a report, by manager, "Ali B" to choose the type of cable system we should use, there were only two choices..

I did just that and submitted it.

It came back with various cryptic comments, this went of for several drafts until the penny dropped.

I had chosen the wrong connector.

I quickly re-wrote it favouring the "right" system. Job Done.

Nothing changed, got paid. yay!

Turn it off, not on again!

OK, long time ago, they all are?

Frantic, Sunday, phone call from the south coast, "It goes live on Monday morning and it keeps crashing"

We have tried everyone else and we have tried everyone else, there is no one who can help.

It was a PABX with twin, fully redundant, hot swap, processors, they kept swapping before they could get any useful data configured. All they told me was it kept crashing.

(I am guessing you know my Sunday fix already)

They must have been desperate, I was the technical trainer and, at that date, unproven to the field engineers. Can't do it become a trainer, can’t train, become a manager.

So, as a non overtime grade I drove from Luton down to the south coast where I was witness to all those Kiss Me Quick hats wearing holiday makers, me tools in hand.

I got to site, where the errant box was, no phones on that site as there were no externa lines connected yet, and a 20 minute drive to the main site that had service and possible support. You could feel their pain.

I asked them to show me the problem, sure enough it crashed and the hot standby took over but as they had been unable, in the time it was running, to save the database, it started empty.

I watched this a couple of times, turned off the standby processor and there it sat; unhappy, sulking a bit but up and running.

Silence, and joy; then off they went programming and saving until they were happy it would do the job. Shed loads of “WTF” alarms but stable.

Proper fix came late Monday.

Me, no glory from the mangers who said I should not have gone, true but unkind. The engineers, totally my best ever buddies. Really helped me in my job as they knew I could actually “Do It”.

Not being buried in the situation as they felt they were, I was able to see the wood for the trees.

Sometimes you just get lucky.

Wonderful

Love the optimism, well done your mum.

It's not the machine that's the probem

Bought new Washer Dryer and new dishwasher for a holiday home.

They are fine, so far. Well it's only been 3 years and well limited use what with Covid etc.

The biggest problem I have, to date, is finding somewhere to recycle all the mail I am getting from the manufacturer and their cronies about Insurance! It will go wrong, you will never be able to afford the repair without our wonderful product........; argh!

If they put as much effort into the product, eh?

The on board Log, in the on board bog.

Central Windows Button

Why, now I will have to pay attention not just flick the mouse down:

OK I could use the key!, I could worry about something really important.

It will be configurable, please?

When I was young and the world was, just how it was, I used to help shop for a neighbour and when we went to the butchers we used to ask for a "Happy Chicken"; not an eyelid was batted.

Looking back, A "Happy Chicken" and a butcher, Nope

This is why we need the PC brigade to stomp out such nonsense.

Just love to see something that is not dusty, old and rubbish looking

Looking at old original kit you forget how good it must have looked at the time.

All the sweet looking kit we get these days with all the sophisticated manufacturing processes and machines you look back at the museum kit and get, well I do, the opinion it was all a bit 2nd rate.

Looking at this, wow, how amazing it looks, it make you, well me, think how some of the other kit, war, domestic and so on, must have been seen in the eyes of those in the past.

What a great achievement by Marian Rejewski. Nice one Hal Evans.

En(d)urance

End, if it does early.

Endurance if it last a long time and finally, when it stops "End".

Boring but a good fit.

From next door

My parents house has two end capped gas pipes over the fireplace, on the chimney breast, which used to have had lights in the distant past.

Yes, there were connected to the house next door's supply.

Discovered when the saw cut through the pipe.

No big bang, result.

They will need to bring, if they can get past the border, their own food.

This will also sort out the curly sandwiches, problem, at the same time.

It is oviously as Sci-Fi special effects star, they always blow up several times.

The proof would be, "Can you hear it"?

A very satisfying Flash / Bang

So a big old PBX, just installed and running the site.

"Lets check the standby batteries" said the boss.

He turn off the mains, silence and no lights? The battery fuse was disconnected so no batteries.

We get to witness; boss runs around a bit grabs the fuse and pops it in and the is a big old flash and a bang as the batteries start to supply current.

Boss falls backwards and does a bit of a somersault; all very pleasing to us chaps as we had told him let us check it had all been installed correctly and ready for testing but no!.

It appears on a more expensive system there is some circuitry to prevent big bang/flash but boss did not want to pay.

Made us very happy and did no damage other than split sides.

Laptop from radium, Now I am a bit ignorant on how nuclear power stations work exactly, it's not a skill I have needed but from a simplistic point of view.

How Wonderfully Green.

Lots of radioactive laptops and they will all eventually need binning. They can all go to selective landfill, lets call it a reactor. Green Electricity!.

The users of said laptops may pass early, convert to them to Solent Green. Recycling? as a side effect, population reduction, a Virtuous Circle.

OK, radium, uranium not the same, Solent Green not real? But Hey, why let reality get in the way of, Hey that's a good idea!

Someone/thing that does not listen to me

Felt like a normal day, sad.

Open Plan, Me?

I was the noisy one, not using hands free but constantly chatting and basically quite noisy.

My boss did point this out.

My response was, "Well you knew what I was like and You! put me in an open plan office".

Not sure this make me a good guy?

I hate and hated open plan offices, I also know what I was like and knew I would bog it up.

I used to be a technical trainer, thank god for closed training rooms where my chat and banter seemed to be just right.

TPS, I re-register every now and then.

This seems to work well, very, very few calls and if I start to get some, I re-register and they seem to stop again, works for me.