[Richard]

Steve, be careful, if you are with some mobile companies you may not get updates at all. EE appear not to supply any updates for Moto devices. Tesco did, when I tried one of their SIMs a back in March so I might try one of their cheap SIMs again to see if it will update my G4 Play from Android 6.

[Richard]

Since one of the key drivers was said to be the absence of some compatible tools to interface with other systems, a number of users remained on Windows systems anyway. The costs and near impossibility of developing replacement Linux tools and integrating them was said to be a killer. They simply did not have the resources to perform the development tasks and usable known product was already on the shelf. Thus the training requirement for those staff would have been zero; they would be migrating from Windows to Windows, duh.

That said, I agree with the above comments, process is not just something – it is everything in a situation like this. Get the processes wrong from the start and the result is what you have there, failure.

 

[Richard]

Bob Williams wrote:

I possess only limited electrical knowledge and both family leccies are at work, so I may be speculating incorrectly: would an anti-surge extension prevent this? Correct me if I’m wrong, happens all the time! EDIT: Dwynne, take a close look at capacitors. Are they swollen, or otherwise visibly damaged?

It does depend upon what was hit and how the surge came in. If it was via the the phone line or some other aspect, such as the aerial then probably a mains surge suppressor would not be much use. If it was via the mains feed then again possibly not, those anti-surge filters are not normally rated for the sort of jolt you get from lightening strikes. It was interesting that it was the network cable socket that apparently took the hit. The only safe way to stop such problems is to unplug everything and perhaps to install lightening conductors.

We had the area supply get blown off during the storm, possibly with two drops which the alarm system recorded, but apart from disturbed sleep we got off lightly.

I have just had one of those Computer support centre parasites call. You know the type, “Its about your windows computer”, having asked him which computer has a problem and pointed out that there is more than one his script fell on the floor. I did not manage to keep him wasting his time for very long sadly, as he soon followed his script and left the connection, oh so sad. Someone else will now be called.

[Richard]

Yes I agree fresh food well prepared is so much better than a load of other offerings.

I was last in Athens in March 1985, I had to look back at the photographs to check the details. You might like to think about Athens in the spring though and push it back toward late March or April. I admit that the Acropolis in a March blizzard did look, well different. Athens was disconnected from most of Greece for several days and boy it was cold. The people and food were nice and friendly, the food was very good and not at all expensive for us, but that was 30 plus years ago. There were daily protest marches against some very real social ills and other supposed problems. Industries were closing down and unemployment was rising. I doubt that much has really changed for the best for many of the population.

I had a meeting with a government body the day after a three day weekend. The windows had perhaps 4 or 5 mm glass but perhaps 10mm or more of ice inside. The view out was ‘limited’ and coats scarves gloves and just about anything that could be worn was being used by the staff to try to keep warm. It would be days before the buildings thawed out again. Still the people were lovely. My wife enjoyed the days wandering about the city with my parents – she had been seriously ill and the trip was a side package added onto a business trip from the Middle East, my parents joined us to look after her by day.

Oh, yes I think they all developed a taste for Metaxa that trip.

I doubt that we will ever be able to go back, insurance and other logistical issues, suggest it is not going to be possible. Wandering about the city would likely be rather more than a step too far, though another now scheduled spinal injection might see some benefits for me, my wife’s mobility is currently going the other way as the start of treatment is for ever pushed back due to other health issues.

[Richard]

Dave, Sorry about your mate Paul, several in my family also went from colon cancer but they were older, about my age in fact. For some reason I have been very careful about those regular tests, so not so good news about Paul

On a slightly, but only slightly brighter note my wife had a melanoma that was a borderline grade 2 removed 25 years ago, it was caught in time and the surgery was radical enough to stop it. Her father was less fortunate, within 5 years he was gone from skin cancer. (A melanoma also did for the dog so it is not just humans who get caught.)

[Richard]

Drezha, after the topic took the usual  trip round the houses I wondered if the original issue was ever resolved and if you now have all services AOK?

[Richard]

Old saying, if you want it done properly do it yourself; caveat only if you can do it the way you want. If not do not rely on SKY.

[Richard]

Steve, a good point about insurance though happily it did not apply to the areal installers who went on the roof and into the loft to sort out the installation. I would have thought that Sky blokes were insured for the same style of work?

Richard

[Richard]

Bob,

I understand your rock and hard place situation and sympathise. In such cases it is hard to know what else you can do. In the light of recent events is there a possible fire risk angle? That could be one that papers or even TV might become interested in following up after a carefully crafted header letter with an ever-so-polite-series (of attached) letter copies. To a tiny extent I understand the drive to build new, but applying the one in one out rule, (build a new one let and old one fail) solves nothing.

Virgin did the same cable shoddy work with my daughter’s place, miles of cable round rooms, up hill and down dale rather than consider any other option. Perhaps that is how the sub-contracted fitters are ‘trained’.

[Richard]

Steve, I think that your are right on the money with that last comment. However, most of the ISPs and others service organisations appear to use the same agencies for call answering and staff them all with little more than script jockeys. Go off script and you are in the tiger country and they will not cope. Of course some users are hugely dumb and believe that everything is down to the provider. After a San Francisco earth quake, one user complained to us that his service was affected and what were we going to do about the problem? There is no publishable answer to that one. Neither is playing with a domestic router going to fix an ISPs authentication router or flaky DNS. It is better to sit those out and have a tea/beer/tipple of choice, play in the park or whatever and not bother the sweet little heads of the call centre. However, when things go bad over billing or the like things do take a different turn and you do not need the switch it off count ten and turn it on again level of ‘solution’ that many offer.

I understand and accept Dave’s advice over bombastic assaults to complaints lines, but do those responsible for failures understand how life affecting some serious errors can be. Sometimes you want someone to suffer rather more than you want a simple pile of words. I have only once ot twice got the revenge I sought, I had to field frequent poorly addressed complaints from one customer and then his organisation really did things to piss me off. So I returned the favour I rang him at a suitable hour while the issue was still live somewhere round 2:00 a.m. I did not have to be overly aggressive to him; reasonable and well intentioned I stated the failure of an area for which he was responsible. After his similalry time calls, boy was that a case of revenge served nice and cool.

When it comes to the likes of banks not being able to issue valid tax certificates, I tended not to be quite so cool, nor did I feel that their script jockeys had the capability to resolve the time of day let alone a system that clearly did not work. A nice formal letter to a senior person asking who within HMRC should be asked to help them out with their failure can often bring results.

Sometimes you just want never to do business with a (dis)organisation ever again in such cases  does one need to really hold back? I tend to sympathise with the jockey for having to work for a crap employer remembering that most calls are recorded and then tearing the employer’s systems apart for the patent failures including a lack of training to staff.

[Richard]

Honestly I think you have had some good advice from pretty much everyone.

From the picture you supplied the wiring damage does look to be on the supplier side of the demarcation point, it also looks poorly supported and unprotected, so that could be suggested nicely to any fitter as a contributory supplier failure – if and only if that is the fault location. The ‘line test’ used to be very basic; look for a far end capacitor kick, it was heavily depended on the skill of the tester. Now it is automated and at least until recently was just as hopeless. A whole bunch of neighbours were affected by a cable break, yet our non working line was still reported as remote testing OK… Ten minutes later the status changed on the suppliers website…

It is not clear where your cable enters, ground level, half way up the wall or higher. To me it looks as though it might have been snagged at sometime and that the cable sheath has been destroyed, they are normally quite tough so take some effort to damage. However, chafing against the rough wall at the entry point could have weakened it if the rest of the run, outside of the picture limits was, for example blowing about in the wind.. All in all it does not look like rodent damage or an attempt to cut the cable, rather it appears to be excess strain, but, who am I to know?

As an outsider I feel that the damage is on the their side of the network termination point, but that the cause could be anyone’s responsibility and, bottom line, unless it is resolved you will not have any service. I do not think there is any real prospect of litigation ending well, based on the evidence you have presented. [That is without considering personal feeling about whether they are a bunch of (…………..fill in whatever term of endearment you prefer).] Even if it does come down to having to pay, which is more important, (a) having service, (b) keeping the cash or (c) a battle with no winner? I urge a vote against (c) and have strong reservations against (b) without strong justifications.

[For me TT come with baggage, I only briefly had ‘service’ from them and that was only by default as another supplier gave up and I was service slammed, my issue at the time was their lousy cancellation methodology which tried to make it impossible to leave like Sky at the time. Happily this was long before they decided that all your confidential information should be a gift for anyone else to take. They still do not make barge poles long enough for me to touch them ever again but that is my problem.]

 

[Richard]

Bob, I well remember the utter relief that was felt when polio vaccinations came in, our generation was one that was heavily touched by such matters either by other children deaths, or being maimed, seeing the results or hearing parents whisper full of worry. Several close ‘associates’ were victims of so called childhood illnesses such as measles, one died at the time another suffered brain damage and died after years of suffering.

What now gets my goat is the damned anti vaccination mob, with their crap about filling babies and children with poisons and how polio, measles, mumps, whooping cough and yes hepatitis,  etc. don’t matter.  When you know the results of those ‘little events’ you want to kill those stupid zealots, before they kill others.

[Richard]

Ed P wrote:

I still like the convenience of being able to glance at a watch rather than ‘dig’ for a phone. Having even a cheap ‘smart’ watch on your wrist allows the Bluetooth in it to keep your phone unlocked all the time the two are close. (around 20 ft in this case).

I like a watch, but one needs a specialised battery which needs time for a cross country trip; one is a very elderly wind up and the rest are dead, so I am currently sans watch, though back with Bluetooth earpiece.

I never could juggle and will not start now. I do not have a wallet, a habit from the 40~50 degree C Middle East where jacket and their pockets were a non starter. So I have a small ‘belt wart’ that contains licenses, ID*, cards and money. As I cannot look down I have it arranged for sight free access. The phone, (just) fits in a shirt pocket.

[*Often needed overseas, habit die hard.]

I did not realise either the loss limits or purchase limits on a ‘phone flick, wave or tap and pay’, Almost every transaction of mine these days exceeds those limits. I do not get out much, so go for bulk smash and grab shopping. That might be a limitation on the wave and pay utility value for me. For very small amounts, say <£5, I prefer cash rather than checking off lots of small items at months end. Today’s ‘venture out’ was for my wife to see the out of hours GP. Painful for her, but possibly/hopefully not too serious. I am a bit automated, one car key plus house key right hand pocket, other car and small change in the left pocket, cards, cash, license, ID, etc on my belt, phone in shirt pocket. Once dressed, day or night I am then ready to roll out and respond to whatever has gone wrong, ‘this time’.

Thank you gentlemen, this has been instructive, I do now have a fuller appreciation of different approaches than my own.

[Richard]

I can see why you need single hand operation, though I do prefer no hands whenever possible. I think I might have cracked using a facial image, –  I have no finger scanner.But it is still a two handed performance.

I am trying to find a way to chose and book an orthopaedics appointment (for another hand problem) but at a reachable hospital. All the easy access ones have nothing and even the far away ones are months ahead. Not much point going there as it would be almost impossible to get home without the car if another operation was needed.

[Richard]

PlaneMan wrote:

I’ve never had to unlock my phone to use Android Pay. Just tap it on the terminal and it works.

Interesting, the saga get ever more interesting. However, do you know if the phone locks itself semi-randomly? That is one of my main disrupters.

[Richard]

Steve, I have followed your advocacy of Android pay with interest. I think that the first issue is the assumption that the mobile is hand held. While true for many it is rarely in my hand but it is often buried in my pocket. Android pay repeats this, for me invalid assumption quote:

No need to juggle between your phone and wallet at checkout. With Android Pay, you can keep doing what you’re doing on your phone. Just wake your phone and hold it to the terminal — you don’t even need to open the app. I don’t juggle, it is  rarely in my hand.

Perhaps because it’s in my pocket, it simply loves sleeping. Extracting, waking it and re-entering the passcode is time consuming. It also dislikes and often ignores my worn fingers, requiring the use of a foam tipped wand. Sadly this two handed process, is considerably slower than single handed card use. Unless I can control its narcolepsy tendency (and I have tried hard to keep it awake, – suggestions welcomed) its use is problematic. I see its value for online shopping, – but only if you are able to use the mobile for such activities. Web sites are often painful to use as my eyes are not as young as yours! The need for constant scrolling up, down, left and right is not helped if you are using old fingers.

[Sadly my experiment using wired headphones was no more successful than with Bluetooth, I still ended up having to dig it out and ‘start it up’ negating any hands free capability. So it is back to the drawing board on that one.] The love affair is on hold for the moment – my wife wants nothing to do with it and youngest daughter is struggling with her expensive Samsung, which my wife can only charge.

[Richard]

Bob, I agree your approach to that matter. Still the cost of blood when it arrives at a patient is hugely increased by all the processing, testing and the like that needs to happen these days. Some places are against paying ‘doners’ as they see an incentive for unsuitable applicants to come ‘just for the money’ and lie about their status. To be honest I used to sell blood in the Middle East, some times according to schedule, 4 times a year and at other times because I was called out at night to answer a shortage, I have a less common but by no means rare type.*As a side effect I saw some off colour events, with some of the ‘vegetarian residents’, trying to offer relations to give blood when a family member was in trouble. The words of the staff still ring in my mind as they tried to point out some of those offered were in such poor shape, they needed a transfusion rather than being able to supply blood.

*The health service ran a sort of ‘take one’, ‘give one’ request process, when patients needed transfusions to try to encourage greater supplies. Ex-pats were a prime source at the time, so much so that the local paper even ran off colour jokes about alcohol levels in donations, not really a joking matter then or now.

My donation history was back in the 1980s, not been since as events including transcontinental moves, became the overriding controller. Now the events still come thick and fast, but I am too old anyway – I did check a little while back.

Yes Ed quote; Nasty range of diseases: they can lead to things like liver cancer many years later. Hepatitis reached endemic proportions in New Zealand and I remember having to be screened as part of a national campaign (only screened for A&B at that time).

That is what killed my neighbour a year or two back, unclean swimming pool water killed him 60 years after his first problem., it is not a nice way to go.

Can hepatitis risks be reduced by modern heat treating, I understand that is part of the (expensive) treatment some blood fractions can undergo?

[Richard]

I wanted to add that I knew about the blood plasma issue affecting haemophiliacs a number of years back so I was surprised that new issues were still being flushed out. It shows how bad my memory is, I thought it had been investigated years back, so I find it less than satisfactory that unresolved issues are still to be cleared.

[Richard]

That was a time when a lot of things happened that later events would show would, perhaps, have been better not to have happened.

My wife had started blood derived treatments and we were later mystified to know why the treatment suddenly became ‘unavailable’, yes the same reason, suspect blood; so the treatment was banned. As Ed said, it is not a wonderful piece of news when that happens. Perhaps on the brighter side, if there is one, as she had already had been affected by earlier illness that barred her from donating blood so the doner issue did not arise.
When our first born was hatched at about 31 weeks she had a transfusion while we were living on the other side of the world so another tense time followed and never really clears. The outcome would likely have been worse without the treatment, but as the storms were breaking about blood and blood products that was less than welcome news.

So far neither of them appear to have suffered ill effects, but you never quite clear the doubts and concerns. However that said, I still understand the sequencing issues.

Find a breakthrough,

then  roll it out,

then find the side effects/possible consequences;

it is the what then happens which really decides how things roll on. The genies can never stuck get back into their bottles, however, timely actions can make a limited difference. Where due diligence was not applied, timely consequences are required.

I neighbour recently died sixty years later as a consequence of hepatitis when he was a child, caught from a swimming pool. That sort of refreshes that parts you never want refreshing. He spent several years suffering- it gets painful on so many levels.

[Richard]

Steve, I am minded to agree with you. At the moment the devices are not even general purpose items, they are principally intended to support the supplier’s commercial activities. Some mild reprogramming to lessen that aspect while improving the suitability  for key vertical markets would be relatively straight forward. Items for use in e.g. old people’s support facilities have been available in some markets for years – the Japanese had them back in the late 1970s early 1980’s. (I know because my lot bought some kit for a developing aluminium smelter with the kit’s write up confirming it was specially suited to geriatric homes and specialist hospitals! We spent a while adapting it to its new role.)

Sadly some of the support and special interests groups in the UK have a poor record of specially tailored items ‘only’ cost 25% to 100% more than the free market equivalents. They should be pushing the likes of Amazon, Google, etc. to develop support modules for their group’s special needs in vertical market segments, perhaps down playing the usual applications to simplify their use. Items could then be tailored and pre-packaged for the target market segments. The elderly, partially sighted and other disabled could find a suitable assistant a god sent aid to normal living

However, I strongly agree that if there is no clear use or benefit then they will simply be an expensive and not very good dust magnets or not be purchased in the first place. Perhaps for this reason I found the Amazon sale disappointing with nothing that attracted any interest from me – and I spent time trawling through the listings. However, I am aware that many fell into the target demographic and found many items to buy or at least desire, for them it was successful.

[Author]

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