Posts by jaydoubleyou

Fixing an upside-down USB plug: A case of supporting the insupportable

An engineer attending a site I used to work at told me he'd just come from a branch of a major supermarket chain where the server dealing with the online deliveries went into a boot loop because someone had unplugged a PS2 keyboard then tried to plug it back in the wrong way, bending the pins in the process. They lost 100 orders and had to compensate the customers £10 each for the inconvenience..

You can get a mechanical keyboard for £45. But should you? We pulled an Aukey KM-G6 out of the bargain bin

Re: What kit are you using it with?

That's very odd, all the labels I've seen online (and mine) have the date in yyyy-mm-dd format (mine is 1988-08-17). You might find out more by searching for part numbers, for instance mine has a large print 7 digit number, 1391406, and searching for this I found one made in 1989 (https://www.tavi.co.uk/ps2pages/modelm/index.html)

A real head-scratcher: Tech support called in because emails 'aren't showing timestamps'

OK this was 1997/98 but I used to work for the Ministry of Agriculture (as was) and the admin assistant for one of the senior vets used to have to print his emails out every morning.

PC World, Currys staff to be dumped in DSGi rescue plan?

Freeview, freesat, freesat, freeview, let's call the whole thing off

Recently Dixons online were doing a half-price offer on Freesat - £75 instead of the usual £150. I tried buying it (not that I wanted Sky especially, but it would have cost about £300 to have a special aerial erected if I'd wanted Freeview) but they'd sold out. So I thought, well Currys are part of the same group, I'll see if they're doing the same offer.

It was like waking the dead - the assistant looked at me blankly, mumbled "we've got Freeview" then wandered off. I'll take that as a no then. The next day Dixons had it back in stock, so I bought it, a week later they decided actually no, they didn't have it and refunded my money. I ended up paying full price, and I could probably have had it two weeks earlier than I did if I hadn't been messed around by Dixons.

As for PC World, I bought a monitor recently which was the cheapest I could find even after looking online (and I got it even cheaper when it came up at the wrong price at the till, the manager checked and told the assistant to 'knock 10 off' and she took 10% instead of £10 off...). Also bought one of those 1TB Western Digital network drives there, but we can't all be perfect... Most of the prices are laughable, the one that got me recently was the 'Tech Guys' charge of £29.99 (or somewhere thereabouts) to 'fit a USB device'....

I was going to say I'd never celebrate a company going under but then I remember how pleased I was when Tempo went bust (after two YEARS trying to get a dodgy TV replaced it was poetic justice...) - hopefully if it happens the staff there will quickly find suitable jobs (in the case of the freesat/freeview moron, I think stacking shelves might be a bit too intellectually challenging...).