Posts by Simon Robinson 31 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Apr 2007
My former colleague, who was Head of IT at a prep school, was "asked" (with no option to say no) to teach a French class - despite not knowing anything more than very rusty GCSE French from 20+ years prior. He was literally one page ahead of the pupils in the textbook, sometimes having to introduce "fun activities" to slow the class down!
Yes, been there and done that in my previous role in education.
From the business manager who bought a sign in system without doing any research or comparisons (guess what - didn't integrate with our MIS, wasn't very good, and there were much better and cheaper alternatives available) to the new school group "server guy" who bought a new server to replace ours, only for us to find out it was hopelessly underspecced for our needs - but I was already on my way out by then!
Bes one was an officious depty head who had recently insisted everyone read certain policies - this week it's first aid, next week it's pupil code of conduct, etc. As well as having some fun pointing out how out of date everything was (the "site rental" policy had a fax machine available, despite the line being disconnected five years previous) I managed to knock him back in front of half the school at lunch.
DH "This is Bill, who will be starting as an English teacher next term. You are getting a laptop ready for him?"
Me "Yes of course, in fact it's ready now"
DH "Good, then hand it over"
Me "Sorry, thats in breach of the staff laptop policy - which says you don't get a device until your contract starts - and also the staff acceptable use policy, which says issing a laptop needs Appendix A signing and countersigning"
Wandered off and finished my lunch...
Reminds me of a previous job interview for an IT support role - back in the days of PCs being beige boxes. Took place in the staff canteen "because the meeting room was being decorated". Interview was in the middle of the day, so lots of staff going in and out eating their lunch.
One of the questions was "PC does not power up, no beeps etc., what's the first thing you would check?" I said power supply, try a known good unit. Interviewer told me I was wrong. I pointed out that he'd asked me what I would do, and I'd answered in that way - while he might try something else, *I* would do this. He still insisted I was wrong, voices were raised and he said it would be a RAM issue (with no BIOS beeps?!) - funnily enough, I didn't get the job...
Once, many years back, had a colleague set a desktop PC PSU from 230V to 110V to see what would happen. "What happened" was the PSU emitting lots of sparks and magic blue smoke when I plugged in the power lead, in close proximity to my head. Replacement PSU and the PC was fine, and from that point on I was always paranoid about any power supply with switchable voltage...
Had a former colleague who stored important emails in "Drafts", for no clearly explained reason. All was fine until we did a migratoin from on-prem Exchange to Google Mail - as in this story, certain folders weren't transferred to save time, especially as the transfer had to be done over Christmas as this was the only time you could guarantee 48 - 72 hours of downtime. Cue this person kicking off that we'd lost his critical information from years of working there.
Having been for an interview at the beginning of December as part of the "technology team", I was told a role would be offered to me in the next week. Six weeks later, and only one message from LOCOG - a "Happy New Year, sorry we can't sort it out yet." At his rate, there won't be any time to fit the training in before I have to run the scoreboard in the 100m final...
I once scared the bejesus out of a St John's Ambulance man after he read my body temperature (in ear) as 31.5C - apparently I should have been dead, or at least unconscious, rather than just complaining I didn't feel well and barely being able to walk.
Annoyingly I'd recovered by the Monday (this was at a rugby game on a Saturday afternoon) and could go back to work.
As far as I understand it, "Half milk, half water to make a thin batter" means you add the milk/water gradually until the mixture is a thin batter. Therefore exact measurements are impractical. However, they should define the dry measures better (especially as that seems an excessive amount of salt).
The best solution to this, as any other culinary problem, is "Muuummm....."
/off to tease Chemistry lecturer friend
If I'd have known they were squishing kids when I worked next door to them many years ago, I might have turned down all those free bottles...now I'm hopelessly addicted. Really bad as I now work at a school.
Of course the grammar would have been easy if they'd just labelled them "Innocent juices for kids".
http://animasher.s3.amazonaws.com/nordenankar/travel%20instructions.pdf
Looks like the route DHL normally take to deliver stuff here...
The journey from just south of Iceland to just off the African coast looks a bit convoluted, I hope they weren't diverting other important packages for a publicity stunt.
When recently working for a signage company, one of our installation guys was setting up an external sign outside a large office building. He was told to move the sign to a different location as the original site was over a 35kV main line. He moved, and procedded to excavate using a mini-jackhammer. Five feet down, he hits said 35kV line. He's a big chap but he still managed to jump straight out of the hole...
Jackhammer melted beyond repair. Installer OK though.
One thing - the offices belonged to e-on...
I'm assuming you referred to my post in the "biggest town" debate (note: that's NORTHAMPTON, a town, not NOTTINGHAM, a city). It all depends on what measure you use - Bolton has become a unitary authority so it's debatable whether it's a town or not.
One thing's for sure, we've got the biggest town centre market square in the UK, and a massive increase in Polish people who'll be the ones Dynorodding the drains and cutting off my broadband halfway through a HD film.
As someone who lives in one of the aforementioned places (Northampton - the country's biggest town, awaiting city status for the last three hundred years or so) I can't wait. We've been used as guinea pigs before, the Chip and PIN system was used in the town before the national rollout (and that was fun, working in retail at the time and explaining to EVERY SINGLE CUSTOMER what to do...)
"Since the majority of the houses that we live in already exist"
I personally don't know anyone that lives in a house that doesn't exist, then again maybe this is a solution to the property price boom? Also, surely a house that doesn't exist will have zero carbon emissions?
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