
Re: Losing
if you don't ask, you don't get :-)
10 publicly visible posts • joined 12 Apr 2021
the assistant treasurer & the rent accountant wanted to work the weekend, to extract IDMS database date onto the unix machine for further processing.
(ICL S39 & ICL DRS6000)
However, they were not willing to pay me the overtime to set them up for the day, so they worked in the (converted stables) datacentre unaccompanied.
Naturally, they wanted a cup of tea, but unfortunately moved the kettle from the dataprep area closer to where they were working.
Anyway, said kettle was boiled, but they overfilled it and caused it to short-out. This caused the circuit breker to trigger on the ring main.
Now, unfortunately, they'd moved the kettle from the 'dirty' supply to the datacentre 'clean' supply.
Well, the DRS300 '7501' terminal clusters plus the DRS20 'Oper' console for VME were also on that supply....
The VME detected that the Oper console had disappeared and promptly restarted itself - but not automatically restarting the IDMS/TPMS services that the AT was using.
At least the AT bought us a new kettle :-)
Just after local government reorg, I was issued with an NEC 'brick' the P800.
I was living in Newport at the time.
Coming back from Cardiff on the last train, I fell asleep and woke up in Abergavenny (basically the Manchester train!)
I had £5 in my pocket and the taxi driver gave me a quote of £12 to get me home.
I called ahead to my lodger in Malpas, Newport and asked how much cash he had... (yes, £20)
So, I went full-assertive mode, gave the driver the fiver up front and said "get me home and I'll pay you another tenner."
I had my first personal Panasonic G520 gen.2 with SMS in '98 - funnily enough on VodaFone.
ISTR you had to type in the varius SMS hubs until it became standard - say if you wanted to text Cellnet from Vodafone. Happy Days.
back in my local government days, we used to print out Business Rates bills etc.
Suddenly, one batch of printing would just stop after printing MORE O
more o "what"?
Turns out it was a bill to More O'Fearal advertising/hoardings company - and that was the problem.
After scanning the VME LIST_RECORDS output for the print file, I eventually learned that the rates junior had updated the customer name from
More O'Fearal to More O`Fearal
Did you spot the difference?
they had used 'grave' apostrophe rather than apostrophe , which the ICL Line Printer (upper case only) had interpreted as HALT.
took days to find that one. :-(
we were very happy with our aged Sony Xperia Z4 tablets with keyboards for on-the-go typing, but they were starting to show their age - and also I was starting to need a bigger screen (or a better specs prescription!)
Anyway, my partner selected an Acer Chromebook and I went with a Dell 7275 hybrid.
I wanted Win11 so just upgraded to an Asus Flip and it upgraded to Win 11 recently.
So, he uses the google services on his chromebook and I use the microsoft services on my laptop.
horses for courses.
both seem to integrate well with our Samsung S20's and are easy to connect to the LG TV for a better seminar and viewing experience.
it's great we have a choice.