Rant of the Day v2.

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#1561 Post by Pontius Navigator » Fri May 24, 2019 7:28 am

4mastacker wrote:
Fri May 24, 2019 6:15 am
When I went to cast me vote last nightI noticed that beside the ballot paper box was a piece of wood. On it was written "Ballot paper compaction tool". Complete with our council's cipher and the words "Property of South Kesteven District Council". It was just a wooden stick FFS. An ordinary office ruler would suffice. I wonder how much that piece of "engineering" cost the tax-payer.
Oh ye of little faith. As the box was more than 12 inches deep we used to lose the rulers so needed something. A piece of wood was obvious but it had to be narrow enough to fit the slot, strong enough not to bend or break, splinter free for safety, and carefully rounded so as not to read the ballot papers.

The committee decided . . .

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#1562 Post by Pontius Navigator » Fri May 24, 2019 7:34 am

Carrying on with this, Alison may have come across the next:

All tools and equipment, Nuclear Bombs, tools, of were identified by the Secret stores reference of 76Z/

Such stores were subject to strict control and more stringent accounting and checking. One such item was a Tools, Puddling now this was a ubiquitous tool and prone to misuse, mislay, and breaking. Obtaining a replacement was tedious at best.

OTOH, going to Stores and asking for a broomstick was much less painful for indeed that is what a puddling tool was.

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#1563 Post by ian16th » Fri May 24, 2019 7:59 am

Deleted.
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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#1564 Post by ian16th » Fri May 24, 2019 8:02 am

And some of us had time to do battle by implementing US spec auto call modems in the UK and remember such signals as Present Next Digit!

Asking the same GPO what was the longest phone number in the UK, and being told, 'We don't know!'

And in a later life meeting the SAPO push button phone that only sent out pulses :-\

And then went through 'Type Approval' and being told that a hand held Tone Generator was too loud!
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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#1565 Post by Ex-Ascot » Fri May 24, 2019 9:19 am

Not a rant but a comment about elections. Here there is no box for your cross. It has to be a + not a × or a tick. It has to be to the left of the name and exactly in the middle of the name. Anything else it is thrown out. Little old folk with shaking hands do not stand a chance. Neither do I after a few rakis.
'Yes, Madam, I am drunk, but in the morning I shall be sober and you will still be ugly.' Sir Winston Churchill.

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#1566 Post by OFSO » Fri May 24, 2019 1:57 pm

I installed the spark-proof telephones in the bomb store at Cottesmore. Great big cast iron things with a massive rubber gasket between the two parts. Cannot believe a spark from a conventional telephone would have set off one of the nuclear nasties nearby. If anyone has a photograph of these GPO devices I'd be glad to see it. Or is it possible they are still there ?

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#1567 Post by Pontius Navigator » Fri May 24, 2019 2:04 pm

OFSO, I think most of the bomb stores are mothballed or sold. Coningsby was used as a missile store for a time and has been disused as an SSA since 1964 and shut since 1990s. Cottesmore was shut when the Tornado came in and is Army. Waddington is used for non-military purposes.

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#1568 Post by OFSO » Fri May 24, 2019 2:07 pm

Knowing military inertia and the squaddies reluctance to do heavy-stuff work, I bet the phones are still there.

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#1569 Post by Pontius Navigator » Fri May 24, 2019 2:16 pm

OFSO, wasn't it the case that the phones actually belonged to the GPO?

I know our last small exchange was run by BT and that was only 10 years ago. An engineer would turn up from time to time, draw the keys, mess around and leave.

We had cables dumped on the floor, unplugged racks sitting there, units lying loose around.

Periodically I would go in and chuck a few boxes into the skip.

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#1570 Post by ian16th » Fri May 24, 2019 2:47 pm

Pontius Navigator wrote:
Fri May 24, 2019 2:16 pm
OFSO, wasn't it the case that the phones actually belonged to the GPO?
That was definitely the case for domestic users. In fact the GPO forbade the use of none GPO kit.

When people started importing the early cordless phones, it was a sin to connect them to a GPO line.

I had early experience with autocall units in the UK and we went to great lengths to get GPO approval. They also didn't like new kids on the PABX block.
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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#1571 Post by 1DC » Fri May 24, 2019 3:14 pm

We moved into a new house, to us, in 1971 and i didn't like the position of the phone so i moved it. A few months later the GPO turned up to check something and became quite excited about the fact that the phone wasn't where it should be, I waffled a bit without admitting anything and thought that was that, a few days later another chap turned up from the GPO to investigate why the phone wasn't where it should be.
I persuaded them that the phone was in its position when we arrived but they insisted that it be moved back to its official position.

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#1572 Post by llondel » Fri May 24, 2019 3:31 pm

ian16th wrote:
Fri May 24, 2019 2:47 pm
Pontius Navigator wrote:
Fri May 24, 2019 2:16 pm
OFSO, wasn't it the case that the phones actually belonged to the GPO?
That was definitely the case for domestic users. In fact the GPO forbade the use of none GPO kit.

When people started importing the early cordless phones, it was a sin to connect them to a GPO line.

I had early experience with autocall units in the UK and we went to great lengths to get GPO approval. They also didn't like new kids on the PABX block.
I used to work for a company that made PABX units. Once upon a time my software 'broke' a BT ISDN line card because it couldn't cope with what it was being sent. I consider this fitting revenge for the fact that when they had previously upgraded some of their stuff it broke the software on our side (which my stuff replaced) and their approach was "that's you problem, not ours". So we got to throw it back at them.

Getting BABT approval was fun, and in some ways I sort of miss that, because it did mean that everything just worked, the volume levels were correct and there was minimal echo. Many of the early imports didn't meet the spec and had the wrong impedance so I can see their point.

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#1573 Post by Capetonian » Fri May 24, 2019 3:37 pm

I moved a phone in ZA once, and added another one. I used dubiously acquired but legitimate SAPO equipment. A couple of years later there was a fault and I had to call them to send an engineer. He went straight to the place in the hall where it should have been, looked puzzled, and then asked me where 'it' was. I said "there's one in my bedroom and one in my lounge."

Referred to his notes, looked puzzled, went outside to the junction box, and came back 5 minutes later grinning and said "all fixed".

On my next bill I was charged for two phones!

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#1574 Post by OFSO » Fri May 24, 2019 3:41 pm

Yes, true, it all belonged to the GPO and true, you could neither move it nor fit your own stuff. We each held a red card which authorised instant access to a sub's premises (unlike a police card) where we could burst in and check for mods to our installation. This led to some apocryphal encounters with blonde bimbos in negligees, working ladies on the job (their telephone having beforehand had a Loud Speaker Set No XXX strapped across the exchange jumper rack) and far more often nasty dog bites. But there, even 58 years later, I remember being admonished never to reveal such things.

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#1575 Post by Pontius Navigator » Fri May 24, 2019 4:43 pm

In our last house the 'master' socket was a simple junction box in the hall a good 5m from the nearest power socket. Long before SID I drilled a hole through the wall and fed a new cable under the skirting, round the dining room and into the kitchen. I ran another round the porch through a wall and into the living room. From there another round the houses, up the stairs, under a carpet and into two of the bedrooms. The spare bedroom served as an office.

Some decades later the internet speed was below spec. It was obvious it was the modem but Talk talk insisted on sending an engineer. Shall we say he was amazed at how well the cable was hidden 😁. Anyway he installed a proper master socket in the bedroom and a new router and things were fine.

New home, new problem, and eventually discovered that broadband was only available off the master socket. As the builder had helpfully installed a discrete phone socket and power under the stairs it was B***** useless as it was not the master socket. Just to thwart any attempt to move the master he ran a second cable for broadband only to the master.

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#1576 Post by Fox3WheresMyBanana » Fri May 24, 2019 8:51 pm

When sorting a friend's phone problems in her new house, I eventually discovered the master socket was in a corner of the attic, just where the cable entered through the eave, and not any of the ones visible in the main body of the house. The builder was a brickie. His mate was a roofer. Very nice brickwork and roof. The plumbing and electrics were more like the phone arrangements.

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#1577 Post by Pontius Navigator » Sat May 25, 2019 7:19 am

DESTROY TO OPEN

This is my present bete noir. The cellophane, waxed paper, foil pack etc where you need a pair of scissors to open or attack it with a sharp knife. Some packs even have a vertical seam that opens easily spilling contents everywhere. However they are opened they cannot be resealed.

The easy, tear here to Open. The tag remains obstinately elusive and you need a knife to slice off the top; biscuits then spill out everywhere.

The washing powder box, pull tag to Open. You need a knife to start it. The cardboard rips. You need a knife to remove the rest.

Worst the blister pack with two or more items. Return in original packaging.

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#1578 Post by ExSp33db1rd » Sat May 25, 2019 8:40 am

This is my present bete noir.
Totally agree, and I'll also take reducing use of plastic bags seriously when "they" take it seriously. Passing through the local supermarket tonight - as one has to to reach the only essential item, a plastic bottle of milk located in the farthest recess of the store - I noticed NZ apples, grown around the corner, no longer sold by weight,which means that one could buy just one if so desired, but now as 6 in a - plastic of course - bag. And cucumbers individually wrapped in what appears to be heat sealed plastic, even individual ears of corn shuckked and plastic wrapped. Madness.

And as for confectionery sold in hard plastic shells - one needs a passing 5 year old to get into them, if you can get one to put down their phone long enough to help you. Grrrrr !

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#1579 Post by G-CPTN » Sat May 25, 2019 9:34 am

Pontius Navigator wrote:
Sat May 25, 2019 7:19 am
DESTROY TO OPEN
This is my present bete noir. The cellophane, waxed paper, foil pack etc where you need a pair of scissors to open or attack it with a sharp knife. Some packs even have a vertical seam that opens easily spilling contents everywhere. However they are opened they cannot be resealed.
Yesterday, as I travelled on the 'bus into town, the battery in my personal radio failed.
I popped into the Pound shop and bought a multiple pack of AAA batteries - which turned out to be two multiple packs sealed in a hard plastic skin - each of which were, in turn, sealed in a hard plastic skin.
Not having a sharp impliment on me, I had to resort to the (inadequate) edge of my house key to try and pierce the plastic - which took me several minutes - and then the plastic had shrunk around the shape of the battery so that I couldn't release it from its shroud.
I ended up with a cascade of loose batteries in the bottom of my shopping bag.

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Re: Rant of the Day v2.

#1580 Post by Pontius Navigator » Sat May 25, 2019 9:58 am

Exactly.

Or the easy peel seal on a milk bottle that needs a sharp knife to puncture.

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