Friday, November 25, 2005
There is hope for them after all
Flickr
Monday, November 21, 2005
I've just been walking through Drakehouse Retail Park. Two of the chavviest girls I've ever clapped eyes on started walking towards me. One of them then asked if I knew of "a mental hospital around here luv?"
I replied in the negative and then carried on.
It was only a little further on when I thought "are they saying I look or walk like a mentallist?" or was it an innocent query?
I shall seek reassurance on my appearance from Jane this evening.
Friday, November 11, 2005
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Chinese edition English subtitles..
I don't think they got SDL involved in this.
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
I am currently without mobile phone. The phone is fine, it's the SIM card that is broken. It stopped working on Saturday. The phone works fine with another SIM card, and my faulty SIM card doesn't work in another handset. This meant a call to the dreaded Orange "Customer Services". Oh dear. I often struggle to think of a more incompetent helpdesk. Still, this was an easy fault with a nice easy resolution - send me a new SIM card, I then register it, they can even have the old one back if they like. I was expecting to be back up and running Tuesday evening at the latest.
The problem is that I forgot this was Orange "Customer Services" and, to be honest, I've had more fruitful conversations with next door's cat.
Something I've learnt when ringing Orange is to lie about your location. This foxes them, as their standard line after a bit of key-tapping is "Oh, there's a transmitter down in your area". You can get round this by lying about your location and then, when they tell you there's a transmitter fault, simply say "Did I say I was at home? Sorry, I meant work. I first noticed the fault before I left home this morning". It takes them a while to absorb this, but it did work on this occasion and caused more key-tapping.
Next was the "It's a fault with your handset" line. This was discarded by a simple "No, it's the SIM card. I've told you how I tested it and the SIM has developed a fault". Cue more key-tapping.
Can you guess what came next? Without doubt the finest piece of first-line diagnosis/fix I've come across for a quite some time:
"Ok, I have no fault code on the system for that. I'll need to send this to "Technical Support" who may get back to you towards the end of the week".
Unbelievable. No "fault code" for a broken SIM? Seeing as a mobile phone consists of a handset, a battery and a SIM it seems odd that they can't register a fault with one of the three main components. And apparently without a "fault code" available on their system there's nothing "Customer Services" can do. I couldn't even be bothered to point out the ridiculousness of the situation.
Instead I enquired what would happen if I had said I'd "lost" my SIM. Resonse: "Oh, that's different, we'd send you one out straight away".
I give up.
Consider my mobile off-line until next week.
Update: New SIM (albeit a lilac one) arrived yesterday. Hurrah. I suppose six days to fix a one-day fault must be about right these days. Now to get some line rental refunded...
Saturday, November 05, 2005
Today I am exhibiting the early signs of my annual flu. Just in time for the few days I have off work next week.
I am going to attempt to kill it early by drinking quite a lot tonight.