Whilst I was working

/ Business / ,
Whilst I was working
Whilst I was working

We are having trouble at one of our clients with their ADSL service and it has now got to the stage of getting a BT engineer out to check the line. Outside the office is a lake and whilst we are waiting on BT to pick up the phone and reset the service the water skiers are making ski jumps in the sun shine.

The down side of the whole ADSL not working thing is having to get BT involved. I had swapped all out network equipment as soon as there was an issue to eliminate that as a cause of the problem. I then called BT Tuesday afternoon and explained the situation to them, they carried out some tests and passed it onto engineering. Late in the day on Wednesday I got a call and had to explain the situation again and was offered an onsite engineer visit between 8am and 1pm or 1pm and 6pm Friday – I opted for the early slot and that was confirmed a few minutes later.

So Friday morning I am at the client’s site at 8am, at 9am staff arrived so I went off for a coffee and I eventually got a call at about 10.30 am to meet the engineer onsite.

Now I know BT will have good operational reasons for booking appointment times as they do (I do not really consider 8am to 1pm an appointment more like an intention to come) but I work with many support companies both large and small and BT is the only one to do this to me.

Anyway the engineer turns up – and after a few tests discovers we have a serious problem. He has trouble contacting various departments he has to speak to – and then he tells me about the system that means he has only two hours allocated to this job and if he cannot solve it in that time then he will leave and a new job raised and another visit organised (and I expect it will be either in the morning or in the afternoon). The even better news is that if that visit does solve the problem in two hours they will leave and another job will need to be raised! You can see where this system is going. Somewhere at some senior board level in BT or OpenReach they think this is good or even acceptable customer service!

On the up side each person who I have spoken to or dealt with in this system has done a good job, is polite, knows what they are talking about and are very helpful. As I write the engineer is down a manhole checking wires and testing at a furoius pace trying to solve my problem. The issue I have is with the system.

But at least I am sitting out in the sunshine.

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Posting from my PDA

/ General, Technology / , , , , ,

On looking on the forums, I was disapponted to find that I cannot post by email to a blog on WordPress.com – this is something RKW Internet has added to our company, WordPress, website using Postie (if you need to do this for a custom install of WordPress go to the WordCampUK 2008 Wiki where you will find his instructions).

Further investigation led me to the url http://m.wordpress.com. Try the link it is a very thin client for WordPress.com bloging,suitable for small devices or even quick blogs from a computer.

My PDA has wifi so this post is being made from it. It is enough to get words out here quickly but I cannot include an image.

I have a Flickr account and have found some other information about post to your blog via that using email – I hope to get to grips with that before I go to Scotland, so I can photo blog from my Blackberry.

A short post tonight – but I am inspired by my experience at WordCampUK to publish a worthwhile blog over the coming months. I have a holiday coming up soon expect blogs then. I have also been writing about my Wainwright Coast to Coast experince and expect those to be posted in the coming weeks. I also want to share some of mobile tech experience.

So the first moblog experience I will share is this from my PDA – I’ll review it when I see the post on my laptop.

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MoBlog – WordCampUK

/ General / ,

I work in technology and system support and run Octagon Technology a company based in Lincoln. Our website www.octagontech.com is based on WordPress and was developed by Richard at R K W Internet.

I went to WordCampUK2008 in Birmingham to support Richard who presented two sessions to the conference – and this has inspired me to start a personal blog. I have used the blog on the company website to document walking the Coast to Coast footpath with friends – and want to carry on but the company blog is not the place to continue. WordCampUK2008 has inspired me to start my own.

I am interested in mobile computing and have had a wide range of PDAs over the years and it was whilst walking with Richard, practising for the Coast to Coast walk that we decided to moblog the walk with photos from our mobile phones. I am pleased to say that Richard sorted the technology and the results are here.

This blog is going to be about using mobile technology, walking, photography and other stuff. For it to be mobile technology it should be able to be carried in a pocket – it could be a large pocket!

Another thing that has motivated me to start this blog was whilst at WordCampUK2008, I was browsing on my PDA I found this link and I am going to use that page to update my blog on road.

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Journey’s End

/ Walking / , , , , , , , , ,



Journey’s End

Originally uploaded by Lincoln Imp

And then it was all over. 192 miles in 12 days and despite all that nature put in our way, which included Fylingdales moor and the in destinct path which we never found (even when the gps said we had!) we made it. The photo was taken on the shoreline just before completing my task to mystify geologists.

For those who haven’t do a long distance walk before or even if you plan to do the c2c. My advice as a novice walker is simple. Preparation is everything, walk to your known limits and have a back up plan. Don’t rely on using a mobile phone because neither t-mobile or orange faired well in the lakes It was 4 degrees on Hellvelyn with 30mph wind and people we in tee shirts! Even worse we saw people on boggy moors in trainers, so expect the worst and prepare for it. I also found that whild the hare may be quicker a tortoise will always get there. For food I can not fault crab and oatcakes followed by an vegetable oxo cube in hot water and a couple of granola bars. 125 grammes and good for 23 miles. Don’t expect to loose much weight 2kgs is all I managed. Would I do it again, yes. What would I change, my ruck sack. Do use regatta, mine broke with 84 miles to go. Thanks must go to both Clive & Richard their company, advice, as well as the light hearted banter made the trip all the more memorable.

It’s taken nearly a month for me to write this last entry and not for the first time have I struggled to put down my thoughts. What I think I’m trying to say is this. It’s good, every once in a while to challenge yourself with something new, something which is different, something that makes you feel you’re alive, something that surprises other, but above all. Do it!

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