Week of 8th January, 2001

Last Week

Monday, 8th January

Early shifts start today, a hybrid shift, both running the ingest system and copying tapes. Quite successful - I proved the newly installed ingest stations worked, not that there was much doubt they would, and passed on the word about the audio phase problem - our tame wireman will investigate over the weekend.


This evening, I managed to collect one of the two episodes of 'seaQuest 2032' that I was missing after it's original terrestrial transmission some years ago. This was courtesy of the Sci-Fi Channel, all same Babylon 5 and others. This should let me collect most of the missing episodes, over the next few months.


I've made a few cosmetic changes to the Daynotes Home page, basically tidied it up. I also thought there was a 'noframes' stanza in the site opening page, but when I checked today at work, it was gone. Funny, it's still there in the local copy. Still I've freshened the entire site root directory on the server, so hopefully all will be well. Next thing is to add an underlying access path via this route, with a link in the navbar.

Copyrights are also updated.

Back to Daynotes


Tuesday, 9th January

Back to Daynotes


Wednesday, 10th January

To avoid arguments with Katy (and tantrums) we've decided to upgrade the other mobile 'phone we have on Cellnet. This is the handset that Jane used, before we got the extra contract and did presto-chango with the SIM cards. Katy is forever trying to recover the new handset - a Nokia 3310, which she thinks is much better than the 5110 she got as a Christmas present. I don't see why, myself, but the girls are heavily into text messaging, and the 3310 can do many more things in this field.

So I made inquiry - Cellnet wouldn't let us retain the extra handset, on Jane's contract. Apparently, their system won't let them do it. I hit similar problems last time I tried changing something - that time I wanted to change the billing date. Could I? No - the software sets up the billing date based on the anniversary of the contract signing, and will not allow you to change it without you sign a new contract - at a cost, of course. This is crazy - I was quite happy to pay 5 weeks connection one month, but the computer baulked. I'd have cancelled the contract, but the penalty clauses are too severe.

Hence, the surplus 3310 is bagged up, waiting for courier collection - sometime tomorrow, I'm told. Cellnet would have let us have a new 3310 (note - identical handset, but different serial number), in exchange for UKP35 and a new contract, as an upgrade. No part exchange allowance, either. But they did tell me that a local mobile 'phone shop might do a better deal. So I tried.

Sure enough, the shop did do a better deal - same handset, same UKP35 fee for the upgrade, same new contract, but UKP30 back on the old handset. Much better - so we did it. Katy now has a 3310 of her own, so there shouldn't be any more arguments, tantrums and bad attitude (read: rudeness). If there are, the 'phone is liable to sit in a cupboard for a week or so, since I'm paying the line charges.

Back to Daynotes


Thursday, 11th January

Waiting in today for the courier (Securicor) to collect the surplus handset - they said "Today, between 9 and 5". Precise, eh? It's 4 PM as I type this, and no sign of the courier yet.

No matter - I made productive use of the wait, Jane had some publicity fliers (for school Parents' Association events) that needed typing.

Back to Daynotes


Friday, 12th January

The courier finally arrived at 11 AM today. Of course, we were both out. When I 'phoned to complain, they offered to pick up later today - not a chance, they'd have had another wasted trip. Pickup is now scheduled for Monday, again between 9 AM and 5 PM. I wonder why they can't emulate Amtrak, who give morning or afternoon times, and stick to them, or so I'm told.


The saga of Katy's mobile 'phone tariff and contract continues to get more ridiculous. It started as a SNAFU, when they sold me a 'phone on a tariff that didn't include calling time usable at any time of day - although they claimed it did, became a TARFU when they sold me another handset on a different tariff, but supplied it on the original, unwanted tariff, and escalated to a FUBAR when the second tariff didn't exist as described.

So I now have two handsets, on wrong tariffs, one awaiting return (see above), and the other in use. To cap it, I received two bills today, for the two handsets, on the first, wrong tariff.

So I spent about an hour playing telephone tag with their customer service and complaints lines, getting shunted from one operator to another. Currently, the situation stands in this wise - the second handset has, allegedly, been shifted onto a contract with inclusive, any-time minutes, and the bill for the wrong tariff will be credited. The first handset awaits collection, and Cellnet are aware that it is being returned. I await written confirmation of these changes.

However, the new tariff is not the one we thought we had ordered. They're trying to claim that I'm locked in for a year, since the 14 days grace period has expired, but I'm not having that. If they can't get things right (remember I've been misled twice!), I'll cease service, and see them in court if necessary. I'll cease Jane's contract as well, and get her a Vodafone contract - that's the service I'm with, and I've had no trouble.

Back to Daynotes


Saturday, 13th January

A quiet day today. I managed to collect 6 months worth of Garfield comic strips from the website (manually) and experimented with REBOL scripting, in between programme dubs. Not much success with REBOL, because external Internet access is unavailable for configuration reasons. I can create empty files easily, but filling them is difficult. I may have to try writing and debugging the script via dialup.

Back to Daynotes


Sunday, 14th January

More Garfield strips collected, between programme dubs, uncluding a salvage dub of a programme from a snapped tape - we had to cut out a chunk of tape because it was stretched, and stick the rest together with Sellotape. After that, it fell to me to try to repair the first couple of seconds of the programme that were irreparably damaged. And I did it - quite well, even though I says it myself as shouldn't. Certainly the repair didn't jar much, if any, more than some of the other transitions in the show. All in  all, a good day.

Back to Daynotes

Next Week