test please delete

[Diver]

Well lads.... I am seriously turning into a pumpkin here.... way past my bedtime....

Night everyone

Sweet dreams

Goodnight Barry

[Diver]

That's it for me.

Bored now, going to see what good films are online.

Goodnight all Later

[Jog On]

Well lads.... I am seriously turning into a pumpkin here.... way past my bedtime....

Night everyone

Sweet dreams

night

[Jog On]

That's it for me.

Bored now, going to see what good films are online.

Goodnight all Later

later

[NickFitz]

...and back again.

Byeee have a pint for me...

I had a pint of Greene King Abbot Ale (NOT "Abbot's" as the whippersnappers insist on calling it) on your behalf. Hope that hit the spot

Would you please do me a favour? Have a beer for me?

I wasn't aware of your request before my departure, but I am happy to dedicate my second pint of Abbot to you

some marginally competent IT nerds.

I've never met any IT nerds (as in, an IT department) who were even marginally competent.

My favourite was the radio station where the IT department said that I couldn't connect my MacBook to the network, as it was against their policy of only allowing equipment issued by their good selves to be connected.

As I'm a web developer, it was rather obvious that I needed some kind of Internet connectivity, so they re-enabled an old ADSL line and I had to connect to that, and email or FTP things to my fellow team members as needed.

Then one of the radio-side-chaps who, amongst other tasks, was a content manager for the web site of one of their flagship network shows found that they'd disabled the USB ports on his machine. They wouldn't re-enable them as they "constituted a security risk".

Meanwhile, he had a few dozen photos he'd taken of the DJ with the band whose interview and session were going out that night, and no way of getting them from his camera onto the web site.

At my suggestion, he gave the camera to me. I plugged it onto my Mac, and imported the photos into iPhoto. Then I made a Zip of the images on my disk, which turned out to be too big to be sent as an attachment to an email - their email system would have blocked it.

So I FTPed it to my own web site (over the ADSL line) and then emailed him a link to the file.

He then followed the link and downloaded the file from my web site to his machine - on the desk facing mine.

Having unzipped the file and confirmed that it had all worked and he had the photos, I returned his camera and deleted the Zip file via FTP.

I think that particular IT department had lost sight of the purpose of their existence - to ensure that information technology operated in such a way as to assist people in easily achieving the purposes of the company.

After all, people listening to the show and going to the website to look at the photos are a potential source of revenue through advertising.

Disabling people's USB ports contributes no value to the business whatsoever.

They spent most of their time playing games anyway.

Losers.

[NickFitz]

Looks like you've all been busy while I've been out reducing myself to the level of the beasts of the field through indulgence in drink.

Rather than read through it all now, I have to decide what to watch - I've got my telly head on

A film, I think... perhaps If... or maybe Michael Rimmer... or School for Scoundrels (the original based on the works of Stephen Potter and starring Alistair Sim, Ian Carmichael and Terry-Thomas - not that recent Yank garbage) - although I do have Citizen Kane... still shrink-wrapped

All Quiet on the Western Front - maybe not at this time of night (still shrink-wrapped).

Kes - ditto (and shrink-wrapped).

Decisions, decisions...

[NickFitz]

A Matter of Life and Death...

It Always Rains on Sunday...

Kooyanisquatsi...

Peeping Tom...

[NickFitz]

Hmm...

Brassed Off...

I do like the music

When I was at school I played the trombone, though very badly.

When I was first in the band I was third trombone, beneath a first trombone and two second trombones.

For some reason the trombone was a popular instrument with schoolboys at the time, with the result that a couple of years later I had sunk, through sheer incompetence, to the position of seventh trombone. As nobody ever scored anything for that many trombones, all my scores were handwritten by the music teacher responsible for the band, and frequently included such items as a 56-bar rest.

And thereby hangs a tale, to be told another time

[Diver]

Right, watched a movie, off to bed now.

Goodnight all

[NickFitz]

Right, watched a movie, off to bed now.

Goodnight all

Hi and Bye, Diver