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Redundant technology

Started by greencalx, May 22, 2022, 05:02:27 PM

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Sebastian Cobb

As an accessibility tool that's probably not too bad. Someone I know is having to learn how to read differently as they've had a stroke and have a dodgy right-hand visual field which results in their brain doing weird compensation (possibly similar to dyslexia in some ways?) one of the common workarounds is to rotate the page either 90 degrees or upside down so they're working away from, rather than into the blind spot.

Brian Freeze

Our team are redundant technology in three hours.

They dont know that but I got told last night. 6 very good chaps plus me and thats the end of our manufacturing team. Gone. World class with no exaggeration and some cunts somewhere couldnt see the wood for the tree, panicked and pulled the plug from afar.

The firm should be flat out seven days a week for the next three years and instead they can pick up their toolboxes and disappear this morning after the meeting. Wish I was going with them but have been asked to stop on and train some people to do a certain aspect of it. Would have liked to have told them to swivel but have bills to pay. Its going to be a very shite ending to the best job we've ever had.

Edit: sorry for waffling but Ive had this in my head all night and its been a mess. How do psychopaths cope?

greencalx

Sorry to hear that Brian.

The psychos will convince themselves that they're taking "tough decisions". In the meantime I'd keep your eye out for opportunities elsewhere, if you can.

Brian Freeze

Thanks, it's been delayed till dinner time now FFS.

 It's like being around much loved pets when they're bimbling around unaware their last trip to the vets is planned for later that day. 

My workwife of 11 years is loading a wagon right now with the job he was hoping to be completing off site next month and he hasn't a clue. Just had to have a fucking cry down the far end of the workshop.


katzenjammer

That's really sucks Brian. Hope you get through the day as best you can. For what it's worth the majority of people I know that have been made redundant in the last few years have ended up happier and better off somewhere else.

Uncle TechTip

Quote from: Brian Freeze on May 27, 2022, 08:20:17 AMThanks, it's been delayed till dinner time now FFS.

 It's like being around much loved pets when they're bimbling around unaware their last trip to the vets is planned for later that day. 

My workwife of 11 years is loading a wagon right now with the job he was hoping to be completing off site next month and he hasn't a clue. Just had to have a fucking cry down the far end of the workshop.



Tell them, they deserve to know.

Brian Freeze

Quote from: Uncle TechTip on May 27, 2022, 09:23:24 AMTell them, they deserve to know.

I should but havent the bottle, which is not nice to realise.

Zetetic

Quote from: Uncle TechTip on May 27, 2022, 09:23:24 AMTell them, they deserve to know.
And it'd give them a chance to take some mementos (which is possibly exactly what the revised timing is trying to avoid...)

Brian Freeze

Quote from: Zetetic on May 27, 2022, 10:56:12 AMAnd it'd give them a chance to take some mementos (which is possibly exactly what the revised timing is trying to avoid...)

Its been on the cards for 6 months and there's nowt left to nick as we've had it all away. As mementos. And we've been given use of the works van to take it home if it wont fit in our car.

There's allotments round about groaning under the weight of pallets and barrels we've saved from the skip.

Theyve been good to us in that way.

Brian Freeze

Sorry for taking this off topic so badly. Will ask Barry to delete/move my wittering, thanks for reading, it has helped ebormously.

imitationleather

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on May 26, 2022, 08:17:25 PMI noticed RayBan are doing glasses with built in wireless cameras for reasons I'm not entirely sure I understand

It's for doing creepshots of lasses.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: imitationleather on May 27, 2022, 01:02:25 PMIt's for doing creepshots of lasses.

I'd have thought that would be more of an Oakley thing.

imitationleather

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on May 27, 2022, 01:05:23 PMI'd have thought that would be more of an Oakley thing.



DEAL WITH IT

Zetetic

Quote from: Brian Freeze on May 27, 2022, 11:41:52 AMIts been on the cards for 6 months and there's nowt left to nick as we've had it all away. As mementos. And we've been given use of the works van to take it home if it wont fit in our car.

There's allotments round about groaning under the weight of pallets and barrels we've saved from the skip.

Theyve been good to us in that way.
That's extremely heartening!

Best of luck.

Blue Jam

Quote from: canadagoose on May 22, 2022, 11:56:52 PMIt's not really "technology" as such but I think travellers' cheques are a bit obsolete. I haven't seen one in about 15 years.

Do postal orders still exist? The last time I had a customer service job was in 2008 and I was surprised at how many people still didn't have current accounts and couldn't do direct debits.

My mother always refused to get a current account and was horrified when I got one, and a credit card. Yes, I know a lot of people get into debt with these things but for the vast majority they just seem to make life easier. My credit card provider keeps offering to increase my credit limit, but I just find it easy to ignore the letters and refuse to accept. Perhaps there should be a limit on the amount of credit providers are allowed to offer but still, people use credit in very different ways and not all of them are bad.

canadagoose

Quote from: Blue Jam on May 29, 2022, 07:18:05 PMDo postal orders still exist? The last time I had a customer service job was in 2008 and I was surprised at how many people still didn't have current accounts and couldn't do direct debits.

My mother always refused to get a current account and was horrified when I got one, and a credit card. Yes, I know a lot of people get into debt with these things but for the vast majority they just seem to make life easier. My credit card provider keeps offering to increase my credit limit, but I just find it easy to ignore the letters and refuse to accept. Perhaps there should be a limit on the amount of credit providers are allowed to offer but still, people use credit in very different ways and not all of them are bad.
I've never even seen one. I've had a current account since I was 14 so I've never had a use for one.

greencalx

Quote from: Blue Jam on May 29, 2022, 07:18:05 PMDo postal orders still exist?

As it happens, an elderly relative who used to send me a £2.50 postal order for my birthday passed away last week, which prompted me to ask just this question.

The answer is yes.

Gurke and Hare

Quote from: greencalx on May 29, 2022, 08:26:53 PMThe answer is yes.

That's a hefty commission. I can't find any statistics for them but I can't imagine there are many used.

Ferris

You can still send telegrams.

I sent one to a mate about 6 years ago for the sheer novelty of it

Pavlov`s Dog`s Dad`s Dead

Quote from: Gurke and Hare on May 30, 2022, 01:38:32 AMThat's a hefty commission. I can't find any statistics for them but I can't imagine there are many used.
I had to use one last year, to pay for a certificate of good conduct from the Malaysian High Commission. I admit to being mildly surprised at this being their preferred payment method.

Porky

Just bought a little laptop that had Windows 11 on it .. I have upgraded it to LINUX MINT.

holyzombiejesus

Not redundant as they're still in use but I'm often struck by how archaic it feels to press the foil cap down on a bottle of milk. I've not checked but I guess Innovations-style catalogues will have a less fiddly lid/ spout you can buy.

gilbertharding

Quote from: Ferris on May 30, 2022, 11:28:47 AMYou can still send telegrams.

I sent one to a mate about 6 years ago for the sheer novelty of it

I have never sent a telegram, and occasionally feel moved to correct this... but you don't live in the UK, do you? I'm sure you can't still send telegrams here. Tell me I'm wrong. +++STOP+++

Quote from: Blue Jam on May 29, 2022, 07:18:05 PMDo postal orders still exist? The last time I had a customer service job was in 2008 and I was surprised at how many people still didn't have current accounts and couldn't do direct debits.

The one and only time I ever bought one was about 15 years ago, when I wanted to sponsor someone on an internet forum to run a marathon, but wanted to maintain the customary anonymity which that forum maintained. Quite useful, I thought - but I had to presume they received it, and cashed it.

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on May 31, 2022, 11:26:36 AMNot redundant as they're still in use but I'm often struck by how archaic it feels to press the foil cap down on a bottle of milk. I've not checked but I guess Innovations-style catalogues will have a less fiddly lid/ spout you can buy.

Slowly pushing the flat of your thumb into the middle of the foil, so the seal around the edge of the rim is pulled downwards is one of life's tiny pleasures - like unwrapping a fresh box of cigarettes... I was genuinely horrified to see someone who had clearly never seen a proper milk bottle before open it by picking at the edge of the foil with their fingernail.

greencalx

Official GPO telegrams died in 1982 after the service was taken over by BT. There are various third-party outfits that will do the same thing (for a substantial fee) but it seems pointless now we have email.

gilbertharding

#235
Quote from: greencalx on May 31, 2022, 11:58:11 AMOfficial GPO telegrams died in 1982 after the service was taken over by BT. There are various third-party outfits that will do the same thing (for a substantial fee) but it seems pointless now we have email.


This has to be the SHONKIEST website I have seen for a long time: https://www.britishtelegram.com/

Genuinely surprised it doesn't have a flaming, spinning logo.

Despite being familiar with telegrams from novels and films written and set in the era (I'm thinking of Scoop by Evelyn Waugh), I don't really know how they work.

Presumably I would telephone or visit the post office, and dictate a message. The message would be sent by morse code down the wires to the nearest post office to the recipient where it would be printed out line by line onto a strip of paper, glued to another piece of paper and given to a boy with a funny hat to bicycle around to the recipient's house (presuming he's at home), where he would wait in case there was a reply. Is that it?

It has all the same things to mystify the modern person as those police dramas where they can always get hold of the person on the phone wherever they happen to be. How does that work? I suppose you never see the dozens of phone calls where the guy isn't there: "I think he said he was going to Barry's house to interview him next... he might be there by now... mind you it was an hour ago."

Wonder why it died out...

buzby

Quote from: greencalx on May 31, 2022, 11:58:11 AMOfficial GPO telegrams died in 1982 after the service was taken over by BT. There are various third-party outfits that will do the same thing (for a substantial fee) but it seems pointless now we have email.

It wasn't taken over by BT, it was when the GPO and Post Office Telecommunications were separated in preparation for the latter to be privatised (it was also when the British Telecom brand was created).

In my 'lost' post about the UK Telex network, I mentioned that the Telex switching network took over from the existing fixed-destination telegraph networks. Telegrams were then transmitted over the telex network too using teleprinters.

As part of the GPO-BT separation in 1981, BT got the Telex network so the GPO could no longer offer a telegram service. BT replaced it with the Telemessage, a telegram which was delivered the next day via post rather than in person. The "Britishtelegram" company above (real name Couriergram Ltd.) was set up in 1982 to try and take the share of the ex-GPO telegram market that still wanted personal delivery.

When BT's Telex network was decommissioned in 2003, public use of Telemessage ceased with it (the service was sold off an outside company called TelegramsOnline) and the Telemessage name was transferred to a BT subsidiary called BT Accurate, which was BT's billing unit and provided billing and debt recovery services for third party companies. They were used to send urgent customer information and final demand notices on behalf of BT and it's third party customers. This too was eventually withdrawn as a service in October 2007.

gilbertharding

Wait a minute. BT's billing unit was called BT Accurate, but it hasn't existed for 15 years?

Was it replaced by a unit called BT Massively Inflated at all?

buzby

Quote from: gilbertharding on May 31, 2022, 02:12:50 PMWait a minute. BT's billing unit was called BT Accurate, but it hasn't existed for 15 years?

Was it replaced by a unit called BT Massively Inflated at all?
The outsourcing services BT Accurate provided still exists. It was rebranded as Argensys Ltd for a while , but eventually got put under the BT Global Services banner. It's the Telemessage brand for it's final demand notices that was withdrawn in 2007.

gilbertharding