Author Topic: The "I'm Such a Fecking Div" Thread  (Read 428805 times)

Re: The "I'm Such a Fecking Div" Thread
« Reply #2625 on: 23 July, 2021, 12:23:16 pm »
Divvered again today. I needed a hex key with a very short short arm, to adjust a pedal which had a reflector in the way of the adjuster. The reflector nuts are very fiddly so I didn't want to remove them. I found a spare key, free from something, and "Dremel Cuts!" said Alexei in the adverts so I sets up bench vice, glasses and small cutting disc. As the sparks commence I think "hm, better shift my foot,don't want the end of this dropping on it" :) and carry on cutting.
As the key end drops and I urgently shake my foot to get the hot little beggar out of my sandal I also think "hm, perhaps I should have actually followed up on that forethought and shifted said foot".
Anyway, the key works.

Ah, sounds as if you were wearing what they call in New Zealand "Samoan Safety Boots"  ;D

Duly stolen - sorry, remembered - for future usage.  ;D
"He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." ~ Freidrich Neitzsche

Mr Larrington

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Re: The "I'm Such a Fecking Div" Thread
« Reply #2626 on: 23 July, 2021, 04:08:15 pm »
YA NI Lobachevsky AICMFP :)
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Re: The "I'm Such a Fecking Div" Thread
« Reply #2627 on: 23 July, 2021, 04:43:28 pm »
Only be sure always to call it please, "research"!

P.S. - have you got a copy of the Vladivostok telephone directory I can borrow?
"He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." ~ Freidrich Neitzsche

Re: The "I'm Such a Fecking Div" Thread
« Reply #2628 on: 23 July, 2021, 08:13:51 pm »
Being ian's ideal next door neighbour, and the weather, and how much everything has grown, I've spent many days recently with the hedge trimmer and garden shredder and multiple other such tools.

It was then time to break out the big guns and vacuum the remaining mess from the garden.

It's amazing how much you can do if you forget to zip the collection bag up.........

Mr Larrington

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Re: The "I'm Such a Fecking Div" Thread
« Reply #2629 on: 23 July, 2021, 10:17:08 pm »
Only be sure always to call it please, "research"!

P.S. - have you got a copy of the Vladivostok telephone directory I can borrow?

Philip Pullman has claimed he got the last name of witch-queen Serafina Pekkala from the Helsinki phone book, but the possibility exists that he was fibbing.
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Mrs Pingu

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Re: The "I'm Such a Fecking Div" Thread
« Reply #2630 on: 23 July, 2021, 11:35:50 pm »
You can pretty much make up any Finnish sounding name with enough kakakaka surely?
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

Mr Larrington

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Re: The "I'm Such a Fecking Div" Thread
« Reply #2631 on: 24 July, 2021, 12:36:50 am »
Confusingly, and aside from the Swedish minority, there appear to be a fair number of Finns with German-sounding names.  General Mannerheim, for eg, and Miss von Brandenburg's m-i-l.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
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Re: The "I'm Such a Fecking Div" Thread
« Reply #2632 on: 24 July, 2021, 12:40:50 am »
You can pretty much make up any Finnish sounding name with enough kakakaka surely?

You can start saying kakakakakkakakakakakaka but when do you finnish?

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: The "I'm Such a Fecking Div" Thread
« Reply #2633 on: 24 July, 2021, 11:01:50 pm »

I have discovered the lift to my flat has a max length for any single item taken in the lift, of 2.26m.

In other news, yesterday I bought a 2440mm x 1220mm sheet of 9mm plywood, and had it cut along it's length into three pieces.

At some point this week I will have to carry these up the 7 floors to my flat. For now they can stay in the basement...

J
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Kim

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Re: The "I'm Such a Fecking Div" Thread
« Reply #2634 on: 24 July, 2021, 11:03:47 pm »
I have discovered the lift to my flat has a max length for any single item taken in the lift, of 2.26m.

Paging nikki.  Nikki to the tragically under-specified goods lift emergency phone please...

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: The "I'm Such a Fecking Div" Thread
« Reply #2635 on: 24 July, 2021, 11:08:18 pm »
I have discovered the lift to my flat has a max length for any single item taken in the lift, of 2.26m.

Paging nikki.  Nikki to the tragically under-specified goods lift emergency phone please...

I question the sanity of the designer of this building. To get to the lift you have to climb seven steps. The lift is under 1m² in area, I can get my bike in it, but I have to tilt it up on the rear wheel, and rotate it and kinda wedge it crossways.

The worst situation tho was when the 42U 19" rack was brought in, we measured the lift door at the entry level. It fit, no problem. We had maybe 5mm of vertical space.

On the top floor when we go to take it out. The lift is out of alignment slightly with the doorway, so it won't come out. We went down one floor to where it lined up better, then carried it up the stairs the final bit.

We used to have furniture hooks on the front of the building so we could use a rope and pulley, but they were removed...

J
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Re: The "I'm Such a Fecking Div" Thread
« Reply #2636 on: 24 July, 2021, 11:09:32 pm »
How much is a "seven storey length of rope"*, and does your window open?



As I use feet and inches, and you use metric, I'm going to stick with measuring the rope by floors.

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: The "I'm Such a Fecking Div" Thread
« Reply #2637 on: 24 July, 2021, 11:23:58 pm »
How much is a "seven storey length of rope"*, and does your window open?



As I use feet and inches, and you use metric, I'm going to stick with measuring the rope by floors.

It's something like 25m or so. Which in imperial I think is 1 swimming pool.

But without the furniture hook, and a second person, it would be a lot of faff. As the largest of the pieces of ply is now 2440x50x9mm, I'm just going to wait until the DOMS from last week's squat session has subsided, and have to walk up 21 floors...

Fortunately I can take the lift back down.

J
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http://b.42q.eu/

Re: The "I'm Such a Fecking Div" Thread
« Reply #2638 on: 24 July, 2021, 11:46:07 pm »
I'm only 4 floors up , but there is no lift.    I need a new book case.    Order a "Billy from Ikea, who'll charge me more for delivery than for the bookcase, or order from John Lewis, who'll charge a lot more but will send sturdy chaps to carry it up the stairs ?   


Probably the "Billy", as I can unpack it in the lobby & then carry it up in bits.  I'd feel obliged to tip the JL chaps as well.
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quixoticgeek

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Re: The "I'm Such a Fecking Div" Thread
« Reply #2639 on: 24 July, 2021, 11:48:34 pm »
I'm only 4 floors up , but there is no lift.    I need a new book case.    Order a "Billy from Ikea, who'll charge me more for delivery than for the bookcase, or order from John Lewis, who'll charge a lot more but will send sturdy chaps to carry it up the stairs ?   


Probably the "Billy", as I can unpack it in the lobby & then carry it up in bits.  I'd feel obliged to tip the JL chaps as well.

Rules here are that delivery to your home, is to your home, including upto 4 floors of stairs. Higher is if there is a lift.

When I ordered my mattress from Ikea, the delivery people said it didn't fit in the lift (no surprise), but refused to carry it beyond the 4th floor. So after 3 of them carried it up 4 floors, I carried it the rest of the way on my own, much to the amazement of the 3 large burly Dutchmen who had just carried it up that far.

J
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Re: The "I'm Such a Fecking Div" Thread
« Reply #2640 on: 24 July, 2021, 11:54:37 pm »
Friends help you move bodies.  Real friends help you carry a double oven up 8 flights of stairs , when you forgot to check the delivery T&Cs.
Not fast & rarely furious

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Mr Larrington

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Re: The "I'm Such a Fecking Div" Thread
« Reply #2641 on: 25 July, 2021, 12:22:33 am »
Ah, yes, lifts, stairs and the time my then-employers decided that because most of our jobs were going on a one-way vacation to Indiah, where the Tigers come from, we would cut the numbers of AlphaServers in our employ from five to one and relocate the remaining machine from a third-party site in Slough to our office next door to Southwark Cathedral.  Someone measured the height of the rack the machine was housed in while cow-orker Mr Kelly measured the heights of the goods lift and the door through which the said rack would have to pass in order to access said lift.  “You'll have to tilt in a bit to get it through the door” quoth he, “but it'll be fine for the lift”.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man with the lorry and the Babbage-Engine.  Shortly thereafter cometh the curses on Mr Kelly, when we discovered that the rack could not physically be tilted far enough to get it through the door due to the presence of a set of sturdy wrought-iron railings about a metre from the door.  We had to put the bloody thing back on the wagon and return it to Slough until they could come back with a stairwalker so we could take it through the front door and up the stairs to the third floor while fending off the literal curses of the actual practicing Scandiwegian witch employed as a receptionist by the owners of the building.

Eventually we got it into its new home, plugged everything in and switched it on.  Much to our surprise it came up without a hitch rather than throwing a hissy fit and bursting into flames. “So who’s going to be the new system manager?” I asked The Boss.  Turned out that as the only former BOFH on the payroll, that'd be me but at least it kept me employed for another three years rather than the three months I had been told to expect.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: The "I'm Such a Fecking Div" Thread
« Reply #2642 on: 25 July, 2021, 09:49:41 am »
Ah, yes, lifts, stairs and the time my then-employers decided that because most of our jobs were going on a one-way vacation to Indiah, where the Tigers come from, we would cut the numbers of AlphaServers in our employ from five to one and relocate the remaining machine from a third-party site in Slough to our office next door to Southwark Cathedral.  Someone measured the height of the rack the machine was housed in while cow-orker Mr Kelly measured the heights of the goods lift and the door through which the said rack would have to pass in order to access said lift.  “You'll have to tilt in a bit to get it through the door” quoth he, “but it'll be fine for the lift”.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man with the lorry and the Babbage-Engine.  Shortly thereafter cometh the curses on Mr Kelly, when we discovered that the rack could not physically be tilted far enough to get it through the door due to the presence of a set of sturdy wrought-iron railings about a metre from the door.  We had to put the bloody thing back on the wagon and return it to Slough until they could come back with a stairwalker so we could take it through the front door and up the stairs to the third floor while fending off the literal curses of the actual practicing Scandiwegian witch employed as a receptionist by the owners of the building.

Eventually we got it into its new home, plugged everything in and switched it on.  Much to our surprise it came up without a hitch rather than throwing a hissy fit and bursting into flames. “So who’s going to be the new system manager?” I asked The Boss.  Turned out that as the only former BOFH on the payroll, that'd be me but at least it kept me employed for another three years rather than the three months I had been told to expect.

We are in the process of getting a new rack at work. We're going to be hiring a trailer mounted lift to take it up 4 floors to bring it in through a window. Getting it into the server room requires tilting it up. But the problem there is the ceiling height vs the rack. So it has to go in the door, rotate 90° along it's long axis, then tilt up, as it saves us 200mm, There is a rack in there, which is the same height, but it's 200mm shallower in depth. Gonna be a fun challenge.

J
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Beardy

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Re: The "I'm Such a Fecking Div" Thread
« Reply #2643 on: 25 July, 2021, 10:17:43 am »
You see, in the olden days ™ the location and installation of computers was considered as part of the equation. These days, many organisations system installations are only one step up on the infamous ‘server under the developers desk’ scenario. It’ll all end in tears I tell you.
For every complex problem in the world, there is a simple and easily understood solution that’s wrong.

Mr Larrington

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Re: The "I'm Such a Fecking Div" Thread
« Reply #2644 on: 25 July, 2021, 11:16:23 am »
Back in the late 1980s my then-employers moved their data centre two doors up the road. Planning had been underway for a year before I joined them; the move — done in stages over a Several of weekends — kicked off about six months later.  When it was all over the Ops Manager reckoned he was owed about eight months TOIL.
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Beardy

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Re: The "I'm Such a Fecking Div" Thread
« Reply #2645 on: 25 July, 2021, 12:21:57 pm »
We built a band new data centre in a different location to the original basically so we could sell the old one which occupied what had become prime real estate in the south of Englandshire. IBM refused to countenance the electronic transfer of the petabytes of data on account of it would take too long and insisted on a physical transfer of the data up the M1. That took months of planning and the temporary installation of truck loads of disk packs and a several of weekends to sync up the databases before a very nervous weekend of following the trucks of data up the M1 and more time of database syncing and delta uploads over the network.
For every complex problem in the world, there is a simple and easily understood solution that’s wrong.

Re: The "I'm Such a Fecking Div" Thread
« Reply #2646 on: 26 July, 2021, 12:53:05 am »

I have discovered the lift to my flat has a max length for any single item taken in the lift, of 2.26m.

In other news, yesterday I bought a 2440mm x 1220mm sheet of 9mm plywood, and had it cut along it's length into three pieces.

At some point this week I will have to carry these up the 7 floors to my flat. For now they can stay in the basement...

J

I used to deliver kitchens and hence worktops in a former life and most residential lifts all seemed to have a 'cleaners cupboard' in the back wall that allowed a longer item to be tilted diagonally. Most lifts could easily have been be 30-50% deeper as the shaft/cage was obviously big enough but the open floor area was a kept smaller, presumably as a cheaper installation (cables/motor?) so the floor area/occupants capacity was downrated, but the cupboard accessed the full cage footprint, so a quick chat with caretaker/concierge/cleaner opened the back door and that saved our backs a few times, a 3600 x 900 x 38mm breakfast bar/peninsular worktop was damn heavy and 'kin awkward, and whilst deeply unpleasant to support whilst using the lift would be all but impossible on stairs for more than a flight.
Big ready assembled tall units had to be ordered unglued so they could travel disassembled, but fortunately 'flat pack' was our big market. I'm so glad a Granite worktop wasn't a thing back then (1980's) well not where I worked.

T42

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Re: The "I'm Such a Fecking Div" Thread
« Reply #2647 on: 26 July, 2021, 07:42:07 am »
The lifts in a block we lived in in the 70s had a low door set into the back that could be opened on demand by the caretaker, so that undertakers wouldn't be obliged to stand the coffins on end.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Auntie Helen

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Re: The "I'm Such a Fecking Div" Thread
« Reply #2648 on: 26 July, 2021, 08:16:23 am »
Our church in Colchester has an especially large lift - so a coffin can fit in without problems.
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ian

Re: The "I'm Such a Fecking Div" Thread
« Reply #2649 on: 26 July, 2021, 08:07:55 pm »
I remember many years ago we had a datacentre migration. We reassured all our customers that it was a professionally managed migration and minimal downtime.

It was me, the CTO, two developers, a case of beer and a Ford pickup. We got lost on the DC beltway and nothing had the right plugs and there weren't nearly enough beers to make my weekend efforts worthwhile.