Kitz Forum
Chat => Introductions => Topic started by: smucat on November 06, 2012, 03:48:57 PM
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As an ex-exchange (clerical) cat who has recently escaped, I now have a little more time to investigate the local street furniture. A certain 'B*cat' suggested that I pay a visit here as you guys seem to have a paw in most of the street cabs which are appearing. I hope not to get run over by 'Walter's wheelbarrow' or to be 'DSLAMed' in my wanderings!
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Welcome smucat. :)
You should be safe from Walter's wheelbarrow - he's a good driver and hasn't run anyone over with it yet. ;D
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Hi and welcome :)
We are getting quite a collections of kitteh members.. I wonder if I should rename the forum to the cattery ;D
hmm on 2nd thoughts perhaps not. It may deter our feathered friend members.
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Hello smucat, I was wondering if it was you. ;)
You mention having recently escaped from the clerical office of one of Beatie's exchanges . . . I do hope that someone has now provided you with a nice home and that you do not have to make a bed with the bins behind Specsavers!
I understand that you have an interest in the entities who assist Beatie in the provision of FTTCs, to accompany all those lonely PCP throughout the land. Another name that has just suddenly come to mind is the Harlequin Group (http://www.harlequin-group.com/). If you should ever be passing through Ewhurst, Surrey, then it would be best not to mention that name. Utterance thereof ist verboten. Walter has all the details. :-X
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Hi smucat and welcome.
With your interest in all things 'street furniture', are you an ex Fibre planner ??? :)
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@ Black Sheep
Oh, am I on 'What's My Line'? ;)
Origins of Operator Services 'Traffic' (remember Printer, Meter Checks?). Sales in the paw-written AN era and MOH. Saw the birth of CSS and moved to TAG which by then was Credit Control. Got caught-up in some PWs and made it through to PCB Enquiries/Onebill. Into 'Recession' and Scheduling and the inevitable Call Centre.... :no:
I'm 'GPO pedigree' cat who enjoys delving into the wonderous infrastructure of all things telecom and postal.
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Hello smucat, I was wondering if it was you. ;)
'Tis I indeed and I thought I'd poke my head round the cabinet and get some erudition. Walter has already cited 'BKK mode' so if I may borrow that for a moment, I would pedantically suggest that Beatie has dropped a 't'? ;D If you find me taking nonsense elsewhere, feel free to reciprocate :-\
I possibly should have gone to specsavers (other optometrists do trade), but I bumped into a cabinet on the way...
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@ Black Sheep
Oh, am I on 'What's My Line'? ;)
Origins of Operator Services 'Traffic' (remember Printer, Meter Checks?). Sales in the paw-written AN era and MOH. Saw the birth of CSS and moved to TAG which by then was Credit Control. Got caught-up in some PWs and made it through to PCB Enquiries/Onebill. Into 'Recession' and Scheduling and the inevitable Call Centre.... :no:
I'm 'GPO pedigree' cat who enjoys delving into the wonderous infrastructure of all things telecom and postal.
;D Always good to get a handle on your line of expertise, smu. ;D
Not sure what you mean by the 'Meter checks' ?? My only dealings with meters were the SPM's (Subs Private Meters), whereby we actually had to photograph banks and banks of the meter readings in the Exchange, to be sent off to billing. How times have changed on that !!
"AN" = Advice Note ??? MOH = ??
CSS (a years old DOS system) ...... still going strong, even after they said it would be shelved approx 24yrs ago ?!. I love CSS. :)
Ha ha ..... the dreaded 'Call Centre'. I assume you ended up in the 'Bucket Squad' as it's lovingly referred to in most parts of BT ?? Formally called, 'Skills Transition Group', or something similar ?? In other words, it sounds like the job you were doing was made redundant ?? We had a lot of guys end up in the dreaded 'Call Centre', quite a few lasted a couple of months then left BT. Couldn't cope with having to put their hand in the air when they needed to go for a p1ss.
Again, welcome to Kitz and you bring yet another 'angle' to the inner workings of all things BT. :)
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@ Black Sheep
Ah, the day's of disputed DMUs (Dialled Metered Units)! A meter check printer (MCP) or in engineering 'rate book' parlance, printer, meter for the checking of (PMC) was an electro-mechanical printer (green enamel finish) with associated wooden box of 3000-type relays to connect across a sub's line and record digits dialled from TXS and TXE2 exchanges. Yours truly used to read the pooly printed paper tapes and work out the codes dialled and the charge rates etc. All in the days before TXE4 itemisation.
MOH was Mechanisation of Order Handling, a stop-gap computer system on which to write (type) ANs before CSS was conceived. MOH used Ferranti PT7 minis working to a remote mainframe over superfast links of 9.6kb/s or suchlike! To be continued...
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... continued
At the flick of a switch you could reset 16 user terminals when the PW link stopped polling. I wonder how many times the 'switch it off, then back on again' fix has been used since the 1980s?
CSS was great as long as you could find the mnemonic and if all the 'bolt-on' systems feeds, in the middle, didn't fail. Of course nowadays peeps have to 'avert their gaze' if they are not sitting in the 'right' part of the business! And the whole of OR is based in Coventry ;)
Please bring back the GPO 8)
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'Tis I indeed and I thought I'd poke my head round the cabinet and get some erudition. Walter has already cited 'BKK mode' so if I may borrow that for a moment, I would pedantically suggest that Beatie has dropped a 't'? ;D If you find me taking nonsense elsewhere, feel free to reciprocate :-\
I possibly should have gone to specsavers (other optometrists do trade), but I bumped into a cabinet on the way...
Beattie or not Beatie? That is the question. No one has ever mentioned my use of one, not two, "teas" before. :-[
I'm quite happy to be corrected by a feline of GPO/POTel vintage, so Beattie she shall be. However I refuse to discuss that irritating little yellow avian entity, Busby . . . :no:
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A long and illustrious career it would appear ?! :)
CSS mnemonics are still as elusive as ever, I still find the odd command that can add slight benefit to my job, even now !!
The 'Karate Kid' method of repair ( <Japanese accent> "Switch off ... switch on") , is definitely the preferred method of faulting in todays 'Glitch ridden' society. When we used to employ the use of 'Ciphers' then 'Husky's', this method worked every time. A rather over-the-top description for it these days, is called (ahem) ..... power cycling. :blush:
LOL at the 'Equivalence' rulings when in BT buildings. Mates I've known for a quarter of a century but who work in other BT depts, will enter the brew room, and we have to stop what we're talking about (if it's OR business), and strike up a stunted, almost embarrassing convo about the impact Marmite has had on the world, or something similar. This we do every time of course. ;)
Boy-oh-boy, do I and a million others wish it could go back to the GPO, or at the very least the early years of British Telecom. We were happy and got a helluva lot more work done than we seem to nowadays. ::) :)
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It appears to me, just an outsider, that the "Golden Era" of the Nation's telecommunications provider was around the time of transition from GPO to POTel and that it lasted up until the creation of a "privatised" of Beattie. :-X
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Ha ha ...... it looks that way, but some of us are biased in that opion. ;D
I fear I've already strayed OT, so suffice to say, the management techniques (flow-chart guidance) and business speak that are used in todays blue-chip companies, are a far cry from the halcyon days of actually managing situations, and saying it as it is.
The human element (as in a caring company) has long gone, and the word 'disciplinary' is mentioned almost as many times in a day, as the word 'productivity' is.
Still a great company to work for, as in the day-to-day hands on part of the business, but the rest ??? :-\
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@ B*Cat
That would be a very subjective topic and might necessitate a new section. Suffice to say that the majority of 'long-termers' enjoyed the 'institution' ???
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b*cat ponders which institution -- The Institution of Post Office Electrical Engineers or The Institution of British Telecommunications Engineers -- whilst exiting the room to examine his food bowl . . . :P
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Very interesting discussion indeed, :drink:, and that's for all the company experts here. :)
BTW getting flu jab soon! Now, I wonder if it includes protection against avian and feline strains. ;D. Now where's that coat stand?
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Hi smucat and welcome...... :)
A certain 'B*cat' suggested that I pay a visit here
I hope we aren't going to get overrun with moggies......... ;D