• IT Cowboy (unregistered)

    I support users in many sites and one day I received a ticket that the client had the "no signal" message on her display. The Help Desk had done the standard things, they even had the client re-boot the computer. Nothing worked. As the client was able to work on another machine, there was no emergency. It was going to be a long drive as there were no highways between my site an the clients, it would be side streets all the way. So I scheduled a visit the next day. When I arrived I was directed to an elderly lady who was working at a machine. I looked at the neighboring machines, they all appeared to be working. I asked her which machine was causing the trouble. She admitted it had been the machine she was currently working on. She said when she got in, in the morning, it was working. As I asked my questions it came out there was a young kid (Maybe in his mid 20's) who worked her station in the evening. As it was along way to come back, and was a slow period I asked her to give me access to the station to look for loose cables etc. The first thing I noticed was the CPU box faced backwards. I tipped the machine so I could see the power button and pointed it out to her, she admitted to seeing the light, but had not looked at it the day before. I commented it said in the ticket she had re-started the computer. She said yes. I asked her how she did that, she promptly reached out to the monitor and pushed the power button off then on. With my best poker face, and a long pause, I said, well it looks like everything is working now, I will close the ticket. Then I silently walked out of the building back to my vehicle.

  • Bloer (unregistered) in reply to simon
    simon:
    Yeah, -t is older than -ed. Everybody spells it "cooked", but the -t forms seem to be disappearing but are alive and well in the UK at least. I would've thought from what I've read that slept and knelt weren't used much in the US (although they should be pronounced with a "t" rather than "d" sound), but I think burnt is used more as an adjective and burned is used more as a past-tense verb or participle.

    Despite all that, I really have no problem with "color" or "neighbor". English pronunciation isn't half as consistent as a lot of other languages so they're only dropping the odd letter. Plus, when you look into things like this you tend to find that both and possibly more forms were acceptable and different countries just standardised differently. Americans have to remember what's -ize and what's -ise so I don't envy them.

    Just as I was getting used to Color, I found technologies (I think wxWidgets is one) that use Colour....

    The 'or' vs 'our' has gotten to the point I don't notice, but the 'ise' vs 'ize' stuff kills me - as does the creation of new words that we have meanings for by adding 'ize' (I've heard (even in Australian media) stories about people being 'Burglarized' - I'm sure they mean 'Burgled').

    I guess language evolving is nothing new...Commentate means the same as comment and a commentator should be a commentor but the usage has been around so long that we accept it. I've often upset people by pointing out that (despite being a slight grammar nazi myself) grammar and spelling doesn't really matter if someone still manages to get their point across. If everyone knows what you're talking about, do we really care that you spelled (haha) the word wrong...

  • simon (unregistered) in reply to Bloer
    Bloer:
    simon:
    Yeah, -t is older than -ed. Everybody spells it "cooked", but the -t forms seem to be disappearing but are alive and well in the UK at least. I would've thought from what I've read that slept and knelt weren't used much in the US (although they should be pronounced with a "t" rather than "d" sound), but I think burnt is used more as an adjective and burned is used more as a past-tense verb or participle.

    Despite all that, I really have no problem with "color" or "neighbor". English pronunciation isn't half as consistent as a lot of other languages so they're only dropping the odd letter. Plus, when you look into things like this you tend to find that both and possibly more forms were acceptable and different countries just standardised differently. Americans have to remember what's -ize and what's -ise so I don't envy them.

    Just as I was getting used to Color, I found technologies (I think wxWidgets is one) that use Colour....

    The 'or' vs 'our' has gotten to the point I don't notice, but the 'ise' vs 'ize' stuff kills me - as does the creation of new words that we have meanings for by adding 'ize' (I've heard (even in Australian media) stories about people being 'Burglarized' - I'm sure they mean 'Burgled').

    I guess language evolving is nothing new...Commentate means the same as comment and a commentator should be a commentor but the usage has been around so long that we accept it. I've often upset people by pointing out that (despite being a slight grammar nazi myself) grammar and spelling doesn't really matter if someone still manages to get their point across. If everyone knows what you're talking about, do we really care that you spelled (haha) the word wrong...

    Yeah, I'm pretty lazy and easy-going but I still pick up on mistakes like I'm addicted to it. I don't point them out anymore unless I've already decided that I don't like somebody. Luckily -ise is universally accepted in the UK, unless you're the OED.

    I don't think I notice US spellings much anymore either. I read enough American stuff and guess I'm used to seeing it in tech too. Thank the Internet for that!

  • a;siokugh ;asdfgh (unregistered) in reply to Bloer
    Bloer:
    simon:
    simon:
    I don't think they go overboard on it. In fact I found out recently that the US generally doesn't accept "learnt", "spelt", "leapt" etc. opting instead for the "-ed" form of each. I also found out that "cooked" used to be spelt "cookt".

    FTFM

    Isn't the 't' older than 'ed' ending? That would mean they ARE going overboard on the changes.

    I can find at least two uses of this sort of vowel formation in US english: burnt, knelt (also slept, I guess)

    kept

  • Luiz Felipe (unregistered) in reply to Radek
    Radek:
    A clerk has setup RAID on her computer back in 1994? Now that's a power-user!

    lol, he put RAID on Keyboard.

  • Luiz Felipe (unregistered) in reply to Eric
    Eric:
    Does the interweb have ftp?

    This remind me when i failed to setup the FTP over the NAT and have no more time to put the application to work. Then i created an virtual FTP server using http with asp_net, it worked like a charm. Yea, i know about existence of webdav, i just dont care. The system was temporary and dont lasted for more than 4 months. Cheap to code an crude ftp server with http in 2 hours thant to make linux do FTP with NAT thing in same time. Perhaps if you have some friend that know it, but i dont, and dont have time to figure this out. Whatever, who needs FTP anymore.

  • TK (unregistered) in reply to Vajay
    Vajay:
    I can't help noticing that the work requires "talking, hearing and seeing", but doesn't require listening or understanding.
    Well, it is a government job, so that sounds right.
  • Shinobu (unregistered)

    Ants... that's new. I've had a nest of wriggling spiders in my old computer though. Just left them be.

  • (cs) in reply to ThePants999
    ThePants999:
    Justice:
    TRWTF is that the guy hauled the entire TV back to the store instead of just the remote.
    Really? The guy's problem, from his perspective, was that the TV didn't work. He was wrong, but he didn't know that. Bringing in just the remote if your TV's broken would be a real WTF!
    Not looking for and trying the power button on the TV main unit is TRWTF. Well, that and not taking the plastic off the batteries in the first place.
  • Indiana Jones (unregistered)

    Someone please remind me: Should I connect 3 keyboards to 1 can, or 3 cans to 1 keyboard?

    Also is it faster with cereal attachment?

  • Macho (unregistered) in reply to Scarlet Manuka
    Scarlet Manuka:
    Not looking for and trying the power button on the TV main unit is TRWTF. Well, that and not taking the plastic off the batteries in the first place.

    You see, on some older TV's Power button and On/Off buttons were separated.

    Actually, on my current there are no "On" button, you have to press "Next Channel" to turn it without remote.

    And when I was child, there was TV where "On" was hidden behind door-like panel, among various settings controls (like brightness and channel tuning)

    On other hand, both those TVs had light near "Power" button, in which case its pretty obvious that main unit is kinda working. Again, manual usually have "first use" guide and step-by-step troubleshooting..

  • csrster (unregistered)

    I've heard that on the seamier ends of the internet "BBC" stands for "Big Black see-oh-see-kay". Maybe that's what he was asking about?

  • QJo (unregistered) in reply to Barrista
    Barrista:
    Davie:
    I the mid 80s I was working field support on Texas Instrument Buisness System. The systems had field replacable keyboard electronics. Being that this one customer was under a maintance contract I had to be sure problems were not from abuse. When using this one terminal the user could not depend on the key that was pressed was going to be the smae character that appeared on the screen. After going through the usual questions to find out when the problem started, no one knew anything about it. So I filpped the keyboard over to disassemble the bezel then filpped it backto install the electronics. Now there is a puddle of coffe on the desk where the KB was laying. Now I had to be a detective an find out who drank coffee with cream and no sugar.
    Customer: "I'll have a coffee, no cream" Shop Assistant: "I'm sorry, we don't have cream" Customer: "You'd better make it no milk, then"

    In the UK we're allowed to call coffee without milk/cream "black coffee" and coffee with milk/cream "white coffee". In fact, substances which can be added to coffee to turn them from "black coffee" into "white coffee" are called "whiteners". I sometimes forget that the US has a completely different set of cultural imperatives, and it can be disconcerting to go into an outlet of an American coffee chain (in the UK), ask for "black coffee" and be asked whether I want milk or cream with it.

  • QJo (unregistered) in reply to Bloer
    Bloer:
    simon:
    Yeah, -t is older than -ed. Everybody spells it "cooked", but the -t forms seem to be disappearing but are alive and well in the UK at least. I would've thought from what I've read that slept and knelt weren't used much in the US (although they should be pronounced with a "t" rather than "d" sound), but I think burnt is used more as an adjective and burned is used more as a past-tense verb or participle.

    Despite all that, I really have no problem with "color" or "neighbor". English pronunciation isn't half as consistent as a lot of other languages so they're only dropping the odd letter. Plus, when you look into things like this you tend to find that both and possibly more forms were acceptable and different countries just standardised differently. Americans have to remember what's -ize and what's -ise so I don't envy them.

    Just as I was getting used to Color, I found technologies (I think wxWidgets is one) that use Colour....

    The 'or' vs 'our' has gotten to the point I don't notice, but the 'ise' vs 'ize' stuff kills me - as does the creation of new words that we have meanings for by adding 'ize' (I've heard (even in Australian media) stories about people being 'Burglarized' - I'm sure they mean 'Burgled').

    I guess language evolving is nothing new...Commentate means the same as comment and a commentator should be a commentor but the usage has been around so long that we accept it. I've often upset people by pointing out that (despite being a slight grammar nazi myself) grammar and spelling doesn't really matter if someone still manages to get their point across. If everyone knows what you're talking about, do we really care that you spelled (haha) the word wrong...

    There is one circumstance in which one would do well to be extremely careful about grammar and spelling, and that is the crafting of CVs. Many companies have grammar-and-spelling nazis working for them who insist on employing only people who can be bothered to craft a CV whose English is accurate. You may suggest that you don't want to work for such a company, but in case not, I'd be aware of this in case you limit your options unnecessarily.

  • My name (unregistered)

    Those ants were looking for Hex and got lost.

  • (cs) in reply to My name
    My name:
    Those ants were looking for Hex and got lost.
    +1 for the Terry Pratchett reference.
  • (cs) in reply to TK
    TK:
    Vajay:
    I can't help noticing that the work requires "talking, hearing and seeing", but doesn't require listening or understanding.
    Well, it is a government job, so that sounds right.
    I've seen some of those "physical requirements" checklists that disqualify me because they want someone with perfect color vision. I've never been able to find any legitimate reason for that to be a requirement for any of the jobs where it's included.

    And it disqualifies me. I don't have Colors. Fail the Ishihara test every time.

    On the plus side, I figure that since it makes me unfit to perform those programming jobs, it qualifies me to use handicapped parking spaces.

  • (cs) in reply to QJo
    QJo:
    In the UK we're allowed to call coffee without milk/cream "black coffee" and coffee with milk/cream "white coffee". In fact, substances which can be added to coffee to turn them from "black coffee" into "white coffee" are called "whiteners". I sometimes forget that the US has a completely different set of cultural imperatives, and it can be disconcerting to go into an outlet of an American coffee chain (in the UK), ask for "black coffee" and be asked whether I want milk or cream with it.

    In some parts of the US (not my part, but others) coffee with cream or the synthetic equivalent is called "regular". Maybe that's the problem.

  • QJo (unregistered) in reply to da Doctah
    da Doctah:
    QJo:
    In the UK we're allowed to call coffee without milk/cream "black coffee" and coffee with milk/cream "white coffee". In fact, substances which can be added to coffee to turn them from "black coffee" into "white coffee" are called "whiteners". I sometimes forget that the US has a completely different set of cultural imperatives, and it can be disconcerting to go into an outlet of an American coffee chain (in the UK), ask for "black coffee" and be asked whether I want milk or cream with it.

    In some parts of the US (not my part, but others) coffee with cream or the synthetic equivalent is called "regular". Maybe that's the problem.

    I hate that word "regular". It's what eating bran makes you.

  • (cs) in reply to QJo
    QJo:
    I hate that word "regular". It's what eating bran makes you.

    That explains an awful lot about regular expressions.

  • (cs) in reply to a;siokugh ;asdfgh
    a;siokugh ;asdfgh:
    Bloer:
    simon:
    simon:
    I don't think they go overboard on it. In fact I found out recently that the US generally doesn't accept "learnt", "spelt", "leapt" etc. opting instead for the "-ed" form of each. I also found out that "cooked" used to be spelt "cookt".

    FTFM

    Isn't the 't' older than 'ed' ending? That would mean they ARE going overboard on the changes.

    I can find at least two uses of this sort of vowel formation in US english: burnt, knelt (also slept, I guess)

    kept

    put

  • Jackson Samu (unregistered) in reply to Shinobu

    Enough is enough! I have had it with these motherfscking snakes in this motherfscking keyboard!

  • QJo (unregistered) in reply to IT Cowboy
    IT Cowboy:
    I support users in many sites and one day I received a ticket that the client had the "no signal" message on her display. The Help Desk had done the standard things, they even had the client re-boot the computer. Nothing worked. As the client was able to work on another machine, there was no emergency. It was going to be a long drive as there were no highways between my site an the clients, it would be side streets all the way. So I scheduled a visit the next day. When I arrived I was directed to an elderly lady who was working at a machine. I looked at the neighboring machines, they all appeared to be working. I asked her which machine was causing the trouble. She admitted it had been the machine she was currently working on. She said when she got in, in the morning, it was working. As I asked my questions it came out there was a young kid (Maybe in his mid 20's) who worked her station in the evening. As it was along way to come back, and was a slow period I asked her to give me access to the station to look for loose cables etc. The first thing I noticed was the CPU box faced backwards. I tipped the machine so I could see the power button and pointed it out to her, she admitted to seeing the light, but had not looked at it the day before. I commented it said in the ticket she had re-started the computer. She said yes. I asked her how she did that, she promptly reached out to the monitor and pushed the power button off then on. With my best poker face, and a long pause, I said, well it looks like everything is working now, I will close the ticket. Then I silently walked out of the building back to my vehicle.

    Perhaps you should have said: "No, this is how you turn the computer on and off." Not doing that is a failure to do your job.

    Now I'm not suggesting that you should be including basic training as part of your job description. However as part of "fixing the root cause" (which was "user didn't know how to turn computer on") it is imperative that after this event the person in question does know how to turn it on, or the same thing will happen again.

    Of course, the next time it happens, and someone else fields this call, the conversation may well evolve that a certain I.T. Cowboy ("I didn't get his first name") failed to tell the lady in question what had actually been the problem.

    Oh, and "elderly" should be reserved for people who are past retirement age. Only people in their twenties and younger refer to people between 50 and 60 as being "elderly", which I suppose justifies her dismissal of the colleague working at her station the previous night as a "young kid" (which IMO should be reserved for children who are still at grade school).

  • (cs) in reply to QJo
    QJo:
    Barrista:
    Davie:
    Now I had to be a detective an find out who drank coffee with cream and no sugar.
    Customer: "I'll have a coffee, no cream" Shop Assistant: "I'm sorry, we don't have cream" Customer: "You'd better make it no milk, then"

    In the UK we're allowed to call coffee without milk/cream "black coffee" and coffee with milk/cream "white coffee". In fact, substances which can be added to coffee to turn them from "black coffee" into "white coffee" are called "whiteners". I sometimes forget that the US has a completely different set of cultural imperatives, and it can be disconcerting to go into an outlet of an American coffee chain (in the UK), ask for "black coffee" and be asked whether I want milk or cream with it.

    In some parts it's called Coloured (or Colored (or Colourt)) coffee.

    On a related note, I once got a confused stare in the UK when I asked for a Flat White - until we figured out that they thought I had asked for a Black White...

  • QJo (unregistered) in reply to Hatshepsut
    Hatshepsut:
    QJo:
    Barrista:
    Davie:
    Now I had to be a detective an find out who drank coffee with cream and no sugar.
    Customer: "I'll have a coffee, no cream" Shop Assistant: "I'm sorry, we don't have cream" Customer: "You'd better make it no milk, then"

    In the UK we're allowed to call coffee without milk/cream "black coffee" and coffee with milk/cream "white coffee". In fact, substances which can be added to coffee to turn them from "black coffee" into "white coffee" are called "whiteners". I sometimes forget that the US has a completely different set of cultural imperatives, and it can be disconcerting to go into an outlet of an American coffee chain (in the UK), ask for "black coffee" and be asked whether I want milk or cream with it.

    In some parts it's called Coloured (or Colored (or Colourt)) coffee.

    On a related note, I once got a confused stare in the UK when I asked for a Flat White - until we figured out that they thought I had asked for a Black White...

    What's a "flat white"? As opposed to a "fizzy white" which is made from sparkling water?

  • Haha (unregistered) in reply to csrster
    csrster:
    I've heard that on the seamier ends of the internet "BBC" stands for "Big Black see-oh-see-kay". Maybe that's what he was asking about?

    And for a similar reason I always chuckle inwardly when passing the Dorothy Perkins shop with their DP signs - Double Penetr..

  • Ru (unregistered) in reply to Hatshepsut

    [quote user="Hatshepsut"][quote user="a;siokugh ;asdfgh"][quote user="Bloer Isn't the 't' older than 'ed' ending? That would mean they ARE going overboard on the changes.

    I can find at least two uses of this sort of vowel formation in US english: burnt, knelt (also slept, I guess)[/quote] kept[/quote]

    put [/quote]

    Trollt, one presumes.

    Do you guys use 'wept'?

  • Ru (unregistered) in reply to csrster
    csrster:
    I've heard that on the seamier ends of the internet "BBC" stands for "Big Black see-oh-see-kay". Maybe that's what he was asking about?

    You mean COCK? For fuck's sake, what is it with the bowdlerising (or should it be bowdlerisation these days?) going on in this place? Believe it or not, typing out the phonetic spelling like there are a bunch of illiterate two year olds reading TDWTF does't mean you didn't just confess to looking at porn starring dudes of african descent with fucking enormous penes.

  • Ru (unregistered) in reply to Bloer
    Bloer:
    I guess language evolving is nothing new...Commentate means the same as comment and a commentator should be a commentor but the usage has been around so long that we accept it. I've often upset people by pointing out that (despite being a slight grammar nazi myself) grammar and spelling doesn't really matter if someone still manages to get their point across. If everyone knows what you're talking about, do we really care that you spelled (haha) the word wrong...

    Really? Dunno about your part of the world, but round here anyone might comment but only a commentator will do any commentating. Meaning can change as well as spelling, after all.

  • Martin (unregistered)

    User support without latex gloves? Weird!

  • Everyone (unregistered) in reply to Ru
    Ru:
    Bloer:
    I guess language evolving is nothing new...Commentate means the same as comment and a commentator should be a commentor but the usage has been around so long that we accept it. I've often upset people by pointing out that (despite being a slight grammar nazi myself) grammar and spelling doesn't really matter if someone still manages to get their point across. If everyone knows what you're talking about, do we really care that you spelled (haha) the word wrong...

    Really? Dunno about your part of the world, but round here anyone might comment but only a commentator will do any commentating. Meaning can change as well as spelling, after all.

    Does that mean a single comment from a commentator is called a commentat?

  • (cs) in reply to QJo
    QJo:
    Hatshepsut:
    On a related note, I once got a confused stare in the UK when I asked for a Flat White - until we figured out that they thought I had asked for a Black White...

    What's a "flat white"? As opposed to a "fizzy white" which is made from sparkling water?

    No, as opposed to a "frothy white" which has milk froth on the top. (Which is apparently seen, for some reason, by some italian-speakers, as a kind of hood, leading to the nickname Capuccino.)

  • David (unregistered) in reply to Muzer
    Muzer:
    Britain was a VERY early adopter of widescreen. Most shows made after about 2000 in this country are probably in widescreen (my date might be slightly out there). That's why we've been relatively slow adopters of HD - for many non-technical people I know from America, the only difference between SD and HD is that HD is wider, so without an obvious difference like that here, people without great eyesight don't care :p

    So yeah, widescreen CRT in 2000 is not unlikely.

    (Also, for those with little to no knowledge of British TV, the BBC is one of the four* "public-service" broadcasters, and the only one funded by the TV licence fee (rather than by advertising - ie it has no adverts)). The vast majority of people use terrestrial TV (even more so in 2000), so virtually everyone can get BBC and the other public-service channels - nowadays all PSB channels are carried on analogue terrestrial (in areas not yet switched off), digital terrestrial, cable and free-to-air on satellite.

    *actually more if you count all the ITV licences and Teletext which is only a PSB in official terms nowadays - I'm counting 8 distinct PSB broadcasting companies (BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5, Teletext, ITV plc, STV, UTV, Channel TV).

    Actually, the BBC has just as much advertising as all the other channels (at least between programmes, they don't yet split programs with advert breaks). The difference is that they are only allowed to advertise their own products and not anybody elses.

    Also, if this story is from the UK then TRWTF is the shop assistant as the basic BBC channels (1 and 2) are available through all mediums, as long as it's plugged into an aerial of some descrption. If you are lucky to live close enough to a trasmitter then you may not even need an external aerial to tune in.

  • subjective (unregistered)

    Back in the mid-80's, I was the only IT person at the Child Support Bureau in a large mid-western city and in those days the staff smoked and ate lunch at their desks around the equipment making for some unpleasant (and unfortunate) episodes. One involved Dottie, a septuagenarian who still was very active and not ready for retirement yet.

    One day I got a call from Dottie that the keys on her keyboard were sticking. These were large NCR terminals with black and white CRT displays with integrated keyboards. I checked it out and found that the keys were indeed sticking down. Dottie said that this had been going on for a few days and that she couldn't get her work done. Since Dottie's usual disposition was somewhere south of sour, she tore into me when I asked if she had spilled something on her unit. "Certainly NOT!" she snapped acidly and lit up a Marlboro.

    Since we had a service agreement with NCR and they had an on-site technician at the courthouse, I opened a ticket and awaited the verdict. He popped open the case and began investigating the keyboard - he took a flat blade screwdriver and began carefully scraping for a few moments and then deposited a pile of brown goo on a nearby napkin.

    "What's that?" I asked. After a few sniffs and some contemplation he responded "I think it's soup...!". When confronted with this, Dottie finally cracked and 'fessed up. She had been eating mock turtle soup from a large Styrofoam cup when her lit cigarette rolled off the edge of the ashtray headed for the floor. As she instinctively reached to stop it she knocked the whole cup of soup into the keyboard. Since no one was around to see, she simply mopped up what mess she could find and merrily went back about her business...

  • onitake (unregistered)

    She should have tried Acetone instead of bug spray. Yummy, key soup!

  • Moonraquel (unregistered) in reply to Barrista
    Barrista:
    Customer: "I'll have a coffee, no cream" Shop Assistant: "I'm sorry, we don't have cream" Customer: "You'd better make it no milk, then"

    Customer: Three vegetarian pizzas, hold the paprika on one. (15 minutes later) Kebab person: Three veggies - for you, surprise: ONLY PAPRIKA!

  • Naked Jaybird (unregistered) in reply to ParkinT
    ParkinT:
    Ken Cox experienced REAL computer BUGS! Apparently, the colony of ants suffered a population OVERFLOW.

    Snack Overflow?

  • (cs)

    That Government job also requires talking. I wonder if this means to other people? That seems pretty unreasonable to me.

  • (cs) in reply to Muzer
    Muzer:
    So yeah, widescreen CRT in 2000 is not unlikely.
    I bought a Philips 28" widescreen CRT in 1999, if memory serves me well, and I wasn't exactly an early adopter.
  • Rich D (unregistered)

    In England, you need a license to watch TV, and it is usually purchased along with the TV. So the buyer was probably very confused in the US, as normally, he would have paid for his BBC in advance.

  • (cs) in reply to Rich D
    Rich D:
    In England, you need a license to watch TV, and it is usually purchased along with the TV. So the buyer was probably very confused in the US, as normally, he would have paid for his BBC in advance.
    The TV Licence applies to the whole of the UK, not just to England.

    The licence is not a licence to watch TV. It is a licence to receive broadcast TV signals by any means, including by cable, and even if you don't watch them. If you use your TV exclusively to watch pre-recorded media, e.g. you connect it only to your DVD player, you don't need a TV Licence. If you do this, however, you should expect to receive strongly-worded letters and/or visits from TV Licencing until you buy a licence.

    The licence applies to all TV broadcasters, not just the BBC. The licence fee pays for the BBC, sure, but you need to pay it even if you only watch ITV.

    The licence may well be purchased "along with" the TV, but not if, for example, you are buying a replacement for a broken set, or you are buying a second TV for the same household. In these cases, you do not even have to show the shop your existing licence, because there is no absolute requirement to have one. (Some shops, of course, won't sell you a TV unless you prove you have a licence, but that's just them being ignorant and/or bloody-minded. The only thing they have to do is tell the relevant authority that you bought a TV.)

    As a further note on buying them together, remember that it isn't normally possible to buy both in the same place, as you buy the licence usually from your local post office, and a TV from a vendor of consumer electronics, which the post office is not.

    IANAL, and my recollection of this is a little out of date, but I doubt it has changed all that much.

  • (cs)

    "satellate"?

    Sheesh, I know grammar-checking can be a burden, but is it really too much trouble to run spell-check on these things?

  • (cs) in reply to David

    Speaking of the BBC, Top Gear rules. How can I get a job like that?

  • Hortical (unregistered) in reply to Rich D
    Rich D:
    In England, you need a license to watch TV, and it is usually purchased along with the TV. So the buyer was probably very confused in the US, as normally, he would have paid for his BBC in advance.
    And there's a CCTV camera watching you while you watch to ensure that you have the proper license to watch the channel where you watch other people through CCTV cameras as a means of crowdsourcing surveillance, some of whom are watching you on their TVs, to confirm that you possess the required license to engage in crowdsourced CCTV surveillance camera surveillance.
  • Eric (unregistered) in reply to da Doctah

    Being color blind would disqualify you from being in electronics repair (and related fields). You would be required to read the color codes on the resistors.

    I remember my dad was going to school for TV and electronics when I was a young pup. He came home one day and announced we was out of school because he couldn't read the color codes.

  • foo (unregistered) in reply to Steve The Cynic
    Steve The Cynic:
    Rich D:
    In England, you need a license to watch TV, and it is usually purchased along with the TV. So the buyer was probably very confused in the US, as normally, he would have paid for his BBC in advance.
    The TV Licence applies to the whole of the UK, not just to England.

    The licence is not a licence to watch TV. It is a licence to receive broadcast TV signals by any means, including by cable, and even if you don't watch them. If you use your TV exclusively to watch pre-recorded media, e.g. you connect it only to your DVD player, you don't need a TV Licence. If you do this, however, you should expect to receive strongly-worded letters and/or visits from TV Licencing until you buy a licence.

    Call yourselves lucky. In Germany you need a license even then. Even if you only have an analogue TV set and live in an area where analogue transmission has stopped. As long as your device has the capability to receive something, you need a license. In fact, there are businesses who will remove the receiver from the device ...

    But fortunately this kind of thing will stop -- they plan to change it to a tax that everyone has to pay, TV or not ...

  • QJo (unregistered) in reply to Ru
    Ru:
    csrster:
    I've heard that on the seamier ends of the internet "BBC" stands for "Big Black see-oh-see-kay". Maybe that's what he was asking about?

    You mean COCK? For fuck's sake, what is it with the bowdlerising (or should it be bowdlerisation these days?) going on in this place? Believe it or not, typing out the phonetic spelling like there are a bunch of illiterate two year olds reading TDWTF does't mean you didn't just confess to looking at porn starring dudes of african descent with fucking enormous penes.

    For one thing, it makes browsing this site safer for work if profanities are deliberately avoided.

  • RandomUser423709 (unregistered) in reply to Bloer
    Bloer:
    simon:
    Yeah, -t is older than -ed. Everybody spells... [snip/] ...just standardised differently. Americans have to remember what's -ize and what's -ise so I don't envy them.
    Just as I was getting used to Color, I found technologies (I think wxWidgets is one) that use Colour....

    The 'or' vs 'our' has gotten to the point I don't notice, but the 'ise' vs 'ize' stuff kills me - as does the creation of new words that we have meanings for by adding 'ize' (I've heard (even in Australian media) stories about people being 'Burglarized' - I'm sure they mean 'Burgled').[snip/]

    In my experience, in my region (upper-Midwest USA), "burgled" and "burglarized" are synonyms, with "burgled" gradually becoming archaic. There is, however, a difference in connotation: "burgled" seems more often associated with the burglar, while "burglarized" seems more often associated with the victim.

  • QJo (unregistered) in reply to Eric
    Eric:
    Being color blind would disqualify you from being in electronics repair (and related fields). You would be required to read the color codes on the resistors.

    I remember my dad was going to school for TV and electronics when I was a young pup. He came home one day and announced we was out of school because he couldn't read the color codes.

    I suffer a certain level of red-green blindness in that I sometimes mistake them for brown. However, I went into a fairly successful career in electronics, but then I live in the UK and such disqualificationary rules do not apply. I remember that my interviewer handed me a bunch of 100 or so colour-coded wires to decode, and I only got one wrong, so no worries there. I handle the disability by gleaning clues from the lightness.

    I have had smug comments to the effect that I shouldn't be allowed to drive at night (can't tell what colour the traffic lights are, is the idea), and such like, from ignorant people who don't understand the nature of the condition.

    I'm slightly colour-blind, folks - this does not automatically mean I'm mentally impaired.

  • QJo (unregistered) in reply to RandomUser423709
    RandomUser423709:
    Bloer:
    simon:
    Yeah, -t is older than -ed. Everybody spells... [snip/] ...just standardised differently. Americans have to remember what's -ize and what's -ise so I don't envy them.
    Just as I was getting used to Color, I found technologies (I think wxWidgets is one) that use Colour....

    The 'or' vs 'our' has gotten to the point I don't notice, but the 'ise' vs 'ize' stuff kills me - as does the creation of new words that we have meanings for by adding 'ize' (I've heard (even in Australian media) stories about people being 'Burglarized' - I'm sure they mean 'Burgled').[snip/]

    In my experience, in my region (upper-Midwest USA), "burgled" and "burglarized" are synonyms, with "burgled" gradually becoming archaic. There is, however, a difference in connotation: "burgled" seems more often associated with the burglar, while "burglarized" seems more often associated with the victim.

    As in, "He burgled, she was burglarized"? Yes, that would make sense.

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