10.46
DGM HQ.
A grey day in the Chalke Valley and, most likely, throughout the land.
Ben Crowe is in the DGM kitchen, fine-tuning 4 guitars that he has modified & improved for me. His workshop is so cold that, when the guitars are in a warmer environment, the necks bow slightly at the 7th. fret. These necks are now being straightened. But the big excitement: Ben has brought the very first Ben Crowe / RF Model for testing….
Ben is aware that guitar makers make guitars for their own understanding of guitar playing…
… so has handed it over to the guitarist for testing…
… who finds it is already well on the way to being a Beast. It has a superb natural sustain, because of Ben’s design, and is light & very playable. We are not currently addressing decorative details, such as purfling & inlay, which can wait until the instrument itself is fully declared worthy of the Beastly Award.
The Beaudoux RF model is also a superb instrument, quite different & very much the same,
Now, in SoundWorld II with Alex…
Alex is a Happy Boy because as Plumber, Drummer, Engineer & Cheesecake Manufacturer, he will always have employment. Note, Alex does not have a degree in Media Studies, he has qualifications as a Plumber. That is, Alex has practical expertise. Today, we are not addressing the plumbing in the DGM shower (well worthy of attention) but a Churchscapes compilation for CD release.
What is the title of this forthcoming CD? The two provisional titles are At The End Of Time & Time Stands Still. Which shall we use? An office poll of Alex, Ben & David gives us 1 for, one against, and one neutral.
12.42 Ben has left, carrying away the BC-RF prototype & the Bunny (gifted from Jakko J) for fret polishing.
Now, through-listen underway, beginning in St. Paul’s. And the title is Evensong.
14.19 Continuing in Talinn Pühavaimu kirik.
16.06 Evensong through-listen now at an end with more editing to follow tomorrow. Very reflective says Alex. This is a very old man says Robert.
17.45 Another hour of BT Broadband technical help, futility & annoyance, speaking to a further set of different people, all of whom ask the same questions & get the same answers as on all the other occasions. All of the tech help people are exceptionally polite and, to the degree that they are able, helpful. None of them is prepared to book an appointment for a visit from a BT engineer. They will call me back in 24-48 hours, as the last senior person told me but, because they didn’t, we are calling again. The same promise is made, but with the information that my last call wasn’t registered: ie after 70 minutes on the phone to 3 people, the report disappeared. So, we began again, all over again.
None of the tech-help people have English as a first language and, although technically fluent in English, the accents are such that I have been unable to understand much of what has been said. I found this online…
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/13/bt_clientlogic/
BT shunts broadband support to India
Published Tuesday 13th December 2005 12:31 GMT
… BT awarded a major broadband tech support contract to an outsourcing firm in India.
Staff at ClientLogic - who have manned BT’s broadband technical helpdesk for all consumer and business customers for the last five years - were told yesterday that the IT services company had failed to win a competitive tender. Instead, HCL was awarded the contract to run BT’s broadband technical helpdesk. Although ClientLogic will continue to work on other support work for BT such as broadband billing and provision of new service, insiders are concerned that these too will eventually be shunted overseas.
Wasting no time getting the new contract up and running, HCL began taking its first calls yesterday from BT broadband users ahead of a swift migration of the business to India. HCL is expected to handle all tech support enquiries from next month...
A spokesman for BT told us that HCL was selected because it represented the "best supplier" and the "best value for money". "There are cost savings [from this deal] but not at the expense of customer service," he said.
I say, bollocks. Three lengthy calls and I still can’t get a BT engineer to visit. Customer service? Ian Wallace would know what to say to this.
18.23 What is this on the computer?
"Establish the principle."
