Astonishing Customer Service

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I've seldom been so happy to lose a bet. 

A week or so ago one of the taps in the kitchen broke. Or, perhaps to be more precise, I broke it. While replacing the internal fitting (the bit that you have to change every now and then otherwise the taps drip) I put the handle screw on cross threaded and managed to strip the threads so that the tap handle wouldn't fit properly.

This was the cue for a whole selection of MacGuyver-esque escapades as I tried a bunch of different tricks to try and attach the tap cover. Some were quite successful. One lasted all of a day.

Number one son watched these attempts up until the point they stopped being amusing (i.e. for around ten minutes) and then suggested that I contact the company and ask for a replacement for the broken part. "Don't be silly" I replied haughtily. "No one does that kind of thing any more. I bet you fifty pence that if I contact them I'll get no response". 

Anyhoo, a bet is a bet, so last week I filled in a web form describing the problem and received a reply from Anna telling me that the replacement parts were in the post. No charge. 

Astonishing service. Thanks so much Brita. You've restored my faith in customer service. I'll pay number one son next time I see him. And be very happy to.

AI Rob Miles

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Here's a nice quote: "The world is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine."

Now, here it is in action. On Thursday last week I blogged that I was giving a talk about robots taking over the world, but I had no recollection of arranging it. The blog post then gets some comments from folks who think that this Rob Miles should probably have been booked instead.

Then, today, AI Rob Miles (as I shall refer to him) got in touch offering to do the talk. From the videos that he has produced (you should watch them) I reckon he'd do a much better job than me. I've fiddled with AI and whatnot, but I wouldn't call myself much of an expert. AI Rob Miles is. 

Rob Miles is not an uncommon name I suppose, and there are lots of techy people out there. But even so I'm impressed by the coincidence. 

Will Robots Take Over the World

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I've just discovered that I'm giving a talk about robots at the university on Monday 26th June. Or at least someone called Rob Miles has been booked to do 30 minutes on whether or not robots will take over the world as part of the Annual UCAS Exhibition which this year is in Hull. 

I probably said yes to it when I was drunk. Or something. 

Anyhoo, if you fancy coming along on Monday at 10:15 in LR13 in the Wilberforce Building on the University campus it would be lovely to see you. I will, of course, be showing off some robots of my own. And I'll be sober. Or something.

I don't teach at the university any more, but I retain a strong affection for the place where I spent my professional life. They even made me a Fellow of the University, which was very nice of them because I think it means I get to give talks like these. 

Saved by the stud finder

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Put a new mirror up in the hall. Now I can check that I look my absolute handsomeist best before leaving the house. It's a very optimistic mirror. 

We carefully decided where it needed to be hung and, just before I fired up the drill, I ran my trusty stud-finder over the wall. I bought this a while back. It's a metal detector for wall use. It tells you if you are about to drill into a pipe (messy and expensive) or a live wire (messy, expensive and fatal). 

Anyhoo, it bleeped in a fairly conclusive manner right over the spot I'd marked. Turns out that the wires from my mains sockets go up to the ceiling rather than down to the floor. So the mirror is four inches to the left of the optimal positon. And I'm not dead.

Apres La Deluge

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You can keep all your scary movies. To me one of the most frightening things I can hear is someone ask very quietly "Is this stuff under the sink supposed to be wet?".

We'd just about convinced ourselves that the out of place water was caused by a leak from a pack of wet wipes, when I discovered that a plastic box that was supposed to be full of cleaning materials was also full of water.

Oh dear. 

To cut a short story shorter, it turned out that the washer above wasn't doing what it should. No matter how tight I made the connection (within common sense "Don't tighten it until it breaks" limits) it still dripped. About a drop every minute. More than enough to fill a big plastic box over a period of a few months. 

I'm quite proud of what I did next. One approach would have been to remove the hose from the back of the washing machine and fit a the spare one I keep for such occasions. A fun packed exercise which would have involved dismantling chunks of the kitchen. And puddles. Another approach is to take the washer off the spare hose and fit it to the existing one. End of leak. 

External Examining Fun

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We had the exam board this morning and then I wandered off for a walk around the city before I went to get my train home. I really like Dundee. I'm going to have to make some time for a proper visit. 

I also like the fact that I wrote a chunk of chapter six of "Begin to Code with Python" sitting at platform 1 waiting for my train. I'll be able to read my description of the while construction and how to use it properly and think "I wrote that in Dundee".

Evil Croquet

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The Incredible Hulk used to say "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry." For me it's "You wouldn't like me when I'm playing croquet". We got the croquet set out today for the first time in many years and had a go. I seem to have lost a bit of my accuracy. But none of my nastiness. 

Sorry folks. 

You would think that by now I'd have learned the dangers inherent in giving other people large, heavy, mallets and then doing things that would seriously annoy them. But no....

Actually, croquet is a really great game. We used to have a lot of fun with the students when we had things like staff-student cricket matches. After they'd given us a serious drubbing on the cricket pitch we could always say "Well done. Now, how about a nice relaxing game of croquet?". The students, thinking that their superior motor skills and reflexes would serve them well in just another ball game would readily sign up. And we would win every time. 

Croquet is intensely strategic. A bit of skill helps, but at the end of the day it is all about striking a balance between your urge to complete the course and win the game, and your urge to send your opponent's balls into the flower beds. I think it's a good game for programmers, because it is all about sequence and planning. And I rather enjoy it. Frequently a lot more than the people I'm playing against......

I Hate the word Easy

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If there's one word that the English language could really do without, I reckon it's the word easy. It's one of those words that you shouldn't ever use because it never helps the situation. 

If I'm trying to do something and you tell me that it's easy that doesn't help. It just makes me even more concerned because I can't do it. And if I finally manage to do that thing, the knowledge that it was considered easy completely devalues the achievement. 

Don't say "It's easy". Say "You can do this".