New Grump of the Day

[paulc]

• Brushless servo motor with driver - 14mm or 19mm shaft. Default max speed is 3000RPM, although some sources say it will do 6000RPM. 3m long cables, so I can mount the controls well away from the head. Would need to make a small box with a speed knob & on/off switch or plug it in to a computer.

Order placed on the 17th, arrived on the 24th. Now the fun begins, once I work out how to set the darned thing up.

 

[Aurelius]

If you were in the vicinity of the Midlands over the weekend you may have noticed a large and fast moving vapour trail headed toward the stratosphere accompanied by a sonic boom. This was purely coincidental to the Cosford Airshow which was in full flight at the time and none of the military aircraft on show there were in any way responsible. There being no injury or risk of same to the general public this unscheduled event went largely unnoticed, and hence unreported, but may have attracted a few oohs and aaahs from the spectators on the ground. The launch of this ballistic object was in fact a few miles away from Cosford and was initiated with no fan-fare to speak of as it was triggered electronically from even further away and entirely accidentally and thoughtlessly by an otherwise innocent member of the civilian public.

I feel your pain Cubist
3-4 years ago, my area was awarded a grant for fibre upgrade. The company responsible held several meetings in the locality to confirm a guaranteed 100mb service for a monthly fee of £19.95 with 100% coverage. I queried whether I would have to foot the bill to have the fibre layed the 150m from my gate to the cottage and was assured this would all be done as part of the service....bingo! as they say.
Over the following 12 months or so, the company undertook a rigorous survey of every pole/cable and duct in the area, the following year saw the exchange work done and a new fibre cabinet installed in the nearest village to me (some 2.5 miles away) and then.........they went into administration . The following 6 months+ saw the company bought out by another company called Voneus who initially agreed to continue with the project in my area.....bingo! I said again (will I never learn).
Some time later, Voneus announced that were unable to commit to 100% coverage and that it was more likely to be 80% and they would reduce the service to 80mb, I of course was very likely to reside in the 20% that had been decided too remote/expensive to cater for. Then any residual hope was snuffed out by Voneus deciding they were pulling the plug on the entire project...bingo bugger! I said.
The after eights and coffee or brandy and cigar to this saga was me trying to negotiate a broadband deal for the existing 1.5mb length of soggy string purporting to be broadband. BT suggested £36 a month was reasonable...I didn't!. Whichever provider I called advised me I could have full fibre, the fact I'd retired from BT after 25 years so knew a little and that my nearest neighbour's were having to run their business courtesy of Mr Musk's satellite were lost on the agents whose "computer says yes" mindset proved insurmountable. They would input the full fibre order and call me back 2 weeks later to admit I was correct and fibre was not available to me, "fine" I'd retort, "then please update your records to reflect this", "er, we can't" was the reply, "technical issue preventing the data change" This occurred with BT, then Vodafone and Plusnet before I decided DIY was the only option.
An e-mail was typed with heavy hands to Clive Selley, CEO of Openreach and within the day a reply from the "executive complaints desk" was received. Evennnnntuallllllllly, it was discovered my address was assigned to the incorrect exchange some 11 miles away, to correct this simple date entry....2 weeks was quoted, which turned into 3. After this was completed I was free to order a basic non-fibre connection for the princely fee of £26 a month (I know what your thinking reader, was trading £10 a month worth shaving 2 years off my lifespan?) . As for fibre?, not a whiff of it coming to my area for the foreseeable future. If anyone is interested in donating to my justgiving page...the ongoing counselling bill is totting up..... "Nurse, is my cocoa still warm?"