h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hurray! Back online at home. Despite receiving a letter from BT saying that the ISDN fairies are due later this morning, I phoned the number on the letter, and had the following conversation ...

BT Bunny: I'll need the order number, sir.
Me: I've just given it to you.
BTB: No, that's just the job number for your line.
Me: It says order number here.
BTB: Do you have contact numbers for those other sites?
Me: 01xyz pqrstuv, and 01abc ghijkl
BTB: Those are residential numbers sir. There's no work booked there.
Me: Hang on, what about 01xyz mnopqrs?
BTB: That's residential too. No work booked there either.
Me: That's the site I first gave you.
BTB: Erm, well I'll still need the order number.

And so on. So before leaving the office I grabbed a forlorn USR 28K Sportster. Of course, it has no power supply or leads, but a bit of poking with a multimeter revealed it needed a low-voltage AC supply. Luckily, I have 12V halogen lighting at home, so I’ve tapped a feed off that, the downstairs ‘phone has donated its line cord, and a pair of dissected dongle-danglers have become a home-made gender-changer.

NT detected the modem no probs (why do Sportsters always think they’re Swedish?), and a quick search of the old installation’s backup revealed the .ins file with my Gateway account details. I wonder if tomorrow will go as smoothly?

Wouldn't it just be easier to get the tube and go to work!!

Well it would be, except that there aren't a great many tube stations outside the M25.

Plus, tubes tend not to work at 3am, and the servers know that, which is why they usually pick that time to start twanging rulers on the edge of their desks, chucking paper aeroplanes at each other, and having noisy pillow fights.

Can you fix them from home via ISDN?

That's the general idea.

Tim

I'd just like to remind everyone that I've got ADSL.

So there.

Yeah, but as I said last night, it's not SViH compatible

see a doctor.

Alright, alright.

What is SViH, Sean?

We're all dieing to know.

No.

Really.

"Small Village in Hertfordshire"

I've lived in one once, Aldbury: village pond, stocks, but no ducking stool. Plenty of the other sort!

OK so educate me. What is ADSL?

ADSL stands for Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. It is a method of data transmission that provides speeds of up to 7Mbps to the user, and 800Kbps upstream to the service provider, all over existing telephone lines!
You could have looked it up for yourself!

Also noted for being the location for a classic episode of The Avengers, as well as its exceptionally excellent pub "The Greyhound"

Sean.

Several films were also shot there, e.g. The Dirty Dozen. Also some other TV programmes: Shillingbury Tales, Sykes, etc.