Monday 20th April

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Interesting news today that search engine Ask.com has decided to revert to its original name Ask Jeeves after just three years, following market research. I bet the same never happens to Norwich Union but stranger things have happened. It's been such a nice sunny day here in Sheffield that it's not felt like a Monday.  Spring definitely has sprung and with it our thoughts turn towards.. Well, let's take a look at what has been occupying our minds today shall we, as we take our virtual stroll around Plusnet Towers.     Let's start with James N, one of the Shift Managers in the CSC: A little different today from the CSC. I can't remember us having a TSM EOD so it's about time we change that. The morning started with Annette in bright and early for her 7am start with her team (A) manning Support. Come 9am myself, Kelly and JK arrived. We are currently looking after the CS, Faults and Business team respectively. Most of the day Kelly seems to have been concerned about her volcanic black taps for her new kitchen and the complete lack of work surface. Come on Wicks sort it out! JK was only in for half a day as he had the afternoon off but he had his head buried into stats for the weekly operational meetings that he needed to prepare for the senior management today. I had a busy first half of the shift working on some tech assessments for a few of my team we are looking into up skilling to the tech teams. Then, this afternoon amongst other things I've been on conference call with our SA CSC about plans for resource during the week. Dave arrived early for his shift this afternoon. His team (B), (don't we have imaginative names for the teams!), are the late tech team with guys working until midnight so, on this glorious day, if you speak with them this evening, please sympathise with them that they are stuck in the building until so late. Anyway I'm getting off to play some footie and hopefully play better then my golf was yesterday.   Down the stairs and into Development where we find Dan D with this update: I've been working a new tool for the customer options team so that they have all the required details to hand and can easily apply special offers to customers who are calling about their subscription packages. A few people have been working on home phone including Andy, Mark. Colin wasted a bit of time on testing before realising what it was he needed to test after consulting the documentation and code. Sam's been working his wizardry with CSS on updating the styles for My Account and Phillip has been working problem fixes.   Whilst we're down in the 'dungeon' let's have a word with Catherine of QA: Another joyful day in the sunshine factory that is the city's favourite ISP. Bunnies have run hotfoot (should that be hotpaw?) from each member of the team to bring us today's helping of sparkles. Matt 2 has been sunning himself in the pixie glen, doing some testing on hardware, with Pete S who drifted down on a dandelion seed at lunchtime to help him. Pete's also been sprinkling some fairy dust on the latest Sekrit Projekt with Gary, bringing chuckles to all who encounter them! Paul has been crafting four leafed clovers for good little boys and girls (which one is Rys?). Rather fittingly for this theme, Gavin has been wearing his pointy hat and casting some spells with QA Wizard. Nigel's been filled with wide eyed awe at the beauty of unicorns whilst testing something WLR related. As for me, I've been skipping joyfully in the gumdrop meadows with Rupert, one of our developers. Have a good evening everyone!   Quite literally bonkers.  But rather wonderful with it.  Definitely full of the joys of Spring there Catherine.  I'm guessing it translates as QA have been testing things. Last but never the least, here's Chris with the obligatory Comms update: So what've we been doing today? Matt - Today has mostly been forums and CSC escalation with problems thrown into the mix. He also didn't like my suggestion of putting him in the shower fully clothed and turning it on as cold as it goes. Chris - I've been in the forums a fair bit today and also dealt with the networks change controls in Bob's absence. I'm playing football tonight for the first time in many a month and fully expect to be aching tomorrow. That's it, only the 2 of us in today. See you tomorrow and we'll leave you with a couple of comm-ics to catch up on. Link & Link   So there we go.  If you enjoyed today's EOD why not tell your friends?  Anything in particular you'd like to hear about in our reports? Why not ask us?  You never know we might just surprise you.   Until next time pop-pickers.   PJ out.