Assume v. Presume

prpr said:
except mine (for boiler replacement) wasn't. He expected to just take the old one off the wall, hang the new one on the wall, connect it up and bugger off, all in a day and charge a grand for it (plus the cost of the boiler etc.).
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I'm pleased to say I have a tame local British Gas service technician who does private work on the side, he replaced my boiler no fuss and I did the mate jobs.
 
Black Hole said:
I'm pleased to say I have a tame local British Gas service technician who does private work on the side, he replaced my boiler no fuss and I did the mate jobs.
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I do all my own plumbing and electrics, I can also manage a bit of brick laying to fill in a hole (getting the mortar colour to match the old brick work is beyond me, but my dad can do that). After 4 British Gas "engineers" left my dad with gas leaks on the gas board side of the meter at two different houses I have no trust in any of the alleged qualifications. It's soldering not rocket science, so long as you understand the pressure testing needed to prove the job.
 
The term "engineer" doesn't seem to be well defined in the UK. I have degrees from an engineering department in a university, am a member of a professional engineering institution but not a chartered engineer. Am I an engineer?* Is a car mechanic an engineer? Is a gas fitter an engineer?

*Probably not given my career path. No longer bothered - I've retired.
 
EEPhil said:
The term "engineer" doesn't seem to be well defined in the UK.
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You're right. Elsewhere it is a legally protected title like doctor.

My (personal) definition of an engineer is having relevant qualifications and/or experience in one or more specific engineering discipline and having creative input (not just following existing procedures). Thus, a refuse collection engineer is the person who decides what equipment is required and the processes to be followed, not the person who actually does the collections.
 
Black Hole said:
Elsewhere it is a legally protected title like doctor.
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I'm not sure the title "doctor" is protected. It is unfortunate that people with a PhD or a DPhil are confused with medical practitioners many of them who do not hold an MD. They are all called doctor.
In Italy the term Dottore or Dottoressa can apply to anyone with any degree. Yes, they distinguish between male and female doctors. Imagine my surprise, when watching one of the many Italian detective series, hearing the lead detective referred to as doctor, at least in the audio but not necessarily in the subtitles.
 
Dr EEPhil I presume?
Then when the medics get to the top, they revert to Mr, Mrs or Miss. One wonders what the non-binaries call themselves.
Or is that just surgeons? My (female, non-surgical) consultants are labelled as Dr.
 
EEPhil said:
I'm not sure the title "doctor" is protected.
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I don't think you are allowed to call yourself doctor without a basis for that, or at least you would get taken to the cleaners if you misrepresented yourself as one and then engaged in clinical practice! On the other hand, anyone can say they're an engineer and there would be no comeuppance.
 
EEPhil said:
Flanders and Swan predicted the future!
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Well, the (Cadent) gas men certainly cameth (and stayed for 4 months, with the road up and temporary traffic lights). Then they cut the gas off in the middle of December for two days, and again later in Jan. (having had 3 weeks of for Xmas/NY). Eventually they cleared off and the Customer Liaison Manager asking for feedback (new to the job she told me, so I told her my thoughts!) said someone would come along and fix the mess they made of the verge by digging it up and dumping all their gear and other crap there. Needless to say, nobody has been. Nor have they sent me the survey they said they would. Now they've sent me another letter saying they are coming back sometime in the next couple of months and need to turn the gas off again.
Oh it all makes work...
The electrician needs to come, once I've found one, as you know already. If he says re-wire then I'll certainly need a painter.
Oh it all makes work...
The glaziers have been already (twice), but there's still more work to do.
Oh it all makes work...
Opensore (or one of their contractors) are coming in a couple of weeks to do the fibre (*). The pole is across the road and the vegetation adjacent is near to the top. I hope they bring their gardening tools. They'll probably just drop the stuff on the aforementioned dried-up muddy verge which the council have attended this morning to cut the barely-grown grass.
Oh it all makes work...
No carpenter so far, and nobody uses nails any more. I've got lots of them.

(*) This is a very good alternative, by David Coleman (or is it David Colemen? Errr, no, not that one...), although slightly dated now:
My Disappointment with BT
 
Black Hole said:
On the other hand, anyone can say they're an engineer and there would be no comeuppance.
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I used to work for a UK subsidiary of a Canadian IT company. The Canadian staff liked our UK job titles eg Senior Software Engineer and were going to change to them. Then someone pointed out in Canada it is illegal to call yourself an Engineer unless you are a member of various institutes (electrical, mechanical etc). Software certainly is an engineering discipline, it's just a shame so many people write software as if it weren't.
 
prpr said:
Well, the (Cadent) gas men certainly cameth (and stayed for 4 months, with the road up and temporary traffic lights).
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The bu##ers have been up my road and cut off my gas for half a day. Then they blocked an adjacent road for a couple of weeks. Now they've got parts of the A606 Melton Road up. I'm sure someone, and I thought it was gas, had been down the road already. They couldn't organise one in a brewery!
Fortunately, no one has painted over the gas tap - yet.
 
Owen Smith said:
My view is to keep things in the same thread.
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Where relevant, I agree, but sometimes thread drift makes sense to move it somewhere more appropriate and link back (and then possibly forwards too).
Otherwise you might just as well have everything in one massive thread, which means it turns more into AVForums and other such-like horrid stuff and everything becomes essentially unmanageable and unreadable.
 
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