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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
prpr said:
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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When I first encountered the AVForums model I liked it, it's easy for initial reading when things are posted. But I've grown to dislike it, finding anything is impossible and as a result people repeatedly ask the same questions. There's a balance to be found and hummy.tv is certainly a lot nearer the ideal than AVForums.
 
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