6U, 40 degrees C

That was a typical answer from John, who provided my "third level" technical support a few years back when I looked after the RasterFlex family of Graphic boards for Sun Workstations. The answer told me all I needed to know (but nothing else!) and would have left my European customer base feeling that it had been barked at them, and fearing to ask for any detail or clarification (such as "is the 40 degrees a sea level spec?"). Get to know John, meet his wife and baby in when visiting the parent company in the USA and you realise it's just his way; a clipped response of few words, with no extra provided - and yet he would go out of his way to resolve questions and issues and his real persona was not what was projected in his email.

I have to say there are times that a short email does say enough, but I send a longer one. And there are times that copy lists can get too long for their own good. But I really appreciate being cc'd / kept in the loop and to receive emails with just a bit of padding - otherwise I end up with this feeling - often groundless - that I'm hanging on by my finger tips and there's no safety net.

John - I hope your life's going well. If you're ever bringing the family to show them our old stamping grounds with Vitec and Connectware, I hope you'll let us know and look us up. And I hope your email will say enough so that it doesn't fall inconspicuously between all the others.
(written 2006-03-18, updated 2006-06-05)

 Z700 - People
  [207] Canteen Dragon - (2005-02-09)
  [388] BBQ Season - (2005-07-24)
  [392] No Smoking - (2005-07-27)
  [423] A Victorian Lady - (2005-08-23)
  [530] Perl course during the week, getting married at the weekend - (2005-12-16)
  [543] The world didn't stop for Christmas - (2005-12-26)
  [584] Loosing breath with Gerald - (2006-01-31)
  [601] A fond memory of Sir Freddie - (2006-02-11)
  [611] Look out for the motor cyclist - (2006-02-17)
  [704] Erin Brent - rest in peace - (2006-04-29)
  [763] Much more that the world cup - (2006-06-15)
  [771] From cat breeder to Cobol to Perl - (2006-06-21)
  [794] Perl delegate - much more than just a delegate - (2006-07-06)
  [820] Robert and William Whitworth - (2006-08-01)
  [1064] Light and shadows at Beach - (2007-02-04)
  [1065] Graham Ellis - an Introduction - (2007-02-05)
  [1107] Weekend Visitors - (2007-03-13)
  [1119] The Last Word on the road - (2007-03-26)
  [1151] Gordon Dodge, R.I.P. - (2007-04-16)
  [1197] Back off home with our best wishes - (2007-05-21)
  [1238] The kind spirit of Melksham - (2007-06-21)
  [1279] The Gdansk fireball - (2007-07-27)
  [1303] Heading Upstate New York - (2007-08-14)
  [1385] Delegates of all shapes and sizes - (2007-10-09)
  [1522] Paging Martin Noke, who petitions for more trains from Trowbridge to Swindon - (2008-01-28)
  [1570] London Midland ... Merrymaker ... Percy Danks - (2008-03-10)
  [1627] Amazing family members - (2008-05-02)
  [1916] Why I remember East Grafton - (2008-12-02)
  [1980] Michelle - (2009-01-06)
  [1988] Melksham, Wiltshire. Town Crier Competition, 2009 - (2009-01-11)
  [2078] A lot has changed - but the memory lingers on - (2009-03-12)
  [2100] Visiting Family - (2009-03-23)
  [2132] Learning about Lurchers - (2009-04-18)
  [2503] Melksham manslaughter case concludes - sort of - (2009-11-14)
  [2795] Simon says - (2010-06-05)
  [2846] Catching up with an old friend - (2010-07-01)
  [2886] Congratulations, Kimberly - (2010-07-25)
  [3008] Dulwich College Preparatory, and Sevenoaks, Schools - (2010-10-21)
  [3034] Birth Notice - Aeryn Cassandra Ellis - (2010-11-07)
  [3055] Zyliana Kyrei Cox - (2010-11-16)
  [3125] The family is defunct. Long live the family. - (2011-01-09)
  [3184] Visiting relatives - (2011-02-26)
  [3268] Baby Pictures - (2011-04-27)
  [3297] A long day, a long journey, and families and similarities the world over - (2011-05-22)
  [3298] Quiet Monday in - (2011-05-23)
  [3355] Family Pictures - (2011-07-12)
  [3466] Passing of Steve Jobs - R.I.P. - (2011-10-06)
  [3512] A colleague and friend who changed my life - (2011-11-07)
  [3775] Alan Turing - 1912 to 1954 - (2012-06-23)
  [3905] How should we choose our Wiltshire Police and Crime Commissioner? - (2012-10-27)
  [3981] Melksham - a town of some remarkable people - (2013-01-19)
  [4193] Using our non-found page to help look for missing persons - (2013-10-18)
  [4349] When I am old, what will worry me? - (2014-12-11)
  [4482] People in New York - (2015-05-02)
  [4646] Sometimes you wonder about people. And perhaps you should not. - (2016-02-13)
  [4728] Visiting Los Alamitos Bay Yacht Club - (2016-11-23)
  [4736] Our changing world - (2017-04-17)

G501 - Well House Consultants - Customer Service
  [72] On Customer Service - (2004-10-03)
  [91] On line every 24 hours - (2004-10-17)
  [126] Feedback shows the tip of an iceberg - (2004-11-22)
  [150] Confession - (2004-12-13)
  [189] Tuesdays and Fridays - (2005-01-25)
  [195] Customer service - examples to warn us - (2005-01-30)
  [233] Giving customers best value - (2005-03-02)
  [265] Business practise, 2005 style - (2005-04-03)
  [327] How far should our support go - (2005-05-28)
  [350] Want to be one better - (2005-06-17)
  [393] Trainer answers phone - (2005-07-28)
  [440] Upgrade! - (2005-09-09)
  [482] Different ways of selling - (2005-11-01)
  [552] Keeping Customers Informed - (2006-01-02)
  [566] May all your screw-ups be big ones - (2006-01-16)
  [569] Instructions for bright people - (2006-01-19)
  [609] Been on a course, but still not got it? - (2006-02-16)
  [621] And the staff put the icing on the cake - (2006-02-23)
  [628] Active Learning - (2006-02-28)
  [717] A customer service company - (2006-05-11)
  [725] Better communication - (2006-05-19)
  [841] Forum help - a push in the right direction - (2006-08-21)
  [852] Eventful evening - a lesson in looking after contacts - (2006-09-02)
  [944] Just ******* Google it - (2006-11-25)
  [961] Products that our customers want more of - (2006-12-03)
  [966] CSL, KISS and RTFM - (2006-12-05)
  [1007] Friends and family - (2006-12-25)
  [1046] Bounce, bounce, bounce - (2007-01-20)
  [1262] Keep in touch with PHP, Perl, Python and old friends too - (2007-07-09)
  [1319] Customer feedback - lifeblood of a business - (2007-08-25)
  [1434] Market survey - to learn, to prove a point, or to sell your product? - (2007-11-17)
  [1446] An answer to a student asking 'Help' - (2007-11-27)
  [1516] Pictures you can use - for free - from our library - (2008-01-23)
  [1606] Sheep Shearers, Marathon Runners and Ocean Sailors - (2008-04-09)
  [1637] Providing exceptional service - and carrying on doing so. - (2008-05-09)
  [1835] 23:30 bookings and midnight checkins - (2008-10-12)
  [1985] Learning to program as a part of your job - (2009-01-10)
  [1991] Rules for a King - (2009-01-13)
  [2015] Service Excellence Awards - (2009-01-30)
  [2049] Why Choose Well House Consultants for your course? - (2009-02-20)
  [2102] What do people think of our Apache httpd / Tomcat course? - (2009-03-24)
  [2124] Building down expectations - (2009-04-09)
  [2236] Alumni - revisiting and supporting the old University - (2009-06-13)
  [2258] Questions I have been asked on answering the phone - (2009-06-26)
  [2530] Taking a knock over Santa - (2009-12-08)
  [2650] Getting a phone line changed ... - (2010-02-25)
  [2880] Getting in touch - Please allow me to see you when you are online - (2010-07-21)
  [2961] Initial handling of phone calls and walk in visitors - (2010-09-19)
  [3073] Customer Service - the boundary - (2010-11-27)
  [3103] Thank you - and Happy Christmas - (2010-12-24)
  [3271] The importance of feedback - (2011-04-30)
  [3294] It's not just about the jam in the sandwich - (2011-05-19)
  [3378] New product - ensuring that supply matches demand - (2011-08-03)
  [3808] Can you put names to faces? - (2012-07-19)
  [3835] The Information age - not yet truly with us? - (2012-08-12)
  [4077] Palty or Parliamentary? - (2013-04-30)
  [4078] Train works for me! - (2013-05-02)
  [4232] Not wanted here - hotel guests who will not be happy - (2013-12-30)

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Making use of disabled facilities
Easy feed!
Morning Post
Please Register with Opentalk - but just once!
A person of few words
Denial of Service ''attack''
West Wilts Railway Users Group and trains to Lacock
Checking for MySQL errors
PHP - London course, Melksham Course, Evening course
Lost Camel