Posts by Glenturret Single Malt

It's been 230 years since British pirates robbed the US of the metric system

Re: Learn both?

Chains and furlongs are decimally related (10 chains = 1 furlong = 220 yards). A cricket pitch is exactly one chain in length between the stumps.

Re: Learn both?

Morning brain workout: I weigh myself (in kilograms) immediately before having a shower in the morning and spend the time in the shower mentally converting the reading to stones and pounds. Not every day, though. I prefer to sing and do other vocal exercises.

Easy to begin with: Pounds = Kilograms x 2 then add 10%. However, since 1kg = 2.204 lbs, I have to add an extra 0.3 lb for the 0.004. Then divide the answer by 14.

Re: The amount of times...

Since primary school, I have always used 1 ton as 20 cwt = 8 x 20 stone = 160 x 14 lbs = 2240 lbs.

I have never used or heard of anyone referring to a "long ton".

Re: Hooray for Avoirdupois and pounds, shillings and pence

"Fewer" calculations.

Mental arithmetic (negligible time) gives 4 foot 2 inches as (4 x 12) +2 = 50 inches.

Ditto 50 x 2.54 to convert to cm ((takes a little bit longer) = 127 cm

Doctor gave patients the wrong test results due to 'printer problems'

Re: Photocopier challange

I have a little list of questions that I keep to ask the hire company whenever I hire a car. Top of the list is "How do I put it in reverse gear?"

Rescuezilla 2.4 is here: Grab it before you need it

Re: Now there's a blast from the past....

I have seen this word "draw" several times in the past and have only just realised that it refers to what I would call a "drawer". As to how this came about, I have wondered if it is an misconceived correction of the mispronounced word "drawr" (like idear etc.).

Germany advises citizens to uninstall Kaspersky antivirus

Re: I wouldn't recommend it to anyone regardless

"virii" - the plural of the (unknown) word "virius"?

When I see that, I think of campii, abacii, omnibii, hippopotamii, rhombii etc.

Beware the techie who takes things literally

Re: Bad, Bad, Very Bad, Not Good

In my part of the world, bogs is a slang term for toilets which often do stink.

Journalist won't be prosecuted for pressing 'view source'

Re: Only in the USofA

I dexperienced a similar thing when we lived in Malaysis and discovered red ants.

The Ministry of Silly Printing: But I don't want my golf club correspondence to say 'UNCLASSIFIED' at the bottom

Re: Way Back...

Glassblowers!

Teen turned away from roller rink after AI wrongly identifies her as banned troublemaker

Re: Using it wrongly

I was wondering how many BME people were involved in constructing the algorithm.

Revealed: Perfect timings for creation of exemplary full English breakfast

Potato scones instead of hash browns and what happened to the black pudding?

Audacity users stick the knife – and fork – in to strip audio editor of unwanted features

Re: Certainly, it can't be called "Audacity"

My suggestion is Audax which is the Latin word for bold and the root from which audacity is derived. My only concern is that the owners of Audacity think that it is too similar.

Realizing this is getting out of hand, Coq mulls new name for programming language

Gallus

Gallus is a slang word used in Glasgow and surrounding areas applied to (usually young) males and meaning cocky.

Linus Torvalds tells kernel list poster to 'SHUT THE HELL UP' for saying COVID-19 vaccines create 'new humanoid race'

Re: Why all the thumbs down?

He's got a divorce to pay for.

Traffic lights, who needs 'em? Lucky Kentucky residents up in arms over first roundabout

The Magic Roundabout

Huh! Only five at Swindon. Hemel Hempstead's hexagonal magic roundabout goes one better.

Prince Philip, inadvertent father of the Computer Misuse Act, dies aged 99

Re: Bad greek

The Malay/Indonesian word "timor" (or timur nowadays) means east. So the region of Indonesia called East Timor is therefore East East.

So it appears some of you really don't want us to use the word 'hacker' when we really mean 'criminal'

Re: Hack

Growing up in the west of Scotland, I learned the word hack as referring to those nasty, painful cracks in dry skin especially on your hands that appear in cold dry weather. Then there is the other meaning of using a knife or other sharp tool indiscriminately (e.g. hacking off overhanging branches of a tree). And also there is the old-fashioned rugby forwads tactic of booting a loose ball on the ground upfield. I am therefore still always taken slightly by surprise when I read an article and find that it is using the word hack to refer to something that is generally beneficial. I sometimes wonder what is wrong with "fix" or "repair".

Takes from the taxpayer, gives to the old – by squishing a bug in Thatcherite benefits system

I recall (1960s) a university level chemistry textbook by a man called De'Ath but I cannot recall either his initials or the title of the book. Presumably, as an academic, he was Dr De'Ath.

Pizza and beer night out the window, hours trying to sort issue, then a fresh pair of eyes says 'See, the problem is...'

Re: Proof reader

My PhD thesis was largely concerned with compounds of cobalt (Co) with carbon monoxide (CO). Since this was in the days long before word processing, you asked a friendly secretary to type it for you. I am sure you can imagine the number of corrections that had to be made because of confusion between the two.

BOFH: Switch off the building? Great idea, Boss

Re: Parts of it date back to when fire was invented

Inflammable is confusing because people are no longer taught either Latin or about prefixes. What do you say when a scratch or similar goes all red and nasty looking? it has become inflamed (not "flamed"). This is because there are two different meanings for the prefix in-. One has the negative connotations e.g. insensitive, infallible and is probably more common. The other has a variety of meanings such as "in" or "into" or expressing intensity (see what I did there?).

Running joke: That fitness gadget? It's, er, run out

Re: Nope, works

And time the 20 seconds?

Who knew that hosing a table with copious amounts of cubic metres would trip adult filters?

Re: Wang Care

Some years ago, it seemed to me that BBC announcers reading the shipping forecast started taking much greater care to enunciate separately the components of Gale 8.

Thank you, Little Mouse, for solving my lack of understanding of the whole article. As I read it, I had been wondering where I could find out what was remotely offensive about the use of m3 instead of m superscript 3.

Q: How does hydrogen turn into a metal? A: Hang on a second, I need to train my AI supercomputer first

Re: Another possible niggle

Water isn't an element.

Beware the fresh Windows XP install: Failure awaits you all with nasty, big, pointy teeth

Re: Alternatives are good.

On the theme of self-inflicted pain: pouring liquid nitrogen from thermos flasks, you might occasionally splash some on bare hands but without damage as it evaporates so quickly. However, if some of the liquid gets trapped even briefly under a ring on your finger or a wristwatch or is absorbed into the cuff of a shirt or jumper that you are wearing, excruciating pain may result.

Someone got so fed up with GE fridge DRM – yes, fridge DRM – they made a whole website on how to bypass it

Re: Advertent FUD

AND: the frequency of deaths from heart disease is lower in hard water areas than soft.

UK.gov announces review – not proper inquiry – into Fujitsu and Post Office's Horizon IT scandal

Re: Sigh of Relief

"Or something with boiling oil..." (The Mikado)

Trump issues toothless exec order to show donors, fans he's doing something about those Twitter twerps

Re: Thoughts and prayers

In recent weeks, I have seen the word "gaslighting" used a lot. What does it mean?

For the price tag, this iPad Pro keyboard better damn well be Magic: It isn't... but it's not completely useless either

Re: A pokey terraced house in Middlesborough for a month

I lived in Durham for a couple of years in the 70s and travelled all round the county but until I read this article I had never heard of Teeside parmo.

A real loch mess: Navy larks sunk by a truculent torpedo

Surely every husband of any worth washes the dishes from time to time, With the mixed cutlery in the sink and the tap running to rinse off food remains. And why is there always a spoon lying just where the jet from the tap meets the sink surface. Result, water spraying everywhere and caustic derisory comments from certain other quarters.

Microsoft doc formats are the bane of office suites on Linux, SoftMaker's Office 2021 beta may have a solution

Re: Softmaker

I am glad to echo your comments about SoftMaker office but, unfortunately, hyphenation can only be switched off for the document you are currently working on, Permanent switch-off is not possible using the settings menu.

> you'll be stuck with the version you buy, no annual updates.

I have been using SoftMaker 2018 for Windows at home (not a business) for several years now (and am currently testing the beta versions of SO2021). From time to time (for SO 2018 and its predecessors), I get an update at no additional cost. Formerly, this had to be downloaded and installed manually but nowadays it happens automatically.

I also notice the following on the SoftMaker website:

"Includes a free upgrade to SoftMaker Office Professional 2021 upon its release."

I do not stretch the capabilities of the different programs to the limit and have found no problems of compatibility with Word or Excel either sending or receiving.

We're in a timeline where Dettol maker has to beg folks not to inject cleaning fluid into their veins. Thanks, Trump

Bleach is strongly alkaline, not acidic. Just as nasty when in contact with the human body.

Vivaldi browser to perform a symphony of ad and tracker blocking with version 3.0

Re: I'll have to give it a go on Android.

It should but, in practise, I have not found it to be very good when looking for UK-based returns.

Facebook sort-of blocks anti-quarantine events – how many folks are actually behind these 'massive' protests online?

Scotland's secret bunker:

https://secretbunker.co.uk/your-visit/

Getting a pizza the action, AS/400 style

Re: A real pizza

I come to a skidding halt in the first line. Russets are apples.

This hurts a ton-80: British darts champ knocked out of home tourney by lousy internet connection

Re: A home tournament ?

oche (but pronounced as you wrote)

A paper clip, a spool of phone wire and a recalcitrant RS-232 line: Going MacGyver in the wonderful world of hotel IT

Re: Portakabins in Schools were "temporary" also.

Also post WWII prefabs as "temporary" housing in areas that had suffered badly in the blitz. In my home town, they were still there when I was going to school in the 50s.

Cloudflare outage caused by techie pulling out the wrong cables

Re: Cables with labels on

I haven't read all the way to the end of the comments on this thread but I am surprised that no one has mentioned the possibility that the labels could all be white and the the function is denoted by a shape. I am sure most people who drive in the UK will have seen the diversion signs or signs guiding you to a specific location which are usually yellow with black squares, circles, dots etc.

That awful moment when what you thought was a number 1 turned out to be a number 2

I am the treasurer of a small voluntary organisation with a reasonably sized accumulated reserve in the bank. In order to pay our bills I send a cheque but, for security, the bank requires one of two other named office-bearers to countersign it. How does this work with internet banking?

Remember that clinical trial, promoted by President Trump, of a possible COVID-19 cure? So, so, so many questions...

Re: It's not LOW and behold, people

Moo!

Re: Donald Jenius Trump

Your probability calculations are correct but only if the individuals in the samples are all identical. Any such sample has to take account of other human variables such as age, sex, height and weight, general state of health etc. etc, which means that the sample has to be significantly larger in order to be meaningful.

Not exactly the kind of housekeeping you want when it means the hotel's server uptime is scrubbed clean

Re: Vax keeps sucking

Nothing to do with sucking but I was seriously tempted to vandalism by the notice outside the local Baptist church proclaiming "Jesus Saves", I wanted to add "With Nationwide"

Disk stuck in the drive? Don't dilly-Dali – get IT on the case!

Chemical fun

As a PhD student in the distant past, I had a still set up to give me supplies of extra dry solvent. Each morning, I switched this on and it would gradually heat up and bubble away until I had enough solvent for my needs. Until the morning that I forgot to switch on the water on the condenser whereupon hot vapour emerged from the top just beneath the heat sensor on the ceiling. I had disappeared to the gents for my morning call and was caught, ahem, with my pants down when I heard the sound of the fire alarm followed shortly by the fire brigade who had been called automatically. Fortunately nothing actually caught fire and the situation was remedied by turning on the water at the condenser.

'An issue of survival': Why Mozilla welcomes EU attempts to regulate the internet giants

Re: If you want to see this in action.

"last month Google maps became unusable on Firefox"

I do not understand the comment. I am using FF 73.0.1 and Google maps without any problems.

Social media notifications of the future: Ranger tagged you in a photo with Tessadora, Wrenlow, Faelina and Graylen

Re: Due diligence

Another story from the distant past seen in the Sunday Post (a Scottish newspaper) concerned a shopowner whose shop had the name A Swindler in front. When asked why he didn't put his full name to avoid confusion, he said that his name was Adam.

Re: Due diligence

An old story that I may have dug out before but I once saw an article in The Times about an engaged couple called Tracy ........ and Mr ....... Tracey.

Bada Bing, bada bork: Windows 10 is not happy, and Microsoft's search engine has something to do with it

George W Bush lives

I see that the problem has been "remediated". When was it mediated? There's a syllable too many - what's wrong with remedied? Sounds like the comedians on Radio 4 mocking the late, great Dubya.

Tea tipplers are more likely to live longer, healthier lives than you triple venti pumpkin-syrup soy-milk latte-swilling fiends

Re: Sold as seen

The smell of herbal tea is its only attractive feature in my experience.