Re: We had some
Oh that was a proper Bungle.
895 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Jul 2007
We’re currently in our holiday flat it Spain, enjoying the cold wind and grey skies.
The lovely Ivana couldn’t get the toaster to work this morning. No amount of pushing the lever down would make it latch.
On a whim, she decided that the have you switched it off routine would be worth trying.
So she switched the kitchen lights off.
After switching them back on , the toaster latched at the first attempt.
Don’t actually know if her car pouch worked.
I was given a promotional card-sleeve that was claimed to prevent cloning by nearby nere-do-wells surfing your back pocket.
I tried it in the supermarket and it did work. The reader could not detect my card.
I then went on eBay and bought a handful of very cheap foil-lined Mylar sleeves. They worked too.
Now every member of the family has each of their debit/credit cards in one.
about three months back, my daughter’s Range Rover was stolen from outside her house.
There was a significant distance (50-60 metre): between the car’s location and the key fob which was kept in one of those faraday pouches.
The car disappeared sometime after midnight and was found abandoned by the police around breakfast time.
There was significant damage inside the cabin and boot as the thieves had tried (and failed) to find the tracker. They had ripped out trim, cut open the seats and roof lining and generally made a right mess, including throwing out all the baby’s safety kit.
When she went to retrieve the car, her key would not start the motor. The system had been reprogrammed.
I think I’ve posted this before (but I can’t find it).
Back in the pre-OS10 period, I think it was 7.5 or 7.6 the Mac would occasionally throw up this message (from memory so it may not be verbatim): The operation could not be completed because something deep has happened.
A reboot always cured it.
We had start/stop in our last car.
It was good until the battery failed while I was at the head of the queue at some lights.
Had to get pushed to the side - which was difficult with no power-steering.
Brittania Rescue came to my aid with a portable power-pack and got me home and we switched off the system. My local dealer couldn't believe the cost of the replacement battery!
Next door neighbour has (had - he's got rid of it) a van with stop-start. He had to replace the battery twice in one year - that's why he sold it.
I think I mentioned before that on visits to my local recycling centre I am always amazed by the number of large (I.e. bigger than 42inch) to sets that are in the electronics skip.
Recently I've seen huge (60inch+) screens in there.
I seem to remember crt based tvs lasting forever - mind you, they had proper solder in them.
I’m sure it’s the keeping up with the Joneses mentality that sees a whole wall of tv through the neighbour’s windows who don’t close their curtains in order to boast that they can afford £x thousand on a totally unnecessary item.
And while I’m on about unnecessary items. I was baby-sitting at my daughter’s house yesterday. Trying to use the remote on her “smart” Sony tv was the biggest source of frustration ever (even worse than filling in a passenger locator form).
Made me appreciate my dumb Panasonic and my simple Apple TV remote.
With the exception of a couple of laser printers (1 Epson & 1 HP), we’ve been using Canon inkjets for over 40 years (some of them were branded as Apple).
We currently have a 10 year old all-in-one and a 5 year old A3 photo printer. Yes they are expensive to run, but they have both been remarkably reliable. Like Trigger’s broom though, I have replaced the print heads on both units.
What bugs me though is that although all Canon’s printers over the past decade or so use “Chomalife” inks, Canon designs each model with a different shaped ink cartridge. What is also noticeable is that each generation of cartridge appears to be slightly smaller than the previous. It should be mandated that all models should use the same cartridges, there is no earthly reason why they should be different for each model other than gouging the customer.
For a while I used to refill empty cartridges, but found that it wasn’t really worth the effort. It’s a messy process and not exactly reliable, quite often the refilled cartridge would leak inside the printer as it was very difficult to reseal any hole made in the cartridge. That just allowed excess air to get in the top and so the ink just oozed out the bottom contaminating the other colours. Making refilling more problematic was the removing of the viewing window in the cartridge, making it impossible to see how much ink was being squirted in - and then out all over your shirt. I can equate the use of refills and compatibles the the failure of one print head.
Now I buy all my inks on eBay, or if I get caught out, from Wilco. They have the cheapest genuine inks I have found in the retail shop.
I’ve just had to fill in a ‘passenger locator’ type form for a visit to Malta.
It’s a print it out, fill it in and present at immigration style thing with little boxes in which to enter each digit of my name, date of birth, passport number, email address, street address, inside leg measurement, etc.
It was carefully designed by an idiot who hadn’t checked how many digits were in a passport number, or how many digits could be in a London postcode or that folks could have an email address longer than 10 characters when @hotmail.com take up over half of the little boxes.
To make matters worse. No one asked to see it when I got there.
We have a car on order and we are told that the charger must be connected directly to the consumer unit via its own dedicated Type A RCD. It may also need to have something called a Garo or Matt:e earthing unit. The installation must be carried out by a suitably qualified installation technician who will issue a NICEIC certificate after testing and commissioning.
We are allowed to connect the car via a long lead to a normal 13amp socket but the charging will take forever (so I'm told).
"Aren't the round 3-pin sockets supposed to be on low (5A) current circuits for lighting, anyway"
That might be the case now but.....
The house I grew up it had round three-pin sockets (one per room - except the kitchen- which had none). They were 15amp, pretty chunky and made out of brown Bakelite by the MK Company.
I think I had left home when the council replaced everything with 13amp sockets (mid- 60s).
I remember many of my friend houses - and both my grandparents houses having bayonet splitters fitted into some of their light sockets. One of my uncles (who was quite flash & trendy (for the late 50s)) having an electric razor which he used to plug into one. I also remember electric irons plugged in to them too.
Electricity was so much safer then - they used to insulate cables with lead sheathing.
I get the Amazon calls almost daily on my land-line, generally they display an 020 number from my local area. Sometimes it's the 'security department from your bank'. Strange that it's the same voice each time!
I also get scam calls to my mobile - particularly 'from' Manchester and Liverpool.
The other day I had one from Rekyavik. So I answered it.
"Hello, am I speaking with Mr Ivan Headache?" said a sweet Asian voice.
" Yes. But why are you calling me from Iceland??
"I'm not, I'm in south-east Asia..."
I think the penny dropped for her.
Then last week. I was in Edinburgh and a call came though from Yeovil.
"Good Morning." in my stentorian voice - knowing what's likely to be coming.
There's a pause and noisy office sounds with female Asian voices chattering, then a male voice.
"Hello Am I speaking with Mr Ivan Headache?"
"Chief Inspector Ivan Headache speaking."
Slight pause, ".......ah!" then the line went dead.
I’ve taken a liking to Dutch Stroopwaffles since I found them during my last trip to Costco.
It says to each them with coffee.
They don’t crunch so I suppose that makes them non-biscuits.
With regard to chocolate hobnobs. Is it possible to eat only one?
It seems that once I open the packet I run out of them..
agree that the superlatives are somewhat excessive - as is the walk to the right, clasp hands, walk to the left, unclasp hands routine.
What I do find interesting is they way they use the video effects in the intros and transitions between subjects.
Yesterday wasn't spectacular but TC's walk from the desert onto the stage at the beginning was particularly neat.
The WWDC presentation had plenty of tricks - as did the earlier events .
Big kudos to the guys & gals who put them together.
Had a problem with that.
Step one was fine but step two got me into real trouble.
I compromised by doing step one, the taking a shoe off and doing step two without the bridge.
I got back on the scale for step three.
Now I know how much I weigh with only one shoe on.
Some time ago (perhaps 5 years - not sure anymore, things are getting hazy) around the time when the idea of using hydrogen as a fuel became a popular topic, the Sainsbury's filling station in Hendon installed a Hydrogen recharging station. I seem to remember it having blast walls to separate it from the petrol pumps.
Last year I called in to acquire some bonus sector points and noticed that the entire hydrogen bit had gone, blast walls too.
It’s website is there every day. Some days they update it with a poorly written piece with lots of Twitter screenshots about something of minor interest in a neighbouring borough.
The stories are rarely topical. Today there was a story about dangerous things in your car which could get you into trouble.
There was an advert for a wonderful miniature air conditioner that could cool my whole house in thirty minutes and an amazing telescope that turns my phone into a sniperscope. There was also an interesting piece about the benefits of using vinegar in my garden, sticking roses into potatoes, something about using WD40 in my toilet and endless stories about things that are taking the UK by storm.
Thankfully the print edition doesn’t have those. It rarely has proper news either.
.
It does have useful local ads though.
Was that a 2-stroke or a V4?
We had a 2-stroke in the late 60s and loved it. I think it only had 3 forward gears - might be wrong, it's 50+ years ago - but the automatic free-wheel system gave it great economy.
It did have one minor issue though. Every now and again, for reasons only known to itself, the motor would start up running in reverse. The only way you could tell was by releasing the clutch!
Didn't take long to learn to stop doing sprint starts!
We had a pair of big Cibie Oscars on the front so it looked (a bit) like one of the rally cars (apart from being powder-blue and not cherry-red) until some nere-do-well sawed them off one night.
Where does it say that?
I can’t find a reference to expendable lead-acid batteries.
If you are referring to “the little cylinder of metal and acid” then I think you are reading something that isn’t there. All the lead-acid batteries I have seen are not little, neither are they cylindrical nor made of metal.
Yes but how do I stop the Squirrel(s) from cleaning out my bird feeder.
I don't buy the peanuts for him.
My current stainless tube feeder is the first one he's not managed to destroy. All the wire mesh ones - even those made with stainless wire are easy for the squirrel to unravel and break,
Thanks for that. I was thinking along similar lines for much of it but didn't want to get out of my depth.
An additional about the Robin.
I say Robin, but we have three of them in our garden fairly regularly so it could any one of them.
When we first put up the peanut feeder he sat on the fence or the holly bush which is adjacent and watched the Tits having a feast. He tried and failed to copy them, not managing to grasp the Stainless steel tube (this on isn't a mesh). However, it only took him a day or so to realise that the Tits kept dropping bits as they did their look out for predators head flick. then he world turn up and hop around under the feeder and pick up all the bits that got dropped. If he turned up and the Tits weren't in attendance he would would have a go at emulating their routine. It took him a while but now he can do it first time. He doesn't do the upside down stuff though.
He loves the Flutter Butter and will go for that in preference. This morning he was sitting on top of the window feeder just staring back at me.
Interestingly, there is one Great Tit that will go after a bit if he drops it. He's incredibly fast and generally retrieves his bit before the Robin has had chance to spot it.
The Pigeons have tried to get into the feeder but gave up after several days of trying and now ignore it.
There are a couple of Jays in the neighbourhood. We rarely see them together at the feeder as they are a bit on the big side, but occasionally they will both come. One will feed while the other sits on the ground below. Then they swap places until they decide to leave. Similarly the Parakeets.
I tend to see them flying but every now and again one will come to the feeder. I remember one morning there was a pair of them. one at the feeder (upside down as there wasn't much left in it) and the other sitting patiently in the top of the support with its head cocked to one side watching.
Just like the Jays they took it in turns.
Right that jigsaw isn't going to finish itself.
Ive wondered about bird brains for a while now.
We have a couple of peanut feeders outside our kitchen window. I spend quite a bit (probaby far too long - I should be doing a jigsaw puzzle) watching the antics of the Blue Tits, Great Tits, Robins and Sparrows that frequent them.
First. How did they locate the feeder in the first place and how did they know it was a source of food?
Second. There is a third feeder attached to the kitchen window. This contains Flutter Butter (other peanut butter based feeds are available) How did they work out that this thing attached to a sheet of glass also contained food. (they love it by the way and can empty a pod in almost the same time tha the squirrel can empty the nut feeder.)
Interestingly the Tits tend to queue to use it. The Robin won't come to it if there is a Tit feeding. If it's free then it will come and sit on it and hog it for a while.
The Sparrows won't come anywhere near it - perhaps they're chicken.
There's anorher feeder for Finches. We haven't seen a finch all year - but not one of the other birds will touch it.
What has intrigued me most is the birds' reaction time. That and their communication.
Example, two House Sparrows sitting on the fence about 20cm apart. With no obviously link between them they took flight as one and flew away as a pair in the same direction side by side.
A slo-mo film might have detected a difference in their launches, but I couldn't see it.
The Tits (both varieties) are very acrobatic when feeding. It's always intrigued me that they land on the feeder (a vertical stainess steel tube with holes spaced for they to get at the nuts) without making mistakes. Their feet are always in the right place to get the peanuts nearest to top of the tube. If the squirrell has been lunching and the nuts are now only at the bottom, they instantly switch to an upside down position. Again, lightning fast. The Robin on the other hand took two or three weeks before he could land on the feeder like the Tits do.
I watched a Sparrow today trying to imitate a Humming Bird, trying to get a peanut while in hover mode. He could only manage about 3 seconds before giving up. He did manage to get his beak in the feeder but couldn't maintaing the hover long it enough to pull a nut out out.
There are other occasional visitors with their own quirks and tricks but I think I have rambled on long enough now.
Two missionaries found themselves in a bit of a pickle after they were captured by cannibals.
As they were tied up, the drums started, Two hours later the drums were still going. Into the night and the drums kept going.Next morning , the same, and on into the evening.
"Don't the drums ever stop?" one of the missionaries begged in exasperation.
"The drums must never stop." one of their captors replied.
"Why? What will happen if they stop?'
"Bass solo."
"Help! all my typing has disappeared."
Go to have a look. An empty page greets me.
"What did you do?"
"Well I was working on this proposal and the phone rang, so I answered it.
When I turned back all my proposal had gone."
"How much had you written?"
"I was on page 3."
Then I pointed out that she was on page 99 (or something equally large) and that if she rested her notebook on the enter key again it would add on a few more empty pages for her.
Deleting the 96 odd empty pages earned me a rather nice Almond Magnum later in the day.