Posts by CrazyOldCatMan 6355 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Oct 2015
For a novel, Word probably isn't the right choice. An outlining/collapsing text editor is likely better
And there are plenty of products (open-source or paid) designed specifically for authoring. Some are even usable..
(One day I'll get round to writing that novel that's been kicking around in my head for the last 10 years. Preferrably before I go senile and forget it all..)
Thunderbird has improved a lot more
I'm also a long-term user of Thunderbird - largely because it's truely cross-platform (Windows/Linux/MacOS).
It has one or two wrinkles (forwarding an HTML-based[1] email can sometimes give you odd results) but, in general, it does everything I want. Even access to calendaring (if you need such a thing at home and don't want to use the Gargle calendar..)
The Office tax seemed reasonable for the storage space
There are lots of online-storage providers who will quite happily take your money so it seems a slightly strange reason to pay Microsoft lots of extra money..
Or you could do what I do - run my own instance of NextCloud and self-host your own online storage.
few underground Excel jocks with complicated spreadsheets that have grown over the years
Usually called "the Finance department"..
(I know ours would collapse if (for some reason) Excel was no longer available. And we get to fix things when a change of Office versions means that their hand-crafted Excel spreadsheets no longer work properly..)
in fact the only reason the RAF only use officers as pilots is because they didn't trust even enlisted personnel with a nuclear payload
It goes way back before the nuclear age - the WW1 RFC only let officers fly planes because they were assumed to be more intelligent and better educated than the enlisted ranks (being derived mostly of gentleman/noble stock rather than commoners).
It may have found another reason in the nuclear age but the habits started way before then.
Officers have more important things to do
Well obviously - that Chablis doesn't drink itself y'know!
surveilled
Arrrrgh! Not a word! "Surveyed" or "reconnoitered". 'Surveiled" is a US-derived abomination that has no place in proper English.
Much like "payed" or "shined". Adding an 'ed' onto the present-tense form of a verb does not make it past tense.
were much more accurate in their firing than any of the other German tanks and tank destroyers
In part that was because (being originally designed as fortification assault guns) they tended to fight as much shorter ranges (also because their armour was much, much better than the other tank destroyers - most of which had an open cupola with fairly thin armour).
They were still classified as Panzers and driven by the Panzer regiments.
'simple' with a striking PowerPoint presentation
That, purely accidentally, made lots and lots of money for the shipyard that won the contract for refitting the ships.
The same shipyard that, purely coincidentally, said MBA went and worked for a year later with a very large pay-packet.
where fogged up windows are never seen
*HOTBUTTON RANT TIME*
The number of modern cars I see that have steamed up windows is shocking - it's obvious that the drivers don't have a clue about how the ventilation works and that there really, really isn't an excuse, in a modern[1] car to have fogged up windows - particularly the windscreen.
LEARN HOW TO USE THE BUILT-IN VENTILATION!
If, even in a 1966 Morris Minor, we can keep the front windscreen clear[2] without having to continually wipe the inside, what excuse do you have?
[1] Something made after about 1980.
[2] Even before we had the heated front screen[3] fitted. Yes, the heater in the MM is terrible[4]. Yes, you might have to wipe it before you set off but, once wiped it will stay clear, even with the anaemic controls.
[3] Even if it makes your eyes go slightly cross-eyed with the very fine black lines caused by the heating elements.
[4] As in "works fine in warm weather but not in cold" Even with the heater in winter mode (with the air intake pointed at the engine) it barely outputs any heat. Which is why my wife has a set of salopettes that she waers in winter when driving the car. Personally I'll stick to my car that has a nice set of seat heaters and climate control..
easier than doing it AFTER you launch the thing
Reading around the issue - it also looks like the US Navy has a big problem with training sailors to *actually* understand what they are doing. Training by rote for a few tasks is all very well but it's better to actually train someone to understand the system..
(Also, they have a problem with the sailors working long hours and losing concentration but I suspect that's an endemic US problem. The whole "first one in to work and last one to leave" attitude to really, really toxic.)
I'm currently thinking about getting a classic
Speaking as someone that's had a classic (1966 Morris Minor) since the early 90's you'll miss out on a lot of things (toys, functional 'luxuries' like working heaters, good MPG ratings, comfort[1] and the ability to survive a crash) and replace them with an expensive car to run (especially if you are not prepared to do your own servicing or replacement of rusted-out bodywork). And one that, eventually, won't be legal to run any more since it won't conform to emissions regulations[2].
On the upside, you get a car that'll run on just about anything (including kerosene in the case of an unmodified MM) and won't be bothered by EMP in the case of a nuclear war.
T'wife enjoys driving her MM round - I'm jsut glad I don't have to. Every time I replace my car the technology gap gets wider and wider..
[1] I like my climate control and heated seats. And a nice sound system.
[2] There are people that will produce electrification kits for older cars but the cost will mean that you are better off buying a newer car..
I'm away from the lights ages before the cars with electric handbrakes
If you have your handbrake on at the lights then you are doing something very, very wrong. Yes, I know some driving schools teach this, but they are the same schools that appear to teach people to stop 5m back from the white line..
Current car is a Toyota C-HR Hybrid (so uses the CVS gearbox) which does have an electric handbrake that cuts in automatically - when you put the gearbox into park. It's actually a pretty nice car to drive - especially as the hybrid batteries mean that the CoG is pretty low so it corners really, really well..
(Any fool can drive fast in a straight line - but to drive fast round corners requires someone with a clue. Especially on a motorbike)
A rugby playing friend once tried to start it that way - and found it was impossible
Even a paltry A-series 1098cc engine in a Morris Minor isn't an easy engine to crank over by the starter handle. Hence my deployment of the morotbike-kickstart method.
If you got it wrong the starter handle would spring back and hit you very hard across the shin so I tended to wear my bike boots to do it since they had a nice thick panel on the front..
I once cranked a car alive. Remember that crank tool you insert through the hole in the bonnet?
Speaking from experience (our Morris Minor was built in 1966 and still has the starter handle attachment in the boot and the corresponding hole in the front) it's not in the bonnet at all but under the front bumper.
We actually had to use it for a week our so in the mid-90's since the battery was knackered and didn't hold a charge overnight. Once it was started (via the starter handle) it would run quite happily. We got quite good at starting it via the handle - just used a modified motorbike-kickstart method (although the motorbike was a lot less likely to break your shinbone if you did it incorrectly).
We then replaced the battery and haven't used the handle since.
driving controls for said blind drivers first
.. as well as teaching them that there are two-wheeled motorised vehicles using the road too..
(OldestBrother had his bright-red bike with extra lights totalled by a driver that pulled out in front of him. Post -accident the immortal words "I didn't see you" were uttered. Maybe the driving lessons/tests should focus on teaching people to look for what is there rather than teaching them to look for a car coming..)
the opposite of free markets
And completely free markets really, really don't work. Which is why the apparent bastion of free markets (the US) has government bodies to control business.
The root cause? As soon as one company becomes dominant in a sector then competition disappears and that company becomes entrenched - which prevents any competition.
'Free markets' are only attractive to theorists like Ayn Rand who don't have to live with the consequences. Much like 'pure communism' is only workable in books and theoretical works. Human nature isn't that easily distracted.
Pres. D Trump, has basically bullied his way, pissing off a lot of people and countries
And, let's face it, destroying the livelihood of an awful lot of farmers (especially soybean farmers) by taking away their major market in one stroke.
No exports to China? Bye-bye the US soybean industry.
240 bags of Tetley or PG Tips
I thought we were talking about tea? Not 'floorsweepings masquerading as tea'?
(Yes, in addition to being a grammar snob and a pedant, I'm also a tea snob. I will, at a pinch, accept Yorkshire tea [loose leaf] but prefer to make my own mix[1])
[1] 2 parts Licorice tea[2], two parts Lapsang Souchong and one part Darjeeling. It's very nice.
[2] Standard black tea with licorice flowers added. Tastes a bit aniseedy. One day I'll make some cold-brew tea from it to see what it tastes like. Available from Atkinsons Coffee & Tea in Lancaster - also available via t'wibbly-wobbly web.
Also "Lipton Yellow" is not fit to be called tea
Likewise the Abomiation Called "Orange Pekoe". If that was what they had in Boston in the 1770's, I'm not surprised that they tipped it into the harbour..
(On my first visit to the US (going to install some dial-in modems in the corp headquarters in Chicago in the mid-1990's) the corporate restaurant manager booked time with me to talk about the sort of tea they should have since "I was British and thus knew all about tea". My response was "heat the water properly to boiling and don't use Orange Pekoe"..)
now I'm really unsure what the guy who claimed that 60 Hz is closer to "the body's own signals" is talking about
Here's a hint - they are talking nonsense..
The only thing that the human body responds to at ~60hz is the visual system which can get cunfused by things running at ~60hz. The heart (as people have pointed out) has different frequencies depending on loading & health (and thus the frequency of the heart nerves activity will also vary). The brain (if it has an overall frequency) would be ~ 1kKHz.
When the woo-woo fringe go on about measuring the 'body frequency' they are most often measuring the local AC frequency since that's picked up quite nicely by the epidermis and the wires of whatever you are using to measure the frequency (even if not in direct contact. Many, many years ago I built a touch-switch that relied on picking up the inducted 50hz of the mains wiring from the end-users finger. It worked surprisingly well).
that's RCB to you Brits
Current UK fusebox regulations require at least two RCD fuses to be fitted - in our house (new fuse box a year ago) we have 6 - one for each of the wall socket ring mains (4 bed house means that each floor is split into two ring mains, one for the left-hand side and one for the right-hand side - hence 4 RCDs for the wall socket ring mains as well as one for the kitchen high-power sockets and one for the main bathroom high power socket).
We also have a couple of portable RCD sockets that we use out in the garage.
while singing the national anthem off key
Which, having been at a number of NFL games, both here in the UK and in the US, I have plenty of experience of..
(Of course, the GB anthem at UK games is usually sung by a proper trained singer like Laura Wright rather than some random $ForcesPerson/R&B 'singer' and so is both in-tune and on-time..).
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