[Bob Williams]

Well we have no snow or rain but it is going to be very frosty tonight here, according to the national forecast. The local Lincolnshire forecast corrected that by showing the coastal strip at 1ºC, the Met Office report for Louth supported that: as usual being near the Sea is a bonus at times like these.

Whatever the weather, both SWMBO and I are down with a ferocious bug: hacking cough, sore throats, noses and eyes running, I cannot sleep as my scarred pleural cavity has woken up and started clogging the pipes, so lying down prevents breathing. The reclining settee was my bed last night, with the spare bed duvet. There are lots of “TV Shopping” channels through the night….

We managed to shop locally for food (and tissues!) but I have to go up to Grimsby tomorrow, to find and buy a replacement control knob and switch for the cooker’s front left hotplate.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

At the moment it is not barcodes on parcels that are troubling me, but the handling of barcoded parcels. Yesterday I received my youngest gdaughter’s Chrimbo pressie, a Wileyfox Swift 2 Plus, in a parcel also containing earbuds for the phone. My missus took the parcel, handed to her by a Christmas Relief Postie, never seen before. Unusual part about the delivery was that he came twice in 10 minutes: once with 2 cards and a letter, which I took. The again with another card and the parcel. SWMBO took it in, turned it over and saw the damage. Postie was gone, red van disappearing down the road at a rate of knots. I phoned the Sorting Office and was told to photograph the damage and open it for internal damage or missing contents. Before doing that, I checked the contents through the torn cardboard: it really looked as if some attempt had been made to get inside, but of course I cannot state that in any formal complaint. There was a small cardboard box containing the earbuds, I could see that an attempt had been made to open that: a corner lifted. The phone and battery were side by side in a sealed box and I could see the seal was unbroken. I opened the parcel and there were no contents missing and no internal damage, except for the earbud box. I will transmit this to Amazon.

Note that “Lithium Ion battery” is visible. Is that attractive to certain light fingered people, or what?

The area of original damage was to the right of the pic: the rest is where I opened it. Erabud box:

That’s what I could see through the damage hole, package unopened. Seal for phone and battery box was also visible – the blue seal to the left of the earbud box. I sincerely hope that this temp. Postie returns at some point….

To cap a great weekend, the large hotplate at lower right under the upper pic, lost its knob last night and cannot be switched off. We managed to cook and eat a delicious fillet steak though. A visit to EAG Grimsby tomorrow for a new knob and switch. STOP SNIGGERING AT THE BACK! ?

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

We live in a village at the foot of the Lincolnshire Wolds, where even analogue TV reception was hopeless. When we first moved, there was an aerial in the loft and reception was rubbish. A new aerial was fitted by a guy in the village who was just expanding his business. He advised us to have a high aerial with a strengthened roof mount, which we did: 4 wraps of steel wire around the capped chimney stack. When Digital TV arrived, no one in the Close could receive a good signal. due to a huge old Sycamore tree and the Wolds, between us and the Emley Moor transmitter. The tree was removed, and as in many other locations, the taxpayer had to stump up to meet the government deadline for digital reception, by upgrading the transmitter power.

All the roofs in our village have high-mounted aerials and they need to be strengthened for the high west winds that we often get. The Wolds are not mountanous, but they form a long ridge running roughly south to north, broken by the Humber and then becoming the East Yorkshire Wolds. They have a high chalk content and soak up rainwater as a result. In even moderately warm, dry weather, this evaporates from the sides of the Wolds and affects all signals. There is no Mobile coverage in our village, for example. The chalk can best be seen when the hills have been ploughed in dry weather.

This does seem to affect DAB radio: here in the car, stations like Magic, Gold and other stations beloved of Oldpharts like me, are unavailable, although there is no problem getting them on my superdooper new Pioneer WiFi HiFi, with more bells and whistles than I need. (It impresses the kids anyway!) Once I drive up on the Wolds or out of the Village of The DAB-Damned, I can get pretty much any station.

Edit: check out the zillions of DAB staions in the UK now. Type in your Postcode for your own area:

http://www.getdigitalradio.com/stations/index/?showall=1

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

It’s not the new guy Nolan, for me it’s the new format. I like as much mechanical and workshop stuff as possible, this is not doing it for me.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

BL, I check all the alternatives of some product that I am looking to buy: in this case, a DAB audio head unit. As I find a “possible” I click the Pocket icon at top right of Firefox Toolbar. This looks like 4 small black vertical lines, the RHand one leaning against the others, as if they are books on a bookshelf.  Or I click the Pocket icon at Rhand end of the address bar. This looks like a small black shield, with a white arrow, pointing down. It’s only present in the address bar if I have just used Pocket. If using the “bookshelf” icon, I log into Pocket via Google, or FFox accounts, then the Pocket icon opens in the address bar, if it’s not already been used and is open.

Click on this icon when on a website page and “Save To Pocket” appears. Click that and the web page is saved in Pocket List. To view every thing saved in Pocket list at any time, go back to the “bookshelf” of 4 black lines, click it and click “View Pocket List”.

It sounds complicated I know, but it’s actually easy when used once. I used it before as a Firefox Addon: ffox knew how good it was, so they bought it and installed it as part of the browser. When a choice has been made and bought, hover the mouse on each one not needed and click the bin icon. “Are you sure” pops up and a “delete” box appears. Click that, it’s gone. Easy-Peasy!

EDIT: forgot to congratulate you on a great win against the Blue Buggas. There is a very good coach and manager inside David Moyes IMO, I hope the Hammers bring it out of him. Man U almost ruined the guy, he didn’t need Giggsy and the rest of the Retired Man U Mafia, looking over his shoulder. Fergie gave him a poisoned chalice. Quite pleased today myself, a Forest win, although Joe Worral had to give Bolton one of their goals. Back into the top half, we’ll get vertigo again.

Think one of WHU’s problems was described in something I read today: the wage bill is the 14th highest in the Premier League.

 

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

For me, both GT and TG are ideas that have come and gone. I enjoy repeats of Wheeler Dealers much more, but of course it has changed out of all recognition now Edd has left and the original production team has been replaced by Velocity Productions. This company came up with a scenario for the new show which meant throwing out much of the stuff I liked, which was Edd’s workshop and the work he carried out on all those Classic motors. Being an ex-worshop foreman whose main occupation was Classics, I loved the Show, and I understand perfectly why Edd would not want to go along with it, and left.

Shows like F1 are also not my cup of motor oil, and anything about the actual Dealing in motors, is even worse for me. I hated having to sell cars from our old pitch in my time and was glad when my old boss ended that game.

Steve, we have talked about this before, but I have now found Edd’s YT show, AskEdd:

https://www.youtube.com/user/TheEddChina

I have subscribed to this YT show and will stick with it to see what it’s like, have also delved into the Mike Brewer – Edd situation and the Fall-Out That Never Was. It was a difference of opinion between Edd and Mike, who was keen to take the Show as Velocity planned it. (YT is full of details for anyone interested.) Point is, Wheeler Dealers was shown in over 100 countries all over the planet: repeats are still showing. It was bigger than TG at its biggest and certainly bigger than GT will ever be. That was precisely because of the chemistry between opposites in Brewer and China, and the workshop work. It tapped into the fact that there are a heck of a lot of mechanics out there, and a heck of a lot of people who love messing about with motors. Take away what was 80% of the action, in Edd’s work, what you have left will limp along on one leg.

I think that a channel like 4, which shows so much of Guy Martin’s stuff, would be a good fit for a new Edd China show along the lines of WD.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Should have added:

Pocket, now taken over by Firefox, has been useful in grabbing all the different webpages of DAB audio’s and sending links. I can pick up pages one after another, set links to each and send in an email. Cushty!

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Thanks BL, I just have to make sure that SWMBO knows what she has told me, as she is beginning to think she told me something, forgets that she hasn’t, and blames me for not listening when she “told” me. I have learned to apologise and bottle it up, that is the easiest way believe me.

Well I have sent No.1 Son 6 links to DAB Audios, let him make up his mind and then I’ll send for his choice. That way I cannot be blamed! He seems impressed with “Pure” audio, which is all single DIN, but he can get a conversion kit for the dash.

I sometimes watch videos in the car on the Hudl, but not often now unless I have taxi’d a grandbrat somewhere and have to wait, in which case I am forewarned and take the Hudl. I always have a USB drive with hundreds of rock & 60’s stuff, sometimes fall asleep with it playing at incredible decibels. They used to sneak up, open the door quietly and shout, but the Tucson locks automatically, so they have to bang on the window now. Last time No.2 gson did that, I just started the car and drove out of the car park, he chased me down the road. I stopped eventually.

Sometimes I don’t think they respect their granddad enough …??

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Exactly what I told him BL: but it appears that he doesn’t want one with a DVD – “I was just saying that they have some with DVD’s dad…”

Yeah, right son, I’ve known that tone of voice for so many, many years! ?? He just wants a head unit that includes bluetooth, AUX, USB and phone connection, which is after all bluetooth. We will get there!

Son actually owns a Combi van, has given up on cars now which means he is possibly (not definitely) approaching maturity. There is only himself and gson ever in it, gdaughter has a car (cracking little Kia Picanto) and he needs a van for his Stationary Engines. Plus a car is wasted on him, they all wind up looking like a tip anyway.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

It now appears that my lad has discovered car audio with DVD, satnav, Bluetooth, Aux, phone and USB. And wants one with all that. Having looked up the price of those systems, I have told him that he will get a lump of money towards one. Unless he wants a parcel to unwrap, in which case he will need to adjust his requirements downwards.

I used to like listening to music in the car, . Unfortunately the experience is spoiled for me now, by having a hearing aid in each ear. The sound is just too changed into upper registers, as I have lost all those registers in my natural hearing. Headphones are fine but I have to remove the aids. Removing them and listening to the car audio is also OK, but I have to have the volume so loud that half the car park can hear my music. And my music is Loud Rock: Stones, Creedence Clearwater, John Fogerty (Creedence founder) and other 60’s/70’s Rockers.

Another problem is that I have to accompany SWMBO when she has an appointment anywhere now, her hip is so bad that I have to go with her. Although that has been true for some time anyway, before the hip flared up. She is forgetting stuff, which is worrying myself and the family. So, particularly with medical appointments, I have to go in with her, to act as a second memory and avoid missing something. I just hope it is not something worse, but we will deal with it as we always do – as a family. I have sympathy for anyone in such circumstances, who does not have the support of a close family. I would be lost without mine.

The difference in my Gert, over the last 6 months, is noticeable. To cap that, she currently has the worst racking cough she has ever had. I dare not show too much sympathy though, she will probably think there is something wrong with me! ??

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

I like to watch BBC East Midlands for Nottingham News and a look at the crime reports. Always convinces me that my move here was a good one. There is crime in Lincolnshire of course, but most of it is in Grimsby, Skeggy or Boston. The crime in our area is theft of stuff from sheds,* the occasional car*, taking huge, expensive agricultural machines to break for parts and sell in Europe. And hare coursing, which p****s me off. Just doing it for sport is cruel and wrong, but my big bro and I used to hunt rabbits and hares with whippets, for meat. No point shooting the buggas: they move too fast for a .22 air weapon and shotgun pellets break your teeth! Never took more than we needed for food, and in those days we needed animal protein in the diet! We also used to sneak into a certain game farm, pick up pheasants and partridges, quick jerk of their necks, into the bag and out.

*A lot of that is down to people not taking basic precautions: locking doors, using lights with sensors, CCTV. One local idiot in a large house on the village outskirts, left his door unlocked and his keys by the door, went to bed. Exit one Jaguar XF, a Cooper Mini, with keys and various expensive downstairs stuff. More money than sense.

EDIT: forgot about the ATM’s in some villages. Thieves nick a JCB or similar, smash an ATM out of the wall amd (sometimes) manage to get it away. We don’t have one, since the PO closed.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Going back to gdaughter’s phone: Ordered a Wileyfox Swift 2Plus: http://tinyurl.com/y9joe9j9

In Gold, with earbuds and cover, gson used Workplace to get the lot for £153 instead of £189 for phone, plus accessories.

I will be looking at it with envy. As I started typing this, just received a System update to my old original Swift (it’s Soooooo 2016, dontcha know! ??) Waiting for Installation….

EDIT …. and done! Latest Nougat 7.1.2.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Veering only slightly off-topic: I do appreciate the number of digital radio & TV stations available on Freesat. Local stations especially, as it means I can occasionally keep track of places I have lived in the UK (there are several!) and places I have been and also liked. Stations I don’t want are easily disposed of, which was not the case with Sky.

In the interests of knowing what is happening in places I like, but mainly because I am a nosy bugga, I suppose. ??

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

My senior, 24 yo gson I have spoken of before as having Aspergers Syndrome. In the last 3 years he has also developed Thyroid deficiency, with associated attacks of accelerated heartbeat and initially, panic attacks (as he didn’t know what was happening to him)

His GP managed to get him appointments and tests. A very young (fortunately, IMO) consultant has prescribed an extra strong dose of Vitamin D. This has appeared to put him back on an even keel: he was losing interest and becoming tired at work. His bosses are husband and wife; the wife at least, has a great deal of affection for our gson. She phones his mum or myself if she has concerns about him and she has helped him with appointments, etc. The husband was getting a bit uptight about missed work, until she told him bluntly: “You can have a fit young staff member who has done so much for us over the last 4 years*, or a tired one who misses a little work. Your choice.” She is a forceful woman and they have an Autistic daughter, hence the understanding.

Gson certainly seems to be physically and mentally improving on the strong “D”. He is back to his affectionate, chatty self, which his kid sister noticed it before we did. They have always been close, despite a 12 year age gap, but she said that he was hugging her and teasing her again.

*He has won them several contracts and developed systems for the company. The boss admits that he himself does not fully understand some of the systems! – – “I’m indispensible, grandad.”

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Thanks for that BL, food for thought.

I have discovered that Halfords can supply me with the head unit and everything else for less money than everywhere else I have been. I called at the local, had a look at the 2 units I had decided upon shopping everywhere else online. They put me a package together of DD head unit,  back bracket support, converter cables and aerials*. Less than buying the lot elsewhere, providing I order online for pickup from the local store. The young girl who served me recognised me, she’s a friend of my grandaughter, she certainly knew her stuff, walked me away from the manager’s hearing and showed me all the kit. “Don’t buy this, (accessory) it’s more expensive than that one, which does the same job and it’s behind the dash anyway.”

She will sell me 3x aerials separately and will take back any 2 we don’t use “If you come on Wednesday or Saturday, his days off when I run the store.” Asked gdaughter to give this mate of hers a couple of drinks!

Son will ebay his stereo, which is a pretty good single DIN model.

Bought a new – type Boombox for daughter: WiFi, USB, phone connections. It’s a musical Chrimbo: SWMBO and I bought a Pioneer HiFi with lots of bells and whistles:    http://tinyurl.com/ycvyfxgs

Ours is black, not white: look at the lower pic and you will see 2x RCA Line sockets. Our record deck will fit those.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Not fixed on mine Ed, and M$ are disowning responsibilty, no Fix offered but the usual Cmd. Prompt pantomime which fixes nothing. I tried Stopping Windows Update and BITS in Services, restarting computer and starting those again – no joy. I found my own fix, after much head scratching:

Last 7/64 Update was KB2177467, the “2017-11 Preview of the monthly Quality Rollup for Windows 7 64 based systems” I thought this might be the problem.

I could not access Windows Update in Control Panel, it just froze the system, ergo I could not uninstall that KB. So I realised that I had installed that on Dec. 2nd, and reset System Time to Dec.1st, restarted and Windows Update worked, showing KB3177467b as an Optional update. I hid it, reset Windows Time, restarted and Update is accessible. I might add that, before Update froze, ALL my Updates had vanished from the List, which was blank. They came back after the process just described.

So, for anyone else having this problem with 7/64, apply the Time Fix. (I don’t know if it applies to 7/32 as well) Now I read in Windows 7 Forum today that one of their guys has found the same solution. Which begs the Question: why have a Preview of an Update anyway? Answering my own question, I will not bother with another Preview.

I also learned that KB3177467 carried a feature which was corrupt, and switched off Update. Thank you, Microshaft.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

No more Lemon drizzle biccies left. Reduced to KitKats and Mini rolls.

You must be a happy supporter tonight Steve.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Just spoke to my lad again. Apparently his present stereo is an old CD/radio and the cables will not fit a new head unit, so converter cables are needed from the Vauxhall leads to the new unit’s Multiplug. There is also a box bracket which goes behind the dash to support the new unit. Apparently there are two different sizes, dependent upon model: one is smaller. Son is checking that out on his Combo van, but beware of that if you need a box bracket, BL. Aerials we know about, going to see which one but please let me know how you go with yours.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Many years since I saw that sketch, still funny though.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Many thanks gentlemen, I now understand Double DIN (cheers, Ed!). My “lad” will be 50 next summer and in some ways he is much farther behind the Tech curve than myself, he has little interest in computing apart from what it can do for his interests. He is Caretaker for a local Grammar Academy Group of several schools, has a lappy that the school was throwing out and an ancient desktop that I built for him years ago. His only interest in computers, is FB for family and mates, of which he has hundreds all over the place, buying and selling his Stationary engines, and using ebay to buy parts for them. Apart from that, he also uses his PC’s to organise Engine Shows, design and print brochures, posters, tickets and leaflets for the Shows. In many ways his head in firmly in the 19th century, but I never met anyone who could fix as much different electrical and mechanical machinery, as my son. His hero (apart from me I hope) was always Fred Dibnah, which tells you a lot! He has a massive CD collection, although I am gradually bringing him around to the realisation that even a 2GB USB drive can hold hundreds and hundreds of tracks. I used to take him up to my garage with me at weekends, which gave him a lot of mechanical knowledge and he has always serviced his own vehicles. Currently he and his mate are restoring a Classic Bedford flatbed: when finished it will go to the Shows with Stationary Engines strapped to its bed.

So he isn’t a kid, Steve, he has two of his own at 19 and 21 years old! He does play CD’s, if that’s what he wants I let him get on with it. But he will always be my lad and we have always been close. He and our daughter think the world of each other, different to when they used to fight as kids! We’re lucky I think, we are solid as a family.

I will not go back to a CD player now, I have USB drives with different music on them and I love that ability to play random tracks. SWMBO and I have just bought ourselves a new Pioneer HFi for the lounge. It will go with my old record deck and I can finally store all my vinyl properly, on the NAS and the external. It is WiFi and Bluetooth, so I can stream with it and it has an optical port which I can use to play through the TV, via the Humax box.

It’s all comimg together…now I just need to sort out the rats nest of cables.

EDIT: nothing my lad enjoys more, than ripping out his car stereo and renewing it. He was an electrician once, but the caretaking pays more and gives shorter hours. He drives a Vauxhall van, even welded a steel bulkhead behind the seats so that his engines don’t come through into the front.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

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