[Ed P]

Unfortunately I do not think that the UK would have the political guts to quarantine large areas the way they have in China. Already we have pockets of TB around the large London airports but Government action is investigative post-event rather than proactive, probably due to ethnic sensitivities.

If it comes here then maybe there will be a big run on the clinical face-masks that are so prevalent in Asia. Incidentally these are mainly to reduce infection FROM the wearer!

[Ed P]

Bob, the way schools now treat A-listers may possibly have improved over the years.I think they now have a tried and tested methodology.

Certainly in my grandson’s case they have been extremely adaptive.  They have tailored their social skills program to match his improvement, and stimulated the areas where he tended to lose concentration. That said it depends on the teachers and their enthusiasm to get the best out of their kids. Imo in his case this wasn’t to meet some arbitrary target but because the teachers seemed to take a pride in their work. The Head Mistress was an inspirational character who got the best out of her staff and children. Unfortunately she has now moved on to bigger and better things. Time will tell whether her (male) replacement has the same abilities.🙁

Therein I guess lies the rub. Not all schools, teachers or localities are equal, and I can quite imagine that some inner city school A-listers are left to sink inside themselves.

[Ed P]

Butterflying between interests is quite common for some A-spectrum kids. You will find that if she likes something she will concentrate on it to the exclusion of all else. (including you!).

Based on my (limited) experience I would not worry too much about the academic side, getting the social side to a point of comfort is far more important for her overall development.

[Ed P]

Has Alice been flagged by the Play School for assessment?

One of our grandchildren is just on the autism scale and was flagged as such by his Play School. That process triggered a lot of additional help when he entered proper schooling (for which the school got ‘special needs’ money). For the first couple of years he had a slightly older female ‘buddy’ from another group to help him through socialisation. Although he still has eye-contact issues and is a bit of a loner he now has a small circle of friends which I somehow think is down to the help he was given. The other thing that helped was his parents enrolling him in a weekly drama class. That not only improved speech and self assurance it also gave him a little insight into reading other peoples facially and stance cued emotions.

[Ed P]

Yes, as Bob said the manner of his death was especially poignant. Death cannot be evaded but sometimes its manner is excessively cruel.

[Ed P]

Harrisa is the spice for chickens.

[Ed P]

Hmm not sure about that Steve. Most magazine reviews say too expensive even for a server version.

Apple blazons that the new Pro has 28 Intel cores (i.e. for render farms), but that lags well behind the 64 cores on a Threadripper overall that appears to make the Intel i9 look obsolete in all except games! However I have not seen comparisons of these two in render farm applications but I would back the Threadripper especially if coupled with a couple of AMD workstation graphics cards that have been optimised for specific application software.

[Ed P]

Using HDR/iHDR without a tripod can be a challenge unless the light, subject etc is in your favour.

[Ed P]

Price is a real problem with Apple, and especially the Apple Mac range. I wonder if they have ever looked at the (price-cost of sales)*sales equation and the effect on profit of reducing cost but increasing sales and reducing unit manufacturing cost.

The other option would be to license their Mac OS to a few select manufacturers as well as make their machines more capable of being upgraded. (especially graphics where arguably Apple Macs lagged behind Windows for 4 to 5 years)

Although Apple is still extremely popular, my Apple-maven son despairs at the extremely high price of the new Mac Pro and is increasingly tempted towards the dark-side of buying Windows kit for all the activities that do not need an Apple compiler (e.g. 3D modelling, 2D modelling, web work and hardware interfacing). Apple seem to fail to grasp that without supporting developers that produce new software their product range will eventually die on the vine. (Typically all iPhone, and iPad software is written on a Mac Pro)

[Ed P]

Or try Damn Small Linux this runs on most really old kit but is even more quirky!

DSL is one of those distros where RTFM is a must, otherwise you will not even be able to see an options menu. (right click on screen from memory)

[Ed P]

Thinking about your question, four is maybe a bit too young for a laptop as the keyboard could be a barrier to learning.

I assume your daughter goes to play-school, so you should have some ideas on areas in which you can give help. Encouraging a good ‘tripod’ grip on a pen is normally a disproportionately helpful thing to do.

[Ed P]

Duke, although vegans hate the fact, humans NEED meat to get enough B12.

Try adding a small piece of liver to your diet every week or two. The other thing to try are the soya meat substitutes and the Linda McCartney range of non-meat meats. They are generally very good, for a quick meal we often use her ‘mock’ Hoisin Duck.

[Ed P]

Tippon I use VMWare Player (free) because it (had) slightly better graphics support but Virtual Box is just as good.

[Ed P]

Lots of lists on line e,g, link

Many schools now start slightly older kids on Scratch – if you have a Pi you can see it there.

My own observation with my grandchildren is that they are far more comfortable using Pads, and that there are a lot of very good (some expensive) learning games. However beware there are many that look good but are US-centric e.g. color etc. Apple seem to have the best educational games .

[Ed P]

“I’ve been thinking about teaching myself (3D software)”

PM Dan – Opensource Blender is the way to go, lots of free resources. I wish I could help point you in the right direction, but I seem to have a mental block in moving from the way my old (expensive) software works to the very different way Blender works. Dan knows the best approach to use.

 

[Ed P]

Dunno about the camera Chris but even with anti-shake it takes a lot to hold a small camera rock steady for a zoomed moon shot!

[Ed P]

Looks like your best bet may be a push-bike or tandam if Birmingham go the way of Ghent!

link

[Ed P]

This week’s worrying Boeing news – more of the same but this time it is the revamped 777 the Boeing 777X which may share some of the woes of the Max. link

[Ed P]

Install a Linux VM on the working laptop and save money. Lots of how-tos on line, but a Linux VM does everything done by a regular vm and any speed hit is unnoticeable. If you browse/email from a vm it is a zillion times more secure than using Windows.

[Ed P]

You have an analogous situation in Cornwall (& Devon?) where installation of new solar panels are being strictly rationed as there is no way to deal with localised excesses. Just to rub salt in the wound  they need to fire up a gas turbine when its raining to cover shortages. Some way of storing low grade power is an essential in the sunnier spots of the UK – mandatory ev cars?

[Author]

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