[Richard]

Perhaps this should have been titled the unacceptable face of green rebels since Poland, Hungary, Estonia and the Czech Republic blocked a planned EU pledge to cut carbon emissions to a net zero by 2050. They refused to support summit conclusions that would have been a signal of intent from the bloc to meet the Paris climate agreement agreement to limit global warning to 1.5 degrees at a summit in Brussels on Thursday night.

Why were the greennoise rabble not taking on those four environmental hooligans?

[Richard]

I am with you JayCeeDee, these are troubled times and a stupid stunt like that deserves a good slap down. What a shame there was not some, (any?) security to block the damned greennoise granny hoodlums and anyone else who thinks it fine to bust into anywhere to do who knows what whenever the humour takes them. I wonder if granny lib would like a visit from someone totally unannounced into e.g. their home to ‘discuss’ their beliefs.

This country has just announced a program of environmental objectives with an end date, but some how I still doubt that granny lib/greennoise wanted to say well done. The fact that it happened so close to a senior police person complaining that venues still had little or no protection from mad terrorists was possibly not far from a few minds.

[Richard]

My 2009 Dell portable has the latest install, but a large number of programs were just ‘removed’ without warning or indication as to why.

Some such as the WHS 2011 launchpad will not function after the update, it is best to uninstall them prior to the updates and re-install them after a successful update.

My elderly desktop has been passed as ready, but I am rushing very s l o  w   l    y.

[Richard]

+1 for Ed and Steve, the PSU will be grounded by the mains connection. There used to be concern about different parts not having a common earth reference point that could lead to hum and other sound issues. I never was able to confirm that this was a theoretical or real world concern.

If external components, e.g. the screen are about to send in uncontrolled mains voltages into the PC I suspect you have bigger problems than an unearthed video card! The other issue talked about with non metallic cases is EMR into or out of the PC. Has anyone ever produced a definitive paper confirming or denying this as an issue?

If you have ever run a naked mother board to test its working did you wonder how it was able to work? I have, so my answers should read Yes and No. It just worked OK.

[Richard]

Steve, I agree. It has been common knowledge that better education leads to lower birth rates and better healthier survival rates. It has been the case everywhere.

[Richard]

We have been lucky with no flooding here, but for the first time in a long while, we have had enough rain to water the grass and turn it a funny colour; – green.

The Somerset level floods were the subject of great arguments over the changes in policy/rules with no dumping of the dredged material to build up the banks (so vastly increasing the costs) as had been the practice for a hundred years or more. The current mob of environmental wallies running the show did not appear to understand the first thing about flow management. It is fine to slow the entry of flow into a system, but as you traverse the operation a good open flow becomes increasingly vital. The wallies saw no problem with reeds blocking choke points at bridges encouraging silt build up and flow restriction. I understand they did the same sort of ass about face mess in Lincolnshire, so pressure built up against a weakened, neglected river bank until it burst. The complaints had allegedly been flowing in for the past 8~10 years. So while the numb nuts did not know or understand, they had no excuse for their costly ignorance. Its a shame the insurance industry, (for whom I have little or no love) cannot sue them for dereliction of duty or malfeasance.

[Richard]

I have finally got the thing updated. Thursday’s over night failed, so I forced a restart this morning when it offered to have another go. After huffing and puffing about it came back after a few hours and said nothing doing gov. I then did a new system image after which I tried again. This time it re-downloaded the package, huffed, puffed and grunted a lot but finally arrived at a conclusion. A lot of programs have been ‘removed’ without a comment, which was not great news, among the carnage was a number of printers, so the afternoon/early evening has been spent re-installing them once more. It really does not like some print server arrangements, I will have to see if I can use the server as a print server, so more fun and games no doubt.So far I have not seen too much to celebrate, but then I have not had time to see much of it working either.

I think I will hold off on my main machine to see what it is really like.

[Richard]

After waiting patiently, well with just the odd other pass times to deal with*, the invite to join the Windows May 2019 party arrived on two machines yesterday afternoon. Not being a brave sort I decided to throw my portable into the crucible of fire without first making a system image. After spending a while down loading and faffing about it finally decided it was time to restart and complete the process. It spent the night going nowhere fast and by this morning I decided to bite the bullet and restart, which it did anyway back to the old install with no comments at all. I am now pulling a system image and will try the upgrade/regrade/no-grade at all again when the image is complete. Its a slow process across the network!

*Wife’s chemo, me back to the spinal and other surgeons, GP, dealing with disabled daughter’s finances, etc.

[Richard]

I can see how that would offer potentially interesting finds. I am pretty certain that the rock crunchers I saw in use would not leave too much to be admired after they had ground it up and pumped it out. It is tempting to think that the world we see today is the way it has always been. Though anyone who has live longer than the time to grow up will know that the only thing that never changes is that change is constant. True 8,000 to 10,000 years is a little longer than most life spans, but even that is warp speed compared to the normal rate of change in geological terms. To be able to touch items previously handled by generations now passed does have a clear resonance with you, and from what I have seen you are not alone.

I do not know if you saw the series on YouTube where an old and more or less derelict DC 3 that had been left lonely and unloved for nearly 30 years, was rebuilt for D Day. One of the pilots was the son of one of the invasion force pilots who had flown that very plan on D Day. He was visibly moved to know that he was sitting beside the ‘ghost’ of his father after the first flight of the recovered aircraft. It was not perhaps as old as your son’s engines, but it was a pretty amazing project to see it go from abandoned to flying in more ways than one.

[Richard]

I saw that process in use in the Middle East. They retrieved a large amount of sea bed material and extended some parts by half a mile or more. It was fascinating to see the mixture pumped out of the flow diverting arrangement at the end of the pipes and erupt into a spray that tended to see the water depart very rapidly, either running back across the new land or sinking even more rapidly into the newly created ‘dry space’.

Is it just sand they bring up? The operations I saw tended to grind up the soft rocks and corals before pumping them along with any other material. The result compacted very well with little or no specific action to stabilise the area.

Sand dunes appear to be an effective way to stabilise sandy areas with the tough grasses being very effective at filtering, grabbing and holding fine wind blown materials so the dunes can build themselves. Some people do not like them or the grasses they otherwise nurture, however the areas that tried removing the dunes and their vegetation soon regretted their error. they make surprisingly good storm barriers. I wonder how big those dunes will grow, I have seen some gain several feet in a few years.

[Richard]

Like many conversations this one wanders  across many topics, but I suggest that shows the range of different life experiences and situations we all face. For me, most car parks demand cash so cashless is not a sensible option from that point of view. I can also see Steve’s point of view, cash is a pain and since I worked as a bank cashier about 55 years years ago I can speak with feeling. It was a busy bank branch with up to 14 or more cashiers but it was nothing odd to put over £50,000 through just my till in a day. Back then it was pound notes ten shilling notes, fives, tens and sometime perhaps £50s plus all the different coins. There was hell to pay if you were a halfpenny out. Back then £50,000 was a sizeable wedge of money. Very rapidly I learned to run the till for me and do it my way, after that my throughput went up geometrically in both customer numbers and cash terms and the errors ceased. We even had to account for stamp duty on cheques at 2d per cheque…

Steve, what impact would not having the £4,000 per week have on your overall takings and how much would that hit your profit and loss? I trust you have a good safe, (on second thoughts do not answer) and a sound business insurance policy with a good cash insurance limit, including cash in transit.

Would you be able to offer a cash back service under the terms of your trader’s arrangements with the banks/card issuers?

All of our accounts are kept on the computer and my mobile is now out of updates. Paper based accounts came first by a long way – more than 45 years, though we have used the computer in parallel for some 15~20 years. A 23 inch screen  is far preferable to a small hand held device when your hands have issues and back problems mean you have to sit down to do anything. Multiple card accounts and several bank accounts shared across two people do not simplify the issue down to a single mobile – though it would always come down to me in practice, it is my PC that does the accounts. Paper statements are reconciled with the computer records prior to settlement.

Bob’s experience of his two Sony devices is interesting, I have yet to be able to answer a call on my Moto 4G Play unless I use an earpiece with a single button push answering capability. Whether a better, newer phone would tempt me I am not sure. My wife uses the map function on her far more powerful Samsung, I did explore tethering my mobile to the new car’s satellite navigation system to get traffic updates, but is takes a fair old faff about to make the connections plus more time to acquire the specific route data; wife navigation works straight away without messy delays and works in whatever car, and even on foot.

[Richard]

I always carry cash as we have several cash only sessions per week. I top up my ‘wallet’, (it is a small pouch on my belt), at the supermarket it is a very few feet from car to the machine. Car parking generally needs cash in most car parks so any change from cash purchases ends up in various machines. For amounts over somewhere between £5 ~ £ 20 I will use a card, (chip and pin) and I always get a receipt to keep the books straight. I just do not want the hassle of churning through endless little bits of expenditure when the next billing cycles come round. Places that do not want my custom by getting too picky about payments can do without my custom, I have yet to encounter one. Cards are a problem during power cuts, IT breakdowns and communications links issues. So I always carry a choice of payment methods.

The longest part of shopping is usually the queue though a quick dash round to get some ‘more or less matching bedding plants’ to complete an emerging planting plan tonight had no queue. So some dodgy juggling of plant trays, one £10 note and out the door. I really should have used one of the shop zimmer frames, the ones with baskets for goods. They are a great support if you are stuck behind a queue. For me, walking is OK-ish, but standing is really uncomfortable very quickly, hand carrying items is also rapidly painful.

Following the latest pain in the behind ruling from the Brussels Gestapo paying credit card bills has become a bigger pain in the behind. Card companies proudly proclaim that they have improved the ‘security’ by making it a total hassle so much more needs to be written down and laboriously punched into the PC, then wait to see if a damned text will get through, requiring more digit punching. It is making cheques far simpler and appealing, even if it would require a stamp on the envelope. Sadly the same text message farce is also coming to internet shopping, thus raising the desirability of nicking people’s phone or service.

[Richard]

As an aside that may well affect a lot of possible future comms kit I saw that both Ericsson and Nokia are planning to run East and West divisions each as an insider of the different hemispheres as separate entities to overcome the present trade war threats. I wonder how that will play out and what effects it will have on the mobile handset business. Will others follow? It could well affect choice and price as well as affecting employment in different locations.

[Richard]

@WOF I was surprised that phones allow themselves to turn off or be turned off. I always thought that the ‘switch’ was a soft button that should be easy to disable during critical activities. Though perhaps it is easier to cut dumb users fingers off? Turning things off while do some critical activity is not something I plan to mess with, I assume that warnings are there for a very obvious reason. Some things used to suggest relying on mains power while doing critical activities. However the Sony option is an interesting and perhaps vital fall back for when things go really wrong.

[Richard]

Bob, an interesting write up and it could be useful in the not so distant future. My Moto 4G Play is still working as it used to, I think but it is a bit slower even than me so can be frustrating. It was interesting to hear you say about the NFC, mine has that option/feature but I have not yet found a use for it. I am pestered to use it for Google pay, though I am not sure the extra hassle of (a) finding out how to set it up, and (b) having to fight the phone out of an inside pocket would represent any sort of step forward for me. I still like and want paper receipts, they are so much easier to punch and file for later checking off.

x

[Richard]

I would also be interested to know what you think of the oscillator tool. Some of them have quite slim bodies which I think might be easier for me to hold single handed with my clapped out paws, that one does look to have a fatter body. I have seen some in real use, not advertising puff and agree they are very good at what they do. A grout picker for removing old grout failing floor grout is one use I can thing of. Trimming under skirting boards and architraves when fitting floor finishes is another.

[Richard]

I tend to agree with Drezha, though I would also add that you need to assess your own personal need profile as to what use you will really obtain from any portable given you expect to major on the desk top. It may well be that a very portable might be more suitable, or that a larger screen weigh in more heavily. My own portable must be about 10 years old now but it has not left the house in years. The battery suggests that it is failing but I am not sure it is worth spending even £20~30 on a new one. It has only been used on mains and only to perform back ups and updates for several years. The very last thing you want is an occasional use machine that takes so long to start up that it is time to put it back in the cupboard before it is ready or weighs so much and is so uncomfortable to carry or use that you wish you had not bothered.

It is a very personal issue.

[Richard]

I have to agree with ED on the need for a qualified electrician to inspect and advise. I have a very slight awareness that some modern power device connections can confuse protection devices and thus allow power when you might otherwise expect that protection should shut it off. I suspect that the impedance measurement has something to do with that aspect. Normally I would have expected a minimal resistance being the objective, but I am no expert.

However whatever the level of ignorance I have expressed, ED is right. A question mark has been raised over the safety of your electrical installation and you could become liable in the event of a subsequent problem; insurance would only be one of several issues in the queue. A safety check now would give you peace of mind and be a valid sales point should you sell. If the wiring was faulty and caused an accident, if it had not been inspected; then your liability might become a serious issue. I cannot comment on the likely cost of adding a 30 amp direct feed, except that it would of necessity be a direct point to point link to Part P current standards. Only if the rest of the building’s ‘loom’ was in a failing state might a full rewire be necessary. In that event there would not really be an option anyway as the building would be unsaleable as well as uninsurable.

Long story short; get it checked and be safe.

[Richard]

The subject does appear quite challenging, here is one reference I found to the testing and standards requirements, http://www.seaward.co.uk/downloads/17th%20Edition%20Testing%20Guide.pdf

I hope that will give you some assistance. If the installation is old then there is a possibility of many problems due both to wear and tear and the possible influence of dodgy modifications. Even if it has (very likely) been rewired, the quality of the work could be an issue. I was surprised that the oven came with a three pin plug termination, ours has its own direct feed on screw down terminations. I believe from memory it is a 30 amp supply. If your testing was done with other equipment plugged in, then according to the reference I quoted above, that could affect the issue.

[Richard]

Bob, I was wondering what was going to happen after she saw someone who appeared to suggest that yes, all was not well with that earlier ‘Friday afternoon job’. Is there any move to carry out any corrective work? I would expect it will need a rerun of the whole procedure, something that can require a higher level of skill anyway, and certainly better than that which was apparently applied to the first run screw up.

[Author]

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