[Richard]

Ed, there is no way I can argue: unless you have seen and felt the pain of others living in hope for an never going to happen miracle of recovery, the wish for a blessed relief has to be seen to be felt. Father lived clinging onto that futile hope throughout mother’s long decline and it rotted his mind, so his last days were spent in a non-dementia led decline. Perhaps if she had be released a little earlier he might have been better able to enjoy his final days… perhaps…

[Richard]

Tippon wrote:

PlaneMan wrote:

He just wanders if no one is right next to him. Mum was maybe 6 feet away at most when he wandered.

Possibly a daft idea, but I’ve just ordered one of the small luggage GPS tags* to try with Alice. Alice is still at the age where we dress her, but depending on the style, it could be put on a chain like a short necklace, so it can’t be taken off over the head. If she wanders off it will hopefully alert the responsible adult before she wanders too far. In your mother’s case, the full tracker can be used if they’re going out, and the smaller one for day to day use. *This is the type, but I got mine through Wish: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Car-Motor-GPS-Tracker-Kids-Pets-Wallet-Keys-Alarm-Locator-Realtime-Finder-Device/263840172840

Please, pretty please and a really big please, do ensure that the chain if it is used cannot snag on anything, ever. Small children snagging such items on branches, twigs, hooks or things you might feel are impossible to snag onto have killed kids in the past. That is too godawful to think about.

[Richard]

It is a deeply personal situation and one that depends on the form of dementia they have as to how it will progress. The war stories from others do nothing to help your case but my mother had the vascular form. Over too many years it robbed capabilities in staircase fashion with long periods of relative stability followed by sudden drops in a repeating cycle. She lost the physical capability to roam though she always wanted ‘to return home’ even when fully bed ridden, to the town or more accurately the countryside she left 80 years before. I understand from the literature I read that this is a frequent theme with ‘wanderers’.

Warning the mental capacity act of 2007(?) does limit what you can do to control people with impairments, so some form of non intrusive tagging is a great idea for those inclined and with the physical ability to wander in random ways. However as ED said, the subject may well not bother with the correct, or perhaps even any clothing when they set out, – whatever the weather may be doing. It is a very tough road ahead and sympathy is not enough, though it is all that I can contribute.

[Richard]

Thank you for the posting @WoF, but every time that I hear the bugler call that there is a new wonder package, I fail to find much if anything to quicken my pulse. Perhaps the ability to remove some of the passenger junk such as Groove and its pals will be welcome, but the new features in the last few builds have apparently passed me by. The likes of emojis never knowingly come into my orbit and the last look at the wonderful new stuff show left me wondering why I was not slain by the excitement.

That said, I am happy that it remains stable and reliable, though for example the snipping tool continues to do all I need and is easier to use than the snip and sew or what ever it is now called.

[Richard]

Ed, well said if understated.

Bob, rent-a-mob has a lot to answer for.

If these ‘protesters’ want to do something one way would be for them to lose any bus pass, oyster card or driving licences they might hold as they clearly would prefer to walk or cycle. Oh and hold the courts in say Liverpool and let them walk home?

The major issue with 20 mph areas is less the speed limit per se, but the congestion connected to the zone and the consequent speed changes. Often this problem is caused by the thoughtless parked parents whose darlings cannot make use of their precious feet and legs.

[Richard]

Bob, I understand that the rectangular widow shape was part of the issue. The original design called for the windows to be bonded not riveted or bolted in place and that at least in part the change to the specification was a cause of the issue. It was also unfortunate that back in those days investigation were hampered by the debris landing in the sea and the then limited, if any recording capability. The crash count was possibly more understandable given the constraints of the time. The subsequent investigation(s) appear to have been very effective, at the time our air-crash investigators were very highly regarded for much of the work they did, I know and have heard little about them in more recent times so can only hope they remain on the cutting edge and have not been farmed out to some 9 to 5 cost cutting brigade of brigands. I suspect they should have had a field day with any Watchkeeper drone remains had they been found and made availably.

[Richard]

Was the Thales device a built to MOD specification device or a production model slightly warmed over to try to edge through MOD testing? That the software was less than stellar and that the design appears to have had ‘issues’ cannot be doubted. Other flying device builders appear to have had pitot tubes issues and caused their craft to ‘fail to fly’. So yes a better system of managing the pitot tubes states along with superior software that does NOT get in a tizzy when, not if it gets doubtful data, does appear to be a requirement. If the MOD failed to make functional tests part of the acceptance then yes they fell down. Certainly the specs I saw when working suggested we would like our purchases to survive extreme conditions in a ‘graceful’ manner. Dropping out of the sky does not fit that with that clause.

[Richard]

I knew of a large installation with A and B planes working in hot standby. Lots of crystal ovens kept things how they liked to be kept. Then a ‘trade’s person did some work and shorted out the entire DC power supply with ‘unfortunate effects’ on the power. When the fire had been put out and some equipment rebuilding work had been started the system was slowly recovered. For a while it no longer had A and B planes just a single plane running cannibalised bits at every stage. The hardware replacement programme was major as crystal ovens, crystals and all manner of other kit needed replacing on the then live and unstable system.

[Richard]

You can but dream; at least the visit was not in lets make it a shambles London. Where one of the urban terrorists was reported as saying she did not care if someone died trying to get to hospital and was held up by their ‘games’. I hope that if any of their antisocial squad gets hurt they have to wait in pain for a horse drawn ambulance to be found and deployed.

[Richard]

To be fair, the unstable beast was on a test flight in bad weather to prove, (or otherwise) its capabilities. The fact that it failed suggested to me that the device was not up to the weather conditions. It was yet another case of pitot tubes being of marginal value and carp Thales software not being able to work out when their failed and having a fall back safe operation option. I guess that MOD could be well pleased that a failure mode was found and proved on a test flight rather than on an operational role when lives could have been most. I did find manufacturers got ‘testy’ when faced by a test schedule that was actually designed to test an item under failure conditions. One refused to accept a test plan as part of the tender conditions as ‘they knew it would fail‘ so did not certify it for such conditions. Not very helpful when a number of others accepted the schedule and were happy to cooperate!

I am not sure that army kit that only worked in good weather conditions would be a great asset to anyone really, let alone any army.

[Richard]

Yes it was a good post. Did you read the comments from others? I have to say that I was nodding along with all, well with almost all them. I used to say that quality was not a bolt on optional extra, it was the best way to save money and increase margin but few if any were able to hear that message. The company and several others who supplied us with junk, sorry ‘product’ suffered the same fate. At least the pension was OK.

(Unlike my yesterday blood test; the initial rush result came through today with instructions to, ‘sort it out and retest in a week‘.)

[Richard]

The way that the thing is being pulled every way but forward, I suspect anyone signing up today would be advised to accept the pension. I am sure they could look forward to at least another 5 years on their bed, swanning.

[Richard]

Bob, yes, those Command Strips are very good for lots of things and easier than the darned nails even when you could use them. Fingers like the fact they do not get clouted!

We have used them on tiled, surfaces (nails need to apply for the job) as well as on ordinary painted plaster.

[Richard]

I do sometimes wonder why some speed limits are where they are and how the location of speed cameras (tax collectors?) are justified. The local main road had a truly shocking record of deaths and serious injury at the last count it had reached 15 in half a mile of relatively straight and open, though somewhat narrow road, yet the cameras were placed another couple of hundred yards up the road. I had never seen more than a clumsy speeding motor cycle get dropped when they miss judged that a car was turning right and slowing the traffic behind. In most cases the speed limits are posted, though in some cases the shrubs appear to be allowed to grow to obscure the signs, especially when the limits change within maddening frequency. I do love the speed limit repeater on the dash of our newer cars, that and the speed limiter to complement the cruise control, however, the driver still has to act and use their brain, please.

My real bug-bare are the idiots who feel that the semi permanent ‘temporary’ restrictions to protect road workers do not apply to them and all traffic sticking to the 30 or whatever should speed up to what ever speed is required to allow them to travel unimpeded. I try never to give in to their threats, so far successfully. It is not as though the signs are easily missed, they are about 3 feet in diameter, if you cannot see them take yourself and your (necessary) white stick to Specsavers.

The average speed systems appear to be well signposted in every case, hint those yellow frames in the central reservation are a useful clue. The A10 has an example and some traffic may have weird views on what the limit is, though generally compliance appears fairly good.

I did get caught up in the aftermath of one memorable fatal some 50+ years ago. It later turned out the driver had a major row with his other half from whom I think he was separating, had drunk too much and stormed off. Caught out by rain on a greasy wet road he had spun out on the old A30 and collected a tree crushing the side of the car and halting further backwards progress. The empty child seat in an otherwise spotless car, (apart from the remains of a bottle of distilled spirit) caused those who found the mess to search the fields and hedgerow in case the child was ejected through the now missing windows. Happily the child was safe elsewhere, the driver did not survive the sudden result of the impact which narrowed the Cortina considerably. It later turned out they had been there for a couple of very dark hours before being spotted. Whatever speed they had been doing it had been far too fast for the conditions. That is the real point, posted limits are only ever the maximum, the conditions dictate safe speeds.

[Richard]

If you do go down the re-install route, remember to make an image of the result for a faster future recovery next time. There will by all accounts be a ‘next time’.

[Richard]

Do they even want the broken one back?

Several times I have been told/asked to please dispose of the item that has been refunded or replaced. Sometimes it was with Amazon and other times it was the maker. People do not want WEE stuff in their bins it appears.

[Richard]

Bob, while I have some sympathy for your comment about ‘not being broke’, my reading was that there was a break but that the fix was far worse. The latest ‘development’ did break the operational characteristics of the crate, It ended up with performance anomalies introduced by the thrust centre and general layout changes. The fix attempted to mask the effects of the changes to ensure no conversion training. Do you believe that it was not needed, or that if there was a potential issue that it correctly and reliably targeted the problem?

As for UK manufacturers, there are so few left that it is not an easy question to guess, but my memory of recent events suggests that the press and TV are always looking for and reporting another failure of native industry, such is their ‘love’ of those with messy hands, i.e. not one of theirs.

[Richard]

News reports suggested he had not been on an African picnic but rhino horn poaching trip when an elephant took exception to his ‘work’ and turned him into raw lion fodder.

The title of revenge or natural justice, does appear valid

[Richard]

I have no experience either, but a read of the reviews, including the negative ones was informative. I suspect that some thought it was bigger and more capable than it was while others expected it to have capabilities for which it was not fully equipped. So check them out for use scenarios that might apply to you. I could be a very cheap solution, but do you get what you pay for and really want?

[Richard]

I always thought that three was a minimum, perhaps Boeing are trying to confirm that theory ?

[Author]

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