[Richard]

Dave, having earlier said that the camera issue is outside of my experience, I now wonder if some of the lighting-standards i.e. column equipment might provide another direction to consider. They often have to meet difficult restrictions like you, require period access without vast complications, etc. Swing down columns with a lockable pivot nearer to the ground level as well as directly hoist-able lantern heads. Some come in small lightweight lantern and column types rather than floodlight a stadium or spaghetti junction size units.

[Richard]

It might be worth checking the PSU for any fuses that have blown or that could have had a contact issue while being bunged up with dust before you give up on the old one. However, do be careful about the capacitors that can hold a high charge for a long time.

[Richard]

I should have said out of the ISA and SIPP some people go for one, some people go for the other and some have opted for both for a range of their personal reasons. This really highlights why you need a good IFA and not one who just deals in simple customers. I was in a company scheme so the question did not arise in that form.

[Richard]

tadka wrote:

Richard wrote:

I am not sure why you are concerned about a possible interaction between an ISA and a SIP.

I have a few thousand pounds worth of shares given by the company. I was wondering if maybe there was a rule where I can have only one shares account or something like that.

I have held a share holding or two and an ISA managed by a company and though the adviser asked if there were, ‘any other assets’, it was to manage risks and avoid two lots of investments in the same location. That is not good as it concentrates risk too narrowly. Apart from that you and the ISA are almost two people, one a tax payer and the ISA is a non tax payer provided you stick to the ISA rules.

[Richard]

If you have doubts like those you have mentioned then D-Dan’s warning to seek guidance from an IFA should be heeded. He suggested that not all accountants are equal, so heed that advice, this is not to imply any are bent, just that there are a range of specialisations and you need the one tailored to your needs. Without in anyway selling them or any other group short, finance has become very complex these days and with tax laws often conflicting one with another you do need a specialist to map your way through. Having said that, I am not sure why you are concerned about a possible interaction between an ISA and a SIP. They are two different tax wrappers intended to achieve different aims and it is a personal choice as to which you either prefer or select. I have never seen anything to suggest a conflict between the two – though I have heard that you can get the rules wrong with either and then must suffer the results. One gotcha is that pension investments must not breach a certain overall level or you pay a heavy tax penalty. The capital sum includes all the interest and other payments to date, whereas an ISA restricts money going in each year but can continue to roll up as long as ISAs run. For this reason some people either switch completely to paying into just the one type or the other or share annual investments between the two or more options.

In short, money management is a highly complex matter and not really for hat pin in a board players.

[Richard]

Capital gains and income are in different treatment streams. Shares income I thought could currently be up to £ 2,000, but even that is complicated by other overlays. if your ‘other income’ is less than the allowance then it is outside the income consideration anyway. So my wife holds anything producing an income, be it stocks and shares or a bank or building society deposit account.

Capital gains only arise when you sell something. Whatever the limit is at the time of sale, selling one part in one financial year and the rest the next year can halve the gain. Also if you have a partner, gifting the item or items or part of them to your none tax payer partner can reduce the taxable gain so there are many options. However, get it wrong and the HMRC will not be warm and cuddly! Also remember that they do get records of trades and income so do not try too hard to avoid declarations. Because interest rates are crap and because tax rates are not low, I have not always spent time to chase interest and have some funds,. ‘the rainy day fund’ in a joint account where my share of the interest is just about naff all anyway and certainly bellow the allowed amount. Not earning an income is not (yet) a crime, but tax evasion is a whole different story.

If in doubt get qualified advice.

If you are at all interested in longer term saving ISAs are worth a good hard look, but you cannot transfer current shares/whatever into an ISA. Being tax protected they are bound up with all sorts of rules so take care to get it right.

[Richard]

This thread showed me how different tastes are. I am not familiar with Halloumi (and neither is the spell checker by the look of its suggestions), but I generally like most cheeses. A crispy one does sound an interesting prospect though I would hold the dip. While I quite like salad cream, mayo is strictly for others to enjoy, though our granddaughter would cheerfully live on it if given the chance. The idea of strong garlic with anything is one that escapes my understanding, partially because it gives me an endless thirst that can take days to quench, but it ends up masking the flavour of the food. That said, our vegan daughter complains that vegetables lack ‘flavour’ unless smothered in vegetable oil and almost anything else she favours this week.

So there is a diverse world of tastes and tolerances.

As for the camera issue, to be honest if you do not know several deployable answers based on your proven experience I am certainly not the one to make a suggestion or should that be guess.

[Richard]

Carriers may charge on a volume basis if the package is larger than its weight might suggest. Worse still it is often their weigh in weight rather than your weigh out weight that will set the charge; so in some ways the accuracy of your scales might not be the final consideration.

[Richard]

Several years ago my wife bought some shorts for me. By the end of the summer they were little better than cleaning rags. I then bought a couple of pairs of Dickies shorts, they are now on their third year and still going strong, I generally wear them turn and turn about from about the end of March through October. Strong, comfortable and with enough pockets in good places they have proved ideal. If they can do it, why cannot other places get things right?

[Richard]

Back in the early 1970s FotL stuff used to be very good quality, but then it went off. The last I heard it was no longer the same outfit at all. Have they now recovered or found new owners to restore  things to the quality level they once had? The price you quote appears below bargain basement levels.

[Richard]

Thank you Dave, I downloaded it and ran a demonstration run, it was very interesting and I can see its value right away. It found most items straight off and gave useful information about them, much better than other tools.

[Richard]

Not an hospital but a supermarket, part wanted the space on the left, part wanted the space on the right but they could not agree so this was the result. In many ways it was a lucky escape, this was caused by a rusted out wishbone that simply failed, happily not at speed. Across the other side of the main road is the showroom for the local dealer, oh dear.

[Richard]

Glad you had a good day, I am not sure but the tablets might well help.

Your work shows and will pay its dividend in the coming weeks, I had someone cut the grass today and do some weeding but cannot keep up with your efforts. A rose does need dead heading but at 6~8 up it is probably not going to get done by me anytime soon. So I shall not rival your show.

My wife had a fairly crap day but she will not take the pain killers early enough. She can take up to 8 per day but has been taking on in the morning and one too late in the afternoon or evening, teatime was not a comfortable period and neither was the next hour until she was persuaded. Half an hour later she was moving again if not exactly bouncing. Her next Chemo is next week so she should have a few good days coming, I hope.
My scan was not a fun job, I stuck to the plastic platter making rolling over not off the edge a challenge, lifting my arms above my head was undertaken very slowly but triggered no issue so went well. Apparently I earned the seal of approval from the radiographer ‘I got really good images first time every time.’ I just want a solution to the pain with no interruptions to the support activities. That is SWMBO’s concern at the moment. She could get stuck with about 5 months treatment to go, so I can see her point.

[Richard]

To clarify a point, today I practised what I was preaching before a bowel scan. I arranged for someone to take me and someone else to collect me afterwards, so no car parking and no dodgy tired, very thirsty and very hungry driver after not eating for the better part of two days. Now I await the report on that one and no, I do not want another thank you, rolling about on the scanner bed might have looked funny, but not where I was doing the rolling.

[Richard]

The Duke wrote:

I’m interest in a good replacment. My Asus is coming to end of life. It’s dropping out almost hourly now. Not even consistent on which device it drops. Have been putting it off for about 6 months as I have many iot crap set up, I can’t with be bothered to re do, or simply can’t remember how to.

You are not alone is having a non standard setup that basically precludes using an ISP basic system, about which it is hard to remember the gradually evolved set up created over a number of years. I have fixed assignment ranges for different functional types, DHCP reserved ranges, though trying to set up the previously unused guest range at the drop of a hat was a challenge. The relation who dropped in to ‘help’ my wife demanded access to a tightly screwed down network and could not understand why I did not just hand out the Wi Fi password – all my friends do that.

I guess they did not understand that with four different networks to chose, which password would have been the first issue. Dave’s idea of an ‘industry strength’ item is attractive. The present router replaced a TP-Link one that died early (yes no receipt of course) so was a distress off the peg purchase to placate a difficult resident user.

[Richard]

I had a 2 door coupé, but I replaced it 18 months ago with a 4 door saloon. The Jazz, was going as well but it got sick, now it again is in rude health it’s the hospital car, the tip car, the dog car, the supermarket car park dodgem and one time granddaughter fetcher. Its smaller lighter doors allow consideration for others in the car park. I avoid the town hospital car park unless on chemo patient ambulance duty,  but as the car is well into its 13th year I worry less and still park as carefully as possible in any available space. Most local spaces are still designed for cars, not bicycles as they are in some places.

If you cannot fit the space go somewhere else, use a bus,  or use a taxi; show consideration. Taking two places is straight out anti social and should be ticketed.

[Richard]

I agree with the idea of using the good old \\PCName approach and recording the resulting shares against a letter.

My network tab can show things two ways:

and,

Both omit a significant number of devices.

[Richard]

SMBv1 was the pathway for several recent worm attacks so I removed the functionality of SMBv1 a while ago; I have just checked to make sure it was no longer active. Homegroups were introduced somewhat recently; I found them confusing and, less than useful as the then network ran as I wanted. In general it still does with file sharing suffering the odd hiccup but the server still doing what it should, do with daily backups and file serving when wanted. File sharing at the media level has expanded since the use of connected PVRs and I usually use their interface in preference to that on the ‘connected’ TV.

Most PCs have a name assigned to ID them as Ed suggested, but also a narrative name to allow them to be further identified if needed, though some network hardware is unpredictable about being identified at all.

[Richard]

Wi Fi is OK when and if it works but if the house has some types of insulated walls, some types of blockwork internal walls, is larger or has a different layout then the issues mount up.

Dave, I am with you on the extra socket costs which I thought were very reasonable. If you do not want the high costs of Sky or Virgin then the cost saving there pays for a lot of sockets and cable.

[Richard]

Optional wrote:

It makes you wonder how they passed a driving test. What annoys me, some even do it in disabled spots, I mean how much room do they need. You would think a disabled driver would know better.

Or wonder how many customers Specsavers are missing out on, because people who cannot park like that one are everywhere. If they park like that when they lazily drive into a space, I wonder how many accidents they have reversing out ‘without seeing or looking’.

[Author]

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