[The Duke]

I had a double socket go pop last week in the kitchen. It wasca double, but one of the two still work. It’s strange. I just took it off and isolated it, until I swap it for new one.

I’m not sure what happened as all it had plugged in was a Google mini, and that survived the socket pop, which scorched my nice tiles. But cleaned off nice.

It is a place that could often do with a 3rd socket. So I may have a look into that. Probably on a months time, I get round to things at a slow pace. Can’t be finishing the whole house, she won’t have a reason to keep me aroud. Lol.

[The Duke]

No one should be made to wear the poppy. It’s a charity arter all. The last few years have been a discrace regarding TV hosts being bullied into wearing them.

If anything this type of witch huntery, puts me off wanting one. Not to mention I’m not a fan of charities that prop government systems up. I like what thy do, just with the government would do it, and the charity not be needed.

Not got a poppy myself this year. Not out of any reason, bar its passed me by, and I’ve seen no sellers at all. Which is very strange. The supermarkets are usally ripe for OAP ambushes lol.

[The Duke]

Wheels-Of-Fire wrote:

Quite a surprise on the C4 Referendum vote program. They only managed to get 56% of the people they interviewed to agree with them ! That pretty much guarantees that an actual vote would come out massively in favour of leave doesn’t it ?

I think c4 was taken the poll as a positive for a leave vote, but I can also see your way of looking at that as meaning thr oppersite.

Either way, a poll is a poll is a poll, I’d rather wait till the actual second ref, all the polls are boring and have been to be misleading and in come cases way of the mark.

I’m trully fed up of the whole debate let’s just have a damn vote and move forward with whatever the outcome. I no longer care, I just like a roadmap, hate fealing adrift. Not matter the outcome, Atleast we can start to plan.

[The Duke]

Liverpool was a high remain state. And Thr Scum would get next to zero participation drin any sun survey.

Liverpool would rather take trh Scottish route than leave the EU. ie leave the uk. In favour of the EU.

[The Duke]

I always feel scared for a star offering upto 90%off.

[The Duke]

@dount I’ll be getting frozen tonight. Just got on and it’s 11degrees out. And all the cars looked fine. currenlty 03:30h  so we should be good for frost free tomorrow morning. Not that I’ll be moving before 12/1 when I pick my lad up form boots.

[The Duke]

Ignore the radio park, it only does some Chinese channel. Ad far ad I can’t tell, it can’t be chanced. But it does sould soothing I suppose. Lol.

In China they are Thr apple of China, but at a decent price. I’ve found all there stuff great. There ecosystem of smart stuff is very good. I’d say it wad akin to ‘smart things’ which Samsung not ling purchased, but with more smart modules. That are priced in the ‘ill give it a shot rang’, the other oems atm are just to expensive as a toy. As that’s all it it’s at this point, A toy.

Thr app is very good, but it’s not fully converted from Chinese to English, but its mostly there. Two years ago, its was well, challaging lol. But now it’s all but shiny.

I like 5hr hub a dvd a fire alarl secorafy notification, to have in our room. It’s good ad you can have it slowly ramp up too, so when you burn toast your not waking the whole house or neighbours. It will give you 15 seconds of relatively quiet before it kick in to ge the hell out of bed levels of noise.

They ate easy to groupe from in the app. And makes rooms etc. . I’m sure there is some mains ones now, or at least a way to Jerry rig it, with a battery charger from the mains to the alarm.

Though given you get reminders of battery levels on your phone, and you can always see if it’s working in the daily report file, being battery powered isn’t a deal beaker for me. For instance my neighbour had a cheap on and take a good month of his chirping before he ever changes the batteries. It drives my dogs mad.

Here is a screen shot of my alarm log from the last few days, can you spot whet my kids have cooked! It always does an extra self test after being set off.

[The Duke]

Has anyone tried that deman ice anti freeze thst you put in the night before and it stops the frost? I hear it on the radio all the time, never heard any fist hand accounts of it.

I usally use one of my bank cards to scrap it off, untill I remember to replace the ice stapler the kids ultimatly steal.

[The Duke]

Im up north and over the last two days felt a sharp drop in temrture, and my back has noticed the damp in the air. Been killing me the last 3 days. It will normalise in about a week, as long as the weather doesn’t flip flop.

 

We got the heating fixed about a month ago, some may recall, we only had it on once and the weather turned warm again. The last 3 days bar yesterday, has been on a good 12h a day. We didn’t put it on yesterday, but last night was a little chilly about 4am. Today its OK, trh therninitor on the hours shows 15. So it’s on the verge of clicking the heating on.

No one has mentioned it being cold in the house though. Bloody freezing outside, 11 degrees atm. It was 6 degrees outside at 4am.

One of the worst half terms, the October one, as coming out the summer, we really feel the change in weather, so no one really wants to go out, or do anything. So alot of TV watching and minor jobs around the house, theat was put off all summer.

[The Duke]

 

This is the fire alarm, but it needs the xiaomi mija home hub to work as intended.

So if it gets quiet expensive for just a fire alarm. But the options for growth are huge.

There are newer options than mine, as mine is over two years old now, so make sure you double check everything before purchase. Their ecosystem is vast too. They make a great refillable pen too, which I have a couple off.

 

Alarm

Original Xiaomi Mijia Honeywell Fire Alarm Detector Remote Control Audible Visual Alarm Notication Work with Mi Home APP
https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/XQi8kUt

Hub

2018 Version Xiaomi Mijia Multifunctional Gateway 2 Hub Alarm System Intelligent Online Radio Night Light Bell Smart Home Hub
https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/c5mjdC5

[The Duke]

As pm says, yes you can get white. Very white indeed, problem over 6000k wet cold light.

I have a number of these around mine. I just noticed the last one I got was Jan 2017, and they are used evey day. So they last too. Though Leds last forever. I’m jet to have a standard led go, and my oldest must be 6 years old now. The xiaomi ones I have the eldest us probably coming on 3 years, if the last one is coming up to 2 years old. If you do by set up on Hong Kong server  however if you decide you expand into the xiaomi smart (mija) world, you’ll need to set reset them to China, if you want the bulbs to work via the xiaomi mija app. But this still let’s you use Google home, alexa too.

Side note – The mija smart system is the cheapest entry into the start things world. Lots of kits offered too, the favourite of mine is their smart smoke alarm, and there cheap thermostats, which are about £4 each off a slow boat, and just work, £about £10 of you want one quick.

Wifi Light Bulbs, OLLIVAN Original Xiaomi Yeelight Bulb E27 9W RGB Dimmable LED Bulbs Wifi Remote Control Smart Light Lamp Bulb 600lm Compatible with Alexa and Google Home – Multicoloured Wifi Bulb https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01HZDD8DK/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_1bZ2BbQX5WMSN

 

[The Duke]

Chis you have never lived untill you have woke up in a steam!

[The Duke]

Xiaomi bulbs work great with Google home and alexia, under £20 for the posh RGB led ones, about £12*for white led. tp link switches work great too, but the cheapest spat switches that just play nice are the sonoff basic switches. They are about £5 each and can turn anything into a smart appliance. They work with both amazon and google.

Sonoff basic. Set it up with the Elink app, then tie the app to google/alexia account, and you can then get rid of the Elink app, if you wish. And just reinstall when your adding more switches.

 

Edit the app is EweLink for set up.

 

Also alot of smart stuff, the cheap ones at leave are edison screw, but a edison to bayonet adapter is about 60pence from an electric suppliers.

[The Duke]

One of many 3rd party leave campaigners that peddled BS claims they had no authority to back up. I don’t care how they was funded tbh, I’d like evey campaign head to be held accountable for their false promise. Or at least explain how they envisaged making their claims a reality, when they held zero political power.

It’s easy to make promises, much harder to back them up.

I could run and say free energy and food for all if you vote labour. Now if one person votes cos of my campaign I should be dragged over the coals, and even imprisoned. Why imare these 3rd party parties not being called out and pursued.

The only party any one should of taken any notice of is the offical party. And even that literally crumbled within 24h of winning. I got the feeling the heads of the offical leave campaign had no interest in actually winning. It was a puppet show intended to give the illusion of democracy, that back fired solely because of the 3rd party organisations that was pedding BS. Their BS may of held a lot of half truths, but still they had zero power to ever fulfill these promises. This was plain to see in the run up, but many moronic people fell for the manure. And here we are.

[The Duke]

Why do people talk of the EU as a seperate body, the uk make up part of the membership, and pass all theses laws the brextremists keep blaming the EU for. Atm and for the last 40 years WE ARE THE EU.

It’s isn’t an us and them, it’s a we. Once we are on the outside them it’s a UK v EU issue. And them we will see how shit it really will be.

[The Duke]

Looks a great device. I’ve got the p20pro and it’s very good. It lakes wireless charging, which has never bothered me, however my new incoming car has a witless charger. Typical after years of having wireless phone, and never using it!

Anyhow the only real down side to my P20pro (and the wife’s P20 non pro) is the front facing camera 20mp camera takes the worst selfies ever. You get this horrid beauty mode that even when off, it’s very on. Luckily I don’t do selfies, so it doesn’t bother me. Someone said if you take a selfie using a 3rd party camera app like snap chat, you don’t get the horrid beauty effect. So it’s defo software related. Apparently the aisans love their beauty smoothing. To me on full you like like plastic, on off, you look like a sky sports reporter on HD, ie full of makeup.

I’d recommend you install the Nova launcher and the pixel icon pack from the start. As EMUI launcher is bad. Trys to emulate the ios look, and it has no app draw like ios, so all your apps are on your desktop/homepage.

 

Li like a minimal look, only apps I use often live on my single homepage, the rest live in the draw. Out of site.

[The Duke]

As Obama would say “I have one word for you, Predictor Drones”. Iirc I think that was to McFly or some pop band, where his daughter really liked one of the band.

When he said that joke it was funny, but also for the man that was ‘Droning’ (is that even a verb For drone strikes? ) on an almost daily basis, after running on a policy of stopping the two a month brush was doing, was pretty sick.

It won’t be long before AI takes over some of the targeting, and tbh the Americans are killing so many innocents, AI, even broken, will probably save more lives than thd current set up. Maybe.

[The Duke]

My friends main issue is the lack of the button, and learning swipes etc, he liked his iPhone, as it’s never changed, from the first to the 8, (or 5s for him). He had his x a week and sent it back.

He is one of them that’s just doesn’t have the patience to learn a new computing method. And it’s mainly down to it terrifies him. He is also the same persons that has put the same 4 apps on his phone for ten years.he likes them apps and doesn’t see why he’d need more.

He is like a 80 year old stuck in a 40 year olds body. Never owned a pc or a laptop, has an ipad (not a pro, but I couldn’t tell you which it is, again I don’t know then well Enright to distinguish which is which). nothing against ipads, I never got the Tablet for factor’s. For a short while I’d use one for pdf and doc viewing, basically an extra pc screen, but I favoured the 7″ form factor, and not long after phones grew.

Usally when I go to grasp my tablet (I have a few, as over the years, I really tied to like them) they are always dead. Through lack of use. My phones are always charged.

The pen angle I get, for years I lived in one note with my thinkpad x200t, probably that hindered my typing as I’d take notes with the pen instead of typing.

I’d quite like an ipad Pro or an android alternative, I think Samsung are the only other own, but again I’ve never looked, and I don’t want to be dropping 800 plus quid on somthing I may like.

I waste far to much money on stuff I can’t justify. If I was to spend that much on somthing, I’d probably get an dell xps 13. Even though that has naff all to do with a pen lol.

I couldn’t see myself moving to a macbook, but in the same vein, I don’t see the need of a 1000 laptop to do excel and word documents. Especally when I’m yet to see any laptop that has a keyboard on par with the old ugly think pads. My X220 is a defo step down in quality to my X200t,but still a fine device to type on. Also i love a ‘nub’ over a mouse pad.

Also i love the cheap Microsoft key bars, I bought a £11one, to tide me over while I sourced a good proper keyboard, as I was fed up of spending decent money on keyboards I never got on with. That cheap ms keyboard I now have 5 of in the house, they are really good. Someone who likes michanical boards would hate them, but for me I like them. Probably cos I’m far from a touch typist.

[The Duke]

I too can never tell what iPhone is what, the looks change that little  and as I’m not super into them, I can never tell. My best mate is still rocking a 5s (first one with a figure print reader).

Super not into tech at all, he did get an X briefly, but returned it, as it was different to his 5s and all that come before it. I replaced the battery for him and the screen, (for about £16) to keep it going.

He knows he needed a new phone, as his 5s is flaky, be works on sites, so his 5s is battered, but as he is such a technophobe, and apple changed, he is now dreading his next new phone

I told him he should of got an SE (or whatever the smaller, 7 or 7s was). But they are old now, and still not cheap for that you get. He is stuck, but he is also type that is terrified of computers.

[The Duke]

I regard my photos as the most presoius thing I have. So they are the things I speed over a few clouds. Useless to anyone else, so not gonna be nicked, and no shame if they accede tally get published. Most prople do thst freely anyhow on Facebook. I don’t trust myself fully, and put trust in the big corps to handle backups better than I ever could.

I’m amazed the 7 still came in 16gb. That is like the entry level (of any car), they only have the spare spec cars so they can say from ‘£xxx’ on thier adverts. Or get a cheapest in class award. But they expect to sell next to non in that trim. Its all about getting you through the door.

Knowing apple it wouldn’t surprise me if they never did a 32gb, making thd majority jump right up to 64gb. Feels an ‘applie’ thing to do.

As much I I like to bash apple, they are the simplest phone to strip down and fix. So easy to keep an iPhone going. Android phones, (bar hauwei, that “borrowed” a few techniques from apple), never go back together as well.

My eldest girl had a 5, that was like triggers broom. Everything was swapped bar the motherboard, before it eventually died.

[Author]

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