The Night Mail

[SM42]

A day off from painting tomorrow, maybe. 

 

The East Wing is looking quite tidy now. Just few little jobs to do. 

Serious attention has turned to the West Wing.

 

About to start another run of nights so only a few hours in the morning to do some admin ( paying bills and organising deliveries) and whatever other little jobs I can fit in before getting some shut-eye 

 

There is still an outside chance that some paint may be opened. 

 

Andy

[PupCam]

On 03/12/2022 at 18:39, TheQ said:

The easiest way to jam a drone is to use another radio controller as the source,  but you'd have to modify it to  manually change channels easily.

 

As most if not all half decent R/C systems these days use 2.4GHz frequency hopping, spread spectrum technology the old trick of transmitting on the same channel no longer cuts the mustard as a form of jaming.     Gone are the days of frequency control peg boards at, for example, model flying clubs to prevent just such happenings.    Modern systems are also much more resilient to broadband noise such as that generated by spark ignition systems on big petrol engines stuck up the front.  Oh how I'd love a Moki ....

 

 

[polybear]

7 minutes ago, PupCam said:

Oh how I'd love a Moki ....

 

 

Go for it, Puppers - they're only £4K 😲.  Oh yes, plus a plane to put it in.  You could always flog the Beeza......

I'm sure Mrs. Puppers will be fine about the idea.

 

edit:  Can you get full comp insurance for R/C Model Aircraft?

Edited December 4, 2022 by polybear

[PupCam]

7 minutes ago, polybear said:

Go for it, Puppers - they're only £4K 😲.  Oh yes, plus a plane to put it in.  You could always flog the Beeza......

I'm sure Mrs. Puppers will be fine about the idea.

 

Actually, what I'd really, really like is a 1/3 scale version of a friends 1/4 scale Bentley rotary.  It would go in a 1/3 scale Sopwith Triplane I know very nicely 😀   

He built it, I have the drawings  I don't have the skill (and probably the time left on the planet)

 

 

[PhilJ W]

56 minutes ago, PupCam said:

 

As most if not all half decent R/C systems these days use 2.4GHz frequency hopping, spread spectrum technology the old trick of transmitting on the same channel no longer cuts the mustard as a form of jaming.     Gone are the days of frequency control peg boards at, for example, model flying clubs to prevent just such happenings.    Modern systems are also much more resilient to broadband noise such as that generated by spark ignition systems on big petrol engines stuck up the front.  Oh how I'd love a Moki ....

 

 

 

37 minutes ago, PupCam said:

 

Actually, what I'd really, really like is a 1/3 scale version of a friends 1/4 scale Bentley rotary.  It would go in a 1/3 scale Sopwith Triplane I know very nicely 😀   

He built it, I have the drawings  I don't have the skill (and probably the time left on the planet)

 

 

You might find this interesting?

https://www.stirlingkit.com/

[Dave Hunt]

44 minutes ago, PupCam said:

Actually, what I'd really, really like is a 1/3 scale version of a friends 1/4 scale Bentley rotary. ...I have the drawings ....

 

Any chance of knocking up a smaller version for my 17 inch span Sopwith Tabloid?

 

Dave

[polybear]

9 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

 

You might find this interesting?

https://www.stirlingkit.com/

 

Some very nice looking stuff - but seems rather cheap to this Bear for the engineering involved.  I'd want to see it in the flesh I think - plus read some decent impartial reviews written by someone who really knows what they're talking about before handing over any gronkits.

[Compound2632]

Major domestic just now re. kilobyte.

 

The SI prefix kilo- is anomalous in that its symbol, k, is lower case. This is an unfortunate consequence of the history of the metric system; the prefixes for higher multiples of 1,000 are upper case: mega, M, giga, G, all the way to the new prefixes ronna, R, and quetta, Q, for 10^27 and 10^30, adopted at last month's General Conference on Weights and Measures. Lower case has been reserved for multiples of 1/1,000, from milli, m, all the way to the new ronto, r, and quecto, q, for 10^-27 and 10^-30 respectively, (The use of the Greek mu as the symbol for micro is another historical embuggerment.)

 

The byte as a unit of data is not an SI unit but, according to ISO 80000-13, Quantities and Units - Part 13: Information science and technology, the SI prefixes should be used, the symbol for kilobyte being kB.* Straightforward, one would think. But not, those dratted folk at Microsoft, who no doubt work in foot-pounds and other such obscure and outmoded units, have insisted on adopting KB, placing themselves at variance with the authoritative guidance of the international industry standard - typical American exceptionalism. The consequence is, that when a lexicographer looks at usage, she sees an overwhelming citation count for KB; therefore the dictionary propagates technical error. What is a poor ex-metrologist to do?  

 

*This raises another issue. Why is the symbol for byte uppercase B? The convention for SI units is that although all unit names are written uncapitalised but if named after a person, the unit sympol is upper case: newton, N; joule, J; etc.; otherwise lower case: second, s; metre, m; etc. So who was this famous computing pioneer Mr Byte?**

 

**He was almost certainly male. There is no SI unit named for a female scientist, although two chemical elements are - but one of those is shared with her husband.

[Tony_S]

27 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

*This raises another issue. Why is the symbol for byte uppercase B?

This is probably/possibly due to IT conventions predating SI rules. Capital B is for byte. Lower case b is for bit. So you will see data speeds quoted as say 100Gb per second. Memory will be rated in bytes, so you can see 1GB for one gigabyte. Bit, byte , word etc used to get some students a bit confused. 

[Compound2632]

28 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

This is probably/possibly due to IT conventions predating SI rules.

 

Ignoring, rather than predating.

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

Major domestic just now re. kilobyte.

 

The SI prefix kilo- is anomalous in that its symbol, k, is lower case. This is an unfortunate consequence of the history of the metric system; the prefixes for higher multiples of 1,000 are upper case: mega, M, giga, G, all the way to the new prefixes ronna, R, and quetta, Q, for 10^27 and 10^30, adopted at last month's General Conference on Weights and Measures. Lower case has been reserved for multiples of 1/1,000, from milli, m, all the way to the new ronto, r, and quecto, q, for 10^-27 and 10^-30 respectively, (The use of the Greek mu as the symbol for micro is another historical embuggerment.)

 

The byte as a unit of data is not an SI unit but, according to ISO 80000-13, Quantities and Units - Part 13: Information science and technology, the SI prefixes should be used, the symbol for kilobyte being kB.* Straightforward, one would think. But not, those dratted folk at Microsoft, who no doubt work in foot-pounds and other such obscure and outmoded units, have insisted on adopting KB, placing themselves at variance with the authoritative guidance of the international industry standard - typical American exceptionalism. The consequence is, that when a lexicographer looks at usage, she sees an overwhelming citation count for KB; therefore the dictionary propagates technical error. What is a poor ex-metrologist to do?  

 

*This raises another issue. Why is the symbol for byte uppercase B? The convention for SI units is that although all unit names are written uncapitalised but if named after a person, the unit sympol is upper case: newton, N; joule, J; etc.; otherwise lower case: second, s; metre, m; etc. So who was this famous computing pioneer Mr Byte?**

 

**He was almost certainly male. There is no SI unit named for a female scientist, although two chemical elements are - but one of those is shared with her husband.

Thank you for fusing my two brain cells together.

[iL Dottore]

On 02/12/2022 at 09:23, polybear said:

 

Sadly - unless the posts are recent or the OP has been back and fixed them - photos tend to be lost.  Is this the case for your thread @iL Dottore?

I managed to dig out the following - to show you some Georgian "Speculator's Rubbish".

 

Sorry that the pictures are so dark - but it does add atmosphere...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the prototype:

Of course, now that the dust has settled and I can re-view it critically, There's a lot I don't like and I'm almost tempted to bin it and re-do it....

 

 

Edited December 5, 2022 by iL Dottore
Missing final sentence

[Happy Hippo]

50 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

I managed to dig out the following - to show you some Georgian "Speculator's Rubbish".

 

Sorry that the pictures are so dark - but it does add atmosphere...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the prototype:

Of course, now that the dust has settled and I can re-view it critically, There's a lot I don't like and I'm almost tempted to bin it and re-do it....

 

 

Being hypercritical, you are missing a chimney stack: Eight houses and only seven chimneys.

 

Shades of the house in Horton!🤣

 

You need some sort of access to the basement rooms:  Town houses usually had a separate entrance with a staircase from street level.  It was effectively the servants entrance.

 

 

 

Moving on, whilst looking for examples I stumbled across this picture:

 

 

Long gone, but well known to myself, Danemouth, br2975 and NHY 581.

 

The first place I drank Brains Dark, and got drunk on it.

 

Well, my grandfather was too busy pointing out various points of interest across the bay in the docks.

 

I'd finished my Britvic and the straw sort of wandered.....

 

I was four at the time!

 

 

Edited December 5, 2022 by Happy Hippo

[TheQ]

3 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

Major domestic just now re. kilobyte.

 

The SI prefix kilo- is anomalous in that its symbol, k, is lower case. This is an unfortunate consequence of the history of the metric system; the prefixes for higher multiples of 1,000 are upper case: mega, M, giga, G, all the way to the new prefixes ronna, R, and quetta, Q, for 10^27 and 10^30, adopted at last month's General Conference on Weights and Measures. Lower case has been reserved for multiples of 1/1,000, from milli, m, all the way to the new ronto, r, and quecto, q, for 10^-27 and 10^-30 respectively, (The use of the Greek mu as the symbol for micro is another historical embuggerment.)

 

The byte as a unit of data is not an SI unit but, according to ISO 80000-13, Quantities and Units - Part 13: Information science and technology, the SI prefixes should be used, the symbol for kilobyte being kB.* Straightforward, one would think. But not, those dratted folk at Microsoft, who no doubt work in foot-pounds and other such obscure and outmoded units, have insisted on adopting KB, placing themselves at variance with the authoritative guidance of the international industry standard - typical American exceptionalism. The consequence is, that when a lexicographer looks at usage, she sees an overwhelming citation count for KB; therefore the dictionary propagates technical error. What is a poor ex-metrologist to do?  

 

*This raises another issue. Why is the symbol for byte uppercase B? The convention for SI units is that although all unit names are written uncapitalised but if named after a person, the unit sympol is upper case: newton, N; joule, J; etc.; otherwise lower case: second, s; metre, m; etc. So who was this famous computing pioneer Mr Byte?**

 

**He was almost certainly male. There is no SI unit named for a female scientist, although two chemical elements are - but one of those is shared with her husband.

With some Co incidence... Should I point out one of My Uncles was Born in Quetta, in British India? which of course is now in Pakistan.

 

Many of those below ground level stories of houses were actually built at ground level.. the soil excavated for the foundations was dumped onto the future road which then became higher  which is why most have a lowest floor only partly below ground and there are steps up to the main house as well.

[polybear]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

There's a lot I don't like and I'm almost tempted to bin it and re-do it....

 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO............... far too nice......

 

35 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Being hypercritical, you are missing a chimney stack: Eight houses and only seven chimneys.

 

 

Leccy fire.......

[pH]

3 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Bit, byte, word etc used to get some students a bit confused. 

Quoted like that, for a system that people are not familiar with, it’s legitimate for them to be confused. How many bits in a byte? How many bytes (and therefore bits) in a word?

[bbishop]

33 minutes ago, TheQ said:

With some Co incidence... Should I point out one of My Uncles was Born in Quetta, in British India? which of course is now in Pakistan.

And mentioning Pakistan - England have just won a Test Match there.   Bill

[jamie92208]

Having a mother who was born on British India it got a bit confusing for me as my mental map still had Pakistan, Bangladesh and India just as India.

 

Jamie

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

Being hypercritical, you are missing a chimney stack: Eight houses and only seven chimneys.

 

You would think so - but the building was made following the architects plan (bottom picture). I can only assume that the first two houses in the row share the chimney stack .

[iL Dottore]

Something for HH: https://iheartdogs.com/baby-hippopotamus-who-thinks-hes-a-rhino-learns-how-to-hippo/?iid=BottomRelatedPosts

[DenysW]

1 hour ago, pH said:

How many bits in a byte?

The easy answer is 8. The full answer is that it is an operating-system dependent variable, and in some operating systems can be re-set by the user.

 

There were also nibbles, which were between bits and bytes.

 

And that's before you realise that non-integer numbers can be big-endian or little-endian.

 

So glad I retired.

Edited December 5, 2022 by DenysW
Add endian comment

[Happy Hippo]

40 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

You would think so - but the building was made following the architects plan (bottom picture). I can only assume that the first two houses in the row share the chimney stack .

The draughtsman within me would hardly call that an architect's plan; more an artists impression.

 

In most terraced houses you can only get a shared stack arrangement in houses that are arranged as mirror images between the party walls. (Remembering that the stack is a collection of separate flues.  They only share a common surround onto which the chimney pots fit.)

 

So the house at the right hand end cannot share a common stack as it's entrance hallway would be the other side of the party wall to the reception rooms of it's neighbour. 

 

Looking at the artists impression again, I do note that Nos 45 and 46 could share a common stack, but only because No 45 has been mirrored so it's front door is at right side of the house as opposed to all the other houses which have their doors to the left hand side.

 

Of course there are exceptions to every rule and you can find  double fronted terraced houses with fireplaces on each side of the building.

Edited December 5, 2022 by Happy Hippo

[Tony_S]

2 hours ago, DenysW said:

The easy answer is 8. The full answer is that it is an operating-system dependent variable, and in some operating systems can be re-set by the user.

 

There were also nibbles, which were between bits and bytes.

 

And that's before you realise that non-integer numbers can be big-endian or little-endian.

 

So glad I retired.

I am glad I no longer have to worry about it. The people who name things and set standards (I have been browsing Wikiwotsit) have renamed the binary based bits and bytes as for instance kibibytes. A kibibyte is 1024 bytes reserving kilobyte for 1000 bytes. As well as kibibytes there are mibi, gibi, and tebibytes. I haven’t seen them in much use yet. 

Edited December 5, 2022 by Tony_S
Errors errors errors

[PupCam]

19 hours ago, polybear said:

edit:  Can you get full comp insurance for R/C Model Aircraft?

 

Unfortunately not.   But you can get bin bags and brooms ...... 😢

[Happy Hippo]

I read that Warren Gatland is to replace Wayne Pivac as the Welsh Rugby team's Head Coach.  A bit of a kick in the knutsaak for the English RFU who was eyeing Gatland up as a possible replacement for their own Head Coach, Eddie Jones.

 

I'm currently keeping an eye on the latest match in the Soccer competition in Quatar:

 

Come on Japan!