Early Risers.

[grandadbob]

Blimey Poly, that is slow.

I'm currently getting 68.46 Mbps download and 15.41 Mbps upload which is fast enough for me. I've been with BT for some years and currently got BT Fibre with Halo 1 and am very happy with it.

 

Spent a few more hours in The Shed and some more track and points laid and what's more everything works....so far. 

 

It'll never last.

 

D.Oommonger

 

 

 

Edited April 15, 2020 by grandadbob

[New Haven Neil]

Evening.

 

My broadband always, but always, is very close to 13 Mbps, so is presumably falsely limited.

 

We do live a bit out in the sticks but in what was a new build 17 years ago, so should be relatively modern wiring.  No doubt giving Manx Telecom even more money would release more electrons.

 

C*ntcom 2 at work, but have had an apology of sorts from one level 3 yesterday!  Ruined by another customer trying it on for a full refund despite only sending back half of the  'something'.  The customer is not going to be 'always right' in this case. 

[J. S. Bach]

9 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Finally caught up with Farcebook, at two this morning. Problem is at the moment keeping up with Farcebook is like painting the Forth Bridge. Now for that last muggatee, be back later.

Or the Golden Gate Bridge!

Edited April 15, 2020 by J. S. Bach

[roundhouse]

6 hours ago, Simon G said:

Just heard on the News about 99 year old Captain Tom, who has now raised £6 million for the NHS by walking “laps” of his house.  What a superstar!  A marked contrast to the idiot Trump who is now blaming the World Health Organisation, no doubt to cover up his own total incompetence.

My other half heard on the news that a number of famous music stars are going to hold a large music event to raise funds for WHO after he suspended funds.

[JohnDMJ]

5 minutes ago, roundhouse said:

My other half heard on the news that a number of famous music stars are going to hold a large music event to raise funds for WHO after he suspended funds.

 

But hopefully from separate, isolated venues?

[AndyID]

55 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

Blimey Poly, that is slow.

I'm currently getting 68.46 Mbps download and 15.41 Mbps upload which is fast enough for me. I've been with BT for some years and currently got BT Fibre with Halo 1 and am very happy with it.

 

 

That's PDQ. We get 22 down, 11 up although I think they throttle it. We really live out in the sticks and are fortunate to have any sort of service. Friends that live quite near us don't get anything at all.

[AndrewC]

Smug mode. 

 

 

Although the down is a bit slow at the moment as SWMBO is streaming something on Notflyx. 380 is our normal down and about 36 up.

 

addendum: just checked and Captain Tom’s total is now over £8.6m 

Edited April 15, 2020 by AndrewC

[polybear]

19 minutes ago, roundhouse said:

My other half heard on the news that a number of famous music stars are going to hold a large music event to raise funds for WHO after he suspended funds.

 

Trumpie is just out to blame someone else for his total f.ups.  A Leopard doesn't change it's spots....

[BoD]

Gosh, so much to catch up with, and so much I would like to add. You will be glad to hear that I will refrain from doing so, except for...

 

I enjoy Folk Music but have never had the chance to become really involved with the live scene except for a short spell when I was involved with Durham City Folk Festival and Club.  Sadly both gone now.  I have had quite a few enjoyable ‘live’ nights at the club but I would guess that many of the singers involved will have either never been heard of by most or be long distant memories to others. I missed a lot of the acts at the folk festival as I was stewarding, or making grub for the performers. I did manage to catch a few acts in passing but fortunately a lot of the good things were happening ad hoc away from the main stages, and after closing time (there was such a thing back then).  We all had one scheduled concert we could attend without any duties.  I usually drew the short straw and ended up with  Northern Counties Clog dancing competition. 
 

In other news I have never jumped from a moving (or stationary) aircraft. I used to really enjoy How. Isn’t it amazing how they were all allowed to smoke pipes on screen back then (apart from Bunty).  True country presenters are not allowed to do so these days as they don’t fit into the PC fluffy animal version of the countryside preferred by many. 

Edited April 15, 2020 by BoD

[brianusa]

11 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Since the driver was soon on his way and not been clapped in irons, I suspect it was a stop to find out why one would be driving  around at that time of the morning, during the lock down period.

 

A bit cheeky!  Sometimes the law needs more tempering with reason as a lone driver would indicate that he might need something serious enough for him to venture out.  If he had a car full of kids, perhaps, but not one person especially that early.  Even our local police are not that hot!

     Brian.

[polybear]

10 minutes ago, brianusa said:

 

A bit cheeky!  Sometimes the law needs more tempering with reason as a lone driver would indicate that he might need something serious enough for him to venture out.  If he had a car full of kids, perhaps, but not one person especially that early.  Even our local police are not that hot!

     Brian.

 

Oh, I dunno.  I've been pulled early in the morning for a check and was rather impressed that the police were on the ball.  The driver could quite easily have pinched the vehicle, or been out on the rob.  A couple of minutes to check him over could easily have trapped a wrong 'un.

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, brianusa said:

Even our local police are not that hot!

The locals here have taken to revenue-ing in the name of safety.

 

I had occasion to visit he who prepares my taxes yesterday. Today is normally tax day in the US but in the current emergency it is deferred by a quarter. There was traffic on the highway but it was not heavy. On the way up I saw a motorcycle officer with someone pulled over. On the way back I saw (presumably the same) officer dismounted and observing traffic from the on-ramp immediately prior to the spot where he had pulled someone over. Clearly his afternoon's work to serve and protect.

 

This is the same highway where the county sheriffs pulled someone over doing well in excess of 100mph. No one was going nearly that fast yesterday and were travelling at speeds consistent with a light traffic day in the "before times".

 

Edited April 15, 2020 by Ozexpatriate

[Ozexpatriate]

9 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

And here is today's sole aircraft track so far - not sure if he's lost or road learning?

 

 

9 hours ago, petethemole said:

My immediate thought was some sort of aerial survey; a quick google and indeed Ravenair do aerial survey work.

A nice day for "mowing the lawn" as they call it.

[Happy Hippo]

21 minutes ago, brianusa said:

 

A bit cheeky!  Sometimes the law needs more tempering with reason as a lone driver would indicate that he might need something serious enough for him to venture out.  If he had a car full of kids, perhaps, but not one person especially that early.  Even our local police are not that hot!

     Brian.

On the contrary, with the UK in lockdown and rural crime on the up and up, the police are very keen to stop vehicles, just to check that they are on legitimate business at that time in the morning.

 

As well as the law abiding, we have Drug runners, TWOC*, boy racers, rustlers (cattle and sheep), horse thieves, thieving of agricultural machinery, fuel thefts, hare coursing and poaching. Plus good old fashioned breaking and entering.

 

Remember this is Telfland, where it all happens especially in the rural bits

 

Grand Theft Auto* Although the punishment is rather less than in the USA

Edited April 15, 2020 by Happy Hippo

[Ozexpatriate]

5 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Washing the mail just doesn't work ...

Were one concerned, surely using one hand to hold the envelopes and the other to open them using a letter opener and then remove the contents, followed by discarding the envelopes and a good hand wash would be satisfactory? For additional protection gloves could be used.

[monkeysarefun]

34 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Trumpie is just out to blame someone else for his total f.ups.  A Leopard doesn't change it's spots....

 

The WHO giving its recent blessing allowing Chna to reopen its wet markets is incomprehensible and despicable I reckon,

 

Similarly  it severely criticized Australia for enacting early travel bans to China (before Trump did,despite his crowing)   a step which has helped to keep our infections to under 6500,  new infection rate at just above 1% per day and total deaths to 63.

 

They have a lot of questions to answer when all this ends, particularly their apparent China friendly slant.

In my opinion.

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, J. S. Bach said:

Or the Golden Gate Bridge!

I'm compelled to point out that it is approximately this colour!   Painted in "international orange" it's not too different from the Forth Bridge, though the Forth Bridge does seem a little more red and is called "Forth Bridge Red".

 

It is the strait that it spans which is called the Golden Gate - being the entrepôt to the Golden State, home of the 1849 gold rush. I often wonder had not the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo happened what the future of Mexico and the US west might have been. 

[Happy Hippo]

2 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Were one concerned, surely using one hand to hold the envelopes and the other to open them using a letter opener and then remove the contents, followed by discarding the envelopes and a good hand wash would be satisfactory? For additional protection gloves could be used.

But you don't know whether the letter itself has been contaminated, especially if the sender has the virus (and then compounded the issue by licking the envelope to seal it!

 

when I was an NBC officer, we used to use a dye in water that showed up in UV light.

 

We would then spray some unsuspecting soul with this, and then tell them to decontaminate.

 

They were good at gloves and respirators, but the NBC suits were impossible to clean properly.

 

The correct decontamination procedure was to dust down as best you could and then take the suit off so that it ended up inside out.  It was then removed and burned.  the same then happened to your clothing, after which you were passed through a shower unit and then completely rekitted the other side of the decontamination area.

 

However, we were dealing with nuclear decontamination and rather nasty liquids  which carried nerve agents that had the potential of a 100% mortality rate.

 

[Ozexpatriate]

3 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

They have a lot of questions to answer when all this ends, particularly their apparent China friendly slant.

In my opinion.

I'd dearly love to pile onto the scrum, but have to deal with consequences of the daily afternoon circus at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. I'd hope we can stick to our guidelines for ERs and keep it a global politics free zone. I don't want to be preachy, you've probably no idea just how much I want/need to howl at the moon, but it's better for this little community that I don't.

[Ozexpatriate]

8 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

But you don't know whether the letter itself has been contaminated, especially if the sender has the virus (and then compounded the issue by licking the envelope to seal it!

I know the virus is scary. It's not aerosolized* and it's not anthrax. It has a lipid membrane that disintegrates with soap.

 

* As far as we know. I certainly hope not.

 

How many letters are we receiving that were sealed by a human? I suspect that the first hands that touch most of my mail belong to the postal carrier and many of them are using gloves.

 

Edited April 15, 2020 by Ozexpatriate

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, roundhouse said:

My other half heard on the news that a number of famous music stars are going to hold a large music event to raise funds for WHO after he suspended funds.

 

1 hour ago, JohnDMJ said:

But hopefully from separate, isolated venues?

Tomorrow night the ABC network (owned by Disney) will present an "all star" line up of performers singing Disney sing-a-long songs at home. It's a relevant example of impromptu programming in the current emergency.

 

Billed as "a truly magical event", it will be avoided, by me at least.

[Ozexpatriate]

Re: Double posts.

 

Posting my last post, I noticed the "Submit button" turn black again. The contents of the whole post (now deleted and replaced with this) were ready to submit. It was only prevented by the 60 second timer.

I don't know if there was an inadvertent double tap on the submit button, but there are gremlins in this software that make the double posts.

[brianusa]

Contrary to the current programming that wants us to feel good during these times, I just watch old movies on Turner.  Last night we saw " The man who never was", first time in a long time.  Clifton Webb played a good part as did the usual supporting British actors of the day.  A good tale, well produced although Gloria Grahame appeared to be there as comfort to an American audience.  Always liked her though but I can't get Ado Annie out of my head whenever I see her on screen.

   Brian.

[pH]

In the 1960s, my cousins, then 20 and 17, became the owners of a soft-top Jaguar XK120 in beautiful condition. (Long story, but it was entirely legitimate.) It was a police magnet ("Just checking, sir") till the local cops got to know it. The record was my young cousin being stopped 6 times in one evening, when he drove it with the top off, outside their home area.

[newbryford]

Good news time.

Big Bro is off the ventilator and "downgraded" from the Critical Care Unit to Major Trauma.

Still requires an oxygen mask though.

6 weeks and still counting.