Early Risers.

[TheQ]

7 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

 

But would you drink cyanide if it were free? 

I think the majority who've drunk it, did get it for free...

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Happy birthday Ian. Done absolutely nothing today except for some eyelid inspection, and the sudoku and crosswords in the paper, now to get dinner ready, tandori chicken.

[BoD]

Many more happy orbits, Ian.

[BoD]

Apropos of nothing in particular ...

 

A good few moons ago I used to write computer programs and enjoyed doing so.  When I no longer had to do so, I made the decision to cease as it could be a very time consuming and sometimes a 'hair pulling out' activity.  So, could someone please explain to me why on earth I have bought an Arduino starter kit and am now sitting here hunting missing semicolons and logic errors whilst at the same time having to pick up a new computer language. 

 

Actually I'm enjoying it again, now that I have the time.

[Barry O]

14 minutes ago, BoD said:

Apropos of nothing in particular ...

 

A good few moons ago I used to write computer programs and enjoyed doing so.  When I no longer had to do so, I made the decision to cease as it could be a very time consuming and sometimes a 'hair pulling out' activity.  So, could someone please explain to me why on earth I have bought an Arduino starter kit and am now sitting here hunting missing semicolons and logic errors whilst at the same time having to pick up a new computer language. 

 

Actually I'm enjoying it again, now that I have the time.

Cos it its all about being a "hobby"???

 

Baz

[Sir TophamHatt]

21 minutes ago, BoD said:

... why on earth I have bought an Arduino starter kit and am now sitting here hunting missing semicolons and logic errors whilst at the same time having to pick up a new computer language. 

Never really got into programming.

I wish I did.  Started it at college but completely did not understand it.

 

It's one of those things that I wish I knew but don't want to learn it as it looks quite dull.

[polybear]

3 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

Now Mr Bear that all depends upon your interpretation of 'cake' doesn't it? Does it have a preserve in it? Yes. Is it made out of sponge? Yes. So what do we say now Mr Bear? Yes it is a cake.

 

Go and stand in the corner and think about what you tried to do and when you finish thinking about it we may send you a piece of cake if you apologise to the ER's. You naughty bear.

 

Just to clarify, how much of a *may* is that, and how big is the cake??

Signed,  A Naughty Bear

 

3 hours ago, Ian Abel said:

Been promised an Indian take-out for dinner from my favorite place, followed by the Mrs specialty cheese-cake which she makes for me every year - YUM.

Sadly I can't invite Bears or Hippos over, so I'll have to finish it all myself <burp>... 

 

 

Does @Happy Hippo see a common theme emerging here by any chance?

[Ian Abel]

1 hour ago, BoD said:

Apropos of nothing in particular ...

 

A good few moons ago I used to write computer programs and enjoyed doing so.  When I no longer had to do so, I made the decision to cease as it could be a very time consuming and sometimes a 'hair pulling out' activity.  So, could someone please explain to me why on earth I have bought an Arduino starter kit and am now sitting here hunting missing semicolons and logic errors whilst at the same time having to pick up a new computer language. 

 

Actually I'm enjoying it again, now that I have the time.

I presume you've been here already ?? --> https://www.arduino.cc

Pretty helpful, and downloading the Arduino IDE application in the downloads section will make things easier also. Does some pretty good syntax checking and uploading to the board functions...

Edited March 2, 2021 by Ian Abel

[brianusa]

18 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Consider me vexed.

 

In truth this vexation is really the result of something incommodious rather than anything serious.

 

Today's weather was nice. There was hazy sunshine and temperatures over 15°C. This motivated me to take care of a chore - recycling bottles.

 

In 1971, Oregon was the first state to implement state-wide refunds on glass and plastic bottles and beverage cans. As an example, beer bottles have a refund value of 5 cents. In practice, based on the time involved, it's more of an incentive to recycle than being meaningfully remunerative.

 

Gathering a largish collection of bottles I headed for the local drop off point. When installed, this location had four machines that read label bar codes. Two of these were removed and replaced with a program where you bring your empties in a green bag. I don't use this approach. To get a refund, your green bags have an identifying bar code. It's my hang-up, but it's bad enough driving around with a mobile location tracker/telephone, but to identify my garbage so it can be tracked in a database is going too far.

 

With the pandemic, one of the two remaining machines was taken off-line - for social distancing, which of course caused the opposite to happen, since people had to queue twice as much for the one remaining machine.

 

What I hadn't realized is that the state had decided to not enforce the requirement to accept containers in counties designated extreme or high risk for CoViD-19 transmission and now both of the machines were off-line.

 

So I spent the afternoon taking empty beer bottles for a drive and had to rearrange the garage to store them again.

 

Apparently, now that the relevant county has been reduced to "moderate" CoViD risk, the drop off location in question will be required to accept containers on Wednesday. "Missed it by *that* much!"

 

How very Oregonish!  Here there is a big container situated by the local food bank.  Two holes with instructions on clear or green bottles; the only problem is that there is no separation inside!  So everything gets tossed in a big pile!

Thats the WA way!

                 Brian.

[BoD]

9 minutes ago, Ian Abel said:

I presume you've been here already ?? --> https://www.arduino.cc

Yes, thank you Ian. That was my starting point. In the computer control forum on here there are links to a couple of series of videos/tutorials which are quite good and enough to keep me going for a while.  There is certainly plenty of helpful ‘stuff’ out there.

[polybear]

Bear hears that The Orange One may well have another go in four year's time.  That's a relief....

[J. S. Bach]

3 hours ago, Ian Abel said:

Hey... what part of FREE did you miss 

None, the only Starbucks that I ever had was free and I could not even finish the cup it was so bad. Maybe three  small sips and that was it.

 

Our drivers (Broward County Transit) said that MacDonald's, 7-11, and Circle K had the best coffee. They should know.

[simontaylor484]

There is a guy on You Tube diy and digital railroad i think the. Channel is called he even made a dcc controller with an arduino a motor shield and a raspberry Pi 

[Sir TophamHatt]

 

(forgot to add earlier)

In other news, looking at a couple of car seats.

 

Halfords online exclusive but as I get some money off if ordering vouchers online, then I asked if there's something that can be done.

 

Fair play to them, they said I could order them online to collect but ask for a refund straight away.  Then re-purchase the same seats in the store using the vouchers.  While it may seem complicated and silly, at least it's a solution instead of the blanket "no" I was expecting.

[J. S. Bach]

7 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

There is a guy on You Tube diy and digital railroad i think the. Channel is called he even made a dcc controller with an arduino a motor shield and a raspberry Pi 

Raspberry pi? No, but I did have a cherry Danish the other day.

[J. S. Bach]

1 hour ago, Sir TophamHatt said:

 ...snip...  Started it at college but completely did not understand it. It's one of those things that I wish I knew but don't want to learn it as it looks quite dull.

I started a programming course on a VA "scholarship" after getting out of the Navy. The languages were AL, RPG, and COBOL*. I wonder if any of those are still used. All that I now remember is that RPG was reasonably straight forward in its construction.

*      AL = Assembly Language

     RPG = Report Program Generator

COBOL = COmmon Business Oriented Language

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

Does @Happy Hippo see a common theme emerging here by any chance?

Yes,

 

Much more of this and I'm going to have to flounce off in a right old huff!

[J. S. Bach]

22 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Yes,

Much more of this and I'm going to have to flounce off in a right old huff!

That is an earth-shaking thought!

 

BTW, would that be a 1934 or a 1935 Huff?

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, J. S. Bach said:

None, the only Starbucks that I ever had was free and I could not even finish the cup it was so bad. Maybe three  small sips and that was it.

 

Our drivers (Broward County Transit) said that MacDonald's, 7-11, and Circle K had the best coffee. They should know.

 

 

In Australia Starbucks was here for 7 years, lost $105 million and had to close 61 outlets on their way out.

 

Their idea of 'coffee' isn't the same as ours.

Edited March 2, 2021 by monkeysarefun

[andyram]

Evening all. Good to hear that @New Haven Neil has joined the jabbed club. In terms of needles - I did not look so could not comment on the size of the needle. I did not feel a thing - but the administering nurse looked quite attractive (although she was wearing a mask) so that helped to take my mind off things! I hope the side effects stay away.

 

Happy birthday to @Ian Abel

 

Good to see @grandadbob making an appearance - sorry that you are not feeling your best and I hope you feel better soon.

 

Here in a grey South Derbyshire it has not been an especially good day. Mainly things that would be classed as first world problems but, in the light of another disrupted night's sleep, take on even bigger meaning. It begin with a fruitless online search for an item this morning. Placed said item in trolley at Argos. Got to check out - then found listed as unavailable for both pick up at all local stores and home delivery. Then it appeared as available to collect in Long Eaton, but when I proceeded to payment screen it was back out of stock again. The same cycle was repeated 4-5 times over the hour before it booted me out completely. Amazon showed stock, but jumped straight to error screens too so no success.

 

 The tiredness, coupled with the internet frustration, meant it was difficult to concentrate on the marking workload and some fairly dire assignments which needed marking. 

 

 The mood was not helped by receiving my Hornby Magazine and discovering they had messed up my advert. Instead of repeating the one I ran in March, with details of my current special offer, they substituted it with the previous month's ad! Since the offer I was promoting ends at the start of April it is a costly error! They have apologised and promised to refund the cost of the advert, but it does not really compensate for four weeks lost promotion.

 

 This afternoon Amber seriously found her nine year old feet and overstepped the mark. We have a small park opposite our house which she likes to go on. I took her over for half an hour this morning as a break from her home schooling and my marking. This afternoon she wanted to go again. Both Sarah and I were too busy and said no. The little madam decided to answer back and say she was going to go over on her own. Then, when our backs were turned, went and did just that. Now, she is nine, so we may consider letting her over there for a short time on some days. We can keep a check on her out the front bedroom windows. The fact that she did it when we had said no was not the wisest move. When I collected her she found some of her electronics had vanished and will now need to be re-earned!

 

 As if all that was not enough - a certain Mr Rooney decides tonight's game at Cardiff is the perfect time to play the kids! Result - a 4-0 loss! 

 

Could be worse - at least Forest lost!

 

Stay safe.

 

Andy

 

edited to remove typos

Edited March 2, 2021 by andyram

[Barry O]

Goodnight all!

Baz

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[tigerburnie]

G'night all

[sixoh8sixoh]

11 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

According to our dentist, when I was 11, my mouth isn't big enough.  Peoplecwho know me do not alwayscagree with that comment.  However it meant a trip on the bus to Kendal, 30 miles or so, and an overnight stay with said dentist. 4 molars, my no 6's were removed and I ended up feeling rather sorry for myself. I was consoled the next morning as I walked up the garden, by seeing a maroon Duchess pounding it' way up,Grayrigg bank.  My 7's moved forward and made way for my wisdom teeth. This has confused many dentists ever since until they take an Xray. I still have all my wisdom teeth

 

I can always singalongadentist with mine as he goes “7,6,5,4missingspaceclosed,3,2,1,1,2,3,4missingspaceclosed,5,6,7” on both my upper and lower jaw. Or at least I would if he didn’t have his fingers in my mouth...

 

Evening all from the wilds beyond the Wall. Anyone who’s following the Scottish pollyticks will be able to guess the kind of day I’ve had. I’m still on call but think I’m unlikely to be asked anything at this hour... hopefully! 
 

A largeish box arrived with the second post today, roughly 12” x 12” x 9”. I couldn’t think what I’d ordered that would be that big, and when I picked it off the doormat, I felt sure it must be an empty box. I opened it and within was the single Accurascale OO gauge buffer stop I’d ordered last week (along with a pre-order of a rake of Mk5 Caledonian Sleeper coaches... don’t tell the OH, my finger slipped on the buy button, honest guv...). One buffer stop in nearly a cubic foot of box!! Mind you it’s a lovely light-up buffer stop. Very pleased with it!

Happy birthday to @Ian Abel and great news that you’re jabbed @New Haven Neil. Best wishes to all and I’m off to rest ready for tomorrow’s mayhem - FM in front of the committee and an architect coming to our house (at the same time, rubbish planning) to size up the feasibility of extending up and out.

 

[Gwiwer]

19 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

In Australia Starbucks was here for 7 years, lost $105 million and had to close 61 outlets on their way out.

 

Their idea of 'coffee' isn't the same as ours.

Starchucks made the most apalling substance sold as “coffee” which it has ever been my displeasure to taste. 
 

Near-boiling (think Parisienne café au lait), watery (it was supposed to be a latté) and tasting of badly over-roasted beans and probably in use for the second or third time. 
 

I don’t consider myself a coffee snob. I enjoyed 17 years living around Melbourne which city serves some of the best coffees I have enjoyed. As well as the aforementioned liquid.  I do enjoy a good one. Of the Melbourne chains I would choose Gloria Jeans over Hudsons as the latter always seemed excessively foamy. 
 

Today was jab day. The deed was done in St. Thomas’s Hospital, Waterloo and thus allowed me a first (albeit brief and purposeful) trip into central London for a year.  It also allowed me the first Pret a Manger latté and pain-au-raisin in a year. Neither was the best I have had from them but I never thought I would utter the words “Pret - how have I missed you?”    They were in mind rather than voiced as I sat enjoying my purchases on the concourse before striding off to be jabbed. 
 

In London as in Melbourne and elsewhere the “best” coffee is a personal thing and seldom found in the high-volume chain outlets.  The best at the House of Fun was from the now-closed Digby’s. We have the choice now of Costa or none.