Early Risers.

[Gwiwer]

5 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

Next door have people in drilling holes with hammer drill.

Lots of holes

 

 

 

How boring.  

[polybear]

4 hours ago, Andrew P said:

Tea or Coffee I like both in equal measure, NO NOT equal measure in the same mug at the same time.

 

When out, I generally have coffee as most people I meet make Tea in so many different ways, but Coffee stays fairly similar to how I like it.

 

Costa Coffee, = NO WAY, I find it more chewable than drinkable.

 

Bear recalls making a coffee (we're talking Nescafe instant here...) for Momma Bear many moons ago - Bear put milk in with the coffee, then the water.  I understand it was somewhat dire - other words may have been used.

 

3 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

SWMBO is a big fan of the "afternoon tea" with china cups, saucers, tea-pot and all.  She collects sets and finds reason to use them.  Of note to @Happy Hippo and @polybear is that such events normally involve c**e  

 

Duly noted.  Inbound....

 

Further kitchen planning work carried out, followed by final prep then painting the kitchen-side of the bathroom door frame; I used the original mid-1990's Dulux oil-based satin white, as I have an intense dislike of using anything water-based (other than emulsion) as it's like painting for the first five seconds, then spreading glue thereafter

The Dulux had a skin on top you could probably walk on, then looked a very yukky colour (technical interior design term) once the skin was removed.  However, lots of stirring later changed it into a nice white that was fine to use.  Hopefully it'll dry and not stay sticky for evermore.....

 

Bear's Award of the Day:

Goes to Brewers Paint Suppliers.  I placed an on-line order last night at half nine for a paint tester pot (we're talkin' £2-88 here...).  Bear has a Trade Cash Account, which is available to all without jumping thru' hoops (all you need to do is register on-line in about 5 minutes) - whilst the account doesn't give Bear the hoped-for trade prices it does give free delivery.  So my tester pot was delivered (by Brewers Van) for free, at half ten this morning.  Impressed.  Just hope the colour is better than the last one, which was so light I had a job to see it on lining paper.....

 

 

[simontaylor484]

I used to drink a lot of Mc donalds hot drinks out and about remember that.  Not because i prefered it but because i used to get them free. How collection of the loyalty stickers on cups folk had thrown away and left them on that i collected when litter picking. 

I also won over £100 on scratch cards without buying one. I always used to check them when i had picked them up before they went in the bag. One kind soul threw one away with a £40 and £10 win on it only thing was it was wet through i had to post that to Camelot and got a cheque back

[New Haven Neil]

Post walk around the village the joints have loosened, but the injection site is now no-touch area!  Odd it has changed so quickly.  Still don't care!  

 

Mrs NHN has arranged an induction day in her own time tomorrow with her new boss as they are both previously inoculated, so have decided they will both run the risk as otherwise it is unworkable next week.  Masks will still be worn.

 

We like Illy coffee in the cafetiere, or use Kenco Millcano for instant.  This is usually a little pricey but there have been some good offers recently so we have stocked up big time - we get through a lot.

[andyram]

4 hours ago, The Lurker said:

PS5? 

 

I have been trying to get one for Elder Lurker with a similar lack of success and frustration, although you appear to have got closer with Argos than me!

 

The object of my search is indeed the PS5. Video games, even at the ripe old age of 45, are still one of my vices (along with beer, whisky, Derby County and model railways). Throughout the first lockdown I regularly indulged in the Call of Duty games after both Amber and our foster child had gone to bed. The games were played, online, with my best mate Mark - chatting over the headsets. At least it was some kind of socialising!

 

Solo gaming these days are usually restricted to the Train Sim World driving game - usually taking the Class 47 or 33 along the West Somerset (no steam trains as yet).

 

Sadly the frustration continues. The "Game" store contrived to kick me out of the store as the stock went live this morning. I have three different bundles spread across three different devices all sat at different stages of the longest check out queue I know. I guarantee that I will complete none of them - and I only want one!

 

Stay safe - whilst I try and stay patient and sane!

 

Andy

[J. S. Bach]

8 hours ago, chrisf said:

 ...snip... I can cope with coffee by adding much more milk than it is designed for and by dumping into it large quantities of sugar. ...snip... Best wishes to all

Chris 

Sounds like me; I like a little coffee with my sugar and cream!

[The Lurker]

42 minutes ago, andyram said:

 

The object of my search is indeed the PS5. Video games, even at the ripe old age of 45, are still one of my vices (along with beer, whisky, Derby County and model railways). Throughout the first lockdown I regularly indulged in the Call of Duty games after both Amber and our foster child had gone to bed. The games were played, online, with my best mate Mark - chatting over the headsets. At least it was some kind of socialising!

 

Solo gaming these days are usually restricted to the Train Sim World driving game - usually taking the Class 47 or 33 along the West Somerset (no steam trains as yet).

 

Sadly the frustration continues. The "Game" store contrived to kick me out of the store as the stock went live this morning. I have three different bundles spread across three different devices all sat at different stages of the longest check out queue I know. I guarantee that I will complete none of them - and I only want one!

 

Stay safe - whilst I try and stay patient and sane!

 

Andy

I have just reached the end of the Game queue, as did Elder Lurker on his laptop. Sold out!

[J. S. Bach]

2 hours ago, Danemouth said:

 ...snip... When he offers to make coffee if she is not there I ask for tea as his coffee is really strong - you could stand a spoon up in it! ...snip...

Regards to you all on yet another dismal day,

Dave

Sounds a little weak to me; one should have to force the spoon down first! I first drank coffee the US Navy way so my ideas about good coffee may be a little different!

[Ian Abel]

19 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

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

The frightening reality is that COBOL, in particular, is still around in many legacy systems. The sheer incredible expense of replacing/rewriting some systems, that are running perfectly happily as they are, frightens corporate types off from flushing that much money down a replacement toilet.

In fact, the ERP system that I work with, until the latest release about 2+ years back, was very COBOL-based, using a hybrid of COBOL code, since the system was first developed in the mid-80s in COBOL on IBM mainframes. All easily migrated through the various generations of systems. You can STILL get an industrial-grade COBOL compiler for the latest Windows servers  .

Think for a moment, what part of the back-end of ANY accounting/finance department functionality has changed since the quill and paper came into being  

 

HUMP day, and with it the realization that I may have to leave, or get banned from ERs. I have to confess I like Starbucks lattes  please don't think any less of me! 

Tea and coffee preferences and habits especially in the US are extremely varied, from totally objectionable to very satisfying  vive la difference! (MAYBE!!) 

 

Having had rather a larger lunch yesterday than originally planned, we deferred the Indian for my birthday until today, as I knew I'd not be able to do it justice 

 

-2 and sunny earlier, high of 5 expected, snow depth rapidly declining, we may see GRASS in a couple of days <whoopee>!

 

Carry on.

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Neil, I had exactly the same symptoms after my jab, sore arm and stiff joints. The stiff joints didn't last very long but the sore arm took a couple of days to go away.

5 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Same with fish & chips often as not  

I remember driving through Norfolk when we caught a whiff of fish and chips, or more accurately the beef dripping they were frying them in. We just had to stop and try them, just as well they were as good as the smell. 

[PeterBB]

Having got to the end - hope you had a happy birthday Ian.

 

Coffee - avoid it like the plague and cannot go near a coffee shop entrance.

 

Tea - Andy P is correct, nobody, sometimes even SWMBO, can make tea suitable for me to drink.  Many are surprised when before they discard the bag I ask them to put it in my 1/3 full milked containing mug.  A very short stir/squeeze and then remove and discard.  This process does not work with one-cup varieties.

 

Heating - prefer the low level overnight but constant disagreement with SWMBO who sets it too high in the day so that between 'heatings' it gets too cold while the boiler is cooling down enough to re-ignite.

 

Early morning rain and now foggy.

 

Telphone call from surgery expecting call for second jab but no, it was to discuss current tablet regime.  Pleased that they asked about side-effects and yes, like Baz comments a year to two ago there are some but the alternatives are worse ... conclusion  'stay where we are'.

 

Hard luck Neil - seems there are many dishonest people around who don't like the lockdowns but doing their best to prolong them.

 

Philj comment  reminds me of those days when you could also get a fair proportion of chips for 2 'old' pennies.

Edited March 3, 2021 by PeterBB
Multiple typos

[simontaylor484]

Finally got the follow up appointment for my leg problem for tomorrow morning 

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, Ian Abel said:

The frightening reality is that COBOL, in particular, is still around in many legacy systems. The sheer incredible expense of replacing/rewriting some systems, that are running perfectly happily as they are, frightens corporate types off from flushing that much money down a replacement toilet.

In fact, the ERP system that I work with, until the latest release about 2+ years back, was very COBOL-based, using a hybrid of COBOL code, since the system was first developed in the mid-80s in COBOL on IBM mainframes. All easily migrated through the various generations of systems. You can STILL get an industrial-grade COBOL compiler for the latest Windows servers  .

Think for a moment, what part of the back-end of ANY accounting/finance department functionality has changed since the quill and paper came into being  

 

Two big systems that I'm aware of use operating systems from the 60's with new front ends. One is the Police National Computer that first went live in 74. The other is TOPS that is still at the heart of most British Railways systems. It was based on Southern Pacifics original system from IIRC 1964.  As far as I know, new maintenance  staff have to go on courses to learn the languages needed.

 

Jamie

Edited March 3, 2021 by jamie92208

[andyram]

2 hours ago, The Lurker said:

I have just reached the end of the Game queue, as did Elder Lurker on his laptop. Sold out!

 

Likewise. No luck here either. Very frustrating.

[tigerburnie]

I used to drink tea, our Sax player in the band in the late 60's was into Earl Grey China tea, one desperate evening we tried rolling it up and smoking it as we'd run out of tobacco, something we did not repeat, glad I gave up smoking not long afterwards.

[Barry O]

Lummy

 

COBOL.... luckily I was taught to use Fortran IV and Algol when I started at Uni. We used a brand new DEC System 10. One of my flatmates ended up high in the Windows software structure. He spent hours perfecting a thing called "SOAP" - Secure Obscure Algol Programmes so that you didn't have to remember to included spaces and also ;;;;;; in the right places for your Algol programme to work.  Since then I have dabbled with a variety of software programmes including CUTLASS, SABRE ( Automatic test equipment programmes) Machine code, CSMP (simulation software)  and I can still (just about) create havoc in DOS.

 

The worst bits of software I have ever had to make use of was SAP.. a complete trainwreck in motion...

 

 

Baz

[polybear]

In a moment of madness Bear listened to the Budget.

Bear notes with considerable interest that he can now buy ten million quid's worth of diggers and my mate Rishi will then bung me thirteen million quid

Anyone wanna buy a nearly new, one owner, delivery mileage only JCB in as-new condition?  Used for shoveling cake only; the buckets are a bit sticky but these will be licked clean prior to delivery.....

 

Bear didn't note anything that would shaft the likes of Amazon who've been kicking the ar5e out of the tax system for years.  Disappointing.

[TheQ]

I went on a 68000, programming course, but never used it as the product was so late in production I'd left the company.

Also did some training on the ADA language which again I never got to use.

I've worked on,

A  bit of, " Symbolic Assembly Code"

ATAL a version of Atlas , 

Assembler in 6800, 

Metcal,

LabVIEW,

And a locally produced to my company, test equipment programming language, that's back ground is in C. But it's very simple to use.

In none except the last was I expected to produce programs, just know what's going on and produce little adaptations as needed. Often in the earlier machines it was programming on the data bus in 1s and 0s.

For my own use I've played with z80, 6502, and 68008 programming. And I've got an Arduino to play with, for an unmentionable purpose.

 

[simontaylor484]

1 hour ago, andyram said:

 

Likewise. No luck here either. Very frustrating.

I do think.It's a deliberate marketing ploy 

[laurenceb]

Would not be suprised

On the subject of coffee concidering that C and S are supposed to be standardised wherever you buy then who much they differ in taste. Costa tasts much better in Derby than Burton, Comparitivly speaking

[JohnDMJ]

1 hour ago, Barry O said:

Lummy

 

COBOL.... luckily I was taught to use Fortran IV and Algol when I started at Uni. We used a brand new DEC System 10. One of my flatmates ended up high in the Windows software structure. He spent hours perfecting a thing called "SOAP" - Secure Obscure Algol Programmes so that you didn't have to remember to included spaces and also ;;;;;; in the right places for your Algol programme to work.  Since then I have dabbled with a variety of software programmes including CUTLASS, SABRE ( Automatic test equipment programmes) Machine code, CSMP (simulation software)  and I can still (just about) create havoc in DOS.

 

The worst bits of software I have ever had to make use of was SAP.. a complete trainwreck in motion...

 

 

Baz

 

SABRE - ever come across Rebate (another ATE language)?

 

6502 - ah, memories; still have a Commodore PET around! Z80, 6809, 8088, Fortran IV all have served my purposes over the years!

 

[Ozexpatriate]

For anyone who's had enough of pandemics, there's a new Ebola outbreak in west Africa.

 

My daily constitutionals continue to be serenaded by the sound of infernal machines tearing up timber - chainsaws and woodchippers reducing the tree fall to mulch.

 

This morning I saw a what I interpreted as a commentary on the observation of St. Valentines day. Today is bin day and sprouting from a wheelie bin at the top of the road were three saggy, Helium-filled, heart-shaped, pink balloons inscribed with "Happy Valentine's Day".  Clearly the recipient sufficiently valued the sentiment to hold onto them for two weeks, but much like dead overpriced flowers it was time for them to end up in the garbage. They made a sad little display that was quite incongrouous with their ostensible purpose.

 

I wanted to photograph them but it seemed a bit gauche to stand in front of someone's home and photograph their garbage, so I didn't.

 

Edited March 3, 2021 by Ozexpatriate

[Ozexpatriate]

2 hours ago, Barry O said:

The worst bits of software I have ever had to make use of was SAP.. a complete trainwreck in motion...

I fixed that for you.

 

And the worst SAP software is SAP-CRM, their sales-force automation application. (From personal experience and anecdotally from someone who works for SAP.)

[BSW01]

My former employer use SAP, our own version of what that stood for was

Stops 

All

Production 

[polybear]

33 minutes ago, JohnDMJ said:

 

SABRE - ever come across Rebate (another ATE language)?

 

6502 - ah, memories; still have a Commodore PET around! Z80, 6809, 8088, Fortran IV all have served my purposes over the years!

 

 

Bear's introduction (and finale, for that matter) to programming was also via the 6502 during my HNC College Course.  Hexadecimal, IIRC.

 

5 minutes ago, BSW01 said:

My former employer use SAP, our own version of what that stood for was

Stops 

All

Production 

 

As did Bear's.  Pile of cr@p so I'm told - I kept well away from such evils.