Early Risers.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

I managed to sort out the bathroom light pull without resorting to replacing the cord. It wasn’t as simple as re-threading the cord though. The light pull had 2 rubber washers, one at each end, these had perished and it took quite a while to remove the last traces of the old rubber. However, the threaded rod that passes through the handle was too long, so I needed some new washers, luckily I was able to get away with making only one from placticard. I then re-fitted the light pull, re-threaded the old cord, tied a knot at the end and it was job done. 

 

I then spent the rest of the day playing with my DCC controller and an accessory decoder. I’d originally planned to use these to operate all the points. But with such a big layout, remembering all the point numbers would have been a nightmare. They wouldn’t work with servos either, so I changed direction, but ended up with a dozen or so decoders with nothing to use them with. So I’ve been experimenting with LEDs and small DC motors. By making adjustments to some of the CVs I can switch LEDs on or off and run a DC motor, either continuously (not very practical) or from anything from 20 milliseconds to 5 seconds, infinitely more useful. I can also change the direction in which the motor runs too. So, if I design and build a small gearbox I could possibly open and close loco shed doors, crossing gates etc, something to think about. 

[Ozexpatriate]

27 minutes ago, andyram said:

... as outlined in earlier posts, the search for Sony’s much sought after games console again proved fruitless. I note the comments of some on here about “marketing”. I have been involved with buying consoles for over 30 years. There are always issues with supplies of any brand new games console. They simply cannot make enough for the demand. The pandemic has certainly made things worse in terms of supply and the ability for customers to order them.

Sony cannot source enough of a processor chip from AMD designed for the PS5. The AMD CEO is on the record saying that she expects shortages through the first half of the year. See this news item.

 

Today, AMD is a fabless semiconductor company, meaning it uses wafer fabrication from suppliers like TSMC. There is a global shortage of semiconductors, including in the smallest (most dense) geometries like AMD is using for the PS5 chip. The shortage has also hit the global automotive industry (even though, generally speaking, automotive electronics don't rely on the latest wafer fabrication nodes) and many automobile manufacturers are limiting production because they can't procure enough electronics devices.

 

It's not just demand. Wafer manufacturing has become incredibly consolidated. There used to be dozens of companies doing "leading edge" manufacturing. Now the list of truly leading edge fabs is down to TSMC and Samsung* and few others. A number of things are driving this:

• It is staggeringly expensive to set up the newest high density nodes
• It's also technically difficult
  • (Intel, which still does manufacturing and was at one point the world leader is struggling to keep up, even though it is still number one in revenue)
• Market-driven M&A activity is also driving consolidation

* Combined, TSMC and Samsung represented 72% of the global semiconductor foundry market in the fourth quarter of 2020.

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[monkeysarefun]

41 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Sony cannot source enough of a processor chip from AMD designed for the PS5. The AMD CEO is on the record saying that she expects shortages through the first half of the year. See this news item.

 

Today, AMD is a fabless semiconductor company, meaning it uses wafer fabrication from suppliers like TSMC. There is a global shortage of semiconductors, including in the smallest (most dense) geometries like AMD is using for the PS5 chip. The shortage has also hit the global automotive industry (even though, generally speaking, automotive electronics don't rely on the latest wafer fabrication nodes) and many automobile manufacturers are limiting production because they can't procure enough electronics devices.

 

It's not just demand. Wafer manufacturing has become incredibly consolidated. There used to be dozens of companies doing "leading edge" manufacturing. Now the list of truly leading edge fabs is down to TSMC and Samsung* and few others. A number of things are driving this:

• It is staggeringly expensive to set up the newest high density nodes
• It's also technically difficult
  • (Intel, which still does manufacturing and was at one point the world leader is struggling to keep up, even though it is still number one in revenue)
• Market-driven M&A activity is also driving consolidation

* Combined, TSMC and Samsung represented 72% of the global semiconductor foundry market in the fourth quarter of 2020.

 

 

I remember in the early '90's memory chip prices doubled due to a fire in a Japanese factory that supplied the glue needed in memory chip production.  An extract from The NYT of August 1993, prices and memory sizes would seem quaint to the kids of today with their phones full of 8GB of RAM...

(I remember paying around  $700 for 16MB of RAM at an NEC auction here around that time):

 

HERE we go again. Prices for computer memory chips have doubled in the past month, touching off a panic among computer makers and raising the possibility that computer prices will rise -- or at least stop falling for a while.

Sharp price swings are nothing new to the memory chip business, perhaps the most volatile of computer component industries. Prices more than quadrupled in the late 1980's and then reversed direction to become cheaper than ever in the early 1990's.

 

"We're back in those wild times," said Mike Frost, chief executive of Tech Works, one of the leading vendors of dynamic random access memory chips. A few months ago, the cost of a 4-megabit memory chip was $10.50 or $11 on the spot market, Mr. Frost said. Last week, it was about $20 and heading north.

So computer owners who had become accustomed to inexpensive upgrades, often as little as $150 for 4MB of additional memory, may soon see prices climb to $250 or $300. 

 

The episodes are reminiscent of the last chip panic, in the late 1980's, when a 4MB upgrade might cost $2,500 and it was not uncommon for companies to remove memory chips from inactive machines and lock them in a safe.

 

The catalyst for the recent panic was the July explosion at an obscure but important factory operated that is the world's leading supplier of a kind of epoxy used in the packaging of memory chips. Some 60 percent of the world supply of this esoteric goop was produced at the plant, which Japan has vowed to rebuild quickly.

 

The panic was easy to set off because demand for memory chips had been drifting upward before the explosion. As computer prices plunged in the summer of 1992 through the first half of 1993, PC customers chose not to pocket the savings, but rather to set their sights higher: on powerful Intel i486-based systems that could run Microsoft Windows, I.B.M.'s OS/2 and other so-called graphical operating systems. Those require at least 4MB of system memory. So the PC makers raised the base configuration to 4MB. (A megabyte is approximately 1,000 kilobytes, or the equivalent of a million alphanumeric characters.) Lately, some personal computers have been introduced with 8MB or even 16MB of base system memory.

 

Edited March 4, 2021 by monkeysarefun

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[BR60103]

I was a Fortran programmer for my working life. It suited our pension calculations and the actuaries could follow it.

I could never get Basic programs to work. COBOL looked like wriring an essay.

I tried learning C but I kept getting stuck with "C can't do that; you need to write a subroutine." and that would be just something like input/output.

 

 

[pH]

The destination of today's afternoon walk - Jug Island. 

 

 

It's only 7 Km from our house in a straight line, but we reckon it's over 25 years since we were last there.

[pH]

11 hours ago, Ian Abel said:

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.

 

I wonder if that is the ERP system our organisation was using when I retired 13 years ago. I would give you the name of it, but it caused me such grief that my mind has genuinely suppressed it! We had so many 'bolt ons' (processes written by ourselves to handle all our users' peculiar 'needs') that any new release of the ERP required massive amounts of testing on our part - so much for easy migrations.

 

But at least it wasn't SAP. 

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from a still dark Charente.  Much work was done 8n the shed yesterday and the second gate is coming along nicely. I also got about 180 slides scanned.  However the afternoon was interupted by a shout of " Come and look at this, I daren't look" from Beth. I duly went to look in the old aviary at the side of the shed and found a rather dead, but large Fox.  I now need to talk to one of our neighbours about how to dispose of it.

 

This morning we are off to The Danglies for Beth to have an Xray on her elbow, which is giving her some serious grief.  In the afternoon I'm off to buy bolts for the gate. The emporium might just be the one near a railway line.  

 

Not a lot else happenning so regards to all.

 

Jamie

Edited March 4, 2021 by jamie92208

[Ozexpatriate]

4 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

I remember in the early '90's memory chip prices doubled due to a fire in a Japanese factory that supplied the glue needed in memory chip production. 

For many years DRAM was used as a sort of 'barometer' for the semiconductor industry and it was usually the first application for new technology nodes since increased density led to cheaper memories. The memory market was always volatile. Perhaps 40 years ago, Intel shifted it's focus from DRAMs to microprocessors to lessen the impact of memory-related business volatility to the company.

 

Today there is less emphasis on DRAMs in proving new processes. FPGAs are more likely to be the class of device for proving out new nodes. AMD announced that they would acquire Xilinx, (the largest FPGA company) in 2020. This acquisition surprised many and is not yet complete.

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all

 

Today I must stride purposefully into town, print a bank statement from the self-service terminal in that endangered species, the town centre branch of the bank.  I will then take it home and reconcile my budget.  Stride purposefully?  Who am I kidding?  There are four buses an hour from one end of the road and two from the other.  I’ve got a bus pass and I’m going to use it!

 

Winslow Boy, I should clarify what I wrote about the tea in the hotel, which to name and shame the guilty was the Premier Inn at Cribbs Causeway.  I stayed there in connection with a family party in March 2014.  It was then that the poor state of the tea came to light.  The other time I stayed there was in July 2019.  It was not until three days later when a friend who lives locally sent me a clip of the fire from BBC News.  I am flattered, and perhaps inspired, by what you say about getting on the wrong side of me!

 

Barry, I have been free of SAP for 15 years and glad I am of it.  When I was in my last job, a finance manager in the Civil Service, I was in daily contact with it and at times almost hourly contact with the help desk in Hemel Hempstead.  I found it more counter-intuitive than any other software that I have used.  Strangely enough, SAP was not the reason that I longed for early retirement, which I was eventually awarded.  My line manager, with whom I just did not get on, was even more clueless about it than I was.

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Bit damp outside  but never mind. Her indoors is off to moreasons to do the weekly shop.

 

@jamie92208 news from yesterday. Wakefield is no longer a city.. it has had some dosh sent from the "towns" fund....obviously whover was dolling out the cash knows nowt about where places are (Morley received dosh too).

 

Seems like the Indians are intent in killing off Test cricket.. another spinners paradise.. nothing will be done as between India and the Australians cricket is run by one small group of people. Pah!

 

During my employment at a big rocket factory in St Evenage a lot of money was spent develiping a "hybrids" facility. It was all state of the art then.

 

Time to.. finish my mugatea,  beat Thursday into submission  and host a zoom meeting about a model of Wentworth Junction later today.

 

Stay safe!

Positive thoughts to all ERs!

Baz

[iL Dottore]

Morning all,

Sorry I haven’t been around lately, but I collapsed at my desk with a severe attack of GAS* and was rushed to the company’s medical centre. Things were looking grim, then they called in a DoB** specialist who prescribed me this:

A few bars and licks later I was discharged without sequalae.

A full recovery is expected.

Expect commentary on posts later today

iD

* GAS = Gear Acquisition Syndrome

** DoB = Doctor of Blues

[polybear]

8 hours ago, Erichill16 said:

Then watched interesting tv program on Chernobyl.

Goodnight,

Robert

 

Bear saw that too, though hid behind a cushion at the exploits of certain individuals standing on the tops of very high structures.  Nuts.  Not sure it's a place I'd want to go to - if "The Big C" were to arrive some years later I'd be wondering if it was due to that visit.  Not sure how much confidence I'd have in those dust masks being used, nor the Radiation Monitors (when were they last calibrated?).  Bear cringed when the presenter mentioned that boots were to be left outside the hotel room door as they would no doubt be contaminated with radioactive dust; too late, matey - you've just walked into the room, sat on the bed, taken your boots off and then put them outside....

 

7 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

It all depends on what you think is a catastrophes.

 

No cake.

 

6 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

The episodes are reminiscent of the last chip panic, in the late 1980's, when a 4MB upgrade might cost $2,500 and it was not uncommon for companies to remove memory chips from inactive machines and lock them in a safe.

 

Bear recalls going to work one day in the early 1990's to be confronted by numerous (15+) p.c's with lids removed - someone had helped themselves to the memory chips apparently.  This was in a place where such things shouldn't have been possible....  I never heard any reports of guilty parties being identified.

 

Bear has an appointment with a paint brush and door frame, then some paint stripper and copper pipework, and then some walls and primer-sealer.  Must get little furry ar5e into gear - tiler's due in 11 days....

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, Inner Temple hare,

5 hours, long awake 1.5  hours , 45 minutes,  rush around to the amusement of Ben as I was now late..

 

Ben the reluctant Collie decided to add to the delay by having a very slow snuffle round the garden, at one point he suddenly stood bolt up right and started looking around ignoring my calls to him..

 

We've had a large amount of precipitation overnight as my forepaws tell me, normally they get better after a plunge in the hot sink of water, but today they got increasingly worse especially as I drove to work.. Various other joints have decided to join in. My forepaws were very very cold when I got to work even though I was wearing gloves in the car with the heater on.. So I've just taken some pink pills, now, is this the weather?, Is this a hangover from the weekends work? or is it a delayed reaction to the jab a week ago? I don't know.. 

 

At work the asbestos strippers have finished the main area, they just have some side rooms to do.. So a lot of the partitions have been removed..  Next week the new ceiling should get put in after some cable trays.

 

So... The carpet baggers have arrived , all putting in claims, to land grab areas.. Luckily for the desk area of Calibration we are being left out of this, because our area is too small for anyone else. The current proposal puts design  engineering in the middle of the noisy production area with 1/3 less space than they had. It would require a major rewiring for IT, as there currently isn't the amount of fast intranet required for the design teams in the other building.. (We are two large buildings joined by the T bar in the middle). Engineering are not happy..

 

I'm just finishing this weeks second major system, another hour or so And I'll know whether it's OK.

 

Time to sit and wait, hands tucked into my armpits to warm them up..

[Andrew P]

45 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Morning all,

Sorry I haven’t been around lately, but I collapsed at my desk with a severe attack of GAS* and was rushed to the company’s medical centre. Things were looking grim, then they called in a DoB** specialist who prescribed me this:

A few bars and licks later I was discharged without sequalae.

A full recovery is expected.

Expect commentary on posts later today

iD

* GAS = Gear Acquisition Syndrome

** DoB = Doctor of Blues

OOOooooooo Nice bit of Butterscotch, I approve.

[Andrew P]

Well half an hour into being awake, and although a bit gloomy outside, all is fine inside.

 

A great day yesterday doing some more Videoing on my M.... R.......... L....  which I will only talk about on my M.........ing Thread so as NOT to upset the Awl injector.

 

Life is good and no complaints from me.

 

Have a good day one and all, stay safe and keep well.

[New Haven Neil]

Morning, dull and grey again, both sides of the great divide, and 5c outside of it.

 

Pfizering is reduced to the sore joints, arm now OK - like Q, forepaws are in some distress but in my case the warm soak has helped.

 

Computer talk of course leads me to dust off the photo of the Ferranti Pegasus we had at school, and bad memories of trying to write Basic on 5 hole tape.  The pen slips off.....

 

There are probably still bits of this in my electronics bits box, diodes and stuff, it had a lot of thermionic valves too, old fashioned pull of out boards with three on the end of each.  It was dismantled IIRC in my second year at the grammar skool, the local electricity board sighed with relief probably.  The lad with the quiff was a couple of years ahead of me, I think he's a railway modeller still!

 

I too watched the Ben (Fogle not Collie) in Chernobyl prog (from behind the sofa) , and agree soundly with Poly that I was shouting at the TV about the boots he had just walked across the floor in!  No idea....and Russian dosimeters...no ta, I'll take my own.  I read the book about the disaster recently, incredible reading, and wild horses would not get me anywhere near that place.  Some very brave folk though, not that some had a choice, but many were fatalistic and went back in again and again when not required to as they thought they were booked anyway.  they were, mostly of course, but odd ones lived, and they still don't know why.

 

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from a damp and grey Sidcup.

 

The budget was pretty much as predicted, although the rise in the rate of corporation tax was a bit of a surprise.

 

My experience of computer programming is limited to a little bit of basic when doing an O level in Computer Studies during lower 6th.

 

I think we mainly did the following:

 

10 LPRINT Rude message

20 GOTO 10

 

Early work years were the transition from having 3 computers for the department of 40 odd, all kept in a separate room, at least one of which got too much info on its tape drive, which then had to be extracted by tape, to everyone having a computer on their desk, and a national internal e-mail system, all within 3 1/2 years. The next employer was just switching to windows from Novell green screen type stuff, and here we are fast forwarded another 30 years and we have multiple devices all connected to the internet. Who'd've thought that the phone could do all this stuff 30 years ago?

[jonny777]

Another dull and grey morning in North Somerset. A couple of parcels arrived yesterday, containing summer bulbs, but the showery nature of the day kept me inside. 

 

Even after 6 weeks of wood pigeon plastic spikes around bird food, one idiot bird is still trying its luck thinking something might have changed overnight and the food suddenly is reachable. Every time it is frustrated and then goes and sits on the hanging feeder pole which discourages smaller birds. 

 

Is there any wonder that wood pigeon is now top of the BTO garden bird list, as the one reported in the most number of gardens? 

Edited March 4, 2021 by jonny777

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Overcast with showers here so far. Fortunately I am not going anywhere. My toothache needed something slightly stronger than paracetamol last night but it isn’t too bad this morning, perhaps the antibiotics are working already. 

I will be in charge of receiving the shopping delivery today. Aditi will be attending via Zoom a post-funeral prayer for her Aunt who died earlier this week. The cremation happened the next day. 

Tony
 

[Joseph_Pestell]

1 minute ago, Tony_S said:

Morning all.

Overcast with showers here so far. Fortunately I am not going anywhere. My toothache needed something slightly stronger than paracetamol last night but it isn’t too bad this morning, perhaps the antibiotics are working already. 

I will be in charge of receiving the shopping delivery today. Aditi will be attending via Zoom a post-funeral prayer for her Aunt who died earlier this week. The cremation happened the next day. 

Tony
 

Zoom has been a great help during the pandemic. My ex-wife's 50th yesterday. A friend arranged an online cocktail party on Zoom.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Stiff joints this morning but they soon unstuck and Arthur Itis was only present in his usual haunts. A brace of paracetamol soon put him in his place. I've only had the stiff joints since I had the jab, I wonder if there's a connection? 

1 hour ago, polybear said:

Bear recalls going to work one day in the early 1990's to be confronted by numerous (15+) p.c's with lids removed - someone had helped themselves to the memory chips apparently.  This was in a place where such things shouldn't have been possible....  I never heard any reports of guilty parties being identified.

 

About the same time we were having a new server installed at work. Then one night the place was raided, three members of staff were tied up and the server stolen. We never heard of any outcome, there were no arrests. The suspicion was that it was an inside job. 

[simontaylor484]

I also watched Ben Fogle in Chernobyl. Very interesting some nutters though especially those who broke in to the hospital basement which was full of highly radioactive firefighters equipment.

Like Bear i also wondered about his boots .

[Erichill16]

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 

 

A few bars and licks later....

 

 

Of what?
Fruit and nut?