Early Risers.

[woodenhead]

28 minutes ago, DaveF said:

When was Lego first produced?  Am I deprived never having had any?  When people mention having had Lego when they were young it makes me feel old.

 

 

And in the 1960s Lego offered a serious professional version for architects to 3d build their designs - it worked well with the brutalist style then favoured but then they went back to more flowing design again and it lost it's ground.

 

Lego also got into signage - for airports, shops etc with an inspired buildable system - still going today under a different name.

 

Lego is not just a toy, how utterly brilliant it was/is.

 

However, look at this kit/toy:

 

[Hroth]

@iL Dottore Liked your pics from the museum, the huge square fossil slab looked most attractive!  As for the evolutionary dioramas, perhaps it was wise to omit the earliest one, though even in the one you did show, the child appeared to be unclothed.  In the context of an ethno-scientific portrayal of the development of mankind, I would wonder why anyone would get wound up about such a scene, after all, we're all naked underneath our clothes...

 

[tigerburnie]

Morning, I have eaten tasty burgers, flame grilled ones in the past, as a student lunch was always in the WIMPY bar in Leicester, after the CJD scare, we stopped eating minced beef, indeed all minced meats, so I have lost the desire to eat them and as Montrose has no fast food shops, we are limited for choice. Much prefer a "fish supper" of freshly cooked Haddock if I'm after a take away.

[grandadbob]

Mornin', again.

Sainsbury's visited and discounts enjoyed however these were somewhat negated by the impulse buys which is of course the reason they give you in-store only money off vouchers.  We did buy a lemon drizzle loaf cake.  Loaf? Pah!  I doubt it would make a mouthful for a hungry bear.

Temp now 25°C and it will get hotter.

12 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

A neighbour's bungalow same as ours but with a tiny garden is for sale (ours is a modern tiny 2 bed semi bungalow, big-ish garden) and no, er garage or shed, is exactly the same price - relative to neighbouring northern England house prices here are expensive.  Not compared to the south of England though - jeepers.   A pal from Kent is coming here next week house-hunting, budget around a £mil. Eeek.

 

Modest 3 bed semis like ours around here currently going for £590K to £625K.  Friend over the road has just put his 4 bed semi with loft extension up for offers over £675K ( he's just turned down the first offer of £668K) and there are similar on the market up to £750K.

 

Time for a coffee and I will then amble down to The Shed to check the temperature in there.  I may even do some work.

Edited June 15, 2023 by grandadbob

[polybear]

....and I've just been told it's only for the Leccy Meter, not the Gas Meter 🤬

FFS

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Feeling a lot better today, and finding its not necessary to make a dash for the loo every five minutes helps. Will not be doing a lot today, still not feeling 100%. 

[Coombe Barton]

1 hour ago, DaveF said:

When people mention having had Lego when they were young it makes me feel old

And me.

[tigerburnie]

I had a Meccano and a Triang trainset, don't think lego was around when I was a nipper, my kids and grandkids had duplo and lego, but never really got  me.

[woodenhead]

1 hour ago, tigerburnie said:

Morning, I have eaten tasty burgers, flame grilled ones in the past, as a student lunch was always in the WIMPY bar in Leicester, after the CJD scare, we stopped eating minced beef, indeed all minced meats, so I have lost the desire to eat them and as Montrose has no fast food shops, we are limited for choice. Much prefer a "fish supper" of freshly cooked Haddock if I'm after a take away.

A Wimpy!

 

That pre-dates the big M somewhat.

 

Last Wimpy I had was at a Motorway service station - never again, absolute trash.

[woodenhead]

25 minutes ago, tigerburnie said:

I had a Meccano and a Triang trainset, don't think lego was around when I was a nipper, my kids and grandkids had duplo and lego, but never really got  me.

I had Lego and Meccano - the Lego would be used for destructable forts for my Airfix soldiers - many a great battle held on the coffee table in the front room.

 

WIth Meccano I can remember building a transporter bridge - the one where the deck moves from one side to the other - great fun.  I should have become an engineer but I ended up in a bank.

Edited June 15, 2023 by woodenhead
Spelling

[polybear]

12 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

With Meccano I can remember building a transporter bridge - the one where the deck moves from one side to the other - great fun.  I should have become an engineer but I ended up in a bank.

 

Bear made a special visit to see the Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge with Ricky the Rover - sadly the Bridge is no longer there cos' Jimmy Nail & Pals took it to bits and flogged it to the USA.........

[woodenhead]

3 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Bear made a special visit to see the Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge with Ricky the Rover - sadly the Bridge is no longer there cos' Jimmy Nail & Pals took it to bits and flogged it to the USA.........

There is another one - just behind Warrington Bank Quay station, no-one's nicked that one yet.

[BSW01]

I also had meccano when I was little, never had Lego but I did have Betta Builda instead. I preferred the meccano and I did go into engineering, albeit electrical. 

[Hroth]

2 hours ago, DaveF said:

Congratulations Gwiwer, the cottage looks really good.

 

When I was small I started with Brickplayer and Bayko before moving on to Meccano.

 

When was Lego first produced?  Am I deprived never having had any?  When people mention having had Lego when they were young it makes me feel old.

 

This morning started foggy with the foghorn sounding, now the sun has put in an appearance and it feels very pleasant.  I wonder what today will hold - I know what I would like to do but will it happaen?

 

David

 

I was on the cusp between the older and newer constructional toys. I had both Brickplayer and Bayko, both O scale in appearance and went well with my uncles tin train set. I then moved on to Meccano and Lego, before a Triang train set intruded one Christmas morning. I've managed to retain scraps of them all, Bayko and Meccano the least, a full Brickplayer set and a couple of large biscuit boxes of Lego.

[polybear]

Beary Piggin' Rant #1.....

 

The Leccy Meter is - still bvggered 🤬.  Mr EDF pronounced it so and proceeded to swap it for a new one - only to discover that whoever the last Tw@t was must've superglued the main fuse in so it can't be removed; he's understandably less than keen on working on a live system with lotsalotsa amps so he's flagged it as a priority fix for someone else to sort.  Turdycurses.

 

Beary Piggin' Rant #2.......

Whilst Mr EDF was trying (and failing) I thought I'd sort some paperwork....

....only to discover the Twenty Quid Halfords Gift Code that Confused.Com gave me for buying their Car Insurance.  The Code expired at the start of May - I tried using it but it won't play, and a call to Halfords proved to be a waste of time too.  Rattin' Piggin' Fuggin' Turdycurses 🤬🤬

 

Pizza & Curly Fries for din dins I think - Bear needs a "fix"

 

BG

[Pacific231G]

15 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

     
    19 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

    when I first visited North America I was surprised to find that such restaurants were almost unknown there though and burgers were very much fast food.

Plenty of "gourmet" burger places in the US.

 

By nature, hamburgers are a 'short order' item. They usually fit in what is usually defined as "fast casual" (often with table service and a bar) rather than "fast food" but it's a blurry distinction for chains like 'Shake shack' or less ubiquitous, higher cachet/cult following 'fast food' like 'In-N-Out' and 'Five Guys'.

We have "Five Guys" etc. here as well now but, when I first visited the US in 1971, and travelled round much of the country,  burgers were mostly the likes of McD and Burger King. I don't remember seeing any "gourmet" burger places there and the other major chains were KFC and Dunkin Donuts. By contrast, the "American Hamburger" restaurants I remember in Britain (mostly London and Brighton) in the early 1970s were far more sit down for an hour or two for dinner type restaurants (so not fast food) where you might well have a bottle of wine with the meal and were individual rather than chain or franchise. It was more like comparing a more upmarket Pizza restaurant  with a "fast casual" like Pizza Hut. We did have our own fast-food burger joints in the Wimpy chain before that but I can remember Mcdonald's arriving in the mid 1970s-1980s (1st restaurant in 1974, hundredth in Britain in 1983) and they did offer a  different experience from previous British fast food. KFC had arrived here a decade earlier.

[Tony_S]

We are just off to find a caff for a light lunch/afternoon snack. The food at the hotel is great but not snacky. We don’t eat too much at lunchtime. At dinner last night we had duck and just after we had finished a duck arrived and walked near all the tables. No one looked guilty! 
Tony

[Pacific231G]

4 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Regarding the comment made by @jjb1970 concerning tactile field of instrumentation and cabin (but in reference to cars) I remember a discussion, I had with a pilot regarding the instrumentation panels in a brand-new, state of the art, Airbus: although there were touchscreens an awful lot of the instrumentation (whether primary or back up) the controls were push-pull switches, rotary “chicken head“ dials, rocker switches, and the like.

The explanation that was given to me, was that firstly, it is easier to see if something is on or off with a old-fashioned switch or dial than with a touchscreen and secondly, because of the tactile feedback from clicking a switch or turning a dial, the user knows that he or she has actually turned something on (or off).

 

i’ve always wondered how really useful or practical a touch screen. Star Trek command deck controls would be. I can’t think of anyone that I know of who has never, ever done something using a touch screen instrument, and then accidentally erased what they’ve done by an how inadvertent swipe..

 

I don’t think a “real” Starship Enterprise would get much beyond the equivalent of episode two with touch screen controls: all it would take is for the gunnery officer to accidentally wipe the board with his sleeve, as he turns towards the captain to acknowledge an order and “zap“!  Klingons1; Federation Nil. 

A few years ago we had to replace the radio and transponder in our (now no longer flying) light aircraft and we went from physical switches and knobs to LCD screens and multi-function buttons if not touch screens.  The tranponder in particular used to have a knob to switch it from off to standby and on and four octal knobs - one for each digit in the code which you turned to get the relevant digit. It was fairly easy to do this with a series of quick glances while mostly looking outside. For the new one you had to press a button to go to the next number and then press upand down buttons to change that with the number displayed on an LCD display. I actually found it worrying how much more time I spent looking at this display and not looking out of the windows when changing a transponder code.

My car now has a touch screen for the radio and Sat Nav and just pressing the virtual button to tell the latter to ignore each alert is distracting. There are physical buttons to change mode from radio etc to Nav but when you switch to the moving map it requires you to press a virtual button to say that you agree to drive safely before it'll let you see the map. Pressing that button is of course a distraction itself.

 

One of my engineering degree modules was in ergonomics back in the early 1970s and it annoys me  constantly how few designers and engineers still don't seem to have the first idea about user interfaces.

[polybear]

18 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

At dinner last night we had duck and just after we had finished a duck arrived and walked near all the tables. No one looked guilty! 
Tony

 

That was Daisy Duck looking for Donny....

 

[railsquid]

11 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Off to Ueno and hence to the Science & Technology Museum - supposed to be one of the best in the world (which undoubtedly it is).

 

But first to negotiate the labyrinth that is Tokyo Station. As the sages say “if you are not confused, you’re not paying attention”

 

(delurks)

 

Just had the pleasure of meeting iL Dottore on a damp Tokyo evening in the environs of said station.

[TheQ]

InAfternoon Awl,

A very poor nights lack of sleep...

 

Ben the I want out Collie appeared early and was quite insistent. So an early patrol was had. Ben didn't notice baby thumper cross three feet behind him, nor did he notice Bambi wandering around 30 ft in front of him. He's definitely getting old.

 

The last time I was in a Wimpy was in Norwich in the late 70s. It I believe, became a burger king before the building being swallowed up by the huge M&S now on the site. Not seen one in years but this gadget assures me there is one in kings Lynn which is 65 miles away or an hour and a half by car.

 

Two barrow loads of brick removed from the wall, I was just leveling off the top before getting the angle grinder out, when a chunk of Portland fell off the wall without damaging the bricks. It appears it was lime rendered years before the Portland was added, the Portland cement did extend two layers of brick above the lime render, now it doesn't, so now I can chip off the Portland below that quite easily...

 

Further inspection of the well has given me an order of cutting the cap, to give least chance of it falling in.

 

A little work was done on the mobile home, SWMBO noticed bees looking at a gap in the cladding. That's been taped over for now to keep them out.

 

Screwed the legs on a table in SWMBO's art room, don't worry it's not urgent..... Which we all know is code for do it now...

 

 Ben was taken for his long walk, there's a nice cool easterly, the lane rebuilding appears to have been finished, about half a mile has been raised by about a foot. The rest levelled.

 

A can of doom bar has disappeared, a late lunch is on its way no doubt to be followed by an eyelid inspection before a long soak in the bath..

 

 

[iL Dottore]

17 minutes ago, railsquid said:

 

(delurks)

 

Just had the pleasure of meeting iL Dottore on a damp Tokyo evening in the environs of said station.

Indeed, Ian (railsquid) and I had a most enjoyable evening; firstly, eating lots of deep fried goodies with abundant beer at an iIzakaya and then we moved on to some whiskey nightcaps at a very (for want of a better term) “cool” bar.

 

I must, however chide railsquid: he has been hiding a most exquisite Japanese model railway from us. The pictures I perused showed model making of a high standard,,,

God, I love RMWeb  a promotor and facilitator of “chums across the world” based on a love of  model railways, tasty crunchy fried things and abundant alcohol…

[The Lurker]

good to hear about railsquid. I used to like his contributions to ERs, with news of the squidlet. Who is probably about 7 now!

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, Pacific231G said:

constantly how few designers and engineers still don't seem to have the first idea about user interfaces.

Some cars seem to be quite complicated. My neighbour had a Lexus and it seemed to have a lot of buttons. My Evoque isn’t too bad. It does have a large central touchscreen with a small information repeater screen in between the traditional speedometer and revcounter dials. The audio stuff is on the touchscreen but there are also buttons on the steering wheel too. The heater/air con does have rotary knobs but the temp is displayed on the screen as well as  on a display next to the knob. It can be adjusted from their too, not sure why I would want to though. The steering wheel has paddles for gear selection if you wish to override the auto box. I have accidentally selected manual a couple of times but nothing drastic happens and it is easy to cancel. Lights and wipers are on stalks with rotary knobs on the end for various functions. What I haven’t ever used is the voice control option. Trying it on other cars didn’t encourage me to bother. 
Tony

Edited June 15, 2023 by Tony_S

[southern42]

On 13/06/2023 at 17:05, BoD said:

You recycle hamburgers?

 

I would if they were bad (not that I have had any for ages) but they would go in the food bin!