Early Risers.

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[AndyID]

7 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

 I was thinking a good lappy would allow her to work at the desk and/or her comfy chair. 

 

Most laptops can connect to a "proper" keyboard and even a good size monitor so you can use it as a desktop replacement. But unless you really, really need the portability of a laptop I'd suggest you just get a big roomy not-top-of-the-line desktop with reasonable performance and a decent amount of memory.

 

The reason I recommend that is reliability. Laptops have everything crammed into them and it's difficult to keep the innards cool. Desktops are much simpler and tend to last a lot longer. Not only that, but unless they are really expensive, laptops are too heavy to keep on your lap for a long time. They really have to be sitting on a desk or table which means they are really desktops with tiny screens and keyboards 😀

 

[AndyID]

There's a moose loose aboot this hoose. It wandered past our house but seems to have moved on. This was a cow moose and it appeared to be pregnant. The prints in the snow are just like those of a deer except that they are about the same size as a pony's. We are being cautious while walking the dog.

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from a windy Charente .  No beans were involved though.  We did have a good meal out in Aulnay.  Today may well be market day unless it's raining hard.  Notva lot else to mention as yet but breakfast is needed.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

Edited January 8, 2023 by jamie92208

[polybear]

8 hours ago, PupCam said:

 

Bananas I believe are a good anti-cramp food.   Something to do with high levels of potassium.

 

Bear scoffs nana's - every day usually, unless I run out for a day or so.

 

8 hours ago, PupCam said:

So, now you can practice being a large hairy primate, scoffing bunches of the things.   Don't go climbing up trees though! 

 

 

A Polar Monkey......could make the stair refurb a bit easier......

 

7 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Mate, it's probably a bit  too late now  but why not  just bridge the old router to the new through an ethernet port?

That way all your internal WiFi stuff stays connected unmolested to the old router and  your external internet comes through the new.

Disable the wifi on the new router or use it for a backup/load sharing or  for say  just the telly, laptop and phone.

That's how I do it,  10 minutes work - saves a heap of time and messing around whenever the provider upgrades the router. 

 

But on the other hand think of all the cool  stuff you've learned ( or is it learnt?)

 

Hang on Chimpy - Bear'll just refer this to his I.T. Specialist @PupCam for translation ('specially the "bridge the old Router to the new" bit...

 

PUPPEEEEERZ...............📢

 

7 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Evening all from Estuary-Land. I quite often get cramp though I can often get rid of it by massaging the muscle affected. If I feel a cramp coming on I stop and then reverse the movement and this often stops the cramp.

 

Beary cramp seems to go from zero to Warp 10 in around a nanosecond - no warning, sadly.

 

5 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

Most laptops can connect to a "proper" keyboard and even a good size monitor so you can use it as a desktop replacement. But unless you really, really need the portability of a laptop I'd suggest you just get a big roomy not-top-of-the-line desktop with reasonable performance and a decent amount of memory.

 

The reason I recommend that is reliability. Laptops have everything crammed into them and it's difficult to keep the innards cool. Desktops are much simpler and tend to last a lot longer. Not only that, but unless they are really expensive, laptops are too heavy to keep on your lap for a long time. They really have to be sitting on a desk or table which means they are really desktops with tiny screens and keyboards 😀

 

 

Bear'll add that Desktops are a lot easier to upgrade & fix as well; Laptops need diddly squat space and they're a lot easier to store away (or hide/lock away if you're going on Hols).

 

@New Haven Neil The Which Magazine No.3 Best Buy is an Acer Nitro 50 N50-620 (around £700 with no monitor or keyboard); the No.1 & 2 slots go to those Mac thingies at HOWFUGGIN'MUCH?? prices.

A Dell Inspiron 3910 gets the No. 5 spot (with Monitor(??) and cheapo keyboard & mouse) at £629.  Fire me a PM (with LDC & Donk attached) if you like any further info.....

 

Bear here.......

 

YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.................

No Cramp last night.  Very Big Tick.

 

Today sees Bear giving the Beary Lounge a hoover n' dust.  Deep joy.  After that I may get reckless and lose the radiator in the hall as well; I need to make some small changes to the rad. pipework after that - but that'll mean draining the system first and then bvggerin' about re-fillin' n' bleedin' it again afterwards, and I just can't be ar5ed with that today.

 

In other news......

Bear sees that gun crime in the U.S. has descended even further in recent days.  Not good.

 

Bear gone.

[iL Dottore]

Interesting comments about cruises.
 

The last cruise I was on was on my honeymoon when we took a Nile Cruise. By modern cruise ship standards it was tiny - about 250 passengers: enough passengers to keep things interesting, but few enough to avoid the whole “holiday camp at sea” feel.

 

The food was pretty good and became even better after I became friendly with the Egyptian Chef - so whilst everyone else was having a boring Spaghetti Napolitaine for lunch, we were having local specialties like pigeon or lamb with okra…

 

One other trick we picked up was to wait for the tour group of passengers from our ship to move off en masse, a few minutes later we’d follow and have the pleasure of seeing the same sights - minus the crowds (tour groups would go through a site - like a temple - in a large block, pretty much like a mouse going down thee gullet of a Boa Constrictor).

We quite liked Egypt and visited it a number of times before 9/11.

[jjb1970]

It was a stinking hot morning here, brutal. People might imagine that's the norm here, but while it's never cold here the norm is warm and humid more than brutal heat. If it wasn't for the humidity the temperature range here is really very pleasant, but there are days when it feels like being in Kuwait. Went to Joo Koon where the local equivalent of Tesco has a big warehouse shop which offers bargains they don't offer in their regular supermarkets to stock up on a few staples and frozen stuff. The Tesco reference is funny because until last year they sold Tesco products and the British aisle was mostly Tesco stuff. However, in an act of perfidy which will live in infamy they switched allegiance to Morrisons.

Joo Koon is not the Western terminus of the MRT East-West line, that is Tuas Link, close to one of the bridges across the Strait of Johor to Malaysia, but something like two out of three trains terminate at Joo Koon. Tuas is Singapore's equivalent of Siberia, it's where they're building a vast new megaport on reclaimed land, but the port is nowhere near Tuas MRT. Joo Koon is a good example of public transport here, there's a big bus interchange under the MRT station and it acts as an integrated hub. The bus interchanges are old fashioned bus stations with proper gates and facilities. I used to be a petrol head and still quite like cars but I have to say I am really not missing having a car and like using the MRT and buses. If we do a big shop grab rides are cheap.

[jjb1970]

On monkeys, there are loads of macaques here, they look cute but can be aggressive. The problem is people, they associate people with food and if they don't get it they can turn aggressive. That's why there are rather Draconian penalties for feeding macaques. When you go walking in the water catchment areas, nature trails and some of the parks there are macaques all over the place. As long as you don't have any carrier bags or food they are fine, but if they see bags or food they can go for them. A lot of security guards and police in areas with a lot of macaques carry tasers in case they attack people.

I must admit I never realized just what a menagerie Singapore is, it terms with wildlife. As well as macaques there are monitor lizards, iguanas, crocodiles, pythons, cobras, squirrels, otters, wild boars, bats as well as smaller stuff like gekkos, mice, rats etc.

[PeterBB]

12 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

This is an HP Pavilion lappy, had it a few years....5-6?.... now with no issues - the previous Dell did expire in traditional DCC stylee as the motherborat exploded with a cartoon foomf.  The tower PC is also a Dell I think, it is OK but at 12 years old has difficulty with several newer programmes and especially the Canon printer software.  I really want an SSD drive too.  Its looking like a new tower, as Mrs NHN isn't showing much interest in a lappy despite oft complaining about her tablet not being good enough.  Can't win.

Often thought of laptop but ultimately stay with desktop, just cannot abide the 'tiny screens' and generally ,apart from those whose work makes them necessary, its easier to have a speific space.

 

What i cannot get around are those who work with mobile telephones - you see a page, need to go back and forward to work through pages and pages each time - big screens and multiple windows, if needed, are much easier to go back and forth.

 

The main problem I see these days is that the actual computer hard drives do not have enough storage and want you to use 'cloud' for everything - OK I suppose provided that you have permanent internet access  but otherwise absolutely useless.  So, use cloud but prefer to keep what I really do not want to lose on  the hard drive.

Edited January 8, 2023 by PeterBB
Storage moan

[PeterBB]

10 hours ago, polybear said:

Bearplayer "Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhh" - Episodes 1 - 4

 

In other news.......

@New Haven Neil Take it from this Bear - forget bluddy computers .....save yourself a heap of pain (and a load of Deltics) and buy yourself a Typewriter and an Abacus instead.  Ask Bear how he knows.......

 

 

Nice to hear about typewriters - had one for my 21st  and still have it.  Loved the cubic close-packed typeface but have never been able to find that again on any computer or laptop since.  Many happy hours were spent on it over the years and its now approaching its 60th anniversary.

[Gwiwer]

50 minutes ago, PeterBB said:

The main problem I see these days is that the actual computer hard drives do not have enough storage and want you to use 'cloud' for everything

I use plug-in external drives. 6TB available without a cloud in sight. 

[grandadbob]

Good morning all

Dry now after plenty of rain overnight and we have some blue sky.  Bright spells, blustery showers possibly heavy along with the chance of some thunder forecast for later.  According to my phone app rain will start in 17 minutes.  Now 6°C, might reach 9°C.

Breakfast has been offered so that's the first item on today's agenda.  After that I know not apart from a rugby match to watch this afternoon.

Have a good 'un.

Bob.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. I overbalanced in my bedroom this morning and ended up in a heap between my bed and a wall. Fortunately there was no injuries but I couldn't get up off of the floor. It was no use using the bed to lever myself up as its on (very free running) castors and it just rolled away. So I had to crawl across to the wardrobe and with my back against the wardrobe push myself up with the aid of a stool.

[New Haven Neil]

Morning, from a breezy cool rock, 7c.

 

Tony, I meant an SSD as opposed to...is it emmc or something? Regardless we have decided to get a new PC as opposed to a lappy, it doesn't need to be anything clever as we don't game or use sophisticaked programmes. Just something that isn't on Win7 would help......  We don't need anything with a monitor, as the current craze for ever larger ones means any won't fit into our cupboard thing it lives in.   I also have a 1TB and 2TB external drives, amusingly the newer 2TB is a quarter of the size of the slightly older 1TB. I won't use the 'cloud' for anything whatsoever, I have seen a large certain Government department here get into terrible issues with that, never mind RMWeb disasters.

 

Bears advice noted thanks, suppliers here will ultimately decide what we get, buying expensive complimocated things like that off-island turns to longtail sh!t if there are any issues, so we always buy on-world.  I'll chat to one independent that I have faith in, if that fails there's always Currys but that is a last resort, the staff there were incredibly unhelpful when we recently had to buy there - Bernie the Bosch vacuum.

[Coombe Barton]

2 hours ago, PeterBB said:

I see these days is that the actual computer hard drives do not have enough storage and want you to use 'cloud' for everything - OK I suppose provided that you have permanent internet access  but otherwise absolutely useless

Having been in IT Ince the 1970s I refuse to use cloud services. My current Mac has a 1TB internal SSD and I have at least 20TB of backup disk space. I also have 1/2TB memory sticks. Quite as PeterBB says, if you disconnect you can't get to it, and if your subscription runs out or the hosting company goes bust you're stuffed. It may cost me more and take more time, but it's a darned sight more secure for me.

 

I have also gone laptop only - which means that I can take it anywhere without hassle. If I had a fixed machine in a dedicated 'space' I couldn't work from the sofa.

 

 

Edited January 8, 2023 by Coombe Barton
Addition

[Gwiwer]

Good morning all

 

A good morning thus far Upon the Hill of Strawberries as Dr. SWMBO had last night threatened to take me out for breakfast and this morning duly carried out her threat. 
 

She has, of late, been taking early-morning dips in Hampton Pool and stopping for coffee (with or without breakfast or cake) on the way home. She has therefore gained an insight into the offerings of the well-regarded neighbouring suburb of Hampton Hill. 
 

I was therefore introduced to The Friends’ House - not specifically linked to any religious society although I suspect they may be - which provided a very ample meal and good coffees in a relaxed setting. Not too busy either although it had started to fill with young families by the time we left. 
 

This isn’t called a “Full English” breakast on their menu - it’s “Good Old Brekky”.   And very good itvwas too, though not old!  
 

 

[Coombe Barton]

... Should we not make mask wearing national policy again? ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2023/01/08/the-china-new-year-effect-and-variant-xbb-1-5-forecast-for-february/

[BSW01]

Good afternoon everyone 

 

Late on parade today due to having a bit of a lie in and breakfast in bed. As the precipitation prevents outside work today, I headed to the cellar. During a lull in the rain, I went to the workshop and retrieved mub1/2 scale signal arm so I could continue painting it inside. So far this morning I've given it 2 coats of red, hopefully after dinner I'll get the black paint on. When it's finished I'll take a photo and post it on here. 

 

Back later. 

 

Brian 

[DaveF]

 

This morning dawned dull.  The only item of note so far is a text from the surgery reminding me of my telephone appointment with a GP tomorrow morning at 10.00.  That's fine, except I haven't made an appointment.  I think that the test results have come back and need to be discussed.  I could let myself get worried but:

1. I know from previous experience that the surgery is very good at following up on test results.

2.  I know there is a problem, it needs sorting out.

 

Now for yesterday.

As usual on Saturday mornings I looked at some old photos on my TV, this time some of my earliest colour railway photos from 1969 to 1974.

 

Then I had a good think about the house.  I decided that by the end of the year I don't want anything in the loft except empty model boxes as the time may come when I can't get up there easily.  So there will be a big but slow clear out, probably starting with a lot of old paperwork and electrical bits along with useless model making materials. I'll start with the spare room/office to make space for things from the loft I want to keep.  Some books will also go - I managed to put one out yesterday.

 

I think the shredder will be busy but a lot of papers can simply be binned as they don't have anything on them which needs to be confidential.

 

David

Edited January 8, 2023 by DaveF

[Gwiwer]

Some hospital trusts are again requiring masks to be worn. Our GP surgery has not lifted that restriction. Should we not make mask wearing national policy again?

 

Opinion (others may be available): I recently had a GP consultation and walked in wearing a mask largely out of courtesy. On my record is a medical condition which has always exempted me from mandatory wearing of such things and it was for this condition that I was there. 
 

A slightly surprised GP asked me if I would like him to also wear a mask. He assured me that there was no longer a medical need for such precautions. 
 

At my subsequent hospital visit there was no requirement to mask up. Around half of the staff and perhaps one in a hundred patients were so adorned. On that occasion I followed their lead and did not wear one, though did wear my “sunflower” exemption lanyard and badge. 
 

I have worked face to face with tens of thousands of people through every day of the pandemic, have tested frequently and continue to do so weekly, and have yet to record a positive test.  During the mandatory months I wore a low-level clear plastic “mouth guard” which also covered the lower part of my nose; this did not meet the government’s intended close-fitting requirements but afforded a level of protection to others from me whilst allowing me to breathe freely and carry out my safety-critical duties effectively. 
 

Everyone’s experience of the past two years will have been unique. Along with us both at work and at home some have lost family and friends either directly to or passing with the virus. 
 

My opinion - which I stress comes without medical background - is that we should be left free to choose how we respond based upon being provided with the currently-available information. Most of us have had the virus by now and most of us have had all (or at least most) of the vaccinations offered. We therefore are far better protected against its future iterations than we once were. No form of protection will ever offer 100% immunity; just as with all the common illnesses in circulation some will sadly succumb to it. 
 

We are almost all responsible and informed adults or children under the guidance and care of those adults. 
 

Give us the information and the options and let us decide. 

[Rugd1022]

Mention of monkeys earlier reminds of this photo of my parents on their honeymoon in London's West End in November '64 (they couldn't afford Neasden!), a timely one too as it's thirty years ago today since my Mum died...

 

 

Where does all the time go...?!!!

 

 

[jjb1970]

On masks, we still have to wear masks on public transport and in medical facilities here (and the rules are enforced). Most people still wear masks when indoors in general. There is also still a lot of use of hand sanitizer (which I suspect is more effective than masks). I am in two minds about it. On the one hand if it offers some risk mitigation then it's an easy and cheap risk control measure (even in the heat and humidity here I don't find masks a great problem). The counter argument is that if any risk mitigation is minimal then it might give people a false sense of safety and I think it can lead to a sense of anxiety over things. I'm quite relaxed about most things but it was clear when I visited Washington DC and London last year just how I've now been conditioned by Singapore as I felt slightly uncomfortable at the almost complete lack of any precautions.

[Gwiwer]

1 minute ago, jjb1970 said:

Most people still wear masks when indoors in general.

It has long been the culture in some parts of the world - Japan, China and I belive Singapore among them - to routinely wear face coverings outside the home when suffering from any illness. It is respectful probably more than it is is effective. 
 

When you grow up, move into, live or work in that culture it is the norm. For most of the rest of us it was something very different. As was and is the culture of covering-up. 
 

This is not a place to discuss politics but the sudden backflip in “advice” (carefully worded to make it sound mandatory) regarding mask-wearing has not been forgotten here. 

[polybear]

6 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

We quite liked Egypt and visited it a number of times before 9/11.

 

A Buddy at work +SWMBO actually sold their house pre - 9/11 to fund a mega "tour" of much of the middle east, as a part of an arranged group with a company that specialised in such things; it was a real "rough it" jobbie, visiting many countries over something like a year or so.

He actually re-joined the Great Empire afterwards (having separated from SWMBO.....) and some years later said that many of the countries they visited were now off limits thanks to 9/11 and other such problems.

 

5 hours ago, PeterBB said:

The main problem I see these days is that the actual computer hard drives do not have enough storage and want you to use 'cloud' for everything - OK I suppose provided that you have permanent internet access  but otherwise absolutely useless.  So, use cloud but prefer to keep what I really do not want to lose on  the hard drive.

 

I'll not use Cloud full stop - I just don't trust them, not only for loss but primarily for security and privacy.

 

39 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

It has long been the culture in some parts of the world - Japan, China and I belive Singapore among them - to routinely wear face coverings outside the home when suffering from any illness. It is respectful probably more than it is is effective. 

 

Masks are widely worn in S. Korea as well - many wear them as they are worried about pollution; we were working close to Changwon (in the very south of the country) and even on the clearest of days with bright blue sky do many wear them.

[iL Dottore]

54 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

but the sudden backflip in “advice” (carefully worded to make it sound mandatory) regarding mask-wearing has not been forgotten here. 

Setting aside the incompetence of the political classes in dealing with the pandemic, one reason for the hesitation in the UK about issuing mask wearing advice was the very real fear that people would panic and run out and buy up all the available stocks of masks, thus depriving, medical and paramedical professionals of the protection, they desperately needed.

If this sounds like hyperbole, then let me remind you about recent panics over supposed “petrol shortages“ and of the mass buying of food stocks during the pandemic much of which have ended up in a landfill.

 

The media, across the political spectrum, has a lot to answer for in this regards. I don’t think it is too far fetched of me to claim that with a dozen or so of  suitable newspaper articles in both broadheets and tabloids, some suitably “grave and concerned” TV interview you could create panic buying of Hornby models. Plus (if you can get one), an interview with Simon Koehler, denying that there is a shortage of Hornby models would have the general public stampeding to their local model railway shops.

Edited January 8, 2023 by iL Dottore