Early Risers.

[jamie92208]

Good afternoon from a Charente  where the snow has almost all gone.  It's still rather cool though.  I was late up today, very rare for me, so didn't get home from the Supermarket  till noon.  I did however find a packet of brandy snaps in the Brit section.  When I got home Beth had made a large batch if biscuits.  Life is so hard,

 

Anyway lunch has been consumed. The brandy snap box is half empty and the maki g of raised beds awzits my attention.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[monkeysarefun]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

Bear gone

So what was the mystery sound?? I've been  sitting here waiting  up til midnight now to find out!

Edited January 24, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[polybear]

2 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

So what was the mystery sound?? I've been  sitting here waiting  up til midnight now to find out!

 

Wot, the 

"EeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekDoinkaDoinkaDoinkaDoinkaSplodgeFuggin'Piggin'Rattin'Turdycurses"

sound??

[Winslow Boy]

3 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

So what was the mystery sound?? I've been  sitting here waiting  up til midnight now to find out!

 

That was Bear getting ready for the Plasterer.

[New Haven Neil]

Friend H came to try to resuscitate my PC - despite deleting heaps of stuff it is still very, er, constipated, and wouldn't defrag itself, so he brought an external program on a memory stick, it's called.....Defraggler. Mmm, I am concerned about my personal safety.

 

It is munching through the constipated hard drive and is now making some progress, the first couple of hours were dire.  It will help a bit but basically we need to shell out on a new PC, which is causing some matrimonial discord.  Odd, as it is you-know-who (whom, Lewis, whom) that uses it, not me.  #sigh#  I wanted to get her a lappy but this is not acceptable, even with a keyboard.  For reasons unknown to common sense. Pah, I think the saying is.

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

.s. And, yes, my friend has children. Career first, family second - it’s a choice 

Perhaps in that case if he is so dedicated he should have perhaps remained single. The days of the single handed GP practice like Aditi’s Dad had are  long gone. Group practices manage their staffing. I, for instance have a named GP but I am quite happy to see any of the others if she isn’t available. 
I do not believe that my brother in law and his wife,(with children at primary school) both GPs in the same practice are any less dedicated than a single or childless man. Raj and Emma manage their work and childcare. If the human race is to continue then someone will be giving birth. I don’t think the ability to be a doctor, lawyer, microbiologist should be used as some sort of “do not give birth” factor in employment.  I am very aware of the arguments your friend makes, I used to mix socially with older male GPs. They made similar comments , it was interesting that their younger friends did not agree.  Even 20 years ago the college principal where I worked was making so called “humorous” remarks about the financial perils of employing fertile women. He soon learned not to. Though he also had a thing (allegedly) about not employing men with beards!

As for your “older women” complaining about younger females. Aditi started her career (only as a lecturer, so I presume a suitable career for a single woman, it was back in Edwardian times anyway). There were plenty of older women making comments. When Aditi eventually became the older person in charge she made a point of being supportive of her staff. 
 

[jjb1970]

Just had a most excellent Korean BBQ dinner with the family, I'm a big believer in eating local so when in Indonesia eat Korean. I love Korean food, it's becoming more common in the UK which is good. Often it seems to be lumped in with Japanese, which would be like lumping Italian and French food together in restaurants because they're next door neighbours and the food is the same. 

 

Heading up into the mountains tomorrow after spending time at the family farm in the ancestral village, the mountains of Java are quite spectacular, proper mountains and the air dries out as you go up so it becomes just pleasantly mild and dry, splendid.

 

 

[PeterBB]

Just a comment - it may or may not come as a surprise but there was a time, and probably still is, when most of the nurses 'on nights' had children.  The husband/partner looked after the children at night and the mothers had the children during the day as well as trying to sleep.  Problem time came when 'the nursing establishment' wanted them to come in when the husband/partner was also on nights and were very unhappy to be refused.  There were a couple of nights that I could relate to but for the time being will not do so but, it was/is still a concern.

Edited January 24, 2023 by PeterBB
corrected typos

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said:

Friend H came to try to resuscitate my PC - despite deleting heaps of stuff it is still very, er, constipated, and wouldn't defrag itself, so he brought an external program on a memory stick, it's called.....Defraggler. Mmm, I am concerned about my personal safety.

 

It is munching through the constipated hard drive and is now making some progress, the first couple of hours were dire.  It will help a bit but basically we need to shell out on a new PC, which is causing some matrimonial discord.  Odd, as it is you-know-who (whom, Lewis, whom) that uses it, not me.  #sigh#  I wanted to get her a lappy but this is not acceptable, even with a keyboard.  For reasons unknown to common sense. Pah, I think the saying is.

How old is this PC and is it Windows10? I can remember defragging frequently. Windows 10 allegedly handles files to minimise fragging. Not something I will be doing on my “big” Windows11  PC, it has two SSD drives where I believe one mustn’t defrag. 
What you are doing should help. Clearing out unused stuff to make space and having a look at all the stuff that auto runs at startup.

As well as the one I have been sorting out for my trains I had to do Aditi’s Windows laptop. It was slow to boot up and really slow sending stuff to print. I did try to point out that at the time Dell had some really good offers but whatever I did was good enough. One thing I found was for a while the laptop wireless  was a bit iffy but now seemsok. Though I have connected it with an Ethernet cable now she no longer takes it out to French meetings. All on Zoom now. She just likes that laptop. 

[Gwiwer]

Afternoon all.  Welcome to a busy Cheeseday Upon the Hill of Strawberries.

 

A perfectly good (and slightly warmer) morning at the House of Fun was marred by the person who - having arrived late on the platform and finding the train doors already locked for departure - took it upon herself to accuse me of letting it go early, of making her late for work, of letting the country down and of being rude and arrogant with it.  She grabbed a photo of my ID (to which she is entitled) and noted some details.  The facts are that the train was dispatched exactly in accordance with procedure and exactly on time.  And, as I mentioned, she herself was not even on the platform at the appointed time.  But she made it nasty for everyone around and managed to drag a couple of unsuspecting others into her argument.  CCTV will prove matters.  She even demanded I obtain the recording there and then which I cannot do.  Though I did point her in the direction of the contact form on the website to make her request and comments.  

 

Late yesterday a large white box was delivered.  It has sat in the hallway until an hour ago.  Its contents have now been transformed from a large white box containing flat-packed bits and the contents now stand proudly in the garden as our new mini-greenhouse.  I also had to remove and dismantle the old one, now rotted beyond use, to fit the new one in.  Then there was all the recycling which seems to go with such purchases, a very insistent cat who saw me outside and demanded to also be out there, the bag of new uniform which was thrust at me as I left work and the normal domestic engineering required to maintain a clean and hygienic Hill of Strawberries.  

 

The uniform wasn't what I had ordered.  I ordered winter items back in November; as they didn't turn up I re-ordered last week with a stiff email from the Duty Manager requiring either goods or explanation (as in "Sorry mate but they're out of stock .....")  Instead of a jumper I got a shirt.  Instead of trousers in my size I got trousers four sizes smaller and with "short" legs.  Anyone who has met me will know I am not at all short by normal human standards.  Instead of a tie I got a gilet - not something I normally wear at all and I already have two.  So it's all going back and this time it will be accompanied by a letter-headed Snottogram.  

 

But first - muggertea.  I may be some time.  

[TheQ]

Afternoon Awl ,

The pair of doors, finished, I don't know what SWMBO will select as a birthday present, it won't be a tin of paint.

 

The rudder had it's top face fibreglassed.

 

The centre console,  part two of modified to fit , and one face of 10 glassfibred.

 

The area of garden raked, dug away a bit more of the hump in the garden, not finished, earth too sticky and the wheel barrow wheels started sinking into the ground .

 

Ben took me for his long walk, a 4X4 but with road tyres had been down there twice, it's diff had run aground a couple of times. Very pleasant, sun quite warm even if the wind wasn't.

 

Two feet of sail sown.

 

Time for an eyelid inspection...

 

[Tony_S]

10 minutes ago, PeterBB said:

Just a comment - it may or may not come as a surprise but there was a time, and probably still is, when ,ost of the nurses 'on nights' had children.  The husband/partner looked after the children at night and the mothers had the children during the day as well as trying to sleep.  Problem time came when 'the nursing establishment' want t.whated them to come in when the husband/partner was also on nights and were very unhappy to be refused.  There were a coouple ofnight tthat I could relate to but for the time being will not do so but, it was/is still a concern.

Aditi’s last job was teaching and managing on a degree course in an East London college. Many of the students were well past their teenage years, often trying to get a qualification to further their career ambitions. Most of the students were local. The department started their lectures not at 9am but slightly later to allow students to leave their children at school and then come to college. They had similar timing for afternoon lectures. However a new vice principal thought they could tweak their room use occupation numbers by starting and finishing on the hours.  Saying it had been done to enable the people they were supposed to be attracting to the courses to attend wasn’t a good answer it seemed. 

[polybear]

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

A perfectly good (and slightly warmer) morning at the House of Fun was marred by the person who - having arrived late on the platform and finding the train doors already locked for departure - took it upon herself to accuse me of letting it go early, of making her late for work, of letting the country down and of being rude and arrogant with it.  She grabbed a photo of my ID (to which she is entitled) and noted some details.  The facts are that the train was dispatched exactly in accordance with procedure and exactly on time.  And, as I mentioned, she herself was not even on the platform at the appointed time.  But she made it nasty for everyone around and managed to drag a couple of unsuspecting others into her argument.  CCTV will prove matters.  She even demanded I obtain the recording there and then which I cannot do.  Though I did point her in the direction of the contact form on the website to make her request and comments.  

 

 

Is there anything in your T's & C's preventing you from strapping Stupid Tw@ts like her lengthwise along the running rail with fencing wire??

Signed,

Bear

(who is perhaps not ideally suited to a customer-facing environment....)

 

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

Aditi’s last job was teaching and managing on a degree course in an East London college. Many of the students were well past their teenage years, often trying to get a qualification to further their career ambitions. Most of the students were local. The department started their lectures not at 9am but slightly later to allow students to leave their children at school and then come to college. They had similar timing for afternoon lectures. However a new vice principal thought they could tweak their room use occupation numbers by starting and finishing on the hours.  Saying it had been done to enable the people they were supposed to be attracting to the courses to attend wasn’t a good answer it seemed. 

 

Bean counter - who hasn't a clue.  Tw@t.

[New Haven Neil]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

How old is this PC and is it Windows10?

 

Ancient - 10+ years, it's Win7 Home Premium.  H has declared it not really worth upgrading as the mother board is older than Father Time or something. Apparently the memory slots are old hat and more not really available easily.  it is running a lot better though, having being defraggled.  It'll do for now but the lack of security updates for Win7 is a concern.

[BR traction instructor]

Disconcerting is becoming a theme for this week. Most of the various B roads around the Solway plain typically have pinch points every mile or so that prevent the large & regular lorries from passing each other, at the very least they have to slow right down in order to safely negotiate such sections and this has a concertina effect, bringing lines of cars etc up behind a lorry/creating a small convoy. On several occasions now I’ve been in such a convoy, either on my bicycle or in the car, when large lorry meets large lorry (unable to pass at that point). Common sense dictates that one of the lorry drivers will need to get out and wave his convoy past in order to set back to a point where the two lorries can pass but no, on each occasion I’ve witnessed the truck driver immediately put his truck in reverse and actually move towards the cars right behind. Inevitably, the car driver behind the truck has to jam his hand on the car horn to remind the lorry driver that he is there. The truck driver then gets out and tries to tell the vehicles behind that they all have to reverse. The amount of unnecessary chaos, tension & delay is farcical.

 

On a brighter note, approaching 60 it still takes less time to set up the desk for fine detail modelling, than to actually carry out the modelling but the gap is closing.

 

BeRTIe

Edited January 24, 2023 by BR traction instructor

[PupCam]

Indiana Puppers is already for some comet hunting.   Venus (and Jupiter) are already out and playing.

 

 

Cue the clouds …….

[Tony_S]

41 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

It'll do for now but the lack of security updates for Win7 is a concern.

Have you suggested to Mrs NHN that the PC is fine as long as you don’t connect it to the internet? 

[iL Dottore]

46 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

Ancient - 10+ years, it's Win7 Home Premium.  H has declared it not really worth upgrading as the mother board is older than Father Time or something. Apparently the memory slots are old hat and more not really available easily.  it is running a lot better though, having being defraggled.  It'll do for now but the lack of security updates for Win7 is a concern.

Have you considered moving to Linux? I have an extremely ancient tower PC which is over 15 years old (so positively antediluvian by computer standards). A Linux savvy friend helped me install Linux on the machine and also installed Libre Office (basically an open source version of the Microsoft Windows suite) and it continues to work flawlessly.

 

For me, the only drawback is that I'm not very clued up on Linux - so I'll need to wait until my friend visits (he lives in Germany) for any upgrades.

 

But if you can get someone to install Linux on your machine (if you can't do it yourself), you'll give an old machine a whole new lease of life.

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Just had an hours eyelid inspection and feeling much better for it.

59 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

Ancient - 10+ years, it's Win7 Home Premium.  H has declared it not really worth upgrading as the mother board is older than Father Time or something. Apparently the memory slots are old hat and more not really available easily.  it is running a lot better though, having being defraggled.  It'll do for now but the lack of security updates for Win7 is a concern.

I doubt that the parasites who infest the internet are interested in an individual computer that runs Win7. An individual still running Win7 is highly unlikely to be worthwhile holding to ransom as they are unlikely to have a lot of spare cash and it would be cheaper for them to junk the computer and replace it. A few corporate users would be the more likely targets for hackers.

[Tony_S]

Just now, PhilJ W said:

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Just had an hours eyelid inspection and feeling much better for it.

I doubt that the parasites who infest the internet are interested in an individual computer that runs Win7. An individual still running Win7 is highly unlikely to be worthwhile holding to ransom as they are unlikely to have a lot of spare cash and it would be cheaper for them to junk the computer and replace it. A few corporate users would be the more likely targets for hackers.

Very wrong. Where did you get that information?

[PhilJ W]

1 minute ago, Tony_S said:

Very wrong. Where did you get that information?

I know a couple of people who still run Win7 and haven't been bothered by hackers.

[polybear]

21 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

I know a couple of people who still run Win7 and haven't been bothered by hackers.

 

Or quite possibly they've had personal data stolen and don't even know about it.  If I were using an unsupported P.C. I'd limit it's use to "general" activities only - such as browsing the net.  Financial transactions would be a big no-no in my book.  

Mind you, I wonder just how many people are using unsupported mobile phones for banking etc.?

[Gwiwer]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

Is there anything in your T's & C's preventing you from strapping Stupid Tw@ts like her lengthwise along the running rail with fencing wire??

 

Not specifically, no. 
 

Which leads on to all manner of opportunities. 
 

Is the contract one which allows anything unless proscribed or allows nothing unless permitted?  
 

The contract also omits any mention of being required to work!  It specifies my duties, hours and days of attendance, standards of presentation and a few important things I am required to have about my person. It also specifies my rate of remuneration. But at no point does it say I must carry out those duties ….. 

 

Hmmmm 🤔

  

[polybear]

Bear here......

After this morning's disappointment regarding the Plasterer having to re-schedule it's become a day of MIUABGA;  an Ebay kit purchase was checked & pronounced ok, followed by a bit of minor sorting in the muddlin' room and shifting some stuff up into Beamland.  Tick.

Then I decided to measure the H/S/L for how much lining paper I'll need - I'll be using 500, 750 & 1000mm widths depending on the position; the longest drop is 4.4m (that'll be fun - not....).  Ordering that lot + adhesive has scoffed another half Deltic.  Turdycurses.

Of course it wasn't quite that simple cos' Bear's rarely used B&D Autotape decided to play up - I dug it out of the drawer and fitted batteries, only to discover it was DOA.  So that needed taking to bits - after which it decided to play nicely after all so it was put back together again and all was well.  Of course B&D made the job somewhat more complicated cos' they'd used those bluddy tiny Torx screws in very narrow recessed holes, meaning no chance of using Torx bits.  T0ssers.

Fortunately the screws came out using a flat Jeweller's Screwdriver, so the use of Bear's full Arsenal of Naughty Words was avoided.  Tick.

Bear gone.

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

Have you considered moving to Linux? I have an extremely ancient tower PC which is over 15 years old (so positively antediluvian by computer standards). A Linux savvy friend helped me install Linux on the machine and also installed Libre Office (basically an open source version of the Microsoft Windows suite) and it continues to work flawlessly.

 

For me, the only drawback is that I'm not very clued up on Linux - so I'll need to wait until my friend visits (he lives in Germany) for any upgrades.

 

But if you can get someone to install Linux on your machine (if you can't do it yourself), you'll give an old machine a whole new lease of life.

 

Horses for courses. I've administered Linux and Unix systems my whole working life but I've never had it at home, I'm just not that hardcore or masochistic. 

 

If all you are doing is word processing or interneting and/or  you have Linux-native programmes then it'd be ok but pretty much any other application will not have a Linux porting so will need to be run through a Windows Emulator like WINE or whatever.  Of the twenty or so programmes I regularly use for laser cutting, 3D modelling etc , only Blender ( a free open-source 3D modelling programme), GIMP (an opensource photoshop alternative) and Inkscape (a graphics  package)  have a Linux version available. You very quickly discover that you spend all your time troubleshooting the "Is it Linux?" "Is it the Emulator?" "Is it an application fault?" treadmill any time the programme you are using does something unexpected or spends its time crashing at certain points.

 

WIndows these days despite everyone whinging about it is  pretty much idiot proof and very stable and self-recovering , and I  say that as a unix guy who as a breed always mocks it.   These days the average user has to spend very little time on any system tasks - certainly I have never had to "Defrag my harddrive" etc since about 2000. Huge advances in hardware stability and disk and memory capacity give a heap of headroom too to allow even poorly written apps from working without hitting limits and having issues.  (At this point everyone chimes in with examples of how they just spent 2 hours trying to get their printer to work, their router to connect etc... yeah yeah yeah but the basic OS is very stable.)

 

Computers arent like fridges or even TV's etc - you cant expect to have them for 10 years or so and still have them handling everything you throw at it like when it was new , software etc moves ahead and you need new hardware to handle it no matter how clean and shiny and well-cared for  you've kept your 5 year old laptop, thats just the way it works.

 

(On the other hand if you have an old laptop or desktop  standing alone running some specific software in your shed or whatever like sending files to your CNC router, driving your trains and so on thats a different matter and you can keep that going unaffected by any software or OS "improvements"  til it dies of old age). 

Edited January 24, 2023 by monkeysarefun