StuAllen

Finally managed to have a proper look at my 2, they are excellent! I nearly managed to start laying track today, but got distracted may be next weekend. Need to get a move on as need to see these in action.

Ok, my wallet starts getting worried when you post pictures like that, but it’s fine I have a plan - just bought a ticket for tonight’s Euro lottery.😜

This is exactly my problem - tempted to get a smart plug just so I can ask Alexa to turn it off and on again

Our TV does that as well - Sony Bravia - it’s Android based for all the apps etc. none of which I use as it’s just a monitor for Sky Q/Apple TV devices. Still annoying though, also the TV has got a habit of rebooting itself, or just not talking to the Amp/Sky so everything needs to be reset at the wall. I’m assuming it’s because the handshakes between the devices haven’t quite happened in the right order - spent many hours on the various help desks and they all blame each other.

Part of me wants to fast forward 100 years to see how things like HS2 end up (although that may be depressing) - going back in time I would go back to the early eighties- had some great days out with Mum and Dad from Brighton by train - destinations that stand out were York, Penzance and Aberystwyth. I loved the sound and smell of 125’s at Paddington or Kings Cross - much better than the slam mk1 emus that took us to London. I was too young to appreciate it back then, but I’d love to go back.

What’s everyone’s predictions this year? Will Red Bull (Max) be dominant again or will it be closer?

Stumbled across the first episode while channel surfing earlier - thought it was really good, iconic stock and liveries from 25-30 years ago. Thought the late Victoria Woods commentary wouldn’t be that different based on the railway of today

Thought this was an interesting announcement in their newsletter.

And the main event (from Bedelands Crossing just north of Wivelsfield)

While I was waiting for the Black 5 this came by…

Timings on Real Time Trains https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:U55480/2023-12-02/detailed and https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:U55477/2023-12-02/detailed

Saw this on Locomotions stand at Warley today.

Not sure if you’ve seen the video interview with Andy Y and Fran in the More Model Ideas thread, 14 minutes in Fran says there’s some N gauge news coming in 2024

Oh dear what have I done, I just couldn’t resist and bought a sound enabled version of 5741 - I don’t know what it is about them but these have to be my favourite steam loco. I’m hoping that by Q1 2025 I would have finished my layout, not sure it fits as it is going to be modern image. It will be my first DCC loco (and sound) but it has finally dawned on me as well that I need to switch to DCC to make the track design I want work well. Time to start upgrading my class 37s with Accurathrash speakers and chips

I’ll usually have the pre-race build up on in the background but will be doing other stuff, only stopping to watch the race, I do like some of the features and Teds post race summary. That said with the start time today I didnt watch the prerace build up, and only started watching when I got up so probably about 90mins after it started - have found today a slightly annoying feature of Sky Q, the recording was in UHD and would show on the mini box so couldn’t watch it from bed

Good race, not sure about the Rolls Royce Phantom journey to the Bellagio though for the post race interview, then back to the pit straight for the podium.

Looking forward to the event this year, are there still road works on the M42? Been a few weeks since I’ve been that way. I know the parking queues were bad last year, so thinking of heading to Coventry and catching the train from there instead, what are the trains like? Do they get busy? We’re driving up from Sussex, and heading to Bath for their Christmas market on Sunday

Saw this on FB earlier this week - wonder what the update could be…

Speed and accuracy - computers are very good at processing lots of data quickly, the example I gave was to help provide customer service, but you could apply the same technology principles to medical records. You could argue that analysing medical records is more worthwhile cause but the technology still needs to be developed, so applying it to both applications cuts the cost of developing it.

Brands Hatch today to see the Truck racing and Fireworks, shame the last race was red flagged due to crash barrier damage.

It’s what Microsoft is spending its money on at the moment so will develop and quickly. It seems like every app in the autumn release has copilot in it. I haven’t used it in anything other than demos yet but I’ve been quite surprised/impressed with it. In the April release of Dynamics 365 Business Central (Microsoft’s ERP for SME’s) they introduced copilot to help write marketing text for items based on attributes and description. It was mostly correct, but it did need double checking. I was catching up with some of the launch videos for the CRM 23H2 releases on Friday and real practical examples are being introduced but I suspect it will be business focused applications that will use it more than home computing. The example I saw used Copilot to summarise all of the content (engineer notes, customer emails, transcripts of Teams call etc.) that had been attached to a Customer Service Case and presented that to the customer service user. So seconds worth of effort that could have taken the services user 5-10 minutes to work through everything. But it’s not a big leap though to feed that information into a Virtual Agent - do you need a customer service person then? I did see a positive AI based story this week on BBC breakfast - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-67289237 ChatGBT wrote a poem for Betty Webb - a 100 year code breaker from Bletchley Park

I’m not so sure I agree with you, yes it’s been redesigned by the smartphone generation, but you need to look at how they consume the technology. Why shouldn’t the Microsoft apps look and feel the same across any device I use - doesn’t matter if it’s an iPhone, iPad or windows 11 laptop - Apple also do this as well, we recently bought a MacBook Air for our son for college (our first Apple laptop) using it I didn’t think it was really that different to an iPad. But installing Microsoft Office on it, still has the same feel that I get with a Windows laptop. Personally I can’t see an issue with Windows 10 or 11 (I know I may be in a minority on this thread based on some of the recent comments). I can’t remember anything from Windows 7 or XP that would make me want to go back. Full disclosure, I work for a Microsoft Partner as a Business Applications Architect for the Microsoft Dynamics products (their ERP and CRM applications) so need to keep at the bleeding edge of the technologies so I may be a bit biased. Microsoft are spending a lot of money on CoPilot - it’s in all of the 23H2 releases - some of it is very clever/cool. CoPilot is Microsoft’s branding for AI, it’s designed to work with you not replace you.

Came through while I was waiting for my train to Blackfriars - not best video but cobled together from several iPhone photos

Look what turned up at Blackfriars while I was waiting for my train home

Spotted this morning the trains are going to Frighton rather than Brighton.