JohnDMJ

Good Evening Awl, for anything could happen to make it so! Having been informed of an appointment for a check-up followed by a covid test 3 days later, my suspicions were aroused. Today, I received three letters, two confirming the aforementioned whilst the third invited me to the Day Surgery Unit on a particular afternoon, presumably for an operation I am expecting. However, there is no indication of for how long the latter will affect me and, if it is the operation which I am expecting, I want it under general anaesthetic, not local! 'Phone calls will be made tomorrow. My circumstances dictate that I will need post anaesthesia care which I am unable to provide at home! Meanwhile, this is planned for the Tuesday after which I return from two weeks' leave and for which I already have a morning appointment with another hospital department (curiously, under a different hospital trust!)! Interesting times! However, in the words of the song, "La vie continue malgré tout"! Elsewhere: Others hereon may advise differently but, as your previous signature used to wisely proclaim: "An expert is someone who disagrees with other Experts!" I believe you can do much more than simply marking it as spam. My own take is to select the message then hold the SHIFT key down whilst I press the DELETE key. This, as I understand it, bypasses the Deleted folder, the Spam folder and just obliterates the message as best your operating system can whilst rendering it irretrievable. The same trick also works in (I'm guessing you're tarred with windoze) in Explorer and will remove a file permanently without troubling your recycle bin (waste bin?). I can never understand why people want to colour perfectly good-looking timber! At my last house, three similar properties on the estate were of similar design to mine. All had a flat roof at the front supported by Sapele timber posts. One house stained them green. Another clad them in uPVC. For the 42 years my father and I were owners of the house, we coated ours in yacht varnish! This brought out the natural colour of the wood whilst giving protection. If we asked a decorator to quote for a repaint of the house and they mentioned staining the posts, forget it, you ain't got the job! I shudder (but no longer care) what the new owners of the house have done with said posts or the staircase which was also varnished Sapele. Often, woods have their own characteristics which are worth accentuating rather than hiding!

That is just one facet of a very multi-faceted hobby! For some people, it's the research; for some it's getting it 'right'; for some it's timetable precision operation, for some, it's just being in control of the layout! The list is endless! I'm a firm believer in "Rule 1"! Look at the weathering on this: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.railcolor.net%2Findex.php%3Fnav%3D1410936%26lang%3D1&psig=AOvVaw1grwjo_XUfr3qil8efA3nf&ust=1629394898959000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAoQjRxqFwoTCJDBjpyPu_ICFQAAAAAdAAAAABAV

Work on the adage that there's no harm in asking! However, be prepared for swift evasion procedures or, possibly, the clearing up of a nasty mess if not fast enough once asked!

Good afternoon Awl; it may yet turn out thus! Shopping shopped; came back via a different route (traffic on the A27 solid, bumper to bumper!) 'for a change'; surprised how many new housing developments are springing up. Elsewhere: Whereas mine doesn't know what's hit it ("thanks to that ruddy virus")! 57 reg (second half 2007), 2018 MoT = 43338 miles, 2019 MoT = 44021 miles, 2020 MoT = 46563 miles and now just about to break through the 50000 miles based on a daily use of less than 20 miles!

Thanks, Tony: Just what I'm looking for!

Thanks for the info, guys. Research is on-going!

Good evening, as it seems to be! A question and request for advice, if I may, please: I have recently been referred to Cardiology at my local hospital and I seek a sphygmomanometer (blood pressure measurer!) which I can use to record the necessary parameters before transferring them to a spreadsheet for the consultants. I currently have a Boots branded one which, whilst storing some 60 results, is unable to export them by means other than pen and paper! Does anyone know of a device which will record the parameters and allow them to be electronically transferred, please? Any advice very much appreciated; health is (slightly) important! Thanks in advance!

Hedge height reduced. Tried to apply for a garden refuse bin but was refused since they are not taking new applications this month! Bet you don't!! If you model in 00 gauge, you're either using Code 100 or Code 75 rail; Code 100 = 100 / 1000 of an inch high (100 thou), Code 75 = 75 / 1000 inch (75 thou)!

Good Afternoon Awl, for it has the makings of being thus, even though I am contemplating reducing one or two front hedges to a reasonable height. However, the photo in this post amuses me! I would have expected the felt to be started from the lower edge thus preventing the joints acting as water traps. However, reviewing the photo, perhaps the 'width' of the roof is less than the width of the roofing felt, in which case, the felt from the left side will equally overlap that on the right!! Hat, coat, Taxi..... The so-called caterpillar effect! Routinely on my way home in the evening, I try to judge how far in front of me this effect is happening as we approach the roundabout. I then engage first gear and, with a large gap in front of me, just propel the car on idle until waiting on the handbrake is required. Sometimes, I have even been known to get into second gear whilst still idling along! They are a major name in the manufacture of (12":1ft Scale) railway equipment!

Good Evening Awl, for it has the makings of being thus at the start of the Weekend. A regular POTS day was completed and shopping completed but nearly ended in misery as I walked from the supermarket to the car! (Details will not be expanded!) Elsewhere: (and in no particular order as I have been 'jumping' back and forth between posts!) I've been using Linux for the last 15 or so years. Don't know if they still do, but Dell used to offer Linux as an option since their owner favoured it. It is purely that with me too. Tim Dunn is an excellent and well-informed presenter and I have enjoyed his other railway-related programmes. He also posts, from time-to-time, here on RMWeb! You dangle the carrot, you torment! Any chance of a link, please? Stereotyping seems to be the cause. https://starecat.com/bmw-drive-like-an--congratulations-on-your-purchase-now-you-have-to-watch-our-mandatory-instructional-video/ It must have been before 2012 as that is when I moved from a market town in your County and not far from @Andrew P's new domicile that I was trying to drive down its High Street towards the War Memorial. With parked vehicles on either side of the road, I gave way to an on-coming vehicle and indicated my intention to turn right for vehicles behind. Oncoming vehicle started to proceed as I was passed by a CWomble of a L or R Rover vehicle which shot round me and nearly took out the oncoming vehicle! However, a comment on indicating, if I may. I'm sure that our French expat currently sojourning in the lands around Hipposhire and many of his former colleagues to be found hereon may attest to the suggestion in RoadCraft that indication need only be given if there is someone who will benefit from it. This decision results from proper observation of your surroundings. I recall a former line-manager of mine who frequently left his car facing the office with the left sidelight illuminated; he had indicated (unnecessarily) to turn into the parking bay and forgotten to cancel the indication! Fortunately(?) I was never a passenger of his. FYI, RoadCraft broke down the classic 'Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre' into 7 (or 8 if you read the motorcycle version!) steps (at least when I learned it!) : Check surroundings (mirrors) Indicate (if needed) Position Speed Gear Consider use of Horn (Shoulder check, AKA the Lifesaver - the additional check for motorcyclists, although many car drivers also practice this!) Accelerate through the manoeuvre. I note that my latest copy of RoadCraft reduces this to fewer steps but then goes on at great length to describe individual situations.

Morning Awl, for I do not yet know if it will be good or not! Tried again to complete watching Secrets of London Underground last evening but again fell asleep before the end. However, Why? Try RocRail! Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men! Not everything can be anticipated and the occasional combination of events may cause an unforeseen issue. It happens in all branches of Engineering, not just software! However, a local 'fix' may then cause repercussions elsewhere in the system; the "that part failed, so strengthen it" often leads to another, possibly but not necessarily related, part failing elsewhere.

Good Evening Awl after what has been a relatively interesting day! Last week, I put in a repeat prescription request for my usual medication, intending to collect on Saturday. Only 1/3rd of the request was available for collection, despite the repeat part of the paperwork saying that all 6 had been issued! Counter boy said he'd chase it up and, true to his word, I collected the remaining 4 potions yesterday. Meantime, consultant had telephoned on Moanday to discuss my new treatment and advised me to contact my surgery to follow up the letter about my recent examination; I did so and was told that a senior pharmacist would 'phone me Wednesday, which he did. We discussed the report and he wrote me up for a new drug and confirmed that I would like it to be dispensed by my usual pharmacy. So last evening, I collected the missing meds and, not expecting the new one to be ready, overlooked it. I rang the pharmacy today and they told me it could have been collected yesterday as well, however, the above-mentioned counter boy recalled me from Saturday and had not realised that there was a second script there for me, so I collected it this evening. It is fortunate that I pass the pharmacy on my usual route home! Elsewhere: I take the view that a piece of software is no different to a mechanical machine; it should be fully specified (requirements, design, test, et alia) then designed (i.e. the mechanical 'Drawing Stage') before the first letter of code is even typed. Only once the 'drawings' have been signed off can the coding commence. Not for the first time in my life, I am currently (for an extension to our database) (again) going through this process but am still very much at the design phase with a few prototypes running to check practicalities of the design principles. I am not touching the target database! OK, you may miss a few issues during the process but the specified testing phase should help point these out.

Good Morning Awl, for it has the potential so to be! (As yet, only the potential!) I see another episode of history repeating itself: ISTR that Rory BREMNER, John BIRD AND John FORTUNE (capitalised form the name of the series they did on TV a few years back) spent a whole hour looking at Gulf War 1 and comparing it to the events of Gulf War 2 after the British had waded gung-ho into the latter with (almost) complete disregard for the lessons which should have been learned from GW1. Don't even get me started! I used to design and write control and monitoring software and compare the average developer's approach to debugging somewhat like Western Medicine! Oriental medicine is based on a holistic approach, looking at the body as a whole; Western just fixes the local bit then wonders why that bit over there goes bang! (Application to join Captain Cynical's team has been sent off!)

I wasn't talking about maintenance, more getting the new system right in the first place! Maintaining it was a different kettle of fish!

Good Evening Awl, for it has been thus far! Dry and reasonably warm Autumn day was had albeit interspersed with one of @polybear's recent humorous cartoons! Elsewhere, the state of edjukashun seems to be taking a (justified) battering! All of the above (sorry for not snipping but most seems relevant) reminds me of the Millennium Bridge across the Thames. Designed using CAD but the designers not, apparently, able to interpret the results it gave them! As a corollary, ISTR the first Space Shuttle launch was aborted because one of the computers disagreed with the other three (all with a computing power less than a mobile 'phone today!) Turned out that the one was right and the other three were wrong! It used to be the case that, in GCE Math exams, if you showed your route to the result, even if you reached the wrong result, you would score higher than someone who hadn't. Of course, you should always check your work! On the subject of self-checking, all to often I see x, c, v, b, n, m & , representing the space bar as the poster has (probably) not checked what they have typed! I recall an old Engineering adage that suggests: "there is never enough resource to satisfy the success of a project but there is more than enough to put it right afterwards!" Our street lights go off at about 00:45 and come on again (if needed) around 06:00. No signs advertising this but it seems to be only in the side streets. Don't forget the flying board rubber!! Let's do the Time Warp again!!

Good Morning Awl, and incorporating a post which I'm sure should have appeared last evening! "Good Evening, for it may still be thus somewhere! A much drier day was accepted and processes dealt with in spite of some adversity! Elsewhere: I will leave it to @chrisf to enlighten awl on the process of deciding the honours; AFAIA, HMTQ only bestows them; she does not 'decide' them per se." In more recent news, dry here and looks to be a good day, weather-wise! In comment: I well recall my Training School's second in charge relating, about Engineering: 1st, 2/1: Good academic ability, not practical 3rd: Good practical ability, not good academically 2/2: Good balance of academic and practical abilities.

Ah! Another aficionado of the ubiquitous Rule One!

Good Evening awl, for it has stopped deluging and there seems to be some foreign yellow object to the West. An interesting drive to work this morning; much of the route flooded across the whole carriageway. Pity I don't (yet) have dash and rear-view cameras! I noticed a CockW0mble catch me up in one of the better sections (only half way across) then we descended into a hollow; I slowed right down and let an oncoming car turn across my path into his destination. With the road ahead clear of oncoming traffic, I pulled out to the crown of the road and proceeded cautiously through the flood. I further kept my speed well below the road's signed limit and observed that said CW seemed to have come to his senses; he was no longer riding my tail bumper and was almost a sensible distance behind! Generally, a normal Moanday, although my lunch was interrupted by a 'phone call from a Cardiology Nurse to discuss the results of the recent investigations. Apparently, Beta Blockers are being lined up as is an appointment with a consultant and also an MRI scan. However, life continues and it seems things are also happening elsewhere: Which begs the question as to how many of the DTI and SFO are 'in the pay' of such parasites and mimic Admiral Horatio 1st Viscount Nelson's "I see no ships" approach.

Good Afternoon Awl, for it may yet develop into such! Plans to try and get my front hedge under control scuppered by too much precipitation; ain't wielding a 240V 50Hz hedge trimmer in the wet!! Equally, plans for shopping trip postponed until afternoon and then very nearly cancelled. However, managed to achieve the mission and now ave a choice of things for later and one or two things for tomorrow's lunch. Elsewhere: Respectfully suggest that BoiledCabbages be replaced with RawPineapples! Wasn't that the year it got Pickled? They thought it was all over; sadly, it lingers on, and on, and on ....

Interestingly, I'm having problems with Zimo pin lengths but on MTC21! None of my favoured decoders of this format make contact with their MXTAPV Test Board. If anyone can recommend a test board which is switchable between logic levels and full voltage levels with MTC21 and ensure rigid contact with the decoder, please tell me! nem658_en_2015.pdf governs the PluX specification.

Wrong. Try nem651_en_2017.pdf and nem652_en_2017.pdf

Kato's Class 800s illustrate this well! "Will they be doing xyz livery?" for example. Answer = NOT LIKELY! What is not realised is that the UK is a very specialised market and insignificant in the global field. For example, only about 10% of Kato's Class 800s were distributed to the UK. One enterprising business has already produced vinyls to transform them to other liveries, however. The vast majority of Kato's models have a Japanese connection; Class 800 - Hitachi; Swiss RhB, Eurostar, TGV - souvenirs of a trip to Europe. In general, Kato's Japanese market accounts for about 80% of its production; one reason why their catalogue is only available in Japanese! Sorry to harp on about Kato, but they are typical of the global industry of railway modelling. With respect, Britain tends to be very insular ("Fog in the Channel, Europe cut off") and only model what can be seen. Consequently, we get the comments of the type above, "why can't they make loco xx yyy"? Would you spend £250,000.00 for a specific loco to justify making the tooling, manufacturing costs and finishing costs for ONE loco? Let's try and get (yes, my experience tells me it's impossible!) some perspective here! Compared to the global model railway market, the UK is just plankton in the ocean!

Major design fault?

Perfectly logical! By zig-zagging across the slope, you make the gradient much less severe. The Swiss demonstrate this frequently with their adhesion railways! Basic principle of physics!

Anyone remember Daz washing powder's "Blue Whiteness"?