zarniwhoop

In the 1990s I knew of a guy who had the time and money to do masters' XC skiing (age-related) - I suspect he worked as a contractor - and who did some of the World Loppet. He reckoned Davos was a good place to go for early-season training To us Brits, Davos is usually associated with expensive alpine skiing, but there is proper stuff as well (and trains ;-)

Ah, the joys of editorial activities (I was going to say editorial work, but since we don't get paid for it that would be misleading).

As an over-65, my impression is that the process of notifications/invitations is still a bit variable. I got a text from my GP pointing me to a web address, but that continues to report it is not working. I later got a text from the nhs - initially the only local appointments were at the Brighton Centre, which for me is awkward (the downhill walk from the car park around sloping corners is hell with my non-operative ankle and poor balance, plus my inability to stand up if I fall) with a possibility of a local medical centre but no appointments there were available. This week I've booked at the local medical centre for two weeks this Saturday. After the website initially reported it was not working, I searched in the nhs and found several local-ish pharmacies apparently offering walk-in jabs - but you need to phone the pharmacy to see when they are doing it. If they are like the pharmacy I use, you can never get through on the phone (a maximum of one pharmacist and two assistants, and they are always busy).

I'm sure that the bear would not wish anyone to break the law by moving a caught live grey squirrel to a different location. But if caught, they must be killed humanely.

I came upon that item on wikipedia some months ago when I was looking at pages related to the Valais/Wallis and thinking about sourdough. But no interest in the other questions., so did not attempt to answer earlier.

According to wikipedia, the name of the Milton Keynes new town was "a reuse of the name of one of the original historic villages in the designated area, now more generally known as 'Milton Keynes Village' to distinguish it from the modern settlement." And there was me thinking it was named in honour of John Milton and John Maynard Keynes - I suspect somebody pulled my leg when I was at school.

From down here, Hatfield is in the norff - they sign it on the road out of london: A1M, The NORTH, Hatfield. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatfield_and_the_North#/media/File:A1(M)_sign_at_junction_1,_South_Mimms.jpg Therefore anything beyond that is also north. 😄

When you originally said it failed "check for updates" I assumed that meant no updates were available, but "failed to check for updates" sounds as if it has a certificate problem (expired, or incorrect/obsolete TLS method - that would be why you were being referred to the settings option you cannot find). From using firefox through its regular UI changes I know that things move around and can be hidden. I would try using the 'hamburger' menu (three lines), try to enable both the toolbar and menu if not already visible. Then search all options in Tools, Edit -> Preferences, and again the hamburger menu, to see if you can find 'Account Settings'. If you can, the Authentication Settings, Security Settings should show how it is set. Typically, SSL/TLS or else Starttls (starts as plain, switches to TLS) but for some mail servers you need other things (e.g. oauth for google).

Is 'check for updates' not looking for a newer version ? If so, 115.3.0 is the latest, released earlier this week, and nothing to do with retrieving mails. A quick google at a mozilla page suggests there is no fix for a failed secure connection. That implies, to me, that either the site you are tryingto connect to has expired, or its certificate has become invalid (rather than out of date). Is there a related web page you can try to connect to in a browser ?

Paywalled.

Such tales always make me smile, so very much on-thread :) where I come from, the view is that Hengist and Horsa were alternative names for the animals that the saxon warriors rode (according to wikipedia, Stallion and Horse). And anyway, I'm more likely to believe that the first saxon mercenaries were a bit earlier, and here in Sussex where they eventually slew the native British (hence the place names from the Ouse and a little further East to perhaps as far as, or beyond, the Adur - e.g. Beddingham, Erringham where the ham in that context is said to mean a bend on a river). Sorry, that is getting a bit off-thread.

Sometimes, there are reasons why names differ. In the case of Bavaria I searched for the etymology: quoting https://www.etymonline.com/word/bavaria "German Bayern, Medieval Latin Boiaria, named for the Boii, the ancient Celtic people who once lived there" So it was the upper classes somewhere, who spoke mediaeval latin - maybe the church - wot named it. And according to Wikipedia (so maybe untrue) "Braunschweig from Low German Brunswiek, local dialect: Bronswiek [ˈbrɔˑnsviːk])" - dialect variations across german-speaking areas are still very pronounced, but to me Brunswick sounds like a reasonable English attempt at the real name. OTOH, I still remember my surprise at village names in Slovenia when I made a couple of day trips from Austria - looked as if there was a shortage of vowels, e.g. they call the city which is now in Italy but was part of the Habsburg empire 'Trst'.

Just catching up - somewhere over the weekend (possibly in the Observer, possibly the Grauniad, possibly online news on my phone) there were comments that RB had softer rear suspension to cope with how last year's track had been and they had to set the ride height higher to avoid too much wear on whatever that thing is called that can be measured for clearance after the race - I think it might have been a comment from Valteri Bottas saying they had a similar setup problem.

Difficulty rating some posts. Get well soon, Baz.

well, it might have been cooler outside this week, but indoors it has remained warm and humid (my house is on the side of the hill, very little possibility of breeze from the back). Tonight there has been some breeze coming in from the front. I likei t!

I had logged in after receiving that email on my non-gmail account, and in so-doing I accidentally confirmed it on the primary browser, thus spreading more data to google. I've just used my android phone to check my diabetes sensor reading, and on gmail I got yet another alert because I'd not used that primary browser on gmail. But WTF - if someone had stolen or hacked my phone, they would probably get the gmail notification before I did (because they were actively using my ID) and would have replied "yes, that's me, and why don't I add the extra security" before I got the alert.

micro-rantette: I use four desktop PCs, and an android phone. And I build new systems on the desktop PCs. Every time I login to gmail on a new build I get a notification 'was this you' ? PITA, but expected. But I've just logged in to you tube to post a comment, on a system where I was already using gmail in a different browser. Another notification, but the time in the email made me think 'WTF?' Looks like it was on GMT or UTC, when I eventually got in I realised it was indeed my post. And then google wants me to set up extra security (as in "make it harder for me to login", like the banks do). Severely p155ed off.

As if the deadly animules in Oz were not enough, now you're telling us you have scrotes as well ?

Here's a link: https://www.alstom.com/solutions/infrastructure/aps-service-proven-catenary-free-tramway-operations

It is a common phrase in the UK. According to The Evening Standard the Met Office’s Meteorological Glossary, published in 1916, defined an Indian summer as “a warm, calm spell of weather occurring in autumn, especially in October and November” and goes on to say it was from American usage (1778, by a frenchman describing the Mohawk nation) In common usage here, any warm spell in September can be described as an Indian summer.

Belated Happy Birthday to @Erichill16

I assume the maroon lines indicate some form of elevation, but I could not work it out. From the background track, running anticlockwise I assume that by the front it passes above a double track after climbing for perhaps 5ft in old money, perhaps a bit more (I'm guessing the length of the climb. I read it as staying at that height until it has crossed the line to the engine shed, and then descends. Gradients, particularly smoothing out the ends so that trains don't uncouple, can be a problem - and the more space you use for the transitions, the steeper the rest of the gradient. And then the gradients are on curves, which add resistance. An interesting and possibly discouraging learning experience, if I have interpreted the plan correctly. I'm also not quite sure about the logic of the two (?) lines on the level part for up and down running (if two, there is a point hidden by the elevated line crossing it at the end of the station. But I assume that you have worked out, to your own satisfaction, how and where the trains will run. The circular black area looks like it is for access - if so, rather small, but it makes me ask: will you have access all around the layout for when trains stall or derail ? Or is that black area the scenery ? Reading your initial post again, I only see one station (island platform, and another platform leading to the engine shed, but all in the same station). No idea about 'freetrackplans', but many plans in British magazines have been "somewhat ambitious for the space".

That second one looks a bit like Improved Engine Green

I started out with a Jupiter Ace and the dreaded cassettes for storage. Work (S.E. Electricity Board) was offering purchase deals (pay back over several months, if I remember correctly), because the chairman was keen to see what people could do with them - but at that time I couldn't afford it. Got the Ace (Z80, FORTH, the joys of typing in programs from magazines and building your own language, plus occasionally building add-ons (static RAM, keyboard). Then I got a Triumph Adler Alphatronic (Z80 running CP/M). Started to really get interested with free/shareable software. Meanwhile, at work I was responsible for doing weekly maintenance (backups) on a mini for the industry's pension scheme with the disk (maybe 14", maybe more) mounted on top of a cabinet. When using the system for data input and doing calculations I got used to the dread words 'Cobol compilation error' - I'm sure it wasn't actually compiling anything, but maybe swapping in different chunks of code. Got lucky when work decided to see if they could find any suitable internal candidates for trainee programmers - cut-off age was 30, I was a few months short of that. Then I got my own compilation errors, although they always had long messages with a code beginning 'I' that you could look up in the library for the more obscure ones, followed by abend codes when running. The joys of application programming with MVS and its later versions, JES2 with JCL, and later VSAM to work with a payroll software package.

Interesting coincidence - emailed someone earlier to say that with my current (lack of) typing skills I'd probably end up crossing the i's and dotting the t's. And then, since I've adapted my Xorg keyboard mapping to be able to get a lot of extra accents and such using 'dead' keys I looked to see if I could do that (I knew I had dead_stroke and dead_abovedot mappings, but wasn't sure if those combinations would work on those letters. ɨ Ɨ works here, ṫ Ṫ are a bit harder to get (caps lock with AltGr and t or particularly shift-T seem a bit iffy). This message brought to you by the "messing around while waiting for something" department.🤣