zarniwhoop

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.🤣

Condolences to the Q on your sad loss.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9SqQNgDrgg (sorry, no idea how to embed it)

Like waiting at a junction, turning left at a junction, parking, maybe even checking the view in the door mirrors, ...

You have a mobile phone where the battery can be changed without sending it away ? My impression is that for many mobile phones batteries are not available, and for the others you have to send it away, leaving you without a phone.

Spent a significant part of yesterday getting a new phone (time waiting for previous customers to complete whatever they were doing, then about 2 hours actually sorting out the contract changes , and then starting to set it up once I got home. Pleased (surprised, even) that it has a headphone jack, and after skipping over the warning that high sound levels can deafen, I turned the media sound up to 11 and can now hear youtube through my headphones. Admittedly those are cheap, insensitive and not wonderful quality. Got things copied over from google backup, but I had to reregister for the CGM app and previous readings were not carried over, nor did the current sensor respond (the app claimed it could be scanned by the new phone), but it only had 25 minutes left, so no big deal. Worked fine at first, got updated readings once the sensor had started, then got an invitation to schedule an android update. Battery was charged, so did that immediately - took some time, seems to have reverted some settings for the sensor to off (to save battery or be more secure) - fixed that, sensor working ok. Woke a couple of times, readings had continued. Woke later, loss of contact, graph showed a gap and below range. Took 3 dextrose tablets - waited to see the effect (some days 2 tablets are sufficient at bottom of normal range, other days when below range need a lot more before the levels restore. Tried rescanning, kept getting "try again in 10 minutes" which is supposed to be an indication that the rate of change is unexpectedly great - although last week on the old phone I had some of those where it then immediately gave a reading. Noticed that was some uptrend in the graph, so eventually gave up and went back to sleep, decided it was not worth worrying about it. Woke up some hours later, sensor was working but readings much higher than I'd like (and a blood test confirmed that). Have now injected what I hope will be a suitable amount of insulin for a small breakfast, plus a corrective dose, waiting for the level to drop. <sigh/> The more things change, the more they stay insane. What eventually prompted me to change the phone was that in the last 2 weeks the sensor readings mostly updated automatically when I came back into the room after leaving it on charge, but tended to fail at lower battery levels, and that I'd failed to login to the natwest app (it just sat there and timed out when I was trying to verify card details for the local minicabs, and then after that it had powered off (low battery), but once plugged in it showed 50% charge and booted a couple of minutes later. Today I have managed to find the setting where it blanks (set to the default 15 seconds, which is no doubt great for battery life, but pretty useless - if I do a blood test because I disbelieve the sensor that takes about 3 minutes. Later I'll try to login to the bank - wish me luck! I suspect part of the problem might be natwest systems, validating me and making the initial payment for the phone yesterday took two attempts, the first eventually timed out. Is this a rant ? No, not even a bijou rantette. I was going to sign this as 'p1ssed off of Portslade' but I think I'm getting beyond caring - provided I'm able to do what I absolutely must when using the phone. Note for those in the colonies - I understand you do not use 'off' in that phrase, here we need to, otherwise people will read it as "tired and emotional", which is the state I might be in later. 😄

When I look at news on my android phone, it has recently started coming up with a lot of things like that from some of the right-wing press. They all look similar to me, as in "usually, avoid when I see where it is from", but perhaps they were all from Murdoch's papers.

The pics from helicopters are useful for replays of sprints, and occasionally for sideways views (e.g. looking down from the side as riders cross a bridge), but as an ex cyclist, the views up close are the interesting ones. If the race was crossing a wilderness, drone pics might be ok - but most places have too much in the way of buildings, trees, hedges to get a decent close view from a distance.

And while I'm posting, since there are a number of motorcyclists here - what's with the ones with two front wheels ? I've noticed them when watching the road cycling on eurosport - first in some races in Italy last year, then in both the tours of Italy and France this year, and yesterday they'd spread as far north as northern Norway (Arctic race of Norway). I assume they might be more stable at low speeds ? They seem to be used for commissaires (officials) following a break (a leading group), also for carrying water and yesterday one was a camera 'bike (that was on the flat - no need to speed up downhill to get out of the way which is the normal case in hills and mountains). But I've never noticed them in any other context than at cycle races.

Just been watching the today's cycling from Norway, the stage finished in Hammerfest and I'm sure I saw a statue of @polybear on one of the roundabouts at the edge of the town - couldn't find a matching image online, the nearest google came up with was this one: https://www.travelblog.org/Photos/8124160 but I thought he looked a bit sleeker than that today. It seems he has a fan club there: https://www.isbjornklubben.no/

If free coffee is provided by the employer as a regular feature then it is almost certainly taxable as a benefit in kind. I had to support a payroll system in the past, years of fun with the variations of taxable items, and their reporting. after a taxation manager was appointed to ensure the organisation (an electricity board,) was not hung out to dry by the Inland Revenue.

Social Media considered harmful, #94 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-66523341

Got my car back after service, fixed warning light (turned out to be re exhaust gas re-circulation), new rear tyres, MOT. Also they've corrected my email, which was why I didn't get their messages when it was in last year. Actually, it was ready last thing last night - they emailed me 10 minutes before they closed but of course I couldn't get in in time and anyway I was too tired - went to bed after that, slept to midnight, mostly slept to 4a.m., got up for a little while at 6-something, then slept some more. In theory that means I'm now bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, but not sure if that will last. Now I need to think about replacing my phone, it seems to lack enough power to do anything significant, such as logging in to my bank (not that I want to use the app for the bank, but somethings such as stopping standing orders seem to need that).

Interesting. Some time ago there was an article in the magazine of the (British) Diabetic Association promoting sweet potatoes, if I remember correctly that was because of the increased amounts of fibre, even though the amount of carbs per 100gm is higher than regular spuds (20gm for sweet potatoes, typically 18gm for floury, 15 or 16gm for some waxy spuds). For those of us who have to count the carbs ('DAFNE') (rather than those who have to restrict the carbs) that can make a difference. It always amuses me when recipes specify a certain number of potatoes, rather than a certain weight - has anyone ever seen a standard-sized potato ?

For diesels, I think it is those which need to use Ad-Blue from time to time that match the latest (Euro 6) standard. I bought mine in 2011 but it was the end of the old range and apparently (according to an RAC web page) only meets Euro 5, so will be expensive if I ever go in a ULEZ zone. But I remember reading that many petrol cars to recent standard produce a lot of tiny particles. And that is without taking account of the tyre particles which all cars produce.

I almost never use Duck Duck Go,when I do it is for a specific search term and usually returns very few results. I couldn't remember which small caps font I had been searching for, so I looked at one on my list. The first 4 gurgle results showed the font name including SC, the next did not show SC in the brief text example, but did not have any comment afterwards, and it was only after that when I found a "match" which had at the end 'Missing: SC ‎| Show results with: SC' (that match would have taken me to an Adobe site). The Duck had one result which mentioned S C, at the bottom of the first page - a bit above that were two images labelled as what I asked for (EB Garamond S C), but clearly they were NOT small caps. I don't think I'll be using the Duck any more often than I have been, while continuing to swear from time to time about the irrelevant results google gives me.🙂

I've recently been searching for specific screen fonts, to see if the versions I documented some years ago are still available at the sites I linked to, and seem to have the same content - I want to revise some of the items there, and to include some other fonts.. One font I had looked at in the past used to contain a small capitals ('S C') variant in the single package (regular, bold, italic, etc), but no longer does. Eventually found it at google fonts, but the first matches went to various sites, one in japanese which I cannot read, another where you had to register, and the blurb under the extracts mostly said something like "does not contain 'S C'" - but it is easy to skip over that part of the text. Part of the trouble is that sometimes we put in search terms trying to guess at what will produce some semi-useful results, and other times we know exactly what we are looking for and want it to match all the search terms.

Here, at the edge of Brighton, many roads are 20mph and while by definition most are not bus routes, a lot of them are. But the 20mph limits work reasonably well because many roads are full of parked cars, so the chances of consistently driving at nearly 30mph were long gone. On most of the main roads in the city there is a 30mph limit, with 40mph on the dual carriageway (the former A27) to the west of Portslade. I still find it annoying that the dual carriageway through Portslade and the first part of Hove has been limited to 30mph, but not as annoying as the people who drive at 30, often in the outer lane, in the 40mph part. Regrettably, we all have to get used to driving more slowly - in areas with children that is no bad thing. But I agree with all your comments about the effects on i/c vehicles - seems to tie in with the intention of moving to vehicles with batteries (and I guess that at low mph with both heating and aircon turned off they get a less-short range).

Saw the diabetes consultant this morning - feeling much happier now.

Finally finished skimming through the past few days. Belated happy birthday to @DaveF and commiserations to anybody I've overlooked. This thread is unmanageable.

Since everyone is mentioning bins: I've got a regular size green one for rubbish (weekly) and a large grey one for recycling (cans, cardboard, paper, plastic bottles - fortnightly). Those sit between my garage door and my front door. I've also got a couple of black boxes for glass. I don't do gardening any more, so no bin for that (and no space). when my late mum was still alive and the recycling first came in, she contacted them and got them to pick up my rubbish (maybe bags in those days) and recycling (the two black boxes) from the foot of my steps - I was not able to drag the boxes to beside the pavement if it was windy. Eventually the bins came in, mine just-about fit in the available space between the handrail and the garage wall, Everyone else seems to keep their bins in their garages - at least we have space on this side of the street where bins and boxes will not obstruct the pavement - the other side of the street is fences for back gardens, so the people there that to put the bins or boxes on the pavement. It always amuses me that if you report a missed collection the form asks what time the bin was put out on the day - at times we've been first on the route and collected just after 6pm, but I can't see many people in this area would actually get up early to do that.