Posts by Pete Smith 2

Re: I don't have an ad-blocker....

Or use pi-hole (or equivalent). There's even instructions out there to run pihole in Docker.

^ This.

I do the same. I have my preferred choco file, and just throw it at a blank PC + Chocolatey and I'm away.

Re: And this ladies and gentlemen...

I'm going to have to disagree with you there.

My current car has the letter "O" in it's registration, and a previous car had 2 letter "O"s in the registration.

In the UK and Aus case though, the number plates are deterministic. You know which are letters, and which are numbers. Perhaps the ticket machines didn't have a QWERTY keyboard, and were confusing to use.

Re: Can someone explain why they renumbered the articles?

I think you're right. From memory, several of the MEPs who voted for "17" and "15" were voting for the *old* 17 and 15, not the new ones. When they found out, they tried to withdraw their votes, but were told they couldn't.

I don't remember the exact numbers, but "several" would have actually swayed the vote in the other direction.

Re: Sprouts

Same for all brassicas. Cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage. They all turn nasty if you cook them too much. Cook them just right and they're perfect.

Re: Well....

It's a triple. You also forgot the chutney....

Apparently, the holes are where the water and dignity run out.

(I can't talk though - I've got 2 pairs of my own, and I've worn a 3rd pair out!)

Re: I've just installed Cyanogenmod 12

I believe that you can remove the battery cover on the swift, locate the area on the phone that houses the GPS antenna and compass ID, and remove the ferrous shielding from the inside of the back of the case.

When you do this, I've heard the GPS/Compass performance will improve.

I've got a Storm, and the GPS is fine, but the compass is pants. Probably for the same reason.

Re: Why did I buy a diesel ?

My wife's got a 1.0 3 pot Focus (125bhp), and that gets ~45mpg on a mix of school run and driving to work.

If I drove it, it wouldn't get that much, as it's such an entertaining little engine.

Ford are pushing people away from the 1.6 engine to the 1.0, which gets the same power, but much better economy.

I personally went for the 1.6 diesel which can get up to 65mpg when driven on a long boring road, but which gets mid 50's on normal mixed usage.

Re: A pedo's Dream...

Presumably not yet, as drones aren't in use.

In the future, if every child has a nanny drone, are you going to notice one extra?

Re: Eh?

This is the proof of concept & calibration application.

They've left the GPS code in there so that they can get the battery levels against location to act as a way of baselining the system.

Presumably they could then turn GPS location off, and pass the power usage back through the baseline data, and reconstruct the location.

I did.

Admittedly it was an Orange San-Francisco (AKA ZTE Blade).

I didn't like the Orange bloatware/GUI it came with, so within 12 hours of opening it, I'd rooted it, unlocked it, and stuck the latest Cyanogenmod on it.

Since then, every phone I've owned has had Cyanogenmod put on it within a day of receiving it.

Being a tightwad though, when I accidentally washed my SF, I bought a 2nd hand HTC Desire off a friend at work, then when another friend realised I only had a single core phone, gave me his old cast-off dual-core HTC Sensation XE that was gathering dust in a drawer.

My daughter received her 1st mobile (Samsung Ace 3 - I know! I wanted to get a Moto E, but "Selfies are important"), and she immediately asked for Cyanogen mod on it, as she was used to using my old Desire. Once it's out of warranty, the excuse for an OS will be removed, and something sensible put on it!

My next phone (assuming I don't get any more Pity Phones) will probably be a Moto, running vanilla Android, which is just how I like it.

Re: Reanult has a problem, called 'marketing'

It's not just the "small" Fords.

The 999cc 3 pot turbo is used (to great effect IMO) in the Focus. We've just bought one, and it's an absolute hoot! As much power & torque as I had in my old Mk2 Mondeo in a smaller car with better ride.

They're even talking about putting that engine in the Mk IV Mondeo!

Re: Do dishwashers really blunt knives

My take on this:

I have had a 9" Sabatier knife for just over 20 years.

It's been sharpened with a steel whenever it needed it (every few uses) - the steel is now worn out, but the knife *blade* is fine.

However, the overall structure of the knife is a stainless steel blade & tang. It's an encapsulated tang though - the knife tang and end of the blade is wrapped in an aluminium sheath, and that's then inside the black plastic handle.

Because the encapsulating material is aluminimum, the highly caustic dishwasher tablets have eroded it, which means the blade is now slightly loose in the handle.

Since I realised this was happening, I've stopped putting it in the dishwasher, but the damage is done.

Re: Define "crash"

The new Focus is the same - if you pair your Bluetooth phone to the car and the airbags go off, it'll make the call for you in your language (presumably the car knows where it's from) anywhere in Europe.

Presumably it does the same as this proposed system, but uses my phone rather than a built-in one.

Re: "According to computer models...

Back in the land of measurements, not models...

http://www.cnr.uidaho.edu/fish511/Readings/temp%20Size%20growth%20atl%20salmon.pdf

"In conclusion, the present study shows ontogenetic variation in optimum temperature for growth in juvenile Atlantic salmon smolts, with increased temperature optimum for growth and decreased temperature for feed conversion efficiency as the fish grow bigger."

(The water has to get *much* hotter before a decrease in the growth of the fish is seen)

I've done better than that.

When we had our house re-wired, I had 2 double sockets added, with a switched fused spur off, with a further 2 double sockets.

I have the router, printer and mouse charger on the permanently powered, and the PC, monitor etc off the switched sockets.

At bedtime, I can power off, flick a switch and a bank of switches is powered down.

Our old house had something like the above, but not remotely controlled. It was a board about 60cm tall, with 6 switched double sockets, 6 un-switched double sockets, and a big power switch at the top. This peeped over the top of the desk, and would disable half the sockets.

Admittedly these were all off a single 13A socket, but I had a shedload of development equipment that ran off wall-warts, so the total power & current was minimal, but I needed many, many sockets.