A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own

[Feanor]

Oh, and on the subject of calling things by names that they are not really any more, I was for a while getting spam about 'LED Neons: Neon-style signs with lettering, but actually LED.

There were a few pedantic posts pointing out that they were not actually Neons, to which the OP replied that yes they were, they were LED neons.
As far as they were concerned, the word 'neon' referred to the style of the product, not the technology.

I've also been told by USAsian car rental staff that the 4x4 I'd paid for was a 'general style', and did not necessarily mean 4 wheel drive...
Now, if they had said SUV, I might have grudgingly accepted that. But not 4x4.

I need to give the LCD CRT of this laptop a clean at some point...

[Tim Hall]

One of my Young Lady's many many children was in junk shop the other day and saw what he described as "miniature vinyls".  That'll be a 7" single then.

[Jurek]

One of my Young Lady's many many children was in junk shop the other day and saw what he described as "miniature vinyls".  That'll be a 7" single then.

Not many years ago, circa 2008, one of my drivers, aged around 18 or so, clocked my series 2 iPod with the exclamation 'WTF is that?'

[Beardy]

It’s just occurred to me while I was reading the last few entries in this thread, that I can no longer blame my fathers generation or ‘older people’ for all the screw ups we’ve made ‘in the past’. It’s my generation (and many of yours!) and so by extension, us, that have precipitated most of the biggest screwups this country has seen in the last half century. In my Defense, I did point out the stupidity of may of the biggest howlers to anyone that would listen, but I’m too much of a nerd for that to have been very many.

Im feeling depressed now.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Miniature vinyls is a pretty sensible term when you don't know the original name. I don't think CRT as a term ever really gained the mainstream, daily use that is necessary for it to have ported across technologies though. And as for neons, they lost their association wiht neon gas when they became another term for fluorescents.

[Mr Larrington]

.FM is on the list of top level domains, so they missed an opportunity there.

The sadly missed martian.fm, run by Ian Martin*, being the canonical example.  Possibly.

* also swearing consultant for “The Thick Of It”.

[Beardy]

I can’t say I’ve ever heard fluorescent lights being referred to as neons, though that could be because of the company I’ve kept over the years.

[Tim Hall]

I occasionally watch car type YouTube videos, where people modify their motors to make me go tut and shake my head. Anyhoo, a bloke on there (Adam C) refers to cars with under body lighting as "bringing neons back". I suspect they're LEDs. I also suspect that he's not aware of the difference.

[rafletcher]

We have three Sony radios with buttons, bathroom, kitchen and greenhouse. My wife likes them, but then she pre-dates boomers.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I can’t say I’ve ever heard fluorescent lights being referred to as neons, though that could be because of the company I’ve kept over the years.

Not lights, sorry, colours. As in highlighters or hi-viz clothing.

[Cudzoziemiec]

The radio my parents had when I was small had knobs that you turned to align a pointer with strange names like Hilversum and Athlone, some of which actually corresponded to stations that were still broadcasting. I think it dated from the early 60s. The one after that had, IIRC, both a dial and buttons. The buttons for three or four preset faves, the dial for everything else. Both were made by Roberts. The first and probably also the second ran off a PP9 battery. After that I'm not sure what happened, probably DAB, so radios with buttons seem quite the new thing to me!

[hellymedic]

I still have two or three Matsui AM/FM/LW radios, in unopened boxes, in a cupboard, upstairs.

I bought a several from Dixons, when I was working as a Well-Paid Doctor. They were  £10 a throw and work on mains or battery. They fail occasionally and are chucked.

Partner mocks me but I like them...

[Cudzoziemiec]

What do you listen to on them?

[Kim]

The radio my parents had when I was small had knobs that you turned to align a pointer with strange names like Hilversum and Athlone, some of which actually corresponded to stations that were still broadcasting. I think it dated from the early 60s. The one after that had, IIRC, both a dial and buttons. The buttons for three or four preset faves, the dial for everything else. Both were made by Roberts. The first and probably also the second ran off a PP9 battery. After that I'm not sure what happened, probably DAB, so radios with buttons seem quite the new thing to me!

I learned a lot of my practical electronics skills breaking and occasionally repairing radios of that type of construction at a formative age.  Kids today don't know what they're missing.  Not so much at a circuit level (thanks to Makers and Arduinos, sticking components in breadboards is cool again), but some of the outright devious mechanical construction that went into making that pointer work.  Usually involved springamathings, sturdy pulleys that added inertia to improve the knob feel, and cunningly routed string.

"Why didn't they store the station in flash memory, grandma?"

[Cudzoziemiec]

I also investigated the innards of the first of those radios after it had been dropped one too many times, vaguely hoping to understand what was going on. But I didn't really learn anything other than the oft-remarked truism about wireless needing lots of wire.

[IanDG]

LEJOG starting in June with my brother in law. Full camping gear and no timescale. Just ride as far as we want then find somewhere to camp. Taking our time because of my PMR muscle fatigue and "bro" has only one arm.

[Cudzoziemiec]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/04/school-photos-disabled-children
About disabled kids being cropped out of school photos, or simply not included when the photos are taken. This prompts me two memories.

The first is about school photos. At my secondary school, there were school photos up in the hall (whole school lined up on the playing field, including staff). These went back many decades, probably to the founding of the school in the late 19th century. When I was in the first year (I think that's Y7 in modern terminology), there was a boy in his final year with long, hippy-style hair. I don't know if he actually was a hippy, he might equally well have been a prog rocker or heavy metallist; all three trends were way out of fashion at the time. His hair must have broken multiple school rules and I'm sure he got into lots of detentions and so on for it. In his last photo, he'd managed to position himself directly behind the headmaster, who was of course in the middle of the front row in his graduation gown (and probably mortar board, though I don't remember that). He stood there with his head lowered so his face was completely hidden behind his hair, which appeared to almost flow onto the headmaster's shoulders. The year after he left, he was edited out of the photo. As we were only just into the 1980s, this had to be done by manual means; I suspect it might have involved tippex.

The second is that in all those too-many years of formal education from reception to university, there was not a single person in a wheelchair or with any obvious disability. Unless you can't glasses. But otherwise not so much as a hearing aid. And not just in the classes I attended but in the whole of those educational establishments including staff.  And it didn't even strike me (or I expect anyone) that there ever could be, at the time.

[Cudzoziemiec]

LEJOG starting in June with my brother in law. Full camping gear and no timescale. Just ride as far as we want then find somewhere to camp. Taking our time because of my PMR muscle fatigue and "bro" has only one arm.

Sounds the very best way to do it.

[Wowbagger]

LEJOG starting in June with my brother in law. Full camping gear and no timescale. Just ride as far as we want then find somewhere to camp. Taking our time because of my PMR muscle fatigue and "bro" has only one arm.

Would you like to borrow a tandem? It knows the way...

[Kim]

we were only just into the 1980s
[...]
there was not a single person in a wheelchair or with any obvious disability

At the time, mainstream schools were under no obligation to take them.  They could literally just refuse, and normally did.  No doubt Barakta will be along soon with a citation and/or anecdote.

[IanDG]

LEJOG starting in June with my brother in law. Full camping gear and no timescale. Just ride as far as we want then find somewhere to camp. Taking our time because of my PMR muscle fatigue and "bro" has only one arm.

Would you like to borrow a tandem? It knows the way...

The reason I brought a Surly LHT when I retired was for trips like this that were impossible when I was working. Please don't tempt me with other modes of transport when I get the first chance to put it through it's paces 

[Pingu]

We have three Sony radios with buttons, bathroom, kitchen and greenhouse. My wife likes them, but then she pre-dates boomers.

Those are good channels.

[Wowbagger]

Jan and I have booked a week in Pembrokeshire from next Saturday. It's at the same lovely airbnb we stayed at in April last year, in Llanychaer, not far from Fishguard. I decided yesterday to break the journey there in Chepstow, because 300 miles in one day is too much for me. We will probably do similar on the way back, but haven't booked anywhere yet.

I shall take my e-bike and have a bit of a potter, but not for more than 10 or 15 miles at a time, I think.

[Basil]

Jan and I have booked a week in Pembrokeshire from next Saturday. It's at the same lovely airbnb we stayed at in April last year, in Llanychaer, not far from Fishguard. I decided yesterday to break the journey there in Chepstow, because 300 miles in one day is too much for me. We will probably do similar on the way back, but haven't booked anywhere yet.

I shall take my e-bike and have a bit of a potter, but not for more than 10 or 15 miles at a time, I think.

You're quite welcome to pop in for a cuppa.

[Wowbagger]

Would love to!