The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.

[ian]

I can only solve problems with software. Hardware is someone else's problem.

[Beardy]

I can only solve problems with software. Hardware is someone else's problem.

As a thought leader can you not just explain to the new wire why it wants to be behind the units and plugged into that socket just there.

[Kim]

All of this is vastly superior to the socket-behind-the-appliance approach, which is the sort of thing that seems like a good idea when a malfunctioning appliance is Somebody Else's Problem.  We have an extra-annoying variation on that: Washing machine power and plumbing are behind the washing machine, removal of which depends on the removal of the fridge.

But then the whole kitchen is composed of disintegrating landlord-quality crap, flung up without a care for how any of it might actually be used.

[ian]

My main gripe though was that my wife assured me – and indeed got quite annoyed when I said 'are you sure?' – that there was no plug for the dishwasher in the cupboard so I had to pull out the dishwasher to find out that she was in fact very wrong. Now she's claiming it's at a funny angle so she couldn't see. It's there, in the cupboard, clearly visible to anyone crouched and looking into the cupboard. 'Well, you should have looked yourself then.' Married life, kids.

[Mr Larrington]

Teachers (or their minions): is it really wise to corral your charges in the bike path* when decanting them from a coach?

* Yes, I know, but my (lack of) speed up that road is an embarrassment to cyclists in general and me in particular.

[Beardy]

So I’m lying here unable to sleep because I’m worrying over a technical problem on my website build. I therefore decided I needed to listen to a ‘sleep tape’ but I find I can’t because I am unable to get sound to get sound to come out of my earbuds. Even though I was awakened an hour and a half ago by them playing in my ears.

Irony is alive and well   

[T42]

My solder sucker has done a bunk.  Last used two years ago.  Insult to injury: I found the spare nozzles. 

[Beardy]

Sucking solder is so 20C. Solder wicking is where it’s at these days.

 

[mrcharly-YHT]

Sucking solder is so 20C. Solder wicking is where it’s at these days.

 

If you can get lead-free solder to wick.

[Feanor]

Sucking solder is so 20C. Solder wicking is where it’s at these days.

 

If you can get lead-free solder to wick.

A syringe of flux goes a long way to helping with this, also adding a touch of fresh solder before wicking helps.

A proper desoldering station with a vacuum pump sucking up through the tip of the iron is a good but expensive solution too.

[T42]

Sucking solder is so 20C. Solder wicking is where it’s at these days.

 

Ah, but for auditory satisfaction the click-thunk of the sucker is hard to beat.  Ditto the fun of unscrewing the end and flicking the wee balls across the room.

And the good news is the sucker crawled out of the hiding-place where it had been all along in my toolbox, under a wallet of tiny Prisunic screwdrivers my kids gave me 40 years ago.  Could have sworn it was blue last time I used it, but it's purple now.

Now where have I heard that before?

[Wombat]

Fortunately ours have a couple of guys who each pull along a wheely bin into which they empty the food waste caddies. Then the wheely bins are tipped into the truck.

That what ours appear to do. I'm not one per cent convinced they don't wait till no one is looking and empty that bin into the main rubbish lorry.

I know ours behaves themselves, and stop the vehicle at each house, and methodically empty each bin/box/caddy into their multi compartmented truck.  Its various recycling every week, and rubbish every three weeks, but half the time we don't bother to put the rubbish bin out because it takes at least 6 weeks to fill it.  We have ours separated into cardboard/paper, plastics (not film, which we do need to take to the recycling place every 3 months or so), glass, and food waste.  Tin cans go in with plastics because they separate that easily.  We live in the middle of nowhere, but we do have one next door neighbour, so that's probably the only instance on their round where the truck only moves 15 metres or so between each house!  However, its taken 4 years to get Powys CC to start to clear our road drains which we actually know haven't actually been cleared for 12 years, so its highways nil points, and recycling 9/10.

[Kim]

Sucking solder is so 20C. Solder wicking is where it’s at these days.

 

If you can get lead-free solder to wick.

A syringe of flux goes a long way to helping with this, also adding a touch of fresh solder before wicking helps.

A proper desoldering station with a vacuum pump sucking up through the tip of the iron is a good but expensive solution too.

Between lead-free solder and plated through-holes, the only reliable way to de-solder things these days involves generous application of a) hot air  b) flux  and  c) harsh language

The odd occasion where the solder sucker does the job on its own is cause for celebration.

[phantasmagoriana]

I finally managed to find (thanks, DC Rainmaker!) a way to get my basic Garmin watch to display power data from the Stages indoor bikes at the gym I've recently joined, so that I can laugh at the pitiful handful of watts I produce these days. Except they've moved the bikes around this week, and the one I thought was synced to my watch no longer is. Now I have some other random person's power data attached to my last few rides.

[Kim]

I finally managed to find (thanks, DC Rainmaker!) a way to get my basic Garmin watch to display power data from the Stages indoor bikes at the gym I've recently joined, so that I can laugh at the pitiful handful of watts I produce these days. Except they've moved the bikes around this week, and the one I thought was synced to my watch no longer is. Now I have some other random person's power data attached to my last few rides.

The computer I use on the Red Baron is a relatively rare beast, in that it's a non-GPS bike computer that uses proper ANT+ sensors that actually work (small, coin cell powered, basic trip computer functions, easy to read display, you know the sort of thing).  In order to conserve power, it stops listening to sensors that haven't produced any data for a few minutes.  Fair enough.  However, this timeout is cunningly hard-coded to be slightly longer than a really slow traffic light cycle, but slightly shorter than it takes for the BHPC to stop faffing about at the start line and begin a race.

Which wouldn't matter (much) if the key combinations for "reconnect to sensors" and "pair new sensors" weren't easily confused.  I've spent a substantial part of more than one race watching someone else's [probably John Lucian, seeing as you're always sucking his wheel - Ed.] speed/cadence data as a result...

[Mr Larrington]

In my racing days I used to get interference from some heinous rival's HRM, with the result that mine shot up to about 340 rpm on the start line and stayed there.  It also used to go bonkers in the vicinity of a certain breed of TfL bus.  I ended up buying a new on, made by Not-Cateye

[Kim]

340BPM?  Sounds like Mike Burrows...

[ElyDave]

That's normally indication of impending failure of a Garmin HR strap.

[Beardy]

I think a HR of 340bpm would be an indication of impending heart failure as well, so a chest strap borking would be a bit of a relief   

[Pedaldog.]

340BPM?  Sounds like Mike Burrows...

What... Sounds like an arrogant, self important Pillock?

[Mr Larrington]

Mr Burrows eventually persuaded himself to give up racing against young whippersnappers (like Kim ) after his heart started red-lining for no readily-apparent reason.

[Pedaldog.]

He should've tried to make it pump blood to BOTH sides?

[perpetual dan]

Photographer of music events. Your auto focus beep is way more annoying than your shutter during quiet, contemplative music. And surely no use to you when the later bands reach 100dB. Please switch it off. (Another member of the audience did ask, and he stopped taking photos for a bit.)

[Wombat]

Photographer of music events. Your auto focus beep is way more annoying than your shutter during quiet, contemplative music. And surely no use to you when the later bands reach 100dB. Please switch it off. (Another member of the audience did ask, and he stopped taking photos for a bit.)

Any halfway decent camera is capable of being totally silent.  Obviously you have the minor limitations of using electronic shutter, but these days that also has advantages.  I've done this at music events myself.  Of course if you persist in using an olde worlde SLR with clunking shutter and mirror, then you'll never be silent.

[perpetual dan]

Photographer of music events. Your auto focus beep is way more annoying than your shutter during quiet, contemplative music. And surely no use to you when the later bands reach 100dB. Please switch it off. (Another member of the audience did ask, and he stopped taking photos for a bit.)

Any halfway decent camera is capable of being totally silent.  Obviously you have the minor limitations of using electronic shutter, but these days that also has advantages.  I've done this at music events myself.  Of course if you persist in using an olde worlde SLR with clunking shutter and mirror, then you'll never be silent.

Indeed. And, without having checked the spec, I'm confident that it (a Sony SLR shape with added vertical grip) could have both muted the beeps and used electronic shutter. He was there as a photographer, on the guest list, so there's really no excuse.

As you say, electronic shutter works quite well. And mirrorless cameras don't have a mirror to flap about. I really ought to try taking my own camera along sometime (rather than just use my phone mid-dance) - though I'm never sure how welcome that is with the organizers.