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Somebody recently asked me why I drive an automatic car. It’s a strange question, to me. A bit like asking why I have a colour TV. The roads would be safer if all vehicles were automatic, of course. No risk of stalling half way out of a junction. No need to take one hand off the steering wheel all the time. More attention available to deal with hazards and to control the speed and direction of the vehicle. … more → On 31 October 2003 I was one of 10,000 spectators who waited patiently in the cold at Manchester Airport to watch Concorde G-BOAC land for the very last time. Today I went on a Technical Tour of that same aeroplane which, after five years standing out in the open, is now housed in the Concorde Centre. (Whilst this purpose built hangar protects the iconic plane from the wind and rain, it is unheated. The seven of us on our tour were bitterly cold for most of the 90 minute experience. If you are considering a tour, wait until spring!) … more → We have been getting used to our new central heating system since the controls were all wired in a fortnight ago. I took a wrench to the hall radiator valve and adjusted it right down, which has solved the issue of a hot hall triggering the new wall thermostat and consequently preventing the boiler from warming the rooms. I thought that was the end of our problems, but
… more → We had a new gas boiler installed today. The old Vulcan it replaced was simple and reliable but it sent a lot of heat up the flue (more on the flue later). It also heated up the cellar which did at least give us a laundry drying room. The hot water storage cylinder in the loft also got replaced – with one encased in foam lagging so we no longer have to have a pile of old blankets and duvets on top of it. The flue was attached to the back of the house and ran right up beyond the eaves. Being made of asbestos,
… more → I have some posts here with pretty ancient dates. A recent upgrade of WordPress introduced a problem with pre-1970 dates, which started to show as today’s date. An appeal on the WordPress forums produced no solution, and I had assumed that I would just have to put up with it, because very few bloggers write posts with dates in the 1960’s. But today I did another search for a solution and discovered
… more → This year marks the tenth anniversary of Catch-22 author Joseph Heller’s death. In his satirical novel, the central character is faced with absurd military bureaucratic rules based on circular logic. I think the late Mr Heller must have had a hand in drafting the building regulations which apply when you have cavity wall insulation.
… more → Ever been asked to say your email address (as opposed to typing or writing it)? How did that go for you? Not straightforward, is it? When people choose an email address they don’t consider how easy it will be in the future to impart that address orally to someone else. So you get addresses like
or
You have to describe such addresses, with a high chance of something going wrong in the process. The random digits are usually offered by the system when you set up your email account – presumably because there are already 122 customers calling themselves ‘kool-dood4u’ or whatever. So it occurred to me that
… more → I have had the same photograph on show at home in a simple gilt frame for probably ten years. Recently I replaced it with a Samsung SPF-83H digital photo frame. So now I can enjoy an endless slideshow of all my favourite pictures which hitherto have been locked away on my computer waiting for the day when the hard drive fails. Does this new abundance of images bring me greater pleasure?
… more → The speed camera near us has recently been dismantled. As I am one of many motorists who has been caught by this particular camera over the years, you might expect me to rejoice at its removal. Particularly as I have made my views clear about our surveillance society. I have noticed one or two others have gone too. What’s going on? As it happens, I am an enthusiastic supporter of speed cameras for
… more → My wireless connection problems are (almost) over. The folks at Asus offered all manner of laborious solutions to the notorious “pending …” problem on my Eee PC, and they even took it back for repair. Nothing worked – I simply could no longer connect to my WiFi router using WEP security. I was left with a simple choice.
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