Cant live with them, cant live without them

Computers that is…! My second PC has had a hard disk failure this evening; this follows a very similar failure of the boot disk in my network server on Friday. Something strange is going on, wondering about electricity spikes.

How to make a bi-fold door

Installed a door for some friends in their downstairs toilet, however there is not enough room to have a conventional door, and bi-fold doors prove to be rather expensive, so I was given that task of fabricating something to work.

1. Take one solid pine internal door from the reduced bin at B&Q and one sliding door tracking system.
   
   
   
2. Cut door to length
   
3. Split door in half on saw bench
   
   
   
4. Trim each half to the desired width, taking an equal amount off each half to keep it even
   
5. Install tracking system

Hey Presto a Bi-fold door for £10 rather than the £70 to buy off the shelf!

Well, maybe it was not that easy, but all in a weekends work! The problem with this is that you find modern doors are not made to the standards the once were, although the outer edges of the door we purchased were square, once we got back home, and I started to cut it up I soon found that the internal sections were not square to each other, this did cause some problems, but I think you will agree that the finished

Turning, turning and turning

Just a little something I knocked up on the lathe. A lamp made out of the wood from a friends Cherry tree I cut down last year.

The wood was still rather wet and in need of more seasoning, so microwaved it in short bursts of low power, which seems to have worked.

The bit of wood was stunning, you can’t really see from this picture the grain and pattern in the wood. Already have several orders for more! So looks like I will be spending more time on the lathe for a while which suits me!

Innocence and Pure Evil

The horrific news of the toddler, who was abducted, attached and raped, drives me to write a few words. It is incomprehensible what that young girl and her family must now be going through. Such a sick and horrific attack of pure evil which one could never understand. Scaring a young innocent life, cruelly snatching away the joy of infancy from such a sweet child.

For what it is worth, my thoughts and prayers are with you.

Is Time Constant?

Okay so this might be far too technical and of no interest what so ever to many readers of this blog, but hey… I’m going to write it anyway.

As you will probably already know 2005 was a second longer than 2004 and a second longer than 2006 will be. At the stroke of midnight on the 31st of December a second was added to co-ordinated universal time (UTC). This is not the first time that a leap second has been added to a year, actually since 1972 there have now been 23 seconds added to time.

These seconds have been added in order to keep UTC in step with solar time or the earths rotation. Time has to be added due to the slowing of the earths rotation due to tidal friction and other planetary effects.

This raises two questions in my mind… The first being, the fundamental building block of all scientific understanding is that time is a constant. Is this really the case? If one takes solar time as being the constant then the slowing of a planets rotation indeed shows that time is not actually a constant but slows over time.

The other question it raises in my mind as a programmer is how computers deal with time. In programming we calculate times in seconds since the epoch, in the case of UNIX this is Jan 1st 1970 00:00:00 GMT

Since there have been 23 leap seconds since 1972 and a computer calculates 86400 seconds per day (60x60x24) this must mean that these calculations are now at least 23 seconds out. This of course does not matter for many applications as they are not time critical, and of course this is not a hard thing to correct, knowing how much time has been added or synchronizing with time servers, but I wonder how many time critical applications are now 23 seconds out. Yet one more thing for us poor programmers to remember!

Is Time Constant?

Public Service Announcement - How to use a Roundabout

Ok so I said that there might be the odd rant, well I guess I did well, two days in, the third post and here it is!!!

It never ceases to amaze me how many people simply do not know how to navigate a roundabout, it surprises me to think that these people actually did pass their test in the first place.

So I thought a little Public Service Broadcasting would not go amiss for all those people who unfortunately, when learning to drive, missed the part in the highway code that explains what they should do at a roundabout.

Please read:


When reaching the roundabout you should:

Give priority to traffic approaching from your right, unless directed otherwise by signs, road markings or traffic lights

Check whether road markings allow you to enter the roundabout without giving way. If so, proceed, but still look to the right before joining

Watch out for vehicles already on the roundabout; be aware they may not be signaling correctly or at all look forward before moving off to make sure traffic in front has moved off.

Signals and position, unless signs or markings indicate otherwise:

When taking the first exit signal left and approach in the left-hand lane keep to the left on the roundabout and continue signaling left to leave.

When taking any intermediate exit select the appropriate lane on approach to and on the roundabout, signaling as necessary stay in this lane until you need to alter course to exit the roundabout signal left after you have passed the exit before the one you want.

When taking the last exit or going full circle signal right and approach in the right-hand lane keep to the right on the roundabout until you need to change lanes to exit the roundabout
signal left after you have passed the exit before the one you want.

When there are more than three lanes at the entrance to a roundabout, use the most appropriate lane on approach and through it.

Taken from highwaycode.gov.uk 2006


Come one People it is not rocket science!

Annus horribilis

Last year seems to have been a long one, one full of change and challenge. I think the Queen memorably said in her Christmas speech, when talking about the death of the late Princes Dianna and all that surrounded the royal family at that time, that 1992 was an Annus horribilis. For those of you that don’t know Latin! Annus horribilis literally translates into ‘A horrible year’ apparently it is a pun on annus mirabilis, which is the opposite meaning ‘a year of wonders’.

2005 has in many ways been an Annus horriblis for myself, family and friends. It seems that there has been so much bad news, sadness and illness.

The unfortunate change of circumstances for my parents, a change of jobs and starting out on a fledgling new enterprise has not been helped by father being laid up in bed for the past 2 months with back trouble and hernia; The closure of DDM auction rooms and the loss of jobs for three dear friends Graham, Linda and Rob; continued bad health for Bernard who seems to have been up and down all year; the concerns over another dear friends health and the prospect of a fairly major operation in the new year along with the loss of her job, Lian is coping remarkably well.

The global news has not been great either, the year started with the horrific scenes of the tsunami, no words that I can come up with can add anything to all that has been said on this subject. The out poring of generosity left me with mixed feelings, comparatively we gave so little, but it meant so much, if only we could extend this further and wipe out the inequality once and for all.

The July bomb attacks in London were a wake up call for all, the society we live in should not be taken for granted, nor should we feel so arrogant about how we live. Maybe if we took the time to look and understand how others in the world community live, what they believe and be more tolerant of that, understand the disparity of wealth between the west and those living in true poverty in many other areas of the world. Then we could show willing to help those people making the world a brighter and safer place. I think Sir Bob Geldof put it best when he said “It is intellectually absurd and morally grotesque that people should die of want in a world of surplus.” (From www.bobgeldof.info) It is time we woke-up the reality of this inequality and did something about it. The Live 8 concerts and the Make poverty history campaigns, we I feel a positive step in this direction, but while enjoying the omissible, never to be repeated (well… that’s what they said last time!) rock concert we should always remember to question why.

The continued troubles in Iraq are of course great concern, the pantomime trial of Sadam Hussain are an embarrassment to justice. He should be charged with crimes against Humanity and be tried at The Hague.

There have been more personal matters… but that would just bring the level of this blog right down into depths of depression, so perhaps we should look at the positives.Progress has been made on friends James and Lynnes house, new windows, new roof, new kitchen, decoration and garden trees! There is still much to do next year, and be sure dear friends I will be there to help, the fireplace and surround is my priority for this year! The engagements of Andrew and Naomi and Paul and Helen are great news indeed. Some would say about time! However I can’t really talk can I? The birth of Luke early in the year to Simon and Brenda, and seeing recently how much he has grown is wonderful.

So all in all perhaps not an Annus horribilis but a heady mixture of ups and downs. Next year will be a good one, there are already positive signs coming through.Here’s to the New Year, hoping it will be a good one for all.

First blog!

Well this is the first in what I hope will be many blogs. Not quite sure what this blog will contain, I want it to grow organically over time to suit the current climate.

It will generally by my thoughts and musings on various topics, I guess there will be the odd rant and possibly ideas and items for discussion. I welcome all feedback so please do write.