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grendel

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Posts posted by grendel

  1. The gantrys and cameras are already there, just as you are dropping down into the tunnel, and just before exiting the bridge.

    if you keep abreast of the news for the crossing you will have spotted that the charges are indeed going to rise over the next few years (locals consider this a bit of a betrayal really as many years ago it was promised that when the tunnels had been paid for, they would become free of charge, then the bridge was built, and once again the same promise was given, then the crossing was sold to a private consortium, and all bets went out of the window. when you think about it the new system will be simpler, faster, and more convenient (rather than fumbling in your pocket to find change) but then again all the existing staff are going to lose their jobs, as they wont need people to man the toll booths.

    For the road changes, eventually the booths will go, and be replaced by just 4 lanes of traffic, with an changeover set of lanes so that they can close the bridge in high winds and use one tunnel each way.

    as you see here - blast cant seem to add a link - its 50p more for cars and vans and an extra £1 for lorries as soon as the new system comes in ( for the over 130,000 vehicles per day!!)  that's well over £ 1/2 million a day at the moment). the link is on .gov.uk .

    still at least its still free overnight.

    as for the queues, they have already dismantled the end two booths each way at the auto tolls, its just a metal frame at the moment (obviously preparing the way to open the road through the tolls) that was done earlier in the year.

    Grendel

  2. MM one of my Bosses (an electrical engineer and senior authorised person for HV cable installations), managed to nearly lose his finger when working on his car, the screwdriver he was working on one battery terminal with, shorted to the other via his wedding ring, very rapidly the ring got very hot. it had to be cut off (the ring) and he was lucky that he hadn't cauterised every blood vessel to the end of his finger or he would have lost it.

    That said - one I learnt last night - don't trust anyone who tells you that a battery terminal  is either positive or negative - always check, I went out late last night to help a mate who had broken down, when connecting the jump leads I connected negative to the one he told me was negative, and positive to my car battery, then to the other terminal, cue big fat yellow sparks, no I wont connect there - checked terminals, and yes he had told me the wrong way round, reconnected correctly, ah yes little blue sparks as I connect - that's better, much more what I expected.- yes He got home safely.

    Grendel

  3. if you think thats bad, I have to go through / over twice a day to get to and from work, yes I have a dart tag, which will automatically carry over to an account. the way I see it is that it will work the same as the congestion zone in london, you go through, you pay. companies will be easier as they can just list all of the company vehicles on their account.

    Grendel

  4. As I said with builders on building sites, the videos are made humerous, this is because the 'guys' on the site remember them, they will have a laugh, and if they see anyone doing something wrong, will correct them using humour recalled from the video.

    when you bear in mind that some construction workers can have volatile tempers, humour is probably the best way of handling this.

    Grendel

  5. the reason for that is flourescents flicker at 50Hz, if you are running a motorised item and it is rotating at 50hz or a multiple of 50hz, it can appear stationary, thus you can reach out to the stationary object and get mauled because it is really turning. incandescents take time to warm and cool so dont flicker as such, so rotating machinery still can be seen to rotate.

    you should still be able to get 100 and 150W bulbs for this too.

    I still have my floodlight and some spare edison screw 400W bulbs for it too (the bulbs are about 5" diameter too.

    Grendel

  6. to this day my metric ruler is still called my stick of inches. compact flourescents are as bright as the old bulbs - eventually, after they have warmed up. it was the delay between switching them on that always got me. flick the light switch, stride into the room, trip over the cat just as the dim light appeared. we now use LED bulbs at a lot less wattage for the light output, but these bulbs have a narrower cone of light than incandescents did. for some applications this is ok, all the 40w spotlights in the kitchen are now LED, are brighter than before and what used to be 8x 40W is now LED at a total 40W for the lot.

    if your choice is 15mm ply  or 12.7mm then 12.7mm is the old fashioned 1/2 inch - that said I remember when you used to by plywood, by the number of ply's

    3 ply (or about 1/8") 5 ply (about 1/4") 9 ply (about 1/2")

    nowadays that's all gone by the wayside, as plywood is two thin layers of ply with one or a few layers of 'wood' between, the stuff between is not even decent wood, it has gaps and such.

    18mm is the old 3/4" ply (13 ply) equivalent.

    Grendel

  7. nowadays most building sites have an induction before the person is allowed on the site (all elf and safety related) part of this can be a safety video, everyone who goes onto the building site has to sit through this and then sign off to say they have done this, how about as part of the initial handover (perhaps in the waiting area, you could have a safety video on a continuous loop, if this was also humorous in nature, the message would probably sink in a little better, then as part of the handover the odd question about something in the video could be asked.

    it could be relatively simple, covering which side of the river to drive, what to do at bridges, oh my god that sailing ship is using all the river, what do I do, how to go round that yellow post, and even the chain ferry.

    maybe a 5 or 10 minute video on a continual loop. maybe even a couple of videos, either using actors, or a cartoon.

    just a thought really.

    Grendel

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