oldgregg

Only just seen this thread but if the dash features the same display I saw on Serenade then I know what you mean about the graphics. It's quite an innovative thing for a Broads boatyard to be experimenting with more modern instrumentation, but I think for a number of reasons they may have been better to buy off the shelf components rather than try to roll their own. The original implementation I saw was running on a Raspberry Pi and had been built by one of their engineering team. I would say that's quite an ambitious approach and could cause maintenance issues down the line, particularly if that member of staff leaves the business. I think the Broads is actually lacking a solution for hirefleet tech so I'm not totally opposed to the idea (though I'm not about to outline the full solution here ) - But it needs to be robust and the user interface needs to be up to scratch.

Dare I say it, but often it's a good idea to restart your device completely every so often.

Indeed, though I do wonder why not use OSM given that one can contribute to and enhance it.

It's the maintenance that will be a pain in the bottom with an App. Don't forget that you'll also need to pay Apple £79 a year to run a free App, and have a Mac running a currently supported version of macOS to build and upload it from. An App requires a decent level of skill to get onto the store in the first place, and then it needs to be kept up to date. Fail to keep up with the maintenance required by Apple and Google, fixing bugs raised in reviews etc and it'll be pulled from the stores. It's hard work, I can assure you. I look after nine of them, one of which has been number 1 paid app in the UK. While a website is more likely to be hacked, a simple static site is much less of a risk and simpler for the average person to maintain and update. My personal opinion would be that the industry wants us to move more towards Apps for that very reason.

It's clear how much work has gone into this! I think it has potential as an App (with the content available offline!) but I also think it does work well in paper form because a low-tech solution that has no dependency on devices is always good when boating. A PDF that gets updated regularly is a much simpler thing to maintain than a website, App etc. There are a few people on here with design and typesetting skills so you might find a GD willing to help with layout, spacing, colour contrast etc.

Yeah, I did think it was a bit odd. The turn of phrase was very specific, to me it implied that the individual knew less than they were making out.

I see that there is a potential buyer. If it does indeed happen (and of course buying a Boatyard is not as simple as buying your lunch), then I think an owner who is actually interested in running a Boatyard would be a very good thing for that site.

Does anyone remember this guy? https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/dec/05/youtuber-jailed-after-staging-plane-crash-to-make-video-trevor-daniel-jacob The YouTuber who had the misfortune of suffering an engine failure on his light aircraft and had to bail out. Lucky that he was wearing a parachute and had a fire extinguisher strapped to his leg under his trousers..... It wasn't long before people analysed the video and suggested that the FAA got involved. He got six months in prison for staging the crash.

Indeed. And this is why there is so much clickbait on YouTube. There's lots of "You won't believe what happened" and "My latest car purchase was a huge financial mistake" titles on Videos, with the bigger channels also able to add a custom thumbnail of them holding their heads in despair. It's aways a good way of spotting the dullest videos where they were scraping the barrel for ideas.

I watch a lot of YouTube, particularly car and photography content but a fair bit about boating. Not so much about the Broads though. But I don't really watch any of the Broads 'influenzas' any more, they're all just producing the same stuff year on year. New faces and channels come along but it's just exactly the same formula rehashed again and again and again. Someone sent me a link to the Ludham Bridge video person the other day. It was something like a 15 minute edit of just boats coming up to the bridge, some getting through, some turning round. I skipped through it, to see if there was anything interesting... Spoiler alert but there wasn't. I get that sensationalism is easier and to make genuinely interesting content requires real talent and a lot of time and effort and therefore genuinely interesting content is going to be rare, but it's good to see there are still a few people about doing that.

Oh I didn't say they were any good.... Those approved repairers are often pretty terrible. It's more the case of they have to replace everything which is damaged rather than skip stuff which you or I would think is okay to leave. It's more about 'well, the insurer is paying' than actually doing a good job. But of course a 'specialist generalist' repairer is never going to have the knowledge of a brand specialist. It's all really broken.

Unfortunately, having worked in the industry, I don't think you're too far from the truth. I get that the repair prices are high because insurers need to use approved repairers who meet a certain standard, and for the work to have a warranty etc. They also aren't allowed to compromise on repairs, again for example if a door was heavily damaged but there was nothing else apart from some very minor marking where the door had brushed against the closure then you or I would just replace the door and ignore those tiny scuffs. Insurer-approved repairers aren't allowed to do that and so a perfectly good car would be written off. The example I have cited happened to Mrs OG when she was hit by a third party and we settled for pretty much market value plus the car back as an unrecorded write-off. I found a replacement door for less than £100 and never did spot the marks that the car apparently had. There's something very wrong with the insurance industry.

I didn't realise it had closed, bit of a shame if so as it seemed to be a useful resource. The shop stocked the sort of stuff one tends to forget and the cafe was a handy breakfast stop. I've not stopped there since before covid, but I was talking to the owner back in 2019 and it did seem to be very much a lifestyle decision to be there.

Everything I've heard about the NDR from people in infrastructure seems to suggest that the Western Link was always planned, but that the council knew they'd never get the cost approved to build it in one go so they split the project into two. The overall cost of doing so (allowing for inflation, analysis etc) is almost certainly going to be more but that's public sector procurement...

Take this with a massive pinch of salt because it's from those talented folk at Archant. https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/local-council/20769218.controversial-175-000-bat-bridges-ndr-work-surveys-reveal/