floydraser

The cynic in me thinks there may be £millions to be made by carbon offsetting. Serious question: is that figure constant or is it proportionate to fuel consumption? A 1 litre car uses less fuel when driven carefully on the motorway, but considerably more when driven hard in town. Not all the fuel is burnt efficiently.

Does "carbon neutral" mean you pay extra and the money goes into a fund where a subcontractor distributes the money into climate saving projects? Probably.

I can see that all large organisations and businesses will be asked what they are doing to limit their impact on climate change and "nothing" will not be an acceptable answer. They will all tick this particular box in a variety of ways, to our amusment and cost no doubt. Small World Consulting is Mike Berners-Lee's set up. I wonder if he's trying to change the World as much as his famous brother? Looking at the website, there are photos of his team of "consultants". I have trousers older than most of them. So people travelling to and from the Broads produce the most CO2 do we? Guilty as charged. I therefore hope that one of the above consultants live with their parents in Norfolk and work from home; Small World Consulting are based in Lancaster. I normally come over in the Corsa but if I use the Volvo I'll feel guilty if it helps. I hope the next financial report shows how much SWC are getting paid. I think any "consultants" should have to explain how these figures are produced, not only because we have the right to know (especially if it results in us having to pay more in some way to "offset" the effect of something) but also for any future legal disputes. I hope SWC produce figures to show how much CO2 would be produced by the manufacture and installation of new power units compared to the amount produced by the vehicle during the rest of it's life if unaltered. We should all be aware of what causes climate change and take it onboard when making decisions about what we make, buy and use. But I'm afraid "encourage" probably means some kind of financial penalty is on it's way.

You should have asked them to turn it up then.

Absolutely, but when the mist comes down you just can't see it!

Thanks for that, but I'll probably fall over the first time I go in, as I try not to trip on the step which I hope is no longer there??

Lake District Weather Warning: It can be dismall any time of the year! In bright weather there is no better place to be but I feel sorry for anyone who goes for the first time just sees mist.

The entire Lake District is dog paradise. Don't want to hijack the thread but from Keswick there's the old railway walk - flat, about 4 miles each way or you can walk around Derwent Water - about 11 miles. If you're fit you could do Catbells but you'll be looking down on the RAF as they practise flying through the passes.

For anyone with a soft top I recommend a trip to His Majesty's Lake District and a drive through the Wrynose and Hardnott passes. We had an Astra convertible and a general rule was that the top comes down if the temperature gets above 12C. We were there one March and it was 6C but we went over anyway, top down. From East to West frightens the living daylights out of your passenger and as you reach the top, for a few seconds all you can see is a windscreen full of sky. Nice views but don't look down!

We have two smart meters, not because we believe in them but because we never heard anything to put us off the idea. And they were free. We had the electric one first and it was a novelty to see what everything used; it made us think but that's all. Since the gas price went through the roof I have used the gas one to monitor actual usage and then the reaction to any changes I make to boiler and theromstat settings. We are now (according to the meter) using 50% of the amount of gas we were using 12 months ago, month to month. We don't have the meter remote screens on all the time, most of the time they're chucked in the cupboard. Are we saving money? Probably not, but then it's hard not to get political. Oh and another thing: Every month I have to submit my own gas meter readings because they can't collect the information themselves??? If I hadn't got them I wouldn't go out of my way to get them.

I asked my contact who works in the industry for an opinion on this. He said we have a connection with France to import electricity but the French have said, "Non!" for this winter. He referred to Gridwatch too but couldn't say whether or not there would be cuts. So my conclusion is that if anyone knows for sure, they're not telling us.

Corsa passed. My Volvo XC90 (5cyl diesel) had it's first five services for £500 as part of the purchase deal. The quote for the year after was over two grand! They said it was due to it being due for a timing belt change at 60K. Volvo say it's good for over 100K. Quite common for Volvo main dealers to claim this.

I agree with everything you wrote. Within a healthy walk there is a decent adults only caravan site and on the outskirts, an antiques centre. A while since we went but one really good feature was a minor narrow road where the locals had erected full size images of children on boards (I think?) along with their own 20mph speed limit signs. Very effective.

My thoughts too, and then shoving sheets of ice into the river flow where the casual boater may not see them. Enless they have Kate Winslett as lookout.

Doesn't the potential damage caused by the broken timing belt depend on whether or not it's an "interference" type engine? Ooh er, Missus! So if there's no chance of the pistons clobbering the valves you'll get away with it. My little diesel 1.3 Corsa was struggling this morning, it has a timing chain and 90,500 on the clock. It was -3C and booked in for MOT so I had to start it. Mis-fired and sounded like a tractor for a bit but soon settled down, then three times round the village before taking to the garage.

I did wonder about this. Yesterday morning I had a temperature of -4.1C in the boat, today it's warmed up a bit to -3.1C. Bilge heaters on. I imagine there must be ice in the marina (Brundal Gardens) but probably not on the Yare itself. I've asked the question on the marina FB page. I have little experience of this but is it possible chunks of ice could get into the main river?

But even now, plenty good enough and fast enough for writing which is what I got it for and the previous owner too. I also have a few floppy disks and USB drive for them so reasonably practical.

As some of seem to be drooling, here's some more porn for you... I took these pics ready for Ebay after Christmas.

These days we talk about fake news and misinformation. Nothing new there; it's what killed off our nuclear industry and now we're paying for it in many ways.

Maybe we should also celebrate modern technology (when we're not cursing it! ). Not so long ago you wouldn't have been able to see anything of him for weeks. Congratulations, Christmas just got more expensive...

Sometime aproximately between 1974 and 1979 I had to photograph a big old computer which was being decomissioned from the nuclear industry (when we had one, don't get me started). I remember it taking up a whole room, something like an Argos store: with a counter, operatives behind, and then instead of rows of products, rows of wires, relays, valves etc. No tapes. I think it use punch cards. The man in charge also looked the part in his suit and sporting a huge handlebar moustache. My memory wants me to say it was called a Vulcan. I just wish I'd kept a copy of the pics.

In my experience buying equipment from the far east is fine if you are prepared to check a few things: Look over visually for faults. Test it if possible before fitting. If you have the means and the knowledge, strip it and make sure it's been put together properly. On my first pillar drill they hadn't cleaned all the sand from the main casting, just next to where a bearing was fitted! We stripped my milling machine on arrival to find the main shaft bearings were way out of alignment and that horrible waxy "grease" they use was very sparsely applied. The far east have though, improved their customer service in the last few years and they seem to value a good reputation so they are usually keen to sort out any problems. A lot of them have depots over here now.

The pic was taken earlier in the summer. The crew and I removed the cover and all the bits propping it up, then fitted the mast.

Sorry, forgot to put that in, it's Windows 3.1.

After the discussion about old systems on the Windows 11 thread I thought someone may be interested in this Toshiba T2100CS laptop from around 1985 I believe. After years in my attic it still fires up, tells me the cmos battery is dead but carries on. Got a lovely Targus case too.