Modern Times

[Techno]

Looks like you need a puss tat, should relive that problem.

When we used to have lots of cats, they used to get virtually all of the smaller ones. (Along with a lot of the wildlife we wished they hadn't gone after.)
The bigger ones were a different matter. The cats wouldn't take those on.

The Labradors catch the odd one of those, as does the little collie.
The rest I usually  have to use the pop gun on. 

The bigger vermin are real neophobes, and won't go near snap traps, unfortunately.

Cheers - Phil

[FierceKitty]

Apparently you lot have a rent-a-cat app available:
http://www.theweek.co.uk/63501/rent-a-cat-app-lets-londoners-borrow-rodent-catching-moggie

No longer in business. Maybe too many weren't coming back from Chinese customers.

[SV52]

Beg, borrow, steal or buy more jumper cables and join them together; garbage bags are good insulators for the joins.  Had to resort to that once, long, long ago.

[d_Guy]

Actually a very good idea, SV25. Had not considered that, got to focused on beating the machine into submission. 
Have just gotten the new battery. Way to cold to work - maybe tomorrow or Monday. Since we have my old run-about - not to critical.

On a completely separate thing, SV52, I'm now working on Flodden and enjoyed looking at your work on your blog. 

[d_Guy]

Was warm enough Monday (28 F) that I was able to fix the car. On-line manuals and YouTube be blessed!
I enjoyed the funny comments  here

Yesterday evening - Windows 10 updated (it has been flawless since early Nov.) - now have "blue screen of death".
I shan't recount all the things I've done to try to recover. MS is trying to add a security layer for the "Meltdown/et. al" Intel architecture exploit.
I have 2010 machine with AMD chipset - which is now not compatible with Windows 10 - what was a perfectly good machine yesterday is now door stop. I'm going to put an old SCO-UNIX on it and use it as a local server (maybe). modern times!

I still get CERT alerts - but no longer read them - If I had done - I could have avoided this - my bad!

[fred.]

It's not going well on the modern tech front!

There is a known issue with AMD win10 and the patches for the latest processor issues. Didn't pay too much attention as I no longer have any AMD kit. Unix sounds a good idea.

[Techno]

I had a 'tech' problem yesterday, too.

Popped a few CDs onto iTunes on the PC....Plugged the iPod in, to transfer them....all seemed to work as normal....Then found EVERY single song on the iPod had been deleted.
"There is a fault (on the iPod)" said the PC...."Would you like to fix it ?"

Yes please......Fault says it's been repaired....."Format iPod".....(OK)

Plug iPod back into PC.....The PC tells me there's a fault on the iPod, again.

Went through the same process....and then again, two more times, before deciding the iPod had died.

I'll get a new one on the Argos card.......Have to save some pennies to get the dead iPod checked over by a repair centre I've used before.....And if it's worth repairing, I'll get it fixed.

Sympathies, Bill !

Cheers - Phil.

[fsn]

Dear Techno.

The 2010's are calling.

The iPod is sooo last decade! Before diving into an iPod, I'd look at other options - perhaps an iPad or a Kindle. They can play music and do so much more.

The Kindle will read books to you whilst you putty about.

[SV52]

Actually a very good idea, SV25. Had not considered that, got to focused on beating the machine into submission. 
Have just gotten the new battery. Way to cold to work - maybe tomorrow or Monday. Since we have my old run-about - not to critical.

On a completely separate thing, SV52, I'm now working on Flodden and enjoyed looking at your work on your blog. 

Enjoy yourself with Flodden.  The bit I liked most was the research. The new additions to the Renaissance ranges will result in much better looking armies. One difficulty I had was choosing a figure ratio which looked reasonable for the disparity in numbers without having to paint too many Scots pikemen.  Take care which Surrey banner you choose as the one carried at Flodden was different to that after, since Henry VIII awarded an 'augmentation' to the arms following Surrey's victory.  If memory serves it consisted of a small rampant lion with an arrow in its mouth placed on the upper portion of the white bend.  Sadly I lost all my heraldic records and flags in a disk crash 

There's a guy called Ray Rousell did a lot of work on Flodden as well, his blog is at http://onelover-ray.blogspot.co.uk/

[d_Guy]

@Fred - my wife is looking into NFS apps for our iPads - if that gets sorted, a Unix server for file storage will work.
Dug out my old lap top (Windows-XP) fired up fine and I'll only put it on local net so MS can't get a hold of it. It has an early version of Corel photoshop (which I need for my blogs) - it can handle NFS so this all MAY work.

@Phil - thanks! I totally 2nd fsn suggestion - I use my iPhone (kindle and Amazon Music player). We have "unlimited" which means we get bunches (billions!) of albums and books as free downloads - this came about when my iPod dies two years ago. Incidently IIRC you made the jump to win10 - the win10 emergency patches MAY be the iPod problem  - it came on in pieces - and some non-Microsoft peripherals became flaky. My first clue was my Verbatim external drive was no longer recognized - "out of date driver" windows said. I took that as gospel and was trying to sort it out with Verbatim when my machine went blue screen. The Verbatim works fine with the aforementioned XP machine!

@SV52 - thanks also - I had recently seen Ray's blog - lots of Flodden flags - sorry you lost your research - madding!
After strong misgivings - I am backing my stuff up on cloud (although "Meltdown" might be a BIG problem for cloud servers!)

[Techno]

@Phil - thanks! I totally 2nd fsn suggestion - I use my iPhone (kindle and Amazon Music player). We have "unlimited" which means we get bunches (billions!) of albums and books as free downloads - this came about when my iPod dies two years ago. Incidently IIRC you made the jump to win10 - the win10 emergency patches MAY be the iPod problem  - it came on in pieces - and some non-Microsoft peripherals became flaky. My first clue was my Verbatim external drive was no longer recognized - "out of date driver" windows said. I took that as gospel and was trying to sort it out with Verbatim when my machine went blue screen. The Verbatim works fine with the aforementioned XP machine!

Hi Bill...I had wondered whether this 'patch' had done something ! (Having seen your post....and some reports on the net.)

I haven't let Apple update the 'pod' for a long time..(If it ain't broke, don't try and fix it.)...Until yesterday, when one of the repairs told me that I was up to date on the iPod....I'll probably find out if that's the case when I send it off to be repaired (if it's worth it !)

I DID go to Win 10.....But only for a couple of weeks, and then paid some techy person to put it back to 8.1.....BUT I believe that 8.1 PCs are going to be 'patched'....But nothing further back than that.

Too late !!.....'Fraid I've already gone and bought another iPod....Which looks like it's got oodles of features that I'll never, ever use.....Even a camera. (Bit of a waste that, as it'll never leave the house, unless (until ?) I get another stay in hospital. 

Not going to play with the 'pod' until the weekend, when I've got more time to swear at it.....and export the thousands of songs still on the PC.

'Bout time I backed up all my stuff onto the two externals. 

Cheers - Phil

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Phil, NOONE with any computer skill ever ever backs anything up, they just tell other people to do it !!!

[Techno]

Phil, NOONE with any computer skill ever ever backs anything up, they just tell other people to do it !!!

Yes, Ian, but you KNOW I don't have any computer skills. 

Cheers - Phil

[urbancohort]

 

There was a time, long ago now, when one could repair ones personal conveyance with little more than a screw driver, a crescent wrench, and a gutsy feeling about how things probably worked. This is now far from the case. My wife's five year old car died yesterday. Original battery coupled with sub-zero (F) temps killed it.

It is parked, nose first, in a carport by the side door. No possible way to get jumper cables to it. It is keyless, computer controlled and locked in park, so sitting there like a slab of granite, a very cold slap of granite. When you look under the hood - nothing but a collection of black boxes of various sizes and shapes -  identifying the battery was not trivial. Got it right on the second try. Volt meter reads 0.00.

Switching batteries used to be simple. Not now. Started the old fashion way - two hours later, with frozen hands, finally got the tie down strap off but still could not shift it. Finally resorted to looking at repair manuals on-line (the horror!) It seems that I have to disassembly the windshield wipers, fluid reservoir, upper engine cowling, lower engine cowling, battery rear cover (ah hah!), then I can remove the battery. In addition to a few tools I do have, I will need a clutch head screwdriver and two metric socket sizes I don't have (they'll be here Saturday from amazon).

Rooting around in my neighbors garage we did find one of the sockets so I got the wipers off - but then darkness fell and the wind picked up. There was now hoarfrost in my beard.

This morning talked to automotive supply - they have had a serious run on batteries - they'll have one for us by Saturday morning (they hope).

Apparently yesterday was our "warm" day - so may have to wait until Monday (it should then be a balmy 25 F - think I'll wear shorts ) in order to work. In the meantime this has cut into my painting time - which is tragic!