Reply to: test please delete

[NickFitz]

Tonight's viewing was both the Hinkley Point programmes. Interesting stuff

And I found time to book a Sainsbury's delivery for tomorrow afternoon, to save me the bother of going there in person

Better get to sleep now. I hope I wake up feeling better than I did this morning

Goodnight all

[ladymuck]

I didn't get back up to the high street to pay for my shoe repairs so hopefully they haven't been binned and I can pay tomorrow instead.

Watched the second episode of building Hinkley - a big crane moves a thing around. Followed by Oak Island - more swamp diving.

I then came to a realisation that I might not have seen the final of Great British Photography Challenge so I watched that. HWMBO assured me we watched it together last week but I only remember bits of it.

[NickFitz]

Tea has been chicken madras with rice and naan, and very tasty it was too

[NickFitz]

It's always surprising when that happens.

Did you get the Reginald Molehusband feeling?

I got the "That's definitely a good point to stop for the day" feeling - I'd already got up from the desk than gone back again "just to check if {thing} would work" twice by then

[DoctorStrangelove]

There was one bit left to do which seemed as if it might turn out be pretty complicated. Instead, it took about ten minutes to add it, so I must have done something right

It's always surprising when that happens.

Did you get the Reginald Molehusband feeling?

[NickFitz]

It's turned out to be a very productive day today, much to my surprise

Our app needs to be able to provide a feed of all its data in Activity Streams 2.0 format, for reasons, so I'm working on that at the moment. I have the source code for another team's implementation, but I figured ours didn't need to be as complicated; also, there seems to be a fair bit of code duplication spread around their various data models. Not necessarily anything wrong with that, but I had a feeling there was a better approach to be found.

And lo! By dint of making judicious use of some new Django features combined with a bit of lateral thinking, I now have a generalised implementation of the stuff necessary to construct the stream, which should work not only for the present but for any future models added to the app. It uses only documented interfaces, rather than relying on implementation details and hoping they don't change, and to be honest I was surprised that I got it working at all, never mind managed it so quickly

There was one bit left to do which seemed as if it might turn out be pretty complicated. Instead, it took about ten minutes to add it, so I must have done something right

[DoctorStrangelove]

Don't I had to present some stuff part of which my boss had helpfully written. Guess which bit broke last minute?

Ah yes, the Kiss of Death.

From my experience:

The DF920 loop disconnect dialler chip from Siliconix: the memory, as designed by the Director of Engineering, just keeping his hand in, like: proved to be Write Only: ooops.

A HD6303 data terminal with associated touch screen: the only 63 pin quad flatpack layout ever seen on a pcb: rather than using a footprint the thing was laid out a pad at a time by the boss, and despite me going to extreme lengths checking the fecking thing, I never thought to check the pad count, so I was ever so pleased to find this out when 100 pcbs came back (he never bought the usual 5 engineering samples most places do), so it had green wires all down the side that had a pad less than it should.

It did work, but it nearly got set on fire when the battery shorted out, fortunately the burns were all inside the case.

It went from concept to a working thing for an exhibition in 6 weeks.

I got made redundant a couple of weeks later, thanks Phil.

Oddly I didn't get £700/day for any of that.

My bestest feckup was the replacement IC for a display backlight: it was a 20 pin SSOP so I assumed it was 25 thou pitch, which it wasn't, it was one of the very few metric pitch ICs: about 40thou pitch.

The 2nd attempt the pcb layout guy used a 50 thou pitch, which was also wrong but usable if the leads on the chip were bent a bit.

I think it took three iterations to get it right, then they obsoleted the IC.

But by that time I'd been made redundant so I didn't give a tulip.

[vetran]

Morning all

It's a lovely morning out there. Sunny, dry, blue sky with fluff. Currently 14 degrees with a high of 20 expected. No rain forecast. Barometer up to 1022 mBar.

Having done feck all for two days, I really feel like I ought to do some work today.

Today's Kantar diary fact is:
Yellow balls are used for the first time at the Wimbledon Tennis Championship to aid visibility 1986

Don't I had to present some stuff part of which my boss had helpfully written. Guess which bit broke last minute?

[ladymuck]

Lunch was a couple of well buttered toasted crumpets, to use up the packet.

A brisk walk was had to the high street to drop off a load of shoes for repairing. I didn't realise that Timpsons don't take Amex so I'll have to go back up there after my 1430 meeting ends to pay for it all.

Busyness: quiet but all of a sudden people have been bringing in three pairs at a time

[NickFitz]

Lunch was a bowl of last night's chicken, tomato and lentil soup with wholemeal bread. Turned out very tasty again

[ladymuck]

And the feedback problem that was plaguing my right ear in particular is now completely resolved

[NickFitz]

Town has been been to, specifically Specsavers. My ears have had the wax sucked out of them with a small vacuum cleaner, and then a hearing test showed that my hearing hasn't really changed in any significant way from last time, three years ago. And I was praised for how clean I keep my hearing aids, meaning they didn't need to be "serviced" at all, a term which it was strongly implied usually meant "cleaned of the disgusting filth people allow to accumulate on them"

And the feedback problem that was plaguing my right ear in particular is now completely resolved

Turns out it takes me about twenty-two minutes from here to the Clock Tower or back again, which is not a bad pace. That's via Castle Gardens, the Castle Motte, Castle Yard, and then the Cathedral grounds, which is not only the most scenic route but also turns out to be about the quickest

And, of course: green ring closed

[ladymuck]

Morning all

It's a lovely morning out there. Sunny, dry, blue sky with fluff. Currently 14 degrees with a high of 20 expected. No rain forecast. Barometer up to 1022 mBar.

Having done feck all for two days, I really feel like I ought to do some work today.

Today's Kantar diary fact is:
Yellow balls are used for the first time at the Wimbledon Tennis Championship to aid visibility 1986

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

Struggled to get up this morning, due to feeling most unrefreshed by slumber. Not sure why, as I don't recall any difficulty sleeping or troubling dreams. Feel pretty rubbish now; let's see if coffee helps

Sunny start out though, currently 12°C and heading for 21° this afternoon; barometers up slightly at 1016/1024mB

Off into town later to have my hearing fettled. Makes a change, though they could at least have kept the weather cool for me

[DoctorStrangelove]

Morning.

Up again up again jiggety jig.

Dry.

Sunny.

CBS.

Chilly in here at 18.9 deg.

1021.5 mBar, 30.16 in Hg, 66% RH.

Wednesday.

Walk walked in the blazing sunshine.

Could have done with to keep the flies away.

Very annoying in places.

Lunch: poached tomato and scrambled egg on Morrisons sunflower & pumpkin seed toast (I think the toaster is getting a bit enthusiastic, it was the black side of brown), a red/purple pippy corner yog, bramble jelly sandwich on oat & barley bread, 0.91 pints of good Gengettie tea.

Washed the shelves in what passes for the kitchen, though I didn't bother with the top one since one can't see the dust & dirt on that.

Freecell score: 93%, running average 84% (83.96%).

Tea: the last (thankfully) of the roast beef with carrots & onions, some tinned fruit (undetermined at this time), a yog, 0.91 pints of good Glengettie tea.

Entertainment: Discovering someone Jack Palance on Sky Arts.

Burning Sky on PBS at 20:30, being the story of the first 2nd high yield thermonuclear detonation, being Castle Bravo which ran away to 15Mt coz Lithium 7 is rather less inert than they thought it was.

Prog is about the USM security on the USS Curtiss, the ship that carried the weapons and the scientists to the Marshal Islands for the tests.

One chap who is reanalysing the photos taken at the time has reassessed the actual yield as up to 22Mt.

The last bit of Dr Pimplepopper (which I've seen before).

Detonators wherein tulip gets blown up.

In other news, it's been raining.

After all of which it'll be TFBSDrS, perchance to dream, and hopefully not to wake unbidden yet again at fecking sparrow fart.