December 2016 – Fooyah

December 31 2016

Travelling The South or Why Isn’t Anything Open?

After seeing Rogue One (again) Mr O and I decided to visit a military museum. Rather, what we did was use the POI thingy on the Sat Nav and it came up with the Military Museum in Aldershot. I’d never been to this garrison town before and it is something to behold! Plenty of red signs everywhere.

We journeyed from Guildford to Aldershot. The road was a curious one making its route atop a ridge.

After arriving at the museum we noticed the gates were locked shut. We weren’t that far from a set of armed guards securing the base itself so we tried a search for something else. This time we checked the website to make sure it was open. Off we set for Tangmere Museum. It would appear the Mr O misread the website as it clearly states it opens in February. But, we weren’t aware of that and so drove to Tangmere near Goodwood.

Along the way we saw many lovely countryside sites with layers of fog which, if we had a decent camera, would have been great photos. It was very picturesque. Except for one bit. We had seen a race course on the top of a hill and we were discussing whether it was Goodwood or not and BLAM. The sun was directly in our eyes along the line of the road. I came to a halt. I couldn’t see shit. The sun was literally in line with the road.

We had to try and drive for about 200m without being able to see. I found that if I moved my head so the door pillar blocked the sun I could just make out the left and right sides of the road. I still couldn’t see anything in front but we ambled along and hoped that someone else would stop if they were coming the other way. It was a curious experience and one I don’t really want again. We should have made a note of the time because there would be a decent set of mathematics to be done to check where the sun was and how much it aligned with the road. If I had the inclination we could probably work out where and what time just from the facts I have already said.

Another set of locked gates indicated closure. Bugger. All we wanted now was a cup of tea and some cake. We knew Goodwood circuit was nearby and so we drove to that. Everything there was also closed. The day had turned out to be a series of closed places that we wanted to visit. We had to drive back to (near) Reigate for a cuppa.

The journey itself was fun, interesting and a delight. It’s just a shame everything we were trying to see was closed.

December 30 2016

Rogue One (2)

Well, this is definitely a first for me. Re-reviewing a film. I wrote about this film in this communication. I stand by everything I wrote in that. However, I enjoyed the film much more the second time around. Perhaps I had already accepted all of the annoying things and just wanted to enjoy the film. I still think it’s worth a 6 on the IRPFS.

I rated Rogue One (2016) 6/10 #IMDb https://t.co/kZhNMLvUin

— Ian Parish (@iparish) December 19, 2016

I watched the film this time at the Odeon in Guildford with two old friends. One of them reads this shoddy site, the other doesn’t. It was very nice to see them both. We went to a ten o’clock showing of this film, which was very similar to seeing it the first time. I wonder what it is with middle-aged men that we go to see films early in the day? I think it’s because we have other responsibilities and aren’t allowed out in the evenings because then bad things can happen!

What do you do after a film when you still have spare time? Go to a military museum, obviously.

December 30 2016December 30 2016

Lego 42 Model 76045

I think this is the last one of the Lego Season. This is a Batmobile and some baddies.

And here he is coming for you!

December 29 2016December 29 2016

Lego 41 Model 60119

Another in the series of “Lego Season”. Here’s a Lego City Ferry. It’s a nice little model, though not that little.

It is well worth the build:

December 29 2016January 4 2017

620 nm

I took a jaunt out into the local countryside yesterday and it was good.

The weather was cold and slightly misty which made the whole Downs to Medway area look lovely. Here’s a photo over the vineyard looking south.

While running down the Downs I noticed the lovely view of the sun reflecting off the new bridge which I have mentioned a few times within these communications.

There were some lovely scenes where the sun reflected off the river Medway the whole vista was calming and stunning. Later on there were some wisps dangling from the clouds. Now, like most of my photos the thing I am looking at isn’t always the thing that ends up being the focus of the photo. That’s probably what separates me from a proper photographer, that and I used my iPhone!

December 29 2016December 28 2016

Lego 40 Model 75152

‘Tis the Season of Lego. Another model for you to peruse. This time it’s a Star Wars thing. I will admit that I am not boned up on Star Wars vehicles, perhaps I need some more Top Trumps cards. Most of my early knowledge of planes and vehicles came from Top Trump cards.

December 28 2016December 28 2016

Lego 39 Model 60044

This is the second Lego season model made. It’s from the Lego City series which is one of my favourite. I like Space, Technic and Lego City the most. I do need to get in to the computer controlled stuff one day though.

The sides open and give an internal view of the command centre.

Can you spot the prisoner in the cell? [far right].

Check out the coffee machine and radar system:

December 28 2016December 29 2016

Lego 38 Model 75116

Of course, it’s that Lego time of year. So, here is the first in a series of Lego models created.

It’s a Star Wars character. Today I would like a Princess Leia version, because sad shit has happened.

December 24 2016

Hacking The Car

I recently purchased a new (ish) car. The name of the new vehicle has yet to be decided but some things did need to be sorted out.

As a safety feature the car beeps an alarm inside the car while in reverse. There aren’t parking sensors so this was purely to warn the driver that you aren’t going to move forward when you depress the go pedal. This beeping was annoying. Googling around soon led to two potential ways to fix it.

If the Prius is pre-2010 then you can use the following method:

Step 1: Depress the brake pedal and hold it there.
Step 2: Press the Start/Stop button to turn on the engine.
Step 3: Push the Odometer button. Push the button on your dash designated Trip/Odometer until “ODO” is displayed on the screen. If it is already displaying this, you will have to cycle through the options to refresh it by pressing the button a total of three times.
Step 4: Press the Start/Stop button. Press the Start/Stop button to turn off the engine of your Prius.
Step 5: Press the Start/Stop button again. With your foot still on the brake, press the Start/Stop button again, and your engine will restart.
Step 6: Push and hold the Odometer button: Push the Trip/Odometer button again and do not release it.
Step 7: Press the park button. While still depressing the Trip/Odometer button, put your Prius in reverse, then immediately push the Park button. Do not release the Trip/Odometer button until this is complete.
Step 8: Push the Trip/Odometer button. Instead of the usual miles traveled on the odometer display, there should be the text “b on.” Push the Trip/Odometer button until the dashboard displays the text “b off.”
Step 9: Press the Start/Stop button again. Press the Start/Stop button again to turn your Prius’ engine off. The reverse beep is now disabled, and you will not hear it again in future trips.

This, I think, is the car equivalent of ctrl-alt-del and using reg-edit and BIOS simultaneously. Now, I can follow instructions, but I wasn’t looking forward to doing this. My car is registered as a “59” but apparently it was a 2010 model as when I looked under the dash there was a OBD2 connector.

It turns out that car manufacturers have standardised the laptop connections to the car and its CPU. This makes sense and it also allows people to connect their own devices and customise or fix or break their own car.

So, I invited a friend over who ~~tries~~ does hack his own car and attempt to improve or fix it. He has a Bluetooth and WiFi connector and I downloaded the Carista app on my phone. After connecting the adaptor to the car and then getting the phone secure connection running the app decided to run some diagnostics tests.

After a short while I was able to pay for a week’s subscription to the Carista app and then able to change the settings.

My car no longer constantly beeps when reversing. It beeps once. Which is good.

I also turned off the seat belt alarm. That would beep constantly too if the driver didn’t have a seat belt on. I always wear my seat belt so this noise isn’t needed either.