Tag: penguin

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My Dear Watson

After a particularly hard day cooking a very slow roast pork shoulder and then being requested to just cook normal stuff the next day my oven stopped working. I did wonder why it was taking ages to heat up and it slowly dawned on my that something was wrong. I did some googling and it seemed the best thing to do [given all other parts of cooker worked including the oven fan] was to remove the heating element then checking the continuity of it.

Burnt out
Burnt out

I didn’t really need to check it, but I did just to make sure. It was fucked. I ordered another from PartMaster and it arrived a day later.

There are two types of element fittings apparently. The simplest can be removed and fitted just from the front of the oven/cooker and therefore can be changed with the whole unit in place. The other type requires the entire cooked to be removed, a back panel taken off and screws the found. Guess which mine was? The bloody second!

Complexities
Complexities

This is the back of the cooker. What a pain to get this thing out and the new one fitted. Once it was in place and the gubbins all put back the oven was tested and it worked! I’m pretty happy. Once oven fixed for around GBP55 and one day’s wait. I felt quite smug and pleased after this.

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Anthems

A NFL backup quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, has been shat on by the country of the USA because he failed to stand up while the national anthem was played before a game. He was protesting something, here’s a link. It would appear that you can say things but refuse to stand for a song and everyone hates you.

I don’t stand for the national anthem. I’ve been to sports events, NFL, at Wembley Stadium and I have remained seated during the national anthems. This is mostly a recent decision and by recent I mean over the last ten years. We stand to show respect I think. But I don’t know what I am respecting. I certainly don’t love this country, I don’t know what I would be loving. I don’t see why standing is a protocol.

On certain events at work we will sing the national anthem. I don’t. We also have a song associated with work. That I do sing. I can see that community in a more tangible sense, I know what it stands for, I know the history. I feel it’s a community I am a part of and can be involved in. I don’t really see that with the country.

I don’t see why I should have to stand. I don’t do it as a protest, I do it because I don’t understand patriotism and I don’t understand the values of a country.

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3Teeth – Electrowerkz

Popped over to Electrowerkz last night to see 3Teeth play. There were support bands but I didn’t watch them due to spending time in the bar chatting to people. The support were:

  • Stereo Juggernaut
  • Deadfilmstar
  • Ventenner

3Teeth were on from 22:00 hours and I was quite impressed. They played a solid set. The first three songs were probably the best and I am sure that once they have created more music the rest will be as strong.

3 Teeth
3 Teeth

Oddly I got admonished by a man for talking too loudly in the main performance room! Very strange, the sound of the band was perfectly loud enough!

There’s a couple of gigs coming up soon so look to see what I think of them.

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Bad Moms

Took a trip out to the riverside down at Rochester last night. A good way to avoid the heat is to go to the cinema. Two hours in a nice air-conditioned room being entertained. I went to see Bad Moms and rated it afterwards on IMDB, please see this communication regarding my rating system.

Right, this wasn’t a critically acclaimed film. But I laughed at points and I didn’t hate it. It has Mila Kunis in it! I haven’t seen any of the other “Bad” series, I don’t even know or care if they are made by the same people, but this one cheered me for a short while.

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Aerial

A short while ago my proper aerial turned up for the ADS-B system I have running in the loft. See this communication and this one also. This new aerial means I should have a better receiver based in the loft. It is currently picking up 47 aircraft flying within range and the Virtual Radar Server gives the following as a webpage output:

VRS3

There is a sidebar which connects to the web and gives me information about the selected aircraft and the others flying within range. This does not show all aircraft, only those with an ADS-B transponder. I also supply my data to a MLAT service for 360Radar.

The above photo shows the system in the loft. The white stick is a surround for the aerial. This connects to a dongle which connects to a Raspberry Pi3 and this, in turn, connects wirelessly to my home network.

I know you really want to know about the splat so here they are. Firstly one from before the new aerial.

Constriction
Constriction

Here’s the latest, all altitudes are in one colour.

splat4

The range is a bit better with two very odd pips into central France. The following is a colour one for you mammals out there.

splat5

The next thing is to try installing a purpose made ADS-B USB stick. After that I think I will stop. It appears to be one of those “who can get the best splat” things online and I’m not interested in taking part.

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Location, Location, Location

I have been to the Lake District a few times and every time it stuns me as I drive from Penrith to Keswick. I went to see a friend of mine and he said he had a good activity for us on the Friday!

Our task was to walk around the Keswick end of Derwent Water and find the locations where three of the four clips were filmed. They cheated a bit in the film because one of the backdrops was filmed from the Lodore Falls end of the lake and then made up to be from the north end of the lake [naughty!], this is the location we didn’t try to find.

The first scene backdrop we looked for was filmed near the transmission tower to the edge of Keswick. It’s labelled in the clip as “Flying Southwest from Castlerigg over Great Wood”, TS00:21. The screenclip below shows the approximate position of the filming location as it was taken from a helicopter.

The second filming position occurs at TS00:41 and is labelled “Looking Northeast Near Brandelhow Point”. This one was filmed from a static camera and so was easier to pin point from where it was filmed.

The last filming location we looked for was the attack on the pub-by-the-lake. Its labelled in the clip as “Looking Northwest from the Shorline West of Crow Park”, TS01:13. We found this spot on the shores of Derwent Water.

Fortunately for us, Marc had a good knowledge of the area and also an iPad with the Star Wars film and the YouTube clip. Also, his dad is a Lake District expert, being on his third time around all the Wainwrights.

The next morning I had a run and much like two years ago my aim was to run up a mountain. Clearly I chose one of the smaller ones and I toodled up Latrigg.

I did enjoy it although I headed around the town afterwards as an extra as although the climb was hard work I had rested plenty by the time I was down. Here’s a panorama I took once at the summit of Latrigg.

Shortly after the run I drove back home. My plan was to cross the Pennines, turn at Scotch Corner and follow the A1(M), but I missed that last turning and so did most of the M1, Oh well!

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Europe

I will soon be heading off to Europe for a weekend of music. I’ll be heading to Hanover for a German goth music festival.

Hanover
Hanover

It’s quite a long journey, but one I am looking forward to very much. I always find the journey to be a lot of fun. Obviously not as much fun as actually getting to your destination but still a major part of the whole experience.

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NW-SE

I have noticed that I have decreased range in two directions on the ADS-B receiver.

There's a waist!
There’s a waist!

Because the colours represent the ranges at different altitudes I’ve got a version with just one colour.

Constriction
Constriction

This one shows a clear restriction in range in the NW and SE direction as marked by the red line. I do not know what is causing this but I have an observation to make. I live in a row of terraced houses and the direction of the road matches the constriction direction. While the aerial is in the loft there is extra “stuff” in the way in these directions because of the houses next to me.

Terrace
Terrace

I’m pretty sure this matches up. There is definitely a correlation. Whether that means there’s causation I don’t know but it seems reasonable. I might write a communication about altitudes and the natural obstructions around me [I’m looking forward to the maths involved].

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