Nothing In Particular

[Mike H]

[Ray P]

I've posted about the Aluna project before but the website is a lot more complete now - I think it's fascinating stuff - if you scroll down to the list of supporters at the bottom you'll see both the UK Hydrographic Office, which is where I work, and HM Nautical Almanac Office, which is a team I line manage. The HMNAO team are providing astronomy data to the project. In case anyone is wondering what the Nautical Almanac is, it is a set of astronomical data that enables ships to use celestial navigation in the event of a GPS outage and it's carriage is mandated by international law.

https://alunatime.org/

[andrew Ivimey]

Thanks for the pointer on walking app. Ray it looks good and works.... but on Sunday we two strode forth over the hills of the Shire, here in Beds. In three pockets with three different android phones, two running ridewithgps and one the walking app. They all worked but needed a wifi source to save the walk. They recorded very different distances + to - 10 per cento, or 20 % difference. What is a poor boy to do?

[Ray P]

And while I'm being a bore and posting about where I work, here's a short promo video about the work we're doing with a new international standard for maritime charting data. In the second half of the video the people sitting in front of monitors are close colleagues who work in the same group as me - they process and cleanse the terabytes of point cloud data that comes in from multibeam sonar surveys.

[Ray P]

What is a poor boy to do?

Well Andrew, I guess you have two options;

• accept the tolerance of the smartphone app-based system

• throw money at the problem and get a precision tracking system

Personally I would go with the former and, for walking, use MapMyWalk as that's what it is designed for.

[andrew Ivimey]

Its defo worth chasing down. There is a subscription? What do I get for my shekels?

[Ray P]

Its defo worth chasing down. There is a subscription? What do I get for my shekels?

I've never paid a subscription as I only use the basic version, which is fine for my needs. There is a paid version that has some extra features and is ad-free if that's what you need.

[IslandPink]

...strode forth over the hills of the Shire, here in Beds.

Hills in Bedfordshire ? - whatever next !

[Greg]

Well you could research it for yourself, n’est-ce pas.

Also look at online Ordnance Survey. Multiple functions with your phone or tablet on all OS maps for about £20 a year including printing any map you want. I don’t often pay for online services, but this is one I consider very good value.

[Neal]

Visit to the dentist yesterday, what a joyful experience. I lost a small part of a very old filling a few weeks back, lower left molar and went back to have it drilled out and replaced with the modern 'glue' they use now. Flipping heck, I thought he was drilling to the centre of the earth! He was being thorough but boy did it go on for ages, had to have a second injection part way through....tooth is fractured, caused but he old style filling but he was happy with the new one. If I feel pain for no apparent reason in the tooth then call him as it could be the nerve dying off and I will need root canal work and a crown.... Such fun.

[andrew Ivimey]

Terrifying! I feel for you Neal. Since I was nine Ive been to the dentist five times when they did something and once when they did not. I prefer 'did not'.

And so to Mapmywalk. It wont let me enter my height & Weight. I didnt know them in metric when asked and I don't seem to find a way back home to that.

Looks good though on the flat in the Shire. Mapmywalk tells me I live in Bristol though - odd ....

Mr Mann's CDs arrived just before I left the Towers of west Bedford. No time, no time.

[Ant]

Been doing work on the 2 chassis for daves 300b amps this week, which has turned into a series of unfortunate events
First thing to do was to plane the stock down to the right thickness, so got the planer/thicknesser out.
Which promptly popped a bearing on the bottom shaft....
Luckily, there is a bearing factor near here, so i got a new bearing and a puller off them and fixed it.
Took all day but eventually i had the boards planed.
Next was to rip it on the bandsaw. Which predictably was out of adjustment again (it is old). An hour lost there, but we then had the required blanks.
Next was to cut them to length, abit oversized. So out came the mitre saw. Luckily, i always have a look at the blade condition before i use it, because it had a spider of cracks around one of the expansion slots. Never seen this before, and it is a bosch multi material blade, not some generic cheap one.
Not wanting to risk a face full of shattering saw blade, a new one was ordered. In the mean time, i thought id run the blanks through the router table to joint the blanks to the proper dimensions after just cutting to length with a handsaw.
Setting it up, noticed a chip out of the new bit in it. Looked for another bit, but anything useable was old and dull.
So made a trip to screwfix, and predictably they didnt have any individual bits in stock.....
So i ended up having to buy a trend set with the one i wanted in it..
Next ballsup, the chassis requires a rebate in the top for the schaeffer panels dave had made to fit in.
In order to mark it up for the mitres so the panels fit properly, the mitres have to be 600 mm apart at the front of the rebate. This is 12mm wide. So i needed a marking guage to....well....mark it. I did have one, i still have one, but it has vanished. Into the ether. Its as if it never existed.
Hopefully mi dad has one. Otherwise thats something else to replace.
Along with the new saw blade, the new router bits, new bearing, new puller........
Just one of those weeks....

[pre65]

I did have one, i still have one, but it has vanished. Into the ether. Its as if it never existed.

Welcome to my world.

[shane]

I don’t play golf. I don’t watch golf. I don’t even like golf much, but this is amazing.

[Ant]

Mi dad didnt have a marking gauge. Either that, or his has done the same disappearing act as mine...
Thats the most probable explanation.
So another trip out, this time to toolstation. Where i am, there is a screwfix and a toolstation next door to each other which is handy, if one hasnt got something the other usually has.
So i got one, only 6 quid, but another afternoon wasted.
Its taken 3 days to get 6 blanks.......
At least the new saw blade arrived while i was out.