Category: Technology

Another day in the sun – 10 March 2016

Posted on by Zogman

combo bToday started like yesterday with a search for a couple of sun beds together. We found them by the pool just outside the flat and that is where we stayed most of the day. The day began earlier with a sensible preparation for the sun. Rather than be caught out like yesterday we got thoroughly covered in sun cream. Then it was off to breakfast before we faced the sun.  The sun was not so constant today which was a blessing really because it was too hot yesterday.

WARNING!  MAY CONTAIN TECHNOSPEAK
After lunch we rested for a while beside the pool and then Scamp decided it was time for a walk. I’d said I wanted to do some painting on the dunes, so we headed up the road to the mini Sahara again. I didn’t get any painting done, but I did confirm my suspicions that this end of the dunes is a nudist beach. Couldn’t settle on a suitable spot for a painting and was getting exasperated with the camera occasionally overexposing. So started off back when I hit on the idea of doing a complete factory reset. I’d just done it when I realised that the over exposure only happened with the old kit lens. I checked it and sure enough, no matter what aperture setting I set on the camera, the lens aperture was stuck wide open. That would explain the overexposure. At least the overexposure in the camera. The overexposure of the blokes in the bushes was another matter entirely. Anyway, the reset seems to have made the E-M10 useable again.

Dinner tonight was in the Spanish restaurant where we had tapas to start with and then I had shoulder of lamb that simply fell of the bone – delicious and Scamp had salmon which apparently was quite good too. Pudding was banana flambé which was good, but with little evidence of any flames. Not like mine at all!

Tonight’s show was billed as Radio Gaga, but announce as We Will Rock You. Actually, it was better than the full length show we went to see in The King’s in Glasgow. The cast were all miming, but that didn’t affect our enjoyment. Sometimes enthusiasm is better than ability.

More pictures of the architect’s house, a desert shot and a cat for Hazy!

Old Boot – 28 February 2016

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combo bI think Old Boot was the name of the dog in the newspaper cartoon “The Perishers” away back in the mid ’70s. However, the old boot that took up most of my day today was the boot lock on Scamp’s Micra. A couple of weeks ago, with no prior warning, the boot refused to open when the release was pressed. I first thought it was the release mechanism that was at fault, but after a few sprays of WD40 it still refused to open, so it was on to the Internet to find out if any other hapless motorists had had the same problem. More importantly, had they solved the problem. It turned out that the problem itself was the microswitch in the boot handle becoming corroded or otherwise borked. Back out again and tried the test they suggested and indeed it appeared to be the switch that was causing all the bother. Nissan replacement part £95 + labour + VAT. Finally I found two useful pages on the Net explaining how to go about the repair using a Maplin microswitch costing around £2.00 Inc VAT. That sounded more like it. Since Scamp was not desperate to get it repaired pronto, I decided to wait until she and her sisters were off on holiday and do the job then. Today was that day. It was a fairly easy job, thanks to the aforementioned instructions. I only diverged a little from them in the fitting of the replacement switch. The lock assembly is sitting. on the table now neatly soldered (actually the soldering is awful – it would get you an instant fail in any metalwork or electronics course) and glued together. I’ve not got to weather seal it and it can go back on the car as soon as possible. One more Brownie Point for me.

It was a lovely bright, dry, almost warm day which is why I chose to do the job today. No point in mixing electronics and water. That’s probably what damaged the old switch in the first place. Went for a walk later in the fading light to try to get some photos with the new camera. After spending ages setting it up last night, I changed the settings, deleting all my changes – dummy! As a result, the shots are not as good as they could be. I think I’ve managed to get almost everything back again now. This camera is an amazing piece of technology, but is so easy to get wrong. One wrong button press and bang everything is back to stage one. I should know better, but I don’t. Story of my life, I think.

An Early Start – 24 February 2016

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combo bSo what of the day?  Well, it was a really early rise with the alarm set for 5.30am.  A quick breakfast and a couple of mouthfulls of tea then out to defrost the car.  It wasn’t too bad really, only about -1ºc.  It had been colder during the night, but now there were clouds hiding the moon which raised the temperature a bit.  Next we loaded the cases into the car, because today Scamp and her sisters were off to a place where there is rarely, if ever a need to defrost the cars, Fuerteventura.

I was supposed to run them to the bus station in Glasgow, but the CITRAC signs said it would be an easy 19mins to the airport, so I decided to just extend the run out to there instead.  Indeed, for once, CITRAC was right and it was a textbook run out along the motorway.  Dropped them off and set off back down the motorway again in the opposite direction.  I had expected heavier traffic heading east into Glasgow, but the gods were with me because it was far lighter than I had anticipated and I made good time back home.  I was glad I’d left the heating on.  Nothing beats a warm house to come home to.

Today DPD were delivering my new (new to me) camera.  I’d finally settled on an Olympus OM D E-M10.  Apparently:

  • D is for Digital to separate it from the old OM1, 2 and 10 film cameras
  • E is for Electronic (duh, I think the word ‘Digital’ gives the game away)
  • M is for Mirrorless
  • 10 is for the model number

Really?  Do we need all those numbers and letters?  Why don’t they just call it an OM 10D?  Olympus don’t make anything other than mirrorless cameras and compacts now anyway.  Maybe longer names make the objects look more important.  Audi seem to do quite well with one letter and a one number.

Anyway, the parcel arrived dead on the target time of 15.08.  Signed for it and carefully unpacked it – no I didn’t, I ripped off the bubble wrap and stuck the battery in it to see what it could do.  As with my other Oly cameras there were a multitude of menus to navigate.  Luckily, this one was very similar to the E-PL5 (don’t ask what the letters and numbers mean), so it wasn’t the steep learning curve I had there.  Suffice to say that I headed off to St Mo’s to test it and some of the results are show above.  Am I impressed?  I have to say yes, reservedly yes.  It’s a very small camera.  Not too small, I think, but I wouldn’t want to work with anything smaller.  I remember when the OM1 came out in the mid ’70s, everyone said it was a lady’s camera, but a few professional photographers whe were big blokes took a shine to it and it gained acceptance.  I thought it was a lovely camera.

While waiting for the new toy to arrive, I monitored the sisters flight down to the Canaries on Flight Radar 24 which gives vast amounts of information to those interested in such things.

So, the car goes in for MOT tomorrow and I’m hoping to take my mind off that by taking some more photos.  Not testing – taking.

Perth – 3 February 2016

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combo bSince it was a bright cheery day, we went to Perth. We had intended going on the bus, but going there was fine, but coming back was a bit of a hit and miss – with our luck it would be a miss, so we drove. It was a really pleasant run up the A9. The scenery with the changing light on the hills was spectacular. We get so used to seeing this scenery in Scotland and we become partly blind to it. I think it’s because we’ve had such poor weather and light recently that we enjoy the world around us when the light returns.

We had come to Perth to get coffee and tea, well, I had come for these essentials as it’s only me who drinks tea and mostly me who drinks coffee. We went for a walk along the Tay and that is where I saw the swan in a newly formed pond created by the recent floods. It was also where we saw the tower on the far side of the river. I think it was really a bit of a folly.

Lunch in Howies restaurant as we hadn’t booked Cafe Tabou so there was little chance of getting a table.

Scamp wanted to look at handbags on the way to the coffee shop and I spotted what looked like a decent pair of shoes in the same shop. Tried them on and decided on the spot that they were fine. Scamp beat me, she got a pair of shoes and the handbag. I wasn’t too bothered because I liked my shoes, they were a bargain at the price and there were no handbags that I liked. I got my caffeine requirement and we drove home, all in sunshine. It’s forecast to rain tomorrow. What a shame.

When we came home I struggled again with that bloody Nexus 7. I’ve decided it can’t be fixed. I’ve tried everything I can. I think someone has been at it before me and without knowing what they have done, I can’t undo it. I’ve learned a lot in the process though. Mainly, leave well alone when it’s been bodged by somebody else.

I’m walking in sunshine – 2 February 2016

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combo bFor a time today, the sun shone.  It was so good to walk in the sun.  After all the dull, heavy feeling weather we’ve had this winter it was good to feel the sun on your face and to see shadows.  It’s surprising just how much it means to see the effects of the sun on your surroundings.  According to the weather fairies we are to have more sun tomorrow.  Bring it on!

Went to the gym and had a play around on the machines.  I’ve still got a few to investigate and a few that I can happily discount as ‘not for me’.  Went for a swim afterwards, but the pool was busy so we spent most of our time in either the sauna or the jacuzzi.  I don’t mind, it does you good to just get out these days.

After lunch I went for that walk in the sun and when I got back one of Scamp’s friends had brought her Nexus round for me to have a look at.  The first thing I noticed was that the back of the device wasn’t seated properly, so I suspect somebody had been there before me.  Second thing was that the machine was totally dead – not even the empty battery sign which usually means it’s been left on or something has shorted somewhere.  I worked with it all night, but the whole thing is totally ‘bricked’.  A very technical and appropriate term for knackered.  I don’t see it working again any time soon.  In an attempt to reset it like I did with my own Nexus, I had to use the PC.  What a brick that is.  Windoze 10 wouldn’t start – grey screen – no message – no pointer.  Powered down, then back on – just the same.  Left it charging for about 15 minutes and a message appeared “configuring updates 100% complete”  So that’s what the bloody thing had been doing.  It would have been good of Win10 to at least give me a clue what was going on in its tiny mind.  After another 3 hard resets, it started working, though grudgingly.  That’s why I don’t mind paying the hefty price for a Mac.  It just works.  Usually.

A Brush With Art – 24 January 2016

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAFred and I went to Cass Art today for a mixed media workshop.  For once, this was a workshop which would have benefited from the wearing of industrial protective clothing like a boiler suit.  However to contradict the title of today’s blog, no brushes were used in this art class.  We did use pipettes, painting knives, sandpaper and kitchen towel, but no brushes were harmed in any way.  It seemed to be an attempt at selling the Pebeo abstract paint products we were encouraged to use by a poorly prepared and inexperienced ‘tutor’ who admitted half way through the class that she hadn’t actually used these products very much.  Hmm, as an ex teacher, I’d have to say that there were times when I ‘winged it’ through a class, but I was so much better than this – most of the time!  I got the impression that the ‘sell’ was not very successful either, as very few of our peers bought any of the Pebeo products after the class.  This is by far the poorest presentation I’ve been to at Cass Art.  As far as the product goes, it seemed that there was very little creative artistry possible with it.  Strange effects, but not a lot of control available.  The paint looked like a thinned down version of Hammerite at a vastly inflated price.  Maybe I just don’t understand this abstract nonsense art.

Once we got back and I’d had my lunch I spent the afternoon searching out the tracks from the ’70s album ‘Rockbuster’ on YouTube.  It’s amazing the amount of music that’s available there.

Today’s photo solves two problems:

  1. I had no opportunity to take any pictures today.

  2. I’d recently bought a wireless remote for the E-PL5 and hadn’t managed to try it properly.

Problem solved. Picture taken and the remote works perfectly. In case you’re interested, it’s a Pixel RW-221/UC1 Wireless Shutter Remote.  Such a pity that Oly didn’t think to produce their own remote for this excellent camera, like Nikon did.

Flooers – 21 January 2016

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You can tell when it’s been a really bad day photographically when the POD is flowers, especially cut flowers.  These ones are really quite pretty, but they still tell a tale.  It was a dismal day for taking photos.  Hardly any light from mid morning until night.  It rained all day and it was cold.  Not much to get up for really, but I did.  I made the superhuman effort and got up and went out.

I went to meet Fred who has even more to moan about than me.  He’s had to endure the pain of a failed tooth extraction and then the added misery of oral surgery to remove the root.  I don’t even think he got his tooth back so he could get a shiny new fifty pence piece from the tooth fairy.  He wasn’t complaining too much though as we exchanged comments on each others art works completed or part completed over Christmas.  That and the coffee eased the pain of his gums and my lack of decent light.

I got myself the latest Stuart MacBride book to cheer myself up.  Why is it that this book which has to be printed, bound, have a cover fitted and be carried from the printers to Tesco cost nearly two quid less than its digital equivalent from Amazon?  Amazon say it’s because VAT is added to the purchase price as the government have decided that an ebook is software.  That is a feeble excuse.  It doesn’t take a genius to work out that it isn’t software which is according to Merriam-Webster as “The programs that run on a computer and perform certain functions“.  An ebook has to be read, it does not perform any function and it does not run on a computer.  It’s time the government owned up to this, frankly, ridiculous surcharge.  Anyway, this is the second book I’ve bought this year.  Is it a sign of the times?  We will wait and see with breath suitably bated.

Snow! – 16 January 2016

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combo bA late start after the late night yesterday.  Couldn’t really decide what to do today and the weather didn’t look as if it was going to be all that good for a scenic drive.  That being so, we settled on a drive in to Glasgow and lunch there. On the way there, the snow started falling and by the time we got to Glasgow it was quite thick.  I’ve got a dream just now about getting an iMac to replace the Macbook Pro.  I asked the Apple rep in John Lewis some questions about it.  Some she couldn’t answer, some she could, but she didn’t inspire confidence in either Scamp or me, but she had a good way of moving ‘weans’ away from the expensive ‘toys’.  We walked out and down through Buchanan Galleries then down Bucky Street to the Apple store which is closing for “remodelling”.  They couldn’t tell me when it would re-open and I found that a bit disconcerting.  What I did find out about iMacs confirmed that not only did the JL rep not know much about the computers, but also she just made up some of the answers.  Why do JL employ supposed ‘reps’ from companies when these people know nothing about the products and sometimes deliberately mislead customers.  It’s not the first time this has happened to me.

I wasn’t feeling all that hungry, so we headed back to the car park, but made a detour to the JL teashop where we had a light lunch.  Luckily, Scamp had found a seat with a good view past the Concert Hall and up Sausageroll Street.  The snow seemed to abate for a while while we were in JL, but by the time we got back to the car park it was back with a vengeance.

Back home I made good on my promise and dug out the old sewing machine.  While it was not exactly the same as the one I’d been using on Thursday, it was close enough to work out the basics.  Tomorrow I’m hoping to get some 3in1 oil and get it lubricated at least and hopefully working.  Bearing in mind that this is a forty odd year old machine, for once I will have to be very gentle.  Let’s hope that tomorrow’s blog is not titled “It’s Broken”.

The morning after – 5 January 2016

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Last night after all the surgery, the diagnostics and the wee half I had to act as a nightcap, there was still one problem outstanding. One prog that wouldn’t settle down in the new ‘puter and it was iTunes. If there was one program I expected to screw up, it would have been iTunes. The worst program in Apple’s arsenal. So bad, I think it must have been written by Microsoft. iTunes simply refused to allow me in. It kept telling me I had insufficient privileges and I kept telling it I had. I slept on it.

This morning I was up at 7.00 still wondering how to fix iTunes or how to beat it into submission. This really is a dog of a prog. It needs put to sleep. I searched the internet for someone who had the same problem, but all the ‘solutions’ I read about were ridiculous (like format the disk and reinstall the system and all your apps from scratch – a typical Apple fanboy solution to everything on a Mac). Or else, I’d tried the ‘solutions’ already with no noticeable success. Then I hit on one really stupid ridiculous solution that everyone said actually worked. The page was full of ‘thank you’ messages. Here is what it said. Look for the empty ‘Users’ folder on the SSD and you’ll find it has no ‘read-write’ privileges set. Set them to read-write. It seemed a stupid thing to do. Why would you need to set a folder to read-write when it’s empty and hasn’t even been opened? I did it, and it worked. Just another of iTunes little foibles. I added my “thank you” to the long list.

It was a really, really dull and dismal day today, so after my last problem solving escapade I needed to unwind, but a walk through St Mo’s was out of the question. Scamp and I decided to go to the gym and then have a swim. The rest of Cumbernauld had decided the same thing. The New Year Resolutions (NYR) were there in force. At one point, all the training bikes were taken. I’ve never seen it so busy. That said, we still managed to get some exercise in and also got a swim.

Went to Tesco of the way home and posted Hazel’s calendar. Drove home through the rain.

Today’s photo was taken at the back door. Plants flowering in January.

Tomorrow will be better. We’re hoping to go looking for a shredder if we can hire a boat. We’ve burned out the last one. De-junking, another NYR.

Open Heart Surgery – 4 January 2016

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAScamp was out with her sister this morning which gave me the opportunity to complete the first and most difficult part of the procedure to replace the hard disk in my MacBook Pro with a solid state drive. Sounds so simple, but like all these things, it gets more and more complicated the deeper you research it. Over the last few months I’ve read many and varied descriptions of how to achieve it. I’ve watched many videos too, some very good and some downright terrible. I’ve added memory to the MBP and upgraded the hard disk too over the years, but this was much more difficult and invasive. So, this morning I was removing the DVD drive and the HDD. I’d already bought the caddy that would hold the HDD and fit into the space left when the DVD drive was removed. There is just so little space in the MBP, no room for a second HDD, so something had to go. I don’t use the DVD very much so I won’t miss it much.
Technophobes can ignore the next page and a bit as it will only give you nightmares.  Just scroll down and read the bottom bit.

I chose to do the minimum amount of disconnecting of mylar connectors as these are so fragile. Ok, deep breath, cup of strong coffee and in we go:

  1. I disconnected the battery and two SATA connectors from the motherboard, unscrewed the three black screws holding the DVD drive and gently slid it out.
  2. Next I disconnected the L shaped clip and the SATA cable and connected them to the caddy.
  3. Next disconnected the old HDD and removed it. Also removed the four buffer screws from the HDD.
  4. Fitted the HDD into the caddy. Screwed it in place and, very tentatively, slid the caddy into the space previously taken up by the DVD drive.
  5. Screwed down the caddy with the three black screws, reconnected the SATA cable and replaced the battery connector.
  6. Test number 1. Replaced the base and fixed it temporarily with two screws. Switched on.
  7. It was slow, but it booted. That’s what I expected as the DVD SATA is a slower connector than the HDD one. BINGO!
  8. Scamp arrived home, so we had a quick cup of tea – Water in Scamp’s case then headed out to the shambles that is Currys – PC World. Let’s call this the interval:

Went to Currys – PC World at Bishopbriggs where, according to their website they had the drive in stock. When we got there, there were loads of Currys personnel walking around looking busy, and all carrying bits of paper. I asked one of them if they had Sandisk SSDs and he took me to the stand for SDs. No, SSDs Solid State Drives. Oh yes, they’re down here, but they didn’t have them. I told him the web site said they had them in stock. Oh, we keep them in the warehouse. You have to order them online and pick them up here. No, sorry, I’ll go elsewhere. I didn’t go far, I just went to the checkout. Have you got a Sandisk SSD? What size? 240Gb I replied. Yes, just a minute. Just about a minute later, he arrived with the SSD. He must have run down to the warehouse got the drive and ran all the way back. He wasn’t even out of breath!  A cup of watery Costa coffee, then back to attempt part 2.

  1. I plugged the Sandisk into an old enclosure I had and proceeded to clone the OS from the HDD using Carbon Copier.
  2. Remember the four buffer screws from step 3? I screwed them into the fixing holes in the Sandisk Ultra II SSD and mounted it in the cradle, locking it down with the fixing screws.
  3. Test number 2. I screwed the base on again with two screws and switched on again. Again it booted, but again, it was simply booting from the same drive. Changed the booting drive in system preferences and rebooted. This time it booted much quicker. Much, much quicker. It was booting from the SSD!
  4. That was the beginning of the end of the installation. Or it may have been the end of the beginning. Just another four or five hours moving stuff around between the two drives and it was done.

Well, that’s the story. Really what I did was based on a book Hazy encouraged me to read, The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet. In it they have tiny little droids that they inject into the system in the spaceship where they autonomously repair and upgrade the system. That’s what I did here. I just let the Weemen read the webpage. Showed The Professor the instruction sheet from the SSD. I even asked Dennis to record the whole thing so I could pass it off as my own work They they did the rest. Simple!

You thought I’d done all that myself? Aye Right!