Category: Technospeak

A Posh Lunch – 11 March 2017

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp had booked us a posh lunch today at the Blythswood.  It was an Itison voucher lunch, but a posh one, none the less.  This was our second posh lunch this week.

As it happened, neither of us were over impressed with the Blythswood or the lunch.  Now don’t get me wrong, the food was good, just not great and the surroundings were nice, just not all that impressive.  Maybe we are being over critical or maybe places like this aren’t trying all that hard for the voucher brigade.  I don’t know what the answer is.  The food was Smoked Hake starter for Scamp and Chicken Liver Parfait for me, followed by Chicken Supreme for both of us.  Like I said, good but not great.

After lunch we got the subway out to Byres Road and walked through the Botanic Gardens which are celebrating their bicentenary this year.  Usually we just walk through the Kibble palace, but this time we took in both glasshouses.  Oh, it was almost like being back in Trinidad with the heat and the humidity.  However, alas and alack, when we came out it was just Glasgow humidity.  It was raining.  Not heavy rain, just a Scottish smir.

We thought we had nothing more to do than dodge across the street and go for a drink in Oran Mor.  Unfortunately, that was not to be.  The place was mobbed.  Not a seat to be had anywhere.  Most of the punters seemed to be engrossed in Scotland getting gubbed by the english again, at rugby this time.  Instead of a drink, we walked down Byres Road and got a piece of Tuna for tomorrow’s dinner, then got the subway back into town and walked up to get the bus home.

Just as the driver started the engine, I saw this wee wummin running across the road, arms outstretched like a scarecrow, carrying two bags in one hand and one in the other, trying frantically to catch the driver’s eye.  As he put the bus into reverse to exit the stance, I saw her visibly deflate as she realised that she had another 30 minute wait in front of her, because he wasn’t going to open the bus doors.  I don’t know what she said, but I’m sure it wasn’t “Oh dear”.

<Technospeak>
Back home, I think I’ve parted company with Dropbox.  It seems that my temporary term with 10GB of storage is rapidly coming to an end and the 2GB I’ll have in a week or so just won’t cover my requirements.  So I have to move my backup to Google Drive which generously gives me 15GB.  There is a ‘but’ and the ‘but’ in question is, ‘but it is the very devil to set up’.  I’d read up on it last night and didn’t understand a word.  Tonight I found a YouTube video explaining in words of one syllable how to do it, so I got started.  After an hour and a half of setting up a project, getting a ‘secret’, authorising it, failing, authorising it again, failing, resetting my ‘secret’ before authorising again and this time succeeding, it now seem that I have a new home for my WordPress backup.  I felt a bit like the wee wummin.  I had just thought I’d caught the Google Driver’s eye, but then he pulled out of the stance.  Never mind, it’s done now and I hope the wee wummin is home with her three bags full.
</Technospeak>

Today’s photos are from the Botanic Gardens and also a couple from Tobago.  You see Hazy, Shug and Tam did go on their holidays.

Celtic are at home to Rangers tomorrow.  We’re hoping to go for a walk down “The Green”.  Need to go early to avoid the battles.

AirTable v Bento – 16 January 2017

Posted on by Zogman

Another aimless day mostly spent under grey skies with the occasional shower of rain falling to give a bit of variety.

I spent most of the morning working with and learning to use AirTable, a multi-platform database that Hazy alerted me to.  Up until recently I’d used Bento,  the delightfully simple database for IOS and OSX.  I don’t use it much on the Mac, but it’s always there on my phone, especially the books database.  If I’m browsing in Waterstones and see a new book I like the look of, I type its name into my Bento Books Database, along with the author.  Then, when I have the time, I look it up on Amazon to see a price I’m willing to pay.  More recently, I have started looking in my local library e-book list to see if there is anything there.  Unfortunately, NLC library don’t have a great deal of e-books in THEIR database yet, but it’s always worth a look.  Once I’ve borrowed or bought a book, I tick it off as ‘Checked Out’ then later when I’ve read it or junked it I mark it either ‘Keep’ or ‘Drop’.  All done on Bento.  Unfortunately, Bento was itself ‘Dropped’ by Filemaker for reasons best known to themselves in 2013 (ish) and users were encouraged to replace it with Filemaker Go which is free, but really requires Filemaker Pro which costs around £170.  A hefty price to pay for a book database.  Enter AirTable which seems to fit the bill of price (free for non-commercial) and power.  I had a bit of a problem getting my Bento database into it, but with some HazyHelp, it worked a treat.  The main problem was that Bento on the phone wouldn’t sync with Bento on the Mac.  I gave up looking for a solution and in the end, just typed in the details I was missing.  Not comes the big test, when I take it out in the wild tomorrow to see if it cuts the mustard!

Went for a walk down the Luggie Water in the later afternoon, while Gems were invading the house, but saw very little apart from the ‘Ripples’ shot.  Drove up to Hulks Road, a wild bit of country road on the outskirts of Cumbersheugh, and got some lovely light on the landscape after such a dull day.  That’s where the rest of the shots came from.

Salsa tonight was a disaster.  I couldn’t remember the move we did last week, despite having watched our record of it before we went out.  Worse still, we did Chi-wa-wa (sic) which I know and like, and I couldn’t get that either.  I must have been one of the few leaders who actually knew the move, but was the only one who couldn’t get it right.  Embarrassing?  Just a little.  Lots of folk there tonight who hadn’t been to class for ages.  Good to see.  Scamp and I went for a coffee and a soft drink with Catherine and Linda after class to catch up with everybody’s news.

Tomorrow we may go to Perth for coffee and the run.  Weather looks as if it will cooperate.

It Rained – 9 January 2017

Posted on by Zogman

All day it rained. Sometimes fine, not quite drizzle.  Sometimes heavy, chucking it down in buckets rain.  Sometime it rained through sunshine.  Sometimes it it dropped, no, chucked, hail down from on high.  It rained as only Scotland can.

In the morning I attempted to repair the damage I’d unwittingly done to Mac Mail last night.  By the end of last night after an hour and a half’s work I’d managed to get my main email address working.  I gave up and went to bed.  By the end of today’s morning shift I’d all the accounts working and the email data recovered from all of them.  Thank heavens for that.  I now know that you cannot boot from a secondary disk, no matter what the cloning program says.

After lunch I did a bit of sewing, fixing the pockets on another pair of jeans.  That’s two down one more to go.  Then it’s on to the bow tie.  That may need a bit more practise.  At that point, I began to feel the effects of last night’s lack of sleep and went for a quick snooze.  A quick snooze that lasted for about two and a half hours.

Salsa tonight was a physical and mental challenge.  Who knew dancing could be so stressful.

Let’s hope that tomorrow is drier than today.

A Dull Day – 8 January 2017

Posted on by Zogman

The dull day was probably what gave me the incentive to get the new sewing machine out and finally attempt to fix the pocket on a pair of jeans.

I’d ‘had a go’ at fixing it a week or so ago, but after researching the problem on the ‘net, I felt more confident that the method I’d seen would solve the problem.  Actually I’d seen two different methods, and I was going to attempt the easier and less complicated one.  That tutorial didn’t have that confidence destroying phrase “This is the tricky bit”.  I liked that.  After half an hour or so of sewing, re-threading the needle and more sewing, but without swearing, I now have a fair degree of confidence in the longevity of my repair, or Alteration as I described it recently in FB.  Hope you don’t read this Joyce.  I’d hate to disabuse you of the notion that I’ve taken up dressmaking in a professional capacity.  I’m hoping to fix a couple of pairs of jeans and also make myself a bow tie.  Little Black Dresses for Scamp may take a bit more time.  So, one down, another three to go!

I was going stir crazy, so in the afternoon I drove down to Auchinstarry and walked along the canal, through the plantation to the railway walk, then back along a different railway walk to the carpark again.  It really was a dull day.  I’d set my Nikon to a Manual exposure of 1/500th sec @ f9 and a floating ISO the other day.  That meant the D7000 calculated it would require an ISO of 25600 today.  That’s in the ‘WTF let’s have a go’ range.  You’ll get a picture, but you may not be able to see it in all the digital noise.  It produced the picture at the top and the one at the bottom right in the mosaic.  I’ve deliberately converted the top one to mono because it disguises the grain/digital-noise that the high ISO produces.  The other pic, my favourite and therefore PoD was at a much lower ISO of 4000 and taken with the Oly 5.  It was resting on the stonework of an old bridge and also had a much shorter lens, so could be relied upon to give a sharp image at a low shutter speed.  Sorry JIC, edging into technospeak again.  Sim will understand.

The bridge itself was interesting from another point of view.  All along the top edge are what I’d describe as lens shaped cuts which look like the shapes you’d get if you were sharpening a knife or a scythe.  Could that be what caused them?  I’ll photograph them the next time I’m crossing the bridge on a sunny day.  Also inscribed on the top of a stone near the middle of the bridge are the initials  ‘IW’.  They have been carved with care into the stone and both letters have serifs on them.  Often, old graffiti has these serifs and shows that care has been taken when carving them.  Intriguing.

First Sunday Social of 2017 today and I was really rusty.  Thank goodness classes start tomorrow.  We both need the exercise and the practise.

No idea what the weather is to be tomorrow.  Hopefully kinder to photographers than it’s been today.

First sketch of 2017 – 3 January 2017

Posted on by Zogman

Ordered a sewing machine last week to progress my dressmaking skills. Ordered it from John Lewis in Emba because the Glasgow shop didn’t have it.  I thought it could be delivered to the Glasgow store and I could pick it up from there.  No, they couldn’t do that because the machine was in the Embra shop, not in a warehouse (?)  Maybe that’s a logical reason to JL, but it made no sense to me.  Anyway I wasn’t in a rush to get it and there was no way I was going to drive through Embra to pick it up.  I was told it would be delivered within five working days.  I phoned the Embra shop this morning to find out which day it would be delivered.  Here is a synopsis of the conversation after I’d explained that I wanted to know which day it would arrive:

“It will be delivered within five working days”
“Could you be more precise” I asked?
“Eh no.  We don’t actually deliver it.  Because it’s a small article, it will be delivered by a carrier.” *
“So will I get a phone call or an email to tell me which day it will be delivered?”
*“No, but it will be delivered either today, tomorrow or the next day”
Now surprising as it might seem, I can count to five and then add on the extra days for weekends and holidays.
“So you’re telling me that in a company as large as John Lewis, and in this day and age, you can’t tell me the DAY that my sewing machine will be delivered?”
”Yes, that’s correct.”
“Well, that wasn’t very helpful at all.”

Now, remind me.  This is the 21st century, isn’t it?  Imagine if I was working and had to take five days off my work on the off chance that my sewing machine was going to be delivered that day.  I’ve bought a lot of stuff from JL in  the past, but I’m afraid those days are now in the past.  I had thought of buying an iMac from them because they offer an extra year’s warranty, but as their delivery methods are so archaic, I think I’ll shop elsewhere.

Out at lunchtime for coffee with Fred.  No Val today as he was otherwise engaged.  Good natter with lots of laughter.

Walked over to St Mo’s when I came back and got the first sketch of 2017 completed in about 15 minutes.  I keep meaning to time my sketches.  Must do it with the next one.  Two wee boys were passing St Mo’s when I was sketching.  I heard them laughing and looked up to see one of them posing for me.  I laughed and so did they.  Just wee boys.  An old man passed behind me soon after and he seemed to be struggling along with a stick.  He seemed bemused and looked as if he was wondering what I’d found to draw in this urban landscape.  But that’s it.  It’s Urban Sketching.

I got some sunset shots with the Oly 5 and processed them according to Laura Shoe’s video  and was quite impressed with the effect.  I’ll use that method of combining basic adjustments with an overlay of graduated filter.

June came over for dinner tonight and she and Scamp had a good gossip about everything and anything.

Tomorrow?  Don’t know.  Haven’t seen the weather.

A wild night – 26 December 2016

Posted on by Zogman

Howling wind and rain battering against the window all night it seemed.  Wildly high temperature too.  Almost too hot to sleep.  There really is something wrong with the weather this year.  I’m not a firm believer in Climate Change, but I’m willing to admit that this just is not the weather we are used to having in Scotland in December.  Whether it’s El Niño or the Jet Stream or melting polar ice caps, I don’t know.  I taught Woodwork and Graphics, not Geography, but I know when something isn’t working properly.  Maybe Theresa May will fix it.  There’s as much chance of that as there is of her arguing a profitable exit from the EU, but that’s enough of politics.

The wild winds and heavy rain persisted through the morning, but by afternoon the dry spells were outlasting the wet ones and the temperature was returning to the seasonal normal, so I got my boots on and headed for St Mo’s to get some photos … and some exercise.  Much needed exercise.  I had to shelter for a while under a tree form some heavy rain, but I didn’t mind that because I could see that it was only a shower and there was blue sky behind it.

Other than the swans and some ducks, I saw no other wildlife, and very few of the human variety.  I could hear a motorbike engine coming from the old BMX track, so I presume some wean got a mini scrambler bike for Xmas.

Most of todays photos were taken with the old 105mm macro lens on the Nikon.  I forgot to grab my Oly M5 and stick it in my pocket which meant no real landscape shots, but I did like the B&W shot of the runner, just visible bottom right of the frame.  Much better on Flickr.  Speaking of pocket, I DID put one of my Chrissy Prezzies in my pocket.  Scamp got me a pair of Thinsulate gloves and I’d forgotten just how windproof they are.  Great things to stick in your pocket.

Just like I intended, Scamp suggested pasta for dinner, so it was tomato and bacon pasta.  Nicely low cal.  I did have some of the killer pudding from yesterday, but only a couple of spoonfuls and even they were mainly the biscuit and sherry mix with some fruit.

The wind has dropped considerably tonight and it looks like a fairly decent day tomorrow.  If we manage it, we’ll be up and out early and somewhere nice for a walk.  That would be good, and would probably do us the world of good.

Christmas Eve – 24 December 2016

Posted on by Zogman

For once we stuck to our plan and went in to Glasgow on a freezing cold bus.  Storm Barbara was still lingering around and making its effects felt as the double decker bus wandered across the road, buffeted by her gusts.

In Glasgow, after wandering through John Lewis we headed down Bucky Street then took a left turn to get a pizza in Paesano.  Our pizzas were a bit more rustic than yesterday’s lunch, but equally enjoyable in their own way.  The food was on the table less than 10 minutes after we sat down and it was as good as any pizza I’ve ever tasted and a lot better than many.  Maybe not quite as good as those from Napoli, but that’s only a maybe.

From Paesano we went down to Argyle Street for a coffee in Cafe Nero, then along to St Enoch’s, but the German market was closed.  I’m guessing that it was closed to allow the Polish folk to get home, because we all know there are few Germans in the German markets, as they are all run by Poles.  Hope ‘Pole’ isn’t a derogatory term, because I can’t think of a ‘proper’ name.  Hope it’s not as bad as ‘Scotch’.  I’m not Scotch, I’m Scottish.

With no market to investigate, we headed back up Bucky Street.  I finally got a mini display port to VGA adapter in the accursed Apple shop to try connecting my Mac Book Pro to my old ten year old monitor.  The result wasn’t exactly high fidelity, but it did work and allowed me to test out the possibility of using a desk setup.  Better to try it out for £30 than just dive in to an iMac costing £1400. From the Apple store we walked up through Buchanan Galleries to get the bus home.  A warm bus for a change and it looks like Barbara has kissed us goodbye becaus it was a much less fraught journey home.

Finally got the last copies of my calendar printed earlier tonight, so in the next couple of days they will be punched and clipped together.  After that they can be sent out.

Tomorrow?  Well, I think tomorrow is Christmas Day, so it might snow.  With temperatures in double figures that could be difficult, but we live in hope.

Printer Problem Solved by Old Tech – 20 December 2016

Posted on by Zogman

The old tech in question isn’t me.  I’m not a Tech.  It was, in fact, CUPS which has been around since OSX 10.2 (c2000).  It’s a fairly technical printing system that involves a Scheduler, a Filter System and a Backend, and of course I don’t understand any of it, I just quoted that guff from Wikipedia, but it sounds clever.  The main thing is, that once you link it up with some (legally) free printer drivers from Gutenprint it works!  And, that’s what Macs should do.  They just work.  Or at least they used to before they got all high and mighty and started going full tilt into Technology Push.  But no, I won’t get into a rant.  Someone saw the need and designed a solution to a problem.  That’s a good thing.  Apple, are you listening?

The day started cold and frosty and we didn’t want to go out and get our tootsies all froze, so we stayed in with the heating on.  By lunchtime we were brave enough to go for a swim.  The water in the pool was probably too warm, but it was good and warm and there weren’t too many folk in the pool, so it was an excellent decision to go for a swim.  Sauna has been fixed – boy, has  the sauna been fixed.  It’s almost too hot now and the steam room is the same.  Just the job on a cold day.

When we were leaving the leisure centre I spotted the wee bear sitting all forlorn on the grass by the path and decided he would be my PoD.  The best camera in  the world is the one in your pocket.  In this case the camera also doubles as a phone and a personal computer, but today its strength was in its photo taking abilities.  It’s an Apple phone, but I’m not getting dragged into that rant again.

Tomorrow is going to be windy and cold and Scamp is heading in to meet her Nancy in Glasgow for a gossip and I may go for a wander round town now that I don’t need a new printer!

Walking through the Gloaming – 15 December 2016

Posted on by Zogman

I’ve started a bad habit of allowing the blog to get away from me.  These last couple of days have seen me in the morning playing catch-up to get the blog posted, yesterday’s blog that is.  Today I’m finishing today’s blog today.

Not a lot of work done this morning.  Scamp was hard at work buying Tesco again and cooking all day for the Witches Christmas Party while I farted about.  There, that’s the honest truth, well, almost the truth.  I did get my 2017 calendar sorted out, so that’s one thing done.

I went for more ‘messages’ – you remember what messages are, don’t you – after lunch and took Scamp’s advice to carry ONE camera with me.  I chose the E-M5 with a short zoom lens and no EVF (Electronic View Finder).  Very pocketable.   I walked the short walk round the railway walk, across the tree plantation and back along the canal while the light changed from blue to a glorious orange gloaming.  Some beautiful lighting on the hills, but the short lens was struggling to make anything of it.  By comparison, the short focal length lens made the skies look good.

Since Tesco was now closed for restocking, after Scamp had bought everything it had, I went to Kilsyth to Lidl to get some odds and ends there and in B&M (my new favourite shop).  Bought far more than I intended to, so Scamp’s enthusiasm must be catching.  When I got home and after dinner, I started on my part of tomorrows banquet.  Now, at 10.30pm I’ve done my bit too.  The pudding is setting in the fridge and the bread is proving in the kitchen.  Some more work to be done tomorrow, but less frantic I hope.

I’m intending giving the WCP a body swerve tomorrow.  I’m booked for coffee and a chat with Fred and Val tomorrow midday and after that, well as Del Boy said, “The world’s my lobster”.

Coffee and a couple of jags – 7 December 2016

Posted on by Zogman

EC072608-2Yesterday, the plan for today was for me to head off to meet Val and Fred at 12noon and set the Scottish education on its path to previous glory over a cup or two of coffee, then for Scamp to meet me at about 1.45pm with the stuff the nurse was going to inject us with to stop us getting some exotic infection when we were off in foreign climes.  I’d then drop her off at the station so she could get the train in to Glasgow to get even more Christmas shopping, leaving me the rest of the day free.  That was scrapped after an early morning phone call.  The nurse wanted the afternoon off, so could we come for our jags earlier, at 12noon.  (not jabs you’ll notice, we’re Scottish.  We get jags.  Much nastier – there was even a sign in the surgery advertising Flu JAGS.  Scamp wanted me to photograph it to prove to English people what the word should be).  Anyway, we agreed and changed the schedule for the day accordingly.

After the jags, I drove Scamp to the bus stop – it’s almost as quick on the fast bus as it is on the train and then went for coffee with the other two.  We solved the problem as I knew we would in double quick time.  It’s simple when you’re an outsider.  This is all you need to do:

  1. Start teaching the ‘3Rs’ again in primary school although Val tried to muddy the water by saying that it was actually two Rs and an A.  Objection noted.
  2. Get rid of Curriculum for Excrement.  That’s the core of the problem
  3. Sack Swinney and pay us the exorbitant salaries to run the whole system.

After that we discussed Celtic’s glorious exit from the European Cup to Fred’s delight and the new ‘Stones album which is actually very good.  Also discussed were “Landscape painting with felt” What the hell is that all about.  Last night’s documentary about the Italian artist who tried to steal another artist’s work and pass it off as his own.

After that we left and I gave Val a run home.  By this time (2pm) the automatic headlights came on in the car.  It was another dull day, but I had previously decided on today’s PoD and it’s almost exactly as you see it above.  The other big thing today was the arrival of the new battery for my MacBook.  It was fitted in jig time (That means quickly, Englanders) and gave just over 3.5 hours of service today from an initial 75% charge, out of  the box.  It’s now charging for the recommended 12 hours after which it must be run down to 7% again before repeating the exercise.  One of the best bits of the experience was finding that the touchpad on the mac was working again.  I’d read that if the bottom left corner switch on the touchpad stops working, it could be because the battery was beginning to swell and press on it.  It seems that was the case for me.  We’ll see what tomorrow brings in battery land.

Hoping for a better day weatherwise tomorrow.  Intending to go to Perth.