[Kit Spackman]

So by saying you won't "support" a device anymore really means you simply won't develop carp for it that no one needed in the first place.

the other thing is a LOT of the development is for features that actually track you, sniff you and thrust stuff down your throat....

My TomTom GPS system has 'lifetime support' apparently, but that's not MY lifetime, it's however long they deem to be the lifetime of the device! This could be a week or a year, or anything, so the term is totally meaningless!

What it means in reality is however long they feel like supplying map updates etc

 

[Kit Spackman]

Back to driver ergonomics. Why do they make the brake pedal on automatics double wide? Since my teen years I have been putting passengers through the windshield the first time in one after a while as my left foot reflexly slams the "clutch pedal" come time to shift up.

You're getting close to the 'left foot brake or right foot brake with an auto'? argument here, and that one can run and run!

 

[Kit Spackman]

Kit, I had the same thought today and will say no more.

It came up in a model boat forum of which I'm a member and it almost reached swapping blows levels! Crazy.

 

[Kit Spackman]

Immense Miniatures' version of Jim Clark looks much more in scale than the original one in the Scalex Lotus 25.

The Scalex Jim measures 10 mm from the front of his helmet peak to the rear, whereas the IM version measures 8.5 mm. Plus it actually LOOKS like Jim too.

 

[Kit Spackman]

To your third and fourth points - again, agreement but I can only look on in despair and disgust as the most vocal advocates for sustainability demonize the only proven technology that offers a practical alternative to fossil fuels - nuclear power.

Many argue that the main problem with nuclear is what do you do with the waste products when it's worn out.

I live right opposite the first real nuclear power station built in the UK at Berkeley on the Severn, which was decommissioned in 1989. It'll be totally demolished and completely cleared by 2080...………..

 

[Kit Spackman]

In the same vein, when my youngest son was training to be an aircraft mechanic he dropped a small screw inside a jet engine. You only do that once.

I can relate to that, oh yes!

When I was doing my apprenticeship I did some work in the Foreign Vehicle Evaluation area where we took everyone else's cars apart to see what made them tick, and then put them back together again, or tried to...…….

I did the same thing and dropped a very small bolt inside the transaxle of a Pontiac Tempest and spent the next two lunch hours looking for the blasted thing!

 

[Kit Spackman]

It's the Carpet Monsters.

They have an inexhaustible appetite for smalll things, be they bits of cars, tools or whatever, but they have very fragile stomachs and re-gurgitate quite a lot of the stuff they try and eat, thus the re-appearance of the 'missing' bits later on.

 

[Kit Spackman]

Don't get me going on all these 'addon' words!

It started off with 'you know', and some people, even some very well known people, use these two words so often that it becomes ridiculous. Even one of the political party leaders does it, over and over!

It's moved on to 'basically', some people can't seem to start a statement without using it.

And no-one's ever upset or worried about a problem or an incident these days, they're always 'devastated'.

Aggggggghhhhhhhhh!

 

[Kit Spackman]

But I'm getting seriously charred-off at the sheer number of vehicles I see being driven with their front number plate behind the windscreen in the where it can barely be seen. UK construction & use regs. state that plates should be clearly visible front and rear at all times.

Oh yes, around these parts most of them seem to be BMWs, usually driven by unduly short drivers who are sitting so low in their seats that they're looking THROUGH the steering wheel! Perhaps it's some sort of fashion statement, as it also seems to go along with baseball hats worn backwards...………..

 

[Kit Spackman]

The 21st century has arrived in the Forest of Dean. Well, almost anyway............

I got a form from the council to confirm that I'm single and living in my house on my own and no-one of any age has sneaked in and is liviing there with me. That's because you get a discount on Council Tax if you're a single dweller btw.

At the bottom of the form it says I can scan it and email it rather than posting it, thus saving me the time to traipse down to the post box and the cost of the envelope and stamp. Result!

So that's what I did, scanned both sides of it, because the side I write on had no reference to me other than my signature, which even doctors have trouble in decyphering. Then I typed out an email, attached the two scans and sent it off.

Immediately I got an automated reply from the Council's 'ICT Dept' saying that their policies are not to accept emails with particular attachments and that my emial will be deleted after 30 days!!!!!!!

Apparently they expect me to phone them if I think it shouldn't have been intercepted, but the form has my phone no. on it, so why don't THEY phone ME? Grrrrrrrrrrr..........

 

[Kit Spackman]

Oh yes, designated cycle paths that are thought to be 'common land'!

The local Town Council have just spent a LOT of money building a small network of cycle paths around Lydney, albeit creating TOTAL chaos in the town centre while doing so. This morning I was walking along the pavment, with the clearly marked cycle path having been added alongside it, and one poor soul was having the temerity to actually ride a bike along the new cycle path!

One brainless gawp, walking toward me on the pavement, shouted VERY loudly at the poor cyclist 'Git ORF the bloody pavement!' while waving his arms around. The cyclist gave him 'The Look' and carried on and I pointed to the cycle path markings and said to the gawp 'He's not on the pavement, he's on the new cycle path'.

The gawp looked daggers at me and said 'I didn't vote for the f*****g' cycle path!

What can you do when there are uneducated prats like that around?

 

[Kit Spackman]

'Right of way' is a topic that could have a thread of its own.............

IIRC it actually depends on the wording of the legislation that enables the actual cycleway. Some are deisgnated as 'dual use' and should be marked as such, but in some areas where there is enougg space they're single, cycles only use. The ones around Lydney are of both types, absolutely BOUND to cause confusion!

 

[Kit Spackman]

Four way stops! Who invented them and has he/she been shot yet?

Every time I drove in the USA they drove me NUTS! And once I did see the 'Oh, the hell with it' moment when all four stoppers decided to go at the same time and it ended in a four way crash!

Our roundabouts were pretty chaotic until the 'give way to traffic to your right on the roundabout' rule came into play. Now it works OK until the traffic density rises to the level where they need to install traffic lights ON the roundabout.............

For the terminal case of roundabout madness, see the 'Magic Roundabouts' in Swindon and Hemel Hempstead.

 

[Kit Spackman]

I ran a Ford Galaxy, the MPV one, not a NASCAR racer, for 2.5 yrs, and for the entire time of the lease it had vibration problems in the left hand front wheel assembly. Over time my local dealer changed everything in that area, the wheel itself, the brake assembly, all the suspension, the drive shafts, the whole lot. Every time the standard excuse was 'That's a Volkswagen part sir, nothing to do with Ford'.

Eventually the dealer refused to have me or the car back on his premises, despite the fact that it was all warranty work and he was getting paid for it! I've never darkened his door again from that day to this!

 

[Kit Spackman]

, some cool (the fact that the Hemi sounds so different to the Mustang)…

Did the bad guy's Charger have a Hemi or a 440 wedge? IIRC most Chargers had the 440, as the Hemi was a special order item.

Whatever engine it had, it sounded great. That model Charger's just about my fave US car ever.

 

[Kit Spackman]

Either that or they're 'devastated'.

There doesn't appear to be any lesser degree of disarray.

 

[Kit Spackman]

She Who Can't Be Ignored has joined an online gym. Listening to huffing, puffing and grunting is one thing, but the gym instructor keeps saying: "Come on, guys."

Yes, what is it with the current use of 'guys' everywhere? Don't they notice that some of them are 'gals'?

 

[Kit Spackman]

I totally agree and I believe that it is a legal requirement in England for every house to have a number and display it.

If it is, then about 30% of the population are law breakers!

It's especially true of shops, hardly ANY of them have their number displayed anywhere.

 

[Kit Spackman]

Don't get me started on property identification!

Number/name attached to front door which doesn't face the road.

House name on a gate which is open, and the direction you're approaching from you can't see it.

House hidden behind a 2mtr hedge or fence, and the only identification attached to the house.

I've even had a customer say "The postman knows which house it is". Well, I don't have the postman with me today Mrs.

I delivered to a house, recently, which had a detached garage at the rear of the property a good 20mtrs from the road. The only house identification was in 100mm digits above the garage door.

On recent(ish) builds around here the developers couldn't agree on numbering sequence - odds one side of the road, evens the other, or sequential.

Nor could they agree on whether they would use number 13.

There are probably other instances I could mention but I can feel my blood starting to boil just thinking about it.

In my road, over half of which is unadopted, there are three No. 2s!

How stupid is that?

Luckily mine isn't one of them...….

 

[Kit Spackman]

I've still got my Thornton slide rule, which I bought with my first pay packet in 1961.

And its batteries never seem to need replacing either.