Are we all just a bit fucking tired of "I am not a robot" yet - it just gets more and more irritating. What the fuck is a fire hydrant anyway... I'm not a yank. Not only am I well and truly sick of trying to pick details out of fuzzed bad photos of things, I'm sick of identifying American street furniture. I hate that website I have no option but to use force me through this little dance every bloody login... just implement some normal bloody 2FA perhaps.
Just saw an ad for some kinda compact business card case style wallet stating "this could be the last wallet you ever need to buy".
Nah, too late mate.
It's been a few years since I last carried a wallet. Now days it's just the phone (used for most payments), two credit cards on different networks, and an emergency 20 quid note (given inflation that probably needs upgrading.)
I'll be glad of the day I can embed the lot of it. NFC fingertips, and eyeball embedded display? Sign me up.
@77157f78 the basement is big enough there could be scope to squeeze a kitchen in down there, that'd be pretty expensive though. It's probably not useful for added seating alas.
@77157f78 just reviewed the details, the other problem is it is quite small at 1742ft2 (looks bigger from the photo lol). Nice big basement/cellar but probably not really useful. Prob needs to be wet-led given size and configuration.
It says "effectively in shell finish" which could mean a range of things, lack of photos is a little concerning.
With that rent and potentially £20k rates (needs reassesement) it doesn't look great on first glance.
I guess London beer prices could pay for it. 😅
@77157f78 just reviewed the details, the other problem is it is quite small at 1742ft2 (looks bigger from the photo lol). Nice big basement/cellar but probably not really useful. Prob needs to be wet-led given size and configuration.
It says "effectively in shell finish" which could mean a range of things, lack of photos is a little concerning.
With that rent and potentially £20k rates (needs reassesement) it doesn't look great on first glance.
I guess London beer prices could pay for it. 😅
@77157f78 reckon that could be a fit for the Graceland folks, though wouldn't be surprised if they've passed it over already, esp given its former "craft beer" vibe.
Lease amounts like that are too daunting for most smaller and individual operators. Especially with "requires investment", and in the present times. Wonder how messed up it is internally. Could probably negotiate some sort of on-ramp with rent if the freeholders are keen.
@d83d21a4 all the years I've been using Google Home devices there has seemingly been no real feature, functionality, or quality improvements. Just feels like another neglected/dead Google product really. They did make the app UI worse recently so there's still someone sat in a room hacking on it I guess.
@d83d21a4 I'm hoping to eventually replace it with something DIY, no more of this corporate cloud spyware garbage. Our two primary uses for it are listening to the radio and setting timers for cooking and other things, plus the odd alarm.
Fun fact: in my last year at Uni I implemented a voice controlled robotics project (voice control core was CMU Sphinx). It's gotta have become easier in the ... yikes... 20 years since.
@d83d21a4 all the years I've been using Google Home devices there has seemingly been no real feature, functionality, or quality improvements. Just feels like another neglected/dead Google product really. They did make the app UI worse recently so there's still someone sat in a room hacking on it I guess.
@d83d21a4 next up they need to implement this feature for Google Home devices. The assistant volume is the same as the main volume, so often I find it SHOUTS at me because I've been listening to the radio on a higher volume. You'd think it'd be simple and obvious.... noooo...
Having a "mental health day".
Aka too physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted to function properly so choosing to not attempt to function.
More of a mini mental breakdown day I guess. 😅
I'm not a fan of smoking.
But surely they know that an absolute ban (even if so slowly implemented) will create a thriving black market and the crime and disadvantage that goes hand in hand with that. (Huge UK duties already feed a healthy black market in illicit tobacco imports as it is.)
I wonder how that balances out with the public health costs.
They'll come after alcohol next of course.
"A friendly Happiness Engineer will then get in touch with recommendations and next steps."
Happiness Engineer?
I was happy with Woocommerce until they presented me with the concept of a "Happiness Engineer". Engineer that motherfuckers.
@cf593c09 it's such a core ingredient to so much Italian cooking! But most folks just use tinned tomatoes, blasted with a stick blender if sauce consistency is needed - which works just fine! We do buy a fair bit of supermarket passata, but our crop/processing this year will hopefully get us through a few months without having to give that money to them.
@d4b81373 urgh, just when you think it's all gone as low as it can go the Tories go lower.
Based on where they're ramping up their campaigning now, this is gunna be one depressing and dirty election cycle.
@827856b8 I like how ephemeral it is, build it, photograph it, take it down. There only for the moment. No need to leave your mark behind, like some folks seem to feel the need to do.
@d4b81373 yeah, it's particularly cheap here compared to others I have seen. We have no "allotment association" type org, the site is run directly by the council on council land with little by way of facilities or upkeep. Works for me! (I've heard emough horror stories about busy body allotment committes, council chap who manages it is just fine as a benevolent dictator.)
@cbac1943 it's our second year growing them, but I think they'll be a permanent part of the lineup. Beyond the mere novelty of them being green and rather pretty they are also delicious.
Finally got enough Green Zebra tomatoes from the #allotment for a batch of passata.
Thus completing my "passata traffic light". 🤪
The green of course doesn't come through amazingly after cooking, especially as ripe green zebras pick up a yellowish tint. But it is sufficiently green versus the yellow to do the tick.
Gotta take what modicum of amusement life permits.
https://toot.ale.gd/system/media_attachments/files/111/160/332/023/522/885/original/d12d5f636bbda1ed.jpg
As I mill my third batches of passata I contemplate electric passata mills.
*googles electric passata mills*
*sees prices*
Even just bigger manual ones are pretty £££.
Um, yeah, my little old manual mill is just fine really. It's a small effort, in short bursts. It'll be fiinnneeeee... it's not like I'm going to grow more tomatoes than I did this year... right... riiight?? 🥲
https://toot.ale.gd/system/media_attachments/files/111/159/466/115/002/991/original/566cab11f006b344.jpg
Passata making always reminds me of SBS "Food Safari" - which I like to watch as it reminds me of home (Australia and Australian food scene in general, which is just so rich in range of ingredients and multicultural influence. I miss it still.)
https://www.sbs.com.au/food/article/italian-food-safari-tomato-day/4my3n5nk2
Had fun today fabricating a fan housing out of HDPE sheet...
Which is absolutely not what I was supposed to be doing today, but it needed doing all the same. It's on a critical path, but all my paths are critical.
Why not 3d print? My printer isn't big enough, also this is a smoother more hygienic surface.
I don't need any new projects, but I've been watching YouTube videos about DIY CNC router machines lately... looks quite doable. 🤔
https://toot.ale.gd/system/media_attachments/files/111/155/960/275/505/179/original/b7aacad3333cc347.jpg
Lol, trying to get the 2 new tyres done on my van and booked into local KwikFit. Turns out their system is all broken and the website shouldn't have let me book the van here. It wont allow a MOT booking, but does allow tyres. Dude is all like "nah mate, carnt help you, carnt lift that mate".
So I'm like "what if it's just the tyres not on the van?"
"Yeah mate, can do loose tyres."
So I've jacked it up in the parking, taken the tyre off, and rolled the two tyres into the place. 🤷🏻♂️
As it happens, I've just spotted there are two 5 tonne car jacks sat right in their garage.
Maybe the staff don't have their car jack certificate or summat... like, nah, our jack guy isn't in today, we cannot lift cars.
Obeying the speed limit seems to be against "British Values" for many folks, possibly a majority. And 20mph zones, or any speed limits really, are barely enforced anyway — pretty much only affects careless idiots. More stupid Moton politics from this country's cretinous PM.
What the UK needs is loads of "multi-nova" style mobile speed cameras doing the rounds, fining all speeders.
And what cars need are full record black boxes.
And what drivers need is built in automated speed limiters.
https://toot.ale.gd/system/media_attachments/files/111/148/460/181/534/595/original/df948773800a4639.jpg
@6f101427 yeah, I guess it's probably waste industry terminology... the machine compresses stuff (this could do cardboard, pallet wrap, anything compressible really) then you can tie straps around it to make said "bale". Thus "baler". Most industrial sites and large retail sites (i.e
supermarkets) have one (or more), mainly for cardboard.
Basically it improves logistics efficiency by making materials more space efficient. Density is efficiency.
@6f101427
* They bought into this so thoroughly they renamed the company "OneCircle".
IMO it's not ideal, but nothing in drinks (or any) logistics is really. Plastic is light, better payloads for less fuel, steel is heavy and energy & chemical intensive to clean (I am told worse per unit than the footprint of plastics recycling) — but also has a huge reuse lifespan. It's murky territory to find good stats on such things, almost all studies are partisan.
@6f101427 new operators of the business are continuing the recycling service, the baler is relocating to the big Grimsby warehouse from my little old fenlands warehouse which has been shut down.
@6f101427 plastic kegs - clear PET and black polypropylene. Namely "KeyKegs" and "PolyKegs" — for recycling into more kegs. The plastic kegs always irked me and I was an early proponent of setting up a recycling scheme for them, but plastic recycling is a real struggle in the UK. Thankfully there was enough pressure for the manufacturers of KeyKegs to implement a "circular" recycling scheme* which we were an early participant in — have saved many tonnes from landfill/incineration.
@6f101427
* They bought into this so thoroughly they renamed the company "OneCircle".
IMO it's not ideal, but nothing in drinks (or any) logistics is really. Plastic is light, better payloads for less fuel, steel is heavy and energy & chemical intensive to clean (I am told worse per unit than the footprint of plastics recycling) — but also has a huge reuse lifespan. It's murky territory to find good stats on such things, almost all studies are partisan.
@6f101427 plastic kegs - clear PET and black polypropylene. Namely "KeyKegs" and "PolyKegs" — for recycling into more kegs. The plastic kegs always irked me and I was an early proponent of setting up a recycling scheme for them, but plastic recycling is a real struggle in the UK. Thankfully there was enough pressure for the manufacturers of KeyKegs to implement a "circular" recycling scheme* which we were an early participant in — have saved many tonnes from landfill/incineration.
HIAB driver to uplift the baler from the warehouse site is from Hull.
I am unsure what language they speak in Hull, but it's not one I'm familiar with.
@438f0a8f@d4b81373 ah, now that's a real beauty. I was worried we'd end up with something like that happening, which would have been a total nightmare... but thankfully we escaped that outcome and they judged it OK for the 100A upgrade.
@d4b81373@438f0a8f ah, fun times... the sparky/supplier/DNO dance. Like awaiting a conjunction of the planets.
That reminds me: it was the DNO fitting a new incomer who wired the meter tails into our isolator.
We did a dodgy thing and actually detached the original incomer and meter from the crumbling backboard, and hung them from the joists. (Pulled the main fuse to fit a temporary CU.) Then fitted the new board and got the DNO to fix the new incomer and old meter to that.
I really miss cooking with gas sometimes (OK, pretty much every time I am cooking.)
The electric hotplate here is just crap.
It's very good at making a small area very hot and that's about it.
Which makes any kind of wok cooking almost impossible. I use this big cast iron wok on this stove and it kinda does… a thing… holds some heat at least.
I have a gas burner outside, should have used that really. Works perfectly with just the basic pressed steel wok. But it's all dark out there.
https://toot.ale.gd/system/media_attachments/files/111/138/982/798/278/111/original/0467bff2f24681b2.mp4
I can still turn out an acceptable stir fry with it, it's taken some practice over the years in this house but got there in the end - plenty of preheat time, then moderating the temp initially so everything doesn't burn on the bottom, before turning back to full temp once the juices are flowing.
Cashew chicken, reminds me of King St in Sydney.
With #allotment garlic, onion, capsicum, chillies, eggplant, carrot, and Thai basil and Vietnamese mint from home.
https://toot.ale.gd/system/media_attachments/files/111/139/111/160/946/104/original/ff7c62bd758a21e1.jpeg
The other goal is to be better prepared for autumn/winter. Seedlings I intended to have ready to plant now just haven't happened. I have a handful of small things done too late and not yet ready to go out.
Also got a lot of infrastructure to work on, like the water capture and storage. And the greenhouse build on the second plot.
In theory I should have more time next year. No more of the 60+ hour working weeks? One can hope and dream. Maybe also be less psychologically broken? 🤞🤷🏻♂️
Today is also the day we decided to bring all the #allotment pumpkins in, they fill the table in the polytunnel. We have three Queensland Blue, four Uchiki Kuri, six Burgess Buttercup, and three large plus one medium "volunteer" of unknown type (and yet to be discovered culinary value).
Some good foodage there, with very little care needed.
https://toot.ale.gd/system/media_attachments/files/111/138/738/754/197/823/original/1629a6a081910d66.jpg
Today is also the day we decided to bring all the #allotment pumpkins in, they fill the table in the polytunnel. We have three Queensland Blue, four Uchiki Kuri, six Burgess Buttercup, and three large plus one medium "volunteer" of unknown type (and yet to be discovered culinary value).
Some good foodage there, with very little care needed.
https://toot.ale.gd/system/media_attachments/files/111/138/738/754/197/823/original/1629a6a081910d66.jpg
Oooo, proper thunderstorm.
"Real weather" always reminds me of home, probably because it's so rare here. It's funny how the classic stereotype here is always talking about the weather. Yet the weather here is so muted.
@438f0a8f people burning random crap around here is a regular topic on the local Facebook group with the same old consensus: nobody will do anything about it. (Unless it is massive and regular.) Rural life I guess, and under-resourcing of whatever agency might do something about it (seems to be confusion if this is the police, fire department, council, or environment agency — not that the latter two will show up at 8pm on Sunday).
@2f02b260 DIY sriracha sounds like fun. I'll be doing lacto fermented chilli sauces as I usually do but hope to find some time to do some different style cooked ones.
The bogans* with one of the yards backing onto the yard at our place are at it again... burning stuff. Billowing great clouds of horrible smelling black smoke. Smells like they've set a whole wheeliebin on fire, full of tyres.
These are the same folks who randomly set off fireworks during the daytime.
I like fires, and the smoke and smell of them... when they're burning wood, and I like fireworks... at night.
* most accurate word I can think of to describe them, other than fuckwits.
Right, I consider this a new superpower unlocked! 😂
Still having a little trouble needing to babysit the first layer - but I can #3dprint my own gaskets/washers/etc now.
The material is harder than a silcone gasket, maybe slightly harder than neoprene too, but should work for many situations.
Will be interesting to see if I can build that up to more "3d" objects too. This TPU material feels like it could have a lot of uses.
#3dprinting
https://toot.ale.gd/system/media_attachments/files/111/693/022/942/919/078/original/6d08f18f4aaeeec9.mp4
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