Flops' Friday mini blog
- Thread starter floppybootstomp
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it's not Friday, yet. 
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Well, not much going on but the rent really but I’ll try and muster up something of interest though still find it peculiar anybody could be interested – hey! 
I’ve built a pair of loudspeakers. From a flat pack kit. The idea is to use a 4” full range driver and use a low powered amplifier, preferably valve to power them and reproduce the full frequency range.
To my mind it almost works but I added a pair of tweeters to enhance the top end and their contribution is subtle but noticeable.
The 4” drivers are Mark Audio CHP70’s and the guy who supplied the flatpacks cut the baffle with a recess to take these drivers. I opted for the cabs in 18mm birch ply but could have have gone for MDF, which is cheaper.
I originally had every intention of spraying them matt or satin black but I like the look of the wood so much I am now going to coat them with about six coats of clear acrylic satin varnish after giving them a very good sanding.
When I assembled them I didn’t really have enough clamps but muddled through somehow, I borrowed the clamps in the pix from Dave The Bass, occasional forum member here.
Here’s some pix:
And here’s how they can look in black or white:
So how do they sound? To my ears, very very good and they’re sounding better as they become ‘run in’. They won’t be to everybody’s taste and will not overpower you with bass but the bass is there and it’s tight and controlled.
Seperation is really good and all detail is there. They sound best with acoustic and classical music and some light jazz as well but I’m listening to rock music on them ok.
They are mounted on outriggers for acoustic isolation, I made those from 30mm x 6mm metal strips from Wickes and secured them to the cabinet bases with M8 threaded inserts and bolts. They sit on black coned spikes. I have tried them with and without acoustic foam and to my ears they sound better without.
I’m surprised they sound as good as they do as apparently they suit being placed in a corner better and as you can see mine back on to a curtain behind of which there is a double glazed window in a sliding door.
They are powered with a 10 watt a channel push-pull valve amplifier I made around 26 years ago from an Elektor magazine design. Now just waiting for the weather to be bright and sunny for a couple of days so I can sand and varnish them outside.
When I get some more money I hope to build a pair of single ended valve amplifiers which apparently sound better than my push-pull (two output valves) arrangement.
Oh, forgot to mention, the ‘super-tweeters’ as they’re known, are fitted with a 3.9 ohm 5 watt wirewound resistor in series and an 8 ohm 5 watt wirewound resistor in paralell for power attenuation and a 1.5uF polypropylene capacitor in series with the ‘live’ side of the signal path to filter out bass frequencies.
They are constructed from a Post Office cardboard poster mailing tube fitted at the front with a plywood ‘donut’ glued in place and the tweeter is mounted on this. The base is made from lengths of broom handle and large wood nails and the whole shebang is sprayed matt black.
Some links:
Cheapo mdf horn cabinet ready built, not really recommended:
Frugel Mk 3
Attenuation calculator:
Power me down baby
CHP70 full range driver, this is where I bought mine from: (Edit: This link only goes to home page for some reason but the speaker is in there if you're interested)
CHP70
Super tweeter, I bought mine from here, Canada:
Tweet tweet
To accompany my system I have redesigned my audio switcher. Mine has five inputs and no rec out facility. A friend of mine has compiled a PCB that allows for six inputs and rec out where the phono sockets are mounted directly onto the PCB and the whole thing is then mounted on the case rear panel.
I did make a six channel switcher on veroboard but although it worked, the extended layout of components introduced some hum. I’m going to try and cure it but this seems like a better idea.
Here’s a few pix of progress with a PCB printout stuck with Pritt glue to the rear panel. The transformer was one I had lying about and the power supply board is a kit from Maplins, cost a tenner and can be adjusted between 2 and 30 volts. I have it set to five volts and this will be used to operate the relays that switch audio signals:
Just waiting for Fat Guts, aka as Fattus Guttus or ‘Slim’ to finish making the PCB now.
Next up, me plantz. Haven’t posted any plant pix lately. Some of you may remember my Yukka plant but we had a real bad storm in April and it literally blew the top off of it. A headless Yukka plant corpse is now reported to be roaming the streets of Greenwich town at night terrorising tourists and muggers alike, which is possibly a good thing.
Other than that I’ve had problems with leaf munching. Whatever’s chewing big chunks out of my plants has spread and it now affects 4 or 5 plants. I thought it was leaf cutter bees (thanks for the suggestion TC
) but I’ve only ever seen one or two bees that match their description all year. Also, no ants were spotted this year.
In an attempt to stop it I sprayed the affected plants with bug spray which I absolutely hated cos I probably killed some spiders and I like looking at the spiders. Since then, problem seems to have stopped but this may just be due to the onset of winter and bugs having a kip til Spring. Or whatever bugs do in winter. Die?
I did find a small green caterpillar about a week ago, now wondering if maybe I have a whole host of these and they’re the culprits, here’s a pic:
I’m considering buying some netting and covering the affected plants just before Spring to see if that stops the damage, not sure yet.
Here’s some pix of all plants as they are, taken today, with some close-up shots showing the damage. Note that the fresh leaves on the tree plant, which only recently appeared, have not been eaten at all.
This first pic shows a plant named Coleus, Gay’s delight (no snickering back there) and a week ago it was full of foliage but now most everything’s dropped off leaving mostly just those two big stems. Wondering if this is normal for winter or whether it has the lurgey.
Leaf munch:
These are the boots I was wearing in me Glastonbury pix from 4 years ago, they finally gave out, split leather upper where it joined the sole.
Leaf munch:
Leaf munch:
Other things, recently fitted a sound mixing desk to a theatre within a school and whilst I was there the class change pips clock went up the chute so I shot over to my suppliers at Bow, copped one on account, zoomed back and installed and programmed it. School was happy cos Ofsted inspectors were in and they urgently wanted their class change pips signals to work. Sometimes I just get lucky like that. But that’s been the only work of note I’ve had in several months.
Sophie offspring now settling into her role as a teacher and gaining confidence but says it’s very hard work, extending into the evenings often.
I had been looking for a juicer cos I really don’t get enough fresh fruit and veg and I thought if I could juice up some carrots, spinach and stuff and slurp it down it would be good for me. Cruised Comet and they didn’t have a one. Looked online, they all seemed either crap or too expensive.
Then lo and behold (oh look, a star in the East they exclaimed) (oops, sorry, wrong celebration) itsme was floggin’ one. So I bought it. And it works. I have made some orange juice. But bloody blimey, what a lot of hard work for a glass of orange juice, lol, half a litre of juice, three tons of washing up. Oh well, tis good for me
Talking of juicing (did that sound rood?) when I see those commercial machines in Airports, holiday resorts and houses of ill repute I notice they put whole oranges in the machine. This juicer manual says remove peel and pith – your views, oh knowledgeable peeps? Whole fruit or not to whole fruit?
And lastly, to end on a sad note, my good friend Johnny Foster has bowel cancer. He’s about 69 or 70 years old and he told me ten days ago of his biopsy results. Oh fek.
He’s going to undergo chemotherapy, radiotherapy and possibly surgery at the local Queen Elizabeth Hospital. I would have preferred for him to be treated at Guys & St Thomas’ Hospital, who done the deal for me, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles I suppose. Maybe Guys only do certain types of cancer.
Johnny, here’s lookin’ at you kid, I’m routing for you, good luck.
I’ve built a pair of loudspeakers. From a flat pack kit. The idea is to use a 4” full range driver and use a low powered amplifier, preferably valve to power them and reproduce the full frequency range.
To my mind it almost works but I added a pair of tweeters to enhance the top end and their contribution is subtle but noticeable.
The 4” drivers are Mark Audio CHP70’s and the guy who supplied the flatpacks cut the baffle with a recess to take these drivers. I opted for the cabs in 18mm birch ply but could have have gone for MDF, which is cheaper.
I originally had every intention of spraying them matt or satin black but I like the look of the wood so much I am now going to coat them with about six coats of clear acrylic satin varnish after giving them a very good sanding.
When I assembled them I didn’t really have enough clamps but muddled through somehow, I borrowed the clamps in the pix from Dave The Bass, occasional forum member here.
Here’s some pix:
And here’s how they can look in black or white:
So how do they sound? To my ears, very very good and they’re sounding better as they become ‘run in’. They won’t be to everybody’s taste and will not overpower you with bass but the bass is there and it’s tight and controlled.
Seperation is really good and all detail is there. They sound best with acoustic and classical music and some light jazz as well but I’m listening to rock music on them ok.
They are mounted on outriggers for acoustic isolation, I made those from 30mm x 6mm metal strips from Wickes and secured them to the cabinet bases with M8 threaded inserts and bolts. They sit on black coned spikes. I have tried them with and without acoustic foam and to my ears they sound better without.
I’m surprised they sound as good as they do as apparently they suit being placed in a corner better and as you can see mine back on to a curtain behind of which there is a double glazed window in a sliding door.
They are powered with a 10 watt a channel push-pull valve amplifier I made around 26 years ago from an Elektor magazine design. Now just waiting for the weather to be bright and sunny for a couple of days so I can sand and varnish them outside.
When I get some more money I hope to build a pair of single ended valve amplifiers which apparently sound better than my push-pull (two output valves) arrangement.
Oh, forgot to mention, the ‘super-tweeters’ as they’re known, are fitted with a 3.9 ohm 5 watt wirewound resistor in series and an 8 ohm 5 watt wirewound resistor in paralell for power attenuation and a 1.5uF polypropylene capacitor in series with the ‘live’ side of the signal path to filter out bass frequencies.
They are constructed from a Post Office cardboard poster mailing tube fitted at the front with a plywood ‘donut’ glued in place and the tweeter is mounted on this. The base is made from lengths of broom handle and large wood nails and the whole shebang is sprayed matt black.
Some links:
Cheapo mdf horn cabinet ready built, not really recommended:
Frugel Mk 3
Attenuation calculator:
Power me down baby
CHP70 full range driver, this is where I bought mine from: (Edit: This link only goes to home page for some reason but the speaker is in there if you're interested)
CHP70
Super tweeter, I bought mine from here, Canada:
Tweet tweet
To accompany my system I have redesigned my audio switcher. Mine has five inputs and no rec out facility. A friend of mine has compiled a PCB that allows for six inputs and rec out where the phono sockets are mounted directly onto the PCB and the whole thing is then mounted on the case rear panel.
I did make a six channel switcher on veroboard but although it worked, the extended layout of components introduced some hum. I’m going to try and cure it but this seems like a better idea.
Here’s a few pix of progress with a PCB printout stuck with Pritt glue to the rear panel. The transformer was one I had lying about and the power supply board is a kit from Maplins, cost a tenner and can be adjusted between 2 and 30 volts. I have it set to five volts and this will be used to operate the relays that switch audio signals:
Just waiting for Fat Guts, aka as Fattus Guttus or ‘Slim’ to finish making the PCB now.
Next up, me plantz. Haven’t posted any plant pix lately. Some of you may remember my Yukka plant but we had a real bad storm in April and it literally blew the top off of it. A headless Yukka plant corpse is now reported to be roaming the streets of Greenwich town at night terrorising tourists and muggers alike, which is possibly a good thing.
Other than that I’ve had problems with leaf munching. Whatever’s chewing big chunks out of my plants has spread and it now affects 4 or 5 plants. I thought it was leaf cutter bees (thanks for the suggestion TC
) but I’ve only ever seen one or two bees that match their description all year. Also, no ants were spotted this year.In an attempt to stop it I sprayed the affected plants with bug spray which I absolutely hated cos I probably killed some spiders and I like looking at the spiders. Since then, problem seems to have stopped but this may just be due to the onset of winter and bugs having a kip til Spring. Or whatever bugs do in winter. Die?
I did find a small green caterpillar about a week ago, now wondering if maybe I have a whole host of these and they’re the culprits, here’s a pic:
I’m considering buying some netting and covering the affected plants just before Spring to see if that stops the damage, not sure yet.
Here’s some pix of all plants as they are, taken today, with some close-up shots showing the damage. Note that the fresh leaves on the tree plant, which only recently appeared, have not been eaten at all.
This first pic shows a plant named Coleus, Gay’s delight (no snickering back there) and a week ago it was full of foliage but now most everything’s dropped off leaving mostly just those two big stems. Wondering if this is normal for winter or whether it has the lurgey.
Leaf munch:
These are the boots I was wearing in me Glastonbury pix from 4 years ago, they finally gave out, split leather upper where it joined the sole.
Leaf munch:
Leaf munch:
Other things, recently fitted a sound mixing desk to a theatre within a school and whilst I was there the class change pips clock went up the chute so I shot over to my suppliers at Bow, copped one on account, zoomed back and installed and programmed it. School was happy cos Ofsted inspectors were in and they urgently wanted their class change pips signals to work. Sometimes I just get lucky like that. But that’s been the only work of note I’ve had in several months.
Sophie offspring now settling into her role as a teacher and gaining confidence but says it’s very hard work, extending into the evenings often.
I had been looking for a juicer cos I really don’t get enough fresh fruit and veg and I thought if I could juice up some carrots, spinach and stuff and slurp it down it would be good for me. Cruised Comet and they didn’t have a one. Looked online, they all seemed either crap or too expensive.
Then lo and behold (oh look, a star in the East they exclaimed) (oops, sorry, wrong celebration) itsme was floggin’ one. So I bought it. And it works. I have made some orange juice. But bloody blimey, what a lot of hard work for a glass of orange juice, lol, half a litre of juice, three tons of washing up. Oh well, tis good for me
Talking of juicing (did that sound rood?) when I see those commercial machines in Airports, holiday resorts and houses of ill repute I notice they put whole oranges in the machine. This juicer manual says remove peel and pith – your views, oh knowledgeable peeps? Whole fruit or not to whole fruit?
And lastly, to end on a sad note, my good friend Johnny Foster has bowel cancer. He’s about 69 or 70 years old and he told me ten days ago of his biopsy results. Oh fek.
He’s going to undergo chemotherapy, radiotherapy and possibly surgery at the local Queen Elizabeth Hospital. I would have preferred for him to be treated at Guys & St Thomas’ Hospital, who done the deal for me, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles I suppose. Maybe Guys only do certain types of cancer.
Johnny, here’s lookin’ at you kid, I’m routing for you, good luck.
crazylegs
Member Extraordinaire
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Love the speakers Mr Flopp's, you really are quite a clever chap aren't you..
Plants look ok mate and yes some of your plants will lose leaves as it is autumn, wouldn't worry to much about the leaf munching as the plant looks healthy enough in the pics and nearly all my veg had something eating the leaves now and again over the period I was growing them..
Certainly could be the caterpillars though, earwigs are also ferocious eaters of leaves and only munch at night so you will never see them out in the day..
Hope your friend comes through his treatment.
One last thing careful with the juicer and the caterpillar..
Plants look ok mate and yes some of your plants will lose leaves as it is autumn, wouldn't worry to much about the leaf munching as the plant looks healthy enough in the pics and nearly all my veg had something eating the leaves now and again over the period I was growing them..
Certainly could be the caterpillars though, earwigs are also ferocious eaters of leaves and only munch at night so you will never see them out in the day..
Hope your friend comes through his treatment.
One last thing careful with the juicer and the caterpillar..
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The white pith may give your drink a bitter under taste, but I would add some lightly grated peel.
fab speakers
the caterpillar is either a 'small white' or a 'speckled wood' flutterby/pupa ... more likely to be the small white (sometimes called the cabbage white)
sad news about your mate.
fab speakers
the caterpillar is either a 'small white' or a 'speckled wood' flutterby/pupa ... more likely to be the small white (sometimes called the cabbage white)
sad news about your mate.
Taffycat
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That's better... had my Flopps' mini-blog "fix" so all is now right with the world.
The speakers look very smart and rather elegant; I like your idea of using clear acrylic, thus keeping the natural appearance of the wood (big fan of wood here.) They'll look great.
I used to grow coleus as house-plants (in our pre-cat days.) They're such attractive, colourful plants, but they really don't like frost, so try to keep them well sheltered, if you can.
Regarding the lost leaves... at the top of the "leggy" bits, your plant still has some leafy growth, which you could consider taking some cuttings from. They usually root very easily, just by popping them into some water and waiting for the roots to appear. Then just pot them up in some compost. (HERE is a linky you might find helpful.)
I would agree with Mucks regarding the use of whole oranges. The pith is unpleasantly bitter, but a little of the zest could be tasty. Have you thought of using some from a clementine or any similar variety? Shavings from their peel imparted quite a nice flavour to er..... seasonal chutneys I've made.... (phew! Almost used the forbidden word and got myself banned!) Imho, the flavour is nicer than the larger oranges - so might be worth experimenting.
I'm so sorry to hear about your friend's cancer. Wishing him the very best and hoping his treatment will be successful.
The speakers look very smart and rather elegant; I like your idea of using clear acrylic, thus keeping the natural appearance of the wood (big fan of wood here.) They'll look great.
I used to grow coleus as house-plants (in our pre-cat days.) They're such attractive, colourful plants, but they really don't like frost, so try to keep them well sheltered, if you can.
Regarding the lost leaves... at the top of the "leggy" bits, your plant still has some leafy growth, which you could consider taking some cuttings from. They usually root very easily, just by popping them into some water and waiting for the roots to appear. Then just pot them up in some compost. (HERE is a linky you might find helpful.)
I would agree with Mucks regarding the use of whole oranges. The pith is unpleasantly bitter, but a little of the zest could be tasty. Have you thought of using some from a clementine or any similar variety? Shavings from their peel imparted quite a nice flavour to er..... seasonal chutneys I've made.... (phew! Almost used the forbidden word and got myself banned!) Imho, the flavour is nicer than the larger oranges - so might be worth experimenting.
I'm so sorry to hear about your friend's cancer. Wishing him the very best and hoping his treatment will be successful.
Becky
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I'm very impressed with your handiwork! The wood finish is really nice, I hope you get some sunshine soon so that you can varnish them.
About commercial orange juicers - I think the machines have a blade in the middle to cut the oranges in half before juicing out the insides. Hope this solves the problem! My dad has a juicer, but he lives in Portugal and a massive sack of oranges is only a couple of Euros!
I'm really sorry to hear about your friend, I hope he comes through it ok. I'm sure your support will mean so much to him.
About commercial orange juicers - I think the machines have a blade in the middle to cut the oranges in half before juicing out the insides. Hope this solves the problem! My dad has a juicer, but he lives in Portugal and a massive sack of oranges is only a couple of Euros!
I'm really sorry to hear about your friend, I hope he comes through it ok. I'm sure your support will mean so much to him.
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Thanks peeps
Weather forecast said no rain for five days (in fact it turned out to be no rain for three days) so let sanding commence:
And sanded down, ready for varnishing:
I used Wickes clear satin acrylic varnish, five coats, rub down with wire wool, final 6th coat, to me they look great
As the loudspeaker drivers have loosened up they are now producing full frequency range as they are designed to do so have taken the supertweeters away. Also at my age detection of high frequencies drops off plus chemotherapy damaged my hearing a little when it comes to high frequencies.
I am actually not aware of this in my everyday life but audioligist at Guys Hospital told me so after audio/hearing tests. I could actually hear the tweeter if I made an effort but it's contribution to the sound stage, to me, was negligible. So they are not being used.
My 22" Samsung monitor died after flickering on startup for about 6 weeks. I have taken it apart, PSU Capacitors look ok but will replace them anyway to see if it effects a repair, the caps don't cost much, there's about ten of them although none of them display obvious signs of distress.
This monitor is now about five years old and had a couple of small scratches on the screen and base so I weighed things up and a new 24" Viewsonic monitor should arrive tomorrow from Scan. I could do without the expense but, well, crap happens doesn't it?
Weather forecast said no rain for five days (in fact it turned out to be no rain for three days) so let sanding commence:
And sanded down, ready for varnishing:
I used Wickes clear satin acrylic varnish, five coats, rub down with wire wool, final 6th coat, to me they look great
As the loudspeaker drivers have loosened up they are now producing full frequency range as they are designed to do so have taken the supertweeters away. Also at my age detection of high frequencies drops off plus chemotherapy damaged my hearing a little when it comes to high frequencies.
I am actually not aware of this in my everyday life but audioligist at Guys Hospital told me so after audio/hearing tests. I could actually hear the tweeter if I made an effort but it's contribution to the sound stage, to me, was negligible. So they are not being used.
My 22" Samsung monitor died after flickering on startup for about 6 weeks. I have taken it apart, PSU Capacitors look ok but will replace them anyway to see if it effects a repair, the caps don't cost much, there's about ten of them although none of them display obvious signs of distress.
This monitor is now about five years old and had a couple of small scratches on the screen and base so I weighed things up and a new 24" Viewsonic monitor should arrive tomorrow from Scan. I could do without the expense but, well, crap happens doesn't it?
Abarbarian
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Nice looking job there flops.
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Thank you TC
One more before I retire.
One of my nieces (or she would be a niece if I were still married to her aunt, anyway) is getting married in December. The reception is at The Trafalgar Tavern in Greenwich and they're having a Paddy band and I'm playing records for 2 to 3 hours after the band finishes.
She had her hen night last weekend and all the ladies went on one of those laser shoot thingies in a disused army barracks in The New Forest. I have loads of pics of it, but here's one pic, two of mine in there, lower right is Lucy and top left is Faye.
And here's a pic of my twin girls, Lucy & Sophie:
And that really is quite enough from me for now
One more before I retire.
One of my nieces (or she would be a niece if I were still married to her aunt, anyway) is getting married in December. The reception is at The Trafalgar Tavern in Greenwich and they're having a Paddy band and I'm playing records for 2 to 3 hours after the band finishes.
She had her hen night last weekend and all the ladies went on one of those laser shoot thingies in a disused army barracks in The New Forest. I have loads of pics of it, but here's one pic, two of mine in there, lower right is Lucy and top left is Faye.
And here's a pic of my twin girls, Lucy & Sophie:
And that really is quite enough from me for now
Attachments
Becky
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I mentioned earlier a 22” Samsung 2232BW Monitor had died after flickering for some time. I searched and found that the prime suspects were 7 electrolytic capacitors on the inverter board, which is basically the PSU board in a monitor.
The second likely cause was a failed screen unit.
There were six 25 volt caps, 1 x 330uF & 5 x 820uF and one big bugger 100uF 450V. I bought the lot for around £12 (the big one took up about 80% of that cost) and replaced them. Fired it up – nothing. Double checked everything like you do, no faults on my part so it looks like the tft screen ist kaput.
Bugger, 12 quid wasted
I kept the inverter board and binned the rest, I am NOT going to throw away a capacitor that almost cost a tenner.
Here’s it’s replacement: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/24-v...1920x1080-5ms-300cd-m-100000001-black-full-hd
This seemed to be the best available for the money. The idea was I’d use the new one for my main rig to replace the 24” Samsung 245B and put the Samsung in bedroom to replace failed 22” Samsung.
Scan (the supplier) list the Viewsonic as 24” and it says 24” on the monitor box. But it isn’t. It is a 23.5” screen. Now that is bang out of order people, uncle flops was a tad cheesed off
The Viewsonic Monitor is, however, excellent quality, very slim and looks good (though I’m still not sure about the way the stand base is ‘diamond-shaped’ oriented, quite odd.
So I tried the new one with main rig but blow me I can actually notice the difference in size. Who would think that half inch diagonally would make a noticeable difference? But it does. So, new one in bedroom where it is absolutely el fabbo, old living room monitor stays put. The Viewsonic recommended, just be aware it’s half inch short of it’s promises.
Sophie the teacher daughter up for weekend, she managed to hose Vista on her laptop again so I’ve just taken out the disk, formatted it and Vista is loading again as I type. I dare say tomorrow I will have to phone activate, which I hate, Microsoft you are so lovely, right up there with ingrown toenails and parking tickets.
Sophie and her sister Faye are out atm clubbing it up, Sophie didn’t like my new loudspeakers she said they looked ‘unfinished and home made’. Bloody Philistine but she was half right I suppose. Just a shame I don’t care much for veneer.
I went to see The Magic Band at The Kings Cross Scala on Wednesday with DTB and thoroughly enjoyed that.
Lucy, the other twin who is doing a further two year Uni course to become a paramedic has been getting hands on experience with a full time paramedic, night and day shifts, as part of her course. She just trails in the team’s wake and observes, really, to get experience. Yesterday she saw her first dead body, an elderly lady who died of heart failure, followed closely by yet another stiff, an old fella who died of natural causes who called the ambulance crew but managed to peg out before they arrived. Lucy was quite relieved it didn’t upset her too much.
Gamez:
Spoilt for choice, whole glut of good games lately.
Serious Sam 3 – brilliant, really good fun. Lower three levels of difficulty are Tourist; Easy and Normal. Even Normal is hard and there are two levels above that. I just completed it on Easy and even that was challenging. A great game.
Skyrim – What can I say? Lovin’ it. Extremely immersive, never less than entertaining, can eat up hours of your time but you always want to go back. And thus far it’s buggy as hell but apparently they’re sorting things out with patches auto-installed via Steam. If you have even a passing interest in RPG’s – buy this one.
Rage – Well worthy the £14.89 I paid for it, a good game but nothing new really, very similar to Borderlands but more polished and a lot more fluid and smooth. Have had one really hard bit so far, a boss level in an abandoned hospital.
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 – ok, this is over a year old and it’s a cheapie now but I love it. This is the first of this franchise I’ve ever bought and I’m enjoying it a lot. It’s basically stealth shooting but not annoying or frustrating, just satisfying, when you get shot you know you deserved it for not taking enough care.
Sonic Generations – Got this for 15 quid on Amazon as opposed to 20 quid on Steam. If you like the old Sonic games you’ll like this. A fair degree of difficulty, great levels and gameplay, good graphics. You do need a gamepad, Xbox controller wired or wireless recommended. It is not as stupidly hard as Sonic 4 Level 1 which I have on Xbox, I gave up on that and almost smashed something trying to play it. Don’t be put off by the cutesy kiddie in between levels talk that Japanese Game Makers always seem to think that’s how Americans talk. Culture clash indeed.
Batman Arkham City – Got this as a freebie when I bought an Nvidia card, as did about three million other folk. It is 35 pounds on Steam atm. DO NOT pay that much for it, it’s not worth it. It is good but it’s very much a console game and as such is an interactive movie and nothing else for large parts of the game. The graphics are good, gameplay is good, it is enjoyable and so far it is not as frustrating as it’s predecessor – Arkham Asylum. But be warned this one’s aimed at 13 year old console kiddies. Wait til it’s at least £20 then if you like the look of it buy it.
Dead Island - Good game, banned in Germany for being too violent. Steam tells me I've played 11 hours so far and there's still a lot left. It's been enjoyable for the most part but it's starting to get annoying. Autosave is now starting to bung me back way too far when I die and I hate playing through long parts of games already played again. Plus it is bugged. I rarely notice bugs in games but I do in Dead Island. To kill Thug Zombies the best way is to throw heavy objects at them cos get too close and they kill you easily. So I'm gathering stuff to throw at one Thug Zombie and while I'm away he's morphed from a black fella to a white fella - wtf? Plus I got locked in an endless loop of gameplay I just couldn't end, had to exit, lose progress and more or less start again to be able to do what I needed to do to progress.
And some of the motion in this game can make you feel seasick, I've read many reports of people suffering motion sickness and headaches in this game. Still, as long as it doesn't get any worse it's generally quite good.
I have installed but haven’t tried yet: The Witcher 2; Civilisation V (tried briefly, seemed good) and Mass Effect 2.
My health, for those who may be vaguely interested, I still haven’t lost that cough the virus gave me last August, each morning my throat spasms when I cough but that’s it. I have stopped inhaler as I don’t think it makes any difference. I am not short of breath. Atm the area of scar tissue on my throat, or more specifically the cartoid artery underneath, hurts. Feels like an ear infection, hurts when I swallows and stuff, but probably isn’t. Is worrying me cos my immune system in that area is pretty much shot to bits and an infection that became incurable could actually lead to partial jaw removal. Such is the legacy but I’m probably being melodramatic and will see Doc on Monday.
For the first time since last winter, on December 1st, I put the central heating on. Not too bad eh?
Took delivery today of an American import vinyl album – Wages by the Reverend Peytons Big Damn Band. If you like quirky white American big bearded fellas singing bluesy stuff with a slide guitar accompanied by his sister on washboard and a drummer you will like this. Love it, best thing I’ve heard in yonks.
One track from the album:
Ok, folks, that’ll do
The second likely cause was a failed screen unit.
There were six 25 volt caps, 1 x 330uF & 5 x 820uF and one big bugger 100uF 450V. I bought the lot for around £12 (the big one took up about 80% of that cost) and replaced them. Fired it up – nothing. Double checked everything like you do, no faults on my part so it looks like the tft screen ist kaput.
Bugger, 12 quid wasted
I kept the inverter board and binned the rest, I am NOT going to throw away a capacitor that almost cost a tenner.Here’s it’s replacement: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/24-v...1920x1080-5ms-300cd-m-100000001-black-full-hd
This seemed to be the best available for the money. The idea was I’d use the new one for my main rig to replace the 24” Samsung 245B and put the Samsung in bedroom to replace failed 22” Samsung.
Scan (the supplier) list the Viewsonic as 24” and it says 24” on the monitor box. But it isn’t. It is a 23.5” screen. Now that is bang out of order people, uncle flops was a tad cheesed off
The Viewsonic Monitor is, however, excellent quality, very slim and looks good (though I’m still not sure about the way the stand base is ‘diamond-shaped’ oriented, quite odd.
So I tried the new one with main rig but blow me I can actually notice the difference in size. Who would think that half inch diagonally would make a noticeable difference? But it does. So, new one in bedroom where it is absolutely el fabbo, old living room monitor stays put. The Viewsonic recommended, just be aware it’s half inch short of it’s promises.
Sophie the teacher daughter up for weekend, she managed to hose Vista on her laptop again so I’ve just taken out the disk, formatted it and Vista is loading again as I type. I dare say tomorrow I will have to phone activate, which I hate, Microsoft you are so lovely, right up there with ingrown toenails and parking tickets.
Sophie and her sister Faye are out atm clubbing it up, Sophie didn’t like my new loudspeakers she said they looked ‘unfinished and home made’. Bloody Philistine but she was half right I suppose. Just a shame I don’t care much for veneer.
I went to see The Magic Band at The Kings Cross Scala on Wednesday with DTB and thoroughly enjoyed that.
Lucy, the other twin who is doing a further two year Uni course to become a paramedic has been getting hands on experience with a full time paramedic, night and day shifts, as part of her course. She just trails in the team’s wake and observes, really, to get experience. Yesterday she saw her first dead body, an elderly lady who died of heart failure, followed closely by yet another stiff, an old fella who died of natural causes who called the ambulance crew but managed to peg out before they arrived. Lucy was quite relieved it didn’t upset her too much.
Gamez:
Spoilt for choice, whole glut of good games lately.
Serious Sam 3 – brilliant, really good fun. Lower three levels of difficulty are Tourist; Easy and Normal. Even Normal is hard and there are two levels above that. I just completed it on Easy and even that was challenging. A great game.
Skyrim – What can I say? Lovin’ it. Extremely immersive, never less than entertaining, can eat up hours of your time but you always want to go back. And thus far it’s buggy as hell but apparently they’re sorting things out with patches auto-installed via Steam. If you have even a passing interest in RPG’s – buy this one.
Rage – Well worthy the £14.89 I paid for it, a good game but nothing new really, very similar to Borderlands but more polished and a lot more fluid and smooth. Have had one really hard bit so far, a boss level in an abandoned hospital.
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 – ok, this is over a year old and it’s a cheapie now but I love it. This is the first of this franchise I’ve ever bought and I’m enjoying it a lot. It’s basically stealth shooting but not annoying or frustrating, just satisfying, when you get shot you know you deserved it for not taking enough care.
Sonic Generations – Got this for 15 quid on Amazon as opposed to 20 quid on Steam. If you like the old Sonic games you’ll like this. A fair degree of difficulty, great levels and gameplay, good graphics. You do need a gamepad, Xbox controller wired or wireless recommended. It is not as stupidly hard as Sonic 4 Level 1 which I have on Xbox, I gave up on that and almost smashed something trying to play it. Don’t be put off by the cutesy kiddie in between levels talk that Japanese Game Makers always seem to think that’s how Americans talk. Culture clash indeed.
Batman Arkham City – Got this as a freebie when I bought an Nvidia card, as did about three million other folk. It is 35 pounds on Steam atm. DO NOT pay that much for it, it’s not worth it. It is good but it’s very much a console game and as such is an interactive movie and nothing else for large parts of the game. The graphics are good, gameplay is good, it is enjoyable and so far it is not as frustrating as it’s predecessor – Arkham Asylum. But be warned this one’s aimed at 13 year old console kiddies. Wait til it’s at least £20 then if you like the look of it buy it.
Dead Island - Good game, banned in Germany for being too violent. Steam tells me I've played 11 hours so far and there's still a lot left. It's been enjoyable for the most part but it's starting to get annoying. Autosave is now starting to bung me back way too far when I die and I hate playing through long parts of games already played again. Plus it is bugged. I rarely notice bugs in games but I do in Dead Island. To kill Thug Zombies the best way is to throw heavy objects at them cos get too close and they kill you easily. So I'm gathering stuff to throw at one Thug Zombie and while I'm away he's morphed from a black fella to a white fella - wtf? Plus I got locked in an endless loop of gameplay I just couldn't end, had to exit, lose progress and more or less start again to be able to do what I needed to do to progress.
And some of the motion in this game can make you feel seasick, I've read many reports of people suffering motion sickness and headaches in this game. Still, as long as it doesn't get any worse it's generally quite good.
I have installed but haven’t tried yet: The Witcher 2; Civilisation V (tried briefly, seemed good) and Mass Effect 2.
My health, for those who may be vaguely interested, I still haven’t lost that cough the virus gave me last August, each morning my throat spasms when I cough but that’s it. I have stopped inhaler as I don’t think it makes any difference. I am not short of breath. Atm the area of scar tissue on my throat, or more specifically the cartoid artery underneath, hurts. Feels like an ear infection, hurts when I swallows and stuff, but probably isn’t. Is worrying me cos my immune system in that area is pretty much shot to bits and an infection that became incurable could actually lead to partial jaw removal. Such is the legacy but I’m probably being melodramatic and will see Doc on Monday.
For the first time since last winter, on December 1st, I put the central heating on. Not too bad eh?
Took delivery today of an American import vinyl album – Wages by the Reverend Peytons Big Damn Band. If you like quirky white American big bearded fellas singing bluesy stuff with a slide guitar accompanied by his sister on washboard and a drummer you will like this. Love it, best thing I’ve heard in yonks.
One track from the album:
Ok, folks, that’ll do
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That 'practice' has quickly became a norm, my LG is 1/2" short of unlimited 'tinternet access.
Great track from the album ... searching for more.
Taffycat
Crunchy Cat
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Good looking monitor Flopps, despite its missing 1/2"
I enjoyed the album track too - it set my footies a-tapping as I imbibed my wake-up cup of caffeine.
Hope the Dr is able to set your mind at rest tomorrow and the cause of your painful swallowing, etc., will turn out to be nothing more than the side-effects to all the coughing you've had to do recently. Please let us know how you get on Sir Flopps. Wishing you all the very best.
I enjoyed the album track too - it set my footies a-tapping as I imbibed my wake-up cup of caffeine.
Hope the Dr is able to set your mind at rest tomorrow and the cause of your painful swallowing, etc., will turn out to be nothing more than the side-effects to all the coughing you've had to do recently. Please let us know how you get on Sir Flopps. Wishing you all the very best.
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Yes loved the track, did not understand the lyrics but dam fine music, well it had my and my good ladies feet tappin
- Joined
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- 20,281
- Reaction score
- 1,794
Have been having a few problems with the new computer I put together in September inasmuch as it would freeze sometimes. It has frozen in MS Word, Skyrim and Sonic: Generations, seems quite indiscriminate.
On rebooting the system can't find the disc with the OS, so I enter BIOS and the main disk isn't listed. Turn off PSU, wait a minute, switch on again and the disk is back. On boot Windows gives the prompt screen, I select 'Start Windows Normally' and all is good.
System, briefly, is:
Asus P8Z68 V-PRO motherboard; Sandybridge i7 Quad core 3.4Ghz; Corsair 120Gb SSD drive with Win 7 Home Premium 64 Bit; Pair of 500Gb disks for games and storage; pair of optical drives; GTX560 1Gb vid card; 8Gb 1600 memory; Auzentech Prelude 7.1 soundcard.
No cooling issues.
So, I've just updated BIOS from one made in May '11 to about 4 BIOS's after that, made on 23rd November '11; updated Asus Mobo drivers for: LAN; SATA; USB3; Chipset and installed Asus Utility pack; Installed latest Nvidia Beta drivers 190.36 and checked Auzentech soundcard drivers are the latest (they are).
So, we'll see what occurs.
Pain in scar tissue I mentioned previously just went away
Suspect this poxy cold I have atm may have been to blame so did not go to see the Quack.
I have a disco to do for a wedding in around ten days time so have been checking out last month's Top 40's. Not much there is there? I'd say about 80% are ballads, no good at all. Bruno Mars' 'Marry You' is an abvious contender though. And I note the Pogues and Mariah Carey are back in the charts again with their seasonal fare.
What I'd like to see is Kevin 'Bloody' Wilson's Xmas song in the charts
Gamez: Rage is superb, Sonic Generations mis very good but after the first three levels has got harder. And I'm through to first boss level but haven't beaten him yet. Batman Arkham City has got better, absolutely gorgeous graphics in this game. And, of course Skyrim, wonderful game. Have got a bit fed up with Dead Island, getting repetitive.
I've been making some juices with the juicer I bought from Itsme and cheap fruit from Lewisham market, a lot of it looks disgusting but tastes pretty damn good, had some pear juice today
When I was queuing up to pay for the fruit at the market yesterday somebody tugged my sleeve. I looked around and this little old white haired black fella who resembled Yoda from Star Wars told me that Jesus loved me. I resisted any one of half a dozen smartass or downright abusive replies and just smiled at him. I'm getting soft in me old age.
Today is December 8th. Five years ago to the day I had my last dose of radiotherapy and the chemotherapy sessions were also over. They say five years is a milestone and after a final appointment with Oncologist on January 4th they intend to sign me off and back to my GP providing all is well on that day. So I guess I should feel good about that.
Laters you peeps
On rebooting the system can't find the disc with the OS, so I enter BIOS and the main disk isn't listed. Turn off PSU, wait a minute, switch on again and the disk is back. On boot Windows gives the prompt screen, I select 'Start Windows Normally' and all is good.
System, briefly, is:
Asus P8Z68 V-PRO motherboard; Sandybridge i7 Quad core 3.4Ghz; Corsair 120Gb SSD drive with Win 7 Home Premium 64 Bit; Pair of 500Gb disks for games and storage; pair of optical drives; GTX560 1Gb vid card; 8Gb 1600 memory; Auzentech Prelude 7.1 soundcard.
No cooling issues.
So, I've just updated BIOS from one made in May '11 to about 4 BIOS's after that, made on 23rd November '11; updated Asus Mobo drivers for: LAN; SATA; USB3; Chipset and installed Asus Utility pack; Installed latest Nvidia Beta drivers 190.36 and checked Auzentech soundcard drivers are the latest (they are).
So, we'll see what occurs.
Pain in scar tissue I mentioned previously just went away
Suspect this poxy cold I have atm may have been to blame so did not go to see the Quack.I have a disco to do for a wedding in around ten days time so have been checking out last month's Top 40's. Not much there is there? I'd say about 80% are ballads, no good at all. Bruno Mars' 'Marry You' is an abvious contender though. And I note the Pogues and Mariah Carey are back in the charts again with their seasonal fare.
What I'd like to see is Kevin 'Bloody' Wilson's Xmas song in the charts
Gamez: Rage is superb, Sonic Generations mis very good but after the first three levels has got harder. And I'm through to first boss level but haven't beaten him yet. Batman Arkham City has got better, absolutely gorgeous graphics in this game. And, of course Skyrim, wonderful game. Have got a bit fed up with Dead Island, getting repetitive.
I've been making some juices with the juicer I bought from Itsme and cheap fruit from Lewisham market, a lot of it looks disgusting but tastes pretty damn good, had some pear juice today
When I was queuing up to pay for the fruit at the market yesterday somebody tugged my sleeve. I looked around and this little old white haired black fella who resembled Yoda from Star Wars told me that Jesus loved me. I resisted any one of half a dozen smartass or downright abusive replies and just smiled at him. I'm getting soft in me old age.
Today is December 8th. Five years ago to the day I had my last dose of radiotherapy and the chemotherapy sessions were also over. They say five years is a milestone and after a final appointment with Oncologist on January 4th they intend to sign me off and back to my GP providing all is well on that day. So I guess I should feel good about that.
Laters you peeps