I decided it would be good to build a cross bow out of Lego

Yeah…. I made myself a crossbow one school holidays, out of bits I found in the garage.  Plastic curtain rail and a bungee cord mounted to a bit of 1″ x 2″, bolt made out of bamboo with some flights from an old dart.

The first test fire sent the bamboo-bolt clean-through a fence panel (albeit a cheap one).  I was equally overjoyed and horrified – rather hastily took it to bits and returned the components to the garage.

Meh – I’m a bit torn.

Seizing his assets and flogging them off for cents on the dollar would have been so easy for him/his team to spin as persecution/unfair/unwarranted.  Having him admit he “only” has $175m available is somewhat of a win in itself.  Don’t get me wrong, I would have loved for them to start seizing assets and absolutely decimating him in the process – but I don’t know what the precedent is for lowering the bond amount is, and I don’t know whether $175m (on top of the E Jean Carol payout) achieves more or less the same thing.

The anti-trump campaign is (instead of criminality, morality, lying, corruption etc) now focusing on painting Trump as a “loser” – they have figured out that this is the best way to convince people who would vote for him, not to do so.  Biden is beginning to talk up all of his (considerable) achievements since taking office, and pointing out Donny’s failures.  It’ll be interesting to see how they position this.

I’ve worked for the uk affiliate of a Swiss pharma giant, and directly for the same Swiss global corp.

absolutely no issues at all.  In fact, really liked working for them: they really wanted to do things properly.  Expectations were high, but they were for everybody, you also got to enjoy the benefits of those high expectations.

however: also worked for another Swiss pharma giant (based in the same Swiss town) – and they were absolutely the opposite.  I was working (contacted onto a big project) with a UK based teams, and they were probably the least professional and most unpleasant people I’ve ever experienced (and I work with Biotech companies – who are frequently run by egomaniacs/narcissists). It was consistent, so certainly a cultural issue at that company.

so in summary: I’ve found that it depends on the individual companies culture, and the quality of the people that they are hiring.  I’ve had both better and worse treatment from companies in other countries.

Just finished the Gentlemen.  Excellent – really enjoyed it for what it was: 8 hours of Guy Richie “greatest hits”.  It’s not particularly highbrow, but that’s ok – I thought it was great:  funny, stylish, with a decent plot and generally good fun.

Have since moved on to “The Regime” with Kate Winslet – seems good so far:  quite Armando Iannuci-ish.  Will report back

Just check what size the TV shows you are downloading are.

Apple tend to prioritise quality over size on their downloads, so if you are downloading “see” in 4k for example, it looks like a single episode could be up to about 9.5gb.  1080p looks like it runs at about 2.5 to 4.5gb per episode.

Masters of the air is even worse – single episodes in 4k look like they can be up to 20gb.

I….erm…. don’t download directly from Apple, so I don’t know what size they would be if you did, but I would imagine they’d be in the same ballpark.

sanctions because of Ukraine means that line of credit is no longer available.

I hadn’t considered this!  Is “lift. the. sanctions!” going to become the new MAGA chant?

If Donald extracts the cash from the business it’ll probably go bust as it’ll no longer be able to service its debts, lead to a fire sale of his assets and leave him with an even bigger debt pile.

In the statements from his lawyers (and the insurance CEO who he has in his political pocket), he seems to going for the angle that this fine is so large that an individual could never meet it – which is obviously part ego/face-saving, and partly a peek at the thrust of their appeal.

Its just fantastic that in a trial about him grossly inflating the values of his business, he is being shown to have been grossly inflating his own personal wealth.

My understanding is that if he doesn’t liquidate assets to pay the $454+, then the court will do it for him.  I wonder whether Trump is being advised whether it’s a better look (politically) to sell them himself, or have them “seized by the deep state”.  Surely we are going to see a Saudi prince buy some worthless Trump warehouse for half a billion dollars?  What happened to all that cash that Jared got out of them?

Just to further annoy people:

UK HSE rules explicitly recommend that a workplace first aid box shouldn’t contain any medications except aspirin (to be use to treat a heart attack rather than pain relief).

For that reason, no sensible company director/office manager etc is going to have the company providing medications to staff.  I appreciate that people here (except me) see a benefit of this – but all they are going to see is a potential lawsuit, and put the kibosh on it.

*checks if kibosh is unintentionally racist…. it’s not*

Serious question.. Why would you buy an apple TV over a proper 4k OLED smart TV?

I have a 4k OLED smart TV.  The apple TV is just a smart box.

It’s an LG – they make the best screens (IMO), but the interface/remote is absolute dogshit.  The apple TV is a relatively cheap upgrade to the OS.  We don’t really watch broadcast telly, so just use the apple’s interface and remote for everything.

Feels like enshittification to me.

It’s basically going from an ownership model (albeit with a warrantee), to a hybrid lease model in perpetuity.  If I’m paying monthly for certain “features”, who’s responsibility is it to make sure they work?  If I’m paying for it as a “service”, if it goes wrong, I’m not also paying to fix it.

I also wonder where they stand on competition?  Selling the hardware, and having a monopoly of the subscription “services” is a well trodden litigation path in the EU, no?

I wonder if companies offering to unlock everything in your car for a $2k one-off fee would have to be accommodated?  “No thanks VW, I’ll get my mood lighting subscription from a 3rd party who offer a specific techno dogging-mode”

I’ve had almost every generation of apple TVs – they are great:  smooth, reliable, minimal glitches.

All the major apps work great – the exception being youtube:  its fully awful.  My suspicion is that the app on the apple TV has been deliberately enshittified by google.  I had prime video for a while too, this was also total shit, and there was something weird going on with the region settings – it seemed to think I was in India, so content was almost exclusively indian.  Spent ages on the phone with their tech support – they couldn’t figure out how to fix it, so I had to cancel my subscription in the end.

If you have an iphone, the facetime integration is great, as is the integration with airpods (both connectivity and spatial audio).

I dunno – I think that maybe being slightly inconvenienced by having to find a neurofen when you need one, might maybe be part of the process of nudging people towards being able to look after themselves…. Might occur to them to keep some in their bag/desk drawer/ glove compartment in future.

see also: “forgetting to apply deodorant” ffs

Maybe I’m just in a bad mood today – but I’d find this incredibly patronizing/infantilizing.  “shat your pants at work again?  Poor you! Come and see Janet who’ll give you a wet wipe and a change of undies”

First aid kit in the kitchen, sanitary products in the ladies loos – anything else just feels like a solution looking for a problem.

Unless they are hiring a disprortionate number of recent school leavers/graduates that might have trouble managing their own basic needs/personal administration, feels more like something that somebody wants to do, rather than something useful.

At my daughter’s 7th birthday party, one of her very polite friends came to ask me for a cake fork…… the look of disappointment on her face as I handed her a regular one, informing her that we didn’t have “special” cake forks, will haunt me forever.

I recon it’s a cake fork.

Was there a note with the wrongly delivered flowers?

If so, then the neighbor has some cause to be miffed – not unreasonable to expect somebody to determine who the flowers were to/from before “redistribution”.  However, not that miffed, an honest mistake, apology etc – perhaps your mum can re-construct a bouquet for your neighbor?

If no note with the flowers: how was she supposed to know that they weren’t for her?  I’d certainly be polite/sympathetic, and offer to re-construct the bouquet, but a shitty attitude would result in a “oh dear me, yes that sounds terrible.  Do let me know if you manage to get it resolved with DPD.  Bye then!” *door closes*

No, OP is correct it’s an HDMI Out( as described further up) which passes video to the TV and it’s also the ARC port which needs plugging into the corresponding HDMI port labelled “ARC” on the TV

Not in my setup – as others have written – ARC (out) passes the audio only from the TV to the sounder’s ARC (in).

Any inputs (virgin box, consoles etc) go from HDMI out (not ARC) on the device, to HDMI in (not arc) on the telly.

Basically everything goes IN to the telly, and it’s only the HDMI ARC that goes OUT to the soundbar.

In some TVs you have to go into the settings and specify that you want the audio to go via ARC to a sounder/receiver (rather than the TV speakers) – it’ll be in the sound settings

I’m assuming that fascism/being a fascist, is a pretty strong indicator for extremism….. so surely the be an anti-fascist is to be encouraged, particularly by this organization?

Nonsense, cynically designed to normalize right wing views, buy drawing false equivalence with what are effectively centrist, sensible positions.

The sooner this collection of arseholes get given their marching orders by the electorate the better.

Yeah, ebikes are everywhere here – including dodgy conversions which you seemingly don’t need to pedal – even if there are rules, they don’t seem to be particularly actively enforced (in Sydney at least).  I would suggest that if yours is a “proper” ebike, you should be fine….. it’ll just be viewed as a bike.

They seemed to legislate against electric scooter things (not sure if just NSW or nationwide) a couple of years ago, basically declaring that they were neither allowed to be ridden on footpaths or roads – I see a few here in the city, but certainly less than there used to be.

Regarding dirt…… just give stuff a decent clean, customs tend to open anything marked as outdoor equipment (camping, hiking boots etc) – and a mountain bike will certainly get looked at.  Maybe spend 20 mins cleaning it, but you don’t need to be forensic about it.  See below – probably worth getting a bell attached prior to shipping the bike.

PREPARE FOR STW PEARL CLUTCHING:

Australia-wide cycling laws:

Cyclists must follow the same road rules as drivers

Cyclists must not ride more than two people side-by-side, and no more than 1.5 metres apart

Cyclists must not hold on to another vehicle while it’s driving

Cyclists must have at least one hand on the handlebar at all times

Bicycles must have working brakes and a working bell, horn, or similar warning device

When riding at night, all bicycles must have the correct lights

Cyclists must ride the correct way along bike paths

Cyclists must not lead an animal while riding—so no taking your dog for a run

Queensland-specific laws, including associated fines:

Cyclists must wear a helmet at all times, unless you have medical, cultural, or religious reasons not to

Cyclists are only allowed to ride on a footpath where indicated

Using a hand-held mobile phone – $1,078

Failure to wear a helmet – $143

Failure to give way – $143

Exceeding the speed limit by 11km/h – $287

Following another vehicle too closely – $335

Cyclist drinking alcohol while riding – $431

Yeah – I started getting it 5 or 6 years ago – I couldn’t believe it when I was told it was gout….. something that I put in the same category of Victorian diseases as rickets etc.

I have about one flare-up a year, which I manage with Indometacin (a strong non-steroidal anti-inflammatory).  I can tell when an attack is coming, and usually one day of treatment is enough if i catch it early (I have a supply of meds to-hand, so I don’t have to go to the GP).  Generally I can knock-it-on the head before it becomes painful.  It’s usually in my big toe.

My GP checks my uric acid levels periodically, and says that unless the attacks become more frequent, not to treat with allopurinol prophylacticaly – just treat the attacks.

I’ve been pretty successful in managing it with diet – cured meats are a big trigger, as are stronger/hoppier beers. Having a beer or two, or eating a pepperoni pizza are not going to do anything: the attacks usually happen when I slip for a sustained period of time (about a week) –  having a craft-type beer every night, or getting a sandwich from my local deli with salami in it for a few days in a row, for example.  My worst attack was when I was trying to lose some weight and ate biltong as a high-protein snack for 3 days in a row.  What was I thinking?!?

I recon I drank gallons of cherry juice when it first started happening.  Does naff-all.  Learn what causes it to try to avoid attacks, and treat anything that breaks through with proper drugs, is my advice.

If all you want to do is play some mp3s through a single bluetooth speaker, Plex is massive overkill for what you are describing.

As a rule, I’m a huge advocate of overkill – but, if thats all you want to do, just save the mp3s directly on to the phone, and plug it into the speaker.

That approach only wouldn’t work if a) you have more content than would fit onto a phone or SD card, and/or b) you want several people to be able to access the music from one central location.

Plex is free and will run on a potato, so just download it onto your existing computer, and the client app (or Plexamp if you are mostly interested in music) and give it a go.  It’ll take you 30 mins to get everything working if you’re only using it for music.

As long as the “client” (whatever you are playing the media on) can play the media in the format it’s saved as on the server (mp3 in this case), then your Plex server doesn’t need to be powerful at all.  It’s only when you want your server to start “transcoding” the media files (eg: if your server needs them in a different format or compressed to send over 5G).  Even then, if it’s only mp3s, your old MacBook shouldn’t have a problem.

I rent, so claim 10% of my rent.

as for running costs?  Why not?  Maybe if you owned your own business – but if you’re employed and have a wfh contract, I don’t see why that would be true.

h&r block (which I’m sure is a dirty word in your house) have advised me for the last 7 years that this is acceptable, and have processsed my tax rebate accordingly.  My contract does say “permanently home based” though

I’ve been working from home in Sydney for the last 7 years – it’s been completely transformative for me (in a good way).  Tips:

• If you don’t have a dedicated work area – get one (tinyroomco).  if your desk isn’t a nice place to sit, then you’ll want to get up the whole time.
• As above, a good chair, dual monitor setup, wireless mouse/keyboard, mic/webcam and speakers.  I quite enjoyed putting everything together.  If you need recommendations for all that stuff, let me know.
• Remember, anything you spend to WFH is TAX DEDUCTABLE in Australia.  My home office floorspace is 10% of my total home floorplan, so I can claim 10% on all my household bills come tax time.
• Anything that you purchase over $300, is depreciated over 3 or 5 years (can’t remember) and only the depreciation is tax deductible – so try to keep every item under $300 if possible.
• Buy a decent coffee machine…… this is not tax deductible (ask me how I know)
• whoever said, “dress like you are going to the office…..”, no.  One of the benefits of wfh is that you can work in shorts and flipflops (notice I’m using the English term to avoid confusion).

Anyway – will see if I can think of anything else, but honestly, it’s awesome.

Mine was an absolute debacle – Guildford crown court about 20 years ago.

As above, lots of inexplicable waiting around “just in case” – getting sent home at 3 if nothing appeared to be happening.

Eventually got put on a case: Where some oik made a not particularly well disguised threat to kill his partner (“you’ll be seeing him soon….” in reference to a recently deceased grandparent). We went through all the preliminary stuff, then when the partner took the stand, she made reference to a previous assault.

Objection your honour…… jury dismissed for having been biased by hearing about previous (uncharged?) assault.

Another few days inexplicable waiting around.

So all in all, a bit of a shambles. Manage your expectations.

I haven’t found that I need to RDT (spray) – even here in Sydney, with the niche. I think static is more of a problem on flat-burr grinders that conicals.
I do WDT though – stirring with a paper clip or a wine cork full of needles. I found this made a big difference to my puck-prep – I very rarely get any channeling these days.

I tried one of those things you spin around on top of the puck to level it – and found it to be pointless.

The WDT (needle thing) though….. noticeable difference in consistency. I can pull 10 shots at the same grind setting, and have all of them run within a second of each other.

Honestly, the super-jolly wasn’t great for home. I converted it to timed dosing first – but found the variance in dose to be too great. I then converted it to single dosing, which was ok…. But I couldn’t get the conversion kit I wanted from Taiwan because of covid restrictions – so it was a bit fudged. Having to spend so much effort to turn it into something useful, and then it still being pretty heavily compromised anyway. Meh. The coffee is far better from the niche, it’s easier to use and looks better on the counter. Money well spent imo.

I bought one of those Bissel “spot clean” machines – not cats for me: toddlers.

I feel a bit meh about it: It does the job, but just not particularly well. HOWEVER, saw a comment the other day from a “professional” saying that the way to use these machines is to use a separate spray bottle with the detergent mix in it, and then just use clean water in the machine to rinse and pull the detergent mix out of the carpet. Which is what SelkirkBear is saying I think.

Next time the kids walk something unpleasant into the house, I will try that for sure.

I hope I never go that far down the rabbit hole that I think that’s good value!

lol, revisit this thread in 6 months :)

I bought an old Faema e98 “compact” for 60 quid that was going in a skip and rebuilt it over lockdown, same thing with a mazzer Super Jolly bought for about the same.

The thing is a beast – and weighs about as much as the garage it’s currently stored in! It was a useful proof-off-concept though: it’s possible to make coffee as good as you get from a high-end coffee shop, at home. However, this was not a good home machine! Usually I embrace overkill – but this was overkill to the point that it wasn’t really fit for purpose – so I switched to a Niche zero with a Lelit Mara X. This is fantastic home setup and any further upgrades are going to be chasing rapidly diminishing returns (is it going to stop me though?!).

Both a La Marzocco Linea Micra and a Decent are currently in the shopping cart :)

I have a shortlist of three, in ascending price. Miicoffee Apex, AKA Turin Legato – made by the DF grinder people, Gaggia Classic Prov Evo, Profitec Go

Of those, the profitec is like a “deluxe” version of the Gaggia – it’s built a bit more like a higher-end machine, albeit in the market segment traditionally occupied by the Gaggia. I’m not a big fan of the classic, but I know people on here love it.
The Miicoffee Apex is a different kettle of fish. Sprometheus on Youtube has a really good review of it (sorry, can’t post a link at work). The programable preinfusion is a feature really worth having, as is the steam thermoblock (although this depends on whether you are going to be making milk drinks). My concern would be build quality and reliability, being a new/untested machine.

Will be interested to hear which one you get and how you get on with it!

I find it a little suspicious that in the last 2 days he’s launched some very shonkly looking promotions – even for him, which are going to deliver him very little in terms of cash, and are hardly good for his image (although 80’s shopping channel host is the look his team are going for?).

I suspect he’s having real difficulty rustling-up even the bond part of the fine (or whatever it’s called) and has had a rummage in the bottom of his cupboard to see what prototype merch he can suddenly rush out to generate a bit of cash.  He has the same energy of an absent father in the toy section of his local Tesco on Christmas eve (please don’t ask me how I know).

Cool!  Let us know how you get on with it.

Another product that I am really enjoying is “the accountant” single dose bean counter/automated weigher.

3d printed by some bloke in a shed – but it’s excellent.

https://www.beanvibes.com/products/the-accountant

When I bought my Niche it was really the only game-in-town for single dosing beyond a fudged Mazzer conversion (which I had at the time).

For my use-case: Espresso only, mostly milk drinks, I go for medium roasts from specialty local roasters, and am after the nutty, chocolatey, rich flavours and prioritise what coffee-wonks call “mouthfeel”…… Conical burrs were a really good call over flats.  The difference was immediately noticeable.  I knew what I would be getting though:  my local coffee shop used a mazzer Kony (which uses the same burs as the Niche) so there was an element of trying-before-buying.

I don’t think conicals work as well with filter – they produce more fines which are great for thick syrupy espresso shots, but can muddy the flavors if what you are looking for is clarity.

At the time, the DF line of grinders looked like they had been made out of some kind of parts-bin in Guangzhou, vs the Niche.  I’ve looked at the DF grinders since, and they are looking a lot more polished, so the gap may have narrowed/disappeared, which is good.  Option-O are bringing out a new grinder today (the Casa?) so maybe have a look at that too – it will certainly be more expensive though.

As an aside, my Niche has a set of wood parts made from recycled skateboards (not my photo, but mine is the same).  Made by somebody who is an MTBer based in Scotland (https://www.instagram.com/skatereclaimcreate/) – I’d be amazed if he wasn’t at one time “of this parish”

Just smashed out about 24 for the kids and inlaws (they are staying with us at the moment).  In true STW style I’ve bought myself an artisan wrought iron crepe pan, which is awesome.

Batfink Jnr rejected the lemon juice, on account of it being “too spicy” – sadly haven’t seen Jif lemon for sale in Australia

This thread is hard work

Want to carry a knife with you of varied and non-specific reasons?  Cutting fruit, freeing small children from zipties, escaping burning cars?  Thats cool – you are 100% within your rights to do so – no need to waffle on about the decline of society, wokeness or the nanny-state….. you are not being oppressed. It just needs to be the size of a normal penknife (ie: less than 3″) and not have a locking blade.  SAK or anything similar is more than sufficient for that kind of manley behavior.

Want to carry a knife bigger than that, or with a locking blade?  Fine, you can do that – you just need to have a good reason for it.  What a “good reason” is will be decided by the policeman who finds it on your person.  The law is specifically written to allow for the application of judgement – which is a good thing, but it’s not your judgement, it the judgement of somebody else – hence good advice would be to ask yourself whether a normal penknife is sufficient  rather than a large/locking blade.  Opinels seem to be a particular bone of contention as people seem to regard them as “old timey penknives” whereas they fall into the locking category, even if tiny with a rounded tip.

The law is specifically written in a way to allow whining old farts like us to continue to carry around our penknife for varied, non-specific purposes, whilst allowing to police to arrest somebody carrying a 5″ sabatier tucked into their waistband down the local park, even if they claim to use it to slice tomatoes for their midnight sandwich.

What he said in that article points to him being both an incredibly stupid person, but also somebody who feels such entitlement, that he simply cannot begin to accept the fact that he might be wrong and everyone else right (instead of the other way round).  Unfortunately, he’ll always be able to find somebody to tell him that he’s right – in previous years it would have been some old fella down the pub reassuring him that he’s just saying what everyone else is thinking, but these days there’s a whole toxic community of like-minded bellends who’ll prop him up when he should be bumping along the bottom.

I don’t use the term lightly – but he’s in desperate need to “taking down a peg or two” to encourage some self reflection – a decent settlement leading to bankruptcy should do it (but probably wont).

Explain how you compromised?

Tear into stockings permitted.

Indeed.  Stockings are from father Christmas and are opened as soon as the kids wake up.  The presents under the tree are from actual humans, are opened after lunch, one-at-a-time with a modicum of **** ing decorum thankyouverymuch.  It has literally taken us 7 years to establish this running order (which we will call a “tradition”), including the question of which presents are from Santa, and which are from us/relatives.  Some families apparently work on the basis that all presents under the tree apparently?!?!?!

I always thought this was because he was a bit middle class. MrsDoris sees it as working class insecurity, and the middle classes wouldn’t have given a shit. What say you?

I’m inclined to agree, but I wound prefer to think of it as aspiration rather than insecurity.

I watch a documentary ages ago called “status anxiety” which covers this sort of thing really well – it’s really stuck with me, particularly the (perceived) link between success and effort in the US vs class in the UK.

Missed this the first time too – bump to the top

Before, but verrrry slowly…my wife’s family tradition was tearing into the pile like a pack of hyenas fighting over a carcass, so we had to work out a compromise.

We are exactly the same, for exactly the same reason – I was struggling to find an appropriate simile for the savagery – thank you.

[franksinatra]

franksinatra

Full Member

I have a boiling water tap.

Now we’re talking!

I wonder if Crocs vs Birkenstocks is another indicator?

I have a boiling water tap.

Now we’re talking!

I wonder if Crocs vs Birkenstocks is another indicator?

I thought the key indicator was whether you unwrap your Christmas presents before or after lunch?

Edit:  We weren’t allowed to watch Grange Hill or EastEnders.

Mate that looks fantastic – congratulations.  100% finished, or are you leaving some things incomplete so you can procrastinate over getting them finished over the next decade?  That’s how I roll.

If anybody has a watch they wear daily that has increased in value then they must have a really low intensity life. I used to wear g-shock watches and now have Garmins. They get absolutely wrecked! Gym, climbing, riding, messing about with kids/dog, cleaning, tidying etc. I go through straps at an alarming rate and the watches themselves get scratched, dented etc.

And yet, my “expensive” watch has done 17 years of the same stuff:  Rockclimbing, surfing, mountain biking, camping etc etc, has picked up some signs of wear, but is worth more than what I paid for it new.  As has Solariders.  The only thing I take it off for is if I’m going to be doing something like decorating, or when I was helping a mate knock down walls in his house.

This is the point I think – if you think about residual/resale value, some things that appear expensive, are actually better value than they might first appear.  Particularly “premium” brands who push their prices up over time.

Another good example (bound to similarly trigger some STWers) is “expensive” coffee machines.  Both my coffee grinder and coffee machine are worth as least as much today than what I paid for them – despite making 4 coffees a day for the past 3.5 years.  How much is a 3 year old Nespresso machine worth?  My Machine has been making me fantastic coffee all this time – and has effectively cost me nothing.  I wish I’d bought a more expensive one

Because it doesn’t tell the time any better

If that’s the yardstick for “value” then anything other that the cheapest (which works) is going to fail.

have you considered a career at Chrysler?