LastPass is your friend

Chrome and Firefox offer to remember my passwords for each site.

I don’t trust third party tools that remember all my passwords and likewise any extensions or features in browsers that auto-fill passwords.

I turn off all that stuff. One vulnerability and get hacked, all passwords stolen.

Not just the plants out for us. Oak Processionary Moth Caterpillars are pretty nasty and are present in Surrey, living in oak trees. Toxic hairs that cause rashes and breathing difficulties and they can spread on the wind or brushing past.

Doing my head in. Especially as I use complex long unrememberable passwords for each site and have to look them up individually.

Not going to link my account to Facebook or Google for sign-in either.

I though Garmin Connect was bad for this, but at least it remembers you for a bit.

I’ve tried air coolers with water tanks. Waste of money and just bulky.

Slightly cooler air out of it for about half an hour until the water warms up (had ice packs you can stick in it also, but melt in no time).

Also, worked with an evaporation belt that circulates “cool” water past the fan. I worried that nasty things will grow in the water or on the belt and might be breathing that in, so decided to get rid (on top of the reason that it was just crap).

Bunch of large diameter fans shift decent amount of air and not too noisy.

I get £60-70 a month or so credit on my company account (one man Ltd company, qualifies for Action Pack for £350 a year, loads of MS software including Azure stuff).

I fire up VMs on and off during the month, usually at least one is a Windows VM which costs a bit more due to licence. I never get through more than half my monthly credit.

Check the VM size it defaults to though as it will be a more pricey one. If it’s small load you probably want an A or B size VM.

A series are aimed at dev/test type stuff. B series can give you more capacity and CPU but work in a burst mode. They’re actually sitting on machines shared with loads of other VMs. A will get you a share of the overall capacity but B will throttle up each when it thinks you’re busy using it, i.e. a burst of activity, so you may get a bit more performance when you need it. If it’s going to spend most of the time idle then this may be better.

Pick HDD instead of more costly SSD. Also note you get a chunk of temporary storage included as an extra drive on top of the main drive for the VM. You may lose that storage at any time (though usually goes when you deallocate) but if you just want a temporary space without paying more, it’s handy.

I find it pretty easy to see the costs in the portal and it projects estimated cost pretty well. Not live update but will update daily.

You can save the state of a VM and don’t get compute costs, but will get storage costs unless you deallocate / fully shutdown via the portal.

p.s. MSDN subscription gives you bunch of credits and the Azure pricing is at a discounted dev/test rate. Possibly a trial sub is at the same rates so the free credits might last you a while.

Technically you can keep signing up for trial accounts. Think it’s frowned upon but been on courses where they get people to just sign up for trial accounts with random email addresses!

I used to use my old Squeezebox and phono connectors. The Squeezebox has a Brown-Burr DAC and supposed to be good. Did 24bit decoding too (though I only have a small amount of 24bit FLAC).

However my current AV amp has built in streaming, plus I can run Plex and other apps on my Amazon Fire box connected via HDMI (which handles HD audio). Turns out the quality from these is a lot better!

Government agencies, councils etc may not be responsible for a lot of it as a lot may be on private land. A lot of rights of ways, canal paths etc can pass between various land owners. A right of way is down to the land owner to sort out. They’re obliged to keep it clear though.

Not sure about FC land where they just manage the land on behalf of a private owner. Is it the owner’s responsibility to pay for it or the FC (thus public money)?

The heat issue is with the older models. The newer models are fixed. You should be able to get them fixed under warranty, and even outside of warranty, arguably under your 6 year Consumer Rights Act rights being a design flaw.

Though it’s a faff to go through the process and it’s not too hard to do the lever service or replace with just the piston from an ebay special.

Note, RSC is a bit different to the lower models. Lower ones need circlip pliers to remove a tiny circlip. RSC relies on the adjuster to keep bits in place. However with RSC you need a special SRAM tool to set the plunger swing arm.

Careful. As I mentioned with mallet injury, it was tearing off the bone, taking a bit with it. The concern is it would still seem to work but at any point could rip off, then there’s a much bigger problem.

Should be able to use Cortana to send emails by voice.

Android/Apple phone and tablet should be able to do it with Cortana, Alexa or whatever iThing Apple uses. May not need Outlook itself, so long as you have your email account hooked up to the device in some way that the voice assistants can access.

All theoretical as never tried it. I’m not comfortable talking to devices.

Even £25 is pretty high. These are daily disposables I take it? If so, considered monthly?

Mine are around £8 a month I think, one normal and one toric. Have talked about newer ones that are easy wearing, can leave in overnight etc (not that I want that). Adds a bit but still probably only as much as £15, may even be less.

I do have to buy the solution as well. I had that on subscription but that was paying a lot more and I wear them irregularly (mostly for riding and work but varies when), so ended up with too many bottles. I just buy as and when needed. Still works out not much more.

Varifocal glasses, spent ages getting fitted for those and paid a fair bit for the widest zones. Still hate them. They’re a compromise and no-where near as good as just adjusting position of glasses down the nose or taking glasses off for close things (can’t get proper close with varifocals either). Don’t like wearing expensive glasses for riding either, so no go there and as said would probably be a problem for riding. My contacts are pretty much okay balance in mid to long range for riding, though the varifocals distance is better.

Optician said there are good multifocal contacts on the horizon but not decent availability and pricing yet so didn’t recommend them for now. They are supposed to be better than varifocal glasses.

Unless it’s ‘everyone’, it won’t be on leaderboard, but be warned that if set to everyone, then everyone can see the ride, even if you’ve got privacy controls set on who can follow you. All you have to do is click on the time on the leaderboard and you see the whole ride.

Which may be an issue if you ride sensitive areas (not just start/end with privacy zone).

Which is why all my rides are follower only now as I’d like to not advertise certain areas, and to be honest I don’t give a crap about leaderboards. Only thing of interest is comparing against my previous rides, which I can do with the leaderboard filter set to myself, or to a friend out of curiosity but I don’t need a leaderboard for that. Has long been asked of Strava to implement group / follower only leaderboards, but they ignore us on that as much as MTB as a ride type.

Almost done now with Strava anyway. The spat with Relive is another reason to drop it.

I think the wording is more for walkers so they have less to moan about if they encounter a bike outside the ban hours / months, and can feel happy there’s a “rule”. Though the times & dates could be more prominent.

Reading into the October comments, does that mean that we’re in the clear if we leave the EU? Potentially the first actual benefit I’ve heard of that could relate to me!

If so, the French will target British plates and hit them with on the spot fines or confiscation. On the spot can mean dragging you to the nearest cash point if you don’t have the cash, or seize the car until you pay up.

It’s not unknown for them to be waiting at toll booths for speeding Brits. They might do the same at the tunnel (assuming the tunnel is still open).

Just beware that ones that show cameras etc as they are frowned upon

More than that, illegal and a pretty hefty fine and potential confiscation of device and/or vehicle!

http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/overseas/radar-detectors-in-france.html

Includes apps that can show them. Grey area on just disabling the feature and how you prove that. Might have to ensure it’s a camera free database update for France, but again how is this proven?

Pretty sure I’m already in a fictional world of nightmare and farce. I’d like to return to reality please.

When I bust finger at BPW, it was A&E job as clearly broken. Got cast for that, then went to local hospital back home to get it checked. They weren’t interested in the actually broken one, that’ll heal, but they were very concerned at the bruised swollen one on the other hand.

X-ray, yeah, tendon or ligament pulling bone off. Mallet injury which could cause permanent damage, and needed sorting especially as was my index finger I use for braking. Long period of wearing a mallet splint, further x-rays and then physio for a while as the thing wouldn’t bend properly.

IMO, get it checked.

I don’t have the latest, mine is a v1 CC, but it’s done rocky Wales, Lakes, Spain and used it for Ard Rock last year and love it (likely Ard Rock again this year).

Ard Rock, I debated taking my old Nomad (170 travel, very plush). It would be lovely for some bits I reckon, but then again the 5010 is just so much better for the majority of it. Fast, agile, fun. Also, the climbing in Ard Rock would be a killer on the Nomad.

I take the Nomad to BPW but I feel the 5010 would probably be more at home there. The Nomad comes into its own in places like Morzine though or throwing down a DH course, but I don’t really do much of that and I’m no good at it.

Neither 5010 or Nomad I feel beat up on with rocks, though the 5010 is a bit skippy on loose rocks perhaps but that can be the way it’s set up and tyre choice. The Nomad is more like a sofa to ride but is harder work in some ways to get the best out of it.

But as I say, not latest model and I know it’s changed since v1. I’d expect the later models with slacker geometry to cope better though.

29ers are too big for me as a short arse. So non starter there.

Got two 27.5s and a 26. The 26 doesn’t get ridden so much, but getting it out a bit recently I just love it, as much as the others. Noticeable thing though is I seem quicker on the 26. It may be the faster acceleration, not sure. Depends on the trails though. Short and twisty and the 26 wins. Long and flowy and 27.5 is a blast once it’s up to speed. Not that much in it though.

The wheel size isn’t really the big deal for me though. The 27.5s I’ve got are just longer / slacker due to being more modern, and that has advantages, plus different bikes as gone light carbon, shorter travel, and a lot more fun. The 26 feels a bit short now, yet it never did before, and again, still quicker on some trails. I’ll keep it going for some time yet, or at least until the frame falls apart.

Fire Sticks are usually a good deal, but then again they discount them the same throughout the year. Likewise everything else. The few things I see that I might be interested in, I then spend ages trying to find out how much it normally is in sales anyway and then realise Prime Day isn’t a big deal and decide I don’t really need that now.

Garmin 820 is tempting, but I have a perfectly okay working Garmin 510. Okay it doesn’t have the maps for navigation, but I like navigating myself with a bit of sense of direction and occasionally checking old school maps (okay on a phone) just to see where I am and want to go. Then use my eyes, follow the trail and observe things so I remember where I am next time. Seen plenty trying to follow off road navigation on a Garmin and constantly having to make corrections and stopping to check the route rather than ride the trail, wherever it goes.

I do this a lot with gadget stuff. Things that would be cool and make life easier but I talk myself out of it because I can do it myself :D

FYI – Not tubeless…

27.5 using tubes.

TRUMP: “It doesn’t concern me because many people agree with me.”

And that’s why he may still get re-elected.

Ah the full racist “go back to where they came from”.

….and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2019

For All Mankind is a favourite of mine. Just actual footage assembled into a wonderful little movie with interviews from those involved and a great Brian Eno score.

Part of the 3 Valleys, so a huge potential uplift area. No idea what it’s like for riding though.

Currently, premium service with app where you can edit and customise after the maps have been generated. Free version you can now customise a bit prior to generating the map, if you use the app.

The recent stuff though has introduced a feed and you can follow friends etc. Turning it into a social network of sorts. Worth money to them.

There’s now other info to browse with an activity other than the 3D video map. Before you had to manually share the video, and that’s about all you could do. It would then link back to Strava, but now it likes back to the activity on Relive.

A typical cause of this kind of thing is Content-Type header set incorrectly.

Plug it into a PC via USB. If not encrypted you’ll get to see the photos, music, documents folders. Not emails and other things in app data, but likely most or all of this stuff will have been synced to the cloud.

DT hubs in general are well sealed. Its the end caps I think. They’re a tight fit so seals nicely. Opened up both 370 and 350 hubs after years of use, expecting bearings to need doing and nothing other than wipe and bit of oil required. Bearings themselves were buttery smooth.

That said, 350 is nicer. There’s risk of pawls or spring on 370 breaking and seems less likely with ratchet to break. Though I have heard the higher engagement ones aren’t so durable.

Relive now does ride tracking from its own app and sharing with friends so basically competes with Strava now instead of just complementing it.

If Relive can do all the things Strava have been asked to do and ignored for years, then I’ll happily ditch Strava for them. Strava doesn’t do a great deal for me now anyway. I could even just live with Garmin if it wasn’t for their buggy software.

Also in the visualising your ride market, check out FatMap. Although it’s very graphically intensive.

If you can get the segments into Garmin segments maybe that would do it. If you’re lucky the ones you want might already be on Garmin, but unlikely.

Though segments on a Garmin are getting on my tits. Every time I’m near one it goes into segment mode even if I don’t do that trail, and then it keeps getting stuck in that mode and saying I’m near the segment, or off course, or just goes into a default ‘heading XXX’, but won’t drop back to the main stats page. I’m going to delete the segments I think.

Perhaps better is to convert the segments into courses or something. Don’t know how to do that.

Also I can’t work out Garmin Connect UI now. I can’t see the segments I’d already added, but they’re synced to the device.

and there’s been loads of adaptations of Journey to the West which Monkey is based on.

Sapphire & Steel has a ending still to be resolved. Could continue it recast as the characters are human projections of elemental forces so could easily appear in a different guise.

But again, it’s old and obscure to most people so any reference to what was would confuse people. Though could do it starting out introducing them afresh but with a mystery to most as to why they were stuck in a road cafe in space (though maybe chuck in a cross over with Doctor Who which made a TARDIS out of such a place!).

Tunnel add on, and not sure but think it’s an option if you get a toll tag also (recommended anyway).

🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️

Will say at least with Trailforks there’s some management and ability to keep sensitive trails off the radar, of which everything round there is.

https://www.puncturesafe.com/

Works much like bike sealant and can be applied before you get a puncture. Will seal any hole that’s safe to seal. Can be used post-puncture also (done it myself with a screw through the tyre, removed, applied and sealed with enough of the stuff. Permanent repair and fine for full speed driving.

Doesn’t write off the tyre like nasty emergency repair sealant stuff (as once you use that stuff, it’s new tyre time as can only drive low speed and it’s not a permanent repair, plus a pain to replace/fix as no one will touch it with that stuff in it).

But other than that, decent breakdown cover. Can buy it with tunnel booking if you’re going that way.

And yeah, the toll roads are fantastically smooth. Even local roads are lovely compared to our pothole ridden mess.

Other option is a run flat so at least you can get somewhere at lower speed for a repair, and I guess it runs like a slow puncture so could pump it up again. Don’t know, never used them.

Crossover from the old shows thread, More peas Norma?

Spitting Image was supposedly dropped because the government became too much a parody of itself. It’s way more that now.

Love Thy Neighbour

Perfect for the Brexit generation.

Anyway, +1 Blake’s 7. It would need a decent reboot. No point trying to continue it as very few would know what it was and the old cast are dying off. Needs to capture the dystopian future and battle with the Federation, and ditch all the silly alien of the week nonsense. Though in concept it’s just Robin Hood in space. Not sure if has a place these days.

Don’t know if they’ve changed it but problem I found with publishing rides is if part of your ride goes through a sensitive trail or area, the whole ride is flagged and can’t be shared. Though I’m with them on the protection of sensitive trails, but couldn’t even share just with select friends.