Does that mean I can’t sit out in my garden for excessively long periods too?

‘even when doing these activities, you should be minimising time spent
outside of the home and ensuring you are 2 metres apart from anyone outside of your household.’

If your garden is not a shared space, then no issue.

Walking the dog will be my daily exercise, so no biking for me for the foreseeable. TBH I probably wouldn’t bugger off on my bike for an hour on my own anyway, would rather walk with the family.

In 1 year we could have a vaccine, better to try and hold it at bay until then.

So close all schools, WFH and lock-down for 12 months?

Hubei went from 1000s of new daily cases to dozens in a few weeks. South Korea brought it under control within a couple of weeks. Jury is still out on Italy and Iran as not enough time has passed yet.

But how long can they sustain the mitigation measures they have put in place? This is the point I think. There is no immunity, the same amount of the population will get this. You don’t want your health service stretched to the point that the death rate goes up (Italy), but if you flatten the curve too much, the mitigation becomes unsustainable.

Save the lock-down for the peak was the message I took away from today.

Just been over to the homepage of the Sun.

I removed all of the red tops, Daily Mail, etc. from my news feeds this morning. Fed up with it, don’t know why I didn’t do it years ago.

@slimboyjim you asked people to wait on facts, after doing the exact opposite in the preceding paragraphs?

I can’t understand why you are all so interested

People will have lots of reasons. For me, it’s all a bit too close to home for comfort.

All the accounts for those profiles go to his work phone. Then he has a separate personal phone and entirely separate social media accounts using his nickname and it’s only friends that use that. That is the phone he looks at over coffee in the morning. He is pretty grounded with a brain and a great family which I guess helps him to keep it all in proportion.

Your friend sounds extremely grounded. Even if you did employ a social media manager and keep accounts and phones separate, it must be so tempting to search for yourself and see it all anyway. And some celebs make a point that it is them rather than just PR (@wossy, @stephenfry etc.)

Thought it was pretty bad her management company joined in with the finger-pointing yesterday. You’d think they’d be urgently reviewing how they look after their clients instead.

Then when it goes slightly wonky the knives come out , and the backlash is expotential , a public person is available online for direct , pretty much unmoderated, comments which ,as we like to say on here – What has been read cannot be unread

This is the difference now. Reality TV and celeb culture have been around a while, I remember all the ‘Nasty Nick’ stuff in the press, but now you have a screen in your hand 24/7 full of abuse and death threats. Must be a nightmare.

IME a factory reset every year or so (when they do a major Android update) does wonders and keeps Android running smoothly. A good opportunity to review all the apps you’ve installed over the year too. Just set up as a new phone rather than restore the full backup, then as you go to use an app and realise it’s not there, install it.

Lots of purists on Android forums say you should never have to do it, but I’ve done this for over 10 years now, Android has always worked great.

Impulse-purchased some Jaybird Freedoms on holiday ages ago, which eventually died. I’d had my money’s worth, but Jaybird gave me 50% off the current Tarah Pros. Amazing battery life (all day), tough and waterproof, sound good, have a really useful app for the phone with personalised EQ, and I like the ‘wire round the back’ style you can wear round your neck when not using them.

https://www.jaybirdsport.com/en-gb/tarah-pro.html#985-000830

Difficult if you can’t switch easily between 320kps and hi-res.

I definitely can hear the difference when comparing standard streamed stuff with hi-res with an external DAC/headphone amp driving my AKG headphones. That’s not on my phone though.

Check you are using either aptX HD or LDAC for Bluetooth. Should be in the settings on the phone. You might find this is actually better quality than wired (depends on the quality of the DAC and headphone amp in the S9).

320kps compared to 24/192 should be noticeable IMO.

Update…just googled the S9. Wired should be decent.

‘Samsung continues to support high-resolution audio up to 24bit/192kHz, as well as DSD files, and has gone against the grain by keeping the 3.5mm headphone jack.

That means you can plug in your favourite pair of headphones without the need for an adapter. There’s also a pair of AKG-branded in-ears in the box, but they sit a little on the rich side for our tastes, with slightly boosted bass.

Opt for something more neutral and you’ll get to hear what the S9 is really capable of – a clean, clear and detailed sound, with plenty of drive and a decent amount of nuance and expression.’

The Kindle version of issue 128 was missed by me. Apologies for that. I’m working on issue 129’s downloads and digital versions today so I’ll make sure I go back and add the Kindle version of 128 for you too.

Great, thanks.

Thanks for the update Mark. Any info on the Kindle download not being available? Something I appreciate having, but last month’s didn’t get posted?

maybe time to go digital only

But noticed last month they never posted the Kindle edition. Just a placeholder that says ‘Sorry! Download is not available yet.’

Hoping that’s not been stopped, ‘cos with my bad eyesight and dim lights in the house the Kindle is how I read it. I skim through the mag and look at the pics only. So I haven’t read issue 128 yet.

Don’t have to get off on the quality of the equipment.

My comment was actually more about the ‘quality’ of what you’re listening to, rather than equipment. But yeah, just spend money on whatever makes you happy.

Same here, good music is good music wherever you hear it. But I’d still prefer to listen on my headphones sometimes rather than the various smart speakers in the house.

I mean, hi-fi dealer gives you a demo in their enviornment – how often are you actually listening to music in a similar environment?

If it was me, I’d take my headphones, and listen to music I knew, remove as many variables as pos 👍🏻

You’re not.. but that’s what they want you to think.

Does depend on your starting point IMO. Listening to MP3s? You can do better (if you want to). CDs (or equivalent?) Prob good enough already, but no harm in having a listen if interested.

I need to sit down and think about this!

From the description on Amazon, you have a choice of either streaming music from your device to the Echo Link using Bluetooth, or the Link can stream direct over WiFi from supported music services, no Bluetooth involved.

Agreed. The jump from 320kbps (what Amazon call SD) to 16/44 (what Amazon call HD) is very noticeable to me.

24/192 (Amazon’s Ultra HD, i.e. hi-res) is where you sit there with your headphones, maybe convincing yourself there’s a difference after a few whiskys.

I’ve just looked, most of the Amazon Music HD catalogue is 16/44 anyway, with a bit of hi-res.

To the OP, if you wanted a step up to ‘CD quality’ (your current limitation is the AAC Bluetooth on the amp, gives you sort of mid-MP3 quality) then that Echo Link would do that I think. Otherwise, no point paying for Music HD with your current setup.

Also, this article suggests streamers from Marantz and Denon support Amazon Music HD, but are light on detail and more expensive.

‘Most Denon and Marantz products with HEOS built-in support the service, including but not exclusive to Denon’s 2017-2019 AV amps, Denon’s CEOL N-10 and DNP-800NE streamer, Marantz’s 2017-2019 AV amps, Marant’z NA6006 streamer and ND8006 streaming CD player.’

If me, I’d be tempted to try an Echo Link, if no good and doesn’t sound any better to you just return it.

https://www.whathifi.com/news/first-wave-of-product-support-for-amazon-music-hd-confirmed

Ignoring the ‘can you hear a difference’ stuff (although they have a point).

I went around this exact thought process when Amazon launched HD music. My conclusion was there is no way currently to get the hires music to anything external to the Amazon ecosystem (and it’s nonsense to think a smart speaker, even a ‘Studio’ one, is worth spending money on hires for).

That Echo Link device doesn’t support hires.
Any Bluetooth protocol is still lossy.
Any tablet or phone interface is limited to 16bit unless you use a dedicated driver on Android (that Amazon doesn’t support).

There’s a long thread on the Amazon Devices user forum if really interested in lots of detail.

While I was playing around with hires, Tidal Masters controlling an external DAC (so bit-perfect) and headphone amp and a decent set of headphones did sound lovely. Not to the point I subscribed though.

Nobody seems to use LRs of any hue.

Brother in law is a farmer, he always has Land Rovers. Currently has a Disco 3 (workhorse) and a Disco 4 (posh one). We compare breakdown stories and bills every Christmas. Farm in the village is all Defenders/Discos too.

BIL got a Touareg for a while as their ‘smart’ car, wasn’t the same he said, swapped it back for another Disco. There does seem to be something about them and people put up with the bills.

What is noticeable is you never see any current Land Rover product on a farm. They’ve left that market now.

For me, it was a real ‘wow’ moment when I put them on.

No. Not at all for me.

My original optician seemed very experienced, he had a number of customers with the same issue as me. Basically my left eye is so weak the brain was starting to ignore its input, so I was losing my binocular vision. My first pair of progressives were spot on. I was amazed by how well they worked in all situations.

He then retired, and I struggled to get replacements that were as good as my prescription changed, even though they had the original specs to work from. It wasn’t the prescription, but where they were in the lens. For example, I’d look out the car windscreen and the bottom bit was blurred. Or I’d look in a wing mirror and couldn’t see. Really struggled for a while.

Then a mate in the army recommended an optician who did all the stuff for pilots etc. He immediately made a pair up as good as my original ones.

So IME the quality of opticians does vary too.

People vary. I’m the same, have 6 different prescriptions with both eyes different in my progressives and I got used to them fairly quickly. You have to train yourself. For me, it was a real ‘wow’ moment when I put them on.

If it’s blurry and you’re sure you are looking through the right part of the lens go back.

I’ve had many different lenses made up to get to these. More tweaking the position of the prescriptions in the lens for me.

https://www.webmd.com/eye-health/about-progressive-lenses#1

I have heard though that on BMW if you press
the lock button multiple times it turns off the tilt sensor for ferries etc

This is the case for most cars. Hit the lock button a second time and the motion/tilt sensors and deadlocks are disabled. VAG cars seem to have a little button inside too.

From the number of dogs I see in the boot with the alarm going off, many people seem unaware.

https://www.motoringresearch.com/car-news/opinion/volkswagen-golf-r-new-cosworth/

Me on Xmas Day this year…

👍🏻 There’s a camo one of those near us usually parked up in a Costa Coffee car park. Not sure what they’re testing there.

What was it like?

Love Land Rovers, but do the sums and get friendly with your LR indy. My justification is I’ve bought a very capable, expensive vehicle for not much money, but that’s offset by sizeable annual bills. Plus I don’t commute now, wouldn’t use it for big miles.

Spares are cheap, labour is not.

Under 10 years old, car warranty plans can work in your favour if you are meticulous with the small print and stick to your guns. I had one that cost me £600 but paid out several thousand the first year I had it. And they renewed for another year at the same price no questions which surprised me.

The LR indy I use drives an Aston Martin Vanquish. Go figure.

One of those cheap trail cameras is quite fun. Put it up on the trees by the feeders sometimes. Surprising how many birds you get on the feeders you wouldn’t have noticed otherwise. Useful for keeping an eye on the hedgehogs too 🦔

We have 3 feeders,2 in use and 1 always being washed and left to dry.

Same here. When we saw the Poxvirus, dropped a note round the neighbours and we all stopped feeding for a while, cleaned our feeders and have just restarted putting food out. Seeing much less of it now.

GWH suggested stopping feeding to reduce bird to bird contact which can also spread the virus.

👍🏻

Also worth knowing about Garden Wildlife Health. If you spot any health issues with the wildlife in your garden, these people would like the data.

Some of our garden birds are suffering from Avian Poxvirus this winter. Not nice to see. Very easy to enter a quick report.

http://www.gardenwildlifehealth.org/about/

‘The price of Ionity charging for BEVs has just been put up 500%. Yep, thats now 70p a KWhr… so more expensive than to fill up a Rolls Royce Cullinan.’

Guess it’s inevitable, they’ve already established how much people will pay, so eventually running an EV won’t be much different in costs to running an ICE?

What about home charging though? I wonder if new EV charging tariffs will come in? Or restrictions on what you can use off-peak tariffs for?

Norway horrified as new rates make EV charging prices higher than petrol

Says he doesn’t want the 80 quid back either.

https://news.sky.com/story/stormzy-hails-top-man-who-bought-stolen-bike-and-tracked-down-owner-to-return-it-11914044

But most seem to be able to select any frequency these days.

Just looked, the regs were amended to let them use the whole FM radio range (87.5-108 MHz). 108 is a pretty safe bet.

Not sure why, but they seem much better than the old bulky ones I used to use years ago. Dunno if they have a more powerful transmitter, or FM is less congested? Mines at 108 MHz I think, seems to work everywhere.

Bluetooth 4.2 is fine for these things.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B078J7KYXB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I use this one. Probably all the same thing underneath. My 2008 car has phone handsfree but no music streaming so this works great. Phone connects to both the car Bluetooth and this, tuned a spare channel on the radio and can listen to stuff from the phone, with nav sounds plus the car handsfree still works.

Has its own mic so will work as a handsfree too. Also copied a load of albums to a USB flash drive that it shuffle plays. And it charges the phone.

Maybe, but I can definitely tell the difference in fuel consumption, in my pretty heavy SUV, when doing a regular 110 mile journey with just me in and when there are 4 of us (approx 2mpg).

Agreed. I keep half a tank in it. Don’t need the extra 300-odd mile range so no point carrying the diesel around with me for no reason.

Its not like you walk blindly into vehicle ownership is it, surely at a base level you have to ask “how much does it cost to run/fill up”

Maybe he was just commenting on that garage’s prices rather than how much his car cost to run? Watch the pennies and all that.

There’s two garages close together I use. I’ve now got wise to one of them – when their price is a bit more than the others, their big price signs miraculously ‘stop working’. They caught me yesterday with that trick.

Almost 100-litre tank in the old Range Rover. So around £130 to brim it. I assume the weight of the fuel is less of a factor when the car itself is so heavy, so they stick a large tank in.

Amazon do Lenovo refurbs if you want something tough, sensible and easy to put more RAM in or upgrade the SSD later.

T440

Posy the Cocker Spaniel. She’s rarely stationary for long enough to take a decent pic.