Following in the tracks of the Victorians

April 9th, 2011 No comments

Today, with the beautiful weather, we took a trip to Hollingworth Lake near Littleborough and Smithy Bridge, somewhere I had never been before.

Hollingworth Lake

158755 at Smithy BridgeRather than jumping in the car, however, we decided to take the train. At £5.80 return for two adults and one child with a family railcard (under fives still free) that wouldn’t even cover the current extortionate cost of the diesel, let alone wear and tear and the pay and display parking at the lake. It is of course a little slower but that was not an issue today.

Hollingworth Lake is actually a reservoir built in 1804 to feed the Rochdale Canal but later became a tourist attraction for the Victorians and I realised that today, by choosing rail, we were following in the tracks of the same Victorians who would have visited by rail in the latter half of the 19th century. After closure in 1960, Smithy Bridge was reopened in 1985 and is fairly well served with a half-hourly service between Manchester Victoria and Leeds; a pity the same cannot be said for our local station, Blackrod.

Telephone signalling delays

March 17th, 2011 No comments

Phone KeysBack at the end of the 1980s, our telephone exchange switched to digital, in our case from Strowger to System Y. I can remember being impressed at the time with a number of things; one was how there was no longer a gap between ‘dialling’ the last digit and the ringing tone. The connection was instant. Fast forward 20 years and we now have a pause again while the connection goes through; what happened? We seem to have gone backwards. I’m not talking about the delay when calling mobiles and the network has to locate a phone, I’m talking landline to landline.

Categories: Uncategorized Tags: , ,

Attaching a Canon E1 Strap (on a BG-E2N)

February 13th, 2011 No comments

I got a Canon E1 Hand Strap for my EOS-20D. Strangely, though, Canon doesn’t include any fitting instructions with the strap but a quick google shows that the instructions are in the BG-E2 battery grip instructions (as the strap can only be used with the battery grip). It was also apparent from the google search that many people have thrown the box (along with the instructions) away; I tend to keep all my equipment boxes (much to the annoyance of my good lady), so here are the relevant sections from the BG-E2 instructions:

English text

While the text is a bit sparse, the actual images are more helpful:

Instruction Images

As you can see from image 6, it is possible using the supplied 3-slot plate to also attach your original neck strap.

Neck and Hand Strap attached

Hope this helps anyone trying to fit the strap.

Films I’ve managed to avoid

January 22nd, 2011 1 comment
Curtain time

I’ve started making a list of films I’ve never seen. Some I have purposely avoided, others I just haven’t got around to seeing yet.

Films I’ve managed to avoid (and don’t intend to watch)

Films I suppose I should have seen (but have no real urge to watch)

Children’s Films

Growing up, I’ve managed to miss the following:

With the exception of Jungle Book (the first film I saw at the cinema), I’ve managed to avoid most of the Disney animated films – note that I do not consider the excellent Pixar films to be Disney; they just happen to own Pixar Studios.

Films I have seen (but wish I hadn’t)

  • The Blair Witch Project – What all the hype was about I’ll never know – I just wanted to punch the main character.
  • Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – I had recurring nightmares as a child which I only realised was down to the Childcatcher character when I saw the film again years later.

Image from Flickr, used under Creative Commons Licence.

Categories: Uncategorized Tags: , ,

Frosty

December 24th, 2010 No comments
Frosty
Categories: Uncategorized Tags: , ,

Apple iPhone 4 bumper – fit for purpose?

December 23rd, 2010 No comments

You would expect a mobile phone case to last at least a year. This Apple iPhone 4 bumper is only three months old, but is about to fail.

The first two images show how the edge around two diagonal corners have worn away. Interestingly, this has only happened on the rear, the front is OK.

iPhone 4 Bumper Case
iPhone 4 bumper case

On one of these corners, the hard section between the mute switch and the headphone socket has parted company on both sides, leaving the top of the case loose and floppy.

iPhone 4 bumper case
iPhone 4 bumper case

So what arduous conditions has this case been subjected to? Nothing more than in and out of my pocket during normal use.

These bumper normally retail for £25. Fortunately, this was one of the free ones issued by Apple after antennagate (something that doesn’t seem to matter outside of the US anyway). Had I paid for this, I would have returned it under the sales of goods act as not fit for purpose. When it fails I’ll have to replace it with something but I don’t like the idea of shelling out £25 every three months for one of these.

Categories: Uncategorized Tags: , , ,

Horwich Fog

December 5th, 2010 No comments

This was taken this afternoon from George’s Lane. While Horwich was languishing in the fog, we went for a walk around Wilderswood. This was the view looking west towards the cemetery on Chorley Old Road. Click the photo for a larger view.

The true size of Africa

October 15th, 2010 No comments

An excellent infographic:

(Click image for larger)

Categories: Uncategorized Tags:

Interesting multi-socket design, but is it needed?

September 25th, 2010 2 comments

Letout SocketHere’s an interesting design from Damjan Stanković (Relogik). What looks like a single European socket outlet transforms into five outlets at a press of the front.

Good design should satisfy a need, however, I don’t see one being satisfied here. While the design is undoubtedly elegant, it does not replace a multi-way trailing socket; this has to be professionally installed as part of the original electrical installation or as part of a rewire. In which case, I would just install additional sockets; single sockets should never be installed anyway where a double can be fitted. If, as is usually the case, the builder does want to cut corners and not install sufficient sockets, then he’s not going to bother with this either.

Even if it was installed where you would expect to have a higher than normal demand for socket outlets (behind the TV, or around a desk) I’d far rather have these plugged into proper sockets that are firmly attached to the wall, than have everything dangling precariously from this, especially as this type of arrangement always suffers from the problem of oversized plug-mounted transformer/chargers.

The whole thing also looks rather deep, and with the back box it would seem to be deeper than the thickness of a studded wall or the inner skin of a cavity wall.

Nice design, but simpler, better solutions already exist.

Click on the image for more pictures.

via Freshome

Categories: Uncategorized Tags: , ,

Coal Tit on the Bird Feeder

September 25th, 2010 No comments
Coal Tit