Specchums and the coronavirus.

[PeterJ]

@[mention]DouglasReynholm[/mention]
We have an online order with Sainsbury's arriving tomorrow. If you are happy to pay the postage I can try and get some for you. Let me know tonight though before 2100.

Peter Jones
Pickle merchant of old London town
By Royal Appointment to Queen Elizabeth
Established 1863
spectrumcomputing.co.uk/pickle

PS. Try Amazon too

PPS. The offer is a serious one.

[DouglasReynholm]

@@DouglasReynholm
We have an online order with Sainsbury's arriving tomorrow. If you are happy to pay the postage I can try and get some for you. Let me know tonight though before 2100.

Peter Jones
Pickle merchant of old London town
By Royal Appointment to Queen Elizabeth
Established 1863

PS. Try Amazon too

PPS. The offer is a serious one.

This is why I love this place. Thank you Peter, but I just bought some as suggested by R-Tape. No way I'm messing about with pickled onion, raisins and vinegar.

Sincerely, thank you!

[Firefox]

Corned beef goes amazingly well with the sort of mustard that's darker and packed with whole seeds (got that tip from Babylon 5, of all places), and it also goes surprisingly well with ketchup.

[catmeows]

Well, our minister of defense came with idea that in time of crisis, premier should have stronger rights and he should be allowed to declare state od emergency on his own.
It feels like covid-19 has another victim - democracy in our country.

[R-Tape]

Well, our minister of defense came with idea that in time of crisis, premier should have stronger rights and he should be allowed to declare state od emergency on his own.
It feels like covid-19 has another victim - democracy in our country.

Is this the new 'rule by decree' in Hungary? Do you think it's a bit of short-term extremism in response to the virus, or something that will endure?

Here in the UK, we've seen a lot of previously unimaginable restrictions and extra police powers. On the whole, they are sensible given the circumstances, and it seems the police are mostly applying it reasonably. Some cases make me uncomfortable though, like the black dye being thrown into a lagoon in Derbyshire to stop visitors. The extra covid measures will be reviewed in 6 months, and I'm not worried that restrictions will continue without good reason (yet!). Our countries have very different histories of course.

[catmeows]

Well, our minister of defense came with idea that in time of crisis, premier should have stronger rights and he should be allowed to declare state od emergency on his own.
It feels like covid-19 has another victim - democracy in our country.

Is this the new 'rule by decree' in Hungary? Do you think it's a bit of short-term extremism in response to the virus, or something that will endure?

I have only vague idea what happens in Hungary but IMHO the problem is that state of emergency has not given end date and it will end when Viktor Orban says so.

Here in the UK, we've seen a lot of previously unimaginable restrictions and extra police powers. On the whole, they are sensible given the circumstances, and it seems the police are mostly applying it reasonably. Some cases make me uncomfortable though, like the black dye being thrown into a lagoon in Derbyshire to stop visitors. The extra covid measures will be reviewed in 6 months, and I'm not worried that restrictions will continue without good reason (yet!). Our countries have very different histories of course.

I live in Czech Republic. Our prime minister, Andrej Babis, repeatedly named parliament as "chat/babble club" and overall it seems he would like to see parliament less powerful and his own position more stronger. So I'm not happy to hear a member of his cabinet introducing ideas that basically copy what Orban did in Hungary.
Because right now, due the emergency state, you cannot even go to streets to attend demonstration against goverment.
I'm basically all right with restrictions as long they have explicit end date and any prolongation has to be approved by parliament.
Of course, this all is politics and you could find many people who would actually agree with giving more power to Babis. But I have found quite alarming that someone tries to take advantage on current crisis and bend political system for his own good.

[+3code]

This song has become the covid anthem here in Spain

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd85ylSTtaM

[Firefox]

This song has become the covid anthem here in Spain
...

Pretty nice, but I prefer this one:

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkynEPjkstI[/media]

[PeterJ]

This is ours in the UK! For those none UK residents, this is Matt Lucas who used to be a show called Shooting Stars 20+ Years ago, and its a rework of a song performed on that show. Its being released on Friday and all proceeds are going towards meals for NHS staff.

https://www.facebook.com/RadioX/videos/ ... 435989962/

[PeterJ]

I'm working from home using this computer....



When I wish I was using these! Don't think they would be much good for MS Office 2019, and SQL Server Management Studio though.

[R-Tape]

Do you mean you're not using this???

[PROSM]

When I wish I was using these! Don't think they would be much good for MS Office 2019, and SQL Server Management Studio though.

SQL? Isn't this good enough?

[1024MAK]

Do you mean you're not using this???

What about this?

Mark

[MatGubbins]

SQL

sounds like the cut down / lite /coverdisc edition of
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=4793

[Morkin]

Two toasties?? They're probably worth about £2,500 in today's eBay market...

(that's about a quarter of the value of a Spectrum Next )

[Juan F. Ramirez]

... and that Google Home Mini combined with any of these Speccies would be a cool idea...
- 'ok, Google, load Stonkers'
- 'are you sure, Peter?'

[PeterJ]

... and that Google Home Mini combined with any of these Speccies would be a cool idea...
- 'ok, Google, load Stonkers'
- 'are you sure, Peter?'

That would be just amazing!

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Amazing what, playing Stonkers?

[1024MAK]

... and that Google Home Mini combined with any of these Speccies would be a cool idea...
- 'ok, Google, load Stonkers'
- 'are you sure, Peter?'

I’d prefer:
- 'okay, Google, access my job list and carry out all the listed work'
- 'Working...'


Mark

[Firefox]

My jumpstart gizmo worked a treat (after five minutes of figuring out how to pacify the freaked-out and very loud alarm/immobiliser). I zoomed up and down the dual carriageway a few times to recharge the battery a bit (it was down to 4.8V!) and, since I was there anyway, treated myself to a visit to the giant Sainsburys at the other end.

The behaviour of the pensioners in there worried me! Despite the pandemic they've still got to comprehensively feel up every one of the 30 identical packs of pate (or whatever), and press every one to their nose, just in case one seems to be 0.1g heavier or smell slightly fresher. They don't seem to understand or care about the two metres rule, either. *sigh*

[1024MAK]

4.8V is well below the recommended minimum voltage of a 12V lead acid battery (link to a discussion about this).

If you are to save your battery, it now needs a full recharge, that means until it’s terminal voltage is up to 13V measured 30 minutes after the last recharge (assuming there is no continuous load).

Mark

[Firefox]

I should've measured the voltage when I got back, I suppose... I was a bit dispirited and rather hungry after my visit to apocalyptic Sainsbury's, which I had to queue up ages for.

I've pretty much decided I'll go to that supermarket every food shop (every week or a bit longer) so the car gets a good recharge as well as me getting some nice stuff from the better world foods aisle to cheer me up.

I didn't plan to run the battery down! It's a thing that happened, and I've dealt with it as fast as possible given the circumstances. If the bloody thing dies it dies, and I'll just nip down the road on the (usually empty) bus and get a replacement.

[PeterJ]

Is anyone learning anything new during this period of lockdown? I'm having a go at C# after finding a four hour video on CodeAcademy. This is my very first attempt at classes:

Code: Select all

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace SC
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            ZXGames game1 = new ZXGames("The Addams Family", "Ocean Software Ltd (UK)", "Arcade Game: Adventure", 1992);
            Console.WriteLine((game1.title) + " Was Published By " + (game1.publisher) + " in " + (game1.release_year) + ". The Genre of the game is " + (game1.genre));
            Console.WriteLine();
            ZXGames game2 = new ZXGames("Crystal Kingdom Dizzy", "Code Masters Ltd (UK)", "Arcade Game: Adventure", 1992);
            Console.WriteLine((game2.title) + " Was Published By " + (game2.publisher) + " in " + (game2.release_year) + ". The Genre of the game is " + (game2.genre));
            Console.WriteLine();
            ZXGames game3 = new ZXGames("Pentacorn Quest", "NightWolf", "Arcade Game: Platform", 2015);
            Console.WriteLine((game3.title) + " Was Published By " + (game3.publisher) + " in " + (game3.release_year) + ". The Genre of the game is " + (game3.genre));
            Console.WriteLine();
            Console.WriteLine("Is " + (game1.title) + " Modern? " + (game1.Modern()));
            Console.WriteLine("Is " + (game2.title) + " Modern? " + (game2.Modern()));
            Console.WriteLine("Is " + (game3.title) + " Modern? " + (game3.Modern()));
            Console.ReadKey();
        }
    }

        class ZXGames
        {
            public string title;
            public string publisher;
            public string genre;
            public int release_year;

            public ZXGames(string aTitle, string aPublisher, string aGenre, int aRelease_year)
            {
                this.title = aTitle;
                this.publisher = aPublisher;
                this.genre = aGenre;
                this.release_year = aRelease_year;
            }

            public bool Modern()
            {
                if (this.release_year >= 1994)
                {
                    return true;
                }
                return false;
            }
        }
}

[Firefox]

I had to learn C# for work several years ago, but found it to be actually rather nice. Visual Studio is obviously very well set up for developing C#, and Forms is actually a pretty good GUI toolkit too.


These past few months I've taught myself to drive KiCAD (popular open source PCB design suite), and send my first design off to the board house in Hong Kong just in time for them to be hobbled by the pandemic outbreak (it took a whole month, even with expensive "two-day" courier shipping). They're back up to full steam now, though, and even using economy postage my second set of boards only took two weeks to be made and shipped here.

It was a bit of a steep learning curve, but once you get in the swing of how KiCAD works it's actually pretty intuitive.

The board houses do a really nice job for amazingly low prices. My second design I got five boards for the grand total of £1.53! It's the shipping that costs most of the money. Be careful that the cost of the goods + shipping + insurance (if any) don't exceed £20, or HMRC will charge you VAT on the whole lot, and the courier company will slap their own fee on top for the privilege. I just barely dodged that trap on my first set of boards!

[1024MAK]

Contrast and compare:

There are lots of people volunteering to go back to the NHS to help, or helping to distribute food, medicine or other supplies to people who are at high risk (shielding) or who are unable to shop for themselves. Some bus and coach company staff are helping by driving transport ambulances (not 999 ambulances) to move patients around.

You also have key workers, some of which are not exactly paid big money for the work that they do, that are keeping the country running, who are risking going to work, including but not limited to NHS staff including nurses, doctors, drivers, cleaners and porters, care home staff, plus bus drivers, railway staff, tube staff, truck drivers, distribution workers, postal workers, parcel and delivery company workers, grocery, supermarket and other shop workers, civil servants (handling benefit claims as well as running governments and councils), firefighters, and power station workers. [ I apologise in advance, because I am bound to have left out various other groups of essential or other key workers].

Also radio and TV staff, plus news reporters (and all associated behind the scenes staff) who are helping to keep us informed and entertained.

Now compare this to all the selfish idiots that despite extensive media coverage, panic buy and hoard food and supplies, who travel unnecessarily, who crowd together, who think that the restrictions don’t apply to them. Or who spread fake news, misleading information or dismiss this pandemic as being fiction, or who dismiss this COVID19 Corona virus as not being a serious medical problem.

I’m currently self isolating because it’s possible that a family member may have had COVID19 Corona virus (that was worrying enough). But the fourteen days is NOTHING compared to the TWELVE WEEKS that people who should shield themselves will have to endure (people with existing medical conditions, the old and frail). And when you have a family member that fits into one of these groups, that means you (including me) have to extra careful to not get infected yourself, or to bring the virus home with you and unintentionally infect said family member (which is exactly the situation I’m in).

It all really brings home what is important in life.

For those that don’t get it, people (including family and friends) are important, not greed, money and delusions of power.

If only these selfish people would actually THINK OF OTHERS before acting only in their own self interest.

Mark