Rick's b.log - 2024/03/23
It is the 9th of May 2024 You are 18.188.10.246, pleased to meet you!

Vermin

Only... no camera.

Was the power pack duff? I plugged the other camera in and it started up.

This left me with two options. Either get out the ladder and go up and look at the camera, or go up in the loft and check the power cable.

Well, the ladder thing is a massive pain in the arse, so I went up into the attic.

Good call.

A broken power cable.

I patched it up, soldering the joins and wrapping them in electrical tape. Then, to protect it from tiny teeth in the future, I slipped the entire cable into a plastic sheath.

A fixed power cable.

The end result was...

Oh, it's me.

I took a picture with my phone, as you can see, but I won't bother uploading it. You get the point.

OLED display

It's not a big deal, I don't know when I'll get to doing something with the laser printer so it's not urgent. And Colis Privé? See you Monday, I guess...

I made a little whoopsie when ordering them. I didn't pay attention to the size as I thought these things were the same sort of size, and since I don't really speak Imperial, I didn't spot the displays were smaller.
Quite a bit, in point of fact.

A dinky little OLED.

It will likely spend most of its time in power-down state. I mostly used to use the OLED so mom could know when, after giving RISC OS the shutdown keypress, when it was safe to turn off the power, I had a utility that intercepted the Shutdown_Complete service call and put something up on the OLED.

Kate...

I'm sure by now you are all aware that she has been diagnosed with cancer. The news has been going nuts over it.

Now, I don't mean to dismiss her problem, it's a big deal to her. But, seriously, what the hell? Loads of people have cancer. It's part of what killed mom. And on Thursday I sent off a poop sample in order to check that I don't have colorectal cancer (it's a two-yearly checkup for people aged 50 or over).

I think we can feel assured that she won't have to wait months/years to see a specialist, a further eternity in order to have an operation (assuming it isn't cancelled at the last minute because...). She'll have the gold plated special service that her citizens are increasingly being denied.

So, okay, she has cancer. And how many other people found out on the same day? You'd think from the news coverage that she'd laid a golden egg or something.

Another cup of Tea, dear?

It adds the following:

• I have added a "Wider" option to the bottom of the When... menu to redraw the grid twice as wide for more clarity on shorter programming (such as the children's blocks, or a lot of NHK World). I won't include a screenshot as my linguine will be ready in about five minutes and I hope to get this article sorted before then.
• The channel name icons are clipped to not get too wide when in wider view. ☺
• The channel name icons are now only moved/redrawn if they have actually moved.
• The "UK time" menu option is now greyed out if your machine is actually on UK time (as it would have no effect).
• Both "Wider" and "UK time" are now saved in a settings file and are reinstated when the program is restarted.
• Likewise, the selected channels are stored in the settings file so rebuilding the channel list (such as when starting the program with Alt held down) will no longer discard your chosen set of channels.

A guide about how to use Tea can be found here.

Your comments:

David Pilling, 25th March 2024, 12:13

Mice the solution to plastic waste...    Thing about the Royals, best health care, best lifestyle, loadsa money, no problems. When you find out they have problems, you might lose hope - money can't buy you out of trouble. Or it might give you hope - they're just like the rest of us. Either way, hence the interest.    With many health conditions there are world standards for treatment, get the same whether you're a prince or a pauper, in the UK or some less happy place.    I was going to say, covid, all got the same vaccine - but Donald Trump...

Austin, 30th March 2024, 18:59

As a fellow French homeowner, I can appreciate the magic properties of gaine. The concept is great - any cable can be replaced by drawing it through but MAN is it tricky to get through 3 foot thick French walls with a rubble/cement core. Seems to deter the souris and glis-glis at least!