Craig Sawyers

Surprising how many snake oil merchants invoke the word "quantum" without the blindest understanding what it means. In the UK the Bybee equivalent is Peter Belt http://www.pwbelectronics.co.uk/pwb-price-list Anyone for "Gold Message Foil", "Quantum Clip Film", "Morphic Green Cream" or even "“Friendly” Four legged stance device" - Belt has them all, and much more strange and wonderful nonsense beside.

I say to Mrs S, who speaks a little Spanish "what gender is Agua?" "Feminine" "so what article is used with it" "El". OK - so now I'm flummoxed "OK - drop the boot; why does it use masculine El with feminine Agua" "Because it begins with an A" I gave up at that point.

I'm mistrustful of DSP processing too. Take an analogue signal, AD, DSP, DA to analogue signal. What? Yup - I'm a luddite.

I've experienced -40 in Helsinki. What made that trip most surreal is that I flew from Israel where it was +25C. So that flight took me through a delta T of 65C. Then our local marketer took me to a sauna at +100C. That was 12 hours of extreme temperature transitions that I have no real wish to repeat. But -40 is no-ones idea of a good time - the same temperature as a biotechnology freezer.

You'd make a killing selling those in China

Apparently this is a lifesaver. So your ship goes down or plane crashes the sea. You get into the bubble rather than using a buoyancy aid. Oddly I kind of get this - it is common to put something similar to that in the bottom of your pack when walking in the wilderness. When the weather turns nasty you pull the thing out and get into it (personal versions and larger ones for up to ten). The idea is to keep the wind and water/snow off you, and are essential in case of injury.. I have both. They pack really small. They are brightly coloured so emergency rescue can find you. Similar problem in the water - the bubble would go a long way to prevent hypothermia. Some of the other ones above - I have absolutely no idea at all!

A few patent landmarks

I like that this guy is still alive. I have no idea how or why that should be the case.

Took me a while to understand the perspective, then I realised that it was a view from the *top* of Raven Crag looking roughly North down Thirlmere (note - not Lake Thirlmere, because a mere is a lake. So it is simply Thirlmere. Pedantic mode = off). So on the left are the slopes of the Helvellyn range. In the left middle distance is Seat Sandal (and above it the shoulder of if Stone Arthur and Great Rigg. And facing Seat Sandal on the right (with the concave shape) is Steel Fell. In the gap between the two is a low pass called Dunmail Raise (Dunmail was an local chieftan). Just to the right of the view point is Bleaberry Fell and High Seat. In the far distance you can see Loughrigg Fell - the subject of another of Knuck's postings. Incidentally, it is one of those trick questions - how many Lakes are in the Lake District? Answer - one. Bassenthwaite Lake. All the remaining fifteen bodies of water in the Lake District are Meres, Waters and Tarns.

Apparently "In the United States, the record reached #61 on the Cash Box Top 100 Singles. The single also peaked at #70 on the Billboard Hot 100 that May". So it was never a blockbuster in the US, but did OK.

Bit of a one-hit guy - but what a hit! RIP Peter Sarstedt. Too young at 75. That single song was a real part of my youth.

Liked the image from Loughrigg (pronounced Luff-rigg) Fell, a small (1000 foot) but worthwhile hill above the town of Ambleside, Been up several times. Currently been up 74 of the Lakeland fells over the years to October 2016.

Happy birthday Jacob - good to see you back.

Happy birthday!

Oh bloody hell. Mother and daughter in a few days. RIP Debbie Reynolds. I went through an on-line photo album of those that we have lost in 2016, because of the sheer number who have gone you lose track - and it is a roll-call of the great and the good. Quite a depressing year in that regard.

Regarding battery, our daughter had precisely the same problem in her Ford Fiesta. Fine for a week or two, then totally dead until started on cables. Fine for a week or two - repeat as necessary. Turned out to be the battery. Apparently modern batteries can do this, caused by an intermittent short (or open) circuit inside. The dead one was the original battery, fitted when the car was new.

Jeeze - Carrie Fisher. Same age as me - and oh boy is that a sobering thought. RIP Carrie

My son just now said "What the fuck - George Michael just died aged 53. This damned year just decided to pack a few more in". Suspected heart failure. RIP George Michael

It just seems to keep on coming this year. RIP Ric Parfitt, again far too young at 68.

Happy birthday! You're in illustrious company - 25th December was Isaac Newton's birthday too

But, but - they are upside down! The bases will come out with the wrong phase

Aged 66. Too damned young. RIP Frank Murray.

Have a great one!

I completely agree that a chip, or hybrid solution would be best. In fact the concept of using a laser trimmed metal foil R2R network, where the foil network was layed down by photolith ought to be superb, hermetically sealed and dry nitrogen filled. Cheap it would not be...

Unless my use of Google is in meltdown, the PCM1704 is obsolete. Is this wrong? For discrete R2R, assuming that matching is done correctly, the whole resistor chain needs to be kept isothermal. There is little evidence that this is the case, but could be arranged to be the case.