"Last minute" meeting around the UK?

[FastFreddy2]

3 hours ago, Russ in boots said:

Put a freezer in the bedroom and leave the door open? The cat might get inside, of course.

Apparently, a bag of ice attached the the front of the fan is more effective. 

 

3 hours ago, Shyheels said:

Having spent much time in the tropics during the course of my life I am continually amazed that temperatures in the 20s can be considered 'hot' by the inhabitants of this sceptered isle...

"Our" heat tends to be quite humid, exacerbating the (for us) unusual 'clammy' feeling, you will doubtless have experienced in the  tropics. "Our" predominant weather is cool and damp. I would think bumping the temperature up by 20' C would make a noticeable difference anywhere. It's not like we have 3 or 4 or 6 months of warm weather that allows us to acclimatise in any way. Literally in the space of days, we will go from needing a coat to stay warm, to being able to sleep outside at night. That's an incredible swing in temperatures.

[Shyheels]

True - if you increased the temperature by 20C most places it would be unpleasant, but I am taking here about the temperatures being in the 20s, not increased by 20-odd degrees. I get the humidity part - sure - but try Singapore, Indonesia, Brazil, Panama, New Guinea, Borneo, tropical Queensland, Thailand etc. etc. etc. They make anything here seem like a sweet wish.

I'm not mocking, it just brings a smile to my face when I hear the weather guy on the TV news talking about a 'scorcher' when the temperature is going to be 26C in London and the southeast!

Edited May 23, 2017 by Shyheels

[FastFreddy2]

3 hours ago, Russ in boots said:

Think of me next week jetting in to Florida... Might be on the warm side there!

Warm, and very humid I would have thought.

We've "friends of friends" that sometimes come over here from Florida, to avoid the worst of it. (The wife of the couple is an ex-childhood neighbour I found out after thinking I recognised her at a funeral last year.) We'd like to move to warmer climes for the winter months, but that 'lifestyle' takes money we don't have. Maybe I'll 'retire' to the South of France if the opportunity arises... 

[FastFreddy2]

2 minutes ago, Shyheels said:

True - if you increased the temperature by 20C most places it would be unpleasant, but I am taking here about the temperatures being in the 20s, not increased by 20-odd degrees. I get the humidity part - sure - but try Singapore, Indonesia, Brazil, Panama, New Guinea, Borneo, tropical Queensland, Thailand etc. etc. etc. They make anything here seem like a sweet wish.

I'm not mocking, it just brings a smile to my face when I hear the weather guy on the TV news talking about a 'scorcher' when the temperature is going to be 26C in London and the southeast!

26' C will seem hot given we've barely been out of single figures recently, and only weeks ago had frost...

Weatherman today, predicts 30' C is now possibly, so that is getting on for an increase of 20' degrees in under a week. While I agree there many many places where typical ambient temperatures are higher, they will be constantly higher with work conditions often altered to accommodate those temperatures. 

Yes, in the great scheme of things, 26' isn't high. But I've worked in offices where there's no aircon and very little in the way of air movement (ie one fan). After a couple of days of this, with sleep also disrupted by humidity, it doesn't take long before weariness makes productivity almost impossible. For those born into those temperatures, I guess 26' might be overcoat weather. But us Brits get to see that sort of temperature for maybe 3 weeks of the year, and like the snow we only get for one week of the year, it almost brings the country to a stand-still.  

[Shyheels]

Indeed, a friend of mine who was born and raised in the hot tropics actually does get out the jumpers when the temperature drops to 25C. And I remember once myself after many months in a searingly hot desert (45-52C each day) dreaming of places in the world where the high for the day would be a chilly 25C...

[Puffer]

14 hours ago, Russ in boots said:

Think of me next week jetting in to Florida... Might be on the warm side there!

Enjoy your trip - and the weather.   The first time I went to Florida (c1988), I was assailed (very pleasantly) throughout my stay by what I assumed to be the fragrance of orange blossom (or somesuch native flora).   Only at the end of the holiday did I realise that I had been smelling the protective cream I had been applying daily to my face as a sunscreen!  

Although I was happy to return to Florida a few years later, I did think twice - on the basis that another tube of cream would have been a much cheaper purchase!

[Tacchi Alti]

I seem to have fixed the problem of trouser bottoms getting trapped under my heel as I walk in my new sandals. I've inserted a thin cable tie in the hem at the back crease, and it keeps the bottom of my trousers rigid. I need to give it a more thorough test but initial result seems good! Better for walking round the airport...

[Shyheels]

12 hours ago, Puffer said:

Enjoy your trip - and the weather.   The first time I went to Florida (c1988), I was assailed (very pleasantly) throughout my stay by what I assumed to be the fragrance of orange blossom (or somesuch native flora).   Only at the end of the holiday did I realise that I had been smelling the protective cream I had been applying daily to my face as a sunscreen!  

Although I was happy to return to Florida a few years later, I did think twice - on the basis that another tube of cream would have been a much cheaper purchase!

I suspect the scent of moist subtropical earth was mingled in there as well.

I remember my first visit to Florida back in '69 and can still recall my boyhood wonder at seeing Spanish moss, little darting lizards, bright tropical flowers and the sense of hot moist air wrapping around you like a blanket when you stepped outside.

Edited May 24, 2017 by Shyheels

[Tacchi Alti]

We'll be heading north in a camper van so won't see much of Florida! You wouldn't believe how much cheaper it was to fly into Orlando, with a direct flight, than to other airports, for most of which there was at least one change. When we saw the price, we double-checked it was for two tickets, not one! I think my wife's resigned herself to my new sandals, especially when I made it plain I was happy to wear them anywhere locally, and promptly went shopping in them.

[FastFreddy2]

On 2017-5-24 at 11:06 AM, Russ in boots said:

 When we saw the price, we double-checked it was for two tickets, not one! 

Some years ago I went to a trade show in Europe with my (then) business partner. We both sat at our respective computers in our respective homes, pricing up flights. For some reason, his enquiry -with the same airline- was cheaper. Didn't matter what I did, I couldn't get my quote down to his, so I said we'd better confirm bookings for us both on his enquiry. I had nothing to do with the booking, confirmations, tickets .... I just paid my share.

All was well, until we arrived back at the airport ready for a flight home. The check-in could find no record of our return flight.  Time was ticking and 20 minutes in, we were not making any progress. Neither of us had 'smart' phones, so my partner checking his email confirmation wasn't immediately possible... Then one of the check-in staff had an idea, which proved to be correct.

When I had made my enquiry, I have put in dates Mar/Mar. My 'partner' had put in Mar/May and hadn't noticed his error - at any time. That's why his enquiry was cheaper, the booking wasn't for the same day of travel.  Our return flight had to be rebooked, with premiums for (a) rebooking and (b) immediate travel. We got home that night, but the single leg of the return flight cost the same as the pre-booked each-way flights. (ie doubled the cost of the trip.)

You will not be surprised to know, the 'partnership' did not last,  despite the business turning a profit (which the partner wanted to pocket rather than re-invest). He was only too happy for my money to continue to bankroll the business, rather than the business bankroll the business.  

Edited May 25, 2017 by FastFreddy2

[Shyheels]

That's a pretty silly screw up. 

Business partnerships are always fraught. A good rule of thumb - never go into business with a friend, not if you value the friendship

[FastFreddy2]

57 minutes ago, Shyheels said:

That's a pretty silly screw up. 

Business partnerships are always fraught. A good rule of thumb - never go into business with a friend, not if you value the friendship

I've done it twice, and got screwed over both times. Not doing it a third time.... 

The irony of the booking mistake, the fella worked in IT. 

[Puffer]

And, in much the same vein, be very wary of lending money to a friend, even if on a commercial basis and properly recorded in writing.   When the friend gets into financial difficulty, the friendship will do nothing to assist with the repayments - or the litigation, or the bankruptcy ...

If you must make such a loan, taking a charge over the friend's house makes sense - but may not be regarded as a very 'friendly' thing to do.

[Shyheels]

15 hours ago, FastFreddy2 said:

I've done it twice, and got screwed over both times. Not doing it a third time.... 

The irony of the booking mistake, the fella worked in IT. 

I once nearly got a reservation screwed up because I was using a (printed!) calendar/diary that actually had the 31st of April in it! Naturally It screwed up the weekdays early in May, when I was travelling, and I was doing my head in trying to figure out what was wrong as I tried to work out the scheduling. And then I saw it.

It is hard to defend yourself against that kind of stupidity, you just don't see it coming.

[FastFreddy2]

4 hours ago, Shyheels said:

It is hard to defend yourself against that kind of stupidity, you just don't see it coming.

In one of my past "life's", I was a trained (mainframe) computer operator. While working in a data analysis/planning role, but not in a computer room, I once rang up the company Helpdesk to find out why my local (mainframe) printer wasn't working .....

"Is it switched on?"

"Let me double check ..... " (Said I - thinking it was a daft question since the printer was never switched off...)

"Yes, switched off, now switched back on ....." I had to reply red-faced, which fortunately couldn't be seen.

 

Because it was a mainframe printer which needed 'attaching' the printer was never switched off, ever. (We often worked late.) But the cleaner, had plugged her vacuum cleaner into our socket, and put our printer lead back, but had left the power switched off. It NEVER occurred to me someone might have switched the printer off.... At the time it was as likely as walking into the office and finding the furniture gone. The most embarrassing phone call of my life, bar none.

[Shyheels]

Embarrassing yes, but as you say why would you be expecting the cleaner to unplug the thing?

[Tacchi Alti]

I remember mainframe computers, but what does that actually mean? I have visions of substantial steel work

[FastFreddy2]

1 hour ago, Russ in boots said:

I remember mainframe computers, but what does that actually mean? I have visions of substantial steel work

You are not far wrong. Sometimes call "big iron" held in large air conditioned halls.

Before personal computers, there were only computers. "Working memory" was very very expensive, as was storage. Computer code was very efficient back then. You could do a payroll run with (volatile) memory less than you have in a modern calculator. Probably less memory than you have in a smart television. Legend has it, the first man on the moon got there with the help of a 64k mainframe computer. Less memory than your microwave.

These were often water or air cooled cores sat in an air conditioned facility. No food or drink anywhere. Teletype input, no screen. The typewriter taking in commands, like "start" "program XX". Data often fed in by 80 column punched cards, or punched tape. Hard drives where the size of washing machines (and about 20 times more expensive) with operators (me) hand feeding in different disks for different jobs. Completely clean inside, and cooled too.

CRT screens came a bit later from from my training computer, but it added very little to the data entry mode.

The computer were so expensive to buy and run, you tended to rent (with maintenance contract) from IBM or ICL. I worked at a Tesco facility for a while. Their printers - which could print paper faster than I could run - were £250,000 each. 

The big difference with mainframes vs PC's (until recently) was ... A mainframe might have 6 or 8 (or more) "partitions" (segregated virtual computers each tasked with running groups of users or functions) where PC's had a single processor running a single application for one (end) user. A mainframe might be running 100 or 200 hundred users. When you phone up for an insurance quote or banking function, it's likely the person at the other end of the phone is using a 'terminal' attached to a mainframe. They used to be 'dumb' terminals, but these days they'd be PC's with a mainframe port and interface.

 

Oddly, IBM (Mr Mainframe to you and me) ducked out of the PC market early on, because they didn't think there was a future for them. Duh!

[Tacchi Alti]

I remember one at a company I worked for over 30 years ago. There was a resident gorilla who defended it against all comers. It's much cooler here today - evidently acclimatising us for bank holiday Monday...

[FastFreddy2]

7 hours ago, Russ in boots said:

I remember one at a company I worked for over 30 years ago. There was a resident gorilla who defended it against all comers.

To be fair, 30 years ago PC's weren't much more than glorified calculators or word processors. We used to use Lotus 1-2-3 for spreadsheets, and a very basic word processor that might have been called PE2. I used Wordperfect 5.1 (if I remember) for my reports, then it was upgraded to WP 6.0 for Windows 3.1 the product was killed off. Microswine brought out Word, and that helped bury WP. Back in the day, early Windows offered the opportunity of having two or more applications running at the same time, "Users" thought it was magic. I did all my college work using WP 5.1 on a DOS machine and it was an excellent product. Though I say so myself, it looked very professional, even by today's standards. Don't know I can say the same for the content ....

Conversely, a mainframe could do a 15,000 employee payroll in an evening, and update the build requirements of a major manufacturer every night of every week throughout the year. Even today, a PC might struggle to do anything like as much in such a short period. Tesco and ASDA for example, will almost certainly be run on mainframes. Despite what Intel and AMD would tell you, multi-core processors in PC's don't function quite like a true multiplexing mainframe might, because the data buses are not duplicated, the operating system isn't designed for partitions ... blah blah blah..

 

Quote

It's much cooler here today - evidently acclimatising us for bank holiday Monday...

Yep, not looking too clever here either. We had a thunderstorm this morning with rain enough to ensure a good electrical connection, only lasted 15 minutes from start to finish. More of the same promised for this evening.

 

Tomorrow, (Sunday) we are hoping to have a wander in Londinium.  Weather permitting. If Monday's weather looks better, we might defer to Monday.

Edited May 27, 2017 by FastFreddy2

[Tacchi Alti]

WordPerfect! I was brought up on 5.1, and a thoroughly good program it was. I still use WP4W from choice. I need to use Word for business but still hate the program.

So now we're getting stuff ready to pack, and I'll have to wait and see how much protest I get to my heels. I've been wearing my new sandals for shopping etc., including a visit to Halfords. I'm sure they've been noticed but again no comments from anyone. Wearing them for our flight will make all the difference between backache and no backache, with all the standing around at the airport.

[Shyheels]

Hope you're not flying British Airways...

[FastFreddy2]

7 hours ago, Russ in boots said:

WordPerfect! I was brought up on 5.1, and a thoroughly good program it was. I still use WP4W from choice. I need to use Word for business but still hate the program.

You and me both. Horrible counterintuitive program that is truly awful and significantly more complicated than it need be. Has been "designed" (bolted together) more as a desktop publishing suite than a word processor. And in the past, with a price tag to match.

Interesting article (to me anyway) about Wordperfect vs Word >> here <<

Exec summary:

But others think Office allowed inferior Microsoft applications to win out over better products. "In reality, Office was a bit late to the party," wrote another reader. "While Word 2.x was failing to wow customers, Lotus 1-2-3, WordPerfect, and others were providing superior products. IMO, WordPerfect is still the superior product because it allows a savvy user to determine exactly where the formatting in a document is being adversely 'helped' by the application and allows deleting those control codes. Those were the leaders of the pack, Microsoft brought up the rear, then used FUD to crush them."

But another reader countered with a chronology of WordPerfect's self-inflicted wounds. "Frankly, WinWord 2.x was a great program, well ahead of its time, especially if you ran it on Windows 3.0/3.0a as opposed to 3.1x. WordPerfect 5.1 for Windows (Q4-1991) was a dismal failure -- totally unstable, not feature-laden, and it even used a DOS-based installation program! WordPerfect 5.2 (Q1-1992) was a massive bug-fix, albeit small & fast. WordPerfect 6.0 (Q4-1993) was another buggy piece of crap, but it showed potential. Only when WordPerfect 6.0a (April, 1994) came out was there something worthwhile on the Windows front. By mid-1994, 2 1/2 years after the first version of WordPerfect for Windows came out, was there something reasonably stable. But by then, the damage was done and MS-Office 4.2/4.3 was available."

Of course, others pointed out Microsoft didn't exactly make it easy for anyone to compete with its Windows applications. "MS Office crushed its competition for one reason and one reason ONLY -- undocumented application programming interfaces," wrote another reader. "WordPerfect ran into problems because they invested big-time in a new graphical product for the operating system Microsoft touted as the future -- OS/2 -- while Microsoft was busily writing a competing product using secret programming interfaces for their real operating system of the future - Windows. Microsoft created and exploited intentionally undocumented Windows capability to ensure that its competitors' products would run like a dog, thus ensuring MS Office was the only viable choice on Windows -- and of course locked users into Windows with monopolistic practices well-documented in the various lawsuits they lost. 

 

Good luck with your flight. As Shyheels rightly says, "hope you're not flying with BA" as chances are, you won't be for a day or two .... 

[Tacchi Alti]

Fortunately we're flying with Virgin although BA and AA also offer seats on the same plane. Things seem to be resolved now anyway, but I feel very sorry for the thousands of people whose holidays were messed up, particularly those having to try to occupy bored kids. I've told my wife I'm wearing the wedge sandals. Our next door neighbour is kindly taking us to the local station from where we can get a train to the airport. She's seen my heels before anyway so it won't be a surprise for her. I'm not sure when I'll next be able to log in but I'll let you know how I get on through Security in heels!

[Shyheels]

BA is a dreadful airline