Xac's adventures with Cassy (and friends + wife)

[Xaccers]

Popped over to see Jim today to replace Cassy's rear hub and give her a service.
Weather wasn't brilliant but we had a good day, the hub came off relatively easily, and using ol' faithful (Jim's lump hammer) he knocked the new hub into place.
The grease in the old hub was like crumbly cheese it was so dry!

Cassy's A/C compressor had been making a dry bearing noise when not in use, but would silence when the compressor was engaged.
While we had the engine idling this suddenly changed and it developed a nasty metal on metal sound.
Many moons ago Teh_Agent's compressor seized up and burst into flames. Not wanting this to happen to Cassy, the only option was to bypass it.
We'd done it before with Ian's car, but couldn't for the life of us remember the belt size or the path it took.
Jim had a spare shorter belt which we fitted using both tensioners, but there wasn't enough space between.
So we removed the eccentric and used a much smaller belt, 1150mm which did the trick but looked a bit old and not quite as tight as it could have been.
Off to Halfrauds we trotted in Rattiva, faught our way into their car park - my goodness it was rammed!
We picked up a 1125mm belt, the last one they had I think and the only one of suitable size.
Then Jim gave me a real treat; the keys to Rattiva!
Having never driven a 110HDi, and not impressed with the 90's or the 2.1TD, I have wanted to try the 110 to see how it compared.
As I expected (thanks to the reports others have posted before) it was nothing like either the 90HDi or the 2.1TD, both of which I found to be flat and dull as dishwater.
Rattiva on the other hand was much more like Cassy, very pleasant to drive, maybe a little slow on the uptake in 5th around 40mph, but as Jim says, he's a little bit tired, so maybe that explains it.
Also with Jim in the car, I couldn't push Rattiva as much as I would Cassy when I'm on my own
The HDi choice definitely has to be the 110 without a doubt.
So at least when that fateful day comes where there are no more 1.9TDs, I'll be able to console myself with a 110 (shame they're all ugly S2 though).

[CitroJim]

Xac, a thoroughly good day and much enjoyed as always

Next time I'll give you the keys to Rattiva and you can take her out on your own but delighted she meets with your approval

[Xaccers]

Xac, a thoroughly good day and much enjoyed as always

Next time I'll give you the keys to Rattiva and you can take her out on your own but delighted she meets with your approval

Mwhahahahaha! Vroom! Vroom!

[Xaccers]

Well, driving Cassy yesterday her front wheels were feeling every little bump in the road and there was slight vibration at certain speeds which normally means the tyres are getting low (it's like an early warning system which I quite like).
I've got mid priced Falkens on the front. Previously I've had Michelin Energy's which last me about 2 months once moved to the front wheels.
So far the Falkens have lasted 4 months on the front and I can probably get another month out of them before they legally must be changed so I'm impressed!
They cost me £125 for a pair fitted, compared to about £180 for the Michelins last time I checked at costco.

Other than that Cassy has been trouble free.
I do need to find time to pop round and see Jim (partly to excise the Linux demons which have possessed him) and fit a new scuttle panel as Cassy's has cracked in the past and although it's been glued together well, it looks tatty.
Also we need to have a go at replacing the a/c clutch bearing, and have a chat about the wedding (Danielle's got a month to come to her senses).

Talking of which, I went to Moss Bros in MK to see about hiring a Nehru suit.
First I had to show the girl in the shop what one was, then she said they didn't keep them in stock, and no other local stores had them.
I asked if they could get one in for me to try, she said no, they'd measure me and order it for the day and if they got it wrong or it didn't suit me then tough!
So I walked out. Danielle's found a couple of other hire places to try.
However we may not have many guests.
Where we've had to postpone it twice due to deaths in the family, we've not sent invitations out, instead, with my mum wanting to be involved, back in October we gave her the task of telling family members on my side when the date is and that full details will come nearer the time.
Early Jan I got an email from her asking if it was still on and if so when are we sending out invitations to let people know when it is. Alarmed I replied with the dates and again with the list of invitees and asked her to tell them all.
End of Feb I get a message saying no one has received invitations and it turns out again that she hadn't actually told anyone!

[CitroJim]

That's a shocking life for tyres Xac. I get about 4 YEARS out of mine

I'm around all this weekend so do please pop round. I 'll be a bit pre-occupied getting the house sorted after the plumbing exploits but no worries. It'll be good to see you - almost forgot what you look like...

I explained why I've moved to Linux at home.... I spend all bloody day looking after and fettling Windows for a living (of sorts) and I’ve decided I don't want to look at the same old Windows at home. I firmly believe in keeping work and play separate... Looking at a Linux desktop does not remind me of work. I'm not knocking Windows, far from it, Win7 and W2K8 is excellent but I do wish the Windows command set had grep, cat, head, tail and find in it Windows still has a lot to learn from Unix... Anyway, it's not demons, it's daemons

Yep, the Wedding is soon and we must have a natter about it...

Looking forward to seeing you

[Xaccers]

I must take a screen print of my desktop and quietly set it as your wallpaper mwahahaha

[CitroJim]

I must take a screen print of my desktop and quietly set it as your wallpaper mwahahaha

Did that once in the early days of Windows (NT4 - oh the memories ), took a grab of a desktop with an application open on it and set it as someone’s wallpaper...

Watching that person feverishly trying to close that application was really quite amusing at the time....

The other good one was the old 'Blue Screen of Death' screensaver. These days a BSOD is so rare that most people don't know what they are any more so a lot of the fun of that one has gone...

Another good trick is/was to pile a users icons all on top of each other in the middle of the screen. It's a great deterrent for those in the habit of leaving their screens unlocked and unattended... For persistent offenders it's been known for a rude email to be sent to their boss using their account...

IT Support used to be fun but alas, the halcyon days are long gone.

[Citroenmad]

2 months from a pair of front Michelins, and I thought my cars munched tyres How many miles do you do a month?

Good luck with the wedding arrangements Xac

[red_dwarfers]

I've been mucking about with bash scripting in osx recently and I must say that I do have a soft spot for it. The silly little commands that you first read about and think 'What an earth would I need that for?' and then find yourself not being able to live without them, awk and sed along with the ones Jim mentioned in particular. I do like using vim, took me a little while to get my head initially but it makes sense now, its just so quick to use.

On a similar note, OSX Lion has a lot to learn from Snow Leopard. Maybe straightforward Active Directory integration that works properly would be a start...

We have a good bit of fun in our office (cupboard according to the floor plans...) maybe not much of the practical joke kind though.
When the tedium of unpacking a large amount of machines has finished, there's nothing better than putting 2 boxes on their side, resting a piece of polystyrene on top and having karate chop competitions. We've also been known to pile all the packaging up against a wall and proceed to go for a run and jump

[KP]

The other one is ripping out old network cable and playing tug of war with it

Do lots of long loops of it and tie it to the tow hooks of 2 pool cars and see which is best is another

using old machines with seti or prime95 and removing the heatsink and fan and see whos machine lasted longest was a good one.

Or try dropping machines from 2nd/3rd storey window into the skip already full of old kit and see whos works after... takes a knack to spot the softest part of the kit pile to aim for
TFT Toss used to be good as well
ahh the fun you could have before H&S went mentle hey

[DickieG]

I've been mucking about with bash scripting in osx recently and I must say that I do have a soft spot for it. The silly little commands that you first read about and think 'What an earth would I need that for?' and then find yourself not being able to live without them, awk and sed along with the ones Jim mentioned in particular. I do like using vim, took me a little while to get my head initially but it makes sense now, its just so quick to use.

On a similar note, OSX Lion has a lot to learn from Snow Leopard. Maybe straightforward Active Directory integration that works properly would be a start...

Kev, is this some local west country dialect?

If so can you name it so that the English speaking population know what Google translator to use

[CitroJim]

Kev, is this some local west country dialect?

Must be. I can understand it fluently

Kev, you use vim Much respect I prefer nano myself although I started using vim until I realised nano was present.

Have you ever tried ajax?

On 'tother side of fence I've been very busy with VB Scripting recently. Amazing what you can do with it

One thing I miss when VB Scripting with notepad is the lack of line numbers

Off next week on a week of Hyper-V training in London... Apparently all through the course they say ESX is far better...

[Xaccers]

2 months from a pair of front Michelins, and I thought my cars munched tyres How many miles do you do a month?

Good luck with the wedding arrangements Xac

Thanks

It was usually 4 months total for the Michelins, two on the back, then moved to the front and 2 months later change.
I can do 2-3 thousand a month, mostly motorway or the MK rally course, sorry, grid road system.

[red_dwarfers]

You starting to give me ideas KP

It is DickieG, did you not hear most people speak like that when you were down here back along?
We're all closet coders really. Tourism and arable farming are a good earner for the warmer months, but what about the colder ones...

Jim, I've not used nano at all I've not messed around with ajax either.
Oh dear! I've heard thats the general consensus too, wasn't there some silly limitations with HyperV or something? We've just bought a server to use for virtualization at work, I think we're using some form of VMWare setup in that.

[Xaccers]

ESX?