Been threatening to carbonate some milk for some time…..should have done it, the stuff is for sale in the ‘States, and they are making money!!!!

OK, Do it properly… The Furcot RFI filter MK1 (ok spare part surgery on an old switch mode power supply to provide the bifilar choke)

Ok a 0.047 uf capacitor across the mains inside the lamp fitting inproved the noise problem a lot (now 18db) – watch this space!!!!

Have been having a few odd issues with our DSL broadband connection, brought to a head by complete failure last Friday.

Much investigation revealed the cause of the complete failure was that some 11 years ago when the house was built some Muppett decided to loop the incoming telephone connection behind the outside plastic cover upwards. Over time this allowed water ingress down the loop of cable into the ‘phone socket inside the house – that was filled with condensation and green corrosion.

However having got things working again it transpired the Downstream noise margin of the router was 12db. But sometimes 25db. Infact usually 25 db in the daytime.

Much investigation eventually “LED” to the problem being caused by the luxion star kitchen spotlights, the sort that can electrocute people. Off to do battle with some ferrite rings methinks.

It would seem the BBC in their infinite wisdom have chosen not to include K9 in the new Dr Who spin-off “The Sarah Jane Adventures”  - that’s just not on !

Upgrade our TIVO on Saturday (for those who don’t know what a TIVO is, before Sky+ there was TIVO, a hard disk video recorder with an interactive interface, containing all TV listings, updated by TIVO using a modem).

Now the original 40GB HD has been dramatically increased, 512MB of cache memory added, and a network port allows it to be controlled over the network.

Cool!

A big thank you to www.tivoheaven.co.uk

After the strange matter of the orange table-football fungus, now we have lichen (moss) growing in the garden - it has taken over about 20% of the gaps between the paving slabs so far.

I have attacked it with “Roundup” – a proprietary weedkiller that normally shrivells up weeds in less than a day. That was a week ago. It’s still green and still there……

Managed to get my worstest ever electric shock last night – purchased a 3w luxion star GU10 fitting mains voltage lamp. Very bright indeed, lasts almost for ever…. 

 Then…… 

Whilst positioning said lamp for the best illumination of kitchen worktops etc, I managed to touch one of the screws holding the device together, the user accessible whilst the lamp is on type screws, whilst holding the earthed lamp fitting. yeaow! then I was on the floor. (learning point – avoid electrocution). 

Much testing with a multimeter revealed the earth connection was good, and nothing exposed appeared to be live – so put the whole thing back together and turned on (without touching anything, having remembered the learning point above). The LED lamp blew up instantly! – this is how I know at least one of the screws on the lamp front was live during operation, as with the lamp pointing in the intended direction one of the screws touches the earthed lamp chassis

I’m sure I have a vey old mouse in the attic… one with an old IBM serial port connection that has just lived on and on….

Recently the in-laws have begun to de-clutter their house, the way most elderly people don’t. This has had the effect of the re-emergence of a number of my wife’s early toys & dolls etc. One of these is “Blue Bunny” that seems to still hold some emotional attachment – despite being somewhat past it’s best.

Upgraded to wordpress 2.0.4,

seems to be working