Author Archives: james

Another C++ fail

Oooh! C++20 has std::format that would allow me to easily format file modification times from std::filesystem/chrono. Oh, allegedly it does in MSVC and Clang, but not in the C++20 support with the GCC that’s part of Mint 21.3 or the … Continue reading

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OBD2 reader fail

My daughter’s Nissan is not very happy at all and showing the “Eek! Something’s wrong!” light on the dash, so I decided I’d get a cheap OBD2 reader to find out what it thinks is the problem. It’s an ELM327-type … Continue reading

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Memory Lane, 23rd July 2022: Heeeere’s Tommy!

Tommy tomato 😀 Tomatoes in the polytunnel, looking heathly. About forty plants in all. Sounds a lot, but we get through an awful lot of tomatoes, in salads, soup, pizza sauce, pasta sauces and probably other things too. All close … Continue reading

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Getting my bandsaw to cut straight

Well, not my bandsaw. My father-in-law’s. But I probably use it the most. He bought it years ago and has used it for all sorts of stuff that probably wasn’t ideal when we didn’t have a chop saw/mitre saw. Then … Continue reading

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At last a use for my scrap ply

After making a few clearer boards and suchlike for my beehives this winter I’ve ended up with quite a lot of small pieces of ply that I’ve kept because they’re actually quite decent quality and I’d prefer not to put … Continue reading

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Memory Lane, 22nd July 2022: Give peas a chance

Last of the fresh peas for this season 🙁 But I have saved pods from a couple of varieties to sow again next year. The mangetout dry quite quickly The podding peas, not so much.

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I think something died in the workshop

There’s certainly a strange smell in there. I think it could be a mouse. Or possibly a squirrel. What definitely has died are two of the LED striplights that I bought a couple of years ago. They’re quite common on … Continue reading

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It’s the end of the anemometer as we know it…

We’ve had really quite cold north-easterly winds for the last few days, and fairly strong with it as there’s absolutely nothing at all to provide shelter from that direction. I noticed the anemometer for my weather station was looking a … Continue reading

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Memory Lane, 21st July 2022: A tale of two garlics

Towards the end of 2021 I planted garlic cloves out in the main vegetable plot as well as in the polytunnel beds so I could compare how they did. Not very well was the answer in the case of the … Continue reading

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A bit agricultural?

Thanks to the new lathe that is occupying space in the workshop I have been trying to shift things around a bit to make some more space to work, including moving some to the centre of the room to allow … Continue reading

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