Author Archives: james

Rockin’ All Over The South-West

Posted on February 16, 2024 by james

I’ve just found out that Status Quo are performing in Taunton later this year. I think I last saw them in Reading in the early 90s. 1990s, that is. Not 1890’s. I’m not that old, even if they are 😀 … Continue reading →

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By-election commentary

Posted on February 16, 2024 by james

I love the way that the odious little man Rees-Mogg has claimed in interviews about the Kingswood and Wellingborough by-elections that the Labour party didn’t achieve 50% of the vote, as if that’s some sort of damning indictment of their … Continue reading →

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Memory Lane, 12th June 2022: First Swarm

Posted on February 16, 2024 by james

The first swarm to arrive in one of my home bait hives this year. Not from my colonies, I hasten to add 🙂 I feel quite chuffed to have seen them actually turn up at the hive and then dissappear … Continue reading →

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A rare apple treat

Posted on February 16, 2024 by james

My son and daughter gave me this today. I’ve not had calvados for the better part of forty years, when my parents hosted a French family as part of our village’s twinning. The father of our visiting family was major … Continue reading →

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Next piece of Linux DSS done…

Posted on February 16, 2024 by james

I’d pretty much gone as far as I thought I could with my Linux Deep Sky Stacker port for the moment, but then realised that some bits that still didn’t compile were actually simper to fix than I thought, and … Continue reading →

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Memory Lane, 12th June 2022: New apiary site

Posted on February 16, 2024 by james

I’ve been looking for a new apiary site somewhere nearby and the owners of local property have offered me space in an area they can’t really use alongside this south-facing pasture. Access isn’t perfect, but not bad — the actual … Continue reading →

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Design by committee

Posted on February 14, 2024 by james

Back when I used to work with COBOL, there were jokes about “design by committee”. These days I’m not always sure that C++ isn’t going the same way. So many little bits and pieces have been stuffed into the language … Continue reading →

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Fun with Qt Help and CMake

Posted on February 14, 2024 by james

As a Windows application, Deep Sky Stacker stores all its help text in .chm files, but I need to get rid of the Windows dependencies. Fortunately I have the HTML and images that make up those files, and there’s the … Continue reading →

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Memory Lane, 25th May 2022: A failure

Posted on February 14, 2024 by james

Germination of squash plants always seems to be a bit random so I always sow far more than I need. Then when I get more plants than I want I can’t really bear to throw them into the compost. This … Continue reading →

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Memory Lane, 24th May 2022: Make room! Make room!

Posted on February 14, 2024 by james

Thanks to needing more compost for the whole no-dig process, and attempting to compost more material, it was becoming obvious that my three compost bays just weren’t sufficient. I’d also decided that I should have a more organised process for … Continue reading →

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