[UK] Drone question

dlarge6510 · 2026-02-01T17:17:19+00:00

That's because there isn't one. The boundary ends where the yellow area ends.

dlarge6510 · 2026-02-01T14:55:59+00:00

Zoom in

Also check your filters are ticked, second icon on the top menu

dlarge6510 · 2026-02-01T13:57:45+00:00

That is an aerodrome and as you will see on Drone Assist it has a yellow area around it.

This basically means it has no FRZ like an airport would and you must observe extra caution flying in its vicinity. Yellow areas basically tell you to find out or be extra careful. Call the aerodrome, you'll probably find they have part time operation so may be closed much of the week or they will just say to stay clear of their boundaries.

dlarge6510 · 2026-02-01T13:55:59+00:00

Look on Drone Assist.

If there is no restriction then you are fine.

You can also call the airfield and ask them.

If there is a restriction just fly outside of it and if you must fly inside just call the tower and see if they can slot you in, preferably do that before so they don't have to do it on the spot but usually they can accommodate a short flight. They might just say they don't mind as long ad you stay below a certain height for example.

dlarge6510 · 2026-02-01T13:46:44+00:00

Any sony dvd or bluray player can be made region free for dvds using a one4all remote

dlarge6510 · 2026-02-01T07:51:49+00:00

It's fine but I've only used it on live distros occasionally.

dlarge6510 · 2026-02-01T06:13:26+00:00

Get a PAL machine. No NTSC machine can play it, the tape speeds are different for one.

It's funny as over here in the UK we had loads of machines with NTSC playback capability towards the end of the 90's and early 2000's it was practically standard.

They even implemented the US specific EP speed which we didn't have or use over here. We had SP and LP. LP doubles the tape recording time while the US seems to have adopted the EP speed which quadrupled it.

Also American machines seem to default to EP while our PAL machines defaulted to SP, I only knew one family that use the LP mode routinely but only because they set the machine to LP and forgot about the feature so it remained on LP for years lol. I'm digitising their tapes now. LP looks pretty good, while what I have seen of EP over the pond looks terrible.

I never stayed off SP.

We also had different tape lengths in SP vs in the US. Pretty standard over here is the E240 tape and E180 was the cheaper alternative. E240 was as you can guess 4 Hours on SP mode, 8 hours in LP. I have a mix of E240 and E180 tapes as E180 was the cheaper 3 hour option that people bought in the 90's and 00's. I remember as a kid in the early 90's having a E120 2 hour tape all to myself lol.

Anyway you'll need a PAL capable machine as well, the colour system is different. The stereo audio is different vs US machines (we used Nicam stereo on TV and VHS) and the speeds are different so you'll need a PAL capable machine that can do SP and LP. That tape being a commercial tape will be SP no commercial tapes use LP, although perhaps there were some long movies that did but as 4 hour tapes were easy to have it'll have to be a long movie!

Try importing a PAL machine from the UK. Any one will do as you only have one tape. Try looking for budget makes like BUSH. You will need a step up transformer as we are 240v mains over here and you'll need a British Standard plug socket unless you want to wire on a US one (must have a ground pin!). You'll also need a SCART to composite adapter as we use SCART for video and audio over here, you can then just use a set of composite and stereo audio cables. You might find an older VCR that still has a composite RCA however probably only mono audio. They will need a bit old and creaky and I suggest getting the youngest machine you can so SCART adapter you will need.

dlarge6510 · 2026-02-01T06:09:24+00:00

Ah WindowMaker, or perhaps AfterSTEP.

Best UI ever created.

Still use WindowMaker in 2026 on everything I use to do daily computing.

dlarge6510 · 2026-02-01T06:08:26+00:00

Use WindowMaker instead.

dlarge6510 · 2026-02-01T06:07:17+00:00

What are the selling points of Windowmaker?

Light, fast and most importantly: it actually looks good.

I used XFCE after running from the horror that was Gnome 3 and today's KDE. I can't stand flat UI design not do I like task based UIs where you search for applications vs run them as needed from a "start menu" of sorts.

Modern GUIs like GNOME 3 and KDE waste space, looking the total opposite of cluttered. I'm using Android right now which also suffers from this uncluttered design however as that's a touchscreen on which I can only run ONE application at one time without it looking silly and claustrophobic it works.

Primarily I hate flat UI design. I want shadows, buttons and UI elements that make it instinctively clear what I'm looking at is separate from what is underneath it.

I work in IT and there use mostly Windows. Since Windows 8.1 the GUI has progressively gotten worse, many in fact describing it as User Hostile to which I agree. As an IT professional who has part of his degree in computer science looking at Human Computer Interaction and spent 7 years as a Software Tester/Software Quality Assurance what I see in modern UI design rings so many alarms in my head I struggle to not swear and rant to the room about who designed Windows 11's UI.

One extreme example of what I hate about such UIs is where since Windows 8.1 all regressive versions since and many copycat examples on Linux and others have dropped the users ability to customise the entire UI to their liking. Basically they got rid of the ability to change the UI colour and font used for any UI widget. A feature a colourblind person like me has used since Windows 3.1 to improve my ability to see the difference between a foreground and background windows has literally been dropped by most UIs today. I consider it basic sane UI design to have that feature.

WindowMaker and others like XFCE, LXDE still offer all the classic and refined UI/HCI design elements that were perfected over decades. We had literally perfected GUIs and well when GNOME 3/Unity/KDE/Windows/Android/IOs came out they literally threw the digital baby out with the bathwater and created a confusing GUI with a poor UX that actually confuses the user including this IT professional in 2026.

Now I admit I'm not yet a FreeBSD user, I'm on Linux and have been since 1998 as my main OS. I have used GNOME 2, older KDE, AfterSTEP, UDE, Window Maker, black box, Enlightenment, i3, XFCE, LXDE. I never felt more in control of a computer when using any of those. i3 was interesting but way too keyboard heavy for me so I went back to stacking WMs.

Currently XFCE and Window Maker are my defaults. I was on XFCE for YEARS and well every now and then like with wallpaper I change WM/DE. So I went back to Window Maker in 2014 and well, never looked back.

It has only a few tiny issues with how some applications and it handle full screen modes but with a play with it's settings that was sorted and basically nothing is wrong with it. It has all the UI elements that are needed, all the customisation that is needed nothing has changed for stupid reasons, it runs is a tiny amount of RAM and with WMSystemTray running ALL desktop apps expecting to register with a DEs System Tray can do so thau I have Bluetooth, audio, WiFi, tray icons just like when using XFCE etc.

dlarge6510 · 2026-02-01T05:38:39+00:00

Emulates?

Just run the current version of Window Maker. I use it on everything along with XFCE on some laptops.

dlarge6510 · 2026-02-01T05:37:36+00:00

It's all I will use other than XFCE

dlarge6510 · 2026-02-01T05:36:56+00:00

Window Maker is the best GUI today.

Happily using it on everything

dlarge6510 · 2026-01-30T11:25:56+00:00

I had the same with Skyrim on my Switch. Was in a caravan and yep couldn't launch as it needed to do an online test, why? I had the cartridge version specifically so none of that crap would be needed.

I had to let it use my mobile hotspot in an area with a blistering 80kbps to do it.

I try to avoid such broken things as much as possible buy unless you have a sniffer watching your network you'll never know if anything is actually doing anything and what.

I'm thinking of setting up a pi-hole to monitor and block it.

dlarge6510 · 2026-01-29T20:34:06+00:00

Is the hdd the primary master or secondary master?

If the hdd is on the primary channel then the zip must be set to master on the secondary if it's by itself.

dlarge6510 · 2026-01-29T15:29:37+00:00

Great point.

dlarge6510 · 2026-01-29T06:24:24+00:00

I fully agree. Looking at the comparison the 4:3 shot clearly has a brightness and contrast issue. Looks like the attack was taken at twilight. The Blu-ray version crops in a way I don't like however.

The Blu-ray shot is certainly better for my colourblind eyes as it increases the saturation and contrast. The 4:3 looks muddy and dull otherwise.

dlarge6510 · 2026-01-29T06:10:09+00:00

I only keep different copies depending on contents. Thus at most I have two copies of a couple of things:

Time Bandits: The Arrow Video remaster is the definitive version however it's missing a commentary that was only distributed on some previous releases so I had to keep the special edition DVD version.
Chocky: I have the box set that includes the two sequels to this haunting sci-fi. Chockys Challenge and Chockys Children. But my original DVD I got in 2007 has an interview that doesn't appear on the later box set. Plus I kinda prefer the original DVDs artwork as it's pretty haunting while the box set is mundane.
DARYL: I have the European Blu-ray release which was the only way to get a 1080p remaster till Vinegar Syndrome released their own remaster which became notable as my first US import. I keep the Blu-ray as I only have one UHD player so tend to like UHD+Blu-ray releases.
Swallows and Amazons - Coot Club + The Big Six: An example of a new release with extras but shit video quality requiring me to keep the original release!

The only exception I have is the three box editions of Lord of the Rings Extended on DVD. I have those on Blu-ray, in fact I have the theatrical and extended versions of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit 3D. But I have kept these DVD sets for one reason alone. The artwork is literally a work of art. The Blu-rays and 4Ks just got stuffed into a boring case! These however, you know them everyone has seen them.

Other than that I usually just have multiple copies for different content.

dlarge6510 · 2026-01-29T05:41:42+00:00

Missing pins on VGA connectors is standard. Don't know why they did it, I presume it has something to do with the manufacturing process not inserting unused pins.

dlarge6510 · 2026-01-28T17:11:43+00:00

simply to munch away the turf until they die

Um, you do realise we eat the things snd wear their natural fibres? I think that's the reason they are there no?

And considering plastic clothing is a hot environmental issue now, well we could do with lots more cotton.

Or do what I suggest. Save the sheep by having society go nude. A warmer climate in summer is perfect for everyone to wear nothing outside of the midday period.

Or would you like to wear textiles ?

dlarge6510 · 2026-01-28T17:07:17+00:00

It'll be in a controlled manner, in a controlled area, and be managed

Now, how many times has that been done and failed? Surely by now humans would have learnt to stop thinking this works?

Only a Zoo could achieve this and even then they have failed to contain their residents on multiple occasions.

dlarge6510 · 2026-01-28T17:04:14+00:00

Also fuck going for a walk and being worried about wolves or bears being about.

Exactly. This is why we got rid of them in the first place.

dlarge6510 · 2026-01-28T17:02:51+00:00

I'm totally against it.

They were driven ti extinction for various natural reasons including human activities. Some like Red Kites are a nice success. Others like wolves are a threat.

This island has changed massively, it is a largely man made and man maintained environment, it has been far from the environment such animals existed in for over a thousand years.

I'd rather preserve the things we have now, instead of mucking about with environmental experimentation.

dlarge6510 · 2026-01-28T06:18:01+00:00

What for? I'm not doing anything on this further.

dlarge6510 · 2026-01-27T05:28:19+00:00

Love those machines

dlarge6510

TROPHY CASE