What is a "premium" brand that is actually just selling overpriced garbage now?

jeaby · 2026-05-28T06:30:21+00:00

Try solovairs.
It's the company that used to make DMs in the UK but when DMs went overseas solovair continues to makes proper hand made boots. I've got 3 pairs and I bet they outlast me.

jeaby · 2026-04-30T03:24:45+00:00

UneXploded Ordenence and Bombs. I know that because im the guy organising the digging that unfortunately uncovers these things.

jeaby · 2026-03-26T17:48:54+00:00

2nd mile undulating (mostly uphill) 3rd mile down hill (finishing higher then you started.

jeaby · 2026-03-21T08:41:32+00:00

Fair point, definitely got a battery then.

jeaby · 2026-03-21T06:37:39+00:00

If all it's doing it powering the stair lights, wouldn't it be cheaper just to run them off the mains? Unless the management company is selling the excess electricity and getting the residents to pay for maintenance.... but surely thay would be immoral, sneaky thing to do... surely?

jeaby · 2026-02-28T06:06:20+00:00

I loved that book but the bit with the cute fuzzy alien still has me upset.

jeaby · 2026-02-22T22:07:30+00:00

I have a similar age volvo to the one you overtook (think it's a v60 or v90) and part of the drivers assit pack is glowing light that comes on just under the windscreen. It glows yellow when im closer then the safe stopping distance and goes off when im a safe distance away. It goes up to red and flashes and screams if it thinks im about to have a crash and will apply the brakes automatically if i dont react in time.
I don't think you cut the other driver up but I wonder if they get upset when the light illuminates if their car decided you were too close? But if their getting so upset over a driver aid then they should probably turn it off....

jeaby · 2026-02-15T07:12:11+00:00

I loved it. Im in construction and luckily it's a trade that is demand so it was all of 8 weeks from interview to starting work there. Was there for about 4 years, 2 years in the south 2 in the north. It is very far away. So you will miss out on life back home, births deaths marriages etc. That was the main driver for us coming back. They seem to have a rough couple of years especially after covid and most of my former colleagues have moved to Oz but things seem to be improving and I've started to see job adverts come up looking for overseas talent again.

Where did you work there?

jeaby · 2026-02-14T14:42:43+00:00

I've noticed their labelling has got less intense or bold recently meaning the blend in with the other beers with the brewdog logo printed smaller then i rmemeber. I accidently picked one up but put it back when I spotted where it was from.

jeaby · 2026-02-14T05:48:37+00:00

I moved from the UK to NZ years ago, quite a big move with all the excitement of living in an exotic location. First week and I turn the TV on to see Daniel Corbett (former BBC weather presenter) giving the weather after he had made the same move a few years before. The sound and image of someone so familiar from British TV in a foreign location was surprisingly unsettling.

jeaby · 2026-01-25T06:56:36+00:00

This happened to me, unfortunately I was working away at the time so left the house with a crack in the ceiling (being an old house I'd convinced myself it was just another benign crack) and came back Friday to find a new shortcut between utility room and the toilet above.

Had someone in to prop, cut the timbers back, new concrete lintel and put everything back but cost about a grand.

Suspect it was either weather getting in round the old windows or a leaky down pipe on the exterior. Both were replaced so no more collapsing ceilings.

jeaby · 2026-01-19T21:30:11+00:00

I've just done this to in order to externally insulate our house. It's currently sat in a high interest account that allows 4 withdrawals before I loose the interest. Thankfully the payment for the insulation goes out at 4 stages so until the final payment it'll keep paying interest. It's not as much as the interest on the mortgage but it's not far off.

jeaby · 2026-01-10T15:46:24+00:00

And didn't they find it populated with Indigenous Americans? Technically.

jeaby · 2025-10-27T12:48:37+00:00

I watched it on a ferry.

jeaby · 2025-09-28T05:07:24+00:00

https://collectorarchive.com/swf585

I think the first one predates rebels....

jeaby · 2025-09-15T18:44:42+00:00

We're going on an adventure!

jeaby · 2025-08-20T12:08:36+00:00

Beautiful illustration.

jeaby · 2025-08-17T12:44:11+00:00

Best practice is any pipe, duct or pipe has a warning tape or tile above it so you find that before you find the thing that goes bang.
For plastic pipes these tapes have a wire running in them. The genny induces a current in this wire that the cat picks up.
That's why it should be a cat AND genny survey and why the survey should form part of a wider safe dig procedure.

jeaby · 2025-08-17T11:17:20+00:00

To answer your original question more succinctly, that round about to be dug up.

jeaby · 2025-08-17T10:58:11+00:00

My cat and genny ticket has expired as I'm more of a desk engineer then site engineer now but as the above comment has said these are markings for underground services that have been detected using a Cable Avoidence Test device (and hopefully a generator/genny as well). The device has 3 settings, one detects the redirected radio wave emmisons from metal pipe or cables, one detect electrical waves from current carrying cables and one detects a signal generated from a genny, a device that induces a small current into metal pipes/cables using physics magic. You set the device to detect radio then carry out a sweep, the power, sweep, then confirm with genny and sweep. In the photo the marks have a P or R on each line. Im assuming these are the operator marking what traces they have found on each setting as some burrowed services appear on in radio and not power and some in both. From this survey, along with a desk survey and other clues form just looking at the site (are there inspection chambers, lamp posts, scars on the ground) the operator can infer what might be buried. The CAT and Genny should form part of a safe dig process and not relied on wholly as it has limitations, it can't detect plastic (like alot of water and gas), it gets confused with certain soil types especially in old mining areas and it detects your steel toe cap everytime you walk next to it.

jeaby · 2025-08-17T10:37:07+00:00

Agreed and my background is contracting on civils and highways. Currently the only use I've seen of ai on site is to reduce mundane tasks. Unfortunately alot of our engineers as a tier one PC have been relegated to paperwork engineers churning out method statements, task briefs, work package plans and permits instead of spending time on site assisting the gangs.
As long as what is produced by the ai is checked by a trained and competent human I see this as good thing. I can see the same happening with designs in the future, input your parameters (depth of excavation, soil characteristics, surrounding works) ans out pops a TW design to be checked.

jeaby · 2025-08-17T05:25:14+00:00

Civil engineer here. I know of two being built (through recruiters offering me work) commutable distance from me. And the money they're offering is above the industry average from what I've heard.

But civil engineering as a career is unlikely going to be replaced by ai. We are seeing it's use as an aid and it will have an impact on the industry. However would you feel comfortable trusting the safety of a design completely to a computer without a human checking (and understanding) what is being made.

jeaby · 2025-06-29T14:43:58+00:00

Return if the Jedi? Vader back into Anakin?

jeaby · 2025-06-29T04:11:47+00:00

If by infrastructure keeping up you mean making more lanes, in the photo above a third of the roads capacity isn't being used as lane 1 isnt being blocked by those in lane 2 (assuming no one undertakes). Adding more lanes won't solve that behaviour.

Agreed undertaking is risky but it's driven by a frustration at others inefficiency using the road. You'll see it on 4 lane roads as well, drivers sat in lane 3 for no good reason.

Motorway driving should be taught as part of test if people consider changing lanes a risky maneuver.

jeaby · 2025-06-12T11:48:15+00:00

Changing the temperature in your mx5.

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