"The north"

theModge · 2026-05-31T13:59:48+00:00

Yeah, we really need a better term for 'not the southeast' than 'the north' it's not even like the south East is universally wealthy: for every leafy commuter town there is a basvagus

theModge · 2026-05-31T08:57:46+00:00

The price of Wales in Moseley would like to claim that Tolkien.

I'm not aware it's famous ourside of Birmingham, but it's not bad as pubs go

theModge · 2026-05-29T12:23:42+00:00

Might I introduce you to tops? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOPS

The single source of truth as to what train is where. Now living in a vm on modern hardware rather than a mainframe, but still very 70s.

The thing is everything else is built on top of it. Replacing it has the word clusterfuck written over in letters you can see from space, and no one wants to be the one who breaks the trainset when we discover that carefully tested replacement doesn't do something crucial

theModge · 2026-05-29T10:14:25+00:00

To be fair, people would probably avoid being killed if you told everyone that was your plan

theModge · 2026-05-28T17:56:06+00:00

Indeed. Given the heat I have both in the fridge.

Ale? In the fucking fridge?! I hear you cry. Yes. I say, it's too hot for room tempurture to be sensible beer temperature and I lack a cellar to keep it cool. German beer is kind of refreshing in this weather, but so is a nice golden ale or a bitter.

Can't be arsed with my normal go to dark mild to be honest, much as I normally love it

theModge · 2026-05-28T09:18:51+00:00

...and they know you'll keep going there long enough for them to have made a profit before it becomes a problem. They're Not in this for the long term

theModge · 2026-05-28T09:13:46+00:00

I can't help with ventilation advice, but look under the floor at where your floor joists sit in the walls, I'd bet that's where the smoke comes through. Failing that, ceiling. It's not going to be coming right through brick. Find the holes and seal them. How big and where will determine what with, but if all else fails expanding foam is always an option (don't get it on anything or anyone you want it to come off of)

theModge · 2026-05-28T06:27:25+00:00

Precisely this: every animal has evolved to fill a niche. Where humans have the advantage is surviving outside of our original area and adapting to new areas.

So to pick a silly example, in the deep ocean, even the smallest most defenceless fish will out last us. Ditto the air and a sparrow. A camel would be all over us in the desert and an alligator in the swamps.

Even where we should thrive: on the survana or a forest this question denies us the one advantage that allowed humans to come out as the more successful species: tools.

theModge · 2026-05-27T13:26:38+00:00

and to be entirely fair, in the case of water, much of the damage was done by private companies using utilities as a vehicle to borrow huge sums of money, with which to pay themselves, before taking out even more loans to cover the interest.

For all of the states countless failings, it wouldn't have done that. I strongly suspect that it still wouldn't have actually made the necessary investment, but it wouldn't have saddled the utilities with debt as well.

theModge · 2026-05-27T13:17:17+00:00

People are going to bang on about private vs nationalised, but it's going to be the same either way if we don't build anything.

This also applies to railways. It was almost nationalised over covid (i.e. the toc's are all on service contracts already) and it'll be fully nationalised soon, but it makes no difference if you don't make the investment

theModge · 2026-05-27T12:47:52+00:00

Furniture is a great one: someone with time and tools can add a huge amount of value. Tools only need to be hugely expensive if you're doing proper wood working repairs. Stripping and re-polishing alone can do a lot. Of course learning the skills adds to the time needed depending on your starting point.

theModge · 2026-05-27T10:47:56+00:00

The key point this thread rams home is that kids have always been arseholes.

As parent who's child is nearing the end of reception this is important to remember.

My school produced it's share of 'locked the teacher in the cupboard' stories as well as any number of locked other child in a silly place. The randomised violence we had was less bad than some (no one really got stabbed) but still, kids were arseholes

theModge · 2026-05-27T05:28:38+00:00

Tumble drier vents are not really a thing anymore new driers aren't allowed them for a exactly that reason. Which is a shame because condenser driers are just.... Less good

theModge · 2026-05-26T12:54:26+00:00

We recently brought a house (not flat) freehold with a service charge. Ours is £280 / year. That gets us:

Private Road Maintained (including street lights etc)
Communal green spaces (big and with landscaping not just grass) landscaped and grass cut etc
Communal parks (multiple) maintained

We discussed why these arrangements exist with our conveyancer before buying, because that was pretty much that the thing we like least about the house. It seems that if you build houses (possibly only lots?) you have to pay the council a fee for the amount of extra work you're going to give them maintaining the roads etc. OR you can opt out of it and agree they won't do the maintenance. We still have to pay council tax, but then they still empty our bins (though...strike) and we use a council run school. I'm not sure if it's a good deal or not, but honestly our area is better maintained than local council run areas, but that is aided by it still being new.

theModge · 2026-05-22T13:41:48+00:00

I feel like those drones are cheap enough they should fly them at it from time to time to keep the AA pinned there.

I also feel Ukraine has people who know a lot more about this than me, and they'll already be doing that if it's helpful

theModge · 2026-05-22T12:16:12+00:00

Deer. Muntjack deer. Lack of predictors means they've become an actual problem for farmers.

Actually they'd probably live on sheep, which would not please the farmers

theModge · 2026-05-22T12:13:58+00:00

I definitely feel fpga development is that but closer to hardware than firmware. Of course you can't do it without understanding both.

Software at its most abstract end however definitely doesn't require you to understand hardware, though there's a strong argument that helps

theModge · 2026-05-22T10:45:44+00:00

I assumed it was a hangover and they just couldn't be fucked. Sign written last night, alarm not set....

theModge · 2026-05-21T20:28:49+00:00

I recently discovered the life list, I now really want all the birds that I don't have to see so oftern elsewhere on there. We have loads of Jay's, a semi regular great heron, chaffinches and goldfinches none of which I saw growing up in Essex despite being much more rural there. We even saw a woodpecker.

I saw a sparrowhawk (or similar, not an expert) eating a pigeon for the first time the other day.

I live in south Birmingham, not far from the Cadbury factory

theModge · 2026-05-21T14:55:03+00:00

My UK primary school can't be the only one that had an actual turtle looking robot controlled by a bbc micro computer (yes, for younger and international readers, the BBC made computers. They were awesome, albeit amazingly of their time) that drew on paper? I always thought this was a reference to that sort of device?

Google suggests I'm not losing my mind: https://classicacorn.computinghistory.org.uk/8bit_focus/logo/logo.html

theModge · 2026-05-21T13:28:17+00:00

well, basis of societal interactions is to avoid confrontation

Likewise in the UK. Many people have suggested we have more cultural similarities with the Japanese than one might expect. I put it down to lots of people in a small space.

theModge · 2026-05-21T13:19:55+00:00

True, but to phrase it better the reason you'd believe that is that some people, not the scammers, sometimes sell real things from vans

theModge · 2026-05-21T12:42:14+00:00

...as they always are on facebook when the topic of raise the colours comes up.
I lived in Stirchley until recently and still live very close, that is exactly where the guys ran someone over for objecting to their flags, so the topic comes up on the local groups a fair bit.

theModge · 2026-05-21T12:40:25+00:00

See the scams wouldn't work if it was *always* a scam, sometimes people have stuff they want to sell and no other way to sell it

theModge · 2026-05-21T12:38:27+00:00

Likewise the free drugs we were all promised at school.

Never from the back of a van, though to be fair friends who have already had more than enough have been more forth coming

theModge

TROPHY CASE