Helpful Colin - Page 2 of 17 - Investigation and Reason Give Understanding.

Is My Dualit Model DMF2 Milk Frother Corroding?

Introduction

Unfortunately besides my Dualit Milk Frother requiring a repair (see How I Repaired A Dualit Milk Frother Model DMF2) another problem has developed. I have to ask, “Is my Dualit Milk Frother corroding?” If not what is happening to it. Is the brown mark I can see copper or rust?

How I Repaired A Dualit Milk Frother Model DMF2

Introduction

My wife pressed the start button on the Dualit Milk Frother (Model DMF2) one day in the summer of 2017 and it no longer worked. This persisted so we had to heat the milk in the microwave oven for a week or two until we got a new frother.

Of course, me being me, I dismantled the faulty Dualit Milk Frother to see if there was an obvious problem. There wasn’t anything burnt out or blackened. Just a lot of wiring in a very confined space. It was constructed with a flat straight circuit board fitted into a curved space. No-one had used flexible circuit boards here.

The long term solution was to replace the whole Dualit Milk Frother. Since they are still on the market that’s what I chose to do. The faulty one had been a replacement for our Nespresso Aeroccino Milk Frother already mentioned in this blog. We now had to replace the replacement.

Dog Fouling Statistics

Preface

This post just brings to light matters which become obvious when calculations are made regarding the number of deposits dogs can make in their lifetimes. It doesn’t discuss dog fouling statistics regarding quantity as would be expected if weight measurements had been taken.

Introduction

I have a dog and live in England where the law compels everyone to remove their dogs mess from public places. This includes private land where the public have access. See Controlling your dog in public – 4. Dog fouling and Law & Your Environment – Dog Fouling.

As a dog owner I know it isn’t possible to pick up every mess a dog makes. Why? Dogs are not obliged to be on a lead everywhere so sometimes they defecate and it goes unnoticed. Such as:

in the dark at night where perhaps a dog should always be on a lead,
in deep snow where it melts through and then the snow falls in on top,
amongst autumn leaves which are the same colour,
in undergrowth which is difficult to penetrate (fortunately undergrowth guards a mess from others passing by).

This brings me to the point of this post:

What proportion of a dogs mess should the owner endeavour to pick up knowing they can’t meet a 100% target?

When I first considered this question I thought maybe 99% might be OK. Then I did some calculations.

Backing Up Using Windows 10 File History

Introduction

Since the introduction of Windows 10 version 1709, and acquiring a new backup drive, I have chosen to try backing up using Windows 10 File History. So far so good. I have used it to backup my data and to restore some..

I will describe how this tool is used from my point of view, but first I’ll give you my history regarding backing up.

Discussing Malicious Website URLs On Twitter

Introduction

I have recently come across an issue where good people wish to convey information about malicious websites to everyone. They’re doing very good work tying to keep us all safe and informed by discussing malicious website URLs (Universal Resource Locators), particularly on Twitter. Unfortunately Twitter creates a link in the text to anything looking like a URL. This means malicious websites that are mentioned by their URLs are given links allowing readers to accidentally go to them.

Removing Block Paving Moss From My Driveway

Introduction

I recently spent half a day removing block paving moss from my driveway. The paving, laid in 1993, has been cleaned more than once but moss soon grows under damp conditions.

Because the blocks have a chamfered edge there is a V shaped recess at the junction between blocks. This is a space where moss can grow, and boy does it grow. In this recess moss doesn’t get worn away by traffic (cars or feet).

Given a good wet period the moss swells in size until it sticks up above the blocks. Under those conditions it can become very slippery under foot giving me good reason to remove it.

You might ask why I’m only discussing moss and not regular weeds. That’s because I use weed killer during the spring and summer so I’m just left with moss in the autumn and winter. This is because regular weed killers are not effective against moss. Moss killer is effective at turning it black but at some point the dead moss needs removing.

I Found A Common Toad Hiding Behind My Shed

Introduction

During the 39 years I’ve lived at this house I have seen several frogs and toads passing through the garden. I was never able to say any actually lived here. Well now (6^th October 2017) I’ve found a Common Toad hiding behind my shed and living here.

Note: This Common Toad₁ is also known as a European Toad₁.

UK 13 Amp Plug and Mains Extension Cable Safety Issues

Introduction

The initial purpose of this post is to raise awareness of a UK 13 Amp Mains Extension Cable Safety Issue. I came across it by chance when I landed on the PlugSafe site. I’ve taken the liberty of reproducing their information below and enhancing their picture. Full credit to PlugSafe for making us all aware.

As a consequence of a comment on the initial post I have also included an issue with the safety of 13 Amp Mains Plugs too.

Unblocking A Blocked Toilet

Preface

This post describes: How to clear a blocked toilet and includes how to remove the trap water so it can safely be disconnected from the sewer without spilling anything.

As you can see I’ve censored the featured image for this post. I decided somethings are best left to the imagination. Imagine the water level is just below the level you can see and you will have the picture.

What Is A Retractable Clothes Washing Line?

Introduction

Consider the benefits of having a retractable clothes washing line:

Coiling it up in a box keeps it clean.
If you have a nice vista you won’t want it permanently scared with one or more lines cutting across it.

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My Latest News

6th October 2019: I have in the last few months worked through all my blog posts and pages and converted them from Classic Editing mode to Block Editing mode. While doing this I have found posts that had problems which I fixed. In particular with linked videos which were no longer working. I deleted one post amongst these. I may be tempted to delete more posts which are no longer relevant and just take up space on the server.

Along with the list of contents introduced to longer posts I have added a list of pictures too. I have been able to do this by giving the pictures their own headings. They could be interspersed with the contents but I am keeping them separate at the moment.

On some posts I have introduced a Preface to give a simple description of the post. This enables me to put the contents before the introduction.

The contents are compiled from all the headings in a post and underlined. These can be selected in the normal way in order to navigate straight to them. This should save a lot of scrolling for anyone who is referring to a post and its pictures to help them fix the item described.

NOTE: I have noticed that selecting a heading might not scroll all the way to it at the first attempt. Successive attempts during the same viewing get nearer. I hope to get this fixed in the course of time.

I have found that the reason the headings on small screens aren’t emboldened is because they aren’t set to use a bold font. On large screens there isn’t an issue because the headings look like headings anyway. However I use Jetpack to convert my blog for display on mobiles which displays headings as normal or bold according to how they are set. So I will be emboldening headings to give a better display on mobiles as and when i get around to it.

NOTE: I do expect most people to read my blog on a mobile phone these days. So I will try to keep it looking good for them.

3rd June 2019: I’ve had a go at making testimonials look better. The previous method was a mess so I’ve used the Kadence Testimonials block to produce a testimonials page with two neat columns which are now accessed from the Posts menu since they all originate via Post Comments.

1st June 2019: Continuing to edit using blocks I have changed to a Kadence FAQ block to display Frequently Asked Questions and their answers. I spotted a problem with the accordion block and Ben Ritner has very kindly edited the block to resolve it. There has been some editing of the Qs & As and you might find I mess with it some more.

I have also begun using the Contents Table block by Ultimate Addons for Gutenberg to show the contents of my posts. I am inserting this block after the Introduction. If I put it first, as it would be in a book, it causes some issues:

In my list of posts that is shown in reverse date order I only want the Introduction or part thereof to be seen. If I put the contents block first that will be seen. It will take up a lot of screen space and won’t be very interesting.
The contents block links to all the headings used in the post but that doesn’t work when it’s viewed in the list of post snippets described in 1 above.

Continue to My Latest News Archive.

Site Construction

The site helpfulcolin.com was originally built in September 2011 by Digitalog© now Wolf & Player using the Side Blog theme and handed over to Helpful Colin by his mentors in December 2011. It was changed to a ‘Twenty Fourteen’ child theme in February 2014 by Helpful Colin.

The theme was changed again in December 2015 when WordPress version 4.4 became active and Helpful Colin changed the theme to the ‘Twenty Sixteen’ theme which is designed to look good on all screen sizes. Although this may have improved the blog for mobile users it has removed some functionality available in ‘Twenty Fourteen’.

Helful Colin took on board Gutenberg at an early stage and has since converted all posts to use the block editing format. The current version of WP used at 30/09/2019 is 5.2.3. Jetpack is used to convert the Helpful Colin posts to display correctly on mobile devices.