Helpful Colin Presents A World of Information
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Rolling Resistance of Bicycle Tyres
For those who ride bicycles to work, the rolling resistance of bicycle tyres may be of interest. So check out Terry Morse’s web page.
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Flipping Heck It’s A SmartInversion
Revised On 24 December 2021 Introduction It’s an unusual flying object – this SmartInversion – that propels itself by flipping inside out. Created by engineers at Festo in Esslingen, Germany. It was originally reported in a New Scientist blog in April 2012 which is no longer online. I decided to investigate it further and found…
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Should You Worry About Your Bath Overflowing?
Introduction Bragging bath owner, “Me, worry about my bath overflowing? It’s got an overflow pipe. I shan’t worry.” Plumber, “Oh! Has it? Well I would still worry.” Why you DO NEED to worry about your bath overflowing? I know someone who has had a bad experience with a bath overflowing, but it wasn’t their bath…
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Goldfinches Feeding In My Garden
Introduction I can’t tell you how pleased I am to have goldfinches feeding in my garden regularly now I have erected a nyjer seed feeder. See this one in my feature image. A friend across the road has goldfinches feeding regularly but I never have. Why? They never had anything to feed on in my garden. So I…
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ns&i index linked bonds
I have seen a reference on citywire money to ns&i index linked bonds. One person – nodrog60 – has an issue with advice he was given over the phone by ns&i. As a result he thinks the interest on his investment will be a pittance. Amongst many others one person – ND – has been very…
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The Caernarfon Swing Bridge Across The Seiont
Introduction The Caernarfon Swing Bridge is found crossing the River Seiont adjacent to Caernarfon Castle. The town of Caernarfon is a beautiful clean Royal Town in the summer sun, sitting on the northwest coast of Wales just south of Anglesey. Unfortunately tidal rivers rarely look nice especially when the low tide exposes the mud. If you look carefully…
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Changing A Mains Isolation Switch Neon Indicator
Intoduction You may notice how the indicator light in your mains sockets and switches dims with time and wonder why. These lights are usually small neon bulbs which glow when a small alternating current of 1 or 2mA passes through them. These bulbs are filled with neon gas which glows red when a current passes through…
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Visiting Market Bosworth
Introduction Most of the pictures here were taken on our first visit to Market Bosworth in 2012. We have retuned several times since and will continue to do so because it is such a charming English town in the county of Leicestershire. You can see its relative location on the maps below, surrounded by Loughborough,…
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PHISHING SPAM ALERT! Purporting to come from Amazon. BEWARE!
Further to my tweets this is the detail of spam I received today. I have unlinked the links (and coloured them orange) so you can’t get caught out: Your order has been successfully canceled. For your reference, here’s a summary of your order: You just canceled order #132-138566-4336469 placed on February 3, 2012. Status: CANCELED _____________________________________________________________________…
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Winter Steam Gala 2012 At The Great Central Railway
Introduction It was a cold but brilliant sunny afternoon at the GCR Winter Steam Gala 2012 (on 28th Jan). I took lots of photos and videos. The event ran all day but I only arrived in the afternoon and here’s my platform ticket:
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Venus Transiting the Sun on 5th-6th June 2012
In the feature image you can see Venus transiting the sun on 8th June 2004 – the first transit since 1882. Venus Transiting the Sun on 5th-6th June 2012 won’t happen again until 2117. Remember not to look directly at the sun and focus the sun onto a white card with a telescope/lens. Unfortunately for us…
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The Faster-Than-Fast Fourier Transform
Improving The Fast Fourier Transform To Make It Faster-Than-Fast The Faster-Than-Fast Fourier Transform can replace the Fast Fourier Transform to save processing time when digitising an analogue signal. For a large range of practically useful cases, MIT researchers find a way to increase the speed of one of the most important algorithms in the information…
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iPad Survives Undamaged After Extreme Fall
Introduction It’s becoming quite popular to send cameras up to the edge of space for one reason or another. This is one of the latest which an iPad survives undamaged. See How An iPad Survives Undamaged After An Extreme Fall. NOTE: The article quotes, “….with the blackness of space and the bright curve of Earth providing a…
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Changing A Watch Battery In A Sekonda Quartz Watch
Introduction My wife’s wrist watch stopped working a few days ago. The problem was, of course, a flat battery. This led me to write about changing a watch battery using my wife’s watch as an example. I began by popping onto the Internet and ordering four, from JewelleryForAll on the Amazon Marketplace, @ 45p each…
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Using The Character Map Application In Windows
Accessing The Character Map Application It reminds me of an unusual dice when I see this icon. It has a beauty about it. What is it? It’s the icon representing the Character Map application in Windows 7, found on the Start Menu under Accessories > Ease of Access > System Tools. The Character Map application is stored…
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Wikipedia Protests by turning the English section OFF for 24 hours on 18th Jan 2012
Wikipedia Protests! What exactly is it doing? Wikipedia protests against SOPA and PIPA by blacking out the English Wikipedia for 24 hours, beginning at midnight January 18, Eastern Time. Readers who come to English Wikipedia during the blackout will not be able to read the encyclopedia: instead, they will see messages intended to raise awareness…
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How many times can you fold paper? How about 13?
Students Attempt To Fold Paper 13 Times Doesn’t paper folded enough times create a stack that reaches to the moon? Well it doesn’t here. However you would need a suitcase to carry it around if you wanted to protect yourself against being taken short. (It is toilet paper after all.) The students at St. Mark’s School…
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Changing Text Styles on Windows 7 Sticky Notes
Windows 7 comes with Post-it® style Sticky Notes which can be stuck all over the desk top. Although you can change the background colour from a context menu and format the text from within the application, using Ctrl+Shift+[various keys] as per the Microsoft Instructions, the text style and colour can’t be changed from within. However…
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A Little Bit of Banksy Does You Good
You can find a selection of work by Banksy over the years in this little celebration of his “War on London.”
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Mortgage lenders have moved the goal posts making it difficult for homeowners to move
It’s all here about these mortgage lenders on City Wire. Note the FTSE 100 went above the 5700 mark today but finished at 5697.
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Cleaning Mouldy Washing Machine Parts
Introduction Every two weeks I am reminded that I should be cleaning the washing machine filter and every four weeks I am reminded to attack any mouldy washing machine parts. Well today (Tuesday when the machine is not usually required) was the day for both. So you’re in for a full description.
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Excel Body Weight Templates To Record Your Weight
“Happy New Year! In 2012 I resolve to lose weight (again).” Well I resolved to lose weight every year since at least 2005 and some years I succeeded. One tool I require for this is a spreadsheet to accurately record of my weight. I use Excel for this and I’ve produced some Excel Body Weight Templates…
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Invisibility Cloak? Here’s A Man Really Wearing One
“Harry Potter, Predator – eat your hearts out.” Here’s a man wearing a real invisibility cloak. Can You See Chinese Artist Liu Bolin Hiding Inside His Invisibility Cloak In This Picture? Adopt the art of the Chinese Artist – Liu Bolin and you too could hide from the boss by wearing a real invisibility cloak.…
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A Counterfeit Microsoft DVD Crops Up Again
Another Counterfeit Microsoft DVD Remember how a few days ago I told you how I found I had a counterfeit Microsoft DVD. (See that post here). Well another one bought from another Amazon re-seller has proved to be counterfeit. It’s one I bought to install on the computers of a friend soon after I bought the first…
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They Monitor Mobile Phone Movements To Improve Customer Service
This was brought to light by APEX NEWS on 4th January 2012 as follows: One of the signs at the Princesshay shopping centre in Exeter informing shoppers that their mobile phones are being monitored. The popular shopping centre has been accused of using Big Brother tactics after it was revealed it was using stealth technology…
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Bonobo Chimp Lights Fire and Cooks On It
Bonobo Chimp Lights Fire! Kanzi a Bonobo chimp lights fire AND cooks on it! Isn’t it amazing what apes can do these days. I’d like to see a video. Click here to see still photos of Kanzi, the Bonobo chimp, on the Telegraph website. I particularly liked this comment on photo 10 “An old Congolese tribal legend…
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My Office Pro 2010 DVD’s Counterfeit
Introduction Well, after 13 years on the Internet it looks like I have eventually been stung. I just found my Office Pro 2010 DVD’s counterfeit after two years. It looked fine and installed well on two PC’s (the package declares it is suitable for three PC’s) and it was activated on those two PC’s in August 2010. It was purchased from…
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Stig of Bus Drivers In Saltburn-By-The-Sea
Stig of Bus Drivers Controls The X4 This must be the Stig of bus drivers getting his bus up this steep hill in one go without sliding all over the place. He did it in these snowy winter conditions on 9th November 2010. This is miraculous driving of the X4 service single deck bus shown here going up…
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iPods Magically Used In A TED Lecture
The Magic of Truth & Lies on iPods From Marco Tempest This video shows Marco Tempest conjuring with three iPods. He does it synchronised with the images on their screens to make it look as if those images move from one phone’s screen to another. Occasionally he introduces some real artefacts into the process so it…
