sutton050

So, the move is over... So many little jobs have been completed, from wiring, changing switches and today plastering a wall from which the pink finish had crumbled (no idea why the prior owner left it to get in such a state, it only took an hour to strip, brush, seal with PVA and replaster... Which brings me onto the topic of today's post... An invention... Which mixes plaster... Yes, this would be a huge money maker, but there must be a reason it doesn't exist on the domestic market.... Now I'm pretty sure there will be a huge hundred grands worth of professional mixing machine somewhere, but I'm talking about the small job, a single wall or room in a home. What might this need?... Well, it needs some sensors for the mix, thickness/turbidity, water, weight, temperature even?  You pour the dry powder in some hopper, it's tested, you set the mix type (finishing or main coat etc) the water is maybe filled straight from a tap to the machine... and the computer does the...

A long time coming, here's another story from my days long past, this one takes me to my very first serious role in an IT department, I was however just the dogs body.  The company ran many old PC's (which I actually was around to see mostly be updated to nice Compaq Pentium III's) and they had a couple of high spec Silicon Graphics workstations in the design department. The main manufacturing control and purchasing system, as well as payroll and a bunch of other services ran on a dual 386 based mini computer, which had a custom cut of ScoUnix and a bunch of bespoke C programs comprising the actual system stack, this was accessed by a whole host or Gandalf multiplexers combining the serial connections down from a hundred or so Wyse brand terminals (I wish I'd have nabbed one of those before I left). Anyway, it was time for this back end stack to be updated, and so a pair of Compaq Proliant servers were brought in, these were dual Pentium III class with a dedicated stora...

Many moons ago, when my then boss knew I was the dogs danglies, I used to get sent to work at offices all over the world, and today I want to tell you the story of one of those journeys to and from the "office". I live and work out of Nottingham, and this one time I had to go work out of Casablanca for a week.  Now, for those of you not aware of this, I do not mean I went to work in a black and white film... Casablanca is a real place, a city in fact, in the North African country of Morocco, exotic... Maybe, if you like that thing. Anyway, I was in my early twenties and sent on this trip, I spoke broken GCSE French, and was handed a few thousand French Francs (yes it's that long ago, France still had a proper currency, with a history and everything). The journey began at an indecently early hour, a driver to take myself and a pair of cow-orkers to Heathrow, no big deal, though the driver had a tin of sweets which he was really really over proud of; he was also sceptical I...