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newsBack from holiday in Brisbane
Have just got back from a week in Brisbane, capital city of the State of Queensland on the East Coast of Australia, visiting my daughter and partner.
Very humid in Brisbane. Here in Perth WA, it does also get hot, but tends to be a dry heat. Anyway, the trip was enjoyable.
They presented me with a pair of socks, a momento of Vincent:
I flew with Jetstar, a budget airline. Cheap tickets, but the
service did not fill me with confidence. One hour delay when
departing Perth, and a three hour delay on the return.
Return journey, boarded only 20 minutes late, but then it was a
comedy of errors, and we sat in the plane on the tarmac, while one
drama after another was enacted. I don't really want to go into
details. Suffice to say, I will probably look at paying more next
time, perhaps fly with Virgin Australia.
Tags: general
Merry Christmas December 2022
Hi guys, wishing you the best. Just to let you know that I have greatly appreciated the feedback and help with EasyOS development over the year and before.
I posted this photo on December 2020, still most appropriate for the weather here:
Here in Perth, Western Australia, it is mid-summer and so far no
heatwaves. Temperature has been getting up into the low 30's °C,
warmish but not too hot, and have made lots of trips to the
beach.
Tags: general
The best bicycle pump for high-pressure tyres
I own an electric bicycle, for which the recommended tyre
pressure is 65psi. Purchased a couple of years ago and used
occasionally to get around locally.
Maybe I'm getting weaker in my old age, but I find it a struggle to pump the tyres to 65psi with my floor pump. I get to 60psi and decide that's good enough.
The pump has a 45mm diameter tube. I don't know anything about bicycle pumps, but I reasoned that a pump with smaller diameter tube would be easier to pump to higher pressure. Less air per plunge, but less effort. I don't know what law of physics would apply, but that reasoning did seem rational.
So, looked around, and chose one with the smallest diameter tube. Bought this off ebay, with 29mm diameter tube:
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/223709304985
Here are the two pumps, showing clearly how much narrower is the tube of the new one:
But then hit a snag; the header, the part that goes onto the tyre valve, didn't work. It refused to pump air into the tyres. The tyres have schrader valves, same as car tyres, and the header is a multi-purpose type with a single hole that is supposed to also work with schrader valves.
Lifting the lever, that clamps the header onto the valve, seems to be also blocking air flow!
Bare in mind I know nothing about tyre pumps, headers, and so on. Was I somehow putting the header incorrectly onto the valve? Tried and tried, but no joy.
Anyway, decided to buy a header that has two holes, one of them dedicated to fit a schrader valve. Bought this:
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/144792618581
Very interesting, the lever works the opposite way to many other brands:
...and I find that to be preferable. It is an easier action to
pull the lever down toward the inlet tube.
So, put this new header onto the NIxeycle floor pump, and works great. And yes, very easy to pump to 65psi. In fact, effortlessly went to 70psi and released a bit of air.
Knowing what I now know, if I was in need of a floor pump, I
would buy one somewhat cheaper, such as this one with 32mm
diameter tube and with dual-hole header:
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/321413387296
The pump I now have works great, no need to buy anything else.
Just posting this info in case it helps someone else who might be
wanting to buy a bicycle pump.
Tags: general
Can you guess who this young lady is?
Post deleted.
Tags: general
Happy New Year
Western Australia remains covid-free, at least we tentatively think so. Not so on the other side of Australia. Despite outbreaks in NSW, Sydney managed to put on a New Year celebration, with a smaller crowd practising social distancing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67qEUh3F334
I would like to thank everyone who tested EasyOS in 2021 and
reported issues and in some cases provided fixes. I won't post a
list of names, in case I offend someone by missing out their
name!
Tags: general
Strawberry tree and Feijoa one year on
Spring is well and truly under way, Summer approaching --
officially, summer starts here in Australia on first day of December.
One year ago, I took a photo of newly-planted Irish Strawberry tree and
Feijoa:
https://bkhome.org/news/202010/garden-before-photos.html
They were dormant all through the winter, even though winters are
very mild here. The Feijoa even lost leaves. Now though, they have
rebounded:
Heaps of new growth on the Irish Strawberry tree, but the Feijoa is
recovering very slowly -- I wonder if it doesn't like the soil
conditions? The ground cover plants have done
well.
Tags: general
Various helpful feedback
I would like to thank Tom and Holden for information and links
about AMD CPUs. Currently not sure whether to invest in an AMD-based PC,
as I already have a collection of PCs and laptops. OK, they are all
Intel-based, but if I buy another one, it might just sit there unused,
or alternatively, the Lenovo PC that I bought in 2020 will sit unused --
which would be a shame. So shelving that one for now.
I will still attempt to get the 5.10.x kernel to be "AMD friendly", for those who want to run EasyOS on modern AMD hardware.
David W. sent me a link to an old chap who retired from a very active job when he was 102. Have appended to this post:
https://bkhome.org/news/202101/roly-86-and-brother-88-still-powering-on.html
Rick sent me some great dog photos, on the theme that dogs are better than humans. Here is one of them:
Tags: general
Christmas greetings everyone!
Another year has rolled by. Back in 2018 I posted a photo of Santa having difficulty delivering presents in Australia:
https://bkhome.org/news/201812/xmas-and-new-year-best-wishes.html
This year, Santa is taking some time-out on the beach:
Probably a good time to reflect on the meaning of life, and not just see it as presents, drinking and making merry.
Photo courtesy of the Youth Hostels Association of Australia:
Tags: general