Team Phoenix Rising Forums - Blogs http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/blog.php Rising from the ashes of former Teams, we have come together to create a mighty fine force... http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/forum.php en Sat, 19 May 2012 04:17:20 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/images/BlueSteel/misc/rss.jpg Team Phoenix Rising Forums - Blogs http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/blog.php Cars, cant live with them.... http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/entry.php?b=29 Mon, 07 May 2012 12:43:20 GMT I managed to get some tinkering time today, helped by the fact that the Espace was dead leaving no working people carrier at my disposal. Today the Espace needed a new auxilliary belt tensioner, the old one looks like it could be re-used as a last resort but as its not the original at 80,000... I managed to get some tinkering time today, helped by the fact that the Espace was dead leaving no working people carrier at my disposal.

Today the Espace needed a new auxilliary belt tensioner, the old one looks like it could be re-used as a last resort but as its not the original at 80,000 miles I guess its a regular repair item.
Having never done it before there was a lot of head scratching not only because I've never swapped a serpentine belt before but also because its not the easiest bit to get at being all down one side of the engine round six pullies/idlers that you cannot see.

Another thing was the belt routing and Yahoo was better than google for this

Renault forums need a thumbs up
Renault apparently get sniffy about any of their material being posted online.
I suppose it does deprive Renault of the opportunity to charge me hundreds of pounds to fix it but it was very useful to find a hand drawn guide online.
Now I know you need a 13mm socket on a 3/8 drive T-bar I'll be able to do a belt swap in a fraction of the time, if I ever have to.

One test drive later with the mandatory Italian rev check the belt stayed on, who knows if it will stay on.

Next up, in preparation for its MOT I found out why the Galaxy handbrake was sticking.
It wasnt the pads or the calipers or even the cable as I first suspected but the actuator arm on the back of the caliper, one side fixed in 45 minutes, the other in under 5.
The swapped gearbox seems to work in all the gears and doesnt leak so the swap appears to have been a success

I even managed to have a tinker with the SD1 carbs.It was running but very rough and the front carb was very relctant to come to the party.
It would run on all six with a spray of carb cleaner but the backfire that resulted was a threat to my eyebrows and saw off the exhaust backbox completely.
One carb is fully stripped and on my workbench in pots, I cannot rebuild it as the standard SU kits dont contain the extra gaskets for the FASD/Choke unit and these are history since they met up with some carb cleaner.
Some improvisation is required, they are probably just fuel tolerant O-Rings.
Its all part of the rebuild process.

:) ]]> MrTFWitt http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/entry.php?b=29 Coasteering in Cornwall http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/entry.php?b=28 Sat, 18 Jun 2011 13:15:58 GMT So, the reason why I've been quiet for a couple of days :lol:

Wednesday was attempting to clear work to make it less painful and possibly allowing for Thursday and Friday off work, or at the very least Friday on half burner so to speak. The reason, a corporate day out thanks to a client I do code work for. So the last time, the company Christmas event was surfing in December :cuckoo: which sounds horrendous but was truly great fun.

This event on last Thursday was Power Kiting followed by Coasteering. So the day started at 4:30am for me when the alarm went off, meeting in Reading for 5pm ro drive to Newquay for 9:30. Ouch, those who know me, know full well I'm not a morning person, but I made it to the meet point at bang on 5am, and Ruby (Freelander) even decided to give me a day of starting first time and no drained battery :tiphat:

So the events, PowerKiting. This is something I want to do again, but to the next level with buggies :) a 4m wide power kite really generates some pull and combine that with wheels rather than skidding on your heels on the sand just appeals in so many ways. The bruises I'd expect to receive, well those would be worth it :lol: Weather held out, just the one small shower that meant hiding in a cave, then back out.

Lunch was then a load of disposable bbq's on the beach with burgers steak and some salad for show ;)

Coasteering, wow - what an event this is. Basically going around a section of coast that has lots of interesting things happening with the water flow from the tides. We were at here famous for the Newquay reef that gives some really large swell, and although due to the weather we had to go around the sheltered side, the swell was still enough to give some real fun times. Now I don't like heights, odd for someone so tall, but it's not the height, it's the fear of falling. So jumping off a 10m high rock into the sea, at first thoughts something that doesn't really appeal. You're only here the once though, and how likely is it I'd ever be able to do it again? So jump away! I actually found the higher jump easier to control the entry into the water, making less of a splash, but I couldn't stand on the edge like the others were when being told how to do the jump. The less time I spent on the edge the better! Roughly, we were coasteering for 3hours I think, it started to seem like a very long time on thw swim back to the exit path.

The entire day was all arranged through Vertical Descents, and Sam the main man for our day was superb. Having done a couple of these types of days out, I was very impressed with how engaged Sam and all the Vertical Descents people were. I'm useless with names, but by about 11am after knowing the group of us (12) they could all call us by first name, which is one of those touches that just makes you feel completely at ease, even when miles out of your comfort zone.

I'm really looking forward to the pictures and videos. Sam has 200+ photos and there is a massive video set of the coasteering event. There are some on the site, http://www.verticaldescents.com/vert...l/coasteering/ and http://www.verticaldescents.com/vert.../power-kiting/ were the two events we had for the day.

Being of fair skin, even though everywhere else in the country was raining, we had enough sunshine to get rather "red-tanned" ;) I'm glad I drank so much water at the lunch time and during the journey, I was really caught out, that may be visible on the photos when they arrive.

A thoroughly enjoyed experience, the people were great, it was a fantastic treat from the company for me to go along with them and I would really recommend Vertical Descents as much as possible. As they were aware of the driving efforts we put in to do Newquay and back in a day, they've even offered to do Coasteering closer to home, so we both travel a little. A really accomodating set of people and even outside of my comfort zone of a pc, keyboard and monitor I felt at ease and never once pushed to doing anything. A great day all in all, although I think it's going to take a while to fully recover all the muscles aches!!

Some pictures taken on my phone to show the luck we had with the Sun; http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/album.php?albumid=21
Youtube video to show the wind and swell;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR-EO3RnUNs

DT. ]]> DoubleTop http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/entry.php?b=28 <![CDATA[New Tech ? I'll take old skool thanks]]> http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/entry.php?b=27 Tue, 31 May 2011 21:35:21 GMT I've been keeping some local builders employed recently making some changes to TFW towers.
A significant part of this work was a loft conversion, a very dusty and invasive thing to happen if you want to live in the house while its being done.

One neglected part of a loft conversion is the fact you lose the space where you store all the stuff you dont need or want to have around the house cluttering things up.
So the end result was the rest of the house looked like it had been carpet bombed by christmas decorations and forgotten electrical goods.

One of the dusty items was a Pioneer stereophonic radiogram thats about 20 years old.
I had a natural scepticism about whether it would work or not especially since the PS3 died without making a quarter of that target, however work it did and I re-discovered a feature which I think beats any sort of magic shuffle play list without any real contest.

You take an old school radiogram, press the radio button and somebody somewhere is tasked with playing music and making light banter between music for the sole purpose of your entertainment.

I meant to post this last week, before I read Richard Hammonds article on the exact same subject in TopGear (although his experience was centred around a LandRover that had a wonky radio)

So you can keep your Ipods and dodgy downloads (yes you do, you all have songs on your MP3 players you didnt buy) I'll take a human being with a box of CD's stuck in a darkened room to entertain me. ]]> MrTFWitt http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/entry.php?b=27 Chain reaction decorating http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/entry.php?b=26 Sun, 22 May 2011 11:25:24 GMT Have my sister and her partner staying with me soon whilst they look for a new flat locally. They are staying in my mother's old bedroom and it is badly in need of decorating.

Started to remove the paper that my dad decided would look nice on the ceiling, only to find the plaster and underlying mortar starting to come away from the ceiling as I gently removed it. Got most of it down now and have patched up 4 of the 5 holes created. It's that really horrid black mortar that they used in the 1930s. :(

The ceiling paper was over lapping the wall paper so I started to remove this only to find the paper around the window lintel was pulling the plaster away from the top battens. It turns out that it was only the wallpaper that was keeping it all in place!! I wondered why the wall sounded hollow when I tapped it.:D

Finally removed all the loose plaster and some cr@ppy sealant that the windows fitters used when they put the windows in with in the '80s. What a mess!! More plaster board and finishing plaster required before I can even consider scraping the wall, filling in the numerous small cracks and then finally painting and papering.

It keeps me busy at least and is a break from the job hunting..... ]]> Droid http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/entry.php?b=26 Two weeks into the new job and counting... http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/entry.php?b=22 Sat, 25 Sep 2010 08:17:45 GMT As it says, been doing the new job for two weeks as an on-site computer/printer/fax/whatever fixer-upper and supplies refiller type person. The job is challenging with the very short SLAs, but I'm getting there slowly.... err, well quite quickly actually :D.

They're a great bunch of guys on site and are really helpful, which is always a blessing in a new job. Learnt a lot about printers in the past week that I didn't know before and can get toner ground into my skin with the best of them now. :chuckle: ]]> Droid http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/entry.php?b=22 Why Slug? http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/entry.php?b=21 Sun, 19 Sep 2010 15:21:10 GMT No big secret I use a wheelchair - indoors at least. Multiple stroke survivor.

I got way passed being bothered about all the crap associated with that a long time ago :)

Thing is, I live in one of the hilliest cities in the uk, so where we're at the wheels are just impractical. So I don't get out that much. Not a prob. Small, but bright airy sunshine house.

But even 'er 'indoors calls me Wheelie. However, all my life I've loved rain, storms and snow. Well into 'bushcraft'. My ex wife (some 25 years ago now) called me Slug (see! -ex!) because I'd wander off into the Peak District in bad weather. For days.

Nowt changes. So now I'm 'wheelieslug'. Now you know :)

~~~~~

Oldest child picks up his keys for his first place tomorrow. For that, read, his mother will.

"Not got much to move Dad" Yeah, right. I pointed out his various computers, lappy, paperwork (oh, my, the paperwork) Wires. Lot's and lots of wires. The bed. Desks, bedding, a few hundred "Don't Phase Me Bro'", "I'm Special I Am" T-Shirts, and a few tons of chocolate.

I said "Skip".

He said, "errrr - a bit at a time ?" He went to Blackpool for the day. It isn't what I meant when I said Skip. ]]> wheelieslug http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/entry.php?b=21 It stopped raining, must be aliens http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/entry.php?b=20 Wed, 15 Sep 2010 18:30:52 GMT Recently, I have been a frequent flyer across the second Severn bridge as part of a regular commute. The bridge, whilst not quite on the Millau end of bridge design is still a striking landmark. Having travelled back and forth about twenty times I spotted an odd fact considering its proximity... Recently, I have been a frequent flyer across the second Severn bridge as part of a regular commute.

The bridge, whilst not quite on the Millau end of bridge design is still a striking landmark.
Having travelled back and forth about twenty times I spotted an odd fact considering its proximity to Wales.

Its never raining on the bridge

To back this up, pop off to google image search and plonk in "second severn crossing" to be greeted with an array of sunny pictures.


The moment you get over the hill from the toll, out of sight of the bridge, its windscreen wiper time, J24 of the M4 is usually moist, by J40 you are on the doorstep of the unoffical Olympic formation aquaplaning team.
Almost as though the bridge itself is a weather generator, actually holding all the rain it can in Wales.

Now perhaps this is a secret ploy by the Welsh, sunshine to put you in a happy mood when you stump up at the toll bridge.

But it was built by an English company according to Wiki-pedia, McAlpine.
If they new how to build a weather control bridge every bridge in London would have been replaced and there would be an end to hose pipe bans in the south east of England.

So the Severn bridge was tampered with by aliens.
Aliens that like to keep the south coast nice and dry.
I'm sure you could, as a short crinkly alien drive around Christchurch and Bournemouth in a Nissan micra completely un-noticed.
Its the only logical explanation. ]]> MrTFWitt http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/entry.php?b=20 New job starts tomorrow :) http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/entry.php?b=19 Sun, 12 Sep 2010 19:47:21 GMT As it says, start the new job tomorrow in Bristol......by going to Cardiff to do a mobo or similar swap out :chuckle:. Well you know what it's like :). ]]> Droid http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/entry.php?b=19 <![CDATA[Hold on a minute, I'm on the Blog]]> http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/entry.php?b=18 Thu, 09 Sep 2010 18:15:18 GMT TAP TAP TAP!

Is this thing switched on ?

I think I'll have to jump aboard the blogwagon as well.


Now then, to conjure up something for a blog entry, preferably without Cut-N-Paste and all the trouble that causes, especially if you have a spot of dyslexia when typing that in some chat-rooms.

:chin:

Jobs, now there is a topic to discuss.
More specifically the hoops held up high by recruiters and agencies before you even get an interview.

I'm heartily bored of agencies saying
"I'll send you the job spec so you can review your CV to highlight any relevant skills you may have missed out"
What they actually mean is for you to re-write it as an exact match to the supposedly secret client requirements.

Another source of entertainment is the occasional call generated by an old copy of my CV out in the wilderness of the internet.
One version lists my French O level and creates a match with "Fluent French" or "Lives in France".
I like these calls and humour them for a bit before saying it was a long time ago and the only French I remember is "J'ai une preservative"

Sometimes though, the selection hoops seem to be cast very wide.
I was asked today if I was interested in a SAP developers role.
I'm not as I have never worked on a SAP system and never sent out a CV with it on either despite the invites to fictionalise my CV.
One thing every copy of my CV has on it though is my address and no part of my address matched the other requirement to fill this SAP position "Must live in Finland".

So thats another one to win a free place in my junk mail filter.



After pondering on all of this for a while it dawned on me there could be a benefit here if they are simply keyword searching.

All I have to do to land the best job in the world is pick the right colour and I can eliminate a couple of colours already

- Black, nope, done ages ago
- White, not a hope there
- Red, too much of a hint to Ferrari involvement
- Blue, thats the one I reckon.

So under "Car owner with Full clean UK Licence" I will put

Has own blue Simpson Diamondback helmet and matching fireproof racing suit.
After all they might go looking for a rubbish Stig this time around! ]]> MrTFWitt http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/entry.php?b=18 Change of job due soon.... http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/entry.php?b=17 Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:19:34 GMT My 5-week contract that extended into 4 months in Swansea is coming to an end soon as I hopefully will have a job closer to home soon. Watch this space for details....:xfinger: My 5-week contract that extended into 4 months in Swansea is coming to an end soon as I hopefully will have a job closer to home soon. Watch this space for details....:xfinger: ]]> Droid http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/entry.php?b=17 Busy, Busy, Er.... http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/entry.php?b=16 Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:40:36 GMT As I've posted in "What Cheered me up Today", Got to hold my first granddaughter for the first time. I'd forgotten how tiny they can be!

Sheffield likes to pride itself as 'The UK's biggest Village'.

I hadn't realised just how much until my daughter and babs were allowed home from hospital after a couple of weeks (because babs was 6 weeks premature)

First thing she did was visit us. She lives 5 mins away. Within ten mins, I had a houseful of lady's all going gaga, coo'ing and aaahhing, and 'lets look at her little feet" ! Word doesn't half get around fast.

What is it with the feet?

Meanwhile my lad is on the threshold of getting his own place, thanks to his mum bugging a local forum. Not something I would have thought of. She asked for any landlords to reply, and got some. So on Monday, he's off to view a place.

There was a bit of a worry about the 'bond' and 'months rent in advance' but it seems more and more landlords are fed up of the extra charges levied by agencies putting prospective tenants off. So they check out local forums. This chap, Mahmood, said, "meh, we'll work something out".

It's going to weird having just Bear, Tots and I around.

But there's a BIG plus. I get his room. The Office I've always wanted. Cabled up. Extra sockets. Book shelves. Oh my, book shelves. ]]> wheelieslug http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/entry.php?b=16 <![CDATA[I thought I'd give this a bash...]]> http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/entry.php?b=15 Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:09:52 GMT I'd give one of these blog thingys a go on here (rather than post all my babble on my airsoft blog!).

Expect some cycling related rubbish to appear soon! I've recently purchased some clipless pedals (well stupid name as you do clip into them!) and cycling shoes so I expect I'll be falling off my bike for the next few days as I get used to them. Probably in traffic which will be fun getting used to!

On a more techie note, my new room only has two plugs and I've had to go out and get myself a new surge protected extension/multiple socket lead. I've once again gone for the excellent Belkin Surgemaster and was shocked to find them for£15 on Play (link) for the 8 socket version! I'm sure when I bought my 4 socket one years ago, I paid £30+ for it!
Hopefully 8 sockets should see me through for a while (2 x screens, PC, Speakers, USB hard drive, printer/scanner) so I'm already approaching it's maximum capacity!! ]]> drezha http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/entry.php?b=15 Mean Machine... http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/entry.php?b=14 Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:00:56 GMT I'm not much of an eater, but, heck, do I love to cook.

One thing I was always a disaster at was bread making. Jams. pickles, chutney's. Ohh yeh.

But bread. Y'could build a house from them. So I swallowed my pride and bought a bread machine early this year. Best 70 quid I've ever spent. Even better, it has a cake AND a dough settings, so I can make rolls, french bread, platts, rye bread corn bread....

All turn out absolutely purrrfect, and it's so easy. Only disaster I've had is a packet of supermarket ready mix for break makers. Back to basics then :)

Simple breadmaker recipe. American recipe's tend to use 'cups'. A cup is about 8 oz, or 227 grams.

As I use an old fashioned brass weight scale, I use ounces.

Medium White Loaf.

14 oz (397 g, 1¾ cups) Strong white flour. I'll not go into the science, but it's has to be Strong White.

1 teaspoon fast active dried yeast
1 teaspoon Salt. I use Sea salt, and blow the healthy eaters low salt avoidance. It won't work without it. Bread needs Gluten for the correct rising and texture, and and salt aids that.

Half to one ounce of butter, or alternatively, 3 tablespoons of Olive or Sunflower oil.
1 teaspoon of sugar. Or if you're American.... up to 9 (eek!)

300 ml (1 ½ cups ) of water.

In my bread maker, it's in this order for it to work well. Yeast, Flour, butter, sugar, salt, water. You can use milk, but the loaves seem to stale quicker.

Most bread makers have a maximum weight limit. But within that limit you can add chillies, tobasco, banana's, oats, herbs, egg, substitute water for beer, spices, you name it.

And the smell is heavenly. ]]> wheelieslug http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/entry.php?b=14 Crikey! http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/entry.php?b=13 Sat, 21 Aug 2010 10:26:32 GMT Eldest daughter went into labour this morning. Her first.

Much frantic phone calls (she only lives 3 mins away) from 0624, neighbours being knocked out of bed for a lift to the hospital. All very messy and "Dean, old chap, you don't need a coffee before you go with her, and the no, the dog doesn't need a walk first...."

Poor chap looked like a frightened rabbit, I noted with grim amusement. Lord only knows what I must have looked like when The Bear handed me the phone, after Daughter described her symptoms.

"Here, talk to y'dad, he's got more experience in this stuff" Which is true, oddly enough. Partly because ours have all been by planned caesarian, and partly because, for some odd reason, I was often invited "to be there" by popular request in a previous life - which was not in the least bit medical.

Anyways, young Miss Charlie seems well on her way, a bit early at 34 weeks, and Daughter is at the time of writing 8cm dilated, and they (and Dean) are in good hands.

Bear has somehow managed to run around like a headless chicken in a straight line hotfoot to be at the bedside (and Dean), on the 45 minute bus ride to the hospital.

She's going to have to get a move on, I suspect :)

So it's just Tot's, me, and Sigma The Dog. Peace descends once again on Wheelie Manor.

Well it will, when I've found where The Bear has hidden my rather large bottle of 25 year old Glenfiddich Single Malt Granddad's Privilege. ]]> wheelieslug http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/entry.php?b=13 <![CDATA[It's been a while, time to build a new machine :)]]> http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/entry.php?b=12 Fri, 20 Aug 2010 11:41:02 GMT Well, thanks to many reason I won £100 to spend at www.aria.co.uk for introducing new members to the forums :D That helps massively with the yearly server fees. So what am I spending it on? Michael has had a socket754 2800 machine with a 6800utlra agp for a while, recently I added a... Well, thanks to many reason I won £100 to spend at www.aria.co.uk for introducing new members to the forums :D That helps massively with the yearly server fees.

So what am I spending it on? Michael has had a socket754 2800 machine with a 6800utlra agp for a while, recently I added a Kingston64Gb SSD and that gave it a new lease of life. Unfortunately for me, they've been out and brought some new games and they are a bit slideshow like on that machine, and I've had to nab the GFX out of Daniels machine as my GT260 is RMA'd :(

The socket 754 is an Asus Vintage barebones, a really nice little case, so micro-atx needed to replace the board, so I've gone with one of these I have a E2160 chip taken from a Dell £99 Poweredge SC440 that I put my Q6600 in, and a stock Q6600 cooler to use. Ram, well he's had 2Gb with his install of windows7 and all is good, so although the board can take 4Gb I've stuck with 2x1Gb of Kingston, currently on SuperSpecials so I guess it's close to cost or less than cost :)

Onto the graphics cards, well it's a small box and doesn't need huge amounts of power and the cost of the 9000 series Nvidia cards is just shockingly low at the moment, once again taking advantage of the Aria super specials, Michaels machine will get a 9500 1Gb card, I've also tagged onto my order a card for me so that Daniel can have his 9600GT Green edition back. My card will be pretty much a stop gap whilst awaiting RMA and once my 260 returns this card will be in a dedicated machine for Folding@Home.

Monday we are off out to Portsmouth Docks to finish (hopefully) looking around the various attractions, we went earlier in the year and couldn't do it all in one day! So, Saturday delivery hit the credit card to the tune of an extra few pounds even though I could have had it delivered to an office I know would be open and able to collect the delivery on Monday. For the extra, the thought of having all the machines working when the weather isn't going to be that great was worthy of the extra. So, we'll see how www.aria.co.uk deliver tomorrow, if CityLink do manage to find my house which they have failed to do in the past :sigh:

Updates coming soon, Michael doesn't know I've spent the prize on him yet, I treat my kids ..... There was a time this would have gone on a single GPU card for Folding to catch Step2000 in points!!

DT. ]]> DoubleTop http://www.teamphoenixrising.net/entry.php?b=12