Balcony Project Week 3

This "weeks" progress has been concerned with the finer details in the steels. especially the staircase. The tricky piece has been to ensure that there is sufficient head clearance at the lower end of the staircase to satisfy building regs. Keeping within the outline of the balcony has forced some rework to use a double turn staircase.

Next

Also arriving this week were some samples for the decking and support materials. In order to have better durability we have chosen to use plastic lumber for the decking substructure from Envirobuild.

This new material is made from recycled plastic waste and can be worked with wood working tools and methods. Having got some 3M samples of 3*1 the feel of the lumber does seem to be a bit different than wood possibly not having quite the same torsional rigidity. This will be fine for the decking support but not sure would work for the main support joists.

Looking further on to the finishing touches we are considering an illuminated handrail which will certainly add some glamour and price.  Something like this picture.

Balcony Project Week 2

Whilst it may have been more than 7 days since the last weekly update, there has been a bank holiday in the way. However progress has been made. After a visit of the local council building control inspector the holes are now about a foot deeper down to below the level of the drains.

Forward progress this week has been filling the holes with concrete and measuring/marking the back wall ready for the steel support pads to be inserted. Today Max from local firm WM Ironwork visited to do the measurements for the structural steels.

Next

The colour decisions have been made “dark grey pearl” for the support leg collars and front edge facing covers. This will blend with the “stone” decking, white under roof and RSJ pillars.

Things may go quiet for a while whilst the steels are cut and shaped to plan. The tricky bit of the steels is the staircase that has to be specificity customised for the hight/travel.

Design conundrum

What we have seen since the dig has progressed is the level of rot in the support pillars. Two out of the five front pillars at the front two show significant rot at ground level that goes some what to explain the sagging of the existing structure.

The existing 2008 built structure is wood and showing the impact of age, water and poor designs.  The original support should have been built on top of a water proof support similar to this diagram....



Also the joists are showing the start of rain exposure damage caused by external exposure and run through.


The new structure is to have a waterproof under decking laid on top of the joists preventing such damage in the futures. However the conundrum is do we use joists made of recycled plastic or traditional wood. Liking the idea of supporting the alternative wood materials industry but they do cost three times as much per metre.

After some thought we are likely to go for the composite decking with plastic lumber under support as this will be the rain impacted area.

Balcony project Week 1

We broke ground today on the project to replace the balcony at the back of the house.
It’s just a start for now, we have the holes dug that will hold the supports for the new structure. The electrics have been moved and a tonne or two of gravel removed.
Currently there are 10 posts holding up the deck, the new structure will have just three, opening up the under deck space for other uses. The other key feature of the new balcony deck will be managing rain water creating a dry space for over winter storage of outdoor chairs tables etc.

Original Structure and project ideas can be seen here 

Good start but a long way to go. Next

BMW Announce recall for high performance John Cooper Works (JCW) Minis

Important - Vechicle Safety Recall

Action Required

BMW have announced today a new safety recall of John Cooper Works high-performance MINIs. The details of this recall are presented in this letter but please check with your local BMW dealership for further information. Models impacted are MINI R51.. R60 and F54 & F56 with JCW modified engines.

As part of ongoing quality analysis at BMW mini it has been determined that excessive travel of the accelerator pedal in these cars can result in high and sustained vehicle speed. As part of the safety recall JCW mini's will be also be adjusted to comply with the new EU rules and directives due to come into force in 2020.

As part of the recall process the following works will be undertaken:

* Areo devices and spoilers will be reversed to create upforce.
* Anti-lock brakes (ABS systems) will be adjusted to become always-lock brakes (ALB).
* All-4 Drive systems will be reconfigured to power one wheel at a time.
* Tyres are to be resized to ratios 80 profile and above.
* Navigation systems will be updated to "shout like your mother" if the current speed limit is exceeded.
* Vehicle suspension struts and shock absorbers will be un-slammed to ensure wheel arch clearance is enough for an EU bureaucrats head.

During the recall.

Cars that are subject to this recall should be taken to the nearest BMW dealership as soon as possible. To avoid disappointment with small underpowered micro hatch cars, replacement vehicles will not be provided. Instead an "Uber golden ride multi tickets" will be issued to each customer. These tickets are of course valid in all three of the major UK cities.

The vehicle rework time is unknown so please be prepared to be without your vehicle for an extended period of time. Rest assured the vehicle will be washed and hoovered before its return.

Thank you for your understanding during this vital safety recall program.

Richard Pricey
Aftersales Director

: Not for for public release before 1st April 2019


----------------

Feast your eyes on this R60 JCW All-4 Countryman

Filevault Decryption stuck - blocking upgrades Mac OSX - Remedy re-image

Had a problem with a MacBook Air running High Sierra that got stuck decrypting FileVault.

Backstory  

FileVault was being used on an existing machine that had been passed along to a family member. The machine worked fine but occasionally would ask for a older user account to unlock the system when being rebooted.  Machine owner wanted to add a partner as another user account to the machine. This was done but it was found that the owner user had to the the one to unlock the system after a reboot or restart.  Decided to remove Filevault as this was a known cause of the single account to unlock syndrome.  Set system to remove encryption and handed back. Both accounts could now be used to unlock the system. This was not the end of the story as the system came back after getting stuck on an  OS upgrade. A number of related symptoms were seen.

Symptoms

1) Upgrade fails

After a couple of weeks when the MacBook was brought over the to house for a TimeMachine backup to the the Time capsule on the network at the house it was noticed that an upgrade was waiting to install.  When trying the upgrade the message "macOS could not be installed on your computer" and  "Unable to install to "Macintosh HD" Because it is currently encrypting data." "Quit the installer to restart your computer and start again."

  

2) Filevault Decryption progress bar bounces around as per this video.

3) fdsetup gives variable results ...

From Terminal output

House-MacBook-Air-2:~$ sudo fdesetup status 

Password:

FileVault is Off.

House-MacBook-Air-2:~$ sudo fdesetup status 

FileVault is Off.

Decryption in progress: Percent completed = 20.23

House-MacBook-Air-2:~$ 

Even after leaving machine switched on and set to not sleep the percent complete does not move.  Does not even make progress when system is awake and at the login screen, with no-one logged in the background.

4) diskutil says decryption is needed

Last login: Mon Jan 21 00:30:50 on ttys000

House-MacBook-Air-2:~$ diskutil cs list

CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)

|

+-- Logical Volume Group 2Cxxxxxx3-AA11-48A1-B90A-756xxxxxxF39

    =========================================================

    Name:         Macintosh HD

    Status:       Online

    Size:         250140434432 B (250.1 GB)

    Free Space:   18882560 B (18.9 MB)

    |

    +-< Physical Volume Dxxxxxx1A-1061-4343-8E2C-D8AxxxxxxD78

    |   ----------------------------------------------------

    |   Index:    0

    |   Disk:     disk0s2

    |   Status:   Online

    |   Size:     250140434432 B (250.1 GB)

    |

    +-> Logical Volume Family 1xxxxxxE-4477-4DC4-801F-80xxxxxxFB50

        ----------------------------------------------------------

        Encryption Type:         AES-XTS

        Encryption Status:       Unlocked

        Conversion Status:       Converting (backward)

        Reversion State:         Reverting

        High Level Queries:      Not Fully Secure

        |                        Has Visible Users

        |                        Has Volume Key

        |

        +-> Logical Volume 1xxxxxxD-B8AE-4390-93B0-E93xxxxxx13

            ---------------------------------------------------

            Disk:                  disk1

            Status:                Online

            Size (Total):          249769230336 B (249.8 GB)

            Conversion Progress:   Failed

            Revertible:            Yes (unlock and decryption required)

            LV Name:               Macintosh HD

            Volume Name:           Macintosh HD

            Content Hint:          Apple_HFS

Remedy

Despite a few reboots and leaving switched on for long periods both logged in and log out the decryption did not progress or resolve itself.  A hunt round the forums found a few others that had similar problems that had not been resolved.

The only feasible solution I found was to re-image the machine using the most excellent Time Machine.  

1. Attach an empty external hard drive of larger capacity than the mac.
2. Add the new drive as an extra Time machine drive.
3. Wait until the back up competes to the new drive
4. Check to ensure that the new backup is of the same size as the contents of the mac
5. Unplug the backup drive
6. Reboot machine holding  R to enter the recover console.
7. Use disk utility to erase the main drive.
8. Use "Recover from Time Machine backup" to restore the system. Noting but ignoring the warning about using encrypted data to restore an unencrypted drive.
9. Restart machine once recovery is complete.
10. Complete the OS upgrade from the AppStore.
11. Remove the extra drive from the TimeMachine backup configuration
12. Switch on Filevault again ( optional )

Sorry I could not find some fancy hack to free up the decryption just grateful that TimeMachine could  save the day ( again).

BBC Pointless - Four things wrong with this show.

A couple of years ago I posted these three things that are just wrong with Pointless the popular BBC TV quiz program....just adding a new one.

1) The host Alexander often goes on about how many jackpots have been won latetly as though it makes difference to the cost of running the game. Each day another £1000 is added regardless, it matters only to the contestants if the jackpot is won or not. Alexander has not done this recently (2018).

2) The mark on the descending column is at the 63/100 level and yet is half way down and should be at 50. That's just wrong.

3) In the head to head round the winner is the team with the most points. To keep with the rest of the show the team with the least points should win. Each team should start with two blobs and loose one when a round is won. The first team to lose both blobs wins the round.

4) Can't see the size of the Pointless trophy from the clips shown.

** update ** 

The trophy is quite small

5) A fairer prize distribution would be for the final round contests to get prize fund / N where N is the lowest score from the three answers given. If finalists get a pointless answer then Prize fund/0 gives them twice the jackpot, 1 point gives them the whole jackpot. If say 5 is the lowest score then prise/5 is given.

See this handy round up of Inside Pointless information.

Broken washing machine Hotpoint BHWD129

Hotpoint BHWD129 Broken drum bearing 

We have had good service from this washing machine for about 6 years. After an incident of probable overloading a funny clanking noise was heard which sounded like a broken drum bearing. After a quick disassembly this was shown to the the cause.  The inner drum bearing has failed allowing the drum to wobble inside the plastic casing. This is a terminal fault as the drum is welded closed and cannot be dissembled.

I had forgotten how much fun it is taking stuff apart to investigate faults. The disassembly mission here was to make the machine easier to recycle and better still sell any useful looking parts on Ebay to recover the machine replacement costs.  Once up the dump, having separated the metal, concrete and electronic each was put in the correct bin. Turn out the "correct bin" is all the same bin were washing machines and parts are recycled. 

So far made £60 (-fees) selling the Door, Hinges, and switch & control panels.

Other interesting parts found inside the machine and listed on ebay.

Springs and dampers

Rubber ducting and ball valve

Waste water pump

Dryer fan and assembly

Main drum motor

Main control board

Switch panel

Inlet control things

Euro Rant found in a message

I was sent a Euro bashing opinion piece in a message - I do know who sent it but I don't know it's origin. Just looking to see if it is fact based or rhetoric.

The overall passage reads like a speech or lecture with paragraphs starting with But, And, So "I think not" , Now and Also. The article looks like an extract from a longer set of lectures as it starts right out with three assumptions taken as fact.  Writing what you speak does not necessarily become wrong but often becomes less convincing when taken out of it's broader context.

In the text content there are lots of opinions, incorrect assertions,  co-joining of fact with unsupported allegation, statements of policy without examples and inflammatory rhetoric.  Plenty of use of "They" without definition of who they are. The piece also (strangely) praises a core achievement of the EU.

Overall quite a poor piece of anti-eu rhetoric that says in essence the "See how I say that EU is like the USSR. It therefore must be bad." Very similar (unsubstantiated) arguments about poor tiered governments could be made about the USA state and federal levels but would be no more valid.  The historical development of USSR, EU & USA multilevel governments all come from different contexts and have different democratic checks and balances.

> "It controls without any possibility of opposition by representation of the people."

The author seem unaware of the EU parliament and it's oversight and scrutiny role. The poor performance of this institution in many of it's budgetary and representative duties does however explain some level of discontent with the EU.  Partly explained by this quote From 2014  "Only one in 10 UK voters say they can name a member of the European parliament in their region, and even fewer have ever contacted one".  The worsening voter turn out leading directly to poor accountability.

The complexity and decades taken to build multi-tiered governments precludes a single malevolent mind. The USSR and unmentioned China, with their expansionist policies, came about from the brutality of the post WWII dictators Stalin & Mao continued on by an un-accountable elites. Those governments in no way compare to the EU that was built from democratic governments cooperating and trying to build the world into a better place. To assert that an elite can take power unwillingly from elected representative parliaments is no better than ranting against the illuminati.

The Cato Institute has a much better considered EU critique from 2016.

For me this cartoon sums up Brexit.....

If only the EU had done more things like abolishing mobile phone roaming charges across the EU and not taken decades to act on structural problems such as the :

• Decimation of fisheries by dumping of "out of quota" fish  
• Slowness to reform the CAP spending money to subsidise wine, cheese and milk over production
• Greece budget. 

 The size of the EU budget and how member states spend that money, inevitably leads to accusations of wastage and "pork barreling"

I do feel conflicted, the more you look to see how the EU operates and fails to resolve problems the worse the EU becomes but casting ourselves out of the club on unresolved term is probable madness. Thinking that leaving the EU will engender positive change, as opposed to working to improve the club from the inside, is futile and classic lazy political thinking. 

========= The Text ( it's a bit shallow and unsubstantiated )  ==========

"Worth a read: Over the last couple of days, you have heard me say talk of The European Union.

I have spoken about how it came into existence, without the consent of the people it would govern, through the direct actions of the governments and by using trickery and manipulation to overcome resistance. I have described how it is not the democratic institution it purports to be, being analogous to the Soviet system of governance, with rule by a politburo. How the only democracy allowed is also analogous to the Soviet, being a Parliament that only exists to draft legislation to enact the political decisions of the Politburo and being incapable of its own decisions. And I have outlined how, just like the Soviet model, it is based on centralised governance and will brook no dissent from its constituent Republics.
I would just like to conclude my critical analysis of the European hegemony by considering why The European Union exists, why it was necessary as seen in some quarters and what it ultimately hopes to become. In the aftermath of World War Two, Europe was comprised of many nations, each of which was struggling to deal with the legacy of the economic impact of that conflict. Also too, many nations had defaulted back to a Left-Wing ideology, politics of the Right and Nationalism having, at that time, something of a taint. This led to a series of Left-Wing governments in European nations that were at best Socialist and stretching right across to Communism.
As time passed and economies stabilised it was seen among the governments of the nations of Europe that disparity between trade regulations and customs duty hindered the effective marketing of goods across national boundaries.
Thus was the Treaty of Rome established in 1957, creating the European Economic Community, sometimes colloquially called The Common Market. It established a free-trade area right across the signatory states that removed customs duties and established regulatory parity. The effect was to treat the aggregate area of the signatory states as though it was one large domestic market. This was very useful from the point of economic growth.
But there was one other issue that was playing on the minds of two of the largest nations in Europe. France and Germany had a run of almost continual progressive Socialist governments since the war, moving towards ever deeper Socialism.
But as the leaders of these nations looked out across Europe they noticed an unsettling issue. Other nations in Europe periodically chose to elect governments of the centre-Right, whose policies would then undo the progressive Socialism of the previous administration.
They wondered if there was some way that Socialism could be locked, if there was some way the tendency of centre-Right governments to roll back their progressive policies could be mitigated. Thus the idea of a political union was born, an overarching tier of supranational government that could support socialist governments in individual nations and override centre-Right governments when they tried to apply their policies.
The European Union would be exactly this supranational state. But how could it be brought into existence? Obviously, the people themselves could not be trusted to make a decision like that. At best it would have formed a Union only of those nations that consistently chose Socialism.
But if the governments of the nations themselves could be persuaded to sign up to the Union without reference to their people, if it could be offered on the basis that it benefitted the economy, it could be done without the need for consent of the people.
So, the Maastricht Treaty of 1992 establishing The European Union was signed. With a stroke of the pen, each nation surrendered its sovereignty, submitted itself to a political construct based upon the archetype of The Soviet Union.
Now it did not matter if an individual nation did not wish to pursue a social policy, it would have it imposed upon them by The European Union. It did not matter if an individual nation wanted to establish a political treaty with a non-EU nation, The European Union would not permit it.
And it did not matter if the judiciary of a nation wished to rule on a position which would do something against the liberalist agenda of the EU Socialists, the Supreme Court of The European Union would overrule it. How could there ever have been such an all-encompassing act of treachery by politicians against their own people in recorded history? To compel them to accept the government of a Soviet-style foreign entity and to hand their own powers of government to that entity without mandate of the people.
This was HOW this Socialist hegemony, with its Politburo governance by diktat came to be. This is WHY it came to be. So that democracy, the very essence of choice to determine their own ultimate form of government could be stolen from the people and replaced with a tyranny that could decide it knew best what its Proletariat needed, what policies should regulate it, what laws should govern it.
The European Union was created without the consent of the people. It governs without the mandate of the people. It controls without any possibility of opposition by representation of the people. And where is this Union going? It’s avowed purpose is ever closer political and economic union. In other words, an ever more perfect replica of The Soviet Union. It this what the people of Europe desire. To give up control of their destiny to a European Union of Soviet Socialist Republics?
I think not. But there it is. The great deception that is The European Union."