Sirbendy

DPF regeneration failures are quite common...google it, you'll find plenty of instances. I've had 2x renault, 2xRover, and now I'm on Vauxhall #2 and #3 (Astra-f and Astra-g respectively). Renaults were forever glitching, but it didn't bother me...it was "pre-tech" as it were.. Rovers..lovely. Lost the autochoke, but that was fairly common anyway. Lost starting one day, AA said "duff engine". After much headscratching it turned out to be shorted crank sensor. No probs after that. Vauxhalls...Astra #1 - perfect. Astra #2 blew the ECU, and the EGR valve failed but since it was fixed and I blanked the valve off and threw it away (euro 4 compliant my arse), no issues. Astra #3 has more issues than the Sun, but I expected it and it's a spare machine anyway as a project.

I forget which one we do, but Izzy is in Nursery 4 days a week (as Jem does a 4 day week, at least for now.) It's hellishly costly, and if it wasn't for this malarkey, it'd actually work out better for either Jem or I (probably me) to quit work and go into full-time childcare. If Jem was working a full 5 day week, her wage would be more than I'm on. I know we survived a full year without problem on my income alone, as Jem took a full year maternity leave. I can't begrudge the nursery though, Izzy loves it and it's really bringing out her character. We could have gone for a cheaper institution, but this place is local to here (3 minutes away), and we're very picky about childcare. They were willing to accomodate everything (BLW, Real Nappies, no fixed routine etc), and their security ticked all my "wanted" boxes apart from CCTV on the entrance/exit, which I raised with the management. Their biometric entry system in particular I like. When sprog #2 happens, it may be a case of one of us leaving post and becoming a full time parent..but we'll cross that bridge when that happens.

Jem's an Ex Edutech, now a webdev, and harmony is achieved by not mentioning work..plus I don't want to teach DD bad language..such memorable lines as "aargh! What a day. "x" has been a total cockerel today. Don't ask me about "y" either - bunch of self pleasurers" etc.. I normally vent it on the car..nothing shifts stubborn bolts like a breaker bar with some annoyance behind it..heh.

I tend to use scrapyard ones for my solar panels.. Astra #2 might get a scrapyard one. Not even sure the engine still turns over..certainly wasn't too chuffed last time I jumped it from Astra #1..

We have them for all, all lanyard jobs. Kiddy ones have pictures of said kiddy on them, staff ones don't. Free school meals are different design, etc. IT Services are the only ones who are RFID enabled, so we have hours of fun watching kiddies trying to swipe their cards against our office door code readers to gain entry..heh.

Liking Varta here - when my GM DieHard goes poof (it's 11 this year) it's getting a Varta replacement. Reminds me, I MUST get a battery for Astra #2...the one in it is totally utterly screwed...

We disposed of all our IT "rolling stock" as it were when our old building shut down and we moved in here. 90% Dell, all collected, lined up in a room, tested, left with disclaimers attached. Staff were free to come and take one each, as long as the disclaimer was signed to say "I acknowledge I have no comeback and by picking this up, it becomes my property and my sole responsibility, with no liability to the academy in any shape". Best way to dispose of all the PCs ever. Most are still going strong in staff homes.

We have 6 physical boxes called MA1-6. All of these are VMWare ESXi boxes. Server wise, the Vservers are referred to as MA-DHCP, MA-WEB, MA-SQL, MA-AD1/2/3, MA-PRINT, MA-DTOX (Sophos), etc. The only one not referred to by name, but by IP is the Cisco Callmanager and attendant unit. I've documented those. Does make life easier if you're having one of those days and have a brain fade..."which one of the sods is it NOW?..AH, yes..him..".

I've used Plusnet for years, and never found them to be anything but helpful...even through 4 house moves, they've put up with me giving them hassle and moved me on my existing setup each time. The only issue we had was a bad upstream router, early last year that made everything very slow.

Get yourself a cheapie MK3 Astra 1.7TD (or indeed a Corsa-B 1.5TD), and do the white ring pump/pressure mod on it. Bish bosh, job diddled.

Hmm...I take our filters off and out of the room before air-dusting the things, but STILL they seem to overheat and the filters are WELL AND TRULY clogged up in under a month... Either the kids are shedding, the cleaners are running no filters on their vacuums, or the air system in this place is moving dust from A to B to C...

As above really...I'm finding we're needing to clean some of our projectors monthly all of a sudden, lest they overheat..this seems a tad excessive.. I'm chatting to our site manager about the air circulation system here...I'm wondering if it's distributing cack all over the shop all of a sudden...blocking the filters. It's a possibility..

"Aaah"..hmm. That'd be Friday, about..ooh..7pm, once tiddler is fed, bathed and asleep in our quadruple bed, the cats and guinea pig are fed, and we can breathe out for a while..

I've been tasked with sourcing an external IP camera to be mounted outside on the building site where our 6th form is being built. Needs: Decent Image Weatherproof Mountable to..say an existing camera pole/light pole or similar Ability to FTP images out on a schedule preferably, say one every few seconds or whatever (unless anyone can give me ideas on that?) Either wifi or LAN, or both should be fine - there will be a cab situated in the portacabins. Wifi may be a useful extra. PoE may be advantageous from a cabling view. Static view is fine, preferably a decent angle of view I've looked at Axis - expensive. Anyone got any suggestions? It's not really my field of expertise.

http://sirbendy.co.uk/images/wrox/sunrise_road1.jpg That one's a few years old, looking out of the gate at my mums about 6am one summers morning with a cuppa and my Astra in bits after working on it all night. I thought it was a) rather pretty and b) possibly a hallucination..heh

Still got mine too, but it's been on hold since the birth of Isabel, pretty much. As has spare car #1, last tinkered with on the day she was born. One day we'll get back on track. Heh.

12v Impact wrench is your friend. Last exhaust I did I used that, a lumphammer and a handsaw. heh. Fishing around in the sump drainings for the washer is half the fun! You want to drop the sump off an automatic gearbox and see it full of aluminium swarf for a brown trousers moment..I ended up stripping that down with 0 knowledge of the box itself and reconditioning the valve chest. Worked perfectly afterwards. Honestly - Haynes are the best, but NOT the new ones..they're all dumbed down and toss, frankly. Older ones are more hands on and less "take it to your dealer". Can also recommend the haynes fuel injection/engine management books - quite good. If you have a friendly dealer, go in and ask for the cost of one of THEIR workshop manuals...I got a full Rover tech workshop manual, like 7 haynes strapped together. Talk about in depth and complete, every nut, bolt, wire, diagram, method...cost me £20, ordered by one of their techs, cash in hand, manual passed out the workshop door. Best. book. EVER. Oh, and in the case of the Astra-F and G manuals, I've rechristened them "Haynes book of making it up". They make hysterical reading if you come across something you need, only to find that in the manual it refers to a MK2!! Useful I don't think. And no, reassembly is never the reverse of removal. Haha!

can't happen. Sprog #2 is being contemplated for around that yearish...NOTHING stops me getting a legover..I'm on a promise! hahahhahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!! *cough*

water pipe in the roof with a weepy joint or pinhole leak? Speaking as a man that experienced "ceiling wee" in the last building, I can commiserate.. (Ceiling wee: Sat there with my cuppa, went to drink it, noticed the cup was full. I'd drunk half a cup not 10 minutes previous. Looked up, yellow stain on the roof, and as we watched there was another stream, right into the cup. Loos above the office, bad sealing, and GIRLS who can't use the damn loos and pee on the floor. Had 3 total ceiling collapses in that office due to soil stack leakage, and 2 monitors that were filled with pee over a holiday. Don't miss that office.)

Primary OS - Puppy Linux 5.2 booting from USB, no AV etc, bothered. Secondary OS -Win7, MSE installed, that's it. Firewall set to SPi on Router, apart from that..zip. I like my free CPU cycles. Router on plug-in timer to kill it off post midnight until 8am. Puppy for web unless I have a dire need for Windows - it's faster, RAM based, and unless I opt to save the user space, it all gets obliterated at reboot/off. For bittorrent etc, I use my KS330 NAS running SnakeOS and a 20gb Ext2 HDD, and the built in transmission client on there. Works lovely.

Someone bought daughter a chinese knockoff of the old "pen stylus" magnadoodle...rather like etch-a-sketch but pen equipped. Missus had a load of her web mates round, I pulled it out and said "hey, look at my Ipad!"..they weren't overly amused. Heh.

Never been to Kwik fit then?

I had one from a chap in science...pulled a file down and burned to CD for him, for his missus. "Mate, you are my most favourite person in the school. Tonight, I'll be screaming out YOUR name"... I do love our staff and their sense of humour. That said, I just set up our sympodium and mics for a presentation for him, and as soon as he realised he had mics, PC control and AMX control of the theatre facilities, he set about winding up the video/theatre tech by turning the lights off, singing into the mic etc. Video tech turn the volume down. Staff member looks at me, looks at the control marked "sound", whacks it up to full and shouts "Mr *video tech*, IS THIS BETTER? CAN YOU HEAR ME? I THINK I DID SOMETHING WRONG THERE.."....it fair shook the theatre.. I was behind the curtain, quite frankly laughing my backside off...the man is and always has been an out and out windup merchant. It's people like that who remind me that actually, this place can be ruddy hilarious and somewhat risky. His staff are giving presentations in there (he's a HOD BTW), and I can imagine he'll be winding up the screen, altering volumes and so on just to wind them up. He's had a minor PC problem before and sent his entire class to our office for us to teach. In Jest, of course. I have to say we share a sense of humour. A lot of the staff here have a similar one - I can't abide miserable and serious.

Haynes Baby Manual - exceptional. I have one sat with the Astra/Rover manuals. Also got the Haynes Dad manual (How to be a brilliant father) , showing how to build toys etc. Quite good! We bought a travel system. I rarely use it. Let me show you what's better... Rose and Rebellion - Mardi Gras - babywearing! My R&R (on that page) rocks my world. Car seat for the littly, yes..only bit of our TS I used. Carrying in the R&R is light-years ahead of any wheeled contrivance. Ultimate ease of use, ultimate versatility..no bus issues, no shopping step worries, no need to hunt lifts, worry about terrain etc. I love carrying Izzy about - she drops off really easily in it, and likes being front or back fastened. Plus it's brill from a warmth viewpoint - you keep them warm, put a coat over you both in the rain etc, job jobbed. Izzys 13 months now, still loads of life in the R&R..it'll be used for #2 some day too. Hint for you - when they outgrow the TS seat, look seriously into ERF car seats..from a safety viewpoint, it's exceptional. I've got a Volvo badged Britax MultiTech in the Astra - good from 0-4+, street price for the Britax is £250+..from Volvo under the Alias of "Convertible car seat", it was £160. Immense bit of kit. My second favourite investment. http://www.rearfacing.co.uk/index.php Good site for info there. I went out and did the whole "OMG new parent, must get this, and this, and this" bit..heh. Baby bath seat - good, cheap. Cotbed..never used it, discovered co-sleeping for the ultimate ease of sleeping. Good until 5 though, so may get some use yet. Travel system - has it's moments. Quite liking the odd looks with the carrier etc..nothing compared to the look on people's faces when I say "we use cloth nappies"..haha! In fairness, I DO have some terries...but mostly we stocked up on these: http://www.fill-your-pants.com/pocket-nappies/bumgenius-nappy-trial-pack.html and these for nights: http://www.fuzzibunz.com/ from birth pretty much to potty training, just keep a nappy bucket, and wash when full. Easy to use, and I have to say, I'm impressed with them. So were the nursery..haha! IIRC, a lot of ours came from the bay of E.. Lastly, well done on avoiding morning puke..my missus had Hyperemesis throughout. Every day, all day. I had to cook, as she couldn't stomach a lot of smells, sights etc..even had to carry a bowl in the car for bumpy/uneven roads.

Take Calibra engine, drop into something worthy, lighter, and that doesn't handle like a boat...classic MINI!!! (and yes, I'm serious here).