Week of 26th August, 2013

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Monday, 26th August

And it's a Bank Holiday in England and Wales, so most people aren't working.

Didn't manage to set up to try to receive telemetry from Bionic Babbage,although comments from other interested people in the #highaltitude IRC channel suggest that 600 baud telemetry is not easy, even for experienced receivers. Dave Akerman did another launch, for a school, with one of his BUZZ trackers as a backup, both with conventional 50 baud telemetry, which is allegedly easier to receive, but lethargy set in.

Besides, Jane's Mum is complaining about things, so I had to go round and check/fix. This was successful, but it took a while.

Ulysses is still losing water. Looks like the head gasket is blown. But at least my tame garage will be cheaper than the Seat dealership.

And overall, despite the expense, fixing Ulysses is cheaper than buying another car.

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Tuesday, 27th August

At Dunsfold, on Sunday, I discovered that my wristwatch is bust - the (plastic) lugs that anchor one end of the bracelet have broken. I suspect this is unfixable, but I need to get a professional opinion. So I betook myself to my tame watch and clock repairer. And he's on holiday for 10 days or so, starting yesterday. But there's another jeweller I've patronised before, a bus ride away, so I asked there.

Sure enough, it's unfixable. New watch required. Casio Waveceptor radio-controlled, with digital and analogue displays, if you please. And all the sources I tried either didn't have the spec, or were seriously expensive. UKP200+? I don't think so. But it was a nice outing into London, where the electronics shops no longer sell watches.

Online, I can find almost what I want, via a UK jeweller who sells on eBay. Cheaper, too. I'll probably get one, and run it up the flagpole as a birthday present, to see who salutes.

While I was at the jewellers, I got my finger measured for the NFC ring. UK size X, equivalent to US 12.0 (12.0 what, I ask?) That's the 3rd finger of my right hand, and the ring will be a bit loose, but I can foreseee the arthritis spreading from my thumbs to my other fingers, so...

And I find I haven't mentioned arthritis yet... A couple of weeks ago, I woke up with stiff thumb joints, and when I finally got my thumbs (both of them) to bend, painfully, they click. Not good. So I made an appointment at my GP surgery. New doctor, who I've never met before, but she confirmed my non-expert diagnosis - arthritis. Another script for anti-inflammatories, the same Naproxen tabs that I'm taking for the frozen shoulder, plus the antacid capsules that you need with the Naproxen. Plus a suggestion of cod liver oil - that last not on prescription. I asked for, and got, extra antacid capsules because I am prone to forgetting the evening Naproxen tab - the script is for a 2 month supply, 1 tab morning and evening, with or after food, and an antacid once a day. I take that in the morning.. The extras are to make the 2 lots of pills come out more or less even, after my forgetfulness..

Dave Akerman has been tweeting about the results of the "Ted Bull Stratos 2nd Try" launch yesterday. Rather than retype his links, I'll just point to his Twitter feed, here.

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Wednesday, 28th August

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Thursday, 29th August

Last 2 days of the fortnight, and no real change - material comes in, we check it, and (mostly) pass it, but rejections are not unknown.

I ordered the replacement Casio wristwatch this afternoon, and when I got home, there was e-mail, "We've shipped". This is good. The predicted delivery date is on or before Sept 2nd, which won't be bad, with the weekend in the way.

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Friday, 30th August

This morning, early, comes the ring on the doorbell. Parcel for me. It's the Casio. Superb service, that - order yesterday, deliver this morning. UKP83.89, including Royal Mail Special Delivery Before 1 pm, for a UKP140 RRP item. That's H.S. Johnson, in Staffordshire, UK.

I need to get a couple of links removed from the bracelet - it's a tad loose, but otherwise it's all good. Now to set it to my taste. The supplied manual is 8x5 cm, and almost 2cm thick. 72 pages in each of about 6 languages, printed in Flyspeck 3. But you can get a .pdf of the English version, direct from Casio. The module is a Casio 3353, or is it a 3354 or a 5053? Whichever it is, the instructions are identical. Now I need to set the digital display to 24 hour, rather than the default 12 hour.

It's got a solar cell to charge the battery, and they caution against leaving it out of the light for very long. But since the internal rechargeable battery is specified to run the watch for about 5 months of average use, without light, I'm not going to worry too much.

Given that Blackberry have announced that Messenger is coming to iOS and Android soon (this year, next year, sometime, never?) I'm contemplating a phone upgrade. The only thing that's keeping me on my 9700 is BBM - the phone is starting to throw connectivity wobblies, whereby it loses 3G connectivity until a battery pull restart, and even GPRS is flaky. I'll almost certainly be going Android, probably an LG Nexus 4, after the recent massive price cut. But no-one else is showing that cut yet, just Google. And they insist you open a Google Wallet account to buy via the Play Store. I object to this, since the Chocolate Factory already knows too much about me, so why should I tell them more, voluntarily? I had to sign up for a Gmail acount to register the Nexus 7, but I have no intention of using it - as I said, Google know enough about me from my search history, why should I show them my e-mail stream as well?

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Saturday, 31st August

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Sunday, 1st September

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