Technology Thread.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

this is blackburn's "rat supremo"!! ace title!

I wonder if Blackburn has a chicken supremo in place!?

[Bruce Rioja]

So now, when you're in The Market Place you're never more than 30 feet away from a boarded up unit

[thebish]

apparently - according to the BN, last July..

BOLTON has one of the worst records for rat problems in the country.

The council was called out to almost 5,000 pest problems last year.

And figures obtained by the British Pest Control Association (BPCA) under the Freedom Of Information Act put Bolton 10th worst for the number of rat problems tackled out of 314 English local authorities between April 2010 and April, 2011.

Bolton Council ’s pest control team dealt with 4,913 call outs, of which more than half — 2,749 — were because of rats. The borough is also seventh worst for ant problems, with 670 call-outs to deal with the issue. There were also 53 call outs for bed bugs and 27 for cockroaches.

urghhh!!

[Prufrock]

this is blackburn's "rat supremo"!! ace title!

I wonder if Blackburn has a chicken supremo in place!?

He's the Rat Controller!

[Dujon]

People expect the council to sort out an ant problem or a cockroach problem or a bed bug problem? Good grief! What comes next - a weekly visit from a friendly council toilet cleaner? Sheesh, that's incredible.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

People expect the council to sort out an ant problem or a cockroach problem or a bed bug problem? Good grief! What comes next - a weekly visit from a friendly council toilet cleaner? Sheesh, that's incredible.

Are Crocodile Infestation Engineers private or public in Oz, Dujon?

[mummywhycantieatcrayons]

People expect the council to sort out an ant problem or a cockroach problem or a bed bug problem? Good grief! What comes next - a weekly visit from a friendly council toilet cleaner? Sheesh, that's incredible.

You really have been away from these isles a long time!

[Dujon]

Sorry, lads, I have been absent for a bit. I'm afraid that I'm used to the system here - which means vermin, marsupials, reptiles and insects on your property are your problem and no one else's. It had simply never occurred to me that a quick 'phone call to council would have someone scampering around to shoo a few wee beasties back into the garden. Please excuse my ignorance and, yes, my eyebrows are now back to normal.

Spotty, it's the Crocodile Infestation Authority - the C.I.A. - and no one is really sure who funds them.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Spotty, it's the Crocodile Infestation Authority - the C.I.A. - and no one is really sure who funds them.

Ah!

[bobo the clown]

It had simply never occurred to me that a quick 'phone call to council would have someone scampering around to shoo a few wee beasties back into the garden.

Well, I've never lived away from blighty and I too was amazed that councils offered this service when, a few years ago, we found a serious sized wasps nest in the attic. We'd spotted that there were many of the buggers coming in & out of the eaves and I went for a look (armed, pointlessly, with a can of spray) and saw something like one of those old Habitat lamp shades positively awash with the yellow & black blighters.

Wondering how to deal with it a mate just said "call the council" and a guy came around, said "phew" a few times and told me to clear off for 15 minutes. I think I paid £25 or so for the call out.

[Beefheart]

We had a bit of a rat problem a couple of summers ago. I had fun killing a few of them with traps, but then my mum decided it'd be better to call the council, the spoil sport, who put little bags of poison about the place.

[Dujon]

[bobo] Well that's a relief then. Cheap at half the price, too.

[Beefy] Yes, rats can be a problem. I had a family living in my roof space at one time. A careful foray into the area showed me where they had burrowed into the fibreglass batt ceiling insulation and a couple of small rat skeletons, looking like fossils, embedded in the top surface. There was no sighting of the rotten rodents but my visit didn't deter them as the night time scrabbling could still be heard. The distribution of three or four baits helped but didn't solve the problem. "Call in the army!" says I. So a pest exterminator was paid a handsome amount of ready to check things out. It was funny, really, as the bloke who arrived was a large fellow who had no hope of fitting through the manhole in order to access the roof space. Instead he stood atop his stepladder and threw his version of bait into the cavity. None of his baits went very far as I could hear them colliding with the myriad of trusses and bearings that populate the place. It didn't matter. Over the next couple of days a couple of adult rats, around and about 350mm in length (excluding tail), turned up deceased on the back lawn. How on earth the rats accessed the roof I have no idea, unless the darned things can climb a 7 metre high brick wall and access a ventilation hole.

[Prufrock]

How big?! Another reason I'm never going to Oz!

[Dujon]

OK, maybe I exaggerated a bit, Pru. Make it 300mm (1') if it makes you feel better. I'm sure that yon Londres has many a rat of greater dimensions. I recall a day when I was awaiting on Sydney's Central Station for my train when a bloody huge example loped along the lines before disappearing into the place that all rats seem to vanish. I have an overweight cat that lives with me; it would have been 30% larger than she.

[Annoyed Grunt]

How big?! Another reason I'm never going to Oz!

The size of their crabs too.....

[Montreal Wanderer]

OK, maybe I exaggerated a bit, Pru. Make it 300mm (1') if it makes you feel better. I'm sure that yon Londres has many a rat of greater dimensions. I recall a day when I was awaiting on Sydney's Central Station for my train when a bloody huge example loped along the lines before disappearing into the place that all rats seem to vanish. I have an overweight cat that lives with me; it would have been 30% larger than she.

Indeed, they are 2' 6" in Bradford if one believes the Sun.

[Gary the Enfield]

Growing up I lived in a terraced row and we had a Cockroach infestation. We tried everything to get rid but they would just re-infest from next door or next door but one etc.

The other problem with 'roaches is, I was told, they have several developmental stages from egg through larva to young adult and adult and there is no single effective poison for all stages.

We ended up with the whole row having their floors taken up and asphalt being put down whilst the backyard flags were replaced with 4 inches of concrete. Took a while after that but we eventually got rid of the bastards.

Then we moved.

[Bruce Rioja]

and no one is really sure who funds them.

That's you lot to a bloody tee. 'It'll be right, Cobber', and 'She'll be right, Blue'.

[Prufrock]

Right, cheers folks!

I went for the Toshiba in the end. So far so good, looks good, right size, picture all good etc... Only minor criticism so far is it takes ages to change channel, but not gonna be used for tv much anyway. Bought an HDMI cable, the cheaper by a quid of the two, but on offer so *must* be better. Gold-plated whatsits you know! Also spent all of Wednesday evening DIYing like a boss. New desk unit all set up for it to go on. I swear flat-pack furniture has got more complicated though! I always used to do ours at home when I was younger, and it took about half an hour; this took nearly two hours!

Bought an amplified aerial (eventually, can tell I've never had a tv before, I though they came with it!) for it which is ok, but not great. It says something like up to 36db amplification. My question is, if I got a signal booster (with 20db amplification) would that give me 56db, or does that 36db mean that is the top that aerial can do no matter what?

[Dujon]

Last first, Pru:
Yes and no (that's a great help isn't it?)
Each 3dB measure of gain increases the signal - and noise - to twice the original. To clarify that; if you have a 6dB amplifier attached in the aerial line then the output is 4x the original signal being fed from the aerial and a 9dB gain will produce 8x and so on. By the time you calculate a 36dB gain you can see that it is a rather large figure relative to the micro-watts trickling down from the aerial. Now, if you stick another amplifier in series a problem pops up, that being that, whichever way you install them, the second in line will be receiving a huge signal - one for which it was probably not designed. If that happens then you finish up with a highly distorted signal - one that results in a degradation of the television's display. That problem could be solved by buying a 56dB amplifier to start with but unfortunately that introduces yet another obstacle. That is the law of diminishing returns. In this case it is 'noise' relative to the signal you are receiving. You've probably heard the term 'signal to noise ratio'.

Noise is not only the unwanted part of the signals detected by the aerial, it is also introduced by everything between the aerial and the television and then the television itself, including the cables cobbling things together. Therefore your television is trying to sort out a specific and relatively narrow signal from a tsunami of noise arriving on its doorstep. Like all receivers the television has its limits and eventually the poor thing can't cope. The only way to overcome this is to somehow or other increase the signal(s) being received at the aerial. I don't know your situation, Pru, but this could involve the simple expedient of moving around the aerial in the room (assuming it's an indoor job) or replacing it with a more efficient unit - meaning one with more gain.

"Flat packs": You have my sympathy. The last project I undertook - a simple two drawer filing cabinet bought for me by my wife - took ages to assemble. Half of that time was spent in identifying and sorting the various screws, clamps, bolts and timber sections. After that came the pain involved in using screwdrivers in places where no man should go and then balancing every bit of the construction so as not to destroy the work already completed.