Firefox 3 has arrived. At last. I don’t usually get excited about a browser. After all it’s just a way of viewing web sites. This one however, well, it’s slick. Very fast and actually seems to have a higher res than previous versions. Odd to say, I know, but true. Go check it out here!
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-rc.html
Stephen
Today is going to be hard. I was swimming for over half a mile last night almost non-stop. That’s about 18 lengths of my local 50m pool. For somebody who is not a good swimmer and who is very out of shape, I think that is not a bad effort. I need some goggles though. It’s hard to keep my head up with an arthritic neck.
Hopefully I’ve shed another pound or two, I’ll check that out tonight. Long and short of it all is that I’m really tired. I could be going back to bed!
I’ve started to plan my next hill walking trip, probably this time to Glen Coe. Not sure which hill, probably Bidean Nam Bian. I’m not sure how to tackle it though. Do I walk in an out on the same route or follow from Glen Etive to the Clachaig Inn?
At work, 3 more people have left the team. It’s getting a bit desperate now. Ever get the feeling you are being left behind? I’d love to move to a better paid, more exciting role, but to be honest I’m just too lazy to do it. I’m comfortable where I am and I can get out of bed at 9.30am to get to work on time. If worked in town it would up at 7am every day. At least there might be more work to do once the 3 have left.
Stephen
Don’t you hate it when you are sitting at your desk on a Friday and the pain hits you like a train? Don’t you hate it when the pain emanates from the back of your mouth, though every tooth on the side of your face? Don’t you hate it when you need to drug yourself to the eyeballs with co-codamol in order to sleep? Don’t you hate it when you still can’t sleep and end up in the dentists chair at 9am on a Saturday morning? Don’t you hate it when it turns out you have an abscess on the root of your molar and you require emergency root canal treatment?
Don’t you hate it when the dentist hands you a bill for over £100 pounds?
Hmmm.
..but I’ve been so busy.
My whole healthy living malarky is gogin quite well now. I play football on a Sunday, go swimming on a Monday, yoga on a Tuesday, spin in a Wedensday and the gym at the weekends. Phew! No wonder I’ve lost 7lb in 2 weeks. I am to lose 3 stone in total by the summer.
My sister is running the Race For Life again this year, hopefully she does as well as last year. Sponser her if you can!
I’ve been busy in my (little) spare time with my camera too. I hope to get a bigger slice of the web soon and move all my stuff to it. I can then add a gallery of some sort. Better than the one I already have at http://digital.stephenforbes.net
When not doing all that… I still have time for LOTRo. Might see you on the Snowbourne server…
Stephen
For the past few years my Potterton Suprima 40 boiler has been acting up a bit. When I say acting up I mean that it was not firing up or it was shutting off too soon. Cold showers and cold central heating is not nice. But if you have the mis fortune of owning one of the worst boilers ever to come into being, here are a few tips to get it working that wont break the bank. (I would advise that all work should be carried out by corgi registered personel!)
1) Boiler wont fire up.
The boiler will attempt 13 sparks of the electrode and if no flame is detected it will shutdown. If the firing sequence fails three times, you get lock down. That means reseting the system and letting it try again.
2) Boiler fires up but shutsdown after a few seconds
If the PCB does not get feed back from the electrode that the flame has ignited, it will shutdown and try again. 3 strikes and itgoes to lock down.
3) No spark / weak spark from the electrode.
These are all easy to fix and get your hot water going again.
I would suggest replacing a few things inside the boiler. First to go must be the HT cable. This is the cable that goes into the electrode and back to the PCB. If yours is red, it is a carbon fibre cable and it is crap. Buy a new one. You cant get the carbon fibre ones now, but a nice new copper one will come you way. Look for part ref 8407753. I got mine from keeptheheaton.com for about £5.
To replace it, shutdown the boiler and turn off the power to it. Open the flap at the right and remove panel screw and slide it out. Then remove the three visible screws. The control panel on the right will drop forward if gentrly pulled. The main boiler case will swing to the left and lift up and off. On the PCB near the bottom left is a black cylinder, remove the cables spade connector and pull it though from the bottom of the bolier. Remove the spade connector from the electrode and chuck the cable away. Fitting the new cable is the reverse!
You should think about a replacement electrode if the spark is poor too (see number 3). While the bolier is open, there is a metal panel closing the burning chamber. Remove the short screw at the top and pull off the panel. There is a small screw holding the electrode in place, unscrew this and pull out the old electrode, replace with part 8407754. expect to pay about £8 for one. If you can’t get one of think the electrode is ok,clean it with solvent or a nail file. Mine is bent slightly closer to the burning unit which it sparks to. Use pliers very carefully to bend the exposed metal part, not the white case of the electrode.
The PCB itself is also prone to the soldering cracking. Very tiny cracks appear in the solder on the rear of the board and it fails. Replace it. There is a new version of the PCB that has a plastic case round it and better heat shielding. It will set you back about £200. not cheap. The cheap option is Ebay. They have refurbished boards with a 1 year warranty. If you send your old PCB back you get £10 for it. It should work out at about £25 for a refurbished PCB.
Replace it by removing all spade connectors and block connectors. Take a digital photo of it if you can’t remember where they re-connect to. Remove the 4 screws in each corner. Replace the board and screw it back down. Plug it all back in and close up the casing. Apply power again and enjoy hot water and central heating again.
When you can afford it, replace this pile of junk with something that works!
Stephen
At long last my defunk, faulty and generally non working laptop HD is getting replaced. I just ordered a modest 80Gb 5200rpm WD HD from eBuyer. Once more I will have my life mobile again… Wah Ha Ha Haaaaa. Ahem.
Intelligent, witty, smart, fit, active, romantic and one hell of a writer. These words and many many more certainly do not describe me! I’m afraid I’m just an average Joe who loves climbing, swimming, and (sadly) going to spin in a vain attempt to keep my flabby belly from hiding my feet when I look down.