WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Stanley]

My dad always said that if you have a choice of barbers go for the one with the worst haircut because he is cutting all the others....
Only a small thing but it was the fact that all my shed life I have had left and right handed tools the wrong way round! Counter-intuitively a right hand tool has the cutting edge on the left..... and vice versa. I think I must be a slow learner! It cost me £30 because I ordered the wrong one but on the other hand I now have an extra useful tool. (Look on the bright side!)



I have a confession to make..... I have been seduced by shed porn! The parcel from Cutwel yesterday was far bigger than I expected and this is why. A 1000 page catalogue of every machine tool you can imagine. Incredibly seductive if you have even a trace of shed fever......

[Tizer]

If we don't hear from you again for a week or two at least we'll know your OK and just have your nose in the catalogue!

[plaques]

Talking to Daren Ward the librarian at Colne he said that the Colne History Society has now officially closed down due to lack of membership. Asking about the Young Ladies that came on a wednesday morning he said it didn't affect them. I assume that most of their, history society, will be retained in the library. Are we old crumblies becoming part of the forgotten corner?

[Wendyf]

Talking to Daren Ward the librarian at Colne he said that the Colne History Society has now officially closed down due to lack of membership. Asking about the Young Ladies that came on a wednesday morning he said it didn't affect them. I assume that most of their, history society, will be retained in the library. Are we old crumblies becoming part of the forgotten corner?

Sad that the history society had to close Plaques but the Pendle Family History Society which meets in Colne is doing really well.
Local history in Colne Library now has a boost with a new member of staff who is really keen. Its good to see Darran back at work, he has been off sick for months.
Young...young???

[PanBiker]

My anti static mat turned up today, onward with the transceiver repair.

[Big Kev]

The cyber attack on the NHS is causing a bit of a do in the office. I decided it was someone else's problem so came home early

[Wendyf]

Is it affecting access to medical records as well Kev?

[Big Kev]

The data centres were unaffected when I left it. It looked to be workstations that are affected, server side all appeared OK. Access to systems has been restricted.

[Stanley]

HERE'S a timeline from the Guardian on the attack. Evidently the Malwaretech researcher us a bit of a hero!
What struck me was the comment from one 'expert' who said that so many of the organisations that are hit are using old equipment, practices and software and haven't the simple patches that can stop this type of attack. Sounds like a wake up call to me.......
P, Are we old crumblies becoming part of the forgotten corner? Not while we keep the flame alive!
Wendy, 'Young' is a relative term. You are young in my eyes......
Later, on my walk I noticed a funeral notice in B&D's window for 'John Alwyne Simpson' Is this Alwyne from Bancrofts Farm? If so I've missed the funeral as it was at Gill on Thursday.
A bit later still, I think it is him. My Barlick is shrinking. What a bugger.....

[Big Kev]

Is it affecting access to medical records as well Kev?

It is, yes. The data centres use the latest operating systems and antivirus. It's the 'local' workstations that are in the surgeries and hospitals that are vulnerable. I am not at liberty to comment, on reports in the news, of some parts of the NHS still using Windows XP.

[Stanley]

But you know Kev that some will be using outdated OS systems and not exercising proper security. All Microsoft systems and they have issued a free patch that mends them all because of this attack. How different in Ubuntu land......
Still haven't had any confirmation that Alwyne is dead.....

[Tizer]

I am not at liberty to comment, on reports in the news, of some parts of the NHS still using Windows XP.

According to The Times, 90% of the NHS computers use an outdated version of Windows XP. It beggars belief and makes you wonder about the ability and commitment of the managers who have ignored all the warnings to update their systems. Remember when the Icelandic banks went bust and we found that so many of our local authorities (and other organisations) had invested their money in those banks even though the ratings agencies had been warning of the danger for a long time?

[Stanley]

Tiz, never underestimate the capacity of managers to be lazy/incompetent/stupid. If Kev was free to speak I'm certain he could recite a litany of of shocking practices like having default passwords, out of date upgrade management and simple refusal to spend money on improving systems. Just like maintaining machinery and plant, accountants hate the expense as they don't understand the subject.
I see many industry experts are warning of a fresh wave of attacks when computers are switched on this morning at the start of the working week. Copycat attacks generated by the 'success' of last week's incident.....
I'm considering building a small engine for my great grandson. At the moment the candidate is the Stuart 10H. Amazing how expensive casting sets are! As I say so often, I am a wealthy man in some respects.

[Tizer]

I see that Microsoft now has the cheek to blame the US National Security Agency for the global ransomware crisis because, according to MS, the Agency `stored data on software vulnerabilities which could then be accessed by hackers'. MS should have been keeping its own product secure rather than relying on the NSA to tell it where the holes where to be found.

[Marilyn]

How fabulous that you would build an engine for your great grandson, Stanley.
What a wonderful thing for him to treasure!
Go for it...

[Stanley]

This is it, a Stuart 10H, six and a half inches long and it will run on a bicycle pump......

[Stanley]

I have conquered my fear and ordered the castings for Alex. £160..... But there are no pockets in a shroud!

[Tizer]

What could be better than to spend your money on educating and seriously entertaining the children? We're using some of our money to help our young relatives get a better start in life. They need it now, more than later: it has more impact now.

[Tripps]

I just saw some swans with cygnets at Wells on Newsnight.
Actually I didn't think they were all that ugly. Another myth exploded.

[Stanley]

I agree David. My personal favourites are newly hatched Goslings.....
What grabbed me yesterday was a visit from Susan and Mick and, joy of joys, she is coming again today to wait with me while her dogs are clipped. The other notable event was that I bit the bullet and ordered £160 worth of castings for the engine I am going to make for my great grandson......
Also news that if I can survive another year we have a family wedding, my grand-daughter Jess is marrying Mo, and all the kids are coming from Oz! They have another ceremony, a traditional one, in Kenya in August and they will all go there for that but I think I will pass on that one......
Life can be very rewarding at times.........

[Tizer]

Everyday now, since the global cyber attack, we're getting malicious email messages purporting to be business documents - orders, invoices, enquiries - all with either dangerous attached files or suspicious-looking web links. I guess we're getting them because our email domain used too be a business one. Attached files have endings such as .7z and .jar (I seem to recall .jar is an archive like .zip). We can tell they are scams because we view all our email in plain text rather than HTML but most people in businesses wouldn't see the file names and link addresses. The latest one appears to come from a French dairy company and looks quite official but the files are bad `uns. No wonder there's so much trouble now.

[Stanley]

I have a simple rule, never open any embedded file unless you know the sender personally. I even zap the ones that appear to come from Talktalk, You can never be sure.......
Ian and his Weller tip. The crafty buggers have used a bastard thread just to annoy us but I think we can beat them.
A long visit from Susan...... it meant I missed my sleep but so nice to see her!

[Stanley]

The pleasure of helping Ian. The arrival of the castings and the fact that I am feeling so well. Nothing earth shaking but very satisfactory.

[Stanley]

A message from Tiz, he and Janet are off to Cornwall for a week so we are looking after the shop!
Free leccy day so a washing and cooking fest this morning!

[Stanley]

The joy of working with good castings! CI is mucky stuff but I love it. One of the big changes in engineering over the last 100 years is the move away from cast iron in many applications. We forget what a quantum shift it was in the late 18th century when it first became possible to produce high quality cast iron and pour it into complicated moulds. Pattern-making was an art as there had to be an allowance for shrinkage of the metal. Many castings made then would be almost impossible to make now because of the cost of producing the patterns.