DIY

[Nick Brooks]

It's Monday morning and you lot have posted 594 messages since Friday. Haven't you got any DIY to do?

Nick Brooks

[BigWallop]

Nick Brooks wrote to uk.d-i-y:

It's all done. Fixed the starter motor in the car. Laid some beading timber around the gap in the new laminate flooring. Fixed and cleaned the windows. Done an alarm call-out at three in morning.

And still had time for a kipper at breakfast. :-))

[Lurch]

On Mon, 17 May 2004 10:13:13 +0100, in uk.d-i-y Nick Brooks strung together this:

For a change, no. I have been working Saturday though, but spent most of yesterday in a pub. I've got to finish cleaning the van to go up for sale today, and finish off the phone\tv\sat nav setup in the other the van as well, so my diy starts today after a well deserved rest!

[Dave Plowman]

I hope you're installing a PABX in it too...

[Lurch]

On Mon, 17 May 2004 11:12:44 +0100, in uk.d-i-y Dave Plowman strung together this:

Now there's an idea! I had thought that the next project for mobile equipment would be to build a PC into the van somewhere, with RF keyboard and mouse and feed the video into the TFT monitors AV input. With a spare mobile and GPRS I can keep up with the newsgroups when I'm working away, as I can't find a decent free newsreader for the PDA, and web browsing is easier on a PC than the PDA. I suppose I could incorporate a mobile VoIP device into that, and a software PABX of somesort!

[Andy Hall]

You can get embedded type PCs for companies like Advantech that work pretty well for that. Small box, no fan, option cards to do the interfaces.

.andy

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[Huge]

It was my birthday weekend. I was too busy drinking champagne to do DIY.

[Nick Brooks]

Lucky you. I converted a ton of sand, six bag of cement and 300 reclaimed bricks into a garden path

[Dave Plowman]

But are you young or old enough to still celebrate birthdays?

[Nick Brooks]

Any excuse to sit in the garden in glourious weather drinking champagne and you can count me in

[Huge]

Who are you and what are doing in my garden?

[Mary Fisher]

Did you cook it yourself though?

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

I celebrate all the birthdays I know about.

I go through a lot of bubbly ...

Mary

[Huge]

Why ever not? I must admit I don't like making a fuss, but this one's being going on for a week or so.

Me too.

Me too.

[BigWallop]

Hee Hee :-)) That I did Mrs F, that I did. Along with a lovely slice of buttered bloomer and a squirt of lemon. Booteefull.

[BigWallop]

Many happy returns Sir. (BW raises glasses and clinks them together)

[Lurch]

On Mon, 17 May 2004 12:23:13 +0100, in uk.d-i-y Andy Hall strung together this:

Not seen those, I was looking at the mini itx type boards but I'm always looking for new ways to do things, cheers.

[Huge]

[Mary Fisher]

You can come round here any breakfast time. Spouse doesn't like kippers ... :-(

Mary

[Andy Hall]

I have some mini-ITX machines that I use for firewalls etc. These are mains run but low power.

Then I have a small Advantech PC-104 type board that I'm using to provide various things such as a serial console to various routers and servers and to control equipment cooling. This runs an embedded Linux and currently runs from a 2.5" HDD of notebook type. Shortly it will all be shifted to flash drive because the board will accept one of these and treat it as an IDE. Not fast, but not needed for this application - equivalent to a 200MHz P3.

They make faster machines for use in cars etc. but they cost rather more. Still small footprint though.

For car use, before now, I've used an old notebook hooked up to an LCD display and that works pretty well.

.andy

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