ttj - Tom Jones

When labeling cables with an asset id, one normally wants to label both ends, each with a wraparound label that's the same on both sides.  So the asset id appears 4 times in total: 2 on each wraparound. The Brother pt7600 can do this with a combination of Number and Copies.  Their current equivalents, such as the PT-E550WSP, can not do this. It's best to just print them in a long strip without any cutting.  Then, at the time of applying, use scissors to cut off the two adjacent pairs of ids to make the two wraparound labels.  * prepare labeller: insert 9mm black on white tape, power on, ensure barcode PROTOCOL is set to CODE128  * press Code then Z to enter settings, and select CUT 2 using up and down, and hit return  * clear text with code, backspace, enter  * press "Bar Code" (confirm again it says CODE128)  * enter first id in sequence, for example "wibble1234", press return  * press Code -> Label Type  * it says Copies 1.  Pr...

I ordered a Thinkpad X12 Detachable gen 2 with mobile data.  It comes with Windows.  My plan was to confirm operation of the mobile data with Windows, and then get it working with linux. I went through the long Windows setup process.  I got to a point where I had a desktop session.  Various Lenovo shitwares were still popping up.   In the bottom-right were a panoply of little boxes giving conflicting advice on whether restarts were required or forbidden.  The consensus seemed to be that restarts were required.  But a box apparently related to mobile data, the feature of interest, disagreed. Eventually I did reboot it, and Windows spent around half an hour doing "updates".  How do product managers think this is acceptable? When it came back I inserted a (nano) SIM via the side tray.  Windows detected it, and put up an encouraging message saying it was setting it up.  This had a progress bar which increased slowly.  At the end, n...

Blogger (authoring) and Blogspot (distributing) between them can’t offer up prev / next links on articles. If someone makes something better than Trello, they presumably get more than a billion. If someone makes something better than substack / blogger, they presumably get half a beelion. Why is no one doing this?

Listened to a Tucker Carlson interview with a gold expert [1] .  It's the usual derping around why is valuable, "instrinsic" use, whatever.  The remarkable thing is, they don't mention, at all, the scarcity of it.  As far as Carlson's concerned, it's completely arbitrary, might as well be anything (from memory, Harari makes similar mistake, "could just as well still be sea shells". No, you can farm sea shells).  They do talk about cost of mining gold, which is related, but not about just how scarce it is.  To a first approximation, it is a fixed quantity, increasing perhaps by 1% a year, and yes that is a function of price, but that's roughly it. [1] < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxWZO0FEQ1g > Then looked at this reading [2] recommended by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America for the third Friday of Lent.  Isaiah 13:12 starts " I will make men more rare than fine gold [..]".  This is apparently a reference to the scarci...

 Recaptcha on a logged-in account (to create an additional publication).  Mega-fail, Substack:

I tried to create under-paragraph notes showing URLs, rather than relying on it being rendered as hypertext. Couldn't make the text small. I wondered about doing it as a footnote instead. Couldn't find anything about footnotes. Substack's document model is limited. Maybe that's a strength.  Seems too limited to me.

My actual snowboard setup, which I bought in early 2019, is Burton: X medium size bindings, attached with channel system to Custom X 156 Camber board, and SLX size 42 boots (will be moving to 42.5 from now on).  This was from Goofy and Regular in Lucerne.   The chap who served me was ace.  I can't remember what word he kept saying, but it expressed his joy at someone falling over.  It took a few days and then I collected it all.  I was living in Lucerne at the time.  I haven't made any adjustments to it, or needed to tighten anything, in the intervening years. Now that I want to replicate the setup (and you can't do this by turning up at a good ski resort and going to the Burton dealer(s) -- no one keeps any of it in stock, except some rando size of the boots, which they might try to sell you anyway, after a big performance measuring your feet, oh stand this way, stand on one foot, do a squat with your foot on there, right we have these they're size 40...

I thought I'd try substack for blogging about something or other inane. The in-browser editor didn't seem to have a "make table" control, which usually has a grid-like hieroglyph. I thought I'll try pasting one in. I went to Pages on Apple's icloud on the web.  At least they make nice URLs for things, like icloud.com/pages.  I created a table.  I tried to select it for copying.  Couldn't select it: not with normal drag, not with hold down shift and press cursor, and not with ctrl-A. I opened libreoffice and created a table.  It copied fine.  Pasted into substack in browser.  It just pasted text from cells, not a table.  Tried pasting into libreoffice.  Worked.  Tried pasting into google doc in browser.  Worked.  Tried pasting into blogger in Browser.  Worked!  So substack lacks basic feature, table, that Blogger has. Well, my thing needs a table.

 test wib wob ib pp

Blogger feels like it's from around 2000. I've just tried the Blogger app on my iphone.  Adding pictures is a "premium" feature, requiring a subscription at 17.34 GBP(2025) per month.  For those reading from the future, this is roughly one hour at the median wage. The web interface via the phone's browser does at least work, with mega-clunkage.

I just installed Uber again, on latest phone, because I needed to get a ride.  When ios asks if it can do notiifications, one assumes these notifications will be about one's ride.  No, they are spam.  And I've been here before [0].  I'd forgotten, but over 3 years ago, I was uninstalling Uber due to notification spam.  Why do this?  Why alienate customers in this way?  If your business is taxi app, why spam your customers with notification spam?  [0] < https://wibblement.blogspot.com/2021/12/uber-spammers-account-temporarily.html > And, again, the ride pricing and information from Uber was rubbish. I started trying to get a ride at Spittal-Millstaettersee (spectacular train journey, by the way), where there were building works and a bus replacement service.  I was cutting it fine for getting to my destination in daylight.  Checkin was only possible until 17:00.  Given that checking required taking a gondola, a chairlift, and w...

update: answer is that you log in with your barcode and password from the SOLO service, not from whatever comes up when you search the web for "log in bodleian". I used to be able to log in to the Bodleian's web site, using "barcode" id and a password, and order books to a reading room for the next day.  This was good. Now, their login page doesn't provide that option.  I don't know how the concept of "Oxford Single Sign-On" has changed since I left -- perhaps this now includes mere Bodleian members.  I click on this, and get.. a Microsoft Live web page.  What the absolute fuck. Instead, I try registering for an account, hoping to be able to link it to my existing membership id ("barcode") later.  Nope, it's "identify buses" time: And of course, if you do the buses, then next it's traffic lights, then bridges, then motorcycles, and it never ends.  I'm not falling for it again.  So how do I log in to the Bodleian...

Mr TJ of Tirol writes: How many code128 barcode 6-character asset labels can you get from a typical 8m TZ tape? Great question. Let's start with a fresh TZe-221 label cartridge: I started at tj1783 on a PT7600 machine, and chose number 99 (this is the max). It displayed 45.0 at the bottom of the display, and this is the length in mm.  I measured a label with a ruler to confirm: it was 45mm.  This indicated length did not change during the print run, implying that the lengths of these labels were not affected by character widths in the font. Then, I chose another 99.  It finally ran out having done tj1968.  When a TZ tape runs out, you get this black and white barring effect: If you care about not having gaps in the sequence, you have to work out which one was printed successfully last.  The barring is usually too heavy to read off the id that failed.  The easiest way is to lay the labels out in order as you cut them, as depicted, instead of allowing them to...

During the Cold Ware, it was taken as read that the US and the USSR should not go to war directly with each other, because it would be too likely to escalate to all-out nuclear war.  Which is bad, mkay?  Today, the situation is the same: the United States and Russian Federation should not go to war directly with each other, because it would be too likely to escalate to all-out nuclear war.  Which is bad, mkay? Given this, it is hard to interpret Starmer-Macron's behaviour.  Are the neocons pulling the strings really this nuts? It may be necessary, in 2025, for the US to humiliate Britain and France on the same scale as the 1956 Suez crisis.

A friend's retail business doesn't take cash any more. At first this seemed odd. He said if you take cash, you have to train staff in it, and they can't do it. I didn't believe him.  This is such a basic part of functional numeracy that you can take it for granted, for, say, 98% of the population. Then, these four anecdotes on making change from Autumn 2024. In a restaurant in Guernsey, the bill was 41.xx GBP (service charge had already been added), and I handed over 51.30 (ish) to make the change easier.  The chap was taking ages, so I zoned out. When I came to, I realised he was counting out pound notes. The change should have been a tenner plus pennies. I said something, and it became clear he was making change from 50.00 GBP. He escalated to more senior team member, who cottoned on to give a tenner. T In Oxford, in a cafe, I ordered a coffee. 3.45 GBP. I handed over a twenty plus the 45p. She knew to open the till, but beyond this, was completely at a loss. She didn...

I was once on a bus in New Zealand.  The driver stopped, got out the bus, went into a field, and helped a Ewe give birth. She then got back in the bus and continued driving.  New Zealanders know sheeps. There's a street in Chamonix with outdoors shops like Norrona, Arcteryx, Salomon, and so on, all in a row.  Upstairs in one of these shops is an Icebreaker section with base layer tops, leggings, and pants.  I hadn't heard of Icebreaker before, but since forming my preoccupation with Merino Wool content [0] [1] [2], I was bound to discover them.  [0] < https://wibblement.blogspot.com/2024/07/do-merino-socks-have-44-merino-wool.html > [1] < https://wibblement.blogspot.com/2025/01/if-sock-is-20-merino-wool-is-it-merino.html > [2] < https://wibblement.blogspot.com/2025/03/my-loffler-leggings-are-probably-63.html > The 200 series of base layers, tops and bottoms, are 100% wool.  The pants are slightly problematic, being eighty-something percent...

I previously asked whether socks with just 44% merino wool were "merino" socks [1].  I was going to ask a similar question about a "Merino" sock containing just 20% merino wool.  Unfortunately, I puked while writing the second sentence of the article.  I remember I was in Austria when I started the article, but I probably can't find the socks now. [1] < https://wibblement.blogspot.com/2024/07/do-merino-socks-have-44-merino-wool.html > [2] < https://wibblement.blogspot.com/2025/01/if-sock-is-20-merino-wool-is-it-merino.html > More happily, my new Löffler (Upper Austria) leggings, tagged "Merino", say on their label that they're 63% wool and 37% polypropylene.  Given the level of deception in this field, I wonder if any of that 63% wool is some type of wool other than Merino wool. For future reference: Europe / Italy size 50 / M.

Brother make iron-on fabric tape for their TZ label printers.  These are mainly intended for clotheses. I have TZe-FA53, which is 12mm dark blue on light blue.  And TZe-FAE3, which is dark blue on pastel pink. The narrowest TZ tape where one can print a barcode, along with its text underneath, is 9mm.  Therefore, it would be nice if Brother also made 9mm iron-on fabric tape. I'm currently adding asset ids to possessions.  I am going to need a lot of help with this in due course, if it's going to become really comprehensive and useful.  But it's already a bit useful.  The barcodes are scannable with barcode scanners that emulate keyboards.  And searching Trello for the id brings up any cards where the id is mentioned.  That's a decent start.  I allocate and print a range at a time, in several different prefix series. When it comes to applying the fabric labels to fabrics, the Brother manual [1]  says: prepare iron to 160-180C note: I have...

The CD-S303 is one of the only CD decks still manufactured.  It powers itself off, and powering it back on to play some music is laborious.  Probably due to an EU regulation. You can disable this.  Without the remote, even.  Just with front panel buttons technology.  It is in the manual.  Do not swallow batteries. Procedure:  * place the unit in standby mode by either using the button on the remote control or waiting for the unit to enter standby mode by itself. Note: the LED above the power button is orange for both on and standby modes.  It is slightly brighter for on than for standby.  * press and hold PURE DIRECT, Open/Close, and Play simultaneously until indicator changes on front panel display. It will briefly display "ADV SETT" or similar and then progress to "PLAY MEM OFF"  * press STOP three times and the display will say "AUTO STBY ON"  * press FAST-FORWARD once and it will say "AUTO STBY OFF"  * press STOP and i...

I'm trying to fly from the UK to Austria. Ideally from LHR to INN.  Around a decade ago, these were both considered "advanced" economies.  Now, there are no flights between these destinations, only fake and gay web "sites". KLM supposedly had an evening flight, and I was going to take this, but their web site just did this indefinitely, in two major browsers: I left it running in Firefox and Chromium for over 20 minutes.  There was a really nice animated effect, which must have taken many man-weeks of software developer time to implement.  But you can't get flight info or book flights. So I tried with Easyjet: Opaque error message, with id.  "we're sorry but something has gone wrong".  Imbeciles.  Spent ages re-entering information about myself, that they already had, to get this "far". What about good old British Airways?  Okay, they scammed me during the pandemic, but perhaps they're now flying some flights or something: Nope. L...

British Gas have put their account creation thing behind recaptcha.  So you thought you were going to set up payments for your energy bills, but instead, you are now... IDENTIFYING MOTORCYCLES And, often, these things are never satisfied, so it best to just give up as soon as it comes up.  So, British Gas effectively do not have online accounts.  Yet all their literature claims, incorrectly, that they do. Note the classic web site flaws are everywhere, too: The imbeciles incorrectly put one thing in the first person ("my account"), then correctly but inconsistently address the victim, sorry, customer, in the second person ("you"). And as soon as you start typing your email address, it starts berating you for getting it wrong.  Having to do things via web sites like this is much, much worse than doing things by post in the 1870s.