Member postings for clivel

Hi Neil,

Thanks, that is a very useful template. I had made a few basic edits in the past but it was starting a new page from scratch that was holding me back.

My interest in Schlesinger was first piqued by a Tubal Cain article in ME on setting up a lathe if I recall correctly. While searching for information on Schlesinger I came across the German site and also found a very interesting PDF article: No Limits: Georg Schlesinger I wrote to the author a few months back suggesting that he submit it to ME or MEW for publication. He replied that he probably would.

Thanks,
Clive

Creating a biography page on Wikipedia, even if only a stub, is no mean feat. It is an extremely finicky process not helped by an arcane syntax that would have felt more at home in the late eighties.

I have always felt that Georg Schlesinger the originator of Schlesinger Limits for machine tools described in his book "Testing Machine Tools" deserved a Wikipedia page. A couple of false starts in trying to create a basic biography for him has given me an appreciation of just how much time and effort is involved in setting up a Wikipedia page.

Edited By clivel on 23/07/2016 20:44:55

Well fortunately it isn't this series then:

ME 4539 Preview: "A new series starts this issue, as Neil Wyatt takes us through his work on Southam, an authentic looking 3½ inch gauge battery locomotive."

Because despite any concerns from our MEW editor about "another series", it is gratifying to know that we can expect the "Southam" series to be up to his usual high standard.

Clive

In which case I can really recommend Linux Mint. I Installed it as a dual boot alongside Windows on my laptop at least 2 years ago and have never looked back.
It was a complete revelation at how much faster everything ran under Linux. Applications that previously took forever to open now snap open almost instantly.

I occasionally needed to boot into Windows specifically to run my old Cannon scanner which was never supported under Linux, but even that is now no longer necessary. One can download a free XP virtual machine from Microsoft and install that in "Virtual Box" or "VMWare Player" (both of which are free) on a Linux system. Since doing so, I have had no need to boot into Windows again.

Clive

Edited By clivel on 14/06/2016 02:59:01

As far as I am aware (but to be honest I have never read an MS licence in detail) one doesn't actually purchase the software, but are only paying for a licence to use the software. So somewhere in the hundreds of lines of legal gobbledygook there is probably some limitation on the length of time that the licence is valid for.

Clive

Edited By clivel on 14/06/2016 00:12:24

MS's attempts at scuttling OS/2, which was a superb OS at the time and most definitely far superior to Windows, goes right back to the late 80s and Windows 2.x.

At the time I was working for a small software developer, we were keen to have our product ready to run on the then soon to be released OS/2 GUI, but the OS/2 Software development kit supplied by MS at the then astronomical price of $2500USD a seat was a major stumbling block. Not to worry our friendly MS salesman told us when we questioned the price, MS had a solution, we could get the Windows software development kit for only $70USD a seat, and they "guaranteed" that if we would use that for our development, that when OS/2 was released, our software would be completely compatible, needing nothing more than a recompile and some minor tweaks, at most a days work to have our software running on OS/2 as well as Windows.

Needless to say that is the last time I believed anything from an MS salesman. When O/S 2 was released it had basically two applications; Lotus 123 and WordPerfect. Around the same time MS released Microsoft Word for Windows and Excel accompanied by a whole slew of 3rd party applications by developers who had been tricked into developing for Windows. In one foul swoop, MS had put the first nail in OS/2's coffin and at the same time put Lotus and WordPerfect on the slippery slope towards extinction. Some people called it marketing genius, to me it was downright dishonest.

That being said though, as far as I am concerned Excel has the distinction of being MS's only product that could have succeeded on merit. All MS's other products were no better, and often especially in their earlier incarnations, far worse than competing products relying instead on clever and often extremely underhand marketing techniques to crush the competition and capture market share.

Clive

Edited By clivel on 13/06/2016 23:05:30

It has always seemed bizarrely difficult to get photos off an Android phone, my old phone a Samsung II was not even capable of transferring photos via USB.

How I now do it, is by means of the Google "Photos" app. Install the app on the phone via the Play store, sign up for a free Gmail account. Even if one has no intention of using it for email, Gmail accounts include unlimited free photograph storage for images of 16 megapixels or smaller which includes most phone cameras.

When the phone is connected to WiFi (for those with generous data plans it can be set to use that as well) photos are automatically backed-up to the associated Gmail account, thus allowing the photos to be viewed and downloaded anywhere by means of a web browser.

Clive

Seeing that it is in the "Related Hobbies" section of the forum that isn't too surprising

Clive

And Bubble has conveniently disappeared somewhere into the worldwide web laughing at just what a LARGE cat he has put amongst the pigeons.
Someone should find a great big pin to pop the little sadist.

During my national service in the South African Defence Force rumours were rife that the tea was laced with copper sulphate in order to control "urges". A few weeks on mess duty where one of my duties was making the tea proved otherwise, besides which copper sulphate is actually rather toxic.

In reality, the extremely strenuous physical activity, there was no walking only running from 6am to 6pm during our basic training, ensured that by the time we went to bed at around 9pm, we were all far too exhausted to think of anything but sleep.

Clive

Barclay Well Tank engines are currently being serialised in ME in 5" gauge by Terence Holland in both 0-4-0 and 0-6-0 versions.

As far as I recall the intention is to describe the construction of these engines without castings.

Clive

Actually that was Julian, who I might add, with his wealth of experience is probably far more capable than I at making a worthwhile contribution to ME.

Clive

John,

Actually your "Making Shay Links" article was for me one of the highlights of that issue - regrettably too short though. This is the type of article I would like to see more of in ME, but of course Diane can only publish what she gets.

What I like about the article is that although still practical, it illustrates a fresh way of doing things. Although I hanker for the older project heavy ME, I don't believe that ME should be stuck in the past and restricted to older methodologies.

Clive

Diane,
From the outset I would like to state that my comments were not intended to hurt, nor were they intended as a personal attack in any form, nevertheless I do appreciate that you may find them upsetting. I had hoped that my comments would be seen as constructive, but of course perceptions differ depending on which side of the table one sits.

As a long time customer of any business, whether a magazine or even the local supermarket, if changes have been made so that the product or services offered by the business no longer meet my needs then I feel that I would be remiss in not informing said business as to why I no longer intend to patronise them.

The comments I made are my personal opinion, and are my personal reasons as to why I am considering not renewing my subscription. I may well be in the minority, in which case if ME in its current form meets the needs of the majority of readers there is little need to change. If on the other hand circulation is dropping off, and only you and the circulation manager would know that, then it may be worth considering that others could feel the same way as myself.

The one point however that I do feel very strongly about, and I am sure that I am not alone, is the publication of construction series without drawings. Thinking back to the recent past, some of the series that I very much enjoyed reading without any intention of of ever actually building the project, included Nick Feast's Q1, Ray McMahon's Darjeeling, Stewart Hart's stationary engines and even the long running StepperHead lathe as published in MEW. In all cases having the drawings at hand allowed me to visualise the build and hold my interest. The series sans drawing are too abstract for my taste and my mind soon wanders. But then again this could be just me.

Regards,
Clive

I resent that argument!

In the first place I very much doubt that I could do better, but, then again why should I have to. I am a customer, not a writer nor an editor. I very much doubt that you are any more capable of doing the jobs that you haven't been trained for, than the majority of people already doing those jobs.

Furthermore I would love to be able to submit an article or construction series. Regrettably I don't have anything of interest to impart, no do I have the necessary skills for writing such an article. Nevertheless that does not preclude me from being a customer, and as a long term customer I feel that the onus is on me to inform a supplier as to why their product no longer meets my needs.

Clive

Edited By clivel on 15/03/2016 16:56:05

As a long time reader of both ME and MEW my habit over the years has been to first have a quick page through each new issue from beginning to end as soon as it arrives, and then to settle down for an in-depth read. That way, while working my way through the magazine, I can anticipate the pleasure of articles still to come.

Recently it occurred to me that that the four most recent issues of ME are still lying on my bedside table; paged through, but not read, and worse yet, I have absolutely no desire to read them. It soon crossed my mind that I no longer receive much enjoyment from ME and that I regularly put the magazine away unread.

Naturally, my first thought was that it is my tastes that are changing. But it is not that, because I still very much enjoy each new issue of MEW and I will also happily select random copies of ME to read from my pile of older magazines - some of which I have read many times before. So it would seem that it is not me that has changed, but instead it is ME itself that has undergone a metamorphosis, a metamorphosis that I personally do not like.

In the past the primarily focus of ME has been as a practical engineering journal. Alas no longer, instead it now seems to be more like 'model engineering light'. The more practical aspects having been displaced by what can best be described as a narrative approach.

First are the travelogues and similar engineering-interest, but not actual engineering articles such as for example the perpetual "Engineer's day out" which beyond the first two or three articles, hold very little interest for those of us not in the UK and are soon skipped past. It is not that these type of articles have no place in ME, instead, as in the past, they should be used as an occasional item to add interest, and not as the core of every issue.

More problematic however are the construction articles which for the most part seemed to have devolved into something more akin to non-construction. There is still a smattering of the practical; however I doubt that many readers are too enthused with an issue containing essentially one true construction article like the five page (and that is only the first part) article on making a picture frame in issue 4526. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with the article, nor is it wrong to try and appeal to beginners, but as almost the sole representative of practical engineering in that issue along with a half-page article on a bandsaw stop liberally padded out with photographs to 2 pages, it is a far cry from the glory of past years.

As for the remainder of so called construction series that we have seen over the past few months, these seem to fall into two groups. The first are purely narrative – the “reality tv” of model engineering, such as the making of the skeleton clock which interesting in itself, contrary to what the cover of issue 4526 would imply, is not actually a construction series. The second such as the recent Anna stationary engine, the long running Mastiff and the even longer running Garett 4CD series have all been published sans drawings, making them all but useless except to the very small percentage of readers who are actually intending to purchase the drawings and build these projects.

That is not to say that the editor should completely dispense with narrative type articles. In moderation the occasional article or series can make an enjoyable and interesting read, especially when dealing with exceptional models by exceptional modellers, here the likes of Alan Crossfield and his Patriot locomotive or Ashley Best and his trams spring to mind.

Regrettably current editorial policy seems to be moving away from the practical formula that has made ME a success for almost 120 years. Whether this is due to a change in editorial direction, or whether it is more a factor of the kind of articles being submitted to the editor, or a mix of both, is irrelevant. The simple fact is that I no longer enjoy the magazine.

It is still some months before my current subscription runs out, but based on how little enjoyment I receive from ME in it's current incarnation, I for one, will not be renewing my subscription.

Needless to say, this is my personal opinion, others of course most likely feel completely different.

Clive

Edited By clivel on 14/03/2016 20:36:01

Another a happy Thunderbird user here. I have have used it for at least 12 years on both Linux and various releases of Windows and have yet to lose an email.

Like Roger, I have it configured to handle multiple email accounts - currently three IMAP and two POP accounts. Thunderbird works well enough for me that I have never felt the need to look for an alternative

Clive

Terminal block jumpers, something like these **LINK** ?

This is how I did it when I built my first engine.

I cut off a scrap of soft wood at 45 degrees in a mitre box, screwed the flywheel tightly to the wood off-cut which was then clamped to the drilling table of my lathe.

Bear in mind, that it is a small flywheel and a small Unimat lathe/mill/drill. Anything larger would probably have needed a far more secure method of holding the flywheel.

Clive

I think that was a not so subtle reference to the upside down photos, not a reference to the origin of the machine