Archive for June, 2009

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Spotted climbing perch (Ctenopoma acutirostre)

Sunday, June 14th, 2009

When I was in Otley today, I visited Waterworld in Stephen H Smiths Garden Centre. I noticed two fish in a tank, I’ve not seen for sale in a very long time. They were labelled as Archer fish, but they we clearly not Archer fish and labelled incorrectly. Oddballs of the tropical fish world, so I snapped them both up.

The fish I bought are Spotted climbing perch (Ctenopoma acutirostre), commonly called the Leopard bush fish or African leaf fish, not to be confused with the real leaf fish from South America. The Spotted climbing perch is endemic to the Congo river basin in Africa. (Ctenopoma acutirostre distribution map)  It is part of the unique Anabantidae family, that is freshwater fish that originate from South East Asia and Africa and is therefore related to the Siamese fighting fish (Betta Splendens) and all gourami species.  The Anabantidae family can breath atmospheric air using a accessory organ called a labyrinth and create bubblenests to breed.

Spotted Climbing Perch (Cteponoma acutirostre)

Spotted Climbing Perch, Leopard Bush fish, African Leaf fish (Cteponoma acutirostre)

Must not keep them with anything small, as they are predators!

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Digging in the dirt

Thursday, June 11th, 2009
Potatoe Farm

Potatoe Farm

 

I lost my footing this evening and fell over in the potatoes, and couldn’t get up! Lindsey had to help me up, so some of the potatoes plants are crushed because I fell on them!

I harvested two bags of potatoes this evening, as I needed 500grams of new potatoes for a salad recipe.

First Early Harvest

First Early Harvest

After Lindsey had seen what I had dug she commented “new potato salad off the menu then”!

The smaller micro-potatoes we boiled-up all the same, and they were very tasty. But what I failed to understand, is why the larger potatoes were very green, these were not near the top, so I don’t think light had caused them to go green, as I had earthed up the potatoes, I’m now wondering if I’ve left them in the ground too long, or harvested them too early.

So we didn’t eat the green potatoes, as I’ve read green potatoes can be poisonous!

Oh well, there’s always the second earlies, salad and main crop to try, and then Xmas Potatoes!

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A Decade with Demon Internet

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

I’ve been with Demon Internet on and off for many years, introduced many family and friends to their Internet service. I switched to Demon Internet from CIX, when a fellow CIX member Cliff Stanford, setup Demon in 1992. I remember using DOS and Windows Trumpet Winsock to access Demon Internet and the MOSAIC web browser. So I’ve always used Spuddy, CIX, and Demon to access the Internet for many years. (not forgetting access to the early Internet from Plymouth Polytechnic in the late 80s). Access to the internet was via standard dial-up modems, at a tenner a month, from local pops (point of presence) around the UK, before demon rolled out 0845 numbers. So when I started Cyrus Computer Consultants Ltd (circa 1999), I followed my own recommendation and my business joined Demon Internet in 1999, to provide web and email hosting, and ISDN circuits for Internet access. However in 2004, I decided to obtain my ADSL broadband from Eclipse Internet, a South West company based out of Exeter, but kept my web and email hosting with Demon Internet.

Just short of a decade with Demon Internet by a few days, I have now decided to cancel and leave Demon Internet forever, it’s just not cost effective anymore for us to carry on hosting with the organization. It’s with great sadness I do this, because it feels like losing a great friend! Over the last 10 years, we’ve had great service (okay, a few times no mail for 24-48 hours, but I almost forgot that outage, but it caused real embarrassment with me, when a large World Wide IT company  couldn’t email me!).

So the Fax to terminate went off the other day (yes, I found a modem lead!), on 4 June 2009, and I asked for the domain to be transferred to our control. (I also asked them to phone me, when this has been done, so we could make arrangements, so no  email or web access would be lost – this obviously got lost in translation at the call centre! – there was no call!), but I was surprised the change was done, as soon as the fax hit the floor!

So for the last 6 days, email has been arriving from two different sources, whilst the Domain Name System synchronies across the Internet. I think DNS updates are now complete, because I’m not getting any mail from Demon at present.

So Farewell, Old friend Demon Internet…

Thanks for 10 years of service…

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Mobile Edition of andysworld! for use with iPhone!

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

I’ve had a few requests from readers with mobile devices, that read the blog, that struggle with the side panels and content.

If you are lucky enough to own one of those mobile devices, smart phones, pda, iPhone, Nokia something or HTC Touch device, I’ve now made the blog “mobile” compatible.

If accessed from a mobile device, it should switch to a mobile theme, which may help reading the blog. If it doesn’t send me your User Agent string, or let me know which device you have and I’ll add it to the list of devices.

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It’s a lot less bother with a hover – is it?

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

For the last couple of days I’ve been cutting the lawn. Whoever said that a lawned garden requires little maintenance. We’ve not been able to cut the lawn completely since the spring because of the Daffodils planted in the lawn, and I’ve read these should not be cut down before 1 June, to allow the bulbs to swell. So the grass has grown rather long in places!

I started cutting the grass yesterday, but had to higher the blade on my electric flymo, to cope with the long grass, and today, I’ve been cutting the grass and lowering the blade to it’s lowest setting to cut the lawn. So I’ve been up and down the lawn six times today at different blade heights. The yellow patches are where the long grass has been, but these will green up shortly with the next rainfall. The lawn measures approx. 70 feet x 35 feet, and it’s quite difficult cutting with an electric flymo, but that will have to do at present, until I decide to get a petrol lawnmower. Who said ‘it’s a lot less bother with a hover’, is welcome to come run to my house for free and cut my lawn with a hover mower.

 

Front Lawn No.1 (not cut!)

Front Lawn No.1 (not cut!)

My trusty bright orange Eletrolux Flymo Compact 380 Hover lawn mower right of picture (I really should move those fish tanks into the fish house!)

Front Lawn No.2 (not cut!)

Front Lawn No.2 (not cut!)

The hedge will need a cut next 

Front Lawn No.3 (not cut!)

Front Lawn No.3 (not cut!)

At the bottom of the garden under the aging Victoria Plum tree, the grass has been deliberately left long for the wild-life.

Front Lawn No.4 (cut!)

Front Lawn No.4 (cut!)

Yellow patches left by the long grass, because of the daffodils. 

Front Lawn No.5 (cut!)

Front Lawn No.5 (cut!)

My bit for bio-diversity!

My bit for bio-diversity!

deliberately left long for the wild-life! 

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Tropical Fish Shops in Hull

Monday, June 8th, 2009

Last Friday 5th June, I had some spare time in Hull, so spent the day driving around visiting the local Tropical Fish shops in and around Hull.

Here are some comments on the lfs I visited

Frisby Aquatics, 115 Sculcoates Lane, Hull, East Yorkshire, United Kingdom, HU5 1DN

Located here

Frisby Aquatics is stacked with fish tanks, majority of the smaller tanks are filtered with undergravel filters, the larger tanks are filter with large external filters. When I visited there are many different types of livebearers, cichlids – young angelfish, and if you are an african rift lake cichlids fan, this is the place to obtain some nice large specimens. They also had two large arrowanas as well.

Ings Lane Garden And Water Garden Centre Ltd, Ings Lane, Dunswell, Hull, East Yorkshire, United Hull, East Yorkshire HU6 0AL

Located here.

A very nice modern and clean tropical fish section, the usual John Allan tanks or similar and central filtration system. Good lighting. This place is great, nice synodontis and L number catfish.

and the water garden section is fantastic, what can I say, the Koi on display are fantastic.

This place would encourage me to replace the front lawn with a large koi pond!

The koi are execellent!

Maidenhead Aquatics @ Beverley, Peter Barratt Garden Centre, Hull Road, Woodmansey, HU17 0RS

Friendly staff, the usual Maidenhead setup, with central filtration, lots of fish, and on visiting they had some Electric Blue Jack Dempseys, and I purchased some young Nicaraguen Cichlids to add to my collection, I also have some young males, that these young females will pair up with, and Peter Barratts has a nice coffee shop, to have an expresso!

Located here

Outlet Garden Centre, Hull Road Woodmansey HU17 0RU

I’ve never been here before, and was surprised they stocked some marine, tropical, coldwater fish and reptiles. Many tanks on the far wall. They also had lots of hardware and goods on display, some with dust on, so they don’t sell much of it!

Located here

KKC 6 Astral Rd Hessle East Yorkshire United Kingdom HU13 9DD

Located here 

Located on a housing estate, behind the back of someones house! (hedge could do with cutting!) A fantastic supply of livebearers, guppies, platies and mollies, some very nice blue and blood red guppies for sale. Looks like a much larger version of my fish house, no prices displayed on anything though!

and the marine section .

OUT OF THIS WORLD!

If you need any tropical marine fish, you need to go to KKC!

I’ve never seen so many different clown fish. There are hundreds of tropical marine fish for sale.

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Modems!

Thursday, June 4th, 2009

 

Hayes Accura 336 Message Modem, US Robotics Sportster MessagePlus and ELSA Microlink 56k

Hayes Accura 336 Message Modem, US Robotics Sportster MessagePlus and ELSA Microlink 56k

Does anyone use a modem? (not broadband modems, boxes that plug into your home telephone line, e.g. US Robotics Sportsters etc)

 

I needed to send a three page fax today, I’ve found many modems lying around the office, that would do the job and are fax ready, but none of them had a cable to connect to the telephone wall socket! 

Come to think of it does anybody fax anymore?

Whatever happened to US Robotics and Hayes, back in the day, when we thought 28.8, 33.6 and 56k was lighting quick!

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Slow Broadband ADSL issue

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009

Since I moved my website, I’ve been experiencing slow broadband ADSL issues, at first I thought it was performance with the new website, out of the frying pan and into the fire. But then I noticed that all websites were slow and on checking my Rx Sync speed on Monday, it was syncing at 428,000 (just under half a meg!). I’m not too sure, if the hot weather is affecting the connection, I know that my connection to the exchange is underground for the majority of the way, until it reaches the telegraph pole outside my house, and the “green box” is at the bottom of the hill, and occasionally becomes a drain for the water that runs down the hill. After reporting the problem to my ISP, they reset the line, so I’ve been monitoring the line statistics since. The Rx noise was over 50db, when the Rx sync was 428,000 bps Tuesday afternoon, all has been well over the last 24 hours, with an average Rx noise of 15db, and Rx sync of 2140000, but I’m just checking the stats now, and it’s dropped to Rx noise 9db and Rx sync 1344000 bps. Maybe it’s the cold weather tonight!

 

ADSL Broadband Router Stats for last 24 hours

ADSL Broadband Router Stats for last 24 hours

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Willies Delectable Cacao – very good!

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009

The final challenge on this weeks BBC’s The Apprentice, to be screened on Sunday 9pm BBC One, is to launch a new box of chocolates. Which has prompted me to rescue a draft post, I produced a few weeks ago, but never got around to publish it. Handmade by Willie Harcourt-Cooze from his factory in Devon, this new dark “chocolate” cacao, is dark chocolate without the bitter or sweet taste. Its called Willies Delectable Cacao.If you like proper chocolate (and I don’t mean Mars bars, KitKats or Snickers!) e.g. Lindt, Green and Blacks – you’ll love this, it’s very good. It’s 80g, and you get two bars, individually wrapped in gold foil, I would show you what it looks like, but I’ve eaten it already! But this is the packaging to look for in the Supermarkets.

 

Willies Delectable Cacao

Willies Delectable Cacao

Its’ now readily available from Waitrose. Now where is Willerby?

(thanks to Sally & Paul for supplying me with a sample! – cannot wait for more!!!)

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Potatoe Farm update – ready?

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009

An update on how the potatoes are growing. I’ve been reminded by the calendar it’s time to dig-up my First Earlies – Epicure, which should be ready for harvesting now.

Potatoe farm

Potatoe farm

 

 

First Earlies Epicure - ready for digging up?

First Earlies Epicure - ready for digging up?

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