Craig Sawyers

Now that is interesting. It comes out of the the Optical Research Centre (ORC) at Southampton University. I did my research work there in the late 70's in the precursor to the ORC - the Laser Physics group. The ORC was formed when that group (around 10 people) merged with the Fibre Optic group (about the same size). It is now a global leader is just about everything photonic. Led by Dave Payne, who I knew as a research fellow in '77 and is now Professor Sir David Neil Payne CBE FRS FREng - a real academic heavy hitter.

Very sad. Eco's books were never an easy read, with many layers of meaning (try Foucault's Pendulum) but always worth reading and then re-reading. Eco himself said that he probably wrote for masochists.

That is another of the greats gone. We studied To Kill a Mockingbird in English studies at school in the UK in 1972. At least she got in a sequel before the end of her very long life.

The old cough mixture photo made me think of a product still available in the UK - Kaolin and Morphine - a cure for diarrhea http://www.chemistdirect.co.uk/kaolin-morphine-mixture/prd-o2d Ingredients: Light kaolin BP 1g, sodium bicarbonate BP 250mg, morphine hydrochloride BP 0.458mg and ethanol.

Have a great birthday Colin!

Have a great one, Steve

^^And for the toughest foot race, possibly in the world, 135 miles from Death Valley to Mt Whitney http://www.badwater.com/event/badwater-135/ in midsummer. They wear white coveralls during the day, and run on the white line on the road to prevent their running shoes from melting on the blacktop.

Wow you have a way with words - I can't stop laughing at that opening sentence; You've made my day

Saw ACDC in late 1974 at Southampton University Student's Union. Which was the dining hall converted on a Saturday into a rock venue, with the band on a Dexion and floorboard stage we put up in half an hour. Hot, crowded and impossibly loud at a time when bands were seriously loud anyway. Way before anything remotely like a risk assessment, fire hazard issues, and busted eardrums.

Have a great one, Ed!

For out and out classic beauty the McIntosh takes a lot of beating

The one L lama is a priest The two L llama is a beast And I would bet a silk pyjama you're never heard of a three L lllama

Like the TV chef that I saw demonstrating how to do grilled cheese fast by putting the toaster horizontal, in his own home (Jamie Oliver). That produced smoke too by the bucketload, and made a hell of a mess of his toaster. So you're in good company!

Jeez. What a way to go. Same thing happened to a guy whose music I used to listen to - Michael Hedges - in 1997. Car went off on road and down 120 feet into a ravine in Mendocino. Took them several days to find him.

Very best wishes!

B&O were always innovative, and produced great looking stuff that produced real sound quality. Back in the day (1972/3) I worked on a Saturday in an audio store in Newcastle (UK). The Beogram 4000 had just been introduced with a parallel tracking arm. Apart from zero tracking error, the customer benefit was its total immunity to mistracking as a result of shock. I used to demonstrate that by thumping the deck as hard as I could with my fist while a record was playing. It was one hell of a deck.

Kind of difficult, since Evans has massive clout withe the BBC - and do or die he is the new face of TG. Will he last in the long term? No idea, but I'd guess he will be around for at least a year.

If indeed they are dead (after you get them out) you need to find out what killed them. Post the schematic so we can have a look.

If you are measuring out of circuit (so there is no confusion with any other parts on the board) then they are dead. Gate to drain or source is diode-like. Depending on the JFET, drain to source will be tens to hundreds of ohms either way around with the gate open. Possibly a turn-on transient while the tube warms up has killed them? Without seeing the schematic it is kind of difficult to tell for sure.

Dunno if I posted this on the batteries. But when I built mine, I modelled the batteries in spice, with the following results: Batteries.pdf

Thanks for that Graeme - I laughed so much it is incomprehensible that he has gone. From the date-stamp 6 years ago - so he must have been 71 then, and looked nothing like it. And multiple Bowie mentions too....

The pic of Concorde reminded me of a guy called Norman Harry. Norman is the (now very elderly) father of an old workmate of mine, Alan Harry. Alan had mentioned that his dad was a great mechanical engineer, and 20 years ago or so I had a problem that it seemed Norman might be able to help with. This dapper little guy showed up, quietly spoken. After a coffee we exchanged business cards, and his said "Norman Harry OBE" - OBE is Order of the British Empire, and is a top honour awarded by the government in the Queen's New Year honors list. And it is bestowed in person by the Queen. It is a big deal. "Good heavens, Norman - I didn't realise you had an OBE. What did you get that for?" "Um, I designed the droop nose on Concorde" Back about that time, Norman was one of a very few people qualified to pilot WW2 airplanes. In particular the Lancaster bomber. He was called on to restore the rear gun system for a French owned one, and to make sure he got it right he crawled into the gun blister of a complete one to take photographs and take measurements. "When I got in there I recognised the gun gimbals and mechanical system, and realised that I had designed it in the first place. The next thought was to see the imperfect design - that of a young guy - and immediately started to think how it ought to be done with the benefit of experience. Then I had to stop - the French wanted the historically correct one, along with all my design mistakes!" Quite a character.

No-one in the US will likely have heard about this guy, but in the UK this is a major league loss - Terry Wogan http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-26957941

The blizzard that hit you East Coast guys made it across the pond, warming as it came. So at 12C it is hitting us as torrential rain and high winds. Yummy.