Posts

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When did Microsoft defund the Office QC department?

So I’ve been working on documentation, and just got logged off my PC to install the latest version of Office.

So far today, I’ve had 4 times Word just stops, 2 times it has turned off the spell checker, and 1 time it just turned gray.

I’m not counting the odd things like it randomly draws diagrams from other pages that happen to not be portrait on the right margin, or my recent documents occasionally is not the documents I recently used. At least it draws the page edge.

I’m afraid that I’m sounding like the old man with this rant, but here goes.

I started using word back when office was not a thing, it ran in DOS, and WordPerfect was king because it was reliable and consistent, and ran. The spell checker was awesome, and you could type a document using only a keyboard. When Word 97 came out it still retained this functionality, but once the ribbon came out you no longer could type a document, but had to mouse-keyboard a document. Now with office365 integration I can type on my phone, which I always want to type on a tiny keyboard hunched in a train / plane / automobile somewhere. This feature I have used exactly once, to correct a typo on a single document, which at the time was very useful.

The problem I have is that I keep my PC around to type. I.E. program, document, and all of those supporting tasks. That program should be designed to do such, and not crash randomly or allow such problems.

Microsoft, If you find this rant, please note. Test, Test, Test your programs, and stop notifying me about the latest and greatest. I would rather have a program that has less features, and more functionality than one that looks good, and does not function. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc are tools, not wardrobe accessories.

We buy hammers to build houses, and just put the bow on the front door, if we have time. Program accordingly.

The contract has decided that all documentation is done in Word, because the company purchases Office365 for email, and the document is complex enough that I don’t want to just say F this and use a tool like OpenOffice.

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Out of time and Energy.

My beautiful wife and I just decided to expand our family to three.

The result is that I have had nothing I can post about, because I have just been trying to sleep. My Wifey is even more amazing, in that I have been getting more sleep than her. I am hoping to get back to LandRovers, Crops and other fun stuff soon.

For now, I’m going to go sleep.

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Transmission is fixed!

I gave up on fixing the transmission on the Land Rover, and finally asked for help from Todd over at Columbia Rovers.

He got Jose on it right away, and Jose found a completely severed transmission shaft. After a marathon transmission pulling session, I got the transmission out of my parts truck and to Todd the next day. I really have to get a two post lift like they have. Jose then promptly hooked the new transmission up and drove it onto my trailer.  I did not have all of the parking, swaybars, brakes, shocks, etc hooked up enough to drive it home. 

 

This is the first time I’ve driven it in a long time. Feels really good.

This phase of the project is done.. Now for the “new” ARB bumper, and tightening everything down.  I’m hoping to have it ready for the next meeting.

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Windows 7

So I pulled out one of the old company laptops to use for some random thing, and installed a copy of windows 7 on it, as that’s how old it is.

We moved to Windows 10 long ago here,  and actively purged Windows 7.

I forgot how awesome it was… no waiting, no candy crush, no “I can remind you to buy lunch meat”, no you need to run this critical update that does nothing right now while you are trying to get stuff done.

it just starts and works..

so refreshing..

Well that did not last long.

No it’s not important.. don’t “excuse me”.. I don’t want to update. I just want to use windows 7.

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New Snorkel

I’ve been trying to figure out how to put a decent looking snorkel on my discovery. I love the look of the mantec, and the way it reuses the stock air box

and the way it enters into the body,  and runs along the inside of the fender

but the connection idea I am not a fan. 

It takes the space where the 2nd battery is going.    

Then I found an aussie snorkel,  a SAFARI SNORKEL DISCOVERY 1 300TDi LHS,  and that plate that comes out the side of the stock airbox solved my issue.

 

  

So I went and visited a friend of mine to get some brackets cut out, and got the snorkel welded together. I’m calling it the weston snorkel.

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Goodbye Lil’ Petunia

It’s been a super busy couple of months, and finally Sunday I got to do something fun, but sad.

Our old racecar died, and our new karts are starting to live.

Here’s the last picture I’ll have of her. 

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The first Apache we looked at

So before we bought our trailer, we looked at several others. This was the first one. The roof was falling apart, which was a no go.

You can see some of the differences, like the twin doors made of plastic on the cabinets, whereas ours is metal, and a single door.  The different location of the spare tire (ours is in back, this one is in front), the different interior colors (red and green for ours, vs brown and brown for this one), and the lack of a vent for the fridge.

ours is a 1974 Apache Mesa, this was a 1972 Apache Mesa.

 

 

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1974 Apache Mesa – The “New” Camper

After looking at several campers, going to an RV expo, and surfing the internet, we found a 1974 Apache Mesa camper in pretty good condition. It’s a hard sided camper with heat, a fridge, sleeping for 6, tightly. and at 1500lbs, it’s tow-able by anything we own, even the Miata.

It does need some work, as it’s 44 years old. The fixes are going to be posted soon.

Here’s some pictures as we bought it:

 

 

 

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New Camper

So my wifey has been bugging me to go camping, and after much thought, we picked what to get. We were looking at a roof top camper, a tent, or a camper, which does not narrow it down. The things that we are looking for are:

  1. There’s a lot of rain where we live, so it should be able to be dried quickly.
  2. We tend to base camp, which means taking it down every time we want to drive is not desired.
  3. It has to be able to be moved by multiple vehicles, due to our tow vehicle being an old land rover.
  4. Wifey is endothermic, and therefore it should be heat-able.
  5. lights and other amenities would be nice.
  6. It should be quick to setup, i.e.: under 2 minutes.

We ended up looking at a lot of different options, but decided to rehab a popup glamper of awesomeness.

Also known as an Apache Mesa, from 1974.  Pictures of the resto-mod coming up.