More local developments

It seems that Waterlooville and Havant Borough in general is now inundated with house, supermarket and hotel building. In some cases, the developments can probably be justified, in other cases the developments are IMO criminal acts. Lets list them:

Woodcraft Farm - criminal act of environmental damage

The site is probably as green a site that you could possibly get in Havant Borough, with many excellent trees. One questions why this site is even considered suitable for development, when brown field sites are available, such as the Caetano site.

How are we supposed to maintain the green spaces around us when council policies allow developments on these spaces? What is really sad is that the main objections locally is the increased traffic that might occur!

Old Purbrook School playing fields - probably justifiable

Of all the sites, this one can probably be justified given that it is in the middle of a suburban area. Although even this could be developed into a green space for community use, such as an urban community garden space. It is situated next to the roundabout at the top of Stakes Road and near Crookhorn school.

Sainsburys supermarket

I think locally many are dreading the disruption later this year when work will probably start on the Caetano site, firstly with demolition and then building work. It was a nightmare when the nearby retail park was built. The new Sainsburys will have a similar impact and as with all these retail units, will encourage car use and more CO2 emissions. Yet another nail in the coffin of Waterlooville town centre. More cafes, charity shops and fast food outlets to come I think.

New Hotel - Bosmere Field

Why do we need more hotels? The government talks about balancing the economy, yet this week Cameron welcomes 5000 new Asda jobs and 1000 jobs with McDonalds! What planet does Cameron live on? Was Britain great because it served the world and gave up bothering with science, design. invention etc??

New Computer

Old Pentium IV motherboard and processor. The large
lump at the back with a fan on top is the processor
and heat sink

After many years using a second hand (£50) Pentium IV computer I decided it was about time to upgrade to a new computer.

The options were to buy another second hand computer or recycled computer or even a new one. I found some refurbished dual core computers for about £150, which would have been a lot cheaper than buying a new low end computer for £260.

I didn't need any new display or keyboard etc.

Even these costs were high, so I decided to look at replacing the motherboard. Initially I looked at buying separate motherboard, processor, ram, graphics card etc.

Fine, but it takes hours and hours and hours to match all the components and to keep an eye on the total cost. Plus you have a worry about it all be 'compatible'.

So then I started looking at 'bundles', this makes things easier, because someone has taken the time to match components. At first I spotted a bundle at Maplins for a motherboard with a 3 core 2.5Ghz AMD processor, all for £89. Wow, that looked good, but they rapidly sold out and there were no more by the time I decided to take the plunge.

So I had to start looking again. Finally found a small company selling a bundle for £104. The Motherboard has a single IDE socket as well as SATA connections, which meant I could use the old hard drive and DVD drive. It also has reasonably good Nvidia graphics chips. The processor is a 3Ghz 2 core AMD Athlon and the board has 2 gb of ram. After checking compatibility of a number of other connections I took the plunge and ordered the bundle.

The result is excellent. Installed it at the weekend and I am really pleased with the performance. So I have a new computer, whilst keeping all the old drives, case, keyboard, display, mouse and power supply.

Cobblers II

In 2008 I bought a pair of hand made boots from Guat shoes in Sheffield. The experience was most satisfying. The boots are quite basic and traditional in design, they have real stitching rather than being glued together. There is no padding internally, the sort of thing you get with modern boots. Despite the lack of padding, they are just as or more comfortable than mass produced and marginally cheaper boots.

Apart from some scuff marks on the toe area and some wear on the soles. They are still going strong. I also have a theory that mass produced boots need a lot of padding because the outer skin design is so poor regarding comfort. eg. they design them to look cool, but that design is crap regarding comfort, so they stuff a load of padding in to compensate.

Unlike most modern boots however the soles on these boots can be replaced. The idea being that over the life time of the boots instead of buying two pairs for the approximate cost of £60 each (if you are lucky), I would spend an initial £90 for the hand made boots and about £30 for sole replacements later. The total cost being the same, but with just under half the materials used. I may even get away without replacing the soles, depending on wear.

That idea is still on schedule.

Waterlooville Daleks get festive

The News reports that the Waterlooville Dalek squad have joined in with the Christmas festivities this year. Earlier in the year I commented that Daleks had appeared in the Waterlooville area.

Monckton gets demolished, scraped off the floor and then is ground to dust

Only Monckton could argue with himself and do it so badly:

Looking for work?

Portsmouth Friends of the Earth are looking for an Area Project Officer to cover maternity leave on their Lottery funded Grow to Eat Well project in Portsmouth. If you have good horticultural skills, are a good recruiter and are happy driving an electric van or riding a cycle, you might be interested. Closing date 13/12/11. Contact the project for more details.

http://www.gtew.org.uk/

Video of Earth

Watch this excellent video of the Earth as seen from the International Space Station earlier this year. The thinness of the atmosphere can be seen in many of the sequences. The northern lights, lightening and urban centres are also stunning.