Crossy

82f3dc15-be6a-41a9-8c0b-291ff133b5a2.mp4

At school, nah. Bloody log tables! (included sin, cos, tan etc. etc.) At college etc. we actually had calculators (although we were supposed to also have slide-rules, nobody ever used them).

Nearly, SOHCAHTOA, which everyone remembers, is a special instance that applies when one of the angles is 90o (right-angle triangle), the sine and cosine rules allow you to calculate missing sides and angles for any triangle. Shamelessly copied from https://thirdspacelearning.com/gcse-maths/geometry-and-measure/sine-rule/ In this case I knew two sides (the height of the girder thingy [measured at 0.45m] and the length of the brace [chosen as 3m to be half a 6m length of steel]) I also measured the angle between the girder and the roof joist at 95o using my trusty combination-set. I needed the other two angles to cut the brace to fit, since I was on a roll I worked out the missing side too. 1. Law of Cosines We can use the Law of Cosines to find the missing side (let's call it 'a'): a² = b² + c² - 2bc * cos(A) Where: a = missing side b = 3m c = 0.45m A = 95 degrees Plugging in the values: a² = 3² + 0.45² - 2 * 3 * 0.45 * cos(95°) a ≈ 3.07 metres 2. Law of Sines Now we can use the Law of Sines to find the missing angles: sin(A) / a = sin(B) / b = sin(C) / c Let's find angle B first: sin(95°) / 3.07 = sin(B) / 3 sin(B) ≈ 0.97 B ≈ 76.6 degrees Finally, we can find angle C since the angles in a triangle add up to 180 degrees: C = 180° - 95° - 76.6° C ≈ 8.4 degrees Therefore: The missing side is approximately 3.07 metres long. The missing angles are approximately 76.6 degrees and 8.4 degrees. Of course, I didn't actually remember all this bollocks, those cogs have long since rusted up. Mr Google provided the WD-40 EDIT In a bizarre coincidence, when I phoned my parents yesterday Mum told me they had "found" my school reports and that now was the time to embarrass me by reading them. Scary! They also had my acceptance letter to the MOD(N) Technician Apprentice Training Scheme which is what got me to turn a hobby into a profession (I actually had visions of being a vet).

Madam has decreed that it will get cheap tiles to match the existing. They are small money so I will not risk my life by arguing They are so cheap that if a large mango falls onto the chicken house (which has the same tiles) it will sometimes punch through!!

Moving right along. I was more than mildly surprised that my Grammar School trig. actually worked to calculate the cutting angles (nothing is at 90o, it's a scalene triangle so you can't just use Pythagoras, you need to remember the "rule of sines" etc.) resulting in minimal gaps when welding. For those worried about it blowing away in a breeze, each of the 6 "legs" has a 50x50x50cm cube of concrete (about 300kg each) buried in the ground. The area is also pretty well shaded from horizontal winds by the house and the garden wall. Now, what was that about my (ok, my step-son's) welding?? ** ** The bolts used to hold it all in alignment before welding are not being removed, I'm not that daft!

I've tried that in the past with my original micro-inverters. The net result was that the MPPTs wouldn't start at all 😞 I never investigated why, just used a mains power supply, current fans run off a 12V regulator from the battery packs.

Are you monitoring the temperature of the room or the inverter heatsink with your PCB? We're using a similar device but with the sensor attached to the heatsink, fans start when the heatsink reaches 43C.

And don't forget another great "Africa" song: -

The authorities have initially determined that the source was the LG energy storage unit 😞 These particular LG units have been the subject of several recalls and warnings (see the second update linked) and use Lithium-ion/NMC rather than Lithium Iron phosphate (LifePO4) cells which are much less likely to go fzzt. A bit more detail here https://www.ess-news.com/2025/02/21/solar-and-battery-equipped-home-destroyed-by-explosion-in-germany/

In the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, an explosion tore away the outer wall of a show home equipped with solar panels and a residential battery. The badly-damaged building, which was vacant at the time of the incident, will likely be demolished. https://www.pv-magazine.com/2025/02/21/solar-and-battery-equipped-home-destroyed-by-explosion-in-germany/ Updates: - https://www.photon.info/en/news/fire-department-suspects-home-storage-unit-as-cause-of-serious-explosion-in-schoenberg/ https://www.photon.info/en/news/explosion-in-schoenberg-lg-confirms-storage-type-resu/

A young Arab boy asks his father “What is that strange hat you are wearing?” The father said: "Why, my son, it is a 'chechia.' In the desert it protects our heads from the intense heat of the sun.” "And what is the long flowing robe you are wearing?” asked the boy. “Oh, my son!” exclaimed the father “It is very simple. This is a 'djbellah.' As I have told you, in the desert it is not only very hot, but the sand is always blowing. My djbellah protects the entire body." The son then asked: "But Father, what about those ugly shoes you have on your feet?” "These are 'babouches' my son,” the father replied. You must understand that although the desert sands are very beautiful, they are also extremely hot. These babouches keep us from burning our feet." "So tell me then," added the boy. "Yes, my son…” "Why are we living in Melbourne and still wearing all this shit?”

View this quiz 21st Feb 2025 - Weekly Featured Quiz - 1981 / Ronald Reagan Continuing our theme of having two (somewhat) related subjects - This week it's 1981 and Ronald Reagan. Submitter Crossy Type One Right Answer Time 5 minutes Total Questions 10 Category Weekly Featured Quiz Submitted 02/18/2025  

The portables need looking after, water top-up etc. etc. Small mini-split inverter A/C units (say 9,000BTU) are readily available and sip the energy when running relatively light. You don't need server-room cool, just keep things in the mid 20sC.

Our 5kW Deye hybrids (3 of the beasts) are outdoors, under the shade of the car port. Deye inverters are specced -40C to +60C ambient, but derate when >45C. Obviously, the cooler they run the better. I have added some fans to help with the fanless cooling. And a simple thermostat to control them. The sensor is bolted to the inverter heatsink.

Yup, they also do an approximate monthly deduction from my $$$ (a bit like UKs PAYE) I just cough up any balance owed 😞

That makes sense, I was 65 in April 2024 so it should apply. Still waiting for the company accountant to get back to me.

If none of your neighbours can help then the standard fall-back is the local bike taxi chaps. They know anyone and everyone! I swear that if I asked the bike chaps if they could get me an elephant, one would arrive within the hour! Now there's an idea for our family Songkran party!

And even doing that was quick and convenient. I had my UK passport lifted in Rome, would have been in the early naughties. Off to the cop-shop with an Italian friend, 15 minutes to get a police report. Visit the British Embassy as soon as they opened with police report and my details (UK driving licence). Paid some $$$. Collected new 10-year passport that afternoon! The only minor bump in the road was that said passport didn't have the machine-readable text block on the photo page which did cause some consternation with Malaysian immigration, but they let me in anyway 🙂

With your Sofar inverter you are going to have to add panels in series with the existing ones. New panels should be fairly close to the power output of your existing ones (we have 300W in series with 340W with no problems). For panels in series, you should try to get additional ones with about the same or slightly higher Imp (max power current) as your existing ones. The string max current will be limited to whatever the lower Imp panels are. It rarely makes much difference as getting to that level is pretty rare even here. For your voltage the sum of the Voc (open circuit voltage) of all the series panels must not exceed the maximum permitted input voltage of the MPPT. At least here we don't have to worry about cold weather (Voc goes up as the panels get cooler).

I tried to buy one from Lazada. All the reasonably high-spec ones were shipped from China. Ordered one anyway. Three weeks later it hadn't even shipped. This was from the manufacturer's own Lazada store! Excuses! Cancelled! Ordered one of these from JiB https://www.jib.co.th/web/product/readProduct/70060/2/ got it the same afternoon. QED

I was 65 in April 2024, is the allowance pro-rata or only for full years? Office lady is checking with the accountant.

Yup.

Which immigration office? There have been reports of some offices wanting Google Maps maps now.