CSCC Padlocks sites: new keys required from 12th July 2006

[graham]

By the way, what did you use to oil the locks with?

had that discussion with the locksmiths yesterday. Interesting: three different people three different opinions.

 

[cap n chris]

Graham, was it Three in 3-in-1?  :-\

I've been using 3-in-1.

 

[darkplaces]

Got to get me one of them 'keys'.

 

[cap n chris]

But if you had explosives how would anyone know you weren't part of the Al-Key-da?

 

[darkplaces]

But if you had explosives how would anyone know you weren't part of the Al-Key-da?

I dont wear a beard.

 

[graham]

Neither did the guy who was shot at Stockwell tube station.

 

[cap n chris]

I wear clothes. I have a beard. But...., and here's the important bit, I don't wear a beard.

So!.... Do you have a joke beard, by any chance, Darkplaces? - one which you occasionally choose to wear, or not? I mean, it's easy to imagine that if you wore your joke beard, and perhaps wrapped a dishcloth around your head and shouted "Hezboller!" while clutching some explosives you might generate some odd looks. You might even get mistaken for someone else; God forbid (sorry!, I mean Allah), you might even get mistaken for someone who means to cause trouble and then get shot or tazered or worse......  :doubt:

I often generate odd looks but it's mostly to do with my real beard, and clothes. I don't wear a dishcloth on my head or shout "Hezboller!". Hmm, I don't know what point, if any, I'm trying to make. This thread is getting a bit lost. Can someone else take over, please?... 

 

[whitelackington]

I don't know if this is any help.
Almost certainly NOT
as padlocks and keys have just been changed, but one long distant day in the very, very ,very far off super future, if there is to be a future.

I use a nova, you tun it on and off with magnets.
The M.C.G. cottage has a cotag, you just hold this chip/magnet thing near it and the lock undoes.
No dirt introduced to the lock.
Only a very long distant thought.
Now knock me down. 8)

 

[cap n chris]

I was under the impression that magnetic reed switches activate electronically, powered by battery, rather than functioning like a mechanical open/closed bolt with no power source required.

If so, then unless someone invents nuclear batteries which last for hundreds of years and which are available to the domestic market for peanuts then it's going to be the old technology which continues into the future when it comes to securing cave entrances IMHO.

 

[Roger W]

This is my third try at answering today!  Keep hitting 'tab', losing the cursor, hitting 'backspace' and getting shot out of the topic....  :-[ 

Quite a lot of folk use electronic locks operated by swipe cards or microchips these days, but they all require power to work.

I expect the electronic bit that recognises the microchip implanted in the caver's left earlobe would run for a year or so on a couple of button cells, but the lock mechanism itself - the solenoid or motor to actually move the bolt - must require appreciable power.

So how's about:

  A solar panel mounted by the cave entrance?
  A wind turbine on a pole outside the cave entrance?
  A wind turbine in the cave, in the strong draught coming from that promising dig site?
  A water turbine in the cave, in a suitable streamway or waterfall?
  A small furry rodent in a treadmill attached to a generator?

 

[Roger W]

I wear clothes. I have a beard. But...., and here's the important bit, I don't wear a beard.

Wilkes' Spirit of the Times.
October 8, 1859, page 77, col. 3

How to Wear the Beard.

As the mysteries of dress should not be all left to the ladies, now that the equality of sexes is becoming popular doctrine, let us say a few words on the proper manner of wearing the beard.

With very trifling differences in the dressing of the natural mask of hair about the man's mouth, the whole character of his personal presence is changes. It is wonderful indeed that for so obvious and universal a want as the wearing of the beard, artists have never yet given us a manual of the first principles, illustrated with drawings. It is a book that would be eagerly bought up and studied. With daily study of the beards of our friends and acquaintances, becoming and unbecoming, we have of course learned here and there an incidental lesson on the subject, and this, in the lack of more artistic authority, we propose now to jot down.

Where the beauty of a face consists mainly in the fine formation of the jawbone and chin, a man loses by growing his beard over this portion. Better wear only the mustache.

There is now and then a man whose severity or sharpness of eye is redeemed by a good-natured mouth—the animal character of the person being kindlier than the intellectual—and a covering of the lips, in such a case, is of course a mistaken hiding of Nature's apology, and needless detriment to the expression. Better wear only the whiskers.

A small or receding chin, and a feeble jaw, may be entirely concealed by a full beard, and with great advantage to the general physiognomy. So may the opposite of too coarse a jawbone, or too long a chin.

Too straight an upper lip can be improved by the curve of a well-trimmed mustache. So can an upper lip that is too long from the nose downward, or one that is disguised by the loss of some of the upper teeth. Washington, in the prime of life, suffered from the latter affliction, and (artistically speaking) his face, as represented to posterity, would have been relieved of its only weakness if he had concealed the collapsing upper lip by a military mustache.

A face which is naturally too grave can be made to look more cheerful by turning up the corners of the mustache—as one which is too trivial and inexpressive can be made thoughtful by the careful sloping of the mustache, with strong lines downward.

The wearing of the whole beard gives, of course, a more animal look ; which is no disadvantage if the eyes are large and the forehead intellectual enough to balance it. But when the eyes are small or sensual, and the forehead low, the general expression is better for the smooth chin, which, to the common eye, seems always less animal.

What is commonly call an “Imperial” (a tuft on the middle of the chin) is apt to look like a mere blotch on the face, or to give it an air of pettiness or coxcombry. The wearing of the beard long or short, forked or peaked, are physiognomical advisabilities upon which a man of judgment will take the advice of an artist as well as of an intimate friend or two ; but having once decided upon the most becoming model, he should stick to it. Alteration in the shape of so prominent a portion of the physiognomy give an impression of unreliableness and vanity.

Middle-aged men are apt to be sensitive with the incipient turning gray of the beard ; but they are often mistaken as to its effect. Black hair, which turns earliest, is not only picturesquely embellished by a sprinkling of gray, but exceedingly intellectualized and made sympathetically expressive. The greatest possible blunder is to dye such a beard. There is one complexion, however, of which the grizzling is so hideous, that total shaving, dyeing, or any other escape, is preferable to “leaving it to nature.” We mean the reddish cloud, of which the first blanching gives the appearance of a dirty mat. It was meant to be described, perhaps, by the two lines in Hudibras:

“The upper part thereof was whey,
The nether, orange mixed with gray.”

A white beard is so exceedingly distinguished that every man whose hair prematurely turns should be glad to wear it ; while for an old man's face it is so softening a vail, so winning an embellishment, that it is wonderful how such an advantage could be thrown away. That old age should be always long bearded, to be properly vailed and venerable, is the feeling we are sure, of every lover of nature, as well as every cultivated and deferential heart.

Found at http://www.vbba.org/ed-interp/1859beard.html

So how do you wear your beard, Cap'n?
:

 

[Dep]

Roger W: This is my third try at answering today!  Keep hitting 'tab', losing the cursor, hitting 'backspace' and getting shot out of the topic.... 

Is the ALT key sticking on your keyboard? Alt+Tab and Alt+backspace will do that.
When I hit a key and something odd happens the first thing I do is check for a stuck control key.

 

[Roger W]

Don't know... The keys feel free enough...  :-\

But if I hit 'backspace' it bounces me back up the system - like hitting the Back button on the browser...

My old typewriter never used to do things like this...

 

[cap n chris]

Apparently, then, I wear a beard.

Does the word "pedant" spring to mind? 

 

[Roger W]

Yup!  That's my middle name! 

It's an occupational hazard when half of your job is trying to teach Chinese to write correct English in their reports.    :alien:

Actally, a quick search of the available online dictionaries shows a quite interesting meaning for the colloquial phrase "wear the beard"  (note the definite article).

I hasten to assure you that I was not intending to suggest that you engage in such deviant practices!  :-[

 

[wormster]

Quite a lot of folk use electronic locks operated by swipe cards or microchips these days, but they all require power to work.

I expect the electronic bit that recognises the microchip implanted in the caver's left earlobe would run for a year or so on a couple of button cells, but the lock mechanism itself - the solenoid or motor to actually move the bolt - must require appreciable power.

So how's about:

  A solar panel mounted by the cave entrance?
  A wind turbine on a pole outside the cave entrance?
  A wind turbine in the cave, in the strong draught coming from that promising dig site?
  A water turbine in the cave, in a suitable streamway or waterfall?
  A small furry rodent in a treadmill attached to a generator?

poor old DP he's going to be a bit knackerd running all thise locks for you guys.................I prefer HIS version of the  right key BANG (not that i really would)

 

[whitelackington]

Last Sunday, the CSCC padlock on the perimeter gate of Stainsby's was very sticky,
is this the same padlock as was removed for Star shaft, now returned?

 

[cap n chris]

Nope: the Stainsbys one is brand new.

 

[Les W]

What have you done to it WL?  :chair:

 

[whitelackington]

What have you done to it WL?  :chair:

Hi Les, I personally have not touched The C.S.C.C. padlock for some months.
When we are sat up top in the compound, lots of people come over to see what we're doing.
I blame the parents.