What's messing with your Groove?

[Flixy]

So a while back this guy during a protest shouted 'Fuck the king, fuck the queen, fuck the monarchy'. Then it turns out he got fined €500 for lèse majesté (although after arguments from his lawyer and public/political outcry, combined with the fact that almost every expert doubts that he would get convicted by a judge, the case is currently on hold). Now first of all this is clearly a ridiculous law, what I would call a remnant from the old days. Now there are some arguments for it (including that the king/queen cannot defend themselves like normal people, as the government is responsible for their actions and not them), but frankly I don't think those weigh up against the freedom of speech. Plus it is unfair if you ask me that people are more protected by law because of who their parents are (in fact, public figures should be more open for criticism) - your average citizen could also sue someone for slander, defamation, etc., but the punishment for that is lower.

But to be honest, what annoys me even more, is that only a few months ago when a satirical magazine whose job it was to insult others was attacked by muslims, we were all Charlie, and freedom of speech (and to criticize anyone) was the most important thing. But now a vocal muslim activist does that, and a lot of people who were 'Charlie' now say he should be punished (or fuck off to his own country...), and somehow I doubt that's just because he insulted 'our' king, but because he isn't white.


BTW previous recent use of the law that I'm aware of that ended up in a conviction were combined with other facts (i.e. a guy who besides the queen also insulted police officers in function, made a nazi salute, etc., got a fine), or physical attack (i.e. a guy who threw something at the queen, though even in that case the reaction by the justice department was overblown).

[Flixy]

Twitter Link

Good sportsmanship, helping someone even if he isn't on your team. Except they both got a 2 minute penalty for helping/being helped by a non-teammember...

[Timbuk2]

I dreamed I was playing in a Gwent tournament.

[Timbuk2]

Rest in peace Charles Kennedy, who died last night aged 55.



The only politician who has ever made me laugh out loud with his humour.

[wiggin]

A Softer World is over.

[BalticSailor]

Aphids are back! They're all over my basil and oregano. I haven't found any on thyme, apparently they don't like it. Still, I'd hate to lose my plants to these pests (like it happened with my basil last year). I'm going to try tobacco spray - teh internetz suggest that nicotine is particularly toxic to aphids, and should be less harmful to their natural enemies, that, hopefully, will appear sometime soon (though I'm not sure if that's very likely to happen in an urban environment).

[Khendraja'aro]

You could also buy their natural enemies (ladybugs, green lacewing, gall midge). Though some of those (green lacewing) are better suited for a greenhouse.

[BalticSailor]

I don't think they offer those for sale at regular gardening stores over here, at least I couldn't find anyone who did. Last year some kind of lacewing did arrive naturally, but it was too late, the plants were already withering by that time and never recovered. I'll keep my eye out for ladybugs in the nearby park, though as far as I remember from previous years, they aren't a common sight this early in the summer.

[Khendraja'aro]

Naw, you have to mail order them. They're very useful for food moths because with those the alternatives are usually only: Fumigation or fumigation

[Flixy]

If I'm to believe QI, you can buy a bucket of ladybirds and set the free at night. They probably bugger off by day but should have eaten the bugs by then.

Didn't know nicotine is a pesticide - though that explains why tomatoes contain it I guess I'm keeping my basil inside, and my rucola as well so far but might put that out in the garden soon. I'm just scared the gardeners will just kill it immediately (they're not proper gardeners...).

[Aimless]

So we're trying to get some furniture for the new apartment and, after a painfully long and difficult session on ikea.se, we've discovered that we can expect our delivery in about a MONTH. I'm guessing it's because something on the list is not currently in stock but the website refuses to show which items are not in stock. GRRR

[BalticSailor]

If I'm to believe QI, you can buy a bucket of ladybirds and set the free at night. They probably bugger off by day but should have eaten the bugs by then.

Didn't know nicotine is a pesticide - though that explains why tomatoes contain it I guess I'm keeping my basil inside, and my rucola as well so far but might put that out in the garden soon. I'm just scared the gardeners will just kill it immediately (they're not proper gardeners...).

All of my plants are inside, on the windowsill, so I could, theoretically, limit the ladybugs to my room but it would inevitably lead to them being all over the place, not only the plants they're supposed to protect. I might carry a bunch of them inside from the local park when they appear, but I'm not too keen on the idea of getting a whole bucket.

Nicotine is not the most effective pesticide, but it is said to be particularly toxic to some species of insects, aphids among them. Also, it is relatively short-lived (the molecule is not very stable to UV irradiation, and the amount coming from the sun is sufficient to break it down in several days) and, to best of my knowledge, harmless for the plant. It certainly seems to have worked for me - only very few aphids remain on the plants after spraying them with the tobacco infusion twice over the last three days.

[Loki]

Ikea charges $300 to deliver furniture to my new apartment. WTF.

[Flixy]

..do you live on the 4th floor with no elevator or something?

[Aimless]

Ikea charges $300 to deliver furniture to my new apartment. WTF.

They've probably seen your more egregeiously cantankerous posts

[Loki]

..do you live on the 4th floor with no elevator or something?

The $299 is for the zip code, not for the specific location. It's 90 miles from the Ikea. My Illinois apartment is 120 miles from the nearest Ikea, and yet the shipping was $99.

[Ominous Gamer]

My local Ikea doesn't even offer a $299 shipping rate to its serviceable areas, but the Orlando one does.

[Flixy]

The $299 is for the zip code, not for the specific location. It's 90 miles from the Ikea. My Illinois apartment is 120 miles from the nearest Ikea, and yet the shipping was $99.

I don't know what the rates are here, but it's definitely impossible to live 90 miles from an ikea

[littlelolligagged]

The $299 is for the zip code, not for the specific location. It's 90 miles from the Ikea. My Illinois apartment is 120 miles from the nearest Ikea, and yet the shipping was $99.

Why the hell are you buying furniture at Ikea? You need to be introduced to the joys of "antique" malls, shops, and shows.

[Loki]

Because it's cheap without being crap. The local furniture stores are more expensive and probably not any better in terms of quality.

[littlelolligagged]

I'm a big believer in cheap but not crap. I've never actually seen anything from Ikea, but I was under the impression that it is just your typical prefab?

I've found some really great deals on actually nice things at the "antique" shows, though.

[wiggin]

I'm a big believer in cheap but not crap. I've never actually seen anything from Ikea, but I was under the impression that it is just your typical prefab?

I've found some really great deals on actually nice things at the "antique" shows, though.

IKEA furniture has a bit of a range. Their cheapest stuff is better than real cut-rate furniture, but it's still particleboard. And because of the constraints placed on them by flat pack boxing, their construction tends to be better than flimsy but not quite sturdy - their furniture might last for a move or two, but rarely much more.

However, they do have moderately pricier stuff that is made from better quality materials and fasteners. It's still way cheaper than 'real' furniture stores, by and large, and works pretty well. While most of my IKEA stuff is of the cheap/particle board variety (bookcases, dressers, that sort of thing), I do have a couple of 'nicer' items that have held up quite well over the years - a kitchen side board-like thing, and a TV stand. They are ridiculously heavy, though.

I think it works well for temporary digs, where you don't want to invest enough money to get the 'perfect' furniture for your place, nor do you expect to be hauling around vast amounts of stuff from place to place. It's not-quite-disposable. I'd rarely buy anything from IKEA once I've got a real home, though...

[Loki]

Just another apartment. You know what academia is like. It's not the best idea to invest too much in a place (in terms of housing or furniture) until you have the magical tenure in your hands, but you don't want to look cheap either. I need this to last about 4 years. Then I figure out a permanent plan.

[Aimless]

Why the hell are you buying furniture at Ikea? You need to be introduced to the joys of "antique" malls, shops, and shows.

As much as I hate physically being in an IKEA store, I must say that IKEA products make me very happy. As Wiggin pointed out, there's a range of quality levels, and, at each level, IKEA (in Sweden at least) tends to match or soundly beat competitors not only when it comes to price but often also when it comes to design aspects such as appearance and usability. Their products also tend to go well together and, as you may be aware, are supremely hackable. Ordering from IKEA is also more convenient for us since we don't have a car and (unlike Sthlm, where you're usually about an hour away from the nearest IKEA by public transportation) there's no IKEA nearby. We can get "everything" in one place and, because I only post pics of bunnies and kittens online, it doesn't cost very much more to have everything delivered.

Granted the absolute top tier of furniture etc. won't be available at IKEA, but those non-IKEA products that approach perfection in all aspects of their design also tend to be prohibitively expensive due to being made in small runs or due to other pecularities of their production process. Or because there is an insatiable market for exclusive furniture and at those price-points, well, unless they're incredible and essential, I'd prefer to spend the money on travelling, presents for family, luxury add-ons/modifications to our home or stocks.

IKEA is a bit of an institution in Sweden. Both my parents' places as well as my own home (before and after meeting the ginger) heavily feature IKEA products both old and new. There are many old (sometimes second-hand) IKEA classics that aren't made any longer and they're in good/great condition, having survived several moves. When we got a new kitchen, we looked at many options before settling on IKEA's latest series. In comparisons with other companies' offerings, IKEA tended to come out ahead in terms of price, convenience and usefulness. The extremely low cost (even when compared to some series that were considerably worse) meant that we could splurge on some things to make for an overall more pleasing kitchen. Don't let the weird staged pictures fool you I miss it so much

With all that said, I do very much like nice second-hand non-IKEA furniture too. It's a good way to get summat unique and pretty furniture for your home. I've also found it best not to buy beds from IKEA. And I'm almost as passionate about Kickstarter as I am about IKEA

[Khendraja'aro]

Today I witnessed the stupidity of certain people - I approached a crossing in my car, wanting to turn right, when a car from my left shot over the crossing. If I hadn't slowed down because the crossing was a bit unclear, she'd have rammed me.

But I was able to see her talking on her mobile. She then proceeded to drive at least 50 km/h through a 30 km/h zone (at a time when there are clearly kids on the street because it was just after school's out), ignore another right of way and choosing the wrong lane on another crossing.

Too bad I didn't have a co-driver because this women deserved a complaint to the police. I also think that our fines are way too low.

[Ominous Gamer]

Christopher Lee has passed away, he was 93 but... damn

[Khendraja'aro]

So, Saturday evening my PC just powered down instantly, as if I had pulled the cord.

So, all things considered, I thought it might just be a defective PSU. Not the first time that happened (in fact, would be the 4th). Off I went, replaced all the cables (so many of them!) aaaaand...

...no dice. Okay,maybe it was my new graphics card? I still had the old one, so replaced that one and ... PC powered up!

And off I went, again, to have the card exchanged. Upon arriving home, I put the new one in and... nothing. Not even the old card did anything now anymore.

The only thing I haven't replaced yet is the motherboard which, due to its age, also means a new CPU. Great.

[Bitter Jeweler]

iOS update bricked my iPad.
Lost everything on it.

[BalticSailor]

So, Saturday evening my PC just powered down instantly, as if I had pulled the cord.

So, all things considered, I thought it might just be a defective PSU. Not the first time that happened (in fact, would be the 4th). Off I went, replaced all the cables (so many of them!) aaaaand...

...no dice. Okay,maybe it was my new graphics card? I still had the old one, so replaced that one and ... PC powered up!

And off I went, again, to have the card exchanged. Upon arriving home, I put the new one in and... nothing. Not even the old card did anything now anymore.

The only thing I haven't replaced yet is the motherboard which, due to its age, also means a new CPU. Great.

You might want to look for failed capacitors on the motherboard - they're usually the first elements to fail, and replacing them can bring back a dead motherboard sometimes. It's relatively easy to do, and costs only a fraction of what a new motherboard would (esp. if that would require a new CPU). Of course, if the fault is somewhere else, this will not work, but it is worth a shot, I think.

[Flixy]

You might want to look for failed capacitors on the motherboard - they're usually the first elements to fail, and replacing them can bring back a dead motherboard sometimes. It's relatively easy to do, and costs only a fraction of what a new motherboard would (esp. if that would require a new CPU). Of course, if the fault is somewhere else, this will not work, but it is worth a shot, I think.

That is how I fixed an external HD power supply for a few cents instead of buying a €50 replacement (it was some rare type that couldn't be replaced by a generic one). Well, I say I fixed it, but it was a colleague who could tell from a quick glance that the capacitor was blown. According to him it's one of the most common ways electronics fail so it's definitely worth a try!