To LOCA or not to LOCA

I recently broke the screen on my Samsung Galaxy S3.  I paid £60 to have it repaired by a guy at the local market.

To clarify at this point it was only the glass that was broken, not the digitiser.  This means, to the layman, that although the glass was broken I could still see the display clearly and the touch screen still worked.  If you have any form of screen corruption and/or loss of touch capability then you need an entirely new digitiser which will set you back £70- £120 for just the screen, or the screen and fitting respectively.

So, as I was saying, the bloke at the market fixed my screen over night and within 24 hours I had the repaired phone back.  There were a couple of scratches underneath the glass where I assume they had scratched the digitiser during removal but to be fair it's a technical process with a hot air gun.  If you get it too hot you melt the digitiser and too cold and the screen is hard to remove.

The only issue was that within 2 weeks it was broken again.  Why ?  Of course it was partly due to my clumsy handling but also, in my opinion, the flexing of the repaired screen.  There are two ways of repairing a screen

Non LOCA repair

This is exactly the same as a LOCA repair but without the glue.
Pro's:

• Easier
• Cheaper
• Less messy

Con's:

• The glue adds strength and reduces flex.  By making the glass and digitiser in to a single unit it increases the strength of both the glass and the digitiser
• You can have dust between the glass and the digitiser which you can't remove
• The contrast in daylight is lower due to the extra space between the glass and the digitizer.

LOCA repair

Pro's:

• Much stronger and less likely to fail than a non-LOCA repair
• Practically an OEM finish
• Much better contrast and ability to see in sunlight

Cons:

• This is messy and very diffficult
• It takes MUCH longer and includes more preparation
• It requires the purchase of more tools (UV bulb/light), LOCA glue
• You can capture air bubbles in the glue which cannot be removed
• You can break the phone or touch on the screen

Ebay and Amazon sourcing

I bought these items:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00DIXF0CE

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/231087889652

It took me two attempts but I ended up with a perfect looking screen, with only a pinprick of a bubble..... unfortunately the touch screen stopped working.  The screen itself works perfectly but the touch will not respond at all..

In conclusion I would recommend that any broken screen is repaired professionally either by using a warranty repair, applecare or by taking it to a well known highstreet vendor.  Alternatively I would buy the entire unit, digitizer and screen and replace the whole unit.

Jeremy Clarkson

Jeremy Clarkson appears to have been suspended following a 'fracas' over catering.

I have no sympathy for him.  If he is innocent then he will be cleared, if not then he'll probably get a warning or dismissal.  All of this was inevitable.  He doesn't care.  He has a loyal army of doting 'anti politically correct' followers stoking the fires of his immense ego.

Regardless of what he has or hasn't done he will move to another channel and get paid more in a month than most people get in a year.

Are we now saying that being politically incorrect means that you can be above the law, employment or otherwise ? If he broke the rules he should get the punishment for it.

Jimmy Saville felt he was above the rules, look where that got him. Someone needs to ground egotists and readjust their megalomania.

That won't happen of course.  Society has made him a martyr and he has more than enough money that he will be safe well in to his (already) dotage.

Hopefully we'll get a rebooted top gear with new presenters, some of the old silliness and an embracing of two wheels as well as four.

Who can tell though ?, society has never made much sense to me. 

16/03/2014:  Update
I find it interesting and enlightening that it was Clarkson himself that reported the incident that got him suspended.  Highly coincidental when you consider the contract renewal and the fact that if he leaves before September it could be expensive.

Follow that up with the fact that he could be nearing retirement age, doesn't seem to like the BBC much, he could walk over to Sky or ITV and make better money then it could be that he's wrecking the Top Gear trademark/IP before jumping ship.  Considering it is reported he sold it for £8,000,000.00 + it would be a sweet revenge to make the Intellectual Property worthless.

It's nice to see the mindless masses put together a petition to keep him when he is probably the one that would come out of it financially better off.

Farcry 4 Ethics & plot

I don't often blog.  This time I'm doing it as I feel strongly about the direction of video games in general.

For me, First Person Shooters (FPS), only really have a few specific morality motivators 'the greater good', survival or no plot at all (Team fortress I believe).

FarCry 3 played both survival and greater good cards well and even a dose of megalomania.  The plot was pretty darn good.  You were concerned with your survival, the survival of your friends, the quashing of evil and psychopathic enemies and personal conflict of attraction and delusion of citra and her psychotic personality.

All in all, you felt like killing the psychos was morally justified to rescue your friends and okay, there may be times when you went against your first instinct in order to see what happened, but you felt bad about it (unless you were a psycho that is :-P).

Which brings me to Farcry 4.  It's a great game, enjoyable, engrossing and full of cool stuff.  Except.  Except in this I just feel like a mercenary.  Sent off to do others bidding like a servant.  Two options, each as bad as the other where you know, fundamentally, that neither of the golden path leaders are any different to Pagan Min.  Except they are.  You LIKE Pagan Min.  He doesn't threaten your life, send you off killing people who oppose you.  He doesn't pretend to be your friend, he genuinely does like you.  He could have killed you in the first few minutes of the game but he doesn't.  If you wait 10 minutes or so he lets you put your mothers ashes where she requested.  Okay, so he kills a guy, nothing that Amita or Sabal wouldn't have done and nothing that you don't proceed to then do through the entire game.

Farcry 4 doesn't give you a greater good situation.  You're not playing for survival either but there is allegedly a plot.  It feels like Modern Warefare 2 'no Russian' where you're tasked with killing innocents.  Ultimately unsatisfying.

My point is this.  If you're going to have a plot, which is fine with me, then make the morality simple.  Good and bad is the right way to go.  A video game where the entire intention is to shoot people is clearly in a dodgy morality area already.  To then have a line of different endings which are ultimately unsatisfying is not the way to maintain a fanbase.

For me, in truth, I regret killing Pagan Min.  I felt as if I was forced in to a corner and I wouldn't complete the game unless I did.  I had no issue with his lieutenants who were trying to kill me, or torturing innocents but Pagan..... I liked him too much. 


Further Reading:

http://www.magicalwasteland.com/notes/2012/8/2/a-sea-of-endless-bullets-spec-ops-no-russian-and-interactive.html

http://kotaku.com/5928765/how-to-kill-civilians-in-a-war-game

04/06/2014 MSV Track day at Cadwell Park.

My Second Track day

I've done another track day.  This time at Cadwell park on 4/6/2014.  Here are my thoughts on the day.

First the negatives, just to get them out of the way.  A few of them are petty ;-)

• No Garages for the bikes or you.  It was a rainy day and it would not have been nice without being taken in by friends
• No funky sticker.  Donington Park had a groovy Thermal sticker for your bike which you could peel off as a keepsake, no such luck at this event.
• Having to roll your glove back and show a wrist band to prove you were in the group was a pain but probably understandable.

Now a few good points:

• What a stunningly epic track.  I loved it.  Much narrower than Donington Park but still top quality tarmac and a well crafted track.  Took me 3 sessions to become comfortable with the weather, track layout and my tyres and then it was full on entertainment.
• The Marshalling seemed good, plenty of guys on and around the track and the one 'off' we had in the group was dealt with quickly and effectively.

The track day was arranged with MSV via an excellent bike school in Nottingham called Bike Torque.  The guys there are not only supremo instructors but one is an ex racer and they are all deeply passionate about motorbikes.  Needless to say the banter kept me amused, the support was terrific and there really was a lot of warmth and good laughs to be had.

My bike, a Fazer 600 (an astounding 93Db of awesome standard can), is not exactly a supersports, but then I'm nowhere near needing anything like that.  It's reliable, plenty fast and the handling is superb.  I've recently put some Road Pilot 3's on and the amount of grip I got in the wet was just staggering.

It's always interesting for a people watcher at these events.  You have the bikers who go out in all weathers, the ones who only go out in the dry.  There are the people with track bikes, super sport bikes and others, like me who have their day to day bikes.  On this occasion I even saw a 2 stroke which left me behind in short order.  I did find that a lot of riders were put off by the rain and their riding altered.  In the later stages as the day and track dried out the number of bikes in a session rose from about 10 in the wet to about 20 in the dry.

In retrospect, reviewing my video footage, I was seriously slow.  I look at the video and think why aren't you nailing it there etc but for a first time on the track I was satisfied with my improvement on sessions 4-7.

It was quite mentally tiring but not physically tiring.  The substantial amount of food that Bike Torque fed me kept me concerned for any doctor who may have had reason to operate on me.  However my day started at 6am and finished when I got home at 8pm.  Excluding the track day I also rode from Bingham to Cadwell and then from Cadwell to Market Harborough so many miles were covered.

Other Notes

I was glad that I had my Aldi rain suit to go over my leathers.  I would have been soaked to the bone otherwise and a cold may well have followed

I took:

• drivers license (both parts)
• indemnity form (provided on arrival)
• credit card, cash card (for emergencies and fuel...£1.60 a litre !)
• mobile phone (for mytracks, emergency calls, Facebook, Email and photos)
• SatNav (I'd rather have too much satnav than not enough)
• Drift HD mounted on my right hand side fairing and powered from the bike battery.

Session 3

Session 4

Session 5

Session 6

Enhanced Rider Scheme

I've just completed an 'Enhanced Rider Scheme' course and I have to admit it was quite enjoyable.  6 hours of observation and tutoring for £60 with a £70 contribution from the local authority.

I did mine with a guy called Alan Wright who was an ex motorcycle copper of 25 years and seemed a knowledgeable chap.  It was done in an informal manner and he had friendly advice and positive as well as negative feedback.  I hate it when you only get negative feedback.

Apparently it could give me a discount on my bike insurance of 10-15% but I'll believe it when I see it.

All in all a pleasant pootle even if it was at or below the speed limit.

Controversial views (britain First)

I'm always a little disappointed when I see people that I admire and respect liking posts like the ones below.  Maybe it's me, maybe I'm wrong but I don't understand the justification for 'liking' this.

Don't get me wrong, it's their choice and I respect that, my issues with it are as follows:

1.)  We don't have the facts.  We don't know what was said, why or how so how can we judge.  Irrespective of that I am exactly the sort of person who would argue with a member of the police if I thought they were wrong.  Do I deserve a knife pointed at me for that ?

2.) Innocent until proven guilty.  A knife is a lethal weapon.  What situation justifies that against an unarmed person ?

3.) The police are trained to deal with confrontation, they deal with it day in and day out.  They have self defence training, backup as well as possibly/likely chemical spray/baton/knife did he need hostile assistance against an unarmed civilian ?

4.) The issue was resolved without issue but now it's made the front page of many newspapers.  Was it newsworthy ?  It shouldn't have been.

5.) The guy allegedly argued for 5 minutes.  Given the quantity of police and guards in the area, surely this could have been handled in a more political manner much more swiftly than it was.

6.) When a group/sites such as 'infidel defence league' presents this it seems to take on a possibly unjustified racial aspect which may not have been there at all.

Maybe the guy was in the wrong.  I'm not arguing that, I'm arguing that the masses should not rush to judgement without being fully informed of the facts.  By showing your approval with a 'like' you are endorsing bayonets in peoples faces for arguing/shouting as the British way.  Given that Britain is massively multicultural and I have many friends of many ethnicities I'd like to think that race wasn't the provocation for this situation.

There are racial things that I do not approve of such as Shariah law, Niqab and Burka but they have nothing to do with race and more to do with sexual equality, social and political reasons.

Please feel free to comment, I'm happy to take constructive criticism.  Any offensive comments and/or vulgarity will not be published.

links as below:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/gun-drama-at-buckingham-palace-gates-as-queens-guard-points-bayonetfixed-rifle-at-mans-face-9241734.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2598044/Security-fears-Buckingham-Palace-Queens-Guard-pulls-rifle-intruder-ranted-police-marching-gates.html

Track Day at Donington Park

You may find this boring, you may find it interesting. I thought I'd share my experience.

My First Track day

I did my first track day on the 23rd September at with Focussed Events at Donington park. This is my narrative of the day which aims to provide some insight in to what happens and what to expect. The day, for me, went from 5:50 am to 6:30pm including travel (7:45am-5pm on track). One thing of note is that your insurance will not cover you for use on the track so if you muller your bike you need to have a way to recover it and get home. My back up plan was my wife using her brother’s transit van third party and a plank of wood and a 4 tonne winch. Thankfully I didn't need to try out that eventuality but it is best to plan for the worst and hope for the best.

Before I got on the track

If you can get a group of you to go, it makes the day a lot better, I went with some people I met through Roadcraft Nottingham’s ride out group. Russ is an excellent chap who shares his knowledge freely and is a motorcycle evangelist and you can tell he loves motor bikes and the community.

I brimmed the tank the day before as I had to leave home at 6:20am, travel 30 miles to meet a friend and take an emergency ACU lid as I wasn't sure they’d let me on track with my Caberg V2 407. Then it was 30 miles up the A444 to Donington. I only live about 40 miles from Donington in the first place and sign on starts at 7:45. I guarantee you that you’ll get your money’s worth, it’s a massively long day and I was mentally and physically exhausted at the end of it.

My notes of things to take were: Rain suit (just in case), drivers license (both parts), indemnity form, credit card, cash card, mobile phone (for emergency calls, Facebook, Email and photos)

Things I could/should have taken: SLR/compact camera, action cam (I didn't think it would be allowed but loadsa guys had them on their bikes, no helmet ones allowed), Foot pump, lunch (£3.90 for a bacon buttie), water (£1.50 for a 500ml generic), masking tape and gaffer tape (masking tape so the gaffer tape doesn't leave gum on your mirrors etc).

I managed to do the entire track day on a single tank of fuel (109 miles of WOT) including the journey there (30 miles). I had to fill up at the first petrol station I found on the way home (but I only got 13 litres in the tank). The fuel on site was credit/debit card only unmanned and it was £1.60 per litre and only had super unleaded which I thought was not unreasonable for track side fuel.

I met up with Russ and the guys in garage 11, introductions followed and some banter. I was feeling apprehensive. The guys were taping up their indicators, head lights, brake lights and rear view mirrors. The weather was bad but not as bad as it could have been. The forecast had been cloudy and dry but a fair drizzle was present.

We signed on which consisted of showing both parts of the drivers license, getting a bracelet and handing over the indemnity form. A few people were doing last minute negotiation to change groups (1 novice, 2 intermediate, 3 advanced and group 4 was insane racers).

Driver briefing

Driver briefing happened at 8:45 which arrived much sooner than I thought it would. Main point was about silencers. They have noise monitors around the track and anything over 95db and you’d get a black flag, get two black flags and your day is over. There were plenty of race prepared bikes which sounded noisy and some with baked bean cans welded on but I saw no black flags during the day. Their main point was that Mallory was going to close (it seems to them to be a foregone conclusion even though the news I heard was quite positive) due to the motorbikers doing a few laps with the baffles in and then taking them out after a couple of sessions. They made it crystal clear that a factory exhaust was the only option for the day and after watching the bikes they certainly seemed plenty fast enough to me.

I would say, at a guestimate, about 60%+ of the bikes were track only and had fibreglass body work, the lights, brakes and mirrors all removed. Probably 60%+were larger than 600cc. 80% were sports, my Fazer stood out like a sore thumb.

The experience

I didn't change my tyre pressures during the day although most of the guys on the sports bikes did. There was a good sense of camaraderie and plenty of guys around to lend a hand. One guy had his suspension settings changed completely which he said improved his stock R1 dramatically. Another guy changed his track tyres for wets (which got rid of the drizzle around midday). Most of the bikers had Drift and Go Pro units on their bikes with the Ghost, HD170 and Hero 2 being the most popular.

I was in the novice group and expected to wear a fluorescent jacket but no one questioned or asked me to. No one checked my helmet or my bike at all.We did 3 sighting laps which were done on a amber flag so no overtaking and at about 50mph. Most of the track could be done at 50 without much drama apart from the hairpins. The effect was like a long snake winding across the racing line around the track.

At this point the misty drizzle was obvious. The track was properly damp and my visor has water streaming from it. My apprehension was palpable. I don’t ride in the wet, my tyres were years old and I've only been riding 6 months. Having said that it didn't stop me honing from the second we were on track. I think I managed to overtake 10 bikes during the day and I was going flat out at the limit of my ability. I was overtaken, with ease, at least 80 times. I see no shame in this as not only am I inexperienced, the other guys were mainly on much more powerful bikes.

There were 5 sessions during which each of the 4 groups went out for about 20 minutes at a time. This was about 5 laps or so which is plenty enough for a novice. The first 2 sessions were harrowing as the track was damp but the remaining 3 were brilliant.

For one session I asked if an instructor could take me round the track as it was free. As I thrashed the Fazer down the racing line the instructor was ahead of me, looking backwards at me whilst twisted in his seat riding one handed around the racing corners without even breaking a sweat. He rode in front of me for 2 laps using his arm to indicate the racing line, then behind me for 2, then in front of me for 1 last lap showing the points where I needed to be wider or move in more. Then, after pulling in after the chequered flag, he came up to the garage and told me some of the multitude of things I wasn't doing properly. It was all positive input but I was hoping for some praise…. That didn't happen ;-). I needed to hold on to the tank more with my thighs and move out so that I still feel anchored to the bike. When I was leaning off, I thought I had a whole cheek off the seat when I hung off for the lefts and right but apparently whilst I was doing it for the rights, I was hardly off at all for the lefts. Admittedly there are only about 2 proper left hands on the whole track.

According to one of the guys this can actually be a real issue as the left hand side of the tyre does keep warm meaning that you have a hotter better sticking tyre on the right hand corners than the left. This does lead to the left hand bends being deceptively dangerous. The right hand side of my tyre was bobbling and tacky whilst the left hand side was not.

I found the whole track a complete hoot and very enjoyable. Making Mcleans and Coppice in to a single turn was great fun, going from 110 to about 30 for the esses makes you very nervous, especially braking hard in the wet, then committing to a couple of sharpish turns.

I found most improvement for me in Melbourne, a real opportunity to take up the entire track and get the bike leant over (no I didn't get my knee down) and clip the apex and get the WOT on the way out. Goddards is probably the turn I need most improvement for as I’d take it too sharply or be in the wrong gear for the exit. It’s a deceptively large bend and sometimes I’d slow down for it too much meaning I’d have to throttle on during the bend, rather than on the exit.

Conclusion

It was a brilliant and fantastic day. The company was excellent with none of the attitude or arrogance that I was expecting. I didn't come off the bike which was a real danger for me as I was pushing my limits and my limits are very real to me. A number of times going in to a corner I was thinking “I’m going way too fast for this but I can’t brake or change down without unsettling the bike” and when I came out of the corner with ease I was stunned and happy and very satisfied. Riding in the damp, whilst unexpected, gave me some valuable experience too.

The only negative for me was the rider’s perceived abilities. There were people in the novice group who should have been in intermediate, they were absolutely caning it. Likewise there were people in the intermediate and advanced groups that should have been up or down a group too. I would see a 2 cylinder thumper out in the advanced group being overtaken left and right by the sports bikes lap after lap (I may be showing my lack of knowledge and they may have been competitive but it certainly didn't look like it to me).

Oh, and today I ache all over. I think I'm all hooned out for the week.

I hope this is of use to someone. If you've not done a track day, it's a fantastic experience and a great hoot.