Conor O'Neill

#Bristol is looking pretty tonight, without any rain.

@AkaSci Tony Hoare was one of the tutors at Oxford, and I remember him as a very clever, and also very nice, person. The world will miss him.

@adamshostack @dgoldsmith Am I right in thinking that there are already satellites orbiting Mars, which act as transmission relays for the landers and rovers? It's slightly weird to consider that these were created for Mars before they were for the Moon, but I guess that's because the Moon is close enough for direct communication to be viable.

A question for UK rail enthusiasts. Everywhere I go by train, I see lots of old bits of stuff lying around by the tracks. Old rails, wires, random bits of metal, etc. I assume that this is mostly stuff which is left-over after maintenance. But there doesn't seem to be a culture of clearing away all this stuff. Is there a reason for this? When travelling by road, you might see all sorts of 'rubbish', but you don't typically see lots of piles of asphalt etc. [Yes, occasionally, and yes, lost traffic cones.] #UKRail #Trains

@mgleadow Thanks. I'm not sure that the stuff I see would ever be collected. Most of it appears to have been there years. My comment was triggered yesterday morning as I was on a train from Bristol to Paddington, but I've seen similar on most of my other train journeys.

@billgoats@bitbang.social I bought a Swytch kit, in the UK, a few years ago. This gives you a replacement front wheel, with a hub motor, a handlebar-mounted battery box & controller, together with a pedal sensor. I fitted it all myself, I was happy with its performance, and used it fairly extensively. But I have since bought a full ebike. I passed my Swytch kit on to a friend. Swytch have more recently changed their line-up to use smaller batteries. However, Swytch has a weird commercial setup. Most of the orders are build-on-demand, with a long waiting list and/or delivery times. They are not very responsive to customer emails, etc. I no longer recommend Swytch. I believe that there are similar companies making similar offerings who would be more worthy of your money, and less frustrating to deal with.

@avtpiavva@mastodon.social I'm not sure that the wheel ever went away?

@avtpiavva@mastodon.social Ah. I was away travelling for much of November and December, and I haven't really been around much in the city centre in January or February. I assume that you must be right and it was taken away. Not sure why they would do that just for a few months? Perhaps it's been replaced with a better one? 🤣 [I've never had the inclination to bother going on it] #Bristol #MillenniumSquare #BigWheel