Grumble. Tool-free cases which aren't after n years. Compact cases which need you to remove three covers, two cables, and an expansion card in a PCI-e slot before you can get any leverage on the battery socket. Child-safe packaging which requires the dexterity and ingenuity of an 8-year old to open.

And a complex configuration (mine - but I'd forgotten) which requires you to chose which BIOS mode, which boot disk, and which display output you want to run. It took me 40 minutes to complete the replacement, but at least I got the chance to give it a good hoovering.

The subject of who still has a landline in the U.S. has popped up in the Washington Post.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/06/23/landline-telephone-holdouts/

LOL.
Got a text @ 15:36.
Just got off the phone.
Your outstanding repair apt is confirmed for 27/6/23 AM.
Really?
WTF?
Phoned in & asked What repair?
Oh your outstanding gas safety check.
That was done some weeks ago.
Hold, I'll check.
Minute later, she gets back to me.
It was contractor on the gas safety check. Reported that no smoke detector fitted.
WTF?
Have a fire detector fitted & also a monoxide detector fitted in the kitchen.
How many more frigging detectors do we need fitting?

The monoxide detector I have in the room where my central heating is hanging has done its work already for me.
Not by detecting carbon monoxide gas, but by detecting water leaking onto it and giving off an alarm. The gasket of my central heating system had been improperly fitted at the last check they'd done, which caused water from burning the gas to leak through, down all pipes onto the detector, which went off. Still took slightly more than a year for that to happen, but still. ;)

By the way, our fire dept first advised to put the carbon monoxide detector on the ceiling of the room where the central heating system hangs. They've come back from that and now advise a height between 1 and 1.5 meters. In both cases, I will be dead, as my bed is lower than that. So I have put it on the floor underneath the central heating/warm water heating system.

Our CO detector is in the kitchen while our CO2 detector is in the hallway.
They are LOUD, so there is no way one can sleep through them.
Our water/heating system is outside the property in a separate meter cupboard.

As for the Apt tomorrow, I think they have misunderstood the engineer's report after the gas safety check.
I'm pretty certain he told me that there should be a detector in the cupboard not the property.
So checked the detector in the hallway, it is a smoke detector (in fact, it was upgraded a couple of years ago, which met the standard of being replaced every 10 years).

Shades of that loft installation apt. :-)
We'll find out tomorrow.

Our CO detector is in the kitchen while our CO2 detector is in the hallway.
They are LOUD, so there is no way one can sleep through them.

In my case there is if the CO detector is hanging higher than my bed is.
CO gas is heavier than air, it'll crawl on the floor and when in a confined room, fill the room slowly from the bottom, as if the room fills with water. But because it's a colourless, tasteless, odorless gas, I won't notice it when it envelops me. I'll be dead before the loud alarm on the detector goes off. That's what I meant with bad advice by our fire dept.
Hang the detector as low to the ground as possible.

Cough, cough.
If we take air as having a density of 1 (it makes life easier to do the comparison), then Carbon Monoxide has a density of 0.97. Thus Carbon Monoxide is very slightly less dense than air, so will slowly fill a room from the top. This obviously ignores any diffusion and turbulence affects. Thus it is generally better to have Carbon Monoxide sensors just slightly above head height

On the other hand Carbon Dioxide is more dense than air at about 1.5. So a Carbon Dioxide sensor needs to be near floor level.

Thus Carbon Monoxide is very slightly less dense than air

well, thanks for that, I always understood it was heavier... but having said that

so will slowly fill a room from the top.

This it won't do either.

The difference in density between air and CO is minimal and because of this difference, it causes the gas to have a neutral effect in any room.
source

In fact, carbon monoxide is slightly lighter than air and diffuses evenly throughout the room.
source

In any case, I'll hang mine higher now.

Currently our CO detector in the kitchen is near the ceiling close to the gas boiler. The one in our living room is a bit lower but still close the potential source of CO. (9KW wood stove.)

No CO2 detector here but smoke alarms that are linked on all floors.

We have an NHS approved testing device for the smoke alarm an example of which can be found on virtually every hospital ward in Britain. AKA one Dualit toaster.

Toasters are brilliant for testing smoke alarms.
I've had far too many evacuations from hotels due to over enthusiastic toasters.....
(Or in the case of one hotel the same toaster three mornings in a row - prevented on day four by having breakfast just a bit earlier, it's great to hear the fire alarm going off while getting into the taxi on the way to work.)

On average, about once a week, we used to p off our upstairs neighbours.
Not done intentionally.
We don't know how or why, but whenever we do quarter pounders, about halfway through they set off the smoke alarm.
We could never see any smoke or whatever, but set the alarm off they do.
Any time we do them now, we have to remember to keep the kitchen door closed.

As for this morning's apt, thank god for experienced tradesmen.
That guy had his head screwed on right.
He just came in to verify that we had detectors fitted as his worksheet said fit CO detector in boiler area.
In & out in less than 20 minutes, job done.

He'd been here before on another job & said as he left - just another back office screw up. :-)

Imagine, arriving at the surgery center for a cataract operation to the fire alarm going off in the car park and the lobby. Is this a portent? Gets better, a couple days before they are to do the other eye, get a call the place has flooded. Something tells me that building is possessed. BTW operation(s) went 100%

As to gasses molecular weights N2 = 28, O2 = 32, CO2 = 44, CO = 30, ignoring isotope ratios. They all mix quite well. However in a fire, combustion products will be hot and hence rise. Hence why you crawl on the floor to get air.

Mega grumble.
After 91 days, can finally breathe a sigh of relief.
1 of my most hated peeves to date has lasted 55 years.
I have no idea if any other male experienced this, but in all that time, have given sound sensible advice to females that was totally ignored...
...to their financial loss. I've given this advice to those in my personal, social & working lives.
However, there have been 4 occasions that stood out. All to personal family members.
The worst being close to 40 years ago.
A sister was being made redundant & stood to get a £16k payout. More than enough to keep her going for at least 20/22 months (mortgage included).

The advice given: Take the money, chill out for at least a month & use that time to secure a good job.
Just over a week later, the old woman told me that sister had left & got herself another job.
Problem was, it was not financially like her previous, in fact a fair amount less.
Just under a year later, she had to give up her home.

Now to the present.
Shortly after watching the news back in Feb where several well known firms were laying people off (I believe the total that week was in the region of 25k).
The missus comes home with a "consultation" package.
Results to be communicated all by 3rd week of March.
Not looking good.March 31st, she gets given her redundancy notice.
Sadly, just like most of my sisters, she tends to listen to advice & then goes & does what she thinks is best.
OMG.

TBH, I didn't think we'd actually get to today in one piece, but we have,
She intends to chill out for a while then look for another job.

With all the grief experienced by all with Covid, they end up cutting the cleaning staff & all because the have to save £750k a year.
Nothing ever changes.

Always cut the low hanging fruit 1st.

Always cut the low hanging fruit 1st.

Yet the shareholders, CEO'$ and those at or near the top of the corporate food chain stay on, get bigger paychecks, etc.

Yep, as we are currently seeing with Thames Water - $17.7 billion in debt.
That's a big hole & feel sorry for 3 shareholders.
Yet again, it's the little people that suffer.
OMERS (23%)
USS (19.7%)
BTPS (13%)
The rest are investment companies.

A grumble and a glory all in one

(Los Angeles, CA) – Today, the Recall DA George Gascon Committee filed a lawsuit asking the Court to certify the recall petition for Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon. The lawsuit is the product of a more than 10-month review of rejected signatures, which resulted in the discovery of tens of thousands of valid signatures that were incorrectly or unlawfully rejected, negligent and flawed counting processes utilized by the Los Angeles Registrar of Voters, and an inflated signature requirement due to bloated voter rolls.
https://venturestrategic.app.box.com/s/tg48w2kmpqmf6gbty74l1ra5df34bl5w

Now maybe we can get this DA who has never seen a criminal or met a victim out of office so his ongoing harm can be stopped.

What isn't clear either from the link or my non-extensive internet searches is who benefited from these signatures being rejected.

organized crime

A chaotic poem about English pronunciation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfhKldRKmo8

Tomorrow you'll have an oral examination.

A chaotic poem about English pronunciation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfhKldRKmo8

Tomorrow you'll have an oral examination.

On a similar theme, see https://www.youtube.com/@loic.suberville