Billy Young's Blog, page 9
August 23, 2014
23rd August 2014
It is a long weekend this week which means Friday and Monday off. As you can tell I am very happy about this. Mind Calum has roped me into putting shelves up in his room tomorrow. Today, because he is at his work, Magz and me went to get the wood. Calum check online and wanted some redwood for the job. I got him MDF instead about an half inch thick. At that thickness it will hold just about anything he can think to place on it. Redwood would have been more expensive as well for what he needs the shelving for which is storing his ever increasing collection of clothing. Next we just need him to clear the bathroom of all his aftershaves and lotions, hehehe. He does like to smell nice.
I got out into the garden before heading to town. I checked the apples to see if they were ready to drop yet. They aren't so another week or two of waiting. I thought with the chillier nights we have had this week that maybe... But no. Mind it does give them time to fill out even more. Of course they are well large enough, at least the cooking ones are. More pie then, yummy. I did notice some of my carrots could add to my dinner tomorrow so after I finish here I will go pick some. Last week I picked my peas and just at the right time for them to be as sweet as sugar. They were lovely. My parsnips have a bit of growing to go yet I think so leave them for now. While I think about it the grass at the back need cut again. I'll need to squeeze that in provided the weather holds but for now the carrots, hehehe.
I got out into the garden before heading to town. I checked the apples to see if they were ready to drop yet. They aren't so another week or two of waiting. I thought with the chillier nights we have had this week that maybe... But no. Mind it does give them time to fill out even more. Of course they are well large enough, at least the cooking ones are. More pie then, yummy. I did notice some of my carrots could add to my dinner tomorrow so after I finish here I will go pick some. Last week I picked my peas and just at the right time for them to be as sweet as sugar. They were lovely. My parsnips have a bit of growing to go yet I think so leave them for now. While I think about it the grass at the back need cut again. I'll need to squeeze that in provided the weather holds but for now the carrots, hehehe.
August 16, 2014
16th August 2014
My miners have been mining for a week now and I have earned less than I was hoping. That is mainly due to the fact that it is costing more on electric than I had expected. To cover the cost I sold 0.1 btc which I will need to earn each week to keep my miners running. It takes at present difficulty about four to five days to earn this depending on the luck of the pool. Of course that is me paying for almost all the electric consumed by the house. This will continue until I earn less then I will give Magz the proceeds of 0.1 every two weeks. That is roughly what the real cost of running the miners is. What all this means is it will take a long time to achieve my ROI but I should still make it back eventually and with a small profit.
It is raining again so I decide just to stay indoors. I did want to check on the garden but not in the rain. Last Sunday I got the grass cut Front and back. It grows so fast with all the rain then the sun feeding it. It is sometimes hard to keep up with. Still what can you do other than keep on top of it. I started picking the blueberries last week. I notice a couple were ripe and as I look out the window I can see more. Of course there still aren't enough for a pie yet. There will be over the next few weeks. I can also see my cooking apple tree is suffering from the weight of fruit on its branches. Hopefully we will have drier weather tomorrow or I will need to face the drops of moisture so I can check on everything. Aye well skin is water resistant after all or so I've been told.
It is raining again so I decide just to stay indoors. I did want to check on the garden but not in the rain. Last Sunday I got the grass cut Front and back. It grows so fast with all the rain then the sun feeding it. It is sometimes hard to keep up with. Still what can you do other than keep on top of it. I started picking the blueberries last week. I notice a couple were ripe and as I look out the window I can see more. Of course there still aren't enough for a pie yet. There will be over the next few weeks. I can also see my cooking apple tree is suffering from the weight of fruit on its branches. Hopefully we will have drier weather tomorrow or I will need to face the drops of moisture so I can check on everything. Aye well skin is water resistant after all or so I've been told.
August 9, 2014
9th August 2014
Hooray, I was wrong on the time it would take to get my miner. They arrived this week. The first one came Thursday and the other the day after. I got the email saying they were on their way on Tuesday. That meant I had to quickly order an PSU to power them. I went with the Corsair CX750M from Amazon, which is running fine. Yes both miners are running as Bitmain advertised. After the trouble with BFL it is good to get something that work as it is supposed to.
I was watching the Great Debate this week concerning the future of Scotland. Though the press are saying that Mr Salmond lost the debate I don't agree. Then again some would say I am biased as I support the idea of Scotland going it alone. Why? Well for one the union hasn't been that great for us north of the border over the past three hundred years. Before the union almost all Scots were opposed to the idea. It only came about through threats from the Westminster Parliament of invasion and through the buying off of those trusted to protect Scotland. It wasn't long before those loyal to a free Scottish nation raised the flag of rebellion. Over the first forty years two major rising took place the last ended at Culloden. What followed was two years of slaughter by Westminster forces to ensure we never rose again. After this we seen the start of the Clearances that would last for the next one hundred and forty years. These of course this is all well before my time. But even in my life I have seen the lack of respect that Westminster shows to those that live north of the border, and yeah we do think of it as a border. The poll tax was one such instance as was the closing of Ravenscraig in the early nineties basically to save jobs south of the border. At least that is how it appeared at that time and I still believe that it was a vain attempt by the Iron Lady to save votes in England. Of course there are many other reason why I believe we as a nation would be better off freed from rule from London but I think that I've bored you enough. Sadly I don't know if we will achieve home rule as a free new nation. I only hope we do because I'm sure if we don't that London will find a way to punish us for trying to gain it. After all that is the lesson I have learn from seeing the history of the past thirty or more years unfold.
I was watching the Great Debate this week concerning the future of Scotland. Though the press are saying that Mr Salmond lost the debate I don't agree. Then again some would say I am biased as I support the idea of Scotland going it alone. Why? Well for one the union hasn't been that great for us north of the border over the past three hundred years. Before the union almost all Scots were opposed to the idea. It only came about through threats from the Westminster Parliament of invasion and through the buying off of those trusted to protect Scotland. It wasn't long before those loyal to a free Scottish nation raised the flag of rebellion. Over the first forty years two major rising took place the last ended at Culloden. What followed was two years of slaughter by Westminster forces to ensure we never rose again. After this we seen the start of the Clearances that would last for the next one hundred and forty years. These of course this is all well before my time. But even in my life I have seen the lack of respect that Westminster shows to those that live north of the border, and yeah we do think of it as a border. The poll tax was one such instance as was the closing of Ravenscraig in the early nineties basically to save jobs south of the border. At least that is how it appeared at that time and I still believe that it was a vain attempt by the Iron Lady to save votes in England. Of course there are many other reason why I believe we as a nation would be better off freed from rule from London but I think that I've bored you enough. Sadly I don't know if we will achieve home rule as a free new nation. I only hope we do because I'm sure if we don't that London will find a way to punish us for trying to gain it. After all that is the lesson I have learn from seeing the history of the past thirty or more years unfold.
August 2, 2014
2nd August 2014
Well the ASIC my son ordered from EBay never arrived. After several excuses from the vendor Calum was forced to go through the resolution centre to get his money back. I decided to spend some of the little Bitcoin I had left and went to Bitmain, I checked them out and they have a good rep in the Bitcoin community. So now I am waiting for two Antminer S3's coming from China. The third batch, which mine is part of, begin shipping next week. Add to that the time for shipping and I might be mining coin again by the end of this month. I would have just ordered one unfortunately they weren't allowing anything under two per order. Yes I know what your thinking, one for my son. Sadly not this time as I am still paying Tammy back for the last one I got him. Plus the fact that I have a lot of bitcoins to make back after all the equipment that I have spent my reserves on that didn't work, as well as the latest batch. So no I will be using both myself.
Out in the garden, which the rain is watering nicely today, my remaining plants are doing well. That is other than the cherry trees and my eating apple tree. They aren't doing well at all. Spraying them seems to have little effect. At the start of the season I really thought they were going to do well this year. Next year I will need to make the hard decision on whether ort not to cut them down. If I do I will need to replace the apple tree for the sake of the cooking apple one, which is doing really great. In fact the number of apples on it are weighing it down so much that it has needed extra support to prevent it uprooting itself. So it will give us plenty of pies this year, yum.
Out in the garden, which the rain is watering nicely today, my remaining plants are doing well. That is other than the cherry trees and my eating apple tree. They aren't doing well at all. Spraying them seems to have little effect. At the start of the season I really thought they were going to do well this year. Next year I will need to make the hard decision on whether ort not to cut them down. If I do I will need to replace the apple tree for the sake of the cooking apple one, which is doing really great. In fact the number of apples on it are weighing it down so much that it has needed extra support to prevent it uprooting itself. So it will give us plenty of pies this year, yum.
July 26, 2014
26th July 2014
The weather has been hot to say the least. Mind it is cooler today which is a bit of a relief after melting up at the retorts. Up there it was a hundred and four Fahrenheit ( about forty two Celsius) and being inside there isn't much of a breeze. You have to drink loads of water in that kind of heat. I was sure I was losing fluids faster than I could replace them so had Magz put extra water in my work bag. It was needed.
The ASIC miner has still to arrive. I'm a little worried as Magz emailed the seller and was told it still hadn't been posted after the date it was meant to arrive. Apparently the seller had been to a festival last weekend so that had prevented him posting it. He then asked if we still wanted it which I do. Of course if I don't see it soon Magz will inform EBay of the sellers failure to deliver and so seek a full refund for Calum. It is just a little of putting when this sort of thing happens. Not much that we can do about it though other than what we have so far.
Out in the garden the potatoes were pulled this week. There are some left for tomorrows diner but Tammy made a great potato salad yesterday that was much enjoyed in the sunshine. There is nothing like a summer salad especially when some of it comes from your own garden. Though I didn't get a lot of lettuce there was two which though small were full of crunchy goodness. Yes it was a great end to the first week back at work.
The ASIC miner has still to arrive. I'm a little worried as Magz emailed the seller and was told it still hadn't been posted after the date it was meant to arrive. Apparently the seller had been to a festival last weekend so that had prevented him posting it. He then asked if we still wanted it which I do. Of course if I don't see it soon Magz will inform EBay of the sellers failure to deliver and so seek a full refund for Calum. It is just a little of putting when this sort of thing happens. Not much that we can do about it though other than what we have so far.
Out in the garden the potatoes were pulled this week. There are some left for tomorrows diner but Tammy made a great potato salad yesterday that was much enjoyed in the sunshine. There is nothing like a summer salad especially when some of it comes from your own garden. Though I didn't get a lot of lettuce there was two which though small were full of crunchy goodness. Yes it was a great end to the first week back at work.
July 19, 2014
19th July 2014
Well I go back to work on Monday. In a way I am looking forward to getting back but at the same time. Well you know how it is. You enjoy the time off with the family and yet as the holiday reaches its end you are beginning to run out of things to do. That is when the boredom takes over. Saying that I didn't get everything done this time round. I did fail to get the BFL Jalapeno ASIC working. I tried to re-flash the unit to no effect. I did finally get a reply on the companies forum. Not that it was of any use. Basically it was telling me to test the Jally on another system which I had already done. I know they need to go through the basics. The Mod that replied also suggested the same thing in another Bitcoin forum where I had posted. Obviously he hadn't read my post fully or he would have gotten that I had already done what he had suggested. Of course if you were to search BFL's forums now you won't find my post. It got deleted because I told them I had used the Jally as a baseball. I also said that it made as good a baseball as a miner as well as that BFL's, in my opinion, products only work 50% of the time. Well I got two and only one worked. If I was the only one to have said this I could say I was biased but I have read lots of similar tales in the forums. For a company that is not a good record to have.
My son decided to buy me another miner. This one comes in the next few days and isn't a BFL product. No the new one is an Antminer S1. A big boost in overall Gh/s which will be needed as the difficulty has certainly gone up a lot since I was last able to mine. Yeah I know I'm talking geek now aren't I and I haven't even told you how hard it looks setting one of these up. I swear I saw a soldering iron in one picture I looked at on the web. And I thought it would be plug and play, hehehe.
My son decided to buy me another miner. This one comes in the next few days and isn't a BFL product. No the new one is an Antminer S1. A big boost in overall Gh/s which will be needed as the difficulty has certainly gone up a lot since I was last able to mine. Yeah I know I'm talking geek now aren't I and I haven't even told you how hard it looks setting one of these up. I swear I saw a soldering iron in one picture I looked at on the web. And I thought it would be plug and play, hehehe.
July 13, 2014
13th July 2014
The weather has been great for the most part meaning the weeding has been done and then done again. It also means that it needs more wore in that area. I will also need to trim the hedges in the coming week. Of course the garden hasn't been my only pursuit this last week. I have been trying all week to get the ASIC miner working with no joy. I have even tried to re-flash the unit with the same results as before. No it is looking more and more like it will never work. But me being me I can't stop myself from continuing to bang my head of the proverbial wall. BFL forums have been no help at all. You would think that it being their product they would be looking to aide in getting it up and running. I know that is naive as why should they be bothered. After all they have already been paid and they don't care about the reputation their company has created over the past few years. I have received more help from the users of the Bitcoin Forum at bitcointalk.org.
Well I have another week off of work. I will more than likely try again with the Jally but I don't plan on wasting the rest of the week on it. No I want some time to just laze. Well I am on holiday, hehehe.
Well I have another week off of work. I will more than likely try again with the Jally but I don't plan on wasting the rest of the week on it. No I want some time to just laze. Well I am on holiday, hehehe.
July 7, 2014
7th July 2014
As you have noticed this post is a little on the late side. For the past few days I have been off line due to computer issue which I am happy to say are now solved. I wish I could say the same for ASIC miner. I did finally managed to get it flashed using the Raspberry but I am still finding that it won't mine for me. I have to do more searching the web in the hope that it is something that I might sort. Though it is very much looking as if I shall never get it working.
I am now on holiday for two weeks. Of course the only place I will be going is out the back to my garden. So far the few strawberries I have pick this year have not lasted long. Yes Magz has enjoyed them all. Well there hasn't been enough of a crop for jam this year sadly. My gooseberries a ripening up nicely. They're still on the hard side though they are beginning to feel a little softer. Still I think I should leave them for another week or two yet before picking. One thing that looks good is my apple trees. Both have a lot of fruit developing nicely as is the blueberries.
This year has been a lot of misses in the garden. Yet still I should get some returns for the work. While I'm off I will need to fix my side fence again. It has become a yearly ritual. Winter blows it down and I repair it come the summer. Well at least it keeps me busy.
I am now on holiday for two weeks. Of course the only place I will be going is out the back to my garden. So far the few strawberries I have pick this year have not lasted long. Yes Magz has enjoyed them all. Well there hasn't been enough of a crop for jam this year sadly. My gooseberries a ripening up nicely. They're still on the hard side though they are beginning to feel a little softer. Still I think I should leave them for another week or two yet before picking. One thing that looks good is my apple trees. Both have a lot of fruit developing nicely as is the blueberries.
This year has been a lot of misses in the garden. Yet still I should get some returns for the work. While I'm off I will need to fix my side fence again. It has become a yearly ritual. Winter blows it down and I repair it come the summer. Well at least it keeps me busy.
June 29, 2014
29th June 2014
I was planning on getting this post done yesterday morning as I had to go to my friend Mickey's wedding. Like many plans it went wrong. Computer problems plagued my morning which I in the end had to leave till this morning to finally fix. As you can tell it is finally running but it did throw all of my plans for the weekend out of the window. I was hoping to have another crack at the jally which will now need to wait till next weekend. Luckily I will be on holiday for two weeks after this week, so I'll have plenty of time. My garden is also needing seen to but sadly has been neglected this weekend. I can see from my window that there are strawberries waiting to be picked. Surprisingly Magz hasn't been out to get them yet. Maybe she was just leaving it for me to get the first of the season. I can also see that my war on the weeds is being lost this week though that is just temporary. Yes I will get them back on the retreat over my holiday but for this week I will just have to deal with the sight of them till I get the time.
As for Mickey's wedding. Well what can I say it was a great day out. As well as it being a good night out. Yes we were at the whole ceremony, dinner, and reception. I think you have all been to at least one yourselves so you know what they are like. Full of emotion as you watch the bride come down the aisle. Mickey was almost in tears from the joy he felt. And as they both said their vows to one another again you could hear the feelings they felt for each other. Yeah we had a great day as a family and I had maybe a little much in the alcohol stakes though I wasn't drunk, just very close.
As for Mickey's wedding. Well what can I say it was a great day out. As well as it being a good night out. Yes we were at the whole ceremony, dinner, and reception. I think you have all been to at least one yourselves so you know what they are like. Full of emotion as you watch the bride come down the aisle. Mickey was almost in tears from the joy he felt. And as they both said their vows to one another again you could hear the feelings they felt for each other. Yeah we had a great day as a family and I had maybe a little much in the alcohol stakes though I wasn't drunk, just very close.
June 21, 2014
21st June 2014
A week of trying to flash the jally has led to failure. It would seem that I was never meant to get it working. My son tried again on his day off but with the same set of failures, write error, erase, cpb errors everywhere. Sadly having checked the web we are no where closer to knowing what these are or how to get round them. When I got the pi I really thought that I might get the jally working at last sadly it has been the cause of a few heated words between my son and me. You know what they say about working with family, hehehe. I will post for help in the forums but I doubt if I'll get much help from them. I really beginning to think that I have a very expensive paper weight.
My pumpkins have finally begun growing. Well two of them are doing well. The third did surface but I noticed it has withered away over the week. The other two though are doing well as are my apples. It really looks like we might get a bumper crop this year. The same is true for my blueberries and the gooseberries. Yes they both have come along since re-potting them last year. they have really settled into the larger pots well. Not just have both bushes grown large but the fruit looks as if they also will be juicier and of greater size. I look forwards to when the blueberries are ready for a pie.
My pumpkins have finally begun growing. Well two of them are doing well. The third did surface but I noticed it has withered away over the week. The other two though are doing well as are my apples. It really looks like we might get a bumper crop this year. The same is true for my blueberries and the gooseberries. Yes they both have come along since re-potting them last year. they have really settled into the larger pots well. Not just have both bushes grown large but the fruit looks as if they also will be juicier and of greater size. I look forwards to when the blueberries are ready for a pie.
