I just want to be clear about this. No one has to go out and back in again just because I added some new extra buttons. I did not remove anything that was there before.
If you don't already know the config you need, you can just click on the track name. The configs will then appear with their names. That function still works the old way - there is no change there, I just added more buttons for convenience.
The config names are stored in the tracks. This was not intended as as major rewrite of the track screen, it was a 10 minute quick job of adding the config buttons.
NOTE : I'm not saying I won't do anything about it. I'm just explaining a few things.
Guys, please don't use this thread for unrelated or repeated requests that will require a non-compatible version and have already been discussed at length in the suggestions forum and so on. It's a hard enough job for me to look through this thread just trying to make notes of the actual relevant requests.
I am not asking for requests at all, I'm really just putting up a test patch so you can tell me if it has any problems. I have a whole sheet of paper of things to do for U12 compatible patch and I'm really not asking for more things to confuse me.
I am not asking for requests at all, I'm really just putting up a test patch so you can tell me if it has any problems. I have a whole sheet of paper of things to do for U12 compatible patch and I'm really not asking for more things to confuse me.
I have no idea about that.
Personally I wouldn't be making LFS write to the registry. My job would be, if possible, to make LFS run when passed a spr or mpr filename as a parameter. Maybe it comes in like a command line parameter? I haven't even looked into it, never done something like that, so I don't know.
I think you can manually set up file associations, and hopefully that's not too hard.
There's my vague thoughts on the matter.
Personally I wouldn't be making LFS write to the registry. My job would be, if possible, to make LFS run when passed a spr or mpr filename as a parameter. Maybe it comes in like a command line parameter? I haven't even looked into it, never done something like that, so I don't know.
I think you can manually set up file associations, and hopefully that's not too hard.
There's my vague thoughts on the matter.
Ok... what i want to know is, is there a list of graphics cards that can do these high resolutions?
All i can find about a 9800 Pro, is that the maximum resolution is 2048x1536 - which isn't enough to run at 2400x600, 3072x1024 or 3840x1024.
I was hoping the 9800 Pro would do the job, as it's a reasonably recent DX9 card, from last year, and also because i've got one sitting here just asking to be used.
Thanks. It's simple enough, LFS exists because we chose a way of working, to take our time and make the program we want. The design decisions and direction are led by interest, our ideas and experiments and also influenced a lot by requests and ideas from the community.
The money that we can make, although an important consideration, is simply not the primary driving force. If it was, then we should do something completely different, something mainstream. There are a lot of easier ways to make money. We're doing this because we like what we do. We don't want to change our partnership, form a limited company, start hiring programmers, artists, receptionists and accountants. That's not what we're here for and it's not why LFS exists. We've specifically left that kind of job.
Making a racing sim takes a long time. It's taken so much time for so many years, that we have allowed the rest of our lives and houses to decay a bit around us. So, it's sometimes a bit hard to take, when we see the amount of attacks that we receive when we take a bit of time to sort things out. I just can't understand what's the rush! We're working on a sim, which gets updated every few months. Sometimes progress is faster than at other times. You get things in the end. Most people understand that, they are happy to have the sim in its current state. But a few people are so impatient, it's amazing, and they have to come up with all these ideas about how we should do things differently, change our lives, even give up our whole lives and anything we want to do, in order to grow LFS as fast as possible. But from our point of view that's just quite strange really.
I shouldn't really need to explain this again, but i can see that the impatience level is rising again. Just relax, there will be new physics at some point when i've had time to work on the aero and the tyres, involving plenty of experimentation and testing. There will be updates from Eric as well. How long it will take, i don't know. If LFS bores you for now, just do something else for a while. You'll get a news letter from us when there's a patch.
Thanks to those who do explain this to people. It's a strange effect, this impatience thing, it seems to be seen often in gaming communities, a few angry guys putting huge pressure on developers for release dates, immense anger when the dates slip or features are cut, then it's even worse when things are rushed out before they are really finished. Gamers need to understand that it just takes a long time to write computer games and simulations. And always longer, year after year, as the complexity increases.
The money that we can make, although an important consideration, is simply not the primary driving force. If it was, then we should do something completely different, something mainstream. There are a lot of easier ways to make money. We're doing this because we like what we do. We don't want to change our partnership, form a limited company, start hiring programmers, artists, receptionists and accountants. That's not what we're here for and it's not why LFS exists. We've specifically left that kind of job.
Making a racing sim takes a long time. It's taken so much time for so many years, that we have allowed the rest of our lives and houses to decay a bit around us. So, it's sometimes a bit hard to take, when we see the amount of attacks that we receive when we take a bit of time to sort things out. I just can't understand what's the rush! We're working on a sim, which gets updated every few months. Sometimes progress is faster than at other times. You get things in the end. Most people understand that, they are happy to have the sim in its current state. But a few people are so impatient, it's amazing, and they have to come up with all these ideas about how we should do things differently, change our lives, even give up our whole lives and anything we want to do, in order to grow LFS as fast as possible. But from our point of view that's just quite strange really.
I shouldn't really need to explain this again, but i can see that the impatience level is rising again. Just relax, there will be new physics at some point when i've had time to work on the aero and the tyres, involving plenty of experimentation and testing. There will be updates from Eric as well. How long it will take, i don't know. If LFS bores you for now, just do something else for a while. You'll get a news letter from us when there's a patch.
Thanks to those who do explain this to people. It's a strange effect, this impatience thing, it seems to be seen often in gaming communities, a few angry guys putting huge pressure on developers for release dates, immense anger when the dates slip or features are cut, then it's even worse when things are rushed out before they are really finished. Gamers need to understand that it just takes a long time to write computer games and simulations. And always longer, year after year, as the complexity increases.
Also, if you know how to make racing sims better than we do, why not make your own?
We welcome comments about LFS, positive and negative (constructive criticism). But it's not welcome, telling us how to do our job, what we should do with our time and that we have got our priorities all wrong.
Our way of working is what got LFS to this stage, so it can't be all bad. We work by inspiration, doing what is interesting at the time. That way we don't get bored and stop development like what happens with most games.
We welcome comments about LFS, positive and negative (constructive criticism). But it's not welcome, telling us how to do our job, what we should do with our time and that we have got our priorities all wrong.
Our way of working is what got LFS to this stage, so it can't be all bad. We work by inspiration, doing what is interesting at the time. That way we don't get bored and stop development like what happens with most games.
Kitchen progress very slow - it's just like those previous pictures but more white paint on the walls and some more temporary cupboards below the worktop. Next step is to put up the top cupboards - possibly can do that this weekend.
Recently i did some more plumbing in the bathroom. When the plumbers came a couple of years ago to replace the old style boiler with a new "combi" boiler which heats the water instantly, and has no water tanks, they took a short cut with some plumbing.
Instead of connecting the mains feed to the bathroom, straight into the bath / sink / toilet inlet (the shortest route) they took the easier option of just connecting the pipes in the roof. So the pipe which used to filll the old header tank, they just connected to the outlet of that tank. So the cold water for the bathroom, went up into the bathroom, into the roof, around the roof and back down into the bathroom again, pointlessly. This saved them doing the job i had to do in the bathroom, which involved removing the floorboards and careful paint stripping and tube cutting in an enclosed space, to get to the point where i could solder it back together again the way it should be.
EDIT : Forgot to mention : the reason why i did this is because the kitchen changes made the toilet make a silly noise while filling up. So i had to turn down the service valve in the toilet even more than it was before, so it took ages to fill up - and sometimes that can a bit of a problem.
I thought that the roof plumbing fix might fix that but in fact it didn't do much, the noise is still there if i turn on the toilet fill to full speed - but it's not so bad now, i don't have to turn down the fill rate so much. I'm also pleased not to have those two pipes going into the roof - it looks much nicer.
Recently i did some more plumbing in the bathroom. When the plumbers came a couple of years ago to replace the old style boiler with a new "combi" boiler which heats the water instantly, and has no water tanks, they took a short cut with some plumbing.
Instead of connecting the mains feed to the bathroom, straight into the bath / sink / toilet inlet (the shortest route) they took the easier option of just connecting the pipes in the roof. So the pipe which used to filll the old header tank, they just connected to the outlet of that tank. So the cold water for the bathroom, went up into the bathroom, into the roof, around the roof and back down into the bathroom again, pointlessly. This saved them doing the job i had to do in the bathroom, which involved removing the floorboards and careful paint stripping and tube cutting in an enclosed space, to get to the point where i could solder it back together again the way it should be.
EDIT : Forgot to mention : the reason why i did this is because the kitchen changes made the toilet make a silly noise while filling up. So i had to turn down the service valve in the toilet even more than it was before, so it took ages to fill up - and sometimes that can a bit of a problem.
I thought that the roof plumbing fix might fix that but in fact it didn't do much, the noise is still there if i turn on the toilet fill to full speed - but it's not so bad now, i don't have to turn down the fill rate so much. I'm also pleased not to have those two pipes going into the roof - it looks much nicer.
Last edited by Scawen, .
Kitchen progress...
Kitchen progressing very slowly. Not working on it very often though a big rush might be starting soon...
The new worktop will be installed level, that means, levelled with a spirit level, not just randomly following the floor slightly downhill like the old one. So that means the tiles must be removed as they are at an angle.
Cleared the worktop and got the screwdriver and hammer expecting to easily remove the tiles, and instead ended up just splintering the tiles, taking off tiny fragments of tile with every few blows of the hammer! They are really stuck to the wall. Went out and got some wide cold chisels and a hand held 3lb sledge hammer thing / metal mallet, whatever it's called. Now i can really smash those tiles with the force they need, but it takes massive gouges out of the wall! The cement is so strong, it's stronger than the tile and the wall! So... that's why i have to gouge out the wall, and consequently it needs re-plastering before any more tiles can go on or the new worktop can be fitted.
Called my plasterer friend - he visited - of course he can do the job but he encourages me to do the WHOLE kitchen, instead of just that part, because it will be a better job, and anyway the old plaster is a bit dented round the room and the ceiling really needs to be re-done.
So that means i'll have to remove the top cupboards as well. Unfortunately it's quite hard because they're not standard - these are the ones I made years ago and some of the screws aren't in a very good place for removing them. I guess i'll have a go this weekend. Hopefully they can be removed without damaging them too badly.
Anyway that's the kitchen progress, it's just like it was but with half the tiles removed.
LFS progress is interesting, currently implementing several codepages, including Japanese (Katakana), Cyrillic, Greek, Turkish, Central European, Baltic so a lot more languages will have the correct characters available... You can see screen shots of the Katakana over in the programmer forum. there should be a test patch for language testing some time next week i guess.
The new worktop will be installed level, that means, levelled with a spirit level, not just randomly following the floor slightly downhill like the old one. So that means the tiles must be removed as they are at an angle.
Cleared the worktop and got the screwdriver and hammer expecting to easily remove the tiles, and instead ended up just splintering the tiles, taking off tiny fragments of tile with every few blows of the hammer! They are really stuck to the wall. Went out and got some wide cold chisels and a hand held 3lb sledge hammer thing / metal mallet, whatever it's called. Now i can really smash those tiles with the force they need, but it takes massive gouges out of the wall! The cement is so strong, it's stronger than the tile and the wall! So... that's why i have to gouge out the wall, and consequently it needs re-plastering before any more tiles can go on or the new worktop can be fitted.
Called my plasterer friend - he visited - of course he can do the job but he encourages me to do the WHOLE kitchen, instead of just that part, because it will be a better job, and anyway the old plaster is a bit dented round the room and the ceiling really needs to be re-done.
So that means i'll have to remove the top cupboards as well. Unfortunately it's quite hard because they're not standard - these are the ones I made years ago and some of the screws aren't in a very good place for removing them. I guess i'll have a go this weekend. Hopefully they can be removed without damaging them too badly.
Anyway that's the kitchen progress, it's just like it was but with half the tiles removed.
LFS progress is interesting, currently implementing several codepages, including Japanese (Katakana), Cyrillic, Greek, Turkish, Central European, Baltic so a lot more languages will have the correct characters available... You can see screen shots of the Katakana over in the programmer forum. there should be a test patch for language testing some time next week i guess.
You are right that is horrifically simplistic.
It's a bit like saying...
"How to build a house - just get some bricks and put them on some land. Job done!"
In fact the full Unicode support is a major task. It can be broken down into 3 sections - display / internal processing / input. Display is complicated by the support of over 50,000 characters instead of 255, which means they must be generated and discarded on the fly, storing characters on dynamically rendered textures instead of simply storing a pregenerated version of all available characters, so that LFS can run smoothly and do specialised things like coloured text. Internal processing is complicated because text processing is handled in over 1000 places in the LFS code, and each one would need to be updated manually to handle multibyte characters - it's not possible in LFS to just flick a switch to suddenly support multibyte characters - many things including several file formats and multiplayer packets and memory allocations, depend on the size of the characters. Input is complicated by the fact that it's only XP that can handle Unicode input. If i simply set the UNICODE define and compile LFS to accept Unicode input to its windows, it just doesn't run on Win98 / WinME.
I'm not saying it's impossible, i'm just pointing out that even what i can see, is several weeks of work. And that's not taking account of all the grey areas where i don't know what is going to happen.
It's possible that the full Unicode support would be best left until some future version of LFS (some years from now) which is DX9 based and only works on XP or later versions of Windows.
For now, i'm looking into the single character code pages...
Hello.
It's nothing to do with SRAPI... LFS uses its own font system. The special LFS data in the file is used to create the font texture pages in memory. The font data is created in our own font editor.
The font uses the Latin-1 character set, which covers Western Europe very well but doesn't help at all with Russian, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Greek and many more.
I've been researching recently, about the Unicode system which is probably the best way for LFS to support all the world's languages. But it's quite a big deal to implement it. LFS would need to generate a new font texture in memory whenever it encountered a character that it has not yet drawn. It will need to search the Windows fonts, to try to find a font that contains the required character. This is because not all computers contain a single font that covers the whole Unicode character set... and we cannot provide one either because such fonts are over 20 MB and there aren't any available for free download. There are several more complications in creating a font system that can support the Unicode character set, which contains more than 50,000 characters. Anyway, if i do find a way to get past each obstacle, then LFS could be translated using UTF-8 encoded text files, or something similar.
I think that's the only way to do it. I don't think it's really possible to simply substitute the Latin letters for Katakana or Hiragana, or Cyrillic. Because of many problems that would come up, For example the user names, which are in Latin characters, would appear as random incorrect characters. Also, when a Japanese person would meet a European person online, their Latin text would appear in random Katakana characters and wouldn't make sense.
So i think it's Unicode or nothing, really. I would want the correct characters to appear on anyone's screen, no matter where they are from, as long as there is a font on their computer which contains the required character. As i say... i have been looking into it recently, and did manage to make some characters appear on a texture. But it's a big job to to properly, with thousands of lines of code in LFS that use text strings. And i'm also researching and experimenting with other things at the moment. So i can't say if or when the Unicode support will be implemented.
It's nothing to do with SRAPI... LFS uses its own font system. The special LFS data in the file is used to create the font texture pages in memory. The font data is created in our own font editor.
The font uses the Latin-1 character set, which covers Western Europe very well but doesn't help at all with Russian, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Greek and many more.
I've been researching recently, about the Unicode system which is probably the best way for LFS to support all the world's languages. But it's quite a big deal to implement it. LFS would need to generate a new font texture in memory whenever it encountered a character that it has not yet drawn. It will need to search the Windows fonts, to try to find a font that contains the required character. This is because not all computers contain a single font that covers the whole Unicode character set... and we cannot provide one either because such fonts are over 20 MB and there aren't any available for free download. There are several more complications in creating a font system that can support the Unicode character set, which contains more than 50,000 characters. Anyway, if i do find a way to get past each obstacle, then LFS could be translated using UTF-8 encoded text files, or something similar.
I think that's the only way to do it. I don't think it's really possible to simply substitute the Latin letters for Katakana or Hiragana, or Cyrillic. Because of many problems that would come up, For example the user names, which are in Latin characters, would appear as random incorrect characters. Also, when a Japanese person would meet a European person online, their Latin text would appear in random Katakana characters and wouldn't make sense.
So i think it's Unicode or nothing, really. I would want the correct characters to appear on anyone's screen, no matter where they are from, as long as there is a font on their computer which contains the required character. As i say... i have been looking into it recently, and did manage to make some characters appear on a texture. But it's a big job to to properly, with thousands of lines of code in LFS that use text strings. And i'm also researching and experimenting with other things at the moment. So i can't say if or when the Unicode support will be implemented.
Hmm..... i was wondering about that - and if anyone would spot that here. 
But how far does that go? All the way out to the street? And how dangerous is it really? The water here is very hard, everything is always getting limescale, so does that mean the lead pipe gets a nice safe internal covering of limescale? Or is it really giving me a slow death?
EDIT : a bit of internet research seems to indicate that lead pipes are more of a problem in soft water areas... i think for now i'll just carry on as before and not worry too much about the lead pipes. It's a separate job anyway so there's no need to do it all at once.
But how far does that go? All the way out to the street? And how dangerous is it really? The water here is very hard, everything is always getting limescale, so does that mean the lead pipe gets a nice safe internal covering of limescale? Or is it really giving me a slow death?
EDIT : a bit of internet research seems to indicate that lead pipes are more of a problem in soft water areas... i think for now i'll just carry on as before and not worry too much about the lead pipes. It's a separate job anyway so there's no need to do it all at once.
Last edited by Scawen, .
THANKS again guys!
Special thanks to Dibblah : very good advice - it can be hard to find good plumbing advice. I will probably go and get a blowtorch, a pipe bending spring, some flux, wire wool and a soldering mat. Also trade in some of the compression joints i've bought and get some pre-soldered ones instead. Sounds easier / more reliable this way... and more fun!
I'm tempted to reorganise it a bit as well. I'm attaching a photo of how it is and my impression of how it should be re-done.
Notice how i'll get a lot more space for the stopcock - the old one is in such a small space at the moment so after cutting off the old ones and extending the pipes, there wouldn't really be enough space for the stopcock. My proposed re-done version also has an extended cold tube which is to make it easier to attach a garden tap as well. By the way, the earth lead should be attached above the stopcock but it's just temporarily fitted to the central heating pipe, to give me some reasonable access to the stopcock.
It's more fun this way than hiring a professional. I'd obviously hire a professional for a big job - for example the new combi boiler here was fitted three years ago by a real plumber who used to live over the road but has moved away. But seeing as it's just cold water pipes, i prefer to do it myself. Nice for my brain to do something else for a change, as i'm only slowly getting back into programming at the moment. I'll be doing the kitchen, with Geraldine. I'm a reasonably experienced chippy so that's no problem. We did the top half of the kitchen about 6 years ago. The doors and drawer fronts for the bottom have just been waiting for the job to be finished ever since. But plumbing is new for me... and there's more plumbing to be done under the new sink of course, when i get to that point!
Special thanks to Dibblah : very good advice - it can be hard to find good plumbing advice. I will probably go and get a blowtorch, a pipe bending spring, some flux, wire wool and a soldering mat. Also trade in some of the compression joints i've bought and get some pre-soldered ones instead. Sounds easier / more reliable this way... and more fun!
I'm tempted to reorganise it a bit as well. I'm attaching a photo of how it is and my impression of how it should be re-done.
Notice how i'll get a lot more space for the stopcock - the old one is in such a small space at the moment so after cutting off the old ones and extending the pipes, there wouldn't really be enough space for the stopcock. My proposed re-done version also has an extended cold tube which is to make it easier to attach a garden tap as well. By the way, the earth lead should be attached above the stopcock but it's just temporarily fitted to the central heating pipe, to give me some reasonable access to the stopcock.
It's more fun this way than hiring a professional. I'd obviously hire a professional for a big job - for example the new combi boiler here was fitted three years ago by a real plumber who used to live over the road but has moved away. But seeing as it's just cold water pipes, i prefer to do it myself. Nice for my brain to do something else for a change, as i'm only slowly getting back into programming at the moment. I'll be doing the kitchen, with Geraldine. I'm a reasonably experienced chippy so that's no problem. We did the top half of the kitchen about 6 years ago. The doors and drawer fronts for the bottom have just been waiting for the job to be finished ever since. But plumbing is new for me... and there's more plumbing to be done under the new sink of course, when i get to that point!
Request : Plumbing Advice [now done]
Tristan, seeing as you seem to know about plumbing, do you have any ideas how to remove the compression rings off the end of the copper pipes, after removing the old stopcock?
To explain : today we turned off the mains from outside and successfully removed the old indoor stopcock. Then we discovered that the compression rings from the compression joints are seized onto the copper pipes - i guess that is to be expected. But they must be removed because the new stopcock has different threads, and can't use the old stopcock's compression nuts that are stuck on there behind the compression rings. Is it possible to remove the rings without damaging the pipe? Access is restricted, can't get in there with a hacksaw or a copper pipe cutter.
I'm thinking maybe a grinderette / angle grinder will be the only way i can cut off the copper pipes, in order to get a clean end to install the new stopcock with its compression joints. The bad thing is that the lower end of it is soooooo close to the wider mains pipe that comes in from outside - it would be nice if the compression ring could be removed instead of cutting off any more of that precious remaining copper pipe.
We've abandoned this job for today and re-installed the old broken stopcock so we have water again.
To explain : today we turned off the mains from outside and successfully removed the old indoor stopcock. Then we discovered that the compression rings from the compression joints are seized onto the copper pipes - i guess that is to be expected. But they must be removed because the new stopcock has different threads, and can't use the old stopcock's compression nuts that are stuck on there behind the compression rings. Is it possible to remove the rings without damaging the pipe? Access is restricted, can't get in there with a hacksaw or a copper pipe cutter.
I'm thinking maybe a grinderette / angle grinder will be the only way i can cut off the copper pipes, in order to get a clean end to install the new stopcock with its compression joints. The bad thing is that the lower end of it is soooooo close to the wider mains pipe that comes in from outside - it would be nice if the compression ring could be removed instead of cutting off any more of that precious remaining copper pipe.
We've abandoned this job for today and re-installed the old broken stopcock so we have water again.
To everyone who is concerned about the posts being removed :
Please give Gunn a break, don't bash him for this. He is moderating here and doing a really great job, one that is unpaid, takes quite a lot of time and thought, and gets very few compliments. Now, on one occasion, in some people's opinion, he has overstepped the mark, because he moved some posts to a "safe" location.
Why, because the thread had gone off topic, with *arguments* and *insults* thrown in. Some of which were unnecessary.
Gunn has said that he can send any of you the text of your posts, on request, so you can re-post in in the off-topic section. What could be fairer than that? Please take it easy on him because it's not an easy job, moderating, and even though this is done in a relaxed way here, sometimes, the moderator is destined to step in when things get "ugly". And by "ugly" i don't mean, the genuine discussions about dE problems - i'm talking about when people start insulting eachother - not pretty on the forum and they should use PMs instead for personal insults!
Please give Gunn a break, don't bash him for this. He is moderating here and doing a really great job, one that is unpaid, takes quite a lot of time and thought, and gets very few compliments. Now, on one occasion, in some people's opinion, he has overstepped the mark, because he moved some posts to a "safe" location.
Why, because the thread had gone off topic, with *arguments* and *insults* thrown in. Some of which were unnecessary.
Gunn has said that he can send any of you the text of your posts, on request, so you can re-post in in the off-topic section. What could be fairer than that? Please take it easy on him because it's not an easy job, moderating, and even though this is done in a relaxed way here, sometimes, the moderator is destined to step in when things get "ugly". And by "ugly" i don't mean, the genuine discussions about dE problems - i'm talking about when people start insulting eachother - not pretty on the forum and they should use PMs instead for personal insults!
LOL! I like the cat pictures!
Anyway a minor update : I didn't realise how close I was with one and a half turns. At one and three-quarter turns, the water is switched off! So now I really have an easy-to-use outdoor stopcock. I'm quite amazed as it was under an arm's length of mud and stones, must have somehow preserved it quite nicely in there. in future I will put a cover over the top of that ceramic tube.
So... next stage will be to replace the kitchen one so Geraldine and I can soon start the actual kitchen job. Probably will be a few days or even weeks before we start that, but possibly something on the weekend... don't know really but you'll hear if there is some progress.
Anyway a minor update : I didn't realise how close I was with one and a half turns. At one and three-quarter turns, the water is switched off!
So now I really have an easy-to-use outdoor stopcock. I'm quite amazed as it was under an arm's length of mud and stones, must have somehow preserved it quite nicely in there. in future I will put a cover over the top of that ceramic tube.So... next stage will be to replace the kitchen one so Geraldine and I can soon start the actual kitchen job. Probably will be a few days or even weeks before we start that, but possibly something on the weekend... don't know really but you'll hear if there is some progress.
Real Progress
Wow, I am excited now, because that tap can TURN!!!
Tristan - ok I get you now, you mean just like the well known heating of the seized thing, cooling it instead. I had thought you were talking about the other slightly risky "ice plug" idea that can be used instead of a tap. BUT... no need, as enough repeat applications of WD40 and just some gentle tapping a few times, has done the job. 
Here's a picture of how the tap looks down the hole, and another of my tap turning tool, seeing as some of you seem to like my tools LOL - it's a simple groove in the end to grab the tap, and a hole at the other end for the handle... this would be strong enough to break off the tap completely, but i used it gently to apply a bit more torque than i could with my hand down the hole.
And it started to move! Just an eighth of a turn at first, but i've been going back to it, re-oiling, turning in and out a bit further each time, and i'm up to 1 and a half turns now... no rush, hopefully it will eventually turn enough to cut off the water supply!
Tristan - ok I get you now, you mean just like the well known heating of the seized thing, cooling it instead. I had thought you were talking about the other slightly risky "ice plug" idea that can be used instead of a tap.
BUT... no need, as enough repeat applications of WD40 and just some gentle tapping a few times, has done the job. Here's a picture of how the tap looks down the hole, and another of my tap turning tool, seeing as some of you seem to like my tools LOL - it's a simple groove in the end to grab the tap, and a hole at the other end for the handle... this would be strong enough to break off the tap completely, but i used it gently to apply a bit more torque than i could with my hand down the hole.
And it started to move! Just an eighth of a turn at first, but i've been going back to it, re-oiling, turning in and out a bit further each time, and i'm up to 1 and a half turns now... no rush, hopefully it will eventually turn enough to cut off the water supply!
It's wooden doors under a worktop surface that is a bit blue. But it's a bit hard to get started on the job seeing as I've managed to break the mains tap handle off its stem. It was seized and I had to use a mole wrench to try to gradually move it a bit this way and that but in the end, it just broke off instead of turning. Lesson to learn - DO turn the mains tap off an on at least twice a year or it will eventually seize. So I am investigating the outside mains supply stopcocks as well though one of them seems to be totally seized as well and another one is an unknown distance down a ceramic tube which seems to be full to the brim with an unknown amount of general crap / rubbish / life forms. Well apparently life is like coding, nothing's quite as easy as you expect!
Anyway it's been nice relaxing for these weeks. I can even do normal things like browsing around the internet following general interests, rather than having to dedicate all my computer time to LFS related things before my eyes get too tired each day. It's nice being normal, doing things at a relaxed pace and just doing whatever I feel like doing for a while!
Anyway it's been nice relaxing for these weeks. I can even do normal things like browsing around the internet following general interests, rather than having to dedicate all my computer time to LFS related things before my eyes get too tired each day. It's nice being normal, doing things at a relaxed pace and just doing whatever I feel like doing for a while!
In fact, this is our only job.
But we've needed a long break. July was to just relax after that hard Alpha push, August started with the little work for test patch P2 then an holiday for me. Right now I'm still on general life things, washed bike yesterday ready for its MOT on Saturday. Built a shed recently and bought a worktop and sink to build a new lower part of my kitchen. How exciting - I'm not sure you really wanted to know that!
Well loads of things really, but i'm not going to bore you with them as it's nothing to do with LFS... but just imagine for yourself if you had a house and did *nothing* on it for four years or so, and neglected all parts of your life that didn't need urgent attention, then there would be some jobs to do and things to sort out!
Same with Eric - he has had things to sort out as well. We are both *slowly* starting to do some work again. And whwn i say slowly, i mean slowly and gradually. So there won't be any significant progress to mention any time soon. It's more research and testing for some features and well known parts of LFS that need to be improved for S2 final.
FGED GREDG RDFGDR GSFDG