Glory Acyclovir
Bummer Shingles in the eye

currently formatting a 500GB hard disk with gparted. It has been on the syncing device step for a couple of hours now. (it is via a USB2 interface. This is clearly more than a go and make a cup of coffee task!

Does anyone know if syncing device is the last step in the process that you see after clicking on details? My interweb searches don't seem to say.

Check if things are still running with the advice in https://askubuntu.com/questions/915430/gparted-taking-forever-to-complete-formatting-operation

In reply to Jord's message of 23 Feb 2026:

Check if things are still running with the advice in https://askubuntu.com/questions/915430/gparted-taking-forever-to-complete-formatting-operation

Thanks Jord. There seems to be an issue with NTFS and Gparted. Fat32 works fine as do any of the Linux file systems.

Unbelievable. Just fell off my chair just this minute.
Received a text: HM Revenue and Customs.
"HMRC: Not sure you're getting the pay you're entitled to?
You can check and report concerns. Visit GOV.UK and search 'check your pay'

Considering I've been retired for 4 years & the DWP & Taxman are linked together, makes one wonder...

Nothing those that bunch of charlatans say or do ever surprises me....

Considering I've been retired for 4 years & the DWP & Taxman are linked together, makes one wonder...

If the link is in the email I would be checking it is for the genuine .gov.uk site.

No link, just a straight forward message.

Now following a trend set by a few fellow crunchers. Posting from phone in a hospital bed after getting second hip replaced this morning.

Unlike what would have happened when I did my nursing training, I have already been out of bed. Back then it would have been three or five days depending on which consultant did the opp. After two nights will almost certainly be going home..

Good luck with the hip. A friend of mine, after her second knee replacement referred to the previous one as a training wheel. I'd challenge you to a foot race, except several years ago I was walking along and got passed by the proverbial "little old lady" on crutches. I've slowed since then.

Thanks, I really wanted to get back into trapeze for my 70th but think recovery won't quite be that quick so now looking at celebrating my 71st with some of what I got up to at YouTube.com/CatcherCradle

So...
Why is it that when the price of oil goes up, the retail price of fuel goes up within days (or even just a day). But when it goes down, the retail price takes 4, 6 even 8 weeks before it drops?


And as for the present pain- the going rate for the last few days was around $1.45c/l, but i was able to fuel up my small bike for $1.40c/l last night. This morning, the same servo was now $1.45c/l when i went in to fuel up my car. Then a few hours later when i went to fuel up my other bike, it was still $1.45c/l at that servo, but many others were now showing it to be $1.50c/l.
And the real pain isn't meant to hit till mid-April when all of the oil that was in transit has been refined & delivered, and the now trickle from the Middle East is well below the amount needed.
Oh joy.

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Grant
Darwin NT.

Be glad with those prices and don't come to the Netherlands where present gasoline price is €2,57

And where our new very left government says they are not going to do anything about it.
https://www.unitedconsumers.com/tanken/brandstofprijzen/historie

Be glad with those prices and don't come to the Netherlands where present gasoline price is €2,57

Glad I have gone electric and now being into the summer charging is free from my roof. Most of November-February I had to pay out £0.08/KWh on EV tariff charging at night.

Our LNG and electricity prices will take a hike as well, as we too have done away with our coal powered plants and have an LNG plant and the rest wobbly wind turbine and photovoltaic cells, plus a national grid that isn't capable of carrying all the electricity. But with LNG being in demand right now, and ours coming not from our own gas fields, but the USA... Life's going to get a lot more expensive. Luckily, my present contract runs out in December, so I can start looking for a new one in June. 🤡

In reply to Jord's message of 21 Mar 2026:

Our LNG and electricity prices will take a hike as well, as we too have done away with our coal powered plants and have an LNG plant and the rest wobbly wind turbine and photovoltaic cells, plus a national grid that isn't capable of carrying all the electricity. But with LNG being in demand right now, and ours coming not from our own gas fields, but the USA... Life's going to get a lot more expensive. Luckily, my present contract runs out in December, so I can start looking for a new one in June. 🤡

With LNG prices going up, I may be looking as soon as it becomes legal here to add balcony solar to our rooftop system. We have 8 months drawing virtually nothing from the grid. It would be good to get that up to nine or ten months and possibly ditch the LNG altogether. We would use more electricity but would save £150/year just on the standing charge. Won't do anything till next February though as locked into EV tariff which costs £100 per fuel to get out of.

In reply to Jord's message of 21 Mar 2026:

Be glad with those prices and don't come to the Netherlands where present gasoline price is €2,57

*slaps self*
Petrol was $1.72c/l when all this started, all those other prices should have started with $2...
At least i don't have a diesel vehicle- $3/l and rising (as much as $3.96 in some remote areas).

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Grant
Darwin NT.

Yes, but of our price, about €1,50 is made up of VAT and taxes.

In reply to Jord's message of 22 Mar 2026:

Yes, but of our price, about €1,50 is made up of VAT and taxes.

While I have gone electric, liquid fuel here is largely VAT and other taxes too. For EVs, those who can charge at home either from their roof or an EV tariff such as ours of £0.08/KWh are doing quite well as VAT on domestic electricity is just 5%. Those going to charging stations are in some cases paying ten times what I pay on the EV tariff and then have 20%VAT on top of that.

https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/star-trek-starfleet-academy-canceled-season-2-1236696816/

“Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” will end with its upcoming second season, Variety has learned exclusively.

I didn't watch the first season, and won't watch its last.