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RobiNZ
New Zealand
A he/him Kiwi who likes blogging about design, technology, cycling, autos and (a rather unexciting) life!
Interests: design, gps, cad, rally, cycling, formula one, computers and other stuff!
Recent Activity
Curing 'phantom screen touches' on an old Surface Book?
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My Surface Book 2 is old, well out of any warranty, but still performs really well for my own needs. It's a home machine but can still run CAD, Revit, even (just) Microsoft Flight Sim, well enough to not consider a replacement. It was a little tight for storage (only 500GB on board) but a card in the SD slot doubled that for storing Flight Sim (about 450GB on its own)! The then phantom touch arrived... I didn't get a screen shot (below is my reproduction) but the other day on start-up it looked like a phantom finger was permanently... Continue reading
Posted Nov 10, 2023 at RobiNZ CAD Blog
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Congratulations Shaan, well deserved!
Toggle Commented Nov 11, 2023 on Honored to Be the First AUGI Advisory Board Member at Between the Lines
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Tern BYB P8 Bike in a box, the Tern Airporter Slim ready for the world
The BYB in my Tern BYB P8 folding bike mode name stands for 'Bring Your Bike'. The wonderful thing about a folding bike is taking it, anywhere. When I saw the Tern Airporter Slim case, on their site, the idea of an easily flyable bike really appealed. It isn't for point-to-point touring, more 'hub and spoke' (day rides from a base) but that is the type of cycle touring I like. Photo from Tern Website Trying to buy one... None of the local Tern dealers had one in stock. Rouleur, where I got my bike, were happy to order it... Continue reading
Posted Nov 8, 2023 at RobiNZ Personal Blog
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I gave up with inkjet in 2011, got a cheap ($170) Brother mono laser as don't print much, never colour, and considered getting a refill to replace the 'dealer part tank' one that came in it. Glad I didn't as that first one is just starting to look a bit washed out. Was amazed to find you can still buy refills for it, they cost about $170 but figure ~$14/year isn't bad for operating expenses...
Toggle Commented Nov 5, 2023 on When HP Said, Get in Line, I said No at WorldCAD Access
Fairly sure it is just a gummy belt. I found the exact service manual for the model (an AU/NZ specific one so a bit surprised) and it looks like the belt is under the load/tape drive module, requires removal of it, so not a simple lid off fix. Going to order a belt and have a go as nobody services them anymore, even independent places have given up due to lack of parts. I have loved PMG for decades, have seen Pat perform twice in NZ but sad I never saw the group, Lyle, perform in person. Do have a special memory of listening to his music (the first Solo album) in an extraordinary setting... https://www.robincapper.net/personal/2019/11/antarctic-sounds-and-not-sleeping-on-ice-antarctic-mission-log-06.html
Toggle Commented Nov 5, 2023 on How I record LP records to my computer at WorldCAD Access
Cần Thơ to Hồ Chí Minh City | Day 8 Vietnam Cycle Tour
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The itinerary: A feature of the Mekong Delta are the floating markets situated at the main river junctions. An early morning boat trip will take us to visit one of the largest floating markets at Cai Rang where you will see a large variety of local produce being sold from all manner of boats. Hau river sunrise! OK, maybe not sunrise but an early start to visit the Cái Răng floating market. Morning calm on the river. The boy (left)* was a brilliant tour guide, all done with sign language as he was deaf. Linda, Me, Christine, Larry, Liz, Mike... Continue reading
Posted Oct 14, 2023 at RobiNZ Personal Blog
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Breaking pinned taskbar shortcuts out of Taskbar Overflow Menu jail
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If, like me, you pin a lot of commonly used shortcuts to the Windows 11 Taskbar it will eventually put excess ones into a ...Overflow Menu. How do shortcuts you want end up in there? If an application is updated it will be added to the end of your pinned apps. If a saved browser app update it will unpin from the taskbar, then when you re-pin it will be added to the end. Moving shortcuts out of Overflow confinement If Windows 11 were anywhere near finished you could just drag an icon from overflow to your preferred place on... Continue reading
Posted Oct 13, 2023 at RobiNZ CAD Blog
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Phú Quốc to Cần Thơ | Day 7 Vietnam Cycle Tour
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The itinerary: This morning we take a short early morning flight back to the mainland, arriving around 9.00am we cycle for the rest of the day on the very quiet Highway. The road follows the canal network, along which you will see the famous monkey bridges used by the villagers to get across the canals. Clear the runway... Noticed on touchdown, at smaller airports, there were security bikes patrolling to clear the runway of animals, or people? Back of the bike Binh on the road as we all exercised 'island rested legs'! Mike goes by... Linda, chased by a bunch... Continue reading
Posted Oct 10, 2023 at RobiNZ Personal Blog
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Rạch Giá to Phú Quốc Island | Day 5 Vietnam Cycle Tour
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The itinerary: A chance to rest our legs as we spend two days off the bikes. We travel by hydrofoil to the beautiful Phu Quoc tropical island, (imagine Bali or Phuket 20 years ago), beautiful beaches, clear water, rainforest & few visitors. To Phu Quoc, by air Before the trip we had been advised the hydrofoil was probably not going to happen. I was a bit disappointed they weren't running but flying was more comfortable than a three-hour hydrofoil ride! Have no idea why I didn't take any photos of the flight that replaced it as usually do (photos below... Continue reading
Posted Oct 8, 2023 at RobiNZ Personal Blog
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The Lancia Delta, Big Car YouTube and me!
Big Car recently released his comprehensive video on the history of the Lancia Delta and I was happy to give a small hand to the production. As a Patreon supporter, I saw an early cut of it and recognised some concept design images he'd used. Back in the 80s, when I was studying Product Design (at what is now Unitec) I used to cycle around the car dealers in Great North Rd and Newmarket to see the new cars (and still do!). When the Delta arrived in their showroom Continental Cars had some books (more than a brochure) about the... Continue reading
Posted Oct 8, 2023 at RobiNZ Personal Blog
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Châu Đốc to Rạch Giá | Day 4 Vietnam Cycle Tour
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The itinerary: Our early morning ride takes us past the sacred Sam Mountain and the famous Tay An Pagoda & temples. From the summit on a clear day, we can enjoy fabulous views towards Cambodia. An early start afloat... Not in the itinerary, an even earlier start to visit a floating village. I photographed Nahn & Mike photographing us. Substantial houses floating on the river. The ever-present hyacinth plants, like floating gardens. This fellow was on alert but seemed happy with life afloat. We visited this floating fish farm. Access through the floor to the fish living below. Idyllic sunrise... Continue reading
Posted Oct 6, 2023 at RobiNZ Personal Blog
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Recalling a ride in the only Porsche 911 I've ever liked
A post by Swade, asking 'A question from a reader….. Which Porsche 911 should he buy?', had me remembering the only Porsche 911 I've ever liked. For some reason I'm immune to '911 desire'* as they really do nothing for me except for memories of one experience. Back in 1999 I had the fastest auto ride in my life around the Pukekohe track as a passenger in a Lighting Direct Porsche 911 GT Le Mans Turbo with Kiwi race driver Owen Evans driving in 'one arm mode'. Owen's left arm was crushed in a horrific land speed record attempt crash... Continue reading
Posted Oct 6, 2023 at RobiNZ Personal Blog
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Long Xuyên to Châu Đốc | Day 3 Vietnam Cycle Tour
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The itinerary: Today’s ride follows the canal system all the way to Chau Doc. This is a great way to see the river lifestyles of the local people - the canals are alive with boats transporting goods & the banks are lined with houses & fish cages. In the afternoon we take a boat tour to visit a floating village. Leaving Long Xuyên Woke to this view, a city home to about 400,000 people. We were on the road quite early, to beat the heat and although not a huge distance (~58km) there are lots of sights, stops, to take... Continue reading
Posted Oct 1, 2023 at RobiNZ Personal Blog
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Hồ Chí Minh City to Long Xuyên | Day 2 Vietnam Cycle Tour
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The itinerary: The trip, for real, starts today... The trip starts by driving out of the city to start our cycling on the quiet Highway 30. Immediately you will see the essence of the Mekong Delta. The countryside is pancake flat with brilliant green rice fields laced with a network of canals & rivers. Getting rural The drive out the city, to rural Mekong Delta, was memorable itself. Once free of city traffic we headed out on a new expressway, part of the extensive development evident around all Vietnamese cities. We had 2 passenger vans + small truck for 16... Continue reading
Posted Sep 29, 2023 at RobiNZ Personal Blog
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Getting to Hồ Chí Minh City (Saigon) | Day 1 Vietnam Cycle Tour
It is finally time to head off on my first international, albeit not that intrepid, cycle tour. It's organised by Adventure South, led by Bas, with whom I've done many New Zealand tours. The itinerary summary: A fully supported 8-day bicycle vacation based in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam followed by 6 days visiting the highlights of Northern Vietnam. Cycle with the locals and be part of their daily lives, travel alongside the Cambodian border, visit floating markets and kick back at an island resort before finishing flying north to take in the delights of Hanoi, Halong Bay, Hue &... Continue reading
Posted Sep 25, 2023 at RobiNZ Personal Blog
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The date related name seems more common in the US. Can't think of any in NZ, most of our events are related to location or event name rather than the date. There is a weakness with date reference. It may seem odd, but I don't remember anything about 11 September 2001, I do vividly remember September 12th.
Toggle Commented Sep 22, 2023 on What's With 9/11? This Year, It's Dams Collapsing in Libya. at The CAD Insider
Phú Quốc Island Boat Trip | (Rest) Day 6 Vietnam Cycle Tour
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The itinerary: We charter a private boat to travel to the idyllic An Thoi islands, unpopulated gems famous for their crystal-clear water & magnificent coral. Snorkelling here is a must. We will eat a fresh seafood lunch on an island paradise, before returning to our resort mid-afternoon. The boat trip We drove to the southern end of Phú Quốc for the boat trip*. The port village smelt of fish... a lot... everywhere. Fresh caught, tonight's dinner maybe? Tuna? Lots of colourful fishing boats; most small, traditional, and seemed to be family operated. Our vessel for the day (photo by Binh... Continue reading
Posted Sep 4, 2023 at RobiNZ Personal Blog
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A challenge for Andrew Anagnost, make this using only the advertised product
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Why do Autodesk show things that can't be done with the product being advertised? I recently got this advert on Facebook: The link went to a bundle offer for AutoCAD LT subscription: Look at that image: Can AutoCAD LT do proper 3D? No. Can it render? Not that I'm aware of... AutoCAD LT is fine, for what it is, but imagine you paid out $1888 expecting it to create what is shown? A challenge for Andrew Anagnost, make this using only the advertised product or stop marketing fantasy. Continue reading
Posted Sep 2, 2023 at RobiNZ CAD Blog
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A new home for my blogs, Me Dot Net?
My blog is still on TypePad but now, after nearly twenty years of procrastination, are accessed via www.robincapper.net. The story of how that happened is here... A new home for my blogs, Me Dot Net? - RobiNZ CAD Blog (robincapper.net) Continue reading
Posted Sep 1, 2023 at RobiNZ Personal Blog
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A new home for my blogs, Me Dot Net?
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It must be a procrastination record; start a blog in March 2004 and only now get my own domain? Yes, my typepad.com/rcd blogs are now at www.robincapper.net I must credit this toot from NZ IT Journalist Bill Bennett for prompting me to, finally, do it. His article about owning your content resonated, the reason I still author all the content I really care about on my blogs, CAD or Personal, and link to it from social sites. I don't mind having it on TypePad as it is a portable format that can be moved should the need ever arise. Not... Continue reading
Posted Aug 30, 2023 at RobiNZ CAD Blog
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Better controlling Word image placement
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I saw this meme, on Mastodon, about the fight that is Word images. They hide the anchoring controls in a ribbon fly-out + dialog. Once you set them (per image sadly) to keep with text it becomes much more manageable. With the image selected access it from the flyout Layout Options > See more... link. or the Ribbon Picture Format > Position > More Layout Options > Position (tab) and set the Move with Text or Lock Anchor options. You can also accurately set the X,Y position relative to margins, paragraph, line etc Continue reading
Posted Aug 25, 2023 at RobiNZ CAD Blog
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Selected by Gordon Murray, no higher praise https://www.hotcars.com/gordon-murray-car-collection/#1980-ferrari-308-gt4
Toggle Commented Jul 22, 2023 on In defence of the 308 GT4, in Car at RobiNZ Personal Blog
1 reply
A great article on the 308 GT4 design at DTW https://driventowrite.com/2023/07/18/no-bull/
Toggle Commented Jul 22, 2023 on In defence of the 308 GT4, in Car at RobiNZ Personal Blog
1 reply
Fix a MindManager file with XML Processing Illegal XML Character Error
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I recently opened a MindManager file and got this XML Processing error: Followed by this error, even though the file was in the folder, and then the file not opening. After some web searching, found this is a known error with MindManager Files and the recommended fix was to send the file to MindManager Support for them to remove the offending character. I didn't have time for that so tried fixing myself and it worked. DIY Fix NOTE: Everything that follows worked for the error I encountered, there may be other errors of this type it doesn't help. Be sure... Continue reading
Posted Jul 7, 2023 at RobiNZ CAD Blog
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You prompted me to have a look, why are telephones and calculator/keyboard number pads inverted. Seems the answer isn't clear... https://electronics.howstuffworks.com/telephone.htm Related, our carparks that use plate recognition have payment machines with an alphabetical, rather than QWERTY, keyboard. As my plate is all letters (rearranged car brand) find in surprising how much thinking is needed to find alpha letters rather than QWERTY
Toggle Commented Jul 7, 2023 on Does Apple Despise Seniors? at WorldCAD Access
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