Gaaaahhhh! Another mains power failure last night! Off at 6.08pm, back on again at 8.18pm.

This was the third major failure in a week – 5.5hrs last Tuesday, 4hrs last Thursday, and now 2hrs last night. Western Power, what’s going on?!!

After last week I started thinking about some kind of battery backup system but today I thought nah, it was about four years ago since the last major failure. It probably won’t happen again. Bang! it happened again. Looks like I’d better start planning for more failures after all.

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At last, an answer to my thoughts:

“We understand the PM [Boris Jo.] is on a type of breathing support called Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), which is commonly used in treatment of obstructive sleep apnoea. Experience in Italy and other European countries has shown that CPAP can be effective in Covid-19 patients, at least initially.”

That was my thought. You can set a high upper limit to the supplied pressure so if I were having trouble breathing at home, I could use my CPAP machine as an early form of self help. I wouldn’t rely on it, but it’s there, why not use it.

My other initial thought of a few weeks ago was, if you get the virus and recover, do you have immunity, like you do with measles or other diseases? The answer is, a qualified maybe. They don’t know yet, because this is a new (novel) virus that hasn’t been studied before.

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I just got around to submitting my claim to HBF for my new CPAP machine. I am impressed! This is the first time I’ve used their web site to submit a claim (I usually do it at a counter) and it took about three steps: upload the invoice in PDF form, tick a couple of boxes and press SUBMIT. Done.

Very happy with HBF. They’re a non-profit organisation so if they make “windfall gains” this year because people can’t do elective surgery or make other claims for services, I say good luck to them. I have confidence that they will use the savings to keep premiums down or extend benefits or whatever. I’m very loyal because I’ve always had great service with smiles. I have my house insurance with them and all three cars. Member since about 1967.

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I went to bed feeling bruised and upset last night. I’m a member of a F/B group called High End Audio for the Passionates. I posted the image above and told how pleased I am with them, and the prices etc.

Well! The criticisms! “This is a group for High End hi-fi. This is not high end. If you want to post pictures like this, go and do it in a Sony group or somewhere else.” I metaphorically reeled backwards. It was a guy named Mark Müller somewhere in the world who seemed to be in a bad mood. I reacted and got more abuse, calling me Grandad. How the hell does he know that? This went on for a bit.

Then another guy, “Eduardo Paiva: mini disc is not much useful on nowadays.
Would rather do get a DAC or a streamer so you can
listen files from your pc or network.”

Note the impeccable grammar. Anyway, useful to whom? I love Mini Disc and it is VERY useful to me. I was a bit more polite in my reply to that effect and he was a bit more respectful in response.

But the arrogance in this group! The minimal knowledge of electronics and audio. The weird “audio science” they spout. The strange theories. The snobbery! Nothing under US$1,000 per item is any good. The more something costs, the better it must be. The more crazy something looks, the better it must sound.

And it must be vinyl. Owning a massive turntable, owning and playing records (those 1960s technology black plastic discs with all the plops and crackles) is de rigeur. Yet they tell me I should use “streaming” as my music source for the highest fi. It doesn’t seem to occur to them that this is digital music, compressed to send over the internet. Why is that OK, but CDs are not OK? They’re crazy.

One guy told me the most important thing I must do is ensure I have “clean power” coming out of the wall to power my stuff. This is idiotic. Sure, we had a massive power conditioner at TVW7 but it was to smooth out mains bumps and dips, not to make our video and audio “hi-fi” quality. These guys seem to believe anything and have massive wallets open to anyone selling snake oil.

I eventually switched off and went to bed, but I had trouble sleeping because I was fuming.

I was going to delete the post and remove myself from the group this morning, but nicer comments kept coming in all morning and I feel better now. My post attracted 308 likes and 89 comments, so some people liked it. It’s one of the most active items I’ve seen on that group.

Later 10.30pm: Likes are now up to 355 and comments 106.

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