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In between jobs at the moment.

I was a Civil Servant for 33 years working on large IT projects and programmes as a Project Planner in the north east of England.

Attempting to get some currency back into my flying following a lay-off for some years but the weather at the moment is beating me hands-down. Hope to get my proficiency sorted within the next couple of weeks and then apply for an EASA licence to replace my old UK CAA PPL.

Will keep you posted regards progress.

Andy

EGNT

"I know of several flying AMEs or medical consultants. One pilot (had both fixed and rotary) does boob jobs "

And doubht owns both - Plastics is the top speciality for private income

Peter - RS232 / 422? Are they still going? Null modems and all that? I remember messing about with them (and 20mA current loop!) way back in the early '80s!

I'm in my 6th year of retirement from IT (was a Solution Architect on multi-million pound bids when I retired, having started in the industry as a harware engineer in 1970).

I'm still in part time paid employment as a guide on Concorde G-BOAC, Nimrod XV231, and a couple of others at Manchester Airport several times a week, and I also do educational work there with older school and college kids. I'm a volunteer steam locomotive fireman (and occasional driver) on one heritage railway, and railway signalman on another, and I volunteer for the National Trust (water wheels and steam engines rather than country houses).

Flew fairly intensively from 1978 until last year when I sold my Chipmunk share. Looking for a share in a strip-based LAA Cub or similar, or I might look at weight shift. If I can find the time!

Barton is my spiritual home.

RS232 / 422? Are they still going? Null modems and all that? I remember messing about with them (and 20mA current loop!) way back in the early '80s!

It's one of many technologies whose imminent death has been predicted for about 30 years

In fact we still sell a fair number of RS232/RS422 to 20mA converters, even though 20mA has been pointless for many years.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I'm involved in buy to let but used to be a professional musician (percussionist). Recently completed a law degree (LLB (Hons))and did my MSc in European Rural Development at the same time as doing PPL training (the PPL a present to myself for the LLB). Also a single parent to a teenage daughter.

EGBJ, EGBP, EGTW, EGVN, EGBS

Just going back to comms a moment, did anyone see University Challenge last night? The question was something like "what was the communications method by which many nodes share a line and collisions are detected?" The team hadn't a clue, so Paxo told them 'Ethernet'.

I'd have though CSMACD (Carrier sense Multiple Access with Collision Detect) would be the correct answer, Ethernet being just an example of such a method. Seems arty questions are required to be answered more correctly than are techy ones on UC.

Barton is my spiritual home.

Yes, though you can do it several ways. Some protocols just throw the packets in and deal with the non-arrival (that results from a collision) at a higher layer...

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

RS232 / 422? Are they still going?

An RS-232 port (usually on a DB9 connector) is still an essential part of a mobile PC for my trade. On higher level portables, these are still common, and there's a reason for that.

EBZH Kiewit, Belgium

If the app is a proper win32 one, you can get a good compatible RS232 port with one of these which I will sell you for £25. Of course you can get them much cheaper (down to ~£3 I think) but ours work

RS232, 422, 485 is definitely declining, but not at the individual instrument level, where it remains the only interface which costs almost nothing, and "just works". It is being replaced with ethernet in factory floor large-scale automation networks. All the other fashions (CAN, USB, etc) were just fashions.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

And if the app is a proper (?) Linux-64? };-)

Sorry but I've too many bad experiences with that kind of equipment, though I can't exclude there may be good stuff too. Still, there's no substitute for hardware.

And isn't it all too ridiculous to start from your computer with a (somewhat) complex protocol like USB, only to convert to the simpler RS-232? That is of course an engineer's view, I know the marketeers have a different approach.

EBZH Kiewit, Belgium
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