Week Six Of Rubber, Acid & 99.99% Virgin Lead
There is an expression more polite than The Knacker’s Yard, or Scrapheap. It is End Of Life. This is used in the business of recycling cars and computers alike. And while cars are now better regulated and we do see a few less dumped dead ones, electronics are governed by the Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment end of life directive. or the WEEE Directive.
That may sound as obscure as knowing that the choir master who was in charge of that awesome voice assemblage at the very start of The Lion King was named Mbongi Ngema but you have seen the little symbol on the packaging of a phone or any other electrical doodad of any size. It looks like a wheely bin with a cross through it.
Anyone go ‘Aaah!’ at that point? Well, I am a thumb fingered dolt and just exactly like my mama did, I turn out monster amounts of copy with hunt-and-peck nil-skill typing. If ever MeJulie gets to witness me type, she despairs. Mama had Maggie, I have a spellchecker.
I tend to destroy keyboards by hitting them too excitedly. I wear the print off the vowel keys and break bits inside them. It remains to see how well the Apple USB wired full size keyboard I got will last under my onslaught. I can tell you that the perfect whiteness cosmetics of the keys lasts about five minutes after you unpack it, even if you don’t use it.
And we have cats. We have a herd of them, who live on a council estate for cats. And anywhere else they damn please. And one went wee wee on my old PC keyboard because I hadn’t put it away under the tray thingy so the Order of Things was not correct and the poor animal had no choice. It HAD to pee in it.
So I went back to PC World’s tech desk and said I was bringing my dead keyboard to his outlet for disposal under the WEEE Directive, since I was there to shop and it had been the original seller of the keyboard. It was my fourth on that PC. I told him, as he picked it up and it dripped. ‘Yes, sorry there IS actual wee in it’
I got a look of pure hatred.
My virgin-lead plated Odyssey PC925 test bench battery has finally died after five years of abuse and I have just been pleading with a really cool brand of tyres, seeking to swag winter rubbers for my Ovlov and to tell you about them, as these will be the third winter product tried on the car. Yes, things do come to end of life and the tyres have done two years and winter is most assuredly upon us, while I have an amp and a bass box to play with here that need the juice to be more hench than my bench power supply can muster.
Back in the groove and OH MAH GERD has my snappery gone UP a few damn notches with the second hand bag of assorted glass and stuff I picked up for a song. Seven D or not 7D, that is the question? (MARK TWO MATEY!! I wish no I am thrilled with what I got – you wanna SEE the fishing kit shots I got on Sunday for the Anglers Mail!)
Adam Rayner On Line Editor