Wings Over Scotland

You know it’s Right
link to youtube.com

Peace Always

Uncharted Waters

link to youtube.com

Peace Always

@ Tinto, also a heathen & love Eilan a Cheo. Best ever day in the hills was on Blaven on a roastin day. Sailed into the wee bottle-necked anchorage on Soay with the ruined shark-fishing station, thought we were the only folk in the world till Tex Geddes (sharker) appeared & headed for the shore with the ashes, deid noo along with his adversary Maxwell. Did U see “Cruising with Jane McDonald” last night on 5, nine o clock. Sailin roon Mull of the Cool High Bens, great photography & hersel singing in Fingals Cave was a delight so it wiz. Glenelg Brochs awesome.
Did the coo appear contented & asked for a fag?

@ Smallaxe, this could be the Humanist Channel kid? was in Govan Old Parish Church for Jimmy Reid’s funeral & meant to go back sometime & see the Hogback Stones inside the church. The Milliband’s were a disgrace that day using the occasion to pose for photo op’s with the workies. Much good it did the bastards! Reid wouldn’t have pished on them.

“From the very depth of my being, I challenge the right of any man or any group of men, in business or in government, to tell a fellow human being that he or she is expendable.”

Jimmy Reid

Peace Always

Smallaxe, TC and possibly others:

Here’s two books i can thoroughly recommend, came across them several years ago whilst doing my family research. Smallaxe in particular would enjoy them i think, due to them covering coal mining history and they contain a lot of poetry by the miners, their families and others.

Black Faces and Tackety Boots
Pit Props and Ponies

I’ve just discovered she has a third book out which i’ll need to try and get my hands on. If it’s half as good as the other two then it’ll be well worth the purchase.

Coal Mining Fatalities in Hamilton Parish, 1841-1948

BTW, Smallaxe, I really enjoyed the first half of that archive find you posted further upstream at 3:48pm on 17th, good find and thank you.

Tinto:

I have never held the hand of Baroness Sacher-Masoch, but she has held my heart.
link to youtube.com

Peace Always

Crossword rant.

I hate it when I do not finish the cryptic crossword in The National.

Such was the case yesterday.

A good clue should ideally be challenging, yet have an obviously correct answer once you find it. Not easy for the compiler I know, because I had a go at compiling a crossword for The National and it was just utter, embarrassing shit.

When the answer is so obscure or tenuously linked to the clue that one suspects it may be wrong, I usually put a question mark beside the clue to record my concern and remind me of it when checking the answers later.

Nearly always, the answer is correct anyway.

There are a couple of compilers in particular where there are often such question marks.

Anyhoo, to get back to the point.

Yesterday’s puzzle.

30Ac Provided spinning target for champion.(6)

The obvious answer is ‘RECORD’. I already had the ‘E’ and ‘D’ and if you are already champion then the only targets you have left are records, and records spin, right?

No question mark here.

Unfortunately, that meant the last letter of 21 Dn was an ‘O’ and I could not therefore get the answer.

It turns out the answer to 30Ac was ‘DEFEND’ which meant the last letter of 21 Dn should have been an ‘E’.

But how much more tenuous an answer is that to the clue than ‘RECORD’? Even if you allow that defending what you already have could properly be described as a target where the hey does ‘spinning’ come into it?

BTW I’m fairly certain I would have got the answer to 21 Dn if the ‘E’ had been there instead of the ‘O’ although that answer would have had ‘an obscurity question mark’ as well.

My suspicion is that the compiler originally had an ‘O’ ending answer for 21Dn but then, perhaps discovering the answer was incorrectly spelled, had to change it, which meant changing 21Ac
to ‘DEFEND’. He or She then put in a new clue for 21D but then failed to amend the clue for 30Ac.

Sad? Moi?

Many ways to climb a hill
You just have to know you will
Should you even lose a round
Never let it get you down
Tell me how you lose a fight
When you just know you’re right
I can offer one big clue
All you have to be is you
The world is a crossword puzzle to me

Sly Stone

Peace Always

Afternoon,mankies.

Having some trouble posting recently (attachments??), will be giving it a miss for a while,till gremlins sorted, still read every post though, all good, keeping it real.

Smallaxe…obnoxious you ?….come on, remember who we are up against and you’re a ‘manky vile cybernat’ ….don’t let anyone tell you any different .

;-/

It seems like, the runts are no longer receiving, the normal full protection, of their many (shady) friends, (with their slimy octopus like tentacles) in the media, but still they are always at the wind up, (every time I hear little red tory’s voice, it is like she’s dragging her nails across a blackboard, likewise with the big blue tory, all I can hear is the sound of jack boots, all I can visualise is the butcher’s apron).

Maggots (urban or rural) always used to make me feel a bit queasy as well, but I have overcome that fear, and I’ve learned to understand, they can make very good bait for an angler and yet not really,yclept can also be,not quite moist enough,for the crawling,orange pygmy tory.

Aye,we know it’s just the calm before the storm and right on cue…….here come Maggie May’s mate Tony, now they really are a vision of loveliness…..Mr and Mrs Obnoxious Cnut.

Thanks for listening, am feeling better now.

#VilePost

Smallaxe, well done kid! Speaking of tackety boots, a boyhood on Rum “Barefeet & Tackety Boots!” forget the author but he borrowed a rowing boat & the factor evicted the family!

Michael McCabe
Cheers mate, same back.

Why do you deserve to access your inalienable human rights?

‘Cause you’re so special…
Just like anybody else.

De Phazz – Something Special
link to youtube.com

Fred:

It wisnae me, a big boey dun it.Surely, my manky mate, you couldn’t have thought that I would use such profanity online or in any public forum.

Glad you liked it! 🙂

Peace Always #Manky Mates

carjamtic: see post above to “Fred”.

Ahm losing the plot a’ th’gither.Sorry, my Friend please accept this little musical gift in Peace.
link to youtube.com

Peace Always

Chick:

Sorry wrong link, try this “Funk for your Ass”

link to youtube.com

I said was losing the plot!

Peace Always

WOS Archives for August 2013

Yet another Union dividend
link to wingsoverscotland.com

The beam in your own eye
link to wingsoverscotland.com

You spend a fiver, we’ll spend a tenner
link to wingsoverscotland.com

WOS Archives for August 2013

The Sunday matinees
link to wingsoverscotland.com

A better way
link to wingsoverscotland.com

The limits of democracy
link to wingsoverscotland.com

WOS Archives for August 2013

The end of radio
link to wingsoverscotland.com

Undisclosed interests
link to wingsoverscotland.com

The twist in the tale
link to wingsoverscotland.com

For, The Donald: Might help him out.

“Swamp Funk”
link to youtube.com

Peace Always

smallaxe

Good stuff, I just barely remember him. Also listened to Maggot Brain. He was in the same league as Hendrix.

Chick:

If you like Maggot Brain AND “Funk for your Ass” try “Swamp Funk” that I left for “The Donald” up there ^ a bit. Just be careful Chic, Stoker’s got a few buses coming through!

I don’t know, you wait ages for a bus then a load of them come along at the same time…. some people..I..don’t… know!
😉
Peace Always

I see David Torrance is determined to prove beyond doubt that he talks out his arse. In what way do the SNP seek to forward a neo-liberal agenda or seek to diminish Scotland’s territorial claim within the UK? The mans a dick.

Jimi Jules ft. Oliver Dollar – Soggy Cereal
link to youtube.com

DerickM: Hi!

One! of your favourites. We can only play One Derick, I can only play One of mine.I don’t think that I could pick “My Favourite”. But here’s One of them,
🙂

link to youtube.com

Peace Always

Smallaxe

Smallaxe just putting this out here,apologises for any unintentional insults by my shit communications.

Believe me man,I am affronted….I throw flowers to you,never stones.

Peace Man

#respect

@ smallaxe

Yea i like Alexander,the reason i said one of my fav songs is because i have so many,i have a room full of old vinyl lol

link to youtube.com

Hi peeps.

During the week, when a crust has to be earned, I catch up with the active Wings pages and ‘off-topic’ in snatches throughout the day.

Weekends are slightly different – no need to go out crust earning so the catching up at Wings, Twitter feeds, The National and so on (I am neglecting Facebook) is a tad more relaxed.

Now I mean no disrespect to Wingers who are up with the vampires and can listen to YouTube links as they are posted but when one is catching up next day, to be faced with 14 YouTube links just breaks the space/time continuum. So, unfortunately, I usually skip, unless there is a wee bit of info included, which piques my curiosity.

One such post was Chick McGregor’s of 6.55pm tonight, featuring the Average White Band. I don’t know why but it sent me all a-Googling.

Some quotes and links…

“Saxophonists, Roger Ball & Molly Duncan, were known as the “Dundee Horns” before they went on to become part of the Average White Band in 1972.
This wasn’t an act in their own right, so to speak, more of an outfit for session work.
The Dundee Horns tag was actually coined by Scottish rock singer, Maggie Bell, and the duo have been involved in a number of recordings during their pre AWB days.
One such recording was with a group of well known folk-rockers who got together and called themselves The Bunch, and they released one album titled “Rock On” in 1972.”

The full article is at:-
link to retrodundee.blogspot.co.uk

And following on from “The Bunch”…
“There’s a New Orleans-style version of Don’t Be Cruel with Fotheringay’s Trevor Lucas on lead and Sandy Denny returns one more time for lead vocals on Johnny Otis’ Willie and the Hand Jive; both featuring the Dundee Horns, who would eventually become the Average White Band.

I’m quite sure all involved had a fine time revisiting the songs of their youth, but overall the album is only an interesting novelty.”

The full article is here:-
link to londonyodeller.ca

This last quote is from one of those “Google Books” links, the book in this instance being “The Scottish World: A Journey Into the Scottish Diaspora”:-
“The soul charts then were almost exclusively African-American, but AWB made themselves a niche and their success there was quite unique at the time. Some people suggested that the sound was so black that the audience presumed it was made by black men, and it became popular before people realised its purveyors were white. Others asserted that it was the obvious foreignness of their accents which gained them acceptance in African-American culture – they were not identified in any way with the racism which was perceived as tainting ‘Whitey’, the derogatory black term for white American society.

In their shows, the guys always highlighted their Scottish roots, spotlighting the Glasgow Guitars and the Dundee Horns for example within their set. In interviews, they spoke of the links between poor urban communities in Scotland and the ghettos of America, where in both instances people got by in life with a self-effacing, self-deprecating brand of humour. As someone who has always loved black music, it was a thrill to see a huge American audience singing and dancing to their amazing brand of Caledonia soul.”

That’s from:-
link to tinyurl.com

Lastly, for Smallaxe, if you’ve stuck to the end…

You may recall I mentioned the book “Take it to the Bridge: Dundee’s Rock and Pop History” some months ago. That book turned up at Google Books in my search. The blurb says that some pages are omitted but there seems to be a fair amount of stuff there.
If you start at the link below, scroll down gingerly to the “Contents” and try clicking on the links to see what’s there. The first chapter is “The Sixties” and there seems to be a fair amount.

link to books.google.co.uk

LINK FROM ABOVE
link to youtube.com
Peace Always

The smell of Ganja must be coming through my speakers 🙂

Peace Always All Ways

Brian Doonthetoon:

I’ve seen Yours have You seen Mine! I think Yours may be longer than Mine but Mine has more Substance to it!
Oooh Matron! Cheeky 🙂

Peace Always

Brian:

Curiosity kill di cat Brian, I n’I nah look truss I, mi Bredren

Peace Always

Brian:

I only showed the picture of the video if you want to see what it’s about. go and look for yourself, it’s Japanese 3rd vid down.

Will Brian LOOK, Tune in next week for the shocking conclusion to Brians Dilemma, Will he Dare! Will he faint, freak out or Fart!

Peace Always

Monkey Man:

link to youtube.com

Amy Winehouse

Peace Always

Peace in the Valley:

link to youtube.com
Elvis Presley

Peace Always

You watch this, Deal?

link to youtube.com

Peace Always

Hi Smallaxe.

“Howard The Duck”.

It really gets my goat when somebody uploads a video to YouTube and decides to play around with the actual video, like by uploading at 16:9 when the original is 4:3, so making all the characters wee and dumpy or, like Howard The Duck, deciding to crop ACRES of video from each side.

I cannot enjoy an hour and a half of such sacrilege against the creative arts.

Onnyhoo, I’m in the middle of my Indian then beddy-byes, so I’ll bid you Gute Nacht.

BTW: Japanese. Stick to Suntory…

8=)

For our European Scots
Bienvenidos amigos
Bienvenue les amis
Willkommen Freunde
Welkom vrienden
Fáilte Cairde
Welcome ALL

link to youtube.com

Peace Always

smallaxe , my wedding song was ‘please dont stop loving me’. the king lives.

Big Phil:

Why didn’t you ask?
link to youtube.com

Peace Always

Big Phil:

Any time Phil, just ask I’m happy to oblige anyone who wants to hear a song or tune.
Especially when their name starts with BIG.
YOU WILL LIKE THIS Phil
link to youtube.com

Peace and Love to you Phil and Those to whom You give Your Love

Peace Always

More on inclusiveness, which British exceptionalism has a problem with.

Are Human Rights the Rights of Social Justice?

II/ Human Rights as Membership Norms
Human rights are often distinguished from social justice by virtue of differences in their respective justificatory interests. Whereas human rights are widely theorized as resting on a narrower, more urgent, set of basic interests against standard associative threats, principles of justice are justified by the general interests of an ideal status of membership in a political association. Membership here is a substantive ideal of the relationship between institutions and those exposed to them that distinguishes legitimacy from domination. The inclusive ideal of membership as distinct from subjection is central to John Rawls’s distinction between domination as ‘merely socially coordinated activity…by orders issued by some central authority’ and a legitimate system of genuine social cooperation, ‘guided by publicly recognized rules and procedures that those cooperating accept and regard as properly regulating their conduct’ (1993: 16). Membership is an inclusive status since, as Joshua Cohen puts it, ‘to be treated as a member is to have one’s interests given due consideration, both in the processes of authoritative decision?making and in the content of those decisions’ (2010: 328).

Human rights, in contrast, are widely held to rest on different justificatory grounds than inclusion in an ideal status of membership. To take an influential example, James Nickel’s conception of human rights treats them as distinctive regulatory principles for political association, primarily the relationship between authoritative state structures and those exposed to them, however the justificatory interest is not inclusion in the status of membership but the more basic interest in standard protects against ‘common threats’ of exposure to associative institutions to a ‘minimally good life’ (2007: 36). While they are, like social justice, political principles, human rights are a ‘political morality of the depths’ aimed at ‘avoiding the terrible’ rather than an ‘attempt to prescribe a general theory of distributive justice’ drawing on a richer kind of relational interest (36).

link to cpsa-acsp.ca

N.B. The spirit of international development law is such that the British state, is required to do all in it’s power to assist Scottish independence.

Oops, sorry.

Just testing this archive thing again…

link to archive.is

Twas ever thus Ian! A Venetian diplomat visiting the British Isles c.1500 reported back to Venice that,
“The English are, for the most part, both men & women of all ages, handsome & well proportioned…..the Scotch are much handsomer; & the English are great lovers of themselves; & of everything belonging to them; they think that there are no other men than themselves & no other world than England!”

True Dat.

@David Torrance
Here’s one for you, with your psychology degree and shit. Some background on the things you stand in opposition to. Perhaps it will stimulate discussion with BLiS___d’s Dr. Scot and others in your circle.

Inequality and Human Rights

Human rights has indirectly addressed the issues of economic inequality by affirming basic social and economic rights as well as international obligations of co-operation for the realization of these rights. It has also addressed the problem of international inequality between countries by affirming a right to development. More recently, there have been discussions of a “rights-based approach” to development, endorsed in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (2000–2015) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (2015–2030). The section below lists several human rights documents that could be read to encompass inequality concerns (discussed in chronological order).

link to law.utexas.edu

Junior Byles – Fade away
link to youtube.com

WOS Archives for August 2013

Poll-tergeists
link to wingsoverscotland.com

The personal touch
link to wingsoverscotland.com

Official: Scotsman now a joke paper
link to wingsoverscotland.com

WOS Archives for August 2013

Quoted for truth #28
link to wingsoverscotland.com

It’s not enough to spectate
link to wingsoverscotland.com

Bullet points
link to wingsoverscotland.com

@David Torrance
Perhaps you could also have a chat with your circle about the radical, de-humanising and unsustainable nature of neo-liberalism. You might not agree but there is an alternative. Given the glaring imperative to find such an alternative, what do you think it might look like and how could Scotland achieve such under Westminster diktat?

@Andrew Neil
Sorry, this appears to be above your pay grade.

Social Investment after Neoliberalism: Policy Paradigms and Political Platforms

The concept of the ‘social investment state’ refocuses attention on the productive function of social policy eclipsed for some time by the emphasis on its social protection or compensation roles. Here we distinguish between different social investment strategies, the Nordic ‘heavy’ and the Liberal ‘light’, with particular reference to the inclusive growth approach adopted in Australia. In 2007, social democrats in Australia returned to government with a clear mandate to reject the labour market deregulation and other neoliberal policies of its predecessor, and to tackle entrenched social and economic disadvantage in Australian society. For the last five years, social investment and inclusive growth has been at the centre of the Australian social policy agenda. Against this background, the article examines and critically assesses the (re)turn to ‘social investment’ thinking in Australia during Labor’s term in office (2007–13). Analysis focuses not just on what was actually achieved, but also on the constraining role of prevailing economic and political circumstances and on the processes that were used to drive social investment reform. In many ways, the article goes some way to exposing ongoing tensions surrounding the distinctiveness of ‘social investment’ strategies pursued by leftist parties within the (neo)liberal state.

link to ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

And as regards the relative merits of The Trumpster/Clinton/BBC, all I can say of that existential non-choice is:

link to youtube.com

Thankfully, we have our own impervious heroes in the SG and beyond who will fight the good fight to deliver an independent Scotland.

Hey, Theresa: things fall apart, the centre cannot hold.

Yeats, ya bass.

Meant to say, pop-pickers…..

While stuck in the bog and hall sizing the plastered walls and doing the skirtings this week, I enjoyed adenoidal Melvin Bragg’s In Our Time prog. for once (wot am I saying?).

This week it was about one of my heroes (irony), John Clare, a man destroyed by the English Enclosure Acts, when the rich stole all the land and destroyed his local landscape for filthy lucre. All his landmarks and their history and heritage just disappeared. He spent much of his life in an open-door asylum as his fragile mind struggled to cope. Those with a sense of place will perhaps understand his mental turmoil.

This is his best and saddest, imho:

link to poetryfoundation.org

@ Tinto, anciently Rachasie, the name originally applied to the whole ridge south of Hogganfield & Frankfield lochs, name means a rath beside the water which is spot on. From a scarce wee book “Ruchazie” by J.F.Miller, Millerston, who I suspect is off that family who occupied Frankfield House/estate, that being the name of their property in Jamaica where they were sugar merchants, the old name of the loch was the Cam Loch (Gaelic or Welsh, a bend). Lethamhill was originally Garthliscan Hill, Comedie is from Caermedie. Millerston they modestly named for themselves. I once came across a farm near Loudon Hill called Ruchazie! Very strange eh?

The Forward Shop at 196, Argyll Street, Dunoon,,PA23 8RN has Saltires (5ft x 3ft, polyester with sleeve and eyeholes) for sale. Plain Saltire £3.50, YES Saltire , Euro Stars Saltire £5.00. Also DVDs of “London Calling- How the BBC stole the Referendum” at £2.00. Posted to you with no postage charge. Cheques to be made out to YES Cowal.

As regards doublers, Fred: there is the famous Crossraguel Abbey in Ayrshire and a wee farm between Hamilton and Strathaven of the same name, just meaning “royal cross” in Gaelic. No trace of the original cross now, unfortunately, so nothing else can be known just now.

GCHQ obvs. don’t like Scottish place-name discussions…..

Or anyone else, for that matter.

😛

Fred: Lethamhill is just G. leathann, “slope” with later unconscious duplication. There’s a Letham near Strathaven.

I was discussing this earlier this week with Taylor Swift, but she didn’t seem interested.

The ladies, eh?

Sheesh!

There’s also Lethams in Angus, Fife and Perthshire.

Music not Maps.co.ol

Jack white with some bass to make you vibrate
link to youtube.com

I don’t need a map to know where I am 😉

Peace Always
# Manky

Hawaii is not all hula skirts and beaches, they have similar problems to our own Politically. Like us, they also have some good music to help them fight their oppressors.

link to youtube.com
Peace Always
ka Maluhia Allahu

Africa:

An American guy in Africa with Gumboots

link to youtube.com

Peace Always
Amani Daima

Start the week with a little bit of history

The curse of Scotland
link to undiscoveredscotland.co.uk

@ Tinto, Lethamhill was named after a merchant of that name I’m afraid. MOT time so must dash!

@ Brian, that was the Monkland Canal, older than the F & C and it made money!

Thanks, Fred. The importance of local knowledge. At least his surname means “slope”.

And it should have been leathan not leathann (G. for broad), though since the former means a broad slope they are probably linked anyway.

Apart from all those mistakes I was completely correct.

It’s called the Tony Blair defence.

No “wee maps” for me today, Smallaxe. Mrs TC has bought one of those super turbo wallpaper steamer machines and it’s like a Chinese laundry in here.

*Special Offer:Shirts pressed 75p. Two “Smalls” free for every shirt steamed.*

“Starting the Week” with Andrew Marr on Pravdasound4. That put-on plummy voice is really annoying.

Bliss: he’s just finished and I’m steaming.

Cheers, chinas!

TC is steaming and stripping?*
Blimey – the Monday Club starts early these days…

*one for the ladies

Grrr! Another crossword incomplete. Pashmina, the answer to 25 Ac. Fancy Glasgow novelist wearing a scarf.

Never heard of it.

Typed Pashmina into Google, apparently it is a type of cashmere and can be used to make scarves.

However typing ‘Pashmina Glasgow Novelist’ into Google found no linkage, so still no idea what that part of the clue referred to.

Tea break.

“*one for the ladies”.

Probs not, Ian. My pectorals ain’t wot they used to be.

Thanks: Oxenham will be purchased, Fred. I think Barlanark is usually regarded as a rare Gaelic/Welsh hybrid, barr plus llanerch, ridge plus clearing, isn’t it?

I feel your pain, Chic, and it’s much too early for the Yard-Arm Solution.

Just discovered I can steam jasmine sticky rice and tiger prawns using this machine.

Oh! Supervisor has just called.

Coming, dearest!

Chic McGregor:

This may be of help (or not)

Denise Mina (born 1966) is a Scottish crime writer and playwright. She has written the Garnethill trilogy and another three novels featuring the character Patricia “Paddy” Meehan, a Glasgow journalist. Described as an author of Tartan Noir, she has also dabbled in comic book writing, having recently written 13 issues of Hellblazer.[1] Since 2006, she has had two plays performed with successful reception. Wiki.

Pash; Pash definition, an infatuation for another person; crush.

I hope I have not just made it more convoluted for you.

Peace Always

Tinto:

Barlanark, my Alma Mater, have a look at some of the street names.
Pendeen, Garlieston, Bressay, Lochbridge and Burnmouth etc.
No relevance just a distraction technique. 🙂

Peace Always

If anyone replies please do not think I have ignored you. I’m afraid that I am floating into the arms of Morphia. Will get back to you.

Peace Always

WOS Archives for August 2013

Looking ahead
link to wingsoverscotland.com

The fourth and fifth estates
link to wingsoverscotland.com

The very bottom of the barrel
link to wingsoverscotland.com

WOS Archives for August 2013

Unclouding the truth
link to wingsoverscotland.com

Now with added fear
link to wingsoverscotland.com

Not living in Yorkshire it doesn’t apply
link to wingsoverscotland.com

Smallaxe

Thanks for that.

Confess I can’t recall Ms Mina even though I have read quite a lot of Scottish crime.

Must give her a try.

‘Pash’ now you mention it, I have heard it used that way very occasionally by my in laws.

I had momentarily thought the compiler may be meaning a usage more common hereabouts which I will illustrate with the following old Saints fan joke.

BDDT – look away.

Q: What is the difference between an Arab and a Pashtoon?

A: No a’bdy fae Dundee is an Arab but they’re a fae a Pash Toon.

Actually, these days, I prefer Dundee. Perth has been on the slide and Dundee is definitely on the up.

@Chic
Also perhaps link to pashma.com with “in”.

Wife has breakfast TV on [ ;-( ] so maybe I half-heard it on there.

Anent Denise Mina, was she not of a Unionist persuasion in 2014? unlike ma personal fav’ Val McDermott!

Stoker: I suspect BDTT is the Go To Guy here.

CameronB: intrigued by your Gotan Project on the MT.

My female GP recommended all sorts of this stuff for various minor ailments.

Did wonders for my snake hips/unnatural beauty/abs tightening.

It’s a funny old game, Saint.

TC & Smallaxe,

Thank you! Smallaxe, you’ve reinforced my belief that it is possible but no disrespect meant to you when i say i hope one of our more knowledgeable comrades can give it the go-ahead.

BTW, looks like that wee job may be back on for me so if i suddenly disappear offline i’ll be back asap with the WOS archives.

Hi Stoker.

The stuff you value – docs, photos, videos and so on – is stored on the hard drive. The only way you can lose it is by a hardware failure of that drive. It doesn’t matter whether the laptop is powered by battery, PSU or is off. The stuff is retained on your hard drive.

What I would recommend is an investment in an external usb hard drive, the same size as your internal one, then get hold of an app that can be set to backup your internal hard drive to the external one periodically (3 times a day?).

I learned this the hard way a number of years ago but was able to get my stuff off my drive using a recovery app (Disk Rescue, for Macs).

I now have three external drives, all having backups of my Mac’s internal drive so even if an external fails, there are another two doing the backup job. There are probably around 8 backups a day, spread over the 3 external drives.

Macs also have a provided app called “Time Machine”. This backs up your internal drive to an external drive every hour. The beauty of the app is that it will save previous back ups until the external is full, then deletes the oldest backups to release space. It works kinda like archive.org – if you’ve deleted something that you subsequently need, you can go into its ‘calendar’, find the backup of the file you want, then restore it to its previous location on your internal drive.

Really, what I’m saying is that BACKUP is important, so you don’t have to worry about drive failure.

Thanks, Brian.

So, in a nutshell, i can remove the battery pack, run the laptop off the mains power (without any battery backup in the event of power cuts/shortages etc) but install backup procedures as recommended in your post?

Tinto Chiel
I’ve only scratched the surface of what the Gotan Project have recorded but I’ve liked just about everything I’ve heard.

Sarah Vaughan – Whatever Lola Wants (Gotan Project Remix 2003)
link to youtube.com

Having just been to Priceless to get an old Dell laptop fixed just last week, one of the issues was that the internal battery needed replaced. The laptop was fixed and ready to go the next day ‘without’ it’s battery, as he had to order it, we still haven’t picked it up yet. (lazy bastards)

This was why it wasn’t charging properly and the wee icon wasn’t filling up when the charger was in.

So of course the laptop is now running on mains only. You won’t lose anything Stoker.

Go get a price for a new battery, we thought it was the charger initially and so tended to run it on the mains the whole time before it gave up the ghost (hard drive problem separate from battery issue).