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JohnRoss

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Everything posted by JohnRoss

  1. Thanks again for all your good wishes folks. Had so many scintigraphies and scans and blood  tests of late so you cannot say they are not being careful! Even had me on a exercise bike pedaling away for 15 mins while they checked out me ticker. Will post more on my return..............JR
  2. As an experiment I have downloaded a trial copy of Wondershare streaming audio recorder. This does not produce the distortion that I am hearing with Windows recorder or Audacity. So I can download music with Wondershare and then transfer the file and edit with Audacity but it is strange that Wondershare works ok in Windows 8 and Audacity and Windows own recorder has this problem.................JR
  3. No there are a few progs available, a banner comes up when you go to BBC iPlayer Radio, and they are talking about make downloading, I assume of all progs, available in 2014.............JR PS The daft thing is that if I download stuff and then transfer the file to Audacity all is well but if the audio is streamed from the net or from a file stored in the computer the distortion occurs. In other words it is only recordings of sounds passing through the computer that are distorted on playback.  
  4. Ok after much fiddling can now load files of music and edit and resave them with no obvious distortion. However distortion very obvious when playing back after recording streaming audio. Not too much of a problem except where you cannot download files as in BBC iPlayer radio. I notice that when recording streaming audio the slider at the top right hand side of the Audacity control panel with the loudspeaker symbol controls recording level which strikes me as being odd. The other slider with the microphone symbol does nothing but then I don't have a mic connected to this machine.........................JR
  5. Is anybody else having problems with Audacity or Windows sound recorder when using Windows 8. When I listen to audio coming from sources like BBC Radio iPlayer or Youtube directly the quality of the audio is mostly fine. The same is true of music files I have transferred from my old machine running Vista and listening to them on the Windows 8 machine. Windows 8 on this machine is set up for English and French keyboard.   However if I use Audacity or Windows 8 sound recorder to record audio being played on the computer on playback there is a strange distortion. Not so noticeable on speech but music sounds like it is coming from under water. I have tried changing recording levels and sample rates but with no good result. The same thing happens to known good recordings loaded into Audacity as a file and  again on playback distortion. There is no question of acoustic feedback as there is no mic on the Windows 8 machine and the distortion occurs when the speakers are on or off during the recording. So any thoughts anyone?.................JR
  6. Hi folks so I have having taken various opinions and having looked at various league tables decided to go for Montsouris in Paris. Had a scintigraphie done today which showed that the right lung was good and could support me without the left lung being there. So only the heart bloke to see and the anaesthetist at Montsouris and then the op on the 17th to look forward to! Thanks to you all for your good wishes and thoughts.....................................JR
  7. Ok well have been up to Paris twice in the last few days. To cut a long story short I have had an offer of surgery to remove the lung at Montsouris Hospital in Paris. Amongst other things they specialise in this sort of operation and I was quite impressed by the senior surgeon that I consulted there today. The choice is difficult. Do I go with his suggestion at the reported number one hospital for this sort of thing with a stay of up to 15 days in the hospital and the wife staying nearby or do I go for the local hospital in Niort who are very good but don't have the reputation that Montsouris has. Will see my generalist tomorrow to see what he thinks. Montsouris were very complimentary about the way Niort had done all the right tests and as you might expect could not comment on the surgeon at Niort who locals I have talked to have said is very good. The point is that the local bloke does a range of stuff including thoracic, vascular and general surgery whereas the guy at Montsouris is dedicated to thoracic surgery. The statistics are encouraging with a 90 to 95% chance of making it through the surgery. Further tests yet to be done to check out me ticker and to make sure that the right lung is good enough to keep me going on its own. So that is the situation at the moment folks............JR
  8. Bon courage and thinking of you too minnie.........JR
  9. Again thanks for your advice and good wishes folks. I have had so many scans and x-rays during the last couple of months I am surprised I don't glow in the dark. Had two bronchoscopies and biopsies and when they came back negative had a long needle biopsy which proved positive and also gave me a pneumothorax which ain't pleasant. Hence the stay in hospital. I may also have a second problem in the throat but have another 2 weeks to wait for the result of that biopsy. Have also to see a urologist soon as they also found a small something in a kidney but they don't seem worried about that just now. The P.E.T. scan I had at La Rochelle showed a lot more detail than the other scans I had locally. Should know more tomorrow when I see the surgeon and I guess I don't have to accept a date for the op right away so might need to make a decision then. Last time I had an op in France I asked the guy how many he had done and he got a bit shirty with me!......................JR 
  10. Thanks for the info and advice. This is a much bigger op than my last in 2005 where they removed part of my colon, a Crohn's problem, at the Polyclinique Inkerman in Niort and really don't know what to do for the best. Niort does not score as high as some Paris hospitals and Poitiers on a league table I came across and does not appear on the site you kindly gave. Anyway will see a surgeon at Niort tomorrow and see what he has to say! Cannot fault Niort hospital, not a teaching hospital I gather, so far as have spent more than a week in there for various biopsies and tests but don't know what their post operative care and surgery standards are like compared with others...........JR
  11. I would welcome any comments or experiences on finding the best place for major lung surgery in France. Could go to the local hospital in Niort Dept 79 who have done most of the investigations but it has been suggested by relatives that there are better places................JR
  12. Ok tried this and whilst it appeared to work on switching off the computer and switching on again got the message Bad_Pool_Caller. On switching off again and then on again the computer works but this is clearly not right. Tried it more than once with the same result each time........JR PS On deleting Expat shield the computer returns to normal working.
  13. Out of curiosity has anyone else had Login probs today. Been trying all day and noted that it became possible just after 6pm local time or was it just me?......................JR
  14. Ok took some photos of the problem and the sun was partly covered in light cloud. Problem much worse than these photos show in bright sunlight! The last one shows the effect of placing a large piece of black painted cardboard on the dash. http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/johnross10/media/P8171010_zps74e719e8.jpg.html http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/johnross10/media/P8171006_zps5efedc47.jpg.html http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/johnross10/media/P8171008_zpscc330303.jpg.html I want to make it clear that this is not a criticism of only the Zoe design but all modern cars with windscreens at that angle. In all other respects I love the Zoe and can find no other fault in her. However yes it is a bad problem and much worse than my shots show in really bright sunlight. One thing we noticed when we moved to Deux Sevres in France in 2001 was that the light values are much higher in general compared with the UK so the problem might not be so bad there. As you approach a wooded area with the road in shadow and you are still in sunlight you would not be able to see a tractor, very common in rural France, or someone or something lying in the road until you were on top of it when it was too late to stop! The test drive we had in a Zoe was in a car with a near black dashtop so the problem did not show itself then………….JR
  15. Ok Sid and no need to apologise. In fact your suggestion promted me to go there so thanks..................JR
  16. The dash is finished in a very light fawnish grey colour and it is not shiny but being very light in colour it reflects an image in the windscreen which is at just the right angle. It is surprising that there has not been more said about this on TV motoring programmes or perhaps there were and I did not see them. I would not have thought any coating that does not lower the reflected light frequencies to the bottom end of the spectrum like black would have much effect. I can find no ads for Renault dash mats for the Zoe but will talk to the local dealership. Meantime maybe a flexible black floor mat would do the job though maybe too thick. The whole dash does not need covering only about the third that is in front of the driver...................JR
  17. Some sites suggest trying this but having tried it I would say not a significant reduction and shaded areas are dark enough without wearing sunglasses. This is no minor annoyance! It is really very dangerous and sooner or later a disaster for somebody assuming it has not yet happened which it probably has! One paper I found on the net shows that by an experiment conducted recently that the problem seems to affect a higher percentage of us olduns more than younguns. Brain function? Eye response speed? Which group are more likely to buy a Zoe or a car of that ilk? Probably not a factor as these young people today have more money than sense methinks cor blimey matey!.........JR 
  18. From what I can see looking at the problem on the net any car with a light coloured dash top and a windscreen at that angle would seem to have this problem. Lots of American sites for example are full of posts from folk who have felt strongly enough to report the manufacturer to the appropriate authority. So this must apply to any car with that angle of windscreen anywhere! It is however weird that nobody thought of it or noticed the problem before they started to manufacture them...........JR
  19. Reflection of the dashboard top in the windscreen would seem to be a world wide problem and not just in France! However the Renault Zoe, which in all other respects is a wondeful little car, is no exception. Ok this reflection problem is proving to be downright dangerous. If you drive along a road and there is a shaded area ahead and you are still in direct sunlight you can see hardly anything in the shaded area on the road ahead until you are in the shaded area. Two options are carry on and hope there is nobody in the road you cannot yet see or slow right down until you can see. Neither are safe options. Having searched the web using "reflection of dashboard in windscreen" in the search bar I note that this would seem to be a common problem with many modern cars and is to do with the angle of the windscreen. I have tried, as an experiment, putting a large piece of cardboard painted matt black with blackboard paint on top of the dash and that solves the problem but looks awful. I note that some manufacturers sell dash mats to tackle this problem but they don't look that good either. Glad I am not alone but why did they not sus' this before building all these cars with windscreens at this angle. Air flow and efficiency are not the only criteria for designing a car. Safety is as if not more important surely! One can only hope that Renault produce a solution soon like a dark coloured dash mat. Don't fancy having to paint the top surface of the dash with matt black paint. Any thoughts folks?..........JR
  20. The temperature range quoted for heating is -15 to +24 but so far I have not found an indication of the heating output when outside is -15 but will look further. We would also have a 2kW cheminée electrique and I am thinking of replacing a wall mounted electric radiator with a accumulateur unit. We do have a couple of poêle à pétrole should we need them like during power cuts........JR
  21. Yes we were leaning towards Daikin and away from LG but our local bloke sent a new devis for Panasonic E18PFE saying that he thought it was better as Daikin were putting their prices up and the spec was similar to the Daikin model he had previously quoted for. Looked at the spec on-line it looks like what we want but I note the heating capacity is quoted as 5.8kW (0.98-7.10). I assume that the 7.10 is the max possible and if so it would probably do to replace the Supra wood burner. Any comments about this Panasonic model from experience etc would be appreciated........JR 
  22. Not only that but it gives a Bad-Pool-Caller error what ever that is! Having searched the web others would appear to have had the same problem!..............JR
  23. Ok used the Refresh facility by restarting while holding down the Shift key and then selecting Refresh. Problem seems to have gone now and machine starts up properly each time. Also the side swipe from the right to get the various charms works every time and it did not before. Also now comes out of sleep mode when I ask it to which it did not do before. The only slightly annoying thing is that it always sets up English and English keyboard on starting but not really a problem as easy to change to English and French keyboard. Have loaded each of the softwares I had before and checking that the machine shuts down and restarts from cold each time I have loaded and executed a new piece of software and no problems so far. However I note that it thinks that Expat Shield is not compatible with Windows 8 yet but I doubt that this was the cause of the problem last time I loaded it. Still I will wait for a compatible version to be available before I load it again. Thanks to all for the advice and assistance got me thinking in the right direction..................JR
  24. Yes set to sleep never and the VDU after 20 mins. No help I am afraid. If nothing else comes to mind I could use the recover system to go back to square 1 but will lose all the stuff I have loaded since. Still if nothing else comes to mind I will try that...........JR
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