herd immunity works (or so I've heard)

While busilly deploying to the swarm a good friend the Professor Von Explaino remarked 

"I have no plan to fix these bugs. I’m just going to keep deploying them until the end users develop a herd immunity to them."

I expect he'd heard it worked somewhere ... herd immunity that is ... but they could also be pretty bugs

“He remarked to me then,” said that mildest of men,
          “‘If your Snark be a Snark, that is right:
     Fetch it home by all means—you may serve it with greens,
          And it’s handy for striking a light.

The Dress KX (or SRPE61K1 in full)

 Well my KX arrived this morning, I'm very pleased with it. Not yet officially available in Australia and sold out in most places from its initial release I'm glad that I got the one with the brushed dial, it enhances readability and looks nice too.

I've not actually ever used a NATO strap before and can report that while it does indeed look a bit chunky its at least comfortable on the wrist (if unbalanced and annoying to and remove). Indeed its the first watch I've found doesn't foul the keyboard. So I'm inclined to leave it on while typing ... and thats a first in my life.

Expect more on this fine watch. Meanwhile if you don't know the watch this is a good review (not mine):

I'm very pleased with it.

Seiko 5 (SNK805) watch strap compared to a cheapie strap

I've had the little Seiko 5 for a while now, and have grown fond of not only it but actually also its strap. Having also recently got the Sports 100 going again (now that I've managed to get it working with just a battery) I thought why not see how I feel about wearing it again too?

Now I've only had metal bracelets for so long (I've had the Sports 100 for well over 30 years as my only watch) and wearing this little Seiko has made me find that fabric straps are actually nice. I thought I'd try and find a similar nylon strap for it . So I went off to eBay and bought a new strap for AU$15 (so not much). This is them below. Its perhaps evident that the Seiko 5 has a 18mm strap while the Sports 100 a 20mm strap.

I must say that I immediately found that I preferred the strap that came with the little Seiko 5, which apparently receives some criticism for not having a good strap. Strange that people expect more than a $15 strap when they buy a $130 watch which actually comes with a strap too ...

The differences in quality are perhaps even visible here with the side stitching almost invisible down grooves in the Seiko fabric, and plain to see on the strap on the Sports 100.

Note that the SNK strap curves a little having formed already to my wrist, this is not so with the strap on the Sports 100 which just feels like stiff nylon. The red circle there indicates that the strap that I bought has a "tool less" spring bar which you can just open with a fingernail. I don't mind, but its clear that there was some less than ideal cutting of the fabric which you can see below.

I expect that will fray over time. Also you can see the straight and perhaps even coarse nylon strands in the weave and so you can get the impression that its not as soft feeling (and probably no stronger) than the standard band on the Seiko 5 (and after all its normally not the strap which breaks).

Here I've laid them over each other  and you can see that not only does the Seiko 5 strap look nice it can form to your wrist directly as it comes out of the watch, unlike the other strap which has a section of vinyl (fake leather) on it.

One gets the impression that while the eBay strap is sturdy, and stiff (as it won't flex up there at the fake leather), but indeed may well fall apart before genuine one on the Seiko 5. As I mentioned above the stitching is discrete and safe from abrasion and wear.

As well the buckle pin holes are nicely re-enforced. Lastly I'll say that the new strap feels somewhat sweaty on wrist, while the one from the Seiko 5 not ever.

So to augment this I've added a quick video to show you around both a bit more.

Personally I'm finding that having the new strap on my Sports 100 has given me what seems to be a new lease of life on the old companion, and the strap that came with my Seiko 5 has clarified what I should  expect from a low cost strap (because it can't be expensive given it came on a cheap watch).

Track morning on the MX60

So, my mate got a new skateboard and wanted to test it on the roughest track close to down. Calls me up "did I want to come"  ... silly question really :-)

this is at a cattle grid while I was waiting for him to walk up the hill  ...

then I had to carry that bloody thing across that. Suddenly the skateboard seems more sensible.

Further up the track was this nice little grove, there was a kangaroo there but he buggered off before I could wield the camera.

So this is the route:

with elevations like this:

Only the steep bit was track, the rest was dirt roads, similar to this ride.

Today at lunch I thought I'd take the Pajero over the track to give a better idea of just where the MX60 can go.

and I thought I'd update this blog post with me doing it on the MX60

Happy Scooting