A Whatever Works Away Day at the Technical Museum in Vienna. https://www.technischesmuseum.at/language/en-us/home

This is the best science museum I have ever visited. It focusses more on technology than pure science. At the moment it doesn't have any exhibits of IT tech, but major renovations are taking place.

However, if you want to know about how just about anything else works, this is the place to go. It covers stuff from basic science (mass spectrometers, early experiments to determine the atomic weight of molecules), to heavy engineering. There is a Bessemer Converter, trains, machines for pressing steel. The list is almost endless.

There is a very good children's section and lots of interactive machines to demonstrate various physical principles. It's huge, so you need more than one day if you want to explore it all.

Thermos flasks are a bit like Hoovers, the brand name has become synonymous with the item. When I am working outside I like my hot drink. This can be tea, coffee or hot chocolate. However, I can't stand tea/coffee/etc that is pre-made and stored in the flask. I want to make it fresh using hot water from the flask.

There are basically two designs of flask. The super cheapo option available from many petrol stations, which have twin walls with some sort of insulator between the walls. These are inevitably less use than chocolate fireguards , the contents usually gets cold in a couple of hours. The more expensive flasks have a vacuum between the two walls and keep stuff hot much longer. However, there is a wide variation in performance between different makes.

I have got a cupboard full of useless flasks. A couple of years ago I discovered the Thermos Ultimate. It's expensive, but does come with a 10 year warranty.

In a very non scientific test I preheated mine by filling it with boiling water for ten minutes, pouring that out and refilling with boiling water. During the day I took the top off a couple of times and poured some of the contents out. I left the remaining contents (about half full) overnight. The next morning it was still too hot to stick my finger in.

I like "proper" coffee, but can't be bothered with the faff of a cafetiere . This lets you make one cup/mug at a time with minimal cleaning/washing up. There are much cheaper ones on Amazon (around £5), but my searching fu seems to be failing at the moment.

Mug Mate

Thermos flasks are a bit like Hoovers, the brand name has become synonymous with the item. When I am working outside I like my hot drink. This can be tea, coffee or hot chocolate. However, I can't stand tea/coffee/etc that is pre-made and stored in the flask. I want to make it fresh using hot water from the flask.

There are basically two designs of flask. The super cheapo option available from many petrol stations, which have twin walls with some sort of insulator between the walls. These are inevitably less use than chocolate fireguards , the contents usually gets cold in a couple of hours. The more expensive flasks have a vacuum between the two walls and keep stuff hot much longer. However, there is a wide variation in performance between different makes.

I have got a cupboard full of useless flasks. A couple of years ago I discovered the Thermos Ultimate. It's expensive, but does come with a 10 year warranty.

In a very non scientific test I preheated mine by filling it with boiling water for ten minutes, pouring that out and refilling with boiling water. During the day I took the top off a couple of times and poured some of the contents out. I left the remaining contents (about half full) overnight. The next morning it was still too hot to stick my finger in. http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=thermos+ultimate+flask&tag=googhydr-21&index=aps&hvadid=87479041689&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17120847490637546718&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_8jpzbd08h0_b

I have been using Google+ for posts for some time. However, Google has announced that G+ is going to be closed down for non GSuite users! I have been one of the moderators for the WhateverWorks community, where I made many posts. I have exported those from G+ and will now re-post them here. I'll link the post to the original G+ one, so you can read the discussions relating to them while G+ is still available.

My Samsung XE303C12 Chromebook doesn't have 3g. I was wondering how I could tether my phone and after a bit of research found that if I simply plugged the phone into a USB port it was recognized as an ethernet device and I could tether to the phone. So I can now connect to the internet when there is no WiFi available.