Moved from BT to Sky years ago and I can’t see BT enticing me back anytime soon, I deal with BT all the time (work related) and if there’s a worse company out there I’ve not dealt with them.

Don’t get me wrong I know Sky can be a pain as well, try ordering 25 Sky boxes for a single private residence! That took me about three days on the phone… But in my personal experience at least you speak to someone in the UK, in three years I’ve had maybe two problems both sorted easily. God help you if you run into trouble with a BT fault.

BT vision Vs Sky plus. Hahahahahahaha

Popped up whilst I was typing so missed it. Never mind.

Not anywhere near as fit as I’d like, I’d say about average for a part time cyclist as that’s what I’ve become 😐

Haven’t been in the saddle for over a month now due to work, kids and social. Can’t whinge as whilst I miss it life is pretty good right now but really need to sort it out as no time for other activities either. Here’s looking forward to some clear, frosty, Autumn mornings – without doubt my favourite riding conditions 🙂

My two (5&7) have had an old iPad1 for a couple of years and love it. Books, games, puzzles,drawing etc… As I have my own iPad their’s only has Apps we’re happy with and nothing else.

I have lots but the following are Apps I either uses daily or are very useful from time to time. I don’t do Games very often so not much I can add there. My iPad is a work horse and entertainment tool. Love it…

productivity

Notes – Evernote (I find this hugely useful and have completely stopped using paper)
PDF markups – iAnnotate (tried plenty, this is the best by a margin)
PDF library and reading – iAnnotate and Books (both perfectly fine for this)
Remote file access – Sugarsync and Dropbox (both have distinct advantages over the other)
Networking – Net Analyzer
Photo transfers – Transfer (Move photos between iPhone and iPad over Wi-Fi)
Drawing – Paper (friggin awesome)
Expenses – XpenseTrkr (more iPhone but syncs with iPad via Dropbox)
Excel, Word etc – DocsToGo

Media and Entertainment

Live TV – Sky Go (Test match at the office? check)
Radio – TuneIn
Listening to Music – Sonos (needs Sonos hardware)
Managing TV – Sky plus (Search for TV and set recordings etc. Also controls your Sky box)
TV, Sky, ATV, Blu-Ray system control – Control4 (needs Control4 hardware)
Books – Kindle

Others

The web – Chrome
Maps – Google Maps
Mapping – ViewRanger
News and social – Flipboard (integrates Facebook, LinkedIN etc. with news.)
Facebook – Facebook
Shopping – Amazon
Trains – National Rail

The secret with the M25 is to plan at what time of day you are on it, i.e. avoiding the busy times.

Spot on.

My commute is A3 (25miles) and one junction around the M25. As above if you plan your journey time it’s usually fine but if you casually wonder onto the road during rush hour you’re asking for trouble, especially if you need to use more than a few junctions. That said the north east section (junctions 20-30ish) does seem to get horribly hit with serious accidents on a daily basis, interesting it’s always that section?

Out of interest what was it like before it was build?

My Dad used to commute from Surrey Hills to Birmingham and the M25 transformed everything, it’s actually a pretty amazing road and as Jambalaya notes it’s not that bad really, especially when you consider the volume of traffic and truck roads / major areas it connects.

Still feel for the OP though, it’s a bitch when you get caught.

They are all Bluetooth so, quality of internals aside, basically exactly the same. Had a quick look at the Igbloo and almost fell about laughing, I’m sure it will do well as form factor and function looks good but all that talk about high quality audio for a device that will pretty much be used by people using low bit rate music rips from iPhones and Android devices is a huge contradiction.

Igbloo uses the APT-X and AAC codecs for incredible improvements in audio transport quality across the Bluetooth link, meaning the audio is cleaner, crisper and far higher quality than standard Bluetooth streamed music.

We’re using the world-renowned Wolfson DACs (Digital To Analogue Conversion) used in some of the world’s highest quality audio devices, which means the music is reproduced beautifully. This kind of technology is what sets audio devices apart.

Our line-level amplification is the result of months of iteration after iteration to create the cleanest sound we could with the fullest dynamic range.

And if your device has a digital optical in, then extremely unusually for a device like this, igbloo is fitted with digital optical out, giving you a 100% pure digital signal through to your sound system.

“100% pure digital”… What a great marketing quote and bypasses both the ‘Wolfson DACs’ and wonderful ‘line-level amplification’ you’ve just harped on about… Hahaha

Oh, and my take on the OPs question… You can enter the roundabout in either lane if exiting at 12 0’clock but the driver in the left lane has right of way, of course most people using the right lane are trying to ‘jump’ the queue so inevitably will push in at the exit and I think we’ve all been guilty of that from time to time.

No right or wrong just good etiquette to stay left.

There’s a roundabout I use going home from work: 2 lanes going on, dual carriageway 1st exit @ 90 degrees, 2nd exit straight but never used little country lane, 3rd exit @270degrees and single lane. About half the drivers using the 3rd exit go for the left hand lane on entering the roundabout

Snap… Almost identical on my route to work but 2 lanes in, four single lane exits with main road continuing via third @ 2 o’clock. I’m amazed at the amount of drivers who actually move to the left lane before entering the round about, do not indicate right then swing past both first (9 o’clock) and second (12o’clock) exits and have the f*%#ing audacity to hoot drivers in the correct lane ‘cutting them up’ as they quite rightly move from inside to outside to exit the roundabout at the third.

Ggrrrrrrr…… Sometimes I feel an immense pull to stop and have a ‘chat’ with some drivers! And breath…..

Myself and a few mates have recently bought Gloworm, I have the twin X2 and it’s all I use. Brilliant.

ElShalimo, there are lots of file formats and each has it’s advantages. Of course for absolute quality you want to use a lossless format like FLAC, WAV or AIFF so no data is lost but in reality high bit rate compressed files like MP3 @ 320kbits/s are almost indistinguishable from lossless. Just stay well clear of low bit rate compressed formats. Lots of useful discussion on the Sonos forum, here’s one link;

talk on formats

The issue must people have is iTunes, as this is used for music management and mobile devices they tend to compress music too much when ripping to fit as much as possible on a small drive. For a few £££ you can buy an HDD with auto ripping software that rips to two files, one lossless for home use and one compressed for mobile. Personally I use iTunes because I’m lazy and just import at 320kbits/s which I’m perfectly happy with.

With regard to on-line content it’s the reverse, Internet radio and Spotify etc are all compressed, in some cases heavily and it really shows. However most paid for services like Spotify have a premium version that ups quality to around the 320kbits/s mark which is fine – just costs. BBC stations are good but not quite as good as DAB, but perfectly usable, however there are some really poor radio stations, the good news is that there is also some very good stuff out there you just need to find it.

ElShalimo, you need one Sonos device per room, of course with wiring and suitable amplification you could connect multiple rooms to one Connect but they would all operate at the same time and with the same volume which is not what Sonos is about.

We sell loads if it and I’ve not got one unhappy customer. Kicks the ass out of Airport Express and BlueTooth type solutions with proper music management and of course multi-room operation.

Jambalaya, have you ever used Sonos? I only ask because Airport Express is nowhere near as good, it’s not even remotely similar and just provides a basic streaming solution. Convenient yes but it’s no multi-room system.

Bit pricey but the Castelli gloves I bought last year are superb, meet all your requirements as well. Here’s a link to the thread where I posted info;

castelli gloves

Really interesting thread this, had me digging around on-line and came across a blog from a chap who poisened himself 😳 . Seems he was very lucky to live.

amanita poisoning[/url]

I quote;

Being sick as a dog with constant vomiting and diarrhea is no fun! I had a diaper on. I felt helpless. I felt humbled.

Not nice…

I see Sky have rebranded Multi-room as Multi-screen to capture mobile options, Drac is correct that for non multi-room subscribers the first Multi-screen box is free (not a recordable version through), so for HD in another room it’s £11.25 a month which is probably the easiest option to maintain quality.

If you want recorded TV multi-screen boxes start at £199 so unless you need different channels in different rooms HD over CAT5 is still the best long term solution IMO.

bloke does not say he bought a new hd telly
bloke does not say he wants hd to a second telly
bloke says he wants a cable to a second tell

hence my cheap but effective solution.

That’s why I said ‘no offence intended’ 😉 your solution is fine you just didn’t note this bit so I did. Anyway where exactly do you buy a TV today that isn’t HD? OK second hand but…

So that’s over 3 years of a sky multi room subscription at £10 a month!

Not quite, you need to purchase a second Sky HD box so dock at least a year – and IIRC Sky HD multi-room is more that a tenner but could be wrong. OP did say he didn’t want Sky multi-room.

Not getting into an argument here fellas just making sure the OP has all the facts.

1 x 2 way slx bypass amp £7.99
1 x 100m sat cable £8.99
1 x box clips £1
3 x f connector f.o.c
1 x coax connector f.o.c

I can sell you all the above
you will only be able the watch the same sky channel on both tv’s

Errrm, huge elephant in the room…(no offence Ton just pointing out the important bit)

This is a cheap and simple solution but will not provide HD video, in fact this is the most basic video connection from a Sky box so the picture doesn’t get much worse. If you’ve bought a nice HDTV picture will be a disappointment.

As pertieboy notes if you want HDTV you need to use an HDMI over CAT5 solution and split the output using a 1×2 HDMI splitter, this solution will also allow remote control of the Sky box from your new room. Look up HDBaseT extenders from WyreStorm and other brands, the ‘Lite’ versions are good for 70m. £300-£400 but this is the best solution.Compared to buying a second Sky box and multi-room subscription it’s about the same. Of course still only one channel as Ton notes, this is the same solution just HD.

…as for GPs and those in the mental health arena, they will be used to allowing you to move at your own pace and feel comfortable to let rip.

Spot on. However shit, ashamed, lonely you feel you can be sure you’re not the first and whilst the rest of us have limited experience there are people out there who actually know what they’re talking about and listen very well…

That’s what professionals are for. At least see your GP and take the first step, you might be surprised at how things pan out once you set off in the right direction. It’s easy to do nothing so that’s always a good indicator it’s not the right course of action, it’s one of life’s simple rules that the right choice is often the hard one.

As Jamie’s first post, talk has got to be the best place to start but if you really think you’ve a problem you need to seek proffesional help. Someone I know very well has pretty serious issues and having seen what he’s gone through I won’t start making suggestions, it’s well over my grade of education…

All I would say is start simple, look forward to the small things in life and focus on enjoying them, if you’ve been a dick to someone you know well apologise and try and mend bridges. You’d be surprised at peoples capacity for compassion when things are laid bare, deep down we’re all pretty decent I think but then I’m a glass half full kind of guy. When a house falls down it’s rebuilt brick by brick.

Bloody hell is that the time…

I’ve been selling AV for longer than I care to remember and TVs are the last of your worries, anything with a moving part is much, much more likely to have a problem. Personally a five year warranty is not something that would make me choose to buy – the chances are you’ll replace the TV before it dies. Yes, if you’re unlucky a problem can be a bit of a nightmare so a good warranty is a comfort blanket, as such JL with competitive pricing are a good choice. The fact they offer such a long warranty is testament to reliability and low failures, it’s a calculated tactic on their part but a fairly safe one. Samsung, Panasonic, Loewe are all strong brands but I do work in the upper end of the market so not much experience of cheep Telly’s…

OP you’ve basically just described a Sonos system using the ‘Connect’ Zoneplayer with local music systems 💡

The ‘Connect’ is a pre-amp Zoneplayer that can be set with either fixed or variable line-out depending where you want volume control. You can have a Hi-Fi system in each room and the Connect converts each into a streaming music system linking them to a central music library (iTunes etc.) and providing access to on-line services such as Internet radio (TuneIN), Spotify etc. Each connect is independant so every room can do something different, simultaneously, but you also have e facility to link any combination of rooms for coordinated playback when entertaining.

What you need to get your head around is the system is a ‘streaming’ system not a distribution system in the tradition sence of multi-room system. The only central device required is a network hard drive with your music on it, that could be a NAS drive, PC or laptop. Content is streamed to Sonos zone players via IP rather than sources being selected and controlled. One thing you can’t do is lock out any content, everything is available everywhere but as each zone is independant conflict is never an issue.

The Connect is £279 inc VAT and there is nothing on the market that does the same for that price, in fact not much for more either. Sorry if I sound a bit fanboy but I get very bored hearing of Rasberry Pi / Airport / whatever solutions touted as alternatives. Yes they provide access to music in rooms around a house but multi-room systems they are not – they lack so many features integral to Sonos it’s laughable. They’re just cheaper, that’s all. If you can afford Sonos you’re nuts not to buy it, it’s really that simple.

Made myself a Bloody Mary yesterday and must have got a tiny drop of Tabasco on my sleeve, sat down to enjoy and wiped my sleeve across my face – Tabasco ended up in my left eye… 😳

Honestly thought my eye was about to dissolve, took twenty minutes for the pain to dull once I’d watered it for five minutes. For the rest of the day it felt like I had a shard of glass stuck under my eye lid. Will be much more careful shaking the bottle in future as that’s an experience I never want to go through again!!!

I’ll take it off your hands, just the small matter of distance between us. If you’re interested PM me and we’ll see if we can work something out.

Cheers.

Yep, went with the Anker 10,000 mAh model. It’s only job is to keep me from running out of juice during or after a ride when away from mains for the best part of a day, we’ll see how it goes over the weekend.

Thanks for your input STW.

Cheers guys I was looking at the Anker models but some poor reviews had me pause, think I’ll give one a go and see how it lasts.

Yep, look forward to this more than any other series right now. Very edgy and brilliant characters.

IPhone 5 and iPad 2 both updated. Download took a hour or two (slowish broadband) and had to wait a while for the installation to activate, that will be due to Apples servers being clogged. Anyway both done and like the update, lots of useful features and certainly better than iOS6.

At first the iPad seemed sluggish but once a few apps had been loaded everything is now swimming along just fine. No problems at all with the iPhone.

Personally I like the new GUI, perfect it’s not but a nice change.

Some good threads last winter on this. I bought some Castelli neoprene gloves and they are the only thing that’s worked for me, almost too good.

Link to thread I started

Here is a bigger thread with lots of input;

Gloves that keep your hands warm

Steve may be cool but the coolest, highly unlikely as he’s an actor and for me, by default, that removes all possibility of taking the title. Acting is just not that cool.

Sir Ranulph Fiennes is a very good shout. Seth Morrison (Skier) is pretty cool but for me the title would have to go to Laird Hamilton; surfer, windsurfer and general all round awesome person.

The one thing I hear more than anything else with HT or rigid riders is that ‘they can’t hit it that fast or do that jump or do that section because they are on a HT or rigid’ so it begs the question; why bother then? I want to be able to ride the most extreme of terrain, I don’t want to have to stop or slow to a crawl for a section so a FS bike will always be my choice.

This. I’m far from the best rider but I can hold my own on fast, technical Singletrack. The buzz I get is riding every decent as fast as possible and taking new, challenging lines whenever I find them. A FS allows me to push myself much, much harder. On a HT I used to find myself being a lot more cautious and picking ‘safer’ lines – something a better rider would not be hampered by…

The term skill compensator is very apt IMO but should not be used negatively. It is a MTB riders best tool as it allows you to do stuff you simply wouldn’t try on a more basic bike. To answer the original question though; does a FS dull the trail? Depends how you ride and where. Not much point if you only ever ride tow paths!

Mate that’s quite nice and for that price you can’t complain at all. Thanks for the info Wally.

Ridden QEP a few times and I doubt I’ll ever go back, even if it’s only 20mins away. In the wet it’s awful and the dry not much better, to be fair there are some fun sections but overall far too much climbing Vs decent singletrack and it’s all over far too quickly on the marked trails. There may be some good stuff off the beaten track as noted here but I would never recommend someone visit for a ride blind, would be a huge disappointment IMO.

Swinley on the other hand is much, much better. Not ridden the new trails but lots of positive comments and you can make a good ride of it. For me though it would be Surrey hills all the time but useful to have some idea of where you’re going.

Which still begs the question, why change the format? If it only plays audio cd’s, then why change the format? If it can’t play MP3 files, it certainly won’t be able to play WMA files, which are a proprietary music file unique to Windows. Just set up a playlist of about 80 minutes duration containing the tracks you want, then, as Cougar and gfs said, ‘Burn disc’, which should give you a cd that will play on any CD player. CDR’s are disposable, just burn one and shove it into the player; it should play ok, if not, it’s coaster format, and you’ve wasted a few minutes and a few pence. It really shouldn’t make any difference what file format the original is on your computer; burning to disc should automatically make it playable on any CD player, making it a waste of your time changing the files from MP3 to WMA.

Actually it’s a perfectly valid question as a lot of older in-car CD players won’t read MP3 files. If you simply burn the files playback will only be possible with compatible players however, to be fair, most new head-units read MP3. As it happens WMP offers three options and if you select ‘Audio CD’ it will convert the files during transfer for compatibility with all CD players. Exactly as CP notes.

Thanks ST. What should I expect for supply and fitting? Ball park. And are Witter a market leader? Off to Google, cheers.

Tricky one that as Chamonix is kind of unique in that it feels just as busy during the summer as the winter, well, less so but you know what I mean. It also has all the convieiences of a big resort still open and most (other) big resorts feel very quiet. Went to Alpes D’Huez last year to visit friends and had a great time but still quiet.

My folks lived in La Clussaz for 13 yrs and this was great, not Chamonix great but as a smaller resort it was still great fun in the Summer. I would look at similar but have to admit I’ve only done Chamonix and a few small ones myself so not much more to offer. I think Verbiere is very good and I’m sure some on here can comment on the more MTB orientated resorts from their experiences.

Think it depends on what you consider a good holiday and there are lots and lots of good holidays 😀

Our kids are 4 and 7 and we just spent two weeks in the Dordogne with another family (their two kids are the same age as ours). We rented a farm house on top of a little hill in the middle of nowhere – well, a good drive to anywhere remotely ‘busy’. Big pool, excellent kitchen, lots of space, wonderfully quite (apart from wildlife) and absolutely no interference from anyone, it was superb. I took a PS3, lots of movies and my Sonos system. We spent the days letting the kids get on with it whilst the adults created awesome meals, drank good wine, stayed up late listening to tunes, enjoyed a beautiful view of the Milky Way every night and had those rambling conversations such times engender… Stepped out a few times to visit a market, evening meal etc but spent most of the time at the farm, just too perfect to be anywhere else frankly.

Wouldn’t do it every year and must be two families minimum (only takes one adult to supervise kids) but every once in a while it’s nice to get away from it all. Only possible with young kids, teenagers would want more so worth considering as your kids are also young. The rental could sleep 14 and cost us £100 a night per family, can’t even get a plastic mobile home on a camp site for that!

Middle lane drivers are great fun to orbit. See how many times you can pass, pull in, slow down and repeat. Great fun.

My record is 3.5!

What a brilliant idea, it appears pulling into the left lane after overtaking MLH (middle lane hogs) has zero effect but this sounds like it has wings. Must try it some time.

My dear late Grandma summed it up for me when I challenged her on this many years ago, she was a huge MLH… “It gives me options” was her answer! Not much I could say to that 😯

Scrambled in the microwave is the easiest. Just dump the bowl in the bin when you’re done.

Never tried this and I’m sure it’s quick but IME scrambled eggs are cooked over a low heat with constant stirring to produce a smooth creamy texture, too much bother with a hangover…

Hangover eggs are fried

Sorry, have to disagree. Fried eggs are the lowest form of cooked egg and should only be consumed when no other option is available. Greasy spoon for example.

Hangover eggs should be fried. By someone else.

I very rarely give someone responsibility for my breakfast and only do so if they have a proven track record. Some people just don’t take it seriously enough! Of course I am very good so quite happy to prepare everyone else’s 😀

So, how do you poach yours..

Like this. I cheat and use these little beauties and as such poached eggs are very easy. Never even tried the ‘traditional’ method.

However you ‘fix’ them try a sprinkling of hot smoked paprika on them.

Thanks Woobliscott, tried this and have to agree it works well. I found out many years ago that I love the combination of peanut butter and egg, makes most people shudder with revulsion but I love it.

Thanks guys, that was lovely 😀

Thanks Rusty your a great one for days like this 😉

Certainly not American but with the hangover I’ve got it makes little or no difference. Think it’ll have to be poached as they take less effort…