No. As I have an aversion to being shot at for naff all.

This is not true; In 2007 there was a TA chap in Basra looking after 21 Engineer Reg tool store i.e. guarding the shovels, pick axes, etc.

He was some sort of professional in the city and rather than being paid the same (£40 per day?) a regular Sapper gets was on his regular civi basic rate of pay – not only that but as he was Ops his mortgage was frozen so after 1 year active service he had a nice lump sum saved up.

If I wasn’t married with kids I’d definately rejoin the TA and volunteer for Ops. I’d also point out that the level and quality of training I receieved from the TA whilst at times patchy was far better than anything I have recieved from a civilian employer before or since and has stood me in good stead over the years.

But, I still think it is a terrible idea for a goverment that is fond of foriegn engagements to come up with a plan to reduce the military right back and expect reservists to fill the gaps.

OSX Snow Leopard on MBP, Mountain Lion on Mac Mini, Win 7 Home Premium on gaming PC, Win 7 Pro on work laptop, Windows 8 & Server 2012 on virtual lab kit.

Mountain Lion has been the most problematic and most of that was having to use Terminal to kill one or two applications but has generally been much better since the MIni was upgraded to 16GB and a couple of open source apps uninstalled.

I used to run OSX Leopard on my old G5 Power Mac and Vista Home Premium 32bit on my old Dell XPS and both were rock solid with only the odd driver issue to solve.

Windows hasn’t been a total pile of crap since Millennium Edition. The only BSOD I have had recently have been on the gaming machine when over-clocking and getting the memory settings wrong. Every time I have dealt with a server at work with a Kernel panic or BSOD it has been memory related – either the installation engineer not understanding NUMA ram allocations or dodgy chips (thanks IBM).

As far as mates machines go it has always inevitably been user error that has caused problems – often from going to web sites they shouldn’t or from using peer-to-peer networks.

I used to own a ZT-T and liked driving it but it was becoming a bit of a hobby keeping an eye on things and mpg was terrible so it went.

The MG-Rover.Org forum chaps did a Hitlers Bunker video after the Clarkson review;

Is that the case? Plenty of phones say ’emergency calls only’ when you have no signal.

You don’t have a signal to your provider but your phone is able to get a signal from another company. If there really is no signal, you can’t call anyone.

I thought it was just a common emergency number adopted across the EU so you did not need to remember each member states version of ‘999’.

There have definitely been enough urban legends and BS spam emails about 112 over the years. Despite their training police officers can be just as gullible as the rest of us when stories involve technology that they don’t fully understand.

There are many theories for the difference between heart rate, or HR, on land vs. water. According to Joanne Maybeck, who provides workshops on “Aquatic Heart Zone Training”, there are several factors. Buoyancy in the water reduces the effect of gravity. Therefore, it takes less effort for the heart to deliver oxygen to the rest of the body. Temperature may also be a factor. Compared to land-based activity, the heart doesn’t have to work as hard to cool the body. Another variable is the “Dive Reflex,” which is a neurological response that happens when the face is in the water. This triggers a reduction in heart rate and blood pressure. Some may even experience this dive reflex in chest-deep water.

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/166752-heart-rate-during-swimming/#ixzz2YNfkoUFq

from…

Livestrong[/url]

I’ve been told this before by some triathlete pals so it must be true.

A word of advice to anyone looking after a any business IT needs: do not under any circumstances apply Cougers logic that using any Microsoft Media for software you have licences for will be fine.

If you get audited Microsoft can be funny about it and you can land up with a rather large bill as you pay for the version you have installed…

Case in point is a company that purchases 100 copies of Office Standard and 5 copies of Office Professional. The techies then build a workstation image but use the Office Pro install media but only install the functionality of Standard Edition.

If Microsoft discover this you & your legal team will likely have to work very hard to not end up paying for 100 licences for the Pro edition.

Ouch 😯

I think my confusion with “drop database” and “detach database” one morning at 3am probably lost some money for the company I worked for at the time. Thank f*** for backups…

Read the article, it gives me little cause to feel any sympathy for the first guy, he was a driver FFS. It is not like he would be tasked with a mission to destroy the local taliban; granted he will likely have seen things no one should but in the forces you are there for the people around you, very few buy into the queen and country BS and he chose to desert his fellow soldiers.

Having said that I’ll probably read his book, I expect my view will be that army didn’t look after him properly or that they should/could have identified him earlier on as someone mentally not suited for further military service.

The armed forces are very small and you no longer have to serve for life, once you relise it is not for you, you decide that you will not rengage but serve the rest of your time as professionally as possible and then move on. There are also much easier ways to get out than by running away.

The ex-SAS trooper is a bit different I think, totally different role and experiences and it sounds like he spoke up for himself rather than doing a bunk and then blabbing to the press.

Wow, fascinating.

The things that strike me compared to today;

1) Lack of street furniture and road markings, traffic is lighter
2) Police officers are not dressed up like scruffy para-militaries
3) Everyone wears a hat
4) Nearly all the faces are white/european looking
5) The signs of pollution (Nelsons column looks black etc.)
6) All the buses are open top; did it never rain?

A return to the first three items would be quite welcome but I definitely wouldn’t want to be using an open top bus at the moment!

The new mini is a very good piece of kit. The quad core i7 version is also very powerful (for such a small form factor PC) and scores highly in geekbench.

One caveat is that if you want to run a few things at once or use heavy duty productivity software then the 4GB it comes equipped with is not enough and waiting whilst it pages to disk can be painful. I upgraded mine to 16GB and now it flies along (as mentioned just buy the memory and upgrade it yourself).

Got to agree with Crikey. I did one several years back; lots of (bad) driving, and up and down each mountain on the most boring paths of each rather than the nicer and/or more technical routes.

It encourages speeding, driving when tired, and adds almost nothing to the local economies apart from where you finish and rent a room. It is also anti-social as you inevitably have to start one of the peaks at a silly hour. (I think we upset people living near Scafell Pike unloading the van.)

Physically speaking I found it a challenge. The routes we used totaled around 23 miles of walking but I remember very little of it compared to proper holidays hill walking in the national parks and I was knackered by the end of Snowdon.

I’ve also run a marathon for charity and that was far more enjoyable and personally rewarding. If asked again I would opt for three peaks in Snowdonia and forget all the driving nonsense.

I use Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit via Virtual Box (no need to pay for VM Fusion or Parallels) on my Mac. Works very well and no reboot required to use Windows.

IME XP licences are not tied to hardware, rather a Product Key will be tied to a particular OEM install disk. You might need to find a generic install disk e.g. not one issued by Dell or HP that will accept the Product Key. IIRC Product keys issued for Win XP with SP2 or 3 slipstreamed in probably won’t work with an earlier OEM disk and vice-versa.

Under the licence conditions that you accept when you install Windows I am sure it states that OEM Product Keys are not transferable to new hardware; if that is the case you will be in breach of the agreement. I can’t see anyone coming after you for it though…

If it bothers you I am sure you could pick up a cheap retail copy of XP, Vista or even 7 if you hunt around.

Bootleg Win 7 is likely to be 32bit. This will only recognise and use up to 3gb of ram.
A fresh Windows install or switch to Linux is the cheapest improvement, bearing in mind what others have said about ongoing component reliability.

Not quite true; it will most likely recognise that more than 3GB is installed and may even use up to 4GB. I’ve generally found about 3.3GB is actually usable when 4GB or more is installed.

To be honest 32bit is fine for most tasks, the memory footprint of 32bit OS and applications is generally smaller than 64bit. I’d go for 2GB being a nice minimum for 32bit Vista or Win7 that is only going to run a web browser and office software.

Personally I would stick with IT but look to retrain in another area that’s more interesting and pays a bit better. With applied maths you would probably do well with the business intelligence side of database development – if you can get your head around set theory and swallow anything written by Itzik Ben-Gan[/url] you”l be able to get a nice well paid 9-5 job and then spend your weekends away cycling 😀

You’ll be fine.

If you think that your bit of video editing might get serious and you’d be using Adobe Premier Pro have a look at their website for a list of cards that support accelerated features.

The Nvidia 470 and 570 are on there but probably out of your budget even if you can still find somewhere that stocks them (the 6xx series has now been out for a while).

I’ve no idea if these features are worth having though!

http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/premiere/tech-specs.html

leffeboy – that is never a stupid question 😯

What version of SQL Server are you using?

I’d suggest you post so DDL so we can use http://sqlfiddle.com/ to create a mock up and play with your T-SQL in there.

P.S. I am not a SQL Developer so the chances that I can help you are very slim…

Has anyone ever clearly defined what to win was? It seemed to shift about and change as the years have gone by.

We should have got out after the Taliban were removed from power and it was established that the AQ C&C infrastructure based there was destroyed and leadership killed or disbanded. Past that we have little interest in the place, its not like we need to safe guard the NW frontier anymore. If the Pakistani’s had a problem let them sort it out and if the Pakistani’s fell to a Taliban type of government leave it to the Indians, they wouldn’t have dicked about like we did.

DCS World is a free download (on this months PC Pilot too) and includes an SU-25 frogfoot. The other DCS sims you can buy (A-10C, P-51, LOMAC 2) all then plug into it.

I have the Mustang plugin and think it is brilliant but it is a full on sim and getting the engine started and the aircraft off the ground is a lot harder than in il-2. The downsides is that there are no other WW2 aircraft available and if you want to engage ground targets they are modern too. This poses some interesting challenges like how to use cloud cover to position your self in order to attack gunship helicopters armed with A2A missiles…

Cliffs of Dover is OK now that it is patched, especially if you use some of the on line guides to configure it properly for your PC. My main gripe is that the AI is very poor and dog-fights get boring.

You still can’t beat the re-works of Falcon 4 if fast jet combat is your thing and DCS does not have want you want or your PC is getting old. Falcon BMS is the one to go for.

I just wish I had more time for these.

If I was on one of Flaperons flights I’d be more worried when he was awake at the controls 😀

Hmmm…..

I have a story about this and the T-SQL command DROP Database seeming very similar to the command DETACH Database…

If you work with SQL Server you know the outcome is very different. 😳

I tend to lean towards the view that 10 year olds should not be locked up in a civilised country.

However I do believe that the event described in the link below could have been avoided because a mature civilised country would have the balls to hang adults who abuse and murder children.

I’m with Junkyard on this.

You should think less about nuclear weapons being weapons and more about them being political tools.

It is why we still have them, they need a massive investment to build and fine tune and yet if you use them you have already lost.

However you can use them without ever firing them like so;
As a threat so you are not invaded,
A threat so that the country you are fighting does not use their chemical or nuclear weapons,

or

You can use them as bargaining chips to encourage others to reduce their stockpile e.g. we will de-target our missiles if you scrap some of yours etc.

The North Koreans might be crazy but even they know that they would lose everything if they used even a single nuke in anger.

I’d be more concerned about the nukes Pakistan has and the fact its most likely opponent is a larger country that would ‘win’ in a last man standing kind of nuclear exchange.

The person with the most money is paying for the person with the least money. i think we all know this is what is happening and I am not sure what your actual point is.
I think we have all worked it out that if you live in an more expensive area of london with good schools you need to earn more and pay more thna if you live in a less expensive area? It appears we agree the person with the most money has the most money, the nicest house, lives in the best area a, gets better education [ for their offspring]and has more money than the poorer one. Should we be subsidising so they can have even more advantages than someone poor?

PS your figures [ the 50 k tax]appear to include NI

Flicking through this long thread I am not sure that is clear to all – there certainly seems to be an under current of thought that those who earn less were disproportionately paying for those who earn more through child benefit. Which I don’t believe to be the case even when the ‘better off’ were receiving child benefit.

My own view is that very few people in full time employment should actually receive child benefit (they should probably be taxed less by a better system) and it was never enough to give any notable advantages the children of someone who earns £50k a year. It would however contribute to either the (very) basic clothing or feeding requirements of children whose parents earn very little.

My figures for tax contributions I believe are fairly accurate:

Combined NI & Tax contributions on a salary of £50k would be approx. £1185 and approx. £460 on a salary of £25k give or take a few quid.

All the comments on here regarding the OP’s wife being minted or loaded are potentially well wide of the mark; especially if you live and work in London or the SE and didn’t own property purchased in the 1990’s or before.

Either renting or paying a mortgage in London will probably see a monthly outlay of around £1500 – £1800 for a ‘decent’ family home near a ‘decent’ school. If you choose to move out of London to bring that down you’ll probably be spending close to the difference on rail fares for the daily commute.

Also don’t forget that if she is earning £50k she will proportionally be paying more tax than someone on half that. Forgetting about NI for now her monthly tax contribution will likely be approx. £820 compared to the £280 for someone on £25k. Even subtracting the monthly child benefit she is receiving it would still see her contributing over 100% more than someone on £25k i.e. around £680. If the person on £25k also had two children and was receiving the same child benefit subtracting that from their net monthly tax contribution would drop see theirs fall to less than £150 per month. Therefore in that scenario her contribution could be as great as 200% more than someone on £25k – now who is paying for who?

Finally to the comments that she should move somewhere else or to a cheaper house that cuts both ways. If you begrudge someone that earns £50k a year you have the option to find out what industries/career paths pay that sort of money and find a way into them. It might not be easy but it is certainly possible in this country.

Aylesbury cycling club have a mountain bike section. http://www.aylesburycc.org/

We meet on Wednesday night in Jansel Square, leave at 7.30 for the weekly mtb night ride. People are usally doing stuff at the weekends as well.

Club membership is £15 for the year. My email addy is in my profile if you want to contact me.

Wow, this is a long thread…

For those of you who say it doesn’t matter what the UK does as our pollution is insignificant when compared to China/India etc. What about
1) Our position in the worlds top 10 economies?
2) Our permanent seat on the UN Security Council?
3) Our position within the EU (as 1 of the top 4)
4) The amount of money we give in foreign aid
5) Our membership and influence within the Commonwealth

As much as the press (and most of the population) like to say the UK is declining, crap, insignificant or all three we are actually in a very strong position to influence other countries. Either as a lone voice or as part of the EU – which has a combined population and economy far larger than the USA.

For those who support the argument that it doesn’t matter if the science is not settled and we should just tow the line about trying to build a better world without question: Hitler and most other dictators liked to think they were going to build a better world… I note that there are a few posts about population being a problem – think about the implication of that line of thought and, the types of governments who have tried to control population growth in the past.

Erm.. you can’t as far as I know.

If you are buying something from someone you should use it correctly so that you can get your money back if you need to.

People ask you to use PayPal gift so they avoid paying fees.

Ours gets used for nothing but short journeys of around 2 miles each way.

And co-incidentally I looked yesterday – an average of 28.7mpg.

(Mazda 3 2.0L Sport 150bhp)

This is almost identical as my wife’s car and usage. She gets approx 29mpg as well. On a run I think it is nearer 37-38, but definitely not the 40+ that the official figures suggest.

My old 2.5lt V6 used to get about 18mpg in town so the Mazda seems very good.

I use a WeeRide with my 8 month old (he is the size of a 12 month old though). I’ve found the same as the others, flat pedals make it easier but the amount relly depends on the bike you are riding, it is not so bad on my langster as my Stumpjumper HT.

I wouldn’t be able to have a rear seat as well as when I get on/off the bike I tend to need a bit more space behind when junior is in the WeeRide.

I think it is more likely the heated core causing the uprisings. Humans tend to riot more in hot weather and being nearer the equator the middle easterners will be feeling its subtle heating more than us in Northern Latitudes.

I think someone should write a paper describing how our position in the Milky Way has triggered these events.

The RAF did do some Jaguar landings on motorways.

Interesting as that’s different to what I’ve always been told (not that I am special or an expert on these matters)…

A bit more digging (and mostly wiki stuff) and I think what happened is the Jaguar was tested on the M55 when the road was being built. If it was from Warton (as wiki says) it might not even have been in RAF service as that is a BAE aerodrome not a military/RAF base. Therefore this wasn’t to test the M55 for suitability as an emergency runway but rather test the Jaguars ability to be used on roads designated to be used as airstrips. Jaguars may well have ended up doing this if the cold war turned hot – especially in West Germany where some roads had been designed with this in mind.

This makes a lot more sense and ties in with what I have previously heard. It also helps explain the stories that British motorways were designed to be emergency airstrips – the best stories always have a grain of truth to them.

when the M1 was built all the americans asked that all the bridges were at least 5m high so that they could get cruise missles under them.
Think that may be an urban legend, the standard night for an Unmarked Bridge in the UK is 16 feet 6 inches.

That doesn’t mean the Yanks didn’t ask though I suppose, just means there was no need for them to ask that’s all

I doubt there was much chance of that. I have no proof they didn’t ask for anything but the M1 was mostly completed in the late 60’s and cruise missiles were based at Greenham Common and Molesworth in the 1980’s. Nearest motorways to those are the M4 and M11 or A1.

I’m also pretty sure that no British roads or motorways were built to be used as emergency runways in the event of war. There seem to have been plenty of rumours that some were but most appear to have been easily debunked due to the number of bridges and permanent furniture.

I do recall reading somewhere that some German roads were built to be used as runways first in the late 1930’s and then again during the cold war in both East and West Germany.

Flash crash in Chrome[/url]

worth a look – same for Windows and OSX.

Are those the ones where the concrete is so thick, it’s still not fully set after 70 years? I’ve seen pictures from someone exploring one – just insane. Apparently no-one knows how to demolish them.

Quite a few in Germany and Austria have been demolished since the end of the war, although a couple (in Berlin I think?) we’re partially demolished and then covered over to make what looks like natural hills.

You can still get inside one of them if you know where the entrance is, Pretty cool.

My father recently returned from a visit to Berlin and had a look. There is only half of one of them still left standing. There were three in Berlin and all ended up in the Eastern (Soviet) sector. Two were eventually demolished and their remains covered over.

You can book tours of the remaining tower here; Berlin Underground Tours

I couldn’t agree more on the need for a proper combined transport solution. I commute into London and I have two options to use public transport (two different rail networks). I rarely use either because one route is substantially more expensive than running a car and renting a parking space next to the office, and the other is so much slower.

Whilst there are visible signs (in the SE at least) that public transport is improving the annual above inflation price hikes really don’t help. I’m not sure I can offer any possible solutions but one thing is clear; the government and local councils need to look past the short term and NIMBY issues that bog them down to try and insure they get re-elected.

bwaarp

Thanks for the link, very informative.

It does actually state;

REPRODUCTIVE TOXICITY INFORMATION: Listed below is information concerning the effects of Carbon Dioxide on the
human reproductive system.
Mutagenicity: Carbon Dioxide is not expected to cause mutagenic effects in humans.
Embryotoxcity: Carbon Dioxide has not been reported to cause embryotoxic effects; see next paragraph for information.
Teratogenicity: Carbon Dioxide is not expected to cause teratogenic effects in humans. Clinical studies involving test
animals exposed to high concentrations of Carbon Dioxide indicate teratogenic effects (e.g., cardiac and skeletal
malformations, stillbirths).

So it’s not expected to be teratogenic to humans? Probably because the levels at which it would may have caused the mother to suffocate first? Therefore I’m not sure why my statement should annoy you.

I have seen nothing to suggest CO2 is toxic to humans in the conventional sense of the word. Just about too much of anything will kill a person but when was the last time you were warned tap water was toxic?

The thread was started more off the back of the Green Wash type of thing – people are continually told something is Environmentally Friendly when it blatantly is not; these objects are then sometimes given “eco” labels which some people then translate as meaning we can have as many or use as much of them as we please without caring about their impact. It’s marketing BS and it annoys me, especially when it get’s rammed down my throat.

Thanks to all for your replies, some have provided food for thought and prompted me to read some interesting websites such as;
StopGreenWash

With regards to Prius vs other cars, in my opinion its about picking a tool for a job. I’d much rather have my old 2.5 litre V6 MG ZT but I’m now driving 450-500 miles a week so I swapped it for a 2004 407 1.6 HDI. Due to the mileage I’m now dumping far more CO2 into the atmosphere with the 407 than I ever did in the same timespan with the ZT yet the only tax I pay which is directly linked to CO2 emissions was £260 for the MG and £135 for the Pug. Where is the logic in that? Surely a CO2 emissions based tax should be added to the fuel – if you drive more, you pay more…

have you tried breathing it to test this ludicrous claim?
It might turn out to be very eco friendly

You will certainly suffocate if it is present in large enough quantities, but the amount needed to do that isn’t what would normally rate a substance or gas as toxic; it certainly isn’t poisonous or carcinogenic which is what one would usually associate toxic as being.