Panasonic TZ35. Fantastic camera for the money. Have been hugely impressed with the quality of pictures ours takes. And at today’s prices you will have a shed load of change left over too. It’s mostly a point and shoot but does have a number of manual settings that you can play with if you want.

I have a friend working there at the moment – and has been for the past year or so. Tends to work on a rota of 2 weeks in Saudi and a week at home. It took a bit of adjustment and trying to get to grips with the culture and attitudes. He actually quite likes it out there but there are definitely parts of the country that are much more strict from the religious police perspective. You really need to be careful if you end up anywhere near Mecca (they had first hand sight of a similar situation to the one that BoardinBob highlighted) as they get very, very picky.

I believe you also only get visa’s for 30 day stints and you have to keep leaving the country to show breaks in your time, which can be a bit of a faff. And don’t expect to be having any alcohol any time soon. If you can live without alcohol easily then that should not be a problem.

I guess some of it comes down to what sort of tea you will be working with and whether you are part of a larger team comprised of expats who you can get on with. If so, then you ay well be able to make a go of it an add an interesting experience to your life. If, on the other hand, you are flying solo and working directly with the Saudis then I would think very, very carefully about it.

The big questions to ask (same as with most other purchases – it’s just that this is such a large one) are:

Would you e happy with the house (or are you just liking it because it is better than most you have looked at but you are not necessarily 100% happy with the choice)?

How much do you think the house is really worth / would you be prepared to pay for it? Unless it is an absolute dream of a house I would not recommend ever paying more than you think the house is worth.

So, if you like the house but only feel it is worth £190,000 max to you then that is your ceiling. I would probably have gone in at £180,000 as that gives you up to £10,000 to play with and you may still end up getting it less than that. Offers over £190,000 and not willing to accept less than £199,000 are slightly conflicting views. Suspect the EA is trying to big up the price ie get you to offer well over £190,000.

As others have said just sit back and wait. The house has obviously been on the market for a long time and has not sold. Clearly there is either something wrong with it or it is over priced. Maybe a combination of the two. Sit tight until the EA comes back to you and then be “candid” with them and let them know that you really don’t think it is worth any more than £190,000, if that. So you are still thinking it over but if you were to come back in with another bid your maximum would only ever get to £190,000. They will then know where you stand and they can then try and work something out with the seller. If the sellers are desperate to move then the lack of other offers may get them to eventually relent and accept an offer of £190,000. And if they don’t, well, no problem to you. You just keep hunting around until you find the right house at the right price. You are under no obligation to buy this one and it is nothing personal with the sellers. True, not all sellers see it this way and get a bit offended / huffy about low offers but in most cases it all comes down to them being unrealistic about how much their property is actually worth or they have committed to another house and need the money from this one. Again, that’s not your problem. All you need to be concerned about is a house that is right for you at a price you are happy to pay and being prepared for the fact that it may take a while to get there. :)

That all assumes you are wanting n Android phone. Left field, you could consider the Nokia Lumia 635 as this seems to be a pretty good value for money phone. If you want something a bit bigger try the Lumia 930 or 1020.

Not entirely sure a Chromebook is a good idea as a suggestion, especially if you want to run things like office on the computer. All comes down to how much you want to spend and what you want to get out of it. As you seem comfortable with Apple kit, suck up the cost and get another one. Most people seem to be happy that they last a good while without losing too much performance.

Been with Orange for a loooong time now. They were pretty good when I first took out a contract (20 years ago??). The last few years I have been finding that their plans are getting worse and worse for value when compared to others. This contract ends in December and it is quite likely we will move away. The only thing that really kept us last time was Orange Wednesdays. My work phone is on Orange so we will still get that perk, but personal phone will change. The kids are both on contracts with 3 and from a phone and plan perspective they have been pretty good. Generally very good coverage, al you can eat data and now 4G where it is available. Knocks Orange out of the park. The only down side with 3 is the customer service which is a bit meh, but then have hardly had to deal with them at all, so not much of an issue.

There is, as ever, only one quite a lot of choice in this area.

You may well need to listen to your options as well. Despite Mr Woppit’s fanatical appreciation of Naim, they are a brand like any other. Some like it, some don’t. My personal experiences so far of Naim are that they are a bit meh. Probably needs careful partnering with speakers but what I have listened to so far does not stand out to me as great. So, despite wanting to like them, they are not on my shopping list of hifi brands to buy.

I thought Lewis had a superb race on Sunday. Yes, he has the fastest car (along with Nico) but he still had to deliver the drive. It is always a bit of a gamble when you are at the back of the grid and he could so easily have been caught up in the Massa incident. Bottas drove a great race and overall it was a great grand prix to watch. I thought there was no malice in the Button / Hamilton overtake as it looked very much as though Button was leaving the door open plus Hamilton came from a long way back. He did apologise to him in the race later on when passing him again.

Most top sports people have a flaw or two. Some are more obvious than others. Hamilton generally comes across as a bit fragile and at those times ends up looking like a bit of a tit. However, he is without doubt one of the best drivers on the circuit. He is consistently quick and yet he is also one of the lightest on fuel consumption. Nico has a touch of the sour grapes at times but is doing a bit better at the being magnanimous these past few weeks. Most refreshing at the moment is Ricciardo. Genuinely likeable guy who is driving fantastically well this season. Dealing very well with adversity (losing his “win” in Australia). Lot of respect for him whereas his team mate is losing credibility and respect with every race. Not so easy when you no longer have the fastest car on the grid and no one can touch you is it Seb? :)

There is only the iPhone 5c and 5s. What did you think you got? :)

c_g – if you are just looking for a relatively basic smart phone then also consider having a look at the new Nokias. Nicely built phones and priced reasonably. I believe most of the new ones are also 4G ready.

@Biking, I am a computer scientist/programmer by background, built my first computer with a soldering iron and programmed it in hexadecimal machine code, 1975-ish. I also wrote compilers and did quite a lot of low level work too. My first work computer ran Concurrent CPM – a DEC operating system which could run 4 programmes at once, this was back in ’84 I recall, light years ahead of DOS so Gates bought CCPM and binned it. Microsoft had to base its OS on DOS as it was the exclusivity agreements on DOS which where the companies raison-d’etre. I point this out as it shows the foundations of Windows, it’s genesis and why it’s fundamentally so poor. I know there are many others here with more expertise but I do have an inkling of what I am speaking about.

Microsoft is a terrible software platform.

I am not doubting your programming skills or your soldering skills. And this isn’t really a discussion on who is right and who is wrong, but your understanding of the origins of MS are a bit skewed. The MS raison d’etre was not DOS. MS was always originally the provider of the BASIC compiler for the IBM PC. The OS was a side deal based on the fact that Bill Gates and Paul Allen took a punt on being able to provide an OS as the founder and owner of the original company they had chosen was too busy flying his plane to meet the IMB execs. So Gary Kildal missed out and MS lucked out. And as Mogrim pointed out your knowledge of the Windows OS also seems to have stopped at the late 90’s. It has moved on quite a lot from there. Perhaps you should use your obvious intelligence to make a reasoned investigation and base your decision on experience and knowledge of the current version of Windows. It may be a revelation to you and will help you not to sound ignorant – thus giving greater credence to your views.

The OS is much more secure than Windows as it’s built on proper foundations not the remnants of DOS.

Hmmm. There go the words of someone who clearly has no actual clue as to what they are talking about. That was true for, Oh, Windows 3.x and even 95 / 98. But that was a loooooong time ago. And as for the myth that Macs are more secure than Windows? Keep dreaming there. Those boys at the last but one Black Hat conference will be laughing their heads off having demonstrated about 15 ways to compromise and own a Mac in a 30 minute lunch break. Relatively basic stuff. The pervading view was that Apple’s approach to security was not at the leading edge.

But most of this is irrelevant. As was mentioned above it’s largely about choice and preference. Some people will love the Apple experience and others will hate it. I have been a long time Windows user and I personally find the Mac interface unintuitive and not really very pleasant. However, I have not persisted with it to overcome that initial experience barrier. I have also been through the experience of all the Windows versions including suffering at the hands of Vista which was an utter dogs breakfast. In my view Windows 7 was the best version of Windows ever. Most solid, reliable and best performing. Windows 8 is good but for me is below the levels set by 7. On the whole the current Windows OS is pretty stale and pretty secure. Probably the largest cause of virus and malware infestation is down to end user behaviour and not the inherent security of the OS. But then again, it is far easier to blame the OS and slam it for being insecure than own up to being a bit of a tit by opening an attached file in an email from a complete stranger or clicking to install random and rabid bits of tat from dodgy web sites.

OP. You don’t say why you are sick of Windows. But if that is the case and you have genuine reasons then your choice is really down to a Mac or some flavour of Linux. Give both a good road test and see which one you like the best. Whichever one you choose it will be a learning curve as they all behave differently.

Some bike dealers seem to have a deal on at the moment with Shimano XT brake sets including rotors and pads for around £250. That’s where I am going to replace my Avid Elixir’s.

At least you are unlikely to be getting any wheel suckers on the way home! :)

I see the Thatcher haters are in again this morning. While she may have encouraged wider home ownership the concept of property ladders and home ownership was pretty well established by then. House owning was seen as partly an investment ie you pay money in and at the end of it all you own something so you have an asset vs spunk money away on renting and have nothing to show for it at the end plus a bit about taking some responsibility for your future. The implementation of that missed the mark and the mass sell off of council housing – or probably more accurately, the collective greed of people to buy a house for peanuts and make a near instant profit, has contributed to the housing issues we have today. However, at the time there were a number of families who were financially “comfortable” but chose to live in a council house because they were cheap to rent and that left loads of money for buying TVs and cars and other consumerist pleasures. The principle of council housing should be about providing support for those who genuinely cannot afford their own and not a way to subsidise those who do not need that support but just want to spend more of their disposable income on “stuff”.

There is a lot that is wrong with the way the housing market is at the moment ranging from the inflated house prices, stupidly high rents through to the lack of suitable, sustainable social housing.

Personally, I prefer the option to buy my own house as I then have an asset to show for my “investment” and am less likely to be impacted by any issues a landlord may have. I don’t really see renting as a “value for money” proposition. Especially at the typical rents I see in our area. But that’s me and my personal preferences. I also appreciate that I am fortunate to be in a position where I am old enough to be in the position to be buying and can afford to buy. I do empathise with those who are stuck at the moment without sufficient funds to accumulate a deposit, the relatively high house prices and the disproportionately high rents.

Our work contract is with EE. Pretty poor. Not great signal coverage across the UK (in my experience). My wife’s phone is currently with EE too – it’s my old contract that we have been running for years now. The only thing that is positive about EE is Orange Wednesdays. However, even that is not enough to keep us with EE once her contract expires later this year. Their tariff options are also pretty rubbish. Not impressed with them at all. When I got my first Orange contract many moons ago they were the underdog and were very competitive. Now, I think they are the worst of the lot in terms of value for money. Both my kids are on 3 and I have been generally very impressed with them. Their phones more often than not have coverage where Orange / EE don’t. All you can eat data plan. Free 4G now where it exists. And all for about 2/3 the price of wife’s EE contract. Guess where we are likely to be going with her new contract! :)

I guess the issue here is that you know what you want to do. And for those of us sitting at the end of our remote keyboards it’s pretty easy to tell you that it’s time to go. It’s kind of a selfish attitude because at the heart of it is the question of how happy am I. Can I really deal with all this and still be happy? Is this the full expression of my life lived to the full? And when the answer is no you want to bail out and go look for the “best”. The problem with that is that life is not a breeze and we will all at some point hit a shitty patch. It’s unfortunate for some that most of their life seems to be mired. Then, throw into this mix that sense of duty and respect and honour that we all seem to have to varying degrees and that’s when a decision like this is hard. If we really didn’t care about anyone but ourselves then this situation is a piece of cake – leave. And sometimes life will be harsh. It might be in this case that, lovely as she may be, you just don’t have what it takes to give all of you to her and, long term, that’s going to be sub optimal for you both. There may be someone out there that will be fulfilled by making her happy and being able to make that personal sacrifice. It’s just not you, by the sounds of things. Maybe it is time to walk away now while you can do it with composure rather than a couple of years down the line when things may have brewed a bit further and it becomes more bitter and acrimonious. I can understand the dilemma though!

I have that particular Denon unit and it is very nice sounding for what it is. In our case it is mostly for playing the odd CD (or it was before the other system ended up in the same room) and for providing enhanced sound for the small LCD TV in the room. I listened to a few speaker options and ended up with the Monitor Audio BX1. I wasn’t that impressed with the Q Accoustics, personally. Depends also on what sort of sound you want out of the system. The MA speakers do a pretty good job but they are small speakers and so you do lose the depth you get from larger speakers. For me it was a close ruin thing between the MA and the Dali. However, I was only ever getting small speakers. If this was going to be my main listening system I would get bigger speakers. And you need to go and listen to see how they all sound. If you are going to Richer Sounds then it may be worth auditioning something like the Wharfedale’s or bigger Dali’s. Again, your mileage may vary and you may like the QA sound.

But then cost isn’t really an issue here is it – seeing as he won it? :)

Ultimately it’s up to you. If you want some easy cash to spend on something else then do so. If you like the idea of a tablet then why bother going through the hassle of selling it to then buy something else to so the same job that the iPad was going to do?

Personally, I’m not the biggest Apple fan but I would be tempted to keep it for a bit and try it out to see how I got on with it. If I didn’t like it then sell it in 6 months time and you will still get some cash back for free.

Another +1 for the AKGs. Great value for money and I find them waaay superior to standard in ear phones. They are not too big and clunky and do a great job. Work very well with my iPod.

I would agree that the wording / grammar is a rather slack however it seems clear enough to me that there is no shock. The clue is in the phrase “You need….”. Quite clearly that means this is something you will need to buy.

Another school day for the buyer then – read carefully what you think you are buying. From his response so far I would imagine most days are school days for him. :)

OP. I suspect you have done something wrong somewhere as I have not had an issue with this at all. In fact you may even get the option to have the confirmation code texted to you. And I know many, many people who have also done this without issue. That’s not to say that there may have been a small glitch this time in your case. However, it also appears that support haven’t been as helpful as they could have been. I assume you did give them the proper email address?

On the second note, as has already been pointed out, you also need to keep up if you are going to have a rant. Billy G stepped down as MS chief a decade ago. Although, the incorrect statement above he did not actually leave the company and as part of the passing of the job of big cheese to Satya you will find that Billy G is taking a more formal day a week in the office.

Listen to 5Live quite a lot. Like the mix of current affairs and sport although I do find myself increasingly frustrated at times with the need to curtail an interview after 5 minutes. There are plenty of times where you are left wanting a bit more meat in the discussion. Not the biggest fan of Nicky Campbell as I find him a bit annoying at times – usually when he is trying to be too clever. Also used to find Victoria Derbyshire very irritating although she does seem to have mellowed a lot more these days. Jane Garvey used to be great but I thought she left the show loooooooong before there was talk of going to Manchester. She had a couple of sprogs and I suspect the move to R4 was partly a way of getting a better balance to her life and when she was working. Love the Simon Mayo film review on Friday afternoons.

Overall I still love the station but do wish they would stop the incessant trailering of upcoming shows. Don’t mind them announcing what’s coming up but sometimes you will hear a trailer a few times an hour. Give it a break guys! :)

When made up she is reasonably attractive but using phrases such as consciously uncoupling would make me want to run away. Fast.

Sandra Bullock however (mentioned earlier) has always had a special place in my dreams and I think I could probably tolerate quite a lot. Having seen her interviewed a few times she comes across as a pretty well sorted and “normal” individual.

Paul or Ted. No need to feel guilty laughing out loud at all the bits you know you will get a “stare” over. Of the two Paul is by far the funnier.

Agree with the Whitehouse is down being better than Olympus has fallen. Neither is a good shout if you have little ones asleep upstairs and want the volume up a bit.

I would be very wary of the LS50s with Cyrus. I happened to try some out this week with a Cyrus 8 DAC and CD player. The bass was nicely represented but boy, were they harsh at the top end. Really uncomfortable to listen to. For bookshelf / stand mount speakers the B&W CM5s sounded very much better. If you want greater depth to the sound then you want floor standers. Much more kick and depth to the sound. At this point the B&Ws go back to being how I remember them – a bit muddy. Monitor Audio Silver 6s are also quite harsh although they have nice bass depth. The Silver 8s are a bit higher then your budget (rrp of £1250 but you might be able to get a deal somewhere)but were more natural sounding than the Silver 6. Great bass depth and kick. You would need to listen to them with your kit though as they were still a tad harsh at the higher frequencies. Might be worth checking out the KEF R500. Spend a bit more money and it would be worth checking out the PMC twenty range, although your budget would only be getting the stand mount speakers.

It’s all subjective though really. I have some mature Cyrus kit which will have to be sold soon and I have Mission 752 speakers with that. Initially I thought they were quite boxy and directional but having played it a fair bit over the last few months I think they have warmed up a bit and now sound really very nice indeed. To my ears they top all the speakers I have been listening to recently.

Agree with the others – should be something that is sorted out by the work IT people. Lots of options. As Cougar mentions you have offline files and folders. If this is a bigger organisation then using something like SharePoint and SkyDrive Pro to give you a similar level of LAN storage but local copy for offline work. Or combine Offline folders with redirected home drive and make sure you save everything to your My Documents folder.

Because the next big enterprise project is going to be moving application servers from 2003 as that goes out of support next year. I know we have drifted somewhat from the OP here but it is sort of related. :)

To be honest I think anyone worried about security and outdated XP would switch to Apple rather than spend more money on Windows, the days of being locked in because you had to have Office are rapidly diminishing.

And what colour are the clouds in your world? And, if you want to be picky, the last MS OS upgrade (8.1) was free if you were already on Windows 8.

A blanket statement that equates to Apple = Secure | Windows = insecure is a dangerously flawed and incorrect thing to say and suggests lack of knowledge and understanding. To the point that the person issuing such advice should not be trusted to issue that advice.

Not saying that windows is perfectly secure. It isn’t. But the current version is almost certainly one of the most secure desktop operating systems available today.

Surprised, quite frankly, that this is news to anyone. This end of support date has been known about for several years now. And each subsequent version of Windows that has come out has offered a cheaper upgrade option for those who are already running XP. You aren’t forced to upgrade or change your computer at all. You are free to do what you want. However Microsoft are making it clear that there will be no new security patches (or any other kind of fix or patch) for XP and so you can choose whether you are happy to continue using the OS with that knowledge. Anti virus will help to a point.

If using Windows 8 then it comes with a client version of Hyper-V so easy enough to run XP as a virtual guest on it.

Main speakers are a pair of Tannoy Mercury S which, quite frankly, were a bit of a bargain when I bought them 20 years ago. Were being driven by an equally vintage Rotel amp but that has just been replaced with a Yamaha AV receiver. Speakers still sound great.

Temporary hifi setup in the other room is another vintage Cyrus ensemble driving a pair of Mission 752s. These are delivering some nice, full bass sounds and am getting reluctant to sell the whole thing – but wifey not happy with the amount of space being taken up by it all so it will have to go.

Recently auditioned a Naim amp and CD player with Focal 906 speakers. Not particularly impressed with that setup. There was good clarity in the vocals and the higher frequencies but once the tracks got “busy” bass guitar and drums disappeared. Tried with a smaller but more expensive pair of Neat’s and although they held the bass better the top and mid went quite harsh. Not a sound I was impressed with for a pair of speakers costing £1000! Won’t even go near a pair of B&Ws as I have yet to hear a pair that sound remotely pleasing on my ears.

There’s quite a lot of choice out there now but not all of them will be in JL. Offerings from ASUS, Dell, Acer, Lenovo as well as the Surface 2. Most flexibility will be with the Surface 2 Pro but that will come with a bit of a price tag. Might get some hints from here Microsoft site for new computers and things

I imagine he has some big fans on STW

You being fatist?? :)

What do you mean by the education version? Sounds more like the previous school / education authority had an EA or something like that which allowed for home use so you were using the full version of Office. If not, as molgrips says get hold of Office Home and Student which probably has all the bits you need.

Bought a Panasonic Lumix TZ30 (I think it was the 30 anyway – the one below the 40 as we didn’t really need the wifi feature). Really, really impressed with the picture quality. Great camera.

Budget is not really more than £550 but preferably cheaper

With a laptop you really are in the “get what you pay for” territory. Do you really need a laptop? Would a desktop machine suffice? If so, you will get far more bang for your buck and a wider choice of machines / vendors. Typically more easily upgradable as well. And at anything less than £500 I would say you are likely to be struggling to get a decent graphics solution on a laptop.

my laptop doesnt have a touch screen yet they decided to sell it with an operating system designed for a touch screen

You do know that you can use Windows 8 perfectly easily with a keyboard and mouse? I assume your Lenovo has these? Windows 8 has been enhanced to include touch but it is not exclusively a touch OS. It’s really not very hard.

Now, whether you like Windows 8 or not is a personal preference and you may not like it. But to describe it as shitty just because you have a machine that doesn’t have a touch screen rather identifies you as the bellend.

Personally I’m not really a huge fan of Lenovo. Had a fairly powerful i7 based laptop that was very unimpressive from a performance perspective. Currently have an HP which is better. Had a less than perfect experience with an Acer and an horrific experience with a Toshiba. So, in the laptop arena I would probably be looking at Dell and HP. Good value for money (but I can’t vouch for reliability) Asus are up there. My daughter has an MSI (bought from Novatech a couple of years ago) and that has been outstanding value for money. I reckon it performed better than my work Lenovo and yet it has a weaker processor, far less memory and lower spec graphics. That said, Lenovo do make some nice looking machines at the moment but not sure I could persuade myself to buy one.

Also worth considering Sony although they are not especially cheap.

Head of casting for porn movies?
F1 racing driver
Professional footballer
Professional musician in a massively successful rock band

3 of those were on my list of dreams when I was at school. Never managed any of them. Back in the real world I would love to have been a doctor / consultant but never felt I was intelligent enough to have made it. In the end have managed to become an IT consultant (yes, living the STW dream!) which I do enjoy but I feel that the positive impact on lives that a doctor can bring would give me that much more job satisfaction and fulfilment.

If I had a massive reserve of money that meant I did not need to work I would happily work for a charity or some organisation working for the benefit of the disadvantaged to help make their lives more fulfilling.

Suspect I will be in IT for a bit longer yet…..

My brother lived and worked in Scotland on and off for about 10 years. I was quite surprised (as was he) at some of the anti English feeling he experienced up there. It was more than banter as it had quite an edge to it and in some cases was quite vitriolic. Not something that I see reflected here in England.

Not read the report but I suspect it is not really worth reading if you want a look at the cold hard facts about what may happen. I can’t help thinking that a Yes vote will give the Nationalists what they want ie Independence but it will not be the bed of roses they think / hope it will be. Employment opportunities may change – not necessarily for the better. For example, although they are cutting back massively at the moment, I wonder if Scottish applications to the UK armed forces will accepted. What about unemployment and unemployment benefit? Smaller pot to be funding that out of when it’s just Scotland. Almost certain to see tax rise – possibly quite considerably. I dunno, maybe it will work, but it is likely to be a long and fairly rocky road.

Each to their own. Personally I think Claudia is a great person for tv. She has, in my eyes, a very appealing look and has what comes across as a natural personality. She generally seems to be able to be spontaneous and natural and not have to rely on an autocue. And while she may not be Mrs Mensa that is a skill and a talent – one that I suspect most of her naysayers on here would not be able to do.

And prawny and all the others can get to the back of the queue. And also the Sandra Bullock queue. :)