~This thread is useless without winkfaces or sarcasm flags set to notify!

Take a few sets of pads and you will be fine.

Not a professional mechanic, but do all my own and a lot for friends.
Volvos are nice build, its the little things like quality fittings and screws that dont rust.
My Audi a2 is well put together, but the steel fittings are made of cheese and rust like hell.
Fords are the worst I have seen for having beauty that only goes skin deep. The cars I hate are ones built by accountants not engineers, Fords accountants clearly overrule the engineers.

My brothers megane scenic had electrical problems and now the engine has died at 80k miles.

I would go younger, but high mileage. 100 k is really not that much on a car these days. Would much rather have a 4 year old car with 80k than a 8year old car with 40k.
My last volvo got to 175000 without problembefore i sold it.
Any vag group car (skoda,audi,vw,seat) will have fairly solid mechanicals.
Honda are good, as are toyota.
I dont rate any french car or vauxhall or ford, but thats possibly just snobbery and the memory of my last fiesta which was built to a very tight budget from components clearly designed to last just past the warranty.
If your mileage is low, then consider a bigger car with a small engine. These are often cheaper than the clios and polos of this world as no one wants a 5 year old low spec audi or passat.
I always tend to buy 5 year old cars with as many optional extras fitted as ii can find.

Looks like a good choice to me!
To build yourself….well you just need a couple of hours if you are doing it for the first time.
Just need a philips and a regular screwdriver, maybe some cable ties and something to cut them with if you want to tidy the PSU cables and SATA cables away.
Fit motherboard first (check if the CPU cooler needs a bracket on the back of the motherboard before fitting…most don’t these days but check the coolers instructions before fitting the MB into the case.
The hardest bit is often clipping on the PSU coolers retaining clip…can take a bit of pressure.
Take your time to study the leads from the PSU. Its IMPOSSIBLE to plug anything into the wrong place, but easy to miss out stuff that should be plugged in and/or tangle the cables by being sloppy with the order and neatness of your work.

There will be three little wires from the case to plug into the MB: one for the HDD light, one for reset and one for power button.
Your MB manual will guide you through all this.

There will also probably be conectors for external USB on the case or external sound outputs via the front of the case. Your case and MB manual will help here as every case is different.

GFX cards, memory and SATA drives are all just plug and play, really nothing to go wrong.

Modest static precautions are advised (I just touch a naked radiator pipe before starting).

Once everything is plugged in (so thats the big connector on the MB, one or two of the smaller square power leads on the MB, power to the GFX card (it will need a separate power lead if its a chunky one) and power and SATA cable to each HDD and DVD drive then you are ready to load up to install windows.

Easiest way to do this is boot up the PC, while still in the bios screen press DEL or ESC or whatever it says to enter setup.
Then find the settings to alter “first boot device”. Change this to CD/DVD.
Then save and reboot with the windows disc in the PC.

Now begins 5 hours of installation and windows downloads and updates!

All easy stuff.

mboy +1

The lad talks sense.

😉

Spend money on a decent case and PSU, these will stay with you for a long time if you get good ones.
For psu look for a gold 80+ rated one for energy efficiency. My fave psu brand is corsair, their 650w and 750w ones ate about £80 and are very quiet. Dont bother with the ones with detatchable cables, you can always tuck them somewhere!
Also I tend to include more than one dvd drive in my system, means less swapping of discs and easier backups.
I have an ssd and other than boot i am not sure of benefits!
Spend money on lots of 1600 ram (8gb) is perfect. I have 16gb of corsair ram (it was only £75 and I was rebuilding my pc at the time so thought , why not) the speed difference over 8gb is negligable.
You have the best value processor chosen. Personally I have amd cpu’s, but that more out of supporting the underdog rather than buying the best (mind 6 core sounds good and my phenom was only £130).
Building a pc is easy. I get all my bits from ccl, but they are fairly local to me and give fantastic aftersales service.
Motherboards are gigabyte for me currently. Had a bad experience of two failed asus boards last year so have dumped that brand (others will post the opposite if you search I am sure, but thats my experience).

As said above, dodgy cars and dodgy people go together. This is why i prefer to buy private cars, so I can guage the previous owner.
As well as all the obvious stuff like water in the oil or on fillercap, there are a few subtle things I check to get a feel for the car.
Tyres…are they matching on each axel and are they half decent brands. Folk who skimp on tyres WILL skimp on servicing and other maintenance.
The disc brakes, these give a really good guide to the life the car has had. Cars driven hard use a lot of discs. You dont use brakes munching miles on a motorway. Front discs can last 30-50k miles so take an educated guess as to how the car has been driven. A car on 45k might (probably) will be on its second set of front discs, so how worn are these. You can get a guage of how long the brakes have been fitted fo r by looking at the level of corrosion on the none braking areas of the disc.

Try to look at the car at angles that allow the sun to glint on the panels, this will help you see any differences in colour from panel to panel. Personally a small amount of respray evidence does not scare me, many cars get minor carpark scuffs or get keyed by thugs, so a bit of spray evidence on doors or bumpers is not a worry. Best place to look is round window frames or in the channel where the bonnet sits on the front wings (ie the bit of the wing thats hidden by the bonnet,) if there is evidence of spraying in these areas then it points to something more than a scuff or vandalism….walk away.

Avoid Jorvik…pants and expensive.
Minster is impressive.
Bettys is a good experience, particularly little bettys on stonegate.
Maybe take a trip to leeds and see the royal armouries…free admission!

dull, I agree.

Most modern cars (anything this century mainly) will have fuel cut off under zero throttle if the engine is engaged to the wheels.
Also modern cars have much less friction and pumping losses than older engines, so the rate of engine braking is much less, and so its much better to coast down an incline in gear than out of gear.

One thing to remember though is that the cars ecu will start to fuel again if the engines rpm gets close to the tickover rpm (normal idle speed is 750rpm approx) this is so that the engine doesn’t stall. So when zero throttling I try to select a gear that comfortable keeps revs over 1000rpm.

It definately saves fuel, if you dont believe me then find a geek with an OBD2 lead and look at your cars ecu info as you drive.

About £630 with Yorkshire Water. Not on a meter and with a family of four, a large garden, two cars and a fleet of bikes to wash we have not plans to get a meter.

Belkin mini USB cig lighter (7 day shop do a non belkin one that is identical).

Sell it. With iPads you can share apps you have bought accross multiple iPads…so when ipad 4 or 5 comes out your daughter can have the “old” new iPad with all the apps on.

So are the Tories really stuffing the disabled? Genuine question. Or are they just raising the bar to a sensible level for claimants?

Bearing in mind it was Thatcher that set up a lot of this mess by using disability in ex coal mining areas as a politically expedient way of controling unemployment stats.

Folk should be responsible for their own future and success. And work is the way to achieve this. In my home town of Leeds there is plenty of work if you are willing. The jobs and hours might not be great, but they are there. A safety net is the mark of a civilised society. No one should be destitute. But its there as a net, not a lifestyle.

I think on the economy they are doing the best they can to clear up the mess left by 13 years of Gordon Brown running the economy. I am broadly happy with their efforts in what are VERY difficult circumstances. I am not convinced that a Keynsian approach would have helped the UK, we had already invested much under Labour, paying for it was the challenge!
On students and the young, I think we have a generation betrayed by all the major parties. Increased tuition fees is the main thing that would drive me away from Tory/Lib Dem voting. We have a duty to educate our next generation, and this should be paid for out of general taxation. Its to the whole countries benefit to have an educated population, and if taxation is progressive then anyone whose career benefits from that education will pay more into the system (like what I does because of my edumication!).

weatherpro hd is ace…best weather source available.
dropbox is part of my life.
iplayer
goodreader has its uses
splashtop for remote pc control
airplayer for pulling vids of my pc directly
planefinder hd is amazing

Facom for allen keys. Bahco adjustable spanners. Halfords pro for sockets. Wera for their posh screwdrivers.

Gas is half the price per kW compared with electric. Plus you have an 80+ eficient boiler (we have the same model at home with a Danfoss wireless stat). Gas shower all the way…cheaper to run and a better shower.
Get a basic Grohe model.

In contract law the contract (and therfore the warranty) is only between the shop and the initial purchaser.
If the original purchaser sells the frame/bike etc to person B then person B does not have a contract or an obligation carried accross from the original purchase.
So any warranty would either be by deception or goodwill or manufacturer disretion, but not based on UK or EU law.
(Studying contract law at the moment for CIPS).

Its a lot less soppy than twilight and more gritty. The scenes shot in the districts are filmed very unsaturted colour to add to the bleakness . The Capitol is very bright and garish in colours, like fifth element with the colour gamut gone crazy.
The films budget does not appear to be huge by hollywood standards, so maybe like twighlight the budget will go up as the series moves on.

I have not seen battle royal, so no. Apparently there is some japanese story thats similar too. but then me dad always said that there are only 7 stories in the world…can’ t remember what they are.

Got books two and three to read now. For a 12a its quite dark and though the book is ace and gives a lot of the texture, the film dispenses with some of the less credible bits, while still keeping close to the book. I can see why this is tipped as the next big trilogy/series.

Young people should feel VERY cheated.
The cost of their education has been placed upon them to buy the votes of old folk.
The generational balance of financial far from fair.
The winter fuel allowance that Gordon Brown brought in would almost pay for the cost of University education for our bright young things.

The under 25’s need to find a voice to stick up for themselves (not me…bit older than that now and bought a house in the 90’s).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11550619

http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/7293068/the-winter-fuel-allowance-is-indefensible.thtml

Coffee at purple mountain was worst ever. Twice had a cappucino there, both times weak flavour and the temperature of molten lava. Their cake was mediocre too with cheap ingredients failing to make up for the large portions. Staff seemed ok though. I tend to go to visitor centre cafe if i can.

Costco for me. They have £1000’s of kit, its used every day and kept calibrated and uses ink systems far better than any (mine?) inkjet.

Also have a Canon MP560 for doing kids homework and non important stuff.

ton, you are a mate and a legend on stw. really sorry to hear prognosis, its crap to hear amd not sure what comfort I can give. If you want any company even on the leccy bike then just ask.

there is a setting for push/pull of emails…you can change frequency and torn feature on or off.

Dunno…quite a few folk got one yesterday without too much drama. Think you might struggle today.
I have a 16gb reserved at argos in leeds.
Friend at work doesnt want it, so thought I would offer the code FREE tonthe denizens of STW.

bump in case anyone wants this……. ❓

I know! I have a 16gb white at home.
Nearly clicked on a 32gb 4g model but the extra coin put me off.
I think the extra 16gb might be appreciated though!

Surely Tesco vouchers are better used at ASK and other restaurants as they multiply up 4x ?

If you email me your address then I will post a couple of syringes out for just the postage cost.
I accidently bought a box of them from Ebay last year (Sterile Turemo 50ml ones….a hundred of the buggers!).
Keep meaning to buy some silicone tubing and sell them as brake bleeding kits!

They are great and reasonably priced if you go second hand:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fs-16gb-ipad-great-condition190

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fs-ipad-1-16gb-with-proper-apple-black-case-leeds

😉

Bahco adjustable spanners and a decent socket set.

Nice pens last for ever. Have a 50 year old Swan self filler, currently really wanting a Lamy 2000 with EF nib.

A decent bed and sofa last donkeys years too.

Grenson boots. Have a pair that are 20 years old and still going strong (need a new sole though).

Was surprised for a Disney film. It wasn’t lighthearted and overly schmaltzy like you would imagine.
Naturally it was a bit cliched, but less preachy and predictable than Avatar, and with much better characters than recent starwars.

Surely we need to encourage those in the higher tax bands to procreate and expande the gene pool with their talents that have made them higher rate tax payers? Not saying all higher rate tax payers are intelligent, I mean there are footballers, and bankers….oh hang on, maybe not such a good idea.

How about giving enhanced child benefit to graduates?

The gene pool will benefit from their intellect, as things stand anyone graduating in the past 10 years can probably ill afford to have kids.

Bit of government eugenics needed?

If you want more examples of Christianity and its tolerance then follow up the history of Northern Ireland.

Religion does tend to be used to excuse violence.

And of course Christianity is all about love, forgiveness and turning the other cheek? Just let me go and pull out my copy of the George W Bush biography (its short with lots of pictures).

Stereotyping religions is not useful. There are nutters in all religions (though don’t hear of too many Buddhist ones).