For cheap A4 mono I'd go for a Samsung. Around £65 ish (maybe a 1630/1640 8ppm). Genuine toner carts are £50 (you can see their business model!) for 2000 pages or cheaper for compatibles – but you can get generic refills for £10ish. The cart really only needs replacing every second time (works out at 4000 pages for £60).

I've had 2 and no probs. Now got a hp (colour) and it works out way more exp.

Sometimes you have to boot into safe mode to uninstall AV software.

What message is avast giving you?

Anyone know why Sainsbury's tiger bread tastes of chlorine / bleach?

Been there. I managed to fix it. Start with the above thread. Its most unlikely you've knackered the LED so worst case scenario is converting it to 'one' mode – ie on full or off.

I've never done a 'robust' print but I'd talk to Pyramid Imaging in Edinburgh and Loxley Colour in Glasgow for this kind of thing. Both are very helpful.

We're ignoring you as requested :)

LOL!

Not a charge spoon then – it has the opposite effect. Makes things disappear!

Solamanda – I got a 10D (v. closely related to yours). I got it years back, and it's still the backup to my backup of main body (5d and a 1DS). I still like it and the prints (normal iso) arent radically different to today's latest/greatest.

I think you're determined to spend money? If so – go for it!

IME upgrading bodies to this years latest is great if you've got a business where you want to use depreciation vs taxes. Otherwise, buy used or buy fast / "L" lenses, neither of which depreciate near as fast.

If the high ISO noise is bothering you (I know it is poor) then I'd suggest a tripod and / or a faster lens with lower iso's. Both are great for learning technique.

Also, the camera is defn slow on startup, but shutter response is / should be near instant?

When the 10d finally dies (multiple drops, water ingress) I will be truly sad to see it go!

Guys – yes – guys. This is addressed to you.

I go to 50+ weddings a year (working). IMO it's a girl thing. Get over it. It's a life ambition for a significant number of girls (not all) to have a nice wedding with a church, dress, all the family / friends there.

Venues do seem to charge more for wedding as they have more overheads. More staff (120 people fed at the same time, things go wrong every time (that need to be covered up), PI insurance is way more expensive for anything to do with weddings (eg I or a venue can be forced to pay to 'resit' a wedding with Aunty from New Zeland), tend to run late, tends to …..

There may be a slight element of profiteering from some venues that are in big demand but overall I'd say most venues are complaining about margins.

Since I've got married I've spent more on bike stuff, computers, tvs, vans, xboxes,…. than my lovely lady ever wanted to spend on her big day. To be totally honest – I grumbled under my breath at the time. But on the day I loved it and in retrospect I leaned a lesson. Overall I would now spend more on a bike than my wife spent on our reception. If I had been a tight ass at the time I dont know if I'd get this lee way now???

Sometimes task manager isnt great at finding disk intensive tasks mine deosnt have a Read B/min – just total Read B). I used Anvir Task Manager free which has a disk usage graph with associated tasks.

After a bit of digging my disk hog turned out to be: Vista auto-indexer (used to speed up searches). I turned this off and things improved greatly.

As for all the errors – maybe have a look in the event log (start-control panel-administrative tools).

which.co.uk covers these in depth. You can get 1st months membership for £1. Just remember to cancel it within 1 month or you go onto pay £10 monthly.

Xan- my bastid indicator light goes funny in the recent cold. It turns red after about 30 mins. But a multimeter says it's still 8v so it's still good for over 2 hours. I just run it til it's noticably dim, then recharge it.

But – you may not want to rely on that in a 'race'.

muffin – no worries. I'm hoping to do the puffer next year so I'm trying to build up some good karma!

Its it any good to you and you can get to Edinburgh to collect – I got one Schwalbe snow stud 26×1.9 you can borrow (or if you prefer buy it for what I paid). about 2 months old – perfect nick.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/cycle/7/Schwalbe_Snow_Stud_Mountain_Bike_Tyres/5360016534/

Sharkbait – Indeed I agree. But the that's the official advice. We're in the UK afterall. I drive in the mornings and night and the temps rarely go above 10deg. So I'm tempted to leave them on all the time.

My wifes bmw 1 series is now stuck in a cul-de-sac (normal tyres). It got snowed in for 3 weeks of the last month. My bmw 5 series is going great! (proper winter tyres). The 205 van is ok (normal kwik fit cheapo tyres). Gets going ok but fishtails like mad when I even think about touching the brakes. And no TCS. I think there's something wrong with it!!!! Or maybe it just needs more weight in the back?

I'm no expert but afaik full winter tyres should have the mountain + snowflake symbol. The refers to the thread pattern and the softer compounds used for low temps. You can use them all year but they will wear quicker in dry conditions.
/\
/ * \
/- -\

(a poor attempt at the symbol!)

4 season tyres are normal year round UK tyres. M+S labelled tyres will have a good thread for snow but possibly not the softer compound.

You can find some info on here (US related but you'll get the idea) including the usual snowflake and mountain winter symbol:
http://www.tirerack.com/winter/tech/techpage.jsp?techid=125

And a nice video to convince you of the advantages:
http://www.tirerack.com/videos/index.jsp?video=23

vredestein QUATRAC 2 and 3 have the mountain snowflake symbol so are winter tyres.

I plugged it into an Irish Gaelic -> English transater. Here's what came back (looks like its from a chat forum):

<Wffmoe> don't you hate it when you shit on the floor, and you can hear it fall but you have no idea where it actually landed, and spend like 5 minutes looking for it
<kcrtbio> …
<yinrhb> what?
<Wffmoe> oh shit
<Wffmoe> don't you hate it when you DROP shit on the floor,….

of course I'm only messing with you. No idea what it means :)

I photographed a chinese wedding for a guy called Hak Kan and a girl Ting Ting. So her new married name was Ting Kan. Made me chuckle uncontrollably at the service for ages. Seems immature now. But I still get a Christmas card from them!

Ti29er – Have I missed something? Theres damn all ice in that photo. You'd be pretty daft to try cycling on that? But maybe it a question of tyres?

But .. only 65% of cases on Wednesday due to the snow and ice and the performance figure was as low as 53% seven days ago." BBC.

If you wanted to be positive you could say: Still managed 65% … and even in these extreme circumstances never dipped below a respectable 53%".

That would sound a lot better to me.

I think ISBI's point is that the default position of news is negative? No matter how great anyone does – they go for words like only, low, never …. etc

Perhaps a balanced viewpoint from me (unusually?).

I had to have an Isuzu Trooper (commercial) with M+S tyres for my work in pretty nasty conditions. I did almost 100k in it and in retrospect had a love hate relationship with it.

The good (as others have mentioned) was that it's great to get going in poor conditions – except in reverse when some clever freehub thing disengaged the 4wd. And the higher viewpoint. And the loadspace. And towing trailers.

The bad is that it took longer to stop in all conditions (heavier, higher centre of gravity) than a normal car. The high c.o.g. also meant that it cornered worse than a normal car. And the insurance. And the fuel bill. And the depreciation. And the tyre wear. And servicing.

On balance I found that I felt it was more dangerous to occupants (me) than a car due to the increased risk of accident in 'normal' conditions. I think I drove accordingly. Some 4×4 drivers are undoubtably idiots. As are some 2wd drivers, but their cars arent so heavy / tall so other road users dont get so nervous.

Unless I need to do serious off roading again I'd not get another 4×4. M+S (or proper winter) tyres rock though.

I think it was this guy. He has a strange obsession with Scottish grit boxes imo:
http://www.cromwell-intl.com/travel/uk/scotland-grit-boxes/

I saw cycle tracks on the Canal a couple of days ago.

Yipee! I'm going to give it a go tomorrow!

I think I'll start a new post to ask what tyres I should use to ride on a canal :wink:

Any ideas for how to remove it?

I tried to find out about this but the only solution seems to be to edit the video to change it widescreen and remove the bottom pixels.

Just back from a WOL ride and its fine.

However my neighbours inform me someone was cycling on the union canal yesterday. Not on the towpath. On the water – Jesus like :)

I dont know if that really feasible at the minute – but I feel a new challenge coming…

Personally I'm getting p*****d off. I'm still snowbound. Nobody's been out of the house since last Wed night. The snow is still 10 inches deep. Just now its frozen so we cant even have a snowball fight. My bikes are 200 miles plus ferry ride away. The nearest road is an ice rink on a hill. Our relatives have the runs for a week and really should be in hospital. The booze is running out. HELP!

On the plus side there is a great community spirit. And children are amazed that this used to happen and people had to adapt.

I got them 5 months back from CRC for 269 and remember that it was the last set they had (went out of stock after I ordered them) – so they may have been an 08 model.

I've had them through some proper awful conditions with no problems.

They also had replacement bearings at the time. Dont know about spokes.

The XC 1 come up on special offer quiet often so I'd be reluctant to spend near rrp on them. I got them for £260(ish). They're strong (for xc), light and I've had no problems with them. I've not had to replace bearings or anything yet so dont know about servicing them. Overall I'm a happy customer. You may have seem this review:
http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/components/wheel-sets/product/xc-one-20218

Dont know about Americans but they seem to have a good reputation.

Cant believe these havent been mentioned:
121 Andorra
122 Argentina

117 (ish) Sri Lanka
118 Cook Islands

93 Bhutan
94 Bolivia
95 Cambodia
96 Namibia
97 Vietnam
98 Madagascar

Do Scotland / Wales etc count separately?

Burts – Were at Glarryford near Dunloy. 10" + of snow everywhere. It's so deep that the its over the tops of the kids wellies so they dont even want to go out in it anymore :(

Happy Christmas to all! It's gone midnight and Santas just been. Lazy git didnt pick up the carrot bits outside the front door too!

I seem to remember doing the same thing. Its coming back to haunt me!

Santa's not going to come then?

I think it's too exciting. We were going well this a 6y.o. realised it's TONIGHT! Super energy boost.

Cracking pics esp the tunnel!

thomthumb – Member
ta-da

I agree but for some reason they're awful with Formula Oro's. I thing the pads are smaller than the holes in the rotor or something. Work great with my Avids.

Before I got the memory card mine did this when I turned it on. You sure its in there correctly and formatted etc?

Have you see this guys moan about cards disappearing inside the camera?

My boots stay on my tongues (dont get to say that often!). Theres a sort of point / hook on the tongues that allows the boot move a bit but still keep the tongue covered.

I dont know why you got 2 boots – there was 3 in my set. I used them where there was most likelyhood of filth eg on the seatpost and stays.