I change mine shortly after they look like this:

It’s very good IMO, especially in a bigger group.

I’ve done Delamere (twice), Cannock, Buxton and Grizedale. Need to MTFU as the big Tarzen Swing gets me everytime – end up shuffling off the edge 🙄

Geax Barro Extreme 1.7s

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=9853

I thought that Das Keyboard looked good until I saw the price.

I’ll stick to my trusty HP one which is at least 10 years old. Must clean it one day – eeewww!

http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/briefings/mileagerates07.html

In April 2002 the Inland Revenue introduced a system of tax-free payments, called Approved Mileage Allowance Payments (AMAP). Under this system, a flat rate of 40p per mile applies for the first 10,000 annual business miles and a 25p per mile for all annual miles exceeding this, regardless of engine size type of car driven.

How HMRC can believe that motoring costs haven’t increased since 2002 is beyond me.

http://www.ukpia.com/fuel-prices-historic-data.aspx

Historic data that fuel was around 75ppl in 2002.

Yes, I do quite a few miles for work in my car (over 700 business miles last month).

40p/mile for 10k and then 25p/mile are the HMRC approved rates.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates/travel.htm

AFAIK… Your company can chose to pay you more than these figures but you are meant to pay tax on the amount above the approved rates. If you are paid less, you can claim tax back.

Via my MP, I’ve previously tried to find out why HMRC haven’t reviewed these figures. My information is at home, but IIRC the approved figures date from when fuel was something like 80p/litre, not £1.20 or more.

HMRC gave me a BS response and I’ve not got round to annoying them further about it.

Yarkshire tea, though have to put up PG Tips at work (but then I’m not paying for them).

Blog article on Rapport

From a day at Gauntlet Birds of Prey[/url] in 2007 – fab day out. Must go back now I have a much better camera.

[/url]
IMG_2582[/url] by *ChrisB*[/url], on Flickr

[/url]
IMG_2601[/url] by *ChrisB*[/url], on Flickr

[/url]
IMG_2656[/url] by *ChrisB*[/url], on Flickr

I can’t imagine custom written templates/ VBA macros will work in OpenOffice and even trying to get them to work properly in 2007/2010 can be a grade A PITA.

Have a look on eBay – £90 or so will get a copy, usually with a stick of RAM or something to statisfy MS / eBay OEM software rules

I’m interested why is the sinking of the Belgrano considered, by some, to be a war crime?

Regus

http://www.regus.co.uk/

The availability checkers seem to be conservative for FTTC speeds.

My FTTC is activated on Tuesday with an expected speed of 16.6Mbps down / 7.9Mbps up.

Anyone managed to find one of the new Memory Map units (the 3500) to play with yet?

http://www.memory-map.co.uk/adventurergps/

IPx7 rated, so properly waterproof

Asking:

“Can anyone recommend a chique romantic hotel”

Returns:

“Premier inn on northgate st, and theres a few travellodges as well. “

Classic 😆

I’ve got a Mk I Trance (shock basket) with 110-140 Maxle Rev’s on.

When I’m not mincing, it’s ace. Had a stonking descent off The Gap with them wound out to 140mm. The bike has more ability than I have balls.

Porridge is in full flow for me now – stocked up with 6kg of oats from the Mornflake[/url] mill / factory shop the other day.

100% semi-skimmed milk, big dollop of golden syrup with some raisins for a weekend treat.

Memory Map have a new model out soon:

http://www.memory-map.co.uk/adventurergps/index.php/adventurer-3500.html

196 views – Mountain Mudfest 2008

[/url]IMG_3423[/url] by *ChrisB*[/url], on Flickr

[/url]Conwy Estuary[/url] by *ChrisB*[/url], on Flickr

Quincy’s on Seventh in Calgary about four years ago.

All this ‘improving internal wiring’ stuff is mostly bullshit. It’s very rarely that.

Hmm.

Frequent disconnects and uber-poor sync – line length or line / wiring problems

Dire download speeds with a good sync’ rate and line stability – most likely the ISP.

BT Wholesale stopped quoting specific contention ratios when ADSL Max was launched.

+1 for what Woody says.

Any internal wiring that could be improved?
Decent microfilters in use?
Ring wire disconnected?

If you want your savings to beat inflation, it’s a struggle. This article is from August but shows how little choice there is:

Just one in 1,528 non-Isa savings accounts beats inflation for higher rate taxpayers

For cash Isas, the only inflation-busting option is National Counties Building Society 2nd issue index-linked cash Isa – paying 1% above RPI until 2015.

Blow it on the Nags 😀

Isn’t the gift that keeps giving when the chilli sauce takes revenge on your digestive system overnight?

My Whiskers (pewter with polarized black iridium lens) turned up today. Ordered them later on Friday night, so good service.

I couldn’t spot anything from a quick look – the bag is a bit grubby but that’s not the end of the world.

I spent many a day working at the new hotel at Deganwy during it’s build. I got to personally know every bump and grove on the A55 🙁

I rent out my house whilst living with my good lady.

The paper tax return looks mind blowingly complicated, but do Self Assessment online and it’s not that bad. Get all your figures together for income together with what you can claim “back” (as mentioned above eg mortgage interest) and it’s straight forward.

As FunkyDunc says, register for SA online well, well in advance of any filing deadlines to allow for the access codes to come via snail mail.

Which rink? There's two big ones in Central Park – Wollman (aka Trump Wollman south end) and Lasker (north).

Both show as opening Oct 24th in 2009, so should be okay in November. We went on the Wollman one in late November 2007 and it was cool to enjoy something of an iconic place / activity (even if the boots do kill you!).

Wollman Rink
Lasker Rink

I've got a 56 plate 9-3 in 1.9 TiD (150bhp) Vector Sport disguise.

Very comfy, great for long days with 300+ miles of driving. Mine has just over 82,000 miles on it now.

The water pump on mine died around 62k miles. It's something of a known problem on this engine (eg SaabScene). A nasty side effect is that the pump usually takes out the cambelt, which equals big bills if the valves get damaged. Thankfully mine only needed a new pump, a replacement cambelt and assorted small bits. Saab paid 50% of the cost without me even asking – I was only just out of warranty and has a FSSH.

I don't think many people would keep £2k's worth or jewellery in the shed, so why keep the bike in there?

'Cos £2k's of jewellery doesn't need greasing or oiling, nor come back home covered in The Peak's finest grit and mud?

My large (I'm 6'1) is 2 years old in November (got it on the C18 offer). Changed the Lugano tyres (puncture central) for GP Four Seasons (no punctures since) and a FSA carbon seat post (it looked nice).

[/url]
August 2009[/url] by *ChrisB*[/url], on Flickr

Personal webmail
Symantec PartnerNet (x2)
STW
Vembu StoreGird (x2)
London Midland trains
Entanet
Westcoast (IT distributor)
Maplin
StockInTheChannel
PRTG Network Monitor (x3)
DNS configuration for an ISP
Blog entry on MS Exchange 2007/2010 autodiscover
MS information on autodiscover (x2)
Automating SQL Server database management
Antrobus Cabbage Canter entry form (10k race)
VMWare vSphere Pricing / Info (3 tabs)
Simple DNS Plus
IIS Log file management
NetGear ReadyNAS forum
MS Partner Business Briefing seminar info
Marketing company for website / brochure design
Nominet page modifying DNS settings for a domain
Google search results page

Thank the lord for vertical tabs.

The new Cotswold catalogue shows a new Memory Map Adventurer model – the 3500 but I can't find anything out about on this 'ere Interweb

Have a look at the SonicWall TZ / NSA – maybe the TZ 210 and NSA 240 models.

I've no doubt other manufacturers can do the same but I know the SonicWall range well.

Talk about re-inventing the wheel 😉

Buy a firewall that can handle multiple WAN connections – one that handles all the NAT, routing rules, load balancing, monitoring (it will stop using a link should it detect that the link is down) and the rest.

There's quite a few providers that will do bonded ADSL. Done properly, you end up with a router (eg Cisco 1800 series) that combines the individual ADSL lines so they are transparent to you. Obviously, you need to have all lines with a single ISP for this to work properly.

Alternatively, you can go for a router/firewall/UTM appliance that supports multiple WAN connections. The appliance can then load balance outgoing traffic across these links – you can't do much with incoming traffic. Benefit of this option is you can take ADSL from two (or more) different ISPs, so have a little protection should an ISP suffer an outage (though it doesn't usually help if a JCB goes through the cables coming into your building).

Not the Easy Hotel!

I went from a multi-blade to one of these:

http://www.shaving-shack.com/merkur-38c.html

Very happy with it. Still working my way through the assortment of blades I purchased at the same time, so can't say if one brand is better than another. At seven quid for 30 blades, you can bin any you don't like though.

Had a few blood baths to start with but getting on nicely these days.

If you order from SS, don't forget to go via Topcashback for some extra discount.

StuE – click the "Share This" button when looking at the picture you want to post, choose "Grab the HTML/BBCode", select BBCode and the code you need is ready to copy and paste.

I've had my Trance 2 (the shock basket model) over 4 years now and it's still on it's original bearings 😳