I have a helmet signed by chris hoy.

Did it hurt? 🙂

very good!

Harry the spider, if i win the lottery you can help me spend it with ideas like that…

Classic fm +1

OK my stag is in March and now I am getting very worried!!! I have already been informed that my clothes for the weekend are already organized! Better get my arse shaved if I am gonna have to wear a mankini!!

be afraid, be very afraid.

This is what my brother in law and little brother arranged for me. Mankini + high vis vest + tiny kilt (may as well have been a mini-skirt) + hat with bells on it.

the fishing guy with the dog man

My team (approx 20 people) agree that this is the winner with a close second of the monkeys on the bonnet. Busy evening here… 😉

My mate flies 777s for a living. When I've flown with him (him as a passenger) it's a real eye opener how seriously he takes inflight safety. He knows exactly where the exits are, how many rows forward and back to the nearest exits in case he can't see them so he can count them with his hands.

Well that's re-assuring to know…

degreaser? Get one that says its carbon frame safe and splash away?

ohh forgot all about razer. I had a razer boomslang way back in the day and it was superb actually. Perhaps a bit "twitchy" for every day use tho 😉

I got logitech sponsorship so had to switch to them anyway but genuinely I preferred their mice.

Also go cabled when you can, wireless = lag.

So there's no "penalty" for running degraded raid ?

For raid 1 no. For raid 5/6/50/60 etc yes as the controller needs to calculate the data from the parity on the other drives.

64-Bit is pretty much simples these days – I haven't had any issues with Vista 64 or Windows 7 64 bit. XP 64 bit was a fooking nightmare 😉

I have a logitech MX518 for gaming and an old intelli-mouse for browsing.

The 518 is an oldie but a goodie – the on fly sensitivity changing is awesome.

yeh, it's software raid – chipset etc will be different

can't I just reset it to be "not raid anymore" in the bios ?

If the bios has a raid setting then its probably fake raid. On the first system if you turn raid off you may switch to a different HDD controller and you may get a 0x07B bluescreen on boot as the HDD controller switches from raid to non raid.

Honestly if you have to do this and dont want to just buy a new HDD then I would pull one of the drives from the first PC but leave it in raid mode (as its a raid 1 it will run in a degraded mode) and then format the removed HDD in the new PC during the install process and do a clean install. Then transfer any data you need over a network cable after.

Also check your backup is good before starting… 🙂

If you remove one disk the first pc will work in degraded mode. Unless its the same chipset and raid controller in the second machine the system wont boot. If this is software raid goodluck. 🙂

If you are actually serious have a read of The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin.

Its an interesting story.

A police spokesman said: "While it goes without saying that the vast majority of people have the good sense not to take their vehicles on to frozen waterways, this incident serves as an example of the type of stupidity that the emergency services occasionally have to deal with."

Thats an amazing quote!

I used 5.1 and it was okay.

David.

I used tesco breakdown for a year with no issues… and it was super cheap! Currently got break down with the "green breakdown company" as my insurance is through "the green insurance company". No hassles there either.

Both much cheaper than AA / RAC. The tesco contracted guy was awesome when we needed him – think it was Thomas Ash(?) they contracted too?

xherbivorex – Premier Member

i think i should probably be concerned that i weighed myself, then an hour later (during which i dropped the kids off at the pool) i was apparently 0.5Kg heavier… think i need to return these scales and get ones that actually work properly!

According to my scales I did a 3 pound poo the other day 😉

F12 or f10 on the dell mate. I can't remember for that one which one it is. Will load one time boot menu, select cd then press any key when prompted. Dell central here today!

Hmm – on hold for many hours dmiller – as we have experienced many times!!!!

Baws sorry – it usually gets a decent response that number. It might be as well waiting to you have them first then calling.

I have emailed you…

I would phone customer care on: 01344 373178 and explain the situation.

You will need both order numbers, your customer number etc. They can usually help here – at least they can confirm the re-stock fee etc – I have never heard of anyone actually having to pay the restock fee, it should be pretty painless.

Lenovo were being considered too, but the inbuilt screen didn't seem as good (the W series are interesting with inbuilt colour calibration, slide out additional 10.6" displays and inbuilt Wacom graphics tablets…)

I have never seen one (I work for a competitor) but those things look amazing – even the concept sounds superb. Could you see one in real life to assess the screen? It might do what you want?

The M6400 is not lightweight for traveling by the way expect to be carrying about 4kg of laptop plus AC adapter.

Between those two I would take the M6400 – its a rock solid tank of a machine (I used to support these directly at work).

The support on the M6400 will be far better as well – you *need* to pay the extra for 3 years warranty at the cost level of this machine, perhaps even get the full 5 years and if you can upgrade to pro-support. XPS support can be patchy…

Also it will take two hard drives – and do raid 0 or 1.

The battery life on the M6400 is not stunning – however its specification is insane.

I cannot praise the M6400 enough. Seriously.

(emailed you as well rob)

I'm not that gullible though

Yeah – I'm not anymore – I trusted them thinking that a big company wouldn't look to rip people off. Fool that I was.

How much does it cost to fix the bodge job KF do at a proper garage?

Dunno. It was done almost a year ago and if it splits/degrades before they will replace it free of charge at the next MOT (12month guarantee).

What will happen is you will go in, they will say they will replace the boots for free but only if you get all of this work done that needs done. New quote for £400 ish. You get the work done there. Two weeks later your out of pocket another £200 as they have fitted the wrong track rod ends and put the springs in upside down.

Kwickfit will rob you fooking blind and wreck your car at the same time.

David.

Just be careful. My commute is un-rideable at the moment. I could make it easily enough but when I go down, and with this much ice and snow and 10 miles each way to go I will take a fall or two, I can all to easily see the car / bus / lorry behind me being unable to dodge me or even worse slipping into oncoming traffic.

There is an element of responsibility – not just for your safety but for the safety of other road users.

But then most of my commute is still under at least 2" of snow and ice and the roads are mostly just two tyre ruts in the snow.

David.

Kwick fit will be wrong. Honestly. Take it to a different garage to get it checked…

No – in former oil and gas reservoirs

Well that's disappointing.

Seeing as people here seem to know their stuff I have always wondered just how much damage one of those big gas storage things you see in citys would do if one went bang… Anyone know?

I dont know if its a piss take or not but:

There's a perfectly good path right next to the road you stupid cyclist! isnt it the worst when you finally overtake a cyclist…. then you come to a red light and have to do it again!

That made me smile.

pumped into resevoirs under the north sea during the summer and used up in the winter.

What like big under sea tanks? Thats pretty damn cool! Any links with pics? I like big engineering stuff like that!

there is a fault with the power pack, which switches the machine off without warning quite often

It might be kicking itself into power save mode all the time and back if the AC adapater is wrecked…

Try going to the power management settings and setting for performance. Depending on the Dell you may need to use Quickset, Dell Control Panel, DCP or the generic windows software.

What make / model is it?

Failing that the HDD is dying.

Typical Scots, bit of a cold snap and the place falls to bits.

Its pretty deadly in Glasgow tbh…

Just like the numpty woman who was trying to drive past our work with the handbrake full on and front wheels spinning like mad this morning

This happened to my car (I wasnt driving, near it or involved) I reckon – the rear drums, shoes and tyres are destroyed. Its a corsa and I think the person borrowing it put the handbrake on when they parked it and didnt realise that the handbrake froze on and thought they were stuck in snow so gunned it up the road…

I can supply more if needed.

From Vodafones site today… 🙂

i have a wasp in my downstairs loo somewhere – i presume it would be dead by now?! my daughter said it was huge….no chance of it being a queen is there?

Do the queen wasps not sneak around the plumbing and pop out in different rooms? Do they not also stalk you at night? Infact can they not breath under water and sneak up on people in other bathrooms and sting them on the bum when they are on the pan?

You know I was thinking of starting to jog anyway to shift some belly…

PeterPoddy – Member

Walk away and come back in June?

Seriously, wheelspin gets you nowhere fast. Stop it. If you can't, leave the car where it is because you're heading for trouble.

+1. Honestly if the roads are that bad give up and go back to bed. Get up at 12 and re-assess.

David.

+1 Drac – sounds like motherboard…

Just last week power went GAGA

In future use one of these. Bad power will kill PC's…