I prefer these ones

http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/mobile/rohloff-bayonet-connectors-for-gear-cables-1-male-1-female-8274-prod11743/

Hot bath.

So in answer to your question, there may be no limit to how rubbish they can be.

They are awful. They started by hooking the line up wrong, it took 3 weeks to get it working. Obviously they billed me for a full month.

But wait – it gets better.

In my experience they can’t count at all. Since moving, and joining BT I have been incorrectly billed for usage about 4 months out of 6.

Initially I assumed that someone was piggy-backing my WiFi, so made a monster password. Then I watched as the router counted data when all my computers were switched off, and the router was unplugged from the net. It has been restarted a million times. Sometimes it counts down [rarely]!

It was at this point I started to call them. All in I have called about 10 times, for over an hour in some cases, and been pushed from pillar to post and billed again and again. No records.

I always have to explain the entire situation to the call centre staff. I don’t care a fig that they are based in India [a guess], but I wish they employed staff of a universally high standard of spoken English.

They have NEVER called me back, when they assured me they would.

The line to the centre is crap [the irony], and after about 3 calls I finally got it elevated to 2nd tier – was told someone would “monitor the usage for 24 hours and call me back”. About a week later I lost my temper and called them only to be told the case was marked as closed. I had to start all over again.

Other staff have told me they cannot monitor the usage, it’s not a facility they have.

The last call was 1.5 hours. The. Exact. Same. Things, AGAIN. Oh, and the three staff we spoke to all gave us different figures for usage in the last month. The email I received was different again. I was assured that I would not be billed for >10GB. But I was.

Fork ’em.

The ultimate insult is that I am in an 18 month contract, and EVERY time I call all I get is “You need to upgrade to a 40GB/month account”. Oh, and a million pieces of spam in my inbox.

What about those Eclipse tubes for £40….. Mind you, they’re controversial!

Me. And I ‘shared’ it heavily, too. It doesn’t even have to be about politics – he said he would, so he should. Simples.

Don’t have a clue how to enforce it, sadly…

On a slightly different tack, I found when I was cycle touring there that Aussies were generally bemused and offensive in equal parts about the idea of seeing their country on two wheels.And generally wanted us off the road.

Someone actually swerved AT my Ex [back on topic ;) ] and tried to take her out on a roundabout for holding a lane.

Kiwis, OTOH, were all nice as 3.141592654

SQUARE BRACKETS!

you need to type as below for these to work – nb substitute SQUARE BRACKETS for my curved ones

(IMG)http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8123/8604835945_69a632a529.jpg(/IMG)

That was really hard. You need to go to the pic’s page on flikr. Hit share, choose HTML/BB code, and then cut the line between and including “http” and “.jpg”. Past that bit between (IMG) and (/IMG) using SQUARE brackets. If it doesn’t work, pick another bit between it’s http and .jpg – it seems to give two when you ask it for the HTML/BB code.

I take an old presta tube, rip the valve cleanly out, cut a 2cm square out around the ‘ole, and then use that as a sort of dental dam around the new one.

Or something.

Did someone say “cross buns”?

When I had Yeti, I once met a girl with a beautiful smile. She’s blonde, and quite fast too :)

All this posturing, and the Nuke program, likely comes to nowt. They want Nukes to gain power and influence, but using them means MAD. Or just AD, in KJ-u’s case. But in that case, they have no power or influence, if they’re dead. So they won’t use them.

I hope.

Hey, trail_rat,

is that an eccentric bb frame? I had one fail, they replaced it under warranty. Give them a call.

It can be rewelded, but it took 45 mins for a pro to get mine to stick, dissimilar metals [ss lug to cromo shell].

http://www.dansdata.com/sbs3.htm

These instructions?

Am I a bit late with the silly graphs thing?

I concur with Bikingcatastrophe.

Huuuuummm…..

I didn’t know that. Guess I’ve not changed any “important” parts on the machines I built. Gigabyte Motherboards FTW!

Thanks for the tip!

If you feel a bit confident with computers, download an ISO of Ubuntu [12.x LTS] and download “unetbootin”. Install Ubuntu on a USB stick and boot from that for a few days.

Reset your ALL your passwords

http://xkcd.com/936/

While booted from your Linux USB stick.

Unless you’ve got paid anti-virus, switch to Microsoft Security Essentials, install and run a full scan.

Keep scanning and removing until no issues flag.

Then install and run Malware Bytes, same method.

Then Decide you’d likely be better with Ubuntu [or Mint, if you want a slightly more traditional OS] and keep using that.

My 2p

What’s wrong with Tissot? I love the 2 I’ve had [one was stolen], but if I can sell that one- I should.

I can’t quite find the one I used to have… It had a rubber strap, but was basically like this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Casio-EFA-118D-1AVEF-Digital-Multifunction-Bracelet/dp/B000LRQHMW/ref=sr_1_132?ie=UTF8&qid=1364335935&sr=8-132

Bloody brill.

Variations:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Casio-Edifice-EFA-112D-1AVEF-Stainless-Bracelet/dp/B000NG8Y2C/ref=sr_1_195?ie=UTF8&qid=1364335982&sr=8-195

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Casio-Mens-Watch-Edifice-Ef-129D-2Avef/dp/B0039UT5OA/ref=sr_1_59?ie=UTF8&qid=1364335879&sr=8-59

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Casio-Gents-Watch-Edifice-EF-125D-1AVEF/dp/B000JTF3UE/ref=sr_1_45?ie=UTF8&qid=1364335860&sr=8-45

Mine was only killed by a bloke with a spin-kick to a punchbag. I was holding the bag, and he connected with my arm!

In passing I have one of these

(Tissot t035407)

I need to sell. Looking for offers around £150. Had it a year or so, beautiful, but I can’t justify not selling it when I’m so broke. More info available, or I’ll ebay it.

GfS

Series First! All shiny, though….

“I am a leaf on the wind… Watch how I soar…”

?Wash

I’d really say your best bet is a new machine built around an AMD chip, like this one

http://www.ebuyer.com/398817-amd-a6-5400k-black-edition-3-6ghz-socket-fm2-4mb-l2-cache-retail-ad540kokhjbox

You’ll note there are bundles on that page with a Motherboard. Try to get one with RAM also.

It’s not going to be much for £300 or so, but it will be a lot better than your current machine. 4GB of RAM, or more. DO NOT reuse your old HDD or Power Supply, they are the most likely things to go wrong in a PC and also the things that cause the most damage/hassle when they fail!

Use a basic branded PSU, like a Corsair or Antec

http://www.ebuyer.com/185183-antec-380w-earthwatts-green-psu-ea-380d-green

That should do.

Then stick a modern Hard drive, maybe…

http://www.ebuyer.com/319639-seagate-1tb-barracuda-internal-hard-drive-st1000dm003

These are fast.

Don’t skimp on those parts!

Rebuild around that, and for <£300 you’ll have a reliable, balanced and reasonably future-ready machine.

Lastly, buy Windows 7 OEM – comes with less packaging, but is cheaper.

http://www.ebuyer.com/259863-microsoft-windows-7-home-premium-w-sp1-licence-and-media-1-gfc-02050

That’s my suggestion. Get the shop to do all the assembly, or your mate!

Pentium 4s came in several FSB speeds. You would have to have a good match. Also some BIOSes won’t accept a chip they aren’t aware of.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/81002-35-challenging-problem-tosh-northwood

I’d say get your mate to put together a cheap PC with an AMD APU. An APU is a CPU with a small, but dedicated graphics portion. Only the VERY newest Intel chips have an APU that is even halfway decent. I’d go for AMD in your case, 100%

You may be able to re-use some of your parts. But I’d change the Hard disk even if you don’t have to, and the PSU. Keep the PSU as a spare, and use the HDD in a cheap external case – but don’t use it to keep files that are not backed up elsewhere.

Regards

OMG. Actually, OMG. The comments on that article…

This is why I don’t read the Telegraph, and why I want to leave the UK where we’re just
so bloody snooty .

Also –
http://www.gazellebicycles.co.uk/
Much nicer than a Pashley

Always seems to make me a little faster. I have a gopro video of me racing a mate, and just when he’s making a comeback I reach down and lock the fork out. Then I win. Bwaa haha aha aha aha aaaaaaa..

I think we need maximum power or beam shape controls. I am a total transportation cycling advocate, yet even I [let-alone car drivers] am fed-up with being blinded by 1000 Lumen LED lights with no beam control on bikes….

Even when I use an Aldi LED as a head torch [where the ??*? is my Hope 1 hiding in the flat?] I look away when I pass a car so I don’t blind them.

I really liked…

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1189073/

The Skin I live In

Hello guys and gals. I’m a little late to the party, as usual, but here is a related matter. It’s not just coffee that needs to be fairly traded you know:

This was written by my girlfriend, based on research for her Masters, and when I get myself together I intend to write an article on a related matter.

Please take a few minutes to read, and if you have any feedback, well that’d be swell.

The climb and ride isn’t too taxing, however the driving might be? You will also need a backup plan incase you stack, though.

Curious, has anyone ridden the full section down to the first meeting with the railway? We took the trainline [when it wasn’t running], and in the rain it was pretty bloody scary at 30mph, only a 20cm strip with sleepers to the left, and track’s toothed strip and the drop, ad the right a ditch and rocky wall… eerk. I was NOT in control on the Pig…. But the pile of vertical slates that make up part of the upper path was too dangerous to ride, the laserations wold have been surgery-worthy!

I crashed THROUGH the back window of a Zafira once on a racing bike, with my face, no helmet, at a roundabout, at about 20mph, 6 years ago….. Good soft glass design, need to thank the designer. My neck’s still not right though!

A colour temp of 3500k is warm-ish. Thehigher the CRI the more balanced the spread of colours. Try Collingwood, as I mentioned above
http://www.collingwoodlighting.co.uk/cnb/shop/collingwood?op=catalogue-product_info-null&prodCategoryID=&productID=158&topLevelCatID=
7 year warranty, but not as bright as 50W.

Having just been designing things using LEDs…

Check out

collingwoodlighting.com

Nice stuff, expensive, but nice.

You can also make your own, well at least that what I plan to do, based on what I’ve learned in the last week for work :)

This array is 28W and about 2000 Lumen, similar to a 150W Halogen

If they’re a bit good offroad, just ride the clifftop paths along the North coast. I suspect you’ll be getting rained on…

I can’t hear the difference between My Cheapo [£5 a pair] Monster Interconnects and an Optical connection between my Amp and CDP. Which is a bit of a surprise is it’s also a change of DAC…!

All the other things I have, I can hear a great difference between them and their predecessors – the 3 CDPs I’ve been through in the last few years, the 2 Record Decks, 2 Amps, and Three sets of Speakers.

Funny stuff, Hi-Fi.

Interestingly I am booked for a full hearing range test in an anechoic chamber on Thursday, courtesy of a friend :) Maybe I’m just deaf, we’ll see then!

I was wondering while poking it disconsolately around the floor for the umpteenth time with my foot and mopping the floor around it.

What is OMO? Some sort of scale remover?

Oh wow.

As I see it, if the LED is “21V” then it’s a bunch 6 3.5v LED dies in a package, therefore I need to be over 18v [21-6*.5]to start conduction, so therefore I might be too close to the lower end of the conduction voltage scale to get the 800lm, even if the driver can deliver over the target amperage.

Hmmm, well I can test it with 19 and 24V and maybe I have to persuade my manager to let me spend the money for a 24V PSU.

I’m a design intern, and working on my own.

Thank you.

Aaaaha – I didn’t see that I can buy them potted!

OK, this should save me some soldering.

http://uk.farnell.com/xp-power/ldu2030s700/led-driver-dc-dc-constant-i-20w/dp/2082740
and
http://uk.farnell.com/bridgelux/bxra-30e0800-b-00/es-rect-800-lm-warm-wht-array-2700k/dp/2070582

driven from a 19.5v power supply should do it, right?

I’ll need 2xdrivers, 2xleds and one dual track potentiometer to synchronise the dimming for two LEDs?

That would be much simpler :)

Thanks !