First port of call should be the Philippine authorities. How difficult it is paperwork-wise and pre export testing wise nearly entirely depends on the importing country's requirements. Embassy will know.

Colin

Mint Mint Mint Mint!

Linux Mint[/url] is a very nice, Ubuntu based Linux distro that comes with all the codecs and drivers you'll need already in place.

Its pretty too.

Colin

If you're going try a Wamp, I would use Xampp They have a version for vista, and a nice and responsive support forum.

I’d say Baildon Moor and Shipley Glen are where you should head for. Both are open access land with many bridleways and lots of paths, which nobody minds you riding on (not even the council, who own them). I would say less than a mile as the crow flies from the hotel. There’s a bridleway down the side of Bradford Golf Club (at the back of the hotel) which takes you across to Baildon, right to the edge of the moor.
Not trail centre riding, but loads of different loops, and you can’t really get lost, and you can easily do 1-2 hours without repeating anything.
I live just the other side of Shipley Glen. If you don’t mind slowish, give me I shout, I could show you around one night.

Colin

Yes but…

I have an Ixus 65, a G9 (the G10s predecessor), and a Sony A200 as well as sometimes using the wife’s D80. The G9 is far far better than the Ixus 65, but it is a far less competent camera than either of the DSLRs. Response times are a lot slower, the view from viewfinder doesn’t remotely match the picture you’ve taken, can’t get to higher than f8, no way of setting a focus point, etc, etc etc. The G9 is a grand camera, and great for taking with you when you walk the dogs, but really no match for any modern DSLR.
Of course, some people will take better pictures with their G9/10 than I ever will with my DSLR, just the same way as some people will clean climbs on a rigid singlespeed that I can’t get up on my full susser. I don’t think that means I have to ride a rigid singlespeed until I’m as good as them before I’m justified in getting a full susser.

Colin

Having just smashed my Blackberry (by mistake, I hasten to add) I too am looking for a smart phone – possibly android based. Currently I have come across the G1 and the Magic – does anyone know of any others available in the UK? The Samsung Galaxy i7500 has been announced, does anyone know when it might be available in the UK and on what network?

Colin

I like my A200 – which I always considered to be better than my wife’s Nikon D70 but not quite as good as her newish D80 (but a lot less money) Never tried a D40 – sorry.
The basic pros for each might be

A200
Value for money
Image stabilisation in body

D40
Lots of Nikon lenses to choose from

Colin

I’ve lived and worked in the Keighley area for the last 22 years (sigh). Its tremendously varied. Keighley town has lots of less well off areas in it, and its not the sort of place I would want to spend too much time in late at night, but some of the villages around are really nice. Airedale is very much part of the Leeds/Bradford commuter belt – so lots of money around as well. (But Silsden is a bit boring if truth be told). Skipton calls itself the gateway to the dales – a nice market town. I live on the edge of Shipley Glen and have natural riding outside my door of the type that people travel hours to find.
Pick your spot to live and you’ll like it.

Colin

I got a helmet last year. Noticeable how many more there are this year when we went in January. Seems to be the coming thing. Two more people in our chalet got them this year. I got mine because someone I was skiing with fell over going very slowly down an icy path. She was a very experienced skier, but was quite badly concussed and had to be assisted off the mountain. Then a few days later a saw a woman injure her head when skiing slowly down a piste and being taken out by someone out of control coming from behind.
My helmet is REALLY COMFORTABLE and EXTREMELY WARM.

Compulsory for kids in Italy. Talk of becoming compulsory Europe wide after 2 incidents in Austria this year.

Dozens of people die skiing every year in Europe – they try hard to keep it out of the headlines but I think the average is about 6 for Chamonix alone.
As Tom Stoppard said – its not as if the alternative is immortality.

Colin