i'm sure the same can be achieved with a PC – but with a mac its very easy to create an admin account (yours, password protected) and then separate accounts for the kids

you can then control which applications they are able to use etc – and they won't be able to add new applications. I'm no expert but this should prevent them from killing it

as mentioned above – get an external hard drive at the same time (I have a 1 gig MyBook, which seems pretty good), and you can use the included "Timemachine" software to auto back everything up, which should make any problems easy to fix

Cy – will the new frame be a "pure" crosser – or something that could double as a winter road bike and take full mudguards?

ta

good solution – but no use till you get home, and by then I imagine its no longer a problem as you can just load the new CDs to your old laptop!

ipods can only be synched to one "home" version of itunes at a time

I do the same as the capt and nickc, its just easier that way

votchy – i think your downloaded MP3s have some kind of copy protection to prevent them being ripped to disc, stupid I know but I think technically its illegal to have music on a different source from the one you bought it on – ie its OK to "back up" a CD to another disc (and I presume to own an MP3 copy0, but not OK to buy an MP3 then rip it to disc

I'm sure somewhere there will be free software to enable you to "fix" this issue

this is the daddy (nigel slater inspired)

brown sausages with a small amount of oil in an oven proof pan

remove sausages, add 1 sliced onion per person and cook slowly till soft, then whack up the heat a bit to brown them

a dessert 2 or spoon of flour, stir in to give it a bit of a cook

add you liquid gradually – veg stock/ pork stock/ cicken stock/ bit of red wine maybe, marsala is nice if you have it (i favour a mix of veg stock and some red wine or marsala)

add some redcurrant jelly for sweetness, maybe a bit of dijon, worcester sauce, mushroom ketchup – nice

then once your gravy is looking and tasting lush, put your sausages in with the gravy, and put the whole lot in the oven to cook through (about 40 mins or so)

yum, yum , yum – you really do go to the next level when you cook sausages and gravy together

it should be noted he isn't leaving 6 music, but moving to weekend breakfast

and now adam and joe will be starting an hour later at 10am

woop

a film script is about a page for every minute of screentime (so about 120 pages for a 2 hour film), a book is what 400 pages – and films are not aimed at people who have read the book

the most interesting ones are films which are better than the book, usually middlebrow airport style paperbacks which work much better on screen with all the trash removed

The Godfather and Jaws are couple of potboilers really, nothing special – Jaws is far more adult in the novel, Brodie's wife has an affair with the Richard Dreyfus character

The Godfather took a potboiler about the Mafia and turned it into one of the geratest films of all time – with universal themes of family, revenge, destiny etc which reach beyond anything in the book.

Jaws takes a flabby paperback and turns it into a perfect example of a stripped to the bone thriller, without a single wasted scene

people will be watching both films for a long time to come, I don't think we can say the same for the novels they were based on

yes – I have heard that the stuff they use to take the old paint off stinks as well

I read one solution to speed things up is to put the guitar in kitty litter!

I used squirt all summer and loved it – but I just don't think its man enough for winter

back to finish line wet – but I use a SS in the winter so the "nasty black gunk" issues aren't as pronounced as on a geared bike (its easy to remove the gunk with a cloth from the chainring and sprocket before re-lubing, not so easy with multiple chainrings and a cassette)

I have heard the "empathy and sympathy" bit lots of times. The reality is there are only so many times you can cock your head to one side in a sympathetic way, nod and go "that must make you feel awful"

as Samurai says, often you are just due a kicking – and the being sympathetic bit is just postponing the kicking, until you get something else wrong

grumm – as you say bikes are covered up to 4K in value, no need to declare them (though best to make sure you have some kind of proof of ownership)

to insure bikes and other stuff outside the house you have to pay a bit extra to have your stuff insured "away from home" – but well worth paying IMO.Its a tick box to select towards the end of the online quote process. Unless you mean in the garage? That would be covered by the normal cover

presumably a fall out with Timberland who now own/ part own the brand

+1, did same thing yesterday (thank god cos my 45 day "grace" period to cancel is up soon)

contents and home, old quote was over 700 pounds , new one just over 400 or so

saved over 300 quid !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

if you haven't seen the wire, get the wire –

you can get all 5 series for 70 quid in HMV I noticed the other day

"I've got a 'to do' list longer than a Leonard Cohen song"

my five year old was fine – but he has been led astray by older sisters and has seen harry potters/ LOTR/ Ghostbusters etc 😳

taken on santa cruz pier

There is a track on the latest lilly Allan album that sounds just like it,

Well done, nice choice of gig

my stepfather took me to my first gig – a not exactly hip Yes reunion gig (his choice not mine)!

love it – classic family TV, kids love it cos its so silly, but plenty of "grown up" jokes in there too

I'm predicticting a mobile phone/ iphone that essentially is a laptop within 5 years. carry it in your pocket – plug it into an external monitor and keyboard when you are at home/ work. some kind of folding screen/ keyboard for when you are on the move

seemed like a very heavy load to me – bearings on that machine didn't last long (and couldn't be replaced) – a five minute wipedown with a damp cloth and some flash is good enough isn't it?

the classic is putting a pan in thats got lots of mash potato remains in

– cue glasses etc with a "baked on" layer of potato starch

I once caught my wife putting toys from the kids sandpit in the dishwasher

I quietly advised her that maybe that wasn't a good idea

"Its OK – I've rinsed them off" she says and turns it on

took me about 2 hours to remove the sand she had "rinsed off" from the inside of the machine

she also once put the rubber floor matts from the car in the washing machine –

FOS – that makes no sense

how old were these kids? your friends were told to lower their expectations because the kids had got off to a bad start in life – not because they had "Bad genes"

2nd hand is fine if you

already play/ have a mate who plays who can help you choose a good one

new is safer if you are a total novice – as you can rely on the shop for set-up/ warranty issues

there are bargains to be had 2nd hand for sure – but there are plenty of overpriced shockers that look the part too

poorer kids are more likely to "play out" unsupervised than middle class kids

poorer areas have more cars parked on the road – less visability for drivers/ people crossing the road

more boy racers in poorer estates

well to do village where my kids go to school – 20 mph limit and speed bums

less well to do village where we actually live – 30 mph limit everywhere, no speed bumps

humbucker – refers to removing hum

single coils are prone to a bit of hum (although millions of single coil users are happy to live with it)

humbuckers are essentially 2 single coils together, wired in a way that the 2nd pickup removes the hum. A side affect of this though is the fatter sound nugget refers to

HSS refers to a humbucker at the bridge position and a single coil in the middle and neck positions. This arrangement is popular as the bridge position is prone to sounding quite trebble heavy – so a humbucker here evans things out a bit

best buying advice – look at what guitars the players you want to emulate use – buy something close to what they have within budget. modern guitars are generally very good these days – evan the cheap ones

don't burn them if you live near anyone else

some twunt near me seems to be constantly burning something all summer/ autumn long – not sure what because all the houses round here have modest gardens with not much in the way of trees.

nice day – windows open/ go outside – oh everything stinks and its hard to breath!

not sure if this has been mentioned but central park zoo is small but perfectly formed

they have 2 polar bears – which you can swimming underwater through the glass – and a fantastic indoor rainforest type area with birds and butterflies flying around you

I pretty much eliminated the problem by stripping my maxle (not a lite one) and thouroughly greasing all the moving/ expanding parts – then doing up the qr nut as tight as I can

a very small amount of play still when I wobble the wheel – buts its inperceptible when riding and still feels much stiffer than a normal QR

I don't believe in liking songs in an "ironic" way, a song is either good or it isn't

fantastic songs

"Islands in the stream" – Dolly Parton and someone else (Bee Gees produced)

Cracklin Rosie/ Foreveer in Blue Jeans/ Sweet Caroline – Neil Diamond

Ben – Michael Jackson

Camoflage by Stan Ridgeway

couldn't agree more with NickC – the song is king

and for that reason

Steve Cropper
Robbie Robertson
James Burton
Nick Drake
George Harrison
late 60s/ early 70s Keef
Marr
Bernard Butler

that must be horrible flip, I feel for you

In the process of a break-up myself – we are all still in the same house at the moment, and when I do move out my wife will be very dependent on me to share childcare – I just pray that doesn't change in the future because such limited access to my 3 would be unbearable I think

good advice people

hadn't thought of flipping the chainring – could also try flipping the sprocket I think (thought I would need to buy new ones)

don't think its the pedals – they spent a couple of months on my roadbike over the summer (got proper road pedals now) and they were fine then

no bashring

I can't try the old chain as that got thrown away when I partially stripped the bike at the end of last winter

the noise occurs for around half a pedal stroke if that makes any sense – so I get a clank every revolution, followed by a short silence, then another clank as I continue to spin

the otherjonv

I bough some shimano m520 pedals from crc for 18 quid or so the other day – cos I needed some cleats

now I have spare pedals and the cleats I needed

replacement jockey wheels are stupid expensive

I don't think there is a huge difference between a 2nd and 3rd gen touch

I have a 32gb 2nd gen which I am happy with – but is almost full (hoping to get a 64gb iphone next year when they become available and my current mobile contract expires)

if you want to have plenty of apps/ music/ visual content on there go for 16gb as I imagine 8gb would fill up fast

– use paypal or similar if its offered
– get a credit card if you don't have one. never use a debit card if you can help it

a credit card is just as likely to be ripped off – but your not going to be sent overdrawn. Its the credit card company and not you out of pocket while it gets sorted