Thought I’d try a short CatC for fun. It wasn’t.

Thanks for the thumb on the top of Bh, weeksy 🙂

I hope not Nixie. Although the effort looks poor I’m burying myself 😉

Simple as that. I thought it was something to do with ZPoints or something else. Thanks 🙂

Trying to rediscover fitness after 8 years of inconsistency (kids came along). January has been the first month in as long as I can remember where I’ve managed about three rides a week.

Did a short race tonight (1 lap of 3R Greater London) and averaged 2.6 w/kg – coming in 2nd (at least of those registered on ZP, and it was a tiny field so hardy impressive).

I’m a good way from feeling like I’d want to move from D to C, how does ZP calculate your cat?

Yet another Orbea pair here, MX20 and 24. They are a good weight and have a good spec for the price. Crucially, the reach is right – I found many kids bikes other than Isla just too long.

The only changes I’ve made are shorter stems, Avis Speed Dial levers for their adjustability and quality, and some Chromag Radar Youth pedal for the eldest as he’s doing some proper riding and the stock pedals aren’t up to much (are they ever)… We went with Vs over discs, no regrets there.

A few of his 8 year old school friends are on small framed 27.5. Totally understand a parents need to try and get value/longevity from everything, but they are all normal height and the bikes look (and are) HUGE under them.

Northwind

Cameron! “Hi everyone, this is all my fault, now vote for me!”

I get that, I’m not saying he’s my choice.

Most of those I know would consider Blair/Cameron’s politics moderate. Again, I’m not saying they are, just that’s the view of the majority of people I know. They are crying out for somebody to get behind, and there’s nobody in either party currently that they think ticks that box.

Didn’t the ref come about as a throwback to the Cameron/Clegg era?

There are a lot of people on this thread that know so much more than me about politics (that’s not hard). Like it or not, I think that’s the same for the majority of the electorate.

Agreed. Blair/Cameron stage right with a new moderate party out of the ashes.

I don’t understand party politics, but I’m struggling to find a leader amongst them (apart from May who, whatever I think of the deal, has handled it with more class than the rest). YMMV…

Corbyn had all the time in the world to come up with something and say something intelligent, and he fails.

For all he thinks May has done a bad job, I just can’t believe he’s still the Labour leader. They should have been in a strong position, but they still sound rudderless.

Edit. In the bath. Typing all over the place.

Are ticks a big issue, away from the paths and trails?

So, despite being a member since the beta days, I did my first pack ride tonight (NY Metro ride).

Hated the first half of it, it was so busy. Didn’t really understand the etiquette, spent the first bit trying to stay with the W/kg but not many others seemed as diligent (which given the tedium, I didn’t blame them).

Then the 2nd half settled in with a group that seemed to want to keep a fairly steady effort.

Is that the point of the pack ride, just work your way through and about half way you find a group who seem to fit your pace naturally? Seems obvious enough, I know.

Never tried a Vax, but we have an AirRam and a Dyson cordless: the Dyson is far, far better.

Are people really pissed about this? Are people saying that STW shouldn’t be able to offer a promotion to get new customers?

I either value what I’m buying or I don’t. @spawnofYorkshire has it right…

If I was really concerned about quality and I was going down the Sonos amp and separate speakers route (and was only streaming lossless), then I’d buy the Sonos Connect and some active speakers to go on the end of it, like the brilliant AE1 Actives.

I had a Sonos Amp connected to some PMC DB1s, and thought it sounded okay, but honestly not appreciably better than a pair of well placed Play 3s.

Edit: I should caveat that, the Sonos Amp I had was first gen, and haven’t heard the latest one which looks like a big redesign.

It’s difficult to knock Sonos for the money. It sounds good and although I really miss the much older software, the software is okay to use and integrates with all of the popular services.

I have Deezer Elite and Apple Music, and although I have 100’s of CDs ripped lossless, I can’t remember the last time I streamed from the NAS.

I have 1s in the bedroom, 3s in the living room paired with a Beam and a 5 in the kitchen. I think the 1s are really good for the money, especially if you have a pair in stereo. I wouldn’t bother with the 5 or 3s if I was starting again – just 1s in stereo.

I also have a Connect Amp in the living room connected to nice Musical Fidelity amp and PMC speakers. I haven’t turned them on in preference to the Beam and Play 3s since I bought the Beam. It’s more than good enough.

We have tartiflette every Boxing Day with ham and pickle. Panic this year when the first two shops had no Reblochon. It is the king of potato dish, and shortens life expectancy by one month per spoonful.

First world problems, but I was starting to worry.

I made up that you thought working them until 60 would break them? It was in response to:

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Drac

Subscriber
Why should they work to they are broken let them enjoy their retirement.

Anyway, I’m not here to argue with you – I’m not trying to win you over. I know your opinion and I respectfully disagree with it. I’ll maintain I’d happily pay more if I thought the budgets were truly at a breaking point with no options left.

Why it’s taken NHS England so long to issue consultation on the over-prescription of over the counter drugs for example, is just scandalous. Estimates anywhere around £200-400m a year in savings here alone. It was announced about a year ago, has anything changed yet?

That’s the kind of speed of change and waste that stops any tax payer, regardless of income level, committing more to the public purse. What’s the average dispensation cost of paracetamol, wasn’t it about £35 including GP time (the drug itself being charged to the NHS at 5 times the cost vs Boots).

We have very different opinions, Drac.

I’m not sure why you’d presume working them until 60 will break them, any more than a person who chooses any other physical job like a builder, mechanic, joiner, labourer or shop worker who stands on their feet all day. If it’s being mentally broken, then again I’d argue there are just as many mentally tough jobs who don’t have provision for early retirement.

I think most people, in most jobs, would expect to retire around 60 – I don’t think it’s inappropriate to expect it as a standard provision.

As for struggling to recruit (not your point, I know), I think that’s very real but I think it’s very real for a lot of jobs. Immigration has been necessary for all kinds of industries from police, nursing to fruit pickers, builders, caterers and drivers to keep the industries going. It’s not limited to the emergency services, but it’s a whole different thread…

There’s often a slight tone of whoever questions this stuff disrespects the job the emergency services do. So, to be clear, half my family have been/are in the emergency services and I massively respect the job they do. As I do anybody who gets out of bed to go to work to serve the general public.

Why Drac? Both of them could have done an extra few years, and neither are in roles where age is a limiting factor in their ability. Quite the contrary, their experience makes them a better copper in their role than somebody coming in with less experience.

I thought the new age for retirement is 60. Is that too old?

I’d happily pay more, but only if they could convince me that they wouldn’t waste it.

Hugely unpopular opinion here, but while their pensions are grossly out of proportion with what the average population gets in terms of contribution and age of retirement, I’d argue that more funds isn’t the last role of the dice.

Two friends are coppers, both retired this year in their early 50s. Neither are anywhere close to being too old for the job, and if they’d be asked (forced) to do a few more years the savings would be massive. It’s not like either were over-worked during their time in the job, frankly (or underpaid during it)…

I spent my 20s and 30s being a bit of a dick about religion and about being an atheist, probably because it didn’t seem that many were outspoken about it. I probably felt a bit repressed…

To me, today it would seem it’s the accepted norm for many, I don’t see a reason to keep talking about it. It’s like a balance has been struck, really.

I won’t tell me kids if I believe in god (9 and 5) it’s up to them to figure it out. Whatever they choose is fine by me.

I walk around with me eyes open, can’t say religion is in my life at all. It’s around me, but not in my life. Christmas to me is about family.

I Powerline from the house into an old BT HomeHub4 ran as a switch and additional wireless network (as opposed to extended), speeds are perfectly good enough.

Okay. I thought it was to me. Maybe I do feel persecuted after all 🙂

How many assumptions did you make there? I’ve not said that I’m atheist and certainly don’t ‘feel persecuted by a god-squad’.

As I said, if the kid was misbehaving or being disruptive, then expect a bollocking.  If he’s being told off for not taking part in a prayer to a god (of any religion), then I think that’s inappropriate.

Would a child of a different faith who was being an arse have been treated very differently ?

Unlikely.

Agreed, but that’s not what I meant.

It’s all about context, which with respect we might not always get from all eight year olds when recalling an event…

If he was being disruptive to the class or lesson, then he should be told off.  If he wasn’t taking part in a prayer to a god he chooses not to believe in, but was sitting/standing there quietly, then I think the teacher was out of order and I’d be having a word.  I’d not be jumping up and down about it, but I’d think it was inappropriate.

Can’t help but think a child of another belief (other than atheist) would have been treat very differently.

Well, there you go. I hadn’t realised that after spending nearly 30 years riding around on 26 inch wheels, preferring a 29er now makes me ‘oversized and ponderous’ and It looks like I will no longer know any secret trails.

Thanks HeathenWoods for showing me the error of my ways.

I’m close to buying/leasing a Peugeot Traveller: seems like the perfect bike/family van. Same van as the Proace Verso and Citroen SpaceTourer.

Configurable with 5,6,7,8 or 9 seats. You can only get the auto on the 180hp engine, but I’d probably go for that anyway.

You’re right to think it isn’t. It’s alright…

It’s not exactly life changing, but I’m using my phone a lot less because I leave it in the house a lot now. Which is a good thing.

Two or three hours recording a ride on Strava is about its limit really, recording accuracy is pretty good though (I pair it with a TickrX strap).

It’s properly waterproof, so good on the bike, and makes for some interesting phone calls with the wife when in the shower…

Good for paying for coffee, handy for Microsoft Authenticator and 1Password, half handy for PayByPhone parking, very handy for music (Apple only) and Podcasts but really, really useful for handsfree unlocking my laptop.

i really like leaving the house without a phone, but knowing that I’m still contactable in an emergency (DoNotDisturb mirrors the phone).

Cool? They were cheap, sorted, ran by a couple of blokes that liked bikes and employed people in the UK. Suppose that is cool, now you mention it.

I’m not sure what OO is anymore, the product/brand range is huge and confusing (to me). Five bike brands on one bike brand’s page, and the website feel like lots of sell off items, without an anchor.

I really like OO and PX. Had a few of the frames, and some of my best rides ever were on a Inbred29 with my kids in a bike seat or on a FollowMe. Still have it, and will never sell it.

Personally, I wouldn’t buy a Vitus, Holdsworth or Viner. I wouldn’t have any of them on a down tube, but happily have OO and PX.

I’d probably buy another Tinbred tomorrow if it was brought up to date but retained rack mounts, stays away from internal routing, swoopy tubes (apart from down tube I guess) and PF bottom brackets. All the kinds of no nonsense things that OO always meant.

While I’m at it, a new XS/13 Inbred 27.5 frame with rigid forks (100 and 142) that I could stick 26 wheels in for my 9 year old and a new Jack Flash would be lovely, thank you. Post is turning into Dear Santa

Alternatively, what do I know. Their accounts suggest it’s working really, really well already…

My Smuggler took about 4 hours including shortening and bleeding the brakes and Reverb post.

About 45 minutes of that was trying to figure out which Reverb post I had and how I needed to shorten it, and what the little red connector was for.

Only when I did it did I realise how stupidly easy it was: cut the hose, thread it back on and push some oil in from the seat post end.

Part of the build was an XT goupset from CRC. When they start using boxed stuff and OE stuff in bubble wrap?

I don’t hear the same pleas. I think the limit is about right – as I said for me they are about help being winched back up a hill…

On the other hand, on the cycle path alongside a busy dual carriageway I can hold, say, 24mph on my road bike. Would an ebike at the same speed be any more dangerous?

I think we’re making the same point, just from a different viewpoint.

An ebike is arguably not much faster (if at all) anywhere than a really strong, really fit rider. Do they also need regulation on the trail. 😉

How so, weeksy? I’ve borrowed one twice, other than being much easier up a slow, steep hill (and a couple of great new line choices up naggery hills), I really don’t think there’s much difference.

Certainly wasnt as fast back down the hill as a mate on his Nomad…

I really don’t get this thread, or any others on Ebikes on here.

They don’t go any faster than a normal bike downhill. They go about the same speed as a fit rider on the flat on a non ebike. They generally go faster up a hill than a non ebike, but hardly at dangerous speeds (and certainly slower than a non ebikes back down the hill).

They need no more regulation than they have now, IMO. I think the max speed is about right: assistance is there for the drag back up, not to go faster on the flat.

Talk of a CBT is, frankly, stupid. You can’t compare an ebike capable of a speed no greater than a non assisted bike to a 125cc capable of 70mph, bought to sit in traffic all day.

I don’t have one, but really don’t get the hate. They really aren’t that much different to a non-assist bike at all.

Warranty work is always authorised by the manufacturer. They are paying the invoice that the dealer generates, they obviously want to give authority to any work undertaken.

The dealer doesn’t normally get paid their normal rate, probably around 70% of their normal rate. A good service manager wants to find genuine warranty work, it’s good income

I’d suggest the boy/girl working in the call centre of the manufacturer is clueless.

Yet another DeLonghi Magnifica Esam here.

For a mug of coffee, I find on the setup it standard coffee size (the water dose), extra strong taste (the coffee dose). I need to press the two cups button on this setting, twice per mug – meaning, I suppose, that two full hoppers of coffee get used per mug.

the resultant cakes are pretty big in the waste tray, so I think it’s a decent injection of caffeine. Small grind, setting 2, works for me

Filling a pot would take a while, but the machine would do it as the spout goes very high to get something tall underneath. You can definitely hear it in every room in the house when it’s warming up and doing it’s thing. It’s not a problem for us though.

If they are saving stuff locally then can you not stop them using the group policy? Browser short cuts will roam via the browser account (in chrome an Firefox).

I could, and probably will, but it’s how they like to work and I’ve always been a fan of trying to build something around how they want it to work for them if possible. It might be time to move away from that model though.

We use all browsers for different sites, the main portal on one site still needs IE and one of the CRM packages we use (and are tied to) uses .net through IE too.  Roaming/redirection has worked well (albeit with some restrictions).

The printer supplies are managed by a program which sits server side, I like many little policies in group policy and I like the server handling MS updates for the clients.

So much has moved to the cloud: the management system we use, accounts, payroll, storage, and the Avaya IP Office software used to sit on there, and there was a network tap for voice/call recording.  All gone this year.

It’s what I’m used to though (having a server) so I’ll stick with it.

I like the idea of it sitting the next server up on VMWare a lot, so I guess the next step is finding somebody who can come in and set it up, and swap it all across rather than me **** about with something that I’ll need to spend some time reading up on.  Ultimately, this thread has shown just how limited my IT really is, and I need to get somebody in.

I’m in Newcastle, so if anybody has any recommendations then I’d be grateful for them…

Christ, the fact I didn’t know that VMWare was its own bare metal OS probably is enough to convince anybody that I should bring an expert in.

We use roaming profiles and folder redirection because a lot of users still save a lot to their desktop, files as well as browser shortcuts. No amount of staff training/pleading appears to change this.

We’re trying to get all staff to be more diligent where they save their files, but I still regularly see them using O365 apps logged in locally, rather than their account. It wouldn’t be the end of the world to lose both though, it might rip the bandage off.

They’ve all got LastPass now so they are getting better at using it to remember urls and details, if I could specify which browser for which saved credential in LP it would be amazing…

Anyway, will look at VMWare as a bare metal install with Server 2016/19 on top. I’ll have a spare machine ready I can plug into and run the shadow in the event of a total machine loss…

The phones/fax/printers are all IP based, so do touch the server, I’ll look into licences.

if I was better, I’d look into running a second DC within a second VM, but I suspect that’ll be beyond me. What’s the version of VMWare I need as a bare metal OS, just Workstation?

Thanks so much everybody, big help 🙂

Thanks everybody

Cougar: that’s the easiest explanation of VMWare I’ve read – thank you.  It’s a DL380 G6, so more than up to the job, just aware that Server 2006 is going to be end of life soon and everything is getting old.

Shocked myself this morning looking at the prices on eBay for a refurb unit, I think I’ll buy one and get it configured as a back up – really cheap option should there be a failure…  The server room is pretty hot, 28-32 degrees with little cooling/ventilation so I suppose I’m irrationally thinking it’ll shorten life expectancy.

I see Windows Server 2016 Essentials comes with two licences, so essentially I could run one as the OS to install VMWare on, and then once licence for the VM itself. I don’t really have any experience (beyond uni 20 years ago) of UNIX, so I don’t think I’d stray from Microsoft now.  I don’t really know what I’m doing to any great depth, but can get by at least.

That way, I’d be covered by RAID/backups if there’s a HDD failure, could rely on swapping to a back up copy of the VM on the first server if there was a software failure and if worst case there was a motherboard failure for example, I could just copy the VM box across to the spare server box/OS and away I go…

Sandwich: I don’t really want to lose Group Policy enforcement, folder redirection and roaming profiles amongst other things. We use O365 so don’t need worry about mail servers on site.

Fuzzy, I was thinking about just running one server and one DC.  It’s under no great load…  There are about 25 phones/fax machines (remember them) running through BT Cloud Voice going in next week.  They are Polycom VX601, and I’m not sure they can be given static IPs, so I think having a backup DCHP server is a must for us.

Ultimately, if I had spare server hardware, VM copies and good backups, is there any need for a second DC?

Sorry, one more, are CAL licences enforced in Server 2016 – I know they weren’t in 2008? It’s suggested that every device handled by the DHCP needs a licence.  We have a lot on the network, about 70 devices not including phones/tablets – I can’t believe people are buying CAL for all of the small devices, PDQs and printers?

Either way, the thread has made me realise I need a bit of help.  None of you do consultancy in Newcastle, do you? 😉