Anyone out riding this Sunday morning, and wouldn't mind one more tagging along, as for once I appear to have some spare time?

Oh yeah, on the subject of Shining Cliff, I don't know about anyone else, but it seems to me that whatever you think about the SSSI damage, you'd be crazy to ride the downhill trails at this time of year anyway, they'll just be a minging horrible mess and you'll mess them up for the summer. In the summer they'll be nice and dry and hard to damage. Although personally my favourite bit of track in there is actually one of the waymarked 'wide paths' that the signs appear to tell cyclists to keep to. The proper downhill trails look way too scary for my limited biking ability, especially when some of the waymarked paths have nice roots and rocks on anyway.

Joe

If I had to pick a town I'd go for Wirksworth over Belper, Ashbourne or Matlock – it's on the up (No I don't live there).

Wirksworth does always seem jolly nice when I go there. No train station though, which if you drive is less of a pain, but the train is jolly useful for people coming to visit us, and for when I go down to London for work – almost exactly 2 hours to London. Does it have a supermarket either?

Joe

Personally, I think there are really two and a half sensible smartphone options.

If you are only really interested in a)being able to check email and b)GPS, then windows mobile is okay, and memory map is pretty good (although costs a fair bit).

If you want an all singing & dancing smartphone that will still be useful in the future, then it is all about applications. In that case, either an Android phone, or an iPhone are the only real choices nowadays. Windows Mobile has pretty much failed in terms of getting a decent developer infrastructure and getting developers interested, Symbian has basically shafted all developers up the arse, so no-one much writes apps for that any more. Blackberry just doesn't seem to interest many developers for some reason – I guess they are mainly a bit too corporate.

Android phones have way better GPS chips than the current iPhones if GPS is important, and reportedly much better battery life when the GPS is being used, making them practical for all day rides.

Joe

If you wanted a language that is easy to learn, hard to get wrong, and still pretty powerful, then python would do the job. But it is far less of a learning challenge than C++.

Whatever you do, don't learn java, it is a sick abomination of a system – a sort of okay base language spoilt by all the really bad standard classes, and the horrible way that Sun choose to distribute it.

Joe

I don't think it tape does give a big advantage over a decent SD card camera. Quality in my experience of a good sd card camcorder is much better than even a pretty good consumer mini dv.

Joe

We have some Canon HF-100 camcorders. A bit above the price range, but the video quality is surprisingly good for a not too expensive consumer product. A zillion times better quality than our NV-GS something MiniDV cameras. They are SD card recorders. I think this is a big advantage for web video, as you have the video as a file on your computer straight away, so don't have to record it off the tape. It also puts things into clips each time you record, so you don't have to split up your tape.

If you have the latest Adobe Premiere as your editor, you can edit directly from the files, so there is basically no import time. It really is super. A lot better than tape.

If you have a Mac, and Final Cut, it doesn't play nicely with HD files, you have to import them, which takes ages (like 4-5 times the filming time). Absolute pain. We use Premiere. It is worth knowing what your editing software supports before considering anything other than a normal definition mini dv camera.

Joe

I've flown with Virgin a bunch of times and it has always been nice. I've flown with BA a few times and it has always been a bit uncomfortable, terrible food, grumpy service, dirty etc.

Watch out for 'code shares' though, some of the Virgin flights to the USA are actually run by Continental or United*, who are a bit like the Ryanair of long haul flying. I think BA may code share to some places also. You don't even get alcoholic drinks on them.

Having said all that, even though Virgin is much better in my experience, there's certainly not enough difference between them to make up for 25% difference in price. For that difference I'd probably fly Continental or United if I had to.

Joe

*I think London to San Francisco is sometimes a code share so do check this.

social rules based upon sharing, being kind to each other etc, based upon a belief system somehow makes it more tangible for the kids, and leads to better moral standards.

Really? How does Ireland fit into this as an example – a society explicitly based on the 'better moral standards' of christianity, where for some sad reason, 'better moral standards' have been perverted to include widespread turning of a blind eye to organised paedophilia and child abuse?

Or Saudi Arabia – are those 'better moral standards' that they have out there with their particular lovely religion?

Not that I have a problem with people believing in gods, but the idea that religious people are more moral, or otherwise superior to the rest, is kind of sad.

Joe

I wrote and drew a children's book for a kid's birthday recently (got it printed out by blurb.com). It took some time to do (actually probably about 10 hours drawing/layout time now I think about it) and to think up a story, but I think it was very much appreciated, and it's a fun thing to do. We did one for another kid at birth too, although that was hand made, which was quite an effort (probably well over 20 hours work in that one) – if you do a digital rather than hand-made one, they don't have to worry too much about kids messing up your lovely handiwork either, as it is easy enough to print off a replacement. Obviously a 1 year old won't be able to read text yet etc., so you'd need to make something very very basic, but if you make the pictures interesting, and text for parents to read out, you have something that can last a bit.

Have done similar for a few friends getting married too, although there are less rude jokes in the children's books than in the marriage books, and fewer octopuses and elephants in the marriage books.

I am a big fan of making stuff, particularly for people/kids that you know well, so you have a good chance of pitching it right.

Joe

SQR slim saddlebag.

http://www.simpsoncycles.co.uk/product.php?xProd=457

Most of the advantages of a rack and panniers, but without fitting a rack to your pride and joy (you just fit a quick release mounting bracket). Waterproof. No sweaty back. It isn't as big as panniers, but easily big enough for change of clothes & lunch.

Joe

Personally I really like Belper itself. It is like a proper place. Most of the other, smaller places, are less places where stuff goes on, and more places where people live, and drive away from if you know what I mean. If you're lucky you get a pub and a village shop.

Matlock is also a proper place, although personally I don't think it is such a nice one, and it is a pain if you have to get to Derby from there.

Joe

Oh yeah, and don't just move out of the UK because it sucks. Move somewhere because you want particular things. Otherwise you'll just be another grumpy ex-pat moaning about the wrong marmite, and waste the opportunity.

Joe

For from the door riding, plus decent work available close by, I'd rate the Peak District above New Zealand. I've lived and worked in both S Island NZ, and at the bottom of the Peak District.

New Zealand is a big place with a lot of private land and not so much easy access to the outdoors. Because it is such a big country, there are tons of trails, but a lot of driving to get to many of them. Having said that, there are some nice really big mountains, a few of which you are allowed to ride up.

I don't know how Canada is in terms of living where you are allowed to ride and still being close enough to get to work easily. Presumably as a biker you're meaning Vancouver or somewhere that side? You'd also have to deal with several months of not riding in a lot of places (although if you do winter sports too that may not matter).

You can't really say that the USA is good or bad for riding – it'd be like saying 'Europe is a good place to ride'. I hear Boulder is nice, and has some local riding. Again they have way more access issues and limits than the UK, you may end up driving a lot to ride, and a lot of places they don't ride off road in rainy season (can be all winter) or snow season.

I've briefly worked in Aus (but only for a couple of weeks on projects). I liked the riding, and it is by far the least like the UK place I've been – weird animals, deserts etc. which is cool to visit. It feels very back country. From riders I've met, they do seem a bit limited in terms of where you can ride, and riding from the door is unlikely. Again Oz is pretty big, I've only been to Sidney & Melbourne, I imagine things are different at the other ends. I hear good things from mates in Brisbane, as long as you can cope with riding in 35 degree+ heat.

Joe

I got a boardman comp just cos it was bike2work and thats what they had there and then. It was OK for about 2000 abusive all weather miles then needed new wheels, BB, headset, chain, cassette etc. So what you would expect really. Now I know what I like I would be more selective, but I wouldn't rule out another boardman.

Only 2000 miles? Did you do no maintenance?

I've changed chain and cassette on my Trek 1200, oh and brake pads. It's done probably over 6000 miles. I have mudguards – apparently they make a bit of a difference to maintenance, but even so, all that stuff breaking in such a small amount of riding is shocking?

For what it's worth, I very much like my Trek 1200 (Trek 1.2 now), although back when I got mine it came with better shifters (Tiagra), which I much prefer to the Sora ones. I'd look at the boardman though, just cos they look quite so good value.

I'd only buy something that fits mudguards as a first road bike, as then you can ride through the winter, or re-use it as a commuter without having to get a wet arse. It is also better for group rides (you don't spray crap in the eyes of the guy behind), and likely to be a bit more comfortable a type of first drop bar bike than a close clearance racing bike.

Joe

if you can sit back at that point, relax, get into your own pace and plod up the rest of the way. Who gives two hoots if the skinny bugger is stood around in the cold for five minutes waiting for you.

Once you can do a climb without stopping, you have the mental battle dealt with, from there you can argue with your legs and your lungs for future fights.

Exactly right. Mountain bikes have ludicrously low 22×34 type gears. There is no road anywhere that can't be ridden up with that gear, and certainly not a long but not terribly steep climb like the one you're talking about. If you feel the need to stop, then stick it in bottom gear and keep going rather than actually stopping.

Basically, if you're dying and actually having to stop on a road climb, you are going off too fast for your fitness level due to trying to keep up with fitter and faster mates. Go out and ride it again, all in low gear, just to prove you can do it, and don't worry about how fast other people are going. Once you know you can do it, you can start thinking about increasing fitness to keep up with people.

Joe

4 weeks (i.e. 28 days)? Isn't the clue in the name?

20 days is less than 4 weeks (or if you mean 20 working days, it may be different due to bank holidays etc.)

A month is typically more than 4 weeks.

Joe

How about the zoom lens that comes with the PEN 1

http://www.photozone.de/olympus–four-thirds-lens-tests/452-oly_m1442_3556

A lot flatter when closed than the other zooms.

Is there a disadvantage to using that with the Panasonic? I guess you don't get image stabilisation.

Joe

Although some products can differ in non-obvious ways – such as different quality bearings/sealing specified, or even in some cases different alloys used for parts etc. Some of these far east manufacturers offer quite a lot of configuration options in what they build (other than the obvious different logos being cut in things).

Joe

I've been a visiting health tourist scumbag* in Australia, New Zealand and France, without paying any cash except prescription charges, cos of the reciprocal agreements that we have with them.

Well if 60% of it really goes on salaries, I feel a blanket 10% pay cut might save 6% overall – which is a lot.
As this seems a little harsh on the lower paid employees it should probably be applied on a sliding scale such that the highest paid individuals get the highest percentage cut.
Saves cash with no reduction in service.*

I'm not convinced that cutting people's pay by 10% has no effect on how well or efficiently people do their jobs, or how many people apply for the jobs as people quit or are replaced. I reckon if you read up on it, you'd probably find that great big pay cuts have a positive impact for the first few months, but the massive deterioration in morale probably reduces the efficiency and ups the turnover of staff enough to outweigh the advantages pretty quickly.

Joe

*I've had bizarre accidents and put myself in A&E whilst working / on holiday in those countries

Is an electric oven not more efficient for cooking though?

Costs way more to run. In terms of how quick / well it cooks, they cook differently.

Fancy gas ovens heat up dead quick too, which is nice (at least no slower than electric ones, unlike cheap gas ovens).

To add to the confusion, you can get range cookers with gas one side, electricity the other side (we have one of these).

Gas is supposedly better for bread and baking (it is more moist or something, I can't remember), so some baking types like them more.

Gas tends to be a bit more uneven (hot at the top, cold at the bottom) compared to a fan oven (although I think you may be able to get gas fan ovens nowadays).

Our gas oven has timer on it to turn on/off, which is fine, exactly the same as on the last house's electric. We always end up using the gas side, because it is way cheaper to run.

If we had a just electric oven, we'd need to have it on a dedicated circuit, so would have needed the electrician in, as our house didn't have one (previous cookers were all gas I guess).

Joe

I have 110s on my unicycle. Now that is bloody confusing when you get on after you've been riding 175mm bike cranks.

Hey,

I'd be up for some local riding, annoyingly any evening except a Tuesday for me. I'm not really organised enough to do something weekly or anything, but it would be cool to get out and ride.

Yep it's good but way too short, 20min job but you land near The Holly Bush in Milford so you are rewarded.

Not if you go up to Lane End and Longwalls Lane to go into it from the back it isn't. Then it's a nice bit over an hour loop from Belper? Or at least it is if you ride at Joe speed – I am quite slow on the bike.

As you say, Shining Cliff is brilliant for a local ride. I ride there sometimes too. What is crich chase like? any good?

There are some great tracks, although they are probably a bit muddy in parts at the moment, so not as much fun as it was in the summer (same as Shining Cliff really).

Joe

If you don't drive, the old bit near the mill is nice, parking is a pain for those who do, but it is a lovely place to live, handy to walk to the shops and for the train station too.

Nowhere that I know of to avoid.

Joe

Nulabour wasting umpteeen £billions on the NHS computer is hardly insignificant, is it? They have wasted £26,000,000,000 on failed IT programmes mate, and should be hounded from office for that profligacy alone.

Yes. There should generally be a ban on the use of private sector consultants on government IT projects. You could employ a load of bloody good developers, system architects etc. in house for way less money than employing terrible consulting firms like EDS etc, who are basically employed due to their ability to play golf with high up executives. It is just a way to get stuff off the balance sheet that we end up paying way more for, and getting terrible quality work, by people who do the minimum to fit a poorly defined specification that is written by non-technical managers who understand neither computer systems, nor the work that is being done by front line workers. It's essentially what always happens when IT consultants come into somewhere that has no IT knowledge of its own, everyone gets ripped off (and the consultants probably don't have much fun either to be honest).

As a bonus, it'd stop them just saying today '99 billion quid project, starting next week', as if they really wanted to do something big, they'd need to consider hiring requirements, and generally plan projects properly.

Joe

You could look out towards Bracknell, you could live right near Swinley Forest for good mtb riding. A bit commutersville / suburbia, but I'm sure there are younger areas… Dead easy (8 mileish) ride to Egham.

Oh and lots of local riders too, nice people, (at least the ones I've met have been), good local mtb races etc.

Joe

I do roughly an hour each way commute but do work from home every so often.

If you live near enough to trails to ride from the door it is great. You just have to be stern with yourself when you're working from home, work the same number of hours you'd work at work, then go riding for the time you'd commute.

The bonus is that on a commute to home, you can move the hours round so you have twice as much time as each half of the days commute – a couple of hours is time to get a decent 15-20 miles of mountain biking in. Plus you can choose which direction you go in.

I don't ride as far as on a day I commute in on the road bike, but it does mean that I can ride off road, which is a nice change.

I did once have a job working at home 90% of the time – I had to be very organised about getting out riding then, but I managed it – and then I was living in London, where getting out riding meant 30 minutes on the train to get there.

I like riding on my own too – you don't have to wait for anyone (or they don't have to wait for you), you can go where you want, you don't have to fit round anyone's schedules or what hills people are happy to ride up. It is also great just being able to ride when it looks good to ride – like when it snowed hard, I dropped things for a couple of hours and did a great ride up the valley in fresh snow. Same goes for summer, when you have one of those amazingly sunny days, the trails are perfect, you can go for a quick couple of hours, yet still be able to get a full days work done.

Joe

Ooh, I forgot – I also have a Blue Peter badge, I got it last year when I did some work on a show.

By the way, on the Dr / PhD thing – PhD is something that American people put after their name to show they have a PhD, Dr is something that British people put before their name to show they have a PhD. So the people moaning about PhD being the correct title rather than doctor are probably just affected by US TV programs and celebrities.

Joe
(and obviously I don't use Dr in non-professional life – except when I want to open a bank account etc., but I do in some work things where it is vaguely important)

If you're looking at that data, it is worth also looking at

http://www.property-bee.com/

You need to install it in firefox, but it lets you know things like how long a property has been on the market, whether the price has been dropped at all, whether it has gone from sold back to available etc.

Joe

Ouch. Just googled it, and found
a) Some amazing videos of how fast the intel ones load stuff compared to a normal drive. Convincing me that I really could do with one.
b) The price. Oh well.

I didn't mean it was directly accountable, but kids are influenced by what they see, so it would be good if a little parental nouse was employed. IMO there's too much "ready violence" available to kids, games & movies all add to a sense of detachment from real pain and suffering that could be dangerous to vulnerable minds

If video nasties etc. really made any difference, wouldn't these horrible kid murders be becoming more common, rather than just happening every so often, same as they always have done?

Joe

New Forest is ideal for this – bike hire, easy tracks, easy to get to by train, loads of nice places to stay.

Or, Ashbourne in the Peak District and ride the Tissington Trail (easy ex-railway track with bike hire), although you need to get train to Derby + bus to get there, so you'd probably want to stay over to do that.

Cannock has easy family trails as well as follow the dog, although it is a bike ride away from the nearest station.

Swinley is also a bike ride away from Martin's Heron. It'd be a pain to get to though, probably need to change in London or somewhere, take you a couple of hours or so.

Maybe your best bet is to borrow a bike off someone local so you can ride round there, where you know where you're going, and it is nice and flat. Or even buy a cheap 2nd hand bike – if you add up the cost of train tickets etc. to go to one of these faraway places, plus the cost of bike hire etc. I bet it'd be way more than the £50 or so you'd need to get a 2nd hand bike capable of going on the local canal towpaths?

Joe

Just didnt really want to paying money not to get anything in return

For the future if at some point you want to buy a house, you should understand that you do that when you own a house too. Firstly on a mortgage some massive proportion of the amount you pay out is interest, which is just money thrown away to the bank. Then secondly, houses cost a lot in maintenance, which is included in rent, but obviously isn't included in a mortgage. Also, if you get into the position of having savings as a deposit, you will be earning interest on them, whereas when they are put into the house as a deposit, you no longer earn this.

Not to mention moving costs, which will be well into the thousands, the cost of deciding you want a fancier bathroom etc.

Oh and finally, by buying a house you are taking a gamble on prices, as if prices go down, you end up paying the bank more than the house is worth, and if prices go up, the next, bigger house you want to buy costs more, so you can lose out there too!

Joe

I have a PhD in magic* and Grade 8 trumpet.

Dr Joe
*I kid you not – "Creating Illusion in Computer Aided Performance" is the title. You can read it on my website.

The most disturbing thing about this thread is that zulu eleven posted a pair of graphs demonstrating that he clearly has no understanding of how to do basic statistics or even of how numerical measurement scales work and what units are, yet it is done in what looks disturbingly like some kind of professional statistics program, suggesting that he might possibly work in some kind of education or scientific establishment. Please tell us it isn't so?

If it has to last that long, you might need to think about how you are storing it – do you have a cellar or something?

Joe

I've downloaded games for my kid's DS on occasion. He's also got about 30 bought games, which he hardly ever plays.
£30 a time for these crappy little games is ridiculous (definitely to me, who can't stand the waste of time that is "gaming").

So what you're saying is that you bought a load of bad games, at full price, without even finding out what they are about. And they should be cheaper.

Two things really

1) they are cheaper – only a sucker pays £30 for a game except for the latest big game on the day of release. Most of my games (except for Zelda etc. that I had to buy straight away) cost under £20. Mostly new, although I have picked up a few 2nd hand ones.

2) I think you don't appreciate how much work goes into some of these games – things like Zelda have teams of 50+ people working on them, the cost is well into the millions of pounds, and there's only so many games they can sell (about 50 million maximum currently), so for games like that £30 seems pretty fair really.

It is depressing how people can completely write off a whole genre of stuff just because they don't understand it though – if I said "I can't stand those crappy little movies", or "I hate those crappy little books", people would think I was pretty stupid no?

I agree that piracy is wrong (and don't actually have any pirate software on my computer.)

I've also hacked DRM schemes for games in the dim and distant past – not because I wanted to pirate them, just because it was a pain having to have the physical disk when I wanted to play it. That was years back when I had the time to disassemble machine code in my spare time.

I've also written the damn things (DRM things), although complete waste of time that was (and the company wasted loads of support time when people managed to break their licences or someone important needed the software on their other computer straight away or whatever).

I don't think the PC market for games is screwed because of piracy though, it is because gaming PCs are so ludicrously expensive nowadays, at least the kind of configuration that will get you a better than console games experience is. Even if you buy the games on the console, you'd have to play a lot of games to make up for the extra cost of a PC (and the cost of upgrading it every 6 months to play the latest game).

In terms of the DS, I think Nintendo really lucked out that it isn't so easy / widespread to pirate games. I know loads of people with a DS, and only 1 person with a dodgy card (who doesn't buy any games at all – that 'try before you buy' argument is just rubbish in most cases).

Piracy is an odd one though – I imagine maybe at some point it'll stop being a problem for games companies as most games devices will have online connections, so we'll play most games on servers, where the money we pay is for the server account. That would be a right pain (no more 2nd hand games), but I wouldn't be surprised by it at some point.

Joe

Bad luck.

Will keep an eye out for it – looks pretty distinctive. Where abouts in Belper are you?

Joe

Apparently it takes 6 days 8 hours 43 minutes on a unicycle.

http://www.redwelly.co.uk/end2end/wordpress/

Although those two are quite silly fit.

Joe