Unlock it, recycle it, it’s yours.

You can’t just unlock a blocked phone. Networks can get them unblocked though.

You can get the IMEI changed, but that is hard with modern phones and really quite illegal as it’s something that only people who nick phones would ever want to do. Plus if it is a live IMEI that is cloned, you could get in trouble, as networks can detect that a phone is in two places at once / using two sims at once.

I’d power it up and look through the phonebook, someone on there (home, work etc.) will know who has lost their phone. If it wouldn’t power up, I’d stick the sim in my phone (or an old phone) and see if it had any phone numbers on.

Joe

Everything that is on the phone memory gets lost. Stuff on the memory card doesn’t go. You need to back it up first.

It sucks, and I guess is a throwback to their 15 or so year old operating system design, which they really ought to get fixed some point soon, especially given they seem to go through 10 or so updates for each phone model.

Joe

You can upgrade the firmware using Nokia PC Suite (on your computer).

It does eat all your settings and things, but there is a backup program in PC Suite that can back them up and restore them.

Version 11 is ancient, mine is v30, and I think there is a later one. It works much better (and battery life is better) with the newer firmwares.

Joe

If you have a data contract (i.e. you can use the internet on your phone), then go to ‘tools’,’settings’,’general’,’positioning’,’positioning methods’, and make sure ‘assisted gps’ has a tick next to it (as well as integrated gps).

This will make it download about 2kb from the network each time you start the GPS, which tells it where all the satellites are, meaning it locks on very quickly.

If you don’t have this on, then to get a lock, just leave it somewhere with a view of the sky for a couple of minutes or so (it might be a bit longer the very first time ever). Mine locks on okay on if left inside, on or near a windowsill.

Joe

C, 9 times out of 10 I overtake.

Undertake in stationary traffic when I can see it isn’t going to start suddenly.

Wait around if we’re all waiting for a red light and there is no point hurrying.

It always makes me cringe when I see people undertake moving lorries, buses (or worst, London bendy buses on a left hand bend). There’s just nowhere to go if they decide to pull in.

Joe

Cynic-al – curious as to why tinker-belle is incorrent with saying that if a cancellation term hasn’t been agreed why they would they be forced to pay anything?

If you’ve signed up to pay someone a certain amount for a service on a particular date, in a contract with no cancellation terms, then by default you can’t just cancel. You have agreed to pay that money. All the cancellation charge does is gives you an option to get out of the agreed contract for a fixed fee, rather than having to have arguments / negotiation about it. You can’t just go breaking any old contract just because it doesn’t say how the money will be sorted in the event of you not wanting the service.

Joe

I have a blackburn one. It eats batteries, and only ever seems to work for about 100 miles before starting to break (crashing and losing all the data, or just hanging stuck on one value). It also doesn’t like to work in the wet.

They are very fancy, and work very well when they do work, but I reckon they aren’t really built for UK weather or for people who ride very far ever.

Joe

You may find it worthwhile checking your tyres at least once a month for cuts by deflating them, picking out all the bits then glueing up the cuts with superglue, leaving for a couple of hours and re-inflating to the correct pressure.

That sounds like it might be a good idea if I could be bothered. I found a bit of glass in my torn GP4000 S, that was sharp and pointy, and had obviously been in for ages, about 2mm long, I was quite surprised that it hadn’t had a puncture earlier with that having been stuck in it.

Joe

Patches will hold up fine, but it is a bit hard to get small enough patches. I had some ‘tip top’ ones which work, but other ones I’ve tried have needed to be torn in half. Personally I so rarely get punctures on the road bike that I’ve got a bit out of the habit of fixing them, although I always carry a kit in case I puncture more than one tube.

I use Continental GP4000 S, it is a bit of a racey tyre (and quite expensive). They are jolly nice to ride though. I just had the same thing happen to me, big tear (rode over a big sharp stone about 2 inches long), and the tyre was a goner, which is annoying, but the hole in the tube was a neat circular hole about 5mm wide, so I guess it isn’t surprising that the tyre took some damage too. It was still together enough to get me home, but had a bulge in it. Before that I hadn’t had a puncture in >2000 miles though.

Joe

This requires a certain number of staff with expertise, that might not be tied to particular projects – whether it’s termed as ‘admin’ or ‘overhead’ costs isn’t really relevant. A move towards the short-termist view that ‘admin’ costs need to be kept to a minimum

We had someone at a party once say to my wife, who was working for a charity – “don’t you feel guilty taking money from a charity”! He did have a bit of a warped perspective on money I think though, being someone who owned much of Herefordshire or something (and wacky right wing christian views about things to boot.)

I think people are pretty stupid about charities, and don’t realise that much of the work they do actually takes skilled people and training, which makes it cost less to hire people with experience than to use volunteers, as volunteers are quite expensive to train up, and have a tendency to bugger off at inconvenient points, thus wasting the money spent on training them.

Joe

It is annoying having to buy maps twice.

The viewranger national parks 1:50k is good value if you happen to ride near any National Parks. Also, you can buy just an area of your choice for £20, and you get quite a large area for that.

I’ve used http://www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php to create routes before, it has both google maps road maps (and can create routes that follow roads) and OS maps (for off road planning), all in one handy screen.

Joe

Hmph. I wish people would try to race me on my commute. I love commuter racing, but the only people I see on the road round here seem to be flat barred, knobbly tired slow coaches.

Joe

joemarshall – 3G defaults on wherever available, otherwise it goes back onto the normal network.

Yeah, and eats your battery, because when it has GSM signal only, it repeatedly looks for 3g signal in order to try and get something better. Whereas if you stick it on gsm only, it doesn’t, because it is happy with just a GSM signal. At least that is the case on phones I’ve used.

Joe

When I did it, it was all just keep pointing the right way stuff. Thinking about it / looking at dates on my pics it is more like 4-5 years ago. This is a video (from someone else) of what it used to be like and roughly how I remember it. I guess it must have changed a fair bit if you’re describing it as super technical.

http://www.mtbbritain.co.uk/images/pindale.wmv

Cave Dale on the other hand I never have got to the bottom of the last section without crashing. That short section is a whole world of steep, slippy, rocky pain.

Joe

Pin Dale not technical? What planet are you on Joe? That top descent is one of the most technical descents in the peaks!

Really? Has it got a lot harder in the last year or so since I did it?

Cave Dale is very technical. But Pin Dale, the singletrack bits there is a choice of whether to do them, and they weren’t that hard when I rode them.

Joe

Derwent Edge, Whinstone Lee Tor descents aren’t technical. Although the climb up to the top is a bit steep.

Or do the loop round from Hope -> Roman Road -> Edale -> to Mam Tor (on the road) -> down old Mam Tor road (Broken Road), lunch stop -> up Winnats Pass (road) -> Oxlow, Dirtlow Rake -> Pin Dale -> Hope. There isn’t anything very technical on that loop (okay there’s the one river crossing, but it is super easy), it’s a beautiful ride, has a nice number of hills on it, and is about the right length. I think it skips all the technical bits.

Joe

If it’s not the iPhone, then (assuming you’re within the cooling off period on your contract) I’d find out which of your mates has an orange phone, and get them over to see if they have good signal.

The booster thing will just be a hassle, and you’ll have to keep switching 3g on and off each time you want to use it outside the house.

Joe

Bear in mind that this will probably only amplify gsm, not 3g signal. If you’re wanting a fancy phone (presumably you are as you can’t get it from Vodafone), the flashy internet features will be slow, and it will eat battery trying to find a 3g signal all the time, unless you switch it to only use gsm.

£110 seems a lot of extra money just to have a particular phone. Is it because you want an iPhone?

Joe

Looking closer, the ceiling has some kind of boarding screwed on, in between each of the roof beams (the big wooden beams going across are visible). Surely this boarding must be screwed onto something? Or could that just be screwed on the original plaster ceiling?

Spring toggles look like they might do the job anyway.

Joe

Are skyhooks near the stripy paint? Or is that a comedy brand name for something?

Any ideas how I tell if it’s in a ceiling joist – I’ve tried knocking all along the board and I can’t tell where the joists are. It is a funny old house (built in 1790), does that make any difference to how the ceiling might be constructed?

Joe

From this article, it says that the new US law is 42 US mpg, which is actually almost exactly the 50 UK miles per gallon that you are suggesting in your first post.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30810514/

I suspect from the coincidence in the numbers, that you got your 35mpg number from a UK article which had also done the maths the wrong way round, and then did your own conversion on it to get to your far out figure.

Joe

This is essentially a giant public-relations fiasco. There has been little actual illegality, no corruption in any meaningful sense, just a bizarrely stupid expenses system which a lot of people have played rather hard

‘played rather hard’? They’ve blatantly broken the rules of the expenses system, most obviously the main one that expenses are to be solely things vital to allow them to do the job. Unless they’ve got a special exemption to allow them to commit tax fraud, not paying tax on perks (excepting job related expenses) is against the law no?

Joe

Just turn it off (at the wall socket too, not just on the computer), unscrew + unplug plugs from old drive, plug em in the same place on the new one, turn it back on again. Nothing more to it, as long as they are both the same kind of drive (probably will be).

If it has different plugs/sockets on the back of the drive, it might be more complicated, but it probably won’t.

Joe

1 Imperial (UK) gallon = 1.20095042 US gallons.

Thus making 35 miles per US gallon
= 35*1.2 miles per imperial gallon
= 42 British mpg?

No?

Joe

You could use that (assuming you’re in Australia), or a similar one from maplin.

You’d just have to solder up the connectors. If you have access to a soldering iron, and can be bothered, it’d be a cheap way of getting the lights back to a usable condition, and would use the same charger.

To get a lighter battery would probably mean a new charger too, which is taking you into the same kind of money as buying a cheap LED torch plus batteries + charger, which will be brighter & less hassle.

Joe

You’re right. For the final step I had to go to “References->Insert Caption” instead.
Took me nearly 15 seconds to find. I can see why people get confused

Okay, you’ve now managed to insert a broken caption, which doesn’t move when the picture is moved, doesn’t wrap correctly, and generally messes up any time you edit the document. Well done.

I can see why people get confused too!

Joe

joe: hmm.. not something I’d ever needed to do, but I just had a go.

Insert->Picture (inserts it and automatically and switches me to the Format tab)
Format->Position->Bottom Center (moves the image, showing me a preview as I hover over the options)
Right click on Picture and Insert Caption.

Job done.

Now try and do that in a document that has to be written in a .doc file (ie. in ‘compatibility mode’ for submission to a publisher. Suddenly the ‘insert caption’ disappears after step 1.

Joe

It is okay, but some things are silly and hard.

Like: if you want an image that is floating (eg. so it sticks at the bottom of the page), how do you add a caption to it?

The only way I can find is
1) put in the image as inline image
2) right click, do ‘add caption’
3) now create a drawing canvas that is way bigger than the image
4) float the drawing canvas
5) copy and paste the image into the canvas
6) copy and paste the caption into the canvas
7) resize the canvas to fit

It used to be ‘insert image’, ‘tell it to float the image’, ‘add caption’.

Joe

Edit: Aha, you can do insert text box, then insert image, then add caption, then float the text box to where you want it. It is still uite counter intuitive.

If it is word in particular, it sounds like you have word 2007, with the ‘ribbon’ thing at the top (it isn’t anything to do with vista, just the latest version of word).

If it is the ribbon that is pissing you off, you can buy a plugin that puts menus/toolbars on it:
http://www.addintools.com/english/menuword/

You do get used to the ribbon after a while, although it is annoying still, and I do keep having to help people use word now, which I never did with older versions.

Joe

If you aren’t worried about the phone, why not just buy another one like you’ve got. It would cost about a tenner for that or a similar cheap nokia. You could then stick your sim in it, pay your £9 a month, and you’d save yourself £11 a month.

3 roam onto Orange for their 2g network, so anywhere orange can be got, you should be able to get 3.

It is possible to find out which networks have signal in your house by using the settings menu on your phone – if you tell it ‘network selection’ is ‘manual’, then it will show you a list. However you can’t check 3 on your current phone because it doesn’t support 3g.

Joe

and obviously ViewRanger would have to port their software to the iPhone as well, which could take them a while I guess…

It’s not really a port, it’s a complete rewrite, given the way iPhone development is different to everything else in the world (as is Symbian development, where viewranger works now for that matter).

Joe

Haven’t ridden it for years, but it used to be a complete horsed up mudfest and a waste of time.

Joe

It is hard, but really I think all you can do is be there for them, and make sure they know you will support them whatever they choose to do, rather than make them feel that you’d only support one course of action (ie. go to the doctors). Otherwise you risk alienating them in the case they don’t do what you want them to do.

Bearing in mind that treatment is complex, and what works for some people doesn’t work for others, particularly where medication is concerned, but also with respect to counselling / therapy stuff. The only person who can evaluate any of this and choose what to do has to be the person themselves.

Joe

Having trouble with your 1 wheeled mountain bike just now??

For doing 32 miles a day I am. I just don’t have the time to spend 4 hours a day riding to/from work on the unicycle, whereas I’m guessing I could do it quicker on a mountain bike, making an offroad route at least possible some days in summer.

Joe

Where do people mount ring ring bells on their road bikes?

I have a ting bell, which is o-ring fitted, and goes at the top of the drops, but the ring ring bells I’ve found won’t clamp over anything other than a 25.4mm bar, so not in the middle of the oversize bars, or on the stem.

Joe

I think I could do almost all of my 16 mile commute off road, but until I get hold of a two wheeled mountain bike, I think I’ll stick to the road bike.

Joe

Gave me a jolt when I registered the text in this Olympus ad. I wasn’t offended, but do think it gives one rather a shock. Especially if you know somebody who hasn’t returned.

I don’t think it’s that offensive. I mean part of the excitement of doing that kind of silly mountaineering is the risk, it’s just suggesting that that kind of not too afraid of dying people might use the camera.

Joe

The harveys are really good on the ones I’ve used.

Joe

Like the above comments but each to their own thoughts mostly wrong. if i was you i would fit an electric one as a back up combis go wrong also so at least you can shower. yes electric showers give a poor flow compaired to a power shower or combi but they do the job they are designed for.

Right, so even someone who installs showers for a living says that they don’t give as good flow as a combi, and the only reason you can suggest for having it is so that you can have a hot shower if the boiler breaks down. Personally, I’d rather have a good shower when the boiler is working, than a rubbish shower that still works without the boiler.

Joe

Oh, it’s because your phone doesn’t support 3g. 3 don’t like that because they have to pay orange for all calls made on the 2g network. So, if they notice that someone is only connecting with a 2g phone, they lock your sim. It’s on the stuff you read when you sign up, but probably isn’t obvious to someone who doesn’t know phones.

You need a new phone to use it on the 3 network.

Joe