For what it’s worth, I had a Nexus 7 for a couple of months, sold it to get an iPad Mini, basically because I’m so locked into the Apple way (iPhone, iMac etc etc) and having a different OS was a bit of a faff.

That said, it really is that much nicer to use than the Nexus – the whole unit feels a lot more professional, just that bit better built. Sure, a Retina screen would have been nice, but it’s still crystal clear and I’m sure I’d only notice the difference in a side-by-side comparison.

Really nice bit of kit.

I’m guessing mine is fairly inappropriate. There’s now a baby seat in the back as well – it’s a practical family car I keep telling the wife.

Yes… and what Android devices can run Ice Cream Sandwich: “Theoretically should work for any 2.3 device.” says Google so anything prior to that (May 2010) is incompatible?

Afraid I don’t have a clue when it comes to Android. Besides, it’s a competely different model when you have different companies responsible for the hardware and OS.

Given that Apple are supporting the 3GS iPhone on iSO6, albeit it a slightly reduced manner, I’m sure they could have done so for the iPad 1.

Not so much planned obsolescence as just progress. Things change. Hardware gets better. New features are added. Apps use new hardware and features.

Although the iPhone 3GS, which is older than the original iPad and incidentally Apple is still selling is compatible with iOS6, but the iPad, which is newer but Apple don’t sell any more, will not.

Maybe not planned obsolecence, but certainly convenient.

Be warned though, the original iPad won;t run iOS6 when it’s released. Whether that means that increasinly apps won’t be compatible, I don’t know but is effectly rendering a 2 year old bit of hardware obsolete.

elliptic – Member

I’m in the market for a road bike and was looking for a 105 groupset but what is the equivalent in campagnolo and SRAM?

SRAM equivalent would be Rival, which is what I have on my PX.

And for Campag the equivalent would arguably be Centaur…

The Nexus 7 is a really good bit of kit – doesn’t feel ‘budget’ at all, it’s quick, the screen is excellent and the small size is a bonus – haven’t touched the iPad since I bought this. Only disadvantages are the lack of SD card and 3G, both of which I think I can probably work around.

Google Play delivered mine in 2 days (ordered on a Friday, received on Monday).

For the sake of £20 I can’t see any reason not to. I bought a RoadID band from the States, when I’m not riding it lives in my helmet with my gloves and sunglasses and I’ve got into the habit of wearing it whenever I ride. No reason not to.

Drove my old diesel X-Type jag through a fairly deep (18″ to 2′) puddle. 4×4 sped through in the other direction, car stalled and I made the mistake of trying to restart it.

Did you know it costs about £8k to dry out and replace the engine in an x-type jag?

With a Pod or similar, you’re probably better off with a full range amp rather than a guitar-specific one. Using a dedicated guitar amp with an amp-modeller kinda defeats the purpose really.
I use a small Mackie Monitor with a pocket Pod and it’s not bad at all. Not battery powered though.

That said, either an acoustic guitar or headphones into the pod would probably be easier!

Sub £500, I’d probably be looking at Seiko. Otherwise, a Speedbird from Timefactors would do the job nicely. The sales forum on tz-uk is about the best place on the web to buy secondhand from, but you need quite a few posts on the other fora before you can view it.

Otherwise, check out Chronomaster[/url] for a load of brands you probably wouldn’t come across normally. Something like Steinhart might fit the bill. Rather Rolex ‘inspired’ but decent pieces in their own right.

You won’t get on the ‘Row for less than £3k bespoke, but there are a few options in London for genuine bespoke suits for half that.

Personally, I’d recommend Chris Kerr[/url] on Berwick St in Soho. He claims not to have a house style, but I’ve had two suits made by him now (including my wedding suit) and they’re definitely on the more fitted, slimmer side.

The whole process takes 4-6 weeks and for me required 2 fittings, but he’d have done more if they were needed. Cost-wise, a three piece would be about £1600, two piece £1300. Depends on cloth to a certain extent, but those prices will cover most of the books he’s got.

Don’t have one of the road bike to hand, but will be riding this tonight (on the turbo trainer unfortunately).

What CaptJon said… Don’t buy anything yet. The MBA / MBP range is overdue a facelift with the rumour being that Apple will merge the two lines / launch slimline MBPs / retina displays etc.

As a slight aside, if you do decide to complain, then download their complaints procedure first and follow it to the letter. It’ll have timescales and deadlines etc which they’ll have to adhere to.
Generally, you can’t go to the FOS until you’ve been through the company’s complaints process.

Cheers… I’d not really thought about seats which go in front of the rider. Will go and have look.

If you believe the marketing blurb then the IWCs which do use an ETA ebauche (most of the higher end models have manufacture movements) are still heavily modified, hence the reluctance to let other people service them.

Swatch have actually started restricting supply of their movements now so many Swiss manufacturers have had to go in-house much lower down the range than before.

Would strongly suggest you try a few on and see what’s comfortable. Sidi (for road shoes at least) tend to come up rather narrow so just don’t fit me, however pretty they may be.

Hodgson’s the more obvious choice for the FA now… much cheaper than Harry and likely to be far more compliant. Can you imagine Harry relocating up to Burton? I bet that’s a stipulation for the new manager – run the national team from the new FA centre.

I reckon they’ve pretty much written the Euros off anyway – by not announcing a new manager until just before the tournament they’ve effectively absolved them from any blame if they do fail.

I’m a 10 in regular shoes and take a 10 in Mavic, although they seem to have different lasts for different shoes. I’ve got 2 pairs of road shoes (one for sale in the Classifieds!) and the Avenir seem to come up slightly wider than the Zxellium.

I’ve had a an ASR5c for a year or so… lovely bike which replaced a 5-Spot.

Couple of thoughts though… I went for the carbon version after testing the alloy one and thinking that the carbon would be even better. With hindsight, there’s very little between the two in practice and with the ASR5c you are limited to 120mm forks (I think), plus the routing for the Reverb is ugly.

Don’t get me wrong, the ASR5c is a top bike and I love it, but the extra cash would have probably been better spent on better wheels or beer.

Sounds like it might be worth waiting til we’re there and then making some enquiries if the snow’s any good.

We’d look to hire transceiver/shovel/probe in resort…

Cheers for the responses

We’ve used an Isofix one in our car (BMW) since birth…. never read anything to say not to, to be honest. I was led to believe that neither Isofix nor belt fastening was inherently safer, but the Isofix method was much less likely to be fitted incorrectly. I’m now researching Group 1 seats and the latest Which report suggested that most (92% in the test they did) car seats are incorrectly fitted, so worth bearing in mind.

The fittings on our Isofix are only 2 points, both at the back of the base, with the third ‘anchor’ point being the carry handle against the seat back… I’m not sure that this would transmit bumps any more than using belts.

I’ve done 4 or 5 courses with Neil McNab and really rate them. He’s as good a tutor as you’ll find and we never failed to find some great snow. As mentioned this often meant a trip through the tunnel to Courmeyeur to play in the trees when visibility was bad. One of the benefits of Chamonix – when the weathers bad in one place it’s often ok elsewhere in the valley.
That said, they’re tough going and you’ll be expected to be of a decent standard for off piste courses.

Another alternative is to look at Cold Fusion. Also in Chamonix they sort the accommodation and liaise with a ski/snowboard school to provide tuition / guiding. I had a week there last year and even though we had no real snowfall the whole week, our guide found some amazing lines throughout.

A mate of mine once slept with Little Jimmie Krankie… Schoolboy error.

We’ve got an ADT monitored alarm so they phone us when it goes off. Only gone off a couple of times in several years, both our fault… To be honest, we probably wouldn’t bother if it wasn’t a condition of our house insurance.

Mrsbond managed to get us a reservation at Mrs Paisley’s Lashings a couple of years back which was great fun. It’s basically an organic ‘pop-up’ restaurant which ran periodically for a week or so at Ronnie Wood’s old house in Kingston hosted by his ex-wife Jo, who met you for drinks when you arrived.
The food was great, wine superb but it was the whole atmosphere which made it. Half the house was open to just wander round, play billiards, potter round the garden etc. Billie Piper was on the table behind us, some model and another actor I apparently should have recognised on the table in front. All quite bizarre.

I’ve eaten in 3 of the 4 3* restaurants in the UK (all bar the Fat Duck) and of those I think Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester was probably the best. Everything was just spot on, great food and wine, service which was friendly, attentive but not overbearing and a lovely feel to the place. Waterside Inn was particularly disappointing, just didn’t feel particularly special, waiters didn’t have a clue about the menu or the wine and hideously expensive.

That said, the best meal I’ve ever had was either at Dinner (the Meat-fruit starter and the Tipsy Cake were two of the best things I’ve ever eaten) or the tasting menu at Marcus Wareing at the Berkley.

Check your policy document – that’s the contract you’ve signed up to so they should be able to point to the clause which allows them to avoid the claim.

Chamonix’s not the best resort to learn in, but of five regions, Le Tour is definitely the best area to start. You’ve got the bunny slopes at the bottom then a load of nice flowing, wide blues just off the second lift. Nothing too sketchy unless you go looking for it.

I never really minded the buses, but I guess they can be a drag, particularly if you’re staying in Cham and heading to Le Tour at the other end of the valley. I’d second the above and look for somewhere in Argentiere (Le Tour village is pretty small).

MrBlond – Member
Rapha Musette is tiny.

‘Small Shoulder Bag’?

http://www.rapha.cc/small-shoulder-bag

Is it wrong to hate the two people in the rapha photo?

Cougar – Member
When you crack a situational joke in your head, and there’s no-one around to appreciate it, and it’s the funniest, wittiest thing EVAR but you know that if you ever tell anyone, the moment has passed and it won’t be funny.

There must be a name for that. It happens to me pretty much daily.

The French have ‘L’esprit de l’escalier’ for when you think of a comeback too late and the moment has past…

Been a while since I’ve looked at guitars but unless they’ve improved at lot, Epiphone was never great value. Traded off the name and you could get better guitars for less money.
Tokai LPs, from memory, were always very good. Not quite as exact a copy as the Epi, but better construction, better materials etc.

As I said though, that may have all changed.

Doubt £500 will get you a Gibson LP but you may be able to pick up a s/h SG?

Have a look on the ‘Quarterly Eurospam thread’ on the Harmony Central Guitar forum for some secondhand bargains.

No

We moved into a listed building at the beginning of the year… no probs so far, or at least none that weren’t highlighted in the survey.

Paid for a full survey – not cheap, but the surveyor was there the whole day 9.30 – 5pm and we met him on site for a couple of hours at the end of the day so he could explain his findings. Meant we went into the purchase with our eyes open.

We’re currently insured through Hiscox – choice of insurers is somewhat limited and again, not exactly bargain basement.

We’ve not tried to do anything to the property which would need planning permission, apparently our local planning officer is perfectly reasonable provided you start talking to her early in the process, so can’t help there.

Seiko Monster or a Seiko 5.
I picked up a secondhand one of these less than a ton and for the price, the quality is outstanding. Really well built and a nice, non-hacking / non-wind auto movement. They do also come in black.

richc – Member
With that grahams watch, any ideas what the plastic lever clicky bit is for?

Make it look like a hand-grenade.

(I’m guessing it starts and stops the chronometer)

Besides, this is what real Special Forces wear… says so on the dial.

Ignoring the dodgy ‘special forces’ connections, it looks like a £10 quartz movement in an overbuilt steel case selling for quite a lot of cash.

Unless you really need the ‘stealth’ look, then I’d just pick up a Seiko Monster – about a £120, bomb-proof case, decent auto movement etc.