I didn’t bother, never missed it. Can use wi-fi hotspot on iPhone if desperate but the majority of places I’d want to kill time at have provided wi-fi cover.

It is worthwhile getting a pay as u go dongle though as allows access to the various providers wi-fi coverage in the included cost as well (depending on which brand u go with) or sign up with a contract with them.

Hilarious ! I inherited a laguna tourer 1.9 when I purchased a company. 18 months old only issue I had was the pressure senders on the valve caps. Sold it to my father in law for the balloon at 3 years (£4.5k) … And four years later hes just started talking to me again.

Collapsed front steering arms, £400 for self levelling headlights, dash LCD panels died, spat out two turbo’s (literally) brake disks that lasted less than his tyres, tyres that lasted less than the tank of diesel, wiper motor shorted out the steering column controls and the alternator dropped clean off after shearing itself free.

Nice sunroof though.

Turning off all start up programmes may also help, take a system snapshot in case u need to roll back to it then …

click on start then in search box just above type msconfig and hit enter.

Select the startup tab, and deselect all non windows system applications, pays to do a couple at a time to isolate whats being a resource hog.

It’s also often handy to ctr+alt+del then select system performance (I think that’s what it’s called) which will chart what resources are being used. Running software will indicate spikes in resource use again.

Unfortunatly the research show no significant reduction in head injuries, massive reduction in people cycling and hundreds of extra deaths as a result of people stopping cycling

You should pop down Rotorua way, or any school bike shed in nz for that matter then come back with the statistics of the “massive reduction” in cycling caused by compulsive liddery. Sure didn’t look like it last time I looked, in fact quite the opposite. Anecdotal definately … But then 92% of statistics are made up anyway.

Helmets have been compulsory in NZ for as long as I can remember, and the constabulary are quite happy to pull u and ticket u for not wearing one. Whiles there’s been many great debates on the merits or otherwise, it’s now seen as the norm.

The upside is every kid grabs his helmet first, it’s not seen as “spazzy” or otherwise, it’s become the norm and I’m sure many spills have been lessened as a result, mine included.

Kids like to emulate, be it cycle helmets, rugby head gear (aka the proliferation of black covers with peace symbols following mr kronfields protest) or Steve Peat body armour.

I guess that’s why clubs have their policy, set the example.

The lady walking her two dogs the wrong way on the sherwood pines red on Tuesday almost had me cr*ping on the trail !

She tried doing the decent thing by pulling them to the side of the trail, but as any dog will do when u pull his collar … Just swung his backside broadside. All I heard was 100kg of riding companion clattering to a stop behind me.

Don’t think it’s BMW’s that create the attitude, I think it’s people’s perception that ur a w**nker if u display wealth. I drive a jaguar xf, through my company (I’d rather enjoy the earnings than give an additional 20% to the taxman). I used to commute 110 miles a day so all I cared about was comfort.

In the 2 years I have owned it EVERY panel has been damaged, the badges stolen, and the paint keyed twice. I once walked up to my car in a tesco car park to watch a lady crack my door three times with the corner of hers so she could get her obese backside out of her own. On walking up and up and asking if she was right she started having a go that I shouldn’t drive such a large car (she was in a galaxy s-max) !!

Sent the obligatory letters to get her to pay for touch up (£75) but obviously never paid, cheers for that.

As to cost, just over £420 a month ex vat on a 0% finance. Not cheap but I won’t lift the bonnet the entire time I own it (touch wood), if I want rid I simply hand it back, if I want to down grade / upgrade I can without hassle. the balloon is stupid low (again I hope). It was cheaper than an equivalent mondeo once the spec was matched and finance put into the equation.

And knowing people within the industry, I’ve been told that there is very little (if any) margins in a new car, in fact some are actually loss leaders. But manufacturers know (obviously land rover know better than anyone) that money is made on servicing, accessories and the big windfall when they get the vehicle back and they get to sell it on again.

And remember, every person who buys a new vehicle is taking the first step in creating a Market that will trickle down, looking at the jaguar website now there are hundreds of XF’s less than half sticker price at the 3-4 year (ex lease) point entering the Market. Absolute bargains !!!

I’ve travelled twice with an iMac, once in a tenba case, and having learnt the lesson the second in a pelican 1690 case. Never … Ever again!

For the savings benefits, it’s absolutely not worth it, not only will u herniate yourself dragging it round the airport, but u’ll spend the entire flight worrying about how many pieces it will arrive in. Then u’ll have a Keyboard with no £££ key on it, and a battle if anything goes wrong with it …

And go to the crucial site for ur memory, £75 for a 16gb package !!!!

To those of you that have had problems with this – learn the law. I have done dismissal from both sides. Its very simple to sack someone for poor performance and to make that watertight at tribunal. However most employers don’t bother doing things properly and thus leave themselves open for claims

Less so when the “recipient” is either non-compliant to the process, or simply not at work due to whatever reason the medical profession want to sign them off for as per my example above.

Throw in every other accusation they can think of (discrimination / constructive dismissal et all) and even when water tight from an administrative perspective you can (and no doubt will) end up before the tribunals so yet more time / expense and effort is wasted. For a small business this can be crippling in itself.

Dagg and Kahui so far …

Brack … poor form.

Its part of our culture regardless, wether Pakeha, Maori or otherwise.

Every kid is educated in this regard, college rugby games would have both schools lined up on opposite sidelines with every one participating.

flash haka

Raises the neck hairs …

Just did same, some very competitive offers on eBay at the minute. Picked up a set of w-drives with alloys for less than the tyre cost elsewhere.

Would highly recommend mentor services, they have a 24hr advice line that you call before any action is taken, and subsequently provide cover should anything further eventuate. I had 18 employees and cost just over £100 month for their service, which also incorporates health and safety.

I was very surprised following my last “experience” that the ex-employees case was being funded by their home insurance policy, which on further investigation seems to be a very common occurrence these days,

This an employee who turned into work visibly under the influence and sent home (after a previous warning for similar), yet believed that because they had arrived at work they should be paid. Obviously not being paid meant the employer / employee relationship had broken down so they could no longer work and considered themselves constructively dismissed (after three months of stress related leave).

Speaking to my representative last time, it seems the majority of dismissals these days end up before the tribunals who are being swamped. They try to weed out some of the chaff with pre-trial mediations etc, and there is also speak of the plaintiff having to pay a bond which is forfeit should they lose.

And while there are plenty of justified reasons, and cases of poor employer practices, a small business can be very very easily strangled by an individual who knows how to “play” the system. I personally seemed to spend the bulk of my time dealing with peoples issues, the majority of which were caused by external influence, then bought into the workplace. The process of performance managing out is at best a 3 month process (assuming easily identifiable KPI’s), often made longer with the “introduction” of stress leave, and various other tactics. In the meantime the employer has to fund it all, suffer the loss in production / service levels and graciously smile throughout.

I’m glad to be out, and I wonder if some of the loudest supporters of workers rights would be quite so vocal after having endured the process of having destructive employees taking money out of their own pockets ?

You can obtain cover for both representation, and subsequent payout. Most chambers of commerce membership includes, or can highly recommend Mentor Services who are part of the RBS.

Part of their litigation assessment is the equation of the cost of service vs potential payout, and often they will go with the former if it’s more prudent.

Having been on the receiving end of two tribunals to date I’m glad I have cover, both claims were completely without merit, but given the cost to the claimant is zero, they will have a go anyway. Waste of everyone’s time.

Regards original post, there is little you can do bar appealing. Phoenixing the company would no doubt transfer the liability under tupe, and cause a lot more problems on top so not a good option.

Ditto CF, between 13.5 – 14 stone on a good day, and have been riding crests from over 12 months now. Had the same nervousness as yourself to start with, and used to swap to a 819’s on the bigger days.

Did C-y-B and forgot to swap over the wheels, Did the beast on the Crests and X-kings without any hitch, and they have stayed in place ever since. They are ridiculously light for what they can sustain.

Crikey ,,, lots of opinions !!!

Is there any reason for the Carbon frame to feature so high on the shopping list ? Speaking from my personal (read please don’t slaughter) I found carbon frames to offer very little benefit, in fact in a lot of situations I found it worse.

I owned both a S-works stump jumper, followed by a Carbon Marathon frame built up with basically the same components. Never really felt comfortable on either. In my language I found both very “twangy”, and the vibrations a killer on longer rides. After selling on both I found a decent cheap M5 stump jumper frame here on STW and figured I’d use it as a cheap build up.

Never been happier ! Am happy to chuck it in the back of the car without fear someone else’s peddle is going to punch a hole in it, it doesn’t go all fluffy where my heels rub against it, the laquer doesn’t flex from rock strikes and chip off, I can paint it when I get bored … to name but a few.

As an indication I have an old K2 Zed team frame in the loft, the rear stay is almost folded from where it hit a tree. Rode it for another 18 months without losing my life. Would hate to think what a carbon frame would have done in the same circumstances (of chinese or any other origin).

As per above, Collarbone makes me look twice at things now, has made me move away from the hardtail, and I more often than not wear a 661 Subgear top (mainly to prevent a return of elbow bursitis). Also shy away from wearing a pack unless absolutely necessary …

MInd you I broke mine doing in a very simple over the bars, so none of the above will make one iota of difference if the trail gods decide to lash out again.

What I have found is I concentrate on smoother riding now, rather than smashing and battling my way through things … at least in my mind 🙂

I have this for sale at the minute

Custom built PC

“Custom build PC from Overclockers.co.uk in early 2010.

Features an Asus Maximus Extreme Motherboard, with Intel quad core Q6600 CPU running at stock 2.4Ghz (plenty of potential to overclock), Nvidia Zalman CPU cooler, plus twin RAM fans.nVidia Geforce GTX260 Graphics with dual DVI’s. 8GB DDR3 ram @1872Mhz.

Coolermaster 850watt power supply, LG Blueray plus pioneer DVD burners, 16x Card reader. Housed in a Coolermaster RC-1000 case with multiple fans. 6 Hard drive bays, with WD Raptor 10,000 RPM 150GB as main drive, plus 2x500GB 7200rpm’s in Raid 1 currently installed.

Software Windows Vista Home Premium, which will be clean installed and Retail pack with DVD included.

Machine was built purely for photographic and graphics work, and overdesigned to ensure stability, and cool running but has seen little use since build as have been working away majority of time, and hence have been relying on Laptop. Recent move to a smaller office means this impressive item needs to go to a new home. Scores mid 7000’s on Geekbench …”

Ive since pulled the Velociraptor drive out, and converted the two 500GB’s to a raid 1. Can add an 80GB Intel SSD for £75 if you prefer

£500 if you can collect from Doncaster / Sheffield or £525 if you need it couriered …

t.armstrong@me.com

Have run the gamut of devices, purchased the iPad 1 when it came out, but sold it on after a few months, and upgraded the MBP instead. Biggest gripe was the difficulty it working with larger office documents, and at the time no solution to open password protected .xls sheets. Also there was no dropbox or similar so moving documents between devices was very tiresome.

Earlier this year out of principle purchased a Xoom, which while it was good, always felt clunky, and had numerous stability problems. By far and away the biggest issue though was the lack of apps (including glaringly for me Zinio). Sold it on after a month …

So biting the bullet have purchased an iPad 2, and have been very impressed with the developments in the overall package (i.e. the Apps as well as the device itself). Its definitely a convenience item though and I wouldn’t like to be without a desktop / laptop.

By comparison the wife has a work provided 11″ Mac Air, and while it is impressively quick and capable, the screen feels very pillar box by comparison. The ergonomics of it as a browsing device just lack somewhat.

Interestingly have been following the dumping of the HP tablet on the market (hence the firesales of £99 last Friday). One of the reasons behind it was the developers running the same applications on a jailbroken Ipad2 and getting twice the performance levels in return. Think they then realised it was time to pack up shop and admit defeat.

The next iteration of the iPad will be very interesting, screen resolutions etc lesser so than the move to a virtual / cloud based system. The advantage of apple is the entire infrastructure of their product.

Dropbox is defo the easiest way of sharing files, and the benefit being it works across just about any platform. Options to either instal the app, or download the files from the web browser.

Disadvantage is that you can’t view the files, but are forced to download.

The free account has a 2GB limit from memory, which you can increase for free by introducing other people to the service.

Downside, its not the greatest security, spider oak is the better option for more sensitive information.

I also use the Mobile Me application, but they seem to have locked that out to new users lately no doubt awaiting the iCloud rollout.

Have a classified up for the panasonic GF1 with 14mm and 20mm, along with 14-45, was wanting to sell as package but open to offers.

Don’t mean to be a photographic bore … but the only thing a reflective meter (i.e. the one in your camera) is going to do is tell you what setting to expose whatever you are metering at … as the mid tone i.e. 18% grey.

Hence the understanding of manual exposure is pretty important. Nothing like spot metering a nice white wedding dress, and losing the shadow details of the grooms tux, or vise-versa and blowing out the highlights of a dress.

The old adage that I have always followed is to expose for the highlights … and in the old days develop for the shadows.

Understanding that a white dress falls 2 to 3 stops over mid grey means you can meter the dress, transfer the same readings to manual exposure and adjust either aperture / shutter speed the required amount. Knowing that skin tone is typically mid tone also helps, or even grass for that matter. Knowing what the histogram means will also help prevent clipping (or better yet purchase an incident meter and understand it)

Relying on in build meters IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES can cause confusion for newcomers, as the tone priority of a scene changes, your camera will automatically compensate (i.e. zooming in, recomposing). Don’t get me wrong, “P” or auto modes certainly have their uses, but you may as well learn what your camera is doing, so you can then apply it correctly.

If you are serious about photography, id highly recommend learning about light, Ansel Adams developed the “bible” as such (ok there are detractors but Im going with what I know) and his Zone system can shed some light (no pun intended) on the situation.

As to the example above or shooting a bird in flight, if the same light is reflecting off the bird, as is reflecting off a nearby tree … simply spot meter off the tree for your mid tone and set your camera to manual. You will sacrifice your highlights (sky) but Id assume the subject matter is more important.

Photographic industry … dire. From a staff of 18 in 2008 now down to 7, and struggling to keep head above water. I know a large franchise is currently under the umbrella of administration which doesn’t bode well for a lot of people.

Seems to be the result of part time participants undervaluing what it actually costs to sustain a business in the industry, and that cost is what the clients are using for comparison. They go to them, then come to us to complain and try to salvage something out of the mess !

We were also hit very hard in the decline in retail lending, ok I know it had a lot to answer for in the first place but if people can no longer spend, its the end supplier that suffers.

By comparison the same business model being applied in Australia seems to be booming (with resultant job offers as well).

Think atlaz – Member hit it on the head for me …

that he’d struggle to explain to anyone else why he was arresting their kids if he failed to apply an even hand.

If it was the neighbours / folks over the back fence / bunch of people walking along the footpath and they were obviously walking around with the ill gotten gains, then yes I would report them.

More so as a business owner, just because it wasn’t be my stuff this time … it still belongs to someone.

And to me, that standard should be applied to anyone, wether I know them / are related to them or not.

But as a caveat, id certainly be giving them the opportunity to behave responsibly first (i.e. … turn themselves in)

Second the plenty of sleep, and not to overtrain …

I also recommend Echinacea (placebo or not) as well as Sambucol if theres a lot of colds / flu going around.

Short term use only though.

We paid just under £1K for our female with ability to breed. Was at middle / upper end as we hunted around to find a breeder with the lowest possible hip scores for the Lab (ours was a combined 4) as well as healthy eyes for the mother.

Mother was a miniature black, so ours has a scruffy black coat which we clip every three months or so to keep wooly and moulting to almost nothing.

Weight sits around 12.5kg, and is very very agile. Still amuses me when she barks (very infrequent), innocent looking thing with the voice of a great dane !

Have had a range of dogs in the past, both working as well as house dogs. Had two cavaliers and both suffered from SM which was horrible to watch, as well as a jack russell who was a complete lunatic (in an entertaining way). As above the Labradoodle is a great way to get the best of two very good breeds and the best I have come across.

Mini labradoodle … best of both breeds, very low moult factor, intelligence of both breeds and very self reliant.

Ours loves to run, and sleep in equal measure. Great around kids and not a barker / howler etc.

Just check hip and eye scores of parents, and the price here is pretty ridiculous considering the bitsa approach.

Ditto the mobile dent removers, had a fairly heavy nudge on the front guard but didn’t break the paint. Cost £75 to have it removed and he did a small ding that I didn’t even know about on the door for free.

Dent bloke

Pauls chain keeper BB mount version, sandwiches itself between the bearing and the bottom bracket.

Had one fitted to a Stumpjumper Carbon Marathon and worked a treat.

Picked it up off ebay (they sell them new on there from the states).

An upgrade from CS2 is £667.20

Amazon have it for under £200 … and the Adobe site normally have it for less.

amazon

If you can find yourself a legitimate earlier copy, i.e. CS / CS2 you then only need to pay for the upgrade which is normally around £160, which you can then use on two machines.

Theres bound to be a few copies knocking about from those that have already upgraded.

You need a PPL licence, its calculated on the area of the shop itself as well as the type of premises (i.e. retail / offices etc). The only music you can play without the licence is royalty free, of which there are a few internet radio sites that provide but its not what you’d call … popular ???

Good advice above. It has been a bit of a political hot potato lately to try and stamp out free camping so you can’t be quite as brazen as you used to. Self contained campers have more freedom than if you’re having to “offload” in the grass beside the site.

You can also find a bit more of a bargain if you start in the south and head north. The majority of visitors fly into Auckland, pick up the transport then drive south and fly the return leg. As a result places like Queenstown and Christchurch have huge stock that they need to get shifted back north. All my University holidays were spent couriering vehicles from Christchurch to Picton where they were picked up off the ferry to continue they journey north.

Try phoning a few of the companies and ask if they have any relocation offers going.

And can’t stress enough the importance of good insurance, roads are good but theres plenty of things to drive into especially if you’re not familiar with the vehicle size. And don’t think about drinking while in charge, even to the point that the keys are not in the ignition, or on your person etc if you are camping up and having a couple before bed.

This is a classic error. There is no such thing as a sport saloon, just sports cars and saloons. Decide which you want and buy that.

You should visit Bathurst sometime …

Neighbour just traded his S type R on a new XF, the S type was incredibly quick, had every bell and whistle, but chewed tyres apart, wouldn’t move if there was a hint of snow or ice, slid all over the place in the wet and generally scared the wife every two minutes.

He’s never regretted the XF (nor do i … as also have one) Might be a personal thing but the torque of a large diesel is more usable. Ive had a Holden Commodore SS in the past which is similar output and issues to the S types

Crikey, haven’t read all the posts but as a “responsible adult” with responsibilities both business and family, I have taken out insurance to make sure that if any misfortune befalls me then I will be ably taken care of, as will my dependants and employees. Given that I enjoy sports like cycling I think its only prudent. Hence, I don’t have as much sympathy for those that cartwheel themselves down a mountain, then claim recompense for pain / suffering et all from whoever is nearby.

What does annoy me though, is that as the owner of a small business I am forced to carry a minimum of 10 million public liability insurance, no doubt for such haphazard people as the claimant in the original case.

So, in answer to the original thread, individuals should take responsibility to provide for themselves, not me !

I do like the NewZealand way of doing things, were a government body “The Accident Compensation Corporation” takes care of all accidental injuries, there is no (well very very little at least) sue them mentality.

Theres basically a shopping list of injuries and subsequent payouts. Only downside is when the economy takes a downturn … theres always a spike in “Damn shot myself in the foot” incidents.

Ditto above, but the Thinktank lightening fast for a GF1, 14, 20 and 14-45 lenses. Theres other larger options in their modular system. All have lighter padding so less bulk and removable rain covers.

Has a very secure attachment system, either with carabiner or the double lock velcro flaps.

The change up is also handy as a light waist belt option.

Have used there belt system for years for wedding work and they are market leaders, and very well thought out.

But, lightroom et al won’t take a library off a network share.

???? Do you mean catalogue ? Lightroom works just fine accessing files with networked drives, in fact we have two qnaps doing just that to several workstations. Gigabyte access speeds are more than sufficient and we process heavy files.

We also use Smartsync pro to mirror the two NAS drives every 15 minutes with a deletion run on the backup being done every two days (just in case someone hits delete at the wrong time).

I prefer to use a cross over / redundancy system over two separate physical NAS units then building the raid for speed as opposed to failure recovery. Nothing worse than a physical problem with a raid card etc preventing the rebuild

Also have found that larger disks seem to slow the read / write speeds. May just be our particular set up but the 2TB drives may be problematic.

Granted, I certainly don’t work in finance anymore, having moved to the creative fields but I have always had a couple of suits for the more corporate events / weddings. As everyone else has said, comfort and practicality rate highest in my book.

Hence I have 3 suits, two of which are The Label brand, in the “City Survival” style which stand out as favourites. Very comfortable to wear, heaps of handy well thought out features and proving very durable. The third I had made while in Bali, and is simply stunning in quality … and cost next to nothing. All are wool, a lot cooler in summer, and warmer in winter.

If you do ever get to Thailand / Bali / Singapore / Hong Kong etc then absolutely make sure you get some suits made up while you are there.

Have one suit as a cross over which is a deep brown with light stripe for more relaxed environments, and the mandatory dark blue and black. The SO always insists that the collars much the cuffs, so belts and shoes / boots to suit.

Had all of them tailored to suit my build (lean’ish) which made a huge difference to the feel and look (removed the “borrowed dads suit for the day” look) and results in a more bespoke look without the price penalty.

The bloke who did them still runs a local Suit shop, with a selective range rather than the supermarket approach of others which i like and I’d always recommend hunting out an experienced tailor to advise you.

For shirts, Hawes & Curtis are fantastic, with a wide range of fabrics and cuts to suit anyone. Prices are also reasonable especially if you are bulk buying.

One other thing to also consider is the Collar cut … theres yet another mine field !!!

Old gear / brake cable wrapped around a couple of links, couple of cloths to save the fingers, a quick pull and 9 times out of 10 pain free.

The tenth one gets cut in half with the cable cutters.