I’ve been on the Cannock Chase one twice – last year for my hen do, and yesterday for my birthday. It’s a great laugh – the only thing I’d say is try going mid-week, as it gets busy at the weekends.

Or he might be full of awe

Red ring of death is covered by the three year warranty, but the 360s since last year are a lot more reliable due to the new Jasper chipset and an improved heatsink.

Does kind of suck that the early adopters got stuck with an unreliable design, but unfortunately it seems to be the norm for disc based consoles – I remember how ropey the first gen of PS2s were. :/

Bring back the Megadrive!

I also wish, but they’re not playing anywhere in the Midlands apart from Download. :(

I’d say 360 every time, unless you want a BluRay player, or particularly want a game that’s a PS3 exclusive. Despite Sony pushing the PS3 as being a more powerful machine, the paper specs don’t really translate to actual performance, and the majority of multi-platform games run better on the 360 – PS3 versions tend to have lower framerates, less detailed textures, more frequent/noticeable screen tear, etc. You can get an idea of how multi-platform titles perform on each console by reading Eurogamer’s ‘Face-Off’ articles: http://www.eurogamer.net/archive.php?type=face-off&sort=&platform=digitalfoundry&author=175

The 360 also has a wider library of games, generally has more support from the developers, and a very good online service (Xbox Live). It also has easy to set up parental control settings, where you can prevent the console from playing games that are over a specified age rating. ;)

The Playstation has a better controller though, the d-pad on the 360 is absolutely rubbish for playing Street Fighter on. :(

*cough*

Bump!

*cough*

Remember, there will be meat!

40%, apparently I’m a straight-laced girlie girl with just a hint of my butch side popping out…

Got one last month, which I use on my Micra. It’s great, no complaints.

What coffeeking said – if you tell him, all its likely to do is stir up more animosity between a child’s parents, and that’s never a good thing. Plus your mate might think your an arsehole for not telling him soooner. It’s a losing plan all around!

I tried numerous women’s specific bikes, and they were all a bit too short in the top tube for me. The Fuel was fine, but it just made me cross because the brakes and gears were set up badly, so it sadly didn’t really get a fair test.

The women’s Lapierre Zesty was really nice, seemed a bit longer in the top tube than most, but a bit overpriced, and the Orange Diva Long was also good (it has the same frame as the bloke’s 14″ Orange 5!).

It’s a bit of a pain in the arse when you’re too short for a lot of bloke’s small frames, but don’t have the short torso/long leg ratio that most wsd bikes are aimed at. I tried a small Meta, but I had literally no standover, even on my tiptoes the top tube was…er…a bit friendly.

Admittedly, it’s probably worse for the blokes who do have long legs and comparatively short torsos, they probably get a bit more mickey taking for riding a WSD bike…

I got a Stumpjumper FSR in the end, no complaints! \o/

If you want a job where you have the freedom to browse t’internet, become a programmer!

Yeah Monkey, I was surprised when I found out, it was when I was looking into getting a full-susser myself. Apparently they changed the WSD to the men’s geometry, because they found that in the higher price brackets, women seemed to prefer it. They have the additional sizes to give a bit more choice in the reach department. It’s worth knowing, because you normally get much better deals on blokes’ bikes than on women’s!

I demoed a 15.5 Fuel 8 WSD, and it was pretty much bang-on size-wise for me, and I’m 5ft 2. Of course, people’s preferences and proportions vary – I’m a bit short in the leg department, so with bloke’s bikes standover is normally more of an issue for me rather than reach.

The geometry for the Fuel 8 and 9 WSD models has changed this year – namely, it’s identical to the bloke’s versions! There are more sizes available though – I don’t think the blokes get the option of 15.5″ or 16.5″ frames. Unfortunately I don’t think that’d be much help unless you can demo/borrow a 14.5″ blokes Fuel 8…

Apple have a pretty tight strangehold on the RRP of their products, so it’s tough to get a bargain on them – normally shops offer free or discounted accessories to try and sweeten the deal instead. You can sometimes pick up the previous generation version of an iPod for a reduced price though.

I washed my Shuffle the last month. Or to be accurate, Mr Toast washed my Shuffle, after the last Big Build Day! :P

Alas, we could never get it working again – after it had dried out, iTunes would recognise it as an iPod, but say that it was in recovery mode, and ask if I wanted to restore it to factory settings. I said yes, but it just loops between those two options.

Ended up getting a new Shuffle, didn’t think washing machine accidents were covered by the guarantee…:( At least you’re not alone in the Pod Washing Posse!

I saw quite a few 18 rated films as a kid, due to my brother’s movie choices when he was left babysitting me. My first was when I was 8 years old, and was the cinematic classic, ‘They Live’, starring Rowdy Roddy Piper. It made me scared of wearing sunglasses for months!

And some more pictures from Saturday here[/url]

Mmmm, Mr Toast

Now imagine if you live in one of the villages cut off for 3+ hours for the race to go through – this isn’t London, if the roads shut there is no way in or out the village – you are a prisoner so that a bunch of skinny guys in fluorescent Lycra can rush through the village.

I’m sorry, I’m still not seeing the downside here? :P

Looks good! Obviously wasn’t that well publicised if they’ve only got 60 riders, and a bit of a shame there’s a Thetford Summer Series race and a Southern XC tomorrow.

Well, it’s a new event, so hopefully there will be more riders as it becomes more established. Think there might have been a few more than 60, not sure what the final numbers were.

Think the main thing that put people off was the weather – if it had been held last week, I think more of the registered riders would have shown up, and there would have been more last minute sign-ups.

It was a great atmosphere though, with everyone determined to do their best despite the mud. Here’s to the next one! \o/

Is anyone else thinking that if they were a female hedgehog, giving birth to walking conkers wouldn’t be at the top my my agenda, as it looks like a rather painful process

Walking conkers are born without quills, they grow as they get older.

If you like that, you should probaly take a gander at http://www.cuteoverload.com. They even have a ‘Cats N Racks’ category! :lol:

If it’s a vacancy you’re applying for, say which vacancy and where you saw it advertised. If it’s a speculative application, say what sort of position you’re interested in. Briefly and succinctly say why you’re suitable for the job, referencing bits of your CV that you’d like them to pay particular attention to. Make sure that you’ve tailored your CV and covering letter to the company you’re applying for, rather than sending a generic application that reads like you could have sent it to anyone.

Don’t make it too long, or just repeat the bulk of what your CV says, and make sure you proofread it. One of the quickest ways an application gets binned is if it contains multiple spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and typos.

Wow, some of the posts on there are a bit…vile. Lively political debate is one thing, but I’d question whether encouraging it on a board directly attached to a company trying to sell things.

Particularly when there’s posters calling for the ‘culling’ of Muslims, forcing women out of the workplace to make more jobs for men, gays = paedophiles, etc

Maybe that’s why they’re overpriced, to compensate for their limited customer base… :/

Leamington does have the redeeming feature of the Oriental Star though…

Can’t say owt from personal experience, but I coincidentally read an article about it the other day: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8014242.stm

There’s a couple of links to various information sources on there, hope some of them might help.

I think it’s a pretty bad judgement by the judge. I do actually think that people who don’t wear helmets are a bit silly, and that the cyclist may have stood a better chance of surviving if he’d been wearing one.

But it’s not against the law to ride helmetless, and if the cyclist was completely blameless in terms of his behaviour on the road (lane discipline, etc), and was completely visible, then it’s pretty out of order.

Imagine if a pedestrian was walking along a country road in with no footpath, and were doing everything they’re supposed to (walking on the correct side of the road, making sure they’re visible if light is poor, etc), and a driver ploughed into and killed them due to ‘a loss of concentration’. I doubt the judge would have said ‘Never mind, they should have been wearing a helmet, or shouldn’t have walked down a road without a pavement’.

I’ll be marshalling on Saturday.

Hell hath no fury like a Singletracker scorned! RELEASE THE HOUNDS!

Got to admit that I’m not a huge fan of internet lynch mobs, but it does sound like he deserves it…

I’d recommend the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham too – you get a lot of choice, and some more interesting/unusual designs than if you just stick to high street jewellers.

I’d have to agree with Andy and go for the dik-dik.

But some people have been, and upto a grand or something wildly OTT for the ‘crime’.

I believe the fine is supposed to be £1000 for every year the license is incorrect.

Top 3:

1. Imperial Star Destroyer (Star Wars)
2. The Event Horizon (Event Horizon, funnily enough)
3. Slave I (Boba Fett’s ship, Star Wars. Gotta love a ship that looks like an iron…)

Just had to renew the photo on mine as I’ve now been driving for 10 years. Bizarrely, it said on the one side of the form that the fee was £17.50, but on the other side it said £20. Sent £20, just to be on the safe side.:/