You have to register for the site, but these look great value for £45 (reduced from £95). Other styles available too

http://www.brandalley.com
John White shoes collection.

Nick

IIRC, the 3GS has the upgraded 3G radio kit inside it (HSDPA), which is kind of like 3 1/2 G in terms of network data speeds rather than just 3G, if that makes any sense!

Nick

Red bikes go faster… and look better. I had a HL 5-spot in the sangria red and I loved it. I wish I'd have bought my Flux in the same colour rather than going for boring black…

Nick

EDIT – here you go – red (5-spot) and black (flux)

my wife had it about 10 or 12 years ago (before I knew her). At the time, it was pretty bad – quite a lot of time in hospital, feeling and looking terrible. But she got better, and hasn't been bothered with it for at least the last 5-6 years – with little attention to diet as she eats like a horse!

Hope you come through the other side without too much discomfort on the way…
Nick

Just bought one of these – all good:
Compaq for about £400

Nick

I have the 17-40L – lovely lens!
If you're local (SW London/Twickenham area) you can try it out!

Nick

Just bought a couple of bags of beans from Origin – thanks for the info Rod!

I'll let you know what it's like…
Nick

For me, it's the Canon 17-40 F4 L as my standard lens – gets used lots, and you'd be surprised how little you actually 'need' (or in fact, use) more zoom than that. And then the Canon 70-300 IS DO for when I want something a little closer – the DO gets mixed reviews, but I like it and it's very compact for the range.

I have a cheap Canon 50mm 1.8 prime too – bought off ebay and great for portraits and indoor photos of the kids.

Whatever you get, practice lots and enjoy!

Nick

I use gmail for my mail account (but at my own address – so they basically provide/host the gmail application for my own email address), but host my site(s) elsewhere. This is prtty easy to do, but you need to be able to set-up a few settings on the hosting side (changing MX records to the ones Google give you – sounds complicated, but all reasonably simple). However, make sure you're hosting co give you full control so you can change MX records etc – for example, streamline.net don't allow this.

fasthosts look pretty good – and 123reg are ok too.

Happy to help if you get stuck (although I'm no expert…)
Cheers

Nick

I don't suppose anyone has a pair of MT90s in size 42 that don't fit or that they no longer want? Looking for a pair – let me know!
Thanks,
Nick

nick[at]nickbarnett[dot]com

This place in Scotland is pretty good:
Nae Limits[/url]

River bugs are a laugh…

Nick

I think these are great – and very hard to beat for the cash:
Rock Lobster 853 for a grand

Nick

EDIT: and only £900 with Merlins 'save an extra 10%'. Bargain!

Rather late to the party, but I've only just caught-up with this thread, and keen to join! What do I need to do, other than weigh myself and try to lose weight?

email is nick[at]nicbbarnett[dot]com

Cheers,
Nick

Love my Jake the Snake. It takes a rack too, and I have been known to commute on it :wink:

Nick

I have TT – been with them for about 2 years now. Occasional problems early on – network too congested resulting in very low speeds. Once they upgraded the kit in the exchange it was all fine and now seems to run pretty well.

Good value too at circa £23 for phone line, 8MB BB and free anytime calls to more countries than I'll ever need!

Nick

A bowline, for sure! Almost as strong as a spliced loop, but tied in a matter of seconds. And that whole 'rabbit comes up the hole, round the tree' etc etc is the stuff of legends and nursery rhymes! One to pass along the generations…

Nick

>Why do you want to convert them to digital?

The vast majority of them are family pics of me and my brothers growing up. Since our parents are no longer around, we want a simple way for us all to have copies of all the photos, so I thought digitizing them would be a good option.
To be honest, I don't object to paying a company to do this (the cost will be spilt three ways, so probably not too bad per brother), but I want to be able to manage them all easily and keep them with my other [digital] photos.

Nick

Really – no-one knows of any companies that do this???

Check the pins in the magsafe plug that goes in to the macbook. I had one where the springs inside the plug stopped working, so the pins weren't making contact with the terminals on the mac. A temporary fix was to simply tap the plug down on the desk and then plug back in gently. A long term option was a new power supply!

Nick

Ti29er – any idea where I can get one of those bags – particularly a weatherproof version?

Cheers,
Nick

LX3 for me too. Cracking bit of kit, and these days is getting used more than my Canon DSLR.

Nick

I think you're entitled to request a 4-week 'trial period' in the new job, during which either party can say 'thanks, but no thanks' and agreed payouts are made. But you need to have your position agreed before entering the trial period, and then be specific with your employer that you want the right to the trial period.

At the end of the 4 weeks, if you're both happy, you keep the job on whatever terms its on, if not you leave and take the cash.

More details here, in the section 'Trying out an alternative job'

Nick

Thanks for all the replies – I have to admit, I quite like the look of the Guv'nor myself!
Will sort out demo rides as soon as possible and let her make the choice…

Ziggy – whereabouts are you based?

qwerty – I like the look of those Globe Live's, but the UK version is singlespeed only – not ideal for the mrs I fear!

Cheers,
Nick

I bought a Trialmaster earlier this year – and I love it! Weighs a ton, but warm and waterproof!

It's worth knowing that there appears to be two version of the jacket – a 'fashion' version and a 'function' version! The 'fashion' version, as sold in the Belstaff shop, costs about £450. The 'function' version, as sold in motorbike shops, costs about £380, and has the added benefit of a zip-out thermal lining and zip-out shoulder and elbow protection. I bought mine here:
Grand Prix Legends
but you can get them in many motorcycle shops that stock Belstaff – there's one in Fulham if you're local!

Cheers,
Nick

EDIT… and this Grand Prix legends email just popped in to my inbox – save a tenner:

Welcome to our latest Deal of the Day, where if you spend £80, we'll give you a tenner back!* Simple as that.

All you have to do to activate this offer is add £80 or more worth of in-stock or available merchandise to your basket, and enter the code TENNER into the offer code box, and we'll reduce your basket total by £10. What you do with that tenner is up to you!

Don't forget, for UK Christmas despatch, we must receive your order by 1pm on Tuesday 22nd December 2009.

Click here to visit our site and start shopping now.

Mountain Trax is not too far from Cranleigh too – good selection of bikes, and plenty of demo bikes including Santa Claus (sorry… Cruz… it that time of the year!), Turner, Cove, Cotic etc
here[/url]
Nick

Cyclopedia in Surbiton tend to be ok
here[/url]
Otherwise, the usual Evans (near Sainsburys) or Moores Cycles in Teddington/Twickenham – more family/commuter focussed.
I'm told the guys in Richmond Cycles are a pretty good bunch too (just on the north side of Richmond Bridge).

Cheers,
Nick

Bernard and the Genie – brilliant Christmas film with Alan Cumming, Lenny Henry and Rowan Atkinson.
More info here[/url]

Nick

Regarding the Android Developer Challenge 2 (ADC2) finalists, we developed Buzz Deck (winner in the media category) – don't want to do any blatant plugs… but its a pretty cool app for keeping abreast of tech news and general info! Go download it – feedback welcome!

Cheers,
Nick

(Mippin – developers for Buzz Deck and Buzz Widgets)

Turner Flux. Lovely.

I've just bought one of these:
Samsung 40" LCD

For £650, I reckon it's pretty hard to beat. The pic quality is definitely better than my 40" Sony LCD that I bought a couple of years ago – might be just 2 years of progress and/or the 100Hz thing on the Samsung.

Nick

I saw mist rising from Thames, mist over the fields of Richmond Park and a beautiful stag in the park silhouetted by the sun. All good stuff!

Nick

Get this:
The Topper Book

I read it about 25 years ago when I first learned to sail a Topper. Its great, will explain the basics and should allow you to get in the boat and pick things up pretty quickly. RYA course is a great option, but this would be a useful start.

Go out in light winds (F2 or so), and spend plenty of time learning – there is no substitute for 'time in the boat'. Don't be afraid of capsizing – in fact I'd encourage you to intentionally capsize early so you get used to it. Bringing a Topper upright again is a doddle.

Enjoy!

Nick

Here's my newest addition – bought just last week:

Nick

BTW – yes, its a larger profile tyre on the front than the back – I used spare stuff I had lying around. Was going to buy an new skinny tyre to match the back, but actually the ‘odd’ look is growing on me!

Thoughts?

Been having similar thoughts myself – ie getting a Brompton and doing less walking.

Anyone know a good place to get one s/h? I guess ebay and gumtree and the obvious places – anywhere else?

Cheers,
Nick

A mate of mine just bought a carbon Scott Scale from pedal on – its very nice:
http://www.pedalon.co.uk/acatalog/scott_scale_30.html

Lots of financing deals too – looks like they’ll do interest free for 2 years.

Richmond Park will be beautiful at that time in the morning, and not busy.
Parking is free at all the car parks (for the time being at least – the Royal Parks are considering introducing charges); Pembroke Lodge is the closest car park to Richmond Gate (Star and Garter) – enter the park and turn right, the car park is about 300 yard down the road on the right, and they do good tea and cakes.

Officially, you’re supposed to stick to the gravel paths around the park, but you can cut off and go where you like. There’s plenty of twisty tracks through woods in the middle of the park, and they’ll probably be plenty of deer about.

From Robin Hood Gate (SE corner), you can cross the A3 and head in to Wimbledon Common for a bit more exploring.

For local tracks in London (well, local to me), it’s really not bad at all.

Nick

I have the spesh defrosters. They’re pretty good, but I’d agree not all that warm. I find them ok down to about freezing temperature, but my feet definitely get cold in lower temps – more pairs of thin wool socks help.

As for sizing, mine are definitely larger than my spesh summer shoes of the same size, so they must be built bigger to allow for thick socks. Suggest trying a pair on if you can find them locally.

Nick

We have the P&T for our now 23 month old and 6 week old boys. Works well; pretty compact, folds small enough (goes in the boot of a Golf no problem). You can now get an adapter for it for a maxi-cosi car seat, so all good really. I’d by another one if faces with the decision today.

Some decent prices around too – these guys often have them on offer:
Kiddicare

Nick

I have one. Great bike!

Nick