Too much self righteousness, too many combative egos, indeed too many people who I assume are believing they’re forum elders and hence opinions carry more weight, limited rational argument, inconsistent user moderation, uber cliquey, a lot of “noise”.

A fair bit different to road forums…but probably symptomatic of more users – more topics and more to shout about.

But some good people.

Just tried the any key thing and can confirm that the thing just sits there on the 2 option page. Been there about 15 mins now

Ewan, I’m planning on buying a house next year as well. There’s no perfect time to buy, and uncertainty can lead to a potential bargain or indeed a loss. As long as you get what you want for a price you’re happy with then its all good.

Equally, you might need to factor in the potential income hit if you drop out of your well paid job and Mrs p sprogs and dual income is affected substantially more with kiddie expenses.

You also need to factor in the cost of lots of brake pads the way you use them so much….!

Sadly I’m at work at the moment, so can’t check for sure, but am fairly confident that if the coundown was gone it idled rather than rebooting.

Thanks for the help to date though – will have to check later….

If either of the two options is chosen, the computer looks like it is rebooting, and then after about 30s, the two option screen comes up again. While the rebooting screen in loading (black screen, dell logo and blue progress bar under the logo) I get an option to press either f2 or f12, but haven’t as yet as don’t want to kill it inadvertantly.

If I press a key and leave the countdown to finish, I’m fairly sure the countdown goes and the same screen just sits thre until you choose one of the two options, at which point the same process as above occurs.

I’ve got a usb stick, my laptop works fine so can download stuff. Looks like we have the original Windows operating cd.

Sold the camera the day I asked about the price though…

Don’t know anyone that’s good with computers short of one of these pc repair centres. (wouldnt go to pc world though!)
Also, ubunto sounds like a world music band, even though i guess its Linux related.

You’re there for your mate, not her or yourself.

Seriously, you need to move on otherwise you’ll continually think “what might have been”. The simple fact is you broke up then and probably for good reason.

Don’t look back as you’ll only ever see regret.

Consider the possibility that you may meet someone else there? Your ex may even bring a friend and you could end up liking them?

Look on it as an opportunity to face what are clearly big demons, but they’re of your own making.

With the option to repair, it defaults to the 2 option “repair windows” or “start windows normally” with its 30 second countdown. Either option leads to it restarting and then going to the same screen.

Pressing F8 during the start up takes me to a black and white screen (i.e. outside of formal operating system) where it gives options to repair, start in safe mode, safe mode with networking, safemode with command prompt and some others below that. Trying each of them restarts the machine and goes back to the original 2 option + countdown thing.

We have a windows 7 disc that came with the machine, but I’m unsure how to boot from this.

Equally, we have my laptop which still works, but not sure if I created a recovery disc whether that is tied to my machine somehow, as don’t want to completely kill her laptop.

With the data that’s on it, I’m not sure entirely as it’s not mine, but I think most of her photos and stuff are, and they’re not backed up. I also have no idea how to get those off the computer if I can’t get into windows as I’m a bit thick like that. She would definitely like to keep those if possible though, so presumably a backup of ‘mydocuments’ if that’s possible? I have an external (usb) hard drive, but not sure if that will work.

thanks chaps, looking like it might go for an ok amount with everything that’s with it. May well look at ebay, but in all honesty would prefer to steer clear – the fees are phenomenal! Would preferably take a lower amount and sell here.

take the catflap out and just give them a set of keys each.

or are your cats really dense?

hmmm, should have read the replies before I shelled out for the replacement frame this morning.

Oh well, there’s still 2 bikes separately identified above the 4k limit, so would imagine I’d get fully screwed on them. Long term, probably balances out.

ok, it’s ridiculous. the story he provided me with for not being able to collect involved being ripped off by a van driver, no details to pass on to the police, and seemingly no ability to answer his phone.

so, collection was re-arranged over ebay mail, to be tonight at his suggestion. Did he turn up? No.

Having spoken to ebay, rather than cash on collection, in raising a non-paying bidder thing, he now has the option to pay by paypal. That does not resolve the collection issue, which is the fundamental problem.

It further seems that if I choose to cancel the transaction, there will be no record or recourse of him backing out the sale, and hence he seems to be able to dick me around and get off scott free?

Ebay fundamentally does not appear to offer any protection to sellers whatsoever. It’s scandalous.

Well, no response to either of my voicemails as yet, or the email, but at least the email has it on formal record.

I have no desire to nanny a bellend through a simple process, so if no response by this evening I guess i have to enact the non paying bidder thing.

Presumably i cant relist until that process is finished? Am narked cos it’s all sat in my hallway right now after taking it out of storage.

she’s gonna enter you in something.

Perhaps a lion costume.

do you just want used girls shorts?

There’s specialist sites for that, surely?

conti gp4000

For the sprint tri i did on saturday, I had a small bowl of porridge at 6am, then drank High5 2:1 energy drink on the drive to the race. Then a zipvit energy bar at about 730 while I was racking the bike for an 810 start. 2 mouthfuls of High5 2:1 energy drink at 15k on the bike.

Felt fine throughout the race, and posted the 9th fastest bike time of 967 entrants so was doing something right.

About 15mins after the finish I had 300ml of milkshake and half a powerbar ride bar. No gutrot, no gravy bum, no cramps, and fine the rest of the weekend.

Trick i find is to eat little and often as you don’t want bulk but you want the slow release, so on a sportive you need to find an energy bar that’s not too dry to eat while you’re riding. Again, I rate the zipvit chocolate ones as they’re light and chewy, but break down quickly with just saliva.

You won’t need a camelbak, get either a bento for the top tube or just tape a few bars and gels (masking tape is king for that), couple of bottles, fill them with diluted energy drink and you’ll get through – easy enough to get some more liquid from the feed stations.

new brake off ebay. not worth messing with unreliable brakes. Alternatively, take the pads off and soak it in penetrating oil. But for £10 off ebay, my time is worth more than that so it’s a no-brainer.

I use a bright yellow northface courier bag after trying a couple of rucksack options. Know you don't like them but the shoulder strap and chest strap make it static for my 17mile commute, plus it's easy to shift around to get airflow, so nowhere near as sweaty as the rucksack I used to use despite it being vinyl. And it saves using one of those hideous hump things as it's already yellow. And the water just rolls off.

There's a reason that couriers use courier bags rather than rucksacks.

Perfect trackstand
Fast sprint dropping to fast seated ride
Defend my space
No loss of puff
I don't get caught, generally the gap increases

Clearly I'm not as manly as you though al if you can catch those fast people that are riding at 15mph. You must have legs like chris hoy to do that

gaffer tape

you can get cheap if you head out into the airport area or further into new jersey if you want cheaper.

check out http://www.priceline.co.uk and investigate their "name your own price" option – it didn't work for me, but I know people it has done.

binners you are actually hora

I have a 3G, now out of contract, but am waiting another month for the new HTC phone (think it's going to be called the Ace). iphone is a very good phone, but I'm not convinced the 4 is anything of an upgrade over what I already have despite having played with one for a couple of days.

HTC appear to be pushing the technology and all round capability of a phone more at the present time, so that's what i want.

i'm staying in the New York Palace Hotel in the next couple of weeks. Got an ok deal off expedia

Last time I was there stayed in Morgans, and that was good.

it's spurred him into action, but don't call them off until it's fully resolved and the cash is safely and fully returned to you.

Then leave the police on him anyway for clearly being a tool.

I also got scammed by a seller on here for £80, a well known seller as there's probably the largest ever thread about it all.

Anyways, I was promised that the money would be returned by cheque on a regular basis. The post office really appeared to be very careless with all the post he was "sending".

So, press ahead, ask your bank how long it takes for a cheque to clear completely and for the funds to not be recalled / bounced (from memory it's actually quite a long time, something into the months). Until this period is up, keep on with the police investigation, and keep records of all calls / emails, including the times and dates etc and pass them on to the cops on a regular basis.

My bet is that the following will unfold:
– the post office have lost the cheque;
– this chap not prepared to send another before the post office investigation time is up (about 28 days or something)
– nothing will ever be sent so it can be tracked
– the cheque never existed in the first place

If you hit a deer at 30 there's around an 80% chance it will live.

Or it might be a child, I can never remember.

Yes, I use about 400mb a month with a lot of iPhone use

I just might

Double post idiocy

If you are aware of who did that binners then probably worthy of a shout out to the powers that be – bang out of order, so hope you didn't lose too much, after all, you already have the indignity of hanging with hora.

Knowing what happened with the prawn just makes you realise that some people are low

They're making you a target because you're allowing them to make you a target with whiny and look at me threads like this.

Based on the original post, Christ, you need to get out more if you feel you need to justify what you believe are your inadequacies to the baying hoards of socially challenged mountain bikers on here.

Trimix, that's an option, although none of the users who take that option will be eligible for another bike as they will be deemed to still be in a scheme until a final payment is made

I like to adopt a hand on hips stance and say of course i am gorgeous, just wait there while I get the baby oil and photo of Barry sheen

You're just a bellend hora, the booze was masking it and the withdrawal is the awakening self realisation.

Either that or bingo is pissing on your face while you're asleep

Frame is sound but that's a mish mash of a spec and it's 105 equivalent campag. Personally I don't like the feel of campag or the buttons, so much prefer shimano.

I saw a newer frame (s1) with full 105 go for 750 last week. Oh, and khamsin wheels aren't light…

Just wear whatever you want.

My preference is for 3/4 bibs in the winter, with optional leg warmers if it's truly freezing or there's a lot of spray expected. That rules thing further up is tragic.

Nope, but you can get cassettes with splines that work on shimano in a campag tooth profile. Miche and mavic are the first that spring to mind, there's likely others.

ok, then get the LG. Because it's named after one of the transformers.