Was reading an article on Toms Hardware this morning “$350 Bonus Entry Level PC” that’s got some benchmarks for various games for that build.

What I got in summary from it, is that you go for an AMD CPU(APU) build as the built in graphics is superior to the Intel CPU’s at a similar price point which will then get you going and then add in a dedicated graphics card at a later date (when pocket money has been saved)

Yup had that 2 week Manflu it just dragged on and on, one week clear then I caught another cold. Blame it on catching the Manflu was I was working down South then the cold on proper Northern Germs which don’t linger about with their affects.

Whack your BT phone line number in here >>

https://www.btwholesale.com/includes/adsl/main.html

Whilst the physical installation of the cabinet is pretty quick and it’s usually a pretty short pavement dig to put in the duct to connect it to the cab and cable it all in. What is a lot harder is getting power to the thing, one went in next to my local cab early last month, roadworks across a main road happened a couple of weeks ago to get the power across but I’m still waiting on a 15-Jan go live date according to the BT Wholesale checker. So once that’s gone I’ll be able to submit an order to re-grade my connection.

Didn’t the Tripods finish part way thru I seem to remember at the time that I’d read all three books but it finished after the second book?

Joe 90 I received the DVD box set of all the episodes one Xmas as a present 🙂

Saw a doc about Soviet Subs and the Typhoon’s were that large they had a small swimming pool on board, quick Google found this >> http://englishrussia.com/2009/04/14/worlds-biggest-submarine/9/

Last day is this Friday, back in on the 6th, one design document to finish off, get a pilot working on another project before it shuts down for Xmas, type up my handover doc and currently a grand total of one email in my Inbox.

In Outlook 2010 I use categories for all my projects/customers along with a modification of the getting things done (reference, complete, action, someday and waiting) so each email gets two tags the Project plus a GTD.

If its dealt with then it gets moved out of my inbox into a .PST file just the one per year that’s then setup with smart search folders based on the Projects. Advantage of that is it indexes in the background so as soon as you click on a smart search item it filters instantly to that item, then if needed I can do the usual type of search but speeded up as its only a fraction of the .PST file.

Using some Quick Step buttons I can mark as read, add tags and move from my inbox to the PST file with one button click.

So in summary everything in one folder but tagged to enable quick filtered searches.

Molgrips, first one was a drive failure after a firmware upgrade replaced under warranty, the replacement (another fat one) died about 2 years later, so a slim was bought that then had a YLoD and again replaced under warranty. I honestly can’t remember what the fat one died of I’ll dig it out and see and let you know. In a longer period of time I’ve only had 2 Xbox360’s and neither failed so think I bucked the usual trend of the Red Ring of Death and transferred it to Sony Playstations instead hence the wait.

I’m resisting the urge to get a PS4 as soon as, I have managed to blow up 3 PS3’s since their launch so trying to wait a little while before getting one, this isn’t helping.

Had my HL 5 Spot for nearly 6 years before I broke it, also broke my Soda in the same month, bloody upsetting on loosing both of them at the time. Went for another HL bike to replace the Spot a Hemlock with which I’m v/happy too.

Second QuietPC excellent communications on orders and quick despatch. I also use Aria and Amazon for my parts.

Just went on the Samsung UK website and found a large manual on a Series 5 TV within a few clicks. Consumer / Televisions / LED TV’s (Dont know if yours is our not) / Series 5 (Middle of screen ) which gives 17 results. Clicking on a size for example 40 inch then the Support tab takes you to a screen that has a 4.57mb user manual in English. Seems to cover everything, simple diagrams. But def not a quick start guide for sure.

More likely this was the cure

Join a forum/group where they have a weekly/daily photo challenge of anything/something specific each time. Examples from here, photo a day, weekly bike leaning against something of a particular subject challenge etc..

Look at things from a non human perspective, different angles/heights can change an everyday common subject into something interesting.

I had a 78 3.0S with various tuning mods, best was the Holley 4 barrel carb on a Swaymar manifold the secondaries kicked in at about 5000rpm which made things fun well apart from the 10mpg from ragging it sounded great with the 6-2-1 exhaust I had on it.

I did do some work on the suspension and braking but I was convinced I was going to die in it at some point. So I sold it to a guy I worked with who used it as a runabout while he was restoring his RS3100 Capri.

Watching it now it’s bringing back some good memories, well when I had spare ten pence pieces to hand.

It’s worth a trip to Cosford to oggle them all

Sheltering from some hail yesterday

One of those movies you can watch again and again (well at least I do) or until I’m told “you have got that bloody film on again”

Crank Bros used to do a headset that was a low stack height, but then you have to watch out for the controls on top of the fork crown interfering with the downtube.

If you know the line number then you can use more to display the file starting at that line number

Pepperoni and Red Leicester Cheese

Used to do the super strength snakebite too, you could see it congeal in the glass leaving a layer of sediment in the bottom of the glass, proper loopy juice.

Claim tax relief on it?

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/incometax/tax-allow-ees.htm

I can claim a subs allowance if I’m away from my normal place of work £5 or £10 depending on the length of time away, needs to be backed up with a receipt for some sort of food on the day concerned, breakfast and evening meal can be still claimed for as per the usual early start/staying away rules.

However the way our place observes the HMRC guidelines is that whilst you get the £5 or £10 thru expenses there is a deduction from your wages the next month such that you only end up ahead by the amount of tax you would pay on the £5 or £10 in your wages.

Just watching last weeks BBC Click and Kate Russell was talking about a smartphone app that allows you to transfer files & pics via the speaker&mic in a phone http://chirp.io/

My mate sells at country shows he users something called Pacnet, this works on a radio network as opposed to 3G or mobile phone network. This system has not let him down. One of the problems with using 3G / mobile phone signals is the more people on this medium is that you can lose your signal and transactions don’t get through

It’s Paknet and it runs over a mobile phone network but uses a low speed protocol that’s ideal for lossy/error prone connections. Its the name of the network thou and not the card payment processor of the POS terminal supplier.

Anything by Neil Asher & Charles Stross,

I should have added 3 years to suss out infection via USB FFS! but for once I was trying to be a bit diplomatic and limited it to some of it seems plausible.

Micro Four Thirds, v/good selection of lenses and with the right body capable of 1080p @30fps, hunt around for the likes of a Panasonic GH2 now that its been replaced by the GH3 or something like the Olympus OM-D E-M5

Some of it sounds plausible to me.

Dodgy USB memory stick/drive or a dodgy copy of an operating system install disk. Then combine that with the NVRAM associated with a UEFI and you could have something that’s resident no matter how often you wipe or replace the HDD/SSD. Don’t know if you can even clear the NVRAM like you can the CMOS in BIOS with a reset/removing the battery.

IPv6 could then be handy to get to other machines on the same network as most OS’s are now dual stack (IPv4/IPv6) and will choose a IPv6 route if available over the same route via IPv4, so if the infected machine pretended to be the local router by responding with a router advertisement it could then do a man in the middle type attack on the local machines.

Had a pile of thunder/lightening about that time over in the Quay about 8 miles down the road. Wasn’t there a report of a mini tornado in Wrexham about a week ago?

I’m sitting here working out a new build too, been speccing up AMD builds and Intel builds and the FX6350 can be found for under £100 and the FX8320 for about £110. With an FX cpu dont go silly on the RAM as there’s next to no difference between 1600Mhz DDR3 and the higher speeds.

Now for the AMD APU’s it’s different and higher speed RAM does make a big difference if you use the integrated graphics in the APU.

I’d debate the cooling as despite the lower TDP on Intel chips VS AMD, the Intel chips use thermal paste between the real CPU core and the protective load spreader on top, AMD use solder. This means the transfer of heat from the CPU core to the cooling device is going to more challenging on the Intel, if you look at the under full load temps Intel vs AMD you see despite the higher power draw on the AMD it’ll be running cooler.

I’ve been looking at current Intel LGA1150 vs LGA1155 and not been finding any real price drops on the CPU’s on their own, however there are bundles out there at attractive prices but so far for me being a fussy bugger they all seem to be flawed in some way (lower end cooler, lower end MoBo etc)

The Fifth Element
The Twelve Monkeys

Done both the DT kits and the Stans, Stans is easier to fit. Tyres can be a bugger with either, loss of temper along with spoon handles works best.

How deep is it inserted into the seat tube thou?

You may if you kick up a fuss its worth a go as they are not delivering on their end of the contract – STW lawyers please expand/refute as needed.

Their sales teams/product managers will forecast and report on demand/sales however it will always be a case of some areas being busy and others quiet. If you designed/planned/deployed a telecoms network that had a 1:1 ratio of users/capacity then in 99.99% of cases the end users would refuse to pay what it actually cost to install and run never mind make a living off any margin on top.

I will add if you are using it for business but are on a consumer contract how far can you complain if it’s ruining your trade?

I’m a homeworker and yes I pay consumer rates for my broadband, however I didn’t go the cheapest supplier and then I have my mobile phone on one provider with the ability to tether it if needed and also pay as you go mifi on another provider just in case.

It’s not a fault it is a failure in capacity planning. I’ll expand on that I used to be a network operations centre shift manager and we would be the poor suckers that would get in the neck from the customer contact centre, service managers, end users/customers when there was congestion on a part of the network that could have been avoided if someone had thought ahead a bit more.

Saying that with a mobile network the RAN’s can be in out of the way places due to coverage/tin foil hat/commercial reasons etc.. So it could be that planning did their job in plenty of time and placed an order of additional backhaul/more antenna and so on, but their 3rd party supplier is dragging their feet delivering it, either due to being useless or planning/wayleaves and so on.

Second the suggestion of the Femtocell, if you are nice but firm it has been known for mobile providers to send them out free of charge.

How the camera handles from its weight (with lens) plus its button placements.

What annoys me about the D7000 is the placement of the WB and ISO buttons which isn’t fixed in the D7100 other than that everything falls easily to hand. I’ve also got an OM-D which with the additional grip handles quite well apart from the odd placement of the power button.

The Nikon has the superior focusing for moving objects, the Olympus is quicker focusing for static items. The Nikon is easier to get DoF the Olympus is harder not to get everything in focus you can shoot wide open most of the time.

The Olympus has in built image stabilisation (like Pentax) which means with a suitable adapter you can use just about any lense. It’s also a lot lighter than the Nikon but the battery charge lasts a fraction of the time of the Nikon.

Picture there’s nothing really in it, I just use what is suitable at the time or what is to hand or charged.

Go for what you feel comfy with and enjoy oh and don’t forget Tokina for a lens choice too, I’m mulling over the 11-16mm and as my D7000 has the internal auto focus motor to drive the older lenses that lack an internal autofocus motor I should be able to save a few quid.

D7000/D7100 have the auto focus drive screw for the older Nikon lenses which opens up your options a bit.