They wont there will always be TheNextBigThing(tm) coming along to try and part people away from their money

Had me howling laughing at a few points, Moose kicked it off for me, enjoyed that.

First Gen iPad with Billion 7800N 1.06g firmware, here is how I have my wireless set up, no problems at all.

Get yourself onto http://www.mbnw.co.uk oh and the N.Wales CX series kicks off very soon http://nwcycloxgroup.ning.com/

You need to check what the fibre optic offer is if its FTTC then you need a landline FTTP you dont.

A British figure (lady) skater from a Winter Olympics squad

Lotta civ defence bunkers were under exchanges, can remember refitting one in the early 80’s with a brand new Strowger exchange, all electro-mechanical stuff so more likely to survive an EMP. It’s all now toilets for a bar. Now this place is even more interesting

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/northeastwales/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8077000/8077550.stm

Massive chemical weapons place and did some research on nuclear weapons.

I used to change the batteries on the out of band signalling systems for the alarms in my local area when I was a field engineer in the 80’s. Had a tour of the nuclear bunkers under Manchester City Centre in the early 90’s just after the last trunk network equipment had been decommissioned in there, but all the rest areas were as they were from the height of the cold war, miles n miles of tunnels, artesian wells, multiple generators etc..

Someone mention TSR2 it’s bloody huge but with a tiny wingspan.

Within riding distance (incl some cheeky) of Delamere. Then there are the Clwyds http://www.ridetheclwyds.com or http://www.mbnw.co.uk or I guess you could class the Peak District to be within a shortish drive of Runcorn also.

Based on my low (no) servicing routine no more so than a Hope BB. I’ve killed a CK in the same amount of time as a Hope BB. BUT the CK Headset just lasts n last whereas any other headset dies at some point.

I’ll buy another CK headset if I get another bike, but for a BB the Shimano ones have reached the point of price and life that its not worth Hope or CK.

Damm proper Man cave stuff

155 in a hybrid

I first found out what max felt like with a ice hockey coach who wouldn’t end any training session until someone puked, one of his classic exercises was a sprint to the other end of the rink carrying another member of the squad.

Since then my choice of sports has changed and technology has progressed to allow heart monitors. Anyway my I’m about to puke limit is 199 and I’m 46.

No, says so here >>

http://www.oneplanetadventure.com/2012/09/19/go-race-mtb-north-wales-series-2012/

Well its convinced me to try a coil shock with the 150 rockers. Loved my 5Spot with the Romic, so I think I’ll give a Van RC a go.

I’ve used the 150 rocker I guess for an extended trial period and once I pull my finger out I’ll be going back to the 120. For me I think its that the shock is tuned/optimised for the 120 travel and at 150 it just blows thru the mid-range too quickly. Maybe one of those volume adjust kits would make a difference or just have a pair of shocks each tuned to the leverage ratios of the rockers.

Have you the option to opt out of the scheme and get an allowance instead? Makes for a huge amount of flexibility in your car choice then.

No need to worry about all the extra benefit in kind/emissions taxation as its just done at your normal rate so you can choose something you want rather than being corralled to a certain range/oil burner.

My view is that if I did not have a company car I would have to spend £X per month on a car anyway so adding £Y car allowance makes for a lot broader choice and allows me to choose a car that I can drive all day and get out of without all my bones/back creaking on me.

There is also the advantage that I can swop and change when I want not when the fleet dept decides I can have something new after 3/4 years.

Had Avid Ultimates with 160mm rotors on my Roadrat for 5 years with no problems, perhaps as I’ve installed, bled and serviced them based on my MTB experience of disc brakes it has been the cause of no issues at all?

I will add that I think that the experience of using disc brakes off road on loose slippy muddy surfaces means small contact tyres on tarmac are a piece of piss to control and not lock up in comparison.

I’ve been over 70kph and and heaved on them and stopped in plenty of time despite being a fat bugger, so can’t wait for road bikes in general to have the kit/mounts to fit them.

I know a guy who hit a bat right between his eyes riding his motorbike doing about 40mph, he and his bike went into a drainage ditch outside a school on a major main road and he wasn’t spotted for a good 18 hours. Scary how long it took to get spotted considering the school had 1000’s of pupils and on a road with 1000’s of cars n people going along it all the time.

Local barber, he knows everyone in the town and everyone knows him, he hates everyone who isn’t working and a local, he’s got a big pile of classic car magazines along with todays rags to read while you wait for your sub fiver grade two back n sides with trim on top. Has a great set of the latest sexist and anything-ist jokes, is a Man Utd supporter who loves the Rolling Stones and is quite happy to talk about his cancer op where he had a chunk of his knob chopped off. He keeps you updated about everything that has happened in the town and all the waiting customers from teenagers to coffin dodgers join in to fill you in on all the latest too, never a dull moment when I go for a hair cut.

Downfall +PSY Mashup

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJFW7-hyWpE&feature=player_embedded#!

Saw it earlier in the week, that good that I had to watch episodes one and two on Sky Go, but of the three so far this has to be the best one.

Take it steady it’ll be no problem, it’s old school man made trails so forget about lots of berms etc. Saying that the last three descents I reckon are just about perfect for tuning your suspension, get it right for those and it’ll be great everywhere. There are places where you just have to soak up the views thou.

First few episodes of 1999 were on at the same time as the Invisible Man on the Beeb, what a choice but I made the right one at the time. As for Wilma there was also Severlan in Blakes 7 causing similar feelings.

Yes I agree buggy on ICS on my Asus, but dammed good on my Nexus 7

Well pre-sales is a bit different to tech support, you have to hold your tongue a fair bit more, understand the commercials in a deal as you have the best idea of what kit is involved and how much time it’ll take to install and then run.

My advice is that if you are at that point in your career agencies will be calling you all the time already so its a case of letting them know you fancy something slightly different. Then at the interviews being able to give a presentation (a common test) on a technical subject but at a whole pile of levels,from the testing cust techie who wants to keep their job so will test you with outfield odd questions to the C level ones.

Avoid acronyms, spend time working out how you would explain a complex subject to someone who’s intelligent but just not in our field of expertise.

Confidence, Mojo, such knowledge in a subject that you project we can do it better than anyone else.

We have had some succss in taking L3 support guys under our wings, starting them off on day to day pre-sales type roles, for example adding another site to a customer solution, WAN circuit, QOS, Switch, WAAS, VoIP as a indvidual order. Then once they are used to that getting them doing small value RFI’s/RFP’s and then if they are up for it progressing to the larger more complex stuff.

Easy go pre-sales, OK its a step up from hands on but you are the technical face of the company, translating sales speak in something deliverable. I was a CCNP CCDP CCIP considering CCIE but shaping the concept for a solution was too tempting compared to slogging away at the IOS CLI. Our place has pre-sales where you work on varied ops, customer tech authorities where you get allocated to a customer (usually funded as part of the deal) you do a sort of pre-sales/post-sales tech role where you shape the whole strategy, cust design authority again funded where you are responsible for the whole solution down to the configs.

I can easily do the last two roles, but prefer to remain pre-sales for the variety. I’m currently 50/50 new business and acting as a tech resource on some massive projects with the provisio that when L3 support fails they can call me in to sort it out.

OK I loose the hands on but I learn lots more about a hell of a lot of varied subjects and just as importantly for me, I deliver something I’m proud of into my mates that are still in support.

First scene with Christoph Waltz is brilliant

I know it kinda shocked me, but I honestly didn’t stop for anything and even set off a couple of 30mph signs on route.

Nope always set off and just double checked, also on an MTB group ride theres always plenty of stopped time logged.

Drogba has just been released by his Chinese club so is now a free agent, wonder if there will be any Premier clubs scrambling to speak to him..

Enjoyed it that much that I watched it again last night, looks brilliant in the HD option on iPlayer.

Yes got an Nokia N900 running quite fine on them.

They have been tinkering with it this weekend, I seem to recall a message that it was going to be down for some work and when I log in there are new items on the dashboard also when I try to run any reports its just hanging there.

Asus N56VM meets those reqs, make sure to go for the one with the 1920×1080 screen, there is a slightly cheaper version that has a smaller res screen so avoid.

If she can do without the the BluRay then I can recommend the Samsung Series 7 Chronos http://www.johnlewis.com/231650214/Product.aspx as a very good choice. Treated myself to one on Friday as a replacement to a geriatric five year old Macbook. Excellent build and it handles demanding games at ease.

+1 for Ketty Jay series. But some excellent black humour then Joe Abercrombie is worth a look The First Law series is excellent.

Very good selection, needs a Neal Asher adding to it and you’ll be addicted to some very good authors.

Tiger!Tiger! forgot about that one, think I’m going to have to dig it out of my collection and pay it a re-visit.

Charles Stross, the Laundry Series and the Halting State series are a sort of future now sci fi. Read his Singularity Sky & Iron Sunrise for big SciFi. His problem is that he really thinks quite deeply about stuff so the big SciFi for him is quite challenging http://www.accelerando.org/

Orson Scott Card – Enders Game
Vernor Vinge – A Fire upon the Deep
Ken MacLeod – The Cassini Division

Iain M Banks Consider Phelbas
Neal Asher Gridlinked