Chemmy seems quite popular …

Call him up and be honest with him. Ask him to clarify what he's getting for his "significantly lower price." It's possible he's getting a lesser solution, and perhaps one that's better suited to him – so it's up to you to amend your own offering to suit. Then again, he might not be getting what he wants, but might think he is. Blah blah – lots of possibilities.

Just call and have a chat. Find out what's right for him and see what you can offer. Plenty of customers have opted for the cheapest solution and ending up not getting what they wanted/expected. Ultimately it's about understanding the customer's needs.

I've heard too many bad things about BT broadband to ever commit to a 1yr contract with them – which appears to be what they want. Hence when we dumped Tiscali a couple of years ago, we chose Zen for BB and stuck with BT (option 3) for calls (which I think is unlimited free calls peak/off peak, 0800/0845, and reduced mobiles, etc).

Personally, I don't like committing 1yr up front to something I don't believe enough in. Zen, on the other, offer a month to month contract, so if you don't like it then you can move on. Two years on and only a couple of hiccups, but they were resolved properly by English speaking people in England who answered the phone within seconds, and called me back when they said they would. Might cost a bit more, but I get peace of mind.

Whats andriod market ? and How do i get things from it ?

That's an odd question from someone who has an Android phone! The app is one of the default ones on one of your home screens (a green and white bag). If you can't see it then run it from your main list. AM is where you access 90%+ of Android apps, i.e. the equivalent of the Apple store.

BTW, Fring is pretty good now that it's working. Let's you do your Skype stuff including free calls (over wi-fi anyway).

The gf used to "see" a fair number of things, as does her mum on the odd occassion. Plus we now live in a very old house with lots of history, hence we have some unusual goings-on. And the cat definitely sees the odd visitation of sorts, e.g. one night a couple of weeks ago, he very visibly appeared to watch something/someone come in through the (closed/locked) front door, into the hall and then disappear into the kitchen.

I'm not bothered by whether or not it's rational or scientific or whatever – it if happens and it's harmless then so be it. On the other hand, I know people (that I trust implicably) that have experienced some horrible stuff – that's not so good.

If it's just a cold (which TBH, is what most incidences of man-flu are) then get out for a couple of hours or so. I had a cold last week, felt better at the w/e and went out for 3.5hrs yesterday. Felt fine on the bike – bit achey and snotty today though.

If it's more chest infection, etc then give yourself more time.

And if it's proper flu, then don't even go near a bike until you've got your energy back.

If you can't get a test ride at a shop then see if anyone in your circle has one and will let you try it (naturally depending on size, etc). Or at least see if the shop has a specific demo that is as close as possible to the one you want.

I've only had one test ride – walked into the shop (about 7yrs ago), said I was interesting in one of their FS Marins and asked to borrow it. They handed it over and said go on then. So I took it down the local woods and brought it back within say 20 mins (clean but slightly dusty tyres). They were most unimpressed and said I should have gone up and down the road outside. I said it's a MTB, not a road bike – and you didn't mention sticking to the space out the front. Needless to say I didn't buy a bike from them.

IME there are times when you feel you're with the right person and really want it to work, even though part of you says it's not to be. Hence you try to "rectify/resolve" things that just aren't gonna work out. So you either carry on, you say your peace and leave, or you "confront" and do your best to talk it out.

My tuppence = if you see the two of you having a future then go for the latter. Be honest. Listen. Talk. Listen. And listen some more … Then decide from there.

My ex was amazing in many ways, but also f&*king loopy at times – hence we called it a day …

Northern Exposure 1 – late night trance perfection.

"John Smith?" I should be heading over to Peaslake tomorrow but have never heard of that particular trail. Where abouts is it? Near BKB? Deathstar? Lord of the Rings?

Two dickheads dueling with each other on the A24 a few years ago. Looked like one had gotten pi55ed off with being overtaken by the other, so they decided to steam along trying to virtually ram each other off the road. Really weird to watch, especially as there was a fair amount of morning traffic around too. Continued for about 2-3 miles.

Test drove a couple of diesels about 4-5 years ago. Decent but dull. Road noise (especially above 50mph) very apparent on original 6 – facelook was much improved in this regard.

Also a big gutless and full of cheap plastics/upholstery that scratched/marked easily. Kamikuri (sp?) thing was a good idea but not exactly a deal-maker IMO.

Opted for an A4 in the end.

Don't get me wrong – laptop is running 2gb at present and very fast – more than happy with it for the usual day to day stuff.

What apps are you running? 4Gb is still quite a lot of memory, and most apps won't be RAM-bound I'd imagine, Or if they are, it's because they're I/O bound in which case see the SSD thread.

I need to run several heavy apps at once; Mind Manager 8, all Office 2007 stuff especially PowerPoint with loads of custom images, GIMP, Articulate Studio, and other stuff. Runs almost okay with this lot, and another 2gb will probably do the trick. But if I can get more than that then even better.

Cheers

+1

when Vista got this bad rep.

Agreed. Loads of people had issues with stability, sw compatibility, etc. We're now 3yrs+ further on and things are a lot better.

Don't want to upgrade to W7 yet and I'm bored of XP. TBH Vista works just fine for me – runs everything as quickly if not quicker than on XP anyway.

One quick little tip: sometimes the best action is no action. If you reach that point, then maybe you've done your bit and you've got to walk away.

I can't read through the whole thread right now, but here's my tuppence based on one of my "previous" best mates being an alcholic …

Take the best and most supportive action you can to improve the situation, e.g. speak with him and anyone else "involved, and do what you can to help.

If you do your best then that's sometimes all you can do. And like you say, if someone doesn't want to help themselves then they're not in a position to change (unless something else happens that enforces it). You have at least some piece of mind knowing you did your bit. If it starts affecting others negatively than approach that too.

My best mate for 15yrs had a drink problem amongst other things, caused a sh1t load of trouble with a lot of people, got banged up, should've been banged up for other stuff but got away with it, etc, and was generally a jekyll and hyde type; best bloke when sober, complete ar5e when drunk. I did what I could for years but in the end called it quits, long after everyone else had. Haven't spoken with him in 3 years and have no idea what he's up to. He has his life, and I have mine – I know which I'd rather have.

Grandfather survived the Hood sinking … don't know much about it though. He died when I was a kid and my dad died a couple of years ago, so I've no one to ask. I do have some pics of him in uniform when he was serving on the Hood.

Bloody hell – he was one of the three that got picked up?

Thanks for the comments Slowjo – always interesting to hear first person anecdotes, even though they're sometimes very touching.

You're right – war sucks. Also, I suppose if I'm honest, I can sometimes detach myself (if you know what I mean) from what's going on abroad right now, but when I hear about my own family's exploits (lots of military background) or those of others I "know", it hits home a helluva lot more.

I am doing the Midsummer Munro (half marathon with 3000ft of climbing around boxhill!!) in June and then The Greensand Marathon in october around Leith Hill which has 5,700ft of climbing!! Yes I am probably mad but only plan to do one marathon in my life and thought it might as well be a tough one….
http://www.trionium.com/mm/
http://www.trionium.com/greensand/

I had no idea there was anything like that around these parts. That's my usual stomping ground for running and biking anyway. Some of those climbs are absolute ba5tards on foot. I might well practice a lap or two to see how those particular routes feel.

Good luck!

Host Papa offer a good deal for 1yr up front – includes domain reg (and possibly complete ownership), etc. I think I paid about £68 for everything a while back. And they have v good support.

Just found this. Will probably do the trick if it's still active.

BTW, we can't seem to find his name – do you know where we can (easily?) get a list of crew? Cheers

Yes, a (great?) uncle apparently. I thought he was on the Ark Royal but my brother mentioned at Xmas that it was the Hood. Also have two brothers who died in the Boer War(s). Am doing the whole ancestory thing at the mo and digging up all kinds of stuff. One bloke (c mid 1700's) had 14 children from 3 wives!

I love climbing even though I'm in no way built for it. Sure, there are times when I've had enough and choose a different route round a particular climb, but generally I've got now problem.

IMO it's one of my fitness indicators, especially when I climb a ba5stard hill and need only a couple of seconds recovery before sticking it in a bigger cog and speeding off.

I think it stems back to my teenage road-riding days when I'd spend 8hrs in the saddle with a couple of whippets who were into hills. We'd go all over Hants, Surrey and Sussex and I never once got off an pushed. Hence I always summon up those memories when the going gets tough. Although in MTBing there are various climbs that either catch you out because they're just too steep or technical, especially in certain conditions, etc.

One thing I find weird is what I call thermals and anti-thermals.
– Thermals: Some stretches of road of trail can go uphill quite steep but I always feel like I'm being pushed up them.
– Anti-thermals: Other stretches can be relatively flat yet seem to suck every ounce of energy to get "up" them.

BTW, as weird as it sounds, marmite and peanut butter on toast rocks too.

Wrap with chorizo, brie, grape and a dab of mayo.

I find it helps if you know quite a bit about the car and enthusiastically engage the salesman in that type of chatter. If he responds accordingly then there's a chance they'll take you more seriously and give you more flexibility on the type of test drive. I remember being encouraged to drive a VXT like a proper go-kart – that was certainly fun:)

Fair enough – I like the sound of the "custom and practice" to back up the contract, etc.

There's definitely no need for me (or anyone) to get heavy about it because we have quite an informal attitude across the board. And the MD and I get on pretty well. It's just that I can see this profit mounting up and I'm thinking "Let's be fair about this … you've had 12 months to draft something and haven't … and you owe me X"

Don't want to rock the boat (as such) or jump ship or get knee-jerking because 1) it's a good job, 2) there aren't many jobs in my field, 3) I'm developing my role into what I want to do.

5yrs ago I test drove a new M3 (main dealer) and they said I would have to stick to the normal 3-4 mile route. As an existing customer of theirs I said there was no way I'd part with that kind of cash based on 10-15 minutes of driving. They said that was their policy and that was that. Needless to say I took the drive anyway.

Other dealers have simply thrown me the keys and said bring it back where you're done!

I thought it was preposterous episode – way OTT. Have been a few decent episodes until tonight – looks IMO like it's beginning to tread the same path as "Waking the Dead" did throughout the whole of the last series.

+1 for Emilia Fox though

Hmm, ok. They're a mixture of Office 2007 files, pdfs, graphics/images, and probably other misc files. Can't think of any exe stuff.

Guess it'll help it AV on the other machine will scan USB at deepest level before transfer.

Did 120 miles on a road bike when I was about 15-16. Don't remember being particularly exhausted. Even though I could probably do it now, I certainly wouldn't contemplate doubling it to 250. But then again, you might …

My weight fluctuates by 10-15lbs – I can burn it off in a month if I want to, and I can put it on in a month if I slacken the exercise and eat more. Although my diet is healthy, I tend to over-eat because I love food – which means portion management is key.

I quit drinking on Jan 1st and it's been surprisingly easy – the only problem is I've developed a chocolate addiction. I'm telling myself this isn't a bad thing because I'm really enjoying the booze-free mindset.

Currently snacking on a bowl of dried fruit, seeds and nuts. Tasty in a perverted kind of way, but not nearly as good as chocolate.
Now I'm just waiting All I have to do is step up the Am forcing myself to sna

You got off lightly with £50 for shoes and a bag. My gf buys about 4-5 pairs of shoes/boots a year, and 1-2 handbags; usually Mulberry or Radley IIR. Then there are jackets and all the other clothes, accessories, blah, blah.

Seems to be a "hobby" of hers.

Whit – Iain Banks
Deadhouse Gates – Steven Erikson
Thinking about starting American Gods – Neil Gaiman

Remainder of last night's lamb shish with spicy rice and coleslaw.

Only real fag is that HTC sync doesn't support Windows 7, the marketplace is somewhat random.

Yes it does. Do a Google on something like "HTC hero sync vista windows 7" and you'll find an article that shows you how to download the Vista drivers and then change something in one of the files. Syncing with W7 will then work.

Not educated enough to know what **** tyres I should be using.

MandM Direct[/url] have loads of decent discounted gear and a separate Ted Baker site.