London
Brighton
Guildford
Chester
Dartmouth

Download and run CCleaner for a start. Then run disk cleanup and defrag. There are also a few settings you can play with to release additional oomph, but I'll have to dig out the link.

Check how much space you have on you HDD(s). If you're down to <10% then a simple trick is to shrink your recycle bin to something like 50Mb. This could free up a couple of gb and get things shifting a little bit.

I agree with comments about Skype not being up to scratch. Great (usually for internal stuff), but way too flaky if you want/need to sound professional to prospects, customers, etc.

Also is there anywhere I can buy a cheap bean grinder?

We got ours from Whittards – £20 reduced to £10. Works a treat. Can also be used for blending herbs and spices :-)

Letters from Iwo Jima
Training Day
Black Hawk Down

rOcKeTdOg, this also worked for me for 24hrs then the battery reverted to being sh1t again. I've since swapped SD cards and got it working properly (for now anyway), which makes me think the phone is writing something to the card (via an app or widget) that kills sleep time or battery. Just a heads-up in case it starts acting up again.

"God, you're sad!"

Not bothered by MTB posers – they can do their own thing AFAIC.

As for other things … I've bought a couple of cars in the past that have led to people classing me as a poser, but 1) I'm into cars and appreciate them for far more than shallow value, and 2) I don't give a sh1t what other people think.

Other than that, I did have £500 of custom irons made for me a few years back when I was trying to pick up golf, but they only took a few shots of my game. I've figured since then that I'm just crap at golf.

You should try working with NHS IT training depts … Frightening!

Hmm, I thought you might be onto something there. But I've given it a go and it can't recover anything. Will have a look at some other recovery tools.

Cheers
SM

Just started watching The Lakes a couple of days ago. Only ever watched a few minutes here and there when it was originally aired in the late 90's. Ah, those were the days …

Wire
Mighty Boosh
Cracker
Prime Suspect
Deadwood
Band of Brothers

See if you can get some le creuset on the cheap – you might find an odd colour on clearance that you like.

We have a 4yr springer and he's a ideal for all occasions. Was a bit neurotic with people coming to the house to begin with, but usually only if they weren't really "dog people."

Will happily have a lie in for a few hours or chill in the garden. Will also accompany me on 10-15 mile runs without any problem (so long as he has water).

Good with most other dogs (and cats), but does have his alpha male moments too.

Overall, a very sound dog, and perfect company both at home and out on the trails.

SM

I used to drive 110 mile round trip – Sussex to Docklands (M23, M25, A2) – for 5yrs. Kind of therapeutic in the early days, but then suddenly became stressful as hell.

On a clear day I could do the first 50 miles in under an hour, but then hit Blackwall and take another hour to get to to wharf. On a bay day it could double that with me having to negotiate around half of sarf London.

PITA in the end, hence quitting the job.

Not really something I'd commit to again either, unless the job made up for it. Whatever you do, think it through.

£20-£50/week for the two of us, depending on who comes round for dinner, etc

Check out http://www.mobiles.co.uk/%5B/url%5D – they're very good for online deals.

For the record, every phone I've had in recent years has been from a "proper" provider, e.g. Vodafone, Orange, CPW. And I've never had a hardware problem (or much of a connection/line problem).

I've purposely avoided resellers etc because I know loads of people who keep trying to save money by taking a phone and contract from a provider in a newspaper or magazine – everything works fine for 2 months then suddenly turns to sh1t. This includes mates with HTC.

I'm not saying this is the case for other people with technical problems – just my own experience. Hence I'm always wary of (but do listen to) people that say X phone is sh1t, blah blah.

Just my tuppence

I've had a Hero (Yodafone) for a couple of months now, after really wanting to like the iPhone enough to give it a go. But I didn't.

IMHO, I think the Hero is a solid piece of kit with a slick UI (with the 2.73 upgrade), some good apps and loads of potential. I use it daily for email and calendering (Exhange and Googlemail), RSS feeds, Googlemaps with v good GPS, Twitter, etc.

Answers:

MP3 – yes, these work fine – just drag n drop using Media Player, etc. Currently using MixZing app which pulls down album arts and creates fairly accurate playlists based on what I'm listening to. Sound quality with good hp is excellent.

Hero syncs pretty much faultlessly with my Exchange and Googlemail accounts. Does have an option to sync with Outlook (and other PC stuff) so I'd imagine that would work fine too.

General task management is pants though – IMO. Doesn't pick up Exchange or Googlemail tasks, and needs an app to support other stuff, e.g RTM, etc.

If you want to root the Hero then check out the XDA Developers forum as well as other Android/Hero forums.

Downside at the mo is battery life. There's an issue with the default SMS client preventing the phone from sleeping = 1/2 day battery life at times (without even using the phone). Some people seem to be able to fix it (do a Google), but mine is still having random battery life even after doing loads of configuring. Some days 1/2 day, other days 1.5 days.

Overall, I like the Hero and am expecting support and apps to improve in the next 6-12 months. If not, I can see myself selling it and getting an iPhone.

Yes please :D

sjp03uk@

Much appreciated. And will re-circ for others in "need".

Thanks
SM

The gf and I used to go out fairly regularly for dinner (UK) but got fed up paying over the odds for distinctly average fair. There are definitely some good places out there, but trial and error (and even trusted word of mouth) can be expensive.

Best food I've had overseas must be Sardinia, where even the most simple dishes can be cheap, elegant and proper tasty. And the pizzas are on another planet.

Mark, your honesty and willingness to share is an inspiration.

You will get through this. And you and Meg have a lot more living to do yet!

Keep going:)

SM

Here's Chris' reply:

For info (and all this is available on Photium's website) I pay £80 per year (or £7.something per month) which includes everything: hosting, support, domain name and space for up to 300 images. There are other packages that have more features and allow for more images, but they'd need to check Photium.com for prices etc.

Dimmadan, YGM

If you want a hand PM me

Ref payment, have a look at Paypal and Google Checkout.

My mate Chris set up the following site Hatstand Images[/url] using these people:

Photium[/url]

He's well impressed because it's a simple template-driven UI with excellent customer support.

You could also set up a WordPress blog and integrate some gallery plugins. But at the same time, I think you need to qualify the need to have a blog – is it going to be useful? Have a look at other artists sites and see what they're doing. If you definitely want one then I'd go with WordPress, and then choose someone like Zen Internet, HostPapa or NativeSpace for hosting – I recommend each of these because of price and support.

SM

I agree PWN are good – it's just a case of getting NHS staff to stump up the cash, even if it's just for a one hour call. Sometimes they have to get budget sign-off just for that, and that can takes days! Hence looking for a free option, if one exists.

Usually house/trance/clubby stuff, especially the likes of Northern Exposure, etc.

Good spot from TooTall for the podrunner link – never heard of this before, but am now downloading the latest mix.

RESULT :D Called MS and the activation went through their automated menu system perfectly. Everything now working as it should – seems like it's genuine after all.

Thanks for your comments guys

SM

Interesting link DruidH, but it seems I need to register with them as a parent or student (with academic proof), of which I am neither. But I guess that doesn't stop people using someone else's details …

Ok. So if I call MS and they basically say no for whatever reason, can they actually disable it remotely or somehow log I'm using it (and for any reason notify the company it's licensed to)?

At the minute I have only a few "uses" of Outlook, Word, Excel etc before it goes into disabled mode again. Hence using sleep instead of shutdown on occasion.

Cheers

Yes, it was advertised with Office 2007 Enterprise:

# Office 2007 Enterprise installed and activated, no disks supplied
# Vista Business COA on top

No, I don't have the original discs. I asked him about the authenticity of it before bidding. He said it's a 6 month old machine with 2007 (OL), but no discs or sticker – he bought the machine off them for personal use and was selling it on.

Fair point, hence me asking if MS are going to expect me to know the company it's registered to.

Check out ebuyer and the Dell outlook store. The latter is totally genuine, but if you find something you want then snap it up quickly because stock sometimes disappears in minutes.

If you can't find what you want new, then look at second hand options. I recently needed to buy a PC and laptop but wanted VFM, solid spec and reliabilty/support – opted for a couple of HP machines and saved approx £1500 on RRP from 12-18 months ago.

Bargains do exist.

Just check out some reviews before jumping in.

SM

IMHO, I can't be bothered with the Mac vs PC debate. They both do what they do; in some cases very well, in other cases less so.

Put the politics to one side and take a simple look at what you really want to use the machine for over the next 3-5yrs (if you plan on keeping it that long). By the sounds of it, nothing out of the ordinary. Hence an average Mac or PC should suffice.

If you want VFM, then look for second hand options – you could save a packet, especially on a PC/laptop.

As for manufacturers, there are loads of bad PC ones (in terms of quality, VFM, performance, reliability, upgradability, support, longevity, etc), but there are also some very very good ones. My preference is HP/Compaq – based on personal ownership plus having sold all types of kit into NHS over the years. Then again, certain machines from Dell and Fujitsu are equally good.

IMHO, there are a whole load of people out there who are anti-Gates/MS and don't even know the implication of what they're saying. They're just being sheep. Likewise there are loads of Mac evangelists who harp on about stability and aesthetics, etc.

Fair enough, if you need a machine to do a specific job, and that job happens to be "niche" or "specialist", then one may well be better than the other. But if all you needs to do is browse, do some WP, play some movies, etc, then open yourself to both sides of the coin. After all, a second hand (excellent condition) 1 yr old laptop for £350 is likely to do the job just as well as a similar spec Mac for perhaps twice the price.

The choice is yours …

SM

Just my

Couple of places up the road in Neath. Beware though, it can get a bit "league of gentleman" on Saturday night:)

Hope you're mate recovers soon FR.

What annoys me is the number of riders on the road who 1) don't wear a helmet, and 2) have their ipod on. I cannot believe how stupid and careless they are. Sometimes it's hard enough to interpret what's happening on the road behind you normally (without 100db banging away in your ears), that I can't possibly see how they could react properly to a vehicle straying a bit too close to them one day. And that's not taking into account any evasive manouvers they need to take without said helmet. I just don't get it. Idiots.

End of rant.

SM

6'4" around 16 stone, I run in shoes with no support, effectively barefoot. You need to establish your running on your own.

In which case you're either 1) fortunate, or 2) carrying an injury or steadily going about contributing to one that you're perhaps not yet aware of.

IMO I don't agree entirely with establishing your running on your own – this can easily lead to any combination of bad training habits, injuries and people being put off the "running is good for you" vibe. Not such as an issue if you generally look after yourself and/or only run 10-20 mins here and there, but not so good if you start running distances and/or competing.

Just my tuppence – if it works for X people then cool.