Is there a Pompino “Do One”? 😆

Friends – arrrgh! What a bag of rubbish.

Seinfeld – pants

Never watched these for more than a few minutes. The canned laughter in the first 30 seconds is enough to get me to switch over.

There are plenty of equally innane UK Sitcoms like My Family, Gavin and Stacey. Rubbish!

There is rarely anything fresh and original on TV, just the same old formulae repeated ad infinitum, or just repeats.

I have a library card and am off there shortly. I hope it won’t be overun with toddlers. Some politician decided the library, once a haven of tranqulity (for obvious reasons), should become overun with screaming toddlers.

I really need to buy a decent boat and disappear on the high seas for a few years, getting as far away from this so called civilisation!

I’d take advice from the CAB. A solicitor’s letter might be all that’s required. People take much more notice of a letter from a legal professional.

Hope this stops, but perhaps you could threaten them with a claim for compensation for the enduring harassment and intimidation you have suffered/suffering.

I’d also ask if the conveyancing solicitor should have dealt with any outstanding liabilities attached to the address when you were buying the property.

Good luck!

That Pontiac Aztec is inexcusable as a modern car!. It’s all too easy for me/you to pick holes in older cars. You have to remember that all car designs were a bit clunky back then. There is also no doubt, the buying public need a lot of time to adjust to innovative designs, so the evolution of design tends to be very slow.

I totally concur with robdob about the interference from the Motor manufacturer’s management boards – they always manage to ruin good design!

Ford are a big offender in this repect. I have an abiding memory of the prototype Ford Sierra at the Earls Court Motor show, of a leading edge desireable vehicle. The end product was a vague sad resemblance of the prototype and was plain fugly. They ruined it totally! The vehicle evolved throughout it’s lifetime and ended up looking a bit more like the prototype, but still never got there. Ford went through a long period of making truly bland/ugly cars. This all changed with the arrival of current Mondeo and the whole line up is now looking great (with one or two exceptions like the Fusion).

BMW however, seem to be going the opposite way. The 1 series does indeed look like it’s been left infront of an electric fire. The new 5 series has got the same wierd bulbous folds down it’s side, similar to that of the 3 series. They have become kinda “flabby” in appearance. What were the designers thinking, or have the conservative management team done the same as others – totally changed a great design?

I’ve no doubt that the unions crippled British Leyland in the 1970’s. And what a mistake it was to nationalise the flagging British motor industry! It was an incompetent Labour administration that eased the failing British automotive industry off the cliff into oblivion. Grrrr politicians/non-engineering/non-design types, they wreck everything!

A decent sized CRT TV takes up a quarter of your living room and needs several burly blokes to move it. The shape of them dictates that they usually have to sit in a corner, so not good if you use surround sound.

If you were to set up the CRT display, you would realize that maintaining focus between the three guns is rarely spot on across the full display and that there is noticeable image distortion at the margins of the tube. So whilst they may appear a bit sharper, they are actually worse overall. These problems are exasurbated as the TV ages.

There are many older and newer cheapo LCD’s that don’t do justice to the technology. The digital processing is the issue in most cases. Pre-Freeview models are dire at analogue to digital conversion and refresh rates are far too slow for the panel. You would understand what i’m on about if you used your TV as a PC monitor and saw what the panel is capable of – better than any CRT by a country mile!

Years ago, my father in-law bought a widescreen Loewe CRT with digital processing. It was analogue terrestrial only input (Freeview hadn’t been invented). The quality of the image was quite dynamic, but motion artefacts were very noticeable, just like a lot of flat panel TV’s – horrible NO THANKS! I couldn’t see the point in putting digital image processing inbetween and anologue tuner and an analogue display, but those people at Loewe clearly thought differently.

In my view Loewe and B & O are premium brands that bring barely any performance advantage, if any. You just pay twice as much for a badge to impress (or not impress) your friends! Shows you have more money than sense.

If you connect an external source to your LCD, you need to use the HDMI interface. If your input device doesn’t support HDMI, you need to use the next best – RGB interface. If you used S-Video, or Composite or the results will be very noticeably worse – not something that would show up on a smoother softer analogue CRT.

Sorry you CRT lovers, but you are out of touch and misinformed. Good luck with getting it right next time!

what are the practicalities of selling paintings

U paint em and sell em!

Live and let live!

Even decades ago, bus drivers had a bad attitude to giving change!

I recall one occasion when i was refused a ticket because I only had a fiver, but the driver said to go get some change in the shop adjacent to the bus stop. There were loads of people behind me, so I legged it in, bought a packet of mints and legged it out. He watched me running for the bus, but shut the doors as I got there and then drove off, despite saying he’d wait for me (the twunt!)

Bus drivers often used to close the doors and drive off just as you got to the door and after you legged it to get on board. This often happened to me when I was on the way home soon after I was allowed out of my place of work. I often saw bus drivers do this to other customers. These guys were just mean spirited and this must have been one of the few sources of amusement in their pathetic little lives.

In the mornings, I used to get the first bus at 05:45. This was when they bothered to show up, then I would be late for work and have mey wages docked! The journey went round every housing estate in the most convoluted 40 minute route imaginable. In the end I gave up and bought a car (as soon as I had the money). My six mile journey then took 15 minutes and my dignity was restored. If only I had realised back then, that cycling was an option!

These days buses have screens to protect the drivers. It’s not surprizing they need these judging by their surly attitude. All they need to do is calm down, slow down and learn how to handle people. Simples!

However you won’t ever see me on a bus except in Central London, but i’ll always opt for the Tube first.

There’s a big stigma attached to using buses; if you have to use one, you have failed!

there are other times where traffic lights make sense

Such as?

You will be surprised how different the images look on differant brands.

It’s almost impossible comparing picture quality!

You weren’t comparing all the sets plugged into one comparator where you Soma?

Did you optimise the settings for every TV in the shop?

Did you check to see what resolution of image you were viewing?

Did you swap round any of the feeds to see if the poor quality moved with the cable?

The LG LD450 arrived today and got to say its the biggest crock of shit that I have ever had the misfortune to buy

Didn’t you see it working before you bought it?

[/quote]Cannot get a sharp image no matter what settings are tried and there is an awful lot of background digital noise too.

Is that from the inbuilt tuner? Were you watching Freeview, or analogue? Were you using an external source?

The Passat was a shock tho, £175 or something.

That sounds a bit steep. Is it a gas guzzling model?

What a waste of time that would be!

Near me, the council put in a bridge and decided that a new set of lights were required to allow traffic in and out of the resulting service road. So now we queue up for ages, sometimes the area gets gridlocked, all for the odd car which might emerge from one of three premises!

A while ago, they switched thes lights off and all the problems went away, no jams, no accidents and free flowing trafic – YAY! They were off for ages and we assumed that the council had realised they had wasted our money on this very expensive scheme.

You only need traffic lights when traffic volumes are high. The rest of the time, it’s better to leave motorists to use their judgement based on the rules of the road. “Numpty” at the highways department doesn’t understand this however.

A few weeks ago, on went the lights again! The jams are back, pollution is up and drivers face wasted time and fuel again.

Which halfwit in the council is responsible? I dunno, but we SO need smaller governement! Not only is this traffic scheme a waste of money, but the people who were responsible for putting it in!

do you reckon she’s a virgin?

😆 😆 😆 😆

During these austere times William couldn’t afford to spend a million pounds on a diamond ring, so they will have to make do with a second hand one.

I don’t think he’d actually have much trouble affording what he wants!

As for the secondhand comment; the ring, aside from being worth a fortune, has immense sentimental value and i’m sure Kate would feel incredibly flattered that William should see fit to adorn her hand with an item once worn by the most famous woman in the World and that was a feature of the most high profile engagement/wedding in modern times.

I’ll have to sort out board hire and lift pass, though I don’t want to waste the saturday.

Many resorts allow you to book skis and passes online well before you arrive. Some may even send you your passes in the post. I got my POS pass for Three Valleys in the post. It’s a credit card sized smart card which you put in a convenient pocket and the turnstiles automatically open when they detect them up.

For board hire, rent in the UK to save time collecting and dropping off. £77/week for board and boots. You either collect from one of their UK branches, at nominated collection points, or get them couriered to your home/work. Edge to Edge are starting to do deliveries to certain resoorts this season.

What about the people who tuck the loose end in the end of the roll?

Of course, you can tailor SLA’s to specific accounts, even departments – give the customers a packrage that really works for them – always a winner! Obvioulsy SLA’s have to be workable to both parties and so negotiating terms can be a stimulating challenge.

Business continuity and change control will be of great interest if it’s a live trading environment. See if you can throw that in. Demonstrates to them that you are seeing things from a customer perspective.

BTW, that’s an outbuilding, not a shed!

I NEED a shed like that!

Sorry, outbuilding 😆

Practice putting the snow chains on before you go!

+1 – They can be a total pig, so practice makes perfect.

Chains are a legal requirement in many mountain resorts.

Carry hi-viz jackets for all of the occupants of the car for anywhere in France. Don’t forget to carry a set of bulbs and ensure correctly masked headlights too. Some Police forces are getting very particular about these minor issues, especially the French and Spanish. Dunno about Austria and Germany, but they tend to be sticklers for detail by default.

A spade is a good idea too.

Oh sorry, Kate and William,,,,,, 😆

I like that word! (working) People belonging to the group who go to work and put their back into it should be held in very high esteem indeed! Especially if they only earn peanuts, because it takes someone with a true work ethic to graft for so little reward. Hat’s off to them!

Never ceases to shock me; the jaw dropping ignorance and stupidity of people who take religion too seriously.

No, but get a copy of “Where to Ski”. It’s full of useful information on all aspects of skiing, including how to get to the Alps.

I’ve done the French and Italian Alps by car several times. It’s a long schlepp down there, so aim to break at least one leg of the journey by stopping in a cheap Accor Group hotel – Google them.

For the Austrian Alps, you might be able to head down through Germany which would mean you can do a squillion miles an hour on teh autobahns.

I’m curious about where she got the plummiest accent in the world?

I dunno, but the media keep telling us she’s from a normal middleclass family.

Middleclass? WTF does that mean? I really have no idea!

E.G. People like that woman who edits Majesty magazine always bang on about “Royals” dating a “commoners” and what a shocker this is. What a load of supercilious tosh! These partners of the Royals are almost always upperclass and I don’t get why there is this weird preoccupation whether they are good enough for the the Royal family. From what I can see, these other highly successful, highly affluent posh people are every but as upperclass as the Monarchy. It’s farcical!

So why do upperclass people get referred to as middleclass? Are upperclass people being patronisingly modest?

Personally, I think this ancient British disease of catagorising into people into a social heirarchy is not healthy. We should be more respectful towards each other and get focused on making a better life for all.

People who aspire to speak with a plummy accent, not by birth, are out of touch. They clearly have an innate arrogance and self-appointed sense of superiority. In this day and age, these people all quite embarrassing,, IMHO. 😆

Jeez, i’m so left wing! 😆

Greedy lawyers!

A friend of mine broke his hip coming off on ice. He spent 3 months on crutches and tow years to get back to full health, though he has discomfort even now – can’t walk all day on the hills anymore.

If you think it’s worth cycling when you know there is a high risk of black ice, go ahead, knock yourself out!

In the 70’s, my mate’s dad bought on of these, brand new, presumably because it was cheap. Their’s was an estate version and it rusted to pieces in under five years and every time it got hot in the sun, the cheap plastic seats smelt like dog shit (no joke!)

Never mind the modern looking 305, what about the 304? Hideous!

Spokescycles/DezB, you must have shxt in your eyes because there’s nothing significantly wrong with any of those.

They may be a little too radical for you, but they certainly don’t fall into the category of WRONG!

Or this…..

Or this……

This is more like it…..

The opinion on this forum is that there is no need to upgrade your standard HDMI cables

This is an interesting one. HDMI is a digital interface which uses parity correction. Looking at the situation from a purely technical point of view, digital is digital (just a bunch of 1’s and 0’s) and parity takes care of any losses. Like some types of digital audio interface, there may be some issues with jitter (which is about timing), but I wouldn’t get too absorbed with the hype. Let your eyes and ears be the judge.

There are a lot of companies making high quality cables and when you enter the world of analogue HiFi, these really do matter. There is an element of “perceived” rather than real benefit about all of this, but I have heard significant improvements when switching from one cable to another. Unfortunately, the cables that bring your systen to life always tend to cost vastly more than run of the mill stuff – what a surprize! Finding the middle ground is the challenge (and it is a challenge).

Some cable manufacturers like to talk technical, but i reckon a lot of it is speculative waffle as there is no formulae for matching cables, or specification that you can use to make comparisons.

In the end, cables are part of the chain and each component of the system interacts with the other. Measuring reactance and capacitance is impossible as everyone has different kit. When you change cables, you change resonant frequencies across the spectrum and this simply can’t be measured. It’s all about trial and error which is tough because getting a mix of different cables to tryout on your own system at the same time is pretty well impossible.

Back to digital: don’t buy the cheapest cables, but don’t spend a fortune. The purveyors of esoteric bits of string will have you thinking your life depends on spending vast sums on their blinged up offerings. My advice is don’t be taken in by it all. £20-30 is more than enough to spend on a decent HDMI lead.

Don’t buy plasma. I did this when they first came out and they have a limited life span due to screen burn

UTTER TOSH!!! Mine is fine after 6 years! They install plasma screens in airports and after several years of displaying flight arival information, some screen burn is inevitable. However if you factor in the 7×24 switched on hours of an airport monitor with the much lower hours of a domestic unit, it would take more than time than you are likely to want to own the set before it reaches the same condition. As you won’t be watching a static image, this screen burn probably wouldn’t ever occur.

In terms of longevity, an LCD with a CFL backlighting is more likely to fail than a plasma because of the tube and it’s driver electronics.

In practice, either technology is reliable enough for domestic use.

LED should look better

Should it? More nonsense! LED is a form of backlighting for LCD TV’s. There are two types: Perimeter and dynamic matrix.

Brings a whole new meaning to the word “PILFERING” 😆

Hot is not the word!!

Is there anything you can get to slow down hair growth?

Go on, quit and go sailing! I would only recommend you do this if I can have your job in a nice warm and clean office, where I can stare out of the window and post on STW whilst getting paid. I could then afford new bikes and trips to the Alps like you!

If you stay in your job, can I have the number for your mate with the yacht. Second thouughts, I can’t do that coz I have commitments.

Edwina has a consumate grip on the downtube of that Handjob! 😆

Has to be worth a fortune does that pic!

That’d be good for cooling my toast in the morning.

I hopefully take a day off and eat swan.

Let’s eat swan?! 😆 😆 😆 😆

I’m loving this!