I'm not a great fan of this show, due to the freak show performances in the early stages and the vulgar way people get off watching some making complete idiots of themselves. Two of the judges seem to have a problem understanding what tallent is! I also dislike the SYCO machine hoovering up talent so as to profit from producing yet more homogenized cxxp for "the Great British public" to consume.

The couple of tracks i heard the young drummer boy play to, he did well, but none were particularly excitng from a drumming point of view.

As one other said, he's only using a single kick and I've heard much better players playing way more elaborately. Good drumming is not neccessarily about knocking seven bells out of a kit either!

I guess if the guy played to something where the drumming was a lot more complex, the audience wouldn't like the music.

As for the judges, yep, I agree, they are clueless about drumming.

As per many of the contestants, personal poplarity is what this show is about, not so much about talent and this is what the SYCO machine is looking for – popular artists who will make them the most money.

However I do think the show offers great opportunity for the genuinely outstandingly talented. Giving those people the opportunity to display their abilities to a large audience is fantastic for them. I just hope for those who find the show launches/relaunches a career in entertainment, that they get a fair deal from their promoters.

As for a Royal Variety act, the aerial gymnastics crew have to be the winners.

I could get into all this druid stuff if it involved lots of naked women offering themselves to whatever divine force that lot belive in. 😈 😛

I bet the problem is with the lender.

I had difficulties with a survey buying my house many years ago (chain free). It was over a question of whether subsidence claims would be met, due to a willow tree which my independant arboriculturist stated in writing, was too far from the house to present a problem. This came about after an ssue was flagged by my lender's surveyor.

This all happened because I had paid for a buyer's report and had hassled the lender due to a long wait getting a surveyor to site. Eventually this was arranged, but the estate agent told me on the agreed date that the surveyor had picked the keys up after it had got dark. I then asked the lender how the surveyor could prepare a report on the exterior of a building, without actually seeing it! Subsequently, a second visit was arranged by the lender whereupon the disgruntled surveyor flagged a "non-problem", i expect out of spite. We had been seriously dicked about and several weeks were lost due to the lender who were particularly casual and unresponsive to their customer!

The lender was non-commital about the question of subsidence claims being met, despite the professional report which I had sought and at the recommendation of their own surveyor's report. This wrangling went on for a whole month at which point we got fed up with their nonsense, so i asked my mortgage broker to find a different lender. It was a pleasure telling the first shower to stick their loan where the sun don't shine. 😀

A new lender was sought and found the same day and they sent a surveyor the same afternoon! No problems were found with the property and exchange took less than two weeks from the first call from the bank. We had moved in a month later.

ALL our troubles were caused by the bank!

Good luck!

How can you help someone so breathtakingly simple?

Do nothing and don't feel any guilt etc.

BP have BIG financial reserves and is a massive company. I don't think this crisis will kill it, but it will be a while before the total cost of the disaster comes to light. The time to make a call on BP will be when the extent is known, then I expect the stocks will begin to bounce back. I expect BP stocks will be sharply up in a few years, but I don't have a crstal ball.

Make sure you keep the original files. Useful for when you have a high quality system at home and when portable media players gain much more memory.

Until I have time and money on my hands, i'd go for a sailing yacht around 30ft, one with a suitable category for offshore, but with a view to short hop coastal cruising. One that has a good turn of speed, is predictable in a good blow and reasonably comfortable as somewhere to hang out at weekends too. £25k ought to do it. Nothing flash!

I don't need a penis extension, just a method of escape from the day to day drudge.

Thumbs down to gas guzzling power boats and gin palaces. These are the type of vessels that attract the same sort of immodest "LOOK AT ME" type people who simply must have a big expensive 4WD to show the world how much better thay are than everyone else. It's people like this who are wasting many times more fuel than anyone else, just to massage their egos and vanity. Fortunately, the vast majority of them are stuck ashore. Hooray! 😆

Sailing for me! I like the endless learning involved, the skill required in navigation etc and the peace and quiet.

You MUST spend an evening here….

Called The Saloon

Established in 1861.

1232 Grant Ave, San Francisco, CA 94133. (415) 989-7666.

Live blues every night.

It stinks of damp and is in serious need of a bit of Mr Muscle, but this place rocks (literally).

The toilets are "an experience", like descending into a deep dark hole!

Had the best night out in years in this place. 🙂

Most campers are stupidly overpriced. I'd opt for a tent, but have the smallest vehicle you can get your head down in, if you find yourself stuck somewhere without a pitch.

Don't buy an old VW camper! They are ridiculously overpriced rust buckets than have had the sxxt knocked out of them. Beware of traders selling these, they are unscrupulous.

Perhaps buy a small second hand panel van and convert it yourself.

Alternatively, use tents and Accor Hotels – way cheaper!

You need to write seven passes of null data over a drive before it's contents becomes unrecoverable.

If the disk is intact and the volumes as they were whe you last shut down, you might as well have printed out your personal details and given them out to every passing scallywag!

Darek's Nuke and Boot free download will wipe an old HDD[/url]

I guess Obama is just playing politics and that he's not the grand statesman he made himself out to be. Very disappointing, given that I thought he was a smarter guy than the two "Dubya's" put together.

Gravitas – FAIL!!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, 😆 😆 😆 😆

I really must stop this!

!!! 😕

Mumbo jumbo!

Nobody tried this yet?

Anyone worked it out?

Noise cancelling headphones?

anagallis_arvensis – Member

here's mine, ugly, slow, handles poorly on road, shit off road doesnt seem unreliable thus far though

Looks good to me! How much could I get one of those for?

Just been looking at new bikes and am shocked at the substantial price increases since I first looked in 2007.

Thanks for sharing your experiences!

Seems like I need to bite the bullet (groan) and stay local for this, using someone with a reputation and long track record.

I have a few months to do some research.

Cheers!

Great news if they can get an industry going there to benefit their country.

The average Afghan deserves a slice of the action, but will the money ever reach them? I hope so, but with the strange religious and cultural ways of the country, who knows what will happen, if the country will ever enjoy the full rewards.

The Afghan authorities must have complete control if this is going to work, but this will be a challenge because they need the expertise of the Western corporations and governments. The Arab world doesn't hold western outsiders in the highest regard and i'm sure the traditionalists will just see this as an interferance (the allied occupation there can't be helping matters either).

I think religion is the fundamental issue. A massive diplomatic challenge! I bet the Chinese will be especially keen to resolve this.

Yes the CBF500 is sheer motocyling evil! It only exists because it is cheap and all the schools like a bargain (of course!).

The one I rode gave me serious pain and numbness in the axxe after only one hour. I also got numbness and discomfort from the foot angle on the lever/pedal. Unsafe!

I thought 500cc was pretty ample, but the bike is built for short people. Handling seemed OK, but then I have no recent comparisons.

Who makes a 29er equivalent of a 500cc bike, that isn't a trials bike?

The manufacturers are great at making 125cc bikes look like 400cc bikes, so why can't they similarly upscale something with a bigger engine?

The BMW GS tourers are the right size for me, but the the 1200cc engine is complete overkill, too heavy and BMW's are overpriced. The GS's are a bit trialsey too.

SO who knows a good comfortable hlaf faired bike for a bloke 6ft 2" tall, but which will go round corners without giving the rider a heart stopper?

I have very hooked roots and it was impossible to treat one of them without an apisectomy. If you are relatively normal, it should be fine. 😆

The dentist will have a very thin drill and will work their way deeper into the root, periodically stopping to take x-rays to see how far down they are getting.

It wasn't painful or that unpleasant, well nothing compared to having an extraction, or an abscess.

I think he's a cool dude! I first used to watch him on Working Lunch, then he moved to the One Show. Great!

Then he left to do numpty TV on ITV and there he's not appreciated.

What's that all about?

Money I guess!

Imagine a world where most of the people you come across out on the trails looked like Ms Batty.

BITTY

🙂 😆

Air Ambulance/Mountain Rescue – worth it ?

and noting the mention of the RNLI…

When you are out on a yacht, when the wind direction swings round offshore and increases from the forecast 4-5 to high 7 and then your engine overheats, yes!

We'd have spent hours tacking up and down until the tide turned before we could get back to sheltered waters and we'd have had to weigh an anchor and make the remaining journey ashore by tender.

We were all correctly attired, harnessed up and competent in the conditions (the skipper has sailed across the atlantic and we've all done several years of coastal cruising, done the courses etc).

We took a pre-emptive step to seek advice from the coastguard and he dispatched a lifeboat to tow us in. No drama, but embarrassing all the same.

We'd attempted repairs prior to making the call, but could find nothing wrong, but imagine your workshop bouncing up and down about 12ft as you try to work!

The problem turned out to be pieces of impeller that had broken off prior to mateyboy owning the boat. We were unlucky that the problem hadn't appeared straight away when we motored up the river after taking delivery several weeks earlier. The engine had been fine the previous day and on two other trips, so it was unforeseeable.

I shall make sure i donate a bit extra next time.

Here's another load of twaddle

Who gets under a shower and then turns it on?

Utter nonsense!

Twenty years ago some herbert said you could get cancer from the ionized air around a shower head, Ridiculous!

I would imagine you can't touch public land, but this doesn't appear to deter a handful off people sneaking in with, picks and shovels.

Don't do it!

molgrips – Member

4 weeks of whinging.. My god.

Some people on this forum don't half have issues.

Molgrips, get with the programme!!

This website is ALL about whinging!

Yeah, the Nokia 5800 is a vastly improved phone now that they have improved the firmware and stacks of new apps have become available.

All it lacks is Nokia Internet radio however.

Many many years ago, spent two years working as an MOD standard wireman, working in a factory making all sorts of military electronic assemblies. My soldering course took a whole week! Contrary to popular belief, soldering correctly is not an easy skill (and i'm far more dexterous than most).

You need an iron withh a fine tip. Big clunky tips are useless for fine work and you'll likely do damage.

Get the tip of the iron tinned, by getting a bit of damp sponge, or tissue and wiping the hot tip on this. Then when the iron is at full heat, melt some solder until it runs over the tip.

Repeat the wiping routine until the tip is silvery with solder.

Get some solder braid and tin about 2 inches from end with a small amount of solder to encourage the wicking effect when you use the braid on the joint and to mitigate later excess heating of the pcb.

Place the braid between the joint and the iron tip and apply very gentle pressure, whilst dabbing on a tiny bit more solder. When the joint softens and you see the solder flow into the braid, slowly draw the braid as it soaks up the solder, but keeping the iron resting on it. Don't stay on too long as you may do damage to the board and it's components. Wait a while to let things cool down between each go.

I'd only use a solder sucker of there is a large amount of solder on the joint, but modern laptop pcb's are made in flow wave machines and there's minimal human handiwork, so you'll rarely get big wads of solder (other than on big heavy joints).

You can get different temp irons! Silver solder has a higher melting point and we used to use Oryx or Weller heat controllable irons that went up to 350c. I can't remember what they were set to i'm afraid, but always use the lowest temp required to melt the solder. Silver solder has a higher melting point, but you won't be needing this. If you want to chance it with a cheap iron that's too hot, try unplugging just as you are about to use it. This'll help as it cools, but you'll need to time things right.

Use a pair of tweezers and heat the power socket leg as you gently lift it. Be careful not to raise the track of the board and keep away from chip capacitors, they'll leach in seconds.

When the socket it out. clean up any remaining excess solder with braid and isoproprl on a cotton bud.

Mount the new socket, make sure it's seated correctly and flow in a nice fillet around the leg (no blobs).

DON'T blow on the joint to set it either.

Clean off any flux with isopropryl on a cotton bub.

Job done.

I wonder if noise cancelling headphones would help.

I bet that tent would be useless if it gets windy!

samuri – Member

Wait till they're right next door. The music starts at 7am, the dog barks from 8, it barks all day in the house and then the music starts again when they get home and goes on till about 10-11pm.

I've been round a number of times and they turn it down for a bit, and then it ramps up again. It's never enough to warrant the council getting involved.

Plus they argue a lot, the kid screams all the time. They're **** crazy and they've made it clear they (as a family), hate cyclists.

Great neighbours.

Never enough to warrant the council getting involved? I think you might find you are wrong there.

Make a diary of disturbances. Also, when you spoke to them and what was said.

Whe you have a couple of month's worth of material, write a detailed letter to your council's environmental health department.

Sound's like these people could do with an ASBO!

See you're wrong there! To people who are "into" football, its so much more – it's their main form of social interaction, amongst other things.

I used to endure situations with my customers who'd sit in groups day after day and talk about NOTHING other than football. What a dull narrow existence!

I used to watch my son play football, but gave that up because I just couldn't abide the idiotic undignified behaviour from too many of the people on the touch line. Or the cheating and fouling from the opposition, or the jeering nastiness from some of the opposition's supporters. Or the incompetence/bias of some of the ref's These numbnuts just have no concept of sportsmanship, but hey, that's football! A game which attracts some of the stupidest people in existence.

They take it too seriously and get too stressed! Earlier this year, one spectator at my son's club actually died from a heart attack at the side of this pitch! He died being too stressed over a football game!?!? What a monumental waste!

It's great when your team wins, but the atmosphere when they loose is painful. No fun at all!

Conversely, cricket is vastly more civilized. You rarely experience "gobshite" or animosity. It's a game where luck plays less of a part and individuals get a better chance to show their mettle.

Green should be shot!!!

!? It's only a game!

enfht – Member

Is it just be or does the incessant horn blowing sound like a massive swarm of flies? I likened the noise to a swarm of drunken wasps.

alwyn – Member

Has the world cup finished yet? Regrettably not!

For superior presenation, use Auctiva.com. It's free for 30 days.

The reserve has to be £50 or more, otherwise do a buy it now.

Get your sister to list!

1 Classified
2 Classified

😆

I am a Wolves fan, trust me crap games are a given, but the good ones more than make up for it.

– Bit like the British weather, mostly rubbish, but every now and then it's glorious.

#
coogan – Member

One day of it and the amount of whinging little girls is startling. Are you all stuck indoors with only two channels to watch?
Posted 26 minutes ago # Report-Post
#
mastiles_fanylion – Member

And without the imagination to think about picking up a book or going for a walk or putting on an album or cooking some good food or riding a bike or painting a picture or…

or what?

Yah man! 😆

markfu – Member

You could always just turn it over, or put some music on instead? I must admit though, that France/Uruguay game was cack indeed.

So, even according to a genuine football fan, Football = cack? 😆