Yes hora, we did the right thing defending our own territory, although I have heard it said many a time that Thatcher allowed the invasion to happen to boost her flagging support at home. Bit like the Argentinian position right now I guess (assuming CaptainFlasheart is correct). I blame women for this! They should never be allowed to have too much power 😆

The Argentinians are sabre wrattling because they know UK finances are battered and that we are overcommitted elsewhere.

The global sized oil fields is what this conflict is all about.

If it does kick off, I wonder if the Americans will support our cause with the same enthusiasm we have towards theirs? (or was the UK's arm twisted?)

I'm still perplexed as to why our boys are still getting shot up and we are spending mountains of tax payers' cash in Afghanistan. The vast majority of the people there are struggling to feed themselves, so i am lost as to why out people think they may be some sort of threat to our security. Conversely, our presence there will undoubtedly be aggitating groups much closer to home who are sympathetic to the Afghan's plight, those outside Afghanistan who do have the wherewithall to inflict harm upon us.

If Brown does roll over and gives away billions and billions of dollars worth of Falklands oil reserves, I won't be surprized. Afterall, Gordon's quest is clear: Bankrupt the UK!

ocrider – Member

Already have.
You ever been to the Dordogne? English is the first spoken language in some villages.

Which villages are those then?

I didn't find any!

samuri – Member

It's the michael jackson of the bird world.

Let's hope it has a different doctor to MJ!

I can never get Opera to work. I only use wifi so maybe this is the reason why.

RS Components?

3.5mm jack sockets are hardly obscure!

Celebrities suck!

The Saloon, no 1232 on Grant Avenue/Fresno Street. In the Chinese quarter next to the financial district. One of the oldest bars in San Fran which has a rude barman, the place stinks of rotting wood and the toilets are like a dungeon leading down to hell itself, but,, the live blues bands which perform in there are the finest you will find anywhere in the world. I had one of the best nights out in my life in this venue. $5 cover charge – bargain!

MSN City Guides – San Francisco. The Saloon

Giordiano's across the street also has some good bands. They do good food in there too.

A cablecar ride is a must ($5)

I'd take a boat rip round the bay from Pier 39 ($15).

Love San Fran!!

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Sorry, couldn't resist this……

No, but i have used a Garmin Foretrex 201 for this for the past 4 years. This year I enabled Nokia Sportstraker on my mobile as well as using my Garmin. I guess this makes me a geek! 😆

I would suspect apart from regular littering that most flytipping is by people paid to take people's rubbish away (tradesmen, skip hire co's)

Tradesmen dumping microwaves and old tyres?? Utter tosh!

Skip hire companies?? Erm, don't they charge a hefty sum for provision of a skip and subsequent disposal (including landfill tax). Wouldn't they get slammed if they dumped 4 tonnes of rubbish by the roadside? Do you ever see such quantities of waste in one spot? No!

How often do you see building waste at the side of the road? Almost never in my experience.

The people who charge to take your rubbish away are often of no fixed address and allegedly "travelling". I have a different name for these people, but using this is now deemed racist (which it is NOT). Nuff said!

It's easy enough to blame councils (well I grant you, many of them are useless), but the main issue is Brussels issuing directives pertaining to lanfill/recycling. The councils adhere to these because they are terrified of getting sued. Or maybe councils have nothing else to keep themselves occupied with.

Time we got out of the EU, or maybe our government should ignore the Brussels Europrat nonsense!

And I thought Labour were supposed to be the loony left…

You thought correctly!

I was driving through Tilbury yesterday and the verges were laden with detritus.

Nearer to home, the problem is not so bad, but still completely unacceptable.

Three days ago I was driving around Lake Tahoe in Nevada and noticed the clean verges and the roadside signs stating "$2000 fine for littering".

We SO need to toughen up on dicouraging "pond life" from throwing litter from vehicles!

More evidence that the climate is cooling

Tell her in no uncertain terms that your way of preparing toast is correct and she had better get used to it!

Tell the local council to spend the cash on something worthwhile,like fixing potholes.

Here here!

Our roads here are looking positively third world!

Took them 9 months to fix a few bigguns on the main road after the frosts last winter. A load more have opened up recently. Glad I don't often have to ride a bike on them!

Maybe he is actually this partner who is in bits.

Would explain the two bottles of cheap wine! 😆

With respect…..

Re MP3 sound quality: MP3 320kbps doesn't sound lossy to me! Maybe some high end deatil is not quite what it was when compared to the original CD played through my £700 Teac CD player, but then i'm using a Squeezebox 3 (Classic) for streaming with a puny wallwart power supply.

I heard the same files, but running on a friend's media PC with a high quality audio card. Switching between his £1000 Roksan Caspian CD player and the PC did not reveal a dicernable difference over an extended listening test (his set up is a good £3-4k's worth, slightly better than mine).

Re. formats: I would have chosen FLAC as this is an audio purist's format, however you are really limited on compatibility as so many devices past, present and future don't/won't support this. I chose MP3 as this is the defacto standard and nothing pisses me off more than limiting choice! (Apple Corp. – worst offender)

Re. ease of upgradeability: RAID5 is no easier to upgrade than a mirrored ReadyNAS Duo! From experience, i'd say the reverse is true.

To upgrade the Duo: Pull either of the two installed disks (while the unit is running – no interruption of service), insert the new larger capacity drive and wait for it to copy the data from the older volume. When this is done, pull the remaining original drive and insert the second new capacity drive. Wait for it to copy data, then reboot. Job done!

RAID5 arrays have more disks so will take a lot longer to upgrade and you will have to buy more disks and repeat this process. Granted, you don't have to have all volumes the same capacity, but for expample, the ReadyNAS NV+ takes a day or so to rebuild a volume each time you do this (according to the numerous reviews i have read). This is due to the complexity of how the data is striped across multiple volumes and because this unit has no alternate boundary. Replacing a volume sends the I/O count into orbit as all drives are in use, both for current tasks and for the volume rebuild. However, this box is the ultimate home NAS, but it costs 4 times the price of a the Duo. Horses for courses eh!

The advantage of RAID5 is that you get more available storage for the number of installed drives. RAID 1 (mirrored) is the least efficient use of disk space, but seeing as storage is cheap as chips now, who cares?

Backup – ReadyNas Duo has a USB port to which you can attach an external HDD. This will keep a copy of your data as a snapshot in time, but RAID 1 gives you a current back up anyway. The only show stoppers would be if either your files on both volumes became corrupted somehow (you could set read only access), or if you suffered a total loss/theft of the device.

For resilience against damage, you really nead a separate NAS elsewhere on you LAN – easily done with most NAS drives (connect and hit the button that says "backup"), but it's a bit OTT when a backup to a USB Ext drive, then kept safely elsewhere is sufficient.

I spent 20 plus years in support and at least 10 of those supporting disk arrays. What we have now in terms of price and storage capacity is simply amazing. For example, it wasn't that long ago i was working on a £50k disk array rammed full of disks, but with a total capacity of just 1.3Tb. You can now buy a 1.5TB single drive for £70 incl. delivery Wind the clock back to the early 1980's and typical disk capacities were 100-300G. The disk subsytstems were the approximately the same size as a washing machine.

NAS storage, the internet and the proliferation of media streaming technology opens up a lot if interesting opportunities.

Yeah, we are already around 20% of the way to the summer solstice on 21/06.

I too notice the nights drawing out in Jan.

I love it, feels like spring already. 8)

I'd get a NAS and attach it to your Wifi router. Much cheaper than a PC. You can get plenty of internet content over this, as well as your music library. You can leave the NAS on 7×24 and set it to quiesce when not used to save power and the life of the HDD (they spin down after a user defined period).

I recommend Netgear's ReadyNas Duo (bare version costs £145, but which comes with a voucher for a free 500Gb HDD). This NAS can be mirrored to give protection against data loss. Upgrading the capacity at a later stage is as simple as hot swapping and waiting for the volume to automatically rebuild. Alternatively you can add another ReadyNas to your LAN.

For photos you will love the included sharing software that allows you to allocate exclusive access to your friends via the internet, but only to selected folders. The rest of your pictures remain private. The software emails them a link and they view your pics via a weblink. It's secure and saves you emailing out large files, or the time spent burning and posting out discs. Of course, you personally access to all of your images over your LAN.

For music, Rip your collection on the laptop and then upload to the NAS over your LAN.

I'd do 2 rips. One 320kbps MP3 (lossless) and 128kbps for portable devices.

Then buy media streamers for whichever rooms you want to listen in.

Of course, any PC will be able to recieve a stream from this NAS if you do decide to get another Laptop/desktop/media PC. Just download Softsqueeze (which is free) on to any PC and use this as a squeezebox emulator. Or just use Mediamonkey, WMP11 etc etc.

If you have an Ipod Touch, you can download and run iPenq (also free) to emmulate a Squeezebox remote.

Squeezebox base units are £80 and use any amp and speakers, stereo, good quality 2.1 speakers (such as Acoustic Energy Aego M's)

Keep your reduced size MP3 copy on an external HD and hook it up to your laptop when you are away from home and to sync. files with your PMP or phone.

Lots of gadgetting fun!

Nice to hear positive news. I have no doubt that a positive mental attitude helps when you are fighting an illness like this.

Having true support form those closest is vital, so credit to your old man.

We're all behind you mate!

Good luck with the ride.

Yes it is the lizard people what done it as governments stuggle to come up with reasons to tax us – I mean it is not for schools, health, roads, army, social services, police prison is it – thanks for clearing that one up.

No, it's not! Most is wasted on people who sit on their backsides claiming every benefit available from the stupidly soft benefit system we operate in this country. And then there are MP's! Civil servants bonuses etc etc etc.

Then there is the jaw dropping waste and inefficiency on government projects.

What about the £4Bn that Gordon has pledged to aid developing countries to adopt green practices? That was a dumb move seeing as we have an enourmous "out of control" public deficit.

A useful safeguard for parents who are concerned about the one rare moment when the child suddenly disappears. I don't think any sane parent would ever substitute technology for their own childminding duties.

Orwellian?? Please!

After almost 1000 posts, I remain unconvinced that our accelerated output of CO2 has had any significant impact on the weather, climate, whatever you want to call it.

There is no actual scientific proof of this, merely speculation.

I do not advocate wasteful behaviour however!

I maintain that we should all conserve natural resources where possible as fuel will not last forever, but I detest the thought police who tell us that recklessly wasting fossil fuels will kill the planet. This is a lie designed to relieve us of money, but I doubly detest the selfish numbskulls who barrel round in huge engined vehicles just to massage their inflated egos. Then add all the other people who pointlessly waste energy.

We really need to cut out this stupid behaviour. I'm talking about turning the heating down and switching it off earlier, putting on extra clothes. Insulating and draught proofing our homes to the highest standards. Walking/cycling more often. Driving sedately and at reduced speeds, deferring journeys until several needs arise to travel to one place. Considering commuting distances when changing jobs. Taking a short shower and not a bath. Not washing everyday (if you have been sedentary and haven't been sweating). Reducing the washing and ironing by wearing clothes more than once. Filling the kettle with just the water you require, not full to the brim every time. Cutting down on foreign travel. Buying products that won't end up as landfill in a short period of time, but spending more on tangible high quality products and buying much less often. Buying more foods that are locally produced and avoiding excessive packaging etc etc….

There are loads if things we can all do which collectively would add up to a big reduction in consumption, but it all takes effort and consideration and the selfish people will greedily consume because they arrogantly feel they are above considering anyone else! It takes a lot of self control not to cave in to the slick marleting campaigns. You just have to ask yourself, "do I really need this new item". The answer is most often no. It's about self-discipline, self-control.

Forget this "save the planet" nonsense, it's our existence that we need to worry about as the planet will still be here long after we wipe ourselves out.

The main issue is population control. We need to arrest the increase in the world's population immediately. If left unchecked, we'll be so overpopulated that we'll eventually run out of food. If one thing is going to accelerate the consumption of precious resources, it's going to be having lots more people around to do this! We need a world population growth summit.

This bike has been relisted and is still on eBay.

The description is clearly letting it down. Well, the single photograph picture isn't helping either.

What I can't understand is how someone with such dreadful writing skills could manage to muster £2400 for a mountainbike! To have the odd spare £2400 knocking about, one usually has a good income. I find that most people with a decent income can spell!!

If he made MTB enthuaist type noises in his advert, it would all sound a lot more credible.

So it was probably not his purchase. My bet is on daddy. 😉

OK "rs", If you have two iPods, you can't sync them both with the same machine unless you go through some convoluted process via the iStore. Why?? It's your music that you paid for on the computer, why shouldn't you be able to copy all or part of it as often as you like?

Apple's thinking assumes you are illegally sharing music with others. It kicks off by distrusting it's customers. No other media player manufacturer operates this policy.

I remember that it wasn't so long ago that all iStore music downloads were DRM protected. How arrogant!

I was considering an iPod Touch for my daughter and have in fact used one of these. They are impressive devices, however to get one with any decent amount of memory costs double the price of a 8Gb unit. There is no 16GB, how convenient! £300 for a media player with no mobile calling capability? And three years later it won't hold a charge anymore.

Apple corporation really sucks!

If it has a user replaceable battery and full compatibility with Windows applications like WMP11, i'd buy one, but this will never happen.

Apple will continue to vigourously lock their customers to iTunes etc and all other OS/applications will be shut out.

Anti-competiton law suit would sort Apple out, but i guess they would easily find the money to pay a top law firm to defend them and also launch a propoganda campaign.

Shame!

Doesn't actually bother me because there a loads of tablets/slates on the way. The netbbok is evolving into this form factor and there is new chip and display technology that will give 10 hrs of battery life between charges. These tablets will be way cheaper than Apple's offerings and will be compatible with anything worth bothering with. My money will probably be on a Samsung when they ship.

They are indeed gorgeous!

Netgear ReadyNas Duo! iTunes and SqueezeServer are installed as standard. Also comes with incremental auto-backup built in.

Available bare, 0.5Tb. 1.0Tb. You can go to 2Tb mirrored. Upgrading is a simple hotswap process, followed by a reboot.

You can network more than one NAS on your network.

Netgear still have a promotion for free HDD's.

If you are streaming over wifi, you may have interruptions, especially if there is other traffic on your WLAN. I recommend installing ethernet infrastructure. (see my entry on the thread about Fetch TV)

I have seen the ad. on the Fetch box. Looks good!

Have you seen the popcorn hour C-200?

If you are interested in the latest home A/V technology, you'll like this net TV channel: http://revision3.com/hdnation/ces

Networked media technology has dropped in price and i reckon this will produce a revolution in how we access media.

I'm going to install CAT6 infrastructure in my house. Wifi just can't reliably handle the bandwidth, especially with HD material. A great deal of new harware will have Ethernet connectivity, including large screen TVs. In 5 years this could become defacto standard.

I like the idea of being able to upload recordings from a PVR, or Media PC to a NAS, then be able to stream to any telly in the house.

I envisiage owning a decent Freeview HD PVR with network capability when they become available and perhaps building a media PC. I already have a NAS and various audio streamers.

Affordable web tablets are on the way and these will provide awesome UI capabilities.

The future is definitely networked A/V as the hardware is becoming so affordable.

Yes, Ocra is trully disgusting.

What's Salsify?

Mind you, there's a whole Japanese community that eat a tofu based diet and they mostly live to over 100yrs old.

TOFU is like sterilized cat sick!

PostmanPat?

http://hotspotshield.com/

http://hotspotshield.com/%5B/url%5D

Which malware/virus?

Surely you have to be remotely capable at imparting knowledge. You know, when you do those psychometric tests and they reveal that you might be well suited to such a role. No point in learning anything if this doesn't suit your personality.

Even if you do have the right traits, will you be able to put up with unruly children and interference from central government, or even parents?

Right job = contentment and fulfillment = success

Ricecakes. Same texture as polystrene, zero flavour. A pointless morsel! YUCK!!