Sad!

The pilot Chesley Sullenberger III did a fantastic job landing that plane!

One thing I noticed however – every time I get on a plane they demonstrate how to get a life jacket and put it on. On flight 1549 hardly anybody was wearing one when they got out of the plane! There were no announcements from the captain that he was going to ditch in the river until the last few seconds, but there would have been time for people to prepare for this. I still have my hat off to the pilot because nobody died and he brought the plane down in one piece – impressive. It just goes to show that with all the safety procedures in place and incessant drilling, in times of great stress, these procedures can go out the window. We are only human!

Shame on those greedy people that are thinking of sueing! They have been compensated to the tune of $5000 already. They should feel lucky to be alive the ungrateful buxxers!!

That Passat CC is a very car nice indeed. Shame it’s priced so high.

I just configured a 140hp Diesel with metallic paint and leather and the list price came out at £23,700 – Audi money?

I thought car companies were trying to be competitive with pricing at the moment!?

No wonder the auto industry has seen a 60% drop in sales year on year!

If you mean unlocking the phone from one service provider to work with all – Yes. Unfortunately I can’t remember the name of the site, but my phone was a Nokia 6230. It was a free service. Do a search online.

All I can remember was punching in a model number and IMEI, then it gave me a list of 5 codes to try when powering on without a SIM installed. The second code worked and that was it. It took a few minutes.

LMAO!

Double glazing won’t add value, but will make the house more saleable.

If your old windows are still functional, there will be little to be gained from switching.

I too have old double glazing. It looks pretty horrible compared to newer windows, but when potential buyers come to look at my house, are they going to notice? Or if they do, is it something they will be that bothered about? There are other aspects of the property that will be more of a focus of attention, such as the bathrooms, the kitchen and the general standard of decor/maintenance.

In my experience, estate agents use the same description for properties that vary wildly in specification and condidtion, so it won’t make any difference getting someone through the door. Improving the kerbside appeal by tarting up your front garden will.

If you do upgrade it will be mainly for your own personal enjoyment.

WTF is this all about?

Vauxhall’s are decent cars so long as you don’t pick a low volume variant.
I’ve had four of them over the years and did high mileage in them. The new Insignia looks the part btw.

I saw on Watchdog that the 2.2 engines had some sort of fuel pump issue that kept recurring, costing owners several hundred times a pop.

If I was buying an older car, I’d go for a Passat TDi 130hp. A brilliant engine – pokey and very economical. Audi’s are even better if you can afford the extra.

Hope you get a “goodun” whatever it is.

So Dot, why is it that you think hippees are the reason that i post on this site?

I miss Maggie, she was hot!

Lots of nice totty!

Yeah, dry toilets really smell!

**Standing in the corner thinking**

BTW I really don’t care what happens to him in prison – am no wet liberal! I’m sure he will be treated as a special case because of his status.

IMO he should be stripped of his peer status after such an apalling disregard for public safety!

It is people who have such high status that should set an example to the rest of us.

I just got a whiff of journalists skewing balanced reporting in favour of an opportunity to bang on about a controversial current issue. Am I cynical?

Well i had used the reseller for my original phone several years ago with no problems. Perhaps I was lulled into a false sense of security due to prior experience, but Dial-A-Phone C.S. was rubbish this time – completely non-existent! I ended up getting my phone though Vodafone and i reckon I got a pretty good deal. Reading recent threads, I feel much better about this. If these cowboy outfits are so lame, why do airtime providers give them the time of day?

“dirt bitches” and liqidized chick peas??

I HATE hippees!

An “EARTH SHIP” !!!!! WTF?? WTF??

I HATE hippees!

A used Sugden A21a – delicious, sumptuous, natural pure class A sound!

Who really cares?

Really hairy is ok when the lights are out.

Hippees eh!

The house looks shxt btw!

I heard that a few Turks gave up flying, but they’re probably not Christians.

Lent? WTF has that got to do with modern life?

The Guardian said:

The last message was sent two minutes and 1.86 miles before the Jaguar smashed into an Audi that had clipped the central barrier shortly beforehand and ended up facing the wrong way in the outside lane. Its driver, Martyn Gombar, 28, a Slovakian father of two living in Manchester, who had been drinking, was trying to retrieve his own mobile phone at the time of the collision.

They didn’t say the dead man was drunk, but he was in the road trying to retrieve his own phone!?

There had been 18 mins of sustained texting activity prior to the two minute period before the crash.

I guess they may have assumed Lord Ahmed was still texting, but hadn’t actually hit the send button when the accident occurred. They also said the spot where the collision happened was poorly lit and this would have had a bearing on what happened wouldn’t it?

I am not for one second defending idiots that text while driving, but from what i’m reading, the striking of the Slovakian was a separate matter from the act of sustained text messaging while driving on a motorway.

Maybe he’s just a shxt driver in which case driving without due care would have been more appropriate! But walking in the fast lane of a motorway to retrieve a mobile phone has to be one of the stupidest things you could do!

Who knows what actually happened and what was said in court, we weren’t there to hear all the evidence.

Poor relatives and friends of the deceased man!

Update – just got a mail from Dial-a-phone saying my order has been cancelled. Apparently Vodafone said their status criteria had not been met on this occasion!?

I called Dial-a-phone c.s. as I didn’t fully understand what this meant. Got an automated service that eventually put me through to a message saying the same as the mail and that the operators couldn’t help me any further. Then it hung up. I’m glad the deal with them collapsed!

Called Vodafone and they came up with a £15/month deal, free handset, free delivery and on an 18 month contract this time. They couldn’t answer why the order had not met their criteria. £105 of their previous best offer!

So it cost me another £1.33 a month than the Dial-A-Phone deal, but I won’t have to faff about remembering to redeem vouchers.

I won’t be going into any Vodafone shops to whinge about billing etc, there’s the free customer services line for that, but thanks for your perspective ShinyRedOrange. Can’t imagine the largest mobile operator – Vodafone going down the pan any time soon, but we’ll see.

Yep cynic-al, cables do make a significant difference. QED Genesis siver spiral was awesome in my system when I got a pair on load from Audi-T, but i couldn’t afford, or justify £600 for two 3m bi-wire cables! I was talked into trying them and it was a transformation that opened everything up. I was a big cynic about cabling until then and thought people were talking a load of mumbo jumbo – snake oil type stuff.

Use a pipe cleaner on a straightened coat hanger to clean the tube.

Empty out the bladder (and rinse if you used additives). Leave the bladder out of the pack and with the lid off so it dries out. You can stuff a tea towel inside, but i don’t bother now.

I use bicarbonate of soda disolved in hot water from tome to time to get rid of the funny taste.

My Camelbak bladder is at lead 5 yrs old, still has that Camelbak tinge about it which has been there from day one. It used to be a lot worse. Yuck!

Source/Vagabond make good quality bladders that have no taste at all.

Dave, they obviously lied to me then! They would take a PAC from any SIM except their own PAYG SIMs at that time. I guess they have relaxed that restriction now. Technically it was never a problem, just Vodafone not looking after their own customers!

Sky are doing so good deals thanks to the Freesat threat. They also do home phone and broadband, but i think i’ll stay subscription free for my TV viewing. The License fee is enough and Freeview is sufficient. I might buy a Freesat HD PVR when they come down in price a little and when there is more choice of hardware. The trouble is I don’t have a dish yet. Satellite TV requires completely new infrastructure with a multi-feed LNB and dedicated cables to each receiver. I’m not shure if I can be arsed!

lol @ igm!

Wouldn’t the high level of uv radiation kill the resins in a space bound carbon fibre structure? It would have to be manufactured in a vacuum to prevent voids in the structure also.

Yep Will, I did tell them what I want and what other providers were offering. As you say, if you get a willing salesperson, you can do a deal. Two of the girls I spoke to offered me less than the deal they had offered me first off. You would have thought they would keep a record!

As longterm customer paying them a pile of money each month, you wouldn’t have thought that it would have not been so difficult to get a deal. I reminded them of this, but it made no difference. It’ll be their loss only when I switch £45/month’s worth of business away from them in 30 days!

Vodafone will not transfer a PAYG number/PAC to a new contract. I tried that before.

I think I will look out for a cheap repeater, or maybe I’ll have moved in 18 months!

I will remember the PAC tactic next time thanks!

Yep the cashback is in the form of 3 vouchers and i will be setting up reminders. I bought my original contract through Dial-a-phone and went through this process before – no problem. It’s not a deal that would be good for someone who’s a bit forgetful or disorganised. I guess there is a certain amount of hassle, but IMO it’s worth it for the £120 carrot.

This was a handset upgrade keeping my existing contract, same number, but the reseller was providing the handset. I haven’t had to pay anything. There didn’t seem any point in going back to Vodafone to get them to match it as the deal was in effect coming from them anyway. Vodafone also charge a fiver for delivery whereas the Dial-a-phone delivery is free.

I called the Vodafone cancellation line previously because I know they are authorised to give bigger discounts, but i spoke with them a few times and they just weren’t making much effort. I kept hearing the word “no”!

As I said before, i’m stuck with Vodafone unless I buy an expensive repeater. Other networks work OK outside my place and in some parts of my house, some of the time.

Without any written agreement thay will simply turn around and say it was a gift.

I’m sorry that they betrayed your trust and goodwill.

Some people really are vile!

Acoustic Energy Aego M are awesome little PC speakers. Not hifi but really well made and will blow away anything else comparably priced out there. I got mine really cheap on ebay (£85), but it seems like the price has gone up £20 only recently. Still worth the money.

http://www.acoustic-energy.co.uk/Product_range/Aego_series/Aego_M.asp

http://www.google.co.uk/products?hl=en&q=aego%20m&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wf

Get an external hard drive. They are cheap as chips.

Also get Norton Ghost 10. It has an auto backup utility and runs incremental backups. Incremental backups just look at what has changed since the last backup, so the process is much quicker and does’t slow your system down for so long.

I am the biggest PMR annorak on here!

TFL’s website has the information for each line. Generally speaking, access is outside peak hours and so long as your journey is above ground.

Just awful!

£200 for speakers and CD??

That’s a tough one. I would buy secondhand as £200 won’t get you anything very much new.

eBay!

Castle speakes sound great and are extremely well finished. I have seen mint Castle Severns go for as little as £120. Not sure these would be right in your room though, for the partnering equipment, or suit your listening tastes.

Your options are extensive and there is no right answer. The less you spend the fewer choices you have, which might turn out to be an advantage.