BEng Software Eng. Age 32. earn 30K in gov. sponsored public body.

flexi-time, live in the country about 3 miles for a trail centre, 1 mile from the beach, get time off at the drop of the hat and enjoy my work.

I use an old XBox running Xbox Media Centre and the iPlayer application. Also got All of ITV on there, plus my DivXs mounted from my Mac Pro upstairs. Great solution for probably 20 quid to pick up a 2nd hand xbox. Needs a fair bit of work to get it set up though.

Buy Tempur. You will not be disappointed.

I’ve had a 20cm mattress from them for a couple years now and am sleeping much better than ever.

Cost £1024.69 with 2 Tempur Traditional Pillows.

I’d be interested to hear how easy cycling is when you are 8 months gone.

I think the thames was always used as a navigational aid for helicopters. It makes sense really. Nice and visible for VFR flight.

Condor state on their website:

“We are proud to build frames in the UK”. Now they are based in WC1 but I appreciate that the frames may be built elsewhere. So where? The website goes on to explain that this is only a small number of their frames, but it’s all in Flash so I can’t cut and paste.

Condor Cycles?

I’m pretty sure the kebab was invented AFTER beer. About 5 minutes and a quick walk down the road from the pub later, infact. Which is what you said isn’t it… arse.

Yup I went through a series of Falklands books last year. This rated as one of the best. I did also enjoy Sea Harrier over the Falklands by Sharkey Ward and Hostile Skies by David Morgan.

If you thought that this was a marvelous mission (and it was in many ways) read Sharkeys account from a navy pilots side of things. David Morgan gives the view from the other boat as a crab seconded to the Navy pre-war.

Thought about an ex AA van? Theres a garage in Mid Wales which sells them on. Co-worker just bought one for windsurfing and camping and loves it. They should be well looked after, having come from the AA too.

http://www.banwygarage.co.uk/stock_banwy_vans.htm

Always had success with the Aberystwyth office of http://www.bmltd.co.uk/

I thought wood was supposed to contain anti-bacterial agents and thus be MORE hygenic than, say plastic. e.g. chopping boards.

Work away. I’m not shy.

Hehe. I’ve picked a great time to start commuting. They’re forcasting a month of that new-years frosty cold weather now.

I’ve taken a punt on a pair of Altura Dryline waterproof shorts on eBay for 15 quid. Seemed a bargain. I might add some bib tights now if I can find some bargain ones somewhere.

RIP Fella

I’ve got between 5 and 10 miles with hills. National Speed Limit roads or unclassified muddy wet roads / cycle routes. I’ve just ordered some cheapo 3/4 mudguards from ebay for 8 quid inc postage, so that should help.

Leaving shoes at work is a good way to save a few grams from the backpack weight. I’ll use that.

Work clothes are shirt, cuff links, trousers, belt, socks and pants which should not take up too much space in a small rucksack when rolled together.

I’ll use a Paramo smock for the top half and a North Face fleece balaclava for the really cold days. It’s just the lower half, I need to make plans for. Bib tights is one idea. Overtrousers too heavy/hot? This sort of thing: http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Categories.aspx?CategoryID=1099

You can usse a stand alone PVR to record from a Sky box but you will have to be tuned to the sky input for the duration of the program. Sky+ is only operational whilst you are paying a subscription to Sky. The box will cease to record once you cancel your subscription and you will be unable to watch previously recorded programs, thus turning it into a standard sky box.

In summary, Freesat + PVR is doable but annnoying and a bit of a faff.

I had no idea about the Scientology conection until I happened across the Scientology wikipedia page last week and noticed the Jason Lee snippet. Oh well. I didn’t burn my Top Gun DVD so I’m not about to burn my Kevin Smith collection either. But yeh, great show :)

I just got a Merlin Malt 2 with full XT group, Reba Race forks and Mavic 727 Wheelset for a few quid under 1000. You’ll get a better price if you oerder online, but I was buying through Cyclescheme so was unable to get the final 10% off.

I’s not arrived yet, so no comments on the ride, but the components are fantastic value (totaled over 1200 quid without the frame when calculated on CRC).

Summit Cycles is on the approach to the high street.

http://www.summitcycles.co.uk/

The comments on the gmtv site have boiled my piss nicely. I guess I only had my self to blame. Who on earth watches/reads that shite?

They read the blurb on the website and then regurgitate it with a hint of personal opinion usually.

I forgot to mention a large dairy farm en-route which provides for a lot of organic material on the tarmac for 200m where the cows commute to feeding and back.

IMDB would agree, at least for now..

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0983193/

This sounds like the one which was on last week and had it’s own thread on here? Blonde looked like Kelly Osbourne and her henpecked partner?

I use last.fm a lot. I know some people use the Hype Machine too. hypem.com

I’ve seen one or 2 built up.

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=45087&highlight=bankrupt

Pretty much the same as a pissing competition 

I’m still using my 12" PowerBook with 512MB RAM (4-5 years old now I think). It works absolutely fine and usually has 2 desktop sessions opened at once (one for my wife and one for me). Macs don’t tend to degrade in the same way which PCs do so you’ll get a lot of life out of a second hand or older model quite happily. Check the Apple Refurbished store for great deals too.

Bugger Me. I’d not heard about the Rampage before. Just been on the site checking out all the vids!

8O 8O 8)

I may be lucky enough to live with a trial centre within spitting distance but my commute either involves nasty nasty climbs on unclasified roads or a National Speed Limit fast A road all the way into town. What I would give for singletrack to work!! Still trying to find alternate routes but it’s limiting!

It’s my back garden. I’ve only ridden here and Coed y Brenin so can’t make any comparisons but it’s a great XC trail centre with technical or fast flowing singletrack downhill sections.

The Pendam is good for a quick blast. It links most of the technical sections close to the centre and Pendam lake with short fire road climbs or lakeside singletrack.

The Summit is more of the same (uses most of the Pendam trail then goes further out) with longer XC sections and a longer climb in the middle (the Leg Burner).

I’ve not done the Syfydrin as it looks to take in a heck of a lot of road. Albeit unclassified roads. It heads right back down the valley to my village then back out to the centre again. I don’t doubt that it gets up onto the uplands a little but it’s not my cup of tea. I’d rather be on a trail.

All in all, It’s a great centre with full bike cleaning facilities, a good cafe and plenty of outdoor space to relax and watch the kite feeding after a hefty ride. You’ll not be disappointed.

If it is at all possible, get a Mac. There’s a reason that people are such hardcore advocates of Apple computers. They are above and beyond. Mac Mini is a good idea, or a 2nd hand iMac.

Thanks guys. Sounds like it should do the trick for me.

Hora, thanks. I had 2 MX5s before the RX8. Great cars but just a little lacking in the roof and rear seats dept.

I’m a profesional web developer. Now I tend to spend most of my time writing Object Oriented code for back-end frameworks but, I also sometimes have to fill in the blanks WRT frontend. And we all had to start somewhere. Can I sincerely recommend that you start out with a text editor (wordpad will do) and a web browser, and take yourself on a few tutorials. http://www.w3schools.com is a fantastic resource which I return to again and again for reference, whether it me XHTML attributes or XPath syntax it has most of the answers you’ll need.

As for ‘design’. Well I know nothing about that, and outsource to design houses for anything layout or design based. I don’t have ‘the eye’ for it.

HOW MUCH?!?

Stick the SS on a turbo trainer for training rides. At least then you can prescribe the pace and resistance

I was down by 3 lb on the weigh-in day but have crept back up by a lb now. I blame the 1 and a half bottles of white wine and a few LARGE baileys on Friday night with the wife. Had a little shock when I went to enter my calories into the daily plate on livestrong the next morning. Definitely cutting back on the booze this month!

Well if that’s your only issue, GPG is the way forward I’d imagine :)

Out of curiosity, why is PGP/GnuPG no use?