Speaking of haters gonna hate, I had a brill time at Liam Gallagher doing Definitely Maybe last week thank you very much :) And yes I dared to hold up my phone for a few seconds, sorry STW (my only defense is I held it in landscape format like an old person).

If your problem with the standard MacOS Mail app is that it is too basic, then I think there is a chance that the nice simplicity of the interface is fooling you into thinking it’s basic. It’s pretty fully featured when you dig into it.

Has anyone seen any vote Conservative boards in anyone’s gardens? I’ve seen a few Labour & a few Lib Dem, but not a single Conservative one.

Not in any gardens, but I’ve seen quite a few big Conservative boards in farmer’s fields round here (South Cambs).

There was a time when the bourgeoisie considered having Sky TV or a large television terribly déclassé. I think that attitude ended at about the time The Sopanos came out, maybe a little after that.

Exactly. A couple of pages back you have someone calling free channels “Council TV” – which is the exact opposite of the meaning of that delightfully snobby phrase (eg. see todays Guardian). As a public school boy I can guarantee having Sky would not have been not aspirational to Rishi, it would have been an insult. I would say that’s why he chose it as an example – in his mind it would demonstrate he’s down with the common man.

At a quick glance I can’t see any differences between those on spec really. Dealers are generally pretty crap at listing extras properly so worth going over the images with a fine toothcomb. I can’t see any extra buttons for any of them on the bank of buttons near the shifter (eg. adaptive dampers). Another thing to look for is adaptive cruise as that can be identified from the stalk (if visible), and would be really nice to have. If any of them have a detachable tow bar lurking in the boot that would be a major plus and something the dealer might not list.

If you want a definite answer you could try asking the dealers to send to an image of the large sticker that’s under the boot carpet. It has a list of codes that details the specs/extras fitted.

Is dual mass flywheel an issue on whatever it is? I’d check for the tell tale signs if it’s not been replaced. I know my A3 tdi (i think with that engine?) was showing symptoms when I got shot at around 120k miles.

EGR cooler cost me lots but you say that’s not an issue.

Campsites, beaches, dead flat, entirely designed around cruising round on bikes – Ile de Re, accept no substitute.

I’m finding with this new series that there seems to hardly any actual Doctor in it… which is a pity because I thinks he’s the best bit. A very talented actor and will be brilliant at it, more so once he settles into it a bit.

The Guardian episode recaps mention something about him being a bit stuffed by prior commitments to filming Sex Education, so there are a few episodes in the series which are “Doctor lite”.

Slightly against my better judgment I’ve given in and picked up some face value tickets for the Liam Gallagher doing Definitely Maybe thing (02 next Monday). Anyone else willing to admit to going to any of the dates? The Guardian review was surprisingly positive.

In addition to Trying, there’s also Lessons in Chemistry that was mentioned on the first page, but not in the thread revival.

Trying

Sorry to gatecrash! If i had a mac, can photos from my iphone be uploaded directly to it, so to use that as storage? I’m guessing not as thats what Icloud is for?

If by ‘uploaded’ you mean physically connect with a cable and transfer phone > mac, then yes you can. But as above, it’s so much easier to just leave iCloud to do it’s thing – take a photo on your phone and it appears on all your devices.

For a long day in the saddle I believe it’s possible to link the Mach 3 trail to whichever the epic Nant Yr Arian one is.

I’m probably very much in the minority, but I very much think you get what you pay for when it comes to TomTom versus the rest.

Having played around with others I think TomTom Go is way more responsive when it comes at re-routing around traffic – which is my number one priority in a sat nav. I also really like the route summary bar on the side for seeing traffic build up and fuel/rest stops along the way. At £30 a year to cover both my phone and my wife’s phone, it’s a no brainer. I wish it had feature parity with the Tomtom hardware which it doesn’t quite still (no fuel price data for instance).

In my testing Waze was the next best performer, but I find the interface a bit childish and naff.

It’s been 7 years since I drove a manual. I don’t think I’d have an issue. Doing it in a left-hand drive car when there’s plenty extra to worry about already? No thanks, and why I have ponied up for an auto for my summer hols.

 There’s a “pod” of connectors on the pole connected to the ‘spine’ fibre.

Is that the egg box looking thing at the top of the pole? If so I have that too – it’s where cable (1) originates. I thought the external junction box was a standard Openreach thing – this guide seems to suggest it is, but maybe there are situations where it isn’t..

I think what you’re calling a splicing box is known as a joint.  That’s what the voice guys at work used to call the 50-pair rats’ nest punchdown boxes inside the building, anyway.

It’s this – labelled Openreach Customer Service Point. (1) is very rigid fibre optic cable coming in from telegraph pole. (2) is a very much more flexible cable, which I assumed was standard ethernet, but now I look at the ONT it is labelled “Optical”. Ignore (3), that’s installed by me (Ethernet from the router coming back out the same hole to give another hardwired ethernet further down the house).

 I see no technical reason why it couldn’t be installed upstairs unless they don’t have Working From Height training (or, y’know, a ladder).

I think the external junction box (which I incorrectly called the splicing box before), has to be at ground level. I think the equipment use to do whatever they need to do at that point is pretty hefty and isn’t suitable for doing up a ladder (or this could be Openreach engineer BS). It seems there are examples of the fibre entering the home at first floor and the junction box being internal, but that is very non standard. Likewise, the cable out of the junction box to the internal ONT is standard network stuff, so I can’t see why the junction box couldn’t be at ground level and the cable to ONT be routed up a wall and in. Again, totally non-standard so they may not want to do it.

Like the other posters, I’m not sure why the copper line location is at all relevant. The fttp line is completely different and ignores everything you currently have. My old phone line is still in place.

When talking about FTTP, there’s basically two completely different flavours as I understand it. The first are companies operating outside the telephone/Openreach network – eg your Gigaclears and your Virgins. They do not give two hoots about what is there currently and plough their own route (often literally as they generally take an underground approach). The second are companies re-selling Openreach FTTP. They are running off the same infrastructure as the copper phone system, so will start by looking at the route that the copper comes in and take it from there.

That’s not a dirty foreigner hornet, but European ones generally look distinctly orange in ‘real life’ that I’m not seeing in your pic.

If there is an existing run from a pole to your house that the copper is on then they’ll sent the fibre to you house via that (think the copper wire is removed, but not sure. Master socket in house not touched). Once at the house they are free to route it to enter the house wherever you want (within reason – my old copper master socket is on the front of the house, fibre was routed from the front round the side and into the middle of the house). There’s a box (splicing box?) on the outside of the house where it goes fibre to network cable. Inside the house you have an ONT box on wall (needs power supply). From the ONT it goes to modem/router/wifi point etc (which will obvs need power).

Sod it. Have booked in for all 4.

Why not Crossclimate 2?

Chat earlier in this thread (and linked review) suggests Conti’s are the new king (or at least as good). They are also £105 a corner fitted versus £133.

I wouldn’t mix them

Hmm, balls. Now I’m actually Googling that seems like pretty consistent advice.

Bit of a thread bump.

I’ve always fitted ‘standard’ tyres, but as my fronts need changing I thought I’d jump on the all season train. Just checking it’s OK just fitting to the front axle, or do all four need changing to all season? Rears have a lot of life in so would probably not go with this plan if all four need doing.

Would be going for Conti AllSeason Contact 2’s. Fitting to a Octavia VRS (as if I needed to type that).

You can plan an exact route on the TomTom website and save it to your account for use on TomTom phone app (or TomTom hardware if you want to go big time old school). Not free but something like £20 a year for dramatically better routing and traffic avoidance than any other mapping app/service.

I know this is not in any way a novel observation, but dear lord temperature makes a difference to efficiency.

Last week; ~5-10 deg C was getting average of  3.1 m/kWh,

This week; 15-20 deg C it’s up to an average of 4.1 m/kWh!

I own one of their original Slacklines and it’s a great bike, but I wouldn’t buy another one.

For me it’s become a bit ‘love the product, hate the company’. I keep an eye on the Stanton Owners group on Facebook and there are quite often posts about frames arriving in customers hands which never should have passed QC. There was one posted in the last week which looked like the welding had been done by a blind man. The group is incredibly fanboi, everyone immediately chipping in with “Dan will sort you out”. No idea if that happens as the posts are always deleted. I wish my money had gone to Cotic instead, and that’s where I’d look next time.

Soz, going to be repeating stuff;

• Avoid Times Square (both as an area to stay and in general)
• Highline is brill
• Food & drink is insanely expensive. Not sure there’s anything that’s a bargain in the US vs the UK nowadays, so not worth doing much shopping.
• Walk across Brooklyn Bridge. Key thing is to get subway or whatever over to Brooklyn and then walk back towards Manhattan so you get the ‘correct’ view (unless you walk both ways).
• Go up a high thing, but probably only want to pick one as they are all very expensive.
• Can’t see the attraction in spending tons on a Broadway show as you can do that in London.
• Staten Island ferry is free, so use it to get a free boat trip past the Statue of Liberty.
• Chealsea Market good for lost of food vendors – coinvent for Highline.
• Pizza – I really enjoyed Artichoke Basille’s Pizza (one branch is also good for Highline).
• MOMA

Blackbird and a Shuttle and a Concorde

I can get 2 out of 3 of those within 10 mins of my house.

Add me to the ‘no idea what you are asking’ pile. If you’re asking what’s the most common dish ordered when people say they they are ‘going for a curry’, then I’d guess chicken tikka masala. That’s not a genuine Indian dish so I think might be the kind of thing you mean.

I stay in reasonably good hotels – I have never seen a TV in a hotel room that I would consider in anyway high quality by current standards. If you by some chance did luck out, then I can guarantee the picture would have not setup in any way optimally, and I’ve never seen a hotel room TV being fed a source of any quality, so would say with reasonable confidence there’s plenty of scope for you to be even more impressed!

Monte Carlo will have the RNS510/Columbus sat nav head unit I assume? A boggo standard Skoda/VW head unit (RCD210 or something, I can’t remember) will fit straight in and people throw those things away for nothing (I’ve skipped two of them in the past). See if you can find one going spare locally and swap it out – its a 5 minute job and see if the fault persists. At least then you can narrow it down to the headunit (easy fix – just get a new one) or something behind it in the wiring (a bigger ballache).

Won’t they had component pretention and need someone who knows what they are doing to re-code it? I thought the component protection is why people throw them away for nothing!

Would love to support, but no choice in the size of the bike? That seems a bit weird.

You definitely need good soy sauce, light is stronger so you need less.

Is that a typo? I’ve never seen light soy sauce described as stronger than dark, and you’d normally used much less of dark than light. Everything else you say is spot on though – maybe with the exception of clingfilm, as I’d say you want to capitalise on the ability of a fridge to dry it out rather than capturing moisture.

As above – proceed directly to Uncle Roger (which you should do in general as he’s hilarious).

https://www.youtube.com/@mrnigelng/videos

Uncle Roger fried rice above is a proper meal in it’s own right. If you want Chinese takeaway style side-dish then you want this;

Sign me up to the being young and stupid club that thought I could slosh in some Fairy when I was out of dishwasher tablets. Came home to a foam party in the kitchen.

Chiming in to recommend Kin after finishing series 1.

Look at local Strava activity and start stalking interacting with others?

What printer? hP with smartink

Hmm, I’d say “just buy a cheap laser printer and never have to worry about a sodding ink cartridge again” has equally vocal support around here (and Brother seems to be go to brand).

What laptop for (vague/unspecified requirement)? Refurbished Lenovo

Don’t we have to acknowledge the “you need to spend £2,000 on a MacBook Pro” opinion, usually in response to “I need something cheap to send the odd email”?

I’m pretty sure I solved a similar problem (newer MacOS + older printer) using CUPS open source drivers;

https://www.cups.org/index.html

@w00dster

The Facebook group “Ohme integration with Intelligent Octopus Go” is a very useful resource. If there’s an issue with the Audi app I’m sure they will have come across it. There’s a setup guide somewhere in that group which might even fix the issue if you go through it. As molgrips says above you basically have to turn off all the stuff that you think sounds correct in the Ohme app eg. “avoid charging at peak times” and let Octopus have complete control.

• What dehumidifier; Meaco (despite the Meaco proponents all happily discussing all the faults they’d had to fix).
• What pressure washer; Karcher or Nilfisk – FIGHT!!
• What ISP; X is unreliable crap and Y is amazing, with no downtime ever – where X and Y are totally specific to the infrastructure in your geographic location.