Is there an actual breakdown of how the reforms compare with the rest of europe amd how it will actually effect future students?

Why don’t you have a look rather than posing a rhetorical question as a rather lazy way of trying to make a point

university education has become devalued and the system needs to change. I can think of plenty who go because they cant think of anything better to do or want to get trashed for a year or 2 before dropping out.

A university education has become more accessible, but actually mostly because a lot of places that used to be called polytechnics became universities. Big deal. There are some silly courses out there, let’s say “Theatrical hairdressing and makeup” for example, but these are the exception. Making higher education the preserve of the rich or those who want to be when they graduate is not a good change to make. People who just want to get trashed for a year or two are very much the minority, but hey, there will always be people at the extreme ends of the spectrum. There are also students who work ridiculously hard, I was one.

The unis themselves are huge inefficient organisations and also need to be sorted out, maybe this will happen if the paying customers started to protest on the campus.

Perhaps they are inefficient, but restricting access to education to the privileged or the foolhardy is not related to this ambition at all. Students protesting about the inefficiency of their universities, now there is an advanced concept, perhaps a step of abstraction too far.

The point I made was why should the council pay them at all to help out given that they are being paid & sick paid & holiday paid & pensioned anyway. Either help out for free or stay in barracks.

The council getting the big bill and not providing all areas of the city with this service that have this need is where my problem is.

I read this too and I don’t get it. The army get paid out of the public purse anyway, why does it cost the council (i.e. us) extra to have them spend time doing this rather than doing army stuff at Dreghorn? I’m not at my brightest today, someone please explain….

Styile :roll: :-)

So guys, where have you been riding(

all over on my snowboard….

you should try one…fun!

Cats. All take, no give.

Just get on with it you fanjan :-) are there no men left in the world? where’s the sense of adventure? all the answers first, from the internet. we are lost…..

photo? 8O

. I’m 70kg I’ve had 2 new rockers and a new front triangle with warranty(lakes rockyness)

8O they are supposed to be designed for riding on mountains, and by people far heavier than you.

With a couple of exceptions it is clear that my standard of living is dropping further and further behind that of others of a similar age 8O

Why not online? And why not firewire? Just out of curiosity? My Amazon sourced drives have always been fine and I’ve always had mix of firewire and usb, never had an issue.

Not online backup because it takes days and days to upload your data and all the services that I looked at just keep your files for one month, so if you delete something by accident, backup as normal, and don’t notice you have lost something for a month, you have lost it – great backup.

Drop box is ok, we use it at work for file transfer, but you still have to manage all the file backups yourself = hassle.

Not online purchase because returning faulty goods is a pain in the bottom by post and the gentle hands of Parcel Farce are not something you want in contact with your delicate electronics.

Not Firewire because it’s not hot-pluggable, so if you unplug your drive without powering it down in the computer’s OS first you stand a good chance of damaging it. Not so with USB, plug and unplug to your heart’s content, perhaps not while writing a file, but even that doesn’t seem to mess things up like it used to.

Not entirely sure about the ‘better’ bit TBH, different maybe

my opinion, thanks.

when I was setting up my company backup the dude in pc world tried to convince me to buy a mac, just to run time machine to backup my windows server then use a third party piece of software to recover the files back to pc format from mac format. he claimed it was ok as i could get an imac for only £500 instead of paying £1400 for a macbook! utterly utterly ridiculous. i found it hard not to laugh. he looked me in the eye and told me there was no equivalent of timemachine for the pc. just wrong advice. did my own thing and it cost me £205. and it’s better. cowboys.

waaaaay too advanced for this thread 0/10 :wink:

snowboarding is the new biking in edinburgh…. :D

like he said.

I use two seagate “freeagent goflex” 500gb drives on rotation, from maplin, £90 each, usb bus powered and the aforementioned software, £25 download from genie. for pc not mac.

everyone is saying the same thing. the answer is clear :-)

I am going snowboarding in fresh powder under a blue sky in the Pentlands 20 minutes from Edinburgh city centre tomorrow. Lovely weather.

yes it’s great, a proper backup solution, but unless you are a computer whiz you really need a mac to run it. are you mac or pc?

no. yes. buy a recognised brand. western digital, samsung, seagate, toshiba, hitachi my tiips, go for usb connection not firewire, buy from maplin not on-line.

genie backup manager pro + 1 or 2 external hard drives. swap them over every week, keep one somewhere else. job done.

snowsports in general appear to be an excellent way of disposing of excess income…. 8O

As soon as I got the steed just how I like it, normally in 6 months, another steed catches my eye and I’m off on the hunt, buying and selling.

Any that you wish you had not sold?

Zulu mocked:

Just walking innocently down the street were you?

Actually yes, on a demo, but defo innocent.

I’ve been to a number of demos where the police have deliberately antagonised an otherwise peaceful crowd, in order to stir things up. I’ve seen huge thugs in police uniform batter unarmed people just exercising their democratic rights, and not being aggressive or violent in any way. TBH, the majority of law breaking has been done by Her Maj’s Finest.

Before you judge, I suggest you go along to some demos, have a look for yourself, see what the police really get up to. It’ll open your eyes…

what he said. I got trampled by a police horse outside downing street in 1997.

Dropping fag butt in Edinburgh = fixed penalty £50 fine although I wonder just how often this has been imposed.

work colleague of mine was fined for this here in edinburgh 3 years ago

Actually yes, I will stick my head over the parapet and say I think there is a case for things staying more or less the same and there not being any development of the sort we are seeing. It’s nice like it is, homely, friendly, slightly ad-hoc and somehow these are things that are very much part of our culture here in the UK and it’s all the better for it.

There does not always have to be development = bigger, brasher, less personal, more chrome

+1 to laraichean

also…

I found the staff in the bike shop and the cafe rude every time I went there.

That’s odd. I have only ever found the staff in the bike shop and the cafe polite and friendly even when under pressure and tired at the end of a long saturday dealing with rude and unfriendly punters demanding things faster, cheaper, with icing on top.

For me the Hub Cafe and a host of other similar venues I have enjoyed over the years will always be part of what makes mountain biking great. I will miss it.

I’d also like to say thanks again to the guys in the shop who have fixed my bike for me, for free, at no notice, on several occasions, with a smile. Smiles do wonders I find.

Thanks for all the help everyone :-)

Hi

Yes, actually that’s useful. I should have posted more info.

I first boarded last year for a couple of weeks holiday and to be honest I’m pretty good at it on that basis/level, just one of those things I guess. I’d like to have my own now so I don’t need to hire, or the hassle of hiring, and I can head up the A9 more or less when I like.

I’ll just be doing general riding, probably no black stuff…. :-)

One mate does but because of her boyfriend but she just moans all the way round a trail. Constantly. Grrr.

Why do people do that? grr+1

I just saw a student on telly saying that “education had now become, like, an elite thing…”

Only if you get to join the “elite”, AFTER you graduate.

Are these boys and girls actually, er, thick?

you might want to have a think about that one……

Surf-mat where do you live? Interesting birdage.

I’d like to see a Waxwing again this winter.

What a horrible government we have now

nicely put.

I,m going to stick my neck out “AGAIN” and say thet “PERSONALLY” i cannot abide GOTE-TEX and also think Sealskinz are a complete waste of Money.

*NOTE*
this is my own view and NOT necessarily one that is shared by others.

I wear a pair of Bridgedale socks and just accept that my feet are going to get wet !

what he says. sealskinz make my feet cold.

if you know you are going to get soaked try a pair of wetsuit socks – you will be toasty. otherwise just suck it up :D

I see nothing in Cable’s statement that conflicts with the realities.

Woppit they have sold up the river, in a barbed wire canoe, without a paddle, the chances of you/your kids finishing higher education less than £40,000 in debt each. is this glorious non-statement all you have to say about it?

Compromise is often required but the Tories could not achieve a great deal of what they have done so far

this I have to hear….please elaborate

Actually they are usually closet tories who know they will never get anywhere as a tory candidate in a university election. there is a lot less distance between lib dem and conservatives than most people think. in fact they are quite suitable for a coalition – oh wait – that seems to be what happened, what a surprise.

the concept of a lib/lab coalition was always laughable and any show they made of considering it was just for the cameras.

OK then, seeing as most of you are missing or even ignoring the point – why did the Lib Dems go into coalition with the tories if it wasnt sheer power lust?

Trophy headlights? Money? Both? Did I mention money?

Money?

18 millionaires.

pure sophistry

what he is actually saying is that they have sold-out on their manifesto, but that’s ok because they are honouring the deal they sold it out for – the coalition agreement.

anyway, how they justify it is not the issue, the issue is the fiscal vandalism that is going on that will change the nature of life in the uk for the next 20 years as an absolute minimum in ways that only 1 in 5 of us gave tacit permission for.

There are 18 millionaires in the cabinet – these people are not in touch with what life is like, or is going to be like, for you and me. their priority is the success of big business. and don’t talk to me about trickle-down and big society, it’s all rubbish.

as for the bonfire of the quangos – mark my words they will be setting up quangos to dismantle quangos within a year. governing a country requires non-elected administrative bodies. it has always been so and always will be. We have had quangos in the uk since there was any sort of centralised government and that would be roughly AD43 under Emperor Claudius.

The only bright spot on this murky horizon is the government is now obliged to publish its accounts, so for the first time we, the people, can actually see where the b’stards actually spend our money, and it’s going to be quite a surprise I think.

Government spending analysis blog

Take it easy my friend and look after yourself

You too spikester, nice one 8)

just don’t buy pile/pertex buffalo. you will look like a c*ck and everyone will laugh at you.