Oh yeah, and he didn’t have a bar mounted light on either.

I’ll take the risk of blinding people a bit for being sure they’ve definitely seen me, even if I cause an accident.

FTFY

You either blind them or not Steveh, not “a bit”.

The tool this evening had his light on very bright and shone it straight in my face as I was going round a roundabout, then pulled out behind me so every time I looked round I got a face full. Nice. There’s being seen, and there’s consideration for other road users.

Did anyone count the number of times he said “grafter(s)”?

I didn’t, but it was too many.

Apart from that, it was a good show. Oh, and a mild disappointment that Liza Tarbuck wasn’t doing the voiceover instead of the actor I always get confused with Bernard Cribbins.

I only know you are because you sent me email about a job over the summer!

Aren’t you in recruitment Hora?

No alleged about it now

Too many posts and too little time, but here’s a question: what makes the non-teachers who’re commenting with such vitriol so qualified to make those comments? That you went to school so are an expert? You wouldn’t tell your auto mechanic how to fix your car now, would you (actually, bad example on STW…)?

I’m not a teacher, but have many friends who are and the lack of tact shown here by the body who’s supposed to be providing objective monitoring is amazing.

As anyone who knows a committed teacher will attest to, they’re in before they have to be, rarely leave before they’re contracted to, and it’s usual to take work home. Anyone who thinks teaching is an 8-3 job for 39 weeks of the year is an ill-informed clown.

Just to be clear, does he have the bike and you have all the money, or do you have the bike and just his deposit?

Either way you have the upper hand.

My twopenn’th:

Chi chi hifi wireless stuff (aux in on the hi fi, usb on the pc) from Audio Engine or Audio pro. They also build stuff into speakers so you can have one transmitter for the computer and then broadcast to your hifi and a set (or more than one set) of active speakers elsewhere. Something like £140 for the initial pair of bits for it.

Logitech do a bluetooth box (like the Belkin I think) that attaches to your aux in and you broadcast from your pc via a dongle. That’s £26 on Amazon.

If I had the money I’d go with the first option for the quality and the expandability, but I don’t so I’m going to get the Logitech thing sometime soon.

Buuut, having read mboy and grum’s mini-fight and other comments, I know that I generally can’t hear the difference between hifi and regular in the situations I listen in (and probably due to my brain and ears…).

Don’t bother with the breadmaker. Just get a proper mixer and use the oven you already have – much better results.

MTB photography course?

Brassneck – it’s for a DTP package like Publisher or Quark (I have no idea of that still exists but I heard of it once…). There is another laptop in the house, but it’s not “hers”.

Looks like it’s the laptop option. We did look at a refurb Inspiron Duo, but she’s seen a nice enough 11 1/2″ Acer that’d do the job.

Might have a look at a more budget-minded tablet at some point though.

Um, flu?

Unless you drank the oil I doubt it’d cause you those sorts of problems.

Perhaps your wife/ girlfriend/ partner’s trying to kill you.

Colournoise – Thought that, but it doesn’t solve the DTP problem.

You can get apps for linking into Adobe CS but there are no dedicated DTP apps, which is what I think she’ll miss.

“Fisher price” 😆

Pathetic of me, I know.

I’ve used Quoteline Direct (they’re covered by Axa, but used to be Meridian) for the past 2 years and they’ve been very good.

Our car broke down when on holiday and they got it to a garage, who couldn’t fix it but they got us home at the end of the holiday – a 350 mile trip. Little call outs are always handled promptly and they use local garages as “patrols”.

Costs peanuts too.

WHat JD said – the temperature of your house will be warm enough

Some nice pictures there molgrips.

I’m on Flickr too, but a lot of my ones of my children are private.

GF5 has ruled itself out for me because of the lack of hotshoe Nicko.

Someone linked to the Biofos site, and that’s somewhere that’s quite interesting in that he’s tested a load of his old OM lenses. I quite fancy getting a few OMs off eBay and an adaptor for the 4/3 mount. Manual focus but they seem to be a cheap way to get some excellent quality lenses.

My wife does a lot of product photography (she designs knitewear) so she likes the quality of image that comes from the larger sensor of the SLR, hence the thinking about the m4/3 CSC. A tough camera would be a good idea, but we’ve got old compacts and camcorders coming out of our ears (an exaggeration, but you know what I mean).

On paper the 30mm Sigma sounds great Molgrips, shame about the focussing.

The OM-D is nice, but I think I’ll get either a GF2 or an E-PM1 as a family camera in the next 6 months. My wife likes the SLR but wants something a bit more portable when she’s out and about, and I’d like that too. The 510’s small with the pancake on, but still not truly pocketable.

I like the 35mm as a portrait lens Molgrips but yes, taking any serious macro images is a little scrubbing-in-the-undergrowth-ish! I’m not anywhere serious enough to need a remote flash, but being able to bounce and set everything up rather than using the udnerpowered onboard flash is fantastic.

PePPeR – I was just offering to do MrSmith a favour by taking it off his hands with minimal hassle 😉

I have an E510 with the kit zoom, a Sigma 55-200, pancake and the 35mm macro (which is my favourite).
And an FL36 (or whatever the external flash is called).

It’s a nice size and does what I want, although I have a bit of m4/3 lust at the moment…

I rarely buy any kit, but sounds okay.

You could always join up and post your ad with a bit of a description of why you’re selling, and reference other forums you use.

The 12-60 is too rich for me. The 14-54 is too rich even!

I have a skinny roofbox that I’d be happy to let you borrow, but despite being in the north west I’m in south Cumbria. Might be a bit too far for you.

Try the E System User Forum[/url]. A bit like STW for 4/3 and m4/3.

I’ll start the bidding at £10 for the lens though… It’d go nicely with my 4/3 kit. 😉

Oh, I know vaguely who the owner is, I just can’t be bothered to interact with them. And it should teach them a lesson to control their dog.

Anyway, I just needed confirmation from the STW collective that it was okay, so I’ll be off to slot the little blighter straight after lunch.

Pip pip.

Surely it’s on his calf and that’s the bottom of his knickerbockers…

I have tattoos, and I’m sure people may wonder why I got them, but it’s my skin. Just the same as wondering why someone dresses in a certain way or lives a certain lifestyle. Each to their own IMO.

However, misspelled words, incorrect quotes and badly drawn pictures of famous stuff are fair game. 😈

“Nicolai sporting a fantastic Latin beard” just now in the volleyball.

£600?!?!?!?

Why not get a Blackheart, or Blackstar or a Laney or any one of the umpteen <5W tube amps that are knocking about these days?

Laney amps are hugely underrated IMO, and since the market’s so competitive you could easily find yourself a new amp that does what the JCM800 does for half the price, or less if you went 2nd hand.

Depends if you have to have the Marshall and JCM badges on it I suppose.

Red Chili – I just realised I was in front of you in the jet wash queue on the Sunday morning.

I can confirm that his Yo Eddy looks even nicer in the flesh/ metal.

Nice that it’s so unimportant that you just had to post…

Read my other posts psychobiker. Anyone can come up with an idea.

I like how you’re quick to judge that I may not be a very good engineer, but woe betide me for wanting to demonstrate and be recognised for the time I’ve served, both professionally and academically.
I think it’s incredible the number of selfless individuals on here who are happy to be considered equal to someone in the same trade with less knowledge or experience… That, to me, smacks of a lack of self belief and ambition.

I’ve not mentioned a need for qualifications, only qualification of the term, and the Institute of Engineers awards chartership for pure experience, or combined experience and qualifications.

Many of the responses on this thread show exactly the ignorance of what a professional engineer is and does which prompted my initial comment. Thanks for the supporting evidence.

For the record, I don’t need to do any willy waving, and also for the record I’m not chartered.

I believe a train engineer is a proper engineer Captjon…

Technician Engineer covers all bases, so you win Ming. 🙂

DaveH’s right that it should be, but it isn’t, which is kind of my point.

No one knows what CEng means, so it’s only really for personal reasons that you’d get it (although it’s respected in industry, so is worth it in that sense, but it’s not like calling yourself Dr).

I agree. Engineer is too broad a term.

I also agree that there are plenty of “proper” engineers who don’t qualify to use the term because they are content to let others solve problems for them. Which is where I was going with my point that you don’t necessarily have to have an engineering degree to be an engineer

I also sometimes use a computer, so I’m bang up to date…

It simply boils my p1ss that we devalue the term “engineer” by giving the term to anyone who might fix stuff, however they fix it.

We seem to be one of the few countries that does this.

I stand by my comment that the guy could be an engineer, in broadest definition of the term, but not simply because it’s his job title.

The distinction betweek GP and surgeon is the same as differentiating between a mechanical engineer and a civil engineer and as such isn’t relevant. It’s not the same as differentiating between a mechanic and a mechanical engineer.

I’m not trying to add gravitas, simply pointing out that if you called a pilot a flight attendant or a barrister a clerk, then you’d get called on it. My question is why does it happen in this case?

Perhaps its because there are so many disciplines covered under the engineering banner that its difficult to make the connection that an electrical engineer and a materials engineer work to the same principles but in entirely different areas.

I won’t try and make a lighthearted desk/ pen comment in future.

Best go, as I have non-existent problems to dream up solutions to.

<puts feet on desk>

Ask them how the system works and see what answer you get. I once asked my TV “engineer” how the signal came down the cable and he didn’t know. A proper engineer would’ve, but then he didn’t need, or care to know, and he still sorted out my problem, so that’s fine by me.

A nurse is not a doctor, yet they both perform important roles in healthcare. It’s the same with technicians and engineers. I’m sure there are parallels in other professions such as law as well.

Anyone can submit a new idea. Not anyone can implement it and make it work. We have hundreds of ideas submitted here by shop floor staff, but most of them don’t know how to make their solution work. That would be down to the engineer to sort out. Just because you come up with an idea doesn’t make you an engineer; it’s how you make that idea work that does.

Yes, I have letters after my name. No, I’m not sat behind a desk all the time. Yes, I solve problems. Yes, those problems are real. In fact, some of them are probably similar to the 800 innovations people in your organisation have submitted in the hope that an engineer will find a workable solution to them.

I’m not allowed to put my feet on my desk, and I use a pen.

My mistake. Everyone must be an engineer.

No, it’s my perception of BT technicians, gas fitters, TV installers and all the other people who have been deemed an engineer but usually couldn’t explain what the problem is, or determine how to fix it. They’ll follow a fixed set of rules to known problems to try and find the solution, or they’ll refer it up the chain until it reaches the proper engineer who will use his knowledge of the system to identify the cause and fix it.

I’m not saying that some BT technicians aren’t engineers (by the standard I gave previously), but chances are that the guy in that job isn’t one – he (or she) supports the system or component designed and built by an engineer.

I’m happy to admit that I feel that the term engineer gets used too readily for jobs and professions that do not require the creative thinking and problem solving that typifies what a professional engineer does.

Maybe read The Engineer’s article. Are you a BT technician by any chance?

The fundamental difference between the two is that Engineers develop/design systems while Technicians support those systems. So the two complement each other.

An engineer understands how something works and can work from first principles to fix a problem by identifying the root cause. In this example, the engineers are the people who designed and built the hub, the fibre optic cable network, the software to run it all.

A technician, in this case, is someone who fits the item in your house according to the design that the engineer has drawn up. They generally wouldn’t be able to fix anything that fell uotside certain parameters.

Just to note, an engineer is not simply someone who has an engineering degree (IMO). I know plenty of people who are superb at solving complex engineering problems using a combination of their innate understanding of how things work and their experience; they’re just as much engineers as the person who designs cars, buildings, aircraft etc.

I hope that clears things up for you Cheez0.

*Dave – all the best BT people are called Steve…

BT engineer technician was due at 8.30am – he phoned at 8.15am to say he’d be 15 mins.

FTFY

Sounds like the Home Hub is the same for infinity and for regular broadband: i have the HH3 but not Infinity.

Batfink, btw.