Question, why do you want a mackintosh?

Been there done that. I had a 12″ Powerbook from 2003, wanted to stay with the OS but couldn’t afford/justify the price of a new Macbook at the time so stuffed my gaming rig with a second HD and installed OS X (10.5 at the time I think). I spent the best part of 2 weeks trying to make it work perfectly and when it did, doing updates was just a proper pain. Twice updates broke it and had to start from scratch pretty much.

Buy a Mac, save for a s/h or refurbished mini or something like that. If you really want OS X that’s the way to go. You may or may not make the Hackintosh thing work but even if you do do not rely on it.

The backlight is uneven on the edges and bottom – exactly as mentioned above. Even so the contrast is so much better that beats paperbacks hands down as well as the previous kindle. You do get used to the uneven backlight anyway and it is on the edges so it does not affect much of the text.

No complains I get those for work good stuff. I wouldn’t mind some more variety but as I say that is for work so I don’t care.

For home I get this Squaremile filter and also their Espresso one. So I get 850gr coffee a month which is fine.

I prefer those cause every month you get a different kind of coffee.

jairaj : Will keep in mind but for the time being and as it is down the road from me will drop by Cyclopedia tomorrow.

Makkag I’ll sent an email off soon as I have my bike sorted, haven’t gone on a proper ride since last September when I did the Newcastle to Edin ride and I am itching to get on it again. Very kind of you :)

Hunta Used to go out with OTT a couple years back when their weekend rides used to start near St Albans. However Harpenden is a massive trek for me given I do not own a car and St Albans is a good 45 minutes away so on a working night is iffy to say the least.

I live in kings Langley pal , ride whippy woods , ashridge, Aston hill , swinley, peaslake & trail center trips regularly. few of us in group. allways happy to meet new riders. Going to swinley tomorrow if you fancy it ?

Yeap you got the spirit of my question, I was trying to fish for people to ride with, can’t do tomorrow the Anthem needs a bit of work before it rides anything other than to work and back (back brake is off and there is not much thread on the tyres either…) but I wouldn’t mind taking you up on that after the Anthem is ride worthy again.

Mind you if you all ride Aston Hill you are way out of my league of messing about in Whippy woods and Berko/St Albans :)

KK I will have a chat with them tomorrow then :) Thanks a lot guys, always helpful to get a bit of reassurance.

Unrelated to this topic are you all that recommended Cyclopedia local to watford?

Thanks makkag, sounds good, I am going drop by and talk to Simon about demoing a yeti on Saturday so I will have a chat and might drop the bike by him to sort it out. D

Do you know if they mess with tubeless/truing wheels and all that?

I know cyclepedia but have heard mixed things about them …

I ‘ve heard of addiktion so might give em a go :)

Richiethesilverfish I do appreciate that I am not about to find an XS to demo, have surrendered to trying out a Small with the hopes that whoever I demo it from might be willing to put a very short stem on it so I can ride the thing!

Plushhill Do you have even small ASR5s to demo? I have been thinking of a trip to shropshire staying at the camping/pods site nearby so that would be perfect for me. Thanks for the offer btw but I am planning on buying it in the next month.

Thanks, but I am really after the ASR5a or c. They both come at XS sizes but apparently the Al ones are not getting produced any more and there is no stock anywhere. That is according to an email from a guy called Scott at Silverfish. They can get carbon ones in XS which are ordered with a lead of no longer than couple weeks apparently so might end up having to do that.

I just wanted to throw my leg over one really and was looking for a shop with demo fleets but might need to do that on a small instead.

Can’t believe the only decent frame I have found on XS size is not available anywhere to buy! Even then Anthem X is not available in XS.

[quoteIf it has good hardware it would be worth getting to install or dual boot windows 7/8 on – finally a decent laptop to rival the macbook build quality![/quote]

With 64GB maximum internal storage there is no hope for dual booting anything.

The Nexus devices were pushed by Google at a very competitive price to gain market traction (a strategy that has definitely worked).

I cannot see how a £1000+ crippled laptop will have the same effect? On top of that even the 15″ rMBP with a vastly better spec struggles when it comes to heavy web pages, can’t see how the Chromebook will manage any better.

Let alone that if you need it connected all the time (which chances are that with 32GB internal storage you will have to) you need to factor in the cost of 3G data sim (assuming that that option will ever materialise over here).

To top it all off for an always connected machine 5 hours of claimed battery life is really underwhelming especially given that it is a rather big/heavy machine by MBA/Ultrabook standards.

Proof of concept yes, practical machine not so much.

In an ideal world income tax would not exist, instead VAT is where the revenue should come from. However we do not live in an ideal world, and i I don’t see if you start reducing tax rates why not start at the bottom? which benefits everyone anyway….

Yes it is and it is worth it. You might want to wait a couple weeks or so, iPhone 5 should be dropping soon so you can either get that or pay much less on discounted iPhone 4.

You can still get the 3GS which is no much worse than the 4 – same OS really – for less than you can get most decent Android phones. I love iTunes / iPod functionality so can’t see me moving to Android any time soon!

See I know what pretty much everything burns and if I add it all up it just does not add up… in any case any decent consumption monitor – sorry for hijacking the thread.

A bit off topic but haven’t had the luck of paying electric and gas bills till very recently. Getting a first estimated bill for 29KW used in the first 10 days however in the next 10 we had used well over 3 times as much. That is in a 1 bed apartment with no TV, no washing machine just a laptop, during the evenings, some cooking on an electric stove and the a couple of energy efficient light bulbs oh and a fridge freezer.

Looked like suspiciously high to me and we are with EON – which incidentally my boss was saying they started getting 120-130£ bills per month when they were previously on 80-90 and they reckon they charge them for too many KWhs…

Any experiences?

Good choice, 5 4″ on an XS here, I do find the stand over height still quite high so for my next built I am looking at the ASR-5 in XS (seems to have an inch or so lower stand over) but I really don’t want to. I am planted on the earth 99.9 per cent of the time and it seems to get over the rough stuff proper and nice. Might want to use a shorter stem and 120mm forks if you want to make it that much more trailworthy :)

GiffGaff is good but I think they do not allow tethering which is a bummer as my phone spends about as much time being a phone as it does being a modem for my macbook pro.

I have a K-5 which is really well made and weather resistant and also has some great tiny prime lenses which together with the relatively small for a semi pro DSLR made for a portable and light package. I took it with me in the South Downs and I managed to take all of 100 pics over 3 days mainly because despite the size I had to stop, take my camelbak off rotate it to my chest open take the camera out take the pic put the camera back in rotate the camelab put it back on…

After this experience I will investigate something like a waist bag that could just fit my K-5 and a couple of primes so at least you don’t have to take off the camelbak just swing the waist bag around and you got your camera though not so sure how much better it would be in terms of obstructing your riding.

So with all that in mind I think unless your purpose is to ride ahead of a pack of riders to take some pics of them then a DSLR is not the best option for occasional photos while you ride past something you think is worth snapping. If I was not worried I’d get thrown out the window by the SO if I buy yet another camera I’d go out and get a GF1/2,G3, E-P(L)3 and a 14mm or 20mm pancake lens. That way it can go into a biggish jacket / shorts pocket and it is available to you straight away.

As I said I ride in herts, nothing can be more boring than that so I found the South Downs exhaustingly fantastic! I am off to Brecon Beacons this coming weekend for a few days so we will see how that compares! :)

Yes the last bit from Pyecombe to Eastbourne is definitely the most fun, and hat off to you both for doing what I definitely simply can’t!

Also don’t know how we managed but both bikes survived without a single problem. Was dreading trying to sort out tubeless tyres in the middle of a 40 mile ride in the hills but it never materialised.

3 UST Maxxis and a tubeless ready Conti is what we were wearing!

There is also 5750 fanless from gigabyte and powercolor if you search a bit. Might be a tad better for the odd game.

Go for it have had one for almost two years now. Keep it the way it comes if you just want to race it off you want to do more do as I did stick wider risers and a shorter stem and put a 120mm rebas get a nice pair of wheels and enjoy. Just finished the 100 miles of the south downs with it was pure fun :)

Ko see what y mean found a chippy near the promenade in the end. Tiny villages on the south downs had some excellent food … Eastbourne on the other hand :)

Have you checked your power supply is up to the job is what cougar is asking. And 67 is not highbut it is not low either.

Bight a pair for 195 two weeks ago :( oh well brilliant brakes

Fanless might be a problem if you don’t have good cooling inside the case. Get one with quality quiet fan and you will be happier. Btw does your power button does not do the trick? Very strange

Good book for what it is, definitely stimulates the imagination and it is really well written. Read the trilogy at the age of 14-15 I believe and watched the movies but thought the books had more them.

Don’t limit yourself to the Nikon and Canon. They are very popular because people don’t bother to check their other options. Sony, Pentax, Olympus and Panasonic offer some great alternatives.

Personally I have a Pentax K-5 and it is a cracking camera. If you cant spend that much go for a K-r which is less than 400£ with kit lens. Excellent camera, better built than the alternatives, with some weather sealing built in image stabilisation and some of the smallest primes making it a valid alternative to m4/3s.

Also Sony A590 offers the same 16mp sensor found on the k-5 and D7000 but for almost half the price. If oyu want something a bit more revolutionary SLT-55 is also a great choice.

Mboy duly noted and packer I most definitely will :)

I am happy out of the saddle most of the time really :)

Thanks packer and mboy you made that decision so much easier for me :) 1×10 it is ! I have a functioning 32t front ring so will try that for a while. If I feel the low is not low enough will keep it that way and man up if the high is not high enough I will buy a 36t. If the whole experiment fails I will get a new triple front. No drama. STW hive mind gives the answer as usual, thanks a lot everybody!

Ok yes I see! Thank you I will try the calculations with a 36 on the front cause it might suit me a bit better due to the flatness of where I ride.

That helps a lot thanks!!!

If you get an 11-36 10-speed cassette and run it with a 32t chainring then you’ll basically be sacrificing the top two gears and the bottom two gears from your 27-speed setup. If you can live without those then go for it.

How do you figure that? I thought I was losing a lot more than that…

A Pentax K-r which can be had new with a 18-55 for £400. Better built than most in its class, very compact, has image stabilisation in body and a very good sensor. You also get access to some brilliant VERY compact lenses if you decide to get into the whole prime lenses thing :)

Moved from a D40/D7000 to a K-5 and I am far too happy with that.

Starcraft 2 – not very good but getting better!

The Witcher 2 though not enjoying it as much as the first one

Thanks guys! we ended up at Cafe Concerto tonight, really very very nice food :)

Bit of an obvious one these days but if you like your Tolkien thing have a go at the game of thrones.

Nandos, Subway, Littlechef

If I was penniless or a student I’d be going there and not even asking but I am neither so :p

Just went past L’antica and it looks really nice, also the meny of Cafe Concerto is rather enticing too, we have Sunday and Monday so we will try at least one of the two!