How about something like this

http://dx.com/p/android-4-1-dual-core-google-tv-player-w-keyboard-wi-fi-bluetooth-1gb-ram-8gb-rom-black-176755?utm_source=dx&utm_medium=edm&utm_campaign=20131126hightechliving

Twin4ll

Why is using a small stove without a lining a problem? I m confident the chimney does not leak as we have been living in the house for 5 years and use the fire regularly as well as getting it swept every year and have never had a problem. Chimney sweep always says the chimney are in great condition.

Why would the wooden surround have to go? its far enough away for building regs. Well at least according to the quick scan I have so far had.

Im not going to go with a liner as the chimney is fine as it is used regularly and we know it does not leak. So far it seems just like a cosmetic issue as apposed to technical. Just feel a bit guilty taking original features out of the house. already had to rip out the sash windows as they needed lots and lots of repair work and were as draughty as a sieve

I can get a stove up to 400mm wide. Something like a Stovax Stockton 3 or 4 would fit well. Just seems no one else has done this even when searching through Google, so made me think why?

Doctors was dishing them out so had mine last week. Might as well I thought. Interestingly they are brining in the nasal version for all kids soon. As that doesn’t need to be administered by a nurse I wonder how long until they dish then out to the majority of the population as it must be much cheaper to administer.

Also how cruel is it that someone with such a bad stammer still has to do a talking exam that is worth 20% of the marks. Could he not have a bit of dispensation. I’m dyslexic and when I did my GCSE over 20 years ago I was given extra time and the people marking the papers were made aware so I was given a bit of slack with spelling and punctuation. Without that would I have been able to go on and get a degree in economics?

Fingers crossed for him

Last nights episode was brilliant. I can t believe how well Mushi did and to stand up in front of your whole year to give that speech at the end was proper brave and inspiring, what an amazing kid and set of teachers. I used to work with a guy with a stammer as bad as that and you could see it killing him inside. All that intelligence and just not being able to get it out. I really hope someone will have seen lasts nights episode and might be able to give him more help with his stammer. I also really hope Mushi hears how proud of him so many of the public are.

I also watched a bit of Educating Essex on E4 afterwards and one of the teachers made a couple of great points.
“kids nowadays just don’t seem to understand the word no”

“You will never in the rest of your life meet anyone as patient and willing to bend over backwards to help you than the teachers at this school” said to a girl who was a real trouble maker.

“People say kids are worse now than 20 or 30 years ago. Its not the kids fault as they are just a product of society. Its is use as adults that are to blame”

Ive got a Cyclo press and its the best tool I have ever bought. It makes installing headsets a bit of a joy

Personally I think Snowdon is a bit of a dick, bit like Bradley Manning. Its one thing to nick a bit of specific information and release it but to steel whole swathes of unread unspecific data is just stupid. All of us on here would be the first ones to ask what MI6 and MI5 were doing if there was another 7/7, so making their job harder is not the best thing to do. Like it or not for intelligence to work there needs to be secrets.

agreed bugging Merkel;s phone is completely unacceptable and its fine if Snowdon just released this info but telling people how the authorities track terrorists only helps the terrorists.

Lastly what do we think GCHQ does with its massive headquarters and 1000’s of staff?

Lots of people think software development is a great career to go into but much of this is based on history. Up until the late 90’s it was a very well paid job with lots of career development and you could earn a fortune as a contractor. Then a couple of things happened, the government encouraged lots of people to go to university and study computer studies and many firms started outsourcing to India and the like. The indians then also started sending teams over to live in the UK to carry out out both project work and ongoing support. What both of these led to was a massive increase in people looking for jobs, so salaries went down. Coupled with this computers became a standard part of business and many senior mangers saw computers and software no differently than photocopiers and air-conditioning. They therefore refused to pay the high salaries.

So you now have the situation where large corporations mainly outsource software development to India or at least companies like IBM, HP, etc and just have small in house departments mainly dealing with implementations and running the project.

What is still healthy is all the small development houses doing really specialist work and moving the industry and technology on. However these companies generally do not pay a fortune as they do not have the funds. There is still a massive glut of trained people so unless you can really specialise in a technology then without any specific background it could be quite hard.

When I was a programmer I certainly enjoyed it as it was problem solving every day and you could really get your head into things. The killer was support as it got a tad depressing just fixing problems every day.

Would I recommended it, yes but only if you are really into tech and don’t expect to earn a fortune.

Cheers guys, that’s why I didn’t put a bridge in. Thought I would give it a go and see if it is flexy or not.

Slight change of subject but as regular singletrack forum user who has just imported a thick thin chainring from the states, why have I never heard of Works Components when they do one for £35. Just a tad annoying when I had to wait 3 weeks for the one to come from the states.

http://www.workscomponents.co.uk/works-components-104bcd-thick–thin-chainring-alternating-thickness-extended-tooth-design-270-p.asp

Just finished this off last week. 1×10 29er, hand built frame in Dedacciai tubing. Just need to get some transfers printed. Haven’t ridden a hardtail in years and this was lovely on its first ride.

Well I love Cwm Carn, the XC track is just brilliant, hard climb, great flowing single track and great fast descent. Cant wait for the other routes to open.

You could try these guys if no luck. Really small manual machine shop. http://www.yell.com/biz/bristol-light-engineering-co-bristol-41475/

As you have stripped it ready for powder coating why not get it welded yourself. Probably wont cost that much. I guess the fiddly bit would be any heat treatment that was needed. Find a frame builder that deals in Aluminium and they should be able to sort it.

Put a request on people per hour and find someone that can model it. If it is a simple shape then it can be quite cheap. Drop me an email and I can pass on the contact details of a guy we use for this type of thing.

Getting it made is really the big hurdle and probably wont be cheap as it is in metal. If it was in plastic or really small metal then Shapeways is good. You could also try http://www.firstcut.com

Th other option would be to farm it out to China as that would be really cheap. Do a search on Alibaba for CNC or rapid prototyping and you will get a whole list of people. If it is a simple shape then a engineering shop here way do it cheaply by hand and not CNC.

Bloody amazing

Cool thanks guys

I found EE to be pretty good as you also pick up T mobile and Orange networks. What I didn’t find good was the data limit with 4G. The main benefit of 4G is when you download things, yes website pages are quicker but maybe by only 1 second. It is very easy to blow through 1.5GB and then they charge a fortune. I switched back to T Mobile unlimited as EE just cost me more and was fast but limited what I could download. i should say that I was planning on tethering my iPhone to my computer so I could ditch the broadband in the office

We had sash windows in our house and just changed them in February to triple glazed as it was about £100 more than double glazed for the whole lot. Pondered on it for ages about putting plastic in but at the end of the day wood is just so expensive and pointless if you put softwood in as you just have to constantly maintain it. We used a firm in Bristol that we used years ago after much hunting around as they were the only ones that would put wood surrounds on the inside and not plastic. Basically they ripped everything out right back to the stone and then installed the windows and internally put in wooden sills and surrounds and edging.

Very pleased as the house is loads warmer and the reduction n external sound is just massive!!

I came to the conclusion that there are far to many other things in life to do and worry about than windows so plumped for white UPVC that I will not have to do anything with. Initially I wanted hardwood sash but now I am 100% happy with what we went for.

I would say this is the classic example of why there either should be a separate English parliament or far more power devolved to local councils. Is this really something the British parliament should be dealing with. Not really in the same league as Syria or the economy.

I agree its not exactly a big announcement but really should have be brought in years ago. Mental that England is the only country in the UK where this is not in place. Seems to work pertly well everywhere else.

This really should just be part of a larger announcement regarding waste or why can’t local councils just manage a rule like this.

Ok Does anyone know the width of a Continental Mountain King. Need to make sure I have enough room between my chain stays for the frame i’m building tomorrow and tyres are in the post.

Oh for god sake is this not an international standard that needs to be agreed!!!!!

Thanks guys

pdexia – Glad you like the look of the FridgePad. Its simple but works really well and great for keeping your iPad out of harms way. When a world cup event is on I can leave it running in the background and still do jobs in the kitchen without getting nagged by the wife! Keeps everyone happy.

IA – Yes we are looking at the new iPad speaker locations and it will be fine as they are in the right locations. Basically the speaker stand works by picking up the speaker vibrations from the iPad or device and then amplifying them and playing them out of 2 side speakers with addition bass ports. You end up with a much louder and cleaner sound. As you reduce the volume of the iPad it then automatically reduces the volume from the speaker stand.

Hi tootalipaul

It all depends on the placement of the speaker. We are currently aiming it at the iPad as this is the biggest market by a long way, but looking at the Nexus 7 it should work fine as the speaker is in the right area. I’ll get a Nexus 7 ordered and then we can check.

Sorry IA I didn’t really explain myself very well. Yes you are right a speaker will deplete the battery quicker then bluetooth. The wireless benefits of the stand are really convenience (no need to switch bluetooth on and off) and removing the issues of bluetooth pairing that people still get. It also means you can use any device you might have, tablet or phone straight away without having to pair it. Of course you also get a stand so you can watch the iPad screen is needed.

Bit of blatant plug for business but if your using your iPad in the kitchen than one of our FridgePad mounts might be very handy http://www.woodforddesign.com/products/fridgepad

Regarding speakers we are working on a new stand with integrated induction speaker so no bluetooth is needed that depletes your battery. Still in testing phase but if you drop me a mail we might be able to include you in our customer testing.

One of the nicest presents I have had is a Campag corkscrew. Makes me smile each time I use it.

Is the Severn really that special as an ecosystem? I have lived near it all my life and apart from Slimbridge can’t really say I have ever seen it as a wildlife hotspot. More a muddy river with lots of heavy industry on its banks for years.

30 new houses around the corner from us have just been built and not one has solar panels even though at least half have roofs that point directly south. I think at the moment it is at the discretion of the builder. Seems nuts that any large building project has to pay a levy for social housing and the such but no requirement by law to install solar panels, ground source pumps, etc

Its seems the government is hell bent on shale gas, so why not use a levy on that to pay for massive investment in local renewables. Wont cost the government anything and would reduce our need for fossil fuels

To me it seems mad not to have something like the Severn barrage. It guaranteed pollution free energy with the tide never running out. I can see that it would have some environmental impacts but things like wading birds would just migrate elsewhere not necessarily die out. I guess fish flows and spawning and the biggest issues. I still find it nuts that new houses don’t have to built with solar panels. As part of the cost of building a house the cost of fitting solar panels would be tiny. I just don’t see why all new houses don’t have to be the most efficient as technology will allow them.

Personally I think they are bunch of crooks. Bought 3 full bike builds from them quite a few years back all in one go and they just took the p*ss from day one. The number of telephone calls to find out where things were when everything was meant to be in stock. They just lied through their teeth time and time again and were so abusive on the phone. In the end I got my credit card company to sort them out, cancel the order and reclaim the lost money. I am truly amazed they are still going and anyone buys from them.

What kind of bottom bracket have you got? I had a push fit BB30 on my road bike that had a click like this. In the end I took the crank off and gave it a bloody great thump from a soft head hammer. All sorted and a simple job.

Good point, I was think of bike wheels, car alloy wheels a different matter and £53 seems quite good

I can see it from both sides really. Why not split the £60. By the way £53 for shipping two wheels is bloody expensive. Would have been about £12 with UPS

KiwiJohn – That Van Deyk Nightstream is lush, where did you get that done?

I would only go to Uni now if it was a course I really really wanted to do. It would have to be that jump out of bed cant wait to get to lectures type of thing. I think to many people including myself went / go to uni as it is just the next thing to do and want all the fun of being a student. I had no interest in my course and I don’t really know anyone that was passionate about there course. There are too many people doing academic courses that will never lead anywhere and not enough vocational courses that train you ready for a job. In the past when the state paid that didn’t really matter. I am sure you could have a hell of a lot more fun traveling the world for far less debt. At the end of the day once you have your chosen job the degree is irrelevant and experience is more important.

UPS, book through Interparcel

The problem with lots of this money is it that it just goes to civil servants that spend it on lovely looking leaflets, websites, events, social media campaigns to encourage people to cycle. Instead they should just use the principle of “Build it and they will come” Put bloody good infrastructure in place and people will ride more. To much money gets wasted, just look at Bristol that is meant to be a cycling city, what have they actually built and spent hard cash on.