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32551

General Discussion Area / Re: idiots guide to plasma LCD television's

« on: 17 March 2008, 16:29:43 »

LCDs can also be a bit slow to respond to rapidly changing detail, such as when watching sport, for example. This caused moving details, etc, to leave a "trail" behind them on earlier sets but this aspect of LCDs has also improved considerably.

Kevin

32552

General Discussion Area / Re: idiots guide to plasma LCD television's

« on: 17 March 2008, 16:24:21 »

LCDs are probably the ones to go for. Plasma are indeed more fragile and have a limited life. They used to give vastly superior contrast but LCDs have been catching up fast. They are also quite power hungry so run hot.

For an idea of their lifetime have a look at one used as a dsiplay in an airport or similar where a logo has been displayed for hours on end. You'll see it burnt into the screen.

For more detail, as always, Wikipedia...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_crystal_display_television
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_display

Kevin

32553

General Discussion Area / Re: just gave the stopwatch a workout

« on: 17 March 2008, 23:35:33 »

I need to bring my AP22 to the next meet and we'll have a shootout.  

.. an a private test track, of course.

Kevin

Will have to speak to Martin Hill and see if we can get a loan of one or two...

Would be interesting. Mine is a very old one which I picked up cheap. It predates all the GPS and track mapping stuff but does what I wanted at the time. Be nice to play with some of their more modern toys though.

Kevin

32554

General Discussion Area / Re: just gave the stopwatch a workout

« on: 17 March 2008, 23:25:41 »

I need to bring my AP22 to the next meet and we'll have a shootout.  

.. an a private test track, of course.

Kevin

32555

General Discussion Area / Re: that sinking feeling when something goes 'wrong'

« on: 17 March 2008, 21:20:13 »

nice to know it was an easy fix for you.

i had the same one but the accerlator peddle fell from underneath my foot. panic set in cos i was ment to be sorting my son out at the time 18 mths old with a broken leg.

the accerlerator cable ahad popped of the ball joint. quick fix once it had cooled down.

Have had it stay on the floor - along with red-lined engine and rapidly approaching roundabout before.   That was fun, and required a bit of quick thinking, and a change of underwear.

Kevin

32556

General Discussion Area / Re: Omega spec "not available to public?"

« on: 17 March 2008, 13:53:27 »

I don't know about being underestimated but I've got an AP22 and it's certainly possible to get "book" figures for my 3.2 MV6 without giving it any abuse at all, so I'm guessing if one adopted a "motor journalist" driving style they could probably be beaten.

You have to be a bit careful with G-meters, though, because they have to be calibrated to cope with factors such as the suspension squat as the car pulls away.

I'm surprised an ST24 can get down into the 6's  

Kevin

32557

General Discussion Area / Re: Ebay

« on: 17 March 2008, 14:00:03 »

Ferrari are very protective of their brand. A few of the folk who build Pontiac Fieros into fake Ferraris have felt the sharp end of Ferrari's legal team.

Still, would you want your name on a crock of sh1t like that?

Kevin

32558

General Discussion Area / Re: Wi Fi free broadband questions

« on: 17 March 2008, 14:06:41 »

There 'aint such thing as a free lunch. At the end of the day, providing quality internet access costs money... So either quality is going to suffer as subscribers build, or it's going to become non-free.

Also, whilst I'm sure it uses wireless technology I'd be surprised if it used wireless LAN as such. It wouldn't be secure enough or have sufficient range, and, certainly in the UK, it would be illegal to use rooftop aerials due to the terms of the license exempt radio spectrum it uses.

Maybe they reckon to make it pay by selling antennae for 399 euros but at some point that will reach saturation and how will they fund the service?

Maybe worth a punt if it's your only option?

Kevin

32559

General Discussion Area / Re: Tech2 question

« on: 17 March 2008, 10:00:06 »

I have one of those. It's a cheapo Tech 2. Works as well or as badly as any cheapo Tech 2. Worth getting if you've got a laptop wioth a real serial port just in case you need to read some codes, IMHO.

Kevin

32560

General Discussion Area / Re: Road tax depressing...

« on: 16 March 2008, 20:45:05 »

Parkers looks right (and same as DLVA) to me. They are listing the 2008, 2009 and 2010 rates.

Tried a few makes and models and anything you don't practically have to peddle yourself doubles in road tax in 2009.

Kevin

32561

General Discussion Area / Re: Road tax depressing...

« on: 16 March 2008, 20:35:00 »

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicle/HowToTaxYourVehicle/DG_4022118

Read this..........tax class, what do you read it as saying???

the same as the table........ie you only pay the band G if your car is 2006

Additional tax bands only used to apply for new cars, and band G was brought in in 2006, so only applied to cars registered after the new band was added.

Next year the whole system gets ripped up and replaced with new bands, and they will apply to all cars post March 2001. Hence it will apply retrospectively.

This means a doubling (give or take) in road tax for all post 2001 petrol Omegas.

Kevin

32562

General Discussion Area / Re: Road tax depressing...

« on: 16 March 2008, 20:26:20 »

Road tax isn't the only thing depressing about the UK.

You're damned right there. Another of my hobbies that is in danger of being legislated out of existence is gliding. All to make way for the relentless expansion of our airports and commercial air travel.

If it's not good for the environment to run an Omega why doesn't the same apply to a fleet of airliners?

Kevin

32563

General Discussion Area / Re: Road tax depressing...

« on: 16 March 2008, 17:29:07 »

Problem is, all late V6s bar the 2.6 manual saloon will now end up in the highest tax bracket whereas when I bought mine a year ago, I saw that when they introduced the top bracket, they didn't do so retrospectively, i.e. it was only for cars 2006 and later, so I felt safe buying a 2002 car with relatively high CO2.

That's all out of the window now. Who knows what'll happen next? Now we're in the top bracket will we get the much rumoured 2k per year road tax one day?

When I LPG my car will they double the price of that overnight?

All bets are off now. We can't rely on anything being applied consistently by this shower. I just hope they get slung out before any more damage is done.

Interestingly, the effect of this tax hike from my perspective is that my Westfield will probably get SORN'ed for the winter as I can't see the point of spending 440 a year on one car and 185 on another that only gets occasional use. That means a more economical car that I used to run about in a fair bit in the winter when the weather suited will now be in the garage and I'll be doing more miles in the Omega. Net effect on CO2 emissions is an increase.

I wonder how many other families who need at least one large car / people carrier, etc will respond simply by dropping more economical runabouts?

Oh, and I'm sure the obvious "buy a pre-2001 car" loophole will be closed eventually. I reckon the much-rumoured ban / restriction on cars over a certain age will rear its' ugly head in a year or two.

Kevin

32564

General Discussion Area / Re: Talking about road tax (in the other thread)

« on: 16 March 2008, 21:25:19 »

Interesting. They seem to be getting wise these days. They put almost as much effort into closing loopholes as they do into figuring out new ways to tax us.

It'd suit me down to the ground if they cancelled the Olympics, TBH. <terribly sorry old boy, I am a little tired>

Kevin

32565

General Discussion Area / Re: northumberland

« on: 16 March 2008, 17:44:30 »

Ahh, what's the road that runs along just south of Hadrian's wall? Can't remember. Anyway, went along it on a kit car tour. After I stopped and tightened my harness to stop me getting thrown out of the driver's seat it was as much fun as I've ever had in a car. Dead straight for miles and undulating wildly. Like a roller coaster ride at <mumble> MPH.

 

Kevin