Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.

76

General Discussion Area / Bombardier vs Boeing

« on: 27 September 2017, 17:09:48 »

A fairly one-sided decision, given the amount of backhanders state aid Boeing has received. Bodes well for a balanced future trade deal with the US once we have Taken Back Control (TM). 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/us-bombardier-ruling-northern-ireland-jobs-theresa-may-trump-tariff-commerce-a7969256.html

77

General Discussion Area / Business Strategy

« on: 21 September 2017, 15:56:33 »

This has been doing the rounds on work email, made me chuckle....


Dead Horse Strategy
The tribal wisdom of Dakota Indians, passed on from generation to generation, says that, when you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.

In modern education and government, however, a whole range of far more advanced strategies are often employed, such as:

• Buying a stronger whip
• Changing riders
• Threatening the horse with termination
• Appointing a committee to study the horse
• Arranging a visit to other countries to see how others ride a dead horse
• Lowering the standard so that dead horses can be included
• Re-classifying the dead horse as “living impaired”
• Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse
• Harnessing several dead horses together to increase the speed
• Providing additional funding and/or training to increase the dead horse’s performance
• Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders improve the dead horse’s performance
• Declaring that, as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overhead and, therefore, contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the economy than do some other horses
• Re-writing the expected performance requirements for all horses
• Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position.

78

General Car Chat / How much would you pay for the "right" omega

« on: 25 August 2017, 11:14:58 »

Driving to work today, I had plenty of time to muse and one thing I got to thinking about is  the cost of omegas in the uk.

On autotrader ATM there is a mint-looking 3.2 elite with less than 50k on it and the dealer wants £3250 for it. My first response was "fu£kin how much?!" But then I got to thinking, for a similar aged & condition 5 series, someone would take your hand off. Even a Jag S-type would cost you more and the omega is definitely the better car of those two!

So, how much would you spend on "the right" omega?

79

Omega Electrical and Audio Help / Probable power sounder issue - quick bit of advice needed

« on: 22 August 2017, 10:53:53 »

I have the old bus back with me for one week only to move some scaffolding around.

Last night at around 3am, the alarm started blaring and the horn sounding, flashing indicators etc. I locked and unlocked with the fob, but 20mins later, off it went again  . The only way to stop it going off was to open with the fob, lean in from the offside rear door and lock the front door from the inside, then shut the rear door.

I figure this is the power sounder issue which is often mentioned, however when I was reading a thread on the oldsite, Gixer mentioned that this can also be triggered by issues with interior sensors, under bonnet sensor etc.

My question is, will removing the power sounder stop the alarm going off regardless of the original cause? If not, what other steps should I take to ensure a silent night?

Thanks,
Jimmy

PS. for reference, its a 2.2 petrol auto estate on an 03 plate |

80

General Car Chat / Late 3.2 elite estate with reasonable miles

« on: 09 August 2017, 14:33:55 »

Not seen this one mentioned on here before, looks tidy and not daft money. May suit someone 


http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201707317873421?make=VAUXHALL&advertising-location=at_cars&maximum-badge-engine-size=3.5&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=New&minimum-badge-engine-size=3.0&radius=1500&postcode=se11aa&sort=price-asc&page=1


Just for the record (as usual) I don't know the car, the seller, or in fact anything at all.   

81

General Discussion Area / Debt collection agency - cheeky bar stewards

« on: 01 August 2017, 20:57:52 »

When I cancelled the omega insurance with Tesco, I cancelled it before the last payment was taken so there was an outstanding balance. Without contacting me, Tesco handed the debt off to Moorcroft debt collections. Not how I would have handled it but ok.

After they called me I declined to pay on the basis I needed to confirm the actual outstanding balance with Tesco. Dealing with the organ grinder rather than the monkey as it were. So I called Tesco, paid up and that was that.

Got another call tonight asking me to make payment. I explained I already had, then the guy on the phone tries to pressure me into sharing my credit card statement to prove payment! On what planet would you share sensitive personal financial information with a random company that you have no commercial relationship with  . I told them where to get off and talk to their client.

He then tried to imply they'd take me to court. I told them to go ahead, it'll be funny and I'll claim some expenses for the privilege of defending the claim.

We await developments.

82

General Discussion Area / Fu£king grim up north

« on: 26 July 2017, 21:11:50 »

I'm currently in a warrington Premier Inn (oh the glamour). Sat at a table (3 seats) in the bar trying to email, but mostly chatting sh!t on here.  All of a sudden a couple just sit down opposite me. Don't say a word, not,"oh can we use these seats" nothing.

I had about 1/4 pint left, so took my laptop, walked up to the bar to get another (all of 10 paces), turn round, walking back to the table and I see the woman of the couple is drinking my 1/4 pint!! When challenged, all she said was "a thought you'd left it".

I'm going to bed! 

83

General Car Chat / Halves and thirds rule - playing the game

« on: 26 July 2017, 21:06:18 »

I've been looking at model S again (I know, I know) but it raised an interesting point with wider relevance.

Looking at a 48 month PCP on a (nearly new) model s, a £70k car, its £10k down  and 48 months at £596 so £38,608 on a 10k p.a. pcp. But if I took that deal and walked away after (say) 44 months, having done 150,000 miles in the car I'd have paid £36,224 total, so more than half.

Do I have it right that I could just walk away from this and theres nothing the finance company could do as long as I've paid for 50% of the car, and take reasonable care of it?

84

General Discussion Area / Sad day tomorrow.

« on: 23 July 2017, 21:03:30 »

After two glorious weeks of doing very little, I shall be rejoining he ranks of the gainfully employed. Oh and starting my run of 750-1000 miles a week of commuting.

One thing I did manage to achieve over the last few days was shovelling, barrowing and spreading about 8Ton of gravel. So my back is dropping subtle hints that it's time to get back behind a desk! 

Once it's up on the market I do hope the house sells quickly. I need to move closer to the office! 

85

General Discussion Area / Airport parking - what are people thinking?

« on: 19 July 2017, 00:36:03 »

It's the second biggest purchase most people ever make, why would you hand it over to a bunch of randoms?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-40647886?SThisFB

It boggles the mind! I wasn't even really comfortable handing the Desmond over to the official Heathrow Meet & Greet, that said the look on the guy's face was priceless (it had just been used for a dozen or so tip runs and was minging inside).

86

General Car Chat / Diesel - not ready to lay down and die just yet...

« on: 16 July 2017, 23:19:56 »

Looks like Ze Germans have been beavering away on reducing the NOx coming from diesels. May well stave off the demise of diesel for a good few years longer...

https://www.petrolprices.com/super-diesel-tech/

87

General Discussion Area / Automated cloud backup solution??

« on: 11 July 2017, 17:44:08 »

As I know there are a few technical bods on here I was hoping someone might be able to help me out. SWMBO and I have a laptop each (both win10 home) and I could do with a solution to backup essential documents on a regular basis (probably nightly).

What I'm after is a program running in the background that periodically copies the contents of a specific directory on each laptop to a local removable media so they can be easily grabbed if a HDD fails and also pushes the contents up to a secure cloud drive.

I'm happy to pay (at the very least I doubt the cloud storage will be free) but I don't need an enterprise grade tool and the kind of price tag that would attract. Also not interested in changing the OS on either machine, mine I CBA and SWMBO runs a number of tools for her business that would cost £'00s to change to a different OS.

Any ideas/experience greatly welcomed. 

88

General Car Chat / A peculiarity of Porsche drivers

« on: 07 July 2017, 18:36:06 »

Just been on the M6 carpark again and had the opportunity to study at some length two different Porsche 911's and their drivers. Both men, in their 40's ish and (this is the peculiar part) both wearing a number of items of Porsche branded clothing or apparel. Both wearing Porsche t-shirts and one also with matching cap and sunglasses.

This raised two questions for me. 1. Why? I can identify that you're driving a Porsche, I don't need to read it on your baseball cap. 2.  Why does this only seem to afflict Porsche drivers? Leaving aside sponsored professionals, I don't know of any other marque where drivers habitually wear a matched brand of clothing.

There again, one of them also had a mocked up German numberplate on it. Which always marks you down as a class a Two Hat in my personal opinion.

Random post I know, but that's what 45mins of near stationary traffic will do for you  .

PS, I'm now in the services, not posting from the drivers seat!

89

General Discussion Area / What the screaming fu£k is wrong with people?!?

« on: 06 July 2017, 18:40:27 »

In case you hadn't guessed this is a bit of a rant.

About a month after we had our garage broken into (took pressure washer and my halfords 170 piece kit) I had just about simmered down to a casual dislike of apeople and then...





SWMBO driving to the shops, some scum runs right down the side of her and speeds off. She's too shocked to get the reg, but thankfully not hurt. No cctv in the area to prove who the driver was so we're down the insurance excess 

What's making me even more furious is that I've been meaning to fit dash cams to both cars for about 3 months now.  so, in a spirit of locking the door after the horse has bolted, guess what I'll be doing this weekend  .

Normal levels of hatred for all humanity have now been restored.

90

General Discussion Area / Hitherto unseen levels of bull$hittery

« on: 29 June 2017, 15:54:39 »

Meeting down in the big smoke today, arrived a bit early and ordered "a sparkling water please".

What I received:


Artisan water from Norway

Along with olives, nibbles and a box of tissues 

Some people really will buy anything! Any guesses on what the bill will be?  :/