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13576

General Discussion Area / The Apprentice - who do you think will win?

« on: 06 June 2008, 17:46:15 »

I enjoy this series each year. I've got to say this is the first year that I haven't been impressed with any of the four finalists. If I had to plump for one as the winner it would be Claire.

What do you think?

varche

13577

General Discussion Area / LPG in Spain.

« on: 12 June 2008, 15:00:54 »

I have a friend visiting who asked about the availability of LPG.

having never seen any for sale at a petrol station I had a look around. It would appear that only Repsol sell the stuff and then at only about 30 or so garages aropund Spain. the nearest to us is at Granada- an hours drive away!

Found it tucked away on the old Malaga road. It only sells LPG (or GLP as it is known here) and the price 61 cents a litre. How is that compared with England? Open 9.30 to 20.00 weekdays and 10 till 13.00 on a Saturday.

I shan't be doing a conversion as I cannot imagine the hassle at the next MOT. They do not like anything none standard on a vehicle.

Saw petrol at 1.265 euros on tuesday. No wonder the lorry drivers are striking all over Spain. Those tata nanos are looking quite inviting!

varche

13578

General Discussion Area / Re: beauty and the beast

« on: 12 June 2008, 14:19:47 »

Must be a top notch footballer I guess. I haven't seen him play in any of the Euro 2008 matches. Which country does he play for? Italy? Maybe he is a reserve?

varche

13579

General Discussion Area / Re: 20 meg cable broadband - anyone here got it?

« on: 09 June 2008, 13:21:04 »

Just done my speed test.

36Kb down and 7 up.

Ping to server at Elda (150 miles) 1367 ms

Don't talk to me about 20Meg!!

varche

13580

General Discussion Area / Re: 20 meg cable broadband - anyone here got it?

« on: 05 June 2008, 13:06:51 »

Ha 20 meg. I dream of getting Wi Fi 256k when Telefonica gets round to equipping our area which might be never. In the meantime I soldier on with 44k unlimited for which I pay the princely sum of 21 euros a month plus line rental.

Living in the sticks has its compensations though; 29 deg c today, lots of lovely sun, nice and quiet.

varche

13581

General Discussion Area / Re: How sexy and rare

« on: 28 May 2008, 13:38:41 »

Plenty of room in my garage. You wouldn't need to bother taxing and MOTing it either.

varche

13582

General Discussion Area / Re: Would you let your family move too another country

« on: 06 June 2008, 18:09:23 »

I think you ought to go with them. Rent your house out in the UK. What is the worst that can happen? Things don't work out and you have to go back? At least you would still have a house to go back to. A job might be harder to get in a few years time back in the UK if the recession takes off but there would be something even if it is only the dole.......

If you are worried about taking a drop in relative income don't be, so long as you have enough for the basics you will get by. Keep a lump sum in the bank though. I used to spend money like it was going out of fashion in the UK. I manage on a fraction here and feel better for it.

I know quite a few people (retired now ) that could have (should have?) gone to Oz or New Zealand and didn't. They all regret it without exception.

varche

13583

General Discussion Area / Re: Redex

« on: 03 June 2008, 17:43:07 »

Only ever used the stuff once - on a Golf. Took spark plugs out, put an egg cupful of REDEX in each cylinder as I had read somewhere. Left it to fester for a while. Turned it over without the spark plugs. then refitted plugs cranked up. What the F... Great clouds of steel grey blue smoke filled the terraced street. Neighbours came out so I cleared off out into the countryside convinced a piston ring had gone. Half an hour later the smoke had gone.

I was one relieved bunny that it was all OK. Still have the bottle 3/4 full, haven't used it since and probably won't!

varche

13584

General Discussion Area / Who has the oldest original Omega?

« on: 02 June 2008, 12:48:01 »

I got to wondering who on OOF had the oldest Omega that was still original in terms of factory spec. I wouldn't include consumables like Tyres, brake discs/pads, exhaust and batteries and perhaps accident repair.

Mine was totally original until about four years ago when I needed a new steering pump. Since then it has been a steady stream of bits and pieces. Windscreen washer jets, passenger mirror, ABS ECU, aux drive belt, plug leads,cam cover gaskets, exhaust and so on.

I had a ten year old Golf and even the battery and exhaust were original fitting.

varche

13585

General Discussion Area / Re: heathrow protest

« on: 01 June 2008, 13:56:42 »

Are you sure it wasn't Boris Johnson getting off the last Tube botellon?

 

varche

13586

General Discussion Area / Omega driver refund?

« on: 30 May 2008, 22:41:56 »

How about this then. We Omega drivers put forward a "green idea". Simply put it is to get rid of ALL traffic lights. They will be replaced with roundabouts. The savings in electric will reduce greenhouse gasses and Omega drivers will be rewarded for the suggestion by a reduction in road tax (except for those people who own post 2001 cars - they will pay more as obviously they are rich  ).

 In addition, as cars will move more easily and freely everyone will save fuel thus contibuting to reduced greenhouse gasses and spending less on fuel.  

The new roundabouts will be constructed by conscript labour from local prisons (a sort of way of putting something back into society). The economy will receive a boost and the inevitable recession will be narrowly avoided.

Meanwhile back on earth the Swedes have just started their programme of getting rid of their traffic lights.....

varche

PS sadly the prison conscripts will be back again after six months installing speed humps as plonkers will be driving at 70 around the roundabouts stopping the traffic from moving. Buy shares NOW in shock absorber companies.

13587

General Discussion Area / Re:  Dial up Internet speed problem - help pls

« on: 30 May 2008, 13:54:48 »

I agree the Win 98 (not even SE) shouldn't be on the Internet. However I doubt anyone would want to hack into it.

I tried James's suggestion last night and the newer PC crashed and when it restarted asked if I wanted to reinstal Windows. I thought ( oh dear shouldn't have thought) that might be a good idea. At the option it said do i want to remove other components of Windows that already existed. I thought what the hell. That presumably got rid of XP Pro which I had before service pack 2. Switched the PC back on and no sound and no desktop populated with shortcuts. Went to bed sort of pleased but also fed up.

Today switched it on and still no XP Pro boot option, but the old desktop with icons is back and so is the sound.

There is no software that I know of running. What is f/w? Background perhaps? Slow as in a tenth the speed of the dial up on the Win 98 machine. I can hear the gasps but I haven't got antivirus software on either PC. I had a horrid experience years ago with Norton.

How do I reinstall IE6? presumably that was done when I reinstalled XP Home last night?

Got to go back to work now but will have a go at connecting to the Internet tomorrow............

varche

  

  

13588

General Discussion Area / Dial up Internet speed problem - help pls

« on: 29 May 2008, 16:08:09 »

I am probably the only OOFer with dial up access.

I have two PC's an ancient 433 celeron Win 98 that accesses the Internet fine (well as fine as dial up allows). The other is a 2400 Athlon with both XP Pro and Home on it. When I access from the second machine the speed is very very slow. It sends far more bytes than it receives. Both use external V90 modems. Crucially the better spec PC used to work OK but something got corrupted I suspect. We have a lot of power cuts. For example when started in XP Home I cannot get IE6 to open.

Is there something somewhere like a transmission rate , 8 bits or similar that needs changing? As far as I am aware they are both set the same. Any dial up experts out there? That must exclude anyone uder the age of 60!!

varche

  

13589

General Discussion Area / Re: Utter, barking madness...

« on: 28 May 2008, 13:10:35 »

Or a wind electric mill in every village per say 1000 houses. There is a service station in Northern france with one that powers the whole village and motorway services. wait a minute NIMBY !!!

varche

13590

General Discussion Area / Re: Engineering help needed.

« on: 28 May 2008, 14:21:39 »

If you do manage to get it made, watch you don't cross thread those Ambihelical Hexnuts!!  

varche