Tomm

I think, theoretically not. I think you would just pay import duty when you bring it into your country. But not sure.

Brilliant. Sig'd

Jebus, anyone would think I said something about 'your mum'. Being creative isn't everything, I don't get why you're so upset when I say someone is more creative than you. Surely this whole thread is creativity vs raw power? It's obvious who is best in each category, and there's no shame in it.

Going back to the original question, I think I would probably use the machine. I'm quite a simple chap and to be honest I don't have the best grasp of emotion, but in my eyes we are simply in pursuit of happiness. Whatever form that takes - endorphins, achievement, friendship etc - that's what we're all aiming for ultimately. I guess perhaps if you mourn for someone, you'll feel all the better for it eventually, naturally. So if this machine would make you happy, then yes. If if was happiness with string attached (E.g. happy for a while then a come-down with guilt etc) then you'd have to weigh it up. I don't really think you owe it to anyone else to be sad, that seems like a weird concept to me.

Chai also said there was no such thing as natural intelligence, which is so stupid in itself that it disproves his point Going big isn't creative. That's not what 'creative' means. No-one's doubting that what you do takes skill - Of course it does. Just don't act like you've got sand in your vagina just because some people said you weren't their favourite rider.

Check out the other petitions on there though. There's one for 'Change the National Anthem to Gold by Spandau Ballet' - it's got twice as many signatures as the bike one

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/NoVATonBikes/ Basically you sign the petition, and there's a chance we'll all get cheaper bikes and parts. Hooray.

I'm not sure a back protector is worth restrictions it gives you in trials, so for most people there's no point. But I guess in your case it's a bit different. So why not try one? I've got a bag/back protector for snowboarding which wouldn't be that much fun on a bike - it's quite restrictive and also heavy (though I do use it for XC 'cos it's also a Camelback), but it was very reasonable - £40 from Decathlon. Might be worth checking them out, rather than Dainese which is dead expensive. If you want Dainese, you can often get decent stuff on eBay.

Brilliant. You old romantic! I like it though. Happy Valentines everyone

Why don't they just make some 26" frames with horizontal dropouts? That way you could use proper hubs and still have no mech. I can't see any point in having mod spacing for the sake of it.

I'm not quite sure what your point is here? That having good genes should be rewarded? One thing I do agree with though, if you put Danny in front of a 55 inch wall and gave him three years to sidehop it, he may never make it. That's true. But then if you put Damon in Danny's shoes and gave him three years, he probably wouldn't come up with half the stuff Danny does, and make it look as nice. So it's completely irrelevant. Obviously you're not going to change your mind. I guess it comes down to whether or not you're the kind of rider that thinks inches are everything. I'm not.

I think Matt's biased But I also think he's right, howies are good. I can only afford their stuff when it's in the sale, but it's all good stuff, definitely. Let's hope it doesn't change too much.

Apparently Timberland are really eco-friendly themselves. There's an article on the Howies website about the takeover - They had several offers but they chose the one from Timberland because they've got the best green reputation, they just don't shout about it too much. Which is kinda cool, but I wonder where howies will go now. I hope there isn't gonna be adverts on buses and scallies wearing it

Looks pretty cool, I wish I got to do things like that in my degree Are you sure it's not going to tip backwards going uphill? Maybe you need to counterweight the front end.

Danny by a mile. Obviously DW is really awesome on a bike, but when it comes to videos, there are loads of people on here that can go almost as big. Whereas Danny's videos are just crazy and tens times more interesting.

I'm pretty sure mine wasn't an impact, the Roc Loc just ripped out as I was putting it on. I guess my head is kinda fat, but I still don't think it should have broken. It's not a big problem at all though.

Happened to my mate's Zen and now my Giro Animas. Not great, but looks as though you should be able to fix it with a bit of glue.

The Microsoft one... But then again I never ever use it, so I'm probably not the best person to ask about it Adium is great, but it really, really bugged me how hard it was to change your status / screen name (Having to go into preferences and then click the MSN tab, and then your name). Maybe they've changed it now, that was about the only complaint, haha.

Microsoft did a major update on Messenger:Mac about 9 months ago. It's no longer completely shit. There are certain things that annoyed me with Adium, so I use the Microsoft client. But I rarely use either, and perhaps adium has improved since I last used it. There are other ones called Proteus and Fire, Fire is supposed to be good. Worth a look perhaps?

Well use the right disk then

I've got a 1998 (R reg) 1.6 Polo Mk4 and it's pretty decent. It's got 130k on the clock so it's worth a pittance (about £600) but it's decent and still reliable. I'd much rather have it over a Corsa or something, anyway. The only thing I would say is don't get the 1.6 - it's pretty pointless (The 1.4 16v has the same BHP) and I think the fuel economy's a bit crap. But it'll easily do 100 on the motorway - I'm not so much of a dick to take it any further but I reckon it would, easily. Also I think the weight distribution is a bit rubbish, and with a lot of power in the front wheels it wheelspins a bit easily. But I don't really know much about cars, that's just my opinion. Insurance isn't as bad as you would think, either. The other thing is the boot's a bit small if you wanna have lots of bikes and stuff in it. It'll just do 3 trials bikes and 3 people, but it's very tight. It won't fit 3 proper (non-trials) bikes + 3 people. The back seats are pretty small too, so if your friends are tall then they won't like it

I'm gonna guess Llandudno

Haha, I am glad someone said that. I was gonna point that out, but your way was funnier No. Aorta = ey ort ah (or something like that).

Yeah I know what you mean - "I'm a Mac". Urgh. But OS X is really lovely, and I reckon if people gave it a chance, they would realise this. You haven't read the thread - That only applies to the OEM version. And to be honest, it's not going to affect that many people, so stop whining about it. As for people just bagging Vista when they've not used it, that's just stupid. Philth - You've obviously got some beta version of the software - The real version's only been out a week. That's why it crashes.

I have three things to say: 1) Mac OS X is soooooo much more than just pretty looks. I ranted about this in another thread, but you're sadly mistaken if you think that's the only reason for getting a mac. 2) If you are using something every day, surely you want it to look nice? That's why people clean their cars and tidy their houses. Nothing wrong with that is there? If you're used to OS X as I am, XP looks and feels like crap, so it's about time they gave it a bit of a spruce up. Having said that I've not used Vista yet (or even seen videos etc) so I dunno how much it's actually changed. I will probably end up buying Vista when I have some money kicking about, and when they get the driver issues sorted (at the moment apparently you can't run the combination of an nForce3 mobo + ATI graphics card - which is what I have ). 3) When was the last time you bought a T-shirt with a logo on? Why? You could just buy a plain one from Primark or Asda. Everyone likes pretty things. What are you talking about? There's no such thing.