Tomm

I don't know many students that haven't taken ProPlus. It doesn't really affect me though. A couple of cups of strong coffee makes a bit of a difference, mainly that I don't get sidetracked so easily. But yeah, you don't do much harm taking it, but then it's pretty expensive for what it does. And coffee is nicer anyway. I'm a big fan of just getting enough sleep though. Caffeine does weird stuff like increase your concentration time, but your actual mental functioning is not improved. So you can stay awake longer but you won't be working as hard. Same with speed, that's why they used to (maybe they still do?) give it to grunts in the US Army - Keeps them awake, who cares if they have brain power or not There should be no apostrophe there if we're going to be picky

They are still there, in the gallery HERE. I think the guy who did them posted some full-res ones on TF a while ago, but I can't remember who that was. Either way, they're pretty damn cool

It depends what kind of game it is, but the 6600 is a pretty old card these days. You can overclock using things like Rivatuner, but I'm not sure you should really try it. You might get 10-20% more performance which won't make a huge difference. Write down your settings (resolution, detail, special effect (things like HDR, reflections etc) and what game you're actually playing) and someone will be able to help more.

I'm sure David Beckham works harder than most normal people. They do have pretty heavy training schedules, travel, sponsor duties etc etc. Obviously the amount he earns is not proportional to the amount of work he does, but it's not fair to say he does nothing for a living. Plus he's obviously a very talented guy. If it was that easy then we'd all be doing it. It makes me laugh when people moan about how much footballers earn. And then a few seconds later they slag off people who moan about us riding trials. Very hypocritical. Oh well. Life ain't fair

I'm very jealous joe. I went away before Christmas and now I have nothing to look forward to (I might have to do some last minute shopping some time in March). Have fun, and take lots of piccies, I wanna see them.

Aw, very cute! Congratulations Not a bad birthday present for daddy. Explains why he hasn't on here answering questions about brake pads, haha.

You mean the Steel set? They're a bit expensive and pointless to try and resurrect a knackered frame. To the original question, it totally depends on how much of a bargain the frame is. I suspect you'd get a decent amount of use out of it, but I hope you're saving a lot of money.

She looks about 12 To make my post legitimate:

Haha, that one of TRA is funny! (Wide angle rectilinear lenses ftl )

Talk time 5 hours apparently. Standby, not sure, I'm sure you can google though. I heard rumours that there were two batteries (one for phone function, one for MP3) but that seems silly to me.

Yeah, I agree; it's a bureaucratic nightmare, but that's a completely different thing. I don't really agree with the big brother style state that might happen, but that's not really the point of this post. Aren't there already speed cameras that track your number plate? Surely if the government wanted, they could quite easily pinpoint someone's movements? People will moan about a lot of things. I reckon that most people on here will do less-than-average mileage and so should benefit from this system, if it was introduced. But that doesn't stop them moaning

I don't really see it as a problem. It's just a fairer way of working out road tax and cutting down on emissions, congestion etc. There's no need to get up in arms about it, is there?

I'm guessing it'll have some form of PDA function too, but I'm not completely sure it'll be enough for me. I need applications that run on Palm or Windows PDAs. Here's hoping that this can run those apps, if so then I will be completely sold.

The DJ song for me is Eric Clapton - Tears in Heaven. Always makes me think of when I logged onto TF and it was shut down 'cos of DJ. Such a shock. But there's loads of good ones too, generally anything I had forgotten about from the nineties which I hear again and it makes me happy

I predict: scratched screen lawsuits Looks pretty awesome, I want one.

Climbing does use a different knot to anything you've used in sailing probably, but it's dead easy (It's basically a figure-8 on a byte through the harness ). I've got a friend who uses a grip strength thing (when he's in the car and bored), he reckons it helps, but it's minimal. Climbing is 90% technique, most of the really good guys aren't actually that big at all. It's always funny to see some bodybuilder turn up thinking he can do anything because he's got arms bigger than my legs. But they're usually pretty rubbish.

You really don't need to do a course to be allowed into any climbing centres. They really don't care at all, as long as you sign the forms. They will never check and you can lie on the forms if you want. They're silly questions anyway, like 'can you tie a figure-8 knot' or something very simple if you've ever done it before. Fair enough if it's a cheap course, because it will teach you the basics. But don't be fooled into thinking it's a legal requirement or anything like that.

I met him at the bikeshow once, probably 98 or something. He had a very large head (or maybe a very small body), that's about all I remember

Don't buy girls' clothes then

You'll probably have to book and in my opinion they tend to rape you on charges for lessons when you don't really need them. They rarely teach you how to climb (unless you're a retard and then they'll say helpful things like "put your foot up to the next one"), it's just how to use equipment, how to belay etc. Which is useful if you want to do top-rope climbs but not if you just want to boulder. If you have a friend who does it, maybe go with them? If not then book a lesson, yeah.

Yeah, outdoor bouldering is fun, but it's very weather dependent. Also it depends where you go because some places have only impossible routes whereas others are very easy. At least the indoor climbing walls (should) cater for all abilities. Plus I live in Manchester and the indoor place is about 2 miles away. Whereas the nearest real rock is at least 20, and I don't even know if you can climb there. But yeah, it's not really a very expensive sport, especially compared to trials or other mountain bikes etc.

Um... Surely Danny didn't drop 10k on a pair of forks for himself? Anyway, that Limey looks lovely

Just lie. It's only a waiver form denying you the right to sue them if your knot fails or whatever. Every climbing wall I've been to has had that kind of form, you just sign it and forget about it. Either way, it's not hard to learn how to use a harness and tie a knot, just get someone to teach you and you're there. Plus climbing with ropes opens up a whole new world of climbing, so it's good to learn. But yeah, back to the original topic, just go bouldering. It's good fun and great exercise, plus climbing is a life skill everyone should learn In terms of qualifications there's not much as far as I'm aware, but you can always bullshit stuff about teamwork and leadership skills through climbing to put on your CV if you're that bothered. If you're only interested in indoor bouldering, the only thing you really need are chalk (+bag) and shoes. I have seen some great offers on shoes recently, so now is probably a good time to buy. Try Cotswolds if there's one near you, they're usually very helpful and I believe they have a sale on (At least they do at the one in Manchester and the one in Betwy-y-Coed). You can hire shoes and stuff, but I wouldn't bother. At the Manchester wall it's like £3 per go to hire shoes (on top of £6.50 to get in), and you get skanky horrible shoes that are very basic. If you go a few times, the shoes will pay for themselves in no time. It might be worth going and seeing if you enjoy it first though, there's no point going climbing just as a workout really. It's like trials - you have to enjoy it otherwise what's the point? EDIT: With shoes, the only thing to do is to try loads on. There's no point going for the cheapest ones or the grippiest ones, just get the ones that fit best. Well-fitting climbing shoes are very uncomfortable (I can't wear mine for more than an hour), ones that fit badly are a nightmare.

Mr Tea-Tree Oil is great for my Complexion.

Nah I wanna pay for something, but I bought a christmas present and it didn't arrive in time because of the stupid eCheque delay. So I don't want that to happen again.