delusional

I'm with E7even, who are pretty good. They're cheap (around £15 per month for 512k), as far as I'm aware unlimited (I've been known to run my connection pretty much max'ed out for weeks at a time and have never had any problems), you get a static IP and right now if you sign up for a year you get another year free (so that works out to £7.50 a month). The only problems with them are the need to pay for a lump sum in advance (which I've actually found quite good, as it's one less bill to worry about) and the support wasn't as helpful as I'd like the one time I contacted them. But then, who needs support for aDSL? Griffin Internet also come highly reccomended. They charge £19.99 a month for 512k, offer a full \24 (that's 8 static IP's), no line restrictions of any kind, are still small enough a company to care and are apparantly run by geeks, which almost guarantees you a higher level of service. These are probably who I'm going to be going with next. I'd be very, very wary of going with any larger supplier like BT or Wanadoo. As already mentioned some of them already impose download limits, and what with all the current stink the MPAA is kicking up I wouldn't be suprised to see companies like that start blocking ports for Bittorrent and such things. Personally I don't like the idea of an ISP deciding what I should and shouldn't be looking at, especially not when there are cheaper, better alternatives who don't :)

You know, that's not even irony in the American sense. I think the word you may have been looking for was sarcasm :op

This is just what I was going to say. It's looking really good, you just need to get it properly vhost'ed so it's not got a trials-shack url :)

Ah, I see. Sorry, I misunderstood somewhat. Oh yes, just because something uses a scart plug doesn't mean it's not s-video :) Also, most s-video stuff will down-grade to composite (the standard/bottom level connection type for scart) so to connect an s-video device to something which only has a scart input you just need to get the appropriate cable. Basically scart is just the name for the plug configuration, scart can carry (from lowest to highest quality) composite, s-video or RGB signals (it may be able to handle others, but those are the most popular). Confusingly s-video is both a connection type and a signal type. Component is the highest quality signal type, but it uses a different connection method than all the others :)

Don't buy a TV for use as a monitor! They generally have awful resolutions and refresh rates and will certainly give you a headache if you use them as a monitor for too long. You were heading the right way with getting a monitor and using that for both instead. Something designed as a monitor is much better suited to watching TV than a TV is for use as a monitor. I'm not completely clear on what you want, but there are products that you can plug directly into a monitor that function as TV tuners. This has the advantage that you don't need your computer on when you want to watch TV. There's often loads of these going really cheap on eBay.

That's only cool if you're 70 :p

This is exactly what I was going to say. A tattoo isn't like a piercing that you can just take out if you don't like it, there used to be several tattoos I really wanted when I was about 17 and I'm really glad I didn't get then done now. Recently I've started thinking of getting one done again, but I'm going to wait for at least 6 months and check I still want the same design before I get anything done. I tend to agonise for months over the location of a piercing, just to make sure I'm completely happy with it, so I'd never make a snap decision on a tattoo! That's odd, I've never really had any negative reactions to my piercings. When I did used to get negative reactions to my appearance in general I normally found old people were the least critical and the most genuinely interested. I guess they don't really make much distinction between youth cultures. Although, the lack of reaction to my piercings may have a lot to do with their position and jewellery. While I have quite a few I've always tried to get piercings that compliment my features, rather than contrast as a lot of people's seem to. This is exactly like my feelings to piercings. They're just part of my face/body now, not something that really stands out. Actually I think they'd stand out more if I removed them... it'd be wierd to be without any of them, especially the ones in my face. Several of them have been there for ~5 years now though.

And even better, they have a sale on at the moment!

heh, close but no cigar! Voice over IP. Err, that's Voice over Internet Protocol.

I use skype at the moment, and while it's good I'm still rather dubious of it. The problem I have (other than the shitty client) is that skype is currently a closed network, which is a little limiting really. If/when skype opens their servers, or connects to other voip networks I'll be less dubious. Besides, all the things that are good about skype are really nothing to do with skype, it just happens to be an acccessable voip client. It's voip which is the good thing :)

His server doesn't have to be costing him anything. I've had a webserver running in some form for the last 2 or 3 years and never paid a penny for it. They've all either been running from my ADSL connection with a static IP and fancy IP tables stuff or (currently) sitting in the rack at work.

I used to love Monkey Island as well. I remember having the old 11 disk version of monkey island 2 and having to swap disks all the time while playing! Crazily I now have all the Monkey Island games running on my PDA, which is quite possible the coolest thing ever. Re: Linux on the Xbox. I have to say I'm not really sure there's much point to installing Linux on your xbox. You can do pretty much anything you might want to do with it, generally easier and better than with xbox linux, but using xbox media center. This is what I have on mine and coupled with a few other programs my xbox serves to play video, music, classic games (I have a PS1, Megadrive, N64 and several other emulators as well as accompanying games stored on my harddrive) as well as the standard DVD + Gaming functions of the xbox. XBMC is pretty incredible actually, it's based on mplayer, yet it's often able to play video files that mplayer on my desktop can't handle. I've only ever found one or two video files it couldn't handle. Because of the ease with which the Xbox can be made to do all these things I have to say it easily wins over the PS2. It's a really worthwhile investment, I mean just try building a HTPC with RGB video and digital 5.1 audio out that is also capable of playing up to date games for £100. Even better is that they're sold at a loss to Microsoft, so every time someone buys an Xbox Microsoft lose a little money (especially if you never buy any games and only use it for HTPC type duties). I think in terms of the native games there's not that much to choose between the xbox and ps2, it really just comes down to personal choice. But for everything else the xbox far outstrips the ps2. Sure you can install Linux on the ps2, but that involves buying a special kit, whereas the xbox can be modded for nothing. Plus the ability to put a bigger hdd in the xbox means you can, errr, backup your games to your hdd - so you don't damage your DVD's :) Check out xbox-scene for more info, lots of links, tutorials and all sorts of cool xbox related stuff.

Or you could use Jabber, which is an opensource IM protocol. Most multi-protocol IM clients (like gaim) support it as well, so more reason to get a proper client :)

I might do. I was thinking of going to Reading but I'm far too broke to afford the train fare now. If the weathers good and I'm not hungover I might be there.

Rundown of my opinions: 1. I don't like it. The curved down tube makes the frame look rather wonky to me, this may be remedied when it's built up, but just as a frame it doesn't look at all appealing to me. 2. Looks nice, although it doesn't particularly stand out from the crowd of current production frames. I'm also not sure on the random little internal bit... but it does actually look quite good. I've roughly gimp'ed it to see what it would like without it (see here) and I think it makes little difference. Looks a little cleaner without, but kind of pulls the whole bit together with. 3. I rather like this and it certainly stands out. I think the seat tube above the top tube should go. I can't really see the frame looking good with a seat, unless onza have some sort of trials size, slim and sleek seat in the works. Even then it's probably look better with nothing sticking out the top there. 4. Very sleek and swish looking. Top tube looks a little high, but otherwise a nice looking frame. I didn't like the carbon at first, but it's growing on me. 5. I've never been keen on the T-Mag frame, so I'm not that keen on this one... seems alright for people who like that sort of thing though.

This is good advice. Buy more Howies. While you're at it read their website as well, inspirational stuff. Top company, top ideas and top clothes. In case you can't tell I'm a big Howies fan at the moment.

Yeah, yeah. That's your story. Stupidly I wasn't quite sure that site was what it looked like and shoved the site name into google to check (figured it was safer than putting the address directly into my browser), unfortunately I did this at work just as lots of my colleagues were passing by...

Damn, wish I'd known about this in advance. I don't suppose anyone recorded this in any way?

Oh yes. I'm rather looking forward to the summer for a whole host of reasons. Not least because I'll hopefully be doing a job that leaves me a lot more time for riding than I currently get - well that is unless one of my multitude of time eating projects I'm currently planning phazes into reality. In that case I may end up with even less time :o/ I shall definitely be riding Bristol quite a lot, mostly because I shall almost certainly be living there by June :) Also intend to finally get my driving license so I can head off to lots of different locations without having to rely on public transport and carrying everything I need on my back.

I wouldn't have said that vaio is particularly better specced than the power book... you'd probably find the mac would run at least as quick, if not quicker than the vaio. Remember that clock speeds mean very little to real speed, even less when you're talking about two completely different architectures and most of that gig of RAM will be used up as soon as you boot WinXP on the vaio. Plus you're comparing vaio eBay prices to brand new mac prices, not really a fair comparison! The only x86 laptop I'd place as comparable to a power book is the IBM Thinkpad, which is probably comparably priced to a mac. If you're going to get a x86 laptop get one of those. However, for the kind of thing you're interested in doing you'd be much better off with a mac. OSX currently only runs on mac hardware. Generally laptops, unlike desktop systems are best purchased as a complete unit. You can always add more RAM or a bigger HDD at a later date if you need it.

Crap, I didn't realise that :o. I'll certainly let you know if I find anything, although I'm currenlty more interested in finding a video of the recent endurocross event that sprung up. The article in TBM made it sound like the ultimate spectator sport (ultra difficult indoor enduro, kind of like a cross between supercross and arena trials). There's a short (very American) video available here, although it doesn't look anywhere near as mad in that as the TBM article made it out to be be.

There's a fairly good review of them in the current TBM magasine :) Some of those sections just look silly. I'm going to have to get the DVD of this when it come out! At least, I assume there will be one. The sheffield '98 video has held a special place in my heart for quite some time (6 years to be exact).

Sorry for the completely random post, but livejournal has been down for ages so there's nowhere else for me to post complete crap. As you can probably tell from the title I've just finished watching Apocalypse now (redux), which was my second attempt at watching the film. I slept through a lot of it the first time, but I'm not sure how much I slept through and how much was redux extras. For some reason Apocalypse now and JD seem to go together very well, so I've drunk my way through a large percentage of a bottle of JD tonight. Anyway, good film. Very f**king dark. I'm sure the ending is more poignant if you can see the screen properly. I also made the mistake of going to a £5 hairdresser today. Now my hair is too short to tie back (I said only take off an inch goddamnit) and uneven at that. My mum can cut my hair better than this, and for free! Blah blah blah blah.

Yeah, it is very little though. I think about 3' wide. I have no idea what it was originally there for, I guess it was some sort of seating for a big wheel or something. It's best use now is for gapping from/too. Apparantly one of my little brothers friends gapped out of it and up onto the wall behind it, which is pretty mad. Although he did that on a motorbike, it's still a pretty big gap up.