Bluegrass

That was great, and having just come home from Vietnam it was nice to see Ha Noi again

6 months?!?!?

slightly bemused by the pube prank... Decent little video though

Thanks for the replies. Here in Dorset we don't have many rock gardens to race down, which is a shame. I think fully rigid could suit the trails in the south. I must admit I am a big Brant Richards/Ragley/Nuke proof fan. Probably a bit of an unhealthy admiration. At £150, it wont break the bank. Worth a punt. Cheers!

I'm quickly converting my XC riding into the 'purist' mindset, i.e. keep things simple. I've already changed from full suss to hardtail and the difference is amazing. I'm tempted to try rigid carbon forks, often seen on 29er's nowdays, and let the Fox 140mm forks collect dust for a while. I love fluid, intelligent lines when riding and I think running rigid carbon forks will change my trail riding style for the better. Nuke proof carbon forks - £150 on CRC. Bargain! But I cant take the plunge without a little more research. What are your opinions?

Well I stopped riding trials about 4 years ago, but i've still got a lot of the skills from trials and good bike control which puts me in good stead for the XC terrain I ride nowdays. Still love my trials roots though. I've read that a lot of the French guys ride Pass'Portes on dated mtb's with cantilever brakes and still rip it up! Looking forward to seeing that!

I'll be there from Thursday 24th - Monday 28th, registered to ride on the Sunday from Chatel. This is my first Pass'Portes ride, would be good to hear your experiences? I'll be on a Ragley blue pig (orange skwosh) - hardtail in the Alps, jesus christ...

My Kodak M753 digital camera saves videos I take as .mov files, which automatically play using Quicktime on my Windows pc. Stupidly the camera didn't come with cables to link up to a television to watch pictures/videos, but I can slot my SD card into a PS3 to look at. The PS3 will let me view pictures but not videos - so is there some way to allow this? My camera has no options to save videos as a different file type. Is it a case of converting these .mov videos to something like mpeg's everytime I want to view them on a PS3 or burn to a cd?? Thanks

Bump, because i've been searching the net for exactly the same answers!

operating system? yes, XP

ASUS P5N-MX GeForce 7050 Socket 775 onboard VGA 6 channel audio mATX Motherboard Intel Pentium Dual Core E2180 2GHz Socket 775 800MHz FSB L2 1MB Cache Retail Box Processor Extra Value 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 533MHz PC2-4200 240pin Extra Value Ram Sapphire HD 3650 512MB DDR2 Dual DVI TV Out PCI-E Graphics Card £142.06 inc. vat on Ebuyer Did originally have the ATI x1650 card there but this Sapphire was of a similar price and higher in the Ebuyer 'rankings' (if that's anything to go by), but for arguments sake its a ~£35 affordable graphics card.

Sapphire X1650 PRO 512MB DDR2 DVI HDCP TV Out AGP Graphics Card But the above card would 'technically' be suitable for my current motherboard?

Damn me and my crap mobo! I'm really thinking it would be a waste to buy a whole new computer when I could just upgrade those 4 major components, because I have a perfectly fine hard drive, OK case with a fan on the side and top (albeit bloody noisy). Really eager to buy and install myself, still not confident with installing and setting up drivers and various bits though.

Investigating the idea of doing some simple upgrades. My motherboard is a few years old (ASrock, not sure which model etc.) but the RAM installed is only DDR 400MHz 3200, so i'm probably going to spend a few quid on Ebuyer to upgrade to 1Mb or even 2Mb of DDR RAM. The CPU is a Pentium 4 3.00Ghz which im sure is fine to keep. Regarding a new graphics card, at the moment i'm using the onboard shitty graphics. I've just opened my computer up and there's a sticker on the card slot saying "Please do not use a 3.3V AGP card on the AGP slot of this M/B - may cause serious damage" Will this restrict what I can buy?? I was looking at the ATI Gecube X1650 512MB DDR2 64bit PCI-E Graphics Card for £24, but because my RAM is only DDR I'm guessing that buying a DDR2 graphics card will somehow not be compatible? I also have a 400w power supply, which again I want to keep aslong as it's compatible with a mid-ranged graphics card.

Thanks for the comments. Although, my asshole of a brother put a spanner in the works and said "why not just buy a games console, PS3 or 360?" and now thats really got me thinking. My current computer is fine for internet and uni work, but I would upgrade primarily for games. Just buy a console and use a usb keyboard/mouse for the cheaper PC gaming experience???

Thanks for all the replies. Been great help. I was aiming to use an online company (PCspecialist, Computer Planet) to customize the parts I want and have them build it because i don't feel too confident in building (can install new RAM, lol) Probably could build it if I put some time and thought in, but don't have much time. Gonna go with Intel Dual Core. Although im confused as my current Intel CPU is a good 5 years old and is 3ghz, yet the newer CPU's seem to be less. Is this down to improved technology allowing performance yet lower GHz? I also have 2 copies of Windows XP at home from other computers which I can re-use (I think one disc has been installed on 2 computers, so a third should be fine what with CD keys and all that??? hmm) So think I'll change some components to something like: Intel® Pentium® DualCore E2220 (2 X 2.40GHz)800MHz FSB/1MB Cache 2GB CORSAIR DDR2 667MHz ASUS® P5N-MX: DDR2, S-ATA II, 1 x PCI-E x16, 2 PCI 512MB GEFORCE 8400GS PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT 500W (Peak) Quiet Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan £301 inc. VAT and delivery from pcspecialist.co.uk With regards to installing my own copy of Windows XP, is it simple? Will the new copmuter arrive in the post, I turn on the machine, insert XP CD and click a few boxes to install?? Not familiar with the process.

Excellent, thanks for the advice. I was unsure whether AMD or Intel were better, the general concensus on computer forums is both have good/bad points over the other. Regarding the graphics card - as a complete novice I would see '512MB' and think wooow it'll be great, but thanks for the warning. I'll research the x1650 (what make is that?). I think I can upgrade the PSU to, say, 650 Watts but as you said if it's cheap quality, its false economy buying higher wattage.

Looking to renew my outdated lump of dust and metal. On researching Computer Planet, i've chosen a decent enough spec but im not sure if everything is compatible. Such as, will a 350w PSU be enough for a 512mb ATI graphics card? Or will the case, fans of a AMD 64 X2 and the grpahics card fan produce a lot of noise? (Although I doubt it's possible to tell from reading a spec??) £309 all in sounds fairly reasonable - any problem with the spec for general gaming? Black and Silver ATX tower case AMD ATHLON 64 X2 4600+ 1MB SKT-AM2 ASUS SKT-AM2 M2N-MX SE PLUS M-ATX 2000MT/s 2GB DDR2 PC-6400 800 MHZ Sapphire ATI HD2600PRO 512MB PCI-E 350w PSU 160GB SATA hard drive Motherboard Integrated 5.1 Sound Squeeze QuadroFlow VIII - Low Noise Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic SP1 64-BIT

Is there an allowance to get your MOT booked in and completed after the date of expiry, i.e. a 7 day allowance to get it sorted? I ask because my dad is self employed and is really busy for the next few days, yet MOT expired today. Can he use the vehicle for a few days and get the MOT completed, say, next week sometime? Or does he run the risk of driving illegally because MOT expired today? Government website doesn't answer my question. You are all the next best thing

If you need a job for 4 months, most big companies who pay well won't want to take you on because all that time training is pointless when you leave so soon. Instead, try temping agencies. I used them in my gap year and got me a temping job for an insurance company. Boring desk job but paid really well! Plus your a temp, so can leave whenever you like with bigger all notice. Temping agencies don't just find office jobs - you can get warehouse work, catering, courier services, pretty much most things really.

I'd love a bench but I haven't got room for one (possibly could fit a folded bench at a push) Instead, i use a swiss ball. Lie on it like you would a bench, works fine for me. I put the barbell on the end of my bed with the swiss ball on the floor, lie back and lift the barbell up. Granted, it is a bit awkward, but works for me for the mean time. Just means I cant lift as heavy as i'd like to because lifting the weight into position is a struggle lol

Sorry to be an arsehole and post this up for the second time in 2 days, but I didn't get any feedback cos you were all too busy talking about bloody sit ups So...feedback on my work-in-progress routine? Can i run my new routine through with you geeks... Sunday: Chest - flat bench press. 3 sets, rep to failure dumbbell flys 1 set, 12 reps (straight after bench, no rest to give muscle a good stretch) Shoulders - dumbbell shoulder press 3 sets, 8 reps Triceps - dumbbell extensions 3 sets, 8 reps. Tuesday: Back - deadlifts 3 sets 8 reps bent over rows 3 sets 10reps Biceps - standing alternate dumbbell curls 3 sets 8 reps Standing barbell curls 3 sets 8 reps (lower weight) Abs - toe touches 3 sets 20 reps Thursday: Legs - squats 3 sets 15 reps (medium weight) Abs - usual Back - deadlifts 3 sets 8 reps bent over rows 3 sets 10 reps Also a bit of cardio here and there. How does that routine sound? Quite new to weight training so im going to find out what weight (kg) is best to use for each exercise as I start my first few weeks. p.s I don't have room for a bench so im substituting it with an exercise ball, rock on.

aka, crunches?

Can i run my new routine through with you geeks... Sunday: Chest - flat bench press. 3 sets, rep to failure dumbbell flys 1 set, 12 reps (straight after bench, no rest to give muscle a good stretch) Shoulders - dumbbell shoulder press 3 sets, 8 reps Triceps - dumbbell extensions 3 sets, 8 reps. Tuesday: Back - deadlifts 3 sets 8 reps Biceps - standing alternate dumbbell curls 3 sets 8 reps Standing barbell curls 3 sets 8 reps (lower weight) Abs - toe touches 3 sets 20 reps Thursday: Legs - squats 3 sets 15 reps (medium weight) Abs - usual Back - possibly more deadlifts?? Also a bit of cardio here and there. How does that routine sound? Quite new to weight training so im going to find out what weight (kg) is best to use for each exercise as I start my first few weeks. p.s I don't have room for a bench so im substituting it with an exercise ball, rock on.

My brother did a very similar thing to you FatPants. A typical boy of your age, got a full-time job in a shop and stayed there for 2 years. Hated every minute of it. He's now realised that he wants to make something of his life so is going back to college, having to pay over £1000 per year for a 3 year course. I'm 20 and my brother's 22, yet i'm now over-taking him in education, in a sense. Do what you want, makes no difference to any of us. But don't come complaining 2 years down the line because the penny has finally dropped. It's just irritating to listen to p.s. an ELECTRIC garage....words can not describe my jealousy! (FatPants could have an ELECTRIC garage if he didn't throw the next few years away)