JamesG

I'm not sure that's very good advice. It might not blow anything up, but it would be far better to check for any markings on the ballast units and test the connectors from the car with a multimeter if necessary.

May be worth asking if any local museums want them

Thanks RedM. Very frank and interesting. It's nice to know how the brain works (and when things do wrong!). I even bought the book "Psychology for Dummies"

I was on the 4Mbit package and phoned up to get the 20Mbit package. I asked them for a discount and they gave me the new speed for less than I was paying for 4Mbits for three months. So I broke even after four months, but it's gone up to the full price now.

wow. That's pretty bad. Are you aware of these things as you're doing them, or do you only notice when someone else points it out? At what point does it become serious enough to require therapy? I don't think I've got OCD, but then some of the things on this thread seems fairly sensible to me - like putting your tinned soup all in one place or checking your wallet a couple of times before leaving the house. My most obsessive thing was when leaving my previous car - I always walked round the car and looked at the headlights to see they were off after pressing the switch, as they didn't go off with the ignition like the Supra.

From my experience, you're not wrong. I use Linux a lot, but only really for server-type applications. Every so often, I download a distribution to see how much better the desktop environment is. I'm usually disappointed. I have no doubt that Linux on the desktop can be better than Windows, but you really have to put the effort into learning and customising it. And they'll always be something that comes along that only works in Windows, so you'll have to either dual-boot (which is too slow to be a workable solution), have another computer running Windows, or run something like VMWare where you can have a virtual machine running Windows (but at the cost of some performance). Maybe you'd find the best compromise is to buy a Mac. You get a very nice desktop environment, good applications and it's based on UNIX. The only problem I can think of would be working out how to remove your oily fingerprints from one

Yeah, I read that article recently. It should give you a pretty good idea of some of the issues I had to deal with. By mapping box, do you mean a box with dials for adjusting fuel and ignition? If so, we have something similar but I'm not sure it's in widespread use. Edge, I think Roush own Mountune.

How do they know? Do Muslims have to carry a compass? If so, perhaps strategically placed magnets in the hospital would solve the problem.

No, the engine had no variable valve timing. I think the turbo had been removed too to make it easier for us. It was mainly a training and usability exercise and we certainly weren't producing a finished map, but I was aware that there needs to be further tweaks to the fuel map when you adjust ignition timing, injection end angle, vvc etc.. It's satisfying to see the engine running nicely with my code in The ECU I work on is now used on many of the major race series around the world. It's even used on the Caparo T1. Probably the biggest bit of work I've done is a complete fly-by-wire throttle implementation - it can be set up to run almost any system within certain limits, and it has *lots* of error checking!

I went down to Mountune Race Engines in Essex today for some engine dyno training. I don't map engines for a living, but I write embedded software for motorsport ECUs, so it's useful to get a better feel for how people use the software I write. We spent the day setting up the maps and then mapping a Ford Zetec engine. The engine itself was all ready (apart from a couple of sneaky faults induced by my boss to test us!), so we concentrated on configuration of analogue inputs, engine configuration (number of cylinders, firing order etc..), crank/cam setup, and finally the fuel and ignition maps. It's surprising just how much setup is required before the engine will even start running. There's literally hundreds of maps (many of which I've written myself) and there's just so much that can be set incorrectly that will prevent the engine from running. Likewise, if something on the engine has a problem, you can spend ages thinking the ECU is at fault. In the afternoon we set up the base fuel map - the dyno allows you to dial in a maximum engine speed and it will put sufficient load on the engine (via a water brake) to hold it at that speed. At each engine speed breakpoint we stepped through the load breakpoints and checked the lambda reading. It's very quick just to add and subtract fuel in the correct location to get the right air/fuel ratio. Then we did some brief setup of the ignition map. The dyno displays the horsepower in KWatts and by increasing the advance, you can generally see the power increase up to a point. I meant to take some pictures on my phone, but completely forgot! One thing I was wondering, I know several people on this forum manage to map their Supras on the road. It sounds like it would be incredibly difficult to do in that situation. Do you have to do a lot of left-foot braking to stay at certain sites? Maybe it's easier if you are just making minor adjustment rather than mapping from scratch.

Great result, well done! What are the vouchers for? More ambi pur?

Sadly, I think everyone here is correct. All you can really do is pay PayPal back and put it down to experience. When you sell something on ebay, the optional insurance isn't for the buyer's protection - it's for the seller. It's your responsibility to ensure the buyer receives their goods. Even if you don't have insurance for the postage, your responsibility to the buyer is the same.

That length is fine for a VGA cable.

Errr...thanks for that. I think

If you're going to give advice, at least make sure it's correct. The card isn't necessarily AGP (although it's likely) - it could be PCI. If CJ is going to replace the graphics card, he going to have to open the case anyway, so he might as well be sure what slot it plugs into before buying a replacement.

You only need to know which end of the screwdriver to hold, and have working eyes in your head You can't be *that* bad can you?

CJ, if you have a look at this: http://www.videocardshop.co.uk/docs/Card%20Identification.pdf then open up your case and identify which sort of slot your graphics card is plugged into. If you post up the spec of your computer and whether you want to have good performance for games then we can advise on a good card to buy. There isn't really a box you can buy to split the signal.

Certainly is More pics here: http://www.13amp.org/pc/

You can run even more monitors if you add more graphics cards. This is my tri-monitor setup at home: http://www.13amp.org/pc/3.jpg

Graphics cards often have more than one output. Check the back of your computer first and see if you've got two outputs. If not, you can buy a replacement graphics card with two outputs fairly cheaply. Older cards may have two VGA outputs, but it's common now for them to have 1 VGA and 1 DVI, or even 2 DVIs.

It's a fair guess that an organisation stupid enough to send a couple of CDs of their entire database through the post are unlikely to have chosen strong encryption.

So how are you finding it?

A few years ago I bought a Sharp MM-1110 which was A5 sized, 10.4" LCD screen (1024x768), 256Mb RAM, 0.9kg and ran WinXP. I paid 600 quid for it in PC World. http://www.itweek.co.uk/personal-computer-world/hardware/2044697/sharp-actius-mm1110 You might struggle to find one nowadays, but it sounds like it meets your requirements. The later one is a Sharp MM-20 which is a slightly higher spec. At the time it was a poor mans Sony X505, but at a much cheaper price. The only similar thing I can think of is this: http://www.dynamism.com/g2/main.shtml

How come it says the car is black on the Autotrader ad?

I think the sunroof in the Maybach does something like this.