carl0s

Must just be the old LCD stuff that has such low contrast ratio then. I remember the Hitachi one I had hold of for a while also had very low contrast ratio. But even this Sony LCD one only has 300:1 contrast: http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=243059&sourceid=2012

So, I must've been drinking that night. I missed off the last digit! Maybe my PCN ticket was funny looking or something - it was ages ago. See attached: http://www2.css-networks.com/ecp.pdf

I don't think that's unusual for LCD. As I remember, it's DLP which gives the higher contrast ratios. The fact that it's XGA is nice though. They usually give you the lamp hours somewhere in the menu system. As for the limited fashion - I used a Toshiba DLP XGA projector on a VGA-output Freeview box (you know the ones.. those that are sold for plugging into computer monitors), and it was fabulous. They usually have composite inputs too, and (in my case anyway) S-Video, so I had the CCTV stuff plugged in there too, and with the aid of the Freeview box could do PiP.

Fuckers. Go to the ECP payments website ( http://www.eurocarparks.com/charges-pcn.htm ) Fill in some made-up details. Watch as it happily takes your money from you. Now, just to confirm this is dodgy.. go ahead and put some proper details in: Ticket type A, Number 0551239 see.. it checks the details and it knows how much is owed. So why then does the website take money by default ? I made the mistake of entering the details wrong (I entered ticket-type A, but I also put A0551239 for the number), and as far as I was concerned the payment was made. Now my office have just gone and paid the £50 and ECP say I have to check my bank statements from February to see if they took the money and then refunded it, or just took it. Their website doesn't do anything modern like send you email confirmations. Just as well I PDF'd the confirmation page in February.

Fix It Again Tw*t Actually, I really liked my Alfa GTV, and that's not so different (just a lot slower..)

On ~1996 BMW 3-series nuts, which are an odd sized spine-pattern, I did what Jamie suggested and hammered a 15mm spline socket onto them. Worked a treat, probably not great for the wheel bearings though. I was also given a locking wheel nut remover, which is basically a reverse threaded, tapered socket. So it bites into the nut as you undo. If the wheel nuts have got a, errr. shoulder on them, then this sort of thing should work well, otherwise it'll just screw right over the nut and push against the wheel, which is no good.

erm, Shell stations got busted for doing this about 6 months ago. Remember when they stopped taking chip and pin for a couple of months. Surely not again?

Crikey. They opened up an existing letter and forgot to actually change it before printing & posting. That's poor!

Why don't you.. Jack up one side of the rear, then get in the car and try to drive off. If the car stays still, it's an open diff. If the car moves away then it's an LSD. Yeah? I suppose a less destructive method would involve some kind of roller tray for one of the wheels.

Realistically, I would get ~20 - 22KB/sec, which is about 170kbps. That's pretty good though. Faster than two bonded ISDN B channels - through a mobile phone!

Wooosh. I take it you work in mobile telecoms networking! Anyway, this raises another question.. my Sony Ericsson phones could and indeed would do 3G data and a phone call at the same time, but the Nokias don't. I could be using 3G over bluetooth on my laptop, and chat away on the phone, provided there was a 3G signal. The two S60 Nokias I've had (E-70 and N95) both place the packet data connection "on hold" when a call comes in, or is placed.

I'm curious too. I read parts of the manual, and don't remember anything specifically saying "This means you're receiving a HSDPA signal". All I ever see is 3G or GPRS. Perhaps Orange have no HSDPA infrastructure. I noticed there was no mention of HSDPA on the Orange N95 product information thingy.

I know, it sucks.

That carbon fibre bonnet stood up well. Does it just bouce back into shape or something? How come the car was on a K-reg (says 1999 in the linky)?

I expected them not to have restricted the software, in an attempt to make the E-series phones more suitable as 'business phones'. Hardware is sweet, except for the piss poor battery life. I used TomTom on the phone for ~60 minutes today, and I have RoadSync set to synchronise emails every 15 minutes between 8am and 6pm. I spent maybe 35 minutes on the phone today, and the battery was dead before 6pm. I admit that this won't bother me when I get around to buying a new car charger/holder, but I wouldn't like to go GPS trekking with one. Oh yeah I forgot the other annoyance - all the millions of Nokia chargers that are in circulation at peoples houses and offices don't fit this phone with its new small socket Doesn't support Mail for Exchange - no synchronisation to an Exchange server. Doesn't allow Active Standby Plugins, so new emails cannot be displayed on the front screen alongside the calendar. The much famed SIP/VoIP stuff is disabled - in the Orange version anyway. Probably other stuff. It's a good phone, but I can see me going for a different one in the future. This RoadSync stuff isn't working out for me on email - I really need to have new mails displayed on the front screen, so that if I don't respond to something right away, I am at least reminded of it everytime I look at the screen.

Yeah.. I posted my thoughts, including mucho disappointmento. I forgot one fucking shit restriction in my last post though... SIP. Orange have disabled the SIP client, so I can't use the phone with, e.g. voipcheap.com, sipgate.com etc over WLAN.

LOL. I spent some time looking at how to cheat. I didn't suceed, but it's amusing to know I wasn't alone

Who's from Lancashire and can pick up some parts for me? Please? Pretty please?

Who was it then? I was so busy grinning and waving that I almost forgot to turn

you can buy the springs off me. pm me.

Surely that just means you have a standard differential, which all cars have any way.

Anyone who lives near to Manchester airport or Sale/Altrincham fancy picking up some shocks & springs off Daston for me? I'll pay £20 for the trouble

I'll sort it. I'll drop the £100 into your bank account, and I'll give someone £20 to grab them off you at the pod and meet me some time with them.

You can put what you like. cool http://whateveryoufancy.youaremighty.com I am curious why Michael chose you though Jamie!

That could be good mate. Where about are you from? Anyone else close to Manchester or Sale?