stevie_b

Yes, just ask Pippa Middleton

I would say external hard drive, or archive-grade DVDs. I investigated this a while ago, and the long-term robustness of standard CDs / DVDs is uncertain. Depends what "lots" is really. Gigabytes? Terabytes? A strong solution would be a 2-drive RAID device, but it might be more hassle to set up than you're willing to put up with. Once set up, it'll be as easy as any bog-standard external hard drive. This would give you the longevity of a hard disk (which is surprisingly good for a fast-spinning magnetic platter!), and the added protection of RAID if one of the disks develops a fault.

Have you had Smoking Rocket and Ab3 do some web design work for you?

I'm after recommendations for a website design firm. The website of the company I work for needs a redesign, and I'd like personal recommendations of who to use please. I'm after top-notch visual impact and an impressive UX, not something from a CMS template shop. The website acts as a shop window for the company, but also provides a portal for clients to log on and access documents and other info. Any recommendations please? I know there are some web designers on here, and I'll consider those who have personal recommendations from others.

They could probably run a cable from the phone outlet of the Openreach box and splice it into what I suspect is the master socket. The socket is flush with the wall, so the cable will either need chasing in, or it'll look like a dog's dinner (and be prone to getting knocked when things are moved in the cupboard). A quicker way would be to get a cable with a male BT plug at both ends - surprisingly hard to find. Maybe that's the cable that BT refer to in the link on post 6.

They use BT as their broadband supplier. My friends have tried calling them, but they just got an explanation about "reverting back to copper", which doesn't make any sense. I *think* it's FTTP, but I can check with them. The house is only about 8 months old on a brand new estate, so FTTP is plausible. The modem/router is the large flat square box in the middle of the photo. To the right is the power supply. Bottom left of the photo is the box where the data pipe (whether it's copper or fibre) comes into the house. I've only ever tinkered with copper BT master sockets, and this set-up looks nothing like any master socket I've seen. Good shout, they should at least know what they intended the extension sockets to be used for. I think the buck will be passed between the housebuilder and BT blaming each other, but we'll see. Thanks for the feedback guys. Does anyone have a similar set-up in their home, with working phone extension sockets elsewhere in the house? My friends will also ask their neighbours, to see if they have a similar issue.

I've got some friends who have recently moved into a new-build house. When it was being built, the builders fitted telephone sockets in several of the rooms. There's a downstairs cupboard where the BT fibre optic comes into the house, and into a BT Openreach modem/switch thing. The modem has a telephone socket "tel1" that you can plug a phone into, and that works fine. The problem is that the phone only works when plugged into the modem. All the other phone sockets in the house are dead. This means their landline phone needs to be in a cupboard, and that doesn't seem right. BT support have told them that the extra sockets around the house "are in case you want to go back to copper wiring", and they couldn't offer them a solution as to how to use the other phone sockets around the house. This doesn't sound right. As well as the Openreach modem, the cupboard also contains an unused standalone phone socket in the wall. This is currently dead. But assuming the builders connected the phone sockets to each other (they wouldn't just fit unconnected phone socket plates around the house, surely), then is there a way of connecting the modem to the internal phone socket network so all the other sockets can work?

Make sure your satnav is set to "quickest", not "shortest". I use google maps on my phone, and it's pretty good. Does occasionally take a strange detour, but that's rare.

IG Index might do a practice account?

My father-in-law's Transit van has been damaged by what he thinks is a hit and run. Some body panels/doors are dented. The van was parked up and unattended at the time. It's proving expensive to go through insurance (high excess probably), so he's asking if anyone knows a bodyshop they'd recommend who can fill the dents and paint them. Any suggestions please?

Buying 2nd hand gearboxes is proving like roulette for me. I've sunk £2k so far into getting a nicely-working W58 in my car.

What I was thinking. I'm a bit confused really: if the "key" is a hexagon, it's not a good key. Usually locking nuts are smooth, aren't they?

I dunno. This link suggests Win8 will no longer be installable with the license, but it's not gospel: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-2776018/windows-key-upgrading.html Also, my link refers to someone who wants to use both (which definitely won't be allowed if MS have any sense, it's surely one or the other!), and that's not what the OP is trying to do. So I'm none the wiser really. Does the downgrade still work after the 29th July 2016 cut-off? I agree about Win10: I've upgraded 2 computers from Win7, and overall it's OK - speed seems pretty good, especially for an upgrade overlaid on an older OS. Does Win10 upgrade actually use a product key? I know I'm contradicting my previous post, but I think MS have moved away from license keys where possible: too open to abuse.

I'm not sure your Windows 8 product key will still work. I've tried to find out the answer to that myself, but haven't found a reliable answer yet. In my case, I'm just curious so I haven't pursued it much. It might be that after upgrading for free to Win10, your Win8 entitlement is destroyed. I don't know what your skill level is, but whatever you do will require a certain amount of familiarity/skill. In your position, I would make an off-disk copy of all my documents, photos, videos, any other user files. If Windows is too slow to allow this, I'd download an Ubuntu desktop installation ISO using another computer. These ubuntu installation images allow you to run Ubuntu (which is pretty user-friendly these days) from the USB/DVD, without making any changes to your hard disk. It gives you acces to your hard disk, therefore you can use that to copy files from the hard disk to a second USB drive in your computer. Having made a backup of all the user data, I would then make an image of the hard drive using Macrium Reflect (free software). You don't need to do this, but if the next step stuffs things up or doesn't help, then it means you can the computer back to exactly how it was within about an hour. Finally, I'd do a clean installation of Windows 10. Doing an upgrade over the top of an existing Windows OS is notorious for giving you a poorly-performing Windows. You'll need the Windows 10 product key that you've been assigned I think (or maybe your old Windows 8 product key will be recognised by Microsoft's authentication servers, googling required unfortunately).

Well, the price drop piqued some interest. It's provisionally sold.

Bump: £100?

I don't have any experience of it, but it seems a really bad idea. I would think the wheels will always hop whenever you turn a corner, it's just that you'd only feel it on the tight corners. squiffy said he ran cheap rubber with his welded diff. Any mod that means you're better off running ditchfinder tyres, gives me a big warning alarm.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36901027 Although we'll see how this pans out: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36897179

Defender 90? Might be lacking in the comfort department though. You don't want anything too pristine for greenlaning IMO. Or an old landcruiser?

That's great! I can believe that they run an XP-based OS, but it's the name that cracks me up. Fantastic!

Might be near the odometer, or occasionally on top of the gearbox.

I didn't know that, can you quote the source for the info? It seems strange: I thought the Trident subs had standing instructions which meant that if they deduce armaggeddon is underway, they have permission to launch. We can't ask the US for permission, if the US no longer exists.

Good point, I forgot to add an option for unilateral disarmament. But if I did, I reckon most people would vote for it. But is it a realistic option? Way before that can happen, the UK (and other nuclear nations) will still face the question of whether to renew or retire their nuclear capability. Countries can try to achieve disarmament by continuing to hold nukes (thereby prompting a dialog of "I'll put my ICBMs down if you put yours down"). Or countries can lead by example by disarming, and hope that others follow suit. But countries will still face one of the 3 choices in the poll. I don't think this genie can be put back in its bottle. The US and probably others will still want to be carrying the most powerful weapon, just in case North Korea/ISIS/etc develop a capability in the future.

I thought I'd start a debate thread about the nuclear deterrent. Should Trident be renewed?