*Bob*

"We'll creep around with strange metal poles shining torches up people's paths in the dead of night" As ruses go, there must be better ones than this?

And Lo! The blue circle of Satan and associated arrow of Impending Doom did spreadeth across the land, and the people did weep..

The rods are like giant ear trumpets: they open up the metal cover where the stop cock is, put the rod on the pipes leading to and from and listen for leaks. They do it at night because (obviously) there's less background noise so they can hear the hissing. If the hissing is coming from the 'road side' of the stopcock, it's their problem. If it's coming from the side of the stopcock leading to your gaff, it's yours - and a delightful letter will arrive from them in the morning, leading - sure as eggs - to a bill for (potentially) several hundred pounds (and that letter offering you water supply pipe insurance for ?20/year you binned a few weeks ago starts to look mighty attractive). As Penguin says though - TW should know if they've got blokes in the area.

See if you have The Mark of Doom outside your house: if you have blue spray paint circled around the metal cover on the pavement outside your house - with an arrow pointing towards your door - you're screwed.

Some of the residents of Ashbourne could be in for an unpleasant surprise. From Thames Water.

Wait until the iPhone 5 comes out. Word on the street is that battery life will be increased by (up to) 14%.. and if you hold it two inches in front of your eyes, it's just like being at the cinema.

*group hug*

That one wasn't nearly as good.

The Drawing Room has never been so exciting. However.. an Admin who pockets and publishes PMs when the moment suits? Very poor form. Poor form for a regular user.. but an Admin? Your resignation should be on the table.

Ask him about the apps, Jezza.. go on.. ask him - see what he says. God.. remember what it was like before the apps? Life was MENTALE. Remember what is was like back when you had to wait until you got back home - to post on Facebook and order seeds? Madness.

Boy oh boy - do you have egg on your face now. Read 'em and weep.

Yeah, stitch that, Jah! Hoist by the old Symbian OS petard AGAIN, eh? Sheesh!

Moos Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > dammit, I'll bite. It's what? ,!!!!

OMG u r so rite! iPhone is 2G2B4G :))

piss

PeckhamRose Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Anyway, back to that laptop. Can't work out if any > come with Office or do I always have to pay an > extra ?250 or so for it to be added on. Just nick it off the internet?

But every time you get free advice from John Lewis but then buy online.. somewhere, a cute puppy dies. Think about it.

'Never knowingly undersold' doesn't mean 'price match'. In fact JL specifically states it does not match online prices. As one of the few large shops that actually still sees fit to provide a decent customer experience, going to them, getting free advice then buying online is actually pretty miserable and would be everybody else's loss if everybody did it and the stores closed down. Innit.

Here is the exact Samsung "we" bought. Note the colour.

During the last electrical storm I wrapped the little Samsung in copper wire and stood on the roof waving it at the sky shouting 'take me, Lord' - but unfortunately it was spared. Peanut & Monkeys though, really. Do other PCs do things like lose their preferences, change settings of their own accord and freeze-up and crash on a regular basis when performing simple tasks? Or is it just mine? I have no idea.

mockney piers Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Long battery life, light, quick start up. Just get > yourself something like this. We have the the previous incarnation (the N130) for use as a pottering machine. The best feature is a matte screen.. woo! The keyboard is also a decent size and feel (considering how small it is) and I can confirm that you can do email and internet and everything. Well, ok, you can do email and internet. It is light though.. and feels surprisingly well-built. Downsides: half-sized netbook screen = severe neck-crane for anything other than short spells of usage. Battery life soon drops-off. Built-in speaker sucks. Takes an age to wake from sleep, which I now see is essential for a pick-up and use occasional device. Massively glitchy in about a million other highly irritating ways - but as this is the first (and last) non-Mac I buy I don't know if this is Windows or the machine itself. Cost ?189 though. I mean.. what can you expect?!

Think of the bigger picture, Alan. With the twelve copies of the NOTW left unsold as a result of this call to arms, Murdoch will surely be crying into his Fosters.

My feeling is that most 'professional people' gravitate towards - and usually end-up working in - jobs they can cope with, jobs that suit them and (hopefully) jobs they can be good at. A job which might seem like a nightmare to one would be appealing to another - and vice versa, of course. So to a certain extent, comparing jobs with wildly different rewards/challenges doesn't really work.

If only everybody could do everybody else's jobs on a sort-of timeshare, then everybody might have some practical and useful experience about how easy or hard those jobs might be.. instead of standing on the opposite side of the hill, looking through a telescope with a green filter on the end.

Phew.. (s)he's gone.. "Honk"