ed_pete

See above - pretty much the same as last year, accept the dates have moved on to January 5 to 31 2009.

Santa was very generous this Christmas and endowed the ed_pete offspring with a Wii. As there seem to be a number of fellow Wii owners in here I thought I pose a question: I'm going to connect it to the internet and given the choice, is there much difference in performance between a wired and wireless connection ? I plan to download the browser app so I can use it to access the EDF from my Wii. Is wired best for web access or would the wireless performance be OK ? (It's OK on laptops in the house). Would online gaming (assuming we get that far) be better wired or wireless ? All advice gratefully received.

I tend to agree - the 2010 target for cyclists is 12 "seriously injured or killed" however the document goes on to say that "The increase in casualties should be seen in context of the growing popularity of cycling. Since 2000 there has been an 83% increase in the number of people making cycle trips each day."

The other day I received a questionnaire from Southwark Council asking me for views on their Road Safety Plan. What is the Road Safety Plan I hear you ask - well to quote from draft consultation document: "This road safety plan is primarily aimed at reducing road deaths and casualties and making sustainable transport safer and more attractive. In doing this, it will help to achieve wider council objectives such as encouraging shift to more active modes of travel, tackling issues of obesity and addressing issues surrounding climate change." ..and specifically for cyclists.. "Of all people injured on Southwark?s roads, 18% are cyclists and the vast majority of cyclists injured are males aged between 25 and 59. Cyclists are the only group of users to suffer an increase in the numbers who have been injured or killed on Southwark roads and therefore cyclist safety is paramount to the concerns of the council." If you are interested in reading the draft Road Safety Plan or getting a copy of the questionnaire then you can access it here.

I don't drink that often Mark, and locally even less so I am probably not the best person to ask. However, judging by the popular use of the :)-D smiley, I'd guess there are plenty of others on the EDF you could ask...

Does this need updating at some point ?

According to this site engineering work is taking place between November and May 09 on the Crystal Palace transmitter but there is supposed to be no effect on digital reception.

Freeview boxes also vary in quality. Until recently our Philips Freeview box (fed from a rooftop aerial) connected to our kitchen TV regularly froze and had to be turned off/on again to reset. I've switched to a Sony VTU-D800U - which seems to be considered "the daddy" of set-top boxes - and so far its worked perfectly. Regularly available on ebay for ?40-50 as people buy new TV's with in-built tuners. Can also be bought new for arounf ?80.

Analogue or digital, i.e Freeview ? Analogue is far more forgiving on signal quality.

I'm not an expert but I believe it's common misconception that the proximity of East Dulwich to the Crystal Palace transmitter should guarantee a good digital (Freeview) picture. With digital tv the signal quality is as important as signal strength and that is affected by the quality the aerial, cable and connections. In my case the strength of the signal was too high for my Freeview box decoder, which I cured using an attenuator - a gizmo that lowers the level of the signal. This could be worth a try if you are confident your aerial and cable are OK. Loads of information out there about digital tv and reception issues all over the internet - this site I found reasonable accessible to the layman.

I bought I an iPod iTouch recently and have struggled to get it to talk to my home wireless LAN running WPA/WPA2 encryption. There seems to be an issue with which characters are valid for inclusion in the encyption key. For example "EastDulwichForum" would work fine but "3.5!@^1>i[?+o?/m" won't work at all. Anyone else experienced this kind of problem ? BTW - I was somewhat miffed that one of the attractions of the iTouch was the ability to download applications however this is not possible unless you upgrade to the iPhone version of the operating software - v2.1 - at a cost of ?5.99. You are even prompted to do this the very first time you connect it to iTunes. Surely the version in the shops should already have been upgraded ?

Pebs - take a look at this thread. Another forumite has done just as you are proposing and used their own engineer / broker to reduce premiums.

Blokes who shave their hair off and then grow beards ,let's face, it just looks stupid. And, fat blokes who grow beards in an attempt to hide their fat faces. And, any bloke with a pony tail, especially balding ones.

As I cycled past the Peckham Academy this morning, I spotted (at least) two table football's in the playground. My, how things have move on since my day.

Sean - I get sweaty, especially in the summer and am lucky enough to have an employer that has showers and lockers, albeit slightly inadequate for the number of cycling employees (all men, bar one occasional lady). The logistics do take a bit of getting used to - ensuring the right clothes & shoes are in the right place at the right time etc. Personally I don't claim that cycling is quicker, for me it roughly works out the same as if I went by train. The best bit is not being stuck to a timetable, I know that when I leave in the morning I'll be at the office in 20 - 25 minutes and the same when I go home. As I travelled by train (I believe you're a bus person) I never got to read that much anyway, the journey was too short.

To any ex-NTL Virgin Media broadband customers. NTL/VM used to have a method of setting up additional email boxes and managing the setting/passwords for each one. Recently they have changed this to "Selfcare" (which looks like and ex-Blueyonder system). Although I can log into Selfcare, I can't manage any of the mail boxes anymore. Has any else tried and succeeded with this ? BTW, I called VM support who said I would need another "master" email address created - I don't want a new email address but they did this anyway, needless to say it didn't solve the issue. A week later they called me to ask if it was now fixed - I responded by asking why they were asking me and to call me back when they know it had been fixed - I'm still waiting.

Threads that go over one page - let's face it, life is too short to read through pages and pages of turgid shite.

Forumites signatures, unnecessary exclamation marks and the excessive use of smileys.

Sadly as I am not a Bellenden (or environs) resident, I will not be able to enter my Classic Victoria Sponge either.

Anyone know the background to the Bellenden Bun Fight next weekend ?

Try Tetrapak not Tetrapack. The kind of cartons orange juice comes in.

I think council estates are covered by the clear bag scheme.

What I think is also a bit "un-joined up" is that I imagine most visitors to Sainsburys have the ability for the council collect papers and glass for recycling so why not provide smaller collection points for these and a larger one for the items not collected by the council, i.e. the tetrapaks.

Is it possible to specify wildcards in the message/author searches ? If so how do you do it ? TIA

There was an article in the trade press (Computer Weekly) yesterday on Chip and Pin terminals reporting the fact that "...a programme of carrying out checks and modifications to every terminal in retailers throughout the UK began behind the scenes in July. The massive undertaking will take months to complete, although the dedicated police unit that specialises in detecting ?plastic crime? was unable to give a precise timeframe." The article goes on "Criminals were said to be hiding devices inside terminals to reveal Pins matching credit cards, as well as obtaining data to make cloned magnetic stripe cards. Although these do not work in UK cash machines, criminals can use them to withdraw money in countries that have yet to roll out chip and Pin." In terms of the check on the C&P terminals: "Each terminal must be checked to see whether criminals have already inserted a data-reading device, and to make physical changes to its tampering-detection system." I've noticed that the Tescos close to my place of work has changed its C&P terminals recently, perhaps retailers on LL will be following suit shortly...