At the start of this week I had a very, very poor phone line with lots of interference. Eventually the phones and net gave up. After lots of phone calls to India, I eventually got through to someone in the UK who admitted there was a fault on the line. Engineer came out and replaced the wire from the telegraph poll to the house and hey presto I was back in business... or so I thought.

I now have a crystal clear phone line but my net speeds have reduced drastically. My router reads down: 5,344 Kbps up: 448 Kbps but in reality the download is averaging at just over 100kbps. I've now got my router plugged into the master socket (in the test socket under the cover at the mo) and tried all 3 micro-filters I have in the house. Still can't seem to get any decent speeds.

Have called BT and after an hour arguing with another guy in India who claims 10secs to load google, and 5mins to load a 10sec youtube video is not a long time. I should only call if it takes 10mins to load a page according to this genius! Eventually he raised a fault and BT have apparently made some changes on the line. I've not noticed anything and they won't take it further till Tuesday...

Anyone got any suggestions?


Ta Keiran

Quote from Shotglass :

apparently ibm did build a few laptops with ips panels back in the days but those are long gone
so imho what youll want is a cheap light but reasonably powerful notebook to cary around and do some rough sketches using tn panel guesswork while on the road and a proper monitor at home to finish it off

Yep that's what I'm looking for. Got a half decent 24" screen and desktop at home to work on.

Just looking for some suggestions from people on brands and even models to look at.

Quote from Jakg :

The older model of the MacBook on t3h bay? I bet a lot of people didn't realise a new one was coming out, so they took their recently purchased machines and sold them to get the new one...

My biggest concern is software compatibility. My desktop is a PC, my workstation at work is a PC and the uni computers in our room are PCs. Also I think I'd get annoyed with having to use the command key instead of control to use the keyboard shortcuts in illustrator + photoshop. Wouldn't mind being able to play some games as well, some mornings in the studio you just can't be arsed

Hey guys,

After some deliberation I've decided against going for a MacBook, mostly due to the price tag but also due to software. As much as I like the sleek and robust feel of it I just can't really afford to let go of £820 for the base model.

So basically I'm now looking for a laptop around the £600 mark, can go up if I need to. I'm a uni student studying graphic design so a good screen would be handy. I'm thinking of around the 15.4" size for a good balance between workspace size and the fact I've got to carry it to and from uni.

I'll be using it mostly for photoshop, illustrator and some flash. Would be good if it could play some games for those days in the studio you just can't be bothered!

Any advice/suggestions much appreciated.

Are you making sure you `drop` the car after changing camber settings?

Quote from Shotglass :

avoid:
http://images.anandtech.com/re ... Update/mattevsglossy2.jpg

how about buying a netbook? its small practical and will draw a much bigger crowd than any mac

A netbook would probably ground to a halt with the thought of running illustrator and photoshop Be a graphic design student here

http://www.apple.com/uk/macbook/

So anyone tried/or got one of the new MacBooks yet?

Been looking at my choices of laptop for Uni and quite like the new MacBooks. I see they are advertising a new graphics chip, which if I remember rightly was one of the weak points of the old MacBooks.

Through the education store I'd get it for £816 for the basic model, and also a £95 rebate on a iPod. Quite a lot of money for a student like me but can stretch to it. The student discount is pretty good really, RRP is £949.

Just to add I've got a 2000 1.25 LX Zetec Fiesta and get between 290-310 miles out of a tank of fuel. Works out to about 40-45mpg. My driving is mostly single carriage ways, a lot of city driving in traffic and a bit of 70mph on dual carriage ways.

Mine feels nippy enough, although I'm comparing it to a Clio which took forever to accelerate!

Quote from sam93 :

You look after one it will be fine, regular oil change and that and it will be fine, it will only be used to go to mates houses and school. And it wont be full throttled until it is warmed up

Quote from S14 DRIFT :

You're a numpty. You don't have oil to change, apart from gearbox oil.

Better start learning about your future bike, otherwise before you even make it out your drive you'll be needing an engine rebuild!

Quote from sam93 :

If it rains I dont think no one would be able to catch Hamilton, his wet weather skills are better than anymore else's on the grid...

That's up for debate... did he or did he not bin it at the Nurburgring in 2007? Did he not land in the world smallest gravel trap in China 2007? Also I'm sure he was miles off the pace in the wet at Monza 08 during qualifying.

Kubica for the championship! Neither Massa or Hamilton deserve it, neither have been anything special this season. Just two drivers doing mediocre in the two best cars on the grid. Kind of shows when Alonso can win two races in an inferior car, purely by being ultra consistent and keeping his cool.

Quote from sam93 :

It is easily fixable, dont use the towel trick, it only needs a few things replacing but I cant tell you what though

Quote from sam93 :

Pitty you live in the states, if you lived in the UK all you would have to do is send it to me and I would of fixed it for you.

eh... so you can fix it yet you don't know what needs `replaced.`

Anyway, you should get in touch with microsoft. Mine is out of warranty and recently did the `ring of death` but they are still going to replace free of charge. They are even paying the courier charge.

Nah I never got the registration, was to busy trying to get myself into the left lane and as far onto the pavement as possible.

Just makes you think afterwards, when you see the state of some peoples cars and they don't appear to give a dam. Can't see them being to pleased if they struck something falling off another car!

By the time I went up the road to pick it up (just in case it was a fancy `boy racer` back box) it was gone. I reckon the guy probably went straight back and picked it up after seeing what happened.

Sounds like a cookie problem, if it is accepting your login details and `letting` you in.

Today I became a victim of some twat who doesn't understand the concept of maintaining their car. As I was following this car through the round-about its back-box fell off and with no where to go with a car on the outside... I ended up going over the top of it. Luckily I managed to brake fairly hard but it caught the clamp holding my down-pipe and ripped the exhaust out. Even though I never drove much further, only enough to get me on the pavement it bent the down-pipe so that it was grounding out and interfering with the gear linkage so I couldn't change gears. Has marked the sump as well.

Had to use the jack to bend the exhaust up and then a bit of creativity with a rope up into the engine bay where we tied it up to a engine mount. At least let me limp to a garage.

Cost me £70 all in, all cause someone was driving their car in a state not fit for the road. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out your exhaust is corroded to hell and needs replaced .

Anyone else been the victim of debris left by fellow motorists?

Quote from Intrepid :

need an onboard me thinks

Alonso slowed onto the approach of T2, allowing cars around the outside. He had already overtaken at least 3/4 cars off the start line so hardly gained anything from it. So if he started 15th and ended up 11th/12th, the net gain was nothing...

Quote :

I was thinking today that Kimi doesn't half talk quiet, sometimes you cant hear every word he says, cant he talk louder lol.

What a worthy post, only taken you 7 years to figure that one out...

Quote from Psysim :

...in reality it hurts the pocket more than its worth..

I would disagree. I raced karts at club level on a stupidly tight budget and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I have some of my best and scariest memories from those days. Something I really miss being apart of, but reality hit and a mixture of money trouble + getting on with education meant I had to stop.

I now race 1/10th R/C touring cars to fill that gap!

Hopefully 6/7 years down the line after Uni I'll be in the position to race wheel to wheel again! At the moment I'm saving all the pennies to hill-climb/sprint the Locust 7 next year.

For any die hard racing fan, it's definitely something to experience the thrill of!

Quote from mcintyrej :

Why not just press the button on the front of it when you want it off and you aren't at the PC, then turn it on when you get back?

That's what I'll probably end up doing, just I'm prone to getting up and disappearing off somewhere!

Just annoying that it has only started recently... even MSN knows when I start an application (goes to `Busy`) yet Vista can't work it out .

Quote from sun :

Are you sure this code works? because it doesnt... Why upload when it doesnt?

.NET (C#) - Open Source Cruise Server (Mod)(unfinished)

Might want to ask yourself the same question... (i.e your `tutorial` on writing files in PHP)

I've a strange problem that has just started after making changes to my power saving settings for my monitor. (Monitor kept turning off every 10mins while watching iPlayer). Using Vista 64.

Now for some reason Vista decides to turn my monitor off after x amount of time (whatever I've got it set to) while I'm playing LFS... obviously not a good result when your racing online! Obviously the easiest thing I can do is change it to never turn off, but it's getting very repetitive constantly changing it when I want to play LFS.

Am I missing a setting somewhere that's causing it to turn my monitor off even though I'm using the computer (i.e playing LFS)?

Keiran

Quote from evilpimp :

And he used it for what? Was it not to avoid a collision with Kimi? Look at the way Kimi seems to ignore the fact that theres even a car there. If he hadn't done that he would have simply spun around master Kimi and then there goes another penalty. I personally think that his decision was the best to make. If he had backed off at the time he realised Kimi was being a p**** he would have most likely clipped Kimi's rear left wheel.

http://www.lfsforum.net/attach ... mp;stc=1&d=1220947943

At that point Hamilton lost any right to fight the position into the next corner and should have given up. Kimi has every right to use all the track, as I said earlier if you decide to do the walk of death around the outside you drive yourself off the track.

Hamilton has the pedals, he knew what was going to happen and does it to other drivers himself. I'll tell you for a fact he'd have backed out of that much earlier had their been a gravel trap there but he saw an advantage and took it.

Last edited by keiran, Tue 9 Sep 2008, 09:13.

To many to list! Raced in snow, a wet track with slicks... even nearly hit a segal!

Although my most remembered battle would have to be my first year karting in cadets. I had a torrid day struggling on very worn wets and ended up qualifying quite far down the grid. I decided to gamble on slicks whilst most others stuck with wets as it was a far safer option. During the opening laps I struggled to get heat into them but I kept it on the island and the dry line was starting to get a bit bigger.
After a couple of laps I started feeling more confident and really put the hammer down. 4 laps or so in I was really starting to close up on the `leading` pack and going into the final lap somehow managed to pass 2/3 karts in the final corner. To this day I still can't figure out how... the only reason I've come up with is that someone had tried to overtake and slowed the pack down enough for me to join the party. Down into T1 I took 3rd around the outside when the driver decided to give me the dry line whilst trying to defend. About 2 or 3 corners later I took 2nd. I could see the leader, he was so close and was struggling with wets on a drying circuit so I really pushed on the final few corners. I managed to get right on his rear bumper coming into the last corner, stuck my nose to the inside but got shown the grass and thought better of it.

The only reason that really sticks in my head is because of the amount of people that congratulated me! I went from 5th or 6th to 2nd in one lap.

Used to have mixed emotions on racing in the wet. At times I'd be really competitive and others absolutely no where...

Scariest moment I've had was when my TKM decided it had enough at about 50mph whilst at the sharp end of the field... needless to say facing another 8 or so drivers all jinking around last second trying to avoid me was pretty scary. All I remember thinking is this is going to hurt!!

Quote from AdamW :

Aside from the debate, I think it's amazing to watch Hamilton drive Raikkonen down in that extended onboard footage. And remember that Raikkonen isn't exactly a slouch in the wet - he laps about as fast as everyone else except Hamilton does. Hamilton's just an absolute demon.

Always easier to chase in those circumstances than to lead At least being the following driver you can get an idea of whether or not the driver in front is having difficulties.

Just like to add to my post that I still think the FIA are incompetent at governing a world class sport. Far to inconsistent, corner cutting like Lewis did this Sunday shouldn't be tolerated in the slightest yet some drivers have gotten away with it. For example Schumacher at Hungary in 2006. Maybe this is a sign they are going to get strict with it?

The tarmac run offs are there to make the sport `safer` not to use as an extension of the track...

I'm in two minds about the penalty, ruins what was otherwise a great race. Hamilton clearly gains an advantage and was not forced off the track, he drove himself off the road. Did anything stop him backing out and sloting behind Kimi? Probably the knowledge he'd lose a lot of time in doing so, if that was gravel he'd never have even tried hanging on. Remember the difference guys, if you decide to do the walk of death around the outside you will always drive yourself off the track. Kimi's move into the first corner was hard but fair, he moved once to defend and then back to the racing line. Perfectly legit.

Hamilton on the other hand was weaving down the straight to stop the rocket slipstreaming him down the straight. Not the first time he has done that either...

Also whoever it was claiming Kimi overtook under yellows, get a grip. Hamilton was off the track, what was he supposed to do? The rule of overtaking under yellow is where a driver deliberately takes a place by fighting for it on track. I bet the yellows weren't even waving when the two of them entered that sector.

Gutted for Kimi, a class drive all out the window with 3 laps left. Was cheering for Alonso, was hoping he could get in there!

Quote from sun :

I'am not STEALING! where the hell did you get that crap from ? i aaid i'am trying it out in another base.... why would i give up programming ? stop trying to stop me.. these posts are really doing my head in now.

Maybe because these people actually have a valid point and that's something you don't want to believe... You're trying way too hard to create something `big` that everyone will love so you can become the hailed cruise server of the community. Unfortunately like many of the people in the cruise tutorial thread, you don't currently have a good enough understanding of programming to follow through with it.

It's taken me a good 2 years to get where I'm with PHP & MySQL, I'm not brilliant but I'm still learning the more I work with it. Most of that 2 years was spent understanding and learning from other peoples code.

The other week there I was having a little play with C# and the LFS Internal lib and although I managed to do a few things, I realise I have a lot of the basics to learn before I even attempt to do anything big with it.

End of the day, the people you're moaning about above actually have the ability to program, so maybe it's worthwhile listening to them for once...