There's a great site that names and shames councils into action.
Register your pothole or any other kind of issue (street lights, dogs, fly tipping etc) at and try to make a difference.
Also your local council's website can be used to report potholes.
It's only when we, their paymasters, complain that they will take any notice and do the job they are being well paid to do.
And thank you to Dave for doing a thankless task from us both, it was good to meet up with friends old and new.
Roll on the next social!
Has anyone surfaced who went to the social last night or is too early?
Hope you all had fun, looking forwards to later on - see you then!
The SW's x x x
I would ask him why he feels it's necessary to put a 70 year ban on the release of Dr David Kelly's post-mortem results if his suicide really was a genuine, solo effort.
Bliar will go down in history as a snake-oil salesman, and one with the blood of thousands on his hands.
Hi Dave
We will definitely be there on the Saturday night and are really looking forward to it.
This has been one of the most disturbing stories of recent times in all aspects:
- the "parents"
- the two monsters who committed the crimes
- the pathetic nature of the social services
- the report not being fully published
Just when you think humans couldn't sink any lower in what we are capable of doing to our fellow race this happens. The details are just so upsetting and the horror the two victims went through can't really be imagined.
But what galls me most, as in all these cases, is the attitude of the liberal elite, the do-gooders, the "human rights" brigade. Call them whatever you like. They have played a huge part in bringing our country to this with their pathetic attempts at trying to excuse the convicted and always thinking of the rights of the criminals before the victims. Let's be clear, this atrocity was fully preventable and heads now have to roll.
The fact that my tax money is now going to be used to give these monsters a decent life, a change in identity and a clean slate at some point (and it will happen) really sticks in the craw.
For those who think that it's ok for these monsters to be released after 5 years let me ask you one question - would you like your 16 year old daughter to bring one of them home and introduce them as their new boyfriend?
No, I thought not.
Can you please put us on the list Dave - for the Saturday night.
We will be the shy ones, hiding in the corner.....
Same problem here but only in the last couple of weeks (ticket 195290 raised) but only when using Firefox. In Safari everything displays OK.
Had a reply from Support who couldn't recommend a solution at the moment but the very helpful chap did suggest holding on a few weeks to see if the SH updates cure the problem
Before jumping ship, use this site to compare potential ISPs. It's based on feedback from users and it's a real eye-opener. Why people stick with AOL is beyond me, they score last on everything no matter who they are compared to.
For the record, we are with Zen, not the cheapest but just about the fastest of the non-cable providers and the best customer service back-up there is.
Hi Pete.
A few other points to bear in mind:
- go digital (instant results you can see on the screen) but do remember you will need to store a lot of pictures on your PC which will eat up hard disk space pretty quickly.
- then you need to have a means of backing up your pictures so in the event of your PC's hard disk going bang you don't lose everything. You can get a 2nd back up disk very cheaply these days (1Tb = £90) or use DVDs'CDs.
- a big monitor if you want to see your pix in all their glory, or replay them through your LCD/plasma TV if your computer has the ability to connect.
- think about something a bit longer than 200mm. I use a 100-400mm Canon lens and that often leaves me wishing for a bit more length.....hmmm....stay on topic Mr SW....
- image stabilisation systems built into the lens is a godsend for reducing camera shake. It does push the price up a bit but you will see the results in improved picture sharpness.
- tripod: essential.
- external flash: essential, especially for doing close ups of flowers.
- polaraising filter: essential, does wonderful things to the sky and water reflections.
- at least 2 memory cards on you at any one time - they do go wrong, don't buy fake ones on eBay, stick with OEM.
- at least 2 sets of charged batteries.
- a decent, waterproof bag to keep it all in that is comfortable to carry on your shoulders whilst hiking.
So by now you can see the ££££££ signs flashing, you don't need to get it all in one go and I promise you won't regret going digital.
One more thing, this is a great site for camera reviews:
Just a couple of thoughts that would improve the search even more:
- be able to add wildcards (the asterix) to the search by username function. EDIT - ignore this, just realised you can do this but without the asterix entered
- make a slight change to the position of the "Last Seen" line so that it doesn't sit directly above the photo of the next profile, it's a bit misleading.
Apart from that, well done to Admin as it looks and works great.
Anyone else fancy getting their hands around a thick shaft? :shock:
Count us in please Anais, sounds like a good laugh.
So how does this rating system work then as it was stated that each pic will have to be rated by 10 people.
- is it a best out of 10 average? is it the first, last score?
- do we get to see what our final rating is?
- do we get the right to appeal if errors (or malicious voting) occur?
This really has not been thought through and it's time to think again. I have another suggestion - Admin disable every pic on every profile and then the only way to get it visible and active again is for the account holder to do their own rating.
But that won't happen as it would reveal just how few active members there are on the site and give the lie to the 968,698 as claimed on every page of the site.
Warning - politics thread!
Our beloved PM went to the European Parliament yesterday and instead of some kind of love-in with his mates was on the receiving end of two of the most passionate speeches I've ever seen. All the idiot could do in response was grin like an imbecilic buffoon.
When you see speeches like this it gives a few crumbs of hope to those who are paying for this man's ineptitude through our taxation that there is a real political opposition out there.
Danniel Hannan's speech:
Nigel Farage's speech
So with the Bank of England seemingly at war with Number 10 saying there is no money left in the pot, huge above-inflation council tax rises landing on our doormats this week, pay cuts/freezes for most and personal pensions in absolute meltdown this is going to be a defining year for Great Britain.
Well done Anais! Have put our names down as it sounds like a good night.
I've got no problem with Fitna (watched it quite some time ago on and I've got no issue with allowing Geert Wilders into the country to defend his film which joins together clips already in the public domain. He didn't make it, it was made by the actions of those who justify their behaviour in the name of the Islam religion.
This country needs an open and honest debate by all sides regarding the threat posed by militant Islamists living here and the way Islam is set up to be beyond criticism in any way, shape or form and this would have been as good as time as any to start it. The actions of our cowardly and appeasing Government raise doubt in my mind as to why they will not engage in a genuine debate with the public and instead come out on the attack against those who want to initiate the debate.
How can our useless Home Secretary claim the presence of Wilders in this country would endanger public security when the only threat to our security had come from Labour Lord Achmed who had promised to send 10,000 Muslim protestors to storm the House of Lords when the film was originally scheduled to be shown and so got it banned and was totally allowed to get away with this threat.
Policital minnow and grinning idiot David Milliband couldn't resist joining in either - "A hate-filled film designed to stir up religious and racial hatred in this country is contrary to our laws,". Yes Fitna is hate-filled and that hate is aimed in a rather uncomfortable and inconvenient one-way direction Mr Milliband. Let's see a disection of Fitna to show us which bits are not true and then I will make my mind up.
I'm surprised nobody has picked up on the music that accompanies Fitna either, it's Edward Grieg's rather appropriately titled Death.
They are great fun, especially when taken to the beach in the coolbox. What happens then is a story for another time....
Ours has gone AWOL too, using Firefox on a Mac and haven't seen it for a few weeks now.
Also the adverts seem to have lost data too, when viewing an ad it used to state which section the ad was posted in and also the location and distance to that person (I think?). Now it's just the plain text of the ad.
Work in progress perhaps on the part of the site owners?
British children's TV has lost two of its giants in the last few weeks, first Oliver Postgate (Bagpuss, Ivor The Engine, The Clangers etc) and now Tony Hart.
Their huge contribution to the golden age of children's entertainment when everything was more honest and gentle has made them firm favourites with us all and their programmes and our memories of these great men will live on and on.
Another funny which can be regularly seen in American restaurants is something proudly requesting you to "come and try the chef's special jerk sauce".
Now I know customer service is taken to new levels in the USA, but there is a limit.......
Thank you Redhot for your blast of air freshener in the chat room - the smell has now been iradicated.
Hopefully permanently!
Can a chatroom op please come into the Bristol room on server 2 thanks, there's a nasty smell in there which keeps coming back.
Thanks
