I’m impressed with Bosch’s ability to make doom-tolerating washing machines… ours didn’t drain tonight, so I fished the washing out, swore at the burning, waited a bit, filled a pan from the drain hose, filled a pan from the drain hose, filled a pan from the drain hose (etc) then took the filter out….
The contents of the washer filter
I didn’t expect to find a handyman’s back pocket in there!!
BBC Sport has reported that the UCI are to ban two-way radios between cyclists and their team cars. This follows a trial in this year’s Tour de France.
Many people have said that the capability of the team managers, following by car, to instruct their riders on e.g. the best time to break away, how hard to push to catch a breakaway, etc., has taken away an important part of racing. I can see where they’re coming from, but I think times change and sport can move on – the fundamental principle of the fastest rider over the course winning hasn’t changed, there’s just less judgement (luck?) required on the part of the individual rider to achieve that.
I think that as long as there’s a level playing field (metaphorically speaking), that is, that all riders have access to the technology, then there’s no problem with retaining it. It will be interesting to see the effects of the ban when and if it is enforced. I say ‘if’ because I don’t expect the teams to take this lightly!
I spotted this on VlogHog earlier today and felt I *had* to repost it, purely because I empathise entirely with this poor girl’s plight. She was sent by GMTV to try out a new rollercoaster in Blackpool and apparently freaked out quite badly on the first report. Clearly, they felt the only decent thing to do was to put her on it again:
I know I shouldn’t have laughed, but I did… a lot. To be fair, if it had been me it would have a lot quieter, as I would have been struck dumb with total fear. Fair play to her for doing it though!
I’ve upgraded to Windows 7 having returned from a year-long Ubuntu adventure and being what I can only politely describe as a bit unwilling to saddle my laptop with Vista.
On the whole I’m very happy with it. I know XP “just works” but this seems just as reliable. One thing that really annoys me about it though is the Start Menu. It uses a Vista-style menu that requires much scrolling to find anything. Very annoying. More annoying is that, unlike Vista, there’s no option to return to the XP-style menu which is infinitely easier to use.
Horrible menu...
...with horrible scrolling
Fortunately, I’ve found a free program that can replicate the effect pretty well. It’s called, somewhat misleadingly, Vista Start Menu. Vista Start Menu can replace the normal menu with something much easier to navigate and much more familiar. There’s not a lot more to say that their website can’t fill you in on, so I’d recommend you take a look. There’s also a Pro version which allows further customisation (including a nice feature that automatically finds the main program in each folder and lets you select it directly from the menu) and has an Aero interface that blends in with Vista/7 more cleanly.
Much better (doesn't have to be this wide)
Like pretty much anyone who watched 8 Out Of 10 Cats on Friday night, I felt compelled to go to YouTube to try and find out more about the very strange song they showed a clip of… I wasn’t disappointed.
I’d put this at 1978… maybe people looking to rent offices in the East Midlands in the early Thatcher years would have been totally convinced by this as an advertising tool, though I’ll admit I wasn’t 
It reminds me of the TV and radio adverts for Teesside they used to put out when I was growing up: “Teesside, we’re the future we’re the pride, we are Teesside…” etc etc I wish I could find a clip of that!
Woo!