For Friday through to Monday I was away from my office desk (lecture Friday, Brands Hatch at the weekend and conference Monday).

So to be eco-friendly I shut my computer down at work, saving my tabs on Chrome so that when I came in this morning, I just had to open Chrome and I could continue where I left off.

But no. The IT team have changed my chrome settings, deleted my history and banned my ability to save the tabs from my current session.

Which means I'm now trying to find the 50 odd tabs I had open with research papers and other stuff so I can even begin to work! Clearly they want me to leave my computer on 24/7....

Gah. Rant over. For now.

So what did everyone get for valentines day
Happy valentines by the way.
I got a lovely card and a box of chocs (to share)
Plus were going out for a meal tonight at our local french restaurant. With champagne and wine on the menu.

Heads up for a freebie ...

If you use Google Drive (I do - Its handy and free) then doing a quick security check before 17th Feb will get you an additional free 2 gig of storage permanently.

I know many see Google as the Anti-Christ, but free is free.

http://googledrive.blogspot.co.uk/2015/0...-2015.html

I've set up a new throttle monkey league for all those that wish to enter just for fun.
Please feel free to place your entry and I'll accept it the next time I log in.

League PIN: 20893

I know the forum is not busy at the best of times, but where has everyone gone?

Hope no one is ill. (Seriously).

Can those that keep looking in but not posting just add something! People said they wanted the forum to stay when I was looking at closing it down, but after a flurry of activity there is just nothing happening now.

I appreciate that Facebook is an easier medium to post quickly on - especially pictures. As many know, whilst I'm on there I'm not personally a fan of it and would dance a little dance if it disappeared tomorrow.

For those that see this and bother to respond - Is there anything we can do to involve people more?
Any suggestions that would get people posting again and perhaps recommending this site to friends/ others.
Or are we dead in the water?

Clearly the track day/ race thing has died a death as anyone doing them doesn't post on here. Do we need to alter the layout on this basis? Remove emphasis about motorbikes?

Any / All suggestions are welcome as it's getting to the point of wondering why we leave the forum hanging around in cyber space when we see people browsing but adding nothing and have a daily post count in single digits.

Anyone running a league this year?

I've finally got round to updating my insurance for the car and bike given that I moved house and stuff. Got refunds from both (must be a better area I've moved to?) but very different amounts. From the car getting a nice £35 back. But from the bike, is an eye-watering, teeth popping......


88p.

Yes, that is 88p, not £88. I'm going to wait up all night until it comes back cos that 88p is definitely needed!

What about the rest of you? Can anyone beat 88p?

Went to the game at Old Trafford on Saturday. Nice win in the end, but it was also a day to remember the people killed on 6th Feb 1958 in the Munich Air disaster. Whether you follow/like football or not tragedies like that move beyond football.

Some info here if you weren't aware of it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_air_disaster

Anyway, they brought the Munich banner out on the Stretford End. The sun was blinding. We are directly opposite, so I took a few pics in the hope that one came out. Think it looks quite good.

The sun shining on the Busby Babes ...

Left work late last night after fixing my rear brake (pushbike) which was sticking. Did a tough ride over to Marple, New Mills, Hayfield and over Chunal to Glossop. 20 miles in just over an hour with a strong headwind all the way around.
Got home, showered and sorted tea out. In the meatime fired the laptop up to upload the ride data. Was in and out of the front room and quickly perched on an armchair, laptop on knee to connect my GPS watch. As I did that I sneezed. Laptop started to fall and my hand was covering my mouth (post sneeze) so I watched the laptop hit the floor in slow motion! Aaaaagggg!

Initially thought I'd got away with it. No signs of damage. Wandered back into the kitchen and sorted my meal out.

Went back to sort the ride data out and noticed the laptop wasn't charging.
I've either broke the charger (£20 for a Tosh one with warranty off ebay - expensive but will work and won't fubar the laptop) OR broken the CD power jack (£2.89 off ebay).
Given the charger is an expensive option if it's not that I've ordered a DC jack to replace that first. If the laptop still doesn't work I'll try a new charger.

So, I've started this thread as I've never attempted to repair a laptop before.
A quick google says I need to take all drives out, the keyboard off, cover off and about a million tiny screws to get to the DC cable. I'm very good at taking things to bits, but my track record for putting them back together again (and them working) is not so good. This never deters me though!

So, I'll add a few pics and posts once I have the part and get going.

In the meantime - What do you all reckon?

Who feels I am more than capable of sorting this simple DIY job out?

So after waiting weeks for a timetable from Uni (so I can inform my industrial bosses of which day(s) I will be absent from the office for) and chasing them multiple times, I finally got my timetable through yesterday. At last. However, term starts next Monday (the 2nd Feb) so I basically am giving a weeks notice of the first set of days I'll be away.

To make matters worse, very few EngD researchers are close to the Uni. I *think* the closest is London or Leeds (to Loughborough, all the L's). Either way it's 120miles one way for me from my location, and a lot further for some of those coming from Scotland and further afield.

Now, you'd think that, this being common knowledge to the Uni, that they would try to accommodate this by putting the lectures on the same day, so everyone travels one day a week, right?

Wrong. They put the lectures on separate days. Well that's fine if timetabling needed to do that, so as long as the days are consecutive, we can all book a hotel overnight and stay for two days. Not a problem, right?

Wrong! They put the lectures on a Wednesday morning (9am start) and Friday morning (10am start).

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not adverse to early starts. But I am adverse to having to travel 4-5 hours (by bike or train, 3-4 by car which I don't currently have) one way to the Uni and the same for a return journey, to then do the same thing 2 days later. I will end up spending the afternoon (that they've presumably left 'free' for other work) travelling back home/to the office, not time I can spend actually doing research...

For trains, no train gets me to Lboro from where I am for 9am or 10am in the morning, given the uni is a half hour walk from the train station. So if I take the train, I have to go up the night before and get a hotel or sleep rough (more expense or back pain). Given I have no car that leaves the bike, which means waking up early and leaving the house at about 4am in February, the month commonly associated with icy and wet conditions (ok, not their fault granted but even in a car, ice and rain can be hazards).

Rant over, right?

WRONG! For one module, there are 2 exams in March. Rather than schedule them for the day we're already in Uni (the Friday), they've decided to do it on the Monday. So for 2 weeks in March, I will be going to Uni, at a total of just under 250 mile round trip, on a Monday, Wednesday and a Friday.

And then. Annnddd Then! Today I get an email regarding my first year viva. The dates the lecturer conducting the viva is available are between the 16th and 27th Feb. That's good, a nice 2 week slot to try and get a time, maybe for one of the days I'm already in uni right?

*to the tune of Big Ben* Wrong wrong wrong wrong, wrong wrong wrong wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

The lecturer is kindly only available on Tuesday or Thursday afternoons.

I bet by the time he replies to my email asking for a Thursday (so I can get a hotel and spend Weds/Thurs/Fri at Lboro) he'll be fully booked so I'll only have a Tuesday available.......


Ok, rant is now over.


Venting complete.

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