Araucaria

Has anyone successfully bought one of these? It would be nice to avoid Ryanair's additional fees - even at the cost of an initial prepayment of £150 - as luckily that was about the amount the first tickets would cost. But I've now tried twice and both times the process has hung up and failed right at the end of the long series of screens. I wondered if they had some way of blocking transactions identified as located on a computer in France?

Like this maybe? I can't help but think there ought to be a simpler way, that's to say with a single rope going to both ends of the pulley and then down, rather than two ropes that both come down to the toggle on the wall. But I can't suggest how.

Paul I bought the anti-freeze for my self-installed solar heating in the UK because of the price difference. A 10 litre container of ready-mixed (50:50) propylene glycol is £30. I still regard this as expensive, but it is cheaper than I could find in France. For that matter, I bought most of the other components in the UK too. I don't like the idea of doing without anti-freeze and having the controller circulate the liquid when the temperature is below zero. Effectively you would be using some other heat-source to warm up your solar panels so they can radiate heat out into the atmosphere. There are (unpressurised) drain-back systems, used extensively in the US, where the liquid is only pumped into the solar panels when it is warm enough to gather heat from the sun: that strikes me as a better idea but my layout made this impossible. Good luck with your system.

[quote user="Judith"][quote user="Araucaria"] And my apologies to Judith for hijacking her thread. Have you now been able to get your Kindle to connect to your livebox? [/quote] Thank you!  Isn't interesting where post s gallivant off to .... no, I've not yet succeeded in connecting to any wifi network....though I  have seen the various pieces on advice on here not had any time to try them out .... I'm continuing to download my books via USB which I prefer - but I was hoping to use the Kindle as an email checker when travelling (not often, but for when it happens) which is why I was trying to get it working.... though 3G might be my saviour. ........ PS - I LIKE the screensavers - I find them fascinating - but I wish I know what some of the woodcuts were about ..... [/quote] One of the screensavers is from the Lindisfarne Gospels, which you can see in colour here, and I came across this list, though you have to go quite a long way down the page to find it, but it does seem to tell you what is what. However I can't  see what some of them have to do with books - the Samian Sibyl, anyone?

[quote user="sid"]My Kindle doesn't have screensavers like those (famous authors); it has trendy images associated with writing/publishing... a block of typeface, some pencils and other insignificant stuff so memorable that I've forgotten what they are! Maybe that last bit is just an age thing? [8-)][/quote] Sid - this thread on the Mobileread forum has a set of the Kindle 3 "dead people" screensavers attached to one of the posts, if you want to see what they look like. But you won't be able to change your own screensavers at the moment as no-one has yet worked out how to modify the Kindle 4 software. And my apologies to Judith for hijacking her thread. Have you now been able to get your Kindle to connect to your livebox?

[quote user="Gyn_Paul"][quote user="Araucaria"][quote user="sid"]I've been tempted to "jailbreak" the Kindle to load my own screensavers but at these early days I decided that a warranty claim would be invalidated and it's better to hang on. Adding my own screensavers is only a bit of vanity really (like having a personalised number plate on the car... which I DID have in UK ! [:$]  ).[/quote] It's possible to "unjailbreak" it and put it back the way it was, with the original screensavers. And if my own experience is anything to go by, if you have the most typical Kindle problem, a broken screen, they don't ask you to send the old one back when they supply a new one under warranty. So they won't know what you've done to it's innards. But you are at least partly right about the vanity bit: mine now also shows pictures of my children and other family members. However the real spur was to get rid of Agatha Christie, a writer I really dislike, Jules Verne (overrated), and Ralph Ellison, no doubt a nice enough man but he really only wrote one novel. They have been replaced by Robertson Davies, Neal Stephenson, and Ursula Le Guin. [/quote] Go on then.... it's just too tempting. How do I do it? p [/quote] It's all HERE.   This may look a little daunting, but explained briefly it's a matter of finding, from that list, the right file that matches your own Kindle (both the Kindle model and the Kindle Software version), copying that file into your Kindle, then restarting the Kindle. To change the screensavers you have to go through this process twice, with different files. The first time is the "jailbreak", which slightly modifies the Kindle software so you can change the screensavers. The second time you use a screensaver modification file, a "hack": and this copies your existing Kindle screensavers into a backup directory in the Kindle, and creates a new directory for you to put your own screensavers in.  As far as I remember the new directory will initially also contain all the original screensavers, but now you can delete those and add your own. I am also fairly sure that if you pick the wrong "jailbreak" file, nothing will happen at all beyond an "update failed" message, so you can try again with the right one, if you can find it. There are huge numbers of free alternate screensavers available on the web which you can download, but it's very easy to do your own: you reduce a picture, eg a jpg, to a size of 600 x 800 dpi, or smaller, and change it to black and white if it wasn't that already. Then you copy it to the new screensaver directory in the Kindle. I borrowed a picture of John Brown (the one whose soul goes marching on) from the Library of Congress, and reduced it to screensaver size. This was the result: [URL=http://s585.photobucket.com/albums/ss293/Vanman15/?action=view&current=johnbrown.jpg][IMG]http://i585.photobucket.com/albums/ss293/Vanman15/th_johnbrown.jpg[/IMG][/URL] The advantage of these old images is that they are already black and white, and as far as I know the Library of Congress allows non-commercial reproduction without any copyright problems. I recommend the Mobileread forums generally, for finding sources of free e-books other than Project Gutenberg. The Mobileread library versions are often better formatted than the Gutenberg ones. I should add that I'm not a Kindle expert and you do all this at your own risk. It took me a while to work up enough courage to risk doing it myself.

[quote user="sid"]I've been tempted to "jailbreak" the Kindle to load my own screensavers but at these early days I decided that a warranty claim would be invalidated and it's better to hang on. Adding my own screensavers is only a bit of vanity really (like having a personalised number plate on the car... which I DID have in UK ! [:$]  ).[/quote] It's possible to "unjailbreak" it and put it back the way it was, with the original screensavers. And if my own experience is anything to go by, if you have the most typical Kindle problem, a broken screen, they don't ask you to send the old one back when they supply a new one under warranty. So they won't know what you've done to it's innards. But you are at least partly right about the vanity bit: mine now also shows pictures of my children and other family members. However the real spur was to get rid of Agatha Christie, a writer I really dislike, Jules Verne (overrated), and Ralph Ellison, no doubt a nice enough man but he really only wrote one novel. They have been replaced by Robertson Davies, Neal Stephenson, and Ursula Le Guin.

Sid - the new Sagem Livebox 2 (according to Orange) has more robust security arrangements than the original ("open-book"-shaped) Livebox, and I think it was that caused my own connectivity problems. It may be possible to disable them but if so I haven't succeeded. I've had no problems at all with the Kindle itself, and I think it's a great bit of technology. I would also echo your recommendation of Calibre. It converts other formats quickly and well, - except PDFs of course which are difficult to convert easily, so these are often converted into something badly formatted. It also helps keep track of what is in your Kindle. But I have to admit that I was tempted by having Calibre to go a bit further and I did the small adjustment that lets me get rid of the Amazon screensavers ("key-lock" screens) and put in my own pictures. Much nicer.

Bigger branches of Géant round here (15, 12, and 46 - Cantal, Aveyron and Lot) stock Jordans Special Muesli, which is a no-added sugar product without chocolate. It does have a small amount of crystallized fruit (papaya I think) but otherwise it's the best of the lot that is widely available.

[quote user="sid"]My Kindle connects at home no problem, and it's the same for visitors who wish to connect laptops or iphones, they only have to enter the WPA-PSK code (I DO have security enabled even though the nearest house is some distance away). ......... [/quote] Sid - is your Kindle the US version of the Kindle 3, with a serial number starting B006? And is your Livebox a Sagem Livebox 2? I ask because I wonder if these connectivity problems relate to specific Kindles and specific versions of the Livebox.

I have had similar problems (from the description, anyway) and I think I found the answer. I have a Kindle 3, with Wifi and 3G, and a Sagem Livebox 2 (the one that's flat and with a corner missing) In the end, to get the Kindle to connect to my Livebox's wifi, I had to open the Livebox menu (type "Livebox" into your internet browser), log in as an administrator, go to the "Settings" tab, then open "Livebox" and "Wifi Settings" and then enter the Kindle's MAC address as a paired device that the Livebox is allowed to talk to. After that no problem at all. Previously, pushing the button on the Livebox had no effect at all. The Kindle could "see" the Livebox but not connect to it. You can find your Kindle's own MAC address in the Kindle's "settings" menu. I should add that I have no security enabled on the Livebox (I'm in the middle of nowhere, not even a public road nearby) and in theory the Kindle ought to be able to connect immediately. Curiously, I've found that some other devices will connect automatically to our Wifi here and others require this "paired device" entry in the Livebox's innards. Give it a try, Judith!

Not recommended for left-handers, though, unlike the other Kindles. And it has 3G but not WiFi (if I have read the description properly).

I don't think it's possible to turn off a Kindle in such a way as to stop the 3G/WiFi bit working if that is switched on. Kindles will continue to download books or other documents via 3G/WiFi even if they are showing the "key-lock" screen, which is what you get if you turn them "off". What Ryanair should be doing (if they are concerned about interference, rather than inattention) is asking Kindle owners to turn off the WiFi - and keep reading..... I was once very impressed indeed by a Ryanair flight attendant doing something I am sure I couldn't do however much I practiced. She read out the lengthy end of flight announcement while adding up the figures on her clipboard showing the takings from sales of food etc. She was writing down totals as she spoke. Try it yourself!

[quote user="Russethouse"]For my part, I find it quite impossible to believe that at a time when visibly we in the west (and not just the UK, obviously) have never been better off, we can't afford to pay a decent pension to those who are too old to work.  Good grief - whats your middle name,  Macmillan? [;-)] With rising unemployment and the economy only improving by baby steps, if that, I think you might need to re assess that!  Where do you think the extra funds to pay a bigger pension are going to come from ? [/quote] RH - I'm no Tory. Increasing the basic state pension falls into the "jam tomorrow" category (or maybe it's direct opposite) for politicians. When there is a recession obviously we can't afford it: when there's a period of economic growth obviously we don't want to risk raising taxes and damaging the prospects for future growth (back in 1959, Macmillan's election slogan was "Life's better under the Conservatives - don't let Labour ruin it!", and higher taxes were just what he meant). The figures for GDP per capita, adjusted for inflation give an idea about how well off we are collectively. They show that in the UK, and at 1990 equivalent prices, per capita GDP in the UK in 1945 was about USD 7,000, and in 2008 it was over USD 23,500. Are pensioners more than three times better off in real terms now than they were in 1945? I'm not better off now:  I retired in 2005 and my pension now is less than a quarter of what I was earning in 2005. You might not be better off either. As a whole, however, we in the west most certainly are - you might argue about whether it all peaked in 2008 or some other year, but the overall position isn't in dispute. But in my view it is a disgrace to make the undoubted effects of a recession fall most heavily on those least able to afford a reduction in their income.

[quote user="Thibault"]It all started to go horribly wrong post 1945 when the then government decided that a full state pension would be paid to anyone qualifying, rather than their receiving a pension based on their own specific contributions.  Since then, the state pension fund has been playing "catch up".  That, coupled with a falling birth rate and a rising number of state retirement age people has led to the present problems. Also, it is worth remembering when the "Old Age Pension" was first introduced in (I think) 1906, people rarely lived very long to enjoy it, making it quite affordable, whereas today, people are living 20 plus years after the state retirement age. There are no easy solutions.  However, for some people, there would have been a "Golden Age" of pensions - perhaps around the 1980s-1990s - but that has gone now and it looks increasingly likely that it will never return.  It is also a problem which has to be addressed by all Western Industrialised Nations, including Greece [;-)] [/quote] I think quite a lot of people (including my grandparents) would take issue with the idea that "It all started to go horribly wrong post 1945 when the then government decided that a full state pension would be paid to anyone qualifying, rather than their receiving a pension based on their own specific contributions". If you only give pensions to people who were able to afford contributions when they were working, then you condemn many people to follow a low-paid working life with poverty in old age. The government back in 1945 took a conscious decision NOT to have a funded state pension scheme, and all governments subsequently have gone along with this. There never has been a "state pension fund" in the UK. Old age pensions have always been paid out of current taxation and current national insurance contributions. For my part, I find it quite impossible to believe that at a time when visibly we in the west (and not just the UK, obviously) have never been better off, we can't afford to pay a decent pension to those who are too old to work.

Galtezza - I think it was just the small picture here that confused me. On your interesting blog it's easy to see that distinctive red line. If you do find a fire salamander you'll discover it moves surprisingly slowly. Presumably with an unpleasant taste you don't need to worry about running away from predators.

Galtezza I can't really tell from the small picture but might it be a fire salamander? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_salamander http://www.planetepassion.eu/AMPHIBIANS-IN-FRANCE/Fire-Salamander-France.html If so it's sensible to wash your hands after touching it. We have had them round here and the colours look right. The wikipedia pictures don't really do justice to the degree of variability of the colours.

Thanks for all the replies. I apologise for confusing PaulT - I picked what I think is an American site to do the conversions - http://www.asknumbers.com/MetersToYardsConversion.aspx - and perpetuated the American spelling (which my dictionary tells me was commonly the English spelling in the late 18th century). My chief complaint about all this is what I think is called "spurious accuracy". No-one weighed the train afterwards to find its weight at the time of the crash. I doubt whether anyone measured those 300 metres either, so 1000 feet (or 300 yards) would have done just as well. Recipes very seldom need to be converted from ounces to a precise number of grams - in idun's example with a pint of water and two pounds of flour, it would probably work just as well with 600cc of water (instead of 568cc) and a kilogram of flour (instead of 0.907kg) - though the end result would be slightly larger. And I don't see why "tonnes" should always be substitued for "tons" in modern writing, whatever the Guardian's style guide says, when it's impossible to tell the two words apart when they are spoken, and where the words are being used in circumstances where the difference in actual weight isn't important. For example, I got nearly 10 million Google hits for the words "tons of people" and only 400,000 for the metric equivalent. I was surprised it was even that many.

This is from the Grauniad's report today of the Grayrigg train crash: "You can only see 15ft [4.6m] in front of you," he told the inquest. "Had I noticed the points out of synch, I could not stop the train. With 300 tonnes of metal at 95mph it is going to go wherever it wants. I had no control. "We stopped at 300m (984ft) that night because we were hitting stuff." An automatic braking system was triggered within seconds of the derailment but even under normal conditions, a train at that speed would need half a mile of track to stop. Do we really need to be given those equivalents? As the driver was speaking, rather than writing down his evidence, how does the reporter know he meant 300 (metric) tonnes rather than 300 imperial ones - a difference of about 5 tons (or 5 tonnes, you can take your pick)?  And did someone measure those 300 meters and make sure it really was 984 feet rather than an equally round 1000 feet? And what stopped the reporter from converting that "half a mile of track" into "[805m]"? Mind you, this isn't the worst I've seen. Reports of ocean racing nowadays frequently have "tonnes" of water crashing into the cockpit of the yacht. If they had been "tons" instead it would, of course, have been 1.5% less water coming over the side. Far less frightening.

Chancer I sympathise with what you'd like to do. Back in the UK our shower pump was nothing but trouble, and because you usually want to hide it away out of sight you don't find out about the leak until it's done some damage. Ours currently sits in a cat litter tray, so when it leaks it causes an electrical problem as the water rises, and trips out the tripswitch at the mains. I cannot regard this as anything but a dreadful type of bodge, and probably dangerous too, but it stops the plaster coming down from the ceiling. A mains pressure system is likely to be a better idea. Though you might want to find out what pressure you actually have at the mains there. I wouldn't have thought that you'd have any real problem with a French cyclinder. The serpentine is a separate circuit through which the hot water from your boiler flows. It can't matter a great deal (can it?) how that hot water is being heated. Your French cylinder should have pockets for thermostat probes and these can be used for your existing boiler thermostat. But I am a total amateur here: whatever you do, don't rely on my advice. I do know that you can buy pressurised hot water systems in the UK (my mother has one, but it came as a kit with the condensing boiler), so you might want to check out whether there isn't a simple UK alternative.

I asked my insurer (Groupama) the same question, and got the same reply - it makes no difference if the car is RHD. And that was a reasonably modern car (2004 Berlingo).

Gardian - it might just be worth trying a very simple letter that says: When you received the money you had every reason to believe it was yours to spend, so you did so, and ..... It would now cause you hardship to have to repay it, even by instalments. If it is really a small amount in total, then it won't cause the pension provider any hardship if they don't get it back. And you can always give it to a charity of your own choice if you don't want to keep it.

This is one of the huts at Bletchley Park in need of restoration: [IMG]http://i585.photobucket.com/albums/ss293/Vanman15/800px-Hut6.jpg[/IMG] In need of quite a bit of restoration, I'd say.

They aren't Nissen huts at Bletchley Park: they are wooden huts. The Quonset hut (according to Wikipedia) was simply the US-manufactured WWII version of the UK-manufactured WWI Nissen hut, no doubt updated slightly. Wikipedia also says that Nissen Buildings Ltd waived their patent rights for the duration of the war, so no royalties then. I'll try to post a picture of the Bletchley Park huts.

Thanks very much each of you for the advice. Redhaven does look like a good possibility, as it would be nice to have the fruit available for the summer visitors - we can live without pretty blossom as there are plenty of other fruit trees around. Not many trees in our own garden, which is much too small, but the local farmers all plant fruit trees along their field boundaries - apples, pears, peaches, figs and chestnuts (not much to a chestnut flower except scent, though, and I think technically the fig is actually the flower?). Can anyone help by telling us when we should buy the peach and plant it? Thanks again