Martin

Checkout your local ALDI - they had some key-ring torches for less than three quid a pair over Christmas, so there might be a few left. Aluminium "tube" a couple of inches long and very bright for their size. Sorry no pics mb

_techie_ why not simply plug a small hub (or switch) into one of the working network ports and deploy via that? mb

Well according to Microsoft "Because the current PXE specifications do not support PCMCIA adapters..." ...have you actually got a PCMCIA card to PXE-Boot? mb

Don't you need drivers (which the operating system normaly loads) to get a PCMCIA card to work in the first place? mb

People post all kinds of personal stuff about themselves on Facebook (sometimes with terrible consequences), but you choose whether you participate or not. Similarly with Amazon, you can choose whether you use them. However Google (and Analytics) hide behind a great number of "innocent" websites and can cross-reference an awful lot of data - and data protection laws in America aren't quite the same as in the UK. As data mining increases, and people become more aware of the consequences, they will start to take action to limit their exposure - things like NoScript, Popup-blockers etc. Thus the data from Google Analytics becomes unreliable (trying to bring it back to topic )! Watch Pizza Palace for an example of how things might turn out! mb

The trouble with Google Analytics is that if you are the slightest bit web-savy (or know someone who is) you can install NoScript (under Firefox) and specifically block any Google Analytics scripts. Thus you cannot trust the reports that it produces, no matter how "impressive" they may be. As a user, you may also want to think about the implications of having Google analyse data extracted from web-pages, YouTube, Google Earth, GMail etc. They can start to build up quite a profile of you as not only do they know what you look at, but know who you e-mail and probably know where you live ('cos we have all Google-Earthed our own house haven't we ). mb

I suppose that you could scour the "copyright organisations"'s web-sites, and if you find the slightest dodgey image (e.g. Microsoft ClipArt, WAV file etc.) then make a formal complaint and get their ISP connection cut off. One advantage of that would be that if they didn't have Internet access, they couldn't look for other people to become guilty by accusation. What a stupid law! mb

El Reg did a top 3 review only last week! mb

Well according to [ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purchase_order]Wikipedia[/ame] "Acceptance of a PO by a seller usually forms a once-off contract between the buyer and seller" so i would give them a call and insist on only paying the agreed (original) price. mb

Did you include the original price on the PO? mb

Yup, I got a reply to my e-mail last night, and the phishing pages have now been taken down. Also, Firefox flags up a "Reported Web Forgery!" alert. Bit of a cheek though - normally the phishers link to some obscure Russian or Brazilian site tagged at the end of a pukka-sounding URL. Cheers, Martin

It seems like they are part of Beech Hill Primary School, Dunstable Road, Luton - if anyone is from that area.

Does anyone know the school at the following URL? St Charalambos Greek School ...it seems like a genuine school, but is currently hosting some phishing web pages for Lloyds TSB at... Lloyds TSB - Logon I'll drop 'em an e-mail, but if anyone has any direct contacts please let them know about their possibly compromised website! Martin

I have bought all the tyres for my Prius from etyres, and also had a couple of free puncture repairs. Very impressed I bought a front pair (Bridgestone Turanza ER30s) only last week, and they were £95-10 each compared with £92-10 from Black Circles and £97-40 from MyTyres. Although Black Circles were slightly cheaper, etyres come to you so you don't have to drive miles to the nearest depot and you don't have to hang around for an hour or so twiddling your thumbs. They can even arrange same-day fitting in an emergency. Another useful thing about etyres is that if you get a puncture before becoming a customer, you can get the fifteen quid (plus VAT) repair cost back on your first order if you keep your receipt! mb

Is the network port "live"? If nothing is plugged in, Windows can stop services bound to an "unused" NIC! mb

Get yourself Charley Says and enjoy many more "classics" Martin

Wes, There is a certain PXE-based program that you might be thinking of buying that could boot Linux directly into a RAM disk. Do you have to boot the Linux ISO, or is it simply an environment to run a (PING?) program? Martin

...but GBP120 will cover your (sub-grand) laptop for 3 years accidental damage insurance, so forty quid a year sounds quite tempting! And after 3 years, laptops will have reduced in price, so your 10% extra will buy a much better model. mb

Freecom also do a Toughdrive - up to 500GB, USB/Firewire, bus powered and pretty rugged. I have a couple for personal use, but won't be trying a drop-test mb

It only shows "To..." when you are sending a (new) message (with the Header off)! mb

Menu option View->Message Header? mb

You can cut what overshoots your garden, but you must offer your neighbour what you remove - seriously! mb

When i got mine (contract, not PAYG), just before Christmas, it wouldn't connect either. I called the 3 helpdesk, and they quickly identified the problem - there was a missing initialisation command in the "dialup" options. I added... at+cgdcont=1,"IP","three.co.uk" which i presume reset the dongle, and it has worked fine since (on any PC, not just the one that i entered the string into). Give 'em a call, i was very impressed with their assistance. Cheers, mb

Just seen a Vostro 200 ST on the website with an OS choice of... "Genuine Windows® Vista™ Business with XP Professional installed and Vista Media - English [add £40.00] - For those requiring Windows ® XP Professional now and the option to install Windows Vista in the future" and a Latitude D530 has... "English - (Downgrade) Genuine Windows Vista ™ Business 32Bit SP1 to XP Pro - with Media add £0.00" ...but you are right, XP Pro is getting very scarce mb

According to mini-itx.com - news it uses 15W idle or 20W under full load. They are £210 including VAT, and i want one! mb