SpuffMonkey

Done some of this - just hooked the VHS up to a cheap TV card in an old PC and let it run through and record the tape then a quick edit to chop out the interesting bits and a convert to divx or whatever - it didn't take much time as most of the process can be left unattended - needed to fiddle around with the conversion settings to get a reasonable picture on the first run through

Similarly to Sirbendy - I've only ever called on the AA once and they were absolutely useless and wouldn't turn out - my old (automatic) car got stuck in "1st" gear and wouldn't shift - in the end I drove it all the way home at about 8mph - it was still quicker than the times they were quoting to come and "help". Personally I'd sooner pay a nominal fee for somebody just to deal with arranging a tow to a reputable local garage for me in these circumstances, rather than an insurance type deal where the small print limits seem to outweigh the benefits

Which marxist is that?? You'd have to look long and hard to even find a Labour politico to the left of Thatcher nowadays

Hah - me too....sadly

I reckon the Opera usage is down to me - I never see anyone else use it - but I LOVE it - right up the latest version which is snafu

Xibo is your friend...

I agree - this is pretty much my set up - the WD Live is a cracking bit of kit for the price and works well with my media server and with iPlayer etc. A mate has got the Roku - and that looks good too - he uses it as a Plex front end - which is very polished

If its such a doss job bodminman - why don't you become a fire fighter, instead of moaning?

I'd agree with twin--turbo - you'd be better getting them properly adjusted so they close properly - our door isn't draughty at all - I'd have thought that sticking the excluder tape on will act as a lever point to make the locking pins difficult to engage and they will wear over time - but I'm no expert.

I've not needed a light myself - but then, I mostly read where I read normal books/papers, so there is sufficient light anyway. I would guess it would be most use if you read in bed and don't want to disturb your partner.

Its fantastic for the price - my missus has got one - and is not very computer literate

Yeah - thats what I do - great with the raspberry glut we've had this year!

Dodgy USB drivers on the host PC??

As I say - the OVIVO Mobile | Set your mobile FREE! deals are mega cheap to free

I used to smirk at our local sofa shop - Sofa King - til their ads got banned :-(

Is it a SATA or IDE HD? If IDE - you'll need to reboot your PC for it to be seen

You could try Ovivo = I'm a light user and don't pay anything at the moment

Playing Side 1 of Rock n Roll Animal REALLY loudly - on vinyl no less!

I think you're right there - most people have forgotten how basic life was in UK until very recently - without getting all Monty Python Yorkshireman about it - when I was young, having a car was fairly unusual, only a moderate %age had a phone, foreign holidays of anything more than the very basic package variety were unknown to most people. Food was fairly local and seasonal - no strawberries in the winter etc and life for a lot of people was a grind. The North Sea oil bubble saved the country from catastrophy in the 80's, but alas, we just pi55ed it all away without any long term plan or benefit - we've had the Saturday Night - now its Sunday Morning and the outlook is bleak for a lot of people. The current economic policy seems bizarre to me - keeping interest rates to nearly zero isn't going to help in the long term - the only way our debts are going to reduce to a manageable size is if inflation rates are high and erode the value of the debt - we've been living beyond our means for decades - I remember when the balance of trade figures were regularly reported on the news - and negative values were perceived as a "bad" thing - nowadays they are rarely mentioned - we'd rather look the other way and think that all our cash flowing out of the country to China or wherever is a "good" thing as the prices of goods are "cheaper" - trouble is once that money is spent and gone - that's it - it doesn't recirculate through the economy as it did when we bought things that were manufactured here. Ach - enough of this shilly shally - its time for bed!

We had a Netcat - good bit of kit - if you're getting a lot of cabling done (we were in a new build) the additional socket tester kit is worth the spend - so you can test which socket is which with 6 extra end pieces - really speeds up the job

Yeah - I dunno if any are sought after - there's a lot of weird stuff - but thats not always a good thing ;-) I'm finding quite a few without bar codes too - so I'll have to read the small print on how to get them accepted - sigh!

Thanks for the suggestions - I'll have a look at them all. Massively regretting my trip to the tip with 4 bin bags of VHS tapes after reading the comment about someone getting decent dosh for them - thought no one used video recorders any more! I've noticed quite a few of the CDs had got "rot" - especially early Island ones for some reason - tacky manufacturing I guess. Haven't the heart to look at the vinyl yet...

I thought I'd read a thread on this - but can't find it. I'm having a massive clear out and I've got (literally) 100's of music CDs that I want to get rid of - anybody know if there's somewhere that buys in bulk - I realise that what with streaming and ripping that they are not worth much nowadays - but it'd be nice to get back at least some of the £1000s that I spent (somewhat foolishly!) Cheers

It'd certainly stop loneliness if my Dad was anything to go by - the tech support people would be there all day because it "isn't working properly" - ie he has his thumb on the corner of the screen