AMLinington

I can't give you the advice you're asking for but I can throw my tuppenceworth into the ring. LeBoyfriend works with a guy who did this and who owns 3 houses. We'll call this guy 'Bob'. Bob swears by it. He says having properties to let is the best way of investing for your retirement years. LeBoyfriend and I have discussed this at great length re: our own futures. Both LeBoyfriend and I have 1 sibling each, therefore inheritance-wise we'll objectively own half a house each. LeBoyfriend's uncle has no children and so has left his property to his nephews in his will, meaning that LeBoyfriend will own another half a house. It is our plan to invest our inheritances in property and there are pros and cons all over the place. If you use a management company, your 'profit' from the venture drops, but at the same time you don't have to worry about sorting repairs, faffing about vetting tenants, collecting rents etc. Similarly if you do it yourself your 'profit' margin goes up but you are responsible for all the paperwork, repairs, etc BUT you have greater control over the tenants you choose to rent to. Personally, I'd favour the management company if only for the convenience of managing my Letting assets while I'm occupied with living my life and working for a living. If you are buying to let, you need a buy-to-let mortgage and I believe these ask for higher deposit values (I may be wrong though). Your best bet is to find a mortgage advisor as they will be able to explain all your options and handle the paperwork for you. I think there are some tax considerations too. https://www.gov.uk/browse/housing/landlords

+1 for this. The heat 'melts' the glue. You might end up with some residue but it's fairly easy to clean. Try using a hair dryer if you're not happy ironing your laptops.

Need to build in the whole 'calling emergency services even though the phone is locked' capability though. I assume you for being a smart-alec lol

Yeah I saw that but my toy isn't actually about the scratching, it's about the dangly 'fishing rod' toy bit - the purpose of which is to get cats active. My idea is still different from this.

LOL I have other things to worry about at the moment than designing something, making a prototype, faffing about with manufacturers. There are many more 'concept' ideas out there better than mine. I might have a crack at making a 'home made' one for Enzo to enjoy at some point though.

Haven't found the cat treat scratch post on the web yet although if anyone else has please let me know as I'd like to buy him one.

LOL yeah. I guess it's because we're all used to crappy resolution YouTube videos.

I was thinking that the dragon one could work in all sorts of colours. The scales are painted with shimmery fabric paint so I could use any colours I wanted. They were a labour of love though. The wings and tail flukes on the dragon one are all boned with plastiboning. LeBoyfriend's hoodie broke several machine needles - the sleeve seams are crazy-thick lol

Having been inspired by the Canada Cosplay 'Cute Dragon Hoodie' (which is blatantly a rip off of Toothless), I decided to make my own. Then LeBoyfriend got in on the act having seen some awesome 'Suit of armour' hoodies. I'd like to share my creations with you all. It's worth pointing out that these started life as rolls of fabric. I made them from scratch and drafted my own pattern pieces for the 'addons': [ATTACH=CONFIG]25022[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]25024[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]25025[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]25026[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]25027[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]25028[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]25029[/ATTACH]

Yes. This. Where WoW is concerned I'm even further removed in that I have the keyring Authenticator, not just the app. Although I'd really like to be able to enable both types. I find 2FA to be a bit of a faff but it helps that the Google Authenticator App supports other accounts - there is nothing worse than having to install custom authenticator apps for everything.

Yes apparently they think I might be interested in 'love your lady long time' and 'be the envy of your friends for the size of your *censored*'. Which I admit is tempting, except I lack the necessary parts XD

As a World of Warcraft gamer I get hit with a ton of these phishing attempts and when the email is from accounts.team@blizz.eu.battlenet.warcrafthost.registration.com.net to an email address you don't even use in WoW it's pretty obvious. But I get regular panicked phone calls from my dad about these mails.

I came up with a design for my cat treat toy thing yesterday afternoon in about 5 minutes while doodling my way through hold music. Seriously thinking of prototyping it actually. Essentially it's a sissal scratching post with an air tube running down it, the air tube is attached to a bladder inside the toy. When the animal compresses the toy, the change in air pressure in the tube triggers a valve which opens a slot in a food dispenser and the treat drops down into a bowl. There are issues I'd need to consider: 1) The air tube - my cat can chew his way through power cables. A Plastic fish-tank style air tube would be vulnerable. Current solution: That woven metal coating that looks like Chinese finger puzzles. 2) The valve/slot setup. 3) Treat storage - easy access for refilling 4) Replaceable parts - does the toy part come off? Is it separate from the 'internal' tube? 5) Stability - Fishing rod toys with a cat hanging off the end are inherently unstable. Current solution: Spring mechanism. Like those posh kitchen taps. Safety for the animal is paramount though.

There are tons of toys out there for Cats and Dogs that you put food in and it's supposed to 'make the animal work for their food' and be a boredom buster. My cat took one look at the one I bought him, looked at me as if to say 'work? for my treats? I'd rather go without' then went out. Needless to say I attempted to repurpose it for the Rabbits and didn't have much joy there either. So my idea: A Cat toy/treat dispenser that dispenses treats based on 'success criteria' of the animals play. For example. My cat LOVES 'fishing rod' toys. I'd like to have a toy that dangles and jingles automatically (I had one of those wind up ones but he broke it almost immediately). When the cat gets hold of the 'lure' and perhaps applies pressure (either by grabbing or biting), this 'success criteria' causes the unit to output a treat. I'd buy it.

She should consider herself Licked

Although as another poster has pointed out, possibly not currently suited to a KS3+ environment. I'm thinking of an 'Android Enterprise' edition with all your favourite features supported - filtering of SSH, proxy support, apps referencing global proxy settings etc. Remote management is only half the battle, the other half is getting applications written to support things like sending requests without the 100-continue header and referencing global proxy settings rather than attempting direct connections.Dedicated enterprise apps stores containing Education-friendly applications that don't keep asking for money for every little feature. Old fashioned stoning-by-idevice? Sounds promising although the partial wipe and remote control of an Android device already exists where the organisation is using Google apps and Google mail - part of the reason I won't put work related content on my personal phone - group policy and remote management tools have to be installed on my phone allowing my network admins the rights to access and wipe my phone so it will be interesting to see if these features are dependant on the organisation using Google apps.

Typical 'Genius bar' response: There are no problems with Apple products therefore the problem must be you. End of story. They're wrong though. When iOS7 came out with the 'call home validation' on WiFi connections it was a huge headache and it wasn't just individuals and schools logging tickets. We contacted Apple about the problem and their response was akin to a shrug of the shoulders and 'because security' excuse. The upshot is that Apple are of the opinion that whatever they decide must be right and if it causes problems for people in using the devices in the way they advertise and sell them to be used then the problem is not with Apple but with all the other vendors. All the web filtering companies, all the WiFi access point and hotspot vendors, all the proxies. One can only hope that eventually, what with the range of tablets on offer now, that people will stop seeing the shiny shiny Apple fondleslab as their first choice and will start looking at other devices. I'm interested to see how Samsung do with their new Tizen OS platform and I'm certain it won't be long before some enterprising Linux/Android groupie branches the Android OS into an enterprise specific configuration with device management software. There is certainly the market for it.

I will assume sarcasm or insanity from this comment. Trust me, using proxies with iPads is akin to having your eyeballs scrapped with a rusty spoon. It would be fine if the people at Apple hadn't arbitrarily decided that connecting to WiFi should include a 'call home' feature that accesses a 'validation' URL. If the iPad can't get to this (everchanging) URL it won't connect to WiFi which is a pain for captive portal proxy auth and requires big fat filtering holes to be made. Really Apple? Why not just go the whole hog and lock down the firmware to only connect to Apple branded WiFi access points and only access Apple approved websites?

I feel your pain. Our whole support team feel your pain. Have a Chocolate Finger.

Yes, that clarifies things a bit. I have to agree that finding a 'specialist' vet can be difficult (and expensive). You certainly can't rock up to your local vet practice with a Falcon lol. In this day and age of internet shopping I think the availability of 'exotic' animal food is probably the easiest it's ever been, but it is very dependant on post. I'm sure Pets at Home do frozen mice and stuff suitable for Snakes and Birds of Prey (I'm sorry but the live insects down the reptile care aisle are squicky) so I expect the food side of things probably isn't as complicated as it could be. I know I tend to order all my pet food on Amazon - I have Amazon prime so I get it next day. I used to use medicanimal.com but the prices on Amazon are the same and I might as well make use of my Prime membership. My cat gets Royal Canin and I think it says something about the quality that the biscuits smell really tasty even to me. I have to say though that having a Bird of Prey sounds wonderful. They are beautiful creatures and every time I've attended falconry demos and 'met' Owls at sanctuaries I've come away yearning to have one.

I can't comment on your original question but I can say: Your comment that 'you're not an idiot who'd rush off and buy one thinking they are easy to look after like a cat or guinea pig' is a bit misinformed. I own a Cat and 4 Rabbits and trust me, none of them are 'easy' to look after. Any pet, any at all, even goldfish require good, responsible care. A pet is a living, autonomous individual and it makes me desperately sad when an animal is forced to live in a horrible environment or suffer the consequences of the ignorance of humans. The Rabbits in particular do a LOT of poo. So much poo that our compost bin is full. Although it has to be said that keeping Rabbits certainly makes for a regular supply of compost for the veg patch. Even having Enzo (my cat) neutered was hard for me because if the position were reversed, would I want to be taken somewhere, put to sleep and wake up without my reproductive organs, in terrible pain? It's partly why I don't agree with animal euthanasia but I don't want this to turn into a rant because that's not my intention at all. The point I wanted to emphasise was that if someone were to 'own' an animal, it is their responsibility to give that animal the best and most natural life experience they can. Where Birds of Prey are concerned are you in a position to dedicate a lot of time and money to flying your bird? If I were a bird I'd want to fly as often as possible so does your lifestyle allow you to dedicate that much time? What about mating? Will your Bird be breeding? I'm not sure of the dietary needs but I'm certain dead mice feature prominently and I know a colleague who keeps pet snakes says he has to buy boxes of dead mice and keep them in the freezer. When you're at work how will your Bird occupy it's time? In the wild they spend their time hunting and raising chicks. I'm not sure it's mentally healthy for a Bird to be tethered to a roost for 12 hours with nothing to do. Have you thought about volunteering at Owl and Bird of Prey sanctuaries - you could get involved in the day to day care of Birds of Prey to get an idea of their needs and the costs involved before you invest in one of your own? Re: Farmers. You might be able to get something out of the negotiation as farmers have a lot of trouble with birds and rodents so flying a bird of prey over their land might be doing them a favour. Although only if they're farming crops. If you're tromping over land and disturbing dairy cattle they won't be happy.

Weirdly I was having an issue with an application that shall remain nameless and it kept crashing on load so I did some searching and found some forum posts and people were saying that the application (for whatever reason) tapped into the fonts folder when loading the graphics engine and all these fancy pants funny fonts caused the 3D render to crash thus crashing the application. So I nuked my fonts folder and restored only the 'original' ones and lo the application loaded in first time. Quite why this particular application was rendering fonts from the fonts file when it doesn't even HAVE font choices is a mystery to me but hey. Ironically though the sister application loaded fine and it was far more complex with more graphical interface sorcery. Who knows.

Calibri for general writing. Although work related stuff needs Helvetica Neue as that is our 'official' font. Also what is your favourite font. Not you're as this is a contraction of you are making this sentence read 'what is you are favourite font?'

13/20. 65%.

They look like stills from Black and White films or newspapers. If they're films I'd have to question the legitimacy of the expression.