SteamyTea

They may have a point about how the West can corrupt. We have been shafted by the New York Times already.

Well Robert McNamara said "never answer the question asked of you, only answer the question you wish you were asked". So did the East Germans fells safer because they were being spied on by their own people, not did they feel they had to show willing

Ian You have had experience of an oppressive police state. Did all the controls forced upon the general public make them feel 'safe', or just a bit miffed that they are all potential enemies of the state?

Not sure. They did in Northern Ireland, was not a great success.

Seems silly to try and make a low energy and low carbon dioxide emitting house, then burn any waste. Better to bury it if it cannot be reused.

May is putting armed troops on the ground now, a bad move in my opinion as we have not had that on the mainland since the civil war (actually might be wrong there, but generally right, we have used them for disaster relief and as firemen). Didn't Roger Moore pick a bad day to pass away. Now there is a security man I could respect

It is another example of why governments/parliament should not be allowed to make technical decisions. What are the odds that Hinkley gets cancelled at great expense next, or will they just wait for EDF to go bust.

It is always difficult knowing what to say after something like this. There will be a lot of hand wringing and recriminations (has already started on Radio 4). The security services are hard pushed to deal with these sorts of attacks and will probably ask for more powers to try and pre-empt this sorts of attacks. I don't think this is the same sort of thing that happened on Westminster bridge and the Houses of Parliament. That was a troubled man, not a terrorist. Having said that, when they identify the person that caused this (Radio reporting it was a man), it will be interesting to see if he was known to the security services.

Only fit metal baths is the answer. We fitted a spa bath in a club above a leather goods shop. The spa leaked and damaged about £7000 worth of stock in the shop. Our insurance would have covered that, but the prat that owned the I worked for decided that it was the spa bath that was faulty. £70,000 later we lost our case.

I put a length of timber in the car, just fitted as long as I placed the front end on the dash. Shut the hatchback and it poked the timber though the front windscreen. A mate of mine, who was keen on DIY but not very good, was nailing down some floor boards. He hit a pipe and had to call a plumber. The plumber fixed it all up and left. My mate then nailled though the repair. What a twonk.

What, 2 quid, the same as a Coke.

I seem to remember that @JSHarris downloaded an older version of Thunderbird and managed to transfer to that, then upgraded. Think the details are here: I am just giving SeaMonkey a go (again). It has Thunderbird built in and was pretty easy to set up. Not got around to transferring my old email to it yet as I need to work out how PGP works in SeaMonkey first. I still recommend using Portable versions of applications of you can. They are dead easy to back up, just copy the whole folder over. They tend not to 'clog up' Windows in my experience too.

Let me go try mine out on myself now. Batteries are flat (Mine is a Rolson from B&M for a few quid)

Best way to find out is to ask your existing lender, and a few brokers. You do stand to loose your house though if your circumstances change. If you wonder why banks are asking for 25% deposits, it is because they think that housing is at least 25% overpriced. I can't predict the future, but I believe that we are due a 'correction' in house pricing. How this happens is a really big unknown. It may be stagnation in nominal price (what people usually think of i.e. I paid £3000 now it is work £200,000), or it may be a 1989-95 crash, where the nominal price actually reduced. Or it may be interest rate driven, with the associated inflation pressures. The World Bank warned the UK that house prices were over priced in 1999. They were about 4.5 times income back then. But why not just buy a holiday home, plenty down here here for sale. I don't believe that self building adds value to a property, we have too many rules and regulation to allow that to happen.

Should have sued them, they would have taken notice then. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39893111

And you will only be able to use the power they produce on other BadApple products. Even Microsoft have realised they need to incorporate other ecosystems.

When you get a Japanese back pumping half a billion into a gaming company you have to question the way the tech market is going. Reminds me of a short story about warfare by Arthur C Clarke. Superiority - by Arthur C Clarke.txt

Had a quick google and found this: http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=909 " This decision follows a thorough and serious investigation and extended contacts with market players. As the market for and imports of solar panels in the EU is very large, it is important for this duty not to disrupt it. Therefore, a phased approach will be followed with the duty set at 11.8% until 6 August 2013. From August on the duty will be set at the level of 47.6% which is the level required to remove the harm caused by the dumping to the European industry. " So almost 50% extra taxation, but has been in operation for nearly 4 years. I also had a look on the WTO database but could not quickly find PV, but would be interesting to see what the default tariff is.

Running 3 1-Wire sensors is just a case of wiring them in parallel and putting the right resistor at the RPi end. So yes, use a bit of CAT for it. If you get the right resistor value (it all depends on the number of sensors and cable resistance), they are pretty robust. DHT22's (which are cheap and do RH and Temp) do need to be on separate RPI IO pins and need their own resistor.

Is that a problem, you are not a vegetarian are you

One of my first jobs as a toolmaking apprentice was to operate the drill and cutter grinding machine. I took great satisfaction in using it. I hate sharpening chisels and usually just go and buy a cheap replacement.

The main problem is that GRP is a laminate of 3 different materials. There is the glass/resin matrix and then the gelcoat. This acts like a bimetallic strip and when heated or cooled it will bow. One way to minimize this is to paint a top coat (really just a 50:50 mix of resin and gelcoat with a bit of wax in it) onto the back of the lamination. Then it needs to be fixed down securely. Shrinkage is on of the main problems with GRP and needs to be thought about when designing. Not really an issue when just sheathing OSB, so not a problem when making a water tight flat roof.

One way around the weather problem is to sheath the OSB before it is put in place. Then all that needs to be done is the joints over laminated and then sealed with the topcoat. I am surprised that this is not done more often. Laying up in a temperature controlled workshop makes the job easy.

I worked in the composite plastics industry for over 25 years, so feel qualified to say a few things. It is not difficult, I can teach you in about 2 hours what to do. After that, it is just practice. There are a few rules to stick to (pun intended). Everything needs to be dry, totally dry. Even damp can adversely affect the chemical structure of polyester resin. Even your chopped strand mat needs to be kept dry, so no keeping it in a damp garage/shed. It will cause you problems. UV light causes the polyester resin to cure faster, as does excessive temperature. So you have to pick a warm, but not hot, a dry, but not a sunny week to do it. Then it is a matter of starting with a small area and working from there, don't be tempted to do more than 10 minutes work at a time. The OSB will absorb a lot of resin, so make sure it is well 'wetted out' before you put any dry matt on it. Then wet out the mat with a brush or roller. Don't be tempted to use a large brush or roller. The mat takes a couple of minutes or so to absorb the resin, don't be tempted to try rollering (consolidating) it too soon, it will just not work. You can tell when it is working right at it goes almost transparent, rather than white, the noise changes as well, it sounds 'soggy'. Don't push too hard with the consolidating roller, that will just pucker it up. Once the area is covered in GRP, you will have to sand it down and put a top coat/flow coat on it. Sanding is a horrible job as it is itchy and makes your arms ache, but it has to be done right. Probably best to leave it a day to fully cure before sanding. Then, when you paint on the top coat/flow coat, you have to make sure that it is adhering properly. You can tell when it isn't right as you will see tiny little pin holes. If that happens you have to let it fully cure, sand again, then reapply. All a pain in the behind, but it is what really makes a good weather tight finish. Choice of materials is a hard one. I had my favourite mat 450gm CSM from Saint-Gobain, polyester lay up resin from Cray Valley and gelcoat (to make a top coat/flow coat) from either Norpol or Llewellyn Ryland. Pigments I usually got from Llewellyn Ryland too. Hardener I was easy about, it is the same stuff generally. Who you buy it off is up to you, but probably easier to find a local GRP place and see if they can get it for you, may work out cheaper. Did I mention that everything must be dry, really dry. If you are in an area that has a boat building industry, you may be able to 'find a couple of lads' that are willing to do the job. I would charge more that £100/m2 so the price don't seem too bad to me.

Insulated curtains. But the kind of places I go to, you don't need them.