42fta

I know this sounds silly but have you tried physically removing the plug from the power socket and grounding it (touching your hand works but is uncomfortable, try the carpet!!)? I don't know why, but ever since I installed the Vista beta on my machine, it has refused to cold boot unless it has been removed from the power supply and the symptoms are exactly like yours (lights but no beep). Uninstalling Vista has not cured it. Re-starting from within XP is unaffected.

Within the last decade, I have had major sugery at Thornbury (twice - BUPA) and the Northern General (three times -NHS), performed by endocrine, gynaecological and orthopaedic hand specialists as required. Overall, my experience has been that the surgical competance is comparable at either hospital but the in- and out-patient care at Thornbury far out-classes that on the NHS and I would have no hesitation in using Thornbury again should the need (and choice!) arise. In case you're wondering, I work within the NHS and have done for many years.

Actually, WeightWatchers are very keen that you should still have a social life and not feel deprived. Their whole philosophy is about moving to a sustainable sensible eating plan for life. They even have a useful 80+ page booklet called "the eating out guide" which gives lists of meal points from branded (Pizza hut, KFC etc) and generic (chinese, french, spanish etc) eateries. Support in the sense that the family doesn't give you a hard time when you stop providing puddings after every meal and offer fruit instead, for example. Support in the sense that when you're in the pub and happily ask for water or low-cal drinks, they stop other so-called "friends" from nagging you into high-cal alcohols. In other words, allowing you to help yourself, not doing it for you and not sabotaging your efforts. @Kittenta - I'd suggest you give an organised slimming group a try - you can always stop after a couple of weeks if it really isn't "you". I always thought I didn't need diet help, but slowly gained weight over the years. Having joined WW in January, I've shed 38lbs, and can now twirl happily in front of the mirror in size 12 clothes.

It might depend on what your business is, when I used to childmind it was allowable against personal tax. The calculation was : A= percentage of your home used for the business. eg, 1 room used as office in a 2up-2down would be 25%. B = percentage of a full working week that the home is used for the business. thats active use like planning, doing and phoning, not the fact that you might store stuff there all the time eg, if you spend 3 days in the home office, 1 day out meeting clients and 1 day doing housework its 60% C = mortgage interest not total mortgage repayments. Amount claimable against taxation is C x (A/100) x (B/100) If in doubt, phone the tax office, the above is the calculation they gave me. I don't know if it is scaleable for all forms of self-employment or if it covers employees who work from home.

Coggy, do you already have "ordinary" office on your computers? It has this capability built in for documents and task lists. You need some webspace, probably available free with your ISP already. Then click the task pane drop-down and select "shared workspace". Type "shared workspace" into office help for more details. Outlook can also share calendars, though I think it needs Sharepoint Services add-on, not sure.

The product key has to be the correct "type" for the XP CD you are installing. For example, you can use the key supplied with one "OEM XP Pro" to validate a different "OEM XP Pro" CD, but it won't validate a retail XP pro CD or an OEM XP Home edition. Some OEM copies are less "tied" than others. The vendor should have sold you a system builder "open" CD, which are effectively a retail version without any backup support. Thats what I, and presumably Mr_Chris, have. However, you may have a manufacturer's OEM copy such as HP, Advent etc, which will interrogate the hardware to look for an item (motherboard, hard drive etc) with the corresponding manufacturer's key. If it doesn't find the brand, it won't install.

"Moving".....DEEP BLUE

Its alright if there's only one of you, but if there are four......

So long as I can say I knew you before you were famous!

That sounds less offensive whereas the c-word, like the f-word, sounds much harsher. I don't know if its the short "u" or the double consonants that makes them just sound more aggressive?

"northern town with an internet site...."Fame! Oh mantaspook, I really do like your work. I'm now sat here in a breathless panic hoping that Natalie made it. Damn You!!!!

Like it, Mantaspook. Twist in the tale in such a short piece, excellent.

What in my post gave to you infer that I don't consider recycling important?!! I quite clearly stated that I have compost bins and glass recycling bins, which are purely voluntary, in addition to the mandatory paper bin. I berated the council for NOT having an adequate policy to include domestic collection of plastic and glass. I stated that I would be happy to have eco-friendly paper containers for recyclable materials. You might consider the smell of dustbins in summer to be an acceptable patio odour, I disagree. If this is a definition of shallow, I'll embrace the "insult".

How blinkered are you?!! I consider myself to be modestly pro-actively green. I've got a corner of my garden fenced off to house THREE compost bins, as well as a soil heap, which means I don't put green waste into refuse landfill. When we extended the house some ten+ years ago, I designed in a large "bin space" by the drive to accomodate the then small tin bin and the boxes I'd bought to hold glass for recycling. That space, with difficulty, now holds the huge black wheely refuse bin, a smaller blue paper bin, and my glass boxes (which are still not subject to a local authority scheme). I happen to consider myself quite fortunate to have enough real estate to accomodate the above and am very aware that this is not the case for everyone (nor myself at any previous addresses). What I don't have is simple access from the road to the rear garden, not do I see any health-aware reason to have smelly bins close to where we sit and eat. I'm well and truly p'd off that the (Sheffield) council can't devise an overall recycling collection system to include glass and plastic without needing huge receptacles that are simply not compatible with the space available to a typical home. I'd love to have brown paper sacks into which any recyclable dry material could go.

I like the darkness of this, I assume "the lodger" is in his head not his house? I'm jealous; this is the single-viewpoint, introspective style of narrative that I was (am) attempting to achieve but haven't managed to complete, yet. I wonder what the next instalment will bring, will he descend further into madness or will he receive a short sharp shock of reality? Looking forward to finding out!