DD_Brando

SOLDAnyone want to buy a Phenom II 955 Black Edition? - used, one owner, always water-cooled. It's working fine - I just got a 975 for my birthday and so it's surplus to requirements. Edit: Also comes with a brand-new, copper-based, with-heat-pipes, AMD stock cooler. If I wasn't water cooling I'd be using one of these! OUT

Yeah.... Right.... Sounds like a bad case of brownout to me

Jabo's point is a good one, which I had forgotten If for any reason Alt-tabbing doesn't work it is also possible to use the Windows key to minimise the game. This will also raise the Start window. One click on the desktop will close that, and one click on the minimised game icon in the taskbar should restore the game window with the mouse working. I'm mentioning this because not all systems will respond to the alt-tab command. This feature was never built into the game engine.

It may be an old problem that is just a user-glitch. Tell him NOT to move the mouse at all before the game has initialised fully. In other words, not until it reaches the main selection window. So, all apps such as teamspeak must be functioning before starting the game, and there can be no late mouse-clicks after the game is activated by double-clicking the FB icon (or whatever launch method is used). Ask him to try that.

To be sure, you'se all a scurvy lookin' pack o' hyenas, and be off with ye. Aaaargh! Oh wait, I'm a day late ...... I'll get my plank.

One of my oldest online pals was definitely there - Pedro from Hyperlobby - and I'm hoping to hear from him soon. I'm glad to see that the Dogz were far enough away to be safe. What a tragedy!

The OCZ BEHEMOTH is a great mouse for a large hand. Unfortunately it doesn't come as wireless, otherwise it is way good

667 x 2 = 1334, your memory is on song OT. The 4870 is a good improvement over the 4850 with the extra vRAM. You have plenty of spare power with a 750W Corsair. Even better if you can find one is the 4890; that was a real flier. I sold mine to Rog - I think he liked it. The 4870 only supports DX10.1, but without Windows 7 you're not going to be able to use anything above DX9 anyway. (Well, there is Vista - but you don't want to go there) It might be worth investigating whether the E8400 can be overclocked at all. And a format/reinstall might bring your Win XP back on form. I used to find it got cludged up after a year or two.

Thanks for the compliments, gents I put it down to a life spent in the building trade, and the advice of some of my earliest 'mentors' which I always did my best to follow and, when I started running jobs, to pass on. Simply put, it's "Always build a house as though you were going to live in it yourself." Living up to that simple statement isn't as easy as it sounds. But then, work shouldn't necessarily be easy! It just gets easier as you go along.

Very cool. It's really important for people with manual skills to keep on going after something like that, and not only for the money. Just stopping altogether feels like running into a brick wall. I did a quick count up and I reckon I laid nearly 10,000 bricks since 1996, all on garden landscaping jobs.

Here's a (nearly) square-on view of the framework positioned under the desk. "Getting in" is definitely less complex than, say, climbing onto the wing and into the pit of a Tiger Moth! The wooden box is probably going to be the control panel/button box. It'll look better grey, and with a grab handle mounted to it, not to mention buttons! It's large, I know, but with no right arm my options are limited.

it's not the wife I'm scared of - it's the axe she's wielding Fortunately my best girl is on holiday in the next county and not back until the weekend. Plenty of time to get the carpet into the washing machine and back on the floor - or buy a ticket to Rio de Janeiro - whichever works out easiest

Thanks, Rog, for your kind comments! First off, I have to say that the original inspiration came from Roger Dodger Aviation; I just used their free video to copy the design. It's a great idea, and I've adapted it to suit my 'special needs' And it is probably the only version built by a one-armed bricklayer! I did consider solvent welding but settled instead on using short, bolt-headed, self-tapping screws. They conveniently fit the standard magnetic tool-holder that goes into my battery-operated drill, and the design includes a hole-cutting tip on the screw. So it was a bit of a doddle to set up in that way. But cutting pipe one-handed was a nightmare, even using a sharp saw and a work-mate to grip it. I persisted at it and even learnt a quick way to remove swarf from the rim of the cut tube; using one of the holes in the work-mate's deck, rotate the pipe at 45 degrees so that the rim contacts the edge of the hole and grinds the swarf away. Easier done than said! All in all I was glad to have resisted the call to glue it up. Trial and error doesn't work with solvent welding, and with fittings about £1 a throw I couldn't afford to screw up. The self tappers pull the whole thing rigid and allow for retries! I will take a shot later that will show how easy it is to climb into the new 'pit. It's all designed around the standard rolling, rotating office-chair. The pilot rolls into place and then straps the chair to the frame, usefully preventing further rolling or rotating from the chair. It's as comfortable as any of the specialised pits I've used before, and possibly the best. I'm off to paint on the last coat of grey. The 'plumber's nightmare' is squatting menacingly in the centre of my room, looking mean and businesslike. cheers!

"I see a red door, and I want to paint it... er, grey....... Grey?" oh well

About half an hour's work in the morning and then I'll start the painting. I'm using a "soft gloss" multi-surface paint with a four hour re-coat time, so I might manage three coats tomorrow. Then it'll be a few days curing before I start adding the controls and button panel to it. I am slowly starting to get excited!

Just a little teaser, showing progress to date. At the beginning I had no idea that I would need to build a centre mount for the new stick - but then I realised that it wouldn't fly without it: Valda's out buying Velcro; progress will be speedy once I can secure the pedals and put my chair into the mix. B

My vote is in too

Goodbye Jim - fly safe Ross

Thanks Cap'n For some embarrassing reason it was the last one that totally cracked me up

Ouch! \ I'll hazard a guess and say that your graphics card has gone on the fritz, possibly through overheating. I'd look to find a graphics card to swap in there and test my hunch. (No jokes about bells please) What is the spec on this rig? B

After plenty of scraping, drilling, sanding and painting....... ta daaa Onwards and upwards! B

Onwards to the new 'trigger' section. I drilled a pattern of holes around the trigger frame, to key the Milliput, and placed a double sheet of plastic between the two halves of the stick. Then I mixed up the putty and pressed it all around the required spot..... The two halves need to dry before I grind out the holes for the buttons. I have levelled the two faces using a roll of plastic insulating tape (dipped in water) as a roller... The next job will be to separate the two halves...cys