The new news 24 thread

[320touring]

Up early on my non- working day so I could do this

As I didn't want it to be filthy when it went here

The result of which was

Barry's comments. "Good wee motor that, it's no been fucking hingin aboot"

 

Also bonus spot!

[Split_Pin]

Well it's definitely worth getting a car from England. I got a touch up pen for the new Saab and while I was there I had a good look underneath. Apart from some surface corrosion on the subframe (mint replacement now in my garage) and a few bent bits on the jacking points (sprayed some stonechip to seal) there's hardly a mark. I could envisage what it would look like if it had lived closer to its country of manufacture! 

[Lord Sterling]

4 hours ago, beko1987 said:

 Then mum had adsl installed via AOL. £9 a month for 1mb I think. Using that on the windows 98 Packard bell I had back then was lightning fast!

Fatha_Sterling had the Internet installed at ours in Brussels around 99/00. Then in 2001, Mother_Sterling took me and bought a computer/Internet package from PC World in Birmingham. We had it brought and installed, we had Windows XP which was, then, pretty much a marvel. I can still almost smell the new computer smell.

[beko1987]

1 hour ago, Lord Sterling said:

Fatha_Sterling had the Internet installed at ours in Brussels around 99/00. Then in 2001, Mother_Sterling took me and bought a computer/Internet package from PC World in Birmingham. We had it brought and installed, we had Windows XP which was, then, pretty much a marvel. I can still almost smell the new computer smell.

Nice! My first pc was a pc world special Packard bell in 1997ish. White beige box, speakers bolted to the crt etc, Packard bell before they became Packard Hell. Even came with the Lexmark printer with ink that cost £70 for free as everything did back then 😂

That kept going until my mum met my stepdad, who worked in IT. When I was old enough, 2004ish he got me 2 weeks work experience in their tech department. That was awesome in itself and I learnt alot. But my surprise payment for that was a new computer! They carried a big pile of parts out and told me to assemble it and flash xp on it then said it was mine 😱 80gb hard drive, 1gb of ram and a p4 3ghz Prescott, it flew! Kept that around for years eventually turning it into a frankenmachine. 

[Lord Sterling]

7 minutes ago, beko1987 said:

Nice! My first pc was a pc world special Packard bell in 1997ish. White beige box, speakers bolted to the crt etc, Packard bell before they became Packard Hell. Even came with the Lexmark printer with ink that cost £70 for free as everything did back then 😂

That kept going until my mum met my stepdad, who worked in IT. When I was old enough, 2004ish he got me 2 weeks work experience in their tech department. That was awesome in itself and I learnt alot. But my surprise payment for that was a new computer! They carried a big pile of parts out and told me to assemble it and flash xp on it then said it was mine 😱 80gb hard drive, 1gb of ram and a p4 3ghz Prescott, it flew! Kept that around for years eventually turning it into a frankenmachine. 

Mine, I think was a HP or summat. White/Beige and a light metallic Green, speakers slotted on the side of the CRT. It kept on going for years but eventually it too became too old to carry on. When I finally took it to a computer shop in exchange for a better machine, I felt a tinge of sadness.

Didn't have the same luck as you unfortunately in regards to inspiration for IT.

[beko1987]

50 minutes ago, Lord Sterling said:

Mine, I think was a HP or summat. White/Beige and a light metallic Green, speakers slotted on the side of the CRT. It kept on going for years but eventually it too became too old to carry on. When I finally took it to a computer shop in exchange for a better machine, I felt a tinge of sadness.

Didn't have the same luck as you unfortunately in regards to inspiration for IT.

I can thank that stage of my life for it. Problem nowadays is it's all a bit out of date and I wouldn't know what generation of i5 is better than the other without a good Google 😂

[High Jetter]

I'd had an Atari 2600 for a while but didn't get a PC until I went to one of those distress debt recovery auctions in Brighton, in a room above a pub(!), I guess around '92 or '93. I bought a computer and a printer which came from the Garrick Theatre Worthing, before that company went into liquidation. The printer was a massively heavy laser, yes laser lump that I never got working. The PC was an 80286 in a case with a lid that hinged giving access to the (spacious) inside. Either had MS Dos or DR Dos, on it which taught me a lot. Also had Wordperfect and Sage Financial Controller which was fun to experiment and learn with, and Norton Disk Utilities, getting me into the weird world of Hex for a while. I added Lotus 123, a spreadsheet I loved as you didn't need to type '=' before a mathematical sum, which annoys me about Excel today.

I had that PC case for years, expanding and updating it before building a different PC entirely, though that got used for many years before my sister needed a machine quickly.

[Lord Sterling]

Wow, something actually went OK today.

As some might know, last week during the big freeze, the air flow sensor on the Vectra decided to go on permanent strike, it just wouldn't idle at all and kept on cutting out. At first, I thought it was low on petrol, topped up but same symptoms as before. I did a bit of research and found it was the air flow sensor, I unplugged it and the car was fine.

I bought one with the right part number, a bosch one as despite them making utterly shit wipers, I think their air flow sensors probably fair better.

Plugged it in and all is well again, but to be fair, the car seemed to cope quite well without it 🤨

[dome]

8 hours ago, Fat_Pirate said:

You're all NOOBS, I started at 14.4K on Demon in '94!  It was all FTP and newsgroups back then, think it was a good 6 months until I bothered installing a web browser.  Everything was such a faff (all DOS programs), I never expected internet access to become anything other than a niche interest. 

I used to work for Demon Internet doing customer service and tech support for dialup customers😳

[Fat_Pirate]

5 minutes ago, dome said:

I used to work for Demon Internet doing customer service and tech support for dialup customers😳

That must have been exciting times!  Any interesting stories?  

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, dome said:

I used to work for Demon Internet doing customer service and tech support for dialup customers😳

They had a really good rep, ISTR

[lesapandre]

Classic US hubcaps - local fleamarket today.

[comfortablynumb]

44 minutes ago, lesapandre said:

Classic US hubcaps - local flemarket today.

But did you buy them?

[lesapandre]

No. The FoMoCo ones were nice and both in sets of 4 - but I have enough crap...I bought a 5L can of Waxoyl (can about 20yo) and 1 litre anti-freeze that had been in somebody's garage. 😂

[dome]

21 hours ago, Fat_Pirate said:

That must have been exciting times!  Any interesting stories?  

Jeez, it was over 20 years ago so it's pretty hazy. It was owned by Scottish Power(Thus PLC) at that point so past the "glory days" I belive

When I started with Demon we were only doing inbound sales calls for dialup in Glasgow, this amounted to sending out the CDs so folk could get online. During my time there we expanded to bring in customer service for dialup and the new fangled ADSL and tech support for all of these. I was involved in recruiting and training as we expanded which I enjoyed. They were good times, right up until they shipped the whole thing over to India and laid us all off

One memory is of a woman who phoned up complaining that her phone bill was astronomical. For those who too young to remember, we supplied a phone number to the customers which was charged at whatever the rate was. Back in those days if you visited any dodgy special interest sites the way they would get you would be that you clicked a box which then changed the number you dialed to get onto the internet to a premium number which cost a fortune. The woman was adamant that it was our fault and that there was no way she could have visited any suspect sites. When asked who else would have access to the computer she replied "Oh it's just me and my 14 year old son" 😁

 

[High Jetter]

Our local Hendy Renault, Dacia and Mazda site seems to have suddenly closed down, I noticed all the windows were boarded up when I went past yesterday

[Stinkwheel]

10 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Our local Hendy Renault, Dacia and Mazda site seems to have suddenly closed down, I noticed all the windows were boarded up when I went past yesterday

Theres a lot of it about.

Actual bricks & mortar dealerships are a dying breed unfortunately

[beko1987]

I jinxed it by tutting at a vag bombing up lane 3 with its undertray flapping around this morning on the way to work. 

Driving home tonight I took my usual corner at my usual speed and scraaaape... Got home and the singular cable tie holding the entire rear of my undertray has given up. Best sort that this weekend 😂

It's gone since Tuesday though. That started badly* as my rear pads had seized on. I last drove it the Tues before in the wet, then it sat frozen solid for 7 days. Big old clunk when I pulled away and then a nice big pedal vibration as the disc rotated around the rusted spot. 

Picked up my mate who I lift share with and told him and we proceeded with caution. Until 4 miles later a waitrose van behind me started flashing. Proper "m8 there's something wrong" repeated flashing, my mate confirmed it. We pulled over, and I did the usual "oh fuck what's wrong" rolling around on the floor looking everywhere. Nothing. My mate stood and watched my drive up the road and back and said all was fine and it was. The brakes cleared after 10 miles of m40 and all was well. 

[stuboy]

Just finished another 3 days working with the training team teaching banksing skills and assessing new recruits driving ability to reach company's requirements. 

 

[stuboy]

4 minutes ago, Tayne said:

You can say that again. 

bloody phone...grrr

[chaseracer]

I have no working cars!

Dyane: shat its alternator on the M66 weekend before last.
Blingo: at 2CV race HQ with its front end off, awaiting an engine loom.
C180K: rural Shropshire pothole 1, German OS/F coil 0.

Had to borrow the DS3 for work today...

[wuvvum]

The Eos has developed a quite badly sticky offside front brake, and on the way in to work today it got hot enough that it's warped the disc.  I'll probably end up just bunging a new caliper on it - they're only about 30 quid so seems pointless buggering about trying to unseize the old one.  I've found the source of the slight exhaust blow - it's blowing at the very end of the flexi section just where it becomes solid pipe again.  I've fixed* it with Gun Gum - it's not easily weldable being in a fold, and on the model of Eos I have the flexi is part of one long section from manifold to tailpipe, including the cat, so a replacement is £££.

[Stinkwheel]

10 hours ago, chaseracer said:

I have no working cars!

Dyane: shat its alternator on the M66 weekend before last.
Blingo: at 2CV race HQ with its front end off, awaiting an engine loom.
C180K: rural Shropshire pothole 1, German OS/F coil 0.

Had to borrow the DS3 for work today...

Autoshite fix = buy another car 

[hairnet]

13 hours ago, chaseracer said:

I have no working cars!

Dyane: shat its alternator on the M66 weekend before last.
Blingo: at 2CV race HQ with its front end off, awaiting an engine loom.
C180K: rural Shropshire pothole 1, German OS/F coil 0.

Had to borrow the DS3 for work today...

the electric myvi in the cheap sparks thread obvs cos you cant be trusted with ice

[Rustybullethole]

New shoes

 

[alcyonecorporation]

On 13/01/2025 at 22:45, alcyonecorporation said:

My Leon is back in the garage, owing to a bad leak from the secondary cooler that sits under the radiator. 
It needed £717-worth of work to the heater matrix and heat exchange in November, which cost me three weeks' work. 

It began leaking in the loading bay last week at my erstwhile role:  they told me that I was expected to make deliveries regardless so I told them to stick the job up their arse, resigned on the spot and nursed it to the garage.
Fuck off am I blowing my car up for 35p a parcel. My mum is ill up north and if I have to go, I need to go. They can call me for 'letting them down' until the heat death of the universe; you get many jobs but only one family, and this supposed 5 day a week casual contract 'let down' had a business loan ready to buy a Peugeot Partner to carry all the parcels. 

That can now be spent on the fucking SEAT, because, and I cannot stress this enough, that job can shit snow out of its mouth until it chokes.  I haven't gone off on someone like that for about 15 years. 

I have a Dacia Sandero courtesy car in the meantime, and start a CIH job at a Chinese takeaway this Friday. 

The writing's sporadic. 

Update: the radiator failed rather than the cooler. 

I feel I made the right decision to quit that job given that revelation. 

They can, still, and will, violently fuck themselves for asking me to carry on regardless. 

[lesapandre]

Morning fleamarket home-made toy garage find - just right for my battered motas. Was about to go in the skip.

[EightMegs]

Higher lift than the old one 

[lesapandre]

Socket set purchased from Lidl today. £17.99 as recommended by someone on here (I can't remember who) but many thanks for drawing this to my attention.

[brownnova]

Youngest daughter came home from nursery today and decided she’s calling me Papa… so I decided she can be called Nicole… which is confusing her three year old brain…