Chesterfield

It can be set not to link into the forum and be stand alone, but it would still run on the same database, just using different tables. It could be set to use its own individual database, but then its still running on the same server and using the same MySQL engine, so probably wouldn't make any difference. Though having said that, if it doesnt link in with the forum and people need to register another username for the chat etc, then there may not be that much point in having it - people may as well use facebook or some other form of instant messenger if its not going to be linked into the forum. Lets see how the recent changes go and we can look at bringing chat back in a short while. We made another change yesterday evening too which should have made things a little quicker. Can people let us know how the site is performing for them over the next few days - especially around the times that drop outs were occuring. Is it faster now, is it dropping out at all at any time - the more info the better Thanks

Im taking an interest in this as it could be interesting to see what will happen to the power stations they are building (and forecasting coal usage for) to power these cities. For some time Chinas appetite for coal has contributed significantly to the underpinned global prices. If their usage and future forecast usage falls off a cliff, prices could take a tumble which would have a knock on effect around the globe.

Once we have had a few days of the forum being stable, and we can see the lockups are no longer taking place, we can switch the chat back on - but the way this interacts with the forum itself has been hilighted as one of the pottential reasons for the problems. So it may have to be switched off again for further investigation.

Until they take usage into account, basing it on the emissions level of a car is a completely unfair system. My Zed des about 800-1000 miles a year. The Altea does about 8000. The Altea kicks out roughly 4-5 times the amount of CO2, but has a lower VED charge. If its emissions based, it has to take usage into account, or it is a flawed, unfair and misleading system. Raising taxes on higher "emissions" vehicles, does nothing what so ever to reduce CO2, but it satisfies the greenies into thinking it does. They continue to raise the taxes on company cars year on year, penalising the highest emissions vehicles, and moving those that were lower emitting further and further up the scale each year. This is done, so as to give the impression its forcing company car drivers to move to lower emissions vehicles. Its not. What they are doing now due to the ridiculous tax levels on company cars (and the way they have changed how companies can write off the depreciation) is forcing more people out of the company car scheme altogether, and back into private cars, where they dont give a stuff about the emissions. Im moving from a company car which emits 179g/km and moving to a private car, which happens to emit 243g/km. Im financially better of for doing it too, so how can the current policies on car tax ever be considered to be environmentaly based when that can happen?

The outage for half an hour tonight, 10.30pm to about 11.00pm was intentional.

As its being discussed in many threads, Ill post here too - please can anyone experiencing outages post up with the time this happens (when you can get back on) - hopefully outages will be reduced with the recent changes.

Yes thats individual settings, cant be changed for everyone as we have members that dont observe BST.

That would be on purpose, the site was offline for a short while to implement a couple of changes in the database that we think could be affecting things. Forum now back on after having been on for half an hour or so. Changes made to the sessions table and chat is offline, if there are still problems, please can you make a note of the exact time it occurs and report back here when you can. Many thanks.

Sorry, but there are many policies implemented by governments that are not part of the manifesto, and are made law after a vote vetween the MP's only. You are trying to suggest that its our way or the highway - whether to try and massage your own ego, or to gather a popular vote who knows, either way its not true. You have already confirmed that we are taking feedback and suggestions on board and implementing ideas. The garage mod for example is an wful lot of work, and it would be very easy to say no, but we haven't. Hows about the gallery - that was a huge piece of work, when was the last time anyone used it? That being said even if there were the slightest chace that the team elected to change the basis on which this club was run, only those who actually owned a Z would be allowed to take part in such a vote in the first place, so I fail to see your problem. I know lots of forums that have their moderating team/chair people elected too - ask them how much fun it is, or whether its a chore..

What you mean to say is it works pretty much like real life. People voice their opinions, if enough people voice their opinions then those in charge change something, if there is a really important issue comes up then we have a vote. For instance people didnt like the new look to the forum and proposed changes, those changes were implemented as it was clear the majority didnt like the standard look of the new theme. There are discussions on going around a garage mod, there are discussions on implementing a feedbck system, all born of discussion from the members. I didnt like half the changes the previous two chancellors and PM's have made, but I didnt get a say. I dont remember being asked whether I agreed with the parish council part of our council tax being increased, but it happened none the less. If people expect the team here to take a vote from all the members on every aspect of the forum and any changes we wish to implement, then they have sadly lost a grip on reality. We are tasked with running this in the best interests of all the members and that is what we are doing. If the mebers don't agree with the teams decisions, then they can voice their opinion and object to the ways either team members or the team in general do their job. Team members have in the past reversed decisions after discussion with the rest of the team, and we have all been wrong on occasion. Sounds to me that unless we have elected members of the team, and start going down the route of AGM's etc, you cant get much closer to a democracy. The main reason for this not taking place here, is that it takes the fun out of runing a club and becomes more like a chore than a fun hobby. An awful lot of other forums have gone down that route, leaving the people running it not finding it enjoyable, and ultimately the forum dies because there is no enthusiasm from those charged with running it. People who are invited to join the team are picked by the existing team as they are noticed as being the right sort of people for the job. Imagine if we took the democratic route in real world commercial examples, you need a new cheif exec for a company, and people can put themselves forward. You will end up with the most popular person at the helm, rather than the one who may actually have a clue about running a company. It would appear that the system we have in place for electing our MP's has provided us with some very popular, but incredibly incompetent people running our country.

Actually other people had already spotted it, and were discussing it before this thread appeared. The fact people cant see this other discussion should give some clue as to where, and by whom, this was being discussed. The team are fully aware there has been a problem with the forum and we don't just think its affecting a minority. There are ways to approach the people trying to fix the problem and ways to rub them the wrong way. Throwing toys out of the pram publicly on another site accusing us of sinking like the Titanic when the world isn't revolving around them, is a sure fire way to achieve the latter.

Yes there are, and thats whats been done to identify what we believe to be the cause/s (tables locked out during busy periods) - but it relies on people telling us when the problem occured, not just that a problem is occuring. specific times is a great start, as we cn then at least look through logs at that time.

The change to innoDB on at least one table that we believe is locking up is one of the fixes we hope to employ, however we do need to take the site offline to do this as the table in question is incredibly large, so its not doing it on the fly like we would hope. The plan is to take the forum offline later one evening, make the table change, and switch back on within the hour. This may be tonight.

No, a company makes a profit and also pays the people doing work for it. Even charities pay many of its employees. Neither myself or any others on the team running this forum/club take any money from it, indeed many of us contribute to it each year in some way. Im currently owed about £300 or so for money that I paid out in Wales and I beleive at least one other team member is out of pocket a few hundred quid or more. If you think we are taking your money and laughing when the forum is down for a couple of hours, then you are very much mistaken. If you think that the way this site is run and performs is unacceptable for what ammounts to no more than volunteer work, then I would disagree. No - you pay to advertise here and communicate with customers if needs be. You don't pay to run your business from here, how you run your business is up to you, we provide a medium by which your business can converse with and advertise to customers. If you are providing your customers with your forum PM or username as your businesses contact details, and the forum is unavailable at the time you or your customer wish to contact the other party, then that is a matter for how your company manages its customer relationships. If you feel the pro trader fee of £50 represents poor value for the opportunity to market your wares to a product specific audience, and have the opportunity to interact with them directly, then I respectfully suggest you see what that fee will buy you in other forms of advertising. A 6x4 cm advert in a local paper once a week for 52 weeks can run to several thousand pounds, a 30 second advert on local radio run 3 times a day for 52 weeks will be in excess of £10,000 +Vat . Neither of those provide you with the option to talk to your customers directly on that papers/broadcasters website. You missed an extra bit inbetween problem is being fixed and people get frustrated. We asked for any information from users to help us while we try and fix it. There have already been several changes made in an attempt to fix this issue, another has just been made this afternoon, what there hasnt been is a lot of constructive feedback from people in that thread detailing when they have experienced outages. We know it exists, and we have been working to resolve it. Your lack of contribution and then outburst is not helpful.

Ask - No Openly diss the forum and state that the team are doing nothing to fix it - Yes. If as you state the forum is dropping out every night for 2-3 hours, why is there nothing in the other thread for over a month, followed by half a dozen crap posts and no information what so ever? How very helpful of you.

There is an awful lot being done to try and rectify these issues. Apparently there are a "lot" of people affected by these issues, yet only one or two see fit to advise us of them and even less of those seem to volunteer anything remotely resembling constructive comments with information which can be used to assess wht the problem is and how it can be resolved. As an administrator of the forum I should probably know if the forum is offline, but if this happens at 1am in the morning, I wont, because Im asleep. We rely on feedback from others to try and help fix these issues. As there are a number of systems in place now that werent before and a huge number of changes have been made over the years after listening to feedback from members. To say the team arent doing anything about it is unfair. The sort of comments as posted are not helpful, and do nothing to inspire me or anyone else to fix anything for that individual. It may also be possible that other sites and or forums are not going offline at busy periods, or struggling with the size of database we have, as quite frankly, they don't have to deal with one tenth of the traffic we do. We've asked for any details to be recorded and to let the team know when these problems occur, but there seems to be a month long gap on the other thread asking for information, followed by about a few dozen useless posts discussing who may have been to blame in the chat aspect of the site. Very useful.

Because they know their golden boy would lose - he hasnt got the bottle for a fight. Look at how he backed off from Hamilton, instead opting for using the pits and strategy. Suppose thats a fair choice though, if you can get past without risking losing a wing, then great. But when that option isnt available, he bottles it.

How times have changed. I seem to remember a certain Mr Horner being very vocal last year when Ferrari moved Alonso ahead of Masss. "Out drivers would have been allowed to race" was the phrase iirc.

Is it a GT4? they can be 05 plate with the 300bhp engine. Red line is at 7k on that engine.

Ive got two different navigation software options on my cooknav that dont require a data connection. Navigon and sygic mobile maps. Neither of these require a data connection, and both navigated me around the lakes and back home without fail. Including warning me if a strayed over the limit. All configureable for different thresholds etc. The re-routing when I went off the desired route was instant too

That requirement applies to a manufacturing group as a whole, as such Ferrari's are already encompassed within the Fiat group, and therefore the fiat 500's. This is the reason that Aston Martin had to create the cygnet, as they dont own another brand of car that already sells smaller emission vehicles. They needed to produce the cygnet to lower their "groups" overall emissions as their group consists of one brand. Lamborghini/Bugatti are part of the same family as Seat/VW/Audi/Skoda with all their low emission vehicles, so there is no reason for a low emission Lambo. This restriction will almost certainly hamper the transition from any smaller independent sports car manufacturer to a larger mass production establishment, otherwise they will need to start producing a low emission vehicle at the same time. The only other option is to sell their brand to a larger manufacturer that already has low emission vehicles rolling off the production line.

It could be that Coulson didn't have any involvement. Should people be denied the right to be employed because they "could" be guilty of something? The people guilty of the crime are the people that dialled the numbers imho. I agree anyone that was involved in government being sent to prison wont look good, but how is that different from say an MP or two being sent to prison for defrauding the taxpayer? Blunket may have resigned in 2004, but if he was at the helm of the home office at the time the police were "allegedly" taking payments to release information, then he should be brought before any investigation to answer questions. Just as blair was brought before the Iraq enquiry well after he had left government.

If this is true then Cameron is going to face a lot of awkward questions. Pete Why? At the time of Milly Dowlers disappearance & the soham murders he wasnt even a front bench MP for the opposition. He may face some questions about how the police are going to clear this up now, but trying to lay blame at his door for the polices antics during the time of all this wont fly. David Blunket and/or Charles Clarke should be the ones facing the sternest questions imho.

You would have to ask cookbot, but I believe its actually easier to fit in the post 06 than the pre 06. Mine is an 05, which was an interesting fit, as we combined various elements of a post and pre 06 cubby to make it fit perfectly. If you have a facelift interior, then its a straight forward fit - its the wait for the suppliers of the cubbys that causes the delays at present.

Yep - I have one installed. I want to write a propper fair review of it rather than some thrown together quick effort. The weekend of LakeZ was the first time I used a lot of the functions and really had time to play with it. Bearing in mind this is a £500 unit, which will get you just a dvd head unit from halfords that replaces the bose and not have a factory fit look at all, I believe the system offers mind boggling value for money. Whilst waiting to do my propper review heres the highlights and lowlights: Highlights: fits perfectly into the cubby - you cant get a more factory fit look than this, unless it were to come from the factory. great screen - no glare, very responsive touchscren Very easy to use. Choose the sat nav software that you feel suits you best. Connects to the BOSE using the tape hack - so you can still keep your cd player, and bluetooth phone - the buttons on the steering wheel will still change the volume and control your phone - they just wont change track when using this system (they will still change track if you listen to a cd though) More functions than you can shake a stick at. Even a geek like me has more than enough to keep me occupied: A few feature highlights: Copy music/pictures/video to and from the device using your home wifi connection while the car is sat in the garage Use a data connection and you can navigate using google maps sattelite imagery. No data connecton - no problem, use one of TWO installed sat nav programs with maps built in. (I used both of these during the lakez weekend to test them and they both worked perfectly) Keep the missus happy at meets or shows by connecting this to a portable wifi device (phone of mifi) or even via USB to a phone, and you have the internet in your car. Ebay, streaming tv, streaming radio, podcasts, facebook, iplayer. Email. Its expandable too - comes with an 8GB card, or you can use a 16GB card - or if you install a USB lead to the system, you could stick a USB powered 1TB HDD on the end if you really like. There may even be the option for a reverse camera additoin too. You can have the optional component to connect to the cars ODBII port (invisible install), you can then check for error codes if your car is throwing any - saving money if you need to get something fixed, or you can just opt to doo all sorts of other geeky things like look at your air intake temperature, throttle position, coolant temperature etc etc. Think GTR dashboard. Want to leave a kid in the car while you are at a meet or show? It can connect to a wii remote and you can play snes games on it. In short, if you can do it on an android tablet conecte to yor home wifi, you can do it on this. Low lights: The only single point that some may not like, though this is common accross all systems that use the bose hack, is the volume and clarity of the sound. Don't get me wrong, its still prfectly fine for normal use, but if you really want to turn the volume up and have it blaring out, the tape hack way of inputting the signal isnt the greatest. Im sure there will be an easy fix for this either using a different type of supressor for the audio signal, or a small inline amp. Though, if you dont want to regularly crank up the volume to very high levels, this really isn't a problem at all. A proper AUX in on the bose would have rendered this a none issue. I shall try and do a more comprehensive review with pics etc, but for me it is exactly what I wanted from a system in the car.