Thursday 27 December 2012

Do you pay Import Duty Buying from SLR Hut? How Much Are Customs Taxes with SLRHut?

How much is Import Customs Duty with SLR Hut? How Much Are Customs Taxes with SLRHut?



Do you pay Import Duty Buying from SLR Hut? How Much Are Customs Taxes with SLRHut?
Do you pay Import Duty Buying from SLR Hut?
How Much Are Customs Taxes with SLRHut?

Despite the .co.uk domain name SLR Hut is based in the USA so any goods ordered from them are liable for import duty consisting of VAT at 20% plus Customs duty. It has been reported that SLR Hut illegally declare extremely low values for goods they send to the UK in order to evade UK taxes and duties.

If you are caught with packages that have been declared of low value but are actually worth more then you could be liable for the additional VAT and duty that has been underpaid. Even if the value is declared low then you are still obliged to pay the duty and handling fee for the goods before you can receive them.

As an example we ordered some equipment costing £160 from Hong Kong and the duty including the shipping agents charge was £35 on top of the cost of the goods. It also appears that SLR Hut will sell you overpriced accessories and warranties which make their prices no cheaper than the goods you can buy in the UK without the same pressure selling techniques or hassle of ordering from abroad.

Monday 10 December 2012

Facebook Website Down 10 December 2012? Facebook DNS look-up failed

Looks like the Facebook website is currently down as of 10 December 2012. All other websites I use  are ok but Facebook is currently showing the following message on Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage

and on Google Chrome the message given is:

This web page is not available


How to fix "Facebook DNS look-up failed" error

Unfortunately as the DNS look-up failed error is due to a problem with the Facebook servers then there is no fix you can use on your PC to resolve it. As mobile devices can sometimes use different methods and routes to access Facebook you may be able to connect using your cellphone/mobile phone or iPhone/iPad with the Facebook app instead.

Facebook Error Messages 
The server at www.facebook.com can't be found because the DNS look-up failed. DNS is the network service that translates a website's name to its Internet address. This error is most often caused by having no connection to the Internet or a misconfigured network. It can also be caused by an unresponsive DNS server or a firewall preventing Google Chrome from accessing the network.

Facebook Website Down 10 December 2012? Facebook DNS look-up failed
Facebook Website Down 10 December 2012? Facebook DNS look-up failed

This follows an outage on Google's Gmail service earlier today when the email platform used by millions worldwide was unavailable for around 15 minutes from 5pm GMT.

Previously this message has occured when Facebook's server database has failed meaning the servers controlling internet traffic lookups are unable to connect to it

This problem can be caused by a variety of issues, including:
  • Internet connectivity has been lost.
  • The website is temporarily unavailable.
  • The Domain Name Server (DNS) is not reachable.
  • The Domain Name Server (DNS) does not have a listing for the website's domain.
  • There might be a typing error in the address.
  • If this is an HTTPS (secure) address, click Tools, click Internet Options, click Advanced, and check to be sure the SSL and TLS protocols are enabled under the security section.

Saturday 8 December 2012

Baumatic B144SS Oven Not Heating Up - Fan Not Working

The Baumatic oven in our rental property seems to be a fairly unreliable piece of equipment. The fan has already failed once and I had a call from the tenants this week that the Baumatic B144SS electric oven was not working after the rear of the oven/fan started glowing hot and the Baumatic oven was no longer heating up.

It appears that the element has failed on the Baumatic oven and that the element needs to be replaced. There are 4 screws holding on the rear plate of the oven which covers the fan and element. On inspection the element had broken so was no longer a continuous loop. A replacement element was £25.


Baumatic B144SS Oven Not Heating Up - Element replacement
Baumatic Oven Not Heating Up - Element replacement

The element is straightforward to fit and is attached by 2 screws that are easily accessible.

Once the element is replaced then the rear plate can be fitted back with the 4 screws again.

Friday 30 November 2012

Sumvision Cyclone Astro+ Android 7" Tablet Review

This is a review of the Cyclone Astro+ by Sumvision which is a 7" Android Tablet running Android 4.0.1 ICS that connects via WiFi.

The tablet is well constructed and allows access to the Google Play store. It has a slot to enable additional storage to be added using micro SD cards.

Sumvision Cyclone Astro+ Android 7" Tablet Review
Sumvision Cyclone Astro+ Android 7" Tablet Review

The main downside that I have found with the Cyclone Astro+ Android 7" Tablet is the Wifi connection doesn't automatically restore when in range of a previously used network. There may be a software update to resolve this but it is frustrating to need to reset the WiFi every time you move back into range of a hotspot or the tablet wakes from sleep mode

Microsoft Money 2005 Crashes on Startup Windows Vista XP

Are you having problems with Microsoft Money where it crashes on startup ? The error given is APPCRASH and identifies NTDLL.DLL as being the cause.

I recently had a MS Money file that crashes everytime that it was opened, leaving an LRD file behind of the same name as the MNY file. MS Money closed as soon as the program loaded and it wasn't possible to update any settings in the file.

On further investigation it appears that there was an error with the reports that were being shown on the home screen. A different MS Money file could be opened successfully and data viewed. In addition the repair option within Money was tried and this didn't detect any errors in the file.

In order to resolve the problem I tried a number of different solutions suggested in various forums including changing DEP settings to exclude MS Money from being checked but none of these worked.

As I thought the problem was due to the home screen configuration trying to display some invalid data and other files opened ok, I thought that being able to change the home screen configuration may resolve the problem of MS Money crashing on startup if the settings applied to any MS Money file not just the one open at the time.

The solution I found was as below:

Step 1:
Run MS Money with a new or blank file

Microsoft Money 2005 Crashes on Startup Windows Vista XP
Microsoft Money 2005 Crashes on Startup Windows Vista XP
Step2:
Go to the Tools menu and select Settings.

Step 3:
In MS Money settings, choose the Homepage Display options

Step 4:
Remove all the items in the list so the homepage will be blank.

Microsoft Money 2005 Crashes on Startup Windows Vista XP
Microsoft Money 2005 Crashes on Startup Windows Vista XP

Step 5:
Close MS Money and re-open the file that was generating the error.

Hopefully your MS Money file will now open successfully.

This experience has reminded me of the benefits of having multiple version backups of your MS Money files so that you can restore back to a recent timepoint rather than needing to input masses of  data again.

Friday 16 November 2012

Canon Pixma MG6150 Scanner Error 214550 WiFi

I've recently started getting Error Code 2,145,50 on my Canon Pixma MG6150 Printer/Scanner when scanning multi page documents back to my PC using WiFi. This has never happened before but is now happening routinely whenever scanning. The PC is running Windows Vista 64 bit.

The last scan I successfully did was at the start of Oct so I am wondering if one of the Microsoft updates in mid October has affected security or some internal settings.


Canon Pixma MG6150 Scanner Error 214550 WiFi
Canon Pixma MG6150 Scanner Error 214550 WiFi
As soon as I find a solution I will post it here but if anyone has a fix please post a reply below.

Thursday 15 November 2012

Newsnight PPI Scam Claim Company Ripoffs

Rather appropriately after I posted on the blog earlier today about the PPI Text message scams that are annoying mobile users across the country BBC Newsnight ran a report this evening about the PPI Claims industry and their methods for gaining customers.

PPI Claims Spam Text SMS message companies
Entitlement Agency PPI Claim ripoff


Newsnight PPI Scam Claim Company Ripoffs
Newsnight PPI Scam Claim Company Ripoffs
 

Is The Entitlement Agency Legitimate or a Fake Scam?

Is The Entitlement Agency Legitimate or Fake? Is Entitlement Agency a Scam? PPI Text message Spam

Despite its official sounding name The Entitlement Agency is nothing to do with government and all to do with spamming people about PPI claims. Rather misleading of them to try to use a name like that to give the appearance of helping people claim - but they have a history in this field having previously claimed Childrens Tax Credits for people as this BC news story explains http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7785813.stm

The Entitlement Agency are buying up lists of contacts harvested by spammers sending out thousands of nuisance text SMS messages to mobile phones. They may be able to legitimately claim that they are not sending out these spam text messages but by buying the lists from spammers they are creating a demand that causes more spam to be sent.

The Entitlement Agency seemed to have no interest in checking if a PPI claim was genuine but only that they wanted details to send off to their investigations team. I was very clear that no PPI was ever taken out yet they still insisted they wanted to submit a claim.

Is The Entitlement Agency Legitimate or Fake? Is Entitlement Agency a Scam?
Is The Entitlement Agency Legitimate or Fake? Is Entitlement Agency a Scam?

As a company that generates spam text messages even indirectly I would avoid any contact with them and do not give them any of your contact details. Having used methods such as spam text messaging you have no idea what will happen to your personal data once they have it.

Frozen Pension SMS Text Spam - Cash Payment Scam

Following on from the PPI compensation spam text messages the spammers have now moved on to frozen pensions. The following message was received - the receiver has no pension and there are no contact details or reason for being sent such a message.

Hi, As you have a frozen pension, you can get a large cash payment within 4 weeks. to get it started reply CASH to this text.

Message sent from 07901-277329

Frozen Pension SMS Text Spam - Cash Payment Scam
Frozen Pension SMS Text Spam - Cash Payment Scam

Hoax PPI Claim Scams SMS - PPI Insurance Claim Spam Text Messages

The hoax PPI claim scam text messages are still alive and kicking - this is one received this week. I replied to find out how much I was owed - bearing in mind I have never taken out PPI insurance.

The SMS text message reads:
We have been trying to contact you about your PPI claim, we still have £2308.34 in your name waiting to be sent to you. To get it sent out today reply PPI.

hoax ppi scam text PPI Insurance Claim Spam Text is 07747124749
The number sending PPI Insurance Claim Spam Text is 07747124749
The number sending PPI Insurance Claim Spam Text is 07747124749

It appears from the replies that any replies to this number are then sold on to various other PPI claim companies, a very dubious practice if they are obtaining leads gathered through deception like this.

Numbers used by the PPI claim companies to follow up on fake PPI claims are:

01625-665147
01902-371547
01902-371544
01902-440156
Companies operating in this way appear to be Ucall, Flame Communications

Flame Communications even placed a presentation online showing how great their spamming service was for generating leads that could produce £250,000 income from commission on PPI claims.

http://www.slideshare.net/walsh3017/ppi-hot-key-presentation-13553892

Tuesday 6 November 2012

Microsoft Money 2005 Free Download

After ending support for Microsoft Money they produced a final version that removed some of the issues with security and tie in with MSN accounts as well as fixing problems with downloading share prices from the internet.

This version is completely free and is available to download directly from Microsoft so you know it is a genuine, non-virus programme. Support for MS Money may have ceased but it is still a great piece of personal finance software and this version is a UK specific one.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/5/8/858EDC2F-1806-4D2D-85E3-0FBB08CB720A/Money2005-UK-QFE2.exe.exe

New downloads of Microsoft Stock quote prices - price updates stopped working some time ago but a developer has produced a programme to allow MS Money stock prices to update agaihttp://photo3-tech.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/ms-money-quotes-working-again.htmln. Details here

Thursday 1 November 2012

Jimmy Savile on Have I Got News for You "Confession"?

Paul Merton recently stated that it had been suggested that Jimmy Savile had been exposed on Have I Got News for You but that the episode had been suppressed. Apparently it wasn't true and no such rumours are true.

However Jimmy Savile did appear on Have I Got News for You. When he was asked "Jimmy, what do you do in your caravan?" His answer was "Anyone I can lay my hands on." 

Rather shocking with the benefit of hindsight.

Watch the video at 45seconds in for the clip from  Have I Got News for You

Jimmy Savile on Have I Got News for You "admission"?
Jimmy Savile on Have I Got News for You. Is this a "Confession"?

Sunday 21 October 2012

Microsoft Money Automatic Investment Updates stopped working

How to fix Microsoft Money Automatic Stock Updates stopped working?


Since early August 2012 Microsoft Money Stock/Share/Fund Prices have stopped updating in the UK. Updates had stopped for the US some time ago. It reports 'your call was successful' but there are no new prices added to your investments.

As of September it appears that online investment/share price updates for Microsoft Money have restarted for some versions but fund prices have not. Other versions of Microsoft Money such as Money 2000/2001/2002/2003 are now getting an error "Money was unable to connect to online prices server"

There is a later sunset version of Microsoft Money that is still working with the fund & share price updates that was released when Microsoft stopped supporting Money. This can still be downloaded from the direct link below on the MS website. The download search link on Microsoft website doesn't work and just creates a loop looking for the file.

I've tested this and it automatically upgrades the Money 2000 Professional and Business file to the latest 2005 version of MS Money and then updates the online share & fund prices correctly for you.

You can download Microsoft Money 2005 QFE from this link. This is a UK version, the USA sunset version can be found on the Microsoft website.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/5/8/858EDC2F-1806-4D2D-85E3-0FBB08CB720A/Money2005-UK-QFE2.exe.exe

Versions of Microsoft Money that appear to have this error downloading fund and share prices are:

Microsoft Money 1999
Microsoft Money 2000
Microsoft Money 2001
Microsoft Money 2002
Microsoft Money 2003
Microsoft Money 2004

More tips and advice on MS Money and how to update it here

Monday 10 September 2012

Extracting Files from LOB column in Oracle Database - How to Export LOBs to Filesystem

I recently needed to extract data that had been stored as a CLOB (LOB) column in an Oracle database table. The data was a series of PDF and DOC files that had been saved as LOBs but I needed to save the files to a filesystem for use on a website rather than being within the Oracle database.

There were a number of scripts that I found that could save LOB data from Oracle database tables but they were very clunky and manual that may have been suitable for extracting and saving a file from a single CLOB field in Oracle but were totally inappropriate for saving multiple files from a LOB column on a table.

Eventually after many Google searches for various terms I found a piece of software called OraLOB Editor that quickly and easily allowed the export of the files stored as LOBs to the file system. It almost instantly processed every row of the relevant table and created separate files for each PDF stored in the CLOB field.

http://www.withdata.com/oralobeditor/import-export-lob.html

OraLOB Editor also allows the import of LOB data and appears to be the only tool that has this level of versatility for extracting files from LOB data in Oracle with any level of automation for saving multiple files to the filesystem.

OraLOB Editor has a free 30 day trial so that you can test whether it works sufficiently for your needs and only costs $75 for the full licence which is a bargain compared to the effort that would be required to script the process and then manually run it.

Microsoft Money Online Stock Prices Updates Stop Working

UPDATE: May 2014 - Stock Downloads now working again!

New downloads of Microsoft Stock quote prices - price updates stopped working some time ago but a developer has produced a programme to allow MS Money stock prices to update agaihttp://photo3-tech.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/ms-money-quotes-working-again.htmln. Details here

Microsoft Money Online Stock Prices Updates Stop Working

Since early August 2012 Microsoft Money Stock/Share/Fund Prices have stopped updating in the UK. Updates had stopped for the US some time ago. It reports 'your call was successful' but there are no new prices for funds in your portfolio.

As of September it appears that online share price updates for Microsoft Money have restarted for some versions but fund prices have not. Other versions of Microsoft Money such as Money 2000/2001/2002/2003 are now getting an error "Money was unable to connect to online prices server"

There is a later sunset version of Microsoft Money that is still working with the fund & share price updates that was released when Microsoft stopped supporting Money. This can still be downloaded from the direct link below on the MS website. The download search doesn't work and just creates a loop looking for the file.

I've tested this and it automatically upgrades the Money 2000 Professional and Business file to the latest version and then updates the online share & fund prices correctly for you.

You can download Microsoft Money 2005 QFE from this link. This is a UK version, the USA sunset version can be found on the Microsoft website.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/5/8/858EDC2F-1806-4D2D-85E3-0FBB08CB720A/Money2005-UK-QFE2.exe.exe

Versions of Microsoft Money that appear to have this error downloading fund and share prices are:

Microsoft Money 1999
Microsoft Money 2000
Microsoft Money 2001
Microsoft Money 2002
Microsoft Money 2003
Microsoft Money 2004

Why is microsoft money not updating fund prices?

Saturday 1 September 2012

Oracle Application Server 10g Swap Space - Setup Installs Fails

When installing Oracle Application Server 10g on Windows 2003 R2 an error can be displayed that install pre-requisites have failed due to insufficient Swap Space. The installer aborts at this point and prevents you continuing the installation despite all the requirements being met according to the Oracle Application Server 10g documentation.

On Win2003 server the swap space is system managed and changing this requires the database to be rebooted which would affect the database users as well as impact on performance.

Checking swap space: 0 available, 500 required Failed.

The solution is to run the installer without the system pre-requisites so that the installer can continue. As the system has the correct requirements the install should proceed successfully. The command line to use is:

setup -ignoresysprereqs

This assumes that your installation server does meet the minimum requirements and that the error that causes the setup to fail is not down to a genuine lack of resources.

Friday 3 August 2012

VW Passat TDI140 Diesel Sport Estate Review

Review of the VW Passat TDI140 Diesel Sport Estate

If you are looking for a great performance, spacious family estate that is also very economical then the Volkswagen Passat TDI140 Sport could be the perfect car. As well as covering huge mileages with ease the car will also return 50+mpg on the motorway.

VW Passat TDI140 Diesel Sport Estate

VW Passat TDI140 Diesel Sport Estate

The VW Passat TDI140 Sport Estate has sports interior with comfortable sports seats and durable cloth trim. The exterior of the car has 17" alloy wheels and is slightly lowered compared to the standard VW Passat.

The VW Passat estate is hugely spacious and the legroom for reat seat passengers gives room for pretty much any height. The space in the rear is better than in some much larger executive cars and is vast compared to cars such as Jaguar XJ or Range Rovers.


VW Passat Estate with 5 spoke alloys 17" wheels
VW Passat Estate with 5 spoke alloys 17" wheels
Review of the VW Passat TDI140 Diesel Sport Estate

Interior of the VW Passat TDI140 Diesel Sport Estate




Tuesday 24 July 2012

Bosch AXT22D Shredder Review

This is a review of the Bosch AXT22D Shredder that we purchased recently. The UK retail price for a new Bosch AXT22D Shredder is around £250 but we managed to bag an Ebay bargain at under £160.

Once unpacked from the box the shredder is easy to assemble just requiring the feeder head to be attached to the base of the shredder motor unit. This is easily done with a sturdy knob. If this is not attached or tightened correctly the Bosch AXT 22D Shredder will not start and emits a beeping sound.

The shredder is impressively quiet in operation and far less noisy than previous shredders I have used. The Bosch AXT22D Shredder can take some large branches with ease and effortlessly turns them into small pieces. It is less good at garden material containing large amounts of greenery or leaves which can tend to clog the shredding mechanism. The collection container is a handy feature meaning that the shredder can be used inside a shed without making a huge mess but also can quickly fill up with the speed that the shredder can process branches. The collection basket has 2 lugs to the rear that would appear to be its weak point. As they are plastic I can imagine that they will not survive long term.

The shredder has wheels so that it can be moved around. These help as it is a much heavier machine than other shredders such as the Bosch AXT 2200 that have rotating blades rather than the rolling drum. However the weight is mainly in the upper part of the shredder which makes it very unstable to move around and it can easily rock from side to side when being moved about.

Some reviews of the Bosch AXT22D Shredder have mentioned that the short cable is a problem but for most uses it will be used at some distance from a power outlet so an extension cable would be required anyway.

Summary of Bosch AXT22D Shredder

Pros:
Able to handle large branches with ease
Fast processing of large volumes
Quiet
Weight makes it stable in use

Cons:

Clogs with too much leafy material
Unstable when being moved on its wheels
Long term life of collection basket


Saturday 14 July 2012

Are Laskys & Comet The Same Company or Linked?

Is there a connection between Comet and Laskys?


We recently bought a tumble dryer from Laskys via Ebay, excellent price and no charge for delivery. The total price for the White Knight tumble dryer was £133 at the Laskys Ebay store including delivery.

When the van arrived to deliver the tumble dryer we were very surprised to see it was from Comet. On further investigation it appears that Comet and Laskys are part of the same group but Laskys offer the better online deals.

So if you are worried about buying from Laskys on Ebay bear in mind that they are part of the same group as Comet and the goods may well be delivered by Comet from the same warehouse as if you had bought directly from Comet anyway.

Laskys price on Ebay  £133
Comet price online      £149

Saving £16 by using a different company in the same group - good result!

Thursday 12 July 2012

VW Passat Diesel Piezo Injector Replacement Recall

VW are sending letters to all owners of VW Passats with Diesel PD140 engines for the injectors to be checked and replaced. Apparently the failure rate of these has been exessively high and when they fail the car engine stops immediately so it is a fairly important safety issue.

VW Passat Diesel Piezo Injector Replacement Recall
VW Passat Diesel Piezo Injector Replacement Recall: Photo credit : 1810martin
My VW Passat 2007 Sport went to the main dealer yesterday and all 4 piezo injectors were replaced as part of this replacement programme. Not bad at all when some owners have previously been charged over £1000 for a single injector to be replaced! Even better when the car has over 125,000 miles on the clock and these should last the same mileage again

I have been very impressed with the way Volkswagen handle warranty and safety related issues on their cars. Some time ago when I owned a VW Golf Mark 2 it was recalled for replacement of the heater matrix. Quite incredible when the car was 13 years old at the time and the original matrix had clearly worked ok for all that time.

More info about the VW Passat injectors can be found here

Wednesday 11 July 2012

No Signal on O2 Network - Mobile System Down Again? Affecting Tesco Mobile & Giffgaff

O2 Network Down with No Signal  (so also affecting Tesco Mobile and GiffGaff)


Luckily my mobiles are with Vodafone and Three but a couple of colleagues trying to arrange a shoot today are with O2 and neither have had any mobile network signal since lunchtime. It isn't geographical as they are in totally different parts of the UK, one in Kent and one in Manchester so I am currently relaying messages between them.

UPDATE - 11pm on Weds 11th July 2012 - O2 have issued a statement that the problems are due to a failure in their core network. Friend's mobiles are still showing no signal nearly 12 hours after it started.

UPDATE - As of 10pm Weds 11th July the problem still appears to be continuing. Many friends in Kent are still reporting that they have no O2 mobile signal.

After the previous problems with O2 it does appear that they have serious reliability issues with their network or very poor single points of failure.
O2 Network Down (Again) with No Signal
O2 Network Down (Again) with No Signal
This problem also is affecting Tesco Mobile and Giffgaff networks which piggyback on the O2 transmitters so are impacted by failure of any parts of the O2 mobile phone network. Amazingly considering the extent of the outage and disruption across the UK the Tesco Mobile website has no information at all about the problems and the O2 website has crashed under the volume of hits.

If you need to check the location of O2 transmitters in your area to see where the nearest is located then click here for more info

How to avoid Form Model Scams in London

Thursday 5 July 2012

New TV Show by Maverick Television


I hope you don’t mind me getting in touch, but I work for a television production company in London called Maverick TV and we are currently looking for people to take part in a brand new show.  

We are looking for young people between the ages of 18-30  from all walks of life to answer a series of general knowledge questions for a new Tv show .We are looking for men and women from various backgrounds and professions to take part in some fun filming as part of a brand new show! Filming will take place at the end of July to early August in London, Bristol, Birmingham, and Manchester. 

We are looking for a large number of people to be involved, so I was hoping you might be able to help us to spread the word. Filming should take no more than 20 minutes.  I would really appreciate it if you might be happy to forward on this information to any of your colleagues or friends. Anyone that would like to find out some more can  e-mail me directly or call me on the number below. 

Many Thanks in advance

Toral 

Toral Davda
Assistant Producer
40 Churchway
London
NW1 1LW
Tel. 0207 874 6667
t.davda@mavericktv.co.uk

Friday 15 June 2012

How do I turn off the print notification window that opens up when documents print?


How do I turn off the print notification window that opens up when documents print? 

This small window is attached to the system tray and requires an extra mouse click to close it. This happens with HP laser printer drivers on PC with Windows XP Professional.


1. Click the Start button on the Windows taskbar. 
2. Click "Printers and Faxes."   (Or "Settings" and then "Printers and Faxes.")
3. Click the File menu in the Printer and Faxes window that appeared.  
4. Click "Server Properties."  
5. Click the Advanced tab in the Print Server Properties window that appeared.  
6. Uncheck "Show informational notifications for local printers."  
This will disable notification messages for printers directly
connected to the computer.
7. Uncheck "Show informational notifications for network printers."  
This will disable notification messages for printers that are shared
on the network.
8. Uncheck "Notify when remote documents are printed." 
9. Click "OK" in the Print Server Properties window.  
10. Close the Printers and Faxes Window

Thursday 24 May 2012

New Range Rover Spy Shots: Photos of 2012 Range Rover being tested

The new Range Rover is coming soon. These Spy Shots were taken in Warwickshire where the Land Rover factory is located.


spy shot photos of New Range Rover 2012
New Range Rover spy shots


Photos of New Range Rover 2012 spy shots
New Range Rover spied out testing
Although the mule is disguised you can see the familiar shape. Checks on the registration number show that it is registered to Land Rover and has a 5 litre engine.

VW Golf TDI 130 Mark4 Review - The love affair continues

The love affair with the VW Golf TDI 130 Mark 4 diesel continues. We've just had our third MOT since owning the car and again the Golf has sailed through without any issues at a current mileage of 176,000.

The car is in daily use for long journeys and on the most recent fill up with diesel recorded 54mpg. Even brand new cars struggle to reach that consumption and at a much higher annual cost. The car cost £3500 when bought 3 years ago and on worst case giving it a zero valuation that still works out at less than £100 per month. More realistically based on current valuations for a similar mark 4 Golf Tdi130 on Autotrader it would seem reasonable to assume a value of £2500. A total depreciation of £1000 over 3 years is incredibly low and shows the popularity that the VW Golf mark 4 still maintains.

VW Golf TDI 130 Mark 4 Photo
VW Golf TDI 130 Mark 4 Photo
The best points about the VW Golf TDI 130 are:
  • Fuel economy and VED rates
  • Performance and ease of acceleration
  • Driving position and seat comfort. The seats are extremely supportive and make long journeys a breeze
  • Steering and handling. The steering has great feel and has the perfect weighting
  • Instruments are positioned for good visibility and controls are all well placed
  • Holds value very well with exceptionally low depreciation
  • Handles high mileage amazingly well with little obvious sign of wear
And the negatives about the Golf Diesel TDI130?

The main one is that the front valance below the bumper is quite low and invariably catches on kerbs. On this Golf TDI 130 it has been torn off a couple of times and the same happened on the Golf TDI90 estate that I had previously.
Rear space isn't fantastic but is sufficient for children up to late teens

Monday 14 May 2012

Solar Panels - How Much Electricity Is Generated in UK?

There is now a website that shows the output month by month that can be generated by UK solar panels in South East England. The site has details of the solar PV system specification as well as photos of the solar panel installation.

Solar panels in the UK

Saturday 5 May 2012

SLR Hut Reviews - Sales of Cheap iPads, DSLR cameras, Camcorder

There are many reviews of online retailer SLRHut on Trusted Pilot  website. Look a bit closer and the majority, if not all, of the reviews appear to be faked. It is highly unusual for people to create a single review of one supplier and never comment again - almost every review of SLR hut is by someone who has not reviewed any other company which makes it look like SLR hut themselves have created the reviews.

The facts about SLR Hut.co.uk

1) Despite their website title SLRHut - consumer electronics in UK SLR hut are not based in the UK and operate from the USA.

2) The address they quote in London is just a mailbox next to a takeaway, it is not a store at all

3) All goods will be supplied from the USA as grey imports so you will not have a UK warranty

4) Their phone number may be a London number but it diverts to the USA as shown by the opening hours which are USA office hours not UK

5) Prices shown do not include UK taxes, VAT or duty. The checkout process adds to the price but you have no guarantee that you will not be hit with more duty when the goods are delivered.

6) SLR hut claim to have been trading in the USA for 10 years but there is no company of that name trading in the USA. The SLR hut.COM website is the same as the UK one so is not usable by USA customers as all prices are in pounds. SLR hut website was only created in 2011.

7) Fake reviews on the web to give impression of

Based on all the above facts would you trust a company that misleads in this way to resolve any problems if you did buy your iPad or DSLR camera from them?

SLR hut reviews - cheap ipads, cameras, camcorders
Think about all these points when looking at an online retailer to buy your iPad 3, DSLR camera or camcorder from. Companies like Amazon or Park Cameras may be higher priced but at least you have a guarantee

Wednesday 25 April 2012

How to Find Mobile Phone Masts/Transmitters in Your Area

Are you worried about mobile phone masts in your area or just want to locate which mobile transmitter network is nearest to you?

If you put in your town or post code to the Ofcom website then you can see all the different mobile phone masts in your area and which mobile phone network company operates them.

http://www.sitefinder.ofcom.org.uk/search

There are many different designs of mobile phone masts now ranging from the traditional several elements arranged around a central pole to the more disguised designs that are more like thin lollipops!