Wag

B&Q (and others) sell some stuff called something like Eezi-Cote, which are small glass jars of paint, with colours like flourescent orange, green and pink. You need cellulose thinners to clean your brushes though (it doesn't tell you that on the jar!) Use a matt white base coat first, then just dip the float tip in the colour and brush off the drips, hang upside down from the eye end and leave to dry. Sorted.

I use Firefox and Internet Explorer on the same PC. I use Firefox most of the time as it has some features, such as opening a new site in a "tabbed" frame, and a better download controller than IE. The problem is with sites which are designed for Internet Explorer and object to other browsers, which is why I keep Internet Explorer available - this is a particular problem with things like online shopping sites. There will be a new version (1.0) of Firefox available soon, so it might be worth waiting for that, but I wouldn't worry about using it - it's as good if not better than IE - and it's not bl**dy Microsoft.

The new version of Norton Ghost should transfer your current disk to a new one, and resize it to whatever new size you want (up to the 60Gb limit of your new drive, obviously. It might be worth transferring it to a 20Gb partition on the new drive, and use the free space for other partitions. You then need to swap the master and slave settings over. I'm not sure, but if you do use Ghost you might need to re-register XP with Microsoft because of the hardware change.

This is really sad news. I've just moved away from the Killingworth area, back to North Lincolnshire, so I know the place well. It is one of a very few good coarse fishing resources in the North East, and being in a town centre location is an ideal place for kids to start learning about angling. Hopefully the EA can diagnose the problem and clean the water up again - the area can't afford to lose many more coarse waters.

Z for Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..........

ZZ Top

Yazoo

X-Ray Spex

I heard this quote on the radio this morning:- Brian, on returning late one night gets into bed. His wife says "God you've got cold feet!" He replies "I'm sorry love - and I've told you before you can call me Brian in bed" Probably totally made up, but it did make me smile. He was indeed a one off. No doubt a flawed and troubled personality, but I always got the impression that he cared deeply for both the game and the people around him. He'll be in heaven now, thanking God for keeping his seat warm.

The dodo died... Di died... Dodi died... Dando died... Dido must be a bit worried!

Pick your rattle back up Rudd. As an angler there's not much I can do about lead in aircraft fuel/church roof/plumbers solder or whatever, but I can stop chucking it in the river by using something else. The anti's aren't going to put put pressure on Angling because of aviation fuel and church roofs, but a few dead swan carcasses on the front page of the local press or Countryfile or whatever and we're villains all over again. Let's not give more ammunition (whether it's lead shot or copper jacketed) to them. 'Adversity is the mother of invention' - if we can't use lead we'll come up with something else, safer and in the long run probably better.

Surely the best outcome for Angling and anglers is if our children don't grow up with a risk of brain damage, in an environment that is as safe as we can make it. As with most things which cause furore when initially banned, we look back after a few years and wonder what all the fuss was about, and why we bothered using the banned item in the first place. The phasing out of known poisonous substances (mercury, lead, asbestos etc.) must surely be encouraged. We are trying to promote ourselves as caring for and protecting our water courses in defence of attacks from anti-cruelty groups. I don't see how the continued introduction of lead into the environment is defensible.

Yeah hembo, it was a cheap shot. I think Scholes is one of the best midfielders we have ever had, but unfortunately he has had to play for a procession of managers who didn't know what to do with him, and with a selection of players of lesser ability. Not scoring for three years must tell you something. The current squad is as good as we've had for ages, but we still don't seem to be able to get a system of play that suits the players strengths.

Having been almost totally anonymous in an England shirt for the last few years it'll be a surprise if anyone notices he's gone.

I found it. It wasn't on AN after all. That's what you get browsing around fishing websites all day. Here's a link if anyone wants a giggle:- The Water Closet It made me laugh anyway.

Not a kinky request. I'm sure I read an article on AN a couple of years ago with the dubious title "How to sh*t in space" which was a really funny account of the desperate measures taken by the writer to carry out the necessary function whilst out fishing, but I'm bu$$ered if I can find it now. Does anyone recall it, or know where I can get a copy? I've tries all the usual search engines etc. Maybe I'm imagining it!

I suspect Peter is on talking about PestPatrol, which does find ad/malware etc, but will only delete what it finds if you register. I'm running Spywareblaster as well, and as Newt says it seems to work atreat, and has some extra features which are useful. Well done Steve for unearthing a useful bit of software.

Bertie Bassett?

You do that Ian. They always say you cast over far more fish than you cast to.

What's the problem? If you want to fish somewhere designed for angling, with access to a tackle shop, toilets, hot food, safe parking, with a good chance of catching plenty of fish, what could be better? - especially for women anglers, who have more specific needs in some areas. For a parent (or two) with a couple of easily distracted kids, or someone starting out in the sport, they are ideal. If you want seclusion, a more difficult challenge, and are willing to put up with a more uncomfortable environment, then fish a river (and the absence of anglers from most stretches of river would suggest a lot of people prefer the other option). Horses for courses, but with the demands of modern lifestyles I can easily understand why lots of people prefer to spend their precious time somewhere they can pretty much guarantee to catch - it's not for me, but I certainly wouldn't criticise anyone else for using them. [ 25. November 2003, 10:14 AM: Message edited by: Wag ]

My biggest carp was caught when I was rebaiting my hook and I caught the reel handle with my arm. The baited hook was pulled from my hand and landed in the water about two feet in front of me. An 18lb mirror snaffled it up and slowly swam away along the margin. I was so surprised it took me a few seconds to realise what had just happened, and I only just grabbed the rod before it was pulled in.

quote: i liked the Fields one. Lady "your drunk" Have a look at your avatar Chesters, it was Winston Churchill (to Lady Astor I think). They had a few good battles. She once said:- "Winston, if you were my husband I'd give you poison." to which Churchill replied:- "If you were my wife I'd drink it!" Can't imagine Blair and Howard coming up with anything quite so witty. [ 19. November 2003, 08:47 AM: Message edited by: Wag ]

I'm not sure this is a memory thing. If you give yourself a big enough fright - a near miss in the car, or a big spider in the bath if that's what you are frightened of - how long does it take before you calm down enough to consider your state as "normal". This is a natural fright/fight/flight response, and as humans we release adrenaline into the bloodstream, which takes quite a while to disperse. Perhaps the fish response is similar. I don't think fish have "memory" in any recognisable human form. I'm sure they have learned behaviour patterns, a genetic imprint which as a result of millions of years of evolution is perfectly in tune with their environment, and a short term cause and effect "memory" which allows them to adapt their behaviour to new stimuli, but I am concerned with the current fad for overlaying human emotions and behaviour on top of those of wild creatures (cheers Disney -you have a lot to answer for). [ 18. November 2003, 09:01 AM: Message edited by: Wag ]

This is my theory (stolen from Jack Hargreaves' Uncle Stanley) With shoal fish like roach, the small fish feed first, and the bigger ones watch them. If nothing untoward happens, the middle sized fish fish move on to feed. The largest (and oldest and wisest) stand back and watch, and again if nothing untoward happens, they move on to the feed. So, if you catch a load of small ones, then a few larger ones, the chances are the big ones are frit, and spook the whole shoal. On the other hand, maybe they were just fed up of hemp!

The easiest way would be to take the hard drive out of the '98 machine, plug it in to the spare IDE port on the XP machine and copy from one disk to the other via Windows Explorer. If that's not an option, if both machines have USB he could try borrowing a 128Mb USB memory key, and transfer the files in several goes. If he can get hold of a copy of Laplink and the correct parallel Laplink cable the files can be copied from one to the other, but that will take some time as the transfer rate is coparatively slow. (A USB crossover cable would be a lot quicker, but he might have to get one made up).