Ultimately, your bike doesn't matter much. Can you ride a ten mile time trial in under 20 minutes? I'm a crap time trialist (relative to other top tier amateurs), and I've done 19:59 on a steel frame, and 18:47 on a carbon time trial bike with full aero gear. If you're not going about that fast, your bike isn't the place you get your improvement - the rider is. Add on two minutes per decade of age over 30 to find the right time for you (eg, at 40, you need to do 22 minutes before your bike is the problem, at 50, you need to do 24 minutes, etc)

I'm still racing. The difference between a good bike and a crap bike is the difference between winning and not placing at all. If you're not racing, the difference between a good bike and a crap bike is the difference between getting caught at a set or traffic lights or not. There's not only the performance issue, of course, there's also comfort and handling, etc, but to be honest, when I'm not racing, I use a cheap steel frame, because yes, they're heavier, but they're more comfortable too.

Just don't stress about it too much. It doesn't matter anywhere near as much as most cyclists would have you believe.

If you like horror games, try to fine a copy of FIEND. It wasn't exactly an A list game - in fact it was a student's computer science course work. The graphics weren't great - it was a blend of top down and isometric artwork typical of a programmer who can't draw - but it's an excellent little Lovecraftian Horror. I lost my copy in a hard drive crash a few years ago, otherwise I'd just upload it somewhere.

Oh, actually, it looks like it was released properly eventually: https://frictionalgames.com/site/fiend

I haven't bought any games in years now. I was tempted by Wasteland 2, but what I really wanted was another Fallout, and it just didn't fill that gap. I'll almost certainly get Tides of Numenera, though. They won me over when they presented this image which looks quite familiar.

Quote:Do any of you play modded games???

I use KoLMafia religiously, and wrote one of the auto-updaters. Since KoL is a server/client model, Mafia is called a client, but if it was any other kind of game, it'd be a mod, or at least, a UI overhaul.

For Fallout 1, there isn't much. You want Fallout Fixt - (Full / All fixes and mods), which is a mod that, well, patches all the broken stuff.

For Fallout 2, you want MIB88 Megamod or Fallout 2 Restoration Project.

Fallout Tactics, Awaken is the closest thing we'll ever have to a real Fallout 3. It struggles because of Engine limitations, but it's far, far better than anything Bethesda will ever do. Enclave and Enclave 2 seem to be good, but I haven't tried them yet.

VTM:B, the Clan Quest Mod is the best. As the name suggests, it gives you a new quest for every clan, as well as some small extra quests here and there. The Final Nights is sort of good, but the authors don't understand choices and tradeoffs. They think everyone should be able to do everything, every playthrough, which ruins it. Too many skill books, nothing you can do with one character build, but not the other. The strong stupid character plays exactly the same as the manipulative, physically weak character. It's worth a playthrough, but only one.

Arcanum, polished_carcanum is mental. It makes everything play like the Wheel Clan. It's fun on paper but...isn't fun. Just use the unofficial path.

Wesnoth is a bit different too - because it's open source, and has an official server, it's called User Made Content. If it was any other game, they'd be called mods. I play almost exclusively mods with Wesnoth. Bad Moon Rising and Trinity are the best. Invasion From The Unknown and After the Storm come next. The Legend Of Mermywuss is mine. I'm not proud, and it was written for a twelve year old, but at least I gave something back.

Quote:Unfortunately , also , that many of my old nice / good game is not compatible with my new computer.

WINE is your friend. It runs more Windows software than Windows can. It's a bit behind with newer games, but much better support for older games than Windows Vista/7/8. You'd have to compile it yourself on Windows, though. Nobody supplies prebuilt binaries there. It's also easier to use with PlayOnLinux which plain won't work on Windows whatever you do - so a dual boot is your easiest bet.

Also DosBox for MS/DOS games.

I am into old films and TV programs - that's why I used that particular analogy. Archive.org is my favourite place on the internet. Gaming just isn't the same for me.

ShadowWalker wrote: Have you ever checked out www.gog.com for games?

Nah, I'm only interested in what I've already got. Retrogaming for me is more like watching a TV program from when you were a kid than having an interest in 1950's sci-fi.

GemRB will run Baldurs Gate. Because it uses SDL rather than OpenGL/DirectX, it'll probably work even on an old computer that doesn't have the 64MB graphics card, as long as the CPU is up to it.

I play a handful of PC games. Just Black Isle, Troika, etc. And Kingdom Of Loathing.

But more recently, I got me a dedicated gaming rig, one of these: RetroPie – Retro-gaming on the Raspberry Pi

The Peugeot (Tour 5/10), and Pinarello (Banesto Ole) market was taken over by Carerra, so that's probably what you're looking for.

You could also consider Viking, which tend to be a bit cheaper, but with a weight that reflects the price (ie, are quite a bit heavier).

I still have my Tour 5, but I can't really use it anymore. It's too old, the frame just isn't safe anymore - so I doubt you'll be able to find one second hand. The materials just didn't last this long.

If you're looking for something more upmarket, but without spending a fortune, Vivelo offer excellent value for money, though can be tricky to find internationally. $2,000 worth of Pinarello would be $1,200 with Vivelo.

Dirt roads aren't a problem. Only about six of us still use 700x23c tyres. The trend has been firmly towards fatter tyres in recent years, so it's probably not a factor in your decision, but see this hack for puncture proofing your tyres. I was dubious, but it works. Besides, thousands of professionals and amateurs do Strade Bianche and Paris-Roubaix every year or two on road bikes just fine.

You're just the troll that starts it all and never gets his hands dirty (or more accurately, edits posts into something unrecognisable afterwards), yes - but we both know what you're doing.

Freedom of speech applies to public places, not private forums.

The first rule of the forum is

Quote:Members should post in a way that is respectful of others

- which you're breaking even now. Rule three is

Quote:Members should remember this board is aimed at a general audience. Posting any material which is false, defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, adult material, or otherwise in violation of any International or United States Federal law will not be tolerated.

which you're also breaking.

All that's changed is the rules have been enforced in a few threads - and the worst hate speech threads are still open, because they've fallen off the front page by now.

The real questions is how you managed to get away with it so long.

You're absolutely right - the forums are the most bigoted I've read in years, and I'm disgusted with most of the people here. I felt sick when one of them dared to call me "friend".

The forums are basically member run though. Admin is never here. The despicable posts written lately reflect only on the member making them, nobody else.

I'd also urge you to continue posting - yellow triangle, and all that.

I've just been asked to take a pensioners group on the three peaks this summer.

It's surprisingly arduous, it includes crossing bogs, and even climbing up a waterfall - sometimes with the water actually flowing. I've done it several times, but always alone. I don't know anybody fit enough to do it - until being asked to lead the pensioners. They're not even asking me to go for the sake of having somebody relatively young and healthy, they're asking me because it can be surprisingly difficult to navigate your first time round.

It's okay to be philanthropic once you're a billionaire - but it doesn't make up for the things you did to do to get there. Note that none of them give away enough of their vast fortunes that they're left living anything but a life of hedonistic luxury either.

A poor man will make a sacrifice to help you. A rich man will give you fifty cents to take away his guilt.

Click on "My Sites", then click "Add New Site". Add your referral link where it says "link", and give it a Title. The title is largely cosmetic, it doesn't really matter what you call it. Then Click submit, and start surfing. Credits are assigned automatically by default.

Then edit your post and remove the program name, because you're not supposed to talk about them here,

About two hundred and fifty million, mostly in China, Asia and India where people can't afford to upgrade. There's also a lot of XP used by NGOs in all of Eastern Europe (except Romania). Why that is, is anyone's guess.

300 decent loaves or 1,000 crap loaves.

Oh, and if you've got a home network beyond a simple "plug it in and let the router decide" also check your hosts file, and make sure you haven't done anything dumb like confusing your raspberry pi with your router. That took some finding...

You get a DNS issue when, well, when you can't resolve the DNS. There are lots of reasons this can happen, some piece of software getting in the way of your connection, a problem with a DNS server itself, or a problem somewhere along the line (the ongoing TalkTalk issue, for example, throws a DNS issue, but is actually a packet loss problem).

Run the usual anti-virus and anti-malware stuff. Check your ISP's service status pages. TalkTalk is the only ISP with an issue bad enough to be reported on a tech forum, that doesn't mean it's the only ISP with any issues at all. If all those things come back fine, try switching to another DNS provider. Even if you decide not to keep them, it'll at least determine whether the problem is your end or somewhere else. OpenDNS offers this for free. If you know how to set DNS, 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220. If you don't,
OpenDNS : Computer Configuration