Halleynet Headspace

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My Motherboard, an Asus A8V Deluxe uses the Promise Fastrak 378 onboard RAID controller and I discovered that there does not appear to be a Vista driver for this. However I decided to try using the Windows 2003 Server drivers which come on the ASUS CD and loaded them during Vista Set up and hey presto it all worked fine. I don’t seem to have any obvious issues and Vista isn’t whinging so it looks OK as a work round.

Hopefully this helps someone else in a similar situation.

Here at Halleynet Headspace we hate PC. PC sucks. if you agree signt he petition below. 

The world-famous Red Arrows have been banned from appearing at the 2012 London Olympics because they are deemed “too British”. Organisers of the event say that the Arrows military background might be “offensive” to other countries taking part in the Games. The display team have performed at more than 4000 events worldwide, but the Department of Culture, Media and Sport have deemed the display team “too militaristically British”. Red Arrows pilots were said to be “outraged”, as they had hoped to put on a truly world class display for the Games, something which had never been seen before. Being axed from a British-based event for being “too British” is an insult – the Arrows are a symbol of Britain. The Red Arrows have been excellent ambassadors for British overseas trade, as they display their British-built Hawk aircraft all over the world. The Arrows performed a short flypast in 2005 when the winning bid was announced, but their flypast at the Games was to have been truly spectacular. It is to be hoped that common sense prevails If you disagree with this decision, sign the petition on the link below http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/RedArrows2012/?ref=redArrows2012

If you are a user of ebay in the UK and need to send packages at reasonable cost occasionally you may have come across a website: postvan.com. They appear to be some sort of courier booking service, as if you arrange a parcel uplift through them they use other carriers, like, FedEx, TNT and CityLink to carry your parcels. i have always assumed they were like a brokerage buying up spare capacity in the networks?

Anyway i have always found thenm to be good value and reliable especially with heavier stuff that can be a pest to send when you don’t have a personal courier account.

I went to use them again this week though and the transaction seemed to go through OK but I then found my packages were not uplifted. I had not had a chance to check duringht eday, but it turned out i had received an email from a company called Net2Logistics who seem to be a similar type of operation to postvan.com.

It seems Postvan has folded and any business htey have is being passed onto net2Logistics. So far they seem OK, in that they arranged a refund of my fees, and also arranged uplift of my packages (with City Link) though they are more expensive by about 33% for this consignment.

I will see how they go, however be warned the last i looked Postvan.coms website was still taking orders even though its bust.

Your on an Easyjet flight. You’re waiting in the departure lounge. Suddenly there is an announcement, could Mr Bloggs travelling to Edinburgh on EZY426 come to gate 7.

Why then do about 100 others get up and start queuing at the gate? What possible advantage do they think they are going to get. I’ve seen them there 15 minutes before the flight is called. Everyone has a ticket with a boarding group ( Actually Easyjet’s entire boarding palavar just makes me sooo annoyed. I honestly can’t beleive this is better than giving everyone allocated seats. More later- I digress) , the groups used to be A,B,C and D but now I notice its A and B only. They have allowed for the first group now being “passengers who purchased ezy boarding”.

Easy Boarding!- what a bunch of muppets. Do you know I priced this for some flights I have to take with the family later in the the year-and it would have cost an extra £30 on the total cost of flights which were £130. Thats a cool 23% mark up – for what- so you can stand at the front of a queue- and queue longer! Half the time they use a bus to board the plane anyway so speedy boarding gets you precisely no where!

Anyway back to the queue- so you have 100 people crowding like a rugby scrum in front of the gate and then they say could people travelling with young children or needing more time please come to the gate. Next time I see a couple of middle aged adults with young Johnny (age 14 and 6 foot 7 tall) go to the front …. and get on, I am going to go tot he front too. When they question me about why I have pushed through I will let them know I am travelling with a virtual young child- just like Johnny’s Mum and Dad cos there is no way he qualifies!

The “infirm” too- I have no problem with old codgers who have to walk slow or can’t manage the stairs very well going up first but half of them that I see have just completed the veterans class in the London Marathon and are using their age as a VIP pass! Pay for Ezy Boarding you old buggerz!.

Then the moment comes- passengers with boarding group A please come to the gate- Half of the back of the queue surges forward because the knobs at the front are all in other boarding groups- but they are not allowed on yet. So now you have people who are allowed on trying to read other people who are in the queues boarding cards to see if they can overtake to get to the front- their now rightful place. I watched a fat lady stand at the front of the queue for a good 20 minutes the other day and she was to be one of the last to board. SIT DOWN YOU STUPID FAT BAG!

Finally the final part of the scrum ensues- everyone else comes forward. and proceed to get through the gate. Of course this is when high farce sets in, because the plane isn’t actually ready for boarding yet, or there is no bus to get you there. So everyone is simply queueing up outside.

You get to the front and they ask you for your ID. Now what exactly is this about? I fly all the time and the only people who do this are SqueezyJet. Why? I have a boarding card- LET ME ON! And now they ask you again between the gate door and the plane- usually there is some ground handling agent hiding between a couple of baggage trolleys carrying a Jobsworth clipboard, and they jump oit and ask you again. Its sooo annoying because you have usually just put it away so you are organised for tackling the final part of this pantomime- getting a seat!

So you get onto the plane, up the steps- more boarding pass chaos, and into the aisle of the plane.

Now practically everyone with EzyBoarding has grabbed a window seat, though theres usually loads left if your bothered. Everyone else who hasn’t got a window has grabbed the aisle seats- they don’t want to sit next to a stragner so they leave a space in the middle. Also the middle seat always feels more cramped as you have someones elbow on each arm rest either side. So we all grab the outsides in the vain hope the plane will be quiet and no one will want the middle seat….. but they always do, so the people in the outside need to stand up and let someone in the middle. Now I can sort of understand this bit- I hate the middle seat you get jammed in and feel squashed up. But why not simply allocate seat numbers or board by rows? My God its not difficult nor any more time consuming than this shambles! And then you finally discover that not only do you have a really cramped seat but also on the latest Airbuses operated by Squeezy Jet they did not buy the reclining seat options for passenger seats, so your fixed in an unnaturally cramped upright postion for the whole journey…… ARGGGHHHHH!