Mortgage Free - so good they'll do it twice! Wynnvegas aiming for the big house

RosieTiger

Billy what's involved in the hacking and does it pose any risks for the iPad. I noticed you mentioned the plan to do it some weeks ago. How has it worked out and what was involved?

babyb06

Glad you managed to get your IPad - keep going with Froggy's suggestion to get compensation - I am sure you can do it!!

RosieTiger wrote: »

Billy what's involved in the hacking and does it pose any risks for the iPad. I noticed you mentioned the plan to do it some weeks ago. How has it worked out and what was involved?

I too am interested in this - I am still dreaming of an IPad 2!

BabyB

LilacPixie

I have ipad envy I seriously want one but no idea what version. I am quite poor though so it really is just envy. we bought new sofas

wynnvegas

Morning ATT,

There's bound to be a case for setting up the NBW board for all the bathrooms and bedrooms that need doing up. It's clearly just the season for it. I'm led to believe that it happens every spring but I've never taken part before so it's all new to me!

I really feel for you with the tax issue. I think the bungling incompetence that runs right around the public sector is a proper disgrace. I wasn't all that fussed about it until I started paying for it to the tune of nearly £1,000 a month. Now, I've got a strong and growing opinion on the waste that goes on - I worry I might be becoming a Tory!! On that, I got a lecture from Moyra's dad last night about voting. He asked who I was going for in the Scottish election and I confirmed I had already stuck my polling card in the bin. That didn't go down well at all!

I've been signed up to Groupon for a wee while but never actually taken any of their deals. It's a similar thing with kgbdeals and 5pm who seem to fire off all the offers of the day. I need to sign myself up to topcashback as I've had a lot of success with Quidco in the last year and a bit.

The skirt got a good review from Moyra's family yesterday. Hopefully once the stuff comes to adorn the remainder, I'll get a viewing out to the general MSE public for opinion!

I've only heard a very basic review of Apple TV but I'll definitely look a bit further into it before grabbing it for the house. I'm down the road in the next couple of weeks for t-3 days each so I'll see about hitting a Mint hotel to have a bit of a play. I'm neither an anti-Apple sceptic or a dyed in the wool fanboy so I'll judge each thing on it's relative merits. Thus far, iTunes, the iPods, iPhones and iPad have all impressed with no niggles at all.

Cheers,

Billy

wynnvegas

Hi RT,

I'm afraid I don't have a clue. I gave it to one of the techies at work and got it back the next again day with everything I apparently need. The main things for me with the iPad have always been web browsing, iTunes backup and getting enough media content to satisfy the flights to and from Vegas this year. The web browsing works perfectly, I've still to stick it onto iTunes to get the backup sorted and, with the previously unheard of foursome of cydia, installeous, mobile theatre and dtunes, the media content has kicked off very well. As to the risks, I'm told that it will work fine with all the normal bits and pieces so it shouldn't cause a problem (and this is from a guy that has been running all this stuff on his iPhone for the last year). The jailbreak can also be reversed should the requirement arise.

On the latter point, the Mobile Theatre App is amazing. I do worry about the legality of it as it does let you download films that aren't even out at the cinema here yet. I've downloaded The Kings Speech, Limitless and the first season of Spartacus: Blood and Sand. The picture quality is very good but where the stuff is coming from is a bit of a concern. I don't think my blind ignorance will be much of a defence so I won't bother with any more of the films!

Cheers,

Billy

wynnvegas

Hi babyb,

I'll definitely pop a wee email off to PC World today to put them in their place. I'll let you know what, if anything, comes of it.

I've had a look at the iPad2 (which seems to be more iPad1.5) and really can't see enough there to justify me getting that. I had the option of both and it being slightly faster (particularly via 3G) was the only merit to it as far as I could see (the camera and facetime thing is a complete non event for me). I don't ever intend using it via 3G (and as such didn't grab the 3G model) but a USB port or higher storage capacity would have swayed me.

Cheers,

Billy

wynnvegas

Hi LP,

Me too. For pretty much all the time that we didn't have people over, Moyra hogged the iPad looking at some stupid game. It's going the same way as the iPhone so I can see me needing to get an additional one for her. For the sake of nearly £200, I'd stick with the original and best iPad (or wait for iPad3 to rear it's head as I think we'll see that before the end of 2011). Enjoy the new sofas!

Cheers,

Billy

wynnvegas

Morning All,

A busy weekend at our house where we had friends over for dinner on Friday and Saturday, all of Moyra's family over on Sunday. Inbetween times, we managed our latest and greatest spring clean and, after dismantling the massive computer unit in our office, we've taken the bookcases from the living room upstairs to what is now the library, containing as it does all our books, CDs and DVDs. We'll clear up the spare room ahead of the bathroom being done this week (which reminds me that I need to pop to the bank on my lunchtime wander). We've decided that we'll install a couch / foldable double bed into the spare room (hopefully a comfy one Froggy!) with the old PC, CD Player et al in it should we ever need to accommodate a lodger or two again.

So, with the kitchen and living room cleared, we've got a whole lot more room downstairs. In clearing a lot of stuff to the garage, we've got a good bit more room upstairs. The bathroom gets done next week and the spare room will need doing shortly thereafter. That aside, I'm happy enough to look at a new kitchen worktop, new sink, new cooker (not my big range number unfortunately as we're replacing like for like to avoid too much disruption) and a good tidy of the garden as the only projects we need to complete this year. If we get all these done, clear the acquired debt, book Vegas & Hawaii for 2012 and get back on the land hunting wagon, everything will be appropriately rosy!

Cheers,

Billy

wynnvegas

Good Morrow All,

As I've just about managed to work out how to share things on the Googledocs (not a clue what's going on at the bottom mind), I'm seeking any ideas, advice and/or guidance on Moyra's chosen tile pattern. The tiles we're using are here (from top to bottom, floor, wall and fancy wall tiles) - http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/zz190/wynnvegas/DSCN4277.jpg with the proposed pattern here (assuming everything works the way it should) - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GALXpLuF8VlrJLcyIt-ykgQeIHUJn5kf0vMyXYgyPXI/edit?hl=en#. We''re anything but experts so if people have other suggestions, they'd be gladly welcomed. We've opted for a 15.4ltr boiler which arrived in yesterday (I'm told that should be plenty for us) and work kicks off in earnest on Monday. We've thrown in re-flooring and re-painting the spare room once the bathroom is done and we've decided to make it a spare bedroom / study with one of these foldable couch bed efforts. Moyra is convinced that it's a good idea to paint the room a light yellow for reasons passing understanding but she'll likely get her way due in no small part to my struggling for any sort of opinion on the matter. As an aside, I found out on Monday that the bank won't let you take as much money out as you fancy. I thought I could just wander in and ask for the £1,500 I needed to pay the bathroom project manager but they took a good bit of time to decide that they could bend the rules a wee bit to give me the money as I should have given them advance warning of my needing more than £500. Surely it being my money in my account gives me the right to take all of it out should the mood take me? Apparently not. I was taken to thinking if Northern Rock limited people when everyone decided they were going down the tubes a couple of years back. I wouldn't imagine a £500 limit would have pleased some of the folk in that line...

Had my final appointment at the dentist today and, thus far, everything has gone fine and dandy. I ended with a bill of just under £100 which can't be right but I didn't hang about to complain. I'm sure it should have been closer to £600 after the number of visits and treatments I've had recently so I'll keep the money spare for when (if) they start hounding me.

No word back from PC World to date about their ridiculous efforts with the iPad. Still, the thing itself is getting better by the day. As legally and morally dubious as the jailbreaking seems to be, I've no complaints whatsoever. Between the free games, films, TV series, radio and other more productive apps, I think getting the same content via iTunes would have cost more than £300 thus far. Still to investigate Apple TV but a guy at work has just gotten it so I'll await his report before I jump into that. There are apparently (and I swore blind all day that this was an April fool last week) some iPad specific glasses that enlarge what you see up to 64". A friend of mine (yes, the same one who shelled out £1,200 for his iPad speaker from B&O and £1,800 on a Merc mountain bike) has them so I'll have a wee shot on Saturday as those could yet be just about the smartest piece of kit I've ever heard of.

Still no word on the skirt accoutrements but hopefully the remaining bits and bobs will be in this week.

Cheers,

Billy

RosieTiger

Billy couldn't agree with you more re which iPad to go for. Had a good play in the apple store with the new one. Yes it,s lighter but so what. New cover seems to be the big selling point. Happy with the original, bought as a toy but in reality we use it consistently and have done ver since getting it.
On the jailbreak piece, I think I will let it get over the twelve month marker before looking at that. I really don't fancy trying to explain that to Apple should there be any issues in the warranty period!