Alas, our trip to England is going to be around April, to coincide with an uncle's teaching semester. We won't be able to swing a second, so soon after.

Denise and I will be there...

I will be there, but maybe in Italy before hand? Nah, just lost in the Lakes again!

toss me an evite, i may just go

Say Rob, have you or I had any really cool ideas about what's going to happen at the party? I mean, if we were to discuss revealing the possibility that {censored} and {censored} might be revealed at the event, do you think it might entice people to go to the party?

How about if we {censored} the {censored}{censored}{censored} and {censored}? Would that be FUN, or what?

Please add me and my girlfriend to the list.

Don´t want to miss the opportunity to get to know the ingenious people
that have developed imho the one and only indash MP3 player.

From my observations, about two months out the prices rise again, although I think most airlines have a complex structure based on passenger loads, and the prices might dip again if the flight is empty. In July I was on a flight and the person sitting next to me had booked the week before and only paid £70 more, and the flight was pretty busy. I'm looking at flights to SFO for the end of January and NWA had a deal for £280 return (stopping over in MSP), last week it jumped to £331.

I have a friend who used to work for Midway Airlines (now defunct). It was his job to administer the system that dealt with determining the minute-by-minute price of airline tickets. That was his entire job. And apparently the software used (I wish I could remember the name of it not) was an industry standard.

The point of this is that if it was a person's full-time job to deal with that single system for a mid-sized airline, there is no way you can expect to be able to figure out what prices are going to do.

I travel a lot. From experience plus conversations with airline employees, I would say there is no way you can ever hope to out-guess modern airline yield management systems. These things juggle a huge number of variables, most of them stemming from mining data not publicly available: for instance things like the history of connecting flights that passengers on flight X have gone on to, and the chances that encouraging people to choose flight X or not might generate extra revenue from the connection, etc etc.

Been thinking about the sound system requirements for this event... the options are:
- Loud
- Very loud
- F*&%ing loud
- Overpowered in a way that simply isn't safe

Any thoughts? It's really just a matter of how much green and how much grey...

I think either of those two would do.

OK, and of course we have to consider coverage patterns. Back in toe '06 party, Rob S had to do a big announcement twice because the system was firing it all at an empty dance floor and most people couldn't hear a thing. Damn 60*40 horns.

Oh btw, i didn't get anything from e-vite.com yet.
E-mail address is schido@[the same dutch provider that RobS uses]

me neither...

I'm making a start on the plans for the party. Currently I am considering hosting it at my place (as with the UK meet before last) as a fairly substantial gathering can be accommodated in the garden. This will allow us to spend more money on beer and less on venue hire! Any objections?

I am looking into various entertainments and activites for the party itself. However I have not considered the days around the party - perhaps we could appoint some events organisers if enough people are interested in making more than a night of it. At the very least I would like to organise a fun event for earlier in the day of the party - for example, there is an excellent clay pigeon shooting centre which takes groups.

Suggestions and offers of organisational help appreciated.

Rob

Please confirm your email address in PM.

Thanks

Rob

I think having any or all of the events centred around Rob's place would be totally grand!

Rob.. that being the case, I wonder if someone local to the area might provide a modest soldering station setup for use one morning or afternoon?

I would happily volunteer some time there performing basic mods/fixes to players that other participants might want to bring along. Things like the cs4231a fix, the temperature sensor fix, and other similar, useful yet relatively simple things like those.

We'd just need a proper solder station, solder, flux, tweezers, a magnifying lens/lamp thingie, and a small supply of thin wire.

???

no beer?

LOL There must be beer!
In TIG welding class I kept a candy bar in my pocket so I could quiet my shaky hands before practical tests.
This is why I don't solder any small, delicate things!

I'll bring down some bits and pieces, and some beer - in exchange for soldering of one wire (I never completed my memory upgrade as I couldn't get the RAS line on without bridging leads on the processor - too clumsy)

seem reasonable?

I'll see what kit I have kicking about and let you know.

That's the kind of thing I had in mind, so bring it on!

I suppose I could actually tote along much of the needed materials and tools, except for the temperature controlled soldering station itself. The rest of the required bits and pieces are hardly any size/weight at all.

Which reminds me.. gotta remember to pack the copper braid as well..

Be careful. Soldering equipment could be easily mistaken by an overzealous security screener as something else. (Even if you manage to avoid U.S. airports during your journey, I fear the paranoia has spread well beyond our borders.)

Yeah, even to this forum/topic, it seems.

The repair station is a great idea. I can provide a full set of electronic workshop equipment, and I'm sure Schof will be happy to bring along the empeg spare parts collection.

On a more hedonistic note, I'm thinking local ales by the firkin, hog roast, cocktail bar, bring-a-playlist tunes and a gargantuan Wii experience!

Also, introducing for the first time, never to be repeated, your once in a lifetime opportunity to be a part of EMPEG - THE GAME SHOW!

Rob

I'd interested in seeing if I can resurrect my main player which is currently out of action with a mystery IDE and Ethernet problem, the aux and radio visuals work fine however.

Cocktails - mmm. Pina colada.
I'll need a floor somewhere...