Well I was thinking....?
 

...that everytime I come to this site, I see my old post on this thread and how long it's been sitting there!

Surely someone's got something interesting to post of a General nature? Speedy, you could recant some of the highlights of your trip to North Korea. You know, sourcing potential casino sites for JP? ;)

Or I could tell you how my German Language Course is progressing in readiness for my next European trip in June.

Punting topics have been done to death.

Cheers

Fond memories of Germany, you'll love it.
Whole roast chicken followed by apple strudel and washed down by a refreshing pilsener. Nothing better. Be wary if you hire a car there Darky, the navigator's are switched to the scenic cobblestone roads route, so hopefully you're in no hurry to get places?

I can't tell that story until Kim Jong dies. The way he lives it won't be long.
I do have a story from my punting last night at GP which I will share when it gets a bit less hectic.

As this is the general forum, I'll post something regarding internet connections as it may help others on ADSL or ADSL2+.

I won't mention the company I'm with, but here's a story of massive stress.

The internet kept dropping out, I would get a red light on the modem and it would disconnect regularly and my speed was akin to dial-up when it did.
Prior to this, everything was perfect.

The first test is to dial 1 on your home phone and see if there's any noise, you should not hear any noise at all.
I could hear crackling, so got Telstra out and the guy put in a brand new line to the house and a new terminal box.
No noise!

So away I went and still the net kept dropping out and slow.

Replaced the filter / splitter, as these have a lifetime as well.
No change.

Replaced the line from the socket to the modem.
No change.

Threw out my modem, as these also have a lifetime and bought a new good quality one.
No change :(

I knew exactly what steps and questions my ISP would ask, because I have done this for previous clients in the past and wanted to shortcut the to and fro, as you never talk to the same person.

Posted the problem and modem log on their forum, and within an hour they changed a setting and all is well.
It appears that technicians sometimes mix up or mess up settings when setting up new connections for other people.

There was a problem with the line to the house, but that wasn't the problem, the splitter/filter was fine and so was the line to the modem, in fact I miss my old modem, but there you have it.
It was them, not me.

For others, go through the steps I did still, I always keep a spare filter, spare modem and spare line to the modem. You can pick them up cheap.
Unless you hear line noise when you dial 1, contact your ISP via forum, not phone and you'll get a much better response, make sure you post a log from your modem and tell them what steps you've already done.

Hope this helps.

This just popped into my head and thought I'd use this thread to ask.

How many of you take an active interest in investing? Whether it be shares, property, fixed deposits or anything else besides horses.

I work in this field so obviously have a personal interest and invest in shares myself but i've always wondered if many others here do. Or those who make a dollar from betting do they invest the profits?

For interests sake, I started investing in shares in March 2009 at the very low point of the GFC. I was only 3 months into my first job out of Uni, borrowed $2,000 from my parents and started from there with Wesfarmers (were approx $15 a share then). I paid my parents back as quick as possible and started accumulating funds for my next purchase. A couple of months later I took out a personal loan and purchased some more shares and so the story goes on.

If anyone is interested in more detail i'll post some, but just thought i'd get the ball rolling. I was 22 when I started buying shares and still purchase shares today 6 years on putting a portion of my fortnightly pay into them. Definitely learnt a lot of lessons along the way as well, much like betting!