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Dial-a-Cab
CREDIT
UNION
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Hola dear DACCU members,
I am writing to you at this time from sunny Spain and while
taking a break from sunning myself, I thought I would take a
quick look at my e mails and there, right at the very top of
the list, was that old slave driver Alan Fisher demanding a
few pearls of wisdom from me! So as I don’t want to upset
him, here we go…
Firstly I have to tell you of a change in our insurance policy
concerning the shares cover. In our last policy we had coverage,
which meant that if a member died, his or her partner would
get twice their savings. However, the CU Board has now taken
a corporate decision to stop this, which will save us a lot
of money. We had a claim recently and decided to have a closer
look at the policy and saw that we have had three claims in
the last eight years to the sum of around £30,000 for
a return of £4,000, which doesn't seem good business to
us, as I’m sure you would probably agree. The loans are
still the same, which means you get twice the
loan.
We are also looking to move from our present office due to the
parking problems that we who work there and you, the driver
getting tickets while in with us, are having. This is, as you
might suppose, not an easy task but I will keep you informed
as soon as I know anything. Well I think that’s enough
for now, so I'll just get back to the pool and my ice-cold Tequila
Sunrise!
So, as usual, be lucky, but above all, be very careful out there.
John Riley (K38)
Vice-President DACCU.
DACCU: 0207 490 5206
Unit 6, 22/24 Corsham St, round the corner from Brunswick Place…
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WinMX goes bust?
WinMX, an MP3 peer-to-peer download application I’ve mentioned
before in my articles, recently stopped working and I have received
a few emails asking if I knew why? After some initial investigation,
it looked like WinMX had gone the way of Kazaa, but there is a workaround.
WinMX had a huge following and the collapse of their connectivity
and website certainly upset many avid followers. When you started
WinMX, it connected to the WinMX servers to find out the IP addresses
of their supernodes, without this you just couldn’t connect.
As a temporary solution, a dedicated group have formulated a workaround
and have produced a list of 200 functioning WinMX nodes in a Windows
Host file format, which is available from
http://205.238.40.1/hosts/hosts.
Instructions on how to install and use the file are also included,
but further details can be found at
http://flysimulation.com/article1589.html.
However, a word of warning – when using the hosts file, make
sure you follow the instructions precisely as it is an important networking
file for your operating system.
Private Hire and Taxi Exhibition
In early October, we attended the London Private Hire and Taxi Exhibition
to display and sell our new 2006 Calendars and Prints. I was looking
forward to attending the Taxi Driver of the Year Show, however I was
informed it was cancelled due to the sponsor pulling out.
We spent two days at the Wembley show meeting quite a few people from
the licensed taxi trade and a few from the private hire trade. It
was also interesting having a good look at the alternative vehicles
available outside of London and some of the “in” things
at the show such as GPS systems, Internet booking systems and Gas
powered cars.
However, during one of the many quiet moments, I managed to stroll
around the whole show in less than 15 minutes! It was very quiet;
in fact most of the exhibitors we spoke to said it was extremely quiet.
If it wasn’t for the dolly-birds walking around and the wife
prodding me, I’d probably have fallen asleep!
Now that I’ve experienced the PH and Taxi show, I’m glad
to say I’ll be looking forward to next year’s Taxi Driver
of the Year Show!
Windows XP 64-bit
Microsoft recently released their 64-bit Windows XP based systems
to the general public and just like when we moved from 16-bit to 32-bit
systems, there’s confusion and mixed advice.
A friend recently purchased a laptop from PC World where the salesman
said the 64-bit AMD processor would be much faster than the 32-bit
Intel laptop. In theory it should, but what he forgot to mention was
the lack of 64-bit applications to run on it, therefore you’d
have to install the older 32-bit versions which would have to be “thunked”,
ie converted dynamically to run on the 64 system, making it run at
approximately the same speed as the 64-bit model.
As usual, it’s what they don’t tell you that matters!
Be Lucky…
Vince Chin
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