I had a Ryobi 2 stroke strimmer which had been a pain to start from day one. It really should have gone back but every time I threatened it, it would start again. However, it's just got progressively worse and despite several strip downs and clean ups it's refusing to work more often than not.

So, it was with some hesitation that I chose another Ryobi product. Within the price range I had, most 2 stroke strimmers seem to have the same spread of reviews - some good, some bad, with poor starting a common thread. However, I had Ryobi Expand-it attachments and didn't want to lose the flexibilty this give. I thought going 4 stroke would be a better option.

Well so far so good. I've used it a number of times and it always starts easily and is smooth running. Not the frantic insect like sound of a two stroke, more like a proper engine.

Assembly was fairly easy althought the adage about a picture being worth a 1000 words is taken too literally by Ryboi. Lots of diagrams but a little hard to figure at times. However, less than 30 minutes to put together.

You need to fill up the engine with standard 20/50 oil which is supplied and you are advised to use the supplied funnel. Well, this took some finding and it's only luck that I didn't through it away as its a small piece of waxed paper that you fold out like a cake icing sleeve.

The line is easy to feed in without taking the head apart but will quite often break in which case you need to dismantle it, which is also easy to do.

Doesn't come with a shoulder strap but I had one from the last strimmer.

All in all very happy so far - long may it last

We live in an area that can have high winds and needed a rotary line that was sturdy but wasn't going to cost a small fortune.

This line is very well made. A large diameter pole in two parts and square section arms.

So, far it's doing very well. We are carefull to ensure that it's evenly loaded and we don't use it in very high winds.

Very pleased.

Not sure there's much esle to say.

Two heavy duty pieces of glass and full length fixing support. Just screw the support to the wall and then slide in glass.

I drilled a couple of extra holes in the support since I was fixing to plasterboard walls.

I managed to stick with this book through to the end but was dissapointed.

The concept of 'super heros' acting as Eco Warriors was good but let down by there ability to actually acheive anything and the characters, to me at least, appeared weak and inconsistent and lacking in knowledge of how the real world actually works. Ok its a fictional fantasy but for me it has to appear credible and it didn't do it for me.

Now, it seems a trend that authors are writing sequences of books on a theme. The cycnic in me says that either they're doing this to sell more books ( ok this one was free) or they don't think that people can cope with large books or more likely they don't know how the story ends but they just have to publish.

Either way this one just faded out without a satisfactory ending to part one. I have no intention of reading anymore.

Windows Vista Business 32bit, 2 x NEC 20WGX2 monitors.

I bought this to replace my Eye-One Display which developed a case of colour blindness resulting in strong red casts on my displays.

The hardware colourimeter is a big improvement over the 'mouse type' puck of the Eye-One DIsplay 2. It sits flatter to screen and the counter balance and the cable are matched well. The Eye-One Display was hard to balance and the puck often twisted away from the screen due to the overly heavy and twisted cable.

The new hardware also has a built in ambient light hood and a stand if you want to profile a projector.

The Software lets the product down, though. The profiles and calibration are excellent but the installation and operation experience is not good.

I installed the software from the enclosed CD successfully but was immediately informed that an update was available. So I downloaded and installed this and ran into problems. The installation kept asking the same question over and over again and after much clicking on the OK button it went through and completed the install. However, now the iProfiler software wouldn't run at all. It produced and error message which on checking the XRITE support web site seems to be a known problem but without a published solution. You're advised to contact customer support.

However, I completely uninstalled the software and then re-installed from the downloaded file off the XRITE web site. It loaded and ran successfully.

The user interface of the iProfile software is very different from the old Eye-one Match and is not very intuitive. There is virtually no help that's of any use. There are some training videos but these do not replace a manual you can thumb through.

You really need some experience of profiling displays to get the best out of this software and the first couple of times around I managed to confuse it to the point that there was no way to continue and no way to kill it short of a re-boot.

Once familiar with the user interface it's a good workflow with some useful quality features - some of which still crash the program - like being able to compare your profile with another. When loading a profile to compare the newly created monitor profile with, it crashed and bombed out.

All in all a much improved piece of harware, accurate calibration and profiling - which is much quicker than the old device, however flaky software and sadly lacking any meaningful help files are manual.

First point to note is that this is an array of about 27 LEDS which are yellow in appearance. This, to me, wouldn't look too good in a internal light fitting but I intended to use it in an external lamp. Light colour is a good white which is what I wanted

Unfortunately the first one didn't last very long before it literally blew up. A circuit breaker tripped and I traced the fault to this unit. It had become detached from the fitting and there was a slight dent in the case. Being an engineer I was curious as to the construction so I took it apart and found an Electrolytic Capacitor had blown, causing the damage to the case and making a mess to the rest of the circuitry. In my opinion a cheap construction.

Considering this is an outside light that only comes on occasionally, it's probably had less than 2 hours usage since I installed it.

The supplier was very good and quickly sent out a replacement. We'll see how well this one lasts.

An intriguing concept of family life on very small 'planet' sometime in the future, with very different trials and tribulations of pioneers.

While I got hooked into this book, it wasn't so much that the story line was good but rather that I wanted to find out what was going to happen in the end - which as often happens didn't really conclude satisfactorily; you can see another book coming perhaps.

I didn't find that it was easy reading. The grammar is often hard to comprehend and the Kindle version appears to have many mistakes in page breaks and perhaps missing words or even paragraphs. The use of Block Capitals when someone or thing speaks is probably deliberate but in some cases this doesn't seem to be consistent and occasionally I thought that the Kindle had just got this wrong.

I found it hard at times to follow who was 'speaking' and the unusual names given to the characters made it hard to picture them e.g male or female. Also the fact that the full names were often dropped and a shorten version used didn't help me.

The technological terms seem to be over used and after a while annoying and got in the way of the main story.

Quite often I would have to go back and re-read the previous paragraphs to make sure I hadn't missed something.

The whole book seems to be a series of short stories with the family as the main theme but there appear to be large jumps between them at times. It came as a surprise to me at the end when it was made clear that one part of the family had created some of the troubles - I'm trying not to give anything away here - because I never saw evidence of this.

Not a book I would re-read and I don't think I'll try any more from this author.

I never cared much for Epsons Premium Gloss paper, prefering to use Ilford, but recently I needed a roll of paper and the only one available at the time - that I could afford - was this Semi-Gloss version.

It gives excellent results in my Epson R2400 and is now my paper of choice. The surface is very flat and none of that 'orange peel' appearance you see on some papers. Colour rendering is very good and the Epson profiles seem to be good for the job as well.

Well recommended.

This is a really useful beater to have as it saves having to stop periodically to scrape the contents off the side of the mixing bowl.

Not much more you can say really - it just works and its easy to clean.

There's actually no manufacturers name on the item I received so its possible that others may receive brand. The box carries the legend - 'Professional Creates the Beautiful Moment' - which might give you a clue as to where it's made. Also I have never seen or handled a Canon 7D battery grip to compare it with, although I have had others from Canon.

This grip appears to be a very well made unit although time and usage will really tell.

The grip feels solid and attaches securely to the camera. The only slight criticism is that the battery compartment cover feels a little loose and this is the part you actually wrap your hand around. It is secured with a latch so should be ok.

The rubber grips feel a little bit softer and slightly tacker than the camera body but not by much.

The function wheel doesn't feel as solid as the one on the camera body but works just as well.

Two nice features that may well be on the original as well:-

1. You need to remove the cover from the battery compartment on the camera body. This grip has a provision for storing the cover internally so you can't really lose it.
2. There's provision for using an AC adapter inside the battery compartment and a rubber grommet is fitted to allow the cable to come out of the grip with the battery door closed.

Dials and function buttons seem to work well.

All in all I think this is very good value for a fraction of the cost of the original. Only time and usage will really confirm this.

BTW: it's quite a large grip, so I may need a larger bag. Maybe Father Christmas is listening. :-)

******************************************************************************************************
Update: 14/2/2013

Having used this successfully for several weeks, my 7D then threw a fit and locked up. The only way to recover was to remove the battery grip and re-insert it. Even then the 7D wasn't always happy. I discovered that one of the contact pins was not fully extending so its possibly making an intermittent contact.

The supplier was very good and ship a replacement immediately. Now I have to wait and see if this one will last.