Title deeds and mortgage

Title Deeds: Documents that show proof of who owns the freehold and leasehold property.
Transfer deed: This is a document that, once you sign it, transfers the ownership of a property to you.

In exchange for the price the seller's solicitor sends the signed title deeds and any other related documents to the buyer's solicitor. The buyer's solicitor will check them, arranged for stamp duty land tax (if any) to be paid and have them registered in the public registers. The public register will issue a receipt and in a few months thereafter return the title deeds to the buyer's solicitor where they are again checked. The buyer's solicitor will supply a copy to the buyer and send the original document to the mortgage lender who will keep it until you pay off the mortgage.

When you pay off the mortgage, the lender will remove its name from the Title Deeds and return it to you at the end of the mortgage.

1.长相不令人讨厌，如果长得不好，就让自己有才气；如果才气也没有，那就总是微笑。
2.气质是关键。如果时尚学不好，宁愿纯朴。 　　　　
3.与人握手时，可多握一会儿。真诚是宝。 　　　　
4.不必什么都用“我”做主语。说话的时候常用“我们”开头。 　　　　
5.不要向朋友借钱。 　　　　
6.不要“逼”人看你的家庭相册。 　　　　
7.与人打“的”时，请抢先坐在司机旁。 　　　　
8.坚持在背后说别人好话，别担心这好话传不到当事人耳朵里。有人在你面前说某人坏话时，你只微笑。

9.不要期望所有人都喜欢你，那是不可能的，让大多数人喜欢就是成功的表现。当然，自己要喜欢自己。
10.自己开小车，不要特地停下来和一个骑自行车的同事打招呼。人家会以为你在炫耀。
11.同事生病时，去探望他。很自然地坐在他病床上，回家再认真洗手。 　　　　
12.不要把过去的事全让人知道。 　　　　
13.尊敬不喜欢你的人。 　　　　
14.对事不对人；或对事无情，对人要有情；或做人第一，做事其次。 　　　　
15.自我批评总能让人相信，自我表扬则不然。 　　　　
16.没有什么东西比围观者们更能提高你的保龄球的成绩了。所以，平常不要吝惜你的喝彩声。
17.不要把别人的好，视为理所当然。要知道感恩。 　　　　
18.榕树上的“八哥”在讲，只讲不听，结果乱成一团。学会聆听。 　　　　
19.尊重传达室里的师傅及搞卫生的阿姨。 　　　　
20. 为每一位上台唱歌的人鼓掌。 　　　　
21.如果你在表演或者是讲演的时候，如果只要有一个人在听也要用心的继续下去，即使没有人喝采也要演，因为这是你成功的道路，是你成功的摇篮，你不要看的人成功，而是要你成功。
22.有时要明知故问：你的钻戒很贵吧！有时，即使想问也不能问，比如：你多大了？
23.话多必失，人多的场合少说话。 　　　　
24.把未出口的“不”改成：“这需要时间”、“我尽力”、“我不确定”、“当我决定后，会给你打电话”…… 　　　　
　　　　

Where did the custom of putting Xs and Os at the bottom of a letter come from?

The first mention in literature of XXX for kisses at the bottom of a letter was in 1901, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. The X itself is very old. The custom goes back to the early Christian era, when a cross mark or "X" was the same as a sworn oath. The cross referred to the cross of Calvary and the first letter of the Greek word for Christ, Xristos.

Even as little as a hundred and fifty years ago, not many people could read or write. The "X" at the bottom of a document took the place of a signature. They would kiss the "X" as a crucifix or bible was kissed to emphasize the importance of the mark. It was this practice that lead to the "X" representing a kiss.

There isn't much known about the beginnings of the "O". It is a North American custom. The "O" represents the arms in a circle around another person. Arms crossed in front of you do not mean the "X" as a hug! The "O" is the hug.

In "The Joys of Yiddish" by Leo Rosten, it is noted that illiterate immigrants (or those who did not know Roman-English letters) would generally sign entry forms with an "X" but Jews preferred an "O" to avoid making something that looked like a cross. Also, shopkeepers and salesmen would similarly sign receipts with a circle. Could this be the origin of the "O"? 就跟阿Q画圈一样啊！

Service life of brick buildings

Potential service life of the structural frame of a building will be 200 years for brick/block/concrete and perhaps only 75-100 years for lightweight framing/SIPs panel.

In UK, service lives required for each building type or sector could be
· office - 20 years
· domestic - 200 years
· education - 60 years
· healthcare - 50 years
· retail and warehouse - 10 years

Stone is the building material which lasts longest.

3ds Max PathDeform modifier

1. To stretch along a path (line), use PathDeform modifier, "Pick path" button, then increase the value of "Stretch". Good method to make tree branch, octopus tentacles, etc.

2. To lathe a line (spline), if the result is not right. Changing "Modifier List > Lathe > Axis" may fix it.

First time buyer

首次买房失败：first time buyer 要问请房子是否是 steel frame prefab concrete

今天早上兴冲冲去银行办 mortgage, 本以为走出了关键的一步，离“自己的家”又近了一步。填完好多表以后，谈到选哪种 survey时。mortgage advisor 问我房子的 condition 如何，我拿出照片给她看。谁知她看了一眼就问这房子是不是 steel frame, prefabricated reinforced concrete 的。我说不知道。她说看起来有点像，但是翻翻中介的材料上没有写。她说一般房子 standard build是 bricks and tiled roof，如果不是的话，中介应该写的。银行一般不给 steel frame 的房子做 mortgage的，因为这种房子如果 damp的话，里面的steel frame 会生锈。另外，这种房子卖起来也不好卖。

为保险起见，她给中介打了个电话。果然是 steel frame + prefabricated reinforced concrete 的，这个中介居然不跟我们说清楚。这些他们本地人一目了然的特点，对我们外国人则不是显而易见的。这个 mortgage advisor 是个好人，她说你以后看房子如果外面不能直接看到砖头的话，要问一下是不是 standard build的。

立马去中介质问。答曰没有法律规定一定要在广告上写明steel frame + prefabricated reinforced concrete 的。所以既然我们没有问起，他们也就不提。还好现在发现，不然付了survey的钱再发现就损失大了。

照理说，我们 offer 的这个是 ex-council house，应该是比较牢的才对。可以 mortgage advisor 说了，it's not the fact in this case. 因为council 在50-60年代的时候造了很多这样的steel frame + prefabricated reinforced concrete 的房子。在北部，有些这样的房子已经出现问题，严重影响 property value.

现在又要重新看房了，哎。。。特此上来写一下这个经验教训，请first time buyer 们注意。
另外一个经验是：尽量不要选中介推荐的 mortage advisor。他们跟中介是一伙的，不会给你指出这些毛病。要是让我自己看 survey report 的话，即便写的清清楚楚是 steel frame and prefab concrete的，也不会觉得有什么不妥。

whiskeywen
LZ是好银.

Larali
Thanks for sharing!

amadeus
其实很容易看出来，如果这个房子比类似的房子便宜很多，就要问为什么。通常 concrete built 都比 brick built 便宜很多，30%~40%不等。concrete 容易裂缝，很难修补，所以银行不喜欢借钱。

我是舵手
听说貌似2战后在北面很多都是这么造的吧？不知道有多北，一直以为只有苏格兰才有这些呢

ray321
steel frame的房子还冬天冷夏天热呢。

rfguy
请问怎么才能看出来是steel frame的啊

----
这个房子并没有比类似的房子便宜。不过倒是砍价砍下去10k. 当时中介说卖主夫妻分居想尽快出手云云。明天开始重新踏上看房的历程。
引用(amadeus @ 12 Oct 2007, 18:55)
其实很容易看出来，如果这个房子比类似的房子便宜很多，就要问为什么。通常 concrete built 都比 brick built 便宜很多，30%~40%不等。concrete 容易裂缝，很难修补，所以银行不喜欢借钱。

----
如果外面不能直接看到砖头的话，就要问清楚。虽然法律没有规定中介一定要说，但是你如果问了，他一定要说实话不能欺骗。这个是法律规定的，如果他骗你你可以到有关机构投诉的。
引用(rfguy @ 12 Oct 2007, 22:46)
请问怎么才能看出来是steel frame的啊

Game Maker 7

direction = 0, right
direction = 90, up
direction = 180, left
direction = 270, down

Don't put "set lives" etc. in the Create event of the obj_controller, instead, put in the the "Game start" event. Because when the player loses one life and "restart the current room", the actions in Create event of the obj_controller will be execurated and you will see your number of lives doesn't decrease by 1.

3ds Max increase/decrease mesh resolution

Tessellate modifier subdivides faces in the current selection. It's particularly useful for smoothing curved surfaces for rendering, and creating additional mesh resolution for other modifiers to act on.

MultiRes does the opposite. It decreases the LOD of the selected mesh. You can select a percentage or set a vert count limit.

C++: convert managed clr System::String^ to std::string

#include vcclr.h

System::String^ line = "a managed string";
pin_ptr wch = PtrToStringChars( line );
int len = (( line->Length+1) * 2);
char *ch = new char[ len ];
wcstombs( ch, wch, len );
string lineStr = ch;
delete ch;

Ogre Overlay

change size of debug overlay background for the score area: in c:\NxOgre\bin\Media\Overlays\OgreDebugPanel.overlay, under " container Panel(nx.gui.stats) {...}"

change "height 30" to "height 36" to suit for the bigger TextHeight (font size).

The original OgreDebugPanel.overlay file was backed-up in C:\eunice\MSVC\MS\VirtualMotion_Backup\29Mar07

Exporting mirror object from 3ds Max to Ogre

anear
Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 2:07 pm Post subject: exporting mirror object from 3ds Max

I got problem when exporting mirror object. I have a left hand model, and I created a right hand using "mirror selected objects". Then I export the two hands one by one using octopus exporter. It seems both the two exported meshes are left-hand.
I tried LEXIExporter too. Got two left hands too. Any thoughts on this? Thank you
--------------------------
Sethos
Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 2:16 pm Post subject:

Have you tried to do a Reset XForm on the mirrored object?
---------------------
anear
Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 3:10 pm Post subject:

Thanks for your reply.
yes, i tried reset XForm, still get two left hands. The only difference is one hand facing +z, the other facing -z.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TenTerHooK
Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 1:41 am Post subject:

Try this:
Under editable mesh/poly in the modifier panel select the left hand. Click "Attach". Choose to Attach the right hand model to the left hand. If you need the two hands to be seperate, merely detach the right hand after these steps.
Reset Xform doesnt always work you see... Attaching one model to another is another method of reseting that can be more robust at times.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
anear
Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 9:12 am Post subject:

Attach/Detach works! Thank you very much, TenTerHooK.

Impact factor

ISI Web of Science
Journal citation reports
http://portal.isiknowledge.com/portal.cgi?DestApp=JCR&Func=Frame


the journal impact factor is one way authors and readers judge the quality of a publication. Impact factors have been used to assess academic productivity and are sometimes used to evaluate an author. Journal editors are frequently judged by the change in the impact factor of the journal they edit. What is the impact factor and how is it determined? The impact
factor was created in the 1960s to help select journals for the Science Citation Index (2). Today the journal impact factor comes from the Journal Citation Report (JCR), a product of
Thomson Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) (3). The aim of the factor was to develop a scale that allowed small but important review journals to enter the Science Citation
Index. The impact factor of a journal is calculated using two elements: the numerator, which is the number of citations in the literature in the current year to any items published in a
journal in the preceding 2 years and the denominator, which is the total number of substantative articles published in that journal in the same 2 years.

Google video

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5753732734367036033&q=brenda+sheng
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3894591244029588845&q=brenda+sheng
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6471639060159679077
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1107137245408515885

Brenda's potty training progress: she kept dry all day yesterday.

NxOgre development-full screen

NxOgre.0.5.preview.3 (the old version)
in ogre.cfg file in the same folder as the .exe, change
Full Screen=No

change ogre.cfg
Video Mode=1280 x 1024
The HMD works in full screen mode. Horray!!

in NxOgre.0.4.RC.2 (the new version)
change config.yaml file instead.

using the VR1280 HMD
to avoid the 'input out of range' error on the monitor, switch the machine on with the monitor, then swop the display plug to HMD controller and etc.