Thanks for those tips Torchy, I am not sure if having the bike in the bedroom with constitute and health and safety risk.

Someday though you’ll have to admit the real TCO of using the iMac as a torch, even if the software IS free. You’ll be hankering after that upgrade sure as eggs is eggs (”I gotta have that duck-egg blue tint plugin”) and you’ll be hooked into a cycle of increasingly expensive upgrades with a spiralling cost.

The cost itself of downloading the software must be taken into account; yeah, OK, you sound like a real Web Weeny so you might not notice the cost yourself, but what about those guys who want only this software and rarely go near the Online Experience, eh? It’s going to cost them a month’s subs to an ISP JUST to download this unmissable piece of kit (and that’s providing they can resist the temptation of checking for those costly upgrades).

You could try keeping the bike by the bed, then you would always have a light to hand. Even better, deny battery power altogether and Go Green - get a dynamo for your back wheel and a Turbo Trainer and you could power the whole house! For that portable alternative you could go for this DIY version; it’s a shame that this item has closed on ebay but I’m sure you’ll find an alternative. Who knows, it might even be relisted! You never know your luck…
(All references to dynamoes represent no personal commercial interest. Curse them, I say).

I have considered what you have said and believe that buying a torch might not be financialy viable, compared to downloading the FREE software. I am sure I would also have a problem in finding the torch whereas I always know where my mac is. I own both a pda and a spv so maybe I should do some research to find the equivalent software for them, then as you said, I could have one for all the family.

Now I think about it I have got an LED light on my mountain bike so I could use that, but it is in the shed so if it is raining I don’t think I could be bothered going outside in the rain!

At present my solution has been to use the light function on my mobile
phone. This function on my phone worked exceptionally well when trying to read the bus times late at night.