* Posts by Alex

241 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Oct 2007

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Kelway buys Repton

Alex
Heart

Still one of the best IMHO

What all suppliers should be like.

Passing the Love

Spielberg: Games consoles doomed

Alex
Boffin

Relax!

It was reported by The Guardian, so it'll be completely wrong anyway :o)

The Guardian - Newspaper for Chippys!

Mines the one with The Times in the pocket.

Archaeologists unearth oldest known 3D pornography

Alex

@ "@@NSFW please (x2)"

Heh, unlikely ;o)

Apple: No Jesus on the Jesus Phone

Alex
Unhappy

NIN

Wouldn't be so bad, if it actually worked :o(

Skinn-Eee Asus out next week

Alex
Boffin

@"Battery Trolls"

Where as I agree with you that there really isn't a need for "EVERYONE" to need to swap out a battery, I have to admit that both my laptops (one for power, one for small size) have 2nd batteries. I also know of quite a few people that have 2nd batteries. This is probably because we travel a substantial amount, and invariably are not near power outlets, or have time to charge up the laptops when we are near one.

Hell, I know of one chap that has 4 batteries, but then he is 'old skool' and prefers to have them rather than a connector that plugs into the airplane terminals...

Again, agree with you, but there some of us that do have secondary batteries (cue Metallica!)

Department of Homeland Security to destroy swine flu victims

Alex
Go

Nukes, knives, sharp sticks...

Harsh, but fair.

Blu-ray to boom despite downturn

Alex
Boffin

@Sooty & Luke

..... really? I've never seen a BR film for MORE than 20 quid.. Well, not since the middle of last year anyway. I tend to find most of them are 17.99. Only the new releases are at 19.99. And that's just at the supermarkets. If you go to the right music/video superstores, they are usually between 12-18 quid. Not sure about HMV though, as I got pissed off with their inflated price... or are you talking about trilogies, box sets and the like? If so, then you've been sniffing the plastic off discs too much ;o)

And Luke, remember that DVD soared when a player was 200 quid. You can pick up a BR player for less than 150quid these days. Just because a DVD is now a tenner, doesn't mean that BR will only work with similar priced hardware.

Also, not sure about "DRM" crashing BR discs - have quite a collection now, and have never had, nor expect to have a disc just crash on me... or load slower than DVD... Hmmm...

Agree with Steven that there needs to be a better selection in the multi-stores, but then they can't have it all their own way can they ;o)

@Paul lol! new keyboard please ;o)

Rorke's drift towards RAID ASIC replacement

Alex
Heart

@WarrenG

Argh! You beat me to it!

Now, I wonder if it was unintentional.....

Microsoft extends Red-Ring-of-Death cover to fresh Xbox fault

Alex
Boffin

@Shaun Rodger & @Janimal

@Shaun Rodger: Would serious look at where you have the thing placed! 3?!?!? This is unprecedented! Try not to throw beer at it when you lose ;o)

@Janimal

Agreed. Although not with the Advent statement. Have had the 200mbs installed since they first came out and it 'just runs'. One of the simplist pieces of kit I've ever used - just hate the price of them!

Back to the article: I for one think it's good, at least, that MS actually notify the user of the impending death. My PS3 'softly' bombed on GTA4 and Motorstorm - took about an hour for each to find out why and what to do. Having a screen pop up and say "This thing is having it's swan song, right here, right now" is genius. I had squeaky bum syndrome for the GTA one!

Having said all that, I still have to say that the PS3 does what i want it to do (plays games, and never gone wrong), and the Xbox does what i want it to do (again, plays games, but the old one did RROD, Elite is solid). They both do what they need to do - end of. Saying one is shittier than the other is just foolhardy - and fanboi-ish, but "boys will be boys" with their cock waving ;o) All this crap about one having shittier games is just foolhardy - and fanboi-ish, but "boys will be boys" with their cock waving ;o) ... ooo.. dejavu...

Peace

(Still trying to flog the HD-DVD drive... Land fill ahoy!)

Next-gen iPhone to sport 3.2Mp camera?

Alex

@J

Suggest getting your eyes tested... a 4x6 print from a 2m pixel camera isn't particularly "more than enough". Seems you've read "Which?" magazine too much, who still to this day say that there is not point to a camera with more than 3m pixels...

More to the point, the iPhone's camera isn't a camera replacement - never has. It's for viewing and sharing on an iPhone. What bugs me is that I would prefer a decent(ish) camera on my phone so that I can take those "spur of the moment pics", with the option of printing them 10x12.

Sorry, but the low resolution "for" argument isn't working. Latest and greatest please, this is market place for innovation..

Why the iPhone's megapixelage alone won't matter

Alex

FFS

All I will be expecting is a decent camera on the iPhone. If, on my screen, the pics aren't particularly brilliant quality, then I would ask Apple the question "Why?"

At the end of the day, you can take a picture but it would probably be crapply taken anyway!

Ad watchdog gives thumbs up for female TV orgasms

Alex
Heart

Ch4 - Red Triangle

Ah, good times.. good times... good times indeed, especially when I was an impressionable rap-scallion! i agree with Richard Thomas above!

More of these sorts of adverts please, to rid our sorry country of Prudish Behaviour!

Xbox 360 update released

Alex
Stop

Pay up

Rob, I would ask for some money back if you are! It's a paid-for service...

Sony W-series Walkman MP3 player

Alex
Black Helicopters

More memory, same price

Not much to ask for ... well, yeah, ok it is.

Interesting idea, although it's interesting to note that it's not MAC compatible, yet can link in with iTunes... and that it's Win compatible, but yet not WMA... Hmmm... Something is afoot here..

Nice idea though.

Next-gen iPhone to gain FM transmitter tech

Alex
Jobs Halo

All well and good...

But I hear the camera on the new iPhone will only be 3.2M pixels.... When you have such a feature rich, and content rich device that can utilise a decent camera, I'm quite surprised...

Come on guys.. all we (ok, I am) asking for is a camera that's 8m or more..

PS3 back to haunt Wii in Japan

Alex
Boffin

@EvilGav et al

"The fact is, the Wii has won this round of console sales, by a vast margin, both of the others are also rans with only an outside chance of reaching the dizzying sales of the Wii in their life-time"

Technically, you are ignoring the PS2, of which is comparible to the Wii (excluding amazing controllers). Having said that, having all three units, the 360 never gets turned on anymore, the Wii only comes out at night after beers, and the PS3 is virtually always on. I am a Fanboi of consoles, but even I can see that each has their own uses (yup, including the HD drive.. it's now a door stop that i can't get rid of, even for a penny on ebay!!!)

Real numbers from real stats would be interesting, but they're not really going to prove anything against the hearts of the different sects of gamers.

El Reg spymobile snapper nailed on Street View

Alex
Coat

Who is watching the Watchmen

:o) So the watching are being watched.

Interesting..

Mine's the one with 1984 in the pocket

Virgin Media to battle modem hackers

Alex
Joke

@"Untracable" AC

Exactly. And don't call me Shirley

US woman attacks missus with sperm-filled syringe

Alex
Dead Vulture

Darn it El Reg!!

PICTURES!!

I wanna see them (or a Playmobil re-enactment)

O2 wins UK Palm Pré exclusive?

Alex
Boffin

O2 so bad?

I travel up and down the country, and can honestly say that their 3g service is pretty good. I know it's not the best, but I rarely get any drop out apart from those where all of the networks drop out. Been using their service since they went 3G, although not with an iPhone.. Hmmm.. Maybe that's the reason.

For the Pre, I still want a G1!

Woman sues over Vista to XP 'downgrade' charge

Alex

Can't see this being a Microsoft issue

.. Sure the fact that you can downgrade free of charge means that it's a choice of the buyer..?

If she had to sue, then Lenovo would be the ones, as they have charged the woman a downgrading fee..?

Can sort of see her point, but there are plenty of resellers that can install XP f.o.c. Well in the UK anyway, not sure about the US

Brit, French nuke subs collide - fail to 'see' each other

Alex
Coat

@amanfrommars

Yeah.. what he said..

Alex
Coat

"You arrogant ass, you killed us!"

"Come on Big D, fly!"

"One ping Vasilly, one ping only if you pleash.."

"Captain, We're cavitating!"

"Right full rudder, reversh shtarboard engine!"

"It remindsh me of the heady daysh of Shputnik and Yuri Gagarin when the world trembled at the shound of our rocketsh. Now they will tremble again - at the shound of our shilence. The order ish: engage the shilent drive"

..and more "Красный Октябрь" (Red October) quotes.

Mine's the one with the DVD and Book in the pockets..

Man U fan pwned in Facebook honeypot

Alex
Coat

"Won't someone please think about Louise?!"

Feel sorry for the poor girl - probably didn't even realise..

I see three knobheads in this dreadful saga. Pricks the lot of them.

Mine's the one with "A Shining White Knight Rides Forth.." in the pocket...

Cisco Linksys Media Hub 500GB home NAS

Alex
Boffin

Additional - ICYBOX - Hint

Where as I'm a great fan of the ICYBOX, I would urge caution when 'hacking' it. If you leave it 'as is' (albeit with the supported downloads on the Raidsonic site), it works like a charm. For those that want to 'hack' it, make sure you know what you are doing (and have a good understanding of Linux [BusyBox]) - unlike this muppet typing this, I'm sure you'd get more out of it. For me, I'm crap at Linux and have since given up on adding extra things to it (shame really, but as a vanilla box, it's awesome!)

Alex
Thumb Down

Icy Reception

Personally, for half the price you can get a 1Tb Icybox NAS 4220B that does all, plus more (yes, bittorrent included). Add another 70 notes on top for full mirroring of 1Tb. Just make sure you get the latest board (1.2) and use Seagate and WD drives (small issue of HD compatability). A small price (read - Hinderance) to pay for a bob-on unit.

Hey, how about a review of it? It only costs 80-90 notes for the box itself..

Enough said really.. rather expensive..

Wakefield does a Brum with possessive apostrophes

Alex
Flame

"I a'fert gor th'Adsa"

Next Week:

"I nd 2 go hm n c da kidz muva"

Someone please shoot the silly TWAT!

Alex

@Osiris

New Keyboard please!

Lester - why didn't you allow my last post??

Gimme some (more) money, demand Spinal Tap

Alex
Heart

Classic!

Rock on!

I want an amp that goes to 11!

Why?

"Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?"

Sony stands by 10m PS3 full-year sales forecast

Alex
Thumb Up

Fair Enough

@Andy Worth: Cynic.. ;o)

Anyway, I think it's safe to say that the "My cock is bigger than your cock" brigade has moved on to something new. All formats are well established and liked by their respective users (Yes Andy, or Fanbois) ;o)

Not sure about the 10m target, but to paraphrase what AC@12.35 said: it can't be price as the same like-for-like kit across the 360 and PS3 is roughly the same cost. You can get by on cheaper options of kit, but personally it's down to the demogs of the products.

Street View vehicle kills Bambi

Alex
Black Helicopters

GoogleBot

Considering the car was a robot, it would have registered it as a non-human. Hence, (and therefore) it would have carried on...

"I for one accept these Bambi-Killing overlords."

CIA's Algeria chief recalled amid rape allegations

Alex
Pirate

FOI-DPA ("Copy and paste redacted text!")

Oops...!

Best get the doc off your servers chaps.. or you'll have your collar felt..

Yee-arrrh!

Universal thaws out The Thing

Alex
Flame

Time to send them an email m'thinks!

http://www.universalstudios.com/contact_us_links.php

I'm SICK of remakes done badly, if it's 50 years old, then maybe. But not when the JC's remake is still lovingly cherished. I know.. let's remake Titanic in to a BETTER film instead : "oh no, it's far too soon..." Shut up Uni Exec!!

FFS. Hate H a t e H A T E!!!

GRRRR!!!!

The A-Team flies into Hollywood

Alex
Flame

And again (See The Thing remake comments)

http://www.fox.co.uk/contact

FFS.... George Peppard is DEAD! You can't bring him back....

No one should be Hannibal, apart from the Great GP.

Hate H a t e H A T E ! ! ! !

Kiwi finds US military secrets on 'MP3 player'

Alex
Pirate

Encryption

Seriously... in the UK you can get a 2gb USB key (hardware encrypted) for less than 30 pounds... Standard issue??

"Arhh, Jim-Lad, clamber aboard me scooner"

R2-D2 robots with frikkin lasers on them in development

Alex

@Allan

Precisely!

...as long as their worked...

EMC paints go-faster stripes on Celerra

Alex
Coat

"Lions, Tigers, Bears, oh my..!"

Sorry.. Had to..

Mine's the one with Predator 2 in the pocket

Sony warns of first operating loss in 14 years

Alex
Coat

Light blue touch paper. He he!

Sony: They've not done anything wrong towards me, and make great pieces of kit. Yes expensive, but still great. I wonder what other organsiations have the same R&D going on for all their depts. I think I can count them on one finger..

Mine's the one with the "SCE" logo on the back, with the PSP in the breast pocket, a 1980s walkman in the inside pocket, and a Sonycam in the the left outter pocket. Oh, there might be a copy of the Sony Magazine in the right outter pocket..

Seagate firmware fix bricks Barracudas

Alex

@Tom Chiverton

Not sure I agree with you on that: from past experience, having the same make and model of drives in a RAID ensures good efficientcy on the RAID (a bit like matched memory). I would probably say that you should have the same make and models in a RAID, but if you were going to update a drive in the RAID, you would do so one 1 only not all(!). Just my personal opinion.

And on a different comment: I agree wholeheartedly that if you can not backup your data on a drive, do NOT change the firmware! Only do that if you risk losing your data, in which case there's nothing to lose (apart from you data that will be lost anyway). And if you can't backup your drive, then you will need to beg/borrow/buy something where you can back it up BEFORE updating.

Logitech updates Harmony 1000 to 1100

Alex
Boffin

BT & RF

As I understand it, the RF functionality only works if you have the RF Extender unit installed in the "locked away" cabinet.. Without that, you can't use it.

As for BT: I very much doubt you will see a top end device include BT until more manufacturers move away from the crappy IR functionality. I wish more WOULD use BT, but they are still 'shaming' SCE for using it on the PS3 (or peeps that complain about the PS3 not having IR). If you need IR, then search for the IR4PS3. It's not too expensive (cheaper if you have the remote), and takes away the need to create a macro for shutting off and tunring on the PS3. There are alternatives, but I use the above with a Harmony, and it's great.

Regarding the review.. I'm guessing this was at a stand at CES? In which case, you may have had your hands on a test model with older firmware/hardware. Crap I know, but it is possible. Looking forward to the full review in a couple of weeks

Sennheiser VMX Office multi-source Bluetooth headset

Alex
Heart

Nice Pic

At last!! :o)

Sony rallies chums round proprietary standard

Alex
Go

Microsoft's Surface

I think this would be brilliant in conjunction with MS' Surface product.. Bin Bluetooth (or not), and use UWB to move things from one device to another, or for streaming on the 'surface' device.

Brilliant. It would also have a slight security measure where it doesn't broadcast your device to 100m.

Like it, carry on!

Pro-Palestine vandals deface Army, NATO sites

Alex
Coat

For the Love of God/Allah/et al

Please someone, close the comments before we have a diplomatic incident from all of this sword waving (or should that be cock-waving)!

Mine's the one with the "Qur'ān/Tanakh : Super Condensed Edition" in the pocket

Sony Vaio Z11 13in laptop

Alex
Boffin

GPUs

Sony have been doing this for the last 2 years at least. My org laptop has one for stamina, and one for speed!

"I'll feel the need, the need for speed!" *High 5*

'Bloody' is an offensive word, declares ASA

Alex
Flame

@ASA

Oh shut up!

I object to their use of censorship. Can they be banned please?

ffs...

Oz bill-dodgers nailed on Facebook

Alex
Go

Never piss on your own patch

heh, I've worked in the industry many years ago, and you do NOT piss them off.. To do it to a fellow industry colleague is very funny in a stupid way.

Ha! Kudos to the other manager for dishing out some pain

Sony said to be planning Spring PS3 price cut

Alex
Boffin

@Iain & @Steve

"Hi Mark."

LOL! Classicly done :o)

"they're getting hammered by the gap that has opened back up between the other consoles and it"

&

"the price of an 80gb model down by £100"

@ Iain : Exactly.

@ Steve : Whereas I do agree that it's expensive compared to the Xbox, I can not believe that Sony would cut it by 100 notes... Sorry, that's a bit unrealistic. Iain has a good point though where you can have two consoles for the same price. Having said that, the selling point of the Xbox right now is the fact it is cheap because it could be considered a barebones console. I know that they are now selling the entry level at 129 notes, which alot of gamers do like. The Elite goes for 220 notes on Play which has the majority of the tech available.

.. what am i getting at? Well, it needs to be reminded that to have the similar levels of tech as a PS3, you'd need to be paying over 200 notes for an Xbox.

As always, my caveat is that I have a PS3, 360 (Elite), and a Wii - and I enjoy the 360 and PS3 massively. The Wii has lost it's edge, but it still gets used and is not a dust collector (yet!)

Net pedants dismantle Quantum of Solace

Alex
Stop

...Oh for fucks sake....

I think that says it all really.

QoS : Not the best, but by no means the worst. Now the theme tune.. yup, the worst..

...and don't be stupid to agree with some reviews that it wasn't Bond because he didn't have any gadgets... He was cut off, so Q (or R) couldn't replenish him with his toys; even thought his SE phone was pretty much a gadget, but without laser beams, shark repellent, and a thermo-nuclear device all rolled into one.

And as for the speaking wall.. It's that Microsofts Surface, but on an OLED transparentcy? It was on the table, that's for sure.. You see, Microsoft and Sony working together..

Vuzix iWear AV230 XL video glasses

Alex
Coat

@AC: Do these

"To be blunt, can I use them for internet porn?"

As in to get to the point?

Mine's the one with the Razzle mag in the pocket..

BlackBerry Javelin to spear RIM's Bold and Curve?

Alex
Coat

No 3G?

Mines the Bold then...

You can keep the iPhone attempt. I like my qwerty buttons for "quicker- than-touch-screen" typing.

A Bold statement I know...

(You see what I did there...?)

Mine's the one with the antiquated abacus in the pocket.

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