* Posts by Jason Aspinall

33 publicly visible posts • joined 15 Mar 2007

Japan runs out of Xbox 360s

Jason Aspinall
Stop

"on their way to Japan"

Huh?!?!? Surely these machines are actually made *IN* Japan? (clueless to the extreme, what with being a PS3 user :) )

Sony, MS want control of PS3, Xbox iPlayer, Beeb boss claims

Jason Aspinall
Alert

PS3 no worky...

...as of yet. Tried playing an old episode of Eastenders on my PS3 last night, you get as far as a placeholder for the flash movie player, and that's your lot.

Can't wait for the minor browser update to enable proper viewing... All we need then is HD streaming over the PS3 console to our HD telly's, bye bye Sky!

Sony chews the Blu-ray fat with Microsoft

Jason Aspinall
Thumb Up

Hmmm

Does this mean we may eventually get a port of Halo3 for the PS3?

Prosecutors target first 'Facebook harassment' conviction

Jason Aspinall
Paris Hilton

Which account was deleted!?

Surely if *he* was guilty, only *his* account should've been kiboshed?

Paris, she definately needs kiboshing...

Fujitsu Siemens pitches Eee-style sub-notebook at pros

Jason Aspinall
Thumb Up

Touch screen?

"the P1620's also a tablet, with the screen, once opened, able to rotate 180° in either direction."

My guess if it's being marketed at a tablet with rotating screen, it simply has to have a touch screen?!?! Will be rather interesting to see the price on this with the HSDPA connectivity option :)

Disintegrating wind turbine caught on camera

Jason Aspinall
Thumb Down

@Thomas

Errm, sorry, if you check what I QUOTED, you'll indeed see *I* make no complaints whatsosever.

Jason Aspinall
Pirate

Fazed

This was covered on Fazed.net the other day...at least one of the comments posted by someone who knew what they were talking about mention the fact that THREE safety systems had to have failed in order for the turbine to over-rev, causing muchos damage!

Bloody impressive videos mind :D

[quote]

There is a lot of incorrect or misleading information in this comment thread, so let me try to clarify a few things about turbine operation and safety.

This is definitely not fake, and that is a textbook example of turbine structural failure due to overspeed. That speed is far outside the design parameters, and the forces on the structure far beyond the design as well. Asking it to be able to survive that is like asking for your car to not be crushed when you crash it into a wall at 60 mph.

Turbine rotor speed is generally controlled in three basic ways. The first is simply the resistance of the generator itself. However if the generator fails or is disconnected from the power grid this source of resistance fails as well.

The second speed control method is by changing the aerodynamics of the rotor. On most modern pitch regulated turbines this involves changing the pitch of the rotor blades into the wind. When the blades are pitched 90 degrees out of the wind they generate essentially zero rotational force. On simpler stall regulated machines, which cannot adjust blade pitch, a tip brake is activated; the last few feet of the blades are pushed out a few inches and turned out of the wind. This achieves a similar aerodynamic effect. Either method is usually enough to stop a turbine fairly quickly, and this is the primary control mechanism. These systems have either springs or hydraulic accumulators and should automatically activate in case of other systems failure.

The third method is a mechanical brake. This is generally a massive disk brake, and may be mounted either on the low-speed input shaft, or, more commonly, on the high speed shaft connecting the gearbox to the generator. This brake is typically used as a parking brake during maintenance, but can be activated as an emergency brake as well.

Overspeed like this would require the turbine to be offline and not generating power, and for both the aerodynamic and mechanical brakes to fail. It can happen, but is very rare, and I am extremely curious as to exactly how this happened.

As to the fiberglass comment: the most common turbine blade material is glass fiber reinforced plastic. Carbon fiber is being used sometimes, but not often. Early turbines used steel blades, but their weight is just too high for today's large machines. The construction is somewhat like an airplane wing.

The towers are made of steel, if that gives you an idea of just how much energy was released when that thing finally gave way.

Nik282000 is wrong on his/her first point. The blades on almost all modern large turbines can turn completely out of the wind, and this is the primary braking mechanism.

And some general information on speed:

Most turbines shut down when wind speeds reach 25 meters per second (56 mph). Some shut down at 20 meters per second (45 mph). They can survive much higher wind speeds when they are not running.

Rotational speeds vary by model but generally range from 10 to 20 revolutions per minute. 15 RPM is a fairly common number. Most turbine models rotate at one or two fixed speeds. GE turbines have more sophisticated power electronics (and a patent) that allows them to vary their rotational speed as wind conditions change.

[/quote]

Turkmen prez sacks 30 for TV news cockroach outrage

Jason Aspinall
Alert

pmpl

A tad ott, one thinks?

Official: Toshiba discontinues HD DVD

Jason Aspinall
Thumb Up

About bloody time!!

Finally, some sense and sensibility about the whole blu-ray/hd-dvd debable.

Man takes old iPhone box, builds film camera

Jason Aspinall
Dead Vulture

IKEA?

Am I correct in saying IKEA have had dibs in this "design" too? Looking at the first image of this contraption, that allen key looks suspiciously like something you'd get in a flat pack....

Hamster-in-rain emergency prompts 999 call

Jason Aspinall
Stop

Vital seconds?

Sorry, while I appreciate there are dick'eads calling 999 because their pizza was delivered late and is now cold, I don't buy the claim "vital seconds" may be lost answering such calls...

This sort of implies all lines could be busy, and you'll get an engaged tone calling 999. While I don't frequent calling 999 myself, I've never *ever* heard of anyone not getting through on a 999 call cuz some operator has put their line on "do not disturb" while they set about cutting their toe nails.

Sony posts Skype-packing PSP firmware update

Jason Aspinall
Flame

Why do it?

It never ceases to amaze me the backward thinking of Sony at times. Who in their right mind is going to "upgrade" to the thin'n'light to take /advantage/ of Skype?

Monster-capacity PS3 in the pipeline?

Jason Aspinall

What's taken them soooo long?

Anyone capable of operating a screwdriver and following on screen prompts can *easily* upgrade any PS3. My little 40gig model lasted all of a week before I popped in a 250Gb behometh! :) (and no, I still don't care it doesn't play ps2 games...I still have my ps2 to do that, should I take a knock to the head and decide I want to play crappy standard def games)

'Wii workout' for overweight pupils plan slammed

Jason Aspinall
Coat

@Tim

Nah, the tennis is a piece of cake to play with simply wrist flicks...nowt to do with massive movement (same goes for the ten pin bowling). That said, when I've played the boxing game, I end up sweating more than a naughty person on a rape charge! I lead a relatively active life chasing my fourteen month old son around my house stopping him from destroying it brick by brick too! :D

Jason Aspinall
Pirate

@Richard

"At least the Wii gets them up and moving, gets them interested. You never know, a kid who's good at Wii tennis might just develop a passion for the real thing."

Errrm, the last time I saw someone play Wii Tennis, the most movement they did was akin to a five kunckle shuffle (if you get my drift)...Can't somehow see this ever leading to some heffer strutting their stuff across a tennis court, huffing and puffing all the while... Obesity in kids has it's roots in poor diet and generally being apathetic to anything like getting off their arses and doing REAL exercise! Forget the Wii, kick their wobbly arses around a field instead...

Peeved HTC smartphone owners offer bounty for driver fix

Jason Aspinall
Flame

Hmmm

Odd that this subject hasn't already been raised on the likes of Modaco.com? I've posted a link to this story there, raise the profile a bit... In the meantime I've both signed the petition and emailed HTC. Wondering if anything will become of that...

Revealed: USB 3.0 jacks and sockets

Jason Aspinall
Flame

Bah, crappola drivers!

The only real issue with USB is CRAP DRIVERS! I've lost count over the years the number of USB devices that fail to work because the drivers either: a) need to be installed before attaching the device-but don't work, b) need to be installed after connecting the device-but don't work, c) the drivers are unsigned-and almost guaranteed not to work, and d) no installation "undo" in the XP regisrty to clear away all the useless USB install dross that stops any further attempts at shoehorning some (obviously not all) crappola USB devices onto a computer, dead it it's tracks!

I like USB, but I don't like the hit'n'miss installation. If anyone knows of any util that "sanitises" the XP registry to make it look like you've just reinstalled the OS and removed *every* *single* *remnant* of all USB installations (to be totally sure), please please pretty please with cream and cherries on top, leave a URL here!!!

Paramount poised to drop HD DVD

Jason Aspinall
Flame

lmao

Ho ho ho .... didn't see this coming :D

Warner Bros gives all its hi-def loving to Blu-ray

Jason Aspinall
Go

PS3 sales *have* to be included in the figures!

Well, I specifically bought a PS3 to play BLURAY movies on! I've gone out and spent my hard earned moolah on BR discs, not had them given to me bundled with the PS3. Ok, so I scrimpped a bit and bought the 40gig model, easily swap the drive out for a much larger one when the time comes...and I couldn't give a tuppenny fcuk it doesn't have the emotion engine (still have my PS2 for playing ye olde standard def games, which will almost certainly now end up on ebay). Playing games like Uncharted makes you wonder why we put up with crappola from the PS2 anyways!

The fact BR discs hold more data means they'll hold more extras from movies (Pirate of the Carribean extras are amazing!) and as for DRM on bluray, I couldn't care less. I buy discs to watch them on my telly (via component), not rip them into a million different formats to play elsewhere. Ripping DVD's and the filesizes involved was too much like fannying around for me not to bother - bluray filesizes are gonna be bigger still, even more of a chore. No thanks!

N95 struggles to find itself

Jason Aspinall
Happy

RunGPS

I use RunGPS on my VarioIII and it is stonkingly brilliant! Not "free", but seventeen beer tokens is a small small price to pay for something so addicitive!

Beeb censors Fairytale of New York

Jason Aspinall
Flame

Dear "god" !!!

I find it offensive that other take offense at the smallest petty things... This is taking the PC brigade to new levels... Be off with their heads, I say!

Nintendo kills Wii ads due to console shortage

Jason Aspinall
Flame

@Hedley Philips

To be fair, the RRP of £180 isn't exactly expensive... what royally fucks me off is that the high st retailers have got everyone over the proverbial barrel by selling them with "bundled" games, stiffing the consumer into spending the better part of £300 a pop, with games! Yes yes, I know you need to buy games for the console anyways...just seems retailers are taking the piss!

UK database of children delayed

Jason Aspinall
Alert

"Till we find those pesky discs..."

Till? 'Til?

Hmmm.... </pedant>

Online sellers warned on UK cheque clearance changes

Jason Aspinall
Thumb Down

Pffft

Yet another excuse by the banks to force people to use plastic for transactions!

Need a new set of b*llocks? Try Argos

Jason Aspinall
Happy

Looking for weapons of mass destruction? Try Tesco :D

http://direct.tesco.com/search/default.aspx?search=weapons+of+mass+destruction&confirm.x=0&confirm.y=0

:D

Girls' school head condemns bubblewrapping of kids

Jason Aspinall
Go

Fair do's

Gotta agree with the sentiments made here... Kids these days are far too wrapped up in cotton wool! I've got a one year old son, who's at the stage in his life where he thinks he can walk miles. Whereas in actual fact, he can make two or three steps, then land squarley on his arse. While mum is happy to chase him around catching him...I on the other hand sit back and watch the hilarities from a distance, watching him LEARN.

That's not to say I'd watch him fall down a flight of stairs (as he's surpremely keen to climb them when the safety gate is left open) bouncing on his head... But, kids I feel should be allowed to take risks, learning from their mistakes. If that involves bumps and scrapes along the way, then so be it. Never did me any harm growing up (other than the odd scar or two, here or there!)

OLPC offers one-for-two to generous North Americans

Jason Aspinall
Alert

UK?

So how do we get one of these XO's in the UK then? Befirend an American and have them permanently export it to us here this side of the pond?

ISP bosses told to get real on broadband speeds

Jason Aspinall
Dead Vulture

@Jon Hewitt: 500gig a month!

As much as anyone hates to be /funny/, but what the hell are you downloading to achieve those kind of figures!?!?

HTC adds real, virtual keypads to second-gen Touch

Jason Aspinall

Orange, end of the month?

Aye...and I'll eat my hat* if they actually release this handset by the end of the month! In a HTC press release, Orange were supposed to be the first operator in the UK to be releasing the uber brilliant HTC TyTN II in September! Funnily enough, T-Mobile appear to have beaten them to it with their MDA Vario III. Not to mention anyone dreaming of using any handset with HSDPA on the Orange network better have bloody deep pockets rammed full of gold coins, or at least take out a second mortgage to cope with their crazy data pricing. At least folk at T-Mobile have a clue when it comes to this with their web'n'walk pricing....

*I will actually have to go out and buy one first, however!

Apple slashes iPhone prices

Jason Aspinall

Laugh?

I almost shat myself reading this article... I pitty every single iPhone owner out there.. For sure, they've been 0wn3d!

Newest Ubuntu dubbed 'Hardy Heron'

Jason Aspinall

@Robin

Here's bloody hoping!

NASA examining Shuttle's dings, extending mission

Jason Aspinall

@PC Paul

Mmm, I've always wondered what this foam stuff actually was too... Concrete?

Amazon 1-Click to rule 'em all? Not if Kiwi has his way

Jason Aspinall

Beggars belief

It honestly does beggar belief how some patents are awarded!