Posts by johnnytruant
296 posts • joined Tuesday 12th August 2008 17:57 GMT
Re: 20gb?
A full-size 64-bit Debian testing comes on 10 DVDs, but that's a complete copy of the repositories (ie, all the software available as well as the OS)
Posted in Mary Meeker's top technology trends
Re: As stated, probably yes.
Given the huge amount of Kindles given as Christmas presents just this year - reported widely as 1-in-40 - I'm guessing a fairly large chunk of that 29% is ereaders.
But I'm not entirely sure why tablets and ereaders are being put in the same stat. Apart from having a roughly similar form-factor, there's not much else to compare between the two. While web browsing is, theoretically, possible on an ereader, you'd have to be pretty desperate. Same goes for reading on a tablet.
It's a bit like saying "29% of UK Households now have a telephone AND a bookshelf."
related
friend of mine has a startup which offers something similar: https://www.mastodonc.com/
UI consitency
" Of course, if user interface consistency is your highest priority then you probably aren't using Linux anyway."
I assume if that is your priority you're using a Mac, because Linux is far better at this than Windows.
Almost every piece of software on my Windows box styles it's window, menus, UI controls etc differently. Admittedly I don't use it for much, but the differences between Firefox, Chrome, Thunderbird, Traktor, iTunes, Live and various device-specific pieces of software (Sony Reader app, SEUS, the stupid bloatware graphics driver, the ridiculous trackpad controller, etc) are astonishing. There's a wider variety of weird chrome on show than a saturday afternoon at a scooter convention.
Most GTK apps look very similar, because they are all drawn using GTK toolkit so they can't help it. Menu layouts might be a bit variable, but it's getting better. KDE is even better than Gnome on the UI consistency front - almost MacOS good, I'd say, which is a pretty good achievement - because the situation used to be awful for both Desktops, back in the day.
Going on past government IT project costs, I think if it were just 'tens' of millions then we've got off very lightly indeed.
Posted in Zombies, Run!
Re: @johnnytruant
What A/C above said. Although looking a bit more at the two products, Zombies Run (the one reviewed) seems to be a bit different. Perhaps less interactive, although more suited to running the same route repeatedly or for use indoors.
Posted in Zombies, Run!
it's not that original. There's been an app with the exact same name - albeit a bit less fancy - on Android for a couple of years.
But hey, what is original any more. The 'droid app is genuinely good fun, so I'd imagine this one is too.
Posted in WTF is... Li-Fi?
Re: mercedes are trialling LED headlights
Audi and Citroen (at least) already have LED running lights, and most manufacturers seem to use LED for brakes these days too.
If car-to-car comms were only used to say "Sorry, my bad, didn't see you" and "Thanks!" then I think it'd be a good idea. Not sure it would be limited to such polite messages though....
Re: Don't worry about it
Nice shell for Windows?
http://cairoshell.github.com/
I think is rather nice. if I had to use a Windows, I'd put this on it.
Er
wasn't highly rendered glass and graphically complex textures cheesy and dated when Aero was launched?
has it ever been anything other?
Re: ASA powerless
Really? When did we get into using this nonsense left/right liberal/conservative drivel over on this side of the pond?
It's pretty meaningless distinction in the US, even more so in this country. Do attempt to get a clue, please. (hint: clue available here - http://www.politicalcompass.org/analysis2)
Posted in Wolfenstein 3D shoots onto web
related
Watch Carmack playing, and talking about, Wolf 3D here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=amDtAPHH-zE
He sounds like such a stereotypical nerd. Massive, massive respect for the guy though. You know you've made it when you can start your own space programme just for fun.
Posted in Instagram
18.5MB!
Vignette is orders of magnitude better for manipulating (and taking) photos and weighs in at a hefty 175Kb.
I don't have my phone to hand to check, but I'm fairly sure it'll let you post to Twitter/FB/Flickr/etc, seeing as all my apps seem to do that by default.
I like Goop
But then I have enough friends posting on there to make it worth using. The S/N ratio compared to FB and Twitter is excellent.
I appreciate other people's milage may vary, just my experience.
Re: New plan
3) ???
4) Profit!
Like many of you, I work in IT
So I would assume that asking for my FB/email/whatevr login details was a test of my anti-social-engineering skills, to which I was supposed to reply "no, I don't give out passwords."
If I were interviewing, answering anything other than the above would get you removed from the list of potential candidates sharpish.
As a friend of mine put it..
"This is what infinity means: Somewhere, encoded in the unending, random-seeming digits of the decimal representation of pi, is a perfect cut-and-paste-worthy 1080p H.264 widescreen encoding of the video to Rick Astley's 'Never Gonna Give You Up.'"
Posted in Game Group shares slide under a penny
My local Game
Is actually rather good. Yes, they are a little more expensive than Amazon, but the guys (and they are just guys) who work there are friendly, well-informed and helpful. A few times I've been in and said "I like X, Y and Z, what should I play next?" and they're pulled a great game I've never heard of off the shelves. Sometimes going out the back and finding a freshly in-traded version they could sell me cheaper than the new one. That kind of thing I like.
Posted in Asteroid could SMASH INTO EARTH in 2040
Let's not get off track.
I think we're all beginning to lose sight of the real issue here, which is: what are we going to call ourselves? I say it's time to start the Campaign for Lessening Impact To us Of Rocks In Space.
I'll get some t-shirts printed up, someone go down to the ammunition stores, get the nuclear warheads and then strap one to Bruce Willis's head, he can nut the smegger to oblivion.
Re: Re: Re: Not going to use this mess
I have a feeling that Metro is very much like Unity and Gnome Shell - power users don't like it, but it tests very well with ordinary users. There are a lot more of those ordinary users than us - they're the people the UI designers are designing for, and rightly so. You can say what you like about MS, Canonical, Gnome et al but they know the importance of testing, and they know which part of their market needs the extra help of a change in UI. My Mum, for example, loves Unity - she says things like "I didn't even know I had this thing installed" and "it's like it knows what I'm looking for" and so on.
Personally I like huge controls/icons/etc. Makes my computer easier to use. I can click to the pixel too, but if I don't have to, there's a lower cognitive overhead to finding a control. Fitt's law applies to me just as much as anyone else. I love Gnome Shell - but it took me a couple of months to get used to it, but now it's so slick and easy I wouldn't want to go back.
[ caveat here is that my copy of Win8 hasn't finished downloading yet, so I can only speak for my experiences of Unity/Shell ]
One thing I'm wondering
Is whether I can run this live off a DVD/USB, or am I to clear a partition for an actual install? Be nice if MS caught up with Linux on the liveboot front at least.
It's unlikely Windows of any flavour is ever going to be my OS of choice, but I'm always excited to see (and try) a new UI. Something new is always worth a look, that's what I say.
Posted in Tomorrow's smartphone tech today
Re: Re: Scanning stuff in shops
It's not just see-before-you-buy-online. Occasionally I see things on offer in shops and I want to check some reviews of them before purchase. Most recently, a fancy VAX cleaner at less than half-price - one quick scan later, and a read of the unanimously dreadful reviews it had - no purchase, money saved on a crappy product.
On the other hand, I recently spotted a PS3 game in Sainsbury's which looked suspiciously cheap. Quick scan confirmed it was a tenner less than Game/Amazon/etc, into the trolley, bosh. Sale achieved!
Re: but how much of an area.....
I may be wrong here, but I think it's 4.7 centiWales.
Credit certainly due to http://www.simonkelk.co.uk/sizeofwales.html
Posted in Grid Lens
normally I'm not a fan of photo apps..
..because most of them tend to be exercises in polishing turds (or at least hiding shitty photography behind 'vintage' FX), but I rather like the look of this. It's based on the various timeslice Lomo cameras from a few years back, which I had one of and it was rather fun.
I have no iPhone though. Anyone know if there's a 'droid equivalent?
Posted in Man surfs slopes at night in LED suit
shot on a Red Epic at a minimum 2K frame size
yet only available to watch on YouTube at 480p?
huh.
Exactly
That said, a posthumous knighthood as recognition of his incredible contributions to computing, maths, pwning Nazi comms and so on might not be a bad thing. If a dead golfer (Henry Cotton) can get knighted, then surely Turing is worthy.
unless
The thing you like is Gnome. I really can't get on with Unity, KDE or XFCE, although I appreciate other people like them. I put most of my friends on one of the three main *buntus and they all seem fine.
But I like Gnome. I even like Shell. I also like tinkering. So I went back to Debian a while ago. It's nice to have options.
A completely plastic shoe?
That'll never catch on.
Oh wait. http://www.crocs.com/
Posted in UK sight-loss charity sues BMI
This is good
Because it means web agencies/devs with a clue can say "well, of course we can do [stupid flashy thing X] on your webpage, but it does risk you being sued by the RNIB like BMI did."
I've lost count of the number of times I've gently pointed out to a client that the inane animated nonsense their four-year-old daughter thought would be good on their corporate web page was shutting out users with access issues. To no effect whatsoever, most times.
A precedent for actual legal action is an effective hammer to use on even the most rabid marketing types.
given the dross the commercial channels produce
I will happily pay my license fee regardless of how the content is delivered. That comment stands in relation to both TV and radio.
try some of this lovely mushroom tea
then read it again. all will become clear.
perhaps they are making a subtle point
That determined and knowledgeable people can still get the information. Just as determined and knowledgeable people will still be able to access copyright-infringing content after SOPA/PIPA.
way back in the day, when I worked in retail
I worked in Richer Sounds. It was drilled hard into us to never, ever bullshit a customer about anything ever. Either they spot you at the time, then you don't get a sale; or they find out later on and are annoyed - either way that customer isn't coming back and will probably tell their friends not to either.
We were told that if you don't know something, politely say so, then find the hell out and get back to them sharpish. Offer the customer a cup of tea while they wait.
It's not rocket science. But it is probably why Richers are still making money and Dixons aren't.
this is very annoying
If PC Dixocurryworld closes, where will I go to eyeball my potential new tech purchases before I order them off Amazon?
Can't imagine I'm going to be first with this
But, http://xkcd.com/936/
Posted in Phone maker punts AA-powered blower
If I still went mountaineering/hillwalking
One of these would get stuffed into a waterproof bag and go straight onto my basic gear pile.
Those Energizer Ultimate batteries are pretty awesome - I got just over four years of daily use out of my super-bright torch before it needed fresh ones. Also they weigh about half what normal AAs do. For some applications - where weight, longevity or both matter - their rather generous price tag is definitely worth paying.
Posted in HTC Sensation XL
you could try
The Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray.
Slimline, lightweight and powerful enough (for me, ymmv). Also has a camera superior to almost anything on the market.
not quite
$79 is the ad-supported version, which isn't available in the UK.
The UK-matching version is $109. So that's a 29% price difference at current rates, most of which can be explained by being VAT@20% the US version of which, sales tax, doesn't apply to online purchases (I think. USians please do correct me if I'm wrong.)
So it's not all that bad.
I still bought the Sony. It's much nicer, imo.
Posted in 2011's Best... Smartphones
So you review the Sony Ericsson Arc S at 95%
But somehow that doesn't make this list of 90% phones?
Posted in 2011's Best... E-book Readers
My girlfriend is a library manager and Amazon UK are currently refusing to play nice with Overdrive, the library lending service that most (all?) UK e-lending systems use. Not the library's fault there's no Kindle support, they are trying!
The Kindle works with some US Overdrive-powered systems, so it's technically possible and therefore will probably be coming to the UK at some point. It seems foolish of Amazon not to get involved, but then I guess there's limited profit for them - although library lending does become a selling point which they can lever more customers in with, or a point which they lose sales to Sony/Kobo on.
Posted in 2011's Best... E-book Readers
http://digitallibrary.norfolk.gov.uk/ has audiobooks for lending, but I haven't tried borrowing any. Other library services may vary.
Posted in 2011's Best... E-book Readers
Sony PRS-T1
I've just bought a PRS-T1 and it's bloody lovely. For me, the extra £40 over the Kindle so I could make use of my local library's digital lending system - directly through the reader itself (plus wifi) - was a no brainer. Might have merited a mention in the review, the library-lending capability, although not all library services offer it (yet).
Also, I think the Sony manages the eInk Pearl screen better than the Kindle does. The Sony does a blank on each page turn which the Kindle only does every five page turns. The text after the third or fourth refresh without blanking looks decidedly jaggy to my eyes.
Fits into Kindle cases as well, which is handy.
So much fuss
Over some pageviews on a relatively obscure website? I like distrowatch, but then I'm a linux geek. The vast majority of Ubuntu users haven't heard of it, and don't care either.
Ubuntu is easily the most popular linux distro and so what? Mint is good. Ubuntu is good. Debian is good. Fedora is good. Crunchbang is good. SUSE is good. Slackware is good. Sabayon is good. They're all good. (except KDE distros, obviously.. /troll) Choose the one you like and use it. Then be glad you've got the choice.
I know distro choice has always been a minor holy war, and one that is occasionally fun to get into, but this latest pissing contest escalation seems a lot more childish than before.
Posted in Ubuntu penguins build Linux TV challenge
There's a ppa currently hosting builds for lpia, amd64 and x86, but XMBC has built on ARM for a few years now.
You'd be pretty crazy to not base a TV project on it, to be honest. That'd be like trying to create an apt-based distro not based on Debian. Even if you ditch all the (rather nice) UI, you want the video and pvr handling - XMBC plays more video formats than almost anything I've seen.
the TouCam Pro
is really an astonishing piece of kit. The SPC9x series even more so. Why Phillips made them with such incredibly sensitive CCDs in, nobody will ever know. But when you can pick one up for a tenner of fleabay and tape a film canister with an IR cut filter to the front, you can manage some rather impressive astrophotograpy. Mod it a bit further for long exposure and you can achieve truly stunning results on deepsky objects. It's one of the few aspects of home astronomy which doesn't have to cost a bleedin' fortune.
Celestron sell a reboxed Philips webcam for some £120 just 'cos it has a 1.5" tube and a Celestron logo on the case.
Posted in Ubuntu penguins build Linux TV challenge
A wheel not in need of reinvention
XMBC and it's derivatives - openELEC, Boxee et al are already well all over linux-on-the-telly. I can share painlessly to and from my XBMC-running media centre using existing protocols like UPnP and DLNA and so on - not just devices running Ubuntu. Remote control is achieved for me with a wiimote and bluetooth - but I could easily use my phone or a web browser or an iDevice. I'm sure someone could port OpenKinect's output to being XMBC friendly, it's hardly difficult as XBMC is so well put together.
Even the drooling fanboists at omgubuntu barely got excited over this latest Shuttleworth announcement.
Full disclosure: I've used Ubuntu on and off since it launched, and today 50% of my computers run Ubuntu - including the media centre - the rest are on Debian.
Some of my favourites
Even though a bit long in the tooth now, PixelJunk Monsters is one of the best Tower Defence games on PS3, and co-op multiplayer is awesome. Not to mention having a rather good soundtrack.
Flower is by some definitions not a game, it's still well worth whatever few quid it costs these days.
Burnout Crash is unfailingly amusing to pick up for a few minutes here and there, and features the song Crash by the Primitives, which provides a great earworm for days afterwards.
Posted in id Software Doom
I should add
That the frame rate when playing on a old greyscale iPod does leave something to be desired.
Posted in id Software Doom
Most ported game ever?
Could be. I've run it on my 4G iPod, and I've seen it running on devices as diverse as digital cameras and internet-enabled fridges.
