Posts by Bassey
978 posts • joined Tuesday 23rd September 2008 12:02 GMT
Design by committee
Oh dear....
suspend
I think it would be quite funny if their service provider suspended their telephone service - much like they would for any of us who made a series of abusive calls. Not going to happen, obviously, but it would be amusing to see the Beeb try to justify it's phone-centric output as "Entertainment" once the phone part is taken away. It would certainly put an end to that fecking "Children in need" shite and, for that alone, I would have to thank the talentless twosome.
Exchange rate
Hey, at today's exchange rate that makes the UK version roughly £150 cheaper than the US!
So, are we to start a "Rip off States" campaign, encouraging yanks to take long weekends in Blighty to do all their Christmas shopping?
Re: Do you know what DOES reduce accidents?
Actually Ash, that's completely untrue. It's been shown in studies (can't find 'em now but have read them - honest!) that these road-side memorials CAUSE accidents. The police are constantly asking people not to do it. You get the rubber necking effect, people braking too hard. There have even been really tragic accidents when those placing flowers have stopped their car in a dangerous spot and have been seriously injured or killed whilst placing the flowers or whilst getting in/out of the car.
It's a hard one, 'cause you can't really tell some grieving parent/widow/widower etc. NOT to place flowers at the site of their loved ones tragic death but it DOES cause accidents.
Posted in Speaking clock gets Disneyfied
I have an idea
If we all say, together "I don't believe in Faries, I don't believe in Faries" over and over, will Tinker Bell fuck off and die?
Just a thought
Posted in BBC clarifies location of England
Reminds me
I was sat in a cafe several months ago and BBC Radio 1 was annoyingly blaring away. The news came on and opened with "Today, Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister...". Even the way it was said made it absolutely clear that the person reading it out was expecting a significant proportion of Radio 1 listeners to need the extra clarification as to who this Gordon Brown bloke was and why on earth Radio 1 might be reporting on what HE was doing rather than the latest exploits in "I'm a 3rd rate non-entity who'll do anything for a tango".
Anyway, I've noticed an even more annoying trend on the BBC news (both TV and radio) lately. They seem to have stopped reporting "The News" and have started reporting the Newspapers. Every fecking news item starts off with "The Times has reported that...", or "In today's Mirror it has been revealed...". It's as if the BBC news department has just become a news aggregation service.
Posted in BMW unwraps electric Mini
being lazy
Based on the current 98p/litre for petrol and, say, a fairly average 45mpg for 200 miles a week, how does the running costs of this Mini compare with your average petrol small car?
I am correct in saying a unit is a KWh? I think I'm paying about 12p a unit at the moment (might be wrong by a huge amount - this is just a figure lurking somewhere in the back of my mind). If any of that is correct, a full charge is only costing £3.36 which is getting you 150 miles (or 2.25p/mile).
The above mentioned example for petrol works out at 9.9p/mile. So the electric is working out at 1/4 the cost per mile. Assuming servicing etc. isn't too horrific then surely electric cars are a no brainer and why aren't the motor manufacturers mentioning this huge advantage yet?
Everyone keeps going on about Electric cars as being "Environmentally friendly" - which depends on how your electricity is generated - but, lets face it, we're all more concerned with running costs but you never see these quoted.
Posted in Bee Gees belter may help cheat death
We use
We use the chorus from "Nelly the Elephant" by the Toy Dolls. However, you have to be careful to ignore either the one beat pause in the middle or the last beat otherwise you give them 31 compressions rather than the recommended 30.
That was recommended to us by St John Ambulance and has been confirmed by doctors and Heart Start.
Sooo....
So, the only source they have for the smell of space is the smell astronauts get from their suits when they return from a space walk. Correct me if I'm wrong (like you lot need an invite) but Space walks nowadays are more often than not are done to repair the ISS. The astronauts pop outside to, ooh, I don't know, weld things together and the like.
And the predominant smell they get when they come back in is hot metal and welding.....
So, NASA. Not really all that smart after all then.
Useless
No mention of the Border region there. Though it seems safe to assume that, having had the inconvenience of being the first to have analogue turned off (without yet even having the digital signal turned on) we won't actually benefit from being the first area to have HD - the reason given for turning off analogue.
The whole digital switch-over has been a complete farce. A few months ago I got a leaflet from the Digital switch people telling me my options for digital are;
Freeview - even though there is no freeview signal yet and they aren't turning it on for months
BT Vision - Not available in our area and never will be
Virgin - Not available in our area and never will be
Sky - yep!
So, not actually a choice then. Just Digital Switchover forcing us to pay money to sky. They also told me my TV signal was coming from an Ulster transmitter that would not be getting freeview until 2012. which is not true. I get my signal from a Border transmitter - which is why I get border TV and why they were writing to me. Ulster don't switch for a few years yet. Their letter even clearly stated they were writing to me as part of the Border switchover whilst telling me I was getting Ulster TV!
They really are a bunch of useless fuck-wits.
Even better...
An even better idea would be to have the solar cells built into the cradle along with a battery and a few usb ports. That way the battery in the cradle can be charging all the time (okay, maybe not when it's dark but you know..) and you can just put the phone back in the cradle when it needs recharging - as we all do now. The USB ports could be used to charge a mobile phone, MP3 player etc. over night as well.
In fact, why have the cradle. Someone just create a device that is basically just a large rechargeable battery covered in solar cells with several USB Ports. With suitable adaptors you could charge all your kit off it whenever you needed.
Does this constitute proof that I came up with the idea?
Posted in Blu-ray Disc a 'bag of hurt', says Jobs
Re: @Maybe it's just me
> How many have 1080p TV's
Good point. Most have LCD TV's. A couple have 1080p. I would say half have HD TV's of one kind or another but the majority of those probably have 1080i/720p, not 1080p. It just isn't something most people care about. I'm a techy and even I'm not that bothered. When FreeSat PVR's are launched I'll probably pick one up (assuming you can get a decent capacity for around £150) but the cost of HD content is just way too high at the moment and the picture quality really does not justify it.
Yes, for certain stuff it looks a lot better but, really, Transformers? If that's the pinnacle of HD content then is it any wonder it's failing?
As a guide, here's the last several films I've rented;
There will be Blood
No Country for Old Men
Jumpers
Attonement
Fargo
Out of those, the only one that might have benefited from HD was Jumpers and, frankly, that would have benefited more from being sent back before I watched it - awful piece of shite.
So, in summary, HD is too expensive at the moment, there haven't been many decent films, everyone has huge DVD libraries and they don't want to buy them again in a new format and people just aren't that interested.
Posted in Blu-ray Disc a 'bag of hurt', says Jobs
Maybe it's just me
I live in a very rich part of the world. Most people I know earn £40k+ and a lot of them are tech-savvy 30 somethings. In other words, my friends and I are the target market for BluRay. I don't know a single person who owns a BluRay player. Okay, I know one person who owns a PS3 but that was bought for the latest version of singstar and buzz, they don't own any BluRay discs. I also know one person who went out and bought a HD-DVD player and a shit load of discs just after that format went tits up.
I don't know why, but people don't want BluRay!
Usual stuff
It looks like a cross between a London Eye Pod and one of those South East Asian Putt Putts. With a 130mile range and running on compressed air it's actually one of the more practical "alternative" vehicles as an everyday commuter for those living in large cities. However, it suffers from the usual problem that no-one in their right mind would want to drive one of these through (for example) central London because they'd be afraid of getting squished by a Truck/Bendy Bus/Chelsea Tractor.
There is a reason people buy feck-off great cars (other than vanity, keeping up with the Joneses etc) and that's because the media have convinced them everyone is out to get them and they need to be in something akin to a tank to survive.
Trail
Can't help but feel that the military applications for a device that leaves an easily traceable slime-trail in it's wake are somewhat limited.
Can't afford it
I personally don't give a damn as I don't play games (used to but no time since I got a life). However, seeing Sony's financial results, I can't help but feel the only reason they aren't reducing the price of the PS3 is because they can't afford to.
I'm actually suprised they don't produce a series of adverts promoting it more as a Blu-Ray player. It always amazes me that the vast majority of people still don't know about this aspect of it. If you want to upgrade to HiDef film playback then the PS3 looks like brilliant value for money.
If you don't care about Hi-Def just yet (and who can blame you, the software costs a fortune and there have been few films of late worth the cost) then it looks like a very expensive toy at a time when many people are cutting back.
Re: Welcome to Bafflix
Some but probably only about 30% - and I'm a programmer; albeit one still maintaining 10 year-old Windows applications written in a 12 year-old language.
I do sometimes wonder whether anyone actually uses all this technology? It's not like MS sells any of it as it's all included in an MSDN subscription. To me, it's just more crap I have to wade through when looking for the Visual Studio disc in my MSDN folder. I've worked in IT for nigh on two decades, know dozens of programmers personally and have met many others but I don't know anyone who uses any of the crap mentioned in this piece. I suppose they must be out there somewhere. Probably in India where all the large-scale projects seem to be based nowadays.
In the real world I'm beginning to suspect, like me, most people are stuck maintaining and enhancing ancient systems (our oldest - and most important - was originally written in 82) that still do the job and that nobody dare replace because no one person can quite remember how it's all bolted together or what the knock-on consequences would be.
Posted in Vista scrabbles for X Factor
I may be mistaken but....
Surely the sort of people who watch XFactor have neither the brain power nor the inclination to switch on something as potentially interactive as a PC?
Incidentally, I've heard of Dannii Minogue but who the fuck is Cheryl Cole? Actually, on second thoughts, don't bother.
Who uses wireless?
Which "Financial Institutions" use wireless exactly? I've worked in the finance industry for years and there is a blanket ban on anything wireless. Even the Execs are banned from using wireless mice and keyboards. Who in there right mind uses a WiFi network?
Anyway, as stated above, brute-force attacks are only susceptible to systems administered by donkeys and, in those cases, you can probably obtain the password or entry to the network in much more convenient ways.
Worried
Only if you spend a prolonged period within 30cm of one! Shit, you have to be closer than that to get any benefit from the damn things. The backlight on my first Casio watch 30 years ago gave off more light than one of these things!
Posted in US woman shot by cast iron stove
"There's always that one problem stray. And of course, it got me."
Does this mean she's done this sort of thing before?
Earphones
This is (one of) the reasons why I hate in-ear headphones. I do a lot of long-distance road walking, a fair bit of it on roads without pavements, so I always wear open-ear headphones that allow me to hear everything going on around me. It's less friendly at work though, when people assume I can't hear them and start shouting at me!
Re: Section 10
I think this would work but would have a fairly serious consequence. If you refuse to allow the credit reference agencies to report on you or get them to remove your data, you basically remove all traces of your credit history. This might sound like a good thing but in the current climate no bank is going to lend to you.
This may or may not be a good thing (depending on the position you started from) but is worth keeping in mind. No credit reference pretty much means no credit today.
"Won't somebody please..." etc
Who gives a crap? Has anyone actually worked out the odds of this happening and it being a big deal yet? I'd really like to know what the chances are before we spend billions putting systems in place to deal with it.
There's a chance I might win £100Million on the Euro Millions lottery tonight but, other than picking out the first Island I'm going to buy, I haven't really invested an enormous amount of resources into planning for it because the odds are rather against it (especially as I've never bought a lottery ticket - but that's another issue).
Just because the potential outcome could be catestrophic doesn't automatically make it a worthwhile excercise to plan for it if the chances of it happening within a couple of generations are virtually nil.
Posted in David Blaine does a Benito Mussolini
Re I don't get it....
Because, before he decided to go on a major ego trip and try to become the next Houdini (and I think we're all hoping he repeats Houdini's last stunt sooner rather than later) he was actually a very good close-up magician. In fact, according to a recent piece in one of the UK papers, he still is. He largely pays his bills by doing private performances for the rich and/or obnoxious.
Basically, if you've got lots of money, you can pay a fortune to watch him perform some seriously impressive close-up magic.
If you're poor and retarded, you can watch him sitting, standing, hanging upside down or whatever for free.
Good to see the blinkers are working well
So, temperature rises during a period of El Nino are are a sign of global warming - except for the extreme ones. But, should the temperature stop going up - or in fact, fall - during an Il Nina then that is all down to Il Nina, global warming is still happening, and anyone who dares to ask questions, start a debate or otherwise disrupt the band-wagon is a heretic and will be stoned!
Did David Blaine question Climate change?
Posted in Apple 2G iPod Shuffle
Re: Paul
> cheap enough to be practically disposable
£45 is practically disposable? How the other half live, eh?
I think the shuffle looks like a great piece of kit but couldn't possibly justify the cost. £45 for a 2GB player is appalling. I can buy a 16GB MicroSD card for (just) less than that and stick it in one of those USB-Key style MP3 shufflers that catalogues give away free when you place an order over £10!
Okay, it might look shit, not have the "tactility" of the Shuffle or whatever else but, hey, I'm carrying nearly all my music for less than a shuffle that can only carry a tiny fraction and it will take a AAA Battery.
I see problems
The Isle of Man - a much smaller market, often used as a test bed by the UK - has been in the "process" of implementing a centralised number system for at least two years now and there is still no end in sight. Either it is a lot more complicated than OFCOM are suggesting, or it is far too easy for the incumbents to hobble the whole process in order to cling on to their advantage. Obviously, I couldn't possibly comment as to which of the two I believe to be the case!
I would not be at all surprised to see the UK go the same way and, indeed, with vodaphones comments this seems to have started already.
