* Posts by Cal

16 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Oct 2008

Fitbit picks up Pebble, throws Pebble as far as it can into the sea

Cal

Huh

This is why I only use Garmin products.

A: Their mapping is superb and regularly updated

B: They are a well established, strong company unlikely to vanish any time in the next forever

C: Their kit is actually rather good

Trump's plan: Tariffs on electronics, ban on skilled tech migrants, turn off the internet

Cal

Well..

Don't I regret extending my army reserve commitment contract having left the Regulars in 2012.

Cache-astrophic: Why Valve's Steam store spewed players' private profiles to strangers

Cal

Hm.

Gotta remember here that yeah, it might take 90 minutes to download an install, but lots of people seem to be forgetting that the disc doesn't just magically appear in your hand. There is a time and money cost somewhere, be it you going to the shops, your missus going to the shops, the online retailer dispatching a delivery van for your one disc, the postman dropping yet another rubber band on your pavement as he slots it through your door.

Whatever it may be, there was always a cost involved in getting a game.

I would say that this is the far easier method.

I don't need to worry about physical media degradation, losing game keys, getting home to find it doesn't work, etc.

It's a pain, but a one off pain and then (hopefully) your game is good for whenever you want it.

We take it for granted, but it's an amazing leap forward and takes us one step closer to many science fiction realities we all enjoyed but shook our heads at as being 'crazy' and 'impossible'.

Embrace it, I say.

Google says its AI will jetwash all traces of malodorous spam from your box

Cal

Re: Meh

That's a stinking attitude.

The majority of casual users don't know, and wont know anything about this kind of thing but no doubt many of them have skills you will never be able to understand or comprehend, so it's all swings and roundabouts.

Google, for all that the technically savvy might despair of, do a damn good job at what they do and ultimately, many casual users don't really care about online personal privacy because it ultimately means so little to them.

Certainly, £420 is far too much for most people for something already offered for free in terms of financial outlay. Yes, they take their cost from you by data mining, but again, most people just ignore it.

So, very happy for you, but remember, not everyone is to the same standard / gives the same fucks.

Dear departed Internet Explorer, how I will miss you ... NOT

Cal

Re: A point has been missed...

No, that's not what I meant by standardisation.

I meant that most people, not very skilled or understanding of the internet, could generally rely on sitting at any PC and having a very familiar IE in front of them.

That was a good thing, regardless of the flaws in IE.

That's what I meant by standardisation.

Imagine an average user not really skilled or versed in the internet back in the 90's sitting down to a different browser every time. That'd be damaging for confidence, for learning and for the ears of whoever had to answer the questions of "How do I..."

UK cops caught using 12 MILLION Brits' mugshots on pic database

Cal

Re: 12 million custody photographs

Welcome to the world we live in.

A large number of those will have been released no charge, but would have had a PNC record created and thus a picture.

Many will not have been charged because they were innocent, the vast majority will not have been charged because the legal requirements weren't met to charge them.

Guess what? I've been a cop for ten years - I've never interviewed somebody who wasn't guilty of the crime, but there have been plenty of times where sufficiency hasn't been met and they've been released without charge.

Very, very rarely will a truly innocent person get hauled in for interview. Even before you get to that stage, you've got to have a huge whack of evidence.

Elite Systems promises to order ZX Spectrum revival in two weeks

Cal

Can't beat the original

I just sold the last of my 1,200 original tape collection, peripherals and systems. Guy from Manchester drove up to pick it all up.

Nothing beats playing the real thing. Waiting twenty minutes for it to load only for it to crash, etc,etc.

Alienware assimilates Dell FROM THE INSIDE!

Cal

I'm on a Dell Studio 1745 with all the extra tricks added. I bought this beast when I was in Afghan on operational tour. Because it was going to be shipped BFPO, and because I was military, and that it was already on sale, plus some haggling on the phone, I managed to get a whopping £800 off it in the end.

I do love it - it plays BF3 quite happily at medium settings which is good enough for me.

The only downside I have with this particular Dell creation is that it gets -really fucking hot-.

I've got a cooler underneath it which, well, I'm sure it's doing something, but I have to make sure I don't rest my left palm on the laptop or I'll get a burn if it's there long enough - I shit you not.

However their customer care is spot on, and yeah, they're a strong brand, well known and I've never had any problems with them.

MoD braced for painful weight-loss surgery next week

Cal
Happy

Gucci

I refer directly to his comment of;

" good old Army was actually the organisation that failed to get him all that kit in the first place."

You will never know what you need 'In the first place' until enough people have been through it and given feedback. So the army I don't think, can be held to blame for that.

So at the start people weren't in desert kit, had the wrong boots, but well, that didn't really stop us, did it? It just doesn't look as neat or make our lives as comfortable as they could be.

Now however it's gone full circle.

The majority of that kit in the black bag is stuff we don't actually need.

A bag will contain things from hydration systems such as a camelbak, through to things like a thermos mug, therma-rest mat, desert coveralls, floppy hat, gloves etc.

It will also have your issue desert kit which would be trousers, shirts, under-armour shirts, waterproofs, body armour covers, extra plates if you requested them, new helmets, etc.

People need to be careful about how they categorise this, as the items in the second list were things you would get regardless if there was a black bag or not. I admit, there was less in the second list when I went to Iraq in 2006, but the only real difference was the under-armour shirts hadn't been developed then.

The remainder of the black bag is 'gucci' kit that makes life more comfortable. You don't actually need any of it.

My thermos mug stayed in the UK, as did my thermarest, wool gloves and other random assorted bits and bobs. The British Army and other western armies are renowned for their desire to be comfortable in battle. Most of the stuff we get issued before deployment is kit we don't really need or use but it just makes things a bit easier on us.

I came back in April this year having spent my seven months frontline and operating on my feet. I lived out my bergen which carried my warm kit, a dos bag and a rather sexy one man bivvy tent I bought myself to make my life easier instead of having to strap up a poncho when it was raining.

That was all I and 98 other guys needed out there. Plus a few good books stashed in amongst it all for when it was quiet.

Budgets are being spent in the wrong places time and again and the black bag is a great example. It's like a christmas stocking filled with crap you don't need but well, you've got it now. The people that use that kit the most are the people in places like Bastion. So do we need to supply soldiers that wont leave the gates once with the same kit as we supply a combat arm soldier? I think not.

I have three tours worth of stuff in my room on camp that accumulatively must've cost hundreds to buy, but every time I go I get issued new stuff. Even though I still have the old stuff. Madness.

Anyway, I've lost my point now and I'm rambling. I like the black bag, but it's a waste of money, most of it.

Aye. :)

Cal
Thumb Down

Wrong facts

I'm going to keep this short as I get very angry when journos get the wrong info.

You mention the black bag full of stuff we get before we deploy that the army failed to issue us?

Eh. No. That black bag is full of stuff the army, and watch my lips here;

issues...to....us....before....we....deploy....as.....we.....do......not......need......any.......of....it......unless......we're.......going......on........operations.

We don't get issued it before because we don't need any of it in the UK or anywhere else we train apart from Canada. It's all hot-weather / cold weather gear designed for the extremes of temperatures in Afghan where normal kit doesn't cut the mustard.

We could get issued all of the stuff when you arrive at your Regiment from training, but:

A: It'd cost a fortune

B: You don't need any of it unless you're going to theatre

So, get your facts right.

Cheers!

Garage worker prangs £200k Ferrari

Cal
FAIL

Arf

They could have maybe got someone else to drive the car other than the blatant boy racer who was going too fast or just didn't know how to handle such a precision car.

lol.

Snipers - Cowardly assassins, or surgical soldiers?

Cal

:D

Well, when you've done tours of Iraq and Afghanistan and you owe your life to sniper fire taking out bad people, you can understand why I flew off like I did.

However, I then read the remainder of the article and felt paragraph after paragraph like a bigger and bigger prick. :)

Apologies to the author.

Cal

Where do you get your information from?

(Quote)Snipers are nasty, everyone knows that. They hunt people like animals, killing them without giving them a chance to fight or even to surrender. Few soldiers are more hated; even their own armies often seem less than pleased to have them around.(/quote)

What? Where on earth did you find this liberal clap-trap from or is this your own beliefs?

Us grunts in the army like to hear nothing more than "Snipers are covering" or "You've got a sniper attached to you for this patrol."

Snipers are an excellent and effective tool at removing enemy forces with minimal escalation of force.

The reason a sniper doesn't give people a chance to surrender or fight, is well, rather obvious.

If they fought back, you're ignoring the basic Rules of Engagement, which is our Law of Armed Combat.

If you let them surrender, well, most of them wouldn't.

Also, most snipers that we've used in the last 12 Operation Telics in Iraq and the last 10 Herricks in Afghanistan have killed people in the process of doing bad things, such as laying bombs and explosives, or firing upon Coalition troops.

You have an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) team setting up a site 2km from your position. You have in your team the usual firesupport, as well as a Javelin and a sniper with his L96.

Do you:

A: Fire the Javelin, which costs around £40,000 and would not only eliminate the threat, but also a large chunk of the land in the immediate area

B: Use your sniper to fire minimal rounds to eliminate the threat, causing minimal disruption

The British Army Snipers Course is one of the best courses to get, it's held in high opinion by all military Commanders and it's an excellent aid to promotion. I intend to go for mine in the next two years, or at least aquire the basic Sharpshooter qualification. Which is actually the shooting part. The sniper qualification only comes if you complete the Stalking phase, when you have to cross open ground without being spotted, then hit a static target that appears within a 24hr period for 3 seconds. So there are a lot more snipers out there than you might think, it's just they've only got the Sharpshooter section completed.

You have a ridiculous opinion, and I would love to know what it is based upon.

American movies perhaps?

MoD's London brass resist job cuts

Cal

Yes, but..

Regards to the number of Lt Col. in the British Army. Yes, the number compared to the actual amount of units available to command doesn't add up, but you need to look beyond actual unit command and look to individual posts. If you go to a Brigade HQ, take the one in the COB in Iraq as a good example, many of them are employed in the planning and control aspects of everything from ISTAR to Civic Projects.

This is down to the decisions required and the people working under them.

You need to remember that for a decision to be made, it often needs to be made by someone with the authority to do so, but more importantly, be of a suitable rank to blame should it all go tits up.

Can't hold a Trooper responsible for mis-managing an ISTAR asset when it's obviously well out of his league, but a LtCol will do nicely. :)

I'm a Trooper by the way, and am surprised to find myself sticking up for the 'other half'. :)

(Although I speak only for the Army. I'm sure we could easily sack half the Navy and Airforce)