Posts by DRendar
272 posts • joined Thursday 15th January 2009 14:31 GMT
Sure
You write it, we'll read it. Then complain it's boring. :-P
Nice work Simon - great to be getting our BOFH fix so frequently now :-)
Posted in Top Ten Retro PC Games
Guybrush Threewood
Shouldn't that be Guybrush Threepwood?
Civilization
XCOM: UFO Unknown
Elite
Sure they should have been in there - I know they're in mine - how the hell Black and White can be considered 'Retro' id beyond me, unless the author is 10 years old!
Posted in Lovefilm confirms PS3 streaming scheme
XBMC
We badly need an XBMC plugin for Love Film, as this would benefit not just the hundreds of XBMC users in the UK, but also all the XBMC derivatives, such as Boxee, MediaPortal and Plex.
LoveFilm seem reluctant to want to supply the plugin / API because <quote>"We are looking to expand the number of devices in the future, but only for devices or platforms we have a direct commercial relationship with."
A Hugely shortsighted view. Think of the Additional Subscriptions!!!
See http://developer.lovefilm.com/forum/read/82486 for details.
Posted in Brits not buying into Freeview HD
The title is required, and must contain letters and/or digits.
"That may explain why 85 per cent of all the HD TVs sold this past summer did not incorporate a Freeview HD tuner, by Freeview HD's own admission"
Ummm - that's probably because 50% of those people buying a new telly already have either Sky or Virgin Cable.
If I had the option for my next telly it wouldn't have ANY tuner built in at all... I get all my media through Sky HD, my XBMC Media Centre plus various consoles, all of which connect though my Onkyo Amp. The TV tuners just get in the way. I just want a 50" monitor! LOL
</side track>
As others have said - probably 80% of Joe Public doesn't know that FreeviewHD even exists, and those poor sods who know nothing about it, will just go out to buy "One of them big flat tellies like our Tarquin's got" to watch Jeremy Kyle on - and will believe the lying sack-of-shit (or clueless) salesman who tells them that an HD ready Freeview telly can get all the channels.
To be fair - 15% of all new Tellies sold this summer having FreeViewHD built in is bloody good going!
Dash
Posted in Android phone auto reverts jailbreaks
BIG difference between jailbreaking iPhone and rooting Android
BIG difference - HUGE!!
For iPhone it's being able to install apps that have not been approved by Apple. If you don't Jailbreak you're iPhone you can ONLY install the censored, Apple cult-friendly stuff from the marketplace.
This is NOT why you root an Android, as all android phones can install any app they want (you just have to tick a setting to permit the use of unsigned apps, then load the apk from your sd card)
What rooting an Android phone does is give you ROOT access to the OS. This is necessary in order to get direct access to, for example the ipStack, network interfaces and the clock.
Without rooting the phone, Android (lamentably) is unable to establish an IPSEC VPN to 90% of VPN devices out there. - See http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3902
You are also unable to accurately set the clock on an Android phone (i.e. you can set the hour and minute, but not the seconds) and while Android is capable of syncing its clock to the Mobile Carrier using NITZ - this is not something we have in the UK This means that there is literally no way to have the clock accurate on Android for many people. Getting root access allows you to set the clock manually, but also give apps such as "ClockSync" (Which is on the Android Market!) the ability to set the time from an NTP source. See http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=4581
One other reason to root your phone is to turn it into a WiFi Hotspot - again available through the Market. Although this feature is being included in Android 2.2 (Froyo)
So you see - they're vastly different, and shouldn't be compared to each other.
Dash
Sorry...
But anyone who walks away from their car, pressing the button to lock it without listening for the thunk of the central locking, or looking for the lights flashing is just asking for their stuff to be nicked.
The same thing would happen to them if the battery in their key died.
One more way for the criminal element to prey on the stupid.
Milestone V1
I Also have a Milestone V1 running Android 2.1
When it arrived it had prominently displayed on the box "The Phone Without Compromise"
What a total load of bull.
No FM radio - can't even stream radio over the internet reliably as the BBC keep changing iPlayer to prevent 3rd party apps from working, and their own app only allows access to pre-recorded stuff (not live)
Camera is a Joke - If you are in nice brightly lit surroundings, then the pictures are pretty OK, but as soon as you try to use it in even the slightest low-light situation, like in a pub, or slightly dark office, then all you get are awful grainy noisy pictures that I'm embarrassed to show people. My old Nokia N82 took photos that absolutely blow this phone out of the water.
Time - The phone is incapable of having the correct (precise) time applied to it. By this I mean that you can change the time (Hours & Minutes) but cannot change the seconds. Most Digital clocks from 20 years ago get around this by resetting the seconds to zero when you change the minutes, but Motorola / Google decided that 2+ decades of wisdom regarding setting the time should go out the window. If the clock is currently say 10:20:23 and you set the time to 10:22 then the time will actually be set to 10:22:23 instead of 10:22:00
What this means is that apps which rely upon time synchronisation between the device fail miserably. Google Talk is the prime example - during a conversation any messages sent TO you will have a timestamp set by the GTalk server, but they are displayed on screen according to the phones internal clock. This means that you end up getting replies to messages you sent appearing in the thread before the message that it is in reply to - which is just bonkers.
To add insult to injury, the OS has been specifically built so that user apps are not permitted to change the time, so using NTP is out of the question unless you root the phone, which invalidates the warranty.
The ONLY way to sync time on the phone / OS is using NITZ (Network Identity and Time Zone) which guess what? Isn't used in the UK.
VPN - The device is advertised as supporting IPSec VPNs - Yeah - only if you use totally obscure devices as your VPN Concentrator / router. Connecting to an IPSec VPN using the massively ubiquitous IPSec VPN using group ID & Password (Like Cisco) fails as there is nowhere on the phone to enter these details.
To make matters even worse is that Google completely ignore user requests:
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3902
The request to add proper IPSec capablilities to the OS has been in place for nearly a year, and it still hasn't been assigned to anyone - it is currently the second most requested feature after arabic language support, but has actually been up for much longer.
Fan Effing Tastic.
</rant> Sorry that turned into a general android bashing, but had to be done.
@AC: It will be Windows only
"Does iTune work natively on Linux?"
Pffft - No! We only want well-written software on our machines thank you.
There are several OSS alternatives for uploading / syncing data with your iPod. As for purchasing music... why the hell would you want to download from iTunes when just about everything else on there can be legally downloaded cheaper from elsewhere.
The ONLY reason I still have a windows machine at home anymore is for playing games - if I had my way my work laptop would have Ubuntu 10.04 LTS on it as it is vastly faster and more stable than windows on the same hardware, plus with Linux you have access to much better (and free!) utilities for network management.
Having said that I sadly doubt very much that this will be released initially for Linux, There's no way it will be open source for example. There's nothing stopping the UV software developers from releasing pre-compiled code, as ATI and NVidia do now with their 3D drivers.
However even if they don't that's never stopped those lovely geniuses (genii?) working on Open Source before... We can even now play Blue Ray movies natively in Linux without ripping them first. Sure we don't get the menus, but we also don't get all the rootkits, DRM, forced advertisements, and "Pirating a movie is equivalent to murdering a granny" bullshit either.
Posted in Dell Latitude XT2 XFR ruggedised laptop
32Bit
"Other features include 802.11n wireless, Gigabit Lan, an ambient light sensor, fingerprint reader and Windows 7 Professional 32-bit."
Why for the love of all that is holy is anyone shipping NEW machines with 32 Bit versions of Win7?
I mean for that matter why did M$ even MAKE a 32Bit version available? It's not like there are any machines running with 32Bit only CPUs still out there that could run Windows7 comfortably FFS
Or maybe they WANT people running P4 1.6Ghz installing their OS, so that they get pissed off with it being so slow, and go out to buy a new computer, which nets M$ another License?
It is baffling.
Uses the ribbon
Uses the ribbon = FAIL
My productivity has dropped massively since this god-awful UI downgrade was forced upon us in Office 2007.
Have now installed a hack to get the old menus back, but still some stuff doesn't work right, and some of my keyboard short-cut combinations that I've taught myself over the past 17 years don't work either.
I don't trust Micrsoft to do ANYTHING internet based correctly. Not as a web server, email server, not as a firewall or Proxy, not as a webmail provider, and certainly not for storing and editing my documents online.
Posted in BOFH: On the couch
</title>
First BOFH in a long time that I've actually Laughed Out Loud to.
Well done Simon! Keep them coming!
This guy is an idiot
He sells Satellite Internet FFS, which is useless for anything but (very slow) browsing and streaming.
Gaming, IPTelephony, Hosting Services etc. are practically unusable due to the horrible latency, so he's just having a pop at trying to swing users who want to stream iPlayer onto his services.
£16 for 10 Gig is total nonsense - I pay £18 for an "up to 24Mb" (actually 19Mb) UNMETERED ADSL 2+ service from Be. Sometimes I download only a couple of gigs, sometimes I download 300GiB.
If some suppliers started charging per Mb then there are plenty of other suppliers who will continue to provide unmetered services. The exchange unbundling is bringing about cheaper services, not more expensive ones...
And the only roads that need to be dug up are where there currently are NO existing fibres. Has this guy never heard of DWDM?
You can now push multiple TERRABITS of data down a single fibre, using different wavelengths, and it's not even that expensive to do... Need more bandwidth and run out of fibre? No problem, just light up another wavelength and add another 10 Gb.
Pfff.
Posted in Hacker pledges to re-enable Linux on PS3
AC is the idiot.
"And his army of clueless idiots waiting to install this piracy tool will have dwindled to nothing as they can't log in to PSN..."
Don't be a moron.
This is not a piracy tool - it does not in any way permit the playing of copied or downloaded games - it just allows you to run Linux as a second OS on the box.
This is about retaining an advertised feature that thousands of people purchased their PS3 specifically for.
What if you purchased a HiFi, then a year after purchasing it, it loses the ability to listen to FM radio, due to a patch that the manufacturer forces upon you. If you refuse to allow the patch to install, then you lose the ability to listen to CDs instead,
This is utter utter craziness - I await the class action lawsuit. Come on you Yanks - you normally sue people for sneezing the wrong way - get the lawyers rolling. Sony needs to learn that they can't simply remove features from their products that they have already sold.
WTF
"This is a joke, right? Do you even know how MTBF is calculated?
Do some reading chucklehead."
Actually, I did and I still believe that the MBTF value in non-serviceable computer components is utter BS.
I wasn't saying MTBF is BS. I was saying that its use as a marketing term is.
There are several MTBF calculations floating around, let's start with the admittedly dubious one on WikiPedia:
MTBF is defined as "SUM(downtimes - uptimes)/failure-count" of a system.
Where a 'downtime' is the exact time of failure and the 'uptime' is the the exact time of the repair.
Wiki: "The MTBF is typically part of a model that assumes the failed system is immediately repaired (zero elapsed time), as a part of a renewal process."
Now consider that Hard disk drives are NOT USER SERVICABLE and therefore cannot be repaired. This would make the MTBF figure BS as the uptime can never occur. So your calculation would be (X-∞)/1 = -∞ Insert your own value for X.
So in actual fact, by this calculation - any device which cannot be repaired has a MTBF of minus infinity.
Granted this is a huge oversimplification.
There are other calculations floating around, such as 1/sum(MBTF of all components) which actually start approaching some semblance of sanity... but you know what? I can't be bothered to type them out and critique them for being used in this context.
MTBF has relevance in some fields, but they have no business being used as a marketing term on a non serviceable device - they should be using MTTF instead, and going on personal experience with WD - that would be <2 years
Chucklehead indeed. Try putting forward an actual argument. Prat.
I don't want a damn titile!
"Some models are designed for Layer 2 in the network (LAN Base) while others are designed for Layer 3 (IP Base)."
Not quite - you are referring to the software version. there are three - LAN Base, IP Base and IP Services... The HARDWARE is identical - just as you can buy an IP Base 3750 now and drop IP services onto it without so much as a peep from it.
Yes it breaks some kind of licensing rule, but when you have a network of hundreds of the buggers, and a hardware support contract approaching £millions. The odd IOS upgrade is overlooked.
"The 3750-X also supports Cisco's StackWise Plus clustering technology for switches, which allows for up to nine switches to be lashed together as a logical group with a master node switch being designated as the king of the routing table for the group and updating the others."
Erm NO. Stackwise allows you to 'lash' up to 9 devices together into one logical DEVICE with a 64Gb backplane, not group of switches. It has naff all to do with clustering. When a device is added to the stack it becomes an actual part of it, so put two 48 port switches in a stack and you get one 96port switch, not two switches controlled by one of them.
"This means a switch in the group of nine can be taken down and replaced without network traffic being affected."
Other than the devices attached to the unit you're replacing! LOL
And as long as you have multiple uplinks from multiple members of the stack
It's great news about the 2960-S though - FINALLY CISCO!! you've got stackable edge switches.
About F***ing time!!!
MTBF - total BS
HA! 1Million Hours MBTF
That is 114 Years!
I seriously doubt that ANY of these drives are functioning after 20 years let alone 114.
How the hell do these companies legally come up with ridiculous figures such as these.... Do they have time machines? Set up 100 PCs with these drives, constantly reading and writing, then jump in the Tardis, go ahead 100 years and check on the findings?
This is marketing BS of the highest order.
School board president Rita Peters protested:
that she had a ridiculous name.
ROFL Rita Peters! LOL
Ads? What ads?
Gmail is hardly "ad-laden" as the author describes... Has he even ever used it?
The ads on there are EXTREMELY unobtrusive - they don't bother me in the slightest - unlike Hotsnail and Yahoo, which have banners frigging EVERYWHERE.
And if you don't like the ads - block them!
Posted in BMW uncloaks ActiveE
Fog Lights
Not to mention that their constantly leaving their front Foggies switched on will reduce that range considerably.
Posted in Hisense 1080p Media Player
@AC (@Drendar) Friday 6th November 2009 19:02 GMT
AC: "XBMC on Xbox1 is great for SD content, but it can no way cope with HD, I get 5 fps at best."
Erm. Did you even read my post?
Drendar: "As you're only running CRT, you don't need the HD playback, which is quite literally the only thing XBMC_on_XBOX can't do (well it can - just not smoothly)"
LOL
Posted in Sony Ericsson confirms Android Xperia
@FAIL UR RONGG
*shudder* Urgh. Text speak on a website.
That aside, perhaps you could point the flash out - as I certainly can't see one.
Plus as I said previously - the aperture is tiny, so the pictures in low light are going to be terrible, and they'll be way too soft in normal light.
I'd love to be proven wrong ( that's the correct spelling of 'rongg' by the way ).
I just wish I could take he Camera & Flash off my N82 and add it to this phone as that would be pure perfection.
Posted in Hisense 1080p Media Player
@Dale Richards
Dude, just go and get yourself an old XBOX, chip it and install XBMC. - You could probably buy a chipped one off ebay. Won't set you back more than £40.
Pretty much every container & codec supported (including ISOs, and even plays video files right out of multipart RARs, with no pre-decompression! No Shit!), from any source (DVD, HDD, SMB, UPnP, Shoutcast, iPlayer, ITVPlayer, TV Catchup, You Tube and a thousand other sources)
Best SD media Centre on the planet - bar none, no joke - anyone who disagrees has never used it.
As you're only running CRT, you don't need the HD playback, which is quite literally the only thing XBMC_on_XBOX can't do (well it can - just not smoothly)
I've been running XBMC for years, except I've now migrated to XBMC Live running on old PC hardware with an NVidia 9400 Gfx Card (Fanless)
XBMC offloads HD decoding (VDPAU) to the GPU so I can watch 1080P video with DTS sound and my Athlon64 3000+ CPU runs at 5%
Sweet
Posted in Sony Ericsson confirms Android Xperia
75% perfect.
1) No Flash (not even a crappy LED one)
2) Crap Camera.
8 megapixel it may be, but with an aperture size smaller than the one in my knob it won't be able to take pictures worth shit.
Posted in T-Mobile Pulse
No Flash + Crap Camera = FAIL
Aaaaargh!!
FAIL FAIL FAIL!
This was so close to perfect.
Posted in Suzuki unwraps Mini-like plug-in hybrid
@Grease Monkey
"Firstly develop a sense of humour (or failing that a knowledge of popular culture) before you get on your high horse. The joke goes: "Yes, I am serious and don't call me Shirley." "
OK fine you were making a joke, but there's nothing wrong with my sense of humour., and yes I have seen the Steve Martin sketches, however your use of the joke was pretty bad to be fair, as the joke is in Frank Drebin's misunderstanding of "surely / Shirley" not in the actual saying of it.
I'm sorry if you took offence at my comment - but I get so used to people using terrible English on here, you can understand my reaction. Also, I didn't resort to insults as you did. Perhaps you should grow a thicker skin, or learn to tell jokes better - for example by finishing them.
ANYWAY
"And you can achieve the same constant rpm using a mechanical variable drive, usually known as CVT."
You are correct in theory, but CVTs are piss poor for higher power applications - i.e. in any thing much heavier than a Ford Fiesta, or anything that you want to get from 0-60 in less than a week. This is because they can't handle the torque - generally speaking. Newer CVTs are coming out, but they still won't be as efficient as a serial hybrid, and they are horrendously expensive.
Also, an engine with CVT may be running at 1 or 2 set RPMs, but the load will vary. Engne->Generator is constant load, constant rpm and it only needs to run when the battery is low, or in some implementations, when an extra burst of power is required.
"Driving a generator will in itself take a certain amount of energy, you are converting energy from one form to another and that always involves losses. You are then converting it back again which will involve more losses."
Yes there are losses (tiny ones) in running a generator, but in the hybrid you are envisioning, you are running a generator AND running a transmission. Transmissions, even CVTs and IVTs are not nearly as efficient as a serial setup.
"There is also the fact that lugging around the weight of a generator and electric motors is going to make the whole car heavier than a conventional setup which will also reduce the efficiency."
Eh? You still need motors, batteries and a generator in a parallel hybrid.
A parallel also needs a far more powerful engine as it has to physically move the car, whereas the serial only need to generate electricity at a constant rate - and (excluding generation loss) NONE of the energy it generates is wasted. With serial hybrids you can also use in-wheel motors, which can also act as generators, so you don't need separate regenerative braking systems. So in fact, a serial hybrid is much lighter than a parallel
"My original point was that there is a headlong rush towards EVs without any real thought and so many of the ideas in use really need to be investigated more fully. The best bet would be to stop all development and have some thinking time. Unfortunately the nature of business means that this is unlikely to happen and a lot of blind alleys will be needlessly explored. Which is hardly an efficient way of doing things."
An interesting point, however that is what vehicle designers are paid to do. And development has been going on for years. The industry has already pretty much split into 3 camps: Electric only, Parallel Hybrid, and Serial Hybrid.
Personally I thing Serial hybrids are the way forward because they are so simple. Electric Only is currently no good unless you're buying it as a second car due to low range and long recharge times, and Parallel hybrids are overly complicated.
Posted in Suzuki unwraps Mini-like plug-in hybrid
@Grease Monkey
"Shirley it would be a lot more energy efficient to use the petrol engine to drive the wheels directly through a gearbox? Now there's a revolutionay way to save energy."
That's 'Surely', not 'Shirley'.
And no, it would absolutely NOT be more efficient to drive the wheels directly.
It would be MASSIVELY less efficient to do that.
This way the engine can run at a constant RPM, and any 'leccy generated that isn't used by the motor is fed into the battery. This is the way that Diesel Trains have been working for years.
Posted in Barnes & Noble whips out Nook e-reader
@Blake St Claire
Ahh give him a break.
At least he used the correct 'too', 'it's' and 'you're' :-)
Posted in Nokia N97 Mini out this month
FLASH
And not a decent (Xenon) flash among them.
The Moto one doesn't even have a flash at all!!!
Gigantic FAIL as what's the point of a camera if you can't take decent pictures in low light.
Posted in Ford creates battery-powered Focus
All these numbers floating around....
and people bitching about the carbon produced when generating the electricity.
You are forgetting that Petrol or Diesel does not magically appear at the petrol station!
CRUDE oil has to be pumped up out of the ground, what do you think powers the pumps? So you are generating CO2 there.
Also, much of the LPG that sits on top of the oil fields is simply burnt, right there on top of the oil rig - how many tonnes of CO2 do you think THAT generates?
The oil then needs to be pumped or transported to a refinery - frequently on the other side of the planet - More CO2.
Then the refinement process -
Crude Oil doesn't happily split into Butane, Petrol, Kerosene, Diesel etc just if you ask it nicely - you have to heat it up to 400 or 500 Degrees Celsius if my GCSE Chemistry memory serves. More CO2 produced.
Then the refined materials have to be transported to the petrol stations - More HGVs burning Diesel - More CO2.
So if you take all that into account - your arguments look a bit silly now don’t they?
Don't get me wrong - I won't be buying an EV anytime soon - the tech is too immature.
I might be pursuaded but a serial hybrid - if I can get my daily commute (<30Miles) out of pure 'leccy, and fal back to fossil fuel for the couple of dozen times a year I have to drive > 100Miles is a go I'll be as happy as Larry, especially when I get my new house, where I'm planning to install a wind turbine and/or PV Solar Panels.
And this car doesn't look like a Prius - It looks like a Focus!!
Posted in Citroën redesigns the 2CV
That thing between the legs...
is obviously a holder for the ladie's mobile phones.
If these ever come to fruition and you see one of them embedded in the central reservation, with a woman behind the wheel with a smile on her face, you know she just got a call and had an orgasm.
Posted in Renault unveils e-car foursome
Fluence
Not sure what you lot are smoking but to me the Fluence is gorgeous.
Shame (as previously hinted at) it isn't a serial hybrid, so for me it's F*&king useless.
@AC @Martin66
"Seeing as Cardiff would barely pass muster as a city in England, and is laughable as a Capital City splitting it down into 'areas' seems pointless. No part of Cardiff is very far from the centre....."
Err - Cardiff is considerably bigger than the vast majority of English cities actually, especially if you are referring to population size.
http://www.ukcities.co.uk/populations/
Check your facts before spouting off trying to look good.
Posted in HTC readies radical Touch HD revamp
@Martin Lyne
"For the love of all that's holy. A decent camera and flash and YOU HAVE MY MONEY HTC. WHY DON'T YOU WANT MY MONEY?"
Hear Hear - totally agree.
My Nokia N82 is staying right in my pocket until someone comes up with a newer, open phone with Xenon flash and good Lens.
HTC I'm looking at you - Bring out a hero or HD Touch running Android with a 5MP+ Camera and XENON flash and I'll snap your hand off.
@PHONE MANUFACTURERS
PLEASE quit putting shitty LED flashes on supposedly high-end camera phones.
What's the point of having a 12MP camera if you can't take decent photos, unless in well lit environments!?
BAH!
Posted in BMW's X6 turns eco
Doubt it will sell.
As the only people who drive X6's (and to a lesser extent - All BMW drivers) couldn't give a fuck about anyone but themselves.
As evidenced by them taking up 2-6 parking spaces at the supermarket, (Or parking in disabled places) doing 60+ in 30 Zones, being allergic to the left hand lane, and stopping wherever the hell they want. - Usually in the middle of the road outside schools, on "no stopping" zig-zag lines while the little kiddies get out, or on Double Yellows by the cash machine.
If they don't care about anyone else, why would they put their hand in their pocket for an extra 5-10k for the hybrid version EVEN IF they were stupid enough to beleiev the 'green' bullshit.
@The First Dave
They're yanks!
These are the people who put 6 Litre petrol engines in oversized pickup trucks, where a decent 2 Litre Common Rail or PD Turbo Diesel would be more than enough. (And Produce about a quarter of the CO2, and use less than half as much fuel, and have more Torque)
The Yanks use 20 Year old Engine technology, and the only way they can get the engines more powerful is to increase the displacemnet.
Also, I imagine that if they advertised it as having a 600cc engine in it, none of the ill informed public would buy one.
Leaf Vs Volt
You cannot possibly compare the two.
The Leaf doesn't have a range extender / fossil fual backup or whatever you want to call it, so if you want to drive more than 90 miles in one go, you're fucked, or will need a second car.
The Volt / Ampera, is by far the best EV / Hybrid yet. (Most People) can commute solely on Electricity, while able to fall back to petrol for the odd longer journey.
Whack Solar Panels or a wind turbine in your garden and your reliance on the grid for your commuting "fuel" lowers significantly too.
@Mark Jonson
Mark Jonson Posted Tuesday 11th August 2009 02:03 GMT " I could care less about California. Where is the list of the other stores? "
AAARG!!
It's COULDN'T care less, not COULD care less!!!
That drives me frigging spare! What you said is the polar opposite of what you meant!
Posted in Volvo opens e-car kimono
@JerryW
"Don't forget that you have to get at least 10% better economy in a diesel before the efficiency (or, here in the UK, the cost) become equivalent."
Eh?
Diesel is currently the same price as petrol.
Currently 99.9 ppl at my local Morrisons.
UUUUUGGGGGGLLLLLYYYYYY
'nuff said
Posted in BOFH: Hammer time!
Smokers
Arrgh!. The memories of my old field support days.
I agree that ones owned by smokers were the worst. You'd turn up, the machine would be 6 months old, yet the case yellow - you open it up and everything inside is sticky, and the CPU fan is stuck solid.
Then they expect you to fix it under warranty. Pah!
Posted in Amiga Forever updated for Windows 7
Amigas ruled
I myself had an A1200, which I took to pieces, removed the casing & remounted into a Full Tower AT case. A simple snip of the power cord and rewiring onto an AT PSU solved the "Not Enough power to run a 3.5" HDD" issue. I then installed a 2Gig HDD - Virtually unlimited storage! YAY!
I had a 68030 CPU upgrade card with 8Megs of Fast memory and a SCSI card too.
I installed a SCSI CDRW drive (IDE Drives back then were SHIIIIIIIT) and used it to make beer money while I was at uni.
AmiOS/Workbench was just a dream to use. Everything was INSTANT. No clicking and waiting 30 seconds for windows to pull it's finger out of its arse, which 15 Years on it is STILL doing.
A SCSI 100Meg Zip drive rounded it all off, so that I could transfer lots of stuff between the University PC labs and my dorm room. (Of course I had to format them in that terribly inefficient MSDOS format so that the PC's could read them)
Adding FAT read/write capablility to the AmigaOS was as simple as dragging the driver file off a floppy into the DEV folder - no MultiMegabyte drivers, and convoluted installation tasks for us thank you very much.
And the best thing of all : AmiNet!
Log onto ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk and browse just about every piece of Free/Share/Postcard/Beer ware and PD (later to become better known as OpenSource) Software ever created for the Amiga. Download onto a zip and take it home. Brilliant.
I really miss the efficiency, speed and customisability of my Amiga. In some ways it is still superior to modern gear. If they had added some PCI slots to the 4000, instead of just Zorro3 Slots, the IT world would be very different today.
Posted in Porsche bites back at e-car proponents
500lbs heavier!?
That's about a quarter of a metric Ton!!
WTF are they putting in there? Gold Bricks??
Posted in UK launches £25m e-car trial
LOL @ AC LOLing at Alfred
People like you make me giggle.
A) You are wrong and Alfred is correct - Putting a wind turbine in your car and expecting it to provide power from the air moving past it whilst you're moving is so idiotic I cannot believe that you used the scientist picture.
Where is the energy that is driving you forward coming from? The battery!
So you are saying that you use the battery, to generate (in a roundabout way) air movement, to turn a turbine to generate electricity to change the battery. You dropped out of school at 15 didn't you? What you describe IS a perpetual motion machine.
The ONLY time you would be actually generating more energy that you are wasting is when you are decelerating without braking. Whilst cruising & accelerating, you are causing an increase in drag, while braking, you are robbing energy from the regenerative brakes.
B) Slightly more amusing is the fact that you referred to Alfred as a Luddite, while in the same post using crappy English, spelling "either" incorrectly, spelling "whole" incorrectly, using the wrong "your / you're", using the wrong "its / it's" failing to capitalise a single sentence, whilst randomly adding capitals in the middle of sentences, and failing to use apostrophes.
I second Alfreds (joking) recommendation that people should have to take a science quiz before posting on here - maybe we wouldn't get luddites like the AC posting their particular brand of drivel to annoy the rest of us then.
Re: WWII - AC @ 7th June 2009 06:45
You sir, are a complete fucking moron for more than one reason.
The Americans won the war? Don't make me laugh.
We were fighting the Axis for OVER TWO YEARS before the US got up off its arse and decided to join in. Tens of thousands of British people (Not just soldiers - Women & Children too) were killed in the war - not cowering in the corner as you suggest, but all working together to build the war machine and to manufacture arms & ammunition.
And don't believe that they joined for altruistic reasons (Or just because of Pearl Harbour). They knew that if we had lost, and the Nazis took over Europe, that they would have sat, and built up their forces until they had an overwhelming force, then attacked the US, and utterly squashed them.
Hitler's aim was WORLD domination, not just European Domination.
Could we have won the war without the Yanks? No, almost certainly not.
Would the world be speaking German right now if it wasn't for the ingenuity, bravery and selfless sacrifice of the entire British people? You can guarantee it.
So take your illiterate drivel and stick it where the sun doesn't shine. Idiot.
Re: Who remembers sodium-sulphur?
I think you're referring to Molten Salt batteries.... Maybe.
They are quite wisely used in certain fields, and are extremely effective, unfortunately they (currently) only work at very high temperatures, so are unsuitable as the primary energy source for an EV.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten_salt_battery
Maybe in the future - but way off for the time being.
Posted in Brown to Sugar: 'You're hired'
@ AC - Amstrad suck Friday 5th June 2009 12:52 GMT
"I would not want to work for him even if he made me a millionaire in a day."
Bullsh1t
You'd suck him off in a dark alley for a million quid and you know it.
Paris, cos she can do that to me any day.
Posted in Miles EV unveils first e-car
Battery Pack Warranty
"Its lithium-ion battery pack will come from Chinese company Lishen and carry an eight-year/100,000 mile warranty."
And precisely what do they guarantee the range to be after it's done 8Years / 100,000 miles?
Anyone know of a Lithium Ion Battery that has lasted more than 2 or 3 years and even had 50% of it's original capacity?
Do they consider the battery to be "working" and therefore not eligible for replacement if you can get to the end of your road?
