I played with one of these today at a MS promo event for windows 8 (seems a bit late!)

I'd read several average-to-bad reviews, but I honestly liked it. The screen was bright and clear, everything was snappy, touch wasn't laggy at all. Handwriting recognition with fingertip was impressive; didn't get to try a stylus tho.

My major concern was it seemed weighty for such as small machine, but then again I'm used to a lighter yet larger laptop.

Where are the links eh?

I always wanted a Zune, but they never released it outside the US (maybe Canada?), which I believe was part of its downfall.

I hope they don't do the same thing with the Pro, as I really wanted a tinker.

I won't be moving to Skype

I think people will look back and see what a terrible move this is.

MSN is still so popular, and with an unofficial app, can be very lightweight with no adverts, unnecessary features or bloat (the very opposite of skype).

I still use MSN daily, even for work colleagues just down the corridor. I'd rather go to Google Talk than follow Microsoft into the mess that is Skype.

(I'm also an old fogey who misses ICQ)

Search article for "birmingham". No matches.

I don't see why all the surrounding areas of brum all have fibre or cable, but the city centre isn't scheduled for fibre until December 2013. I think they recently set that date because they couldn't be bothered pushing it back every 3 months any more.

You can argue whether or not we're still the "second city", but we're big enough for fast internet in the centre, dammit!

Heads up el reg storage fans! Amazon have 3TB drives under £100. I'm all for new products, but at that price, 4TB can wait a while...

A very tough competition for married hoarders to enter, as we have to become experts at hoarding and stashing!

So, um, what apps do I need to download again?

"there are no glass staircases and minimalist draping of products over polished surfaces in Blighty's warehouse-like PC World or Currys mega-stores, and Dixons Group staff aren't prepared to hang around shooting the breeze with you as you scratch your chin and mull over making a purchase."

A one-off I realise, but In Birmingham we do have a fancy PC World / Dixons combo shop called "Black", that is like an "Apple" experience for other brands. If anything, it's far nice than the Bullring Apple store, which I hate going in to.

Call that a cable box?!

If el reg wants to start a competition to find the most hordiest, I'm definitely in with a shot.

BTW Anyone need a scart cable? ISA TV card? Iomega zip drive? Two pin kettle lead*?

(*even I struggle to understand why I keep these)

Windows checks a microsoft page for every network connection to show you the little "world" icon. Of course, if it can't reach microsoft.com, it doesn't disable the entire connection...

I was in Tokyo last year, and spent a day in akiba. I disagree with the overall tone of the article, and would still encourage people to visit (if you wanted to in the first place!)

There's still lots to do. The anime museum and gundam cafe by the station exit are worth a visit. Do a loop around ending up at Yodabashi and you'll still see your fair share of tech and game shops, some new, some "retro". I never went into a maid cafe, but it was still a novelty to see maids on the street and tell them "arigato gozaimasu" for my free "gift" (some promo tat, nothing exciting).

I think the biggest problem is that the world has caught up with tech. Before worldwide shipping and engadget, maybe a small part of tokyo could lay claim to being a tech-center, but now anywhere with an internet connection can be as informed, this is hardly akiba's fault.

(The japanese are a little to blame actually. For years we heard how amazing their mobile phones were, but while I was there it seems they've given them all up for iphones.)

I'm not a heavy drinker, but I did grow up at the same time as the birth of alcopops. At 16/17, we'd mix up Hooch, Vodka and Red Bull to make a purple cocktail sure to keep you dancing all night (the legal way) (ignoring the under-age drinking part).

I still find Red bull stops me slurring my words, and I've never had a problem sleeping afterwards. If anything, I wake up less hungover!

I think this research is due for the "ask anyone" award of obviousness.

OK, someone needs to start a bullshit list, and put that quote about human misery on it as entry #1. Seriously, why does such utter bullshit get repeated and never challenged?

Very interesting article, merci el reg!

Also glad I didn't tweet my thoughts on seb coe last night; probably would fall foul of these laws (despite being true). He's a bit of a ****** **** really, if wikipedia is to be believed.

We missed all these because they are all very average...

What entertainment did the current crop of bankers and politicians enjoy when they were younger, and can we ban that somehow?

I was thrown off with the 45 degree stuff when looking at Birmingham yesterday. It seems to kick in at a certain zoom. Completely pointless for trying to point out directions, as the orientation was off (compared to the top down) and the buildings obscured the streets.

Sure, it's pretty to look at, but let's not remember what maps are actually for!

I'm on twitter, but didn't even notice it was ever down. I guess I must still have a teeny bit of life left after all!

Surely the "championship edition" version (SF2 Turbo) on the SNES was the best at the time? This allowed you to play the bosses, two players could be the same character (with different colours) and it was so much faster. In fact, with the old U D L R combo, you could pump the speed up to faster than NTSC/arcase speeds even on the PAL version.

I loved SF2. I used to take my SNES into school sometimes in a backpack and keep it in there while it was hooked to the old TVs they'd have knocking around classrooms. I think the crowning achievement was using an RF splitter to display the game on two screens, such was the interest!

I don't know if they ruined the series with the million sequels, or whether I'm a stick in the mud.

I like having an analogue clock and flip-style calendar in the corner :(

Just hurry up BT, ffs

Someone was laying fibre cables in central Brum today, hopefully my MDU is going to get in on the action.

I was happy with my 16mb (actual speed!) adsl 6-7 years ago, now it's starting to seem outdated. (No, I don't need to download terabytes continuously, but the times I do want to surf need to be much snappier.)

Bah, this is just like my idea that I completely failed to patent, implement, or tell anyone other than the wife, who was not listening.

The MIT thing is a bit more than ambilight, although the video is very poor at explaining why (with the sound off, I didn't bother to put headphones in). About half way through the demo, it tracks a rudimentary version of the tree object into the periphery.

My idea was using a bit of look ahead on the frames to stitch together accompanying panoramas for panning/zooming shots. All the image information is there (in pre-recorded media) to create very detailed periphery in as good as real time, if it's a more joined up hardware solution.

I wonder if I should tell Dolby about my infinite surround sound solution, or just moan a little bit when they invent it in a few years.

The article with helpful tips is essentially: uninstall realplayer, downgrade flash... pointless.

Was the cpu voltage increased for that stable overclock? And are we talking stock cooler?

I have the Noctua D14, so temps were not a problem for me, but I had to up the juice to get 3770k stable at higher speeds. Did you test with prime95 or anything similar?

I only ask because otherwise this article could be a little misleading.

Anyone seriously considering a premium projector is surely waiting for the Red 4k laser projector which should be released this year...

Hmm, I was going to buy one of those new Samsung SSDs this month for a Ivy Bridge build... perhaps these SSDs will be launched alongside the mysterious Intel mobo?