Posts by Vince Lewis 1
36 posts • joined Monday 15th June 2009 10:53 GMT
Re: A Mac at a price I'd pay
True, the last time I used a Mac, before the iLamp I found in a skip, was a Mac II when I was at school.
After playing with the iLamp for a while I was impressed with the OS's speed with low memory, so I put it to use as a video player for the kids.
However the iLamp was running an OSX version which was the contemporary of Win XP so the idea of selecting 2 or more video files and queuing them up should not have been beyond the realms of expectation.
I did find various solutions, most based around scripting Quicktime to creating a single file based on the selected files or an even more complicated script that opened and closed Quicktime for each file, either way useless for what I wanted to do.
A Mac at a price I'd pay
Funny you should say about getting Mac devs to to use Won 8 by giving it away, because I recent got my first Mac at a price I was willing to pay for one. I found an old G4 iLamp in a skip.
A lovely machine with a pretty OS, though I eventully had to install linux in order to queue and play multiple video files.
need a plumber
Not keen on the idea of needing a plumber to move my TV.
Re: Wrong target?
You're right. It''s much easier to dissect a living human brain, examine small parts of it, change chemical its balance and so on, all while doing zero damage and not affecting it with sedatives and pain killers.
With in a decade we should be able to simulate whole sections of an individual's brain, and help find the best treatment for that person.
In 2 decades a whole brain could be simulated, and yes the question of whether the simulation has its own consciousness and related the moral and legal rights.
In 3 to 4 decades we could be looking at the very real possibility of digital immortality.
Posted in Squillions of bytes in one cup of DNA
evolution
The bacteria evolved and corrupted my entire porn collection.
Re: And television sitcoms cause ...
What a wonderful black and white world you live in. Must be a bit cold at night sleeping on a zebra crossing.
A persons personality is affected by more than just their parental guidance. Environment and peers have just as much effect on a person. There is also genetic variables that determine personality.
Re: IT is not the solution.
I worked for a large building company, their software was being moved from terminal to a web based system. The web based system took three to five times the work and time for data entry... but it looked pretty.
All well and good saying businesses are wishing to stick to old business practices but often enough new technologies are implemented due to them being new and fashionable rather than improving the business process.
two simple laws
law 1:
If a multinational wishes to trade in a country they must create a subsidiary in that country.
Law 2:
All dealings with multinationals contract must be through local subsidiary.
Automobile industry
In a way we are following the same trend as the automobile industry.
Its early days were full of "muscle machines" and a relatively high turn over as new technology made cars faster and faster. The people that owned cars new how they worked and often repaired and updated then themselves.
Time passed and cars became mainstream, And so we're in the same situation.
Most PC owners, like car owners have little knowledge of what happens under the hood. They don't need super fast cars or super fast computers.
Of course there are those that like fast cars or fast computer and will pay the premium for such items, but they are not the masses. The main difference most performance computer users still know how to and can build thier computers, while performance drivers may know the art of the infernal combustion engine mot will opt for a pre-built machine.
The masses will use their cars and computers until they are unusable, buying a new one when the old one no longer meats their requirements.
Me, i'm planning on buying the parts to make a new performance machine. But I'll be using painter XIII which will use the 8 cores and playing games that will use the AMD 7970.
Maybe the answer is to fit computers more to the person like cars do, though that will be more software than hardware.
Posted in LucasArts' Dark Forces
There's nothing wrong with the screen shots. I think you are saying there is no volumetric lighting or fog, which wad not technically possible at the time.
Posted in LucasArts' Dark Forces
Anyone else spend FAR too long in the Arc Hammer's toilet looking for a secret room?
Anyone else spend FAR too long in the Arc Hammer's toilet looking for a secret room?
I spent far to long shooting walls and using the urinals to find a secret room.
This was an amazing game, truly joyous to behold.
I had a fortuitous bug on the final boss. I dashed back into the lift to dodge a rocket, just as it was moving up (i assume to stop you from running away from the boss).
So I was trapped in the lift, safe from rocket fire and able to shoot the Dark Trooper.
Posted in Valve taps testers for Linux Steam
Re: The one time!
Don't worry about that, there's been a lot of discussion on the steam forum about using other distos. I think the main things are support and debugging. Canonical is working with Valve on this, so they'll get support from that side and systems would be as uniform as a Linux set up could be for debugging side of stuff.
Posted in Valve taps testers for Linux Steam
This could also be a spring board for Valves own hardware
There are also rumours regarding VAlve making their own gaming hardware. This would be a great way of making a cheap platform that can use off the shelf hardware and a stripped down open source OS to get the best bang per buck.
Re: It's a monumentally stupid contest...
I second the idea of a cheap home pbx, and in the process of setting up a Asterisk based system.
A pin code for friends could be a simple house number plus people that live here. it doesn't need to be complicated.
I need a scart lead.... two weeks after dumping my tangle of cables, the wife asked me to get out the old vcr...
Standards should be open and free.
If you develop as system that will be used as an essential part of a larger system then that system should be free and accessable to all that use the larger system.
Development costs should recouped in developing products or propriety systems that use this larger system
7 inches happy
I'm loving my Nexus 7.
It fits comfortably in my hand and great for most browsing and android games.
lame attempt to blame video games for ones own actions.
Just seen the below article on the BBC.
Now I've only played the first few games and seen the movies, but I'm sure slow torture was never a theme in the Resident Evil franchise.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-19846989
Posted in Ghostbusters
I believe Ecto1 was an ambulance not a hearse.
Mind you if Ecto1 was an ambulance, it must have had an umpalumpa crew.
As badly put as it was the OP has a point
Humanity has only used radio for 100 years and science already finding alternatives (entangled pairs jump to mind). Many scientists have noted the Limited lifespan of Radio and the statistical improbability of both humanity and Alien society both using radio at the same time.
Thus radio waves are unlikely going to be the primary communication method for an Advanced Space fairing race. In such a society any use of Radio would most likely be highly localised or focused, the only people broadcasting would be hobby user and those with an affinity with arcane tech.
First contact via radio could be with an ET radio HAM operator or Historical buff.
Mind you ET may also have their own SETI project along with a radio beacon
I feel a trip to the library comming on...
I feel rather like an unread, uneducated buffoon. From that list I've only read Vurt and Only Forward ... and that was a very long time ago. Though after reading Only Forward a lamppost did give me a compliment on my shoes.
Dear Mr Jobs...
Please can you ban Adobe Acrobat from your shiney aluminium toys too. I would very much like to see Adobe fix that massively bloated and slow walking corpse that is Adobe Acrobat. While I avoid it like a plague of zombies, I have no choice in a work environment.
Posted in Google is hiring 1,000 in Europe
London vs Mountain View
I too was approched by Google (ego trip ahoy). At that point the position "was also available in" London and other european locations. So I looked at the posiblity of moving State side. Gun laws and insane politics aside, it was definately looking good for Mountain View.
For my money I could have got a huge woodland cabin with several acres of land 1/2 hour drive from the Googleplex. For London, well I couldn't afford anything family sized with in 1/2 hour travel.
Posted in Scotland bans smut. What smut? Won't say
is it a case of..
... what you don't know can't hurt you?
Posted in Cops break up Kinect Boxing bout
I second the move to Sweden
Not only are the police force prompt, but the houses have rooms big enought to play multiplayer Kinect games with out taking a sledge hammer to dividing walls.
typo
“My colleague, who was dressed as The Flash, kept running AROUND the shop and stayed calm. It really was a team effort"
Actually. In Alien 1, the company DID already know about the alien life form.
Actually. In Alien 1, the company DID already know about the alien life form.
The Andriod ASH was placed onbaord to ensure capture of the creature.
The onboard computer Mother informs the captian all crew are expendable.
These actions where both preplanned since intergalatic communications in the Aliens universe takes weeks to send and recieve.
And the answer is always "Dont ask!"
Fighting the Future of Facial Recogition
By the look of the pictures it manages this by putting the individual into a space-timer bubble, partly taking them out of this time frame and placing them into the 1980's. The 80's sphere of influence negates CCTV since the Technology was not widely installed at that time.
Posted in Bond 23 suspended 'indefinitely'
Pierce Brosnan was a great bond
And did not do anywhere near enough films.
Daniel Craig was a Chav Bond and Casino Royal should have been done as true Prequel.
I would have loved to have seen a 60's style james Bond film with period realistic gadgets.
I feel so tempted to do this to HSBC and Halifax
They screwed me royal with bank charges
You said coding is manufacturing
You said coding is manufacturing
[quote]If we can manufacture using fewer people then there are more people to go off and do other things: write Grand Theft Auto, wipe babies' bottoms, whatever.[/quote]
Did you mean PLAY GTA.
So the translation is 50 years ago 50% of the population made things while the rest either serviced them or slacked of on the dole. Now 10% of people make very expensive things and 90% either service them or slack off on the dole.
Bussard ramjet [Geek Alert]
But with out the hydrogen the Enterprise wouldn't fly.
From what I remember reading, the glowing front of the warp nacelles are Bussard Hydrogen Scoops. see [Bussard ramjet]
These use huge magnetic fields to "scoop" up the hydrogen in front of the ship which is then used as fuel.
This was the reason they on stalks away from the hull since the magnetic fields would rip the iron from your blood stream.
It is also worth noting that hydrogen would only be a problem at impulse, since at warp speed, you are warping space around the ship and the ship is relatively stationary with in the warp bubble.
Yes I know this is all pseudo-science, but you need to include the pseudo-facts.
Go open source and Sack some Staff
As someone that WORKS in IT, the idea of saving a company £1000's by moving to open source, only to place my work mates into the redundancy firing line seems cruel.
Fasa's Great IP
It is a tragidy that Microsoft now controls all of FASA's original IP. The Mechwarrior and Shadowrun universes where vast and well writen. I have many memories of their old table top RPGs and wargames.
It is highly likely the IP will sit there and rot, and all the great games, films or TV series that could have spawned will never happen.
Posted in Wireless power gets lovely shiny logo
Its a man...
Its a man looking at the back of his flat screen wondering where the wires are.
Everyone else is wondering where his hair has gone and why he is so thin. Radiation sickness maybe?
Not that strange
[It also seems strange that almost half of IT pros are presumably relying on newspaper ads and job centres to find high-tech jobs, rather than using "online networking".]
Not that strange, 1/2 of my IT jobs where found via the Local paper. And there's a lot of logic to this on both sides of the employment fence.
Employer's are likely to find a local IT resource. This hopefully means a Employee that doesn't have a killer commute and thus happier. There are companies that are proud to support the local economy. And there's no agency fees.
For the Job hunter, it means your more likely to find a local job and you're also going to competing with fewer applicants.
True most of these IT jobs are going to be for SME's but its still IT work.
