Now they just need to include the same sort of thing into Train Simulator! (Which I know isn't MS but still...)
Posts by Richie G
8 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Dec 2009
I can see my house from here! Microsoft Flight Simulator has laid strong foundations for the nerdy scene's next generation
Want Olympic tickets? Better get a VisaCard then
iPad queues worldwide
Friday 28th May 2010 14:17 GMT
Of course...
... the reason that PC World was empty of queues could well be that people are put off by the name? After all, 'Apple' and 'PC'* are not quite synonymous with each other (and the cynic in me says 'yet'...). That's what I thought when I read Reg's subheading...
*PC in this context being Personal Computer; Political Correctness may fit here but am not sure; Police Constable definately doesn't.
DVLA off-road system seriously off-message
Tuesday 4th May 2010 10:10 GMT
@ Henry Wertz
In theory the procedure over here is similar. The tax disc differs in colour depending on its expiry, and the expiry date is printed quite large on it, thereby being similar to your color coded tag.
The difference with this, and the reason for SORNing is down to the fact that all the police who used to patrol the roads checking out for things like this have all been replaced by cameras at the side of the road which simply check for people going a couple of mph over the limit, even when it is perfectly safe to do so and in times gone by the police would've let you off for it.
By removing the eyes aspect of this visual system which worked so fine, the system now has to rely on people telling computers that they no longer use the vehicle on the road.
Lib Dems demand niceness, ignore technology
Times websites want £1 a day from June
Blighty surrenders to Street View
Tuesday 16th March 2010 13:08 GMT
@Liam Thom
I agree.
I think that Google Streetview is a good thing. In a few years time (10, 15, 20, 100) this will be historical data, much like (as has been reported) the Domesday book or even the Domesday 1986 (or whatever year it was - I think it was '86) Project.
Having said that, when I first saw my house on there I was 's**t, that's my house and everybody can see it' but then I realised that it is no different to me looking at other people's houses. Where I live, chances are that it's only people who live there / are going to visit / move to the street that will see it. So yeah, I was a little but offput at first so can see where people who are are coming from.
Incidentally, I can only almost pinpoint the date that the G Wagon came arolling past; it wasn't a bin day (although because of how our house is our bins are kept out front anyway) but I had obviously taken the car to lug some PA gear around from work etc as my mum's wheelchair (which is normally kept in the boot of the car) is in the garden, and we had also left something outside our front door to be picked up from Freecycle. Unfortunately, mum doesn't keep sent emails so I can't pinpoint it any further than 'the beginning of May 2009'...
Thomas the Tank Engine drives 'conservative political ideology'
Friday 11th December 2009 00:34 GMT 
It's not...
... the gender disparity. It's not the political leanings. It's not the absense of a timetable on a railway where engines are sent to play on the branch line.
It's the exceptionally poor accident and punctuality rating. I got a 'Thomas the Tank Engine' compilation book a while back (not a 'Railway Series' book despite them being the original stories with the original illustrators) and started looking through it. I only did Thomas (the book is arranged in order of engine, not in the proper chronological order) so far, will do the others eventually!
In it though, Thomas is accidentally still attached to the end of a potentially late express train, having to use a siding at the next station and a path to return to his own; Henry fails so Thomas takes the train but isn't attached (this time) so the train leaves late when Thomas returns after realising his error; Thomas swaps duties with Edward, putting him into a situation where he does not have correct route knowledge and is 'lucky that the line was clear'; James catches fire and derails so Thomas helps to retreive him, but freight is damaged along with rails and lineside fencing; Henry fails (again) and a late-running Thomas is stuck at a signal (on a single-track branch line with one engine running it...); An out of order water tower means that Thomas is unable to continue, and his train is either cancelled at the next station or another engine has to come to take over; The wrong kind of snow; On route-training duties, Thomas has an accident, possibly due to faulty brakes; Thomas crashes into a house because a cleaner has messed with his controls (in this story, it was originally the stationmaster's house he crashed into not the Fat Controller's house).
That's just the Thomas stories.
No wonder people have problems believing the railways are safe...
(mine's the one with the Eye-Spy Trains in the pocket...)
Biting the hand that feeds IT
