Posts by Boothy
106 posts • joined Friday 17th June 2011 13:20 GMT
I use the same, and you have the added benefit that it's an absolute time, rather than just a 'ticker', so the watch/clocks set themselves correctly as soon as they are switched on, and notice automatically summer/winter clock changes. (Mine is also solar powered, so batteries not needed either).
Also it's not in Rugby, it's in Anthorn, Cumbria, has been for years.
Re: Where is the market for an accurate watch?
I wear a watch for convenience, not fasion, my other devices, such as my phone have to be removed from pocket and activated to show the time, my watch is just there, all the time, instant access (looks at wrist) and more accurate than any smart phone that syncs with NTP or the local cell network.
Re: It may be the most accurate watch in the world...
Quote "And it will need to be reset twice each year to accommodate summertime/dst."
I would hope at that price it would do that itself!
AMosaic
Back in the early 90's I only had access to an Amiga 500 (and a Spectrum 128K ;-)
So my first use of Mosaic was the Amiga port, AMosaic, in 1993.
Just getting a TCP/IP stack onto the Amiga was a challenge, I'd only accessed bulletin boards with my 14.4 modem up till then, and those didn't need a network stack.
I'd had so much trouble getting the TCP/IP stack and dialer to run properly, (lack of available support information at the time) that I decided to create a web page dedicated to getting an Amiga online, installing the stack, getting a dialer to work, and specific settings for various ISPs such a Demon. Was a popular site for a while, even getting mentioned in a few Amiga print mags back in the day.
I was a regular on newgroup demon.ip.support.amiga, and IRC chat channel #DISA, helping people out, and just general chat
Happy days....
I also used an Amiga port of Linx, just because it was fast, especially over dial-up.
Beer: Well it is the start of the weekend :-)
Re: Logitech's crap products are hurting sales
+1 for most comments above.
Used their products for years, good build, good spec, maybe a little pricey, but you got a quality product for the money. But unfortunately that all seems to be past tense now :-/
To me they were a premium price, but for a premium product. But now they just seem meh.
Still got a couple of their older products, a Harmony One remote from about 6-7 years back, still going strong.
Plus a G7 wireless mouse, which I've wanted to upgrade for years, (wanting a mouse with additional thumb buttons but can never find one like the G7). Logitech never seemed to produced a replacement or upgrade path for the G7!
Main selling point for me on the G7 was two battery packs with a separate charger, so you don't loose your mouse when you need to charge it by having to stick it in a cradle, or plug a USB cable in, just eject the flat battery, stick the charged one in the mouse, and the flat one in the charger (2-3 secs to swap round). Ideal for LAN parties (back in the day...). Plus no noticeable lag, something many wireless ones do suffer from, and as a fan of FPS games (bigger fan of strategy games though), lag is important (or rather the lack of it).
Shame they seem to be heading down the pan, too many bad decisions over the last few years me thinks....
Re: @Tom 13 (was: @Neil Barnes)
LCDs are perfectly capably of displaying information as an analog display, doesn;t need to be numeric, and most things I would suspect would be displayed that way anyway.
What would be nice would be things like fuel capacity, not just Full, Half, Empty like most cards, but specific amounts of fuel, i.e. 22Ltrs left, and expected milage on the remaining fuel. (i.e will I make it home/to the petrol station etc.).
Also regarding trend info, with a fully digital system like this, you could have information such as expected engine temperature in the current situation, not just the actual temperature (for example taking into account outside temp, driving mode etc.), and so the display could easily show that the car was running hotter or colder than expected, or that it was using fuel faster than it should be, and so help identify issues.
Yes this can be found now, but requires the driver to actually pay attention to what dials are telling them, and notice the difference at other times, which I would suspect for most drivers won't happen. (I'm talking about the sort of people who let their raidiator run dry, or never check things like oil levels or tire pressures).
Also this might help bring to an end the ridiculous prices some companies charge for items like sat nav. i.e. BMW charging £2,500 to add factory fitted sat nav, despite the processing power and screen already existing in the base model cars. So all it needs is the GPS receiver (£10?) and the software installing. Give me Google Navigate anyday.
Re: Simple
My first broadband connection was 128kbs, which at the time seemed massively faster than the dial-up I used to use, which typically capped out at a somewhat unstable 30-35kbs or so.
Just because new broadband connections are faster than that, doesn't stop the definition still fitting the older/slower connections.
As long as it's always on, and I'd say arguably faster than dial-up, it's broadband.
And I suggest you change phone or network provider if your data keeps failing on your phone. mine with only rare exception, always has a data connection. Plus 3G and of course now 4G, is still faster than many current cheaper fixed line broadband options, so yes, I'd consider 3G and 4 as broadband as well these days.
Re: And if I already wear normal glasses?
Bear in mind this is just the first version, for early adopters and developers. i.e. what about people that can't use their right eye?
I expect later there will be more versions, smaller, that could then potentially either hold prescription lenses, or be clip on.
Play store: This item cannot be installed in your device's country!
I hope no one in the UK bought these glasses, as Google seem to have restricted access to the UK, and presumably other countries!
Presumably US users only then :-(
Re: Yes the solid state part is important. Yes it will hurt some targets, but how narrow band is it?
Best come fitted with a frequency re-modulator then!
Re: Missing the point: SOLID STATE!
Whilst this currently can't take down missiles and real sized aircraft due to lack of power, what would stop them from installing 10 of these on a suitably sized and powered ship?
Then you could point all 10, or however many was needed, onto the same point on the same target.
And cooling shouldn't be an issue, it's a ship. plenty of cold water under it.
The resurgence of the battleship is already predicted due to rail gun tech.
A battleship with lasers and rail guns would again rule the waves as it could sink anything, including other aircraft carriers well before the aircraft carrier could launch and try to sink the battleship, and it could down any aircraft or missiles that came into range. (Small rail guns for anti aircraft use, larger rail guns for anti ship and land bombardment).
Re: Exclusionists
Additionally you need to check your stats, me thinks they are out of date.
XP usage hasn't been at 38% since back in 2011, and currently stands around 23% (with Win 7 around 53%).
Re: Exclusionists
hmm, and how many of that 38% of the world are still using an out of date version of IE?
It's not Google that is excluding you, you're doing that to yourself by consciously choosing to use an old out of date web browser rather than installing something newer.
Expect to get blocked by more than just Google in the future. For example my bank has a similar policy for logging into their online banking service. "Using an old out of date web browser! Nope, you're not coming in."
If you want to blame anyone, blame Microsoft for choosing not to release their newer browsers on XP.
Re: Four systems
@ Fred Flintstone
You'd not heard of GLONASS? Where have you been, the stone age or something?
Posted in Review: Renault Zoe electric car
Re: It's not bitching, it's reality.
Quote: "I beg to differ. Until electric cars can go a decent distance then they are completely useless beyond a few niche users."
Erm, you are aware the 'niche users' are the ones that need to do 'a decent distance', this car is aimed at normal people, not the niche high mileage crowd?
Most users have the common sense to have home and work within a reasonable distance, i.e < 10 or so miles and most other journeys will be even less (supermarket, cinema etc.).
So a 70 mile range in a car would probably be enough for the vast majority of most car users.
It's the people doing the 50+ miles commutes every day that are the odd ones here, and it'll be some time before an EV car can cope with that type of journey.
But we have to start somewhere. so aim for the majority low mileage users first, then deal with the niche high mileage users later when the technology has matured some more and economies of scale start to improve costs etc.
Re: Computer Misuse Act
How you gained access isn't relevant. You still accessed the system without the owners permission, therefore it's still illegal.
As an analogy, it doesn't matter if the door was closed, closed and locked, or wide open, the simple act of walking through the door is illegal. How you got through only changes the level of punishment, it doesn't change the illegality of the act itself.
Any access to any computer system, whether a PC, a server, an embedded controller, a mobile device and so on and so on, if you don't have explicit permission from the owner of that device, then accessing that device is illegal.
I remember years ago when the first broadband Internet rolled out round my area (UK), this was a cable service provided (local cable TV operator, NTL). With heady speeds of 64kbs, later upgraded to 128kbs (compared to dial-up of course, which was typically around 40kbs, this was fast, and low pings too, good for gaming).
Turns out it wasn't actually a direct Internet connection, unlike say ADSL, it was a NAT connection, so you were effectively on a local LAN with all the other NTL customers. This then went via a router to the internet itself.
The connection itself was fine, but those early cable models didn't have anything in them, effectively just a modem, so no Firewall or other security etc. (no options at all in fact, they were locked down, just plug and go).
So unless you were running a local Firewall, it meant you could be seen on the NTL network, and back then, few people had firewalls installed (pre-XP days, so not even the basic built in OS one either). So you could literately just browse the Network with Windows Explorer and see other peoples PC's, browse their shares, plus all the default admin shares and such.
A few friends of mine were also on NTL (now owned by Virgin), so we just set up shared folders and could just use Windows Explorer to drop off and pull files from each others PCs! No need for FTP etc.
Re: Network Analysis
That's different, your still using the network as intended, and network admins can set their systems to not respond to the requests if they wish. Your just asking them to respond to a request for information, they can respond or not, their choice. Also it's not giving you access to the systems themselves.
Re: Using a default username and password isn't hacking
@ Colin Wilson 2
Technically yes, still illegal unless you'd agreed in advance that they were allowed access or it was allowed by the law (police/fire department/court order etc.). Doesn't matter who they are, friend, family or stranger, or why they were going into the house, it's still an illegal act. As mentioned above, the purpose for entry only effects the punishment, it doesn't change that fact that the law was broken.
Besides your analogy is flawed, you have a neighbour you know walking in, this is a complete stranger. How would you feel if you woke up to find someone you didn't know just wandering about the house? Even if they had soup, wouldn't you be a little suspicious of it's contents and their motives?
Downloads have already started
Me thinks someone has missread/misunderstood something when writing/reading the article.
The 22nd is the end date of when access to the downloads will complete its roll out world wide, not the start date of the downloads. (although presumable who ever is last to get rolled out to, would be on the 22nd!)
They are already releasing the downloads, since yesterday, on a region by region basis.
I got the email last night from EA and an hour later I was playing Dead Space 3. Not a bad game.
Posted in Build a BONKERS gaming PC
@ Network67
Yup, seen that myself a few times.
Visited a friend one day to find they'd spent £400 on a new laptop. I asked what was wrong with their old one, they said it was really slow, so wanted a new one. They gave me the old one to look at.
It had Vista, and 512MB of memory, and looked like it had never had a disk clean up (full of temp files and other crap, and the defrag tool had never been used (no last used date!). Also drivers were all the original stock ones from the maker from years back.
So this was obviously hitting VM RAM constantly, on a heavily fragments drive, that would have been a slow HD to start with!
I took it away, cleaned the drive (would have re-installed if I'd had more time and an install disk). Patched it all up, put better drivers on for the GFX etc and various other tweaks.
I found some old spare RAM kicking about at home, so put 2GB in, (2 x 1GB sticks I had spare after updating an old XP laptop from 2GB to 4GB a few years earlier). Would have only been about £15-20 quid to buy if needed.
Gave it back afterwards, said 'Try this'. It was just as fast as his new shiny lap top! He was both please and annoyed at the same time, was quite amusing. :-)
General processing power usage (offcie, web etc) hasn't changed much for years. Just the overheads have increased, (i.e Windows). But 9 times out of 10, just more memory and a clean drive (or a switch to an SSD), improves things no end.
PCs with not enough memory is one of my pet peeves, crippling a PC for something that for budget RAM, would cost you about £20 to fix and make the PC so much more usable.
Posted in Build a BONKERS gaming PC
Re: Bonkers? Yes... Overpriced? Most definitely
And basic over clocking is so easy these days and is so much the norm now for even a basic gaming rig, for a Bonkers build, it should be mandatory!
I recently (about 3 weeks ago) upgraded my ageing Quad core Phenom that's done me proud for a few years but showing it's age these days. But I was a lot more conservative with my money than the build in the article.
Mobo: Asus P8Z77-V PRO Z77
CPU: i7 3770K (Stock 3.5GHz)
Corsair Hydro H60 cooler, so basically the smaller version of the one in the article.
Corsair Vengence Memory 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 2133MHz
OCZ 240GB Vertex 3 SSD. (Plus some hand-me-down 1TB & 3TB HDs from the previous rig as data drives).
Asus provide out of the box over-clocking and tuning, both within the BIOS itself (which is a full menu drive mouse controlled affair now), and apps within Windows. This covers CPU speed, voltages, cooling fan tuning etc.
A single click OC after the build was all patched up, and the above was running a 4.2GHz, and still not hot enough to cause the CPU cooler fan to hit 100% speed. And this was using the 1 click option where it does everything for you, ideal for people who either have no idea what to do, or like me who simply can't be bothered to go into all the details. Obviously more time and effort spent on tweaking and it'll go even faster.
Also just a note on the CPU chosen, I don't see the point (at the moment at least) of more than 4 cores in a gaming rig, as most games still only have 1 or 2 threads, so don't really take advantage fully of even a quad core, let alone 6 or 8 cores. So I think currently, a faster core speed is still more important than having more cores and would suspect for gaming, for the CPU, that my current rig would outperform this Bonkers PC.
This will of course change over time, muti cores are now standard in even entry level devices and the new generation of consoles, with muti core i386 CPUs, will force game engine developers to start taking real advantage of those cores, so I expect over the next year or two, we'll see updates to main gaming engines to make them more muti core friendly, which should directly improve the PC performance of those engines as well. But it will still take some time to fully utilise a 4 core, let alone a 6 or 8 core rig.
Oh, that went on linger than I planned! Happy gaming everyone :-)
Paris, well, just because.
Posted in Trip the fight fantastic
Re: Crysis 3 : I'm stumped
*** Spoiler ***
In Crysis 2, where you play as Alcatraz (the passer by as you mention), the suit he then puts on still contains the memories of Prophet. At the end of that game, his (Prophet's) memories are assimilates directly into Alcatraz. He then gets up and says "They call me Prophet.".
So in 3, you're basically not the original Prophet, but a new one. Although effectively a merger of the two people together, but the original Alcatraz is basically lost, as at the end of 3, you call yourself "Laurence Barnes", which was the first Prophet's real name.
Confusing, not at all!!
It's GLONASS & GPS, not GLONASS instead of GPS.
Just means more sats around to use, so faster lock and more likelihood of finding a sat in line of sight in built up areas where buildings might block the signal. etc. Both systems use 24 sats each, so that gives you 48 that you can use, rather than just the 24.
Also most GPS chipsets have had GLONASS support included for a year or two now and this isn't even new in phones, just seems to be being pushed as a feature this time. Some Sony Erricson, previous Samsungs and even Apples 4S have GLONASS already.
Re: This isn't just an IT problem
An IT company I worked for about 15 years back did exactly that, trained their staff, but put a clause into the contracts.
They needed to bring people in for y2k work, had a skills gaps, so just created a training programme. Took in skilled technical people, but who had a different skill set to what was needed, did full time training for three months on various courses. Then put them to work afterwards.
To make sure people didn't just run away after the training, they made everyone sign a three year contact to pay back the costs of the training. It basically said if you leave within year 1, you owe us the entire cost of the training, in year 2, 2/3 of the costs, in year 3, 1/3 of the costs, and after the 3 years there was no cost.
So people were still free to leave, you just had to take into account the training bill depending on when you left..
What, no Futurama Bender comments?
Come on, beer powered robots.
Beer for obvious reasons...
Re: What a shame! What a fraud!
On a modern gaming rig, the physics is done on the GPU, not the CPU. It's all math, so GPU is far more capable than any CPU at delivering good physics affects. After all, a GPU is just basically a glorified multi-core math co-processor.
Re: What a shame! What a fraud!
As mentioned, CPU performance in a game system is fairly meaningless for most games, and doubly so for console type games, it's the GPU that does all the real work.
I've got a 360, but am primarily a PC gamer, I've got an old rig, with an AMD 4 core CPU from several generations back. (was top of the line about 5 years ago), and I can still play every game installed on Ultra (or their highest option). The CPU is generally under utilised, as most games still only run in one, or maybe two threads, so the CPU might max out around 40-50% for a heavy game.
The only time a faster CPU would be useful would be for strategy games, where there is a lot of processing going on behind the scenes (rather than on screen), but those don't tend to be very common on consoles, so a mute point at the moment (may change in the future with improved console control systems of course).
If games were made to utilise muti cores better, even my 5 year old CPU would provide more than double the current required processing power for top end games (and that's top end on a PC, not top end on a current console). So a current (or next gen) AMD processor would provide more than enough CPU power for anything likely to be thrown at a next gen console for years to some.
Some Tomtoms already have this, and Android phones.
On Android it's next to the GPS on/off, called 'Use sensor aiding'. (Not sure if this is OS version or phone type dependent, but it's there on a S3).
Or just split it up into separate apps rather than a complete suite.
Posted in Shiny, shiny! The window's behind me...
Re: Warning: please check that your irony detector is switched on
oops, 'by design' even!
Posted in Shiny, shiny! The window's behind me...
Re: Warning: please check that your irony detector is switched on
@ 'pale grey bars'
I assuming your using a browser with Adblock or similar? (Like me)
Try turning if of for a mo and reloading a page, they are not empty grep bars be design ;-)
Posted in Shiny, shiny! The window's behind me...
Re: Huh, all my screens are matte
and even more writing about it!
Posted in Shiny, shiny! The window's behind me...
@ Mark
I was recently 'upgraded' at work from a Lenovo T400 to a T420 laptop.
Whilst the laptop itself is better (faster, more mem, more storage etc.) The new screen res is 1366x768 (16:9), the old one was 1280X800 (16:10).
So I've got more pixels width in the same physical space, so a higher DPI, but less vertical pixels and is actually physically smaller as well in the vertical, as there is now a wide border at the bottom, so the screen no longer fills the lid. so completely wasted space!
I've no issue with the 1366 width, but the aspect ratio should have retained 16:10 to at least use the available space in the lid. A reduction like this is a step backwards.
Luckily I have a monitor as well (1600x1200), so use the built in only as a secondary monitor except when in meetings etc.
Back on topic.
Matte all the way, both at work (above mentioned 1600x1200, a HP) and at home, a 24" Samsung 1920x1200 (So 16:10, not 16:9 which is pants) :-)
I've already replaced the boot HDD in my 2 year old laptop with an SSD, new lease of life, produces less heat so no fan kicking in all the time, everything is faster, and the battery lasts and extra hour or more (was about 2.5 hours normally, now 3.5 to 4 hours on a charge).
Cost wise, HDDs hit the $1 per GB in 2005, SSDs hit this price early to mid last year. 2005 was also the year the first 500GB HDDs came out and we did get 480/512 SSD drives last year, and 1TB drives are now on their way. So seems SSDs are where HDDs were about 7 years ago, but SSDs are moving faster, so hopefully shouldn't be 7 years to get to a 1TB SSD for £45, or 2TB for £65, maybe 2-3 years?
I think the $1 level was the critical mass point for HDDs, suddenly people were buying more and larger drives which increased demand, increased production, which brought down costs, and so on. SSDs seemed to be going the same way till the hiccup in the market last year, but hopefully is back on track again now.
Re: But... Brawndo has got what your body craves...
"Soda (or Pop as I prefer to call it)=a drink best enjoyed with lashings of vodka added."
There, fixed that for you...
Re: If only . . .
We get coffee free (and tea etc) just vending machines but it's still fresh ground (they are just loaded with whole beans.
If only the milk in the machines was any good, bleh!
Re: Multiples of 1080
Full HD is 1920x1080 which is 16:9 ratio.
1920x1200 is 16:10 ratio.
So same width in pixels, just more height. So assuming the vid is 1080p, width is same, so just black bars top and bottom. And as pointed out, this is useful for subs and controls, as they don't get in the way of the image itself.
If you use a higher res monitor, then you just scale to fit.
Re: Asus PA248Q
Same here, I want to upgrade my monitor, not a downgrade to 1080p.
1080p is even less vertical pixels than one of my previous, now ancient, 17" CRTs!
Posted in USB 3.0 speed to DOUBLE in 2013
You do know that 80-90MB/s is typical speeds for hard drives? (They may state they are SATA 3/6, but that's just burst speed from cache, real word through put is still limited by the spinning disk).
If you want to see real USB 3.0 speeds. you'll have to buy an SSD instead.
Posted in USB 3.0 speed to DOUBLE in 2013
Re: The name
Same here, in IT, many techi friends, not one of them ever refers to USB other than the version numbers.
Keep it simple guys, 3.0, 3.1 etc.
@ Lars
Quote: "What I cannot believe is that a navigation system would completely stop working if the internet connection stopped working.".
It doesn't, the current version pre-caches the maps data as soon as you select a destination, with a few miles either side of the route just in case you go off course for some reason.
I would assume that they may be tweaking the apps in readiness for integrated car use anyway, for example an option to pre-cache all your local state/county/country data, which just updates periodically when it gets a data connection.
Re: Drove a Hyundai i40 recently...
You are aware that Google Maps caches the map data?
You can manually cache an area in advance in maps (I just did it for a trip to the Canaries over New Years).
Also Google Navigate pre-caches trips, so as long as you've got a data connection at the start of the trip and picked where you want to go to, it shouldn't matter if you have no data from that point onwards (unless you travel miles off the shown route, but it does cache a few miles each side just in case).
Posted in 20 years of GSM digital mobile phones
Galaxy S3
My Galaxy S3 typically lasts about 2-3 days before needing a charge.
Granted I leave it in power saving mode, which restricts CPU speed/cores etc., but unless your into playing games on your phone (which I'm not, got a decent PC and an XBox for that) it's still smooth and fast to use with all apps etc.
Posted in Judge denies move to ban ad-skipping DVR
@ Bakunin
Your not getting it, the infringement is in recording the programme in the first place, not in skipping the adds.
The ruling in the 80s was basically to protect the VCR manufactures from prosecution, in that although they provide equipment that can be used to infringe copyright (record live TV) it's the person who pressed the record button that actually did the infringing, not the VCR manufacturer.
Posted in Ten iPhone 5 challengers
Re: So, about that HTC...
I've had two HTCs in a row:
1. Ye olde Hero (custom ROM to keep it up to date, sill in use by with friend),
2. HTC Desire S. Which was an okay phone, but HTC cuts some corners with the hardware, and had gone too far with their built in apps, such as essentially hard coding the button in the contacts list that normally will launch maps or navigations apps (whatever you have installed) to their own Navigation app, which you have to pay for!
My contract was up, so moved to a Galaxy SIII, and very happy with the phone.
I would say I have the same comments the reviewed had regarding the Home button and the case. Why have a hardware home button when the menu and back buttons either side are touch and light up? odd! And the case, the back at least is a bit too shiny, so can get a little slipy and attracts fingerprints like mad.
But the rest, the performance, including battery life, the OS etc. Very happy with. (2.5 days per charge on average for me).
I also disagree with the reviewer with regards to the Samsung tweaks to the OS and apps. I've had no issues whatsoever in switching from HTC to Samsung, and all the apps I've used so far have been fine, so much so I've not replaced any of them yet, unlike on the HTC. In fact I'd say Samsung do less harm to the OS than HTC does, their efforts seem a lot more subtle that HTC are.
@ S4qFBxkFFg
Quote: 'So, does this mean our IT people are lying when they say my "C:\Documents and Settings\myname" folder can't be "H:\Documents and Settings\myname" instead? (where H is the individual network drive allocation)'
'can't' doesn't always mean a technical limitation, it could be a policy etc.
But technically you can.
From you path, I assume you on Win XP?
If so, all you have to do is right click on 'My Documents' and there should be a target folder location showing your example path.
Underneath there is a Move button, just click and browse to where you want your new 'My Documents' to be, including Network mounted drives, secondary drives in the same PC etc.
Same works for My Documents, My Pictures, My Video, and My Music as well.
So yes, Windows has been able to do this for years without issue. Win 7 just gives you more flexibility now with it's Library approach. i.e. You could have local and network locations at the same time. For example I have all my music on the Network, so my 3 Win 7 systems have all had that network location added to the local music libraries, so to each machine it looks like local data, and any new files added appear for everyone.
Posted in Ten movies inspired by video games
Ms. Croft = Rhona Mitra (IMHO)
Quote: 'Angelina Jolie was perfect for the portrayal of the sexiest video game character of all time too. Can you imagine anyone else playing Ms. Croft so well?'
Whilst Angelina was okay, I always though Rhona Mitra would have made a better Croft.
Better figure, better looking (in my op) and is actually English!
Re: eek!
'that it's theirs' = 'that isn't theirs' even!
