Posts by Beamerboy 40 publicly visible posts • joined 24 May 2012
"Nationwide banking app for instance doesn't even show you the account balance on a particular day"
Except in the Quick balance View, the default log on screen and at the top where all the transactions are listed..at least in my Android version of the App. other than that no can't find it anywhere :)
I find the banking apps that I use are generally up to date, at least to the day before for purchases, and this includes HSBC. As an example I sometimes have cash which I deposit into a Nationwide account as its most convenient, then as I leave the branch log on to the app, move some of the deposit to my day-to-day HSBC account, which has appeared by the time I have logged into the HSBC app. Now this is real-time magic
...which isn't actually an upgrade on my analogue/mechanical timing switch which turns on power to the kettle at 7am so its boiled when I get downstairs at 7:10 all for less than £5. Though if they can make it get the beans out the freezer, grind them and add them to the cafetiere/stove top/cappuccino machine that would be great, oh and steam the milk if that's needed and know what I'm going to fancy then maybe it is worth it!
Surely these will be at Motorway service stations, given the car will do 200+ miles on a charge (let's not get into that debate here though) the likelihood is you'll want to stop to empty your bladder at somewhere convenient and en route, if you are there for an hour rather than the preferred 2 minutes you'll buy no end of useless junk from the shops! Just can't see people popping into a shopping complex just to recharge - though maybe there are exceptions like Cribbs Causeway now I think about it..
Coming home to hot water after a long time if you've got your own generation is pretty easy, my immersion runs off my solar panels when I have excess generation (this did happen in the summer when it was sunny for weeks an weeks not so much now) and didn't use the gas for heating water for about 4 months. Now I can't generate enough to heat a cup of water to mildly warm, but that's how solar works...
When i looked in the summer they were £15K, or thereabouts, now you can get them for about £3K - 55" Sony/LG etc not a no brand cheapie. Although I'm not that old (mid thirties) I remember anything over 40" and plasma costing much more than this so shouldn't be too long to wait for them to be affordable.
And they will support Full HD 3D i.e. both images at the same time in full HD or dual screen with different glasses - ideal for gaming, I might only have a Wii but 55" Mario Kart sounds awesome! until they are about a grand I'll keep going with my 28" CRT (unless that dies of course!)
Oh and while I'm typing - every time I think about getting a new TV something changes - plasma/LCD/LED/HD/Full HD/OLED/Smart/4K - guess I'll have to dive in at some point...
ready to be downvoted and flamed - but I'd go even further as I prefer Lady Grey, that's what I drink at home in the mornings with Lapsang in the afternoon - unless I'm having coffee but that's another discussion completely!
Mine's the one with the girly teabags in the pocket!
Asterix has a whole theme park just outside Paris - loved the books as a kid and still do I found out as we rediscovered them in the parents loft, cue a wasted afternoon reading through a few of them!
Never really liked TinTin and I still drink the English version of Magic Potion thanks to Getafix!
So the guarantee/warranty is for all parts for 20 years - you have to shop around to get this but it is available, and the panels are guaranteed to lose less than 0.25% efficiency over their 20 years.
And the money I used to buy them was being made redundant from RWE - so partly a way to pay less into their coffers and be paid by them for what I export (not the subsidy)
Not saying solar/wind is the answer just saying what has happened.
Yes homes use less energy during the day but industry uses more - shops, offices etc and they use much more than homes so generating in the day makes sense, the problem with wind is that there is more wind at night when there is lower demand.
Nuclear - may or may not be the answer the costs still don't stack up, they get huge subsidies to build the plants and the decommissioning, reprocessing costs are also high.
I'm not particularly pro or anti any of the technologies I just want cheap energy, after a personal investment that's what I have, if the subsidies weren't in force I would still have that, if I could have a small nuclear reactor for a similar cost great! However, burning up fuel from the ground in hundreds of years that takes millions to produce doesn't seem like a long term solution to anything
With a payback of less than 7 years currently (where you live, which panels etc will change this) and profit all the way from there it's a decent investment to put them on your roof. If you work out the yield it's even worth extending the mortgage by the necessary few thousand (4kW install around £8k or less)
And it is starting to make a proper difference, RWE are proposing to shut down three power plants because the solar installations over there are now providing so much power - one day in June for an hour they were producing 60% of Germany's energy requirements.
Once the energy required to produce them is produced by solar energy they are closer to being carbon neutral, yes I know there is the raw material/transport etc carbon to take into account - but to be honest I'm more interested int he £30k I'll make over their lifetime (20 years when they'll still be producing electricity but this is the guaranteed lifetime)
For all those people with sensible sized lounges is this app for TVs - far too many small two bed terraced houses near me with oversized TVs - maybe if they could see what 60" looked like intheir house they would have bought something more appropriate!
Paris - because she likes everything life sized
Is enough for over 8500 photos on my DSLR camera, even if half of it was taken up by OS, Apps etc I think most of us could cope with c4000 photos between uploads! If you choose to fill it with films to watch on the screen (I don't I have a tablet or TV (remember those) for that) that's your choice. And if you are going on a photography heavy holiday, safari or similar, no doubt you'll have your DSLR with you anyway. So just stop moaning about storage and just sort your sh*t out!
As for WinPho8 - have had it as a work phone for the past couple of months, and I'm converted, even a chance my next personal handset will be W8 rather than Android - I used to slate it but having used it now love it!
You'd only change your battery if (1) You were on a long journey, over 250 miles, and didn't want to stop for 30 minutes (2) Oh no that's it any other occasion you'd either Supercharge/Charge or just charge at home/destination.
For comparison it's like having a car with a petrol guage that doesn't work (I have one of these) and having a 10l petrol tank in the boot for when you misjudge something - not planned to be used but there just in case. And if I'm driving for over 250 miles a stop is probably a good idea to refresh, my fuel tank is bigger than my bladder in any case!
So my 28" Widescreen CRT will have to wait a bit longer to be replaced by OLED, or 4K, not that I have even any 720p HD inputs let alone anything more modern!
Seriously it always seems waiting for the next big thing in TV at the moment, I'll keep hold of mine until it goes bang then gets whatever is latets and greatest at that point, though I assume I'll be watching the same old dross...
I assume album shuffle means play an entire album, then play another one randomly chosen, rather than, play in order, get all your Wurzels albums at the end when the battery has died anyway or track shuffle, play any track whenever it fancies thereby eliminating the need for artists to even create albums.
As for the amount of data you can get on it, i have a 1GB Shuffle (2G?) and since the only way to charge it is through USB that's when i update the tracks, never get through them all before the battery needs charging anyway so no need for a bigger storage capacity without a better battery.
NB The battery is now old and the device has had a lot of abuse as it is used for gym, running (wet and dry) and basically for a device that can fail as I want a new one now anyway!
Why do something cheap and easy when there is expensive and complex! Geothermal works well in the countries where there are already volcanoes and earthquakes, see Iceland for example, but they survive, not sure a bit of fracking will really cause any issue to the stable Great British Isles. Environmental lunacy!
Spent playing Lander on the A5000, as well as other games, I remember E-Type being compatible from the A3000 that the next door neighbours had but on the A5000 the average speed ofthe car would be about 300mph, faster processor seemed to result in a faster car! It was also my introduction to SimCity (many lost hours) and I suspect if I asked my parents would still have it in the loft somewhere and would no doubt still work.
Oh and !Draw was an awesome free package, my brother designed an extension for our house using it (never got built) and the kitchen for our new build house (which did get built), just so much easier to use than Visio and massively cheaper than any fancy CAD package.
And the boot up time of 2 seconds eclipses Widows 7 on a SSD no problem...
My old 28" CRT refuses to die though :o( Don't need the 55" but when i can get one around the 40" mark for about a grand I'm there. Yes wall mounting would be nice, but I already have upward compatible furniture for the day a flatscreen TV arrives.
TV tech amazes me, there didn't seem tobe much change between invention and the mid-1980s other than colour, since then we'vee had wide screen, digital, plasma, LCD, LED, OLED, internet connectivity, 3D and always at a price point that over time goes from stupid expensive, to expensive, to affordable to downright cheap, can get my TV from a charity shop for £25 and it cost £800 new!
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