* Posts by Stu

560 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Apr 2007

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Gordon Ramsay breaches f**king broadcasting code

Stu
Alert

South Park

Funny, I dont remember this many complaints when that South Park ep first aired, the one that had well over 115 instances of the word shit! Wikip tells me its 162 times!

Anyway, back in my yoof at college, I used to use the word fuck in general conversation, even in front of college administrators and lecturers, it just loses its meaning and impact, so you just grow out of doing it as it becomes boring.

Plus I just grew up!

It also reduces the ability to use it with great impact when mad things do actually happen too!

Strange tho that this Ramsay chap never grew out of its constant use, like everybody else!

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Still, has anybody on here actually met ANYONE who would be upset hearing the word? I havent. Even better - has anybody actually met anyone who would not be upset hearing, say, 20-30 swears but WOULD be upset hearing 115 during one programme!? Nay. So this complaint is a bit fishy.

Canon PowerShot D10

Stu
Alert

Worst camera ever?

I'm sure I wont be the first person on here to say the outdoor shots look totally washed out, even blurry, not only overexposed as you put it, as the optics are responsible for these poor shots, not the light metering. The only decent ones were those aquarium ones and even the top two of those looked pretty bad. The telephoto shot of the church is so bad its akin to cameraphone quality optics.

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Send it back, get another one, re-review. Or maybe just de-grease the lens?

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BTW How the hell do you guys get away with photographing police vehicles and officers!? Albeit an extreme close up in this case. "You're knicked, terrorists!"

Videogame history project successfully emulates CRT on LCD

Stu
Pirate

@AC 1/5/09 11:17

I'll tell you what happened to flat CRTs. They went the way of the dinosaur, quite rightfully so, because to achieve the slimness, they had to accentuate the photon beam geometry so much that if a horizontal or vertical line showed up on screen, be it a banner or whatever, you could clearly see it'll be bent out of shape.

The best models meant the lines bent out a little, the worst, a helluvalot.

I know, I had a Samsung SlimFit High Def CRT, believe it or not. It died after 2 1/2 years.

They were physically shorter in depth, but were the same weight too, my 32" screen weighed a small tonne!

Bloody awful things.

Now why didn't these odd programmers who built this CRT emulation system allow you to screw with the geometry too?

Death to CRT, Long live LCD, esp with adaptive LED backlighting which sorts out deep black levels no end.

But not too long to slow the arrival of big screen OLED TVs! ;-)

Bring it!

Epson gets into interactive coffee tables

Stu

Priced at £13,800

One point to note, we looked into possibly buying a MS Surface. Only trouble is, they only sell them for special installation in hotels or shops or wherever for an expensive showcase item. After a while MS marketed them semi-properly, announced at some US developers conference to anybody who filled in a simple form, provided the recipient is based in the US that is!

So we were kind of locked out.

UK police bust lottery scam centre in Somerset

Stu
Alert

The Real Hustle

Who was it that first quoted the BBC programme 'The Real Hustle' as being like open university for scamsters and thieves? It seems some yokel scum down in somerrrrset have actually been paying attention in class!

I'm sure TRH did a feature on this very thing, probably in about a thousand different scenarios - I remember when they brought a few couples down to some luxury hotel, their gameshow-esque setup duped them into believing they'll win some luxury holiday if they only hand over a nominal admin fee! The hustlers just left with their money.

Also didn't they have to foot the bill for the hotel conference room rental too!?

Trekkies enjoy surprise Star Trek premiere

Stu
Alert

Yeah I'm sure if ...

... Nimoy and film crew turned up at our local Showcase Cinema and told the local crowd they'd get a surprise screening they'd all be syked up enough to love it by default, and give it great reviews at the end. Lets face it, its a well engineered publicity stunt.

Now lets see how well it does in the 'real' world with no celebrity appearances shall we?

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I personally have high hopes for the film, but am having a spot of bother 'believing' the new Kirk and Spock actors. The Shat brought his own distinctive character to Kirk, I don't believe the same character can be brought out of this new guy whatever his name is. We'll...see...shall we?

UK butterfly numbers hit hard

Stu
Stop

Conservationism...

...is in itself a pointless venture. Darwin pointed out that entire species live & die as the environment alters, be it caused by man or not, whats the point of worrying about some butterfly species dying out when a whole new uber butterfly, better suited to wet climates, will have the opportunity to come along and live out their existence instead.

Some people argue its because of mans major influences on the environment that causes extinction - again - so what! Species come and go all the time, caused by the rise and fall of other species around them, and the changing environment. Its the very definition of nature!

I say sod the butterfly - take one or two in for their DNA signatures for study, then let em perish so that a newly adapted species will be allowed to flourish in its place.

Frickin Hippies. Same goes for you twats who dont see the IT angle in this article - its as plain as the nose on my face - THERE ISN'T AN IT ANGLE! Get over it.

Next-gen iPhone to gain FM transmitter tech

Stu
Stop

Adding an FM Transmitter...

...sounds about as great a move as when they built the Nike+iPod thing into the Touch 2G.

On that note some people reckoned its heavily based on Bluetooth and uses a normal Bluetooth chip with adapted protocols. So why couldn't they have just...yadda yadda. I have a Touch 2G - would have actually made use of the adapter if they'd done that!

Still, an FM xmitter is all supposition as of yet. Theres still no proof Apple will be releasing a range of iPhones or even a new iPhone at all!

Drunk Swedish pastor woos Christians online

Stu
Pirate

Obvious reference-

Drenk . . . Gerls . . . Feck.

Father Jack best quote - "They lie in wait like wolves, the smell of blood in their nostrils. Waiting, interminably waiting...and then..."

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"Pair o womens Knickers!"

Asus Eee Linux-based Skype Videophone

Stu
Stop

Conversation with Asus' sales guy...

Lets see now...

Looks and style - check.

functionality - check.

connectivity - check.

Price - half check.

hot marketing model - check.

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Brilliant!

Whaddaya mean it only does Skype!? Throw it out!

I mean they couldn't have made it multipurpose could they? We're looking at getting hold of some MS Office Communicator phones at our place, and this wont do that? Aside from the video and audio protocols, all it needs to do is talk SIP!

Talk about limited.

Reg Hardware's April Fool's Day round-up

Stu
Thumb Up

Truth from fiction...hmmmm

Nice roundup! Pidgeon base stations indeed! I'm sure some fewl will believe it I suppose.

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Okay I'd say the iPod controlled car is the real one - simply because I bothered to watch the video long enough to see the running PC motherboard and bits n pieces in the boot. And the rather hit and miss control system! Thats far too feasible to be an april-fools joke - besides most of the others aren't even feasible technically, or just make no sense at all!

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Someone should tell the chap who came up with that car system that even the stupidest of thieves would be able to figure out how to put that tracking system out of commission - sledgehammer thru that rather suspicious collection of circuit boards in the boot! Sorry, trunk!

LametopsLaptops Direct offers free funerals

Stu
Thumb Up

Brilliant April Fools joke!

I love the pic on the website with the funeral car adorned with the laptops direct logo on every window! Now that's class.

"...She was a wonderful person, loved by many, and so we lay her dear soul to rest safe in the knowledge she has passed through the pearly gates to eternal peace and solitude. The good lord thanks Laptops Direct for this ceremony's sponsorship along with its generous church donations. Will you all now please rise and repeat after me - God bless Laptops Direct, *ahem* oh and the old woman I guess. Mmmyokay."

Fantastic, cheered me up today no end! :-)

Street View ghost spooks Cardiff medium

Stu
Alert

Jeez

El-Telegraph are not serious about that bit about the 'not appearing as a full figure' bit, and that shimmering crap are they?

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=52.496264,-1.906986&spn=0,359.738045&z=13&layer=c&cbll=52.496213,-1.907126&panoid=F5u2MWLtBB9g33SQZha0kg&cbp=12,338.96332244863344,,0,37.14285714285715

Wooo, look I found a ghostly van in Birmingham! Wooooo.

That really is journalism at its utmost suckiest!

Mr. WebTV gives games thin-client treatment

Stu
Alert

Interesting idea...

...but I have to agree with the other commenters here. My ADSL line simply wont hold up in terms of transfer rate and lag. Furthermore it'll cost me more in a higher tariff with my ISP for all that video data.

Fair enough, it might work pretty well in a future world where everybody has 100mbps home internet connection, no bandwidth limitations, and virtually lag free, over fibre. But not now.

Its quite simple - Gaming REQUIRES little to no lag - and the internet by nature and design is laggy.

Online gaming as it stands now employs lots of algorithmic tricks to try to obfuscate lag, including such things as 'dead reckoning' for instance. But it can always grind to a painful halt once in a while.

Deadfish iPhones send users into deep freeze

Stu
Alert

Jailbreak / Yellowsn0w

Are we sure these people simply haven't applied the 2.2.1 Jailbreak, then tried unlocking their phones to any mobile network via the infamous Yellowsn0w patch.

Apparently it caused WiFi problems according to the iPhone Dev Team.

So by the sounds of things there's no way to say if the problem lies with Apple or the iPDT.

Then again this doesn't explain iPod Touch users - unless perhaps some idiot users tried putting Yellowsn0w on their iPod!

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Well I own an iPod Touch 2G on v2.2.1, its been jailbreaked, and I've seen perfectly reliable WiFi access for hours now.

Newfangled rootkits survive hard disk wiping

Stu
Pirate

Hmmmm

I too remember hearing stories about this sort of thing years ago.

Surely though the task is made somewhat more difficult, and indeed will impact less people, simply because each mobo manufacturer uses a different firmware model and writes completely different base code, and the same manufacturer would introduce differences between all their different models too.

Intel and AMD, introduce major changes in basic chipset architecture for their reference motherboards/chipsets from the get go, simply because they're leveraging the new mobo feature sets and overall changes to the hardware.

Writing a BIRUS (cool new name???) that would sit alongside and account for the massively wide variety of different microcode architectures out there would be nigh on impossible. And if you do, it'll only run on the poor sods who bought, say, ASUSs G245R8346 motherboard?

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Scaremongering if you ask me.

El Reg Street View snappers caught on camera

Stu
Alert

General StreetView shenanigans

You remember that very stereotypical yank holding a bottle and a gun in streetview, well here's my submission for the UK equivalent -

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=52.434953,-1.433072&spn=0,359.954896&z=15&layer=c&cbll=52.434818,-1.433204&panoid=JQokEJVO393yYuAms4tweA&cbp=12,86.79216327551691,,3,3.8929178924053844

Not for the faint of heart. A chav would have been too easy to find. At least this guys face is blurred.

*shudder*

Police ad urges: 'Trust no one'

Stu
Pirate

Agreed.

This whole 'photography is terrorist preparation' thing is more bollocks than I care to visualise thank you very much. A particular sore point in this paranoid age we live in.

Look at it this way - In the planning for the biggest terrorist attack of the 21st century, just how important to the whole process of flying those planes into the WTC was taking photos of them?

I mean they could have taken photos, but its not difficult to do so in a non-suspicious manner whatever that might be. Its not like major terrorist hotspots also double up as tourist zones or anything is it.

And if they did take photos for planning, just how would they compare to publicity photos put out by the tower owners in terms of effective aeroplane-to-tower targetting strategy? No comparison.

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Staring suspiciously at CCTV cams eh!? It surely must be a member of Al-Quaeda!

Gmail offers 'undo' email option

Stu
Alert

@A/C #1 "Ahem..."

But you wont find that pause rule accessible in Outlook Web Access will you?

Kind of the whole point of Gmail is to be accessible from just about anywhere like OWA is.

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Mind you I'm not sure if you can set up the rule in 'full-fat' outlook and it will be done in OWA too?

HTC 'Maple' to unfold next month?

Stu

Okay so...

...what OS is it going to run?

I'm presuming Windows Mobile, but who knows, could be Android.

Pininfarina, Bolloré bullish about Bluecar

Stu
Pirate

@David Wiernicki

Yes indeedy they are horiffic examples of automative 'innovation' anybody could conjure up.

And I thought my common/garden 90s Vauxhall Corsa (B model), long since sold off, was the fugliest thing I ever laid eyes on. For some inane reason I actually thought it looked okay at the time, and bought it!

But yes, the bluecar looks worse even than a Corsa. Goes to show you can't sell a (non super-) car at a tradeshow any more without having to pay some hot chick to drape herself over it to make it look semi-respectable. This hotty looks positively professional looking, she's not even showing (significant) cleavage.

@Sarah Bee - we're allowed to be a little chauvanistic once in a while are we not?! ;-)

AVG finally bothers with behaviour-based defences

Stu
Pirate

Lets hope then that...

...it doesn't wipe out whole Visual Studio 2005 Projects in the same way that Spyware Doctor Heuristics scanning does. They just dont get that some development projects might actually be legitimate!

It did it to me, wiped out two projects I was working on last year.

...oh and then the quarantine system refused to restore them!

Had to get help from PC Tools to unpack the things for me!

Obama wants to wring fat dollar from mobile operators

Stu

Sounds good...

...should do something similar over here in Blighty - the rip off merchants.

All u need do is stop to look how totally posh their shops are, and the profits they rake in year after year.

Anybody doubts this, just say one short sentence - "12p per SMS"!

And before you say ' well i get 5,000,000 free SMSs a month.' just do the maths - include every penny you pay them in relation to every benefit you get out of it month after month.

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Only trouble with Obamas master plan - the mob operators would only hike up the costs and get the gen public to fit the enormous bill.

World's 'smallest, lightest' laptop launches

Stu
Dead Vulture

duuuuuh!

Tosh Libretto anyone?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libretto_(notebook)

The worlds smallest is just a stupid thing to claim. Also a stupid thing to report about, thx El-RegHW.

Dell introduces 10in netbook

Stu
Alert

How big are the keys!?

The original, and some say, best NetBook, the Asus EeePC has a ridiculously small keyboard, clearly designed for your kids 'up to 11 years old', would be forced into upgrading to a proper laptop come puberty.

The MSI Wind design, as present in the Advent 4211 PC World jobby that I have laid my club fingers against, has keys JUST a smidgeon too small for my liking, but I'd use it at a stretch.

Its a shame, I think the form factor is great, its just a shame its not suitable for me and my mid thirties clubbed fingers.

~Besides, I thought the point of the whole NetBook ethos (whoops not allowed to use that word! My arse.) is the 'sub £200' thing, a reasonable compromise off your typical OLPC $100 idea. So why am I spotting some models (supposed netbooks) retailing at nigh on £400 in the shops!? Tis bullcrap - might as well buy a full-on intel core 2 laptop.

KTM: electric dirt-bike out next year

Stu
Boffin

But is it...

...too powerful that you need to do the full DVLA registration thing at cost? Number plates, tax, insurance, the works?

One promise of Electric vehicles is to have such a vehicle that is ranked alongside your average push bicycle and is so much cheaper to do the daily work run on than any licensed motorised vehicle.

The law I think stipulates that such a vehicle MUST have foot pedals linked to the wheels in some way, even if they're totally impractical and not geared, and must be below 200W power draw, and stick below 15mph. Don't quote me.

Can somebody build me one of these!?

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I have such a bike, but the three sealed lead acid batteries it used have since died - A lithium-ion upgrade is looking at costing more than what I paid for the bike in the first place! It was an Ebay buy - highly dubious legality and probably no UK electrical compliance but what the hell.

I was never stopped by the fuzz riding it.

Was a great little runner that took me the four miles down to work and back every day! A silent 15mph smoooth run aint half bad when compared with a smelly 50cc splutterer.

Hurlable 360° cam-grenades used by IDF in Gaza

Stu
Pirate

The sophisticated countermeasure...

...to such a ballcam -

*drumroll*

Spraypaint on the lenses.

I'll market and sell small spray cans to be issued to servicemen for a knockdown MoD special price of £500 a pop.

Hows that sound?

US teen cuffed for disorderly classroom texting

Stu
Pirate

Oh PLEASE tell me...

...that the little ingrate resisted arrest.

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I for one would love to have seen her fat lazy arse (assumed) tazered right there in the classroom. mob video clip on YT anybody?

A continuation from Arun Marsh's comments -

Police : Put down the phone maam.

Kid : F U

Police : Put down the phone now or we will incapacitate you.

Kid : F U I know my rights

Police : Put down the phone NOW

Kid : F U

BZZZZZZZT. *frazzle*

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Faaaaantastic.

I for one do NOT think it was excessive calling the cops knowing all too well how totally unrespectful they can be. Hell they'd be unrespectful to Mr Obama himself if he were there, totally ignorant to the fact he's surrounded in Secret Servicemen of course.

HTC launches updated Touch Diamond and Pro

Stu
Alert

Excellent

I really liked the Diamond v1, except for the slow 3D touchflo interface. I'd love to see it improved all round as it has a lovely form.

Lets just hope HTC properly realise that (better?) 2D and 3D acceleration hardware is a necessity because Windows Mobile devices with higher res screens, above your conventional 320x240 displays present in devices up to the HTC TyTn II, were always typically quite sluggish.

Anybody remember that slow-arsed HTC Universal (I think) we knew it as the Orange SPV M5000. Leads you to think that such devices refresh the display straight from the ARM CPU - not a good idea.

Beeb borrows copyrighted Flickr image

Stu
Pirate

Hmmmm

But how (prior to the admission of guilt) did 'Brum Snapper' know that the BBC simply didn't already take a picture (or video via a TV cam) from a similar location and similar direction? Its not like it would be un-common to take such a photo of the Bull Ring, Rotunda, etc.

I thought the Beeb might simply point a cam out the window every night then green-screen it with the interviewee live/semi-live. Picturesque as that image was and all.

'Brum Snapper' doesn't OWN the Birmingham sky line!

Furthermore, theres no hard verifiable connection between putting a photo up on Flickr, and actually having taken that photo yourself (except maybe a camera serial number in the EXIF tag info but I doubt this was checked properly with the camera hardware) - 'Brum Snapper' may not even be the original photographer. Other than the whole 'timing' thing, It certainly sniffs of a set-up for an easy 75 bones.

...

Thanks! Now I'VE put too much thought into all this! ;-)

Americans get indoor iPhones

Stu
Alert

So what happens...

...to your phone bill when your mobile phone (incl all non-iPhones) decides that the 3G signal from the big transceiver towers is of a more powerful signal than your own picocell, connects to that instead, and you end up unwittingly paying T-Mobile or whoever full-whack mobile rates?

Its not like your phone tells you which cell you're connected to without specialised software.

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Would not surprise me in the slightest if this sort of thing is a distinct possibility what with the nature of radio signals. We must all have seen how screwy WiFi can be at times and in certain places, and its not like the network operators will mind.

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If I were to put such a system in place myself, I'd insist on a piece of software for my phone which ensures I'm connected to the picocell when *I* specify I'm within range.

MP wants Welsh text on ID cards

Stu

Welsh!?

Anybody here catch that cell-shaded CGI spiderman cartoon on some welsh TV channel I get on Sky (most likely freeview too). They re-dubbed it in Welsh.

That language is just downright nuts, its like speaking Hobbit-ese!

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*Await Flames of Hell* Bring it on! ;-)

SkyBox cracks open as Microsoft Mobile timetable leaks

Stu
Stop

Agreed - 'No Stylus Required' Please!

Only trouble is the WM devteam at Microsoft seem to have churned out the same olde thing with only miniscule differences across its entire life, right the way back from Windows CE v1.0.

I would have thought that with the advent of the iPhone (which love it or hate it, is actually a fantastic piece of Mobile user interface design) that MS might have learned their lesson prior to releasing WM6.0, alas no.

Here's hoping that they'll abolish ALL of those poorly designed config screens buried deep in the OS. Ditch it all!

Here is just one example of an abysmal piece of UI design that was there way back in CE v1 I believe, and is STILL THERE! :

Start -> Settings -> System Tab -> Clock and Alarms.

Just try pressing the little spinner buttons to set the time! They must be, maybe, 10 pixels across!

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Everyone, even the third parties such as HTC, Toshiba and Sony Ericsson know its shit, thats why they built their own visuals on top.

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Agreed, heres hoping T-Mobile release v7 for my TyTn II. Then again knowing past experience with new firmware....

American Stereotype™ walks Google's mean Street View

Stu
Thumb Up

So how come...

...Google StreetView car didn't knock HIM down and send him sprawling across the pavement at 60mph, all finely captured across a 4 frame comic strip style recreation, as the streetview car trundled on?

Now thats what I would call a senseful killing!

Council fields world's first rubbish-fuelled rubbish truck

Stu
Go

Interesting about the lack of noise...

...because just yesterday I nearly hit two pedestrians coming down a hill on my electric bicycle as they just stepped out into the road.

The road was recently converted to a one way, that is, UP the hill. So nobody bothers looking the other direction any more as they cross over.

Obvious conclusion, fit a V8 noise maker to my bike, oh and to every other normal pedal powered bicycles in my town too as the locals are far too stupid to bother looking.

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And before anybody goes querying why I'm going the wrong way down a one way street, well its either that or the pavement, or a hundred odd metre detour which goes along a busy and dangerous main road with a huge bus lane where a bicycle lane should be. It was (or maybe just felt) less safe for me when it was a two way road!

There is a cycle lane on it too, but its on the right hand side when coming down the hill, and so drivers always think you're passing them on the wrong side.

Its all very complicated ;-)

Street View vehicle kills Bambi

Stu
Pirate

That is brilliant!

Its kind of like watching a freeze frame comic strip style action replay! Fantastic!

And for those who get all emotional and sad about it - Its road-kill for crying out loud! Nobody would have bat an eyelid if it were a hedgehog, or a frog, but because its an animal bigger than your family dog, everybody goes all boo-hoo about it. Simple case of survival of the not-so-stupid imho, the thing was dumb as fuck enough to keep-on-running with the googlecar in plain sight, it deserved to die. *I await the flames of hell!*

I suppose the real tragedy is that the streetviewer roadsters didn't later on take comic strip snaps of them returning to the scene of the 'crime' and retrieving the thing for their sunday lunch - it might have appeased those tree hugging hippy types from bitching about it being a 'senseless' killing.

Mind you, I can't help thinking how the crew wouldn't have realised that having roadkill recorded in streetview might have been somewhat 'controversial' to some people, and report the incident to somebody upon their return. So much for thinking people have values I suppose.

Then again perhaps the driver was asleep at the wheel when it happened...

Skill n' crossbones icons scope of use appended - 'roadkill'.

Asus ENGTX285 TOP overclocked graphics card

Stu
Unhappy

@Francis Boyle

re: part one -

Okay point taken, save perhaps for the fact that I would have liked to have seen a decent frame rate in the first place! I went out quite recently, bought a nice shiny new Quad core Intel (Q9450 or something) 2Gb of ram in it, and coupled that with what I considered to be a good compromise gfx card, the 8800GTS 512Mb. Now why then am I not able to run Crysis over lower medium quality and a sucky screen res. The PC cost me, all in, over £500.

Now compare that with the all-in cost of a PS3, playing, say Wipeout HD. 1920x1080 progressive, a great frame rate out the box, all in price - aroundabouts £300 + 12 pounds for Wipeout HD off the PS store!

See my point?

re: part two -

I think you''ve proven my point - a preview of hardware in 6 months time - all well and good except, as far as I can tell, the PC game development industry seem to be writing games that run well only on PCs 6 months in future, i.e. they are too far ahead of the game. Actually more like 3 years in the future as crysis isn't what I'd call a brand new title any more, so why is my relatively new PC unable to run it at full whack quality settings? Think back to your doom/quake/half life days, give it six months to a year, and pretty much any mid priced complete system could run them well.

Its not like I'm new to building custom PC setups either.

Stu
Unhappy

PC hardware manufacturers - change the paradigm.

Its an age old argument that holds true, now more so than ever - "Go out and buy a PS3 or X360!!"

Less than the price of this card alone and, ultimately, much more capable a system than your typical PC of the same price, because games developers write titles that are guaranteed to run well (not necessarily play well tho) on every single PS3 or X360 out there.

And now for our extra wonga we see what? A whole 3fps improvement! Wow, thanks. And as games become more complicated and visually 'rich' (read slow) the percentile will reduce further still with each new iteration of gfx card.

The feature gap is closing in as PC type casual functionality is continually added to these consoles - MP3, Videos, Pictures, web surfing (is this on Xbox yet?), email etc etc etc. A large proportion of people require nowt more.

Of course there will always still be room for PC hardware of many different configurations, just not top end gaming monsters that cost a small fortune.

...and this is coming from a person originally into PC gaming too!

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And no I dont work for Sony/Microsoft gaming. Im just saddened by this continual push that will ultimately kill the PC as a games machine. If anything, I think there is definitely a need for a radical slow down of performance improvement efforts made, slow down on the sheer amount of new gfx chipsets and new cards out there. Perhaps a few announcement every few years, to give the games developers time to slow down, write titles that look and run well on modestly priced hardware. Plus new hardware will be received well because it will be bigger news to the enthusiast.

If anything, such a move will benefit Nvidia and ATI because they can price one spec of gfx hardware at a good set price and lower their production costs for that same spec over time, similar to how Sony+MS do things.

@El-Reg editorial - can you commission me to write a full article on this problem with the industry!? I wont charge much for it! ;-)

Cowon iAudio S9 PMP

Stu
Go

OLED? woo! yay!

I am liking the idea of this! Finally a PMP using a display technology fit for the purpose!

And at such a high resolution too for an OLED device, thats the same as the still outstanding screen res of the Sony PSP (Although the PSP3000 may have lowered the bar a bit there) but you should have pointed out though, it is actually missing 23000+ pixels in relation to the Touch (480x320). OLEDs are brand new so I'll let them off! ;-)

Its a shame though, I just bought a 32Gb iPod Touch 2nd gen on Sunday. And the screen still has the slightest tendency towards fading/colour washout when viewed from an angle. And as the Touch is meant to be viewed from a variety of orientations, its a significant factor.

Am I correct in thinking that this OLED screen has no such problem?

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I'll take a ganders at this if I can find it in a shop, then if suitably impressed, I'm putting my iPod Touch on Ebay! Mind you I'll really miss mobile Safari as I think its the best web browser on ANY mobile device of a lower class than a laptop. Us iPod Touch/iPhone users have been spoiled!

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One other question though - Is it MULTITOUCH?

Apple ejects iBoobs

Stu
Happy

Mesmerised.

That video is just awesome. No two ways about it.

*replay the vid*

You'll have to excuse me, I'm terribly sorry, I am afraid I've just cum.

*replay the vid*

Oh, I do apologise, I've just cum again. I'm going to have to go and sit down.

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'The Fast Show' tribute!

LG Cookie budget touchscreen phone

Stu
Stop

Call me overly innovative, but...

...shouldn't the days of the stylus be numbered?

The stylus started off as an inherently slow input device, and perpetuates the idea that touchscreens can have stupidly small buttons/controls and as a result, small text.

Our eyesights will suffer I tells thee!

Need I name such a device which shows us that the other way is far superior?

Mozilla Google relations strained by Chrome

Stu
Pirate

FireFox!?

And so should Mozilla be worried.

I never rated Firefox too well, being only a modicum improvement over IE. The name for the whole thing was forcefuly 'coolified' to improve its uptake, cos 'mozilla' as a browser name is sh1t.

So come back to get some sympathy from Google when you improve the bloody thing guys!?

Chrome is actually worthwhile a browser IMO given that it actually runs pretty well, and you can use the arrow keys to go up and down pages at a reasonable pace, something thats annoyed me about FF, its too slow.

Enormous HP box spotted from space

Stu
Alert

Brilliant

Nowt like a bit of a PlayMobil humour first thing on't near-to-xmas-monday morn!

Very apt, I thought, when someone above labelled this as a 'Post Modern Revisionist Nativity Play' as its the closest thing I've come to a nativity play in about 30 years.

Factual too, not unlike recent Top Gear review factual-ness.

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Optimus (Mr) Prime RULES!

How Warcraft reigned supreme in 2008

Stu
Alien

Totally agreed about the required system specs...

<Q> "It's stunning how game makers tailor their creations only to a tiny niche of folks running bleeding-edge systems and wonder why they're losing audience to game consoles." </Q>

I have never played WoW, nor most modern games save for a 1 hour bout at Crysis. But I was into PC gaming since about 1992 right thru to 2002-2003. My interest died with the games industrys attitude towards minimum acceptable system specs!

As far as I'm concerned, the PC games market is now dead. Due in its entirity to the idiocy of the developers system spec targets.

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One other point - WoW established itself way prior to 2008, established in the minds of most PC gamers as -the- MMORPG to go for, something built up over the years.

Another one comes along, it just doesn't have that element of establishment and is so eventually shunned. Also bugs and poor game balance don't help the situation for them either.

I would not be in the slightest bit surprised if WoW lasted as it stands right through 2010 and beyond. In fact, I'll be straight back into PC gaming if Blizzard release something called 'World (Universe?) of Starcraft'.

;-)

Telegraph.co.uk succumbs to typo irony

Stu
Unhappy

Eh?

@Gareth Irwin and 'H' + others- Totally agreed, and duller than grey too.

@author - You're from the US or just reporting from there? So nothing like this ever comes out the arse end of US press keyboards then!? Shyeah right!

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NEXT!!!!!!

Microsoft Surface helps Earth stand still

Stu
Pirate

Thats a hell of a product placement...

...for something that you can't get your hands on for love nor money!

I've tried!

They did a limited release for 'just anybody' aroundabouts when the Microsoft PDC was on. But I missed the opportunity. Then nothing.

Or are they just ignoring us specifically!? They never really bother marketting to Universities with any gusto.

Just why do they bother product-placing it when you cant actually buy one!?

iPhone owners to help clean up vomit

Stu
Alert

The software is going to need...

...a burst fire mode for my home city streets, the quality of the tarmac on our roads is horrendous throughout. How about strapping the iPhone to the under side of my car and putting it on rapid fire mode!? Then use up a grands worth of 3G data access uploading them all to FixMyStreet!

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Can you guess the city I'm referring to?

PS3's Home to debut tomorrow

Stu
Alert

Coo

In the absence of any decent titles for the PS3 right now, on the entire run up to Chrimbo 2008, I thought PS Home would be pretty cool to try out for five minutes on my very expensive games console.

Then I learned that a couple of my friends had been invited into, and seen, the closed Home beta.

Whats their concensus?

Its full of jumped up little t*ssers who continually threaten and harass other people on it. If it weren't for the apparent immunity from physical harm, being the other end of a very long copper/fibre wire, their attitudes would be so much better.

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Still, I'd give it a look. I got similar treatment from lads like that on CounterStrike on the PC some years back. you just threaten to grab their IP addys and hack their networks, what with my l33t h4x0r 5k1llzs.

WowWee Rovio Mobile webcam

Stu

Goes to show...

...me and el-reg are on the same wavelength. Sort of.

Just yesterday I bought a Meccano SpyKee! That and the Rovio go hand-in-hand, as they are quite close in terms of features. I looked at the Rovio at the same time as researching the SpyKee, and came to the conclusion its just not worth the £250.

The SpyKee is £150 now from my local Tesco (RRP £200), which is about as cheap as you can get it brand new in the UK, after a quick googling.

Thats pretty much the most I have ever spent in one go at Tescos. It'll be a shock when I see my bank statement having probably forgotten about the purchase by then!

The Spykee only does QVGA / 320x200 at 15fps as opposed to the Rovio, so its price bump is a little justified. Just dont tell anybody that 640x480 webcams can be had for only a few notes nowadays! ;-)

One thing to note about the SpyKee, something which may very well affect the Rovio too - I have so far had to return it for a replacement as it refused to charge itself!! The replacement is now on charge, awaiting a full initial charge for the full test, but I'm not holding my breath as I did nothing wrong the first time round, after going thru the manual 10 times to see whether I did anything incorrectly, I think its way within my limited abilities to at least charge a device up!

Something to do with it using NiMH instead of trusty lithium Ions I reckon. Does the Rovio use NiMH batteries?

DARPA orders 'fridge-sized' laser energy cannon

Stu
Thumb Up

I is liking it

Yes, cool tech!

I cant remember the name of that quite chunky fighter aircraft that essentially has a front mounted minigun. Well rip that heavy lead chugging beastie off that aircraft, and fit this fricking laserbeam weapon to it, probably better fitting it to something like this than your typical F15, as its going to be very heavy.

The other coo thing is that its likely you don't actually need to point the laser at your target by pointing the aircraft. More likely a computer will highlight designated targets in line of sight and potentially zap em all in one go by redirecting the beam off a mirror. Knock a whole squadron out the sky before they can even get in range to use an AIM missile!

Sweeet.

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