Posts by Michael 10 18 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Jun 2009
"illegal customisation is detected"
Well then, it's fortunate that DS/DSi flashcarts don't alter the console in any way, and simply trick the console into running it by signing it like it's a normal game.
What's likely happened is the management of this store, heard from and accountant, who heard one of the techs talking about how nintendo will probably soon release a firmware that blocks the carts and renders them "unusable"
Seriously? I understand the other ones, they kind of make sense. But who would fall for a global corporation using free webmail accounts to do hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales?
Can't you spoof an @mcdonalds.co.uk origin anyways? (it sounds like the receivers aren't the type to check headers)
I'm normally a PC person (occasional fanboi for the lulz). But I would be interested in a good tablet pc. The problem with the ones I've seeen so far is that they're A: three feet thick B: Slow as hell or C: the screen is unresponsive enough that I'd constantly want to either use the keyboard, or wish it had one,
As much as I hate macs, they tend to get the hardware and the software in the same place at the same time.
That being said, I feel like I'm not the market for these things, I'd be willing to go say...400 max for an ARM based device, or MAYBE 700 for something with an Atom. And no way I'd go with anything where I'm stuck with an app store, and I'd want a real OS (OSX is fine), and/or the option to put my own onto it.
Yeah, I feel like these things are going to cost ~1200$...Maybe the fakes will be in the poor university student range
I think we're about the see the end of the affordable all day computer unfortunately.
If I wanted a 12 inch laptop I would have bought one 3 years ago. 12 inches is a notebook, 10 inches is a netbook, and between is an ugly mash up between that must exist to fill the market. No one will pay 700 dollars for a sub par 12 inch netbook when they can get a mid range 14 inch for 600.
And worse is the smartbook arm idea. While I think it's a good idea to make them, and I would probably use one, unfortunately the average user would not. Want to know why most of the linux netbooks failed miserably and had incredibly high return rates? Because it wasn't windows, and didn't even look like windows. Windows 7 is never going to be ported to ARM, nor is vista or xp. That leaves them with windows mobile, android, or an ARM built Linux version. Do they really think people will want these mobile OSes on a computer? They're going to make money selling them on 3 year contracts, and by the time people realize they hate the OS they won't be able to get rid of it.
This seems like one of the few situations where the the suit is 100% appropriate, they look identical, the knock-off even has the same little nubbins on the actual plug.
Why anyone would actually want to knock off those outlet blocking precariously suspended eye-sores I will never know
This is the first windows 7 netbook you've had your hands on? If this is so I am really disappointed in this website. I've been running 7 pro compressed and jammed into the 4 gig OS drive on my 901 since a week after it came out (my school is slow with granting MSDN-AA) and it boots and feels faster than XP. It also work much better with wireless, and the after getting used to the taskbar I keep trying all the tricks on older computers and getting frustrated (drag window to sides to resize, and middle click on taskbar firefox button to open new window). In fact the only problem I have had so far is the intel/asus graphics driver for 7 didn't support 1028x768 scrolling mode, so I had to downgrade and lose aero to play games that require 768 minimum.
If there's a problem then it's either with starter, or with the hardware/drivers, not putting 7 on a netbook in general, windows 7 works wonderfully with everything else.
Normally I'm all for spending money on science, I say we should spend as much as we can. But for the billions this would cost, it doesn't seem worth it, especially in the press.
Everybody loves the twin rovers, they've lasted years, and years past their expected date. This on the other hand would have a similar price tag (research, prototypes, testing, more testing, etc is the majority of the cost), but only get an hour and a half of data. While I realize that's a ton for scientists, and can take years to go through, it's a lot of risk for relatively little gain.
And there is a lot more risk to a flying machine than a rover, after the rover lands (crashes), as long as it boots it can do science, one of the rovers has been running for years with a bum wheel. A plane on the other hand would have to initialize almost perfectly, if the wings don't lock, or don't bend far enough, or the engine clogs, or the sensors jam, etc, then you have a very expensive unprotected dead weight falling to the ground.
Wouldn't an inflatable be more cost effective? It would need only a small power source to move, and give more controllabillity, you could hover over an interest spot on the ground, or in an especially fluffy cloud. And as long as it inflates and holds pressure, it won't crash, even if every part on it fails except a camera and the balloon, it would still move in the atmosphere and it would be useful.
I think the main issue is the slow pace of mobile processor upgrades. I bought a computer 2 and a half years ago with 2 gigs of ram and 2.0 Ghz dual core, with 2.3 the top end at that time.
Right now average is 2.3-2.5 and absolute max is 3.3. They seem to be trying to make up for it with piling in 3-4 gigs of ram and larger hard drives, but the computer I have is still a fairly reasonable computer compared to the current market. This means that most people aren't buying upgrades, or going used if they know what they are doing. Or spending 300-400 for a netbook instead of a normal upgrade because at a certain point a faster processor won't make your websites or word files open faster.
Maybe once quad+ cores come out for notebooks there will be a surge, but I know I'm not getting a new computer until mine is at least half the speed of the market
I've been using my eee901 pretty much non stop since I got it, to the point where full sized keyboards throw me off. I still have my 13.3' laptop, but I use it for things that don't run on the netbook, mostly steam games, HD videos, and stupid flash games without a quality button or assume 1000+ pixel height. I love it because it can get me through 8 hours of engineering classes a day, and good for running chat and websites while I'm playing games or watching movies.
I still don't understand the concept of 17-19 inch notebooks. You can't carry them, upgrades and repairs are a pain, and they cost the same as far superior desktops. and with more back pains because you have to stare down at the screen.
Basically my netbook is off when I sleep, other than that I'm using it for something, and the bigger computers are turned on a couple times a week.
I can't understand this obsession with physical media these days. Microsoft has a wonderful system for MSDN-AA, which I get through my school (took a few days for the school techs to reply to my e-mail though). Simple website with a checkout system, I place windows 7 32 bit and 64 bit in my cart, checkout, they get added to my software list, with a link to a downloader and the cd-keys listed. Bonus points for allowing me to use the install images I downloaded from the P2P network my school chums have set up. I had windows 7 running on both my machines before I even had the website login (yay for 30 day trials).
Most people can burn a DVD or copy and install from a usb key these days. Windows 7 is easily the easiest to install from USB (extract disk image to clean drive), so you don't even have to burn a disk. Why is it so hard for companies obsessed with not sending out install media (I've un-borked so many computers because of messed up recovery partitions, one which wouldn't let me install from the recovery disk I actually made, because the recovery partition was missing), to set up a similar download system? Follow the Blizzard model and you can even make the images P2P, and it won't even strain your network.
My biggest gripe with climate change is the reliance on surface weather stations. Which in the past 10 or so years have been largely moved from open grass areas to next to be large buildings and asphalt. And the best part is when they "correct" this data for errors, they almost universally increase recent data and decrease older data, so suddenly we have major warming in the past 20 years, all of which may or may not be caused by increases in city size and moving the station (one location had an AC unit exhaust blowing directly onto it), estimates put readings for most stations to be 1 degree above, a great number 2 degrees above, and some 5+ above actual readings.
Interesting to note that those seem to relate to the amounts of global warming claimed by the worriers.
I'm all for cutting fossil fuel consumption and increasing efficiency, not because I think we're all going to fry, but because I want to be able to drive around the city in an electric car, and run all my tech goodies all on stored solar and wind power that I generate and store myself, costing me only the cost for the equipment, which would plummet once they get good funding, instead of it all going to "climate scientists".
Wake me when they start claiming the global cooling is from all the pollutions
Once again a US company forgets that there are 33 million people just a little to the north, you'd think it would be easier to get us in on the deal than the UK...
Although I think I will be able to get it free from either my school or my student IEEE subscription. But still.
And no I won't use linux, I'm not a huge fan of the 2 hour battery life reduction that comes with it one my 901.
While I don't understand what reason there is for blocking it, I do think they're making the right move in blocking the companies from doing it.
I'm fine with he standard green hills and blue skies, but I think a giant brand logo as my background would drive me insane (although I don't think I'll ever get anything running this stripped 7)
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