Posts by stu 4

Coding

I wonder when the last time TBL coded was....has he still got is NeXT cube ?

Still, it's a decent sentiment.

was watching the early 1990s steve jobs interview in full on netflix last week, and he made the same comment - everyone should be taught how to code - because it teaches you how to think.

Which last time I tried to post similar sentiments got me downvoted to hell... but hey ho.

For what it's worth - I agree with both of em - but since when has an MP had to know anything about the thing they are talking about ? Even when they end up being a minister of a department, there's no connection at all between their background and the department (unlike certain other european countries for example)

eh???

i hate windows - but wtf… it's 60 quid.

for 60 quid, you get a tablet with an HD screen 16gb of storage and a free 16gb sdcard.

wtf is your problem ?

If you have more than 60 quid, get something else. If you don't - then surely this is a great 'hudl equivalent' for the great unwashed of the USA.

I really don't get the attitude ??

we don't all earn 100k a year. Walmart knows it's market.

awesome

I'm sitting here at work with everyone running around like headless chickens trying to get a few SOA services talking to each other in a major airline...

This kinda makes it all pale into insignificance!

Can't wait for the piccies!

Coincidence

Just finishing 'The Right Stuff' by Tom Wolfe just now, and last night was Cooper's flight.

Well worth reading (or watching - the film was also excellent).

pfft. let's fix the REAL problem

trying to squish the Internet down a wee wire. I mean that's just stupid.

why don't we all just get a copy of it in our home.

I've seen the IT Crowd - it's only about the size of a shoe box.

I could fit it under the stairs.

Maybe the postie could deliver me an updated one once a week.

job done.

It's not the same thing at all

You say yourself - some work some don't.

Well what are the reasons for why some work some don't ?

- popularity

- ability to mass manufacture for buttons

We've had aircraft now for over 100 years. We all want our flying cars a damn site more than a 5 minute trip on a rocket ship.... but we don't have em. why ?

Because they can't be mass manufactured for buttons.

I think it's great what Branson is doing. I think it's great what Audi did with the Veyron.

But it's got FA to do with trickle down economics imho....

Memory

1/2 of that article was moaning about fixed memory FFS.

Now, ok it means you have to decide at the start and pay 'apple tax' on it (which is no different from the 'dell tax' or the 'hp tax'...

But it's hardly a deal breaker. I have 3 mac minis - my very first one (core duo), needed more memory (and I actually stuck a new CPU in it too) when it's role changed (from web surfer to media centre in my house), the rest I just bought with sufficient memory.

You surely KNOW what memory you need when you buy it - why do you suddenly need more later except for when a machine gets re-purposed like mine ? certainly OSX upgrades never need it.

That leave the 'apple tax'.

well... if it DID have 4bg socketed memory it would be 2x2GB... 'cause that's the way of the world with every manufacturer under the sun...

so, you'd have to buy an 8gb kit (2x4), which would cost you about 60 quid.

or you could get a single 8gb, keep one of the 2s in there for about 70 quid.

and apple charge 80 quid.

it's hardly a frecking massive gap is it ???

Kif Koker

I keep getting the two confused.

CONTROL

Seem to me, this is the beeb's next step down the road to access control.

At present, anyone in UK can access BBC content via iplayer irrespective of whether they have a licence or not.

It seems pretty clear to me, that by the bbc phasing out open browser support and tying APIs into propriety approved clients (they have to give you the API key), they can control the client devices.

Next step is to provide a similar API to check the user has a valid tv licence before viewing ?

Another 'media company' that just doesn't get it....

I'll continue to pay my licence fee -it's just about worth it for the 3 or 4 BBC shows I watch (I don't have a tv reciever), but I'll also continue to get BBC content via alternative outlets rather than their shit streams.

quite right - 1st world problems.

"“This app monitors tweets,” continued Baines, “processes them with an automated algorithm, which selects tweets if they contain the right keywords, pushes this information to a third party, and then retains the tweet and may match it with others from the same person. All without the subject of this being aware."

yeh -so just like google does with every fucking search and every fucking email!!

But samaritans try to something with that data more beneficial than selling you targeted shite to buy and SAVE LIVES!!!!

get the fuck back on your hobby horse and fuck right off - if you use twitter you are already effectively broadcasting your (inane) thoughts to everyone* - you have not a leg to stand on by then complaining that someone tries to make use of that public data.

utterly pathetic article.

*hell I'd argue that any twatter (or facepuke) user has mental health problems… but that's neither here nor there...

2p pieces

1985 on holiday in spain, aged 14.

On previous holidays I had discovered that the 2p was an exact match for the 25 peseta….

So here I was on holiday, having brought with me my bag of 100s of 2ps…

and the machine the hotel pub had was GnGs…

I must have played it for hours and hours over 2 weeks, and I remember actually finishing it - it's the only arcade game I've EVER finished to this day.

happy memories.

poor bastard owner who came back, picked out the full heavy coin box thinking 'awesome' only to discover it was full of british 2p…. but hey ho.

4k video editing

Thats the real USP - for still photos, etc there's no real need to see every pixel 1-to-1 for your work, but with video editing there is - shifting about a zoomed window just doesn't cut it.

We've already got the first of the true consumer 4k cameras out with the go pro 4 black, more will undoubtedly follow.

For now, my workflows are all 1080p which my current retina MBP and iMac 27 both allow space to view 100% within FCPX with room for the interface, but even the go pro 3+ shoots in 2.7K - which can't be viewed in FCPX full size as its about the same resolution as the whole display.

So they'll be a quick pick up from pros shooting 4k now, and over the next year as more consumer 4k cameras come on the market, it's going to become more and more attractive to these folk.

No jailbreak yet

So there's yer problem....

Confused

So they are saying they died out BEFORE big whales, which could then become big ?

Or that they died out at the same time as whales were already big (and could then propogate over the world).

I mean... what are the theories for why they died out ?

1. climate ?

2. lack of food (but surely even medium sized defensless whales would be pretty easy eating).

3. dislike of whale meat ?

4. only eat fish, and all the fish eaten by the whales ?

5. left earth before first vogon fleet ?

6. shark-ebola ?

Westfield SEight

was the car of my late teens I dreamed of wanting.

The westfields always had a bit more panache about them imho.

21k for a 660cc caterham is silly money though. If you want to do this sort of thing - get a bike engineer kit or buy one someone else has stuck together. You can pick one up for 8 or 9k.

stu

Infinite Monkey Cage

If you've never listened to it - worth a listen. podcasts available too.

I'm a veteran of leccy bikes

Got my first one in 2008 - which I still use weekly.

I also converted my mountain bike for offroad leccy use (1000w), and have a little folding leccy bike that is great for commuting and keeping in the campervan.

As others have pointed out, the time of 2000 quid leccy bikes was 6-8 years ago. there is no reason why a good leccy bike should cost any more than a good bike + 400 quid for motor/battery.

There are lots of kits out for DIY, and there are quite a few companies who will sell you one ready to ride in the UK.

Or of course there is the cheap chinese jobs which are ok if you just want an occasional electrified bike based on a <100 quid frame. Horses for courses.

My 6 year old one is a Trex 7.2FX by cytronex. Frankly I wouldn't recommend a cytronex, as I have since replaced all electrical parts with my own (new hub motor, wiring, controller and my own lipo) after numerous techincal issues. But the idea of starting with a good hybrid bike is definately the best approach imho.

As others have stated the UK law is every so slightly more sensible than EU law in not requiring 'pedalec' only mode - which is just bollocks. I like to let the motor work on its own sometimes on straights/uphills, and then other times, I put effort in. that's the way I like the ride - WTF point is there in forcing pedalling - it's moronic.

The 15mph is also far too low imho. If it was more like 20-25mph I think we'd see a bigger uptake on electric bikes - power to weight (inc the rider) they are the best suited form of transport for electrifying - and yet it's held back by moronic laws like 250w/15mph/pedalec(EU).

fat and live in a hilly area ? tough shit - your 250w motor won't get you up the hills and will pull you along at walking pace. what the hell sort of intensive is that to people.

There seems to be no logic whatsoever to the 250w rule any more than the top speed or EU pedalec thing other than to protect incumbent industries as far as i can see.

Also - remember that most companies offer the bike scheme now enabling you to save tax, etc.

stu

Mutts nutts

I've got 5 of the things - 2 3+ blacks, 2 HD2s and an HD.

I've been using them for years for my adventure sports - paragliding, paramotoring, sky diving, scuba diving, snorkelling, motorcycling, mountain biking, etc.

There really is nothing to touch the quality of the optics on the 3+ (and now probably the 4) - pin sharp edge to edge at 170 degrees is awesome. Plus protune records in insanely high bit rate (40+) giving amazing artifact free footage.

The 3+ is a pro tool, the 4 will be too. TV programmes are full of gopro footage these days, from TopGear, to movies. It's the defacto POV.

I can shoot incredibly 3d footage with the 2 3+ next to each other (I make a wee 3d mount you can download from thingiverse if you want it), and mounted on a gimbal (I'm stu of stubilizer 'fame') the results take some beating.

here's Skye from the air:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-NcAVY3DpM

Shooting at 2.7K in protune allows post edit cropping and still leaving crisp 1080p footage too.

Battery life is a bit pants (I use external lipo solution I built), but the 4 seems to have bigger batteries.

I am tempted by 4k - (both my macs are 3k screens) but for now, I'm gonna stick with my 3+s I think.

I think the budget one is the killer though - that's only a slight premium over the far inferior quality chinese jobs (SJ4000, etc) - with the great optics and decent sensor/ambrella chip I think they might have really chopped off the cheap chinese market.

I'm off to Menorca next week - and will be packing the gopro as always - this time, for some snorkelling footage (red filter on lens). :-)

stu

Pfft

has anyone checked that Dolphins are not simply magnetic ?

I don't get Britain these days

We seem to not care about our rights anymore.

We have no freedom of speech - jail sentences for slogans on tshirts, for 'preaching hate', etc

We are happy to have our every move monitored (highest per capita CCTV cameras in the world)

We are happy to have our every move recorded (tescos clubcard, facebook ,etc)

We have let terrorism laws be re-purposed into use from everything down to stopping photography.

We are happy to have our internet censored and restricted, our phone calls recorded.

Even torture is seen by most of the plebian as a good thing, its benefits being extolled in films and on tv.

And we are happy to accept that it is all for our own good, that the government is wonderful, and that 'you've got nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide'.

I just don't get it. I really don't.

Utterly utterly mental.

I reckon if Teresa May came out in the press tomorrow with a new law requiring all muslims to wear a star on their jackets, it would pass with no more than a murmur.....*

*does that count as Godwin...

Blinkbox Music

I still have my favourite music on my phone, but I also like listening to Blinkbox Music sometimes:

1. it's free. no CC required.

2. you can mark your favourite 'stations' to be downloaded in the background

3. you only get an ad every 3 or 4 songs so not too bad.

I like that I find artists 'like what i like' that I've never heard of. I then might go and buy there stuff from somewhere.

As your stations are kept updated and downloaded, it works on the train from norfolk (i.e. pre-mobile network), and the underground fine.

class

great reading that - and accurate.

I was just left wondering why the hell anyone goes into a SHOP to buy something like a phone anyway these days. I suppose it is just these segments that do surely ?

The last time I bought something electronic from a shop I think was about 1998.

love em or hate em

they made me 10 grand over the last 2 years in shares.

App store bring down

Can't be the tech. I dunno if they still use WebObjects though, probably not.

They used to in the early days - and web objects was awesome imho.

I'm biased as I cut my teeth on nextstep, openstep, EOF, and then web objects.

It shat all over J2EE well into the 2000s but just didn't have the market presence and wasn't core, so got more or less binned by apple (the WOF bit I mean... obviously openstep became OSX).

stu

I'll be getting one

or an iwatch - I'll wait till tomorrow to decide.

I think you're missing the point.

1. they aint watches. they are a device that fits on yer wrist - so it gets compared to a watch, and frankly would be stupid to not tell you the time. But that's hardly the point of it.

2. For me anyway it's about custom apps, fitness apps, augmented screens, etc. I fly paramotors and paragliders and use a HUD build around a MOD Live at present running an app of my own devising that gives me all the info I need for flying on my HUD. I can see this 'watch' being useful for those kind of apps: make use of the gps, data, etc, etc on the parent device, but serve up just the basic easy to read info on the wrist app - so for example show me my alti, speed, closest airspace, wind speed, direction to home AZ, etc (as my MOD does), but far handier for more folk to wear than building a custom HUD into their helmet.

Same goes for stuff like cycling, running, etc. hence why it has pedometer, heart rate, etc build in. You don't want to be running along, taking your 5" phone out to see all the time - but a glimpse of the 'watch' is perfect. Clearly is you 'don't see the point of gadgets for running' then you're not the market.. but it doesn't mean there isn't one.

untrusted pedo

I am the only one that misread that ?

A fraction of the price

well yeh.. if the fraction is 8/3rds...

Sense 3d handheld scanner is just over 300 quid, has been out for over a year and does the same thing.

Homer's car

Wow, just wow.

The Morgan is like something Homer designed.

And the rest are pretty hideous too.

How the hell does Jay Kay still make enough money for these - who the hell is still being Jameroqui albums in 2014 ???

packaging lipos, etc

Make sure you don't get caught out with lipos, etc if this is going in hold luggage Lester. The rules are pretty strict now.

Or is it getting shipped ?

It might be worth trying to get someone like BA on board to 'sponsor' it a bit by providing assured hold transportation, etc ? It's flight related, GB first, etc, etc... they could be interested ? Let me know if you want to pursue and I'll find out some contacts (consulting at BA headquarters at the moment)

i don't get it

I fucking despair.

that, and the 10 million for a 'homer builds a cooler' kickstarter.

the world is full of fuckwits.