* Posts by David

30 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Sep 2006

Russians in audacious stratobeer mission

David

How?

Am I the only one that wonders how they get these things back in order to get the video footage? I can't imagine it was being sent wirelessly back to them while in flight, or was it?

Nokia posts car-to-phone comms app

David
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I would assume

That the car would tell the mobile that it was connected to a car and thus should not be able to do x y and z. If it was connected to a train, the train would say "do what you like". Not connected? Then no restrictions.

Dizzy: the Ultimate Cartoon Adventure

David
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So Glad!

Someone admitted that. All my mates were into Dizzy and would spend hours retracing their steps to solve a puzzle.

I couldn't be arsed and didn't see the point. Still don't.

But, seeing the graphics does bring back fond memories of the music and the ample free time during school holidays!

David
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Oh Yes!

I remember going to our local farm shop and they had a wall of Speccy games. At that point there were no huge ad campaigns or magazines, so you never knew what was coming out. I used to just see what was new. But yes, super cheap!

Sky follows BT in blocking Newzbin2

David

You Are Right

It's not clear cut and we've all done stuff which is technically illegal, but recording Top of The Pops, which wasn't exactly the same quality as the released version, whereas downloading essentially bit perfect copies of movies of music, totally negating the need to buy the original is completely different.

Ripping a CD you purchased is also technically not legal, but you have bought the CD and so as far as I'm concerned you can rip it as many times as you like. So I'm choosing which laws I adhere to yes, but I've paid for the CD and the artist will have got some money thanks to that.

I wouldn't use the same argument for downloading an HD version of a movie because you own the DVD though - you didn't buy the higher quality version and if you want it, you should buy it.

And for those of you out there who say "I won't use X legal service because it can't take my 60,000 tracks". Sixty thousand tracks? Really? All legal? Oh let me guess, no, not all legal, because some are bootlegs, live recordings, stuff that wasn't released in the UK etc? Always an excuse.

And to those who say "I'd use a service if it was £2 per movie". No you wouldn't. You'd find a reason to not use it and continue getting something for free.

David
FAIL

Emmmm...

You say you can't find anything legal to download. By that I assume you can find plenty of illegal stuff to download. Like music and movies? Strangely enough, you can download those legally too. You just pay for them first.

David

Nope - I still don't buy it

I see where you're coming from, but if a company decides it's going to do something one way, and you don't like it, voice your opinion, don't buy their product (if it was available to you) or support their products. However doing so doesn't give you the right to still go and take something that isn't yours to take.

They may not be losing a sale - I get that, but "never going to buy it" doesn't equal "therefore I can get it for nothing".

No point arguing though, those who do it will always justify it by starting a sentence with "but I want". I want to reroof my house, but I can't afford it, but that doesn't mean I'm going to nick the slates from the local church, who has loads of money, and slates are more expensive than they should be.

David
Stop

Dirty Thieves

Stop moaning and go and buy your music/software/movies. If it's too expensive for you to buy, you're not entitled to it.

But the "block" does seem like a poor effort, if they are indeed really trying.

Dixons stores knock £150 off RIM PlayBook

David
Stop

No

You need a 3GS for iOS5 - a bog standard 3G won't take it. Plus SIRI is only available on the 4S. That's it's main selling point. You get everything else tho.

'iPhone 4 to be free' when new iPhones ship

David

Fair Dos

Fair dos - you are getting a good deal and clearly a better deal than me.

David

Update

Just to update you on my question, how much on your PAYG tariff would:

12,000Mb of data

12,000 texts

2400 minutes

cost? Add that onto your handset cost and let me know which is the better deal.

David

Never Happy

It wouldn't have mattered what I said, you wouldn't have been happy. Have you factored in how much the minutes, texts and data allowance you get for the £21.50 a month would work out on PAYG? How does it work out then (I'm genuinely interested as I don't know the answer).

David
Happy

Makes Me Laugh

All these comments make me smile. I've used various Android phones, an iPhone 3G, 3Gs and 4 plus various Blackberries.

The iPhone 3G still beats most of the Android handsets out today hands down for simple usability, apps etc (nothing will beat the Blackberry keyboard tho). The 3Gs was simply a more responsive version. Not that it needed the speed boost - the 3G was still more responsive than most of the Android handsets out now, which still don't feel as smooth as iOS.

Sure, you're locked down in what you can do in some areas, but for the majority of users, that's fine. It's never stopped me doing a single thing I've wanted to. I am now the happy user of an iPhone 4 and would never touch Android again.

So all these great handsets out there with loads of RAM and dual core CPUs - doesn't that say something about the OS? Apple managed to get the OS responsive from the word go, with lower powered kit. Well done them.

So slag Apple off if you like, there's lots to criticise, but I just don't see how anyone can say Android is a better user/owner experience than iOS.

Oh, and you can get a free, new 3Gs on O2 on a 24 month contract for £21.50 a month. Pretty decent deal.

Apple iPad 2

David
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Seems Good

Despite what many will probably say, I think this is a nice bit of kit. I've used the original iPad and it is very nice. For most people browsing, emails and looking at pictures is all they'll use it for, so it fits the bill nicely. So do others, but not as well as this :)

If I had the cash I'd buy one.

Lloyds, First Direct websites hit by payday outages

David

Oh Dear

Interestingly I don't seem to see my pay in my non-Lloyds account this morning, however, my employer will have paid me via a Lloyds account....

Ten... over-ear headphones

David
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Average Joe

The average Joe does not care about sound quality, if you ask me. So few people, as said above, replace the headphones that come with a product with something even marginally better.

Most consumers don't really listen to the music, if you know what I mean. They go from white headphones to shitty iPod docks to FM transmitted MP3s. They've never heard the original source as it was intended.

I have to admit I was one of those for a long time. Many years ago I "picked up" a pair of Sennheiser SD-25 IIs from a Concorde flight (best we don't go into that) but never wore them as I thought I looked daft wearing those on the bus - note this was long before iPods were even out so the trend was still the little black earbuds and anyone different got a kicking. A couple of years ago I found them in a cupboard, tried them out again and was blown away by the sound quality. Even with lower bitrate files, the things you hear which you hadn't heard before is astounding. They are also some of the few headphones I've used which make metal sound as good as it should, in my opinion.

A good set of cans is worth every penny, if you care about sound quality.

iPhone users get more sex than Android fans

David
Happy

Probably Better If

they said that peolpe who sleep around more also tend to blindly follow fashions.

I bet about 50% of the "partners" were had before the iPhone came out.

I had an iPhone, got very little, then got an HTC Hero and got a lot more. Mind you that may have been sympathy sex. I've since replaced it for a Nokia and am still getting plenty :)

First SMS Trojan for Android is in the wild

David
Stop

Trusted Source

Don't you need to set your preferences to allow install from non-trusted sources or something like that? I'm pretty sure that's quite a few menu levels down so won't be something most users tick,.

I would have thought without that it wouldn't install. Might be wrong though.

Western Digital WD TV HDD-to-HDTV adaptor

David
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No Surround Either :(

Website claims that Dolby surround output is 2 channel only....

Great idea, but missing too many tricks.

Group Test: Wireless music streamers

David

No PC Needed

I can't vouch for the other devices, but I thought it'd be worth noting that the Sonos can play music directly off of any network drive/NAS, meaning you do not need a PC running whenever you want to listen to music. That's a biggie for me at least.

So, the comment stating that you must install server software is not true, you can setup your entire Sonos kit with just the remote, without ever turning a PC on.

Canon EOS 450D digital SLR

David

Image Stabilisation

A wee correction, it's the lens which does the stabilisation, not the camera. Canon make a number of IS and non-IS lenses, all of which work identically on the 450D as they do on the 400D.

Extreme porn bill gets final reading

David
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Not Very Well Thought Out :(

I have to say, I can see why most people would agree that true extreme porn needs to be banned.

From reading other sources on the net the main areas covered are:

beastiality

necrophelia

torture

unconsenting sex

Now to be fair, those things really shouldn't be going on should they? Other than the dead people, at least one party from each suffers, so it would make sense to try and stop the production of such material. By making it illegal they hope that demand will be cut and so in turn will production.

However, what a load of bollocks. As with every law, it requires "ethics" of those abiding by it. Those who have "ethics" wouldn't be looking at someone doing interesting things to a corpse anyway, but might quite happily have a ham shank to a nice bit of lesbian porn and bang their partner with a big fat strap on. Those who couldn't give a damn about the law, and want to look at such images, will do so. This new law won't stop them, and so the demand will likely stay constant.

I have 2 problems with the new law. Firstly the above, the government really are brain dead if they think that this is a good thing to do. I agree that ideally something needs to be done about stopping production of such genuine material (ie non-concensual sex for at least one party), but this is not the way.

Secondly giving wooly terms such as "offensive" just cannot possibly work. We all know that what I find offensive will almost certainly be different from most of you, so it just can't work, as everyone else has already stated.

And no, I didn't vote for them.

Amateur code breaker honoured for defeating Colossus

David
Alert

A Valve??!!

A valve as a prize!! I'd have hoped for a job offer from some big gov or security firm!

Scottish Government to block wind farm plan

David
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Grrrrr

The Scottish Government are applling. I understand the impact that these sites may cause, but I think their pros outweigh the cons.

As has been said above, all the things they are trying to protect by stopping these farms being built will get destroyed, if their predictions come true anyway......

I get the impression the Scottish Gov just want to do the popular thing, with no thinking behind it at all. Trump resort anyone?

And just to add, I'm Scottish, and I didn't vote for those retards.

Microsoft backpedals on Blu-ray for Xbox 360 comments

David
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Microsoft Takeover

All MS need to do is stop giving to charity for a couple of days, buy Sony outright, then they can use BlueRay without paying royalties :)

Logitech revamps Squeezebox as Duet

David
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Erm

I think they are selling it on its own so you can have more than one in the house (ie one downstairs and one upstairs), but it'll still only control the Squeezebox. You can buy Sonos controllers on their own too, but they still only control Sonos ZonePlayers.

Looks like a nice bit of kit I must say, and very cheap.

The protection's off, as Warner commits to Amazon

David
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Woo!

That makes me very happy (assuming it eventually comes to the UK, and assuming the artists I want are on Warner...). I will then be able to play the music I buy online on both my iPod and my Sonos :)

Aquarium chips fish

David

I can see it now....

a shoal of fish swim past and the child closest to the screen collapses in an epileptic fit due to the screen refreshing 800 times :)

Akasa Integral P2 LAN

David

Eh?

Not sure I follow....

There are many cheap NAS boxes out there which already have a USB port and an ethernet port. I have one which doesn't require any drivers at all, and will work on any platform..... you can even plug in another USB drive to expand capacity!

From the sounds of this review, this "new" technology is going backwards, not forwards.....

Not impressed.