* Posts by David Gosnell

952 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Jun 2007

1&1 says sorry to one in ten

David Gosnell

"1&1 last had an outage in January of 2007"

Major outage maybe, but there's been nothing but trouble since they upgraded the Debian on their shared servers the other week. Lots of niggly things I've had to contact them about recently, and their customer facing support staff although reasonably friendly have almost precisely zero technical knowledge about the products being sold. I used to strongly recommend 1&1 but cannot any more.

By the way, the times quoted for the outage appear to be German rather than UK time, given that (based on cron failures) our databases were unavailable from about 1.00pm until 2.15pm.

Asus to offer Linux-less Eee PCs globally

David Gosnell

@ Andy Worth

Quite. I've got full XP Pro on a 6GB (5.5GB formatted) partition, with a reasonable page file, OpenOffice, XAMPP server stack, several hefty websites and a few other bits and bobs. Still 2.5GB to spare. 4GB would be a tighter squeeze, but still perfectly doable.

DAB: A very British failure

David Gosnell

If it wasn't for DAB...

... we wouldn't, nay, couldn't listen to the radio. Absolutely dire FM reception here in geographically-challenged Farnham. DAB's not 100%, but it is vastly better than FM - and some of the multiplexes (e.g. the one with Virgin and Classic FM) have excellent signal strength. FM was comparatively a load of mush, on about the half dozen stations the average hi-fi tuner could pick up in the first place.

DAB's been badly marketed, pushed towards yummy mummies, snobs in general and minor-league sports fans. With no threat of an analogue switch-off, there's been no need for anything more coordinated and wide-reaching. With no need for commitment to the format, it's hardly surprising how (for example) bit-rates are economised, leading to the apathetic situation we're in now.

Pure Highway in-car DAB radio

David Gosnell

"No traffic info"

Not sure that's the case. Most RDS radios are EON-compatible, which amongst other things means they have two tuners. One for what you're listening to, and the other checking for announcements on other frequencies. If traffic announcements couldn't interrupt the DAB tuner's frequency, then that would also be a problem with local stations not buying into RDS, and I am not aware of that happening.

Asus 8.9in Eee PC surfaces

David Gosnell

Re: More screen real-estate

No, it really is bigger. It's almost exactly (perhaps even exactly) the same width, but slightly deeper, with an enlarged track-pad arrangement to match. If you'll excuse the French you can see the two side-by side (in various alluring poses) here:

http://www.blogeee.net/2008/03/03/eeepc-900-premieres-analyses/

David Gosnell

I'll be in the queue

Recently bought a cheap as chips old laptop off eBay to tide me over until they announced something like this - and there we go. So long as they can keep this with the same pricing philosophy and Linux, you might even see me placing a pre-order.

One in the face for all those who insisted that the reputed 8.9" would have the same screen resolution as the 7" - based on photos known to have been of pre-release samples when Asus hadn't finalised the screen size for the original version. Yeah, the same photos with a MacBook in the background that the brain-dead assumed was the apocryphal 10"...

Minox DC 7411 digicam

David Gosnell

Sensor size

Any indication of sensor size? That will determine how close it is to the top of the tree, not ridiculous numbers of increasingly fuzzy megapixels.

US government forces military secrets on Brit webmaster

David Gosnell

Re: Misdirection

> Would it have hurt them so much to reward me with a freebie flight?

What, and risk ending up somewhere like Beirut instead of Barbados?

Armed robbers target Oz biker shindig

David Gosnell

Damage bill

I wonder what the bill will be for damage to the furniture? Probably more than there was cash in the till.

Elonex £99 Eee PC rival to arrive in June

David Gosnell

Re: ok place your bets..

I tend to agree. She hasn't got an OAP's hands photoshopped on, for starters...

BT preps 2000 per cent evening call price hike

David Gosnell

Totally ambiguous marketing material

The material BT sent out about this was totally ambiguous. It was only in the small print at the bottom that it mentioned you were upgrading to Option 2 if you agreed the new contract, and nowhere would it spell out that you wouldn't be charged extra, apart from the bit earlier that said "free". Hmm, typing that now, it basically must be free - but we'd like to have seen it spelt out somewhere a bit more honestly, with guarantees BT wouldn't try to pull their usual 6-month price hikes etc.....

Canon Digital Ixus 70 compact camera

David Gosnell

Sensor size, yay!

OK, so 1/2.5" is pretty average (and typical for pocket cameras, alas), but yay to Rob for quoting it. Personally, within reason, I don't give two hoots about megapixels or precise zoom ranges, but (away from the serious photographic sites) sensor sizes are far too rarely quoted unless particularly newsworthy, yet are probably the biggest contributor to image quality.

HMV blames rival for PS3 PlayTV pre-order puzzle

David Gosnell

Too little, too late

With the paltry storage available on most models, this simply can't compete with the stand-alone PVRs, with 160GB or more. Besides, this functionality was originally trumpeted as going to be built in to the PS3, so it really is a case of too little, too late.

Lenovo intros skinny, low-weight ThinkPad

David Gosnell

What no Macbook Air thickness comparison?

This is thinner :-)

Glad Apple didn't keep their phoney title (it was never true anyway) for long.

Krell touts top-rank iPod dock

David Gosnell

Quality

Audiophile grade compression artefacts!

Newcomer punts miniature 'pub phone'

David Gosnell

Pub phone?

Surely the ideal pub phone is cheap as chips with the bling factor of about a Nokia 1200?

Designs displayed for iPhone clip-on speakers

David Gosnell

Kit form

Let's just hope it comes in exploded kit form as portrayed, then the average numbskull chav won't have a hope in hell of rebuilding it and tormenting us.

Ringin' in the old days

David Gosnell

"all the features of a modern one"

Not if it's only analogue as claimed. DECT's been around for years...

Turn your monitor into an HD TV, says Asus

David Gosnell

So...

Basically an upscaling Freeview box with a monitor output?

Should be about 50 quid at a guess.

HP's Linux sub-notebook spied on web

David Gosnell

Bluetooth

What's the evidence of Bluetooth presence?

Official: Toshiba discontinues HD DVD

David Gosnell

Compatibility

Is there the remotest hope that existing HD-DVD players may be able to be patched for Blu-ray compatibility? How much of the difference between the two is in the hardware (e.g. the physical data depth) and how much in the firmware?

Hey ho, early adoption, yay! Me, sticking with normal DVD thanks.

Microsoft poised to unveil WorldWide Telescope?

David Gosnell

Photosynth

If Photosynth is anything to go by, neat it may be, but seamless it won't - though with more consistent photography and everything at infinity, it may be a bit better.

Griffin Evolve wireless iPod speakers

David Gosnell
Jobs Horns

RE: Wonderful idea...

Bear in mind, this is targeting the "more money than sense" brigade, so it figures...

I like it too (apart from the price) though wish they could have internalised the antennae somehow. Eek, hope I'm not starting to get obsessed with form over function too.

HMRC self-assessment online gets awards nod

David Gosnell

It's a good site

Really was pleasantly surprised when I used it last year, a thoroughly positive experience. Of course, I claimed early because they owed _me_ money, which may have added to the feeling :-)

Nerf takes aim at the Wii

David Gosnell

Jacket

Looks (like most third-party crud) suspiciously incompatible with the Wiimote jackets.

LG quietly launches KT610 Symbian smartphone

David Gosnell

Re: Really beautiful

It's like they've decided the 7" EeePC's bezel is iconic design rather than a compromise, and made it... well, even worse.

Hannspree glams up the desktop monitor

David Gosnell

Plinth

Has someone been scrubbing the plinth with Macleans or something?!

TING!

Zeemote unveils controller for phone games

David Gosnell

Compatibility

Is this likely to be compatible with anything - now or in the future?

Doomed, I reckon.

Archos advances PMP's storage capacity

David Gosnell

Interesting - flash vs hd

I'm guessing the previous model was flash-based. Is this a sign of unease in the technology, perhaps disquiet at costs not dropping as fast as might have been anticipated, thanks to exponentially-growing demand outstripping supply? In other words, Archos clearly reckon there's life in the old hard-disk dog yet.

Baylis Eco EP-MX71 hand-cranked media player

David Gosnell

Gimmick

Too much cranking required. Conventional charging will be the norm after the first five minutes and/or sprained wrist. Wannabe tree huggers will impress their pals while hiding the mains adapter.

Is this thing manufactured in a particularly eco-friendly manner? If not, then the environmental impact upon disposal won't be any different from any other responsibly manufactured player. It still has a battery etc etc, just a slightly different charging mechanism that will rarely be used after the novelty has worn off.

Nokia's N95 successor slips out on web

David Gosnell

RE: Owen

"but not before a selection of sites managed to scrawl down the handset’s tech specs"

Sony Ericsson Walkman W960i music phone

David Gosnell

LEDs

Can we please stop referring to LEDs as flashes, even with qualification such as in this article. LEDs on camera-phones make mighty fine torches, and can provide a little helpful illumination for photos in desperate situations, but they are not remotely comparable with flashguns and shouldn't be described as such.

Stealthy Adobe Reader update fixes mystery security bugs

David Gosnell

Re: Time for MS to include their own Reader

What I've always wondered is why the hell does it want to install a desktop icon. I mean, it's almost unique as an application you practically _never_ want to run directly, yet one of the more aggressive in providing you with the means to. Self-importance is indeed the only feasible explanation.

Teen-mum flick gets filmgoers hungry for hamburger phone

David Gosnell

BABT approval ...

... appears to be a thing of the past now.

Can't remember the last time I saw a green blob on a few bit of kit, and it's apparently all now been subsumed into CE marking.

Microhoo! marriage hits Google salaries hard

David Gosnell

Nothing unusual there

If I remember rightly, the top bods there are on $1 a year. Oh, plus a bonus or three.

It might be a mistake, but not necessarily - though more explanation for prospective evil-non-doers mightn't go amiss. Still, it's got people's attention, that's the first hurdle...

Yes! It's... er, the VoIP mouse

David Gosnell

Re: It's actually Scotty...

Feared as much, thanks for the correction! :-)

David Gosnell

The Voyage Home

Maybe that scene in The Voyage Home where Kirk tries to speak into the mouse will become reality...

Maxdata Belinea s.book 1 sub-notebook

David Gosnell

Keyboard layout

The keyboard layout's not identical to the Eee, as I noticed when I tried out this one's sibling and the Eee side-by-side in <whisper>PC World</whisper> the other week. Possibly some other subtleties I wasn't anal enough to spot, but whilst the Eee is berated for its oddly positioned right shift key, the Via reference design does away with it altogether...

Linux-less Eee PC launched in Japan

David Gosnell

Dead pixels

I wonder if that bit about dead pixels is going to be widespread policy. To date, Asus have insisted that the Eee is an appliance, not a laptop, and exempt from any kind of warranty over dead pixels. Understandable at the price point, but maybe they realise now they're selling more to professionals than kids, such things do matter.

Pentax pours forth four new shooters

David Gosnell

Re: Compatible

I guess because you've got previously worthless glass you can now flog on eBay...

Nokia blings up Prism fashion phone with synthetic gem

David Gosnell

Bundle opportunity

Perhaps they could bundle it with the new-shape Honda Civic?

Hideous beyond words.

Samsung unveils second-gen GX digital SLR

David Gosnell

Samsung vs Pentax

I assume that like the last generation of Samsung and Pentax DSLRs, the two companies' new offerings (as announced in this article and the one below) are basically the same kit in slightly different plastic.

Phone with foldable e-paper display to get summer roll-out

David Gosnell

Phone

Are you sure it's a phone, beyond its data capability?

General Electric brings blink-recognition digicams to UK

David Gosnell

"The G series has just the one model, the G2"

Actually, there's a G1 also. It's pretty much panned here:

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/ge/g1-review/

If the G2 is basically an 8Mp revision of the G1, it's really not worth bothering with.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H3 'superzoom' camera

David Gosnell

@ John Miles

I believe there are optical considerations for getting non-distorted wide-angle images, but more than anything I'm sure it's 90% sales pitch. Longer maximum zooms, more megapixels and higher ISO ratings are what sell cameras, not image quality or anything else that matters when you actually use them for real.

French tempted with €199 Eee PC HSDPA bundle

David Gosnell

Clip-art

Does http://regmedia.co.uk/2008/01/21/la_eee_sm.jpg score as perhaps the worst "laptop with generic dongle" clip-art ever?

Why not use the bird?

Revo pitches wireless internet wireless

David Gosnell

Also a DAB version

There's also a DAB version, for £50 more. A bit steep considering you can get a brand-name DAB radio by itself for the same.

http://www.revo.co.uk/digital-radio/revo-blik-radiostation.php

Guitar Hero gets true air axe

David Gosnell

Re: I agree ...

A bit like SongTapper in reverse......

Microsoft takes a shine to Logitech?

David Gosnell

I remember the day...

... when MS and Logitech hardware products were made in the same factories.

Possibly even still are.

Oh, and re *really* bad mice, look no further than A4tech.

Revealed: USB 3.0 jacks and sockets

David Gosnell

Connectors

I too am disappointed they didn't go for a more obviously polarised connector - or one that could be safely reversed. Backward compatibility could be provided by a tiny electrical adaptor costing pence. Yes, a bit cumbersome, but worth the effort for dumping a connector design that never should have been.