Posts by David Gosnell

Maplins

Even more tat for Maplins to claim is a best seller and a bargain at RRP...

Eee 2.0 pricing

BBC are saying $999 for the entry-level WiMax Eee. Surely not?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7173582.stm

What a poor layout

I think I'd rate my chances of accurate typing better on an SMS-type keypad than that abomination.

Cutting edge

As Andy Worth said, at one time it was the best. I believe it was one of the very first places in the country to get a cable system. Trouble is, that means it's now one of the oldest and most decrepit cable systems in the country. I doubt it's changed in the three years since I abandoned ship there, but that meant it was defiantly analogue and generally stone age, though at least since it was originally installed as not-for-profit, there was no provision made for disconnecting those not willing to line subsequent profiteers' pockets. Bear in mind RF radio/TV reception is more or less non-existent since there was no need, and aerials at least used to be forbidden. Despite the cable system latterly being run by NTL, if you asked them about cable broadband services they were reputed to put the phone down on you without further explanation. The phone system is indeed largely based on aluminium cabling, done on the cheap and utterly DSL-incompatible. They talked of replacing it with copper, but ripping up the whole town was not really practical even if many would have undoubtedly approved!

The powers that be have been talking about tackling this dismal state of affairs with wireless coverage for four or five years. This may be half-hearted and not benefit most of the population, but at least it's a start...

Targeting

Wot still no web-cam targeting? Bah!

Latest iPlayer

Having just given the latest cut of iPlayer a whirl, damn I'm impressed.

_Appears_ to be cross-platform capable, P2P shunning, streamed FLV viewing.

Not quite as good image quality as the old one, but in every other way nicer.

Just a shame the BBC wasted such a ton of money on the Kontiki junk.

Storm in a teacup

The insertions are currently informational, useful and opt-out-able. Any ISP that abused that would quickly find customers leaving in droves. Besides, ISPs have been manipulating content for years, e.g. AOL's image proxying. Sheesh, it's normally me accused of being in the tin-foil hat brigade!

"Or you could... "

Spot on. From our experience, Argos are brilliant with their stock reservation if you go in-store, and also have plenty of games at little over half the price of anywhere else. Why are people prepared to risk eBay and dodgy importers, where it's going to take a week to enter the lottery of getting something at an inflated price, when they can probably get it in a couple of days, at RRP, on the high street?

Cleaning the screen

I also like the way the manual says it's OK to wash the display panel with water, without giving any definite guidance as to how much or whether the device should be powered down at the time. Now that could be a useful "cure" for the dead pixels Asus apparently refuse to warrant against since the Eee is officially not a laptop.

"1and1 Root Server customers"

It affected more than Root Servers. Sites on shared hosting packages were hit too; I suspect it was basically everything, given that being in Germany appears to have been the problem. But I guess when the problem lay elsewhere, 1&1 could only really base their statement on the profile of the support calls they got, and I'd imagine those spending £600+ a year are quite understandably the shoutiest!

Definitely ISP dependent

One of my clients can't reach a 1&1 hosted site that's working fine for me. Trying to find out who her ISP is.....

Images

I am surprised how few (if any) of the banks have their website images set so they can only be served from known authorised pages. Sure, changing that would just mean that phishing sites would use copies rather than the real thing (as many do already), but anything to make the scammers' task more complicated has to be a good move, surely?

Even better, don't block the images altogether, but serve alternative versions saying "You're being scammed". Get the logic the right way round, though - even if in some cases it might be hard to tell the difference!

2GB vs 4GB

Any idea what's cut out on the 2GB versions, given that the default installation seems to take almost 3GB? Not that I would consider the 2GB one these days, but it might indicate where some "trimming" could be done to release a bit more SSD space on the 4GB one.

Not the first

I see the article parrots the common assertion that Whitehaven are the first to lose analogue, when this has repeatedly been pointed out as untrue. Quite possibly the first large area to switch, but certainly not the first of any size. In my town (Farnham, Surrey) challenging terrain means some neighbourhoods have had digital-only reception for quite some time, and they're not the only ones.

Nintendo Service Centre

Hey, at least you got a response out of them. Almost a fortnight on I am still waiting to hear back about a possible fault, which may have worsened in the meantime. Why bother publishing an email address no-one appears to bother to monitor? Ah, it'll be the semi-premium-rate number you phone in desperation instead, that no-one bothers to answer. If it hadn't been for SayNoTo0870 we would be several pounds poorer for no benefit whatsoever.

good idea too

I would be delighted to get our Wii playing DVDs and dump the Aiwa. Not that the Aiwa is remotely bad, but space is at a premium and not everyone gets moist at having a huge stack of power-munching gadgetry - though I quite appreciate we may not be typical of the geek demographic.

Military...

I'm sure all kinds of precedents are being set by the Chinese in that regard...

More of an issue will be the nature of the display - to be visible to people in an enclosed stadium whilst conforming with the safety requirements introduced in recent years, which will likely prevent them from manoeuvring overhead.

Hope they can find a way, though. Perhaps a half-built stadium will afford a better view?

@ Neil Weller

Actually, that's the wrong way round. The full title is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Great Britain = England, Scotland and Wales.

Lens cover

Dig that wonky lens cover...

Otherwise, sounds quite nice. I wonder how big the sensor is(n't).

Wii compatible?

Could lead to some amusing misunderstandings, anyway!

"Oh, you meant decapitate the baddie, not switch to QVC?"

"Apple is a very strong brand for us"

That'll be why they've completely wound down their Apple stock at Farnborough, then. Yes, I do go in occasionally, to have a laugh, when particularly bored.

Costing £250..?

Still some way to go, then. I'll stick with DAB for now thanks.

Is this the same Arnold Schwarzenegger ...

... who got away with crashing his motorbike when he didn't even have a licence?

Not directly relevant to the specifics, but hardly exemplary re road safety and law.

I'm sure some will grumble

I'm sure some will come off badly from this, but the whole switch-over thing is compromise upon compromise, and somewhere the lead needs to be taken. The industry has dragged its heels enough already.

If only the switch-over itself could be accelerated... Assuming of course that the freed up bandwidth is released for better image quality, not just more quiz channels. 2012, for those of us who have long resented being bundled with London, still seems a geological age away.

Exciting pensions

Well if they're as lucky in the US as we are in the UK, they'll have been offered all kinds of exciting pension options. Yes, I received my exciting EDS pension pack yesterday. Never has the choice between low-risk/low-yield and high-risk/high-yield been so grippingly exciting. You know, it was so exciting I almost wet myself before realising that in the year it took before they finally admitted they didn't have any work for me, my pension fund was worth a less-than-exciting £2.78.

Kontiki

In other words, the BBC will routinely mention this to Kontiki every six months, who will not update their system, end of story. If it's anything like the media-delivery deal the BBC used to have with Real, they'll be tied into Kontiki's backwardness for years.

Reminds me...

... of the KLF / K2 Plant Hire's ill-fated (?) "Great Northern Pyramid Of The People" project!

Probably about as much chance of happening, too.

Not again!

Sheesh.

"memory fit for about 3,000 songs"

Wow, over 10GB internal? :-)

Secondary explosive...

Perhaps use a small Li-ion pack as a detonator?

OK, clutching at straws now!

Finally!

Looks perfect, even if it might require good fingernails to remove.

The ideal snap-proof partner for the surprising number of UMPCs and laptops that bizarrely omit integrated Bluetooth.

Maplin emails...

No doubt this will double the amount of email from Maplin, who already seem to consider the USB turntable (and the external hard disk du jour) as the ideal purchase for anyone - and even claimed it was a special offer when it wasn't.

And don't get me started on the Dixonisation of their sales approach in-store...

About time!

Wasn't this functionality trumpeted years ago, and supposed to have been integrated in the PS3 from the start?

I remember thinking at the time it would make it a killer console, perhaps even "the one" worth waiting for.

Obviously too little too late now compared with the competition from Humax et al, especially at the total price point.

Here we go again...

Interesting looking at the previous announcements, assuring customers nothing was lost and all that yada. PlusNet are a great ISP, but we might think differently if we used them for anything more than their connection.

U810

Glad they finally saw sense and included Bluetooth.

Still prefer the look of the Vye Mini. Any chance of a review?

A4Tech mouse

Hope it's better than the utter p.o.s. I was given from said company when I clearly specified Microsoft..... Finished in tasteless digibox silver and featuring patented JitterJump(tm) technology.

Not cased in bamboo...

... thank goodness! Saving us the wasted resources of all the whiners on here.

End of an era

Evesham really must have been desperate to sink that low.

I've bought three PCs from them before, obviously never again, and I doubt I am remotely alone.

Intelligent Face Recognition?

"Intelligent Face Recognition Technology means the S850 can find and focus on this face, even though it's not in the centre of the frame"

Given the fuzzy example provided, clearly some meaning of the word "focus" that is not the one I am familiar with.

Considerable status...

... for what exactly?!

"seriously professional-looking"

Sadly true, the "looking" bit - thanks to the DMC-FZ18's wimpy and noisy 1/2.5" CCD. One day Panasonic will hopefully wake up and marry their otherwise excellent super-zoom cameras with a CCD worth using.

Necessary action, for the sake of the licence payer ...

... but sad when it affects non brain-dead competitions too, e.g. see

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6723211.stm

(the BBC's Photographer of the Year competition)

Oh, it's a vacuum cleaner

I really did wonder for a moment, seriously.

Interesting stuff...

... but looks like a classic "12 to 18 months"* job to me.

* A few years back the BBC went through a phase of reporting on amazing developments we knew damn well would never see the light of day (and never did), and they were always stated as being "12 to 18 months away" from a practical product.

Perhaps they've caught the bug off South West Trains

Their machines conveniently are unable to sell the best value tickets. SWT manage to get away with this (amongst other sharp practice) because the above mentioned law does not extend to machines... Probably the same for web sales?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1975243.ece