The high-ISO sample shots might not have been all that impressive technically (it's hard to get correct white balance under street lighting), but when you consider you can do nightime shots like this hand-held, that is impressive.
I would love to play with one of these professional-level cameras, but even if i had the money, i don't think I'd bother buying one - it's overkill. DSLRs are a pain, I find I take loads more pics when I take my old Canon A620 with hacked firmware, and I suppose actually pushing the shutter button and taking the pics is the most important thing, whatever camera you have.
To all those who are giving up on Radio 1, isn't it just natural that you're going to grow out of it? I used to listen to it all the time until the early 90s, then it just didn't appeal any more (except Mark & Lard).
At one time there seemed to be a ready-made progression of BBC radio: Radio 1 > Radio 2 and then you could add in Radio 4 or, if you were really cosmopolitan, Radio 3. But now that Radios 1 and 2 are just commercial-free clones playing bland rubbish, there just isn't anywhere to go.
Personally I find 6 music rather boring, but just because I don't happen to like it, doesn't mean it's crap.
Somebody needs to take some REAL radical (ie commercially suicidal) ideas to liven up radio, otherwise it's just going to die the death, if it hasn't already.
@AC: "And Shadow Culture Minister Jeremy Hunt is so far up the backside of the big media owners he can see what they had for breakfast." - that is genuinely funny, I've made a note of that!
Opera is great, I run it alongside Firefox (my missus won't use anything other than FF for some reason). Only with there was an equivalent of AdBlock+ with opera, then it would be near perfect! Can't wait to try out the 10.5 beta.
...make the damn software cheaper...$200 for this is a bloody rip-off. XP is beginning to look creaky, I'd update to Win 7 tomorrow if it was half the price. If it weren't for the risks of getting a warez version of Win 7 I'd get it. Oh well, it's going to be XP until I can save up for 7!
...like that bloody annoying little blob of plastic on Apple USB connectors tat stops you using it on everything else. I suppose if you're rich enough to afford this rubbish, you're rich enough to buy bespoke USB leads and tiddly SIM cards. I dunno.
...can take advantage of this 3D technology. I have a very pronounced squint, and so cannot percieve 3D nearly as well as those with normal sight. At the moment 2D Tv is watchable by anyone, even spazmos like me with less-than-average eyesight.
I worry that at some point in the future 2D will be like black-and-white, sidelined and ultimately dropped. Perhaps I'm just worrying too much.
Let's have a good run with HD, large flat panels etc before all this ridiculous 3D rubbish.
I doubt whether this will be any good. Just look at the remake of V running on ABC at the moment; pretty insipid, thinly veiled terrorist plots, etc. If The Prisoner isn't as disappointing as this, I'm a monkey's uncle.
It amazes me that here in the States 30mpg is considered 'fuel efficient' when in Europe you routinely have cars that can do 40+mpg. Just imagine the money they could save here with a combination of cheap American petrol and European MPG levels! These Yanks haven't got a clue.
I and lots of other British ex-pats would pay an annual fee or monthly subscription to be able to access the normal UK Iplayer, including the radio channels in their full quality. It would be better than paying for a VPN, and you wouldn't have to have the torrents going all the time (cough).
Nine billion rounds sold? I can't imagine 9 billions shots have been fired in a year in the US, let alone by civilians. Must be those right-wingers in the south. I'm a British ex-pat, and in the part of Northern California where I live I know nobody who owns a gun or wants to. Probably the same in most urban areas in California, except for the gang members and the minority of nervous householders. Probably a different story out in the countryside, though.
But honestly, why do you need a gun? If you come up against somebody with a gun who wants to rob you, having a gun isn't going to help you, it would probably make things worse.
If I encounter an intruder, I think I'll stick with one of my late father's shove-ha'penny trophies with the nice heavy marble base, that'll teach 'em!
Damn! All this wonderful stuff and I don't get to see it. Like this stuff's potentially commercially very lucrative or something! Looks like I'll have to shell out for a VPN in lieu of a TV licence!
Just to be different. I like angular stuff, why does everything have to be curved these days? I like the rubberised coating, no creasy fingerprints all over a shiny surface. Yes, the spec is pretty mediocre, but if all you're going to use it for is surf the web and a bit of office now and again, who needs super-dooper processing power? If I had some spare cash (damn economy!) I'd snap one up tomorrow.
When I came to California to live 2 years ago I left a 20 Mbps provider and now enjoy a 'blistering' (AT&T's word, not mine) 1.5Mbps connection and pay about the same for it. It's amazing just how much you miss the faster speeds, and how frustrating the slower ones are. Advantages are that you do get the full speed 24/7, and the full speed using newsgroups, but that's about it.
Come on, surely the most technology dependent country in the world can do better than this? Why are sods like Comcast dragging their feet?
You mention us XP diehards. I'd love to have Windows 7 on my machine, but the price is prohibitive, what with our household being on a very low income and tight budget. Surely they know that this is going to be on the vast majority of desktops, millions of them, so why not sell it as a loss-leader? It looks like we'll be sticking with XP at least until someone gives me and my missus a job!
First we had crap music through tinny speakers, now here's something else the effin schoolkids can piss us all off with on the bus to work. I say make these projector phones age-restricted, that'll teach the effers!
I admire Gerry Anderson for his staying power, but sure TV has moved on. ITV are a shell that just show dumbed down news or cheap reality shows between the adverts. I get the feeling Gerry still thinks ITV is what it was 15 or 20 years ago. Doesn't he realise they dropeed kids programmes years ago? And unless it's got Ant n Dec in ti, he won't get that early Saturday evening slot. Come to think of it, I'd like to see Ant n Dec stuck forever inside a communications satelite!
Sorry, Gerry, while I'm with you, I think you're flogging a dead horse.
That really is a pretty impressive sight. But is it just me or does the aeroplane look better than the shuttle? The space-plane looks so boxy and ugly, you'd think it was built by GM!
May be a good idea, but for someone like me who has vision problems and who has a permanent squint, meaning my pupils aren't lined up exactly, no 3D technology will ever work. I remember having a go at those green/red glasses, just looked like green/red to me. Also those "magic eye" pictures were totally wasted, just looked like NTSC signal on a PAL TV!
I won't believe it until it's the sort of cube screen we were promised in the 70s, where you could walk around it like it was a glass case. Now THAT would be 3D!
Look, if you see a Rolex being sold at a considerable discount, alarm bells should be ringing. I believe 110% in the saying "if it looks too good to be true..." etc.
Personally I lower my sights when it comes to buying on Ebay. It's great for generic stuff, like the USB2 IDE hard drive enclosure I bought for $12 recently, but anything branded, give it a wide berth!
Ebay isn't what it used to be anyway. The days of it being a sort of small-ads on speed are gone, it's just a cheap way to e-tail now.
Very nice. Don't think the price will do it any favours, though.
I am a bit of a luddite, you don't need batteries to read a paper book. But being partially-sighted, the idea of being able to enlarge the print is great - reading those old Ulverscroft large print books we had at school, it was like being shouted at.
I think I'll wait till the price crashes, and we get a good open-source book format.
PS: we have a thumbs-up and a thumbs-down icon, how about a thumbs-sideways for situation like this?
Like the man said, Ofcom need to conventrate more on this radio land-grab by the big media groups rather than whining about music.
It's such a shame that true local radio is virtually dead. The cycle was always the same:
Happen on new local station, with local presenters, good mix of music, that tinge of entertaining amateurishness. Then you tune in one day and there's some looped recording promising big changes on the way. And then the new station hits the air, it's borged and blandified overnight. You tune to the next-door station, get into that, same alien takeover happens. It's even more galling when you can tune between the two adjacent stations, they're playing the same bland tune at exactly the same time, only the adverts are different.
I'm originally from the so-called West Country, and grew up with stations like Severn Sound, Radio Wyvern, the original 80s GWR, DevonAir, all swallowed up by the media companies, all totally unlistenable. I now live in California, and the stations in my town are even more appalling than the UK commercial stations. The only difference is some are actually broadcast from my town, not fed down the line from a central studio to 57 other stations, masquerading as local.
When in the UK, I would tune in to the temporary special event radio stations, and even though I wasn't really into the music being played, I found the local presentation relly fresh and I'd keep listening. Let's have more of these.
Come on, it's early days. I remember back in the late 80s when the PCs at our college had hard discs installed, and hefty 20Mb drives at that! Perhaps it won't be all that long before the hard drives of today look as dated as punched paper tape and magnetic drums.
I remember back in the day seeing a couple of bad kids do that on a C64 in WHSmith, and laughing at the puny efforts of the clueless shop assistants trying to stop it. In the end they just switched off the Trinitron TV!
I can't imagine kids trying to do that on some laptop in Currys.digital.
I heard an interview with someone involved in this venture on Radio 4 this morning. The chap was gamely trying to convince us that it will be the same old Woolies only online. Yes, they're cashing in on the name, that's business, but why all the publicity crap about it being the same as the good old Woolworths? I suppose if they didn't bother trying to publicise it in that way, it would reveal the venture to be what it is, just another cookie-cutter e-tailer. I suppose it's Commodore and Littlewoods all over again.
I'd like to see a European lobbying group cross the Atlantic and try and strong-arm the Americans into some money-making scheme, they wouldn't last five minutes. Why is it always one way traffic? And this whole White Space concept sounds pretty dodgy. What sort of applications would it be used for? Seems to me only PMR radios that have a range of about 100 yards would work in these cirumstances, but then I'm not a lobbyist being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to push it.
I am quite excited by the concept of Micro Four-Thirds, and would love to get rid of my huge DSLR and monster lens in favour of something as small as this. But I think they need to cut the apron strings and try something more revolutionary. I'll wait till the G2 comes along!
Does that mean we have another 4 months of those bloody adverts with the woman in the funny pink coat or the 'cool cats' George Jetson wannabe ("Visit dtvanswersdotcom on your computation machine"); the live digital tests where your program is interrupted so you can stare at a screen saying 'digital ready' for a minute; and hearing the dread words "Are you ready for the digital switch?" and "My TV is DTV"? God help us all!
For years it has just pissed me off when that window keeps popping up whenever I put a DVD in the drive or attach a USB stick. Why didn't someone tell me about this years ago? :)
Maybe back in the mid-90s, when relatively few people used the internet, would it have been advantageous to include a browser with the operating system, but they have no excuse now. Personally I think people should have more than one browser on their machine, for example I visited a site today and had to use my three browsers before I could get it to load properly. Either that, or there should be more publicity telling average users that other browsers are available, like on the Radio Times ads.
When I was with VM, I had the 20Mb option. When I used Newsgroups the most I could get was 5Mb/s (that was using Windows...using Linux I got the full 20Mb/s!?!). Even if you ran multiple clients, the total was still 5Mb/s. So they're even on to that.
I'm now in the States and have AT&T broadband, it's a mere 1.5Mb/s, but at least it's *always" 1.5Mb/s, any time, whatever I'm doing.
I hope they've added the ability to open a new tab by right-clicking a bookmark entry and selecting from a context menu, and they've had a go at their content/ad blocker. Apart from that, Opera is just great, as far as I'm concerned, and I'll be giving the beta a go when it's available.
I use both firefox and Opera about evenly. The issue with firefox, where scrolling pages with fixed backgrounds is sooooo sloooow annoys me to hell - how come Opera can do it? Opera has annoying features too, eg why can't you right-click in the bookmarks menu and open a bookmark in a new tab/window like in Firefox? Horses for courses, I suppose.
I like these mini desktops, and if it came with XP I'd have one. How about its performance in hot weather? I had a PC with an AMD64 which gave up after a few weeks of 90+ degree temps here in California, and that was with lots of active cooling. Will this one give up when the temperature rises?
Yes, these idiots will steal anything rather than get a proper job. We recently hired a skip and filled it with household crap. The next morning we woke up to find two blokes clambering about on the skip with about 5 kids hanging around filling up a supermarket trolley with any metal bits they could find. We thought "not doing any harm' and left them to it. Three hours later they were still there. We rang my brothers; you should have seen the chavs' faces when a car pulled up and three huge blokes climbed out! They couldn't get that trolley down the road quick enough. Priceless! Now you see "No Scrap Metal' or "Building Waste Only" signs on all the skips round here. Sorry, a bit off topic, but there you go.
I agree with the comments about DAB radios being rather ugly. I bought a Roberts radio a few years ago and my father tut-tutted, wondering what the hell had happened to radios these days. Say what you like about the Evoke radios, but they're simple and effective. As for stereo, as long as it had a stereo headphone and/or outputs to a stereo amplifier, that would be just fine.
Something in me says that the manufacturers saw the potential to sell lenses and hastily dropped the 'bridge' cameras (good quality compacts like the G series, but on the G7 or G9) in favour of these affordable DSLRs.
Nice to have these cheaper DSLRs for those who take their photography seriously, but what I object to is the way the manufacturers are trying to sell these things to Mr Average when really all he needs is a good quality compact, which don't exist anymore.
I agree with some of the other posters - hands off the web-based radio iPlayer. I paid my TV licence for years in the UK, now living in California, I listen to Radio 4 every day. I really don't know what I'd do without it.
I'd bet my last pound that the 24 hours in question is PST, as most people downloading this will be on the west coast of the USA. So if you're really that keen on helping them out to get the record, start downloading at 8am on the 18th in the UK.
As for plugins/add-ons, the really important one, AdBlock+, works with FF 3.0, that's all I needed to know!
Like someone said, what's the difference between a removable SD card and a removable tape/CD/MiniDisc? I remember seeing SanDisk players with SD card slots about 3 or 4 years ago. On the whole, it's a great idea, especially for all the tiny SD cards lying about in my drawer (I have a 16Mb in there!)
I like the idea of these internet radio boxes, but they're just too expensive. I found a much cheaper solution, a short-range FM transmitter for about 50 quid. I've got mine connected to the PC, can listen to anything, on any FM radio in the house (and about 200 feet around the house!) If these internet radio boxes were cheaper, I'd probably get one tomorrow
Samsung UN55B8000 55" LED TV (Widescreen, 1920x1080, HDTV)
LG Electronics 42LH30 42" LCD TV (Widescreen, 1920x1080, HDTV)
Samsung UN55B8500 55" LED TV (Widescreen, 1920x1080, HDTV)
Sony BRAVIA KDL-40EX400 40" LCD TV (Widescreen, 1920x1080, HDTV)
Samsung UN40B6000 40" LED TV (Widescreen, 1920x1080, HDTV)
70 posts • joined Friday 8th June 2007 09:33 GMT
Page:
JB
Pro DSLR → #
Posted Friday 12th March 2010 22:11 GMT
In Nikon D3s digital SLR
The high-ISO sample shots might not have been all that impressive technically (it's hard to get correct white balance under street lighting), but when you consider you can do nightime shots like this hand-held, that is impressive.
I would love to play with one of these professional-level cameras, but even if i had the money, i don't think I'd bother buying one - it's overkill. DSLRs are a pain, I find I take loads more pics when I take my old Canon A620 with hacked firmware, and I suppose actually pushing the shutter button and taking the pics is the most important thing, whatever camera you have.
JB
"Grandad... → #
Posted Wednesday 10th March 2010 23:37 GMT
In Intel's redemos six-core Gulftown
...tell me about the days when processors only had one core!"
JB
Growing old → #
Posted Saturday 27th February 2010 04:52 GMT
In BBC to cull radio stations, halve websites in painful biz review
To all those who are giving up on Radio 1, isn't it just natural that you're going to grow out of it? I used to listen to it all the time until the early 90s, then it just didn't appeal any more (except Mark & Lard).
At one time there seemed to be a ready-made progression of BBC radio: Radio 1 > Radio 2 and then you could add in Radio 4 or, if you were really cosmopolitan, Radio 3. But now that Radios 1 and 2 are just commercial-free clones playing bland rubbish, there just isn't anywhere to go.
Personally I find 6 music rather boring, but just because I don't happen to like it, doesn't mean it's crap.
Somebody needs to take some REAL radical (ie commercially suicidal) ideas to liven up radio, otherwise it's just going to die the death, if it hasn't already.
@AC: "And Shadow Culture Minister Jeremy Hunt is so far up the backside of the big media owners he can see what they had for breakfast." - that is genuinely funny, I've made a note of that!
JB
Ad blocking → #
Posted Friday 26th February 2010 21:47 GMT
In Fanboi Opera lovers get 10.5 beta
Opera is great, I run it alongside Firefox (my missus won't use anything other than FF for some reason). Only with there was an equivalent of AdBlock+ with opera, then it would be near perfect! Can't wait to try out the 10.5 beta.
JB
One way to stop all this rubbish... → #
Posted Saturday 13th February 2010 00:44 GMT
In Windows 7 'genuine' nagware winging its way to OS
...make the damn software cheaper...$200 for this is a bloody rip-off. XP is beginning to look creaky, I'd update to Win 7 tomorrow if it was half the price. If it weren't for the risks of getting a warez version of Win 7 I'd get it. Oh well, it's going to be XP until I can save up for 7!
JB
Different standard.... → #
Posted Thursday 4th February 2010 11:14 GMT
In iPad forces operators to shave their SIMs
...like that bloody annoying little blob of plastic on Apple USB connectors tat stops you using it on everything else. I suppose if you're rich enough to afford this rubbish, you're rich enough to buy bespoke USB leads and tiddly SIM cards. I dunno.
JB
Patio gas? → #
Posted Saturday 16th January 2010 21:59 GMT
In NASA Titan moon-balloons to run on cloud fuel
"Hot-"air" droid gasbag probes for patio-gas iceworld"
I chuckled at this one. Haha, one of the best so far this year!
JB
Not everyone... → #
Posted Wednesday 6th January 2010 23:46 GMT
In Sony confirms 3D TV channel plans
...can take advantage of this 3D technology. I have a very pronounced squint, and so cannot percieve 3D nearly as well as those with normal sight. At the moment 2D Tv is watchable by anyone, even spazmos like me with less-than-average eyesight.
I worry that at some point in the future 2D will be like black-and-white, sidelined and ultimately dropped. Perhaps I'm just worrying too much.
Let's have a good run with HD, large flat panels etc before all this ridiculous 3D rubbish.
JB
V for Prisoner → #
Posted Thursday 12th November 2009 01:42 GMT
In The Prisoner set for Sunday release
I doubt whether this will be any good. Just look at the remake of V running on ABC at the moment; pretty insipid, thinly veiled terrorist plots, etc. If The Prisoner isn't as disappointing as this, I'm a monkey's uncle.
JB
MPG in European cars → #
Posted Friday 9th October 2009 20:39 GMT
In Toyota Prius fourth-generation e-car
It amazes me that here in the States 30mpg is considered 'fuel efficient' when in Europe you routinely have cars that can do 40+mpg. Just imagine the money they could save here with a combination of cheap American petrol and European MPG levels! These Yanks haven't got a clue.
JB
Ex-pat licence fee → #
Posted Thursday 8th October 2009 00:45 GMT
In Top prices, old shows - the Beeb's iPlayer goes global
I and lots of other British ex-pats would pay an annual fee or monthly subscription to be able to access the normal UK Iplayer, including the radio channels in their full quality. It would be better than paying for a VPN, and you wouldn't have to have the torrents going all the time (cough).
Just a thought.
JB
Shots fired? → #
Posted Thursday 24th September 2009 20:18 GMT
In Ammo rationing at Wal-Mart as panic buying sweeps US
Nine billion rounds sold? I can't imagine 9 billions shots have been fired in a year in the US, let alone by civilians. Must be those right-wingers in the south. I'm a British ex-pat, and in the part of Northern California where I live I know nobody who owns a gun or wants to. Probably the same in most urban areas in California, except for the gang members and the minority of nervous householders. Probably a different story out in the countryside, though.
But honestly, why do you need a gun? If you come up against somebody with a gun who wants to rob you, having a gun isn't going to help you, it would probably make things worse.
If I encounter an intruder, I think I'll stick with one of my late father's shove-ha'penny trophies with the nice heavy marble base, that'll teach 'em!
JB
@teecee → #
Posted Monday 21st September 2009 06:00 GMT
In Apple iPod Nano 5G
Funniest thing I've read all day! Nice one!
JB
Stanches? → #
Posted Wednesday 16th September 2009 02:31 GMT
In Facebook acquires 300 millionth user
Shome mishtake shurely...staunches!
JB
Not in your area...again → #
Posted Monday 14th September 2009 22:17 GMT
In Tomorrow's World comes back to the future
Damn! All this wonderful stuff and I don't get to see it. Like this stuff's potentially commercially very lucrative or something! Looks like I'll have to shell out for a VPN in lieu of a TV licence!
JB
I rather like it → #
Posted Monday 7th September 2009 18:59 GMT
In Dell Latitude 2100
Just to be different. I like angular stuff, why does everything have to be curved these days? I like the rubberised coating, no creasy fingerprints all over a shiny surface. Yes, the spec is pretty mediocre, but if all you're going to use it for is surf the web and a bit of office now and again, who needs super-dooper processing power? If I had some spare cash (damn economy!) I'd snap one up tomorrow.
JB
Total fail → #
Posted Wednesday 26th August 2009 09:42 GMT
In US broadband speeds 15 years behind South Korea
When I came to California to live 2 years ago I left a 20 Mbps provider and now enjoy a 'blistering' (AT&T's word, not mine) 1.5Mbps connection and pay about the same for it. It's amazing just how much you miss the faster speeds, and how frustrating the slower ones are. Advantages are that you do get the full speed 24/7, and the full speed using newsgroups, but that's about it.
Come on, surely the most technology dependent country in the world can do better than this? Why are sods like Comcast dragging their feet?
JB
Price, dammit! → #
Posted Tuesday 25th August 2009 22:28 GMT
In Windows 7: Microsoft's three missed opportunities
You mention us XP diehards. I'd love to have Windows 7 on my machine, but the price is prohibitive, what with our household being on a very low income and tight budget. Surely they know that this is going to be on the vast majority of desktops, millions of them, so why not sell it as a loss-leader? It looks like we'll be sticking with XP at least until someone gives me and my missus a job!
JB
What? → #
Posted Thursday 20th August 2009 05:27 GMT
In Apple loses students to netbooks and Windows
spokesfolks?? Is this another El Regism?
JB
You couldn't make it up.... → #
Posted Friday 7th August 2009 20:34 GMT
In Man blames cat for child porn downloads
...though it certainly sounds like he did!
JB
Title → #
Posted Tuesday 21st July 2009 20:01 GMT
In German cops cuff Brit potato iPod scammer
Kartoffel durch Technik, as they say in Germany!
The old bait 'n' switch rides again!
JB
The bus to work → #
Posted Tuesday 7th July 2009 04:48 GMT
In Projector-phones due by Christmas?
First we had crap music through tinny speakers, now here's something else the effin schoolkids can piss us all off with on the bus to work. I say make these projector phones age-restricted, that'll teach the effers!
JB
Too late → #
Posted Wednesday 24th June 2009 21:50 GMT
In CGI Thunderbirds sadly not go
I admire Gerry Anderson for his staying power, but sure TV has moved on. ITV are a shell that just show dumbed down news or cheap reality shows between the adverts. I get the feeling Gerry still thinks ITV is what it was 15 or 20 years ago. Doesn't he realise they dropeed kids programmes years ago? And unless it's got Ant n Dec in ti, he won't get that early Saturday evening slot. Come to think of it, I'd like to see Ant n Dec stuck forever inside a communications satelite!
Sorry, Gerry, while I'm with you, I think you're flogging a dead horse.
JB
A fine sight → #
Posted Tuesday 2nd June 2009 16:44 GMT
In Atlantis hitches a ride to Florida
That really is a pretty impressive sight. But is it just me or does the aeroplane look better than the shuttle? The space-plane looks so boxy and ugly, you'd think it was built by GM!
JB
Oh well → #
Posted Monday 1st June 2009 08:33 GMT
In Sky shoots Swan Lake in 3D
May be a good idea, but for someone like me who has vision problems and who has a permanent squint, meaning my pupils aren't lined up exactly, no 3D technology will ever work. I remember having a go at those green/red glasses, just looked like green/red to me. Also those "magic eye" pictures were totally wasted, just looked like NTSC signal on a PAL TV!
I won't believe it until it's the sort of cube screen we were promised in the 70s, where you could walk around it like it was a glass case. Now THAT would be 3D!
JB
Sometimes good → #
Posted Sunday 24th May 2009 13:00 GMT
In British court backs eBay piracy stance
Look, if you see a Rolex being sold at a considerable discount, alarm bells should be ringing. I believe 110% in the saying "if it looks too good to be true..." etc.
Personally I lower my sights when it comes to buying on Ebay. It's great for generic stuff, like the USB2 IDE hard drive enclosure I bought for $12 recently, but anything branded, give it a wide berth!
Ebay isn't what it used to be anyway. The days of it being a sort of small-ads on speed are gone, it's just a cheap way to e-tail now.
(where's that sideways thumb icon??)
JB
Hmmm → #
Posted Wednesday 6th May 2009 20:01 GMT
In New Kindle: Wider, but still no broadsheet
Very nice. Don't think the price will do it any favours, though.
I am a bit of a luddite, you don't need batteries to read a paper book. But being partially-sighted, the idea of being able to enlarge the print is great - reading those old Ulverscroft large print books we had at school, it was like being shouted at.
I think I'll wait till the price crashes, and we get a good open-source book format.
PS: we have a thumbs-up and a thumbs-down icon, how about a thumbs-sideways for situation like this?
JB
Local radio, what local radio? → #
Posted Friday 13th March 2009 21:03 GMT
In Ofcom slaps Bristol radio for uncoolness
Like the man said, Ofcom need to conventrate more on this radio land-grab by the big media groups rather than whining about music.
It's such a shame that true local radio is virtually dead. The cycle was always the same:
Happen on new local station, with local presenters, good mix of music, that tinge of entertaining amateurishness. Then you tune in one day and there's some looped recording promising big changes on the way. And then the new station hits the air, it's borged and blandified overnight. You tune to the next-door station, get into that, same alien takeover happens. It's even more galling when you can tune between the two adjacent stations, they're playing the same bland tune at exactly the same time, only the adverts are different.
I'm originally from the so-called West Country, and grew up with stations like Severn Sound, Radio Wyvern, the original 80s GWR, DevonAir, all swallowed up by the media companies, all totally unlistenable. I now live in California, and the stations in my town are even more appalling than the UK commercial stations. The only difference is some are actually broadcast from my town, not fed down the line from a central studio to 57 other stations, masquerading as local.
When in the UK, I would tune in to the temporary special event radio stations, and even though I wasn't really into the music being played, I found the local presentation relly fresh and I'd keep listening. Let's have more of these.
JB
Mighty oaks... → #
Posted Friday 13th March 2009 20:49 GMT
In Fusion-io ups SSD ante
Come on, it's early days. I remember back in the late 80s when the PCs at our college had hard discs installed, and hefty 20Mb drives at that! Perhaps it won't be all that long before the hard drives of today look as dated as punched paper tape and magnetic drums.
JB
Re: Ah Halogen Days → #
Posted Friday 6th March 2009 21:56 GMT
In Bletchley's Colossus makes beautiful music
Don't you mean:
10 PRINT "Fuck off!"
20 GOTO 10
RUN out of Dixons
I remember back in the day seeing a couple of bad kids do that on a C64 in WHSmith, and laughing at the puny efforts of the clueless shop assistants trying to stop it. In the end they just switched off the Trinitron TV!
I can't imagine kids trying to do that on some laptop in Currys.digital.
JB
Retro look → #
Posted Friday 13th February 2009 05:06 GMT
In Bletchley Park fires up Big Green-Eyed Monster
I do like the wood trim and formica of these cabinets. Now if they could bring out a wood-trim Eee PC... :)
JB
Caching-in → #
Posted Monday 2nd February 2009 19:04 GMT
In Woolies to be resurrected as online-only store
I heard an interview with someone involved in this venture on Radio 4 this morning. The chap was gamely trying to convince us that it will be the same old Woolies only online. Yes, they're cashing in on the name, that's business, but why all the publicity crap about it being the same as the good old Woolworths? I suppose if they didn't bother trying to publicise it in that way, it would reveal the venture to be what it is, just another cookie-cutter e-tailer. I suppose it's Commodore and Littlewoods all over again.
JB
One-way traffic → #
Posted Monday 2nd February 2009 05:59 GMT
In White Space lobby leaps to Europe
I'd like to see a European lobbying group cross the Atlantic and try and strong-arm the Americans into some money-making scheme, they wouldn't last five minutes. Why is it always one way traffic? And this whole White Space concept sounds pretty dodgy. What sort of applications would it be used for? Seems to me only PMR radios that have a range of about 100 yards would work in these cirumstances, but then I'm not a lobbyist being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to push it.
JB
Not quite there yet → #
Posted Friday 30th January 2009 18:14 GMT
In Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 12Mp µ4/3s camera
I am quite excited by the concept of Micro Four-Thirds, and would love to get rid of my huge DSLR and monster lens in favour of something as small as this. But I think they need to cut the apron strings and try something more revolutionary. I'll wait till the G2 comes along!
JB
Oh no, please... → #
Posted Friday 23rd January 2009 21:41 GMT
In US to postpone analog TV death
Does that mean we have another 4 months of those bloody adverts with the woman in the funny pink coat or the 'cool cats' George Jetson wannabe ("Visit dtvanswersdotcom on your computation machine"); the live digital tests where your program is interrupted so you can stare at a screen saying 'digital ready' for a minute; and hearing the dread words "Are you ready for the digital switch?" and "My TV is DTV"? God help us all!
JB
At last! → #
Posted Thursday 22nd January 2009 02:25 GMT
In Disabling Windows Autorun - there's a right way and a wrong way
For years it has just pissed me off when that window keeps popping up whenever I put a DVD in the drive or attach a USB stick. Why didn't someone tell me about this years ago? :)
JB
Maybe then, but not now → #
Posted Monday 19th January 2009 21:21 GMT
In Opera sings praises of Microsoft-browser statement
Maybe back in the mid-90s, when relatively few people used the internet, would it have been advantageous to include a browser with the operating system, but they have no excuse now. Personally I think people should have more than one browser on their machine, for example I visited a site today and had to use my three browsers before I could get it to load properly. Either that, or there should be more publicity telling average users that other browsers are available, like on the Radio Times ads.
JB
@Steve - Newsgroups → #
Posted Wednesday 17th December 2008 00:07 GMT
In Virgin Media to dump neutrality and target BitTorrent users
When I was with VM, I had the 20Mb option. When I used Newsgroups the most I could get was 5Mb/s (that was using Windows...using Linux I got the full 20Mb/s!?!). Even if you ran multiple clients, the total was still 5Mb/s. So they're even on to that.
I'm now in the States and have AT&T broadband, it's a mere 1.5Mb/s, but at least it's *always" 1.5Mb/s, any time, whatever I'm doing.
JB
Great! → #
Posted Sunday 7th December 2008 00:33 GMT
In Norwegians spill Opera 10 alpha
I hope they've added the ability to open a new tab by right-clicking a bookmark entry and selecting from a context menu, and they've had a go at their content/ad blocker. Apart from that, Opera is just great, as far as I'm concerned, and I'll be giving the beta a go when it's available.
JB
Two-timer → #
Posted Sunday 16th November 2008 23:14 GMT
In Reg readers in Firefox 3 lovefest
I use both firefox and Opera about evenly. The issue with firefox, where scrolling pages with fixed backgrounds is sooooo sloooow annoys me to hell - how come Opera can do it? Opera has annoying features too, eg why can't you right-click in the bookmarks menu and open a bookmark in a new tab/window like in Firefox? Horses for courses, I suppose.
JB
Small is nice → #
Posted Tuesday 29th July 2008 20:05 GMT
In Dell's dinky designer desktop
I like these mini desktops, and if it came with XP I'd have one. How about its performance in hot weather? I had a PC with an AMD64 which gave up after a few weeks of 90+ degree temps here in California, and that was with lots of active cooling. Will this one give up when the temperature rises?
JB
Blank keys → #
Posted Wednesday 16th July 2008 00:32 GMT
In Quirky blank Qwerty keyboard goes on sale
I achieved the same effect by using the same, cheap-arse keyboard for 18 years, the letters just rub off anyway!
JB
Scrap Metal → #
Posted Thursday 10th July 2008 16:49 GMT
In Thieves take out Cable & Wireless centre
Yes, these idiots will steal anything rather than get a proper job. We recently hired a skip and filled it with household crap. The next morning we woke up to find two blokes clambering about on the skip with about 5 kids hanging around filling up a supermarket trolley with any metal bits they could find. We thought "not doing any harm' and left them to it. Three hours later they were still there. We rang my brothers; you should have seen the chavs' faces when a car pulled up and three huge blokes climbed out! They couldn't get that trolley down the road quick enough. Priceless! Now you see "No Scrap Metal' or "Building Waste Only" signs on all the skips round here. Sorry, a bit off topic, but there you go.
JB
Ugly → #
Posted Tuesday 1st July 2008 06:58 GMT
In Dualit DAB Lite radio
I agree with the comments about DAB radios being rather ugly. I bought a Roberts radio a few years ago and my father tut-tutted, wondering what the hell had happened to radios these days. Say what you like about the Evoke radios, but they're simple and effective. As for stereo, as long as it had a stereo headphone and/or outputs to a stereo amplifier, that would be just fine.
JB
Low-end DSLRs → #
Posted Saturday 28th June 2008 04:18 GMT
In Canon EOS 450D digital SLR
Something in me says that the manufacturers saw the potential to sell lenses and hastily dropped the 'bridge' cameras (good quality compacts like the G series, but on the G7 or G9) in favour of these affordable DSLRs.
Nice to have these cheaper DSLRs for those who take their photography seriously, but what I object to is the way the manufacturers are trying to sell these things to Mr Average when really all he needs is a good quality compact, which don't exist anymore.
JB
Hands off! → #
Posted Wednesday 25th June 2008 20:06 GMT
In Beeb's online music stations get rewind button
I agree with some of the other posters - hands off the web-based radio iPlayer. I paid my TV licence for years in the UK, now living in California, I listen to Radio 4 every day. I really don't know what I'd do without it.
JB
ZX1? → #
Posted Saturday 21st June 2008 18:17 GMT
In Asus confirms Lamborghini ZX1 specs
Surely an 8 missing here! Isn't it amazing just how much computing power phones have now. Imagine a phone powered by a ZX-81 computer....hmm
JB
Time Zone → #
Posted Thursday 12th June 2008 23:03 GMT
In Firefox record breaker sets the date
I'd bet my last pound that the 24 hours in question is PST, as most people downloading this will be on the west coast of the USA. So if you're really that keen on helping them out to get the record, start downloading at 8am on the 18th in the UK.
As for plugins/add-ons, the really important one, AdBlock+, works with FF 3.0, that's all I needed to know!
JB
Old News → #
Posted Thursday 12th June 2008 22:39 GMT
In SanDisk forecasts memory-less MP3 player future
Like someone said, what's the difference between a removable SD card and a removable tape/CD/MiniDisc? I remember seeing SanDisk players with SD card slots about 3 or 4 years ago. On the whole, it's a great idea, especially for all the tiny SD cards lying about in my drawer (I have a 16Mb in there!)
JB
Cheaper solutions → #
Posted Tuesday 25th March 2008 20:54 GMT
In Roberts WM-201 Wi-Fi internet radio
I like the idea of these internet radio boxes, but they're just too expensive. I found a much cheaper solution, a short-range FM transmitter for about 50 quid. I've got mine connected to the PC, can listen to anything, on any FM radio in the house (and about 200 feet around the house!) If these internet radio boxes were cheaper, I'd probably get one tomorrow
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