Try this
Marmite XO
http://www.marmiteshop.co.uk/productdetail.jsp?productPK=unittest-ia9HbdRrFyQb2k5hqN3IEb-1
Posts by Eponymous Cowherd
1596 publicly visible posts • joined 28 Nov 2007
Page:
Danish embassy issues MARMITE WAFFLE
Twitter vs Beeb in superinjunction nark shindy
HTC Wildfire S Android smartphone
3D fad fades for Yanks
Tuesday 24th May 2011 11:03 GMT
Have to agree
3D takes more away than it adds.
Sitting there for getting on for 2 hours with some cheap plastic polarising glasses perched over my own is bloody uncomfortable and, not only does it mute the colours, it also reduces the sharpness of the images.
Not sure if its resolution of 3d projection system, the poor optical quality of the 3D glasses, the reflections between the 3d glasses and my own or bleed-through between the right-left images, but 3D presentations always look decidedly less sharp than 2D.
Possibly this is a just a problem for four-eyes like me, but I find 3D to be paying more and getting less.
Digital Stream DPS-1000 BBC iPlayer set-top box
Tuesday 24th May 2011 08:59 GMT
Been looking at one of these
Maplin are flogging these for £90 and was quite interested. A bit of digging revealed quite a few complaints about reliability.
One forum commented that the www function used to exist, but was removed in a software update. Previously there were a lot of complaints about the browsers speed and its inability to cope with anything other than the simplest web pages.
Radio 4 bumped off Freeview by Gaelic TV
Monday 23rd May 2011 12:16 GMT
Actually
If I have the time I make a point of answering these surveys.....
And lying through my teeth. The trick is to give as absurd answers as possible without the numpty on the other end catching on.
Most recent one was a "survey" (i.e. sales/marketing bullshit), on my "energy supplier". Convinced the eejit that I generated my own electricity (PV and wind) and my own gas (bio-reactor).
Oh, and to avoid "perpetrating the making of unsolicited nuisance calls" I always inform them that they've been had at the end of the call. Just so they know that the last 1/2 hour has been a complete waste of their time.
Monday 23rd May 2011 11:58 GMT 
Fairly typical.....
BBC "Auntie knows best" attitude.
I'm guessing the biggest department in the BBC right now must be the Dept of Official Bullshit, responsible for explaining their more absurd decisions to us mere mortals.
The usual format is:
BBC does something stupid.
Masses of people complain.
BBC explains why *they* are right and why we should be bloody grateful.
Out of this World science fiction exhibition
Remastered 4K, 3D Titanic steams towards cinemas
Ricoh reveals paper-bright colour e-paper
Friday 20th May 2011 11:13 GMT
Needs a K layer
While it is sensible to use CMY instead of RGB for a reflective medium, they really need to add a K layer, or black print is going to look rather muddy.
Early colour inkjet printers (Canon, I think), didn't have any black ink and produced blacks by blending CMY. The result was text that looked a sort of muddy brown, which is just what you don't want for an eBook where the clarity of the text is the biggest advantage eInk has over LCD.
Big Brother man: TV viewers will swap privacy for content
Friday 20th May 2011 11:00 GMT 
Phorm lackey
Peter Bazalgette?
This is the arse who thought Phorm was a good idea?
I'll pay to watch programmes I want to see, I'll put up with ads to watch programmes I want to see, but I will not, under any circumstances, be "phormed" to watch something.
If there is anything I want to watch that is only distributed under Bazalgette's model I'll just get it from BitTorrent and feel completely and morally justified in doing so.
Grenade. Chew on this, Bazalgette!
Welshman attempts to board train with pony
Gates defends Ballmer's Skype gamble
Ofcom: Luvvies, TV signals can share spectrum
My Tracks travel tracker
Tuesday 17th May 2011 08:49 GMT 
I doubt.....
MyTracks has been around for ages and I doubt there is an Android user that isn't already aware of it, particularly the sort of tech-heads that frequent The Register.
And what's with the Buy from amazon.co.uk thing. I'm sure Ken Bruce is a great bloke, but he strikes me as more of an iPhone type.
Endeavour heads off on final mission
Train firm offers phone-based ticketing across UK
Thursday 12th May 2011 13:19 GMT
From experience
A 2D scanner works in exactly the same way as your phone camera. Its a CCD imager. It has a few refinements, such as IR illumination and an aiming reticle (it projects an aiming cross onto the barcode), but it basically takes a picture and processed what is seen, exactly as your Android does. For obvious reasons it is better to turn off the illuminator when scanning from backlit LCD screens.
As its just processing an image, it will work as well on 1D codes as 2D.
If you are only ever going to scan printed or etched 1D codes, a laser scanner has some big advantages. It provides its own illumination, and the scan-line acts as an aiming reticle in itself. It is also focus-free and will work more quickly and over a wider range of distances than a 2D head.
If you are going to be exclusively scanning 1D codes, and you are going to be scanning a lot of them, then a 1D laser head is your best bet.
If you are going to be scanning 2D, or a combination of 1D and 2D codes, and you are going to be scanning a lot of them, then a 2D head is your best bet.
If you are going to be scanning relatively few barcodes (not time critical), then a mobile camera works adequately, but will often fail on damaged or indistinct barcodes that the dedicated heads (particularly the 1D laser head) can read OK.
Thursday 12th May 2011 12:10 GMT 
On Reflection
***"Masabi has tried using normal bar-code readers but found mobile-phone screens to be too reflective"***
Actually, the reverse is the problem. A 2D scanner use, what is effectively, a digital camera to image the barcode. This works nicely with a back-lit LCD screen. It sees the barcode in the same way as your eyes do.
A 1D scanner is quite different. It scans the barcode with a laser and relies on the laser light reflected from the dark and light lines of the 1D barcode. While there is some issue with the reflectiveness of the screen, this can be worked-around by angling the scanner. The real problem is the way the 1D uses its own laser light reflected instead of that produced by the screen. To get an idea of what the scanner "sees", turn off the backlight of you phone and look at it under a bright red light..
e-ink does work well with 1D scanners, view a 1D barcode on the Kindle web browser. You will find it scans perfectly well.
Use of Weapons declared best sci-fi film never made
Thursday 12th May 2011 12:07 GMT
Sort of culture films.....
A couple of things on YouTube:
Someone's idea of a Culture orbital.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrMN8_yfzsw
Bored Human and Drone. The person who posted it thinks its based on The Culture. While it has a Culture feel to it, there are a number of things that don't seem quite right (No "aura" field on the drone, for one, and the names, for another)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ET8IFxPo61w
Thursday 12th May 2011 10:23 GMT
Poor surface detail
I doubt it will ever be a quid. The other Culture books are priced at a smidge under the paperback price, which is just about acceptable for a top-notch eBook, from a top author, perfectly formatted.
The trouble is, according to a number of reviews, Surface Detail has serious formatting problems, which would be unforgivable at the regular £4.99 price point, but at £8.99 its nothing short of criminal.
Thursday 12th May 2011 10:23 GMT
Frontline
I'm on #4 "Frontline, too", turning into a bit of a splatterfest with our heroes in the middle of it all :-D
Perhaps The Register might like to start reviewing some of these straight--to-eBook novels. Some, like Lalonde's, are pretty good, others are complete drivel, and it can be pretty hard to tell from the reviews as some people are either very easy to please or are friends of the author......
Wednesday 11th May 2011 12:29 GMT
Yes, and No
Consider Phlebas would make a great film because of its linear plot and strong primary characters.
Excession is one of my favourite "Culture" novels because of the way it concentrates on the interactions between a number of Minds. The problem is, how would you ever translate this into a film?
I'd like to see an Affronter, however.
Wednesday 11th May 2011 12:24 GMT
Another recommendation
Having been working my way through the "Culture" novels on my Kindle, I came to the latest "Surface Detail", only to discover the Kindle edition is *more* expensive (£8.99) than the hardback. No way am I going to pay that.
So I looked for something else to provide my sci-fi fix and came across the Spinward Fringe books by Randolph Lalonde. The first volume is free, so I thought I'd give it a go.
They are straight-to-ebook publications, so I wasn't expecting much. I was, however, pleasantly surprised. There are rough edges a-plenty, but its actually a damn good read and, because of its straightforward "space opera" plot, would make a decent TV series.
Steven Moffat fumes over Doctor Who plot leak
ACS:Law fined for data breach
Microsoft resuscitates 'I'm a PC' ads to fight Apple
Ten... fantasy gadgets you wish you owned
Virgin space rocketship trials 'feather' re-entry system
Thursday 5th May 2011 15:52 GMT
Its because they re-enter from orbital velocity.
The max speed reached by the Virgin thrill ride is about 2600 mph, by contrast a spacecraft in low Earth orbit is doing close to 16,000 mph.
That speed has to be dumped somehow. There are two ways to do this, powered decent, or aerobraking. Powered decent was used on the Moon because, obviously, there's no atmosphere and the low gravity makes it feasible ( Lunar orbital speed @ 2200 mph). Less speed to dump.
OK, so in order to *be* in orbit around the Earth you must be doing around 16,000 mph. Carrying enough fuel up to do a powered decent is unrealistic, so both the Virgin craft and (for example) the Space Shuttle, use aerobraking.
The difference is the shuttle needs to dump a *lot* more speed. Speed = energy = heat, hence all of the heat shielding.
The Virgin ride is, actually, kind of poor value compared to that $20m Soyuz flight if you take into account the amount of space-time you get per dollar. $200,000 buys you 6 mins, Mark Shuttleworh coughed up 100 times that, but got 11 *days* of flight time.
Star Wars: From dream sci-fi bride to perfect Blu-ray wife
Want an untracked Android? Here’s how
Thursday 5th May 2011 08:09 GMT
Only market apps
Unlike the iPhone, Android permits the installation of unapproved apps. Google has no control over these.
And, while Google *can* hit the killswitch for any Market app, they have only used it against genuine malware, again, unlike Apple, who can, and frequently have, used it against "off message" apps.
TalkTalk claims wooden spoon for highest level of broadband gripes
ICT classes in school should be binned – IT biz body
Thursday 21st April 2011 11:17 GMT
Its badly named in the first place.
From hearing what my kids are taught in what are laughably called "information and communications technology" classes, it appear to be more secretarial skills than anything else.
It a bit like calling driving lessons "Automotive and Engineering Technology".....
Doctor Who's Elisabeth Sladen dies at 63
Kindle beats Apple's closed book on choice
Wednesday 20th April 2011 10:43 GMT 
The fly in the eBook oinkment
Apparently authors and publishers are starting to panic about eBook piracy:-
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/861119-ebook-piracy-is-colossal-threat
Not realising that the problem is probably of their own making (well, as far as the publishers are concerned). The "Net Book" style cartel certain publishers have forced on eBook retailers results in eBook prices exceeding, in some cases, hardback prices:-
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Surface-Detail-ebook/dp/B00462RVHI/
note the "This price was set by the publisher"
Now, I don't know about anyone else, but I take exception to paying more for a couple of MB of data than I do for a thumping great 640 page hardback book. Particularly when the publishing and distribution costs are tiny compared to the hardback.
The price of Surface Detail in eBook form is particularly irksome as there have been may complaints about the quality of the conversion, so it seems the publisher couldn't even be arsed to proofread the digital version properly, despite its premium cost.
High Court squashes Digital Economy Act challenge
Wednesday 20th April 2011 11:41 GMT
How to beat the pirates
Give people the stuff they want at fair prices.
Take the latest debacle over eBooks. For a large number of best sellers and new releases the eBook price exceeds that of even the hardback edition. This is profiteering, pure and simple.
And now the publishers that concocted this price fixing "agency" model are starting to whine that their eBooks are appearing on BitTorrent.
Its not about "educating" people, its about trying to force them to buy overpriced goods and services. And that's how "freetards" are born.
I'm not much into music or movies, but I love a damn good read. Up until this week I was quite happy with my Kindle. So far every book I've looked at has been priced at, or just below, the paperback price. I've been working my way through Ian M Banks' "Culture" novels and bought every one through Amazon. Just got to his latest "Surface Detail".
The price of the Kindle edition is *more* than the hardback!!!
Am I going to pay that? Not a chance!!
So, for the first time, I looked to see if I could find it on BitTorrent, and there it was!!! Still umming and ahhing over whether to download it and dive into "fretardery", or not, but I have to admit its bloody tempting, and, in some ways, justified. The publisher is trying to rip me off, so is there anything morally wrong in repaying the compliment??
Now, I can well imagine how someone pissed off by stupid prices, etc, for a single title (book, music, or movie) could download *that* title, think "that was easy" and a "Freetard" is born.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
