Not normally one to have a thin skin, and I'm certainly not offended, but El Reg, perhaps the flippant slang and such isn't appropriate when discussing the executions of innocent people by a tyrant.
Posts by Greg J Preece
2481 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2009
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'Kim Jong-un executes nork-baring ex and pals for love polygon skin flick'
Tor usage up by more than 100% in August
Nintendo is FLATLY UNHINGED: New 2DS is a handful of game
Thursday 29th August 2013 09:04 GMT
I like it
No, really, I do. The 3DS was way too expensive at launch (the same as a Vita...really?), especially for such pointless gimmickery, but as usual for Nintendo, in amongst the avalanches of shovelware there were some games I fancied playing. Being able to get this for much less and still play 3DS games with it sounds great to me.
Wish it hinged though. Sure, the ergonomics on Nintendo handhelds are the worst, but the static design doesn't make this the most portable system ever.
BTW, is Nintendo making a 2D console that's compatible with all 3DS games basically an admission that the 3D stuff is totally pointless?
Sony sets dates for US and Euro PS4 unleashment amid Xbox heckles
Thursday 29th August 2013 09:10 GMT
Re: Finally, the bloody Vita!
Not arguing on technical merits but simply with what the market has said. When a console sells less than 6 million units in it's first 18 months it safe to say it will finish the generation as disappointing no matter how it finishes.
So it's bad because it's not as popular as something else? Errr....OK, good luck with that. I just want to enjoy good games on a good system. Couldn't give a shit how many other people join me.
Wednesday 21st August 2013 23:12 GMT
Re: Finally, the bloody Vita!
Give it up the Vita is an epic fail
Actually, it's a rather cracking piece of hardware, and the games that I've played on it were pretty enjoyable. Dear sweet mercy, I do love me some Super Stardust. And as a machine it kicks the shit out of the 3DS in my opinion. Sony just completely dropped the ball on marketing, and with those stupid, stupid memory cards.
You make a console that's a comparable price to the 3DS, is way more powerful, has better games (again, for my preference), has some seriously sweet hardware and features, and you can't capitalise on that? Even accounting for Nintendo's somewhat rabid core fanbase, that's still ridiculous.
By the way, I fully intend to buy a Vita over a 3DS. As an owner/previous owner of two PSPs and two DSs, my PSP library was at least 100% larger for a long long time. Sure, the PSP had fewer games, but a far higher percentage of them were of a high quality. The DS has suffered from the same shovelware problem the Wii had. The Vita/3DS battle will turn out the same, I reckon. Being popular doesn't make the 3DS a better machine, after all.
I already own several games for the Vita (cross-purchase FTW), and I have numerous more lined up thanks to my excellent PS+ subscription, which Nintendo has no answer to. I've just been waiting for the right moment.
TL;DR - dual thumbsticks. Vita wins. ;-)
Wednesday 21st August 2013 16:36 GMT
Finally, the bloody Vita!
Pleeeeeaaasseee, Sony, put the effort into the Vita now that you should have put in when it launched. Remote play is a good start, but come on, the real benefit is continuation play, and damned if you didn't fuck that up. It'll be harder to do with PS4 games, true, but it's a huge benefit, as is buying a multiple-platform release as I did with Sly 4.
Really glad to hear that the memory card prices are coming down. Does anyone know when this price cut comes in? Been waiting for the right moment to buy a Vita and I think now is a good one.
Firefox takes top marks in browser stability tests
Wednesday 21st August 2013 23:07 GMT
Re: >I'm thinking these Safari 6 results might be from a Mac
Upvote from me. And regarding your downvote - leave it to a fanboi to downvote a simple statement of facts.
I was wondering about that... Oh well, that's the reality distortion field for you.
While we're discussing Safari features that make my piss boil - how about not only blocking popups by default, but not informing the user in any way that you've blocked something? There's a section of our site that has a popup by necessity, and we had to add a blurb for Safari users telling them that yes, the site is in fact working.
Wednesday 21st August 2013 16:42 GMT
Interesting that Safari and Opera have such high error rates while Chrome is so low, considering that all three use the Webkit engine as their foundation (ISTR Opera switched to Webkit a while back didn't they?)
Chrome are switching off to their own fork of Webkit, and I think Opera are following them onto it. The name of the new engine escapes me.
Wednesday 21st August 2013 16:39 GMT
I knew a dev who did this. Literally shed loads of tabs open.
When I asked him how that helped him in his role, he said it did. So I asked him what he was working on, and he spent 10 minutes trying to find it.
I'm a dev myself. I normally have around 10-15 tabs open, which breaks nothing. I might have more if I'm searching for something, but usually if I'm above 15 I decide that I must be getting distracted, and force myself to close anything irrelevant.
Tuesday 20th August 2013 21:35 GMT
Re: Nice results generally
Agreed. IE began visually improving in leaps and bounds from IE7, and from IE9 onward I've really had no problem with it. The public at large still slags it off because it's unfashionable, but at a technical level the recent ones are vastly improved. I never tend to have stability issues with any browser any more, really, except reKonq, but while reKonq is a vast improvement over Konqueror, it's still shit, and that's coming from a KDE fanboy.
British spooks seize tech from Snowden journo's boyfriend at airport
Brits: We can stop trolling if we know where they live - poll
Engineer's $30m windfall from Nintendo 3DS patent spat SLASHED by beak
New blinged-up 'iPhone 5S' touted by Jobs FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE
Monday 12th August 2013 17:20 GMT
Re: I can’t wait, give it a few years…
I was thinking the Immortal Emperor from Battletech/Earthsiege/Starsiege, but then I played waaaaay too much Starsiege as a kid.
Wait, what am I saying? It's impossible to play too much Starsiege. Hell, I hooked a Steel Battalion controller into my PC for that game.
Monday 12th August 2013 17:15 GMT
According to the tech titan's government liaison Michael Foulkes, Jobs oversaw the design of two models of iPhone to go on sale after his death.
Well that's typical Apple innovation right there. Still using designs from a dead CEO means they're revolutionary and super advanced and ahead of the curve, right?
Mother of Chelyabinsk spotted
Monday 12th August 2013 17:13 GMT
Re: Wait a minute
Maths. Lots and lots of maths. We've plotted the orbits of many trans-Neptunian objects (including the not-planet Pluto) despite not having known about them long enough to have observed anything like their full orbits. We just plug what we do know into our gravitational models of the star system and let the computer do the rest.
Over-simplifying, naturally.
Barbie paints Red Planet pink with NASA-approved Mars Explorer doll
Google SELLS OUT the INTERNET HIPPIES! AGAIN!
Friday 2nd August 2013 00:41 GMT
On Google's side on this one. Those seem like fairly ordinary ISP terms, and if Google is actually running 1Gb connections without caps, it seems like a reasonable restriction...if...
...Google have a reasonable charge (say a few bucks a month) that would make that clause go away. I've always paid extra to use tech-friendly ISPs. I pay the additional amount so that they'll throw me a static IP or two and not give a shit about server usage. I don't mind paying a little more for connection perks that would take me outside the category of a general user - I'm guessing that Google is referring to always-on servers here rather than uPnP game servers and the like.
Mozilla ponders blinkers for your browser
Friday 26th July 2013 09:51 GMT
Re: God bless his little Royal Highness!
The real question is why would they bother reading the words of someone who can't coherently form a sentence, and who thinks Britain would be better served by "President Blair" / "President Cameron" / "President Clegg" <- That one is so good :-D
I hear this rather odd objection every time I argue with someone over the royals. Are you allergic to the word "president" or something? Does it physically hurt you to read it? Why not, then, keep on calling them a Prime Minister, and just ditch the pointless monarchy part?
Pikmin to the rescue: Can Nintendo revamp revive Wii U fortunes?
Wednesday 24th July 2013 16:02 GMT
The problem is I can say that about almost EVERYTHING that gets released on all platforms any more.
No, you couldn't, because I was referring to Nintendo specifically as the poster child for franchise stagnation. There's nothing wrong with sequels at all, but you need other stuff too. Whereas, say, Sony went to great lengths at E3 to point out all the sweet indie stuff arriving on the console, as well as some interesting looking oddball games I'd not seen before, Nintendo just keep on churning away.
Same knee-jerk response I get every time I criticise Nintendo: Nintendo isn't bad, because everyone else is just as bad. Nope, they're not.
Wednesday 24th July 2013 14:31 GMT
But it's cheaper.
Because the tech is old.
And the games are cheaper.
Because many of the games are also old.
Pikmin 3 is starting to tickle my fancy, but it's just another Ninty sequel, and I've had more than enough of those. The Wonderful 101 has my attention, as does the recently announced Mysterious Cities of Gold game.
I might get one, maybe when they're cheaper, and only after I get a new gaming PC, PS4 and possibly a Vita. ;-)
WAR ON PORN: UK flicks switch on 'I am a pervert' web filters
Linux 3.11 to be known as 'Linux for Workgroups'
Tuesday 16th July 2013 14:25 GMT
Re: @Greg J Preece
What precise features are you missing from nvidia drivers, apart from the ability to read their source code?
More to the point, what features have you missed from nvidia drivers for the past 5 years, during which time every single nvidia graphics card going back to the geforce 2 has been fully supported on linux, BSD and solaris.
Down, boy! I was referring to optimisation, where the nVidia cards are - like the Radeons - still faster on Windows by significant amounts. nVidia have done waaaay better with their Linux support up to now, but they're not perfect, so simmer down. :-p
Tuesday 16th July 2013 14:23 GMT
That's more a result of the unstructured architecture of Linux compared to Microsoft's optimised model. I wouldn't expect to see that fixed any time soon.
Utter, utter nonsense. Valve's initial port of L4D2 ran faster on Linux by quite a way. Some of the original Eyefinity multi-monitor demos were running on Linux, apparently. When the software running on it is properly optimised (which is what AMD are doing), Linux is by no means slower than Windows.
Please go and read up on Linux graphics capabilities so you have the slightest notion what you're talking about.
Monday 15th July 2013 20:26 GMT
Most notably, AMD has contributed more than 150 patches that improve support for Radeon graphics cards, including support for new hardware and for dynamic power management in the open source driver.
Can't wait for this! Nice to see AMD continuing to improve their Linux support after the release of Steam on the platform. The cards are still woefully underpowered when running under Linux, compared to Windows.
Unreal: Epic’s would-be Doom... er... Quake killer
Tuesday 16th July 2013 14:17 GMT
but it was Parallax's space-sim Descent and iD's Quake that took it to the next level: out went the sprites and in came characters and enemies all modelled in 3D - although, certainly in Quake's case, at the cost of a limited colour palette and a limited lighting model*.
iD and its lead coder John Carmack set the bar for first-person shooters.
And again we're going to ignore Future Shock? The game that came out before Quake, but had 3D enemy models, was the first game with mouse-look, featured driving and flying levels, had a better storyline, had better atmosphere, had huge (for the time) free-roaming levels encouraging exploration, etc, etc.
Incredible game, that never gets appreciated, so I'm always hearing how an inferior game released later "set the bar".
Oh please, PLEASE bring back Xbox One's hated DRM - say Xbox loyalists
Thursday 11th July 2013 15:19 GMT
A solid percentage of the moans would have evaporated if the announcement of the XBO was identical in every way but with "..games will now only be £24.99 as a result of these changes"
Ahahahahahahahaha, no. Which Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft are you thinking of? Last I checked, games on the online console stores were usually way more expensive at launch, not cheaper. Far Cry and FIFA were 60 quid at launch, and 35-45 in the stores.
If you honestly think they would have reduced prices like that, when you would have no other way of sourcing the games, you're naive.
Texas teen jailed for four months over sarcastic Facebook comment
Monday 8th July 2013 20:06 GMT
Totally on the kid's side here. El Reg didn't replicate his emphasis either. He was clearly speaking in that Internet dialect known as HURR DURR. You would need to be utterly ignorant of so many things to not realise that what he said was a joke. Another atrocious oppression from a fear-mongering government.
US public hate Snowden - but sexpot spy Anna Chapman LOVES him
Monday 8th July 2013 20:13 GMT
The American public is turning against NSA leaker Edward Snowden, with increasing numbers of people now believing he was wrong to reveal details of secret US government surveillance, a survey has found.
I do wonder, has the almost non-stop propaganda the government has levelled at him had anything to do with that?
You know, because they spent far more time attacking the person who pointed out their massively illegal activities, rather than - I dunno - doing something about their massively illegal activities.
15 MILLION dodgy login attempts spaffed all over Nintendo loyalists
INVASION of the UNDEAD ANDROIDS: Hackers can pwn 'nearly all' devices
Ubisoft admits major hacking breach, advises password change
Tuesday 2nd July 2013 22:05 GMT
Re: What they say and what they do.
Well the consoles in question are still in pre-order, but...
http://www.ibtimes.com/ps4-vs-xbox-one-nearly-80-percent-gamers-would-still-prefer-ps4-if-it-cost-500-according-poll-photo
http://www.dailygame.net/features/ps4-pre-orders-dropping-hard-at-amazon-except-one
Apparently the PS4 was outselling the 180 at a 2:1 ratio, until Microsoft reversed their DRM bullshit. Now Microsoft sales are on the up again and we might have an actual fight on our hands. I have far less venom for the console now than I did, I'll admit, but it's still more money for less grunt, and I can't forget that they tried this crap, even if it failed.
Firefox OS mobilises HTML5, without the added Steve Jobs
Chinese 'nauts return to Earth after vigorous space coupling
Galaxy S4 way faster than iPhone 5: Which?
Stock dips as fanbois complain of dodgy Wi-Fi on MacBook Air
Wednesday 26th June 2013 13:55 GMT
Re: Apple seems to have had a history on this.
Putting a computer into a metal case might be a good excuse to slap a premium onto the retail price but it can't be very beneficial for wifi reception.
No, but it does allow you to keep using your unbelievably shit cooling methods that don't put any unsightly vents into the body - just dump heat into the casing! ;-)
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/01/30
Wednesday 26th June 2013 13:52 GMT
I just went and took a look at the Apple stock history. They've lost nearly half the value of the company since October? To be honest, I think that's a clear indication of how much of their value is based on hype and advertising. With the demise of the Dear Leader, and then their continued failure to actually bring anything new & interesting to the table, people are starting to admit that maybe the iPhone wasn't as awesome as they made it out to be.
If you're a tech company that ties all your value to your image, and the fashion changes, you're knackered.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
