* Posts by stucs201

1293 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Feb 2010

Ten... wireless keyboards

stucs201

Clicks FTW

Not just the Model M, but anything with Cherry's 'blue' switches. Not quite as loud as buckling springs, but personally I prefer them. By Cherry's standards the one reviewed here probably is quiet, though I suspect not as good a keyboard as one of their more conventional ones with 'brown' switches.

Middlesbrough cabbie relieves lad of iPhone

stucs201

What this proves..

..is that despite el reg's incessant rambling on the subject we DON'T want to use our phones to pay for stuff...

UK tech retailers are rubbish

stucs201
Pint

Getting way off topic

We're getting a bit off topic, so I'm not going to continue (especially since I've seen how long this discussion can get, e.g. : http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1029&thread=37301241&page=1

(Pint? A glass we can hopefully agree on)

stucs201

Er no actually.

If I wanted any filter for protection I'd want a decent quality 70 quid bit of glass that won't cause flaring and degrade the image. Mulitply that up by a few lenses and you get to the point where you're getting to the cost of a lens (or at least a front element replacement). Most of the time though the stuff thats likely to get on a lens isn't as likely to scratch as the shards of glass from a broken filter would be if the lens suffered an impact that the hood didn't absorb.

stucs201

Not just computers and teles

Places that sell cameras can be fun too. They tend to know nothing other than what the 'megapixel' and 'times-zoom' labels say. When it comes to SLRs they have their own special additional tat sale - the 'protective filter' (yeah great, stick a 15 quid bit of window glass in front of my 500+ lens, when a hood would offer more real protection if you sold one that wasn't a generic rubber thing that causes vignetting at wide angles). For a giggle see if you can find one that knows anything about prime lenses other than "they don't zoom".

My favourite though comes from Halfrauds. When I wanted a wired connection from iPod to the standard headunit in my 206 I thought I'd see what they had available, rather than wait for something to arrive in the post. I found a nice helpful booklet fixed to the edge of the shelf, but nothing actually on sale. When I found an assistant to ask he insisted that there was no such thing and that I needed either a new headunit or an FM transmitter. I pointed him at his own shop's info, but he said he knew better because his was the 206 GTI in the carpark, obviously I knew nothing because I only have a 1.4. I was really tempted to go back and find the guy when my connector from ebay arrived

stucs201

Interesting you mention toys-r-us

I remember many years ago reading a pcplus round-up of high-street pc retailers. Toys-r-us seemed to be an odd inclusion, until they turned out to be the only ones that were any good.

Matrix 4 and 5 in works, threatens Keanu

stucs201

Plot issues aside Bullet Time and 3D could be a good match

If they're using so many cameras at different angles anyway then it'd at least be likely to be shot properly, rather than post-processed 3d.

Apple seeks touchscreen display mouse patent

stucs201

an LED, LCD, OLED, or TFT display inside...

...so one based around a small CRT would be a way to avoid patent infrinement? It'd also solve the problem of providing a nice curved surface, rather than a flat one.

stucs201
Thumb Down

Are they also patenting the transparent hand?

I find I can't see very much of the top of my mouse when using it, because my hand covers it. Perhaps a tactile system would avoid the opacity problem? Some sort of raised area to indicate the clickable bits perhaps? In an advanced model they could even be made to move to provide feedback that the input had registered.

Or perhaps I don't need a transparent hand, perhaps I'm just 'holding it wrong', but Apple would never use such an excuse, would they?

German docs develop remote-control stomach submarine

stucs201
Pint

The stomach is a really bad place for a submarine

Don't they remember the bad guy getting digested in Inner Space?

Beer? Far more suitable stomach contents.

Case cut-outs connote iPad 2 SD, HDMI connectivity

stucs201
Joke

Are we forgetting last years amusement at the name?

Surely the important questions are is the absorbancy better and does it have wings?

Steve Jobs takes 'medical leave of absence' from Apple

stucs201
Joke

Not ill

All it means is his prototype iPad2 is ready and he wants a week lazing in bed to play with it.

Boffins play 'Pac-Man' with tiny living organisms

stucs201
Joke

Totally irresponsible

So, the true cause of nasty superbugs is revealed. Its not abuse of anti-biotics or poor hospital cleanliness. Its caused by these boffins being too keen to direct the bugs to the power pills.

Harder to read = easier to recall

stucs201
Unhappy

jelly-printed handouts* we had at school were almost illegible

We had one particularly useless teacher whose lessons largely consisted of writting over the top of such handouts in pencil to make them legible. I remember very little except the tedium.

PC market limps into 2011

stucs201
WTF?

Yeah, really in trouble

"Oh noes, we sold 2.4 million more PCs than last year! How will we cope?"

stucs201

Erm..

...realise that AC was commenting on the article as a whole, not replying to your comment about one particular paragraph.

story gone

stucs201
FAIL

Yeah, really stupid

I voted for the 'skip this vote' link below the vote button in protest at being forced to vote in categories where I didn't care or didn't like any of the options.

'Methanotroph' bacteria feasted on blown BP rig's methane belch

stucs201
Flame

Solution

To ensure they don't accidentally escape we should get on with extracting them in a controlled fashion and burn them!

Gov gone wild: Mad new pub glasses, bread freedom introduced

stucs201
Paris Hilton

Stuff 1 litre

I've got a 2 pint stein at home (to the line, extra room for a proper head). I did once persuade a pub to serve me in the similar glasses they had behind the bar for decorative purposes.

(Paris? I mentioned head...)

stucs201
Pint

Proper Pubs vs the rest

I think they only 'pubs' that will care are those that charge 4 quid for a pint of fizzy piss (if you can even get a glass, rather than a 330ml bottle for the same price). These places will now take the opportunity to sell a 'schooner' for 4 quid. Proper pubs, selling proper beer will continue to do so in proper measures at proper prices (some can even still manage it in proper glasses with dimples and handles).

stucs201
Thumb Up

Even better

One day I hope to live somewhere with a proper local boozer worth frequenting often enough to to leave a tankard behind the bar.

LG uncloaks six-foot 3D TV

stucs201

The glasses problem is easy to solve, if only manufacturers would do it.

All it needs is a place to mount a prescription lens in the 3D specs. The cost of popping them down to specsavers wouldn't be much compared to the tele itself.

Asus to punt Core i5 Windows 7 tablet

stucs201

Is it *just* a big tablet?

Or is it also a small all-in-one desktop? That they mention keyboards hints that they may have also considered this use.

stucs201

Why not both in one device.

What I'd really like is a tablet pc and secondary monitor/external hard drive in one.

My PC is a desktop, which suits me fine most of the time. Occasionally something useable on the sofa would be nice, but not often enough to buy a device just for this. However if when using the desktop I could power down the computer part of the tablet and connect it to the deskop's HDMI and USB ports and it behave as a monitor and hard disk that might be enough to persuade me.

(Before anyone else says it, yes I believe you can get iPad apps to use them as external monitors, but that seems a terrible clunky way of doing what should be achiveable with a simple hardware connector and a switch).

stucs201
Thumb Up

Actually I quite like the look of this

Sure its not as portable as a 7 or 10 inch device. However when I first saw the iPad I didn't see it as a device to carry around (except perhaps for the briefcase toting crowd). I saw it as a device for the coffee table as a companion to a desktop machine. This would also seem to fit that use.

Even at 12" I'd not expect this to be too big to manage for that use. We're looking at something with a similar area to an A4 piece of paper, a size long ago proved to provide a useful working area without being unweildy. Yes its thicker than a piece of paper, but so is an A4 notepad (the paper variety).

For this use of mostly going from the coffee table to the sofa weight and battery life are a little less crucial than a device to be carried in your pocket all day.

Amazon wraps up Kindle crashes

stucs201

Not the same problem at all.

The iPhone doesn't work properly *unless* its in a case.

The Kindle doesn't work properly *if* its in a case.

Exactly the opposite.

World+Dog says 'no thanks' to 3D TV

stucs201

Impossible to watch in 3D

Not too many that wouldn't be watchable in black and white either. That doesn't mean that colour isn't nice to have.

3D isn't essential, but if its done properly (i.e. filmed that way, not post processed) its also nice to have.

stucs201
FAIL

Timescale?

Crucially you left out the timescale: 12 months.

Over that timescale I'd have been a no to buying a 3D tele. But the answer is the same if you're asking about a 2D plasma, a 2D oled or a 4:3 black and white CRT. I have a working tele (well 3 in a household of 2 people), its unlikely to break in the next 12 months, so no I won't be buying a tele of any description. Now, will my next tele be a 3D one? Almost certainly, but that purchase is just further in the future than they were asking about. I suspect similar reasoning holds for a lot of people.

Famous 'Silhouette' Flash illusion unravelled

stucs201
WTF?

Above == Clockwise?

How's that work then? Looking down could still mean either way. The only logic I can find why brains might prefer one way to the other would be if it was natural to assume that the start position was with the model facing towards the viewer. But that assumption gives anti-clockwise (as viewed from above), so even that obviously isn't how most peoples brains work either.

Enormous 1km ice-cube machine fashioned at South Pole

stucs201
Dead Vulture

How did you miss...

...the obvious potential for chilled (preferably alcholic) drink jokes?

IBM super cleared for trivia showdown with humanity

stucs201
Terminator

At least...

...they didn't call it Joshua and decided on Jeopardy and not Tic-Tac-Toe to add to their repetoire.

Ten... sub-£150 PMPs

stucs201

Fair point

I'd forgot flight mode.

stucs201

Depends what you're using it for.

While your argument that two separate devices is a faff when they both live in a pocket and music is listened to on headphones makes sense, that usage pattern doesn't fit everyone.

For example, my mp3 player is mostly used in the car. This is somewhere where I'm unlikely to answer a phone call, and even if I did pressing the power button on the car stereo isn't much hassle (and exactly the same as if I'm listening to the radio or a CD I've not yet ripped).

Alternatively I might use it as for background music at a party (not letting drunk guests near the computer!). If my phone rings then I certainly don't want music pausing automatically, I want to be able to give lost late guests directions without pissing off the ones who've already arrived.

Then there are times when all I want with me is the phone because I'm somewhere where there is already music. On those occasions I'd much rather have a small dumb phone, not a relatively big smartphone.

There might even be times when I want music, but not to be interrupted by calls. Its much easier to switch your phone off and leave the mp3 player on when they're separate devices.

Is cloud data secure?

stucs201

Another thing

Some organisations go to the trouble to physically destroy hard disks when data needs to be disposed of irrecoverably. I can just imagine Amazon/Google/Whoever's reaction if you phone up and ask them to destroy their storage farm.

Orange to ship 0.5m touch-pay phones next year

stucs201
Coat

Payment method already integrated into other devices

But if they replace credit cards with phones how am I going to get ice off my windscreen? No way I'm using a 300 quid phone to scrape ice when I used to get a shiny gold ice-scrapper for free from Barclays.

(mines the one with a pile of snapped credit cards in the pocket)

Google questions tests that praise IE's bad website blocker

stucs201
Joke

open sauce browser

Is that ketchup or HP?

Sony PlayStation Network vs MS Xbox Live

stucs201

It depends.

Sure my PC is my first choice for web browsing. However its not always appropriate, typically if I can't sleep and want to do something other than lie in bed pointlessly. The PC is upstairs and the fans and clicky keyboard (proper keyswitches FTW) are likely to wake the girlfriend. Sure I could use the work laptop, but prefer my browsing done on my own machine. Phone, hmm its OK for websites with a mobile version, but being a small non-smartphone its a bit awkward for other stuff (though it does work). Which leaves the Wii, not the best experience due to the low resolution, but still quite useable.

The year's best... PC games

stucs201
Coat

re: will there be cake

The cake is a lie!

(mines the one with the weighted companion cube in the pocket)

stucs201

CIV V

Its a Civ game. 'Nuff said.

Apple chap knocks up ancient Lego computer

stucs201
Joke

But can it play....

....no actually, I can't be bothered to make the Crysis joke today...

Flash is not that reliable

stucs201
FAIL

Apples and Oranges

Without knowing the size of the SSDs this is meaningless. If I've got 2TB of data to store then for a meaningful comparision I need to know what is the chance of a failure occuring somewhere in the big pile of SSDs I'd need to store that data. Without knowing the SSD capacity I don't know how big that pile is...

US Air Force studies fruit-flies to build killer insect swarm drones

stucs201
Joke

Possible problem

So if these are modelled on flys does this mean they'll be able to find there way into a building through a half-open window, but completely unable to get back out again?

Nokia patents touch-tastic NFC operator leapfrog

stucs201

re: Solution looking for a problem

I don't think you needed to go beyond your first sentence. This whole paying with things with phones thing at all seems like a solution in search of a problem, however its implemented.

Steelie Neelie floats pan-European phone number notion

stucs201

Bonjour parlez vous anglais?

Yeah great, so instead of people in England getting a call centre somewhere outside Europe that doesn't speak english very well, French people calling the call centre that doesn't quite speak French and Germans getting frustrated with someone who barely understands German we can all phone the same call centre that doesn't speak any of them!

Unfeasibly vast amphibian found croaked on video card

stucs201

How did it die?

Did it kermit suicide?

Ten... dirt-cheap voice phones

stucs201

Is the tracker really for when its stolen?

Or is it for parents to give to their kids and know where they are?

Apple patents glasses-free, multi-viewer 3D

stucs201

To: Peter Gathercole (no nasty twitter style addressing from me)

My comments weren't really directed to you, though technically I think I clicked reply on your post as the last in a thread. The comments were directed more towards the whole 'its not exactly like the real world and therefore crap' argument that gets raised here everytime an article on 3D films/tv/displays appears.

stucs201

So what if stero vision isn't quite a complete system of depth cues?

If you'd been around in the days when artists were starting to use perspective properly in their paintings would you have been telling them not to bother with that too? Proper use of perspective was a step forwards. Stereo based 3d is a step forwards. No sense in not taking one step just because we can't take them all at once.