Posts by Dave 126

How many people do you know currently own a Dremmel rotary tool? Like a dentists drill, it can be used for polishing, engraving, cutting and sanding. It is useful, and costs around £80. I know of two people who own one- a professional sculptor and and a hobbyist jewellery maker. I can't see the market for consumer 3D printers being much bigger.

One area where 3D printing bureaus can make a dent is in undercutting replacement parts. My Whirlpool tumble-dryer had a small plastic door latch that melted, and their website very efficiently charged me £18 for a replacement.

Re: Cores

Yeah, a certain component benchmarking and testing website suggests that beyond a certain point, many modern games just don't tax more powerful CPUs too much, and the money be better spent elsewhere.

I can't remember whether Bill Bryson was commenting on British place name pronunciations, or English pub names, but he did note "at the very least, it should confuse foreigners".

Re: fah

But playing with other people in a comfy lounge can make up for it.

Re: I'm so glad I didn't buy Colonial Marines.

>Probably best to avoid Vince Wards "Alien 3 : Wooden Monastery Spaceship" script thou.....

Personally, I'd say take a peek at the concept art...

http://www.thescifishow.com/2012/10/blog/the-wooden-wonder-of-alien-3s-lost-world/

Bonkers, but something about the concept art reminds me of Giger's paintings.

Re: I'm so glad I didn't buy Colonial Marines.

If you want a good sequel to Aliens, then look online for the 'William Gibson Alien 3 script'. A few elements were plucked out and used in Alien 3 (barcode tattoos), Alien: Resurection (mercenaries/rebels) and Prometheus (the Alien 'DNA'), but really, its mainly Corporal Hicks kicking Alien arse in a massive populated science station. There's even a nod to Silent Running, when Hicks ramps a 4x4 through a biodome.

I do think that the Android licencees could have bashed their heads together ad come up with a decent docking solution, be it for for power, car kits and AV output. Google could have taken a lead- surely they can see that many people choose iDevices for the range of available accessories?

The very fact that different android manufacturers differ amongst themselves on their implementation of headset remote controls is irritating. Most quality makers of headphones offer iPhone compatible versions; the selection for Android phones is thinner on the ground.

Jelly Bean introduces to Android some more tricks for outputting audio through uUSB, but its not the best connector, and not suited for just dropping into a cradle like Nokias of old.

Re: It's just too damn big!

Then buy an iPhone. Or an Xperia P, or Galaxy S III Mini, or something else.

Re: I would like

Have you tried machining polycarbonate? Try it on an old CD. It's better moulded, or pressed (which can be done at room temperature for some forms).

Multicore chips are an effort to save battery power - the idea is that fewer / efficient cores are used for keeping the phone ticking over, and the other cores are only called into action when required.

If you want a solid aluminium, dual core phone with a 4" display, you might consider a Sony Xperia P- and it's not too pricey. Okay, it doesn't have a removeable battery, but i get on quite well with with a little Li-ion USB battery pack I bought from Lidl. It doesn't have a uSD card slot, but it does support USB OTG, so a card reader can be connected (note: the Nexus 4 doesn't offer this facility). The Xperia P doesn't have stock Android, but the Sony customisation isn't too offensive.

Its camera is alright, but nothing special in low light. There isn't really any substitute for size when it comes to low light pictures (bigger sensor, brighter lens), so maybe you want a Nokia Pureview or a dedicated compact camera.

Re: What I'd like to see...

I think Moto do a phone with an extra big battery option, and the Sony TX has a swappable battery.

"and the flagship DROID RAZR MAXX HD has the same 3,300mAh battery that was first introduced in the DROID RAZR MAXX" - http://www.phonedog.com/2012/09/10/motorola-s-big-gambit-is-extra-large-batteries-and-it-might-just-work/ September 2012

Re: Cupertino, start your photocopiers

I've had an NFC phone for some time now, and have no use for the feature. That said, I was recently doing some work on a house, and thought that being able to embed passive FC tags in the walls, for future identification of water pipes etc would be handy, if the tags were cheap enough.

Now, that IR transmitter on this SG S 4 does seem useful. Strange that it hasn't been featured on more smartphones in recent years, given it was a coveted feature on Casio wristwatches amongst schoolkids in the nineties.

Re: whopper

>My rather basic concern is, can this thing actually fit in your trouser pocket ?

What Grant said. Your Pockets May Vary.

Re: Where is the innovation?

>My phone still can neither make me a cup of tea, nor a bacon sandwich!

Depends if you have a model with an overheating (or self-combustible) battery!

>So would this leave me unable to watch video, and with the screen auto-scrolling around like a flea on speed?

No, it wouldn't. Turn off the 'feature' in settings, or install a 3rd party media app which doesn't use it. Otherwsie just stick some tape over the sensor.

You'll probably want to install a 3rd party media app anyway, just to extend the codec support.

Re: 8 processor core? 8?

8 cores are to save power, since they can be individually turned on only when required. Not all of the cores are the same, some will be optimised for keeping the phone ticking over on standby, some will be for specialist tasks such as decoding video. Anyway, the sooner the phone accomplishes a task, the sooner the user can pop it back into standby and turn off that thirsty screen.

That's the concept. Since many phones today have at least two cores, and the manufacturers are competing on battery life, one assumes there is some truth in it.

I think it depends upon the version - there is an XBOX version, and a PC version. There isn't much difference in hardware, but I believe the PC version is more accurate at nearer distances. The PC version is also more expensive but works with the official SDK (there is a 3rd party open source alternative) whereas last I looked the XBOX version didn't. I don't know if this announcement changes that.

Re: OK, I want to add

Read the book; In the forward to a collection of related short stories (collectively 'A.I' but the short story the film was based on is 'Super Toys Play All Summer Long") Brian Aldiss was concerned that Kubrick doubted his own ability, and was overly in awe of the Spielberg's commercial success- which is why Kubrick wanted Spielberg's input on the A.I project. Aldiss was pretty dark, but had the ring of truth... if man succeeded in making truly realistic androids, then the sex industry would be at the front of the waiting list.

Re: Any love...

>is based on the Athur C Clarke book of the same name and so like everything else he wrote is crap.

So geostationary satellites are of no use to you, then, Irongut?

Re: More films...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0267287/

Avalon - a live action Polish Japanese production from the director of Ghost in the Shell...

Re: Also missing

Just for the bit where the hero remarks on the sexiness of the installation's recorded voice, and his host responds:

"Oh, you want to meet her? The lady we got to do the voice lives about five miles away, but she's sixty-five"

Re: Harrison Bergeron

There is a more recent 20 minute version that is rather good:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2081_(film)

Re: No love for Dune?

And based upon a book written as an ecological parable- the same criticism levelled at Silent Running.

Re: Just say no.

>I fail to see how, after you explicitly remove locally saved data, that it is a failure of the websites that their locally saved data has been removed.

I didn't say it was the fault of the website, just of the website model. If you are to infer anything further, it should be that an option to 'delete all cookies and cache except from websites x, y and z' would be quite nice to have in a browser, but that it would be still be effort to administrate.

Re: Are you serious?

m.theverge.com does a mobile-optimised site quite well. The rotation of Top Stories at the header can be swiped through, and stories are loaded in a list form, with the option to 'load more' rather than move to an 'older stories' page.

The Reg is okay to browse on a 4" screen, but depends on the browser re-flowing text. Comments are tricky, though.

Re: Just say no.

I'm getting bored of websites that throw up a "Would you like to download our app?!!". For looking up a film, for example, I might want to look at its IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Wiki or Showcase entry. If anyone knows of a way of setting "No, %&^ off, just show me the &%$ing website like I asked you" to be the default response, please do let us know.

That said, and at the risk of stating the bleeding obvious, specialist apps will require less data to be transferred and are often better formatted for my device. The app will continue to remember my preferences (my local station, to use the Rail Enquiries as an example), if I decide to purge my browser's cache and cookies.