Posts by Christopher Reeve's Horse 333 publicly visible posts • joined 17 Jan 2008
I'm sure they'd do a whole lot better if they stopped filling their phones with bloatware. Wouldn't you be much more tempted if the Android installation was kept cleaner like the Google Nexus, rather than trying to push loads of un-removable and crappy Sammy apps? Also, why not put the Android update process in the control of users?
Shazam, instant success follows.
Is that what this article is?
I too could list my HiFi components and, in considerable detail, describe why they hugely outperform this new kit in almost every metric you can imagine (and there's a LOT of metrics), except perhaps portability.
Hi resolution? Multiroom? Wireless control? Have you tried simply using JRiver from a HTPC or laptop feeding a decent DAC? No need at all to replace superior speakers and amplification, and the results I've got are simply staggering, and amazingly flexible.
Also, there's no need to rely on ongoing subscription costs for inferior quality streamed music... Sure, use it to preview things that you might like, but even having lossless (FLAC) copies of CD's is massively better quality, and any proper high resolution content that you may have (if your DAC can handle it) is a bonus.
Is it just my perception but every new 'advance' just seems to detract from my concepts of quality, ownership and control. I'll stick with what I've got, and you can ram your soundbars up your flange tunnels.
1. Shops that sell just sell unlocked sim free phones, with nice a range of OS's.
2. Proper Android permissions manager, including blocking network access to individual apps.
3. Ability in Google to search, edit or delete every bit of information or analysis regarding your account and data.
4. As above for facebook, amazon etc...
5. Windows (or your op of choice) to natively support Sequoia style square tree views of file systems.
6. Tagging of files in Windows documents library (like gmail) rather than folder heirachy
7. If failure of point 3, then an app (or something?) that constantly barrages Google with search terms and fake user behavior that makes it impossible for your user data to be in any way usefully personalised. (I'll admit this might not be possible...)
8. If failure of point 7, a 'paid for' equivalent to Google services that does not collect or sell personal data. (How much money does Google make from my account alone? Is it more then I'd be prepared to pay for the services?)
9. Music stores that sell a decent range of music in 24/96 resolution FLAC files, without overcharging for the privilage.
10. An Excel VLOOKUP function that allows you to lookup against the n-th occurence of your matching reference.
Fondle slabs are just 'another device' not a replacement for all computers.
I agree that slabs/phone are better for content delivery and causal surfing etc. There're simply more convenient and powerful. For instance, my win 7 laptop has got bluetooth, but do you think I can get it to simply connect to a pair of bluetooth speakers? Not a chance. But from my android phone it's just two swipes.
However... I work in a business where there are hundreds of people constantly using excel to manipulate and model data, and that's not by any means unusual. Ever tried handing a 50mb complex spreadsheet model on a tablet, or coding VBA? No, you haven't, and you wouldn't.
The article has answered itself, but I'm not sure you realize. You base all future use on current sales, not current useage. PC's have simply become so good that they don't currently need to be replaced, whereas everyone wants to get a shiny new tablet to play with. These devices will replace some of the functionality of PC's, but just can't replace them altogether.
Well of course he'd look at you funny, that's the last thing their business model would ever allow. If you could download your own high quality digital copies you'd simply amass all the music you wanted and then cancel your subscription.
If you've put the effort into having your own high quality and well organised digital collection of music, why would even need a subscription based streaming service in the first place? It's just another layer of interference between you and your music.
I see a horrible future where no-one ends up owning copies of ANY content, just so you can be charged regularly to access it. It will be sold as a benefit (hey! look at the variety!), but all the industry wants a predictable revenue stream. Quality will decrease as the accessibility increases, or else higher quality will separate into more expensive tiers of service.
Love the Geoff Crammond games, and I still play GP4 (without mods) several times a week.
There has been no other driving game that allows you to set up the car balance so perfectly, and control the car so perfectly - controlling turn in on the brakes and corner exit on the throttle. There's just enough unpredictability that trying to find the very last few tenths is very difficult and it's a measure of your own performance on the day and your ability to set up the car.
I played F1:2012 for a while, it looks pretty but it feels completely flat. There's no sensation of driveability and balance like there is in GP4. I only wish there was a game that looked like F1:2013, but drove like GP4. And the new games are too 'arcade like' too, especially auto throttle limit if you leave the track, and the totally unrealistic level damage sensitivity. Watch the burnouts on the parade lap of a real F1 race and see how they make the car dance around and twitch to every tiny driver input - and then try that in F1:2013...
PS. I'm not saying GP4 is perfect, if has many flaws, but it's the game I keep coming back to because it's still the best.
Just to add my tuppence...
CD's ripped to FLAC using Foobar2000, and then album art embedded and tag data corrected manually in MP3Tag.
If I could reliably buy FLAC versions of albums instead of CD's I would. For portability I can bulk down-vert to Mp3 using Foobar. The advantage to streaming FLAC rather than listening to CD's is the total removal of digital errors from the CD transport. The remaining sound quality is then only a function of your DAC (and then the rest of your HiFi)...
Albums are organised by 'Album Artist' field, every album is in it's own folder with a copy of the album art stored as 'folder.jpg'. I have a RPi running MPD that auto mounts my music shared folder, MPDroid is the client 'controller' from my phone, and the RPi is connected by USB DAC to my (astonishingly good) HiFi. An install of Nginx webserver delivers the correct album art from the RPi to the MPDroid client, rather than using it's own attempt to download matches from Last FM.
HiFi is not dead, there's a growing interest in the quality of digital music and it's re-production, it's just being misrepresented. There are lots of excellent little USB DAC's and headphone amplifiers coming into the market. Yes, quality of studio production matters enormously, but there's no substitute for high quality speakers and amplification.
I'm very pessimistic about Google Glasses. It's not the technology, I like the technology! I think the eventual benefit and excitement of augmented reality could be mahoosive!
What I don't like, is the Google... having one of their personal data hoovers in my pocket is bad enough, having one on my face capturing everything I see and do is a country mile overstep beyond the 'creepy line'.
If all the data collected was entirely (and I mean entirely) within my control and ownership I'd be more convinced, but this, like all their other services already prove, just isn't how Google works.
But politicians don't want a simple tax system, it would be too easy to actually compare the manifestos of the parties. Much the same as complex tariffs in the energy market appear to offer choice, but actually make real comparison tedious and difficult.
It's just easier for one party to tinker some details in the complex tax structure and then claim a tremendous benefit, and the opposition can claim the precise opposite - all without anyone having the vaguest idea of which is better.
What really grabs my goat is this new 6pin+8pin power requirement - so you're supposed to blow hundreds of pounds on a top end graphics card, and also the £150+ for the PSU that happens to have the correct connections...
What about all the people that already have a very good power supply that has a standard 6+6pin SLI output? There's definitely market collusion going on here to force people into unnecessary upgrades!
Why I ought to.....
I suspect that they've got bored of providing search queries and are planning to instead provide every possible sector of the internet themselves.
How long before all newborn children have the google suffix in front of their names and are fully search query complient. "Hi I'm Google.Peter, what would you like to know about me officer?"
Mine's the jacket with the copy The Daily Newspeak in the pocket....
Christ's sake - for an IT related site there sure are a whole lot of scientifically challenged reprobates out there!
'We're all going to get sucked into a black hole' - I suspect not.
'How long does it take to get sucked in to a black hole?' - well... I guess that kind of depends how big it is... and also whether you're observing someone fall into a black hole or falling in to it yourself etc, etc, etc...
As good as Half Life is, I can' really see some physicists playing it and suddenly worrying "Oh my god! What are we doing? I've gotta stop this crazy experiment.!"
Are we all still so luddite that when any major technology comes round the corner we all start declaring the end of the world? Oh my god - It's a digital watch! This is where Skylab started! Run to the nuclear bunkers now!
Paris - Coz I know where I'd like to accelerate my hadrons!
Surely Apple's R&D department should be working on a gun shaped mp3 player/smartphone? "Just point at your temple and pull the trigger to shuffle songs"
You could even build in a FPS 'lazerquest style' shooter game, playable in any public area... beat that Nintendo Wii!
And anyway - don't you think you should at least have to be charged with some sort of offence before going on the DNA database?
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