* Posts by Charles Tsang

56 publicly visible posts • joined 8 Apr 2008

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Would you leave your child alone with a cabinet minister?

Charles Tsang
Alert

"not performing background checks is an unacceptable risk"

I think we have two seperate issues being addressed in this thread.

One is whether CRBs should occur at all and the other is whether Ministers are exempt from rules applying to the Hoi Polloi!

CRBs are here, and whilst we, the great unwashed, are subject to them, so should MPs.

Regarding whether we have CRBs at all, that arguement is easily applicable to CCTV in every location in Britain. To have unsupervised adults at all is an "unacceptable risk..."!

The heart of the issue is to clearly delineate exactly what the risk is. Exactly what numbers of volunteers and "crimes" are supposed to be affected by having CRBs in place?

My wife this morning was alarmed to hear xx ppl had died of Swine flu to date in the UK. However, 6000 die every winter in the UK on average due to seasonal flu. Kind of puts it in context doesn't it! It was further turned on it's head because the timing and the population type being affected actually made the current Swine Flu casualty numbers quite significant compared to seasonal flu casualties.

We need more than anecodotal evidence as to what benefits CRBs bring about. Is that too much to ask? Just keep labeling things "unacceptable risk" and before you know it, the internet will be Disney.com only and all of Britains cliffs will be fenced off and we'll have CCTV everywhere...

Satanic blob beast menaces North Carolina

Charles Tsang
Unhappy

Calling International Rescue...!

Did anyone else get a strange sense of deja vue watching the oversized water ripple?

It would seem that the camera is mounted on some ROV (remote operated vehicle). I was thinking the panning was remarkably smooth....

But after teh oversized water ripple, I expected a couple of "FAB Virgil!" soundbites and then to come across either the Mole or some new wonder machine transported by Thunderbirds 2.

But alas, they've sold out to vision express or someone haven't they?

Gmail turns into label junkie

Charles Tsang
Happy

ooohhh, drag drop labels....

Heh, for the great unwashed that have yet to get gmail ;)

Labels can be slapped onto any email (heh, in this case drag dropped!).

You can then just view those emails belonging to that label.

Work, humour, family, orders, car, DIY are some of the labels I use. You can also setup filters to automatically apply labels too!

The beauty of labels as opposed to "folders" as a concept is having multiple labels per email.

I find it most useful having a registrations label to group all the emails I get back from the various websites that I've signed up/registered to.

Basically the new drag drop just makes it easier to group the emails than before.

Shuttle XPC SX58H7

Charles Tsang
Happy

handle schmandle!

There are plenty of third party harness/straps for SFF cases. Gear Grip from Case Ace is what you want to search for. A nice Keyboard and sundry item enclosure comes with it to make it more useful!

Charles Tsang
Thumb Up

SFF - towers have space for a reason!

I went the Small Form Factor route as I was toting my box to work and back on a daily routine.

I wish there were some numbers to the heat and noise above as I'm not sure you could squeeze all that hardware into such small spaces without some compromise.

My Biostar iDEQ 200P had similar issues to the first commentator in the Summertime with overheating, but these days with new GPU and CPU die sizes and hence lower power requirements, this could well be the sweet point for CPU cooling/temps.

I eventually went for a LAN Box from Thermaltake as they could take the full size PSUs which meant I had all the cables I needed for dual graphics cards plus more CPU cooler choice etc. But it was a lot bigger than a standard SFF! But if the power and the cooling are sorted, I'd seriously look at one!

My biostar was so small and cute in comparison to my current box!

Revealed: Full specs on SEAL Team Six multimedia setup

Charles Tsang
Thumb Up

DEVGRU are NCIS LA wannabes

Heh, having seen the pilot for the NCIS LA, that sounds pretty similar to their setup. Except NCIS has gone for the surface UI albeit in a more Tom Cruise Minority Report style interface using gloves. It was pretty slick. And they were savvy enough to lose the ludicrous glass "floppy disk" scene.

Konami nixes Six Days in Fallujah

Charles Tsang
Thumb Up

Anyone remember Black Hawk Down?

I too was looking forward to this game. I was hoping it would be like the game Delta Force: Black Hawk Down which seemed quite a good presentation of the leadup to the infamous operation in Mogadishu.

And yes, it was only a game but aspects of it were discussed with their special advisors who were there. So it's an interesting contrast to what "Six Days in Fallujah" could turn out like.

AMD, Nvidia introduce new GPUs

Charles Tsang
Unhappy

GeForce 275 GTX sneaks in ahead of Radeon 4890??

Thats funny, "GeForce 275 GTX sneaks in ahead of Radeon 4890"?

But the GeForce 275 GTX wasn't actually available whereas the Radeon 4890 was?

Shouldn't we discourage paper launches that are obviously timed to disrupt competitor's actual launches.

BBC goes live... over Wi-Fi

Charles Tsang
Black Helicopters

wacky jacqui influences BBC criminalisation progrom

Heh, have the BBC been taking lessons from the Home Office?

If the statement about watching TV on the phone is policed anything like the TV licence, then possession of a smart phone is as good as signing yourself up as a criminal!

Cosmonaut bemoans ISS toilet row

Charles Tsang
Joke

@Mike Richards - Star Trek

Well, if a visiting contingent of Klingons had to go to the bathroom, would you say no?

Heheh, and would the Captain Kirk have to log every visit?

Emotional arguments do not make Street View illegal

Charles Tsang
Happy

usefulness

Actually, I find it quite useful for locating stores/shops in London.

Conversations with friends about restaurants is so much easier with a quick street view link about the location.

I've also used it to ascertain what happened to a particular shopping mall (well circa Summer 2008).

I also use google maps for directions quite a lot, so I think having a 3 D pictorial presentation is pretty useful!

Small minor things that don't exactly contribute to the progression/development of the human race, but if you're going to get that picky, you shouldn't be reading the comments but doing VSO or some charity work!

Discovery en route to ISS

Charles Tsang
Happy

New Star at night....

I read somewhere else that this additional solar panelling is going to turn the ISS into one of the brightest "stars" in the sky.

Wonder if it's going to mess with any astrological forecasts... "as ISS crests into Sagitarius"

O2 wins UK Palm Pré exclusive?

Charles Tsang
Happy

Hmmm, first positive comment?

Am I the first to make a positive comment?

I switched from Virgin to O2. But bear in mind that I'm a pre pay user. O2 is miles better in service and network in comparison. My K750i (don't laugh, it's one of the reasons I'd like to upgrade to a Pre!) would take minutes to connect to the Virgin network, whereas with O2 it's a few seconds.

So I for one welcome our new Palm Pre controlling masters!

Oh and I still use a Palm TX with a TomTom bluetooth GPS so I'll be watching the apps on the Pre with great anticipation... (yes it's all web based development now, so not the huge choice that you got with Palm but still, we can hope!).

2008 a top year for UK games sales

Charles Tsang
Boffin

@Doug Glass

French Sub Joking aside, yes, there is.

Look up "Dangerous Waters" by Sonalysts.

Very good, but very complex. There are some good guides out there about starting with the MH60 Helicoptor to get used to basic operations (with dipping Sonar and sonar buoys).

US airforce to get ground refuelling robot

Charles Tsang
Go

Hello, Bomb? Are you with me?

Next, the robotic bomb....

Universal thaws out The Thing

Charles Tsang

@Tom re: Remake - Been Done

"A sequel might be worth considering. The short story leaves open the question of whether or not they finally managed to kill the alien, as does the John Carpenter remake. The 1954 classic is the only one that doesn't leave the question open. All it takes is a single cell brought back to a research facility not far from a major metropolitan area..."

Heh, funnily enough, a remake was done albeit under the auspices of a video game. The Thing for the PS2 put you in command of a military unit that begins with the Norwegian camp and then comes to the American camp.

It maintained the paranoid atmosphere of the original by allowing your colleagues to become infected. Also your colleagues had a healthy paranoia themselves once the shit hit the fan and they realised what they were getting into. That included lack of trust in you, which you could win back by giving them items.

Link here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(video_game)

Geeks re-invent breakfast

Charles Tsang
Happy

I think Wallace has a prior patent case....

Heh, I can only think that Nick Park is amused to see someone has actually built something he's portrayed in his Wallace and Gromit movies.

So when did the knives come out at Seagate?

Charles Tsang
Joke

@James O'Brien

Heh, I stand corrected. The correct figure is 7,200, but hey, it's about right for a Register comment!

And you didn't give the correction, just pointed the finger so Nyah Nyah to you too :-)

Charles Tsang
Paris Hilton

Sexing up Seagate...

So Western Digital has the "sexy" Velociraptor.

This is a 10,000rpm HDD that gives faster HDD access and consequently faster boot times and faster game loads.

It also costs 10x per GB what a standard 7500rpm HDD costs.

150GB 10,000 rpm Raptor costs £150.

500GB 7500rpm HDD costs about £50

The Velociraptor also uses more power and is more noisy.

Now I'm an avid gamer and I like hitting a level in multiplayer first cos my HDD delivers, but the cost of that drive sure hit my pocket. And the fact that no-one else I know has one means it's not exactly selling like hot cakes. Also I don't think the tech developed making it is exactly going to have trickle down effects or possible downgraded performance sell off capability.

I don't think Seagate needed a velociraptor equivilant.

Surely a more cogent "sexy" feature for Seagate to do would be to do the Green thing. Go all Eco.

Except Western Digital has already beaten em to it with Green labeled drives that "use less energy".

Hmmm, perhaps they can make silence sexy instead....

Paris cos she's sexy till she says something...

Hilton 'sucks face' with MySpace CEO

Charles Tsang
Joke

Don't you know who I am? cue laboured heavy breathing...

If I was the security guard I'd be quoting Eddie Izzard and the Death Star Canteen lines.

Either

1) Lord Vader of Cheam

or

2) are you Mr Stevens ...of Catering?

Retired army generals: Spend Trident money on the army

Charles Tsang
Stop

An Armed Society is a Polite Society

Heh, the deterrent inherrent in most arguements for keeping Nukes should be applied to handguns too!

Muggings should stop overnight as would knife crime!

No-one is going to rob a post office, if they don't know who's "carrying heat" in the queue will they?

After all, the Granny second in the queue might be a little deaf, but she can see when that hoodie pushes in, she could pull her 9mm glock from her trolley and teach him a lesson in manners there and then!

But far from being an impolite society, I don't think America has benefited from the inception of the optimistically named Colt "Peacemaker" to these modern times.

And not having nuclear weapons would give the UK a disarming arguement. Just think about the Dalai Lama or the Pope or Mother Teresa or Ghandi. Do you think their messages of peace would have carried as much weight if you knew they preferred high capacity 9mm automatic pistols as opposed to old fashioned but powerful and reliable revolvers?

Aussie air zealot savages prêt-à-porter stealth fighter

Charles Tsang
Black Helicopters

Defence of the Realm and interests...

Whilst the UK might be an island, in this day and age, we're reliant on imports. And exports too... (as Palmerston demonstrated to the Chinese at Shanghai - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_War). At what point would the threat to them be enough to warrant "peace keeping/observation" deployments?

Blair demonstrated that you don't have to have public opinion on your side to send out the troops either! And that was ostensibly for "self defence" too based on the 45 minute dossier. The more cynical of course say it was for the oil.

Today, would dying pensioners in the cold snap due to lack of gas be reason to send troops into Ukraine? We didn't need to in this last gas debacle, because our storage solution was working and the amount imported from Russia is 2%. So it's not too improbable to see future deployments over UK interests...

Attack of the quarter-ton, 'fridge-sized' killer jellyfish

Charles Tsang
Pirate

Resist! Show some spine!

And much like the "Run Up Stairs" solution to Dalek Invasion, may I say

"Stay out of the water?" for the Jelly Fish invasion?

So do we need to update the jolly roger appropriately?

Top UK cybercop dreams of PC breathalysers

Charles Tsang
Black Helicopters

Victorian Idea?

Y'know the Victorians had a similar arguement for recognising criminals. They started photographing faces of all criminals. Looking for that common denominator that would let them walk into a room Poirot style and walk out with an arrest.

Sounds like a great idea.

Flawed principle though.

Same with the PC.

Lets do the kiddy porn thing. Gotta think of the children... (as in protecting!).

Scan all images on drive, flesh tones are way up, childrens faces in the photos (Honest! my Sony Cybershot does this....) => you're nicked you paedo!

Oh, own family shots from the beach....

Never mind, gotta ruin 50/500/5000* families to stop that one paedo!

*adjust to your liberal bias

MIT boffins crack fusion plasma snag

Charles Tsang
Joke

Patently obvious solution to spurious flows - Robotic arms wired to your spine!

"The Alcator team are also proud to announce their development of a cunning noble-gas extinguisher method for quenching troublesome beams of "runaway electrons", which can apparently be an issue in the event of a fusion reactor's magnetic containment fields having a collywobble."

Yes ppl, why didn't any of the scientists watch Spiderman 2 in which the same issues of Plasma containment and troublesome beams became an issue. Only to be easily tamed with robotic arms hardwired to your spinal column!

And siting the test fusion reactor experiment in Cadarache, France! What are they thinking? It has to be in the middle of Paris!

Zoo's polar bear breeding plan scuppered by girl-on-girl

Charles Tsang
Linux

Hung like a bear?

Not!

One wonders if Penguins have the same adrogeneity.

Royal Society of Chemistry defines perfect Yorkshire pud

Charles Tsang
Thumb Down

salt to taste?

Does that mean u have to taste the raw batter to determine the saltiness?

Eewwww...!

I guess you could remember for next time though.

GooFlu searches for sickness

Charles Tsang
Linux

one dead swan = false positive

Heh, all it would take is one dead swan on some British waterway and you've got a false positive as UK searches on flu rise, whipped to a frenzy by media coverage.

So are the CDC warnings based on Doctor visits/findings? That would seem a more scare proof and authentic indicator.

Speed cams ditched in Wiltshire

Charles Tsang
Flame

Statistically, Speed kills

There's a speed camera on the M40 just as it goes to a 50mph zone from 70mph.

Prior to the installation, you might just keep going at 70 in a 50 zone for a good while by doing nothing. Now, you have to slow down to 55 at least and then speed back up to 70. So I'd say that camera was quite effective lowering the average speed of people entering a 50 zone.

Lots of commentors have said that "Speed kills" is inappropriate. But "unfortunately", the government works on statistics. And statistics look at the whole population of drivers including the real dunces. Crashes at a higher speed will statistically mean a higher number of fatalities. I don't think anyone can deny that. The issue about speed is that allowing cars to drive faster (raising speed limits or removing speed cameras etc) means statistically, more cars will drive faster. Which means when the crashes happen (cos statistically, they will!), cars are more likely to be travelling faster. And we just agreed that you would stand more chance of a fatality the faster your car was going if it crashed.

So it's all about statistics and the average driver and getting the numbers of fatalities from crashes down.

Funnily enough, another statistic I saw was that the same percentage of car drivers run red lights as cyclists that ran red lights (that were involved in accidents contributed to by said red light running). And it's about 1%. which might make motorists feel smug, but considering how many cars there are on the road, this is actually 2177 motorists "disobeying signals" that led to an accident, as opposed to 150 cyclists doing the same.

Brit chemist conjures smell of outer space

Charles Tsang
Alien

The Practicalities of Smelling Space/SpaceStation

Heh, would you believe there is a practical side to this?

A poster on Slashdot mentioned that quite often, to be able to tell if the hydraulic fluid leak was burning or not, would actually change his chosen fix when sitting in a light airplane cockpit.

So he was positing that teaching/acclimatising to the norm would be good.

Unfortunately there are too many variables to be able to simulate all the "bad" smells, or rather smells arising from bad scenarios.

Oh and to the person saying what smell is vaccuum, some "smells/tastes" propogate across vaccuums. Just research what the blue glow is and the ensuing "smell/taste" (wikipedia has the answer to this...).

Supersonic bizjets could have windowless flight decks

Charles Tsang
Gates Halo

Cloud Cuckoo Land

Flying through clouds on instruments only is one thing. After all, there isn't much to hit there.

Flying whilst landing on instruments only is another. Don't forget, it's not the falling that kills you, it's the landing bit.

Robot vacuum cleaners - now with grenade launchers

Charles Tsang
Paris Hilton

Jane's Register

Heheh, we appear to be browsing Jane's Register at the moment, what with Dredd's Lawgiver, Military Helicoptors, Combat Aircraft etc hitting this publication.

Not that I mind, but I'd like to know what Lewis has been doing recently, like perhaps he went to an arms convention recently and came back bursting with "intel"!

Oh and one of the advantages of Metal Storm is that you could load some barrels with non-lethal munition. However, some would say that a 40mm rubber bullet is about as friendly as "friendly fire", and others that it's a waste of a barrel.

Paris, cos I know they sell guns with bimbos at these conventions. Heh, maybe even a potential Vice Presidential commendation!

Indian chief exec murder 'a warning for management'

Charles Tsang
Thumb Up

Business to Politics

heh, I'd advocate adopting similar "business realtions" between the government and it's electorate.

In fact with most government policies, they need to be tested/tried on themselves first, after all, they are the most important assembly in the land!

Retailers predict price-led Xbox 360 sales surge

Charles Tsang
Unhappy

"You get what you pay for" as MS once said

On Kelkoo just now

MS XBox 360 Arcade costs £160

Sony PS3 80GB costs £300

incl del and from an online shop not some ebay account.

"You get what you pay for" as MS once said - Admittedly, this was originally aimed at Netscape in the browser wars. However, it's still true applied to hardware with tangible costs (see the current plethora of MS HDD woe stories doing the rounds for the original Xbox).

So the biggest defining factor over the XBox 360 that the PS3 has is the BluRay player. This is not a trivial thing, because even if you don't intend to play it yourself, it's a great excuse to the significant other to get this device into the living room.... I did the same for the PS2 and it's built in DVD playback.

Unfortunately I have a CRT TV in perfect working order so unless it "fails" soon, or I bite the bullet and go Projector, I don't see myself getting a PS3 soon regardless... No point getting HD gaming if I can't see HD!

Ten of the Best... MP3 speakers

Charles Tsang
Coat

PreIpod speakers...

I use a generic 2.1 system from the Saitek A200.

Looks cool and is the first product I''ve bought with a cleaning cloth due to it's black gloss surfaces!

UK MoD tries to resell surplus Eurofighters to India, Japan

Charles Tsang
Boffin

Tranche 3 a nice commodity?

IIRC, the only reason Singapore didn't choose the Eurofighter was the cloud over when Tranche 3 would be deliverable.

So presumably that means Tranche 3 actually delivers something useful. As it is, it lost out to the F15.

There's an explanation of what the various tranches entail here....

http://www.vectorsite.net/aveuro.html

FYI: I have no idea what difference between a Tranche 1 limited Ground to Air capability and a Tranche 3 Full capability is!

So if someone would like to post the tranche 3 explanation here for all to peruse and enthuse over that would be good. I have an idea that it involves laser guided bombs.

But I thought green lasers were FTW in air defence. So does anyone know if Tranche 3 is Green Laser Hardened?

Psychologists give gaming the thumbs up

Charles Tsang
Alert

Thai Wannabe gamer

I read somewhere that the Thai lad didn't have the game as his parents wouldn't let him have it.

Heh, does that mean he would have quickly learnt that within the game, stealing taxis and killing people brings the cops down on you pronto and that the taxidriver would therefore not have been killed?

Chinese takeaway biodiesel man in garage explosion horror

Charles Tsang
Go

American Takeaway

I believe that MacDonalds has been doing this for a while now.

But its good to hear that it was made legal to do a homebrew. Just hope the neighbour doesn't blow us up in their efforts to economise.

Supposedly, the car has a fish and chip shop smell as a consequence. Can anyone else verify this?

Morgan shows 'light & slippery' fuel-cell car concept

Charles Tsang
Happy

@Jeff Bond - Hydrogen production solved?

Funnily enough one of the indirect fringe benefits of the Pebble Bed High Temperature Nuclear Reactors is that the high temperatures make it easier to produce Hydrogen.

"Tsinghua's program for Nuclear and New Energy technology also plans in 2006 to begin developing a system to use the high temperature gas of a pebble bed reactor to crack steam to produce hydrogen."

So maybe this is the way forward?

China seems to think so with an ambitious program of Nuclear Power generation based on Pebble Bed reactors.

Jeremy Clarkson tilts at windmills

Charles Tsang
Paris Hilton

Unfortunately Speed kills

I've an in-law that works for the department of transport.

Having spent many years in computing, he found it very refreshing to be now in the business, as he put it, of "saving lives".

Speed does kill.

Not every time, not every place, but faster driving will *statistically* have more fatal accidents.

So by enforcing the speed limit (whether by SPEC or GATSO or just funny lane markings (like darts)), reduces fatal accidents and thus saves lives.

It used to be that for Police/Councils had to show statistics for a road section to justify the placement of a GATSO camera. But that seems not to be the case anymore.

But concentrating on the SPEC, doesn't anyone else find that there are less of those "stopping for no reason jams" on those averaged sections now?

heck, I'd rather hand over control of the car to the motorway agency control and then turn around and make a nice cuppa and read a book until it was time to assume control. I'm pretty certain that all computer controlled lanes would result in faster travel times on the motorways.

Paris, cos like 90% of drivers, she'd consider herself an average driver.

Raptor and Eurofighter go head to head

Charles Tsang
Black Helicopters

@bill

It doesn't matter on a Global scale if China has lots of airplanes.

It needs aircraft carriers to project it's power into the rest of Asia and the world to become Global Enemy Number One.

Yes, there is mid air refuelling, but doing something like the Vulcan 5000 mile refuelling exercise is not something future world dictators want to do....

So unless some giant laser is installed on the moon, China will remain locked in Asia (which is probably their plan anyway). This only conflicts with the US on the Taiwan front (which funnily enough has lots of F16s) and there are regular US Naval exercises in or near the Taiwan Straits (except when they don't know where the Chinese submarines are - purportedly)

Note to self:Don't mention the Chinese plans to put a manned laser on the moon.

Charles Tsang
Boffin

The currency of Fighter Planes?

I thought due to the prevalence of the F16 in exports, it was the de facto currency of air forces (sorry Lewis, Chinooks lose to the air superiority that the fighters provide). Wikipedia tallys 6000+ built and about 25 "operators". LOL, does anyone else think of Fork Lift Trucks when that term is used?

Seems that the F16 cost is about 25m USD (from Singapore exports) but I'm not sure if that includes contract costs for the spares for X years.

So getting back to the topic, my literature from the F22 game from DID posited that the F22 cost two F16s, whereas the Eurofighter cost one F16. But that was pre 2000.

The issue here is whether that cost for the Eurofighter remained static. Wikipedia lists the F22 flyaway cost as 161m USD (from US Forces aircraft procurement 2009 cost estimates) and the Eurofighter at 122.5m USD (based on sales to Saudi).

So is that flyaway cost the budget overrun, or the "on the road" equivalent in cars :-)

Charles Tsang
Black Helicopters

The Chinese threat...

A lot of momentum has been building up over the Chinese threat in the context of a World Super Power.

It's been posited in numerous recent games (like Battlefield 2) and books (the tin foil wearer in me sees this as civilian indoctrination).

People in this thread are mentioning it too.

One thing though. How many Aircraft carriers does China have? How many do the USA have? (ok, that was two things!)

China only has one and that's a bit of a shaky claim ("Shichang Multi-Role Aviation Ship is one of the largest vessels in the People's Liberarion Army Navy fleet, it would be a bit of a stretch to class this ship as an aircraft carrier." globalsecurity.org)

The USA has 24.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/carriers.htm

One in every Sea of importance. Yes, Sea, not Ocean.

Aircraft carriers are all about projection of power.

And the USA has a fleet (gotta protect that aircraft carrier baby!), in every major sea from the Arabian gulf, to the Indian, to the Mediterranean etc.

So whilst China is an Economic power, I'm not sure about the World power. Definitely an East Asian power, but World threatening?

Report fingers prints as ID scheme's point of failure

Charles Tsang
Alien

Removing fingerprints

To those enamoured with the idea of removing their fingerprints, I heard that it's quite difficult to pick up coins from a flat surface without the grooves and swirls.

Microsoft pledges to fight Vista 'myths'

Charles Tsang
Thumb Down

Vista Ultimate 64 bit is FTW!!

Yes, I got sucked into Ultima Vista world.

Lured by

1)Texas Hold 'em Poker (Yeehaa, why play the neighbours/friends, play MS!)

2) Bitlocker HDD encryption (that needs to format the drive - oh, I'm already using my data drive....)

3) Dream Scene (your desktop wallpaper can be a video - and crash in my case)

4) 36 Language Packs that on every upgrade ask to be installed.

5) 2 Sound Schemes Pear and Glass - nothing like the Win 98 Plus but some watered down effects so limp that you'd forget it had been installed!)

Fortunately, I'm not a business user, so I don't need business docs that are easily compatible. I'm a gamer and I need Direct X 10. Or is that Direct X 10.1? PC Games are flourishing (not just the MMO ones) and Age of Conan, Bioshock, Crysis are some of the newer games out that flaunt their DX10 labels. But you do have to look hard to see the improvements. But heck, I was future proofing for this home machine. Supposedly the onboard 7.1 sound cards of many motherboards is significantly improved by DX10, but seeing as I went Creative Audigy....

Also as a home user, I now need a new scanner because Vista 64 drivers don't exist for my model. Fortunately the Epson printer works, but at work (also running Vista 64 but business edition) I'm having issues connecting to various printers HP and Epson.

On the plus side, not very many crashes or BSODs, and my machine is relatively fast (but then it is a hot rod gaming rig getting 5.9 Windows performance rating).

Mayor Boris to cover Porsche costs in CO2 tax brouhaha

Charles Tsang
Stop

@Paul McCourt

Uh I guess you don't remember the Western Extension to the Congestion Charge area?

It includes North Kensington, which is the area where the Notting Hill Carnival takes place which *is* a disadvantaged area. Not many Porsches around there, and definitely a lot of families. Whether they can all afford MPVs or cars I don't know. But I'm sure everyone here likes the option of having a car as opposed to using Bus and Rail because of additional "taxes" on the car.

Bus-spotting paedo terror bust: Shock CCTV image

Charles Tsang
Black Helicopters

Get your T-Shirt here!

Heh, to tie in one more link, you should offer the T-Shirt. or in other words, "How to stop an entire group trip at the airport via inappropriate T-Shirt".

PS3 sale price spurs costs Sony dear

Charles Tsang
Boffin

@ A Baird PC or Console?

Not to jump on the band wagon, but honestly, how much would it cost to get a PC able to play a triple A title.

Fortunately with the new range of graphics cards out now , the cost of that component alone (that will play almost all AAA games at 1280x1024 plus with anti aliasing x4 and Anisotropic Filtering x8 etc on [layman's terms:makes it prettier!]) will probably cost less than £120.

Factor in about £300-£400 for the rest and you are there.

But as some others point out, by the time you have installed and run a PC version, the console player is already past the first level!

OTOH, good luck on the console printing your CV!

However, all consoles allow browsing the "interweb" these days. Heh and did you know that the BBC iPlayer supports the Wii? Not bad to match up to the all singing and dancing PC (but no wii mote :( )

Actually, sticking on the gaming front, and the PS3 we have a recent AAA title called Metal Gear Sold 4: Guns of the Patriots. This series is the reason I bought a Playstation, and also a Playstation 2 (although the DVD player really sold it to my wife!). So at some point, I will make the HD leap and get a PS3 (with it's Bluray to get the wife round!)

And Grand Theft Auto 4: was released on both Xbox 360 and PS3 recently.

Where the PC wins out over both the Xbox 360 and the PS3 is the online gaming. MMOs (World of Warcraft, Mass Effect, Everquest1/2, Age of Conan, Spore) are a reserve of the PC. Heck even the FPS does due to 8 aside limits on the consoles.... (64 a side in Joint Operations on the PC and typically 32 players per side for most FPS games). Note though that online matching on the Xbox 360 is unparalleled. But all the XBox 360 players I know mute the incessant "gay/faggot" abuse that is so prevalent in XBox adolescent land.

We have yet to see Sony's offering that is Home. But it looks damn good!

The parting shot to that, I leave to the PC, which has plenty of "free" third party matching online software from Gamespy to All Seeing Eye and XFire.

Oooh and just to show my age, anyone remember Kali?

Devil dog laughs in the face of Taser

Charles Tsang
Pirate

@Bruce Sinton

Heh, I think that's why I quoted all the section on the "dangerous dogs". It's not restricted to breed or type. Dangerous behaviour is also qualifying. But it's a bit open to abuse that. As I said, I could attack the owner of a chihuahua (or the chihuahua) and if bitten by the dog be able to claim "dangerous dog" - some unscrupulous people wouldn't even wait for the episode to occur but dress up some explanation.

This is sounding a bit like the South Park episode where self defence allows you to shoot endangered species with the cry "it's going for me!".

But that aside, the story as we have it doesn't have enough detail to let us make a judgement. Which is why most people are supplying various scenario differences to justify/vilify the police action.

All I'm saying like quite a few others in the comments that any dog should attack/growl at people that attack its' owner or itself. Whether the attack be a taser or a baseball bat!

Funnily enough, don't they have cattle dogs in Oz? Friend of mine down Melbourne has a blue heeler that jumped around and barked a lot but didn't do anything useful when the owner(my friend) got into a severe physical altercation with another guy on the street. He was well disappointed that the dog (that can wrestle a cow to the ground by biting it's nose and pulling- hence cattle dog) merely did the encouragement thing. But I'm more worried about the spiders and numerous other poisonous beasties that you have down there!

Charles Tsang
Black Helicopters

Not the dog you are looking for...

Heh, I was expecting some mutant hybrid dog monster out of Spore Creature Creator!

But it was just a Staffordshire Bull Terrier which is an official breed and not on the banned dogs list.

# the Pit Bull Terrier

# the Japanese tosa

# the Dogo Argentino

# the Fila Brasileiro

But the clarification here http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/welfare/domestic/dogs.htm is quite specific in that it's type of dog not breed/species. And you are also liable for a dangerous dog that harms anyone.

From the web site reading, does that mean if I attack a dog owner or the dog and it bites me, I can then complain of a dangerous dog and have it destroyed?

Hmmm seems open to abuse doesn't it?

Not that the police would do anything like cover ups or harassment...

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