
Re: UMMMM!
JavaScript is what Java reads when it's being religious.
1902 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Apr 2007
Now the prices are through the roof compared to the plethora of online sites available, so much so that I don't mind the wait because I can avoid spending a fortune.
For example; 5 meter RGB LED strip with remote & PSU.
Maplin: £39.99
eBay, UK sellers: £12.98 (£6.99 LED, £5.99 PSU)
The only advantage Maplin are left with compared to online sites is the ability to get items within a very short time, so long as you can get to a store during working hours.
"No, because most of them are babysat by the TV and everyone knows in real life you can get shot 3 dozen times and get up, then still fight 300 baddies with your bare hands"
It has definitely got worse since I was a kid because back then the good & bad guys on tv would shoot at each other all day long and nobody got hit.
"If you have a problem... if no one else can help... and if you can find them... "
I dabbled in programming on my BBC Micro back in the 80s, mostly BASIC but did get into some of assembly for its speed, and the best book I ever owned for it was I think 'Advanced Programming For The BBC Micro' (going by memory but I do still have it in a drawer with the BBC Master Compact), which I bought for £2.49 from Toys'R'Us.
I'm with The_Idiot over this issue, remote wiping of apps without your concent or approval can lead to very bad things happening.
I used to have an Android app on my phone+tablet that allowed me to change the settings on a Mobius action/dash camera, until one day I was forced to do an update because it turns out it had a mandatory monthly update check built-in, and what did that new update do? It completely disabled the app, until weeks later a new update was available with a fully working version, which was no longer free.
It's precicely this sort of crap that has made me turn off automatic app updates, because too often the new version has a 'new' and 'improved' layout which usually worse than the previous version, and useful functions are sometimes removed.
Also I no longer use my Mobius as an action camera, it has been relegated to a dash cam (which it's very suited for), I now have a Xiaomi YI & SJCAM SJ4000+'s which sit in gimbals much easier, and no such update issues with their control apps.
Also I expect they'll send someone round to specifically check the place where you want your deliveries dropped is suitable for a drone landing, then marking the GPS coordinates in their delivery database if they're satisfied, because they're under the spotlight on this one and they won't leave anything to chance that they can help - people are just itching to say they fucked up and it was a stupid idea.
Personally I only care that they don't screw things up for the airborne hobbyists.
@MartinB105, that's practicaly my experience of the video player too, it was atrocious to use and it really didn't make me want to buy any Apple products if they couldn't even get a simple video player working well.
I do have to deal with .MOV files these days though, because for some reason it's a preferred choice of video container for various sportcams/dashcams, but most recent video players & editors handle a huge variety of formats so it's not really an issue anymore.
My coin sorting/counting machine is probably going to think some of the new £1 coins are 10p's because it sorts them by their diameter, smallest first so a £1 that doesn't fit in the gap will then slide along and fall through the 10p gap, screwing up the counting result.
£1 = 22.5mm diameter
10p = 24.5mm diameter
New £1 coin = 22.5mm to 24.5mm diameter
Time to drop the machine back on eBay before everyone gets wise...
You're right about coding being boring from a spectators point of view, so to make the film/tv show interesting they can only really use coding as a plot point.
Hackers (1995) happens to be one of my guilty pleasures films because it's pure hollywood cheese, and the soundtrack is kickin' (The Prodigy, Leftfield, Orbital, Underworld etc.). Antitrust (2001) isn't that bad, but like I just said one of the plot points is the coding but it's overshadowed by the lies, deceit, theft and murders that happen in it.
TV show wise, I'd really like to see the 1995 series Dweebs again one day, I know it's going to severely dated technological wise but I remember the jokes being spot on. jPod (2008) wasn't a bad tv series either.
Have you not seen The Star Wars Holiday Special?
Little known fact, Talkie Toaster is infact an incarnation of Box, a portable handheld supercomputer from the earlier BBC TV show Star Cops.
This is one of my favourite harmless pranks I've seen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC_SxQ55r7o
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xyllhh_black-mirror-15-million-merits_shortfilms
I've bought many small to medium sized lithium batteries over the internet and can't think of any of them that have been mislabeled, except the ones that are included in something (phone,quadcopter etc.) haven't been labeled as having a lithium battery in the package. Apparently putting "Toy" on the customs declaration form covers everything :)
The one time I ordered 28x 18650 sized li-ion batteries to re-cell an ebike battery the seller had to post them in 5 separate packages due to specific regulations regarding amount of energy per parcel, and plaster them with big warning labels about not opening if damaged. This was within the UK.
I have a few Atari Lynxs, the first gen is big enough and heavy enough to have sat on your bedside table to be used as a bludgeoning weapon in the case of a break-in, and it wouldn't get the attention of the police in the same way a baseball bat by your bed would.
I also have a pile of Sega Gamegears and a mountain of cartridges for them, occasionally I'll scour up 6 charged AA's and give them a whirl. Fun for a while but the biggest letdown of the handhelds of that era is the LCD screen quality, very poor viewing angles and low resolution. The phones/tablets of today have in comparison astonishingly good screens, but what they lack are the physical control buttons needed for 'proper' gaming.
I'd pitch in for one of these new fangled Spectrum handhelds but after spending lots of time on the Android emulator Marvin with a bunch of games and a bluetooth games controller I realised nostalgia isn't what it used to be. Plus I still have a working ZX Spectrum +2 :)
@TRT
I found the advert free version of that game.
I just looked at streetmap.co.uk for the very first time.
Yeuch!
I see what you mean about the amount of screen space taken up by adverts, and the entire interface, layout & colour scheme looks like it came from the 90s! I had this horrible flashback to Win95 and the early days of the web, as seen through Netscape Navigator and searching with AltaVista.
The Dutch drone was the same 230 size as a Syma X5C but actually a Spyrit Max FPV T2M which reportedly weighs 580g with the camera and prop guards, which they didn't have on for the tests.
A Cheerson CX-20, 360 size, brushless motors, approx 1kg weight, has killed an eagle that attacked it - http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=33893158&postcount=56152