Posts by David Webb

Lord British: Games consoles 'fundamentally doomed'

Several points to make....

1) Respected? Didn't his last MMO whose name I forget, totally flop and get pulled even though he claimed it would be a WoW killer or whatever? I think only Ultima is his success?

2) Consoles get refreshed every several years? The PSP is 7 years old and it's replacement is the Vita, the iPhone is 4 years old, but do games developed for the "newest" iPhone still work on the original? I can buy a PSP game *now* that works on my 1st generation Japanese PSP, I don't have to buy a new PSP every year to play the latest games.

3) Console games give more value for money than phone games, sure, phone games may only cost 99p but how long do you play that game for? A console game may cost £40 but you'll play that game time and time again, even in a few years time.

4) He's obviously not looked at the PS Vita AR videos, I showed my brother today and he was flabbergasted, it's seriously cool and well worth buying a PS Vita for.

5) It's not just Skyrim, there are games out there that require a heck of a lot more controls than a phone/tablet can provide!

6) Immersion, you can get immersed in a real AAA title, you get to use whatever screen size you want, from small 32 inch LCD's up to bloody great massive projector screens on the side of the moon (maybe not, but maybe!)

7) Game companies reject consoles and PC's at their peril, if a console owner or a PC owner reads a statement that suggests their favoured platform is doomed, they will pretty much slam that company and avoid their games, so when they come back with their tail between their legs they may find that they are about as welcome as Clarkson at a Unison meeting.

Crack GCHQ's code and become the next James Bond

I think you're reading it the wrong way, it's not read across but down giving a 16 character password at the end, or at least the source code suggests a post of size 16.

Skyrim update makes dragons FLY BACKWARDS

It's a great game, it's just a shame Beth suck at supporting their games (they never fixed major bugs in Oblivion for instance the vampire bug - PS3) so rely on their fans to sort out the issues, they claim it's a new engine, which is a lie, try using a Xonar soundcard on Oblivion/Fallout and you'll get CTD's, the same CTD's happen in Skyrim.

I dunno, I want to support the company because I enjoy the games, but on the other hand, should I really support a company that doesn't support it's loyal fanbase properly?

PayPal founder helps steer super geek cruiser

Doesn't the visa depend on nationality in the first place and also on method of entry? From the UK you can only enter (for up to 3 months I think) automatically if you travel by plane (and get your visa sorted first), no idea if you then have to wait a set period before you can re-enter preventing you from staying forever and going to Canada for a nice weekend away.

Hands on with Star Wars: The Old Republic

I found it interesting but the game which so far has the most impressive cutscenes which really make you feel a part of the game is Final Fantasy XI, you find yourself building a relationship with the NPC's who you interact with, memorable characters who you'll remember long after the storyline is done (Burn Shantotto!!!!), no MMO has been able to capture that feeling, not even the "sequel" FFXIV.

That said I'll probably pre-order this game to keep me occupied over the dark months, or until FFXIV 2.0 is released.

MPs: This plan for proper navy carriers and jets is crazy!

I think it was down to figures. If we'd ditched the Tornado and kept the harrier would we have had enough aircraft available to meet current and future needs? Could we have kept up our commitments in Afganistan, Iraq, Falklands etc. and still launched bombing raids on Libya or would we have a lack of aircraft for the purpose?

Then we get into more specific details, the Tornado can travel at mach 2.2 the Harrier isn't supersonic (although there was a design for a supersonic harrier that got canned) so a Harrier requires longer to get from point A to point B and back again so Tornadoes can do more sorties, it could get from A to B and back to A before the Harrier is at point B so we can use LESS Tornadoes to obtain the same effect than we would with Harriers.

Ebuyer knocked out by own £1 deals site

Top tip - if you're going to have a mega sale, you're going to get mega traffic, most of the people who try to have a look are going to be new users who now will probably avoid ebuyer and shop elsewhere, a major cockup which has more than likely lost them past customers and future customers.

Apple crushes High Street in UK web shopping stakes

Actually Apple fans are the first to try to point out popularity, linking to web sites that state Macs are the best selling PC's or MBP's are the best selling laptops etc. Seriously, I just had to point out that "the phone that changed everything" is a marketing slogan by Apple.....

Thanks for that, Apple fans will be keen to point out that it's number 2 without pointing out, by traffic only.

What should a sci-fi spaceship REALLY look like?

Lexx - Tales from the Dark Side... that had the best design for a space ship, ever, it was organic and looked like a dragonfly, or maybe a penis, or maybe a dragonflies penis? Also the Sci-Fi was top notch in that show and 100% accurate.

Manning to get day in court

But it's America, he'll probably get 750 years for each offence, why give a death penalty when you can just lock up a person for the rest of their natural life? Unless of course he turns undead then he's still looking at several centuries locked up.

Politicians call for Modern Warfare 3 censure

Back in the 80's I played "How to be a complete Bastard" and in that game I stabbed someone with a pair of scissors! (the cops then came and arrested me, bastards), but in real life I've only ever shot someone once and that was before I played video games.

Bethesda promises fix for Skyrim Xbox graphics glitch

Will they be fixing the XBox style graphics on the PC? A nice high-res DX11 patch would be oh so wonderful. No? Shame, the game itself (when it isn't CTD'ing or freezing) is bloody good, it's just the visuals don't inspire the same "OMFG" that Oblivion did in it's time.

Cuba accuses US of sneaky Wi-Fi imperialism

A TV guide? Anything good on Cuba TV?

Smartphones rocket past consoles for mobile game sales

I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree with you Mr Smith. A good handheld title has many aspects to it that a mobile phone can never hope to obtain.

A dedicated control system is of course the big fall back that everyone goes for, although in fairness and impartiality, some games on the DS that focus on stylus use could be replicated on the mobiles but in turn the price would be more than 99p (Rune Factory for instance).

Mobile phones can offer a mediocre experience, I wouldn't want to lay on my bed and play some Japanese H game on an iPhone, although, again, to be impartial, the iPhone doesn't suffer from sticky keys *grin* Actually the iPhone and Android would be a good market for H games, touch controls... umm... umm.. yep, I've just had a business idea that'll make me richer than that dude who brought out minecraft (though I'm 100% sure it'll never get past the Apple censors).

The thing with consoles is that you can't replicate the experience on a phone, unless it's a game which requires time and patience to play, games which require some element of twitch skillz cannot translate over, you don't have the bumpers to pull or the buttons to prod.

My favourite game on my PSP is Harvest Moon : Innocent Life (sounds like a H game farming simulator, though in most harvest moon series the girls put out if you give them a turnip every day....) there is just too much going on to give it a decent play without decent controls, and whilst the iPhone 4.1 could probably play Wipeout at 30fps, could you honestly say you could play it with the same sort of skill you could on a hand held console?

Production electric motorcycle breaks 100 mile range

I'd be interested to see if this bike is capable of being rode with L plates. L plates you have to have a bike of 125cc or less and power output of 11kW, if the bike is CBT capable then I can see a market for people who take the A1 test (under 21's) or want a bike to ride on their CBT. With the price of petrol hitting £1.30/litre it could be a viable alternative.

Prince Harry given free run of Arizona town's womenfolk

It's not Captain Windsor, it's Captain Wales :)

US.gov: We aren't hiding any space aliens

"and opinion polls stating that more than 50 per cent of the American people believe there is an extraterrestrial presence"

That'll be God then!

EU to quiz Apple and Samsung on Frand deals

Didn't Nokia sue Apple over FRAND tech? Nokia won as Apple was using the tech without paying the FRAND.

Steve Jobs named most influential game guy – ever

How big was the list, and did it have names down? Did they have to pick from 10-20 names or write their own choices down? How many of these 1,000 people actually are developing games for the iDevices?

Gaming, god, go back to the 80's/90's and people whacking away at code on their ZX, C64, A500 etc. bringing out shareware releases or what-not They had an influence and some probably went on to work for big companies.

EA, love it or loath it, the guy behind EA has brought out some of the most successful games in history, BF3, The Sims.

Influencial people, Chris Sawyer (Transport Tycoon, Rollercoaster Tycoon), Peter Molyneux (Black and White, Fable), John Carmak (Doom, Wolfenstien).

Systems? Why isn't the PC on that list? No PC = no Steam/Facebook, the PC has always been an important machine when it comes to games, one could also suggest that games have been a major influence on PC's too.

I dunno what the world is coming to, people choosing an Apple platform over a PC platform when it comes to gaming, let's all sell our PC's, PS3's, XBoxes, Wii's, PSP's, DS's etc. and buy an iPhone, we'll get such quality gaming that no other system can compare with.

What about JRPG's too? Megadrive/Snes, no Snes, no super mario, no Sega, no Sonic, the list is endless, no Nintendo, no Pokemon.... I'm going to stop before I pop a vein.

Retailer intros cut-price 10in Android tablet

I have a Kogan, battery life means it's useless when taken anywhere as it'll drain in a couple of hours, the firmware constantly looks for a 3G signal (so turning the screen on often) even though there is no 3G capability.

Sony names PlayStation Vita release day

Which end of the argument are you referring to? Fan's can name excellent games no matter what platform is involved, I have games I love on my Wii (Rune Factory), my DS (Phoenix Wright), my PSP (Wipeout, Innocent Life), my PS2 (Suikoden, Wild Arms), my PS3 (Uncharted) and my Xbox 360 (Fable, Halo), I also enjoyed playing Angry Birds on my tablet though all in all games on my PC beats them all hands down.

If you are comparing games on phones/tablets to games on handheld consoles then you have no idea what you're on about pretty much. Consoles get AAA titles with budgets in the millions, phones and tablets get the sort of games you can play through your browser or on facebook, can't say I'd object to being able to play Wipeout on facebook mind you.

You cannot compare a dedicated system with a "it'll do it I guess" system, the iThings are not designed for gaming, they lack certain things like "proper controls", their games are the sort that you play on the train, or when waiting for a train or when a real console isn't available. You want to play Angry Birds, no problem, I'll fire up Oblivion or (soon) Skyrim and when you're bored after 15 minutes I'll not even have started to get into my stride.

I want this more than I want to find Keria Knightly in my bed begging me to come to her. Ok maybe not that much. Whats the odds that some bright spark figures out how to boot Android on it from a memory stick?

Debt collectors warned off pursuing punters on Facebook

Debt collection agencies have rules they are supposed to follow (and lots don't). They tend to purchase debt at 10% of it's value, so say you owed Company A £1,000, DCA would purchase that debt for £100 and then send you a bill for £2,500, even if the debt is statute barred (unable to be enforced, 5 years in Scotland, 6 in England/Wales). They will then use many underhand methods to get you to pay...

Phoning up your current workplace and informing your workmates about your debt

Phoning up your significant other and informing them about your debt

Taking you to court to obtain a CCJ even though the debt is statute barred.

Lots of DCA's are basically scumbags, worse than loan sharks, they will stop at nothing to try and get money out of you, posting it on facebook so all your friends can see it sounds like a method they would take, of course, the bad DCA's will read this post and think "shoot, why didn't we think of that?" and do it anyhow.

Google HFO Services and you'll find many horror stories about how DCA's treat people.

Robot resolves Rubik's Cube in record time

I'd guess it solves the puzzle in 0.000001 seconds, there are a finite number of moves required to solve the cube, if I were doing it I'd get the view of all 6 sides of the cube, work out the sequence required to solve the puzzle and then get the arms moving to implement the solution, total time to solve = not very long, the majority of the time would be spent turning the cubes around and around, now we'll get faster turning of the cubes as the next iteration, probably. Still pretty neat though.

Apple: 4m iPhone 4S handsets sold, thank you very much

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTg00wIijNY <-- the real voice of Siri.

Apple, tech titans lead US brands to world domination

Shell is 60% owned by the Dutch and 40% by the British, that would tend to suggest it is indeed a majority Dutch company, it's HQ is indeed in Holland, two things there which suggest that, you know, it's not exactly British.

HSBC was founded, as the name suggests, in Hong Kong, it was required to relocate it's HQ in to the UK.

Look at Cadbury, a British company now owned by an American company, it's HQ is now in the US, does that make Cadburys an American company? (Kraft is the HQ for Cadbury)

Oh, it's easy to figure out. The US top 10...

You take your iPhone to McDonalds where you order a Coke, you pull out an old IBM laptop running Microsoft Windows, tether it to your iPhone and bring up Google to search the net, on AT&T's network, after drinking the coke and scoffing a McD you have a strong desire for some antacids so grab some made by Proctor and Gamble.

I'd take the results with a huge pile of salt, Putting Shell as a British company (Royal Dutch Shell is a bit of a give away there) should have put up a flag. HSBC? Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. They can't even spell Vodafone :) Although Voda (#16) is a 45% holder in Verizon (#17) so why wasn't that taken into account? If it was then Voda would be 2nd place which is why the survey is basically a lotta rubbish.

Valve chief says Apple will own your living room

We already have a system like that, it's called a PS3, able to play pretty much any media, play games, play blu-rays, browse the interwebs etc.

Apple have zero success when it comes to products for the living room, that PVR thingy, the iTV or whatever it's called, it's a failure, at least in the UK where it has to go up against Sky etc.

Also a major factor is that current consoles (and upcoming consoles) do what they do brilliantly, there isn't the same lethargy that was evident in the mobile market which allowed the iPhone and then Android to become popular, how do you improve on a PS3 or an Xbox 720(?) or a Wii 2.

Finally you need more than AAA titles to make a console work, you need in house killer products, each system has their own killer games that would make people buy the console, Halo, Gran Turismo, Wipeout, Zelda etc. Apple would need to purchase a major software company that has a major game franchise and then make it Apple only, that is a huge risk, what if the game is a bit of a dud?

Finally we get to Loyalty, PS3 players hate the XBox and would rather have their testicles torn out than play one, XBox players hate PS3 players and would rather have their eyes removed with a blunt lemon than buy a PS3. Nintendo, well everyone loves Nintendo.

When Sony released the PS it killed Sega's hardware, not because it was a new thing, but because Sega screwed up with the Megadrive, they alienated their own fans with the CD32 thingy and the 32X, bring them out and then not support them, along game Sony and owned the arena, a bit like Apple with the mobile market, there isn't that sense in the console market, people will buy the next Wii, next XBox, next PlayStation, would they buy a console that cost £200 to make for £500? Hell no, they will buy a console that costs £200 to make for £150, that isn't a market that Apple can join.

This Dianamania is a slur on Jobs

Your post is wrong on so many levels. The most glaring one being that we'd be using AOL or CompuServe... you may need to think about how they would work without web servers. Tim couldn't have programmed it on X Windows as he didn't know how, a browser was made in 1 month that did (a whole 1 month faster!), that browser (Line Mode Browser) is still an active project.

Tim Berners-Lee will be remembered in 100 years, the way we remember great people like Brunell or Faraday, pioneers, founders, people who did really great stuff. In the grand scheme of things Jobs in inconsequential, the only people who will remember him are the same sort of people who believe Elvis is still alive. How many people will remember the actual designer of the iWotsits though? How many people know the name of the actual designer? Without him do you think Jobs would have been anything more than the CEO of a 3rd rate company?

Ahh well, maybe now Apple will go back to it's proper position, begging Bill Gates for a bit of change he has behind the sofa to prevent them going bust.

iPhone 5: Apple 4S, pundits 0

"We covered the iPhone 5 because readers want to read about it"

You lie, you cover the iProducts simply so us commentards can start flame wars, it's El Reg thinking about us that gives this place a homely feel ;)

Blue Screen of Death gets makeover for Windows 8

Looking at some of the comments from "power users" on the facebook page made me grin...

"So where do I read the error code?"

"Even less informative than it used to be. Thanks for thinking of the power users Microsoft."

Last time I checked it ends up in Event Viewer, are they really power users? Don't they know that event viewer actually gives more information?

Apple's ex-cop and the case of the lost iPhone 5

True value

The $300 was Apple admitting how much their iphone 5 was actually worth, anyone who pays more than that in the future is a sucker :P

Last ever batch of TouchPads isn't coming to Blighty

Oh?

Everyone already knows that it's supposed to be Argos, though how did you manage to pre-order from them?

Stephen on Steve: The most important man on Earth

Nope

He detests Windows to the point that he won't even bother reviewing them, he'll just say "I can't use this OS, it's not OSX" and be done with it. He rated a Viao as "crap" purely because he couldn't work his way around the OS to do really simple stuff.

I like Fry, he's funny, but he really shouldn't be discussing tech if he can't be objective. We all know Ive is the real genius at Apple, Jobs is just the dude that made billions outta it.

Ultra-cheap HP TouchPads to hit UK at 6pm

PC World

Dixon's ran out, PC World has both in stock (for collect at store) not sure about Currys but I'd try the dixons chain of stores if you want one.

Sony: PlayStation Vita will win gamers back from tablets, phones

PSP

Hopefully Sony will have learnt their lesson from the PSP, the homebrew scene for the PSP was massive, if Sony taps into that and produces an SDK to allow "99p apps" to appear on the Vita then they get the best of both worlds, AAA titles and throw away games.

Personally, I can't wait for the Vita, one of the best games on any system was on the PSP (Harvest Moon: Life - what? It was amazingly gentle gameplay!). The price point isn't high either, it's bloody cheap, a portable PS3 for £200? People spend over twice that on a tablet!

It's official: Journos are dumb as a bag of IE users

BBC

If you had looked properly at the results giving IE users an AVERAGE IQ of roughly 80 you would have seen something was amiss. As the fella on the BBC article stated, anyone with an IQ of 80 would not be using a computer and as the AVERAGE (note the caps) was 80 and the AVERAGE IQ is 100 (country dependant that) then you must have a ton of people of around 60 IQ to even out the average 100 IQ.

That's the simple way, you of course have people who are way above average IQ who use IE so really, how on Earth could you fall for such a hoax unless you wanted it to be true in the first place and so really you've just called every single reader of your website who uses IE an idiot, not only that, you compound calling them an idiot by calling them an idiot again over your usage of the hoax in your article, was it 30% of your readers who use IE?

PlayStation Vita release leaked

Very

According to very.co.uk :

http://www.very.co.uk/playstation-vita-wifi/926732216.prd?browseToken=%2fq%2fvita

You can expect delivery by 9th of December for £229 (although it's possible to get 10% off that price if you're a new customer, or 20% if you go through one of them cash back thing places)

On counterfeits, fakes and Apple stores

Cost

One way to find out, if the items in question cost 10 years salary for the average Chinese worker then it's a real Apple store.

OS X Lion roars, coughs on appearance in App Store

Umm

All 750 of em? More people download Linux DVD iso's every week than an SP for a mac once every 5 years or however long it takes for a minor revision.

Asda offloads affordable Archos fondleslabs

Or...

Or you can get a Kogan with Android 2.3, 1Ghz CPU, Capacitive screen etc for £125 or something (got mine for 80), battery life is crap however so going to have to figure out how to change the battery for something decent.

Ofcom maps state of UK broadband

2012

Be interesting to see where Cornwall (4) comes in 2012, by then the majority of exchanges should be FTTx so the average available speed should push them into 1st place (with fresh air) and by 2014 100% will be FTTx, so Cornwall, best place to live, best place for interwebs access

Stieg Larsson: Oxfam's number one best seller

Oh?

So where is Terry Pratchett on that list? He's generally a best seller (ok, he's a best stolen, most stolen author....) but it's bloody difficult to find his books unless you're *very* lucky and someone has given their entire collection away (usually due to Death).

The effect is that people don't want to part with stories they love (Harry Potter, Discworld) but give away trash novels that are meh (anything to do with Twilight) and you won't want to read again and again and again (1 book away from finishing my Discworld collection, buggered if I can find the ones I want in a charity shop though).

Pacific rare-earth discovery: Actually just gigatonnes of dirt

China

I don't think cost is the main issue, the main issue is the majority of rare minerals are floating around in China who can throttle Japan any time they desire. Japan is looking for other ways to get hold of rare minerals so they are not beholden to China. They suggest there are billions of tons worth of minerals down there, and only hundreds of millions currently available surface side.

Will it be profitable at the start? No, but as the process is refined and further refined it will eventually (hopefully) become profitable and able to compete with China.

PlayStation Vita priced up for UK punters

Hong Kong

I ordered my PSP from Hong Kong before it was even released in the UK, I paid a total of £140, not bad considering Sony wanted £180 in the UK for the UK version, plus the Japanese version I have, has a superior screen so for the PSP2, I'll import from Hong Kong again and save a fortune.

Boobs on display in Duke Nukem web game

Erp

I declare your comment really NSFW or not safe for frustrated geeky men who are now suffering from high blood pressure among other things, the medical bill is in the post (plus, there are no girls on the internets apparently!)

hrm

I'm trying to give it a whack but it seems hard to get it up, is anyone else having issues with this or is it really just me? Could be over-use that's causing it.

HP pets network-connected mouse

9 month

9 month battery life? Surely you jest!

Queen to get an iPad (the Queen, not a queen)

Nope

IIRC the two ipods were gifts (the 1st being from her grandson, the 2nd as noted in the article from Obama) so the Queen didn't purchase, she would also need to have a continual supply of stuff from Apple for at least 5 years. There is also the fact of who supplied the item, the Queen may use Nokia for instance but purchase all her mobiles from The Carphone Warehouse so TCW gets the Royal Warrant.

So no, no Warrant for Apple - if indeed this story is true.