Posts by GrumpyJoe

Dermandar Panorama

Just like Bruce Forsyth's wig

I can see the join...

WD slashes warranty periods on Blue and Green drives

So if they don't have confidence in their products

why should I?

Fans lose grace with Star Wars MMO

£46 for 6 months?

Bugger that.

Call of Duty is hottest selling entertainment product ever

Could this just be

because it's fun? I have my moments of frustration, and yes, it IS a bit samey, but it is FUN. I thought that was the idea? Didn't realise I had to moralise over every pixel.

Twitter redesign seeks to monetise user base

No ta

not interested.

UltraViolet: Hollywood's giant digital gamble is here

So I buy the Blu-ray...

watch it, enjoy it, then sell it on or give it to a friend, and I still get to watch the movie in perpetuity (did I spell that right?)?

Have I seen a flaw in this plan? At least for me, I can have my cake and eat it - my friend, however - can they repurchase a UV sub for that film?

This is sounding similar to the whole 'license key in box to unlock online, if you sell it on the new owner has to fork out to get online' thing in the PS3 Saints Row the Third I just got.

Headmaster freezes schoolkids for Gaia

Put it down as 'atonement for your sins'

and it could be a catholic ceremony.

Lord British: Games consoles 'fundamentally doomed'

Got to say my PS3 is a multimedia hub now

Connected to my NAS I have music, photos and movies on it, it plays Blurays, it surfs the internet, it streams the iPlayer and it also plays games.

Yes, the hardware may be 'getting old' but when I see some kids complaining about the lack of 16xAA on MW3 I stop and remind myself of where I came from (Spectrum 48k) and, you know what? The current PS3 is good enough for me for now - remember when that kind of output was arcade only?

I'm happy for that trend to continue. My mobile will probably not do all that for some time (in comfort at least).

UK.gov to require you to opt out of data-sharing plan with drug firms

So...

who do I go to to opt out? Doctor/PHT/Hospital/DOH?

Climategate 2.0: Fresh trove of embarrassing emails

When something sounds religious...

you can tell it's gone off the rails - at this moment EVEN IF the evidence was ultimately correct I think I'd STILL have a knee-jerk reaction to ignore all the preachy, hand waving bullshit the 'holier than thou' group have at their disposal.

It's Catholic guilt, but instead of GOD being mad at us and us being bad and sinful, it's GAIA that is sad with us being bad energy consuming wastrels. If only we listen to the eco-friendly and their preaching of a low-energy future where we can all EQUALLY share in the poverty and disease, all the while peddaling the bicycle with the dynamo attached to power the one surviving piece of medical equipment per village.

Too ranty?

When geeks turn Green: Performance tune your energy bills

It's not just solar cells (as it says in the article)

To be honest, all we did last year was get the cavity wall insulation done and a repairman in to tighten and renew the double-glazing seals - made a HELL of a difference.

Brussels: Water cannot be sold as remedy for dehydration

Isn't that 2 litres thingie

debunked? Like the 10% of your brain stuff?

Woomera: Ghosts of Britain's space past

And it stays the same as it ever was - can you imagine any of the current Chinless Charlies bunging money at something like this? No imagination...

Java's 'Steve Jobs' moment in 2012?

I took one look

and realised enterprise dev (esp. in java) seems to be nothing more than writing glue code to join other people's stuff together.

Yawn.

New iPhone and Android mobes secure enough for spooks

Are there any

consumer options for this? I'd quite like some of these tools on my mobile...

Adobe Flex SDK bombshell STUNS developers

Given all this 'no enterprise' stuff emanating from Adobe

I'm personally worried about the future of software like Coldfusion (inb4 detractors). Luckily there are open source clones of this as well (Bluedragon and railo).

Happy birthday, Tech City: Have another confusing map

Always friggin' London

I've got a feeling if you actually show a map of the whole UK, david Cameron and the government would ask what the rest of those green bits around London are.

UK.gov moves to close VAT loophole on etailers

Not so cheap anyway

I checked out the MW3 price - it was cheaper in Asda on launch day.

Why your tech CV sucks

I'm SOOOOO GLAD

I have no ambition to work in finance. I'm sure it's the same all over recruitment wise, and I am struggling to think of the last job a recruiter got me anyway.

Jobsearch engines will remove the middlemen - can't happen too soon.

(Did I fall for the bait?)

Nokia Lumia 800

You may want to recheck the screenshots

some NSFW language in the review screen?

Doesn't bother me but you know there'll be SOMEBODY who get's all offended.

Cheap gas is a 'crisis' for Greens, but not for us

Feel free to top yourself...

it's the only way to be SURE you are carbon neutral!!!

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

After all the problems I had with BlOps online play

can we confirm that the connectivity is better than before? Lag killed the multiplayer on PS3 for me, so much that I traded it in.

Being killed by a shooter BEFORE YOU'VE EVEN ROUNDED A CORNER gets old quickly.

I realise it's a different studio but there MUST be shared code somewhere - and I'm guessing the problems won't come out until a few days after release.

Music biz presses BT to block The Pirate Bay

And so the slippery slope is amply greased

How many more sites are going to find their way onto this list?

Sonic Generations

Gave me a headache

I downloaded the demo on my PS3 and it was too fast - I just couldn't get an idea of what was happening - I think it has something to do with LCD refresh rates (37" LG flatscreen a few years old).

On a CRT the manic pace could be fun - but unless you have one of the 600Hz sets and switch that on, most of the time all you see is a blurry, line-seqmented shape onscreen.

Sad really, I LOVED the original.

World heading for massive jobs slump

Whenever I see news like this

I can't help but think - 'self-fulfilling prophecy'. The powerful read this news, it reinforces their fear, they restrict hiring, hiring goes down, prophecy fulfilled.

Is nobody willing to even 'TRY' to be positive? How many news items on tonight's news could be classed as positive (I challenge you to do this).

Fear sells. This is not the zombie apocalyse. Remember the fear over bird flu/swine flu.

F**k them all.

Adventures in Tech: Taking the plunge into IPv6

Are we still on the "NAT is security" myth?

A Firewall is security, and I'd LOVE every device I have to be single address routable from anywhere.

TfL wheels out digital bus info upgrade

Cardiff has something similar

not the size of this, but I was reasonably impressed with it - can't seem to find much info about when it was launched, but the main site to check via web is http://cardiff.acislive.com/web/default.asp

I use the park and ride - cheaper.

Iranian TV claims royals ordered Ofcom to ban it

Have you READ the link yet?

It's the conspiratorial ravings of a lunatic - I'm sort of glad I don't seem to be able to get this on Freeview.

I'm all for getting a different perspective, but I'm not going to get it from the old man shouting at pigeons in the town centre.

Belkin Conserve

Has anybody done the maths

on how much standby is actually costing me? I'm sort of under the impression it's in the order of a few pounds a year - I blow that on sweets for the kids.

Or is this a 'save the planet' device?

One in 10 Brits leaves web passwords in their will

Built my own cloud

using a 2Tb NAS - not shown wifey how to manage it yet (she's not really interested) - but it means that the family photos etc. are stored in a place we can both get them (and the kids when they are old enough). No need for external passwords.

Yes, I know it's not a 'cloud' per se - but it's mine, it large (expandable) and I can get at it from anywhere - it's good enough for me.

(Synology DS211 if you are interested)

Viz Profanisaurus

Bought

and trying to explain to my work colleagues why I'm crying... it's not easy in a way that doesn't get me fired for lewd conduct.

Anne Franks' Drumkit - FFS!!

Smut oglers told to opt in to keep web filth flowing

So now I have to call the Indian call centre for Virgin and explicitly ASK for access to knuckle-shuffling material? That seems the wrong way to go about it.

I manage my children's access online, and I don't feel I need permission to look at perfectly LEGAL things...

Can we clarify, are Virgin et al blocking ALL access by default or offering some numpty desktop app that will do it?

Spotify tethers future to Facebook

I'm getting sick to the back teeth of the bandwagon hopping - killed my Facebook account ages ago and don't miss it one bit and my limited feedback from friends and family is that they are getting 'bored' with it.

Tying your colours to another person's mast is NOT a good idea - let's ALL give Facebook the Crown Jewels to look after!

Anything that implicitly ties itself to Facebook is coming for a reckoning as numbers drop. And they will.

Driver San Francisco

Any mention of

the DRM on this title? Is it always on connection like other UBI titles?

Freeview to get fifth HD channel

If you want to talk wastage

Try ANY of the shopping channels or the 'Rabbit' Chat systems. I cannot think of a better waste of bandwidth than these systems, but as long as they make money why bother having 'useful' channels broadcast...

These channels are the FIRST I delete from my guide on a retune, just to save my sanity (along with all the Topuptv pay per view crap I can no longer get anyway as they stopped selling the cards for boxes and went all 'set-top- box downloads').

Bah Humbug.

Nobody has any idea about new pension thing happening

Pensions just don't make sense as a concept any more

They were fine when you worked for one company your entire life and retired at 65 and died at 67. They don't work any more. Yes, save, but don't tie it into an annuity, keep it handy, you'll never know when you may need it.

Old idea is old. New idea please - one that keeps track with the notion that I may live for 20-30 years AFTER retirement?

Virgin Media preps firmware update for glitchy SuperHub

I just upgraded my broadband from the 10Mb

and I was offered 20Mb or 30Mb - same price! I asked if the 30Mb needed the superhub - yes.

I went with the 20Mb. I have a network infrastructure already (Clearos and Wifi hub), I manage my own network, I don't want that investment to go titsup just because VM want to cobble their accounts with a shit hardware solution to combat BT's hype machine.

Now, if this patch comes off that turns it into a dumb modem? I'll bite. But not before.

Agency sends contractors' day rates to 800 RBS staff

Isn't that illegal now?

I was sure a law had been passed that made it illegal to have a 'No talking about salary' clauses in contracts? Or is that only stock employees?

'LONDON IS THE CENTRE OF THE technology WORLD'

Why bloody London!

IT Jobs can be done anywhere (outsourcing anyone?) - yet this 'sucking sound' from London that seems to want to consume all and sundry continues.

The salaries look good where you are now but you'll be living in a one-bed flat till the end of time or commuting for 2 hours each way if you actually take the job and move to London. I really don't see the draw.

Three prunes prices of smartphone contracts

It's not just you...

2 years is eons in smartphone tech, I've still got an HTC Hero that is barely working now, and 6 months left on my 2 year contract.

Weighing up all the numbers it was actually cheaper for my wife to buy a sim-free Galaxy and then choose her network.

You need to see the upfront cost for what it is, an investment. You'll pay it all back and more during your contract anyway - mobile companies don't give something for nothing now, do they.

Nintendo cuts cost of 3DS by a third

My kids tried one in Game

they tried to get their heads 'just so' for the 3d, failed, and pushed the slider down to 'no 3d'. At this point they are playing with an expensive DSi - they already have one of those - so for my kids at least this was a no purchase for me.

And motion-enabled games? Have you tried to get your head in the 3d sweet spot for those?

Nah, forget it.

Cabinet Office government-by-Facebook plans probed

Over my

dead body. I killed my Friendface account for a reason, and nothing the government supplies is gonna tempt me back.

Next 15in, 17in MacBook Pros to be MacBook Air skinny

Are optical drives

THAT out of date? Or is Uncle Steve expecting us all to suck at his digital teat for all our media needs?

Beeb flogs Doctor Who episodes via Facebook

So I have to tie myself into

Facebook to get access to these BBC assets?

No.

VMware taxes your virtual memory

I thought virtualisation

was supposed to simplify server usage? Looking at the bumf that Amazon puff out of their cloud (options/levels/T.L.A. moniker'd services) - I'd much rather just, you know, BUY A SERVER and run the bugger - that's now the simpler option (for the small guy). Enterprise? Well, more money than sense I suppose.

Sony pains pre-owned game punters with PSN Pass

Why is it always followed my marketing bull

about 'enhancing online market opportunities'. NO WAY I'm buying these games, and don't get me started on the 'Buy' option on the PSN Movie store - anybody who's EVER done that deserves a wedgie a day for the next 10 yearsfor encouraging them.

Bug-Byte Manic Miner

I'd like to thank you

for embedding that tune in my head all day. No really, thanks.

I'll return the favour - Sonic the Hedgehog, Green Hill Zone!

Now it's in YOUR head (audio virus ahoy).

Virgin Media blames Activision for Call of Duty lag problems

Got a friend in the Electrical Engineering industry...

he's SEEN some of the equipment Virgin inherited fron NTL. Some of it is older than the dinosaurs, so it wouldn't surprise me that different people in different parts of the country get different experiences...

I don't think they've got the money to upgrade it to the point it is actually useful... but... it's STILL faster than any ADSL connection I could get from BT where I live, sadly.

Sony preps refreshed PS3 and talks down PS4

At the moment

I'm struggling to think of what they could ADD to the PS4 that would make it worthwhile other than a bit of extra graphical 'oomph', and to be honest I'm quite happy at the moment with what I have, especially as the better games at the moment seem to be indies that can quite happily run on existing ps3 hardware.

Anybody have any suggestions on what they 'could' add apart from more polygons? I'm all ears.

World braces for domain name EXPLOSION

It's all Google's fault

most people (shamefully me included sometimes) just type the name of the site into google and get the domain from there.

I remember when .ltd.uk was created, companies bought them and then it went quiet, because those companies also had .co.uk and everybody went to that domain by default (remember .biz?).

I would've been more in favour of a limited release (like .movie) rather than a free-for-all.