Posts by GrumpyJoe

30,000 Shreks besmirch BeautifulPeople

Beautiful on the outside...

dark, pus-filled evil on the inside?

Flame, as in 'Kill it with fire!'

Nintendo: no DVD, BD playback for Wii U

Am I missing something?

A lot of the comments so far praise streaming content - but it has its flaws:-

You don't own it - you never did, but let Netflix try to take back your Blu-Ray copy if they go bust!

Internet speeds - not there yet - my Virgin connection would throttle the hell out of an HD stream.

Anybody want to add any more?

Until I am ASSURED of escrow of my digital purchases, and my broadband can handle them at peak times, Blu-Ray seems to be the choice for now.

Best Buy slams brakes on UK stores amid spending freeze

The news media

report companies are finding it tough. Consumers see the news and tighten belts. The news media report companies are finding it tough because consumers are tightening their belts, consumers tighten their belts further. Repeat ad nauseum.

I remember the Northern Rock queues - they got bigger the more they were shown LIVE on BBC News...

As to the veracity of the doom and gloom, who can tell, but the perception is obviously part of it. Not asking for cheerleaders, but some of this stuff happening now feels very much like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Taxman recruits fricking tax-collecting robots

Part of the reason

I killed my Friendface account with EXTREME prejudice - you never know WHAT somebody will do with seemingly innocuous data.

Sony hack reveals password security is even worse than feared

Firefox Sync

If you have Sync (it's in by default on FF4, an addon for earlier iterations) you can get all your browser settings (including passwords) syncd to a FF server out there in a 'cloud'. It's encrypted before it gets there with a strong key you define, so they can't sniff it.

It's not perfect, apparently there are ways of 'sniffing' the password store in FF on the desktop but I'm not overly bothered by this. By using Sync I have the same browser settings/bookmarks/passwords/themes at home and work.

Movie-goer punts 3D-to-2D cinema specs

Replying to myself

posted then realised - you mean PHYSICALLY turn the lenses around first and then put a left in a right and a right in the left - that works if the glasses have circular lenses - if they don't they won't fit/leave gaps? Are the lenses in these glasses symetrical?

Only been to one 3D Film (Toy Story 3) it was crap, wasn't paying much attention to the things on my face.

At the risk of making a fool of myself...

I'm not sure that'd work? The lenses are polarised in two different directions (left vertical,right horizontal or somesuch setup).

So you have two pairs of glasses:-

V - H and V - H

swap the left lense on the first pair with the left lens of the second pair - what have you got?

V - H and V - H

Or have I just blundered into the obvious trap of replying to this?

Nintendo Wii price plummets below £100

If you have a HDTV

don't, just don't - it looks awful. The reason I bought a PS3 (yes, yes, I know) was to actually make use of the HDTV I had, the wii looked like I was trying to use a Spectrum 48K on a cinema screen.

Hopefully the next one will be nicely HD (I think I saw it in the spec somewhere) and backwards compatible. Here's hoping...

SpaceX unveils new Falcon Heavy rocket - WORLD'S BIGGEST

And while the asteroid enters the ionosphere...

the robots dutifully doing their work on other planets will stare out and carry on working until they break.

WHAT a LEGACY!!!

Duke Nukem Girls give it some on video

I'm sorry but..

animated corpses - no matter HOW big their breasticles are - are NOT going to get me aroused.

Uncanny valley anybody?

Opera uncloaks Gmail challenger from Down Under

Been using Fastmail for 9 years now

Paid up member all that time - apart from a few wobbles early on (that they learned from) it has been a SOLID service all over - technically it gives you everything you need (encrypted SMTP/IMAP - great levels of spam filtering - extended address spaces) - yes I suppose gmail has them but - as people sometimes say - you get what you pay for - I get solid email and expect a good service BECAUSE I'm paying.

No complaints here - operamail looks like a 'dumb user' skin over the top though - if you want more just get a fastmail account.

Wind power: Even worse than you thought

Then we'll let you clean up...

the chopped up bird carcasses and let you deal with the noise pollution and the possibility of the bloody turbine in your back garden coming off and killing your entire family then?

What's that? I can't hear you, the internet needs electricity to work and you don't have any...

And can you point out to me...

the two months of the year were nuclear power plants fission less? Be intersting to know. That's what we are talking about after all?

November and Decemer - cold months - would've been nice to have some, I don't know, POWER to heat us? Nah, no wind no power - blankets are being supplied by you?

Nintendo game roll-out pace plunges

I did like my Wii

but the kids have it now - not enough 'mature' games for me (and yes I played Metroid and Resident Evil 4). Main problem for me was - as soon as I bought a HDTV it looked like CRAP. Eventually got a PS3 to make the best of the tv it was attached to - I think Nintendo got their timing wrong on how many people would get flatscreens - hence looking crappy in an age of HD games.

Just my take - but if a Wii 2 was backwards compatible with older games - and upscaled them - I MAY be tempted back - but not with a catalogue of shovelware.

Facebook Comments kill web freedom

Thankfully

the internet is still open enough that those of us that don't have a Friendface account will still be able to communicate.

Ubuntu's high-risk Linux Narwhal beta floats

Snapshot of the future...

Linux Mint, the popular ofshoot of Ubuntu (Ubuntu remix if you like) has started tinkering with a straight Debian release - basically trying to freshen up Debian directly with Linux Mint extras - as opposed to taking Ubuntu which is modified Debian and then polishing again.

Do you think that's pre-emptive step? A move from the Mint guys showing that they are not wanting to depend on Ubuntu for their distro-base?

Just a thought.

Antarctic ice breakup makes ocean absorb more CO₂

So the bit

about icebergs being created elsewhere - you know, from frozen h20 - you missed that yes?

You are anonymous

therefore I discount your input - at least tie an account to your posts. And wher ein this article did you see any cheerleading for oil?

I'm not a full-on believer in AGW - but I do see the point of GW - I've got CFL lightbulbs andturn my thermostats down - TO SAVE MONEY. Just because one does not agree with the whole premise of the political movement behind AGW, doesn't mean I can share some of their goals - a reduced dependence on 'other people's stuff' is preferable.

Black|Grey|White - Mine's the one in the middle, not your monochromatic view of the world.

Oracle kills Sun.com after starvation diet

So can I buy it?

If it's no longer being used I assume they are going to put it back in the pot - how much I wonder?

Government flies kite for VAT changes

I've seen odd things as well

in another (water-based) charity. Looked like MOST of the money went back into the fundraising pockets not into the main charity - one way around this - if you ARE donating, donate straight to the station near you - they get to keep it.

Apple to Microsoft: 'App Store name is not generic'

Generic banter about generic words

App = Application, Store = Store - generic?

That Apple uesd that words combined together first does not make them the sole owners of a generic term? 'Apple' App Store would be harder to justify.

This is lawyers looking for busywork.

LaCie cues up Thunderbolt hard drive

I bet they use a 5400 RPM disk in it

feel the power!!!!

ECJ gender ruling 'could throw insurance into turmoil'

EU Meddling....

Or prudent - I've never liked the idea of paying more for my 'gender' - what if it was statistically show that black men were worse drivers - could you apply a premium hike on them and get away with it?

And before people start - it's discrimination if it is against something you can do nothing about (colour,gender,disability) - not something you can (religious identity, being an asshole).

Swings and roundabouts, I'll pay less but the wife'll pay more... by 21 December 2012 (when the ruiling comes into force).

Apple under siege: Antitrust probes and product delays ...

If I buy a magazine from a publisher

surely I've bought it from them, not Apple - yet Apple get a share?

Just another reason to hope that 'App Stores' dwindle as web-based applications rise. Lock in multiplied (the grief my wife had to go through to get her iPhone 3G stuff onto a Galaxy S was amazing).

Flash drives dangerously hard to purge of sensitive data

RTFA

It is already covered in the article, overwriting the data STILL leaves data to be retrieved.

Am I the *only* one reading AND comprehending the articles here?

Debian 6: Have your Debian and eat your Ubuntu too

Not mentioned here...

Is this a rolling distribution? I've been looking at rolling distros as I'm fed up with having to update avery so often, I'd rather it just update in situ...

Sony threatens to ban PS3 jailbreakers from network

I've already given up

I'm slowly trading my games in for credit, the PS3 is becoming nothing more than a Blu-Ray player (a very good one, mind you).

I've not even done the update yet - PSN be damned - if they don't want my money that's fine, I can spend it on other things. I was a lot more chilled about these measures until recently - PSN blocks for modded consoles DO make sense, but it's the slapdash way Sony is implementing it that rubs me up the wrong way.

They make most of their money out of games - and I'm not buying any more games - sucks to be them.

FOSS maven says $29 'Freedom Box' will kill Facebook

I had the same idea

a few months ago, why share my data into a proprietary silo (Facebook) when I can keep it all local and then allow access to services that want to aggregate it?

Let's move distribution from the centre to the edge - become a producer not just a consumer.

Channel Five reborn as Channel Five

I saw that as well...

"Secrets of The Vanashing Sphinx" - right there between ad-breaks plain as day.

Thought it was odd at the time - is our education system THAT BAD that the person typing up the ident did not realise?

It's official: Nokia bets on Microsoft for smartphones

So Nokia are now a design studio

Their product runs somebody else's OS, their product is (mostly?) made abroad, all they do is tweak and sketch.

Lovely.

Mumsnet backtracks support for net filter

Non-technical people

expecting technical responses to a problem that work perfectly.

Sounds like most people then, politicans or mothers...

Sony PS3 rootkit rumours rubbished

Cost

and the £200+ I paid for my device - you know, the one that now does LESS because of Sony - am I getting a refund for that?

Mexican woman gets litigious on Top Gear's ass

So,

talking about the latest jewelery styles and downing an organic G&T, or shooting the breeze with one of the most 'interesting' people in the country..

let me think...

hmmm..

hard one this...

NASA hails 'amazing' exoplanetary system

Is it me...

or is the fact that the rest of the universe follows the general physical properties that we can see here not as astounding as is made out by these scientists?

"Loads of planets!" - yes, and? If they are formed here with known physical contraints, why shouldn't they be formed elsewhere?

Am I missing something?

Gov unveils plans to reduce employment tribunal claims

Fix the symptom

not the disease.

CoD: Black Ops 'not fit for purpose', fans claim

I've had the same problems

Barely 1 game every 30 minutes completes, meaning it was all for nothing - and the lag compensation is some of the worst I've ever come across, meaning that the difference between slaughtering your opponents and getitng slaughtered is purely down to luck.

It's no fun when you KNOW in advance at the start of a match that you are going to get killed repeatedly because the lag compensator means that the enemy sees you and shoots you before you've even managed to get a shot off (even though you did).

A mess of a game - trade-in is looming.

NY bomb scare bank worker 'evacuates self'

The double entendre

is confusing me - did she defecate in her trousers or not?

Lane Fox promises sub-£100 PCs

Skills

A tablet PC lets you become a consumer - a fully working PC allows you to be a creator. Which one do we want people to be - mindless consumers or active contributors to society and culture?

I desperately try to get my kids interested in computers, but they only see the apps - without realising the potential underneath them - when all are consumers who creates?

T-Mobile imposes swingeing cuts on fair use data limits

I'm sure a number here will argue

That this is a change to the TOS and a contract-breaker - but is that the case? Has this kinda 'we can change the contract at any time' stuff held up in court? ANy change would have to be agreed first by both parties surely?

National Identity Card holding chumps have buyer's remorse

Caveat Emptor

Most of us realised that the scheme was doomed to failure - those that didn't should suck it up (unless they had to purchase it for a mandatory reason - were there any of those?)

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

English

Do you speak it!

Sony PlayStation Network vs MS Xbox Live

Media Centre for me...

I'm a gamer too, but I'm also a father and a husband, so a 'gaming' machine would not cut it for me. With the built in movie systems, media server support, iPlayer, web browser and Blu-ray player, one PS3 can take many roles in my house.

A friend recently bought a XBOX360 'cos it was cheaper than a PS3' - then bought a Blu-ray player for his new telly - add the two up... yeah, I know!

Horses for courses.

The year's best... console games

Demons Soul

So should I rent this title before buying? From what I've read it's a 'Marmite' title (you either love it or hate it).

Gamble to win and lose... and win

No, not really

I'd probably never do it (I've never been very good at keeping on top of things like this) - but it's an interesting look at technology used to create an opportunity for gambling customers that was probably impossible before.

Tech firms warn Ireland on bailout

I was sort of with them...

until "eliminate social-welfare programs" - so they are saying they are happy with the reintroduction of the poor house?

I'm fully employed at the moment, but just over 2 years ago l lost my job in the financial industry and was on benefits for 5 months - are they saying that I wasn't due that for all the money I paid in (and bear in mind this was JUST JSA - £60.50 a week or so - not thousands like the Daily Mail put out).

I'm all for financial prudence, but pretending that you will NEVER fall on hard times is a losing proposition.

Samsung Galaxy Tab Android tablet

Wife's got an iPhone

but is looking at one of these as the idea bridge between an iPad and the iPhone (she's quite happy to keep it in her handbag and bluetooth it as a phone) - is this the best of both worlds?

As to why she's no going to get an iPad? Don't ask me ;)

Black Ops sets record sales figures

Great Time

I'm working out (slowly) how to play the new Zombie maps - MP seems like more fun that MW2 as well (traded that in - not fun getting killed by 12 year olds with tourettes) - this seems slightly 'easier' for the old codgers amongst the player base.

Can't say I've noticed much slowdown in MP - maybe I'm lucky? (PS3)

Scarlett Johansson unleashes voracious sexuality in steamy alien film

Species?

Anyone?

Medal of Honour

So why am I still playing WAW

when I had Modern Warfare and traded it in? ZOMBIES! And Black Ops haz them!

Zombies > Everything else in the history of the world!