* Posts by Lister

3 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Apr 2010

Ten... small screen HD TVs

Lister
Childcatcher

To the Luddites and Intolerant

At home we have two TV's. One is in the living room and one in the bedroom (presumably the intolerant of you are now thinking “I only have one TV and you have made a different choice than me which I cannot comprehend. I must now categorise you as excessive, debt ridden perhaps, stupid, and obviously you must have no purpose in life”). Actually it’s quite simple, with the price of TV's being so reasonable, we upgraded the main set. There was nothing wrong with the old set it was just the case of why not. Unsurprisingly the main set is used for TV, movies, and gaming (wait I know what you are thinking gaming is only for unsociable wasters right? This might be true for some but at the same time there are plenty of games which have a great story line, are artistically stunning, and allow for competition which is as mentally engrossing as anything the real world has to offer). To the luddites technology moves on and for the upgrade we got something a little bigger, some extra features, and most importantly a better picture. Occasionally one of us will use the set in the bedroom if we both (shock horror) want to do something different at the same time. The bedroom however is still mostly for sleep and plentiful sex. I don’t believe that because we didn’t just throw away the old functioning set this categorises us as chavs, implies we have low intellect, or suggests we have nothing else in our lives apart from TV and media. Despite more than one TV we are quite capable of enjoying multiple interests in life. If you must know we like still like reading, learning, travelling, spending time with our friends and family, exercise and sport. I agree there is a lot of claptrap on TV and to get around this we don’t watch those programs. Just because we have another TV it doesn’t mean TV encompasses our lives or that by having another TV we must therefore consume more of it than before. All that has changed is a little bit of flexibility for the odd occasion. Ultimately though people have different lives, we are not all the same, and it’s just called choice.

Amiga on the block (again)

Lister
Coffee/keyboard

That Flash Animation is Magnificent

It was worth visiting the website just to experience the full on mouse over glory. I shouldn't mock but it's so bad I like it.

Thanks for bringing it to my attention Code Monkey. It made my day. "Compelling" indeed.

Sony's PS3 firmware update shows how retailers can be exposed

Lister
Unhappy

Sony Not That Bothered

As a long time Playstation fan I bought the original PS3 at its peak price. I know I could have got it much cheaper if I had waited and flame me if you wish but I knew I was paying a premium at the time for new tech, I also loved the previous Playstation consoles and I had expected big name titles sooner so money didn’t really come into the decision, and hindsight is also wonderful thing. When I made the purchase I was very aware of the other OS feature and I can’t help but think that at some point Sony must have made me aware of it via their marketing. A few weeks ago I decided to contact Sony about their decision to disable the other OS feature via email just to see what they had to say. Now I'm not going to make out that Linux on the PS3 was ever going to be a suitable replacement for a primary computer but I did actually make genuine use of this feature and it came in handy a few times as a substitute system for tasks other than gaming. Furthermore I'm quite keen to keep it but I'm not left with much choice and this is my biggest gripe. I explained the dilemma I now faced in the email - to upgrade and lose the feature or not have access to PSN going forward etc. A member of "management" phoned me in the end and his only explanation was that they had looked at other possibilities but the decision was solely around security and this was the easiest option for them. He was pleasant enough but I mainly got the usual evasive “I understand your disappointment sir...now go away" talk. It’s a real shame they couldn’t have worked on a better compromise. The fact of the matter is companies such as Sony simply couldn’t care less.