Posts by PaulyV

BMW i8 plug-in hybrid: It's a supercar, Jim, but not as we know it

Rear

Since a friend told me that from the back the i8 looked like it was 'pooing' a Porsche 911 I alas now cannot unsee it.

I do like how it echoes the old M1 however, and the mpg returned under hard driving is astounding.

And now for someone completely brilliant: Stephen Hawking to join Monty Python on stage

Re: Tickets

I don't think Hawking is appearing live from what I read elsewhere - he appears to be involved every night so can only be pre-recorded.

Tickets like gold dust? Seatwave is awash with them and they start at £25 for opening night.

EE boffin: 5G will be the LAST WORD in mobe tech – literally

Re: Whats the point of super fast mobile broadband..

However I understand the generosity of Three has gone the way of the dodo for new users as of recent weeks with their limits now at 2GB per month. Happy to be proved wrong.

This edit button comes in handy sometimes - the limit which came in recently applies to tethering on new accounts, but worth noting.

Apple, Beats and fools with money who trust celeb endorsements

This puzzled me too. If a track is being re-released, in this case does that not mean they are referring back to the original source (tape masters), and if this is the case would there not be a sonic advantage to having done so?

Perhaps this assumption is incorrect and they refer back to digital masters of CD-like quality? Would be interested in any insight here.

Minecraft players can now download Denmark – all of it – in 1:1 scale

Re: I have never played Minecraft

Okay, that's Sunday evening sorted - will give it a go. Thanks.

I have never played Minecraft

...I am 42. I like Halo on occasion.

Should I?

Steve Jobs statue: Ones and ohs and OH NOES – it's POINTING at us

All is well in the world when Frank Sidebottom is better immortalised than Steve Jobs:

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/11/28/1354121989396/Statue-of-Frank-Sidebotto-008.jpg

Computer expert and broadcaster Ian McNaught-Davis dies at 84

If each year he was on the earth were a phone book, his life would represent a stack 84 phone books high.

Always able to explain technical matters in a digestible manner, a great presenter, always compelling with good humour and the perfect foil to eager Fred Harris when peering into the latest VDU display on the BBC in the eighties.

I seem to recall the first time I ever saw an acoustic coupler it was in Mac's hands.

Vertical take-off and laughing: Space Harrier

Re: Hydraulics my baulics ;-)

I was regularly at Mablethorpe but was more likely to be found hanging around the Space Ace machine by the entrance to Bingoland, for my sins. I can still remember the overwhelming cigarette smell around that game.

This was a very addictive game at the time, likely for me because of what felt like the breakneck speed at which you had to play it. Oddly enough if you asked me to recall the game I don't think I would have raised the cabinet, although this has jogged my memory, thank you.

It was an extremely hypnotising experience when the long end of level bosses made their respective appearances. Good work Sega - I don't regret a single coin that went into this machine.

SPACE VID: Watch JUMBO ASTEROID 2000 EM26 buzzing Earth

Re: Today? Today where?

....unless it's slowing down?!

Clink! Terrorist jailed for refusing to tell police his encryption password

I don't understand.

Is a random 12 letter password effectively uncrackable or not?

Surely this would be crackable with some work or is everything (admittedly little) I understand about what security services have at their disposal incorrect?

Sinclair’s 1984 big shot at business: The QL is 30 years old

Re: Going upmarket

All in one byte:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIcAyFVK0gE

Sega’s Out Run: Even better than the wheel thing

Re: Hard Drivin'

My wife who is also my brother doesn't like me to speak to strangers.

Hard Drivin'

This and Hard Drivin' were firm favourites down Mablethorpe way. I found Outrun joyful but Hard Drivin' was an altogether different affair. 'Real' driving physics applied to a rather spooky and empty landscape. Looking back it was rather akin to taking a Sunday drive through Limbo. Watch out for the cow by the barn!

You DON'T need a new MacBook! Reg man fiddles with Fusion, pimps out vintage Pro

I obtained a 2009 17 inch unibody last year, which had suffered a hard drive failure. I chose the 500GB Seagate Momentus (8GB of which is flash) and can only recommend it based on my own experiences. I use Final Cut and Photoshop quite a bit, although nothing much more taxing and it whips along at a fair old speed and I don't feel as if I am waiting for the mac at any point. Hardly a technical review but some insight from a genuine user.

I have noticed the mac gets rather hot at times, most especially when plugged in but this has never caused a problem and I cannot clearly say it is related to the drive at all.

Star Wars VII set for Xmas release. Ho, ho, ho... not THIS Christmas

Re: that guy who picked on Luke in the Mos Eisley bar

Ha - Kudos to Robot Chicken - I should have known!

Thanks. :)

Could the first film not be a single camera 'Curb Your Enthusiasm'-style piece about the shitty day that guy who picked on Luke in the Mos Eisley bar was having?

After getting ripped off selling his neighbours Taun Taun to a 'thieving Jedi', and lamenting a misunderstanding with Peter Cushing's dry cleaner that resulted in him getting 'the death sentence in twelve systems', he could nearly be run down by a brown landspeeder and it could end just as he goes for a drink at a droid-free bar with his clumsy mate to calm himself down.

I love that guy and am far more interested in his crappy life than anyone else's...

Don't tell me his name - I have never wanted to know it!

'Burning platform' Elop: I'd SLASH and BURN stuff at Microsoft, TOO

Re: Effect on WP

Sorry to say you cannot, as that very article states:

"The Search button on the phone will still bring up and use Bing and you can’t reassign that button to use Google."

Happy to be proved wrong.

Horny lovers FOSSILISED in steamy RUMPY-PUMPY session 156m yrs ago

Re: Next

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/07/max_mosley_hookers_orgy_sadomasochism_video_streisand_effect/

"About 33 examples of copulating insect fossils have been dug up. Until now, the oldest was two lustful midges who were immortalised in Lebanese amber for 135 million years."

Who was Lebanese amber?

Hard-as-woodpecker-lips MOUSE GOBBLES live scorpion, LAUGHS off stings to face

Re: by analogy

A wall of moderately priced bras and non-iron shirts?

Pizza drones, mad cyclists and Bitcoin-for-arms traders: A vision of LNDN 2023

2023

"In LDN 2023, you might try to chat up suburban 19-year-old Nicky"

I shall be 51 - did the research state this would be acceptable in 2023?

Barnes & Noble knock Nook slate down to £79

Re: o/t (ish)

Well, thirty quid and a family bar of Galaxy for a pound.

The Kobo is a fine reader for £30.

Re: Specs and usefulness?

Should you not wish to go directly down the manual rooting..erm...route, then you could spend a fiver or so more (plus micro SD card) over at AndroidforNook.com which will let it boot JellyBean from the SD. From what I read however the standard Nook UI seems fine for the purposes you mention.

I may be incorrect but I was of the opinion it does:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/support-nook-hd/379003759/

Thanks for the article...tablet purchased, fingers crossed.

Baffled boffins 'closer' to finding origins of extragalactic COSMIC RAYS

Is that a real picture? Looks like something I would trudge up to in Goldeneye N64.

Are you for reel? How the Compact Cassette struck a chord for millions

From time to time I still see audio cassette tape running free along the roadside, often tangled in hedges over a quarter of a mile stretch of country road.

Barnes & Noble booked for running out of £29 Nooks

Erm...

...yep, I got mine from PC World on Oxford Street about 7 weeks ago and Blackwells on Tottenham Court Road had plenty in about 3 weeks ago, all at £29.

That said I can recall many an irate comment in this section from people seemingly unable to get them 'that very instant' when the original story broke:

http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2013/05/01/barnes_and_nobles_slashes_nook_prices/

so I am not sure why there are so few here not pleased with this outcome??

Great bit of kit by the way.

Happy birthday MIDI 1.0: Getting pop stars wired for 30 years

Re: An thanks to MIDI....

No doubt at all that I was most creative using a system based around my Atari. Admittedly much of it had to do with my age at the time and hence my ability to spend days on end on such matters.

Having the computer there to do one task alone, namely sequencing, resulted in a very focused approach, which is as it should be. I could not afford a 1040 ST, nor the 'hi-res' monitor, let alone Cubase (I still recall when it was called Cubit), so it was a 520 ST, a black and white TV and a purchase of Midistudio Master by some outfit called Ladbroke Computing for me. A great program that never crashed or trashed...even on stage in many a humid pub. I seem to recall the setup being a Juno 106, D50, Casio CZ3000 and a Boss DR550 drum machine. 4 instruments but so many possibilities. The only issue with my Atari was the extended screen draw times when you were working on longer tracks. Served me right for writing tracks of indulgent length - blame The Orb.

Sorry - got caught up reminiscing there!

Still very little more satisfying than fumbling around behind your synth in the dark, MIDI cable in hand, and finding that it fits in first time, hence you had it the right way up. It's somewhat more niggling when you have to keep rotating it if you were not lucky enough first time. Happy birthday indeed.

'Steve Jobs killed music biz', but Bon Jovi don't mind Google Glass

It looks far more exciting in this showreel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yaXPx6xWEQ

oh, wait, that's 1995...

MSX: The Japanese are coming! The Japanese are coming!

Re: I loved them.

Yamaha CX-5m...I had one of those very professional looking grey boxes. Thought myself quite the Jan Hammer when I was using it, but was likely more tool-like than anticipated. My Atari ST which arrived a few Christmases later was the nail in its coffin.

Thirty-five years ago today: Space Invaders conquer the Earth

Re: I miss the invader's sound

The sound was a huge part of it - it was really bassy and carried across the arcade.

As for laser disc games apart from the usual Space Ace and Dragon's Lair the only other two i recall playing were Firefox (based on the Clint Eastwood film and using the same control yoke as the Star Wars games) and Astron Belt, which I played only once in Great Yarmouth - it was a sit down affair with a vibrating seat and pretty trippy background graphics. Stunning at the time and on the surface a world away from Invader which had only preceded it by five years or so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T56LsYd-7ZY

ohh.

Antique CODE show. After all these months I just got it. Jeez.

Good luck finding one of these anywhere. When I venture back to see family on the east coast now every arcade i go into is nothing but fruit machines and an occasional cursory Dance Dance Revolution or Time Crisis 3.

Are there any good 'retro' arcades in this country, or for that matter anywhere else???

Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic

I recall Sonic being featured in plenty of places around the early 90's. On the cover of the then highly hip ID magazine, giving wink of course.

I also remember Sega's involvement in the 1993 European Grand Prix at Donington, which was actually the Sega European Grand Prix. The pit girls were dressed up as Sonic, well, sort of, poor devils.

http://www.mediastorehouse.com/image/formula_one_world_championship_2129689.jpg

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2009/11/donington-93.jpg

Was the first game I played when I tore into my Megadrive...I was about 22 and its speed made me wonder, even back then, if I wasn't getting 'too old for this sort of thing'.

4G in the UK? Why the smart money still says 'Meh'

Re: Killer App suggestion

That is how I use mine from EE. I live in London but never bothered getting a land line. All I need to do now is set my Lumia to 'Internet Sharing' and I have a router providing what I consider to be very fast WiFi for my home.

I agree that the data cap is something that I have to bear in mind, but I am not currently a big downloader of films and the like so presently I manage fine.

As a result I may be the only person on 4G who is happy and content!

Pauly

Here we go again: New NHS patient database plan sets off alarm bells

Sending people negative test results by text

Is that not the same as getting a positive result by impersonal text when you do get one that says:

'PLZ C DCTR 4 HIV RZLT ASAP'

or a phone call telling you to come in and see them?

Spy romp Zero Dark Thirty: The tech behind the special effects

Re: SFX

I always thought the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park held up pretty well over the (many) ensuing years, although I have not seen it for a couple of years and certainly not in HD. I should have gone to see it when it was rereleased a few months ago but I wasn't bothered about the 3D (although it was really well used in Life of Pi and 'Richard Parker' the tiger in that film was astounding).

It was certainly the case that the work ILM did in Jurassic Park stood up very well for a good 10-15 years when compared to the ensuing rash of VFX movies.

Amazon-bashed HMV calls in administrators, seeks buyer

Town and city centres

Seems clear to me that there will surely be more of this as the spend shifts from the street to the screen.

I wonder if there will be a broad reimagining of what a town centre is over the coming decades away from the focus on shopping towards museums/galleries and new civic ameneties of actual use.

Probably not.

Bubble baron treats Space Station crew to blowup model

pin pricks

Large and inflatable, but compartmentalised I presume?

MEGAGRAPH: 1983's UK home computer chart toppers

Re: Was I the only one...

Ah, the MSX vision of all computers running similar hardware and being compatible - what a vision with no future that was (there's no emoticon for sarcasm is there?)...

Being a Paul Hardcastle wannabe I had something called a Yamaha CX5m which would have been very similar to your Mistubishi, but was specifically made by Yamaha to run music programs and voice cartridges. Came with a natty little 4 octave keyboard.

I also seem to remember there was an MSX made by Panasonic (I think) which had a built in genlock to overlay video onto the screen.

Dutch operators: Ugh, we really overdid it on the 4G last night...

3G

Am I incorrect or did the 3G auction here raise something nuts like £37b?

That can't be right looking at it...I will check on Hotbot,

2012: an epoch-defining year for home entertainment

Satellite Questions

This may be a daft question but it is one I have always wondered and this seems a good opportunity to ask.

As satellite TV upgrades in the home from regular, to HD, to Ultra HD it seems the providers are able to use the same Astra satellites to deliver this - is that the case and if so why do the satellites not need to be upgraded to handle so much more information?

Assange movie portrays leaker as teen rebel

Ah, Micro Men

The whole darned thing is online here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIcAyFVK0gE

Voyager probe reaches edge of Solar System's 'bubble'

Just a correction

I think both of these were launched in 1977? I may be wrong.

If I had the energy I'd look online but I cannot be bothered to do even that, let alone travel 11 billion miles...

Threesome ends in arrest as wife struck by pair of TVs

I thought this referred to Transvestites...I prefer my version of events,

I thought this referred to Transvestites...I prefer my version of events.