Posts by deMangler

Eclipse boss claims Visual Studio Code is an open-source poseur – though he would say that, wouldn't he?

Vi. Darcula.

Elite: Dangerous 'billionaire' gamers are being 'antisocial', moan players

I have been quite heavily involved in the forums. There is a very vocal minority of complainers. Not saying that some complaints aren't legitimate, I am in no position to judge, but anybody viewing the situation will clearly be able to see that most of the negativity comes from unjustified unrealistic expectations and just wishing things had been done the way they want. Conversely there are plenty of people who are happy with the way things are and are looking forward to continued development, coming up with constructive criticism etc.

It is a fun game. Largely a good community.

Myself I backed on the promise of an off-line mode. I can only play solo and then rarely due to internet, but the game I do play is amazing.

As for unresolved tickets, I think Frontier were just unprepared for the sheer volume of non-bug tickets over the holidays. I imagine they thought the product was solid enough to be playable and relatively bug free. On the latter they were right but the amount of tickets due to other disgruntlement are clearly huge. Backlog.

One thing is for sure, Frontier are responding to lots of threads on the forums but they must be swamped. Sometimes a thread disappears off the front page in less than a couple of minutes there are so many posts. The signal to noise from posters is terrible.

I expect it will calm down.

Space Commanders rebel as Elite:Dangerous kills offline mode

To add to the reasons why for many people off-line is essential.

Many people, myself included, play Elite a bit like a rogue-like game. There is a reason these games are all single player. Dwarf-Fortress, ADOM, Nethack, etc. It is because we like to be in our world in a considered way. We like to pause and think about it. We like to know we will be coming back to it in whatever amount of time and continue.

I believe this is part of the reason Iron-Man mode was fought for so successfully in the forum and DDF - because there is a strong element of the same kind of enjoyment as rogue-likes for Elite players, and this will be why many bought it or backed it.

I know it was a large part of it for me, and was why off-line was an essential feature. Where the main game was, for me.

Re: Erm non story

That is not true. A continuous internet connection is required even for solo on-line.

The micro YOU used in school: The story of the Research Machines 380Z

Ohhh my old bones

Made my day coming across this article.

My tutor room in the slightly grim comprehensive school I was fortunate enough to attend suddenly and without warning had a couple of these babys appear.

Nobody knew what to do with them. Apart from a maths teacher who used it to do.... maths...

Luckily I had some experience on my mums boyfriends TRS-80. Soon I had figured out a really basic top down text shooter game that I could type in in five minutes, thus enabling other kids to play it for the rest of the break. They thought I was a god. Those were the days.

Unfortunately, being the lazy sod I am I moved into bespoke programming and tech support after school so never made my millions.

Great memories though,.

Not work! - Firmware hacks

Re: @ deMangler - charging RazR

Thanks andreas koch for this:

http://pinoutsguide.com/ChargersAdapters/razrv3_charger_pinout.shtml

HTH

:)

Strange co-incidence. I recently bought a new battery for my old V3, and fired it up.

I did flash it back when I got it, mainly to remove the vodafone crap. Motomodders.net I think was where the stuff was happening at the time.

Still has my poker games on it and a very playable galaxians - as well as being an excellent phone.

Also - it is a tank. :)

Problem is it refuses to charge now. Displays a message - Unable to charge. I will Have to charge the battery separately. Bummer.

Just sharing you enthusiasm for the phone though. It really is a gem. After not using it for five or six years just flipping it open to answer a call is a joy. And it's cool metal sleekness. Ahhhhhh.

*wanders off for some alone time*

Standard Model goes PEAR-SHAPED in CERN experiment

Ontological pedantry alert

Still wouldn't explain why there is something rather than nothing though - just why there is the matter rather than photons.

Master Beats: Why doesn't audio quality matter these days?

Koss Porta-pros

Koss Porta-pros beat all the headphones I have ever tried out. Easily. And I have spent some serious money over the years.

And you can pick them up for less than 30 quid. And they have a lifetime guarantee.

They don't look any more silly than some of the more "fashionable" cans out there either.

Star Trek: The original computer game

TRS-80

First computer game I ever played. On a TRS-80. One of mum's boyfriends, for reasons unknown to me at the time but quite clear now, was very keen for me to disappear off and play this game for hours.

I also fondly remember the 308-z and 480-z but can't recall every playing Star-Trek on them.

Good memories anyway. Probably one of the main reasons I really got into computers at an early age.

NASA-backed fusion engine could cut Mars trip down to 30 days

Re: Vaporware

I was thinking this. Shock absorbers consisting of lumps of iron in long longitudinal magnetic fields, some kind of coil tube. would dampen the accelleration and could also provide electricity for the next pulse.

The ten SEXIEST computers of ALL TIME

Personally I prefer brutalist computer design. I loved the BBC MIcro.

Not my thing, but does anyone remember the Goupil Golf?

Not sure if sexy is the word, but it was french.

Google inflates infrastructure cloud

Rant Opportunity

I will take this opportunity to have a bit of a rant about Google Drive as well.

I use Dropbox free and was kind of looking forward to Drive because that meant that I could move my storage to Google where most of my other services are.

Drive is pants. Not fit for use. No LAN sync. It only updates whole files - not just the parts that change. If you install it on a new partition you need to download everything again, you cannot just copy over your current up-to-date local files and have it recongnise they are already synced, this make the absence of LAN sync even more crippling. No Linux client.

Unlike a lot of people I have no problem with Google using my information, it is part of the deal. My information is not private anyway so somebody may as well use it and give me cool stuff in return. I do hate crap non-functional stuff though and Drive falls into that category. Don't even get me started on them closing down iGoogle and Reader....

Grrr....

The healing hands of guru Dabbs

I can relate to this.

At school our tutor room became the computer room randomly one day. Computers were put in it. They were new, nobody knew anything about them. I happened to 'fix' a computer problem with an RML 380z just by 'having a look', or standing near it and somehow almost but not quite paying attention to it. I had no knowledge of computers.

I became identified as he who is a computer expert since that day 30-odd years ago. I have not a single qualification although I have picked up a lot of 'IT' information over the years, due to being automatically employed as tech support, programmer, sysadmin, whatever, but I can attribute the whole of me actually being able to 'fix' computers down to.... magic.

Almost, but not quite paying attention to the offending machine.

Now, the secret is out.

Naughty me.

Ten serious sci-fi films for the sentient fan

Just to pick two swaps I would have dropped Star-Trek The Tedious Picture (why didn't you pick Wrath of Khan?) and Gattaga (disappointing but good idea and who can fault Jude Laws acting) and brought in Brazil and This Island Earth. Never seen Zardoz. Will now even just to see how bad it is.

Love lists like this though - the comments is bound to provide a film or two I haven't seen that will be worth watching.

20 years of GSM digital mobile phones

6310i had Bluetooth. I used to use it as s modem. I kept mine for maybe 3 years. the longest I have ever had a phone before I lost it.

Great phone, good battery life for the time as well.