Posts by Tim

SETI@home needs You!

Green issues

Problem with all these "idle" apps is they load the CPU to max and consume a lot of power.

Worse for modern PCs and in particular laptops which changes power consumption (and throttles the CPU) on demand. On my laptop I just can't run them as the laptop fan kicks into overdrive whilst the CPU hits 70 degrees C!

It's funny especially with the climate change projects which are contributing to global warming by having all these computers maxed out trying to work out the effects of global warming!

Anyway, what with the drive to have more efficient PCs and get office and home users to turn off their PCs rather than leave them on, means the likes of SETI@Home are doomed.

Now RIAA says copying your own CDs is illegal

Re: Cd is an inconvenient format

Whilst inconvenient for playing, I continue to buy CDs as the quality when ripped properly (e.g. with EAC) to a lossless format like FLAC is vastly superior to almost all downloads on offer (legit or otherwise).

My media server is a big collection of FLAC versions of these CDs which are played direct by my Squeezebox (which plays FLACs), and I convert as necessary to high quality MP3s for use on my MP3 player.

Wouldn't touch a 'pay' download with a bargepole unless they are DRM free and guaranteed at least CD quality.

I don't even bother with pirate downloads because almost always the quality of the encoding is so rubbish it just makes me go out and buy the CD.

Sadly the majority of people don't give a crap about quality, hence music quality has gone downhill over the years (Vinyl better than CD, CD better than downloads, etc).

Nokia wins hearts, minds with breakthrough mobile

7110 was better

Okay it wasn't really "The Matrix phone" (that was the 8110), but the 7110 actually had the spring loaded mechanism unlike the 8110 as used in the film (they hacked about with an 8110 for the film to add it).

I felt the 7110 anyway was a more polished version of the 8110. Had a nice dark green shine to the cover too, and even WAP!!

Still think the spring mechanism is cool today. My 7110 is as robust as ever though probably because it sits in a box rather than be used.

US switches off the incandescent lightbulb

Those who tried CFLs years ago... try them again

They've improved a lot over the years. They're not like those cold colour flickering florescent strip lights you used to have in kitchens.

You can get bright ones. Though some people have way too bright bulbs in their living rooms, usually a single harsh light in the ceiling which can cause more eye strain than a set of softer dimmer ones around the edges of the room, which makes the room more appealing anyway and likely you can see the colour of the walls are actually not just dazzling white ;-)

They do last a *very* long time. I've only had to replace one in 7 years!

They're very cheap, especially when you can get them free from electricity company offers ;-)

Many new ones do dim. I dim my UK bought ones from standard DIY stores with no problem at all.

Start up times on some new ones are quite fast now.

There are plenty also that are warm colours now.

Sony posts PS3 DivX firmware update

Re: *sigh*

It's funny how when advantages of HD DVD are pointed out all we get is sighs and moans that all people are doing is cockwaving, or "who needs these features anyway".

However when a Nielson report is out the same people are happy to cockwave their "2:1" figures ;)

It amazes me how uptight the Blu camp can get (to the extent of defacing HD DVD sites apparently in their latest tactic), when they are winning hands down.. or so they continually remind us. Beats me why the Blu camp even needs to be cockwaving.

Double dip time

So we'll start seeing existing Blu-Ray titles re-released with interactive features and in-vision commentaries now to catch up with the equivalent titles on HD DVD? Going to be costly for Blu-Ray fans ;)

Still, they'll be re-released a third time when profile 2.0 is finally launched and they add web enabled features to the same titles. ;)

Flash-based iPlayer is go

Wii

Answer is... no.

The Wii uses Flash 7 which is very old. It's a problem with a lot of other Flash sites. Apparently Nintendo and Opera are stuck because the newer versions require some SDK from Adobe which isn't available for the Wii, or something like that. So blame Adobe.

Though if you have a Wii, you surely have a TV to watch BBC shows on anyway (and presumably a video recorder of some sort) ;-)

Re: Does that work on Wii?

Have yet to try, but I suspect not as I think the version of Opera that's used in the Wii Internet Channel has an outdated version of Flash. Depends what the Beeb's thing requires.

BBC's iPlayer launches Christmas Day

Beta/alpha quality

It's strange, but several years ago I was on the NTL trial of iPlayer back before it was known as iPlayer.

It still used kontiki but had a simpler UI that didn't use a web interface and was slicker. It felt more like a completed product, but for some reason the BBC continued to mess with it and trial it for years which 4oD came out with theirs in completed form.

Still, both are better than Sky Anytime for PC which demands you pay to watch shows you already get with your Sky subscription!

US HD hardware sales 3:1 in Blu-ray's favour by year end

Highlander

"Do you lack reading skills? Who said anything about PS2s playing DVDs today? I was talking in 1999/2000 when the DVD format was still struggling to gain traction due to expensive players and content."

Indeed, and still the PS2 wasn't the major influencing factor. It was 'a' factor, but it was the format itself that drove it. Blu-Ray however is entirely being supported by the PS3 which is a totally different situation to 1999/2000 with the PS2.

The reason for mentioning the PS2 today is because the PS2 is irrelevant to DVD. The PS3 however will still be very important to Blu-Ray several years from now as the only relevant player.

"Not sure how you're arguing that PS3 is the only BluRay player."

Only *relevant* player.

All the standalones are a) too expensive and b) using outdated profiles.

Until Blu-Ray standalones are as cheap as HD DVD standalones, are all profile 2.0, are region free, Blu-Ray has no long term future. The PS3 is to the mind of most people just a games console (no matter how much you and I can argue it isn't just a games console, and I even agree there). For AV enthusiasts you need an AV component for the Hi-Fi stack, not the PS3. For the mass market you need a cheap player for £50 to £100 and the PS3 will not be that even 4 years from now (again I point to the PS2 as example there which has been going 7 years!, and the PS3 is a more expensive product than the PS2!).

"Regarding your pointless DRM comments, who really gives a damn about managed copy capability? What do you need it for? Gonna set up a bit torrent once you strip the copy protection off the movie? Wanna protect the disc? Oh, well let's see the hard-coat on BluRay will do that, pity about those scratch prone HD-DVD discs of yours though."

Talk about me lacking reading skills. Read my comment again. I'm not talking about pirating movies, I'm talking about portability and network streaming. Notice all those media center PCs in the shops these days that sell bucket loads? (and yes they do have multi terabyte capacity). All useless once BD+ is enforced. One of the major reasons why Microsoft backs HD DVD.

In fact HD disc formats could ultimately fail where MS succeed with movie streaming.

As for scratches (which I never even mentioned), you do know that Blu-Ray required the coating because it places the data layer closer to the surface? HD DVD doesn't require this because it's closer to how DVDs are manufactured. Even scratched it is possible to resurface an HD DVD like DVD. Blu-Ray couldn't, at least not until it required the "work around" of extra coating (which adds even more to production costs and complexity).

P.S. Coatings can fail, leading to rot between the coating and disc.

Re: Scoff if you will....

"For all those scoffing at these number and at the PS3, let me remind you of a few things. All the people bleating on about how people don't use game consoles to watch movies....PS2 is largely credited as sparking DVD into life. Of course, no one watched DVDs on that platform, did they?"

The PS2 had some influence but DVD was already well established at that point. It wasn't responsible for DVD's success. Price, size and convenience over VHS was what made DVD so successful.

Also the PS2 is barely used these days as a DVD player.

The PS3 however is seen as the *only* Blu-Ray player. Standalones are largelly irrelevant due to price and outdated profiles. Almost everyone buys the PS3 for Blu-Ray and the way people are talking, the PS3 will continue to be the only player of choice.

Now can you see Joe Public being able to pop into ASDA in a couple of years, and picking up a PS3 for less than £50? Don't think so some how. Not even less than £100. Hell, even the PS2 still isn't that cheap new!

Re: DRM

"What is all the fuss over DRM? Surely, you pay your money for the movie on a HD disc, and then you watch it... Why try to rip it down to a crap format that will compress it even further? Probably missing it (namely the portable video players), but seriously?"

The issue with DRM on Blu-Ray I have is BD+ and the ability to disable Mandatory Managed Copy. Not an option on HD DVD as it remains Mandatory no matter what.

This means, no transferring to portable players so you have to buy a 2nd copy in whatever format that player uses (likely Sony would rather have you buy their other recent failed format, UMD).

This means, no media center systems with ability to stream your movies over a home network. This will become ever more important over the next few years as home media networks become ever more popular.

And then there's region coding. Whilst I can accept the desire to prevent customers in one region, watching a film before it hits the cinemas, I have a major problem with region coding on catalogue titles.

Or, I wouldn't have such a problem if releases were identical the world over, and weren't priced at £=$ prices in the UK. I'd have less reason to import then.

Not all PS3 owners even have an HD TV!

It's just not possible to count all PS3 owners as Blu-Ray owners when many of them don't even own an HD capable TV.

PS3 sales to surpass Wii's... in four years' time

Re: Who cares?

"The WII should only ever be compared to the PS2 or XBox, it is technologically the same generation as them."

That's the real point though. Even though technologically it shouldn't (if you ignore the controller), the Wii *still* beats both the PS3 and XBox 360 on sales !

The point being that few people really care about next gen consoles that play ultra high def games only a hard core gaming male teenager really has the dedication to play.

The majority of people just want a simple fun console they can pick up, play for a bit and put down, and even their grannies can play.

No fad

I wouldn't say the Wii is a fad. It's more of a reaction and reality check against overpriced, bloated and bland consoles in recent years.

The public has realised that what they really want is just a simple, cheap and fun console. The Xbox360 and PS3 on the other hand are quite serious consoles, suited to serious gamers, and limited to the 12-30 male market. The Wii is for everyone.

By the time the PS3 is at a sensible price level it will be old hat and likely 8th generation consoles will be rolling out.

Problem is Sony waited far too long with the PS3 and wouldn't let go of Blu-Ray (which was entirely unnecessary for PS3 games and only required to force Blu-Ray on the public).

Warner to back a single HD disc format?

points

Capacity

1. HD DVD has 51gb triple layer now (compatible with existing players). Capacity point is irrelevant.

2. HD DVD releases where the equivalent Blu-Ray actually uses a 50GB disc (half of BD releases only uses 25GB!!!), get released on 2x 30GB discs. Total capacity... 60gb!

3. Both Blu-Ray and HD DVD releases are using the same encodings in general. Extra space on Blu-Ray is only usually used for uncompressed lossless PCM because BD doesn't mandate Dolby TrueHD (compressed lossless). Both formats are to all intents and purposes identical therefore when it comes to capacity (and that's ignoring point 1 which nails the argument in the coffin).

DRM

Piracy is a concern to studios, but all DRM measures are ultimately going to be cracked.

However, BD contains an extra feature which disables Mandatory Managed Copy. MMC is the right for the *legit* purchaser to make managed copies, and more importantly stream over networks, which is the only way networked media centers can work. Funny enough MS is dependent on this, hence why MMC is Mandatory on HD DVD which MS support.

2:1, 3:1, 10:1

a. Figures are exaggerated and no one actually knows the truth except the studios. Most figures come from Nielsen in the US (US only and excludes many retailers including Wal-Mart), and outside the US they come from pro-Blu sources only, not retail figures.

b. Sales are so tiny that these figures are not what would attract a studio. They have to look long term, and player sales and demographics are important here. In the case of the latter this is the key problem with the PS3. PS3's demographic is 12-30 males. Big problem if you want to sell to a mass market.

Player sales

@ the person who said Blu-Ray standalones were selling the same as HD DVD.... LOL!

Answer - no

As said here and on Engadget's comments on the same article, the guy quoted is quite pro BD with a history of bashing HD DVD.

I see no reason why Warner would switch from format neutral at this stage, especially as BD is still only being propped up by the PS3 (it can sell all it wants to gamers but to bank on a movie format based on only one viable player, and a games console at that, is suicide), and HD DVD players are set to flood the market next year. In fact even the beloved "this proves Blu-Ray is winning" Nielsen figures even show yet again HD DVD is swinging back this week when only the week before they were written off (again). It's so up and down, and such small sales, it's daft to go pick one format at this stage.

Personally I don't think Warner will decide until end of 2008. If at all. The format "war" is set to continue, and likely will never really end with a winner. Either both continue indefinitely or both fail.

In fact, if anything, Warner are likely to announce they are going to cut back on HD releases for 2008 and concentrate on DVD instead as the HD market is just so small. Less than 2% of sales are HD. The rest are DVD.

Still, we can't let a week go by of course without a "Blu-Ray has won" hinting article hyped up by one site and then duplicated all over the Copy&Paste net press that backs the Blu camp ;-)

Spinning, flashing Linux logo droid comes to UK

Windows version

I can just imagine the Windows version being a toy Bill Gates that spins around on it's rump.

Scary!

Maybe the Mac version is a Steve Jobs that if introduced to the Bill droid it will beat him up.

Sony exec confirms PS3 will get Blu-ray Profile 1.1 this month

Re: Picture in Picture!!

PiP on DVD worked by having a second copy of the film with the picture in. Lots of extra space taken up. It was also pretty rare.

PiP on Blu-Ray and HD DVD works by having a second video decoder in the player that can decode two streams at once, overlaying the "in picture" stream on the main film. Along with a load of other interactive features.

However the real point here is HD DVD has had this since day 1. Why on earth people are backing an incomplete format like Blu-Ray is beyond me. Many people may not even be able to upgrade their players, or if they can have updated firmware the player may not have the hardware to support it! Crazy.

What we have now is quite a lot of HD DVD's already have PiP commentaries and interactive features (which are quite enjoyable), and yet at present only 1 (yes '1') Blu-Ray title has this feature... and that's only available in Germany, and can only be played on pretty much zero players at present, and probably just the PS3 when the firmware is updated. Even then the PS3 still isn't Profile 2.0 which has Internet features and yet again HD DVD has had this all along!

Yeah, go pick the format that's incomplete, has more DRM restrictions, costs more, and is region coded... all because it's Sony and has a "cool" name. Dumb.

This 'war' isn't about who wins, it's just about the consumer losing ultimately, thanks to a stubborn company that didn't want to play with the rest of the kids.

Blu-ray widens US disc sales lead

Re: @ Tim, a summary of his post...

"You made a mistake here. The Wii can’t play HD-DVD movies as you imply. Chocolate candies are also outselling the PS3. Most US households have more than 1 chocolate candy in them. PS3s are getting killed by the sale of chocolate candies. Of course, you can’t play Blu-ray or HD-DVD discs on a chocolate candy, is it doesn’t really apply here."

The point I was making is really to counter the argument that most Blu-Ray fans have that everyone will own a PS3 and by definition have a Blu-Ray player. Problem is the PS3 is a games console, and is getting hammered by the Wii (a games console). The PS3's relevance as a games console is important. If it wasn't, no one would spend £300+ on it just to watch films.

Yes the Wii doesn't play HD movies... but that's the point.

Most people are not interested in HD movies!

That the Wii is doing so well, just shows how depending on the PS3 for the success of your format is doomed to failure ultimately (even if it sells more than HD DVD).

Thus...

"Ok, so if Blu-ray disc sales outsell HD-DVD 99:1, you don’t consider that winning?"

It's "winning" in that it's selling more, and HD DVD may even fail completely, but my point is Blu-Ray would still likely fail subsequently if it just depends on the PS3.

DVD will reign for the next 10 years if it goes on like this and neither HD DVD or Blu-Ray will really "win", they both fail. Ultimately we all lose out, and all thanks to Sony who were too stuborn to do a deal with the DVD Forum (of which they are members) and combine the formats. They were offered the chance many times, but refused to develop their own format which is barely any different other than it makes them more money.

Some points...

1. Nielsen's stats don't include Wal-Mart sales apparently for a start. Probably a number of others.

2. They are just US stats. Funny enough, there is a world outside the US borders ;-) (and the only stats available for outside the US are mostly BDA spun stats).

3. All current sales stats anyway are based on sales as a result of player purchases made many months back. There's a whole new batch of HD DVD players on the market now creating quite a buzz (not just the $99 'dumped' players), especially in Europe, but nothing new in the Blu-Ray camp other than the PS3 which is getting hammered by the Wii anyway. Current sales will only impact after Christmas when the wrappings are taken off.

4. To put things in perspective: HD DVD and Blu-Ray sales combined account for less than 2% of all sales if you include DVD.

5. Finally... no movie format can survive on the basis of one player alone (i.e. the PS3), more so when it is seen in the minds of Joe Public as a games console. It doesn't matter if Blu-Ray is winning 99:1. It still won't survive, regardless of whether HD DVD does. Oh yeah there are standalone Blu-Ray players but these are largely irrelevant on the basis of price and being out of date the minute they reach the market.

Bloody code!

buried exits

Pretty much what others have said here.

Don't have a problem with multiple exits if the code is clear, but if it's a nested munge mess and a dozen exits buried within, it's very hard to understand.

However, rewriting the code into simple clear methods rather than a nested mess would be preferable to just slapping in a state and single exit.

The result however would likely be that you have single exits anyway in a set of small simple methods.

Only time these days I tend to use multiple exits is where there are parameter checks at the top that just return before the method has started. Although if it's due to the method being called incorrectly I'd use exceptions in that case.

Of course then there is the issue of buried exceptions, or exceptions within nested code, caught in the outer code, then rethrown or turned into a regular exit hiding the exception, and other such mess, and whether these are good or bad.

Multiple exits also complicates the situation if clean up code is required if an exit returns failure but isn't thrown as an exception. At least languages with a 'finally' concept make this less of an issue. Better code design helps too though.

Nokia N95 update speeds apps with virtual memory

RE: Windows only????

If you're an Apple owner, updating phones is a bit too technical anyway. Best off just popping into a Nokia store (or favourite branded store, Orange, T-Mobile, etc) for an update ;-)

Besides that though, there is Apple support, just not for software updates.

BT puts old phone books online

Re: Public Records

"Public Records are free to access if you make an effort, or you can pay other people to make that effort for you"

They're not really that free when you have to pay to get to a PRO. Not too sure if you have to pay to get in these days.

Think you have to pay for online records even from the official PRO sources, and soon you won't be able to physically walk into a building to look anything up, all has to be done online.

See http://www.guardian.co.uk/britain/article/0,,2201087,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=11

quote: "The Family Records Centre opened only 10 years ago, shared between the ledgers of the General Records Office on the ground floor - now closed - and a first-floor reading room operated by the National Archives at Kew. Four complete sets of the microfiche index are being made available in the National Archives space until March, when the whole building will close to the public and researchers will have to work online."

Google Maps Mobile knows where you are

Re: Orange had this ages ago

Of course Orange had it ages ago, because they own the network data. If anyone else wants to use that data (e.g. to place location based data in an operator independent mapping application), they'd normally have to pay the operator for the data, and the operator would likely want to insist the application is only available on their network and on locked down subsidised branded phones.

Now instead the data comes from Google, independent of operator and phone branding.

Online sellers warned on UK cheque clearance changes

BACS

Forget cheques, the real ripoff is BACS clearance.

Apart from the 3 to 5 days clearance process, what really gets me is for an automated computerised electronic system, in this modern age of digital communications... why do the computers only work 9-5 Monday to Friday? !!

(having been hit with fees thanks to a credit card payment that didn't get through in time thanks to a weekend and bank holiday).

Blu-ray discs outsell HD DVDs almost 3:1 in Europe

Given that HD DVD is only just now taking off in Europe...

... the sales figures for what is mostly the early part of 2007 are largely irrelevant as it's past history as a result of the PS3s sales from early 2007. No one after all bets on the stock market based purely on past history. They go on current trends and future predictions.

More so when they represent something like 1% of sales if you include DVD.

2007 figures are not the ones to go on. 2008 are. This is where the impact of the cheap HD DVD players comes in and the public starts to get their head round the formats, realising that when both formats are technically for all intents and purposes identical really the only thing that matters is price and convenience.

HD DVD is cheaper, not region coded, has less DRM restrictions, and the spec is finalised. Want in-vision extras and web enabled content? Sure, HD DVD all the way, else keep on upgrading those Blu-Ray players and pray for Profile 2.0 (though to be fair the PS3 really is the only BR player that counts and Joe Public is really not going to buy a games console to play movies no matter how many people say it's great. It's not called a 'Play'station for nothing).

At present, all Sony spin about 3:1, 2:1, etc, doesn't mean a thing when it comes to winners when the market is tiny.

And besides, Sony execs wouldn't be admitting stalemate as they have if it really was as they are spinning here.

HD DVD players are selling this xmas, along with Wii's. Who's buying PS3s? I just see them collecting dust on the shelves.

EU fines videotape manufacturers for alleged cartel

How long...

Before the same investigation into Blu-Ray cartels ;-)

Sony CEO: format war in 'stalemate'

capacity & resilience

Thing with capacity is many Blu-Rays are released in 25GB format, and some in 50GB.

Almost all HD DVDs are 30GB, but can often be released on 2 discs if the equivalent Blu-Ray is a 50GB. That's 60GB total. Okay it's two discs, but lower costs and existing DVD replication plants means it's easy to do, and no one seems to care about 2 discs with DVDs these days.

As for resilience, I think Blu-Ray initially had some problem with the data layer being closer to the surface than on DVD, hence the scratch problem and resolving it with a coating. I got the impression it was less of an issue on HD DVD.

The best thing now is for Sony to do what they should have a couple of years back and take up the offer to join with HD DVD. Create a dual-format or merge the standards under one name, then have dual-format players, and release whatever format they like for a title and then anyone with a dual-player can play them without a care in the world. Like with DVD+/- R formats.

Early adopters and PS3 owners will have to buy players for the alternate format though, unless dual-format discs are released.

Mac OS X Leopard - Time Machine

But....

... surely the Mac is flawless and therefore should never crash or lock up in this fashion to require restoration from backups? ;-)

Samsung samples SATA II 2.5in SSD

Why we might not see a rapid price drop

Problem with SSDs dropping in price is it devalues existing hard drives and more importantly will breath a new lease of life into existing old laptops that will receive a massive performance boost and decrease in heat (and thus keep the cooling fans from kicking in). How many laptop manufacturers are going to be happy with consumers just buying a cheap SSD rather than their spanking new latest model laptop?

Friends Reunited considers dropping pay walls

Title

Friends Reunited was great in it's day and a pioneer in social networking terms before the advent of "Web 2.0", but it just didn't keep up with the times.

The site is a shocking mess now in design terms and usability, and other social network sites have displaced it.

Facebook in particular seems to have been adopted by the Brits as the new Friends Reunited even amongst non-students, unlike in the US where it's mainly been a student thing.

Facebook has its weird aspects, but it's not like a teenager's bedroom like MySpace is, and it's a nice clean design, easy to use, and has some nice privacy controls.

What FR needs to do is go with an advertising model and make the site simple and clean, and maybe focus more on the social network side than just a database of friends. Advertising doesn't mean banners all over the place mind. However being ITV owned, garish layout and bold adverts are more likely (like MySpace).

Seagate's US customers get refund

Ridiculous

Hard disc manufacturers have been right all along.

It was operating systems that confused consumers using the 1024 multiples.

Standards bodies have defined the KiB, MiB, GiB for this. Linux has adopted this. Windows should too (although wasn't it Bill who started all this business in the first place?).

If there's anything hard disc manufacturers should do though is they should maybe just quote on the label an "estimated" GiB figure. How much you get depends on the format of partitions on the disc though.

As for Seagate. They're not too bad as drives. Quieter than many. Could do worse and buy a Deathstar ;-)

Plus in my opinion 90% of hard disc "failures" are user error.

BT home router wide open to hijackers

Re: I'm sorry.

"I know this hole has nothing to do with WiFI, but I felt it prudent to mention that the Home Hub uses WEP by default, i consider it another, even bigger hole."

Theoretically bigger, but in reality I doubt it's that much of an issue.

How many people actually have wardrivers going past their house or geeky neighbours with enough knowledge to crack a WEP WiFi connection? I bet it's a very tiny amount (probably the same as the percentage of linux users vs windows, given that it's generally linux tools used to crack it. Likely smaller than that as only a small percentage of linux users will be interested in hacking WiFi).

The hole in the article however entices your average, not too clued up technically, user (the vast majority), into a malicious site. I bet this is a far greater risk. Of course the same people are also at risk of viruses, trojans, malware and fraud scams, regardless of having BT equipment.

Broadcasting SSID

Having your router broadcast the SSID is in fact no security threat. It's just as insecure if it hides it, and worse you have a lot of problems to boot as the likes of Windows has headaches if you hide the SSID even if you tell it what it is.

Hiding SSID is one of the classic security myths of wireless net and breaks the intended design of the system. Likely half the complaints to tech support lines are because people have read myths like this.

MAC address locking is also not invulnerable. Takes a simple packet sniff and then just spoof the MAC.

Note to despots: You can't kill the internet

Re: Burma?

Whilst Myanmar may have been the traditional local name, the change of the official name from Burma to Myanmar was forced upon them by the Junta and was widely opposed by opposition groups, so as a Brit, whether we gave them the name or not, I fully support calling it Burma instead of endorsing the Junta by calling it Myanmar.

If once they have overthrown their oppressors they decide democratically to change the name to Myanmar, then we can all adopt it, but to all intents at the moment it's Burma.

PC superstore suffers breakdown over Linux notebook

Warranty returns

Surely everyone knows that if you do a warranty return you backup what you've got and reset the machine to factory default before returning it? At the very least to ensure there's nothing incriminating on it ;-)

Returning it with linux on it is asking for trouble.

Still, could be worse and you bought it from ebuyer who take months to eventually reply to a return request only to tell you to contact the manufacturer direct.

And in this case the manufacturer being Acer I'd go direct anyway as Acer will turn it around in 3 days (or that was my experience), no hassle.

Apple lobs $100 credit at iPhone buyers

tough

I bought a Samsung 1080p HD LCD for roughly £1200 earlier in the year.

2 months later Samsung's new line was introduced and shortly after the new better models were as cheap as what I paid.

Now mine can be had for less than £800.

So I can demand the £400 depreciation over the 6 month period and expect a free replacement with the latest model too.

Or on the other hand I live in the real world and know that's just how life (and business) works. I can kick myself for not having better foresight, insight or just pure luck, but that's all.

It's just tough.

TV makers go ape for 100Hz LCDs

puzzled

Thought that Hz business with LCDs was not very relevant, hence why most are 60Hz and it makes no difference (certainly no flicker)?

Given the source for HD material is 24 or 25fps, or 50 or 60 fields (depending on progressive or interlaced source), and that LCDs all display progressively anyway, I don't really get 100Hz on an LCD.

Or is this just marketing fluff way of saying they have ultra-fast refresh rates, which is something entirely different really.

To compare with 100Hz CRTs would be bad as 100Hz in CRTs has always been pretty nasty in implementation.

Sony breaks out 'mass market' Blu-ray players

Alba unit

never if it's Blu-Ray and with Sony's stranglehold.

£20 Chinese made models of HD DVD players however are a possibility. Still some years off though, if it ever happens (by the time the public are ready for HD we may have something new to replace both formats anyway and these two become nothing more than what DVD-A/SACD were).

As always...

What's optional and missing on budget Blu-Ray is mandatory on HD DVD as part of the spec. Namely Dolby TrueHD decoding.

Casio demos 'world's fastest-shooting' digicam

Re: Could be an SLR

Indeed. SLR doesn't technically mean an interchangeable lens camera (the usual way to spot an SLR). There are (rare) examples of fixed lens SLRs.

However it does look more like a prosumer non-SLR digital camera and to achieve the fast frame rates it's very unlikely it's doing that with a mechanical shutter in such a body which would be the norm with an SLR. Likely it's an electronic "shutter" (i.e. sample the sensor 60 or 300 times a second), though that's impressive as the lag on non-SLR digital cameras is usually their major let down and that's just taking one frame!

Plus the press release doesn't mention SLR.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0708/07083101casio300fps.asp

Orange mounts sneaky Freeserve accounts purge

no loss

Last time I reactivated my account it had several thousand spams in it an nothing relevant so no loss.

To be honest I was surprised they kept it going this long really when they didn't have to for those not bothering to dial up. I long since abandoned mine after moving from dial up.

David Bowie to appear in Doctor Who?

The sun

"Since when did any story that appeared as an 'exclusive' only in The Sun and that has the verification of an 'inside source' been known to be reliable information?"

Actually, though they're not always right, they have been a number of times on Doctor Who stories (or partly right).

Doctor Who to meet self in Children in Need special

Paradoxes, age and all that

Could be an alternate reality version of himself where he hasn't regenerated or something.

Anyway, didn't Children in Need also do a "Doctor Who meets Eastenders" special? (or was that Comic Relief?). How daft is that if you want to try and take it seriously? !

At least it's not "who ate all the Pies" C.Baker.

Garmin tops mobile navigation market

openstreetmap

hmm, wiki mapping. Potential for much abuse, especially by certain authorities.

Though I'm not sure of the point when Google et al have done all the work anyway with some seriously nice sat imagery too, and GPS logging can be tied in with the likes of Google Maps/Earth.

Skype hangs up on users

Re: SIP VoIP has no future

"VoIP is going to be a free service, paid for by ecommerce, social networking, media, etc. SIP VoIP has no future"

Err, SIP is free if you're calling other SIP numbers. Same as a Skype user calling another Skype user, except you aren't limited to just subscribers of the same provider. Landline and mobile calls are as cheap as any "cheap" call provider (so long as you don't use the likes of Vonage). It's also a *standard*, supported by hundreds of manufacturers, hardware devices, phones, mobiles, networks, routers, ISPs, and requires no P2P network and proprietary client applications.

SIP providers can easily have a business model paid for by "ecommerce, social networking, media, etc." if they wished. Most are paid for by landline/mobile calls though which is likely to continue to be the standard for voice calls for a long time yet.

I use SIP via sipgate to get a 2nd phone line for incoming business calls with a local '01' prefix number for absolutely nothing and can receive calls via a DECT phone plugged into my router or on my N80 mobile via WiFi and I don't need to have a PC powered on all the time. Try that with Skype!

Skype is also limited to regions where it's popular. No use doing VoIP with Skype to a country where no one uses it but is big on SIP which is available in just about every country in the world.

Well, if people will use a Mickey Mouse service...

... what do they expect.

What's the point of a proprietary service which requires their own software and bypassing all the lovely SIP stuff built into standard hardware these days.

The SIP integration in my N80 is great. Add a SIP phone number/email to a contact in the phone and just hit call. Pick a regular number and it just pops up an option to call it via voice or internet. No need to launch a damn Skype app (experience of which is sure to be painful on a Symbian phone).

At home, SIP in my router and I just plug in any old analogue or DECT phone. Get an Internet call and both my home phone and N80 ring and I pick up either! Fantastic.

Now the real problem is I have no one to call via VoIP services so it's all a waste anyway (and being on ADSL I can't ditch BT phone to make it worthwhile using for landline/mobile calls).

Dominos trns 2 txt

Re: Crap and over-priced...

Agree totally. Small pizzas with poor toppings for a high price. Over-rated.

Pizza Hut is not much better and my local has awful service.

Best ones I find are the regional and local chains or independents. Far bigger pizzas for less price and decent "deals".

Oh and Internet service at Dominos is worse. Even less deals and higher prices. Crap.

Other than that, Dominos and Pizza Hut in US which are entirely different to UK where not only do you get 2 or 3 times the size of pizza for half the price but you get proper deals also.

All of course not a patch on true Italian, but take-away pizza is second best and far better than frozen.

MySQL defends paid tarball decision

open source != free

Regardless as to whether I agree or disagree with their decision, one crucial point that's missed by most of the "open source" community is just because something is "open" it does not mean it's "free".

That most open source code happens to be free is another matter. That the software itself (or licence to use it) is free or not is also another matter.

On another point...

"... is that paying customers don't understand what they're paying for if the software is "Free" already. I mean, how can support for free software possibly cost more than the software itself?"

Support is a more lucrative business in many markets than the software itself. There's nothing wrong with a business model that says you can give the software away "free" or cheap but charge more for support. In fact that's attractive to many who are prepared to work things out themselves and rely on community support rather than pay for official support, whereas an Enterprise business may want immediate support with legal implications by paying for it.