Posts by AIBailey 435 publicly visible posts • joined 29 Jul 2014
What value added will this stick bring that most newer smart TV's won't?
Word processing
Spreadsheets
File management (Copy from one location to another)
Basic photo editing
Proper web browsing
Playing games that don't need the latest and greatest hardware
Emulation of old computers & consoles
Managing media libraries (Amazon music/spotify/itunes)
Online shopping
Banking
I'd be quite happy to have a small and discrete PC hidden out of the way for those things.
I think you will agree that removal of a power port is unprecedented.
Yes....
... and no.
Perhaps true when speaking about laptops, though tablets and phones (including Apple's own) have used a single port for power and data connections for some time. Android devices with micro-USB can use the port as a charging port, HDMI/Video out, mass storage and HID via USB OTG. To a lesser extent Apple's lightning conector allows similar (without the mass storage options, not sure about HID devices).
If you think of the MacBook as a laptop, then IMO it's very restricted as I still make use of DVD's, SD cards, USB storage etc. However if (as some have already commented) it's looked at as more like a tablet with an attached keyboard, it's no more restricted that most of the other products on the market.
Sure, if you shell for the various extra licenses from the foundation Pi shop it can just about do HD media playback.
I used by Pi for a while as a media centre, and it does HD very well without any issue that I could see.
The licence allows use of the hardware MPEG2 decoder in the chipset, needed for SD playback. HD playback is available by default.
The reason I gave up was that while the playback of media files was fine, the UI (I was using XBMC, both the Raspbian and OpenElec versions) was laggy as hell to the point of frustration
This wasn't meant as a dig at Linux users btw (not sure why people are keen on the downvotes today?), just wondering why it was felt necessary to point out that the author is a Linux user, but only mention he's using software on OSX.
I should point out that I've only occasionally dabbled in Linux, several years ago now. At the time, Wine was the preferred method of using Windows apps, and so I assumed that if Stross was a) usually using Linux, and b) required to use Word by his publishers, then running the Windows version of Office under Wine would have been the way forward.
I'm happy to be put right on this one....
I think they meant that the laptop will work in ambient temperatures down to -10. It will heat up the HDD/SSD should their temperature be considered too low (which in this case would be true).
Note, the laptop wasn't switched on in the freezer. It was brought out of a cold environment (~ -18c) and then operated at room temperature.
577ppi???
Not so long ago Apple were trying to convince the world that 264ppi* was as good as your retina could make out.
That was obviously nonsense, however somewhere between 300-350ppi is probably enough to make it impossible to make out individual pixels (unless you press your nose to the screen perhaps).
However just south of 600ppi seems like drastic overkill purely for chasing bullet points on a spec sheet. More pixels to process just means more drain on GPU resource.
* - original pixel density of the "retina" ipads
RE: Maltron. I used to do desktop support had had one user with RSI that used a Maltron keyboard (never knew what it was called until I checked the Wikipedia link posted today) along with a track pad. They were left handed too and had the trackpad buttons reversed.
Doing any kind of support for them required an extreme amount of concentration. Even something as simple as creating and renaming a folder then dragging a file across was an exercise in patience!
Unfortunately this kind of audiophile digital bollockery has been around for years. I remember reading a What HiFi article comparing blank discs, and they were spouting about how some sounded better than others, despite also admitting that all errors were within the tolerance for sucessful error correction.
I can't find the original article, but it's been reproduced in part here - http://www.minidisc.org/md_whathifi3-99_comments.html
> " I plugged a mouse into my Z30, excuses to jealous android/winPhone/iPhone lusers, and it works just like you would expect "
Not quite sure what your point is here - why would Android users be jealous? I've had a mouse plugged in to my Android tablet and a friends Android phone, and that too "works just like you would expect".
Might be worth checking your facts before trolling in future.
You might be right (Streisand effect and all that), however Sony are obviously concerned about the threats enough to allow cinemas to pull the preview.
Here's hoping that this doesn't (further) neuter creativity within the mainstream movie industry for fear of reprisal from someone somewhere who might get offended.
"I thought one of their Mars probe failures was down to one team interpreting "m" as miles and another as metres leading to descent boosters being fired at the wrong time."
Are you sure you're not getting the Mars probe confused with Jimbo? :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimbo_and_the_Jet_Set
Perhaps in the desktop OS market, however I believe you'll find they have 100% of the iPhone, iPod and iPad market.
However, while my first thought was also that it was similar to the browser wars of the 90's, in that case MS were giving away a browser for free, pushing out competitors that had previously charged for their browser software.
In this instance I assume that although Apple will be shoving their software out to every device whether you want it or not, you will presumably still need to pay a subscription to stream music, so in this case they're competing with apps like Spotify rather than providing a free alternative.
"Except that Xboxes (360s at least, not yet seen an XB1 in the flesh) aren't conspicuously stamped with "Microsoft"."
Not especially on the console itself, however every controller and every game box have the MS logo in a fairly prominent place, and the Microsoft logo is shown on the 360's power on screen.
It's not like they're totally hiding their branding, like Sega did with the Dreamcast..
"So the statement above that WP has the best maps / nav holds at least for now."
Good lord, have you ever tried to use the navigation?
Whilst it might be sufficient for city to city travel, it also fails with some extremely simple tasks.
It also makes no distinction between road types, as demonstrated when I used the sat nav in Cornwall recently it repeatedly favoured single track roads with cars coming the other way around every corner.
When trying to find my way back to a hotel near Reading, it tried (again) to take me down a single track road with a ford at the bottom (helpfully labelled with a warning not to go through it during high tides, but no mention of when high tide was). After getting back on the main road again, the sat nav spent the next 5 miles trying to persuade me to perform a u turn to go back down the same track again.
Planning a recent journey, I selected "Fastest Route" which gave me a travel time of about 2 1/2 hours. Changing to a "Balanced Route" actually dropped the travel time by 20 minutes.
Finally, when in the Isle of Wight we used the sat nav to find a decent pub - a journey of about 5 miles. To get back to our starting position it gave us a 9 mile route by asking us to continue along the road in the same direction. The system seemed totally incapable of thinking about performing a u-turn, or even turning out of the car park and heading the other way.
I use it because it's more convenient than a real map, but not by much. If could be a decent app with a little bit of thought, but at the moment it's bollocks.
I think the previous comment was more clarification that the 100MW stated was merely the heat output from the reactor which is then user to drive a turbine to make electricity, rather than suggesting that the net output from this construction (reactor + turbine + pipework and gubbins) would be 100MW of generated electricity.
Just a general comment for anyone who needs to restrict access to applications for youngsters - I can recomment "applock" as a good way to prevent kids accessing any apps you don't want them to (including the Play store). Attempting to run a locked app will prompt for a parental PIN before being allowed to launch. I've used it on my kids Tab 3 with no problems.
Similar here. Our local supermarket have started doing a range of LED replacement bulbs.
Our kitchen had 10 50w 12v halogen downlighters. After trialling 3 LED bulbs (5w each, and claimed to be equivalent to a 35w incandescent bulb), I found that the light they produce is very similar to the halogens they've replaced. I've since replaced all 10 bulbs, and although the colour is very slightly cooler, they've still far exceeded my expectations.
Holy cow, it's amazing just how advanced "hacking" scams have got now. The whole "speak to the boss to obtain the unlock code" checks are a scarily impressive touch to allow scum higher up the chain to ensure that nobody is taking cash without their approval.
Obviously the most difficult part is getting physical access to the computer inside the ATM.
It is a little crazy IMO however that one precaution is to ensure your ATM has up to date AV software. Are there any ATM's that run bespoke Operating Systems these days?
" When the Daleks come back it's because he was forced to let them escape in a previous episode."
At least he's been having the decency to bring back the "classic" daleks, rather than those ridiculous Dyson-inspired cheap looking piles of crap that were introduced a few seasons ago for no reason I can see other than to push a new range of toys.
"... if you refuse to pay, the police can be called and will persuade you to pay."
If the shop owner threatens to call the police, call their bluff. This would be considered a civil matter, not a criminal one. If you refuse to pay then their only option to try and reclaim their money would be to sue.
... then it's all about the ears.
20 years ago whilst at college, I splurged a whole years student loan on a HiFi (Linn speakers, Arcam CD player and Creek amp) and though I'd be able to listen to my music with a whole new level of appreciation. Admittedly it sounded way better than any equipment I had before, but the one factor that money can't do anything about is the standard of my hearing.
Fast forward to today, and I suffer with slight tinnitus and a related drop in my ability to hear high frequencies (12kHz+) in one ear. Despite this, I still enjoy my music. I rarely get the opportunity to listen to the HiFi these days however, so listen to most of my music via a Sansa Fuze and Sennheiser CX300 earbuds. My music is usually ripped to MP3 using LAME, set to encode VBR with a quality value of 2.
So, a couple of years ago, I set myself a blind test - I selected half a dozen tracks that I know well, and loaded them to the Fuze in 3 formats - an uncompressed WAV ripped straight from CD, the WAV encoded using my usual MP3 settings, and the same WAV encoded as a 128kbit/s WMA file. All files were put into specific playlists so that all 3 versions of each track were together, and I listened to them using shuffle without looking at which was which. After an hour of testing, I concluded that I could hear no difference whatsoever between the tracks, not even the crappy bitrate WMA's. I've repeated this test while checking which version was playing, and they still sounded the same. Obviously the difference may be noticeable if I used my HiFi, but that's not how I listen to my music these days. The one thing that is clear to me is that there is no right or wrong answer regarding the topic of audio compression, though by the number of comments that always follow any article about audio formats there are clearly a lot of people who feel strongly one way or another.
Depending on your point of view, I'm either very lucky or very unlucky, but for me I find VBR MP3's suit my needs.
Without an Apple Watch...
> glance at speedo
> note current speed
> look back at road.
Somewhat different to
> Glance at watch
> See that Fred has sent a text/email/FaceBook message
> Press button to read more of message
> Continue to drive whilst repeatedly glancing at wrist to read message (due to the small sizxe of the watch face, this may take some time, and will require concentration)
etc.
The significant phrase above is "Stare too long".
While I truly feel at the moment that the whole smartwatch thing is a gimmick and I couldn't care less whether smartwatches totally fail to catch on or not, I can't believe how much people are bemoaning the fact that they need to be charged every night (or at least every other night).
It's not so far back in the past that mechanical wristwatches needed to be wound up every night else they'd be useless the following day either.
"The Pi with XBMC does actually make a genuinely good "media box"" - Yes. To a point. I received a Pi last year as a present. At first I used it with XBMC to play .TS files from my PVR and video from my NAS, both in another room. It did an okay job, however the lack of proper FF/REW on some file types and the fact that when playing a file the UI was like wading through treacle meant that I moved it on to other things.
So it was then put into service as see whether it was good enough to use as an emulation games machine (Amiga/ST/MAME). It wasn't. It's simply not powerful enough.
It's now running CUPS and acting as an AirPrint server for my 15 year old laserjet printer.
At first I thought of the Pi as a solution looking for a problem. It's clearly found a niche for low power (both electrical and processing) projects, though I'm still not convinced it's the best option for the task it was originally marketed for - the revival of the bedroom coder and getting school kids into programming. A significantly more powerful version (quad core, more memory) would open up a whole load more opportunities.
Trouble is that if you can drive to the pub sober and your car will drive you home when you're drunk, the market for 11pm taxi's will disappear.
Considering how much of a stink that cabbies kicked up over Uber, I imagine your 5 minute journey home will take an hour due to protesting cab drivers organising a night time go-slow protest.
Just a few flaws in your arguments...
According to Asus themselves, it supports up to 64GB uSD, not 32GB.
As far as I can tell online, its android version is 4.4.2. Considering that 4.4.3 and 4.4.4 were released less than 2 months ago, I'd hardly call that "dated", and certainly not junk.
As for expecting 300dpi on everything. For starters, expect the cost to go up a fair bit, both for the higher density screen, and for the CPU/GPU/RAM to store and drive all those extra pixels.
Finally, why would you need such high density on something like a GPS or cycle computer, when for 99% of the time that you're looking at it you'll be quickly glancing at it while watching the road? Pointless!
Personally, it seems to have 99%+ compatibility with an ARM Android tablet with a performance boost as well. Build quality appears pretty solid too, and I'm quite tempted!
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