Posts by Clive Galway 501 publicly visible posts • joined 15 Feb 2007
In the sports camcorder category, nothing beats the Samsung VP-X300L
http://www.samsung.com/he/products/camcorder/miniket/vp_x300l.asp
Comes complete with a wired external lens with an inline button for on/off/start/stop. Put it on and all you need is the one button to operate it.
Cost: about £240
Plus the divx files it creates mimic miniDV ( 720x576 nonsquare pixels @ 25FPS. Interlaced or non-interlaced.) so mixing footage from this with footage from your miniDV camera is simple.
Did anyone else notice that the "tanker" in the concept video looked identical to the docking vehicle apart from the fact it had no obvious means of propulsion. Possibly because that craft has a rear prop, and they didn't want to draw attention to the fact that they were planning on trying to stick a fuel nozzle into a basket mere inches from a whirling prop.
Sounds like fun :)
Yesterday, Phorm's share price rose TWENTY PERCENT on news that the next batch of trials will be "soon". There was no financial info in this release whatsoever, but the market seemed to love it.
Then this news today and so far it has fallen 10%
Bloody annoying. I have a CFD shorting 1000 shares (opened at £12.50) and can't wait for the stock to plummet. Currently making about £5K profit on a £1K stake, but I am hoping I can make much more than that if the stock market would only wake up to what is going on.
Do your bit - SHORT PHORM!!
Best MPEG4 camcorder I ever bought:
http://www.samsung.com/he/products/camcorder/miniket/vp_x300l.asp
With included external weatherproof lens - for anyone into sports (Mountain biking, snowboarding etc) these are really great.
None of this 640x480 bollocks either - full 720x576@25FPS with a PAL pixel aspect ratio.
Sets you back about £250 at the moment though, but you gets what you pays for, innit?
Just have 1 PIN for Chip+PIN Transactions, and 1 PIN for cash withdrawls.
But, Oh no, we can't do that, some granny would forget one, so now we are all vulnerable to this simple trick and the burden of proof is on us.
Trash your mag strip today folks! It's the simplest way to defeat this. Every time you are going on holiday, order a new card, then trash the mag strip again when you get back.
I would imagine that if a state had gone to the trouble of getting someone to sleep with the guy, that they would have removed the SIM and turned it off to prevent it being wiped.
Then pop it in a faraday bag once you want to try and retreive data.
Nicking the guy's wallet (to obtain the password written on a post-it inside) would probably also help.
Exchange is not, has not been for years, the sole preserve of business users. Just do a google search for "Free Exchange Mail Activesync" - there are plenty of them.
Personally, I pay $10/month for a 200MB mailbox with postini email filtering. I then set up my home PC and my Windows Mobile phone to use this email account and viola! Over-The-Air synched emails, contacts, appointments - the lot.
I don't even need to "set it up" on my mobile - just configure outlook to use it (I got free outlook 2007 with the exchange acct) then plug the phone into the PC and it *automatically* configures the phone.
And before you go saying "But they provide 20GB" - haha yeah, fat lot of use that will be. You ever tried synching 20GB over even a 3G connection?? Use "the cloud" to host the data (Contacts, mail etc) and USB or WiFi to put the videos and music and such on your phone when at home.
Jeez, talk about reinventing the wheel.
"The possibility of dropping hidden messages within the lowest bits of noisy sound files is not new in itself. Wojciech Mazurczyk and Krzysztof Szczypiorski, security researchers at Warsaw University of Technology, Poland"
Well I would have said that there was a hidden message encoded in the names of the researchers, but then I realised they were just Polish.
Mine's the one with the Optician's chart in the pocket.
Bring it on, I went short on 1K Phorm shares and am laughing all the way to the bank! And, being a CFD, it's only 25% margin. LOL, Free Money!
May go down and protest myself, the more shareholders that sell the better for me :)
Funnily enough, my broker is no longer accepting sell orders for Phorm Inc, wonder why ? :P
"But there's no such thing as 640P...
Anonymous Coward • Thursday 1st May 2008 16:55 GMT
...or even 630P as this report appears to have started out on the InterWeb."
Yes there is. There is such a thing as <any number>p
All 630p is saying is that there are 630 rows of pixels and it is progressive (Not interlaced)
So if your TV was a 16:9 display, you would have (630/9)x16 = 1120 columns of pixels
If your TV was 4:3, the resolution would be 840x630 : (630/4)*3=840
for i (interlaced) modes, halve the y for the true resolution, so 1080i on a 16:9 is not 1920x1080 but effectively 1920x540.
Ahh, 720p, how cute. I play PC games in 1200p (16:10) with an additional 768p (4:3) display to the side.
It's not just map tiles that are restricted. For example, borders of UK counties are the property of OS. These are semi-political borders - laws affecting you could, for example, be based upon which county you are in, but to get the data to find out which county you are standing in you would have to pay. OS's argument? The lines that some of the borders follow (eg a hedgerow, a road) were surveyed by OS way back when and are thus OS property. The OS owns the UK's borders, not the UK citizens!
I came up against this when trying to write a free google maps application for your website, and needed borders of UK counties to draw when you hovered over a county marker (like here - hover over a county - http://www.evilc.com/phpbb/gp.php?action=seek&seekmode=coords&lng=-1.933594&lat=53.761702&zoom=6 ). I was told that this would be illegal use of OS data. Riiiight.
And no, I did not use it to download copyrighted material, I used it to host decent quality versions of my own movies, as did a bunch of my friends. Does anyone know somewhere else that will let you upload HD movies?
http://www.stage6.com/user/Onefive_Media/video/2166799/Shralpdown! for example of what user-generated HD content can look like. Sigh.
I have to say, that the only time I listen to the radio generally, it will be a pirate station.
Now I am not saying I condone any of the actions people above have accused pirates of doing, but there is clearly a gap between requirements of the public and the shite pumped out by the commercial radio stations.
It also has to be said that there are a number of pirates out there that seem to be trying to follow broadcasting rules in terms of what is said over the air (Moreso than what I remember from my youth) and pushing an anti gang / drugs / etc message, which, coming from a street-level broadcast, is much more likely to get the message across to the yoof than some govt public information ad on TV.
Thank god my fave stations were not affected, big up Freeze and SelectUK.
Anyway, it's not that it is gonna matter much for too long anyway. With the ubiquity of data enabled phones, and all-you-can-eat data rates falling, I doubt the radio will have much on netcasts (in urban areas at least) for much longer, so spectrum will probably cease to be an issue sooner or later.
Smiley face icon for the rave generation amongst us.
Any kind of board controller (skate, snow, whatever) is utterly useless.
With no momentum to hold you up in the turns, it is a complete hindrance to the gameplay and no immersion results.
The headtracking one has LOADS of mileage though. I have TrackIR for my PC and it utterly rocks. However I feel the wii solution is more body tracking that head tracking - This is only 3 degrees of freedom (Translation), but for console games that would probably be OK. 6 degrees of freedom (Translation and rotation) on 1st person FPS and Flight or driving sims has to be experienced to be believed how much immersion it gives.
For 6DOF you need at least 3 LEDs though, so the wii sensor bar with only 2 can only do 3DOF.
However, it would be trivially easy for nintendo to release a hat with 3 IR sources on it and a holder for the wiimote (to put where you usually put the sensor bar). The easiest way to do this would probably be to imitate the basic TIR package and have an IR transmitter to put pointing at you (say as part of the holder for the wiimote) and a cap with 3 reflectors on it. An active hat with LEDs is another option (which is what I do with my PC), but you would not want that for a wii as you need to be able to jump around, and I think a hat with a battery attached would not work.
I think head / body tracking will see a massive increase in popularity soon, and it should be simple to add to existing consoles (eg like the eye toy for the PS)
"Apple performed less well in Europe, notching up fifth place behind Nokia, RIM, HTC and Motorola."
Now if HTC would just release video drivers for the Tytn II, I could become a card carrying HTC fanboi.
Flame icon to signify the inflammatory nature of this post.
I wrote a google maps collaborative mapping app (Demo @ www.evilc.com/phpbb/gp.php ) that I wanted UK county borders for. I tried to get hold of them, but was told that they were copyrighted by OS because they typically follow boundaries based upon things OS have surveyed.
This is ridiculous. How can a company own the rights to our borders?
Absolutely love mine...
If you have one, make sure you get WIMP for it. Kind of like IIWPO for WM5 in that it will SMS a number of your choice if anyone changes owner info or SIM (ie if it is stolen) but it will also give you the GPS location of the phone too ;)
Review is a bit old though, they have been out for 3 months or more.
I think the reason for the tropical fish one is so that hula girls can be used to advertise tropical fish or something along those lines.
I think my favorite one is that it is illegal to NOT have a bale of hay in the boot of your car (To feed the horses). Not sure if that one is still in force though.
Codswallop!!
Maybe some satnav software or hardware discard the altitude component, but the GPS system is very much dependant on altitude as much as latitude and longitude.
Otherwise it wouldn't work you numpty. It's TRIANGULATION.
OK, so vertical accuracy is normally 1.5x as inaccurate as horizontal, but you can't do GPS with only 2D calculations, it *has* to be 3D.
Jeez
There already is a better phone than the iPhone - the HTC Kaiser (AKA Tytn II / T-Mob Vario III / Vodafone 1615 / AT&T Tilt / etc...)
OK, so no multi touch - boo hoo. Windows mobile (more apps than you can shake a stick at), GPS, HSDPA, tethered modem, awesome slide out keyboard with tilt screen. Makes the iPhone look like a child's toy - fun to play with for a wile but gets little to no work done.
I was sat with a mate who had an iPhone in the pub the other day. People are gooing all over it for a couple of minutes seeing all that it could do. Then I got my Kaiser out. Half an hour later after showing them TomTom, MSN, Skype, DivX movies, Music, WIMP, Pocket Office, letting them watch Sky via Orb TV, play playstation games, a bit of quake, browse the web at 3G speeds - everyone agreed the iPhone was a pretty distraction but my Kaiser was ten times more useful.
... that apple think nothing of trying to brick 18% of their user-base's handsets with their update.
Personally I reckon all 250,000 should flood apple's hotlines playing dumb as to why their handset is bricked. When their call centres are unable to cope because everyone is busy telling customers they deliberately broke their phone to punish them for exercising their legal rights, they might recant.
That may hold true for physical goods.
A CD player has to pass CE licensing etc, has to be imported, english manuals printed, a CD has to be pressed in the country or imported and associated taxes paid, etc, etc.
But this is a DIGITAL download. We are getting exactly the same product as the americans, it costs the same to make, the same to host it on the same website, etc, etc.
If they suddenly said "All credit card numbers ending in a 9 pay 2x what everyone else does"- would you still agree?
Anyway, as the previous poster said, just buy from Amazon US - all you need is a delivery address in the US (Use Amazon's own address).
OK, so I am a geek and an "early adopter", but I can count *on one hand* the amount of shows I have watched _as they are being transmitted_ in the last couple of years.
All the shows I watch, I download from BitTorrent. I have Sky, Freeview and terrestrial, so I can legally access them when they are on, but I choose not to watch them "live".
I don't want adverts, I want to watch on-demand, I want to be able to pause, and I want the option of watching on my laptop in bed or an iPod on the train. TV does not give me that. A lot of my friends are wising up and asking me how to do it.
If this becomes mainstream behaviour like downloading MP3s has, then yes, broadcasters that rely on advertising revenues could be in trouble. Same goes for the revenue stream for people like Sky from channel subscription. Sure, my granny isn't going to download via BT and stuff, but all it takes is one friend who does to burn a series onto DVD and suddenly Sky does not seem that attractive.
All it is going to take is one easy-to-use package that runs on windows and provides DVR and P2P capabilities and the same will happen to video as happened to audio.
Another day, the plan for another terrorist attack is communicated back in code to his al-quaeda handlers by amanfromMars.
Never fear, I am cracking this code bit by bit. Got the first line decoded already, revealing a sinister plot:
"I just Love ur Style, Naomi. FailSafe too?"
Taking capitals -
ILS (Instrument Landing System)
N (North - runway at heathrow)
FS - Full of sh*t (codeword for Houses of Parliament).
So, the plan is to hack the ILS at heathrow, used to guide planes to the runway, and set it to point to the houses of parliament instead.
I am having trouble with the other two lines / plots though. Anyone care to take a stab?
Can anyone tell me where to get one in the UK?
Looks like it would be great to use with a video camera for boardsports to get an on-board looking at the rider shot, carrying a stick around would be a pain but a collapsible one would be ideal!
Bet they are like £25 over here though :(
I totally agree with George.
I upgraded my tomtom software lately and so wish I hadn't. I notice no fixes to the map errors that make my life awkward on a regular basis.
I know of at least 5 map errors within a 5 mile radius of my house in london on routes I regularly use. Mainly roads marked as one way the wrong way or roads that it thinks you can drive down but are blocked. All of them as far as I am aware have been how they have been for years - one at least 20 years. This is in london, on junctions to major roads.
What I don't understand is why they do not put something in the software to report map errors. They already do a similar thing to report speed cameras.
@Danny:
I just don't buy it. Basically they are saying that mutation cannot create anything new, which is complete rubbish. It's like saying that because all the letters of the alphabet have been invented, that just rearranging them cannot ever create anything new.
@Branedy:
"We have the same DNA as these Butterflies, the very same". I dunno what you are smoking pal, but I want some for the weekend. It may be 90% the same or something like that, but human DNA is certainly not 100.0% the same as butterfly DNA. Human and chimp DNA is only 95% similar - so there is NO WAY we have "the very same" DNA as butterflies.
"A further point is: They can't support everything capable of running streaming media, (what about my Wii for instance?) I don't really see how they can publish the standards for DRMed codecs, without imparing the security of the DRM. (I may be wrong here, I accept that) If they can provide enough information to enable a OSS codec to be written, without imparing the security of the DRM, then they probably should."
But hang on a minute... where is the DRM on other BBC services?? How is the DRM going to limit the right to watch based upon whether you have a TV licence or not (Which surely is the only right the BBC have the right to enforce)
If I can build a radio circuit to pick up Radio 1 for free, and copy it because there is no DRM on radio, then why should my choices in receiving video which is also paid for with the same licence, be restricted by DRM?
If there was no DRM, it could be encoded with something commonplace and then anything could decode it. I could write a decoder for my wii (Like I could assemble a radio receiver) and watch on what I wanted.
I am so confused as to why SatNav vendors are not introducing software to allow users to report errors rather than trying to add all these snazzy features that will probably never be used.
I personally couldn't give a toss about all this extra information, but I am very annoyed that my 2007 version of TomTom Navigator has all the road errors of my old version, plus new ones.
One way streets marked as one way the wrong way, streets that don't connect up as they are shown, streets marked as no entry when they aren't really (and vice versa) and so on...
And don't even get me started on the quality of traffic updates - I have not tried one of these yet that is worth it - most cause more problems than they solve, especially around motorways: Because they typically do not collect data for all roads, and they presume any road without data is always totally devoid of traffic, I am often told to leave the M4 to join the A4 because the M4 is travelling @ 49 MPH and I can allegedly do a constant 50MPH on the A4 (They also fail to take into account traffic lights)
Guys... concentrate on improving the basics first!
What you seem to forget is that potentially exploring space IS investing in earth.
If we could move a bunch of nasty industry off the planet (eg mining and associated refining) then we wouldn't need to do it on earth. Also, if we had materials off-planet already, we wouldn't need to burn more rocket fuel to take them off-planet to build ships / habitats with.
Plus, if we had stuff coming IN to earth as well as OUT, then that would mean we could use something like a lift (Yes, it is possible as the earth is spinning - see centripedal force.) - use the weight of the incoming minerals to lift the outgoing stuff (ie people, equipment) into space: A launch with little or no energy requirements. And what about nasty stuff we don't want? Nuclear waste / biotoxins / tony blair - space would be a much safer place for them than earth.
Plus then there is the argument of putting all your species' eggs in one basket. As it stands now, all we need is one big 'roid and we are all toast.
That enough reasons for ya?
When I was a kid, we were playing in an abandoned factory (the walls fell down so we didn't have to break in) with LRP weapons (Homemade rubber swords, a bow made out of curtain rail, etc, etc).
Suddenly, A helicopter flies over, two meatwagons pull up, K9 units, the lot.
We are all arrested, even when they realise it is just kids playing. They bundle us into the back of the van, and start driving to the police station. They drove past most of our houses, and we were asking them to stop and tell our parents they were taking us to the station. They refused (We were MINORS !! One of us was only 12! ).
Once we got to the station, they then and only then called our parents, who came down and demanded a written apology from the cheif commisioner on the spot there and then. They got it.
They STILL tried to charge us with breaking and entering, despite the fact that there was a 20 foot gap in the wall. When that didn't stick, they tried to charge us with criminal damage for breaking the windows. 90% of the windows had been already broken for years, we did no damage whatsoever, and the building was waiting to be demolished anyway.
And police wonder why they don't get respect...
Funny thing was, two of my mates managed to get away by jumping out a back window and onto a bus.
I started with a 16K speccy, after previously having a ZX-81.
Remember the dreaded "RAMpack wobble" ?
How about the Romantic Robot Multiface One?
Or the horribly unreliable ZX MicroDrive (Remember the rumour about putting them under a cardboard pyramid to get them working again?)
CRASH magazine, the ZipStick (Mecury switch joystick, similar idea to the Wii), oh the memories.
My favorite POKE with the speccy was one that made it look like it was loading. I used to go down Tottenham Court Road, find a speccy on display and enter something like:
10 Print "<Name of latest game that isn't out yet> Is Loading..."
20 POKE xxxxxx,255
Then go away and come back an hour or so later and watch all the people waiting with hushed breath for the latest Uber game to load. Hahahahaha
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