Posts by Gerald Davison

Freesat to show Euro 2008 in HD

Freesat vs Sky

Got my Freesat setup working (Humax FOXSAT-HD) last week.

I've staunchly refused to get Sky - I'm not paying up to £50 a month for TV, I'm not interesting in football and if I want to see a film I'll go to the Cinema.

News International/Sky must be "bricking" it over this new service.

I've been spreading the word at work and I know several people who are thinking of binning Sky now that there is an alternative that will offer 200+ channels by the end of this year and several HD channels. The alternative free service from Sky will never compete unless they include the HD content.

'Dangerously alluring' Ukrainian joins Bond 22

@Pete James

ROFL!!!!

It was all going well until those last few words.

Ah well.

Anyway, back to the film - looking forward to this - DC has really brought this up to date for me, got the edge back that was in the early Sean Connery films.

Why do women get plastered at fancy dress parties?

Vicars and Tarts anyone?

Hmmm, time to start an online directory of Vicars and Tarts parties I think.

SETI@home needs You!

Climate Prediction Dot Net

I'm more bothered about things down here on earth which we know are going to affect us.

I've been "crunching" climate models for two years as part of the CPDN and BBC Climate Experiments.

I'd suggest that this (and the medicine related) projects are more important than looking for some aliens that probably don't exist anyway.

See

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation

for an explanation of why we're so unlikely to find anything and this also from New Scientist

http://space.newscientist.com/article/mg19526155.100-slim-chance-of-tuning-in-to-alien-tv.html

If you do want to crunch for CPDN you can find out how to join here http://www.climateprediction.net/

Gerald Davison - Crunching for Team Wales

When Commodore ruled the world

So modern these C64 things.......

My nostalgia is for the PET 2001 (the one with the calculator keyboard) I bought in 1978. Still got it as well.

Taught myself assembler and wrote a printer driver (well bloody big second hand 110baud teletype) using a serial 20mA current loop driven out of the 6522 VIA (if memory serves me right).

Stood me in good stead, I'm still working in IT now (only the work is much more boring than in those days).

Ah, happy days............

By the time 1982 came round I was working on the Sirius-1 (Victor 9000), much better than IBM PCs but doomed to obscurity in the long run.

Anyway, I agree, C64 was "the peoples" microcomputer in the early 80's. It doesn't matter what was best, what matters is what sold. The UK was a bit "different" with BBC's, ZX's, Spectrums, Dragons, etc.

Remembering the Commodore PET 2001

Got one!

This was my first "computer". I bought one with my then life savings of £400-00 (a hell of a lot of money in the late 1970's). I was only 14 at the time. I think it came from a shop in Liverpool called DAMS Office Supplies???

The tiny keyboard was a pain to use, but you got used to it.

I was doing Electronics at "O" level at the time and I upgraded the RAM myself from 4K to 8K. I had to de-solder the old chips and replace. Somewhat heart stopping, but it worked.

I also built a Joystick using an Atari one as a basis. Worked a treat!

Final project was to to connect it to a second hand 110baud teletype to act as a printer - I built my own 20mA current loop interface and wrote the machine code to drive it.

Ah, happy days!

Stood me in good stead, 30 years later I'm still working in IT.

By the way, I've never been able to part with it, it's in my attic gathering dust.

Newegg serves up Asus Eee PC to US buyers

External Screen Resolution

Anyone know what the external screen resolution can be set to - I want to connect a 1024x768 projector.

Racist Reg hacks slammed for 'vitriolic hatred'

Made me laugh and I'm Welsh

Don't take this to heart, keep up the good work.

Best answer I come up when anybody has a go at me for being Welsh is I point out that I'm the British one as the people in England are actually French since the Norman conquests............... ;-)

Gerald Davison

Born, brought up and living in Mold, N. Wales