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User: iainl

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  1. Re:great i live in germany :) on Samsung Seeking Ban of iPhone 4S in Europe · · Score: 1

    The knowledge is shared. The only reason Samsung know that a device nobody other than a handful of journalists have held in their hands outside Apple is because it's impossible to implement standards without doing so. Those standards state that Samsung have to offer a licence under RAND principles to Apple, however, and they haven't done so.

    Samsung have just pulled their pants down before challenging Apple to a "kicking each other in the balls" contest; not very wise.

  2. Re:X86 ... on Microsoft Releases Windows 8 Developer Preview · · Score: 1

    Because some of us are planning on dumping it on cheapo netbooks, at least while it's just the pre-release Developer version?

  3. Re:What About EMI separation between them? on Stuffing a PS3 and an Xbox 360 Into a PC Case · · Score: 1

    It's not perfect, but from what I see he's not removing the big heatsink / fan assembly from the PS3, which encases the whole motherboard in a metal shell. So I don't think it's going to be much of an issue.

  4. Re:Spouse acceptance factor on Stuffing a PS3 and an Xbox 360 Into a PC Case · · Score: 1

    Kids these days. We played 4-player Asteroids on an Atari 400 and a 15" telly, and WE LIKED IT.

    Fair enough on the PC to TV thing, I suppose. If others find it difficult, they find it difficult. Possibly because I'm a sad git, I've never bought a HDTV that couldn't take the VGA output from my Dreamcast, if nothing else. But it's still easier than getting good performance out of an emulator, which is what the grandparent was discussing.

  5. Re:A gaming PC wouldn't let you play... on Stuffing a PS3 and an Xbox 360 Into a PC Case · · Score: 1

    21" monitors seem to be fairly standard for desktops these days, yes. Most decent-sized HDTVs have a VGA input. Most decent-quality graphics cards and gaming laptops have HDMI outputs, as well.

    Hooking up a PC to a big telly is a piece of cake.

  6. Re:Meh on Stuffing a PS3 and an Xbox 360 Into a PC Case · · Score: 1

    One of my TVs has 4 inputs, the other 1. Although I've got an auto-switching HDMI box to go with that one, anyway.

    However, such a box would have been a trivial, and sensible, addition to the build I'd have said.

  7. Re:Why.... on Do You Want Best Buy Opening Your New Laptop? · · Score: 1

    Well, quite. The crop factor on Canon DSLRs is 1.6, so a 200mm would be equivalent to 320mm on a Full Frame.

  8. Re:Wrong on Twitter, two ways on Smartphones: the New Home of Crapware · · Score: 1

    Umm, maybe I'm missing something. But given that iTunes is the application for syncing your iPhone with your computer, why were you (a) uninstalling in the first place, and then (b) suprised when you couldn't sync?

  9. Re:Only applies to non-iPhones on Smartphones: the New Home of Crapware · · Score: 1

    There are apps you can't remove under iOS - basically anything that comes pre-installed to the first screenful of stuff. App Store, iTunes (meaning the store, not your music), Game Center, Weather, Stocks, Face Time and YouTube all strike me as apps that not everyone would want, but can't be removed.

    However, two ways that these are vastly better than the Sony instance is that none of them are running in the background stealing your CPU cycles and memory, and that all of them can be tucked away in an "undeletable crap" folder if their icons offend you.

  10. Re:In other words on 35% Consumers Want iPhone 5... Sight Unseen · · Score: 1

    True, true. All I really meant was that I'm one of the 35%, because I'm assuming that the next iPhone will be at least as good as the current one, and I'm not in enough of a rush to not find out exactly how much better before signing a 2-year contract.

  11. Re:the decline started with the audio CD on Why Your Dad's 30-Year-Old Stereo Sounds Better Than Yours · · Score: 1

    Since "warm" means a louder mid-low end, how do you pair that with blaming CD's lack of frequencies above 22kHz as being responsible for lower sound quality?

    I mean, I get that vinyl has a warmer sound; I have enough of it. And I get that some people prefer the sound of vinyl. But I can get a sound that replicates that (to the point where I can't blind differentiate) by recording my vinyl to CD and playing that back. You can even break out the graphic EQ and roll off high frequency response and boosting the low end, to get a similar outcome.

    So feel free to say you don't like CD sound. But the problem almost certainly seems to be one of mastering - far from CD's frequency response being lacking, it seems to be its superior high-end response that has led engineers to pile everything in the mid-high frequencies in search of tiresome, but attention-grabbing mixes.

  12. Re:In other words on 35% Consumers Want iPhone 5... Sight Unseen · · Score: 1

    Or alternatively, 35% of consumers assume that Apple will not make the next version of the iPhone worse than the current one, and aren't in a desperate rush to buy a model that will be obsolete in two months.

  13. Re:UK prices have gone up on Apple Slashes Australian App Store Prices To Match US · · Score: 1

    Thanks - I didn't know that.

    Although I suppose my point is really that the 99 cent price is without any sales tax included, and the UK price is less than 20% extra. It's not Apple's fault we have VAT that high.

  14. Re:UK prices have gone up on Apple Slashes Australian App Store Prices To Match US · · Score: 1

    At the first result in Google I found, 69p = $1.13, so considering VAT it at 20% we've still got a better deal than the tax-free 99 cents Americans pay.

  15. Re:bigger than the Iraq war? on News Corp. Subsidiary Under Fire For Hacking Dead Girl's Voicemail · · Score: 1

    Not that we know of yet, but it has been revealed this morning that Glen Mulcaire, the man who performed both the Dowler and Soham hacks, also did the same to relatives of victims of the London 7/7 terrorist bombings.

  16. Is this a bug, or a feature? on In Australia, Censorship vs. DNS, and Porn As Network Driver · · Score: 1

    It was my understanding that ISPs were generally ridiculing Conroy's attempts to censor the internet. As such, this looks a lot like a deliberate implementation that gives parents who want their kids not finding porn "by accident, Mum, honest" what they're after, while not getting in the way of anyone with full control of their own OS too much.

  17. Re:Slower than an i3... on AMD Llano APU Review - Slow CPU, Fast GPU · · Score: 1

    Games involve an awful lot more than spitting a bunch of polys at the GPU, though; if calculating where all that geometry needs to be takes too long the GPU has nothing to do.

  18. Re:Slower than an i3... on AMD Llano APU Review - Slow CPU, Fast GPU · · Score: 1

    5570-class graphics in a laptop add an AWFUL lot more than $60 to the price, however. It's there the difference will be made; I'm not too fussed at needing discrete graphics in a tower case.

  19. Re:Huh? on Authorities Closing On LulzSec · · Score: 1

    Since it would appear that the same people who DDOSed cia.gov also did the same to the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), the UK equivalent, there's plenty of local criminality to arrest him for, even before we get as far as extradition.

  20. Re:More misinformation. on Authorities Closing On LulzSec · · Score: 1

    Ryan Clearly housed a lulz IRC chatroom. That's easily enough to count as 'something to do with lulzsec' as far as the law is concerned.

    Lulzsec have just pissed off the CIA, and got themselves regarded as terrorists. If Clearly was also on IRC duties for Al Qaeda he'd already be in Guantanamo, and you know it.

  21. Re:MS hate on Microsoft's SkyDrive Drops Silverlight · · Score: 1

    MS made Silverlight, which was proprietary, but did stuff that standard HTML couldn't. It was also less of a security disaster than Flash, and less hideous than Java.

    Now there's a standards-compliant way of doing things with HTML5, they're using it. You might as well complain that it's possible to get somewhere on the Adobe website without having Flash installed. I'm sure MS still recommend using Silverlight if you have a task HTML5 can't perform.

  22. Re:LulzSec disables CIA web server, too! on LulzSec Phone-Bombs FBI and Blizzard · · Score: 1

    Frankly, I think they hit that point the other day, when they took down Goonswarm's EVE fun.

  23. Re:Possible? on LulzSec Phone-Bombs FBI and Blizzard · · Score: 1

    Probably the same principle that says "don't feed the trolls".

  24. Re:Slashdot is not UK based on Tweeter To Be Prosecuted, Twitter Now Censoring? · · Score: 1

    Kelvin McKenzie is being eyed up for admitting that he emailed everyone he know about [the one who was on the front of yesterday's Sunday Herald]. Giles Coren, however, is in trouble for tweeting about [the footballer Sparkyjay23 mentions just above me] as well.

    Names poorly munged because I'm in the UK, even if the /. server isn't.

  25. Re:Terrible way to deliver such shocking news! on Ask Slashdot: DOSBox, or DOS Box? · · Score: 1

    Didn't you get the memo? It's Rapture Saturday; we're all dead then, not just the questioner.