The half-penny coin has been out of circulation since about 1980. The same goes for the pound note, more or less (except in Scotland,where I believe they're still in use). Yet the £2 coin has only been around for a few years. When were you in the UK?!
I haven't witnessed much of this snobbery regarding coins here, except when somebody drops a few pennies by accident and doesn't bother to pick them up. It's extremely rare to see somebody leave change in the vending machine - in fact it's far more likely that people check for change even when they don't expect any!
I like coins... I find them far more convenient for small purchases than notes. It's true that the small denominations (1p, 2p) can build up, but then you get the fun of collecting them in a massive jar and pouring them into a rattly change machine at Sainsbury's. Yes, it's quite fun actually:-)
I would agree with you, if I wasn't on my third replacement Samsung 171P. And even this one has a couple of dead subpixels, for which Samsung are unlikely to replace the monitor:-(
Aside from that, though, the display is stunning - just crap customer service and reliability IMO.
The transparency does work over Xv overlays - at least on my Radeon 8500. I suppose the driver must be using the card's hardware sprite alpha blending.
The new ATI driver does actually support 3D acceleration on both heads of an extended desktop - on my 8500 at least.
It seems to use a similar approach to the Nvidia driver, ignoring the standard "serverlayout" method - but you can also use the standard method (both heads running separate desktops) with full 3D acceleration.
I'm quite pleased with this - not yet on par with Nvidia's driver but it's getting there, and its multi-head support looks set to beat it.
I agree that UK broadband's in a pretty crap state, but you're wrong about Tele2. I've found their base package (512/256K) to be fantastic, though overpriced.
Don't know why you mention NAT, they give you a real (static!) IP, not to mention a decent Ethernet connection. None of this faffing about with USB.
Agree with you about Tele2's strong points (I have it as well), though maybe I've been luckier than most. Don't think I've had more than an hour's downtime since I got it a few months ago.
I also had an incredible connection at first, the engineer told me that they don't bother capping the speed for the first day or two.
I was surprised as anyone when I found out the IP was static, they definitely advertise it as dynamic. Maybe they'd get more signups if they told the truth!
Broadband access in the UK is pretty much limited to these options:
1. ADSL. The "last mile" is monopolised by BT, but there are several ISPs which repackage BT's service. This is the most widely-available option, but I believe only about 50% of the country can get it. BT's exchange upgrades have been very slow in many areas.
BT's wholesale price drop by £10/month (which this article is really about) has only really had a significant effect on the bog standard 512/256Kbps ADSL service, which people have been signing up to in droves. Anything faster is still ludicrously expensive.
2. NTL/Telewest cable. Priced fairly reasonably, but very limited availability. NTL only offer broadband in some of their cabled areas, and in most of these areas they force you to take their awful phone and digital TV package as well.
3. ISDN, which is hugely overpriced and slow compared with other options.
4. Leased lines, which are far outside the price range of most home users.
5. Tele2 wireless. Also quite limited coverage, but they aim to cover areas without other broadband options. Good service, and can offer asymmetric connections (which cable/ADSL can't) up to 2Mbps. But, like all the options, a rip-off compared with what's available in other countries.
I can only hope that the increased uptake will make all the providers drop their prices further. At the moment the UK is a laughing stock in the broadband world.
And what about the X thousands of [insert currency] Sharp spent developing and producing the machine? They don't "make money" until enough people buy them, and I'm not sure there's enough techies out there for Sharp to break even.
(I think it looks like a fantastic machine BTW, and when I get round to buying a handheld it'll be top of my list...)
Slashdot Mirror
I wonder what the Childcare Action Project will make of such a Christian movie, which will feature no unnatural creatures or magic or mythology...
The half-penny coin has been out of circulation since about 1980. The same goes for the pound note, more or less (except in Scotland,where I believe they're still in use). Yet the £2 coin has only been around for a few years. When were you in the UK?!
:-)
I haven't witnessed much of this snobbery regarding coins here, except when somebody drops a few pennies by accident and doesn't bother to pick them up. It's extremely rare to see somebody leave change in the vending machine - in fact it's far more likely that people check for change even when they don't expect any!
I like coins... I find them far more convenient for small purchases than notes. It's true that the small denominations (1p, 2p) can build up, but then you get the fun of collecting them in a massive jar and pouring them into a rattly change machine at Sainsbury's. Yes, it's quite fun actually
That's just the prototype. Next year every Japanese phone will have one built-in.
I would agree with you, if I wasn't on my third replacement Samsung 171P. And even this one has a couple of dead subpixels, for which Samsung are unlikely to replace the monitor :-(
Aside from that, though, the display is stunning - just crap customer service and reliability IMO.
The transparency does work over Xv overlays - at least on my Radeon 8500. I suppose the driver must be using the card's hardware sprite alpha blending.
It's been done. Sort of.
Yes, it can - you have the option of two separate desktops or one big desktop, and 3D works across it all with both options.
Still flaky in other areas (couldn't get Xv overlays working on both heads, for example) but give it some time...
The new ATI driver does actually support 3D acceleration on both heads of an extended desktop - on my 8500 at least.
It seems to use a similar approach to the Nvidia driver, ignoring the standard "serverlayout" method - but you can also use the standard method (both heads running separate desktops) with full 3D acceleration.
I'm quite pleased with this - not yet on par with Nvidia's driver but it's getting there, and its multi-head support looks set to beat it.
I agree that UK broadband's in a pretty crap state, but you're wrong about Tele2. I've found their base package (512/256K) to be fantastic, though overpriced.
Don't know why you mention NAT, they give you a real (static!) IP, not to mention a decent Ethernet connection. None of this faffing about with USB.
Agree with you about Tele2's strong points (I have it as well), though maybe I've been luckier than most. Don't think I've had more than an hour's downtime since I got it a few months ago.
I also had an incredible connection at first, the engineer told me that they don't bother capping the speed for the first day or two.
I was surprised as anyone when I found out the IP was static, they definitely advertise it as dynamic. Maybe they'd get more signups if they told the truth!
"Good service, and can offer asymmetric connections"
Whoops, I meant symmetric of course.
Broadband access in the UK is pretty much limited to these options:
1. ADSL. The "last mile" is monopolised by BT, but there are several ISPs which repackage BT's service. This is the most widely-available option, but I believe only about 50% of the country can get it. BT's exchange upgrades have been very slow in many areas.
BT's wholesale price drop by £10/month (which this article is really about) has only really had a significant effect on the bog standard 512/256Kbps ADSL service, which people have been signing up to in droves. Anything faster is still ludicrously expensive.
2. NTL/Telewest cable. Priced fairly reasonably, but very limited availability. NTL only offer broadband in some of their cabled areas, and in most of these areas they force you to take their awful phone and digital TV package as well.
3. ISDN, which is hugely overpriced and slow compared with other options.
4. Leased lines, which are far outside the price range of most home users.
5. Tele2 wireless. Also quite limited coverage, but they aim to cover areas without other broadband options. Good service, and can offer asymmetric connections (which cable/ADSL can't) up to 2Mbps. But, like all the options, a rip-off compared with what's available in other countries.
I can only hope that the increased uptake will make all the providers drop their prices further. At the moment the UK is a laughing stock in the broadband world.
And what about the X thousands of [insert currency] Sharp spent developing and producing the machine? They don't "make money" until enough people buy them, and I'm not sure there's enough techies out there for Sharp to break even.
(I think it looks like a fantastic machine BTW, and when I get round to buying a handheld it'll be top of my list...)
Some people have pretty short memories.
amixer: Mixer 0/0 open error: Invalid argument