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Last of the Iyonix

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 20:20:23 GMT

The Iyonix is over around 6 years old now so comparing to brand new modern PCs isn't fair. it had a good run and was a decent, capable fast computer and for most uses will remain so probably for some years. As well as that, the desktop market was never the only market for RISC OS for the lifespan of the Iyonix AIUI so the whole thing is more complicated than is often being made out.

Posted by Andrew (andrew) in General
12 comments in forum

TIB's NintendoDS Community Meeting Place Thing Doodah

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 13:52:35 GMT

Isn't it a way to tackle R4 piracy? The DSi will probably have stronger protection - or maybe Nintendo are thinking that if anyone is going to make money selling SD card readers for pirated DS games, it's going to be them.

Posted by Phil Mellor (monkeyson2) in Games
1084 comments in forum

TIB's NintendoDS Community Meeting Place Thing Doodah

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 16:19:41 GMT

Apparently the DSi isn't meant to be a replacement for the DS Lite - it's just a way of seperating more chumps from their money while Nintendo's boffins work on squeezing 8 ARM Cortex CPU's into the next DS (or whatever it is they'll cook up)

If they're releasing this now then it must be at least another year before a true successor appears.

Posted by Jeffrey Lee (Phlamethrower) in Games
1084 comments in forum

I hate Windows safe mode

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 14:56:45 GMT

Good news/bad news time with my laptop:

* Good news! My laptop powered up after a few days sitting upside down drying off.
* Bad news! The keyboard was still buggered. Not the whole keyboard, just the Enter key. Delete I could have done without, but no, Enter.
* Good news! This is my second Acer tablet PC, after my long-serving previous one got a case of deceleration trauma. So I switched keyboards.
* Bad news! it works perfectly and now I have no excuse not to do any work.

Posted by Richard Goodwin (rich) in The Playpen
14 comments in forum

Old Interactive Fiction...

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 13:36:48 GMT

Earlier today I noticed my parents/brother's Yorkshire Terrier sat on their armchair in such a way that it looks as though he thinks he's human. I grabbed their tv remote, put it on the arm of the chair, and took a photo.

I did this with one thought in mind: in an adventure game, possibly the one mooted above (which I've taken almost no further because, to use what really should be my catchphrase, I've been a bit busy) the player could walk into a room and encounter a talking dog, who happens to be sitting in his favourite armchair watching TV.

Somewhere in my collection of photos, I also have a stuffed squirrel that I positioned on the edge of a desk so that it looks like it's sat working at a computer.

Also, on that memory stick I mentioned earlier, it looks as though at some point I re-thought the name Aberystwyth Smith to become Worcester Smith and started the thought process - hence "almost no further" above. The text I found says:

Worcester Smith

Worcester's name isn't Worcester, and he actually comes from a small town in Dorset - it's just a nickname he got when he was younger, after an incident with a bottle of Worcester Sauce. It was suitably embarassing, and not something he ever likes to discuss - but the name stuck, in an Indiana Jones type of way. And in that same type of way, it became quite appropriate since he grew up to become an archeaologist and, in a world with not much left unexplored, a leading explorer.

This is the first of the Worcester Smith Adventures...

In Worcester Smith and the Purple Crystal of the Heavens, you take on the role of the eponymous hero, and must guide him in his quest to find the legendary crystal of the title. It's a crystal who's origins are so mythical that even the people who made up all the legends and myths that you can read about in the local library, or watch films about on a Saturday afternoon on many obscure cable and satelite tv channels, hadn't included it in one, because, they said, it was just too unbelievable.

Those two pictures might not end up in that game - and to be fair, that game might never happen. But I thought I'd mention what I did, what was at the back of my mind, and what I found.

Posted by VinceH (VincceH) in Games
6 comments in forum

I hate Windows safe mode

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 11:07:30 GMT

What this ultimately means is that my backups are good up until the last VAT return processed for each client, which is good

YOU BEAUTY!

I've just plugged in my memory stick, and discovered that I took a backup of every client's accounts on the 18th of September onto that.

I can't remember doing it, or why, but there they are! I must have just randomly decided to take another backup of everything as some kind of failsafe.

Posted by VinceH (VincceH) in The Playpen
14 comments in forum

22" Widescreen TV/Monitor

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 21:50:27 GMT

How about this Samsung one:

http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/detail/detail.do?group=television&type=television&subtype=tftlcd&model_cd=LE22S86BDX/XEU

Appears to have most of what you need (including sound outputs).

Posted by Steve C (Steve) in General
6 comments in forum

22" Widescreen TV/Monitor

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 21:16:19 GMT

Yes... you have it right... The Digital tuner would be built into the TV...

Posted by Andrew Duffell (ad) in General
6 comments in forum

22" Widescreen TV/Monitor

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 20:26:24 GMT

Oh, you mean like a TV with integrated digital receiver or something? Because I can't think of any other circumstance where everything would go directly to the TV without having a chance to pass through other devices first*.

* disclaimer: I now live in Finland, where digital TV has been an enforced standard for the last year, and you either have to buy a TV with integrated digital tuner, or else a seperate digibox, which all have their own sound/video outs.

Posted by Jason Togneri (filecore) in General
6 comments in forum

22" Widescreen TV/Monitor

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 20:01:05 GMT

You want integrated fucking output? Welcome to 1997. Real Men plug their sound out into a real fucking stereo system.

Yes, I can do this for the Xbox 360 and the Laptop, but I need an audio output from the TV for the freeview to plug into the amp... I really don't want to have to listen to my TV on crappy built in speakers when I have my JBL Control 1 monitors sitting there doing nothing.

Posted by Andrew Duffell (ad) in General
6 comments in forum