Posts by Nick Roberts

Back in February, before the world changed, I went with my son on various applicant days for physics courses at various UK universities. One was showing us a particularly specialised bit of kit in one of the labs, and I spotted that several of the PCs connected to it had the XP screensaver. Nobody could get the control software to run on anything else, apparently. Worried me somewhat about their technnical capabilities...

And then in lockdown, I was tiding my office prior to redecorating it. Found my ancient Eee 904HD netbook - the battery was dead, but on plugging it in to the mains, XP booted straight away. Or rather incredibly slowly, but without issue. Hadn't used it for 10 years, according to file dates. No idea what to do with it.

Our very own Brexit Secretary didn't realise that Dover was close to France, and then resigned because he didn't like the deal he himself had negotiated - makes this Japanese guy look positively competent in comparison.

Of course they have a sense of humour in Canadia. You need a massive one to cope with the downstairs neighbours.

Can't stick turdkey, so boring. Would do goose, but there are only 2 of us who would eat it, so we have duck instead. Don't have Puddings with it, but we do Popovers instead - an American cross between Puds and bread rolls, and remarkably good.

Wife will have something veggie (and she's the only one that eats Devil's Testicles), and daughter will have chicken - only meat she eats.

"I couldn't possibly bite an El Reg hack - little thing called professional courtesy."

Latest addition to the spec - a built-in screen viper.

I always wanted Nokia to port Snake to the PC.

Something wrong with this laptop - I shook it, and it was a rattler.

Just checking the browser hisstory.

It's the Lester Haines Fang Club webinar.

I've always been a fan of the small form factor laptop, and my current Netbook has served me well in this niche - I bought it before Ultrabooks existed, and it gives me a small machine I can do image editing on in the field. It's obviously a bit slow, but it has a screen capable of running the software I need, a processor that's just about quick enough, and I've replaced the HD and maxed out the RAM at a massive 2GB - but it works. Will I miss the Netbook format? No, the Ultrabook was always closer to what I wanted.

Personally, I prefer the Transformer concept, but this is not uninteresting. I think Asus are really doing a job in the truly compact area, from tablets through netbooks to ultrabooks at the moment; there's a model for most people, and they seem to be making product that's actually useful, rather than just leaping on the bandwagon.

I'm in no way an Apple fan - quite the opposite, I dislike and distrust the company enormously, and I generally consider the hype associated with their products to be just that. However, that doesn't mean I reject all their products out of hand. I've always been fond of the Air, and the latest one takes it exactly where I would want it. Sure, I think the choice of ports is ridiculous, and the sealed battery and HDD are very negative points for me, but they're very much outweighed by the positives - this is a very good machine indeed, and If it wasn't for the price, I would certainly get one. The competition just isn't there right now - the Ultrabook may well compete in a few months, but right now, there's nothing this small with this amount of power - and yes, looks.

@J

Sorry, you're wrong; I bought a netbook specifically to run Photoshop - well, Lightroom and/or Elements, actually. I wanted something very small that I can use in the field - literally - and can upload pics to a website from that same field. A number of other people I know do likewise. XP fits the bill perfectly, and Linux lives happily (in the guise of Android) on the device I have that does what I think you think a netbook is limited to.

Wii a fad? I don't think so...

Where the Wii scores is that it's getting into places no other console before it could - and the XBox and PS3 still can't. The control system makes the thing so genuinely interactive that people - ordinary people, not diehard gamers - will excuse the poor graphics etc. Hell, I've bought one for the kids - and me - despite being a console-hater (much prefer PC gaming). It's simply more fun that the others, and until you get a machine that offers more interactivity or the same level but with better graphics, none of this new wave of consolers will look at anything else.

But 4 years time? I'm sure the PS4 will have something similar in its armoury...

Lot of misunderstanding here...

Lotsw of people seem to think uTube should be happy that they're getting more hits, as "that's what a website's for". Looks like Web 2.0 has conquered the universe!

What many commercial websites are actually for is communicating to a target audience and making sales, NOT just dealing with masses of unwanted hits. There was clearly a financial loss to uTube at first, in that they were paying for completely useless and unwanted additional hits. However, they've rather shot themselves in the foor on that one IMHO by turning it into a profit opportunity - good luck to them, but they can't really have it both ways. Can they?

Oh, and I think Rick might've got the message by now...

More trivia....

Fraser: Darth Vader surely died IN the hands of his son, but AT the hands of the Emperor?

I don't know what the blasters were made from, but the light sabres were based around flashguns for the Speed Graphic and MPP press cameras.

And my 5 year old son certainly thinks "Return of the Jedi" is the best of the bunch...