After I'd modded an ATI Radeon X800Pro into a X800XT, it became evident how silly it was to have a 17-inch monitor which was only capable of displaying 1280x1024 resolution. I needed something bigger and for reason which I've never quite understood, that has only been possible when you go up to the 20-inch mark.
I looked at the Dell 2001FP and the Samsung 213T and settled on the latter since I could buy it at a much better price and, well, it's not a Dell. So I've had 21.3-inches of 1600 x 1200 TFT at home now for the last couple of months. It is, I have to say, thoroughly amazing. The trouble is that you get used to it and then when you go use pokey little low res 17-inch models, they just annoy you.
The 213T has a good adjustment for height and tilt and the entire panel can be rotated for portrait view if you prefer (but who would?). Response rate is specced at 25ms but as a rule, these figures are lies so I rely much more on subjective tests. The panel is certainly a hell of a light brighter than the Hyundai Q17 I was using before, which is very welcome because I had to do gamma hacking in dark games like Raven Shield and now I don't need to bother.
The only real problem I ran into is that the DVI port is not compatible with any modern Radeon. It's not the Samsung's fault, it's ATI since they just broke DVI compatibility with a whole host of monitors with one driver update and never bothered to fix it. The crack flows freely in Canada.
So I'm running 1600 x 1200 with VGA in. That'd be shit wouldn't it? Well, no actually. It's fine. In fact on one or two occasions, the X800XT has picked up the 213T DVI and so I've seen what it can look like. It's wonderfully sharp, as you'd expect. From experience I know with DVI inputs that I end up turning on Cleartype so the fonts are more legible. When running in VGA things look like you have Cleartype on all the time. Which, upon lengthy reflection, is not really a bad thing.
Yes but what's it like in games? Response rate is quoted as 25ms as I said. In games, the panel noticably ghosts less than the Hyundai panel which has the same legendary 20ms PVA which Tom's Hardware raves about whereever it is found. I find it the best TFT I have used for that and, well, 1600 x 1200 is just fantastic. Ramping up the detail and playing Wahammer 40000: Dawn of War has been one of those big time luxury experiences that makes you glad you've got money.
So money wise then. It's 685 quid from Komplett as I write, which is a stunning deal but then you'll either have to wait awhile or pay quite a wedge for a decent courier from Norway. Else there's eBuyer who are a shade over 700 but charge very little for delivery. Either way, you're looking at around 700 notes for a 21.3-inch TFT with awesome specifications that works extremely well both in games and for video.
It's the big leap from 19 to 21-inch which has the big price rise now but this is also the barrier that actually buys you more pixels and for me, that money was very well spent. I would have put up with a 19-inch 1600 display too but you can't buy them. Besides, it means I've got a better screen than any of you lot and that's as it should be.
Friday, 8 October 2004
Thursday, 7 October 2004
Half Life 2 Steamy Suckzorz! [Slim]
OK, so I bought it...
Costs are right as listed today, but they add $10 tax for fuck knows what reason, we shouldn't pay any tax at all. Anyways, total cost was about £39, and as predicted the steam server was too busy to process...but it popped up and said fair cop guv, its our fault, so you can play it anyway!
Then the problems :)
You can only play CS:Source now, a game that I've pre loaded. But it's added some content tonight, so I'm now at about 97%, no worries, not far to go...
Execpt it also adds Day of Defeat: Source to your list of games. And it preloads it automatically despite the fact you can't play it yet, even though I'm set to 'do not update this game...'
The good news is it does seem to be leeching pretty fast, I'm up to 90% even after typing this bleat, so I'll be playing cs:source soon, woot!
Costs are right as listed today, but they add $10 tax for fuck knows what reason, we shouldn't pay any tax at all. Anyways, total cost was about £39, and as predicted the steam server was too busy to process...but it popped up and said fair cop guv, its our fault, so you can play it anyway!
Then the problems :)
You can only play CS:Source now, a game that I've pre loaded. But it's added some content tonight, so I'm now at about 97%, no worries, not far to go...
Execpt it also adds Day of Defeat: Source to your list of games. And it preloads it automatically despite the fact you can't play it yet, even though I'm set to 'do not update this game...'
The good news is it does seem to be leeching pretty fast, I'm up to 90% even after typing this bleat, so I'll be playing cs:source soon, woot!
When greed overcomes science, we all lose. [Brit]
I was extremely happy to see that the Ansari X-Prize has been won this week by Scaled Composites, led by the pioneer Burt Rutan. The craft 'Spaceship One' successfully completed two separate flights within the set two week window, reached the appropriate height, and landed safely.
I was less than happy to see that today, Scaled have effectively said that the Spaceship One craft will not be available for scientific use, and they have no plans whatsoever to allow any scientific experimentation on board their craft and it's imminent successors.
Why? Because Richard Branson's Virgin group has effectively preordered five of these craft to enable his new venture 'Virgin Galactic' to take off (excuse the pun). Once again, Britain's favourite entrepeneur has beaten others to the punch with what will undoubtedly be billed as the first ever 'affordable space tourism'.
This is really quite shit. The fact that it isn't 'space' aside (it's a sub orbital flight), I am quite gobsmacked (yet not surprised) that rather than utilise this eminently affordable (compared to say, booking time with NASA) service to ramp up the number of experiments doable in low-G conditions, the green eyed dollar powered monster has consumed all involved and dictated that science can effectively piss off whilst Virgin Galactic aims to make piles of cash.
I see Scaled's achievement as more than simply proving it is possible to go real high without government involvement. Its a chance to open up a cutting edge research environment to institutions and departments that simply cannot afford to get their experiments on board the next shuttle launch.
Access to cheap and regular flights in conditions achievable in a sub orbital craft would I assume be of huge value to the academic research communities. Instead, this fantastic opportunity to perhaps advance science significantly is being wasted because of the selfishness of greedy men.
I was less than happy to see that today, Scaled have effectively said that the Spaceship One craft will not be available for scientific use, and they have no plans whatsoever to allow any scientific experimentation on board their craft and it's imminent successors.
Why? Because Richard Branson's Virgin group has effectively preordered five of these craft to enable his new venture 'Virgin Galactic' to take off (excuse the pun). Once again, Britain's favourite entrepeneur has beaten others to the punch with what will undoubtedly be billed as the first ever 'affordable space tourism'.
This is really quite shit. The fact that it isn't 'space' aside (it's a sub orbital flight), I am quite gobsmacked (yet not surprised) that rather than utilise this eminently affordable (compared to say, booking time with NASA) service to ramp up the number of experiments doable in low-G conditions, the green eyed dollar powered monster has consumed all involved and dictated that science can effectively piss off whilst Virgin Galactic aims to make piles of cash.
I see Scaled's achievement as more than simply proving it is possible to go real high without government involvement. Its a chance to open up a cutting edge research environment to institutions and departments that simply cannot afford to get their experiments on board the next shuttle launch.
Access to cheap and regular flights in conditions achievable in a sub orbital craft would I assume be of huge value to the academic research communities. Instead, this fantastic opportunity to perhaps advance science significantly is being wasted because of the selfishness of greedy men.
Wednesday, 6 October 2004
ITV vs. BBC - new channel, new offensive... same shite? [Brit]
There is a fairly substantial rumour floating around that the independent television companies are considering combining resources in some manner to create a new terrestrial TV station, with the explicit mandate to "take on the BBC".
You may wonder what this means exactly - after all, the ITV network and their affiliates, along with the likes of Sky and cable content providers already compete against the BBC.
Well yes and no. I think in this instance, the new channel (whether that results in the formation of a new broadcaster in itself or not) is intended to garner the same level of professional and consumer respect as the BBC, but of course with substantially larger resources and flexibility thrown in as well.
Now, the BBC has many faults - it is a 'uniquely funded' quorate of government appointed mandarins and media luvvies, but has a rich and proud tradition of being level headed, groundbreaking in many respects, and delivering quality programming.
Bar Channel 4 and a handful of satellite channels, independent TV is anything but - more like programming for the lowest common denominator.
I'm keen however that if this project does get past the Blue Sky Thinking Bullshit stage, and doesn't get commercially raped before delivering the unwanted bastard child of collective network execs, it actually does deliver something better than HBO reruns and yet more 'reality' shite with Vanessa Feltz and a collection of farmyard animals.
What would you guys like to see on such a channel (and there are already plenty of porn channels out there, so I don't think that'll be much of a goer)? Given that it could become a serious rival to the BBC - certainly BBC1 - what sort of channel do you think we need? Do we even need such a channel? Is it likely to threaten the BBC and perhaps make that organisation more considerate of it's programming schedules, or simply spin off into commercials-up-it's-own-arsehole land and become yet another useless channel clogging up our already stuffy airwaves?
You may wonder what this means exactly - after all, the ITV network and their affiliates, along with the likes of Sky and cable content providers already compete against the BBC.
Well yes and no. I think in this instance, the new channel (whether that results in the formation of a new broadcaster in itself or not) is intended to garner the same level of professional and consumer respect as the BBC, but of course with substantially larger resources and flexibility thrown in as well.
Now, the BBC has many faults - it is a 'uniquely funded' quorate of government appointed mandarins and media luvvies, but has a rich and proud tradition of being level headed, groundbreaking in many respects, and delivering quality programming.
Bar Channel 4 and a handful of satellite channels, independent TV is anything but - more like programming for the lowest common denominator.
I'm keen however that if this project does get past the Blue Sky Thinking Bullshit stage, and doesn't get commercially raped before delivering the unwanted bastard child of collective network execs, it actually does deliver something better than HBO reruns and yet more 'reality' shite with Vanessa Feltz and a collection of farmyard animals.
What would you guys like to see on such a channel (and there are already plenty of porn channels out there, so I don't think that'll be much of a goer)? Given that it could become a serious rival to the BBC - certainly BBC1 - what sort of channel do you think we need? Do we even need such a channel? Is it likely to threaten the BBC and perhaps make that organisation more considerate of it's programming schedules, or simply spin off into commercials-up-it's-own-arsehole land and become yet another useless channel clogging up our already stuffy airwaves?
Tuesday, 5 October 2004
Oyster sucks arse [Lurks]
Oysters are horrible. They look like some withered hybrid of alien offal and llama snot, for a start. Then they have the consistency of rotting phlegm and are generally encased, with good reason, in a barnackled clam resting at the bottom of the ocean with the rest of the fish turds.
Which is interesting because this blog isn't about that sort of oyster at all, I do of course refer to Red Ken's latest tax payer's money burning scheme, the Oyster card. For those of you that live in rustic forgotten villages on the coast, frozen tundra of Scandinavia and in-bred medieval ginger-harem islands in the middle of the Irish sea - I shall explain what this 'oyster' thing is that is not the disgusting sea creature that you regularly dine upon.
The Oyster card is the first mass market RFID application in the country. It's just a plain aqua coloured card with no visible features but within is burried a clever peice of technology. It's a little silicon chip wired up to an inductor so that when you pass it near one of the receivers on a ticket barrier, the inductor generates a small electric current, fires up the chip where upon it sends signals back to the aerial and communicates with the ticket barrier.
In short, once you have one of these cards and you've charged it up with pre-pay dosh - for this example - every time you touch your card in and out of a journey, the appropriate amount is deducted from some electronic wonga stored on the chip. You can also have travel cards coded on it. These things are accepted on all of the London underground stations and the London busses too. You can recharge them at ticket machines in ticket halls, with the human ticket selling tubeanderthals or online via an laughably rudimentary web site which is amusingly top hit in Google on the search term Oyster.
Anyhow, the system basically works and being unable to figure out a way to extract the RFID chip and implant it under my skin for comedy effect - I'm forced to press it to several of these yellow receiver things a day so I can effect passage on the busses and tubes which I must use during my daily commute to and from the office.
One day, yesterday in fact, when I was going home - it stopped working. That was it, just stopped dead. I may as well have been pressing a packet of finest lincolnshire bangers to the ticket barrier, it was dead as a douglas adams. I grunt at tubeanderthals and they let me through, mumbling something about how they do that sometimes.
I look it up on the web and apparently I've got to get into a tube station and fill out a form to get it replaced. Right you are then. So I try to log onto the web site to see what's on the card exactly, in case I'm asked and stuff. It wont let me in. It wont work with my username choices of usual, nada. I call up the oysteranderthal hotline and get some gum chewing chav bird who is outstandingly unhelpful, telling me that maybe it'll just work later or something.
Next morning, into Finsbury Park and a big queue to get to the ticket tubanderthal where I explain my delimma and I'm given a form that wants outrageous stuff filled in and given a glance which in no uncertain terms means I must go away and fill it out rather than trying it there and then. I do so, blagging my way through the tube system without paying - apparently the tubeanderthals are as baffled by the whole Oyster card thing as I.
I fill the thing out at work and head down to the Paddington ticket office to get it all fixed up at lunch. What follows is a solid 20 minutes of me standing at one of two open ticket windows while they figure out what to do. Not only that, the lady hasn't a clue and has to get the one on the other window to help out. The massive queue that amasses behind me is really not impressed, I can feel the malice wished upon my slumped back through the venomous stares behind me.
They even try to charge me three quid. I laugh, heartily. Your system breaks, I spend half my lunch standing here while you try to figure out how to fix it and you want me to pay for that too? Ho ho ho!
It got fixed. I scarpered. I wondered whether this is technology gone wrong or just yet another nifty-idea-in-theory but outragously expensive and impractical idea from dear old Ken.
Bizarrely they seemed to actually take my word for what was loaded onto the card, from the scrawl on my form. If I'd know they were going to do that, I'd have pencilled in an annual. Hmm, I wonder how this one would fair in a microwave...
Which is interesting because this blog isn't about that sort of oyster at all, I do of course refer to Red Ken's latest tax payer's money burning scheme, the Oyster card. For those of you that live in rustic forgotten villages on the coast, frozen tundra of Scandinavia and in-bred medieval ginger-harem islands in the middle of the Irish sea - I shall explain what this 'oyster' thing is that is not the disgusting sea creature that you regularly dine upon.
The Oyster card is the first mass market RFID application in the country. It's just a plain aqua coloured card with no visible features but within is burried a clever peice of technology. It's a little silicon chip wired up to an inductor so that when you pass it near one of the receivers on a ticket barrier, the inductor generates a small electric current, fires up the chip where upon it sends signals back to the aerial and communicates with the ticket barrier.
In short, once you have one of these cards and you've charged it up with pre-pay dosh - for this example - every time you touch your card in and out of a journey, the appropriate amount is deducted from some electronic wonga stored on the chip. You can also have travel cards coded on it. These things are accepted on all of the London underground stations and the London busses too. You can recharge them at ticket machines in ticket halls, with the human ticket selling tubeanderthals or online via an laughably rudimentary web site which is amusingly top hit in Google on the search term Oyster.
Anyhow, the system basically works and being unable to figure out a way to extract the RFID chip and implant it under my skin for comedy effect - I'm forced to press it to several of these yellow receiver things a day so I can effect passage on the busses and tubes which I must use during my daily commute to and from the office.
One day, yesterday in fact, when I was going home - it stopped working. That was it, just stopped dead. I may as well have been pressing a packet of finest lincolnshire bangers to the ticket barrier, it was dead as a douglas adams. I grunt at tubeanderthals and they let me through, mumbling something about how they do that sometimes.
I look it up on the web and apparently I've got to get into a tube station and fill out a form to get it replaced. Right you are then. So I try to log onto the web site to see what's on the card exactly, in case I'm asked and stuff. It wont let me in. It wont work with my username choices of usual, nada. I call up the oysteranderthal hotline and get some gum chewing chav bird who is outstandingly unhelpful, telling me that maybe it'll just work later or something.
Next morning, into Finsbury Park and a big queue to get to the ticket tubanderthal where I explain my delimma and I'm given a form that wants outrageous stuff filled in and given a glance which in no uncertain terms means I must go away and fill it out rather than trying it there and then. I do so, blagging my way through the tube system without paying - apparently the tubeanderthals are as baffled by the whole Oyster card thing as I.
I fill the thing out at work and head down to the Paddington ticket office to get it all fixed up at lunch. What follows is a solid 20 minutes of me standing at one of two open ticket windows while they figure out what to do. Not only that, the lady hasn't a clue and has to get the one on the other window to help out. The massive queue that amasses behind me is really not impressed, I can feel the malice wished upon my slumped back through the venomous stares behind me.
They even try to charge me three quid. I laugh, heartily. Your system breaks, I spend half my lunch standing here while you try to figure out how to fix it and you want me to pay for that too? Ho ho ho!
It got fixed. I scarpered. I wondered whether this is technology gone wrong or just yet another nifty-idea-in-theory but outragously expensive and impractical idea from dear old Ken.
Bizarrely they seemed to actually take my word for what was loaded onto the card, from the scrawl on my form. If I'd know they were going to do that, I'd have pencilled in an annual. Hmm, I wonder how this one would fair in a microwave...
Monday, 4 October 2004
Old Age EED - go where!? [Brit]
Statement
Contrary to this blog by Lurker I am willing to bet that some of EED will reach (au/o)ld age.
Exceptions To The Statement
Amnesia (selling his heart instead of buying a new one), Lurker (one festival too many), Slim (neurological damage due to head slappage), Jay (what speed limi...).
Continuance
Given that a significant percentage have hit mid thirties some time ago, it won't be too long until the grim reaper either taps a chap, or lets him sink slowly into beige oblivion.
The question is of course, where would an OAP EED possibly go? Traditionally, old folk are bundled off to a red bricked out of town facility (a "residential home") that handily has a chapel and industrial oven in situ.
Or, they are inflicted upon any member of the family with a spare bedroom and little to no stairs until such time as they simply give up watching day time TV and roast alive underneath knitted goodwill jumpers and boil-in-the-bag meals. Bungalow residents beware!
Even worse of course, they are instantly treated as though they are somehow incontinent, stupid, ignorant, and incapable of doing anything themselves. I for one would not like to be in the shoes of the orderly or other jobsworth who tries to take the bottle of bubbly away from my clannies (all EED come complete with a Krug Approved MediCare plan for those Americans reading).
How do you see yourselves spending your twilight years? Aging (dis)gracefully? Where can I buy a broadband enabled coffin? My personal intent is face down in a swimming pool of vodka at my Manhatten apartment, naked and painted orange.
Contrary to this blog by Lurker I am willing to bet that some of EED will reach (au/o)ld age.
Exceptions To The Statement
Amnesia (selling his heart instead of buying a new one), Lurker (one festival too many), Slim (neurological damage due to head slappage), Jay (what speed limi...).
Continuance
Given that a significant percentage have hit mid thirties some time ago, it won't be too long until the grim reaper either taps a chap, or lets him sink slowly into beige oblivion.
The question is of course, where would an OAP EED possibly go? Traditionally, old folk are bundled off to a red bricked out of town facility (a "residential home") that handily has a chapel and industrial oven in situ.
Or, they are inflicted upon any member of the family with a spare bedroom and little to no stairs until such time as they simply give up watching day time TV and roast alive underneath knitted goodwill jumpers and boil-in-the-bag meals. Bungalow residents beware!
Even worse of course, they are instantly treated as though they are somehow incontinent, stupid, ignorant, and incapable of doing anything themselves. I for one would not like to be in the shoes of the orderly or other jobsworth who tries to take the bottle of bubbly away from my clannies (all EED come complete with a Krug Approved MediCare plan for those Americans reading).
How do you see yourselves spending your twilight years? Aging (dis)gracefully? Where can I buy a broadband enabled coffin? My personal intent is face down in a swimming pool of vodka at my Manhatten apartment, naked and painted orange.
Sunday, 3 October 2004
Lurks destroys Houmous' PC [Houmous]
It was going so well - I arrive at the station to pick up the PC god and his great wife (A man who before todays sordid activities I used to respect). We arrive at my house and I wait patiently with sterilized towels outside the bathroom while he changes into his surgical gown.
All is going well - Lurks entertains his audience with funny stories and amusing antidotes as he delves into my PC performing deft movements with its vital organs. After 15 minutes of intensive operations he pronounced the patient fitter than ever before.
We gather round excited as we move onto the post water cooler phase - overclocking! Our glee somewhat subsides however a few seconds later when - BUUOOOOOFFFFFF! - the PC goes off and we turn round to see a waterfall starting at the top of my PC cascading gently over my motherboard.
Fellow EEDer's - as I post this blog from my emergency laptop - I am in a state of shock - my ideals shattered - everything that has ever meant anything to me destroyed - I ask you to post uplifting comments and any useful suggestions as I sit, head in hands, at one of the lowest points of my life...
All is going well - Lurks entertains his audience with funny stories and amusing antidotes as he delves into my PC performing deft movements with its vital organs. After 15 minutes of intensive operations he pronounced the patient fitter than ever before.
We gather round excited as we move onto the post water cooler phase - overclocking! Our glee somewhat subsides however a few seconds later when - BUUOOOOOFFFFFF! - the PC goes off and we turn round to see a waterfall starting at the top of my PC cascading gently over my motherboard.
Fellow EEDer's - as I post this blog from my emergency laptop - I am in a state of shock - my ideals shattered - everything that has ever meant anything to me destroyed - I ask you to post uplifting comments and any useful suggestions as I sit, head in hands, at one of the lowest points of my life...
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