DCK

Pyxis: seems you control issues. There's a basic lack of trust in the rest of the EU and 'the continent' in your reasoning - I get way too much such vibes from from the UK (and I find really disturbing at times). The euro is way too stable to ever go down the drain. The pound won't go quickly, but it's far more likely to ever devaluate. I find it quite arrogant to think you Brits are better off managing your own moneys, when you're clearly not.

I'd say buy the first, and then put a seperate 70 pound Radeon 4670 in it instead of the chip it has now. It's much better than the second that way.

I agree that Windows Mobile sucks, but the OS X mobile creaming doesn't make much sense. I see a brighter future for the Android, just because OS X is so damn restrictive (can't run your own apps, and you can only run them on iPhones). It's about time Windows loses major ground in some area.

Haggis, it's pretty stupid to prefer a coin because it's easier to pay with. You can get used to it easily (I did in 2002...). I find pounds to be pretty confusing actually, but it's not something I can't get used to. There's really no advantage in keeping the pound, and using tradition as a reason is really backwards. The euro, stable as it is, would benefit even more from the UK's participation. It would also considerably strengthen London's position as one of the world's financial capitals, and let's be honest, we should take all of Wall Street's market as we should. I really can't stand all the super conservative "Why do we need change" and "The pound is part of our history" BS, not only in the UK, but also similar sounds in Denmark. All the other participating countries have given up considerable history and have only benefit from it. The world entirely profited from it as well, as now there's a currency that can actually compete with the US Dollar.

So why did Microsoft and Sony do it? All 360 mobos have it, but they just don't have the output. Digital output is actually cheaper as there aren't any RAMDACs necessary to produce the picture. HDMI just has some licensing cost which shouldn't be a problem. The R&D needed is pretty minimal considering IBM and AMD/ATI both have the facilities to go 45nm. The many revisions of the PStwo showed that this stuff can be quite easily done. All they need is a pretty case design.

Smaller means cheaper to produce, and more (new) appeal. With a sufficient die shrink (say, 45nm) they can remove fans altogether, spend less on casing plastics, use a smaller power adapter and so on. It's not only cheaper, but easier to produce lots of. The HDMI out would just be there for easy connectivity for casual gamers, and offer a minor picture quality improvement. Perhaps a scaling chip can be used, but it would introduce costs Nintendo's not going to pay.

That's not what I meant exactly. There are two advantages having the sensor bar do some sensing: 1) The sensor bar can get the WiiMote's location more accurately (I've read about some research showing that) 2) Having the sensor bar do it requires less sensing hardware and bandwidth is needed for the Wiimotes, saving battery life It's probably a lot cheaper to have it done the way Nintendo has now, but the Wiimote's usage is too limited this way. Basically, they can implement the entire pointing functionality of the Wiimote (and maybe nunchuck) in the sensor bar, and just have the Wiimote equipped with accelerometers or gyroscopes. I also think Nintendo will launch a redesigned Wii either in 2009 or 2010 that will be a lot smaller (like PStwo) and have HDMI out.

Yeah, that's true, but it doesn't make any sense to go out spending a hundred pounds on a Phenom quad core, which'll be very outdated in a month Anyway, how's this board? It seems pretty awesome, and it's only 17 pounds more expensive than the cheapest Gigabyte P35.

Going AMD is pretty stupid now. They are outclassed by any Core 2 Duo now, and AMD will release the Phenom II in January and February which will hopefully outperform the Core 2s, so basically you're immediately outdated. Anyway Fish, you can save yourself a lot of hassle by getting a P45 motherboard. It's a little bit more expensive, but not that much more (or are the prices in the UK that bad?).

Actually those are a bit slower (they have higher CAS latency :wink:) ^ You wouldn't notice the difference though, you can save yourself another 10 pounds with those.

I think this will happen: - Release date Q4 2013 - Incredible power increase compared to the Wii. Will output 1080p by default, and support Dolby Digital. It will be (nearly) as powerful as 2011-lauched Xbox 720, but cheaper, quieter and smaller. - Its CPU and GPU will be produced by AMD - Will not feature Blu-Ray or any media playback of the sort. - Will use Blu-Ray tech for discs. - Will have an ordinary hard drive, or SSDs have to become cheaper faster. Probably about 1 terabyte of storage. - Games can be bought in stores or downloaded to the HDD - Wiimote will be a refined version of the Wiimote Plus. Nunchuck will also feature pointer functionality. - Sensor bar will be much more advanced, featuring actual sensor capabilities, a camera and built-in WiiSpeak. - Wi-Fi only, supporting 802.11n - Improved online possibilities, which'll still be very poor compared to the competition

You really should get the 4850. Its performance is on par with the 9800GTX+ (the charts you're looking at measured performance when it came out, and ATI has made huge performance gains with new drivers since then), but it should be cheaper. Also, on Intel boards, you could eventually CrossFire it when you can get another 48xx GPU for cheap. You should also consider spending some 20 pounds extra on a P45 motherboard. It's got some new features, like faster PCI-Express and improved CrossFire, and increased performance that make it worth the money.

You can save yourself 10 pounds by buying the 4850e. The performance difference probably isn't worth 10 pounds.

If your PC is reasonably new (and looking at the specs it is), it's quite a fair bet that everything will connect just fine. Also, that setup probably uses less power than the system now, so the PSU should take it just fine.

The 780G can handle AMD Phenom processors, and has a better integrated graphics chip that can shut down the 4670 when not running heavy 3D apps (so your PC is more quiet). It's worth the few extra pounds, though it has extra features you might not use. You might want to look out for the AMD Athlon X2 5400+ as well, it's a bit faster but the same price over here.

If you find your computer fast enough as it is, you don't need to spend a lot of money. For less than 80 pounds extra you can get a modern cheap motherboard and processor (that'll be faster than what you have now), and then buy some new RAM and a graphics chip. You can get: - a 740G chipset motherboard for around 40 pounds or 780G for 50 - an AMD Athlon X2 4850e for around 45 pounds - 4 GB DDR2 for about 30 pounds - a Radeon HD4670 for about 50 pounds. That is, when I convert Dutch prices into euros. British prices are usually a bit higher.

From that information I can't tell you whether you can upgrade your processor, and that's what really would hold you back when you give it a new graphics card and memory. You should try Everest's evaluation edition: http://www.lavalys.com/products/download.php?ps=UE〈=en and see what motherboard you have.

The refuelling rule is pretty retarded, and omitting tyre warmers is pretty random, but the rest isn't really much of a big deal. Won't stop me from wachting F1. With Renault allowed to make engine changes, I think Alonso be a real contender for the title next year. To be honest, they're overreacting to this credit crunch. When the economy'll recover in 2010 they're going to be sorry.

The last year or so I've started listening to good music (before only being a pop nitwit of the worst kind), and I've gained a liking to the (electrical) guitar being inspired by players like Johnny Frusciante, The Edge and Kurt Cobain to name a few. Basically I want to go beyond the air guitar and want to learn how to properly play the guitar. As I seem to have stranded in some musical middle of nowhere (absolutely none of my friends or relatives ever touched a guitar it seems) there's nobody to teach me anything, however. Professional lessons are way too expensive for me, and there aren't many in my area anyway. I've been noticing a lot of you are in bands or playing guitar to some level, so could you give me tips on where to start? My research has come up with a starter kit, the Ibanez GRX40 (which is a good brand right?), which comes with a complete set of accesories including an amplifier, and it's decently priced. Any opinions on that?

Nintendo will release it when they need to boost the Wii sales. Probably about three years from now.

I'm really not into all the specific Linuxes installed on these machines. I know most of them are installed in total noob mode that doesn't offer a desktop but just a menu. That can be changed in the settings though. I do know that the Ubuntu Netbook Remix allows everything a full fledged Ubuntu installation allows, but just has a modified (desktop) interface to better fit the small screen. The only limitation they should have is that Windows apps don't work on them, but really, that's to be expected. The best stuff on Windows is available on Linux anyway. For normal use, the only thing I can say in favour of Windows is that MS Office 2007 > OpenOffice + Thunderbird, though OO is still pretty good.

Website says: So I guess yeah. There's a Windows version you could try out if you're curious. I'd use it in Windows as well (if I had an iPod) because iTunes is even more horrible than Windows Media Player as far as I'm concerned. One of my mates uses it on Windows actually. On Linux, I know that the Exaile music player, my favourite, has an iPod plugin, too. It might mean you wouldn't have to use Floola at all. This is all hearsay though, so you should try it yourself. The Linux Floola should do everything the Windows Floola can do, though.

You shouldn't worry about that. There's an alternative application that lets you access your iPod just fine under Linux. If you use it as a music player, well... iTunes is freaking horrible. It's bloated, sluggish and ugly. Try Exaile or Rhythmbox, they're excellent. Linux is a better fit for a netbook. There's nothing it can't provide, and it's stabler, prettier and more customizable than XP will ever be.

Estimates put VY Canis Majoris at 1800 to 2100 solar radi, meaning it's about 8-9 times bigger than Antares. Mind boggling stuff. This picture, called Pale Blue Dot, is amazing. It's a picture of Earth, taken by Voyager 1 at 6.4 million kilometres away (beyond Pluto's orbit). It's the spot in the yellow band (caused by radiation, not Earth's orbit).

Just kidding. Congrats man!