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McPhee

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Posts posted by McPhee

  1. Posted

    Cheap laptops are crap. The margins are so low and the market so competitive that the manufacturers skimp on materials and manufacturing to meet the price point. They break easily almost without exception. Dell make good high-end gear, but their low-end stuff is no better than Acer et all. The lesson is; avoid buying cheap, high-spec laptops that seem to good to be true.

     

    If it's a good Dell then return it for the same model. There's always the occasional dud in the batch and the replacement should be fine.

  2. Posted

    Don't go with the Veloce, configure the more expensive Alioramus instead. The base spec on that machine is awesome. A pre-overclocked i5 2500k (4.5GHz), and aftermarket cooler, an SSD, a better case and a better power supply all for £18 more than the build you spec'd earlier. Removing these upgrades nets you the Veloce build that you made (with the 6870 instead of the 560Ti, but the 560Ti realy isn't worth the extra that they're asking) along with the pre-overclocked 2500k (no saving for removing this) for about £590. Alternatively, you could upgrade to a 2600K and 8GB while staying under the £700 mark.

  4. Posted

    Sarrif.

     

    Obviously, there's a lot to be said about his methods, but I genuinely think David is right at the core of things. Medical and scientific advancement are often scary things people react against with their gut (Just look at creationists insane attempts to reconcile their world view with evolution by saying dinosaurs were in the garden of Eden) but are almost always positive in the long run.

    Also, I felt that the anti-augmentation argument was never really explained during the game beyond 'It's wrong because your soul is compromised!', offering absolutely no proof to support that statement.

     

    I don't really think augmentation has had a positive effect on the people in the game. The human race as a whole is achieving more, but individual people are suffering greatly as a result of the leap. The only reason the poor were able to afford augments was because the drugs companies were subsidising them so they could milk people with the costs of anti-rejection drugs. Adam's genes mean anti-rejection drugs are no longer needed. The drugs companies won't be subsidising augments any more, so only the rich will be able to afford them. As such, augments only serve to create a wider class divide.

     

    There's also the possibility of a repeat performance by the Illuminati, I doubt they've given up on the idea of using augments/augmented people t control the world.

     

  5. Posted

    Just finished it.

     

    Which ending did people pick? I put Darrow's message out because it was closest to the truth and the only way that those responsible would be held accountable. Sarif and Tagart both wanted to blame the other party and use the incident to further their own gains, and blowing the station up would have served nobody.

     

  6. Posted

    I don't think TouchDroid are going to be releasing very much. It turns out that the "progress" that they were making was mostly code stolen from Cyanogen Mod's repo. Cyanogen had been secretly working on a Touchpad port of Android, hoping to announce it only when they had something worth releasing, but they've had to announce early after being tipped off (they were given private chat logs of a conversation between TouchDroid devs where they were blatantly discussing stealing CM code and passing it off as their own because "nobody would be able to prove it).

     

    On the upshot, CyanogenMod 7 running on a Touchpad:

     

     

    Just the Wifi drivers to go and they might have something worth releasing.

  7. Posted · Edited by McPhee

    I only worked out those two things 3/4 of the way through, so for most of this playthrough I only hacked when absolutely necessary and if being stealthy was too difficult then I would just kill everyone instead. There's 4 different endings and I'm not playing on hard, so there's definitely room for a 2nd play through.

  9. Posted

    The XP system is really silly tbh. If you want the maximum amount of XP then you need to upgrade all of the hacking stuff first and use non-lethal force on every enemy without being detected. They should have made lethal vs non-lethal force situation dependent, giving equal XP with Mercs, gang members etc, but less for lethal force against Police or Security. Hacking should have been a separate skill tree with separate XP to encourage players to choose whether or not they want to do it; at the moment hacking is too rewarding to pass up with the large XP bonuses and valuable items hidden behind many otherwise unlockable doors.

     

    Cool game though. Definitely want to give it a second run through.

  10. Posted · Edited by McPhee

    They still (vaguely) exist in the UK - http://www.t2retail.co.uk/

     

    Tandy were part of the InterTAN group, who were originally part of Tandy Corp - now called RadioShack Corporation. The UK retail operation 'Tandy' was sold to Carphone Warehouse in 2001. Carphone Warehouse kept the stores that they needed to fuel rapid expansion of the company (they only bought Tandy for the retail locations; they had prime spots on a lot of high streets but weren't doing well, thus CPW got a bargain) and sold the remaining stores to a new company called T2 (at the time a separate, new retail entity from InterTAN). T2 still exist, though they are now independent and most of the retail locations have gone. They are still the UK's main supplier for RadioShack products.

  14. Posted

    I know we've failed at this before, but a few of us should get together for a game. New characters so that everyone starts on a level playing field (even if the start of the game is incredible monotonous).

  15. Posted

    The big problem with DRM is that it's an utterly pointless exercise. It's always cracked within a week. Can anyone name a single PC game that hasn't been pirated?

     

    Publishers are going the wrong way about stopping piracy. At present, if you put all morals and legal issues aside, I could get any game I want for free with no inconvenient DRM to pay for, and I can download it straight to my computer at the maximum speed that my Internet connection can handle. How on earth is clumsy DRM going to attract people away from doing this? The flaw in the whole concept of DRM is that it actually makes the retail package less attractive. It is only through moral issues and legal concerns that I don't have a HDD full of pirated software, games, movies and music.

     

    How about attracting people to pay for the product, rather than dissuading them with failed attempts to stop piracy that only serve to annoy paying customers?

  16. Posted

    If I've understood what you want to do correctly, then you need A5 card, not A6. Then you need to set up 4 A6 sized pages in Word. Do your designs. When it comes to printing, make sure your printer is set up to print on to A5, not A6, then tell it to do 2 pages per sheet and to print on both sides. It'll print one side, then you feed that sheet back in t the print tray by hand so it can print on the other side (it's usually printed size facing upwards to print on the other side, but best to test this with paper first). What should have is the back cover as Page 1, the front cover as Page 2, then inside left is Page 3 and inside right is Page 4. Fold the card over. Done.

     

    Publisher is better for this stuff though (and it would guide you through the process). PowerPoint is the next best alternative if you don't have Publisher. Word is quite poor for doing this stuff.

  17. Posted

    I sold mine to my brother. For £89 it was a bargain, but I wasn't happy with how it ran or the build quality. The keyboard was fantastic and I liked the WebOS UI, but it's sluggish (my first gen iPad runs quicker and smoother). App support isn't really there either, and the cloud services that I currently use were either non-existent or only had unofficial apps that are really poor compared to those on other platforms.

     

    When it came down to it, the Touchpad wouldn't suit me as well as the iPad already does, as such I couldn't keep it without regretting it. There's no good office software available, Dropbox and Evernote only have a rather poor unofficial apps, there's no way to connect a camera/memory card to the device to transfer photos over and I couldn't find a decent ebook reader (Kindle being oddly US-Only on the Touchpad). The only upshot of the Touchpad is it's Flash support, though that becomes less of a selling point every day (of the sites you mentioned, only TGWTG lacks HTML5 support) and in some cases isn't a great thing (iPlayer and Gametrailers, for example, seemed to default to Flash on the Touchpad, which is silly when there's an alternative available that runs more efficiently on mobile devices).

  21. Posted

    I may have just been royally shafted. Not wanting to go into the long version, I want to head to Uni to study Brewing & Distilling next year at Heriot Watt. To get on the course I need to do Access to Science. I applied for the Access course over a month ago and have spent most of that time chasing the college up. In order to do the course I needed to drop to part-time hours at work. I had to sign a new contract by last Thursday. After much chasing they told me I had a place and should go ahead with signing my new work contract; written confirmation would be in the post by the end of the week.

     

    Today I got a letter. It read;

     

    "Dear Mr McPhee

     

    Thank you for your application for the above programme. Due to high demand we are currently operating a waiting list. A decision regarding further course places and interviews will be made by the end of August. If a place becomes available in the meantime I will contact you to arrange an interview. I apologise for any inconvenience caused as a result for this delay.

     

    Yours Sincerely,

     

    [Name Here]

    Course Co-Ordinator"

     

    I am so livid with them right now. Reading between the lines, I won't be getting a place on that course. If they had told me this when I applied then I would have applied elsewhere. If they'd told me this last week then I'd still have a full-time job. Instead they repeatedly lied to me and have left me with a massive problem. Not only do I not want to wait another 12 months, but my savings won't allow me an extra year of part-time work without me running out of money while I'm at Uni (unless I can get some well-paid work over the summer months). I'm now looking to see what alternatives there are. So far, no other local colleges offer the required modules.

     

    So yeah, basically my local college just ruined my future plans for my life. What a good day this is. Back to the drawing board I go...

  22. Posted

    Unique would certainly be the word to describe the N9. It's going to flop. Badly. Nokia knows it, the networks know it and the retailers know it. Is any network actually running it? Last I heard they weren't and the only way to get one was SIM-free.

     

    Still, it's certainly got support from bedroom nerds, so there's a good chance of some powerful software (that you need a compsci degree to understand how to use) hitting the device.

  23. Posted

    Did you just say that the Welsh still shag sheep?

     

    I... um... :blush:

     

    Bollocks. I was hoping a Google search for 'Welsh Sheep Sex' would save me. No luck. Englishman, Iraqi or Turk, sure. No Welsh tho...

  24. Posted · Edited by McPhee

    In fairness King V, there's some truth in the stereotype that people have been making fun of (even if there are socio-economic factors that drive many young, Black men to crime). Unfortunately young Black men are disproportionately guilty of committing violent crime and burglary in the UK. If that stopped then the stereotype wouldn't be there to joke about. It's akin to making drunken jokes about Irish/Scottish people or Sheep Shagging jokes about the Welsh.

     

    On the other hand, likelihood of committing violent crime has more to do with stability of the family unit combined with household income than it has to do with race. Unstable, poor families have a much higher likelihood of raising kids that turn to crime irrespective of race. It just so happens that Black people are the most likely to fit both molds, with White people being generally richer and Asians generally having more stable family units. The government clearly needs to provide more social support to the Black community to help them out of this endless cycle of broken families raising failure kids that live their lives on the wrong side of the law. While they're at it hopefully they can do the same with the White trash.

  25. Posted · Edited by McPhee

     

    There's no 'mask ban'. The suggestion is that the Police should have the power to demand that people remove face coverings. In the event that they have reasonable suspicion that you are going to commit criminal acts, they can request that you remove your mask. It doesn't go anywhere near far enough to solve the problem; what's to stop people putting the face covering back on when they're away from police?

     

    With the armed forces the PM has staunchly opposed the idea of using them to deal with unrest. He's made his position clear. He has, however, said that the armed forces may be used (if the MET feel they need it) to free up more police to deal with unrest. The example he used was the armed forces taking over some of the police's guard duties [like those at Westminster, Downing Street and Buckingham Palace] in order to free up police officers for use on the front line.

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