WoT Review

Having playing World of tanks for a bit. I think its a nice solid game and look forward to world of planes.

I think the main let down is the quality of players.  Every so often in a match and one side noob rushes the other down 1 flank to great effect. However what tends to happen is that flank stalls and the other flank is completely open. Yet pritty much every match it happens.

Tesco Rapid Boil Kettle

Given I gave a fairly positive review of tescos hoover its bound there were some dogey stuff in thier imported tech.

It wobbles on its platform.
The spring loaded top sprays water around.
It makes a lot of noise boiling
... and itsn't that rapid.

Positive: It works?

Last kettle we got was from Asda and worked fine. If anything I'm sure we chose against this one last time. Were n't missing much.

Supremacy1914

Ok game, but lacking strength. Far too many games open, anyone can open them. Any games which get interesting, you get steam rolled by teams. I've gained insane xp stats for merely entering games its daft.

BSO - BattleStarGalatica Lineships

Well I blew 2M and 60K on a Jortunn. They are fun but I expect that they need considerable up skilling of accuray skill as although this shoot 80 with each shot they miss an awful lot. Can easily get blindsided by escorts and fighters. Then for some stupid reason you can bounce around like a pinball if you hit another line.

Strongly not advise getting one :P

BSO - BattleStarGalatica

For a free to play web game BSO is pritty impressive. You choose either cylon or colonia. having been on two servers you get the impression more people play cols. But Cylons have more fun.

First off the "development" of this game is dubious much like supremacy1914, things seem to get added taken away then added again, to some extent I see the logic. Apart from stablity issues I'm dubious to see or feel any changes. Saying that stabilty has improved although the basic infrastructure is a little CPU heavy, all models have maybe a little too much detail which you can't scale down.

Overall the game is good, fun and quick to level up. You can play to some extent against AI but more fun against humans. Here is where connection speeds and ram come in to play. There are some assigments which could be expanded upon but aren't at present. Levels as you soon find are somewhat half indicators of skill. As what you do with your XP points directly effects your capabilities.

Fighter/Escort/Line are basically the 3 types of ships you can have, each with 3 models within the classes. You can then upgrade these or get an already upgraded cubit models. I started with a raptor, then I got an upgraded sycthe for 45K cubits and 0.6Mil Tyll, I kind of regret not getting the glaive for 60K cubits but for running around-leveling up the sycthe is better. I guess by default lines are better, but I currently wince when I see the cost of FTL travel for my escort.

Running Costs? I've managed to mine 1.3Mil Tyll out of 2Mill required to get a line with 13K xp per day or something, using an escort and I am still 3 levels away from being able to get access to them. So although the quantities sound large its not so big. (Although running a line appears ery costly). The real costs come in upgrading ship systems. Skills upgrade all ships and all systems so best get these first.

Large scale fleet battles pritty much relay on long range lobing of firepower. They are fun and epic although again can be very laggy. I'd prefer to see more wolf packs rather than 1 big lagging formation. I'll probably rig my line up exclusively for this purpose, or at least half, as long as you can keep the enemy to one side (at least for sycthe) you can keep your best guns on them for what range is needed.



Tips:

-If you connection/ cpu stats aren't great start with raptor, or hunter vessels as the faster interceptor craft will most likely lock out at top speed.
-Keep with what weapons you have and level up skills and base upgrades (ie no cubits).
-RCSslide is fun but useless you are in a group, even then it eats your power.
-Increase core stats like cannon, hull and computer power. Speed and mining are others which increase the speed of gameplay but dont necessarily help in combat.
-Don't level your ship systems too much, for example I wasted effort leveling up my fighter systems. I suspect you may want to keep your escort as your main ship and line for show/large battles.
-You need an extra 20K of tril for mining laser and scanner. before you blow your cash on an Escort
-Plan you ship strat. Given lines are big and slow you may want a quicker escort like scythe or banshee to gather resources with.
- Avoid group ECM stuff, its good but can really lag out. Also best get auto stuff rather than stuff you have to click. Same with missles.

Curries PC World

For a while I felt the people who worked for comet has some inane smugness to them, now curries and pc world have combined (they were sister companies anyway) you can' walk into to any mainstream electrical store without someone confusing you with how many amps you need.

Saying that had an amazing experience in former Curries where sales women walked around telling people to buy stuff they didn't need, then continued to do so. Maybe she had to work towards targets, maybe she was a twit.

To keep balance comet employ did drop a tv we just bought saying that for certain items I think comet has a greater range. It can be pricer for some items and cheaper for others...


(... hell who I kidding they are all part of one massive conglorate military industrial compex any way.)

Humax PVR 9300t

After having the Humax for a while this is an addtional perspective.

Need to clear memory, then scan for channel 62 to lock on to UK channels. Else everyone starts speaking wealsh.

Pause live TV is buggy. You have to remember it take a minute or so for the information to be processed you can reach the end of a recording whilst its still recording... instablity.

Good background noise level, having had terrible VCRs you can bearly hear it.

The sound control is a little annoying its all to easy to have the tv up loud and have static.

Freeview overall is a little annoying given they went for channels over quality, the shear amount of repeats and channels I don't watch.

They are planning a interweb linked in version so you can effective capture a week if not more crap.

Tesco VCU007 upright hoover review

This is a half decent hoover. I'm not keen on uprights as they tend to fall over. One bug bare is there is a rotating brush on the base which is continuously on.

I'd advise keeping an eye on the HEPA filiter(any hoover) as it got fairly solidly clogged with fine dust after a handful of goes. The structure comes apart easily for cleaning as in the past the filter was seemingly hidden.

The irony being bagless means the dust sprays out when you empty it. It says 3 litre capacity although dubious as you are likely to empty it before it fills.

Humax PVR 9300t

200hrs record with 1 playlist?

The number buttons default to TV list. (going to have to manual scan to get rid of BBC wales) Likewise seemingly no way of assigning buttons with channels.

Manual recording i-plate disappears within 1/2 a second.

Tiny REC indicator on box panel. No clear "active" indicator on guide either... given I'm not use to them working the way they should.

PIP is a gimmick for some, anyway of removing it from the list?

Commercial skip under a slat seems bad choice.

Mute causes TV to hum. Volume control not great.

Games? Really?

Overall:

It works, its pretty, (bit thin, needs stand) I've got use to it but the intended users, my parents may struggle due to sensitivity of buttons.

Little, no fan noise or slow EPG, although changing channels can be blocky.

Sony W110

Well 7MP.... obviously without a large lens 7MP just means it can produce a big image, but there is little true.. zoom in... clarity.

Ok camera, compacts clearly not up to much.

camera perspective

Well been looking into possible replacements for my beaten up Fuji s5600.

The Lumix TZ4 10x 8.1MP attracted my eye, however soon no EVF and compact size indicated big negatives. Plus although wide screen video audio looked to be patchy + bad audio.

So I then racked my brain reviewing, camera review sites... Canon SX10IS vs Lumix Z28

http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Canon_PowerShot_SX10_IS/

I leaning more towards the Canon SX10 IS although holding off until more reviews come through and flickr shots appear.

Having handled Canons before, I'm not a fan but the SX would appear to be the solid all rounder.

The SX10 is more modern, dSLR looking than the 1975 style Lumix. Although with the 2 mics looks like its got a little face on it.
EVF sounds OK, but the fact remains the LCD will always review an image best.
SX10 Image quality is crisper than the Lumix without Post production.
SX10 Good Video/Audio destroys the Lumix's video, although lack of Wide screen/HD is a down point.
Apparantly slower burst than Lumix. Although both have good standard shot speed.

Swivels screens have two uses in my mind, self shot view and protecting the screen. Although I guess they give a little extra leeway but its not a necessity.

The hood is nice and flashy, although from experience can swing a shot either way if not angled correctly.

Lumix has an Lith-Ion which is better, but AAs are still easier.

Extras....
The SX is capable of having filters and extra lens, although its tagged on rather than an actuall feature. I personally don't use extra lens, although macro lens do tempt me.

The flash shoe isn't hot for me, I see me catching it on things plus it draining the battery a little bit more. Although on the plus side the built-in flash is manual pop up... Thank God.

The product cost is cheaper to compensate for possible purchase of rechargeables.

Samsung G600 review

UPDATE....

its crap!

lol

Panasonix DMC TZ3

I want one. Compact with 10x Zoom. Full auto, an ideal compromise.

I generally use auto, however the lack of aperture and shutter speed is a down side.

Compaq Vista

Bought a new Compaq 2125 computer with Windows Vista.

I was impressed until the point where I couldn't connect to anything... printer, modem.

Vista is fiddly.

I have to say the compaq runs a lot quieter than my Fuji. Seems to load quicker though processes such as transfer are slower.

Fuji Siemens Scaleo P Review

Fuji Siemens Scaleo P Review

2.8Mhz
1G RAM
250G Hard Drive... i think

I have had this computer for a relatively short time, one thing I noticed is that the 'o' button on the keyboard is a little bit sticky for words like root.

Likewise the audio on the screen is bad, flat screens seem to have crap speakers.

Playing DVD movies seems a tad of a streach too.

Starship Troopers

This movie is a little more deep than some given credit for (ie it is based on a dense judge-dread-eqsue book). Something such as the co-ed shower scene and the corney end.

My s5600 review

Camera Bought: 30 May 06, Last Updated: Jan 2007

Note you can get good second hand s5600 if you look at a discounted price.

The s5600 is an excellent choice for a camera, although time flies...

If I were to upgrade I would go for a Panasonic DMC TZ3. Compact with 10x Zoom. It lacks manual controls, yet I more often than nor use auto these days.



Fuji FinePix s5600, Overall: 9/10 Recommended (EU Best in Class Award)

This camera is a good compact-ish (coat pocket) All-in-One. The zoom adds more versitilty and gets you closer to the subject. Its very robust and has taken my wrough treament. As the overall score shows as well as winning EU Best in Class Award, its not perfect, but the optimum compromise.

tip: I would say this camera is a robust bridge camera. At first I antispated to get into the manual settings however I find am more of a causal photographer and in most situations the auto works fine. One point: I would say honestly RAW is a complete waste of time.

The 10x zoom is a great improvement on 3x and is one of the main reasons I bought the camera due to increased versitily. Test shots show how effective it is...

(Cropped images at 1:1 res, slight camera shake due to lazyiness on my part)


Image Quality:9-10

The s5600 is well capable of taking good sharp photos. You can see plenty of shots I have taken with this camera on this blog as well as flickr. Most of my shots now are taken in auto 'N' mode, with 'C' processing as shots tend to be brighter.





There are some minor issues, for example some rare purple fringing can occur, likewise jpg compression and noise does appear at 1:1 res, however in no way utterly spoils pictures. Photo editting can improve this. RAW output is twice the size, less noise however underprocessed, but I guess that is what RAW is all about.

Features: 9/10


(Left is Chrome oversaturated with blue, than real life right.)

Chrome is very effective at creating rich colourful pictures, for lazy people like me, however some times you should select Normal to avoid oversaturation. Yet it has to be reiterated that it can greatly liven up pictures as well.

Marco: 9/10



I have had a lot of fun with marco, capturing close up detail, small bugs and the like. The s5600 doesn't have a massive DOF however a higher f number (smaller) aperature helps.

Tip: For things which may move, I usually set CF, JPG, N mode, continious shooting and keep clicking as I move closer towards the subject.

Tip: From a recent play with continuous shooting, for a fixed position, its best to use the auto-focus, switch to manual focus then press the shutter button, that way it will keep shooting without trying to re-focus, hence quicker shots.

The key let down is the limited continous shooting in manual modes, its there to stop you making mistakes but with a little experience it becomes a niggle to what shots you can achieve. Also to some extent the burst isn't lightening fast however fair with the competitors in its class.

Don't bother with RAW but if you want search for "s7raw".

ISO: Normal range is 64-200 clicks. Above this contrast and noise can set in, however better than other cameras.

Sharpness: I select Normal as Hard or Soft settings are well named.

Construction: 9/10



2x Drop Test from Table high Proof. Still working fine.
1x Slam into brick wall, temporary read error, still working fine.

Just from picking the camera up you can tell it is solidly built. A simple rattle test shows only an insignificant amount of rattle from the pop up flash, which is only to be expected. The best part of its construction is its fully contained lens mechanism as many other cameras have an external mechanism which is far more vunerable to damage. The camera does make noise when in operation which can be a bit annoying if wildlife is startled by it, but then again most cameras make noise.



There are a couple of minor build issues. The EVF has an acceptable but low res. The USB cap as a number of other camera brands is a tad flimsy and should be treated with care. The battery cap has a tendency to scratch batteries. Also maybe it is just me, but I am progressively finding it a bit hard to switch from play to review without accidentally sliding to off.

Ease of use: 9/10

From soon playing with the camera it is clear it is designed for well… me. You can easily stick to AUTO and get brilliant shots, whilst also being able to go manual.

A couple issues are that manual focussing and likewise switching to continuous shooting are a tad fiddly.

Value for money: 9/10

I’d say as a package its good value for money being an ‘all in one’, although it has to be said xD cards are generally more expensive. Likewise there are many second hand models out there, as people progress through photography.

Batteries: 9/10

I have used 2500amh Rechargeables for 2-3 week now without needing recharge with clever use of the EVF, which is recommended. Note I am a casual photographer. A good indicator when the batteries are going is when the camera struggles to focus.