Don't get me wrong, I'm hopeful that he does well. I just have a bit of a bad feeling about it, don't know exactly, call it gut instinct maybe.
Clearly F1 driver Boxing comparisons can only ever be general and of course F1 isn't Boxing in terms of physical fitness and stamina etc. Anyway I wasn't making a comparison between the sports from that perspective, more of a metaphor/analogy.
However it IS a fact that human responses slow with age and in F1 reaction times are key to driving at the limit. At that level it's all about fractions of a second, that's all that divides the best from the worst in F1 (I'm talking response times not lap times).
I'm not so sure that Schumi himself is the best judge of whether he is capable of a competitive return. Sure, he knows what's needed, no doubts about that. But is he capable of being ruthlesly honest with himself about whether he has it. There is always going to be an element of Ego and self-delusion in such circumstances. Humans aren't too good at honest self appraisal, even when they have every conscious intention of doing so.
Anyway, only time will tell. One thing is certain, 2010 is going to be an interesting season.
Clearly F1 driver Boxing comparisons can only ever be general and of course F1 isn't Boxing in terms of physical fitness and stamina etc. Anyway I wasn't making a comparison between the sports from that perspective, more of a metaphor/analogy.
However it IS a fact that human responses slow with age and in F1 reaction times are key to driving at the limit. At that level it's all about fractions of a second, that's all that divides the best from the worst in F1 (I'm talking response times not lap times).
I'm not so sure that Schumi himself is the best judge of whether he is capable of a competitive return. Sure, he knows what's needed, no doubts about that. But is he capable of being ruthlesly honest with himself about whether he has it. There is always going to be an element of Ego and self-delusion in such circumstances. Humans aren't too good at honest self appraisal, even when they have every conscious intention of doing so.
Anyway, only time will tell. One thing is certain, 2010 is going to be an interesting season.
Assuming of course that Michael still has the "touch". He's been out of the sport for quite a while and reaction times etc do slow down as you get older.
Personally, I'm not so sure this is a good move for him. Think he may well not be very competitive. It's not as if he has anything to prove anyway. It's all got too much of the feeling of a "past it" boxer trying to revive his former glory by getting in to the ring that one to many times.
If the TV has different picture modes (normal, movie, sport etc) for the HDMI input try changing those as well.
Generally speaking RTFM tends to work. 
Never tried it myself but I highly doubt any TV is going to be Plug n Play.
What graphics card are you using? Ehat connection between the card and the TV are you using and what is the make and model of TV?
AI isn't online though is it? When running AI your processor is having to do a lot more calculations for all the other cars, whereas online your PC is just being told where the other cars should be. It's not having to calculate their physics like it does for the AIs.
In my opinion a GT car is defined as follows:
a) Reasonbly powerful engine, but with a good amount of torque so that you don't need to constantly change gear, (possibly auto or semi-auto).
b) Above average handling but balanced with ride comfort. In order to allow you to make rapid progress but without a harsh ride.
c) Large enough to fit 4 adults, (generally speaking), in comfort, carry a reasonable amount of luggage, (ie not just a golf case).
Fairly simple criteria IMO.
a) Reasonbly powerful engine, but with a good amount of torque so that you don't need to constantly change gear, (possibly auto or semi-auto).
b) Above average handling but balanced with ride comfort. In order to allow you to make rapid progress but without a harsh ride.
c) Large enough to fit 4 adults, (generally speaking), in comfort, carry a reasonable amount of luggage, (ie not just a golf case).
Fairly simple criteria IMO.
Really?
Check this out:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/show/powerlaps.shtml
The top two Mercs are "specials" so don't count IMO. Leaving the best performing model being the AMG 55. A car with 475 BHP, yet it's still beaten by true sports cars such as the Lotus Exige(s) and Evora and the Porsche Cayman despite all having at least 200 BHP less.
So yeah I guess it does come down to what you'd call a "sports" car.
For me a sports car excels in handling, is relatively light and doesn't rely on brute force, (i.e. power), to be quick.
Personally, having been a bike rider and having been on a track in just a fun non competitive way, I have the utmost respect for motorcycle racers. They've all got a bit of a screw loose IMO, and the ones that do the road circuits are just plain nuts !! I certainly couldn't do it in a million years, not even in my more brazen youth - let alone now!
Oh I don't know..clearly you've missed your true vocation
Well not being in marketing either I forgot how tenous the association can be before marketing guys will grab it with both hands and wring its neck. Of course you're right they can make any claims they want really, how many of them will actually make sense or will be persuasive is another matter. Not that marketing guys ever cared about that!
Anyway, best form of marketing is simple brand awareness and involvement in F1 isn't going to boost that for Mercedes in any way I can see.
Only relevant if you're trying to sell sports cars, which Mercedes don't.
However, I think Mecedes involvment with F1 is more important to their sales than actually winning the championship, (constructors or otherwise). 99.99% of the car buying public have no interest in F1, they only know it's the "pinacle" of motorsports, so just being involved in F1 is enough as joe public care about, (if they care at all). Essentially being involved in F1 only really gives Mercedes a single marketing angle i.e. "developed from F1 technology", it's down to their ad execs to milk that as far as it can go. Not much mileage in such an angle for in-car navigation systems and other comfort/luxuary accessories. Mercedes is a luxuary car manufacturer, so who know what they'll actually get out of being involved in F1 marketing wise.
Personally I think there is no place in any work environment for management that is prepared to endanger the lives of their employees on purpose. Anybody that thinks its acceptable to request their employees to deliberately endanger their lives, (over and above any natural risk inherent in the job), has no place in any position of authority.
If I had my way he'd be facing criminal proceedings, along with his crony that went a long with it.
If I had my way he'd be facing criminal proceedings, along with his crony that went a long with it.
Hmm yeah.. I can really see the practical implementations for such a vehicle.. NOT.
Interesting engineering project, but in reality no one is ever going to need to drive through such terrain, (as there will nearly always be an alternative route), and if its absolutely neccessary to get in to such places helicopters would be a quicker and far more efficient mode of transport.
This whole conversation isn't helped by the fact that monitor "resolution" is a mis use of the term. The native resolution of LCD monitors is actually almost identical irrespective of the size. Sure the bigger monitor will display more pixels, but all that's really happening is the area being displayed is increasing the actual resolution, (defined as pixels per inch/cm or "dot pitch"), is pretty much identical on a 17" and 26" LCD monitor.
See the "pitch" of various typical screen sizes and "resolutions" in the table on this page:
http://docs.mioplanet.com/lcd_monitor_resolution_chart.php
The point being, that when you then display a 5MP photo from a camera on a screen it just looks bigger than the 2MP version. It's not possible to actually scale it down to the same physical size as the 2MP without loosing data and therefor quality. However, the point of increasing the No. of pixels in cameras was never for the intention of them being displayed on computer screens, it was to increase the fine detail in a print and thereby allow that print to be enlarged to a greater size before it started to loose perceived quality, (generally accepted as 250-300dpi).
Finally, making comparisons of photo quality on websites/forums is pointless as they will all be scaled down to 72dpi, (the web standard), and so all the difference will be lost anyway.
See the "pitch" of various typical screen sizes and "resolutions" in the table on this page:
http://docs.mioplanet.com/lcd_monitor_resolution_chart.php
The point being, that when you then display a 5MP photo from a camera on a screen it just looks bigger than the 2MP version. It's not possible to actually scale it down to the same physical size as the 2MP without loosing data and therefor quality. However, the point of increasing the No. of pixels in cameras was never for the intention of them being displayed on computer screens, it was to increase the fine detail in a print and thereby allow that print to be enlarged to a greater size before it started to loose perceived quality, (generally accepted as 250-300dpi).
Finally, making comparisons of photo quality on websites/forums is pointless as they will all be scaled down to 72dpi, (the web standard), and so all the difference will be lost anyway.
Buyin S/H computers is dodgy enough. S/H Laptops? I wouldn't go near one unless I knew the person selling personally and knew the history of the Laptop. Doesn't take much in the way of mistreatment to break a Laptop. At the very least you should get your hands on it to check it out, before handing over any money.
This is something I'm always recommending to my customers but have to admit I'm quite lax on personally. I keep all my personal data on a separate partition, (trivially easy to setup permanently in windows so no need for back up software), and back up mail stores to that partition on a "regular" but ad hoc basis. I also have a couple of images of clean installs of my OS on that partition. As soon as I can afford it I'll be investing in a second HDD to keep it all on, (money is very tight at the moment as my wife is the "breadwinner" of the family since I lost my job).
On a related point. I really wish manufacturers would start selling PCs with two HDDs rather than one really large one. The OS is never going to need more than 50GB to run on, (for the majority of people 100GB for those with loads of heavy apps), the rest should be considered pure storage space. I'd much rather see PCs sold with a 250GB primary and 500GB secondary drive than a single 750GB drive.
On a related point. I really wish manufacturers would start selling PCs with two HDDs rather than one really large one. The OS is never going to need more than 50GB to run on, (for the majority of people 100GB for those with loads of heavy apps), the rest should be considered pure storage space. I'd much rather see PCs sold with a 250GB primary and 500GB secondary drive than a single 750GB drive.
Last edited by gezmoor, .
It's not much cheaper. Hasn't been MUCH cheaper to build your own for at least 10 years. Well not in the UK at least. The only real advantage to building your own is that you get the exact specification you want. But when you factor in support then for most people it's not worth the trouble.
Any beeps?
Here is a link to what the various beeps at boot mean for different BIOS.
http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm
Some more info here:
http://www.technick.net/public ... aiocp_dp=guide_beep_codes
Here is a link to what the various beeps at boot mean for different BIOS.
http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm
Some more info here:
http://www.technick.net/public ... aiocp_dp=guide_beep_codes
Actually standard definition TV is 576x 700+ for analogue. Generally translated to 576x720 for full resolution DVD. But you make a good point.
However the fact that you only view photos on a computer screen or photo prints from around 12" rather than 12 Feet makes a big difference to the resolution "needed", to give a good quality picture.
Whilst I'd agree that for phone cameras, (which are in all honesty little more than gimmicks), there really isn't much point getting over 3-5MP because they are limited by the quality of the lens and CCD noise (due to it's physical size), I wouldn't agree with that limit for full on SLRs. Professional Digital SLRs are 8MP+ for a reason, (often 10MP or higher). When it comes to needing to enlarge photos then such high resolutions are required.
Interesting article on digital photo print quality and resolution here:
http://www.photoshopessentials.com/essentials/image-quality/
Back on topic.. I've no idea if it meets any of the OPs requirements but I like the look of the Palm Pre.
http://www.palm.com/uk/en/products/phones/pre/index.html
Last edited by gezmoor, .
New Years resolution? what's one of them then?
Never have and never will.
Never have and never will.
Two thousand and ten.
Two reasons:
a) The films 2001 and 2010 Space Odysseys were never called twenty oh one and twenty ten, so even though it looks like a break in tradition, (ie 1960 being nineteen sixty etc), it's not because before we ever reached the millenium people weren't saying twenty whatever for the years ahead, they always said two thousand and xxx etc.
b) Twenty ten etc just sounds lazy to me, also it's far too American "sounding" for my liking.
So basically Two thousand and ten because traditionally/historically that's how us brits have always pronounced the post millenium years, (before the millenium actually occured that is), and I hate change for the sake of changes sake and pointless re-invention/renaming has always bugged the hell out of me
Two reasons:
a) The films 2001 and 2010 Space Odysseys were never called twenty oh one and twenty ten, so even though it looks like a break in tradition, (ie 1960 being nineteen sixty etc), it's not because before we ever reached the millenium people weren't saying twenty whatever for the years ahead, they always said two thousand and xxx etc.
b) Twenty ten etc just sounds lazy to me, also it's far too American "sounding" for my liking.
So basically Two thousand and ten because traditionally/historically that's how us brits have always pronounced the post millenium years, (before the millenium actually occured that is), and I hate change for the sake of changes sake and pointless re-invention/renaming has always bugged the hell out of me
I had an issue on my machine one time and went to a site suggesting hijackthis and superantispyware and others I'd never heard of until then. Went through the instructions on a post and it did seem to fix my problem partially, (after having installed and run about 7 different programs). So in the end I just gave up and did a clean install. After having restored everything on my system partition half the files I had downloaded from the so called "forum" turned out to be infected themselves.
All in all I don't trust such software, and so called internet "experts" who purport to guide you through the result log files are to be treated with extreme suspicion.
These days, I never trust any software available for download on forums etc. I'll always look for a manufacturers website and use software recommended by reputable sources (such as pc magazines, microsoft etc).
At the end of the day there is no substitute for backing up your data on a regular basis in a separate location, (different logical partition at the least), having an image of a clean install with all your apps and running a decent anti-virus program. Messing around trying to "save" a heavily corrupt and infected system is pointless and a complete waste of time. With the amount of storage you get on modern computers there is just no excuse for not partitioning it to segregate user data from system data. Such a set up will get you out of 99% of "worst case" infections using a quick wipe and clean install/re-image, without any loss of precious data.
All in all I don't trust such software, and so called internet "experts" who purport to guide you through the result log files are to be treated with extreme suspicion.
These days, I never trust any software available for download on forums etc. I'll always look for a manufacturers website and use software recommended by reputable sources (such as pc magazines, microsoft etc).
At the end of the day there is no substitute for backing up your data on a regular basis in a separate location, (different logical partition at the least), having an image of a clean install with all your apps and running a decent anti-virus program. Messing around trying to "save" a heavily corrupt and infected system is pointless and a complete waste of time. With the amount of storage you get on modern computers there is just no excuse for not partitioning it to segregate user data from system data. Such a set up will get you out of 99% of "worst case" infections using a quick wipe and clean install/re-image, without any loss of precious data.
An interesting talk by Richard Lindzen, (atmospheric physicist & Professor of Meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, published over 200 times), on the politisization of global warming.
http://reason.tv/video/show/mit-climatologist-richard-lind
http://reason.tv/video/show/mit-climatologist-richard-lind
The police regularly use entrapment techniques in order to try and push people in to breaking the law in circumstances where it can't be proven in court that they did so. Then they do you and there is bugger all you can do about it because it's the word of a police officer, (or two), against yours. Despite the fact that the law is not supposed to grant the testimony of a police officer any more weight than that of a civilian, in practice it never works that way.
Many police officers regularly overstep the bounds of their authority with impunity. Comes from the fact that many people join up purely for the authority it gives them. Just a fact of life unfortunately.
As to whether you should complain. Well given that very little ever happens when you make an official complaint, (unless it's in the media spotlight or you have plenty of witnesses), any other avenue is going to be worse than useles IMO.
Edited to add - just read the post about the response you got.. Have to admit I'm rather surpised you weren't just fobbed off. Lets hope they carry through their promises and actually talk to the officers concerned.
Many police officers regularly overstep the bounds of their authority with impunity. Comes from the fact that many people join up purely for the authority it gives them. Just a fact of life unfortunately.
As to whether you should complain. Well given that very little ever happens when you make an official complaint, (unless it's in the media spotlight or you have plenty of witnesses), any other avenue is going to be worse than useles IMO.
Edited to add - just read the post about the response you got.. Have to admit I'm rather surpised you weren't just fobbed off. Lets hope they carry through their promises and actually talk to the officers concerned.
Last edited by gezmoor, .
Sorry about the crap quality of the pic.. but here's a snap from North London.
FGED GREDG RDFGDR GSFDG