Disqus - Latest Comments for Ben

Re: The verdict is in: The Pownce API kicks Twitter's ass (Scripting News)

Ben — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 02:59:56 -0000

Give Jaiku a go too. It's much more 'twitter like' than Pownce in my opinion, and flickr integration is nice: http://beng.jaiku.com/presence/26885885

Unsure about true payloads, but it is intelligent in the way it handles links.

Re: FriendFeed gets interesting (Scripting News)

Ben — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:22:32 -0000

Looks like an exact clone of Jaiku, but uglier ;-)
Jaiku embraces everything that has a feed, allows comments, emits RSS, has a robust API, and an excellent Nokia client app.

Re: Ben.geek.nz » Mugi

Ben — Wed, 26 Nov 2003 06:52:41 -0000

No no Stu, no guilt implied. While I am definitely aggrieved, I don't hold you responsible :-)

Re: Ben.geek.nz » Mugi

Ben — Wed, 26 Nov 2003 06:52:41 -0000

No no Stu, no guilt implied. While I am definitely aggrieved, I don't hold you responsible :-)

Re: Using Keypad Enter as Tab Instead

Ben — Fri, 20 May 2005 06:32:41 -0000

Interesting. Do you want ALL your controls on the page to have this double tab behaviour? If not, I'd suggest just doing some sort of manual focus change from the control that needs a double tab

If you need double tabs from all controls, then I'm not sure how best to do it sorry!

Re: Quiz

Ben — Sat, 21 May 2005 06:26:59 -0000

wow.

I'm stunned by the insightful comment from our Australian friend. 3/10. Could do better.

Re: Visual Studio 2005 in November

Ben — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 22:12:17 -0000

That's a really bad joke :|

Re: ADO.NET Identity Crisis

Ben — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 23:32:04 -0000

I feel I must add context to the above comment. You see Darth Vadar is a Java programmer, and we all know that Java is the evil all powerful empire of programming languages.

Hence us poorly .NET programmers must unite to form a Rebel Alliance against Darth Vadar and his evil cohorts, lest they bring their space station up to full operating capacity.

Re: Microsoft Embraces RSS, Extends

Ben — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 21:50:49 -0000

Wow. Are you going to patent that uber-special 'list' code now?

Re: Microsoft Longhorn Announcement Tomorrow?

Ben — Sat, 23 Jul 2005 21:48:28 -0000

Yeah, I was thinking about it some more, and I reckon they would be better off dropping the Windows name altogether. Big call, but you know, Vista is the thing outside the Window...the long-view...the destination...

Maybe?

Re: Treo 670 Running Windows Mobile

Ben — Sun, 07 Aug 2005 18:31:54 -0000

But given the choice of PalmOs Garnet (5.4) and Windows Mobile on a Treo6xx which would you prefer?

Oooh wait... do I get a free set of steak knives with Garnet?

Re: Eggciting

Ben — Wed, 10 Aug 2005 18:12:55 -0000

Oh yeah, we're getting plenty of "No"s. More than enough :-)

In fact he seems to answer "No" to pretty much any question, which makes for hours of fun when you ask "Is mummy your friend?" "NOO!"... "Is daddy your friend?"... "Nooo!" :-)

Re: Age of Empires III Demo

Ben — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 16:44:16 -0000

Hard to say. Sure EE2 set new lows in craptacularity, but what more can they do to make AOE any different?

Re: Component Video

Ben — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 17:51:10 -0000

You have a good point, but the difference between composite and component is big enough that I'd still make the change even if a new HDTV and bluray DVD were a week away.

Re: Second Class Citizens

Ben — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 21:13:21 -0000

I agree. I reckon NZ should be the first stop for testing any gadgets: highly technologically savvy, reasonably affluent, but not big enough to cause a problem when aforementioned gadgets turns out to cause testicular cancer...

Re: Avast!

Ben — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 15:09:58 -0000

Hrrrm you could be right, but the sidebars are not "fixed", they're floating left and right, and the middle column is 100% wide with margins to compensate.

Fixing the sidebars will ruin the elasticity of the layout.

Re: Halo Movie Produced by Peter Jackson

Ben — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 18:25:31 -0000

Ah there you go. Thanks for that.
Six degrees of Kevin Bacon for the average Gadgetophile reader.

Re: Google Reader: Broken

Ben — Sun, 09 Oct 2005 01:18:02 -0000

Yeah, although after a bit of persistence, I'm starting to get the hang of it.
Certainly if you're into the 'river of news' (all feeds mixed into one chronological list), then I guess it works OK.

Re: Sony Ericsson W900

Ben — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 23:55:02 -0000

Yup Greg, as soon as Sony started to stick Compact Flash slots in their cameras and allow MP3 playback on their 'MP3' players, I knew things were looking up. I mean hell, they don't even fscking mention ATRAC in the stats for this thing. Perfect!

Re: Don’t Copy Our Free Demo?

Ben — Mon, 24 Oct 2005 18:55:39 -0000

Surely not Stu, surely not.
I mean ffs, the installer installs the StarForce driver. It doesn't appear to be something built into the code. I guess they use a similar installer for demos and full games.

Actually now I look at it, several other Ubisoft games use StarForce, so perhaps they're just using a generic installer for everything? I guess in their minds the more PCs that (wittingly or not) have StarForce installed, the better.

Re: Building a New PC

Ben — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 03:32:58 -0000

w00t! A nice new AlBook! Sweet.

Installed the Zalman this afternoon. The damn thing weighs 950 grams, so there was some trepidation as I raised the case its normal upright stance, all the while studying the motherboard for flexiness :o

Re: Building a New PC

Ben — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 18:44:48 -0000

Volume is great. Still a little louder than I'd like, but a large fan running at 900 rpm is a hell of a lot quieter than the stock CPU fan that didn't seem to drop below 3000 rpm. I've got a dial on the back of the PC so I can ramp the CPU fan up to 1700 rpm for those LAN evenings in hot little rooms. Plus only one of the two case fans is running at the moment.

No it hasn't broken the mobo. The reviews suggest taking care when moving your computer around, but my feeling is that if there were a whole bunch of broken motherboards around then I would certainly have read about it on the intertron. Plus I made sure that the mobo is secured using all 9 available mounting points.

Re: XBox Live and PGR3

Ben — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 15:27:09 -0000

Yeah I can totally concur with you on the distribution of c0cks in online gaming, but XBox live (on the original XBox) was a pleasant surprise.

I think because everyone has to either talk or shut up (i.e. no typing silly comments), it reduced the fucknuckle factor quite considerably.
Hell, I even had several excellent races in V8 Supercars 2 with full damage turned on and everyone being most civil. Makes for a much more realistic racing experience (e.g. no insane passing manouvres).

Re: Biztalk Error Message

Ben — Mon, 07 Nov 2005 21:50:51 -0000

That is 100% totally for real. It didn't happen to me, but a colleague. If he's reading this he can probably confirm for you.
Gotta love it eh?

Re: Response.Redirect Draws a Blank

Ben — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 15:41:12 -0000

Thanks for the comment - certainly not having the .NET client-side scripts installed can cause all sorts of problems, but that was not the cause for this particular problem. We definitely had the client-side scripts installed.

The first thing I tried was to reinstall the client scripts, but that did not help. Disabling smart navigation before the redirect was the only solution (when using https).

Re: Catching the FanBus

Ben — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 19:23:02 -0000

Cool. Be careful because you'll turn into a fetishist like me :)
At the moment I'm typing this at the PC in the middle of the day and can't hear it over the sound of the birds outside, but I still want to quieten the hard drive some more :D

Re: Zalman VF700 AlCu Install/Review

Ben — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 17:45:08 -0000

Video RAM does get pretty warm. The chips on my card were warm to touch when I removed it, despite no recent 3D activity.
The latest 7800GTX cards have RAM clocked at 900MHz, which gives effectively 1800MHz DDR RAM speed. Cycling silicone that fast is bound to get hot, even if it is just setting row/column access addresses.

Re: Zalman VF700 AlCu Install/Review

Ben — Wed, 16 Nov 2005 15:06:18 -0000

I blame my fellow LAN men. I was so ashamed by having to use a barely functioning girlfriend's PC (the PC was barely functioning, not the gf) at a LAN game, that I had to go out and get my own again. In a small house, I set myself the task of making the PC as quiet as possible, and it's turned into something of a fetish.

I'm currently assessing various hard drive quietening methods, from elastic-band sling mounting, to mega-dollar acoustic damping enclosures. Also on the list is some sort of sound-deadening material for the sides of the case.

And there is a very annoying tick-tick-ticking which I suspect is coming from the PSU fan. I must investigate that.

Re: XBox 360 for the Third World

Ben — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 17:58:01 -0000

Ah Stu, ever the fanboy ;)
One crash. One. Send me four or five links then I'll start worrying.

Re: XBox 360 for the Third World

Ben — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 22:15:53 -0000

OK two links then. TWO!
mutter mutter damn rushed release mutter broken mutter

Hey our team doesn't install rootkits on your computers though!! Zing!

Re: XBox 360 for the Third World

Ben — Thu, 24 Nov 2005 00:27:38 -0000

Haha! Small world. I like the whole smashmyxbox thing in a very sick way. Kinda like driving past a car accident I guess.

Re: Zalman VF700 AlCu Install/Review

Ben — Sat, 26 Nov 2005 23:55:35 -0000

Definitely go for the Zalman instead of the Arctic Cooling VGA cooler. The AC looks great, but it seems too complex, and it is huge (SLI is not an option). The Zalman VF700 seems so much simpler, easier to install, and quieter.

The 9500 CPU cooler looks great in terms of efficiency, but I personally like the 7700 for simplicity. No heat pipes, just a huge chunk of pure copper :D

Re: We’re All Suspects

Ben — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 15:13:02 -0000

Eh WTF Griff!? So you condone treating everyone as a guilty dirty pervert just because they are male? Same goes for Arabs and blacks then?

If you want to play the numbers game, exactly how many children have been molested on a plane?

Re: We’re All Suspects

Ben — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 17:13:18 -0000

So how far do you go in eliminating the risk then Griff? Separate areas of the playground for dads and other children? Compulsory background checks before you can be a kiddies sports coach?

I think you might find that segregated buses for men and children might start touching a few nerves. It's a very, very fine line you're walking here dude.

Re: We’re All Suspects

Ben — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 17:47:54 -0000

It's a fundamental ethical question. There's no correct answer, but in my case I'm prepared to risk the 0.00001% chance that my son gets molested (fucking horrible thought that it is), rather than remove small freedoms from 100% of people. Society will always have scumbags, but you have to believe that me and you and that dude over there are good guys, and we'll all do our best to educate our kids and recognise the scumbags for what they are (and let the justice system deal with it).

Otherwise our society is fucked either way. We start going all George Bush and nuking the buggery out of anyone that even looks like a pedophile (which is you and me apparently).

Re: We’re All Suspects

Ben — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 18:05:56 -0000

Absolutely. As much as my prior comments sound namby-pamby, don't get me wrong: anyone convicted as a paedophile can have their balls chopped off (slowly) as far as I'm concerned.

The problem I have is with treating all males as paedophiles by default.

Re: We’re All Suspects

Ben — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 12:34:37 -0000

As someone who works with children, and has had background checks as a result of that, I think that you need to keep that in perspective. Yes I fully agree that childcare workers and teachers should have background checks. Personally, I would extend this to owners of childcare centres, baby sitters, and people who work in schools in support staff capacity. They end up just as trusted and in positions of authority as teachers do.

However, you end up having to call a limit somewhere. The vast majority of coaches in primary level are parents, in secondary it is a lot more teacher based. Without these coaches, schools could not offer extra-curricular sports to students. To most people, if you said "Thanks for offering to help out Cindy's netball team, but before you can start you need to go away and wait three months for your police check to come back" they might reconsider their offer. Certainly if some totally random person appeared off the street, and said "I like little kids" you would want to check them out. But what are you going to do - ring the police everytime your child is invited to a friend's house to play - you don't know the parents.

This whole discussion seems to be forgetting the fact that stranger danger is a bit of a decoy. The vast majority of all abuse is by members of the immediate or close extended family. If you really want to protect your child from risk, you should be looking at your/their cousins/ aunts & uncles, and yourselves as parents. These are the big abusers in our society. Are you going to stop fathers / mothers from sitting next to their own children on planes?

Re: No Sony! Bad Sony! Bad!

Ben — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 20:33:09 -0000

Yeah well maybe just boycott SonyBMG music?
I think this 'music' stuff comes on those 'CD' things, whatever they are, so a boycott should not be too difficult.

Re: Decisions

Ben — Sun, 18 Dec 2005 17:03:21 -0000

Interesting comment. Highly informative. Thanks.
At least the spam filter thinks it is OK. I wonder if that was a spambot being tested?

Re: iPowerWeb Sucks

Ben — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 22:54:27 -0000

Ah dude, nice attempt at a troll. I can write javascript, but in this case I chose not to and just used plain vanilla Wordpress plus a couple of standard plugins. Stick with iPowerWeb, you sound like you need a good screwing over.

Re: Yahoo Mail Beta Review

Ben — Sun, 08 Jan 2006 14:48:22 -0000

I'm pretty sure it's an invite-only thing at the moment. Staff from Yahoo! or Oddpost have to invite you.

Re: Gmail Broken?

Ben — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 21:38:52 -0000

Very strange. Maybe servers are partitioned by user account? And a server/cluster with a bunch of users on it when kablooie?
I guess then it might take hours to retrieve the data onto a working cluster.

Or something.

Re: Broken Mounts

Ben — Sun, 15 Jan 2006 15:54:08 -0000

It's more the fact that the flimsy stock landing gear is prone to bending, and the small wheels catch in the grass.

Something like this might be more robust and also more streamlined. I'd have to build a custom mounting point on the fuselage (as opposed to the current wing LG mounts). Problem being that a hot landing on long grass would probably break the landing gear or fuselage rather than bending the LG as currently happens. I think it might be the ultimate solution however, because I've pretty much perfected the delicate landing required when belly landing. Nice non-bending landing gear coupled with some balloon-style tyres could do the trick. Or should I just spend the $30 on 6 motor mounts?

Re: Foiled Again!

Ben — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 16:35:42 -0000

You can yank pretty darn hard on a stick and it will not break. I guess the mounting system is designed for the standard load, which is a smooth, parallel pulling load directly along the axis of the motor. The failure happens when the motor is tilted forward when the prop hit the ground - not what the whole setup is designed to handle.

Re: Video!

Ben — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 21:14:17 -0000

I meant crap as in flying, not crap as in videography. Although the lighting is pretty crap, but you can't expect too much from a digicam on a cloudy day.

Re: Make the madness stop!

Ben — Sat, 21 Jan 2006 18:33:32 -0000

...as would death I suppose :|

Re: Upgrade Time Again

Ben — Sun, 22 Jan 2006 20:24:02 -0000

Yeah I was quite surprised actually. I was expecting the layout to break, but everything is sweet.
The whole admin interface has changed, but apart from that (which is great) everything looks very similar.

Re: Foiled Again!

Ben — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 22:57:44 -0000

Built from 18 inches to 8 feet in length for motors ranging from 10 to over 1000 horsepower. Select from 16 in-stock motor rails plus a full line of heavy-duty rails.

Hell yeah, one of those puppies should do the trick. How much is 180 Watts in horsepower then?

Re: Very Simple Question

Ben — Thu, 26 Jan 2006 21:25:06 -0000

Nice point Joe. The standard random guess reply is that tonsilitis doesn't often kill the host, but then that argument doesn't work for the appendix. I guess maybe we needed them reasonably recently? In either case, tonsils are the spawn of satan, and the great noodly one should come down from on high and immediately book everyone in for a tonsilectomy.

Re: Very Simple Question

Ben — Thu, 26 Jan 2006 21:38:50 -0000

I'VE GOT IT! Pirates! It's the decrease in pirates that has caused an increase in tonsilitis! Damn I'm off to donate to the Pastafarian pirate ship fund right now.

Re: Very Simple Question

Ben — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 14:48:27 -0000

Whoa. Are you seriously trying to tell me that tonsil removal is somehow related to Alzheimers? Or that Tonsils in some manner help with cognitive reasoning? Seems like fucking stupid design to have brain matter in the back of your mouth where it is likely to get infected. If you were attempting parody, then well done, because I've fallen for it.

Re: Quick Way to Ruin a Hardened Steel Blade

Ben — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 20:38:06 -0000

Yeah thanks for that. I ended up getting a sharpening kit which consisted of three different grades of diamond sharpening stone. Worked a treat, although the shape is a bit more wonky than the machined edge.

Re: Make the madness stop!

Ben — Sun, 12 Feb 2006 23:27:36 -0000

Funny guy... four comments from the same IP address. If you're going to spam, at least reset your router to get a different address each time...

Re: Redesign: Take Two

Ben — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 18:11:38 -0000

If only you knew how long it took me last night to get that round blue border around your comment...

It's a damn hard job keeping up with the interweb Joneses.

Re: Adsense to pay my Mortgage?

Ben — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 19:30:19 -0000

Or similarly:
Week 1: Get mortgage, buy house
Week 2: Have an extra baby
Week 3: Get more mortgage to enlarge house

Re: Microsoft Origami

Ben — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 16:39:40 -0000

Do not be so quick to judge grasshopper.

For starters it looks about twice as big as a PSP, hence my comment that it better be at least four times as powerful/useful, otherwise we have a bomb on our hands.

Re: Griffin SmartDeck Cassette Adapter

Ben — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 14:13:46 -0000

Can't see why not?

Re: Modern Society

Ben — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 16:10:58 -0000

Pussy? Possibly. Imagine if someone accused you of being a paid Games Workshop shill Stu :D

Re: Windows Live Messenger Invites

Ben — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 19:16:31 -0000

So what's new? :)

Re: ADO.NET Identity Crisis

Ben — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 15:22:55 -0000

Interesting point Tex. I guess Microsoft didn't consider the fill scenario with -1 increment when they suggested it.

That probably means the only solution is to either manually or programatically set your seed to something much higher than your highest existing ID, and leave increment at +1?

Re: Satellite Blues

Ben — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 06:17:20 -0000

Fixed. Cry baby. :P

Re: Auctionitis

Ben — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 23:19:56 -0000

Oh sweet. At least he got my first name right...

Re: Satellite Blues

Ben — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 03:01:26 -0000

I'm very, very suspicious too, but then what else explains a 14 hour outage that is recoverable? I would have thought if the backup SCP went tits-up, then it was all over.

I guess maybe a glitch in the SCP that required a reboot? If the primary SCP was online, it would switch to the backup during the reboot, then come back online. With no backup, it might explain the spin and loss of position while the SCP was recovering?

Re: Alter Ego

Ben — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 17:42:27 -0000

Go to bed.

Re: Tactical Sniper Watch

Ben — Sun, 02 Apr 2006 21:17:55 -0000

It just strikes me as bizarre to imagine some crack sniper fiddling about with his watch to work out if he can hit Carlos the Jackal or not. I mean if he's gone out there to snipe, he's going to have checked where his cover was going to be (from satellite imagery), worked out range to target, and got a 5 day wind direction forecast.

Re: RIP PalmOS

Ben — Sun, 02 Apr 2006 22:05:00 -0000

I hate to say that it is inevitable, but it is inevitable. Back in the day I was a big fan of PalmOS, if only for the uniformity of experience. The DB layer and UI paradigm meant that all the apps had to behave in a roughly similar manner, so you knew what you were getting into.

Contrast WinCE/PocketPC/WinMo, which from day one had the curse of Windows: too much UI flexibility. Even now my WinMo5 PocketPC Phone Edition has soft buttons that developers happily ignore, destroying my user experience when I try to use the left soft button to open a 'File' menu.

One day Windows itself will got the same way as PalmOS: death by a thousand backwards-compatibility cuts. Someone needs to have the balls to make a break and make it fast. I wonder if compatibility with Palm's massive back-catalogue was the thing that broke Cobalt?

Re: Satellite Blues

Ben — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 00:33:08 -0000

Here's a snapshot from Saturday: http://www.gadgetophile.com/wp-content/Listing....

I've got a slightly newer version (Sunday night) to upload later tonight, but I didn't get a final snapshot this morning unfortunately.

Re: Satellite Blues

Ben — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 01:30:49 -0000

I lie. I got home and found I still had the page open from 7:30am, so quickly saved a copy.
Uploading now.

Re: Auctionitis

Ben — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 05:32:49 -0000

Try The Infamous Trademe Satellite Auction Forums for ongoing discussion!

Re: Google Trends: In Pictures

Ben — Thu, 11 May 2006 23:51:46 -0000

It's freaky that the seasonality one is reversed (for the Northern hemisphere). The poor schmucks must be searching for summer in the depths of their snowy winters.

Re: Fun StackTrace of the Day

Ben — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 17:38:38 -0000

We never discovered the true source of the bug, but also haven't had it reoccur. We tidied up some of the code in the DB-intensive section of the system to reduce deadlocks (selecting from the same table that another thread is trying to write to), and also increased the performance of the database server.

In combination they seemed to resolve the issue.

Re: Yet Another Cancer-Related Blog Post

Ben — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 18:35:04 -0000

Holy crap. Reading that post again, it is the most self-centered piece of crap I have ever written.

In the spirit of openness, and as lesson to myself, I shall leave it be.

Re: Metrosexual?

Ben — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 04:40:25 -0000

PDA, Leatherman, phone, wallet, radio scanner, lip gloss... pockets just don't cut it for the modern metro.

Re: In-audible.com

Ben — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 14:49:10 -0000

It has nothing to do with free or paid content. The simple fact is that Audible only provides a decent bit-rate in AAC format, which is locked down to iPods only. If your player doesn't play AAC, you're going to get a crappily compressed file, regardless of how much you pay.

Re: iPaq + GR230 Bluetooth GPS

Ben — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 18:36:54 -0000

To tell you the truth I have totally given up on PocketMV now. It seems to be unsupported and flakey.

Just quietly, if you have a look at the Garmin download site for the GPS10, you'll find a great little mapping program called Que. Then have a look for a piece of software called GPSProxy (on sourceforge.com). They work together beautifully.

Re: iRiver U10 Part 2

Ben — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 03:43:32 -0000

I spend hours every day on my nails.

Re: Google Maps NZ Satellite Images Updated

Ben — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 22:31:42 -0000

Haha! Yeah I wanted to make sure they hit Parliament House, and not just the Beehive...

Re: Unfair Competition

Ben — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 15:47:45 -0000

Correct, xtra still have a crappy, low-capped, expensive option.

Thankfully ihug have offered a month worth of credit, which goes part-way to covering the fricken $99 service charge from Telecom to move the ADSL.

I love the mysticism behind the whole 'telephone exchange' garbage. It's not very mystical when you imagine some tech shifting a cat5 cable from one port to another. For $99 dollars.

Re: Unfair Competition

Ben — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 06:55:26 -0000

So given it all involves the same thing (a tech going to the exchange to move a patch lead), then why is there not a "Move phone number and ihug ADSL" service type, and a "Move phone number and Orcon ADSL" service type etc?!

Seems pretty trivial for that to be set up. Considering there must already be e.g. "Move ihug ADSL" service types, because Telecom techs have to do that.

Re: PS3, Thy Name is Gigant0r

Ben — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 01:18:04 -0000

Fair cop regarding the XBox power supply (with integrated fan no less), but I'd put good money on the PS3 having an external power supply.

Re: Unfair Competition

Ben — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 02:11:43 -0000

Posted from inside ihug? Sweet :)

But yeah I know everything you've outlined is true. I'm just hoping that by venting here we can add our tiny, insignificant voices to somehow getting this total clusterfuck sorted out.

Re: Why is it so Difficult?

Ben — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 21:40:50 -0000

Nope. No joy here either. I submitted a bug to Google/Writely and have heard nothing about it.

Re: Stages of Pregnancy

Ben — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 21:47:15 -0000

Yup my wife is midway between 1 and 2 at the moment, second time around. Unsure if it's better or worse knowing now what we're in for...

Re: Stages of Pregnancy

Ben — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 04:30:31 -0000

Yeah thanks! Fingers crossed for a girl, that way there's no pressure to go through the madness again.

I heard a comedian say that he always chuckled about the big manly guys in the supermarket with three daughters, and thought to himself "you just had to try again didn't you?"

Re: Just Call me a CSS Whore…

Ben — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 18:35:05 -0000

Why thank you :) I admit I did nick the theme off someone else, but it took some serious tuning to make the ads and plugins fit nicely.

Re: Attitude Control

Ben — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 05:03:59 -0000

Hmmm I don't remember that from my physics classes, but I suppose yeah if the wheels slow down the spinning energy has to go somewhere right?

Re: Attitude Control

Ben — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 01:38:50 -0000

Sure! I replaced the broken suspension bit. Damn I forgot how cheap this hobby is once you've overcome the initial purchase: a set of all 4 upper and lower swingarms for the front suspension was $8.

Re: iPowerWeb Sucks

Ben — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 14:41:51 -0000

Oh wow Jeff... insane. Their tech support certainly are monkeys of the worst order. Just ask the guy over at tabletop-terrain.com (if that domain works!) about it. He was emailing them weeks before domain expiry to make sure things went smoothly, only to have the domain expire out from under him.

Re: What to Say?

Ben — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 22:05:51 -0000

Gah. The wonders of the internets. Thanks for your thoughts.

Re: Cracking Up

Ben — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 15:59:25 -0000

Yeah the exhaust is fine. Using another silly little zip-tie, but I'll get some bigger ones when I go in to pick up the replacement part tomorrow.

Funny... this is the second time that a minor breakage has hidden something more major. I thought "ah no problem just a loose exhaust", and was getting all ready to go out to the track with Ollie, before realising that the reason I couldn't get the shell back on was because the body mount was about half an inch from where it should be :)

Re: Clocked!

Ben — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 22:34:57 -0000

Yeah me too. So often I blindly drive on until 100,004 or something and think "doh!!"

Re: Nintendo Wii

Ben — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 15:55:34 -0000

Absolutely. I'm very keen on getting a Wii just for casual gaming. I do my serious gaming on the PC, but love the odd crazy game on my DS or XBox. I see the Wii replacing both of these.

Also with a 3yo kiddie, I can see him loving the Wii.

Re: Fun With ActiveSync and SSL

Ben — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 16:46:16 -0000

Hmm in the end our email guys actually registered a separate SSL cert for the Activesync URL to avoid the whole hassle. Unsure if there is any better solution than that.

Re: Linksys WRT54GL Router

Ben — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 03:54:02 -0000

Wow, I was actually quite stunned when I read that your router was incompatible with the Wii. But then some digging took me to Nintendo's 'router compatibility page'. It's crazy to think that they don't fully support the basic 802.11g standard?

I'd imagine picking any compatible router from that Nintendo list would do the trick. I'd hope the PS3 was fully compatible with anything!

Re: Wii: My Good News, Bad News Story

Ben — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 14:35:53 -0000

Hmmm yes I've been told that some Wiis have been bricking themselves when first booted. That would be uber-sucky on Christmas day :(

Re: New Zealand to get the DMCA?

Ben — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 20:12:09 -0000

Well for one thing, our current copyright law specifically bans format shifting. It is currently illegal to rip files from CD and put them on your MP3 player.

Hence my incredulity that they are barely even fixing that. I mean a 2 year sunset on that clause? WTF? I'm guessing there's not a 2 year sunset on the anti-circumvention stuff.

Yet again it's "We (the record companies) know what's best for you (the consumers), so just leave it all to us OK? We'll look after the content. Trust us."

Re: New Zealand to get the DMCA?

Ben — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 00:27:26 -0000

Very well put Ryan, and as I just added to the post, we're not talking about just music or video or documents. We're talking about any 'information' that can conceivably be covered by any form of 'rights management'.

Re: Microsoft Robotics Studio

Ben — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 14:20:08 -0000

Partly because it's packed in a box while we're between houses, and partly because it's not the easiest thing in the world to develop for.

If I had unlimited cash I'd grab a NXT in a second.

Re: ADSL Routing Solution in Detail

Ben — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 15:36:09 -0000

Strange. It should 'Just Work' with the router's WAN set to DHCP (obtain IP address automatically). I don't know your exact router/ISP settings, but the fact that it works fine from your PC means it should probably work with your router.

Re: ADSL Routing Solution in Detail

Ben — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 19:01:49 -0000

Dynamic IP address is what you want. If it doesn't work like that then I'm not sure what you can do.

Re: iPhone

Ben — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 15:33:42 -0000

Yeah I was wondering about the touchscreen too. I found the touchscreen dialler on my HTC Apache/Sprint 6700 pretty appalling. Zero tactile feedback, fat fingers, and laggy response all added up to a real PITA to dial a call.

Gizmodo has some interesting videos of the interface (I'll add links), but I'm not believing the smoothness and lack of lag until I see a real live demo.

Re: The Litigation Seesaw

Ben — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 20:41:33 -0000

Interesting. Or is it that by providing playgrounds, the municipality has created a 'duty of care'? Either way it's a pretty screwy system.

Re: The Litigation Seesaw

Ben — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 01:42:28 -0000

OK, so if you have no insurance you sue to get funding for healthcare, and if you do happen to have insurance, then the insurance company pays your bills and *they* sue to recover it. And the lawyers make money in both cases.

I understand completely now, and I am more thankful than ever that all companies pay an ACC levy on all my earnings.

Re: ADSL Routing Solution in Detail

Ben — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 05:04:24 -0000

Wow, excellent work Eileen! I'd never have thought that hack would work. I think my router is doing something similar (proxy ARP), because the gateway and external IPs are definitely on different subnets on TCL, but I've never had to make any changes to the routing tables or gateways.

Re: ADSL Routing Solution in Detail

Ben — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 22:37:04 -0000

Interesting. But I thought we don't use PPPoE in New Zealand? I've noticed seemingly zero difference when I change the MTU - I was trying different settings but it seemed to make no difference.

Re: ADSL Routing Solution in Detail

Ben — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 05:09:34 -0000

Yes you need DHCP on both the modem and the router, so that the modem can serve up an address to the router, and the router can serve up addresses to the LAN.

I'm pretty sure you factory reset the 1320 by holding down the reset button for 10+ seconds.

Re: ADSL Routing Solution in Detail

Ben — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 16:59:09 -0000

Is the firmware newer than the currently available 3.29a Eileen? That seems to be the only one available on their site.

I should mention that my 1320 actually died the other day. One of the capacitors started giving out a horrible whine and it eventually stopped working altogether. Hopefully it's a one-off.

I tried to get a replacement but could only find the RTA1335, which as far as I can tell is identical except for having 4 ethernet ports.

Re: ADSL Routing Solution in Detail

Ben — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 19:09:09 -0000

Actually good point Edward - I also had to slightly increase my NAT timeout to 300 seconds because of problems with Battlefield 2142 losing its CD-key authentication connection and dropping me out of the game. It doesn't seem to have adversely affected p2p (bittorrent) traffic.

I'm not aware of any custom firmware for the RTA1335, but p2p doesn't cause my 1335 any trouble at all (because of the half-bridge).

Re: Zink Printer

Ben — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 20:42:13 -0000

Yeah that was my question too. Apparently they are more durable than notoriously un-permanent Polaroids. Dunno how much more permanent however.

Re: Tamiya Nitro Crusher

Ben — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 03:54:57 -0000

No? Hasn't been a problem for me at all. Do you need to tighten the zip-ties, or replace them?

Re: PS3 VS. 360 - The Beer Difference

Ben — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 23:58:11 -0000

I saw that. WTF!? If I was forewarned I would queue for 36hours for a 46" HDTV and throw the PS3 in the trash on the way home.

Well, maybe play with it for a bit and then sell it :)

Re: Back into Flying

Ben — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 02:53:06 -0000

Hmm lets see...
Electric:
You can get a GWS foam kitset including motor for about NZ$120
Then you need a 4 channel controller, receiver, servos and speed control. I *think* you can get a kit of this stuff for maybe $300-$500 NZ

Slope Gliders:
Kitset (I'd recommend an Eraser) for around NZ$150
2 channel controller, servos, receiver (like this complete set) for maybe NZ$150

Re: Ace Combat 6: XBox 360 Exclusive

Ben — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 17:23:46 -0000

Excellent! Now I have to find a way to procure a 360...

Re: Quick Catch Up

Ben — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 00:23:06 -0000

Geeze. I though my 800 was enough.
Bittorrent is the scourge of the internets, invented by hard drive manufacturers.

Re: World of Warcraft

Ben — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 01:30:54 -0000

Ha! Thanks guys. I'm hoping my inherent lack of gaming time will stop me from being sucked too far in. Being married with a child tends to take up a lot of my time as is.

Re: Router Addendum: Dynalink RTA1320

Ben — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 02:17:13 -0000

You want NAT turned off, and "PPP IP Extension" or "PPP Half Bridge" turned on.

If you have a setting for "Awlays on" or "Dial on demand" under the connection settings, choose "Always on".

If you've got half-bridge on, then you don't need the DMZ setting, because EVERYTHING will be forwarded to the router.

Re: Back On the Yard

Ben — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 15:34:31 -0000

Poetic license man. I bet if Charles Dickens wrote "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" in a blog post you'd be all like:

"Dude, how can it be the best AND the worst of times at the same time!? Fix grammar plox!"

Re: Sony Ericsson M600i versus Nokia E70

Ben — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 17:02:27 -0000

Wow Mike. Good find. I was told by somone else that it was EDGE only, and now I look at the box and the specs it is definitely UMTS. I guess I'll be keeping this phone for some time now :)

Re: Vista Audio Device Management: Sucky?

Ben — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 21:14:29 -0000

@Tomten: if that is the case, then tell me why when I boot to XP I get sound from both the front and rear panel at the same time, but under Vista it only comes out of the "Default" device (usually rear panel)?

Re: Linksys WRT54GL Router

Ben — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 18:09:22 -0000

Steve, you need to upgrade to an open source firmware like Tomato or DD-WRT. I have no issues running 500+ global connections with my 54GL

Re: Get Your Pownce Invites Here

Ben — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 04:21:41 -0000

Looks like they're all gone for now. I'll update if I get more.

Re: ESky Lama V4 Review

Ben — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 02:57:58 -0000

Done Matt! Hopefully this is more informative...

Re: ESky Lama V4 Review

Ben — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 00:14:57 -0000

Stuart, glad to hear you're interested. They are damn fun.

The left-hand versus right-hand throttle thing is a bit of a religious debate in the RC world ;) It's nothing to do with left or right handedness, it's a throwback to the days of early radio control.

If you haven't flown before, I'd go for a left-hand throttle (Mode 2). Most RC users in New Zealand use Mode 1 for historical reasons, but I find Mode 2 more natural, especially for helis. With the throttle and rudder on the left in Mode 2, you have the cyclic (forward-back-left-right) on the right stick, which feels more natural like a "real" helicopter cyclic. I even went as far as converting my Futaba 9C radio back to Mode 2 for my new helicopter. I'm dreading having to re-learn how to fly my planes in Mode 2 :)

I'm not sure what lefties would do, but I've found when flying helis (as opposed to planes) you're pretty much having to concentrate on both sticks ALL the time, so handedness probably doesn't come into it.

Re: Linksys WRT54GL Router

Ben — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 19:41:26 -0000

Upgrading the 54GL will almost certainly fix the problem. The stock firmware is terrible. I recommend the Tomato firmware.

Re: Linksys WRT54GL Router

Ben — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 14:45:43 -0000

I believe so. The Tomato firmware has an upgrade page, and I think you can just upload the latest default firmware there.

Re: Zalman VF700 AlCu Install/Review

Ben — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 14:20:22 -0000

Download NTune from Nvidia to see temps.

Re: Delete this feed unless it amuses you

Ben — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 00:25:23 -0000

Yes, Calacanis is hanging by a thread, purely because of his insightful comments in the last Bad Sinatra. I'm hoping he'll get off the Mahalo trip soon.

Re: MOSH with Nokia

Ben — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 00:35:24 -0000

Good point, but it won't stop it from sucking. :)

Re: Delete this feed unless it amuses you

Ben — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 03:41:15 -0000

Thanks Ryan. That's a great point. I might experiment with that feed for a bit and see if it lowers the noise level.

Re: iPhones for New Zealand: iPhone Unlocked

Ben — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 01:32:12 -0000

Peppery, try Pricespy.co.nz. They're listing 3 suppliers with prices for E70s. No idea if they have stock.

I got mine from Parallel Imported about a year ago now. I'm really wondering if Nokia are going to release a new version, or are banking on the E90 taking over the same space.

Re: Tamiya Nitro Crusher

Ben — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 01:37:00 -0000

Adam, I didn't have any issues with it at all.
Have you checked that you have a good seal with the o-ring on the lid of the fuel tank? Any leakage there will stop the fuel flow. You could confirm this by seeing if it runs while you push down firmly on the lid, but stops when you let go.

Otherwise also check to make sure the air nipple on the muffler if free from debris.

Re: Beating the Wind: Parkzone F27 Stryker

Ben — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 19:03:25 -0000

I think the pusher is mostly for looks. A flying wing is nice and fast and slippery, but a jet configuration with a big fat propellor in the nose looks silly.

Also having the motor raised up at the back provides heaps of good cooling airflow, so you can run the motor at huge RPM which also helps with speed.

Re: Ben.geek.nz » Nokia 6600 v5.27 Firmware

Ben — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 18:23:52 -0000

Closing this comment thread because I really don't have any way to provide this firmware.

Re: Test post with tags?

Ben — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 02:16:15 -0000

I was... but I've migrated with the herd to Wordpress tags :(

Re: Well, at least it was exciting

Ben — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 21:22:06 -0000

Stu: yes, but where's the excitement in that? :)

I've been flying 3 or 4 mistakes high for ages, but had recently got to the point (especially with this plane) of flying zero to 1 mistake high. It's the risk you run, but it's a heck of a lot more fun, interactive, and exciting doing aerobatics where you can really see the plane.

Re: Hyperion Helios 10e Review

Ben — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 00:21:40 -0000

Here you go:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/41894168320@N01/22...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/41894168320@N01/22...

I couldn't find the good camera so these are from my cellphone. You get the picture.

I had to put loctite on the nuts for the servo horn connectors. Also, note that I've installed the little connectors 'upside down'. Very hard to adjust them this way, but it gives a more direct line for the pushrods.

Re: How NOT to Geocache

Ben — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 14:50:12 -0000

Thanks Dylan. The segment is up there now. I think it came across ok. No scare tactic angle, just common sense.

Re: Pilot lands helicopter without a tail rotor

Ben — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 17:47:24 -0000

Yeah I have to admit I was pretty stunned too. I've read a lot about chopper flying, and I thought an auto-rotation was your only option. That implies that you have to land with at least some amount of body-rotation if you have no tail rotor.

I guess if you still have the engine, you have other options other than auto-rotation.

This link is interesting: http://www.copters.com/pilot/trfail_cruise.html
Note the last comment "(that doesn't mean ignore the manufacturer, though)". So yeah I suppose the R44 manufacturers may mention that the body shape allows for some stability at speed?

Re: Silverlight: Flash doesn’t matter

Ben — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 03:34:10 -0000

ActiveX was never cross platform. And yes Silverlight runs on Windows Mobile, so you can bet it will be on all other mobile platforms.

Silverlight is Apple's trojan horse into the enterprise market, so Steve will be all over Silverlight on the iPhone.

Re: Silverlight: Flash doesn’t matter

Ben — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 18:19:42 -0000

Hmmm good point Matthew. Still, there are probably thousands more VB/C programmers than flash developers. I don't see flash anywhere on those charts.

Re: Silverlight on iPhone after SDK release?

Ben — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 19:49:19 -0000

With Office going Silverlight, it's not entirely out of the realms of possibility that Microsoft would go Linux. Remember when Apple releasing a Linux distribution was unlikely?

Re: Silverlight on iPhone after SDK release?

Ben — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 16:23:33 -0000

I'm using semantics. *nix/BSD/FOSS in general.

Either Windows, Office or both are dead, based on the moves that Google et al are making, so Microsoft is changing tack. Expect Office on Silverlight, which will run on MacOS or perhaps some Microsoft flavour of *nix.

Re: iPhone Google Reader/Gmail/Facebook Cookie Fix

Ben — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 15:29:41 -0000

Hey thanks Travis. Yeah I cross-posted the fix on several forums. Note I've now worked out the *actual* problem (file ownership) which is a much nicer fix.

Re: iPhone Google Reader/Gmail/Facebook Cookie Fix

Ben — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:28:16 -0000

Glad to help Phil.
The vodafone logo came from the team at http://kiwi-ise.co.nz. I don't think they have an Orange logo, but you could probably contact them to find out how they did it, so you can make your own.

Re: iPhone Google Reader/Gmail/Facebook Cookie Fix

Ben — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 16:18:48 -0000

Jason,

You need to have a jailbroken iPhone. You also need to install the Term-vt100 package, which will give you a command line interface into the iPhone's file system.

Once you have that, open vt100, enter the password (usually 'alpine'), then type in the commands.

Re: iPhone Google Reader/Gmail/Facebook Cookie Fix

Ben — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:25:07 -0000

Sorry, if you're running the 1.1.4 (or 1.1.3 I think) firmware, there's also a "SUID Fix" installer package you need to install, otherwise the password won't work. See here: http://osmethne.com/?q=node/9

Re: iPhone Google Reader/Gmail/Facebook Cookie Fix

Ben — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:32:54 -0000

Stu, once you use one for a couple of days, it you'll get over it :)

Nah seriously, the GPRS speed is the *only* annoying thing about the iPhone. Everything else is as damn near perfect as I've ever had on a phone, and lordy knows I've had a few phones.

Re: iPhone Google Reader/Gmail/Facebook Cookie Fix

Ben — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 02:13:54 -0000

Mas, by typing that command (chown ...) you are changing ownership of all files and directories inside /var/mobile.

You don't need to do anything else. No chmod or anything. Just type that chown command and it's all fixed.

Re: ADSL Routing Solution in Detail

Ben — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:41:27 -0000

Nice points Peter, but I'm positive that all providers of ADSL in NZ use PPPoA. Telstra might use PPPoE on their cable network, but they need to play like everyone else until they can get their own ADSL gear in the exchanges.

Re: iPhone Google Reader/Gmail/Facebook Cookie Fix

Ben — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:11:23 -0000

I'm not sure what the problem might be. Are you definitely logged in to SSH as root?

Re: Linksys WRT54GL Router

Ben — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 05:48:09 -0000

Gene, check out my more detailed post: http://www.ben.geek.nz/adsl-routing-solution-in...

Re: Thanks for waiting :)

Ben — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:17:08 -0000

I've got a tutorial up on a slightly harder but less destructive way to fix the Mail application:
http://www.ben.geek.nz/fixing-iphone-mail-crash...

Re: Tabletop Terrain - War Gaming and Modeling for Pulp, Warhammer, Mordheim and Flames of War » Fortress nearing completion

Ben — Wed, 22 Sep 2004 19:05:05 -0000

Is that a faux-battering ram I see there? So how does Siege work? Do all of the guys on the wall get ranged attacks regardless of weaponry or someting?

Re: Tabletop Terrain - War Gaming and Modeling for Pulp, Warhammer, Mordheim and Flames of War » Unimpressed with Battlefront

Ben — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 18:22:47 -0000

Hrrmm, removing the post was veeery dodgey. How often have they done that before? Surely it would be better to leave the post there, resolve the issue, and (hopefully) have you respond to the original post with a happy comment?

I've always been of the belief that even with very bad customer service, if it is resolved quickly, and is not repeated, then I tend to give them another chance. On the other hand if it is not resolved, or the response is inadequate, then I take my business elsewhere.

Re: Tabletop Terrain - War Gaming and Modeling for Pulp, Warhammer, Mordheim and Flames of War » Trackback Spam

Ben — Sat, 05 Feb 2005 19:14:31 -0000

Crap. I haven't had trackback spam yet. Must be only a matter of time.

Re: Tabletop Terrain - War Gaming and Modeling for Pulp, Warhammer, Mordheim and Flames of War » Bending Balsa

Ben — Wed, 23 Feb 2005 01:42:39 -0000

Interesting. Definitely not hard to make oneself. Finding the nylon shim thingies would be the hardest bit I reckon.

What's up with your spam blocker? The images are all different-like!

Re: Tabletop Terrain - War Gaming and Modeling for Pulp, Warhammer, Mordheim and Flames of War » Triangular fieldstone tower

Ben — Sat, 26 Feb 2005 20:21:38 -0000

Interesting. I wonder if they send the green-line ones out to developers as test platforms because they could never sell them? :)
Must be a bung CMOS sensor.

Re: Tabletop Terrain - War Gaming and Modeling for Pulp, Warhammer, Mordheim and Flames of War » Aaaaarrrrrrr!

Ben — Sun, 06 Mar 2005 19:45:02 -0000

September 19.

Re: Tabletop Terrain - War Gaming and Modeling for Pulp, Warhammer, Mordheim and Flames of War » Rackham

Ben — Sat, 02 Apr 2005 21:40:01 -0000

20kgs of plaster? Insanity. Can you calculate from that the weight of scenery (e.g. 1kg of powder = 1.5kg of set plaster)?

Re: Tabletop Terrain - War Gaming and Modeling for Pulp, Warhammer, Mordheim and Flames of War » Mordheim Canal Progress

Ben — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 03:34:59 -0000

Loving the new look! Much easier on the eyes, and it almost looks vaguely professional ;)
And that canal has to be the most ambitious piece of Mordheim construction I've seen. Do you have to roll on a 'punting' table when rafting across the canal?

Re: Tabletop Terrain - War Gaming and Modeling for Pulp, Warhammer, Mordheim and Flames of War » Tutorial: Detail Casting Plaster

Ben — Sat, 24 Sep 2005 15:48:52 -0000

Wow, you should be charging more for your trench kits! ;-)

Sounds like a good method though. It's amazing what a bit of rinse-aid will do to water eh? Glad the scientists that work for big FMCGs like Colgate actually do something useful.

Re: Tabletop Terrain - War Gaming and Modeling for Pulp, Warhammer, Mordheim and Flames of War » 3D Figure Modelling

Ben — Sat, 24 Sep 2005 21:47:11 -0000

Nice. Now all we need is one of those 3D rapid-prototyping printers.

P.S. do you keep seeing oldposts popping up in Bloglines after every update? Happens with my blog too. Must be either Bloglines or Wordpress :(

Re: Tabletop Terrain - War Gaming and Modeling for Pulp, Warhammer, Mordheim and Flames of War » WWII German Staff Tents

Ben — Sun, 02 Oct 2005 14:51:20 -0000

On the one hand I thought 'hey cool!', but then I thought, why would anyone want replica WWII tents? Is the re-enactment scene as big as the civil war one?

Good god Stu, if you start LARPing WWII I'm going to have to slap you :)

Re: Tabletop Terrain - War Gaming and Modeling for Pulp, Warhammer, Mordheim and Flames of War » Eduard 1:144 Stuka Kit

Ben — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 02:34:35 -0000

So does 1:144 look reasonably scale beside 15mm figures then? Wouldn't that make the average soldier 2.1m tall?

Re: Tabletop Terrain - War Gaming and Modeling for Pulp, Warhammer, Mordheim and Flames of War » FOW: Three Month Painting Challenge III

Ben — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 15:40:54 -0000

Holy heck man, your painting skillz are totally mad these days. It's hard to imagine that those turrets are actually not much bigger than a big toenail.

Re: Tabletop Terrain - War Gaming and Modeling for Pulp, Warhammer, Mordheim and Flames of War » Surplustronics Power Pack

Ben — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 17:38:00 -0000

Hey is the adapter AC/AC or AC/DC? I might be able to make it do double-duty because I think I need an AC/AC adapter to drive the points on my N Scale train layout.

Re: Penny Arcade wonders why Halo is only on Vista

Ben — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 00:40:55 -0000

Minh, it's worth noting that the xbox has some mods to memory and (i think) video buses to make it a lot faster than a stock celeron.

Still, my initial comment stands: making weak statements like your initial one Robert is worse than making none at all. At best it makes you look condescending, at worst you look like the worst kind of old-school marketing drone.

Just do your normal thing and say 'I agree this sux, let me find out why it is happening'

Re: Microsoft music player to come?

Ben — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 16:09:58 -0000

I can guarantee that the driver for adding wifi is to facilitate impulse purchasing of pay-for music. IF the device can retrieve podcasts, it will be a hacked-on afterthought.

There is no way Microsoft is intelligent or agile enough to release an unencumbered player, or add wifi for altruistic purposes ("the geeks will love wifi, so lets spend more on hardware and stick it in"). Makes me laugh.

When Microsoft looks at iTunes, they see dollar signs. iTunes is free money. It costs apple effectively nothing to sell one more song.

Re: N96 Launch Video - They Finally Did It!

Ben — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 02:57:33 -0000

I'm sorry, but the Sony XPERIA has caught my eye a lot more than the new Nokias.