Chindie

A bloke in the office earlier had to explain to someone over the phone what the area code of a phone number was. And really wasn't getting anywhere. I think I got pissed off for him.

The nurse was obviously taken out by Agents. The true story has been D-noticed... On a serious note, the radio station and it's hosts are rocket polishers. You never know what state someone else is in, mentally or physically, so doing something like this is deeply, deeply irresponsible, foisting such pressure and public notoriety on a person.They can't have expected it, but they put the woman in this position, they should reap what they sowed. words removed.

Who?

I have heard the console versions run like a flick book at times. But haven't heard anyone who disliked the game itself. It's one of those where the fun comes from **** around (and having the game **** with you) more than what the game really sets you to do.

3D doesn't necessarily add loads to the price these days. At the higher end, it can add a decent wedge to the price, but below that the difference can be less. As for whether 3d is worth it... I would argue no but you may get more out of it. You'll need some kind of 3d source (3d bluray player, PS3 should run 3d discs these days IIRC) and then you've got to bear in mind that extra expense of 3d discs... On the plus side, as a general rule of thumb, a 3d set will probably make for a good 2d set, as you need a good standard of panel to manage 3d to any degree, and...er... if you've got it, if ever you do want to use it... it's er... there?

Plasma is undoubtedly better quality, then tend to have better colours and motion (not quite so much these days on that one) and pretty much unparalleled black levels (which in turn helps all the other colours pop). However, the difference might not matter, as said your mileage may vary. We've got a fairly run of the mill LG LCD from a couple of years ago in the living room, it has a pretty great picture for 90% of HD sources. It falls down on very dark pictures, particularly ones with gradients, entirely because of LCD's backlight technology. I watch loads of movies so that tends to get noticed all the time but even though I notice it I'm not that bothered, because a plasma wouldn't be as good a deal for us. I think for most people, a decent LCD set will leave them pretty pleased.

There are evidently lizard space nazis on VT keen to not have their brethren slandered.

I think it would feel rushed as a 3 hour film. A fair amount happens in the Hobbit (though admittedly, mostly from the middle of the story onwards) that I think if you wanted to really do justice to the spectacle of it, needs more than 180 minutes to breathe. Thats why I felt the 2 film idea would work well, and maybe give you some room to do some of the wider fiction Tolkein had, stuff like the Necromancer which happens around the time of the Hobbit but isn't mentioned in the book and only turns up in Tolkeins other work and appendices. The Hobbit could be broken into 2 decent length parts and feel quite satisfying. 3 might be pushing it. I do think the coming films won't suffer from the slow start the first apparently does which might help them, though. I'll be very interested to see how it lives as a whole.

I still like O'Neill.

The Hobbit: an Unexpected Journey reviews are dropping everywhere today. General feeling is mixed. It's apparently very slow to get going, with a better second half, and pretty much everyone has had problems with the film technically. I think this might be a film that is going to betray it's problematic development, with a lot of padding to stretch.

The news tonight, national and local, had this as the top story. Not only that, both had segments featuring 'some average women' who also had extreme morning sickness. **** OFF. The main story is barely top of the show news, 'Here's a woman that also had the same problem' sure as shit isn't news at all.

You can use an external hdd, but only be able to use 16gb iirc, and you have to partition and format that space to be used by the 360 alone. I'm not sure what the restrictions on what things you could use from the external hdd are off the top of my head, but there definitely are restrictions.

Yeah there's not much marketing, and what there is is absolutely awful. The thing itself is still born. Just littered with bad ideas and poor execution. The gimmick is woeful. Even if you were interested, you'd be foolish to buy one anytime soon.

Finally got my bonus paid (£1200, woo. Apparently it was my fault it didn't get paid. Bullshit, they were trying to diddle me) and want to spend a bit of it getting my desktop PC situation sorted as it's 6 years old and slowly dying with the hard drive already hobbled thanks to cyclic redundancy error... but I've not looked at PC spec stuff in about 3 years so barely know whats what these days, making spec-ing up anything a bit of a stab in the dark hopeful punt without spending an age sat there researching everything. Thankfully I'm alright for some stuff (for now in some cases, fine in others. OS I'm sorted for, thank you working for a company that allowed me to access Microsoft deals) but want to spend a decent wedge getting things to a decent, PC gaming standard and would like a new monitor so it all becomes a bit of an (expensive) mess.

Someone should start a sweepstake on where Michu will be playing his football next season.

It isn't next gen, its not that much more powerful than a 360 (in some ways its actually weaker iirc, the CPU is crap). Nintendo don't play the hardware game any more. Which is why in a years time it's behind the other consoles again.

The marketing campaign for this console is a travesty.

You could go to any cinema in the land and see it in release, but for the full shebang, high frame rate and all, its undeniably a limited release for what Jackson hopes is a watershed moment in cinema. Admittedly I was wrong with that early list I had seen but still, its not exactly a great showing for 48 frames.

Doing something like a Walking Dead adaptation (which to my knowledge is more 'inspired by' than an actual faithful adaptation?) might work and be fun, but if they did do that I know there'd be a part of me yearning for a proper, standalone, mini series faithful to the book. They could do Anansi Boys as a spin off if it worked out. I'd wasn't a really faithful adaptation though, which might be asking a lot for a book that features, iirc, a man being killed by being consumed by a vagina.

Yes...?

Heavily exaggerated, and at that point I'd not seen a full confirmed list, evidently. At that point it looks like only a few early confirmations were on the list I'd seen. That is a better selection obviously, but considering the film(s) are meant to be an argument fur high frame rates, it's still a really limited release.

EDIT - never mind, only 13minutes behind Mike...

The sight of a huge crowd of people cheering a man appointing himself sweeping powers is quite sobering. Very 1930s Germany.

An American Gods adaptation has huge potential but also will be difficult to do right which worries me. Gaiman will probably be involved though which gives hope.

On pure picture quality terms you'll never realistically beat a plasma, however there are draw backs. They're heavy, power hungry, have a limited lifespan, suffer more burn in (even with the advancements there), and they can suffer from phosphor trailing. Theres no perfect solution. If your only concern is the absolute highest picture quality, a good plasma is your only choice, but you buy into the issues the above (and even the best plasma will suffer for them, sooner or later). They're quite old tech now, really, and as their popularity has waned they've become quite good value. LCD is the best compromise for me. A good LCD set, properly set up, is going to give you a good enough picture for most people, will have less issues for that than a plasma will bring with it, and will probably have speakers that will do for the time being for most people. Motion issues come with LCD tech but many people simply won't notice. Some sets have systems to try and assist with motion issues, many people will tell you either do little or make things worse (they used to make things like weirdly... cheap I guess. Very odd experience. I dunno if this has improved). If you're concerned about getting a slightly better picture (slightly), and a thinner frame, go LED and budget for an audio solution down the line. I personally have a Samsung LED set and recently paired it with a nice Panny soundbar - couldn't be happier.