Another sign of old age…

You know you’re getting old when you see a L’Oreal advert, and the name of the actress flashes briefly at the bottom of the page, and you think to yourself:

Who the fuck is she?

Game Debate to the Death! Vertical or horizontal?

Game Debate to the Death! Vertical or horizontal consoles? :: DESTRUCTOID :: Hardcore video game blog

My word!

I was browsing some gaming websites when I came across a heated debate about whether it’s better to have your console vertical or horizontal. The debates are heated, and get quite personal at times, decending into a flame war.

In case you’re wondering, the consensus seems to be:

The Wii should be vertical if you have space for it, unless you plug in GameCube controllers, in which case, it seems likely to fall over. The GameGube won’t go any other way.

The PS3 seems to be stored mostly horizontal due to the weight distribution inside it and the overall cost of the machine. The PS2 seems to be mostly horitontal, since you need to buy a stand to make it sit upright without falling over.

The 360 debate is still out for the count. It’s clearly designed to be stored in either position (unlike the original XBox), but some people claim vertical knackers the DVD drive or the discs. Yet clearly (from experiments), the machine stays cooler if kept vertical, strangely, since vertical blocks off the largest air vent on the machine. The overall clearance at the bottom (when horizontal) is quite small and won’t let much air through.

I suppose you could correct that by fitting stick on rubber pads to the bottom to raise its ground clearance in horizontal if that worried you.

So the jury is still out.

Windows Vista: Aero

I was trying to get a friend’s new laptop online recently and had my first proper look at Windows Vista, including the brand new Aero interface, a graphical interface that stacks the programs running and shuffles them like real files in 3D.

I couldn’t help but wonder if Microsoft realise the implications of the name in the UK, since it shares its name with a popular bubble chocolate bar. Aero: Full of holes and melts easily.

Made me laugh anyway.

There’s slow and then there’s slow

I always used to complain when I was younger than my sister ate her food much slower than anyone else.

Turns out that she also drinks just as slowly. When I commented on this, as she was half way through a drink when everyone else was finished theirs, she said “I can’t help it if I’m a slow drinker.”

To which I replied “Slow? I’ve seen glaciers move faster!”

I was then struck with the thought that in 50 years time, kids might not get that joke…

I don't get it.

At the bottom of my street are a couple of communal recycling bins, accepting paper, cardboard, packaging and plastics. They’ve been there for a few years, and I take care to seperate my recyclables.

Today, the council let us all know how much paper we’d saved over the last year……by putting a leaflet through our doors.

Honestly…

eBay Madness!

Ok, so I’m on eBay looking for some bargains and I can’t help but think that some of the people using eBay might have missed the point of an auction.

Y’see, an auction is supposed to be a place where you bid as much as you are willing to pay for an item, and see who wants it the most. But over the past few days, I’ve seen a lot of people playing a different game. They seem to be trying to pay an amount as close to the item’s retail value as possible, without going over. Sort of like a real version of The Price Is Right.

I’ll give you an example. I was bidding on a used computer game. I had already had the foresight to look at online retailers to determine what they were selling it for. Play.com had the lowest price, so I deducted the postage costs from their price and found the maximum that it was worth paying for the game. Then I deduct a little more to find my maximum bid that I’m willing to go to.

In the end, I got sniped in the last minute of the auction, something I hate to see (but am forced to do myself in order to win any auction).

To these people, I ask you a question: What is the point of paying £24.49 for a used version of an item that sells brand new for £24.99? Seriously! Is it some sort of psychological compulsion? I know eBay addiction exists, and some people just have to win an auction, but I’ve seen this behaviour so many times, it’s worrying.

My sister once bid on a book and CD for teach yourself chinese. The seller actually put in his listing: “Please don’t bid more than £25 for this item as the book is still in print and sells for this amount.”

She was sniped in the last five minutes by someone who paid £27 for the book.

What a tool.

The problem is, I don’t see an easy solution. It’s a balance between getting the best bargain, and getting an item you really really want. If I put in the maximum bid I was willing to entertain paying straight away, I’d probably get sniped at the last minute, but I could end up paying more than I might have otherwise got away with. If I constantly re-bid on the item, I push the price up anyway and risk going over my personally set limit for the item.