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  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 43,504
    Ghedebrav said:

    Surprised and delighted to see XCOM getting a mention on PB forum

    On-topic - curious that there's no FT in the table.

    I resisted the temptation of mentioning Elite: Dangerous in the conversation on HDTV and Oculus Rift on the previous thread. The game is apparently brilliant at both.
  • PlatoPlato Posts: 15,724
    edited June 2015
    I have to give Douglas Adams all the props for jokes about blackness
    Here's the quote about the stuntship whose sole purpose was to fly into the sun to provide spectacular effects for a rock concert.

    "That," he said, "that... is really bad for the eyes."

    It was a ship of classic, simple design, like a flattened salmon, twenty yards long, very clean, very sleek. There was just one remarkable thing about it.

    "It's so... black!" said Ford Prefect. "You can hardly make out its shape... light just seems to fall into it!"

    The blackness of it was so extreme that it was almost impossible to tell how close you were standing to it.

    "Your eyes just slide off it..." said Ford in wonder.
    From Restaurant at the End of the Universe

    Plato said:

    I saw an advert for a Samsung Black TV the other day - it looked about as black as my TV too.

    Frankly, I think good black is essential for clarity - but too many shows and films are filmed in Black-O-Vision and I can't see WTF is going on.

    The worst example was some Clint Eastwood film I saw at the flicks - Escape From Alcatraz. I gave up squinting at the screen as I may as well have had my eyes shut.

    Moses_ said:

    TOPPING said:

    Newspapers: I read the DM and Graun online, the latter more than the former plus I comment sometimes on CiF. I buy (occasionally) The Times in print, I look at the DT whenever it's lying around. I count myself a Times Reader.

    Plus am an, um, true blue Cons.

    On TVs - may I be the first to ask: what is a 4k TV?

    Basically a Ultra High Definition TV. About 4 times better picture quality than a normal HD TV


    http://www.which.co.uk/reviews/televisions/article/advice/what-is-4k-tv
    The one thing I find quite amusing is the way TV manufacturers advertise their new super duper HD mega pixel ultra stupendous picture with cars driving around and pint pots exploding in glorious multi colour..........

    ........In an advert on your existing Tv screen.


    ....and some out there must say hell yes !!! .....That looks really good better than my existing picture?
    I quite like the fact that there is a perpetual quest for new 'blacker' surfaces, leading to claims that a new material is "ten times blacker than any previous surface!" Apparently the materials are needed for optical instruments, e.g. telescopes.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2732487.stm

    has the following quote:
    "It's a very interesting surface to look at because it's so black."
  • Scott_PScott_P Posts: 51,453

    I quite like the fact that there is a perpetual quest for new 'blacker' surfaces, leading to claims that a new material is "ten times blacker than any previous surface!" Apparently the materials are needed for optical instruments, e.g. telescopes.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2732487.stm

    has the following quote:
    "It's a very interesting surface to look at because it's so black."

    "How much more Black can it be?

    "None. None more Black"
  • TGOHFTGOHF Posts: 21,633
    Lord Ashcroft ‏@LordAshcroft

    If the @UKLabour Party would like to auction the "EdStone" may I start the bidding at £100000.

  • David_EvershedDavid_Evershed Posts: 6,506
    The large numbers reading the Daily mail on-line or on mobile phones is one thing.

    The fact that they are only reading about celebrities makes it irrelevant to politics.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,591

    Mr. Thompson, indeed.

    I wonder what Xbox will do, though. They've gone from Xbox, to Xbox 360, to Xbox One. It's an unconventional naming approach to say the least.

    [On that note, XCOM 2 is actually the 11th game. Even if you only count reboots, it's the 3rd].

    I'm quite a fan of Resident Evil - not the games, but the naming conventions. I think they're up to the late teens but the last one with a number on the end was RE: 6 I believe.

    Very excited for XCOM 2 - given how popular the last 'proper' one was, I'm sure console ports will follow. They even got in on iPad in the end I believe.
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 43,504
    Scott_P said:

    I quite like the fact that there is a perpetual quest for new 'blacker' surfaces, leading to claims that a new material is "ten times blacker than any previous surface!" Apparently the materials are needed for optical instruments, e.g. telescopes.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2732487.stm

    has the following quote:
    "It's a very interesting surface to look at because it's so black."

    "How much more Black can it be?

    "None. None more Black"
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wj84tfS7ag4

    (I'm wondering where that clip was filmed. It looks like the beautiful village of Staithes in North Yorkshire, but it doesn't quite fit my memories of the place).
  • PlatoPlato Posts: 15,724
    Eric Olthwaite (Palin) is interested in precipitation patterns in West Yorkshire, shovels and black pudding (his mother makes pudding so black, that even the white bits are black).
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpIilMgHA3s
  • Scott_PScott_P Posts: 51,453
  • Richard_NabaviRichard_Nabavi Posts: 30,822
    TGOHF said:

    Lord Ashcroft ‏@LordAshcroft

    If the @UKLabour Party would like to auction the "EdStone" may I start the bidding at £100000.

    They could raise even more if they bundle in the pink girlie-bus.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 23,937

    Scott_P said:

    This is a masterstroke. Osborne is already committed to running a surplus during the good times (as should any sane Chancellor with our debt as high as it is currently). So its no skin off his nose.

    Now any putative successors need to either make the next election's commitments with this restriction in mind - or formally propose to remove this restriction and be seen as being irresponsible.

    The cherry atop the icing will be if it comes to be known as the anti-Gordo rule
    Ironic too, since Gordon Brown inherited a deficit and ran a surplus for a bit, while paying off debt. Still, this is politics so it may well happen.
    Gordon Brown inherited a path to a surplus and followed it for a little bit, before he changed things and we had a major deficit for seven years before recession. Utter madness.
    That path to a surplus being a deficit and the complete collapse of Conservatives' economic policy.
    Are you being deliberately obtuse?

    Spot the turning points in this graph: http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/oct/18/deficit-debt-government-borrowing-data#img-

    There was a recession in the early 90s leading to a deficit peaking in 1993 and then on a path to surplus that was followed until 2000. That's a budget cycle, but then turned this upside down from 2002-2007 running a major deficit during the good times rather than during/after a recession. When the recession hit then we were already on a major deficit (rather than the surplus we had in 1989 before the last recession).
    Shouldn't the last section be blue/yellow striped.
    I love how the headline is "has the deficit changed since 1946", and then the graph runs from 1979 to 2012.
  • PlatoPlato Posts: 15,724
    edited June 2015
    No one tops HotBlack Desiato - I can't believe the estate agents who took this name are still in business!
    Hotblack Desiato is a humanoid and front man for the band Disaster Area. He was incredibly rich, occasionally buying star systems, and once spent a year dead for tax reasons
    hotblackdesiato.co.uk/Immortalised in the cult sci-fi novel, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by the late Douglas Adams, the real Hotblack Desiato commenced trading under this inimitable style in 1979 quickly forming a successful Islington estate agents office.
    Scott_P said:
  • Tissue_PriceTissue_Price Posts: 9,039
    TGOHF said:

    Lord Ashcroft ‏@LordAshcroft

    If the @UKLabour Party would like to auction the "EdStone" may I start the bidding at £100000.

    Presumably he's going to use it for past vote weighting.
  • Bond_James_BondBond_James_Bond Posts: 1,939

    Mr. Thompson, indeed.

    I wonder what Xbox will do, though. They've gone from Xbox, to Xbox 360, to Xbox One. It's an unconventional naming approach to say the least.

    [On that note, XCOM 2 is actually the 11th game. Even if you only count reboots, it's the 3rd].

    Are you including Xenonauts in the 11?
  • Bob__SykesBob__Sykes Posts: 1,179
    edited June 2015
    TGOHF said:

    Why was Soubry taking part in Scottish Questions when she's not a Scottish Minister?

    Why not ?

    I thought "department" questions were responded to by Ministers from that department?

    Eg - Treasury Ministers respond to Treasury Questions, Foreign Ministers to Foreign Office Questions, Scottish Ministers to Scottish Questions, etc
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,591

    Mr. Thompson, indeed.

    I wonder what Xbox will do, though. They've gone from Xbox, to Xbox 360, to Xbox One. It's an unconventional naming approach to say the least.

    [On that note, XCOM 2 is actually the 11th game. Even if you only count reboots, it's the 3rd].

    Are you including Xenonauts in the 11?
    I must say I found Xenonauts a little frustrating - having missed the first generation of XCOM, I think I was not ready for an apparently much more faithful remake.
  • Plato said:

    I saw an advert for a Samsung Black TV the other day - it looked about as black as my TV too.

    Frankly, I think good black is essential for clarity - but too many shows and films are filmed in Black-O-Vision and I can't see WTF is going on.

    The worst example was some Clint Eastwood film I saw at the flicks - Escape From Alcatraz. I gave up squinting at the screen as I may as well have had my eyes shut.

    Moses_ said:

    TOPPING said:

    Newspapers: I read the DM and Graun online, the latter more than the former plus I comment sometimes on CiF. I buy (occasionally) The Times in print, I look at the DT whenever it's lying around. I count myself a Times Reader.

    Plus am an, um, true blue Cons.

    On TVs - may I be the first to ask: what is a 4k TV?

    Basically a Ultra High Definition TV. About 4 times better picture quality than a normal HD TV


    http://www.which.co.uk/reviews/televisions/article/advice/what-is-4k-tv
    The one thing I find quite amusing is the way TV manufacturers advertise their new super duper HD mega pixel ultra stupendous picture with cars driving around and pint pots exploding in glorious multi colour..........

    ........In an advert on your existing Tv screen.


    ....and some out there must say hell yes !!! .....That looks really good better than my existing picture?
    Alien Versus Predator Requiem :)
    I thought that was to hide how bad the film was ;-)
  • DisraeliDisraeli Posts: 1,106

    TGOHF said:

    Why was Soubry taking part in Scottish Questions when she's not a Scottish Minister?

    Why not ?

    I thought "department" questions were responded to by Ministers from that department?

    Eg - Treasury Ministers respond to Treasury Questions, Foreign Ministers to Foreign Office Questions, Scottish Ministers to Scottish Questions, etc
    Sounds good. Developing the example, they could create a "Hypothetical Minister" to answer Hypothetical Questions. :-)
  • redcliffe62redcliffe62 Posts: 342
    TGOHF said:

    Why was Soubry taking part in Scottish Questions when she's not a Scottish Minister?

    Why not ?

    TGOHF said:

    Why was Soubry taking part in Scottish Questions when she's not a Scottish Minister?

    Why not ?

    As Scot Questions is normally for Scot MP's to question the Tory colonial governor it might be nice to hear him answer questions on his role with Carmichael to slur the French & Scot Govts instead of answering Dorothy Dixers from Eng Mp's about SNP bad with their pesky 60% support and 4 in 5 of those under 34 voting for them next year if polling is right.
  • NeilVWNeilVW Posts: 733
    edited June 2015

    malcolmg said:

    TOPPING said:

    Newspapers: I read the DM and Graun online, the latter more than the former plus I comment sometimes on CiF. I buy (occasionally) The Times in print, I look at the DT whenever it's lying around. I count myself a Times Reader.

    Plus am an, um, true blue Cons.

    On TVs - may I be the first to ask: what is a 4k TV?

    Basically a Ultra High Definition TV. About 4 times better picture quality than a normal HD TV


    http://www.which.co.uk/reviews/televisions/article/advice/what-is-4k-tv
    Define "four times better"!

    The marginal improvement is insignificant.
    It is literally four times the pixels. The change from traditional SDTV to HDTV was four times, which is the same as from HDTV to UHD.
    Yes and to your eyes looks just the same
    I can most definitely tell the difference (just can't currently afford it). It depends on the size of the screen but the bigger the screen the more noticeable the difference.

    My Laptop I'm typing on now is 1920x1080 (the same resolution as full HDTV), there's no reason a 50" TV can't have a higher resolution than a Laptop.
    I din't mean than 4k couldn't be a small improvement, but there's no way your viewing experience will be anything like 4 times better.
    I agree that four times better is an overstatement (as it was for HDTV), but it will be better. Its an understatement to say you can't see the difference.

    I'm looking forward to 4k gaming though I suspect we'll need to wait for PS5 or PS6 to make the most of it. By which point at this rate we could be talking about 16k TVs and so it goes on!
    I believe 4k is at the limit of human visual acuity; any more pixels and we would need new eyes, as someone suggested.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,509
    MattW said:

    malcolmg said:

    MattW said:

    malcolmg said:

    MattW said:

    Yep, Andrea.

    In Holyrood there's currently a wave of SNP Alte Kampfers preparing to retire.

    Cuckoo halfwitted moron
    Love you too, Malc xx

    If you don't like these allusions perhaps you had better have a word with Alex Salmond, George Kerevan (who seems to have it on the brain) and all the rest...


    Matt, you are a sicko , get some help
    When the senior leadership of the SNP, who set the culture of their party, stop being routinely abusive of other people - verging on racist - I'll stop mocking them.

    I don't see that happening any time soon, since their politics is founded on a victim myth.

    Let me know how you get on.

    It would be preferable for there to be a degree of honesty in SNP rhetoric, but I don't see that happening soon either.
    You are not all there for sure
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,509
    TGOHF said:

    malcolmg said:

    TGOHF said:

    Scott_P said:

    Anna Soubry at Scottish Questions seems to be the most adept minister at getting right up the noses of the futile 56

    Pete Wishart is outraged ! Her mere presence on the front bench probably gives just cause for another referendum.
    Dumb and Dumber in tandem nowadays , LOL.
    If we find another 54 we can apply for "utterly futile" status ?
    Harry , I doubt either of you two could find your way to Westminster unless your mother parcelled you up and sent you registered post.
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