Nickster’s View

I am now getting repeated ‘Delayed Write Failures’ on my 400gb Western Digital harddrive. On checking Microsoft support site:
Delayed Write Failure
Data corruption may occur if the Large System Cache feature is enabled in Windows XP. This problem does not occur on all systems. The key ingredients that lead to data corruption may include:
• System Memory […]

Having recently wiped my machine I found myself needing to reinstall Apple’s Quicktime, so I head over to Apple.com to download the latest version.
It turns out that apparently you can no longer download just quicktime - you have to download iTunes 5 (see for yourself). All I want is to watch some quicktime film […]

The great purge is over and I now have a zippy fast XP install, no random b0rks and PLENTY of drivespace.
However, last night in the wee hours I needed to burn a DVD and forgot that I’d destroyed my legal copy of Ahead’s Nero, and the serial number. Ahead are a german company, so […]

I’m one of those users who has to install everything on his machine - mostly to play with and to try out, but being an XP person this means a grotty registry and grim performance after six months or so of heavy playing. I think it has been about a year since my last […]

And it’s still accelerating - the media momentum is apparently at full tilt as Rimmel are now reviewing Kate’s contract. For me, what this is is the fashion industry, notoriously rife with cocaine, basically scapegoating Kate Moss so as to project an image of cleanliness and revulsion at such behaviour. Gross hypocrisy imho.
Weren’t […]

There’s no news. Why? Because the papers and radio seem to want to destroy Kate Moss over some photos of her taking cocaine in the studio with Babyshambles.
I’ll keep this brief:
1) All supermodels do cocaine. Hel-loooooo….McFly. They’re not waif-like through eating habits/disorders alone you know.
2) Why is it that […]

I could hardly believe my eyes this morning when I saw this BBC Sport article. Arsene Wenger calling for entertaining football? Since when did boring Arsenal ever play attractive football?
Worse still, Mourinho says that it’s all about winning, and there is no obligation to play attractive football. Sounds like Arsenal to me.
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The whole world is slowly waking up to the reality that television will be broadcast over IP in the not so distant future (the BBC is running and article on it today).
This for me raises loads of very interesting questions:
1) Is the videotaping (gee, what a quaint word it is now) of broadcast television […]

OMFG - jailbait Stewart, so-called domestic goddess but latter day inside trader (aka criminal) is now going on the USA television for a series of “Apprentice“.
What a farce! Is she going to teach her apprentices how to launder money rather than the family whites? Is she going to share her intimate knowledge of […]

Back in ‘the day’ (read: pre commercial Internet, the land of BBSes) the guy who ran the system was known as the Sysop..pronounced ’sissop’ by most, or ’sye-sop’ by a few.
What I want to know is, when did Sysops become Sysadmins? Personally I think Sysop is a better term, and to the layperson better […]

My first reaction was the same as yours - “why?”. The BBC and Slashdot speculate on it being factored into eBay auctions as a means for buyer-seller communication, or even as a live auctioning mechanism. Me, i’m still back at the “why?” stage - especially the $2bn pricetag. Baffling questions overwhelm my […]

Whilst flicking through the PSP user manual I came across this chilling warning:
“WARNING: Turn off the WLAN switch when in crowded places, such as in a crowded train. If a person nearby is using a pacemaker, it is possible that the radio waves could affect the pacemaker”
Interesting. And possibly very bad. […]

I don’t know why i’ve tolerated it for so long - but it’s just now as i’m preparing a presentation for the doctoral consortium next week that I realise JUST how bad it can be. It’s not the feature set but the holding hands, the constant presumption of what I intend - 90% of […]

I know I keep harping on about piracy, and how the media/entertainment companies of the world appear to be shooting themselves in the foot (repeatedly) by trying to own everything and maximise apparent revenue which vigorously protecting intellectual property - irrespective of the changing marketplace and technological landscape.
I’ve just bought the new Mike Gordon and […]

Dear President Bush,
Now will you finally recognise the importance of global warming and the value of the Kyoto Protocol over economic reasoning? Whatever the economic cost of adhering to Kyoto targets has to be less than the cost of federal disaster relief over the next x number of years. Because let’s be realistic […]

What a game. Simple concept, much like Super Monkey Ball - get blob of mercury through maze to end goal - but fantastic graphics and gameplay. I love ‘feel’ games, and this is one of them in puzzle format but without getting too cerbral and puzzley.
Definitely one of the release titles to buy […]

It’s 3.06am and i’m just back in from queuing outside HMV on Oxford Street for my PSP. Got there at 12.30 and eventually made it to the tills for about 2ish. One PSP and a 1gb memory stick.
My new baby is sitting next to me charging up (I can’t update to version 2.0 […]