Simple Smart phone? A contradiction in terms – rather sums things up.

If you want a simple phone, buy a simple phone!

That’ll mean they won’t be able to lock themselves in a closed Police station so easily! Just think of all the telly they will miss.

OH FFS! The BBC are stuck again, damn them!

It’s a news blackout for the whole day while we hear about soft layering in bridal dresses and who is going to be Kate Middleton’s fashion advisor!! AAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!! I want a TV license refund!

I can’t wait until it’s all over!

Is she supposed to be funny?? Wow!

What would it take for you to think of the royals, as you did back in the 1970’s?

A lobotomy?

Hahahahahaha! Don’t hold back cynic-al! 😆 😆 😆 😆

The only thing I know to be true about televisions is that no matter how good the picture gets the programmes are almost all shite.

😆 So true! If only those reviewing these products would occasionally throw in this little pearl of wisdom!

An original receipt with corresponding serial number would be a start.

You need to talk to the seller and size him/her up.

Trust your intuition.

She doesn’t squeeze my teabag either.

which was the other post then?

Get a phone with an MP3 player. Are your files MP3, or iPod specific? Make sure that you only select devices compatible with your music format, or you will need to re-rip.

If you already have an iPod, the latest Touch is a great unit, so you might find it easier to stick with the brand. I’d use Apple if they didn’t lock me in to their way of doing things and if their players were a bit more reasonably priced. My phone does the job and so i’ve now only got one gadget to think about, carry, charge etc.

I didn’t realise they wee hyped, just decent middle quality cars.

I suppose Elfin isn’t going to post his results coz they were off the scale! 😀

Need one tomorrow

as well as having his wife’s boobs rubbed all over him!

I’m a bit more authoritarian than Ghandi.

I’ve got a “barberess”. She was a bit curvy a year ago, but took up running again. She’s tall, blonde and very very fit! Hasn’t rubbed her boobs on my head yet though. 😆 Charges a tenner now – worth every penny.

Guess this thread is quite topical now. Just watching the ITV news special.

CharlieMungus – Member
This stuff is dross, lucky I’m a celebrity is back on.

I’d like to say +1, but that could be rubbish too.

I’ll get back to you on that one! 😆

Great news! I hope they bounce back quickly.

I wonder what the most popular car would look like. I suspect it would it be bland and conventional because most people have a preconceived idea about how a car should look, so anything radical would get the thumbs down, despite whether it’s actually good looking.

Er, Mr Overshoot, I kicked off with the Rodius, so that’s not allowed.

Certainly when i bought my set Plasmas were much better at covering up the artefacts on SD broadcasts. That may have changed now.

This has always been my experience too.

Jools, these cars don’t qualify i’m afraid.

Possibly the ugliest car of all time….

In the 70’s we had a cock neighbour who had one of those E Types and white Rolls Royce. The French au pair came to the doorstep one morning as he was sitting in the E Type. She was trying to tell him someone was on the phone for him, but he got distracted and hit the accelerator whilst reversing and took out both cars in one go. The air turned blue – hilarious!

Are Estate Agents Retarded?

YES!

They need to understand the difference between a notion of a property’s value and a realistic market price.

They need to stop exagerrating, lying and cheating and start charging a sensible fee. (0.5% MAX!)

Perhaps even get of their backsides and do something useful, like a day’s hard graft!

Grrrrrr!

Arighi Bianchi is a good store, but Macclesfield is not that close to Hull. They will deliver anywhere though.

BTW scatter cushions should actually be called clutter cushions. It’s a female thing whereby everything has to be to fussy and frilly and largely unnecessary. 😆

Keep it simple, that’s what i say!

Stupid ugly design and an even more stupid name. KKKKKEEEEEEIIIIILLLLL TTTHHHHEEEEEMMMMM! 😆 😆 😆 😆

We own a Nissan “Cackshyster” and trust me, they are total rubbish! Don’t touch ’em!

What possesed me to even entertain the thought of one is a bit of a mystery.

Actually, it was the missus reaction to me suggesting she should have a practical 5 seater plus two half sized child seats type vehicle – a Zafira or a Mazda 5

That new compact Nissan, whatever it’s called, that’s been properly thrashed with the ugly stick!

The solution is a Golf diesel!

So you were brainwashed by C4 last night then?

No, this is a view countries like China hold about western democracies. The programme on Channel 4 was very interesting and from what I could see, was critical of government of any political persuasion. These economists were saying that big government was too expensive and that the entire democratic system is a fraud because it supports bribery and employs too much of the working population. It certainly showed how commercially/financially incompetent politicians are. It also showed that, despite the cuts being made at present, the public debt will still grow.

I’d avoid Freeview HD and go for Freesat with a Humax PVR (£300), higher bandwidth means more HD channels can be carried in the future, we already watch BBC1 and ITV1 in full HD plus BBC HD and ITV HD.

The frame rate on terrestrial Freeview is actually higher than on Freesat.

With all digital TV, the compression rates are dynamic, so picture quality can and does vary according to what the broadcaster wishes to transmit.

Do you mean ghosting (where e.g. a football leaves a trail across the pitch)?

From your description it sounds like compression artefacts to me

No, not compression arefacts, this is about the way the digital processor in the TV handles the material it’s receiving. As I said earlier, higher frequency processor sets can mitigate this issue. I saw this problem displayed in an early Loewe CRT TV, when entry level plasma technology was IRO £6000. So it’s not really too much to do with flat panels, or their resolution capability.

Digital Motion Artefacts

Kuros were indeed impressive TV’s, but Pioneer could not compete with these very expensive units and ceased production. Pioneer were always at the top of the game with their lazer disc players and retained this well deserved reputation when producing DVD players etc. Up and coming companies in the TV market, like Samsung and LG have been producing excellent value TV’s, significantly undercutting the traditional market leaders: Sony/Panasonic. I think TV’s are much of a muchness now, so i’d probably go for an energy efficient mid range priced plasma from LG. It’s about personal preference in the end, but I believe the plasma screen delivers a marginally better image pound for pound, but one day this will undoubdtedly change as LCD continues to improve.

LCD TV’s are backlit be either a cold cathode tube (bit like a fluorecent lighting tube) , or LED. Two types of LED – perimeter lit or backpanel array. The latter is superior because of the uniformity of illumination and can be dynamically dimmed to reflect dark and light parts of the immage – better contrast.

Then there’s plasma gas lit TVs. Traditionally more energy inefficient, but this is no longer the case.

One other technology is AMOLED – very expensive and not widely available. These all tend to be quite small at present due to the economies of production etc. They are low energy and very vibrant in colour with excellent contrast.

All flat panel TV’s suffer from motion artifacts when receiving lower resolution images – such as a typical standard definition Freeview or Freesat/Sky picture. The motion part of the image gets jumbled/fuzzy until the material becomes more static – not a good thing if you watch sport.

The processing in TV’s has got much faster in recent years which mitigates this problem, but doesn’t erradicate it.

In the real world, most of your time will be spent watching broadcast material.

Higher definition material is beginning to be broadcast, but it will be many years before all mainstream content is near HD. The resolution is 1080i – half that of a Blue Ray player’s capability.

Blue Ray players produce excellent sharp images at a higher resolution than any broadcast. It is unlikely that broascast signals will ever reach this level, but this is true HD. Blue Ray results on any kind of TV are impressive, with no discernible difference in quality between types of set of equal resolution capability (at normal viewing distances).

3D is a gimmick in my opinion, but go see them in action and form your own opinion. Ask whether you would you all bother to sit there with numpty 3D glasses on? In practice, there would be so little 3D content, that you would never use this function, so my advice is don’t waste your money on 3D.

There is a newer version of HD TV which is several years away which has 4 times the clarity of current 1080p recordings. Personally, I can’t see the point unless we are all going to have 100″ flat panel TV’s. Blue Ray has plenty enough clarity for TV’s up to 50-60″.

Plasma TV’s will give a better picture than LCD’s pound for pound on standard definition day to day material. You could get a super high frequency LCD to mitigate this, but a plasma will do the job for less money. Do not confuse/compare the frequency rates for plasma with LCD – these are specifications that are quite different between the two technologies.

John Lewis’s “never knowingly undersold” is nonsense. You really only paying a premium for the 5 year warranty and for JL to display sets in their stores.

Search online for best deals and no retailer with a high street presence can compete on price. If you are bothered about warranty (i’m not), get a competitve quote at the point of sale.

Hope this helps clear up some of the confusion!

Good luck.

Drugs are just a sticking plaster and in some cases, i reckon they can often cause more harm than good.

I really think we have become too dependant on this sort of medication and it’s all too easy for a GP to diagnose anxiety/depression, then pack you off with a script – “NEXT”! It’s a cop out IMO.

What is needed is counselling/therapy/good listeners who’re caring and sincere, who know instinctively how to handle the situation. This is the stumbling block IMO.

Sometimes, the best thing is to just do nothing, to not have couselling, or drugs and to just get on with it.

Good luck adjusting to not having to take these drugs.

WOW! I’m amazed at how some people are so sensitive/concerned as to whether they are thought of by others as being cool! Who really cares what other people think? I say be your own man, stuff the trends! FFS! Let the sheep follow you if they want to, but equally, if they don’t who cares!

If you love the snow, who cares how you get down the mountain?

Can only be a bunch of kids who’re getting steamed up about this.

£££££££££££££££

Only a couple of hundred quid for the machine, then all you need is some untreated birch timber.

…..and a small mortgage to pay for the elecricity.

Which begs the question: can you get solid fuel powered saunas?

£££££££££££££££

Only a couple of hundred quid for the machine, then all you need is some untreated birch timber.

…..and a small mortgage to pay for the elecricity.

Which begs the question: can you get solid fuel powered saunas?

And credit to the BBC for allowing the peaceful protesters to air their disgust about the violent minority. Quality reporting!

The Police management of the crowd has been expamplary so far. It must be difficult working in that situation, knowing that so many people are watching on TV, but who can’t actually see the heated exchanges.

It’s a great shame that a few idiots behave like this, because it discredits the majority who are only there for a peaceful demonstration.

I sailed to Belgium for a long weekend this summer. I was expecting Ostend to be a dreary half deserted town with not much going on at night.

How TOTALLY wrong was I! The place is vibrant, full of good shops and restaurants and the nightlife was awesome. For some reason, it felt like a very busy ski resort when we were doing the circuit of bars and clubs one night. A real mix of styles and cultures. There was no bad behaviour, or people dressed like chavs, just unaffected normal people. Remarkable considering the bars stay open until at least 4am and everyone was hammered.

The place was very clean and it was evident that your average Ostend Belgian has a much better standard of living that your average Brit.

There are lots os high rise apartments overlook the huge promenade and beach, but it wasn’t ugly, we just don’t do large development on our coatline. The marina with it’s tallship and the church are very attractive places to hang out.

In all a very pleasant surprise. I wouldn’t hesitate to go back and am pretty amazed that this fantastic place has remained so obsure.

What made me laugh was a Belgian guy who we got chatting to after I commented on his fixed wheeler. It turned out he loves cycling in Devon and goes there every summer. He was raving about it which only underpins the notion that the grass is always greener. Mind you Devon is a lot nicer than most parts (apart from all the hills).