Useless Things That will Hasten the Demise of Civilisation

DonDaddyD

Wallace, how old are you? Next you'll be saying that you protested when colour TV was released to the masses.

Monkeypump

Jay dubbleU wrote:

Even with better headphones the iPOD still turns people into shuffling morons - pedestrians who seem totally unaware of their surroundings and just wander in front of you - actually I think people in general seem to be unaware of their surroundings as they shuffle round in herds - its probably this more than anything else that will bring about the downfall of civilisation - look how we have failed to manage after a couple of days of snow

Not sure the iPod is as fault here - stupid people will always be stupid people. If they weren't shuffling around listening to music, they'd be doing something else to irritate the rest of us.

DonDaddyD

Wallace1492 wrote:

Il Principe wrote:

DonDaddyD wrote:

Wallace1492 wrote:

I see no difference in quality between normal and HD (yes, TV is HD)

Are you sure you're watching something sent by a proper HD signal?

+1 The difference is night and day. Especially when you stick on a Bluray and compare it to a SD movie.

Yes, getting a proper HD through my V+.
I honestly cannot see difference.

Have you got a proper HD TV?

Wallace1492

DonDaddyD wrote:

Wallace, how old are you? Next you'll be saying that you protested when colour TV was released to the masses.

Colour TV?

I am happy with the HD on my Granada B&W portable, but honestly cannot see the difference....





OK, that was a joke.

TV is pretty new, March last year. Maybe my eyes are not the best as I honestly cannot see the big difference. I will say, it does look slightly sharper, but not mind alteringly so.

Does nobody else think it is not THAT much better?

wgwarburton

DonDaddyD wrote:

...Pretty much the same as the witch-hunters back in the darkages that pushed humans backwards after all the wonderful advancements the Romans made. "Aquaducts who needs them, lets just throw all our waste out the window or into the cesspit and bring forth the black death" :roll: ...

Surely that wasn't "witch-hunters" so much as the collapse of civilisation. The Roman empire lost its ability to rule and in their absence only limited government prevailed. Without sufficient organisation, infrastructure like aqueducts was unsustainable and fell into disuse.
It wasn't the actions of a few but the failure of many to act together.

Cheers,
W.

Monkeypump

Wallace1492 wrote:

You don't need all that stuff. A to Z - Look at a map the night before, and you will know where you are going, if you get lost ask a Policeman!. A diary - small scrap of paper, back of fag packet. MP3 - hum a tune in your head. Camera - are you the press? No, well you need not a camera. Phone - a couple of shiney 2p pieces will sort you out at any of the red phoneboxes dotted handily all over the place. E-mail - just pop a letter in any of the handy red pillar boxer dotted all over the place.

My next thing you will be wanting some stables for your horesless carriages!!

Yours, Victorian Father.

Hilarious, but alarmingly close to the truth for many it seems

BTW, as a reluctant recent convert to the iPhone there is no way to deny it - the interface works brilliantly (same for the iPod) and careful choice of app(lication)s makes it a very useful device.

Edit: iPhone is so much better than my BlackBerry.

DonDaddyD

WGW, yes, yes that is what happens. I was... are forget it.

Tonight I shall do away with my central heating and light a fire in the living room made of books and trees instead.

suzyb

SecretSam wrote:

Oh - and Celebrity Magazines, from Hello down the food chain. The use of trees to produce such sh17 is offensive beyond belief.

+1000

Wallace1492 wrote:

A few mates also concur, and they have seen it in shops where they show a spilt screen with the difference. The difference is, there is no difference. It is the Emperors New Clothes.

I don't see much of a difference with the split screen in shops either but with something like football then it is obvious because the grass is so much clearer with HD.

Wallace1492

DonDaddyD wrote:

...Pretty much the same as the witch-hunters back in the darkages that pushed humans backwards after all the wonderful advancements the Romans made. "Aquaducts who needs them, lets just throw all our waste out the window or into the cesspit and bring forth the black death" :roll: ...

Jesus.... now this is worrying. My sink in my kitchen is blocked and I am throwing the waste water out the back door, not the window.... If you hear of a sudden outbreak of bubonic plague centring on Glasgow, and I have not posted... then farewell my friends!!

il_principe

Shops aren't really the best place to test these things sadly, they tend to feck around with the settings. I prefer to look at equipment in shops staffed by folk who actually know what they are doing - so not Dixons etc.

Porgy

aga cookers - as if middle class people aren't doing their best to wreck the planet with their 4xwheel drives, they then stick one of these inefficient monstrosities in their country cottage. :evil:

also never saw the point in irons - if we all agree that wrinkled clothes are fashionable then we won't need them ever again.

Money - trading goods and skills is cool

digital radio / tv - fecking useless, can't listen/ watch it where i live unless you're dangling the aerial out of the window and as long as a car isn't driving past at the time...and it's a tremendous waste of energy just as we need to cut down.

illuminated advertisements - especially the ones that move. Grrrrrrr :evil:

UndercoverElephant

DonDaddyD wrote:

UndercoverElephant wrote:

Worldwide market share for Macs? 10%.
Number of viruses? 1, and it asked for a username and password before installing.

Worldwide market share for windows? 88%
Number of viruses? Roughly 1 million.

Do you really think that people aren't trying to be the first to properly floor the Mac?

I'm not seeing your point, beyond scare mongering. If I bought a Mac today I take solace in knowing that there is less chance of it being attacked by a virus. I also would take solace in knowing that everything works.

I've had macs for years, I don't have virus scanners, and I don't need them. I was more responding to null's assertion that macs were secure, as nobody was bothering to attack them. I probably forgot to come across as a fanboy, but I don't really care if other people use windows. I just wouldn't want my kids browsing the net on a windows box.

always_tyred

UndercoverElephant wrote:

DonDaddyD wrote:

UndercoverElephant wrote:

Worldwide market share for Macs? 10%.
Number of viruses? 1, and it asked for a username and password before installing.

Worldwide market share for windows? 88%
Number of viruses? Roughly 1 million.

Do you really think that people aren't trying to be the first to properly floor the Mac?

I'm not seeing your point, beyond scare mongering. If I bought a Mac today I take solace in knowing that there is less chance of it being attacked by a virus. I also would take solace in knowing that everything works.

I've had macs for years, I don't have virus scanners, and I don't need them. I was more responding to null's assertion that macs were secure, as nobody was bothering to attack them. I probably forgot to come across as a fanboy, but I don't really care if other people use windows. I just wouldn't want my kids browsing the net on a windows box.

If everyone used Mac's, you'd need antivirus software.

Would you use Windows if that happened?

tailwindhome

Porgy wrote:

Money - trading goods and skills is cool

So there would be no saving

No lending or borrowing

And what would you do if you wanted my goods but I didn't need your skills or services?

MonkeyMonster

WheezyMcChubby wrote:

And what would you do if you wanted my goods but I didn't need your skills or services?

Kill you and take them.

tailwindhome

MonkeyMonster wrote:

WheezyMcChubby wrote:

And what would you do if you wanted my goods but I didn't need your skills or services?

Kill you and take them.

It did occur to me that Porgy's avatar did look a bit like the Yorkshire Ripper

DonDaddyD

Always Tyred wrote:

UndercoverElephant wrote:

DonDaddyD wrote:

UndercoverElephant wrote:

Worldwide market share for Macs? 10%.
Number of viruses? 1, and it asked for a username and password before installing.

Worldwide market share for windows? 88%
Number of viruses? Roughly 1 million.

Do you really think that people aren't trying to be the first to properly floor the Mac?

I'm not seeing your point, beyond scare mongering. If I bought a Mac today I take solace in knowing that there is less chance of it being attacked by a virus. I also would take solace in knowing that everything works.

I've had macs for years, I don't have virus scanners, and I don't need them. I was more responding to null's assertion that macs were secure, as nobody was bothering to attack them. I probably forgot to come across as a fanboy, but I don't really care if other people use windows. I just wouldn't want my kids browsing the net on a windows box.

If everyone used Mac's, you'd need antivirus software.

Would you use Windows if that happened?

Mac would probably make antivirus software that worked....

rolf_f

lost_in_thought wrote:

So, what, anything people can use all the time is evil because it's not self-limiting? Right, that's TV, computers, cookers, landlines.... actually anything mains-powered out the window. In fact, let's make everything AA battery powered.

What about bikes? They don't even need batteries. You can use them whenever you feel like it. Get rid of them immediately. I wonder if we could convert them to AA batteries...

Noooo, not at all. All I meant was that in the case of the MP3 player, it is the fact that it can be (and is) used all the time that makes it evil. As for bikes, I find my own batteries make those self limiting

Attica wrote:

Rolf F wrote:

Honestly, ipod is evil. Just say no!

So you are insistent on using the brand name then

Do you see what I mean - they've brainwashed me and I detest the whole company

lost_in_thought

Actually, Agas are great - ours heats one whole end of the house due to an intelligent soul using heating pipes to conduct the hot air vent through radiators in a closed cycle before releasing it, thus preventing us having to use the oil-fired central-heating for that area.

Also, because it's always warm the (large) kitchen requires no heating, and it doesn't have to be pre-heated for anything. Despite the ridiculous cost of gas (we don't have mains), the aga costs us less to run than the electricity consumption difference when we took out the large electric fan assisted range we used to have, so it can't be that bad. Constant, yes, but a very slow burn.

In a warm climate, however, they'd be a nuisance.

However, celebrity magazines, yeah, they can go.

il_principe

Porgy wrote:

aga cookers - as if middle class people aren't doing their best to wreck the planet with their 4xwheel drives, they then stick one of these inefficient monstrosities in their country cottage. :evil:

lost_in_thought wrote:

Actually, Agas are great .

+1 My folks have one, and two 4x4's, but then when you live and work in the countryside these things tend to be fairly necessary. Painting all aga using 4x4 owning people as middle class planet wreckers is just a little c0ckish.

lost_in_thought

Il Principe wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

Actually, Agas are great .

+1 My folks have one, and two 4x4's, but then when you live and work in the countryside these things tend to be fairly necessary. Painting all aga using 4x4 owning people as middle class planet wreckers is just a little c0ckish.

+ several. Believe it or not, some people actually need 4x4s.

stuaff

-null- wrote:

SecretSam wrote:

Oh - and Celebrity Magazines, from Hello down the food chain. The use of trees to produce such sh17 is offensive beyond belief.

+1000

Wallace1492 wrote:

A few mates also concur, and they have seen it in shops where they show a spilt screen with the difference. The difference is, there is no difference. It is the Emperors New Clothes.

I don't see much of a difference with the split screen in shops either but with something like football then it is obvious because the grass is so much clearer with HD.

The split screen demos in shops are BS- a decent SD source looks much better on my new TV (full HD 32") than they purport to show. On my setup (with fairly cheap but quality HDMI cables), SD (off air or via SCART from my PVR) look pretty good, upscaled DVDs look excellent (on BR or DVD player), as for Blu-Ray....wow. Any of my first few discs look fantastic. .With decent cabling and the TV set up correctly, there's a big difference over regular SD systems. BR's not hugely over upscaled DVD, which is more than passable, but significantly better nonetheless.

suzyb

UndercoverElephant wrote:

DonDaddyD wrote:

UndercoverElephant wrote:

Worldwide market share for Macs? 10%.
Number of viruses? 1, and it asked for a username and password before installing.

Worldwide market share for windows? 88%
Number of viruses? Roughly 1 million.

Do you really think that people aren't trying to be the first to properly floor the Mac?

I'm not seeing your point, beyond scare mongering. If I bought a Mac today I take solace in knowing that there is less chance of it being attacked by a virus. I also would take solace in knowing that everything works.

I've had macs for years, I don't have virus scanners, and I don't need them. I was more responding to null's assertion that macs were secure, as nobody was bothering to attack them. I probably forgot to come across as a fanboy, but I don't really care if other people use windows. I just wouldn't want my kids browsing the net on a windows box.

I don't get your post then as it seems to support my pov of there being less virus problems with macs because they have a lesser market share.

DonDaddyD wrote:

Mac would probably make antivirus software that worked....

Except anti-virus software can only block viruses it is aware of so will always be one step behind the virus writers no matter who develops it.

il_principe

lost_in_thought wrote:

Il Principe wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

Actually, Agas are great .

+1 My folks have one, and two 4x4's, but then when you live and work in the countryside these things tend to be fairly necessary. Painting all aga using 4x4 owning people as middle class planet wreckers is just a little c0ckish.

+ several. Believe it or not, some people actually need 4x4s.

'xactly - try checking on the welfare of livestock in the snow in a fecking Prius. Or heating an old farmhouse in a gas free area with electricity...

lost_in_thought

Il Principe wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

Il Principe wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

Actually, Agas are great .

+1 My folks have one, and two 4x4's, but then when you live and work in the countryside these things tend to be fairly necessary. Painting all aga using 4x4 owning people as middle class planet wreckers is just a little c0ckish.

+ several. Believe it or not, some people actually need 4x4s.

'xactly - try checking on the welfare of livestock in the snow in a fecking Prius. Or heating an old farmhouse in a gas free area with electricity...

We have a gas tank and the calorgas man comes and fills it! Gas fired aga = marginally cheaper apparently...

il_principe

StuAff wrote:

The split screen demos in shops are BS- a decent SD source looks much better on my new TV (full HD 32") than they purport to show. On my setup (with fairly cheap but quality HDMI cables), SD (off air or via SCART from my PVR) look pretty good, upscaled DVDs look excellent (on BR or DVD player), as for Blu-Ray....wow. Any of my first few discs look fantastic. .With decent cabling and the TV set up correctly, there's a big difference over regular SD systems. BR's not hugely over upscaled DVD, which is more than passable, but significantly better nonetheless.

The quality of HDMI cable is a red herring. Digital signal doesn't degrade in the short journey from box to TV so there's no point in spending £££ on bling cabling, despite what the likes of IXOS would have you believe. Of course analogue cabling is a whole new argument...

tlw1

lost_in_thought wrote:

Il Principe wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

Actually, Agas are great .

+1 My folks have one, and two 4x4's, but then when you live and work in the countryside these things tend to be fairly necessary. Painting all aga using 4x4 owning people as middle class planet wreckers is just a little c0ckish.

+ several. Believe it or not, some people actually need 4x4s.

Yep - went to a funeral today & needed a lift of someone in a Range Rover as the Ferrari 550 we were in couldn't get up the slope to the wake

suzyb

lost_in_thought wrote:

Actually, Agas are great - ours heats one whole end of the house due to an intelligent soul using heating pipes to conduct the hot air vent through radiators in a closed cycle before releasing it, thus preventing us having to use the oil-fired central-heating for that area.

Also, because it's always warm the (large) kitchen requires no heating, and it doesn't have to be pre-heated for anything. Despite the ridiculous cost of gas (we don't have mains), the aga costs us less to run than the electricity consumption difference when we took out the large electric fan assisted range we used to have, so it can't be that bad. Constant, yes, but a very slow burn.

In a warm climate, however, they'd be a nuisance.

However, celebrity magazines, yeah, they can go.

I want an aga now. Our kitchen (and the back of the house in general) hovers between cold and freezing.

iain_j

SecretSam wrote:

Oh - and Celebrity Magazines, from Hello down the food chain. The use of trees to produce such sh17 is offensive beyond belief.

oh, plus infinity times two million, and those who spend the day discussing them too :shock:

Coriander

lost_in_thought wrote:

Actually, Agas are great - ours heats one whole end of the house due to an intelligent soul using heating pipes to conduct the hot air vent through radiators in a closed cycle before releasing it, thus preventing us having to use the oil-fired central-heating for that area.

Also, because it's always warm the (large) kitchen requires no heating, and it doesn't have to be pre-heated for anything. Despite the ridiculous cost of gas (we don't have mains), the aga costs us less to run than the electricity consumption difference when we took out the large electric fan assisted range we used to have, so it can't be that bad. Constant, yes, but a very slow burn.

In a warm climate, however, they'd be a nuisance.

However, celebrity magazines, yeah, they can go.

+1 to Agas being fab - my parents had one in their big old, draughty old house in Yorkshire and the only warm room was the kitchen and the family den which had a wall backing onto the Aga. They also give free laundry drying on racks above them. Now they live in SW France where an Aga would be insane given the summer temperatures, but how my mother still yearns for one.

+1 to celebrity mags as well.

Oh, an Lits, I will explain how 24 hour news channels will bring about the end of civilisation later. But it will.