The little joy has finally arrived, and while it is an absolute delight, there are some caveats. HDMI doesn’t seem to work out of the box (firmware upgrade needed) and I had to use my TV’s compound video to start getting it going. Hence the rather creative cabling. Another problem are fancy USB peripherals: my spare USB Keyboard has loads of lights, but they overwhelm the little Pi’s power consumption, so it doesn’t work fully. Luckily SSH works without a problem, so I can use my Macbook’s terminal to set it up. But these little glitches don’t really matter. Most importantly, it works, and only costs 30 quid. How cool is that?
I know you are currently in terminal decline, and I will only hold you up for a minute. I used to be a proud owner of innumerable Sony Walkmen, Discmen, MD Players, Mobile Phones and even a PS3, and now I own one of your TVs, the magnificently named KDL-32cx523 (I am sure you’re paying the guy coming up with the names for your stuff loads of money). You know what, terminal decline yes or no, I really like it. It wasn’t particularly expensive, it’s not ugly, it has a beautiful picture, works really well with the internet and my home network and makes the best girlfriend happy because she can watch her favourite crime dramas on BBC in HD on it. So far, so good. There are just 2 little niggles.
a) do you really think I would spend eighty pounds for a Sony labelled USB web camera worth 2 pence so I can Skype in front of the TV?
b) your HD recording feature is magnificent, but have you ever thought about that no one in their right mind formats their hard disk in FAT32 anymore? If you insist that an external HD is to be formatted in ancient file format, then PLEASE, FOR PETE’S SAKE, TELL ME IN YOUR BLOODY MANUAL AND DON’T LET ME SCOUR THE INTERNET FOR HOURS!
Best wishes,
Fordiebianco
P.S. May your share price equal the Royal Bank of Scotland’s.
….I had a series of micro computers (ZX 81, Spectrum, QL, Amiga 500, Amiga 2000), and because of these, human interaction was at times less important for me than the other kids. But somehow you wanted to be in contact with other users, nerds, anorak and geeks, and so I had to buy one of those:
This is what us geeks call an ‘acoustic coupler’. This chunky device would convert the bits and bytes that you wanted to transfer over the phonelines into a very particular noise that would very soon became the acoustic promise of excitement, entertainment and the world of unlimited geekyness. What you would is dial the number of a ‘Bulletin Board System’ (BBS), wait for the ‘free’ tone on the other side and plunge the handset onto the coupler and watch in amazement on your computer screen how a connection would between the two machines would be established and the welcome screen of your favourite BBS would appear. Something like this:
Of course my mate Sven had to have one of those, and a few years later I was able to get one as well, and I finally added myself to the, er, cool kids (ok, young men without a girlfriend) that would meet online and in real life. The Tuborg Box Cologne was my favourite hangout, and there are many legends around these user meets that I will not repeat.
Anyway, a chap who happens to hang around one of my favourite websites made a 5 hour documentary about BBSs, their inventors and their users. Absolutely brilliant stuff if you can tolerate a few rather awkward individuals sprinkled into the mix, but the stories are fascinating, the personalities enormous and the geek factor 11 out of ten.
Messaged from the Outhouse 