Chris#2

shame you don't use the 10-20 much, it's a cracking lens for dx cameras.

that it is... but given I've only used it a couple of times, I can't really justify it any more

This lens, however...

Looking to clear out a couple of my lesser-used lenses, to free up some space in my bag.

Both are Nikon fit, well looked after, boxed, come with soft-case, and less than 9 months old:

• Sigma 10-20mm F4-5.6 EX DC (HSM) - includes 77mm UV filter
  
• Sigma 105mm F2.8 EX DG Macro - unfortunately missing the included lens hood.
  

Each lense would cost 300+ brand new; I'm looking for 220 each.

Ballsacks.

From their updated FAQ section:

PC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

For Windows XP

2.5 GHz P4 (single core) processor or equivalent

1 Gigabyte RAM

A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0

At least 15 GB of hard drive space

For Windows VISTA

2.5 GHz P4 processor or equivalent

2 Gigabyte RAM

A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0

At least 15 GB of hard drive space

Supported Video Cards

ATI Radeon series

9500, 9600, 9800

X300, X600, X700, X800, X850

X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X1950

2400, 2600, 2900,

3650, 3850, 3870

4850, 4870

NVIDIA GeForce series

FX 5900, FX 5950

6600, 6800,

7600, 7800, 7900, 7950

8400, 8500, 8600, 8800

9400, 9500, 9600, 9800

GTX 260, GTX 280

Intel® Extreme Graphics

GMA X4500

Laptop versions of these chipsets may work, but may run comparatively slowly. Standalone cards that are installed in vanilla PCI slots (not PCIe or PCIx or AGP), such as some GeForce FX variants, will perform poorly. Integrated chipsets such as the ATI Xpress and the NVIDIA TurboCache variants will have low settings selected, but should run satisfactorily.

Recommended Audio Hardware

Sound Blaster X-Fi series sound card (Note: Requires Creative ALchemy for Windows Vista)

Please note that attempting to play the game using video hardware that isnt listed above may result in reduced performance, graphical issues or cause the game to not run at all.

The NVIDIA GeForce FX series is unsupported under Vista.

Well if that's the minimum requirement then my laptop can kiss goodbye to ever playing it. Only got a 7600 in it.

That was very early pre-beta specs. Might have changed?

Wouldn't have thought bandwidth would limit graphics capability. They won't be pushing graphics render info down the pipe, just event code mainly. All the graphics stuff should be generated client side.

That's what I would have thought, but the minimum requirements posted in their FAQ a while back had something like a 256MB GeForce 8xxx series card, with DirectX 10 support - there's no way they're using anything like that much power in the areas I've seen.

I haven't fiddled with the settings (just picked the default "high performace"), so maybe there's more I can turn on. Or maybe the "big bang" stuff comes later.

It's not really a problem, just a little underwhelming compared to the hype.

Right then... one 9GB(!) download + 45 minute install + 30 minutes of patch downloads later, I finally got WAR up and running.

It's a decent enough MMO. There's not the same level of polish as Warcraft (to be expected, I guess), but initial impressions are it's got potential to be great.

Good Bits:

* there's a proper, cohesive story-line - no running after random mosters like WoW

* It feels like Warhammer should do. It's big and it's epic. Right from the beginning you are thrown into a warzone (no "safe" n00b area).

* there's proper bad guys to fight, not just the local wildlife

* everything you do seems to have some sort of impact in the game

* Public Quests are FUN.

* RVR (pvp) actually means something!

* It doesn't try to be Warcraft, but there are enough familiar elements to get you started

* Achievements, Titles + other unlockables make the game more fun and competitive.

Bad Bits:

* There's not enough explanation of how things work. I realise I'm playing pre-release, with no manual, but some sort of eplanation as to how my Sword Master's Blade Dance (combat mechanic) works would be nice.

* Related to the above, it would be nice to know how the trade skills, Merchants, items etc work. And where's the Auction House? Flight points?

* It's not as pretty as was hyped. The graphics are good, the scenery is impressive, and I guess there's a limit on how far to push it (bandwidth?), but on max settings, vs WoW, I prefer the slightly cartoony look of Warcraft. On the other hand, it's not quite finished...

With a fair wind my newly-ordered PC will arrive tomorrow, so I'll be able to find out for myself

confirmed unless CityLink balls it up, the bits for my new PC arrive tomorrow morning.

Right... how does one switch from Mac to Windows?? I'm more used to helping people go the other way... o_O

try here - The Whisky Exchange : Whisky Shop, Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Whiskies of the World, Rare Whisky - I bought a vintage bottle for my father-in-law's retirement. Dunno if they go down to the exact day, but worth a look.

Apparently the tram lines down Union St. are still in place - they just laid tarmac over them. Dunno if it's true, but multiple people have told me this.

The trams in Manchester are brilliant. Aberdeen could do with a service like that.

8/10 - Better than I'd hoped for. I'd worried it would be like 90% of the GW-based games (i.e. all style, no substance).

With a fair wind my newly-ordered PC will arrive tomorrow, so I'll be able to find out for myself

I've got a pre-order for the WAR collectors edition - I'd be playing the Open Beta right now, if I had a PC...

Happily, I can still play Warcraft on my Mac. I'm currently trying to reach the level-cap before the expansion arrives. Only 9 more levels to go

From what I've heard, the LOTR game looks good but is actually pretty pish. A girl here at work plays it, but will be ditching it when she reaches max-level 'cos the content is pants.

but like a car crash, you just can't look away:

It's definitely going on my work machine tomorrow. Going on the first 5-10 minutes of use I think I've found a new favourite browser.

I'm using it right now to browse this site.

Even though it's running in a virtual machine copy of Windows Vista, compared to FF3 running natively on my Mac, it's very, very FAST.

listening to the new album just now... a bit dissapointed, TBH. It starts well; 'Gematria' is brill - probably the best riff on the album, 'Psychosocial' is OK and the title track is pretty good, but the rest is pretty dull plodding sludge.

So the first impression's not a good one. It's getting 3 out of 5 on first listen.

I thought it was a bit of a mashup of 'Hero of the Day', 'Unforgiven' and 'One'. A borderline average one at that. It's not bad, but once I got past the initial "OMG, it's a new Metallica track" it didn't exactly set my world on fire. Hopefully the album will have better tunes on it.

Finally completed MGS4 at 5am this morning.

Awesome, awesome game. Really unbelievably good in places.

Yes, you (generally) need fans on the water-cooling radiator, but you can run them much, much slower, making them quieter. Water-cooling is great. My next PC will have everything but the PSU water-cooled.

As for the rest of the stuff - Silverstone make a very nice line in kit designed to be as quiet as possible. Their stuff is a little pricier than most, but I find the quality is generally quite a bit better. The PSUs are particularly good. Depending on what your needs are, they do a 100% silent PSU (400W IRCC), which has no fan at all. I built my father-in-law's PC out of almost entirely Silverstone stuff (case, cooler, psu, fans, etc), and it's pretty much silent. Cost about 150 for everything, but it was worth it IMO.

Another option would be acoustic lining for your case, but in my experience it tends to boost the temperatures in your case by a good 3-5 degrees at least.

One final thing to look at is the quality of your case in general - if it's an el-cheapo one, chances are the quality isn't too good, which ususally contributes to noise - extra vibration from loose joins and thinner panels, poorer cooling performance (so your fans have to work harder), and so on.

WinSCP, as it can run off my USB pendrive

The interface is a bit old-skool, but so is FTP, so it's forgiven.

I've got one; use it for everything from photo editing in Adobe Lightroom, to light gaming in World of Warcraft, with a large chunk of cross-platform + web development thrown in. For the price they're good little (tiny!) machines.

That said, mine's reaching the end of it's useful life for me - Warhammer Online is out in September, and it needs a heftier graphics card than what's in the Mini

My copy arrived this morning

I use Onestop Digital for most of my lenses. Shipping is from Hong Kong, but it's usually here in 2-4 days.

what are the battery lives on these new ones?

I go a full week (sometimes more) between charges on my iPod Touch; using it for music, video, and web surfing quite a lot.