Editorial, December 04
Toys, shops.. and why won't that darned printer work?

But first... something to do with Airsoft. Beware this editorial contains nudity, harsh language, and worse... maybe even some "flashing images". I'm not quite sure at what point some idiot decided to warn people about flashing images coming from a TV. Lets face it, the whole point of a TV is to flash images. Lets state a few more obvious things.. warning this editorial will waffle on and on and on and on and on ... and .. on. Heh, no need to worry I'm not going to go off on a AndyR/Gremlin - promise (although curiously I note that he's promised to tone down his webpage of late, dunno why I quite enjoyed reading it as it was myself).

Well the run up to Christmas was fun, just before the break I popped up to see the guys at Airsoft Armoury and very much enjoyed spending a day up there. The place over the road does some rather nice lasange which came with green stuff, which I'm told is good for me. Things were quieter than normal, as it was only a few days before Christmas but the store was well stocked and nicely re-organised. If you do pop up and visit do make sure you put anything you play with back on the wall in a tidy fashion as Allister gets to tidy it all before he goes home for his sins. ;)

I picked up a new torch while I was there at AA, and there will be a selection of new reviews coming shortly. I'll have them online the second I finish them! Next mission is to get out to the other UK retailers that I've not seen in far too long.

I did write a whole load to go on here on the portable while I was out, but

For anyone that's interested there's an interview with me on the January issue of Ballistic (the online magazine at Airsoft Hawaii). The style of review was quite unexpected actually, I answered a heap of questions that they sent over to me and then they rearranged the content I sent back into a kind of narrative styled article. It's quite a different tact that they've taken in style and I think it works rather well.

I keep hearing more and more rumors about the CA249 (that's the M249 replica from ClassicArmy). Some information that I hear I can't publish, however I heard from Nick that CA plan to market the new CA249 at a vastly cheaper price than the TOP version. Given that it's due to come with a TM style gearbox this should be hugely popular with the Airsofting public.

Now on to the random non Airsoft type stuff. Don't forget that if you want some more random babble you can always read Dom's page.

This is a local printer for local people.. there's nothing for you here Can I just point out how much I hate setting up printers inside Windows? Okay so here's the deal, you have a TCP/IP printer setup on a network somehere, and you go to install the printer to print to it in Windows XP and you are left with two choices and are expected to choose the one which best describes the printer you wish to install:

1. Local printer attached to this computer.
2. A network printer, or a printer attached to another computer.

Now to me it's obvious, select '2' and continue, but if you take the blue pill and head on down the network printer line you'll spend hours trying to figure out why the darned thing won't work and none of the options play ball. No you needed to take the red pill and select the "local" printer.

Now this staggers me, to install a TCP/IP printer (which lets face it could be on the other side of the planet from you) you have to select 'local printer', 'create a new port' and 'TCP/IP port' then enter the IP address and follow the simple procedures from there on in. Now I know that sounds simple now but it was only after bashing my head against two keyboards repeatedly and exhausting all options that I fell upon that solution. So if you ever setup an HP printer with a JetDirect card on a network and can't figure things out.. well there you go.

Big Brother, no not more! I think Channel 4 were trying to redefine the word 'celebrity' when they started the new Big Brother show. I've had the misfortune to catch a few minutes of it and I have to say that I don't recognise any of them apart from that fellow adorned with gold jewellry that waves energetically on the horse racing at the weekend, even then I turn the TV off. Congratulations Channel4 for producing what is quite possibly the most staggeringly boring and badly named programme in existence.. no actually I tell a lie. Little SHop of Horrors and Eyes Wide Shut were quite possibly the two largest wastes of time I've ever subjected myself to.

Random links: Well I come across wierd links sometimes, and if I don't stick them somewhere I'll just forget.

League of Gentlemen - Several obscure quotes in this article are from this series, it's an aquired taste but I loved it.