Info and forum posts by 'Duffbeer'

Air cooler half price £50 at Currys in store

With the summer coming, you might be interested in an "evaporative cooler" for £49.99 from Currys in store. It is a Carlton EC1000, which I can`t find on their web site (or on anyone else`s). It has a timer so it will turn itself off, can be used just as a fan (3 speed) and also as an air cooler.

To do the cooling you put cold water into the base (3 reusable ice packs are included so you can put these in too to make the water chilled) and then when you press the "cool" button, a pad starts to slowly move through the water and up into the stream of warm air coming through a dust filter into the back of the machine. Evaporation cools the air and it blows out the front of the unit through vents which can set the direction (and a motor moves the setting from side to side if you wish). Reading about this type of unit on the web, I saw that you must keep a window/door open when you use them (but we do that in any case when it is hot).

Just got one today and it produces a pleasantly cool breeze, noticably cooler than the room temperature - not chilled and not damp. It has a 7.5 litre water reservoir and it stands about 66cm high and is about 30cm square. There is some noise from the fan which might bother you if you wanted to sleep with it running.... but on a warm afternoon like today it`s great.

This item was edited on Monday, 2nd May 2005, 16:27

Belinea 17 inch TFT for £140.99 from Misco

Misco sent me details of a "limited stock offer" on a Belinea 17 TFT, 16ms response time, 350:1 contrast, with integrated speakers and 3years on site warranty for £140.99. The email had sliightly different specifications (450:1 contract and 12 ms) - I have posted the ones from their web site.

Looks like a keen price but I know nothing about the unit itself - take a look here:
Misco flat screen

Max Resolution 1280 x 1024
Device Type Flat panel display / TFT active matrix
Weight 4.5 kg
Colour Silver/Black Style
Audio Output Integrated speaker
Dimensions (WxDxH) 380 x 156 x 392 mm
Viewable Size 17 Inches
Dot Pitch / Pixel Pitch 0.264 x 0.264
Colour support 16.2 Mio (FRC)
Manufacturer Warranty 3 years incl. panel and backlight

This item was edited on Friday, 18th February 2005, 22:00

RE: 4 Room Booster with Surge and IR - £8.99

Many thanks to OP for this - I`ve been looking for an extra booster for the second telly - this one looks better than the one on my main TV set! :)

RE: New alltime best gremlin!

I like the balance between stats and wins but it is hard to guess what the different percentage balances might mean - any chance of grabbing a league table (currently 25% wins - 75% stats) and sorting it both 50% wins - 50% stats and also 75% wins - 25%stats and putting the results on 3 temporary pages with a link for us to view?

But only if this is not a lot of work - the other things in the pipeline sound too good to delay!

New alltime best gremlin!

The change to the league table means that Flagerosters has shot into the number one slot ahead of Lionel!

Now that XP is included in the league formula as well as the number of wins, I think we can look forward to a few more upsets, though I`m sure that both those great gremlins did have a lot of XP unspent when they were carted off to the Grem Graveyard and they would have had a bigger lead in the all-time table had they used their crystal ball and boosted their XP.

Exciting times........ even when you`re dead :)

RE: PSST, ADMIN in here

Might be something to do with creating a new gremlin? I had the same (temporary) error in the session where my gremlin was "born" and as RJS said, the error "vanished". Hope you are OK now?

RE: Mico Espejo R311 DVD Recorder < £100 At Sainsburys

There are reviews of this recorder from:
What Home Cinema Feb 2004
and
Home Cinema Choice July 2004 who gave it 82% when it cost £200
and finally a huge thread on DVD Reviewer


Duffbeer

This item was edited on Saturday, 11th December 2004, 12:54

RE: Fight code version 3 (development starting soon)

Brilliant idea to be able to change the look of a gremlin - yes please!

How about also changing the likes and dislikes as the gremlin grows?

Would it be possible to have either a "message of the day" or a "message for the challenge" to be displayed to the challenged gremlin when each challenge is accepted or refused?

SVHS video tapes 3x180 for £5.99 on the high street

I picked up a triple pack of JVC Super VHS 180 blank video tapes in Dixons today - the shelf edge label said £11.99 - not a bad price - but the till priced the pack at £5.99!

Now that Dixons are not stocking Videos any more, I think that they may be unloading all the consumables - if you want some blank tapes over Xmas it may be worth getting them to check the price for you. The SVHS work out at £2 each which is the best price I`ve seen.

Duffbeer

RE: Fight code version 3 (development starting soon)

I agree with Jimbo and Keeran that the method of calculating the position in the league table should be looked at, as just using wins has a few issues as they said.

What about (the number of wins divided by the number of fights) times (total XP divided by the number of fights)? Maths isn`t my strong point - would this result in a position related to both the amount of XP won per fight and the ratio of wins to fights?

I`m unsure about using total XP by itself, as it makes it possible for a gremlin to keep their stats low (not spend) and go for long battles (low strength), then suddenly spend all that XP, boost their stats and pop into a top slot. I`d like to see a more gradual movement up the ladder (Paaaaarps being the exception - jet propelled more like!) ;)

DB

This item was edited on Wednesday, 8th December 2004, 07:47

RE: Fight code version 3 (development starting soon)

What about an option for the challenged Gremlin:
Fight defensively (boosts stamina) or Take risks (boosts strength)
this would be used to balance out the percentage advantage of the challenging gremlin.

Another idea to go along with advantages for each breed would be a hidden individual luck statistic for each gremlin.

What about an experience boost, based on the number of fights, to slow down the rate that dexterity drops during a battle?

I like the special move idea a lot!

RE: good customer service

Hi Remoh

I`ve also heard very good things about Serif products from my mate at work who is a long-term customer of theirs. He is very happy with both the service and the quality of the software - if you are tempted by the offer ..........

Duffbeer

Congrats to Flugshuffler getting into the top ten BTW (click here if you want to find out about Gremlins)

RE: Floating an idea

I`m all in favour of this idea and I think it provides an incentive to keep the outstanding challenges down too, so helps to keep us active!
I can see that it is tricky to do it and also to keep the "already challenged" indication which is very useful.
As you limit the challenges to 10 per day, perhaps keep the ID of each challenged gremlin in a ten slot array and check for duplicate challenges there?

Thanks for all the effort - I`m really enjoying taking part!

RE: Challenges Needed!

Loose Liver has challenged Bruce IX - let the mayhem commence!

RE: Penalty for rejection of lower rank grem?

How about an incentive for uneven matches?
(apologies if you spotted this idea at the foot of the "Silly challenges" thread - but I`d be interested in comments..)

How about awarding XP for "battle masterclasses"?

If gremlins are unevenly matched (more than 150 points difference in the overall total stats?) show a different message at the start of the fight "Highstatgrem gives Lowstatgrem a masterclass in battling":

The lower stat gremlin gets one XP for each round it lasted, regardless of the round outcomes, plus any "normal" XP in a round if it wins or draws.

The higher stat gremlin earns XP for a drawn round (just for that round).
If the higher stat gremlin loses a round, it earns points as normal from that point on.

This gives both gremlins a reason to accept challenges - higher stat gremlins will boost their total of wins and have a (small) chance of XP.
Lower stat grems will lose the battle, but will earn some XP every time, even for short KO battles.

Great addition to the site by the way! Thanks to all involved.
Duffbeer

RE: Sigh - silly challenges ?!

Hi

Been thinking about the high stats-low stats challenges... and wondered.....

At the moment there is little incentive for a lower stat gremlin to fight with a higher stat gremlin, so how about awarding XP for "battle masterclasses"?

If gremlins are unevenly matched (more than 150 points difference?) put out a message at the start of the fight "Highstatgrem gives Lowstatgrem a masterclass in battling":

If the lower stat gremlin wins the battle(!!!), points awarded as usual (and throw away the weighted dice) :)

If the higher stat gremlin wins the battle:
the lower stat gremlin gets one XP for each round it lasted, regardless of the round outcomes.
the higher stat gremlin can earn XP for a drawn round (just for that round)
if the higher stat gremlin loses a round, it earns points as normal for the whole battle (as it does today)

This gives both gremlins a reason to accept challenges - higher stat gremlins will boost their total of wins and have a (small) chance of XP.
Lower stat grems will lose the battle, but will earn XP every time.

I`ve not been playing for long so I may not have appreciated all the ins & outs yet...

Lemme know what you think

Duffbeer

This item was edited on Friday, 26th November 2004, 18:45

RE: DVD Recorder £119 +FREE £10.00 voucher

Many thanks for this spot Zovirax, just collected one and it looks the business!

BTW Maplins have an offer on a pack of 3 Verbatim DVD RW in cases for £4.99. A list of supported DVDs is on the Liteon site here www.liteonit.com/DC/english/disc_5005.htm

RE: 17 rounds :o)

17 is impressive - Loose Liver managed 15 against Putris though......

Duffbeer

RE: mega cheap ps2 games

Just wanted to thank Pianeet for a great spot - never would have looked at the PS2 games otherwise.

When I got my DVD I saw my PS2 games being labelled up for 7.49 each, so that, plus my 99p makes £16.97 so Game do cover the cost of the DVD (if they sell the games).

Well chuffed. Thanks

Duffbeer

RE: LOTR THE TWO TOWERS 4 DISC SET CHEAP!!!!

Great spot! Many thanks. This is my first order with them too, but they`ve had generally good comments from others in the Retailer Reviews forum on this site (there`s a thread about them if you search).

Roll on November........

Duffbeer

RE: Simpsons Season 3 - £12.71!!!

Great spot Strattster.
Looks OK to me - its the Canadian French version on preorder for 14/10 - the US version is also on their site - more expensive but available now.
I ordered one too.

Thanks

Duffbeer

CD-WOW Summer sale three 2-disk sets at £6.99 each

Got an email today about the sale
Banner ad at the top of the CD-WOW home page or the links to "End of Summer Sale" on the right hand side take you to the page

Only 3 DVDs
Independence day 2 disk special edition
The Abyss 2 disk special edition: THX
Big Trouble in Little China 2 disk set

Each set £6.99.

Bargain methinks

Duffbeer

This item was edited on Monday, 8th September 2003, 20:30

RE: New deal at Blockbusters

I was in there yesterday evening and for DVD rentals, the 2 night DVDs are going to be extended for seven nights - its not on the in-store displays yet but when I paid I was told that I could keep the DVD till next Friday. I was also told that there`s going to be a mid-week offer to rent three "mid-price" DVDs for £5. (I didn`t ask what "mid-price" meant).

RE: Cheap mobile for the kids!

Great spot! Many thanks for this Dusty, I`ve been on the lookout for a cheap Orange Pay-as-you-go since Xmas!

Ordered two this morning. Thanks for the post.

Computer bargains at Lidl next Thursday 26th Sept

Lidl have a computer special running on Thursday, the best bargain I think is the £9.99 Typhoon optical cordless scroll mouse with 5 buttons (3 programmable), integrated recharger, USB/PS2 connections.

the flyer says "please contact the store manager if you`re interested in purchasing any of these products" which I hope means that they might be taking pre-orders (at least for the expensive items) and avoiding the mad dash through the doors at 9:00am. I tried for the Aldi offer a while back but all the system units went to those who had been queueing since 7:30 am. This new offer seems a better specified unit than Lidl brought out a few months ago.

For those interested, here are more details from the flyer
Typhoon optical cordless 3 button scroll mouse & cordless keyboard PS2 connection £19.99

Ashampoo Uninstaller 2002/3 and ImageView 2002/3 packages £4.99 each

Mini MP3 player £59.99

Lexmark Z25 6/9ppm Colour jetprinter USB £44

Microtek ScanMaker USB 4800 £69.99

Gericom 19" monitor, 1600 x 1200 max res, .25 dot pitch £149.00 (only available with a computer)

and of course

Targa PC with
Athlon 2200+
Asus AGP V 8420 Nvidia Gforce4 64MB Ti4200 graphics card
256Mb DDR ram
Maxtor 120Gb hard drive
ASUS CDRW 4816A 48/16/48 CD RW
Toshiba 16/48 DVD
6 channel 5.1 sound with SPDIF input and output
Analogue audio out for Centre/subwoofer, front and rear speaker connectors
2 rear (4 and 6 pin) 1 front Firewire connection
Front microphone, aux-in and line-out connectors
2 front and 2 rear USB 2 connections
S-video and composite front inputs
S-video rear output
Dazzle 6 in 1 multimedia Memory Card Reader (Flash card, SD card, Microdrive, Smart Media, Memory Stick, Multi media Card)
RJ45 10/100 Ethernet
56K modem
Keyboard & wheel mouse
XP Home OEM
Works 6 OEM
Word 2000 OEM
Picture-It OEM
Pinnacle Studio 7 SE, Hollywood Fx, Express and T-Rex all OEM versions
Autoroute OEM
Encarta 2002 OEM
2 year guarantee with call-out service

for £749 - which with the monitor is £898

Tempted anybody??

Duffbeer

99p offer at Game (details)

Game stores are offering one of the following at 99p if you buy any "Reward promotion item"
DVDs - The Mask or Rush hour
PC games - Sonic 3D or Toy story 2
GBA Game - Shaun Palmer`s Pro Snowboarder
CD/DVD soft case

The "Reward promotion items" have a blue sticker showing a reduced price for Reward card holders - this is to encourage you to sign up, the cards were free at Electonics boutique but £2 at Game, now they`ve merged under the Game brand, so they cost £2 - instant membership. I had one of each...and bought a stickered Game CD Roll holder for 99p and the GBA game - ttal outlay £1.98.

Leaflets in store - the GBA game is only shown on the A4 leaflet. Offer ends 31st August.

The "Reward promotion items" are good value in their own right and there`s a good selection of them.

RE: Cheap PC, Nothing mind blowing.

I rang two local (W London) branches who also knew nothing about it and then I tried the Currys customer service (...you are held in a Q.......) who tried the Currys index and the PC World index and found nothing on the Advent E-go.

Could it have been just the one branch? And did they have any more? £70 is really a bargain - the original kit had 4 USB ports and built in networking as well as a modem.