Archive for Paul Goodhead
Posted on 27th Apr 2012 at 13:34 by Paul Goodhead with 39 comments
I'm often frustrated by the dross that comes my way from people's photo albums on Facebook - I can’t understand why people would want to clog up the internet with out of focus, badly shot and repetitive photography.
Some would say I'm taking it all a little too seriously, and they'd be right of course, but I refuse to believe I'm the only one. As a result I'm speaking for all those that are too polite to say anything, those that don't want to cause a stir by suggesting that their best mate, sister or colleague just exercise some restraint with that damn upload button. Share this article, get the word out, and help to make the internet a more pleasant place.
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Posted on 12th Apr 2012 at 10:03 by Paul Goodhead with 37 comments
As you’d expect, I’m often sought out by friends and family when they’ve got a PC or laptop buying decision to make - chances are many of you are too, given that you’re here on bit-tech. I don’t mind doing it of course, but I’m always intrigued by the approach some people take when buying a new computer.
The aspect that surprises me the most is the way that many of the people who have sought my advice over the years have a ‘just enough to get me by’ approach to computing - they’re only looking for a PC or laptop that will perform the tasks they do now. This is their prerogative obviously - it’s their money after all - but I’ll always challenge them on it.
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Posted on 27th Mar 2012 at 08:44 by Paul Goodhead with 43 comments
My Mass Effect 3 play through started off so well - so promising, so full of hope. I was going to get the best ending possible, the one where everyone lives happily ever after and nothing was going to stop me. Yes, OK, the reapers were here and they were tearing the earth a new one, but I was confident I had the friends and the ballsy get-it-done attitude to sort them out one way or another. They were messing with the wrong galaxy this time.
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Posted on 6th Nov 2011 at 11:09 by Paul Goodhead with 83 comments
I’ve recently put together a media PC for playing music in my kitchen. It’s just a simple little Intel Atom-based box, but it does all I need for the 40 minutes or so I usually spend cooking or washing up. Its one negative issue is that it takes a little while to boot up and get into Windows Media Centre - a fact that has put my housemate Jack off using it as he doesn’t tend to spend as long in the kitchen as me. By the time it’s booted up and ready to go, he’s nearly ready to turn it off again.
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Posted on 17th May 2011 at 08:20 by Paul Goodhead with 13 comments
As you can imagine, we get lots of natty little bits and pieces sent into the
bit-tech offices. Annoyingly, though, much of it is just a little too small or a little too silly to write about in a full page review. As a result, I’m trying to resurrect the
On Our Desk series of articles that we used to cover all these little bits of gadgetry.
So without further ado I’ll tell you about the
Mionix Propus 380 mouse mat, on which my
CM Storm Inferno has been happily sitting for the last few days.
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Posted on 25th Mar 2011 at 17:28 by Paul Goodhead with 122 comments
...this launched today.
Discuss.
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Posted on 22nd Mar 2011 at 07:37 by Paul Goodhead with 36 comments
I’m starting to get frustrated by the way in which the debate about internet privacy is currently being waged. There appears to be a constant media buzz about how we’re all at terrible risk from hawkish advertisers who are just waiting to swoop in, steal our browsing history and then make millions from it.
I hope I’m not alone in my disdain for this alarmist and arguably ignorant view of how the Internet works.
I should be clear of course; I’m not against internet privacy. Neither am I advocating any kind of Big Brother-esque government monitoring of internet traffic. My beef lies with the panicky reactions we’ve seen from the media, governments, the EU and many internet users in regards to internet privacy.
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Posted on 14th Feb 2011 at 14:05 by Paul Goodhead with 27 comments
As a marketing graduate I often find myself idly assesing the marketing strategies that tech companies employ. It’s an industry that's fairly set in its ways - Taiwanese companies tend to think a CG picture of a pretty girl with an ornate sword or huge gun can sell anything, no matter what we in the West say. Meanwhile, here in the West, we can't help but work the touch-feely lifestyle angle - 'this laptop is good because you can help the kids with their homework on it!'
My interest was piqued therefore when I saw Nintendo’s latest Super Mario advert which marks the 25th anniversary of Mario series of games. The advert is initially quite unremarkable, showing men and women of all ages, some of whom are celebrities, talking about the Mario games and their memories of them. So far, so Nintendo; the company has been using softer, more personal adverts targeted at casual and first time gamers for a while now.
What I did find remarkable though was the end of the advert which contained the message the ad was there to convey - ‘Super Mario Brothers, part of the family since 1985’. It’s the first time I’ve seen a computer game use a heritage message, a message that emphasises the history and longevity of a brand or product.
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Posted on 2nd Jan 2011 at 10:41 by Paul Goodhead with 42 comments
I recently built myself a new home PC which, as I'm sure most of you know, resulted in a lightning-quick computer. There's a level of snappiness and responsiveness that you get from a newly built PC, which you just can't seem to maintain, no matter how often you de-fragment your hard disk or clean your registry.
As a result, I knew that I wanted to create a disk image of my PC in its freshly installed state. This would essentially act as a time capsule, preserving an exact copy of my PC in its virgin state until I needed it. Then, when my Windows install got bloated and unresponsive in the future, I could simply copy the image back the other way, theoretically restoring my PC to exactly the same state it was in when I built it.
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Posted on 6th Dec 2010 at 12:36 by Paul Goodhead with 60 comments
Yep, forgive us for feeling a little smug but we've been putting a selection of Sandy Bridge chips through their paces over the last few days. Obviously we can’t say anything about the numbers we're seeing but needless to say we'll be well prepared to give a full and comprehensive review when the CPUs launch.
Obviously the fact that we're testing these CPUs must mean we've got some compatible motherboards in the labs too, so you can also expect a veritable bevy of motherboard reviews at launch too.
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