Month: April 2008

For your convenience

~ Inquisitor ~ 1 Comment

A little frustrated right now: not only have my Radiohead tickets been held by Special Mail Service (the people who posted my passport to the wrong address a few years back) with the reference number I need to arrange redelivery spoken once by an automated voice over my mobile with no pen handy and no physical evidence they’ve been, but I’ve got a parcel from an online vendor sent through Initial Citylink which they failed to deliver.

I didn’t get carded, but a check on the tracking system told me that the parcel had attempted delivery; I call Citylink and they tell me that they don’t card in “secure” doorways (although mine isn’t very secure, and neither FedEx or Royal Mail have a problem carding me at all). This wouldn’t be a problem normally because Citylink open their depots quite late and I expected to be able to quickly go to the one at South Gyle (a number 22 bus away) and pick it up.

But there isn’t a South Gyle depot; it closed two months ago. They’ve moved to Livingston. As if that’s efficient for the Edinburgh area; it makes it inaccessible to anyone without a car or a tolerance for long, roundabout journeys on First Bus. And since I’m at work all day and since Citylink won’t change my address over the phone to my workplace my best hopes of getting the parcel are leaving it with my neighbours, which I’ve gone for as the least worst option.

There was an article in the Guardian business section yesterday about Citylink making large losses and dealing with it by… closing depots. Which will make people hate them more and try even harder to avoid them. I certainly won’t make the mistake of buying computer kit from a Citylink-only vendor again; and that without a bad experience before.

(And Radiohead, why SMS? You know they suck from the discbox experience; mine took way over a week to get here. Why continue with them? Why?)

Get it while you can

~ Inquisitor

Maplin are offering an unusually good cheap soundcard right now: £19.99 gets you what is effectively the Chaintech AV-710 in a white box with a two-page manual and an old copy of PowerDVD. I’ve just got one from my local branch in Edinburgh (code A46CC); there’s still a few on the shelf.

This is properly 24/96 capable, has a high quality Wolfson DAC on the rear surround out, and has absolutely no Creative Labs circuitry on board (hence, it works fine on Vista.) And since there’s no clicking noise on my headphones whenever I do anything with my hard drives, it’s already some way superior to the Realtek onboard AC-97 and worth every penny.If you, like me, have no need for EAX et al but want quality music out, get one while Maplin are still doing them.

Here’s a useful setup guide.

Rock Band pricing takes ripoff Britain to a new dimension

~ Inquisitor

Rock Band is going to cost £179. £179. It’s $169 in the States for an identical package, that is to say £85. No way that VAT can explain this one.

I was actually considering buying an Xbox 360 and Rock Band was one of the main reasons. Paying £100 to Electronic Arts’ special party fund means that that pretty big reason has now been taken away. They won’t have a good explanation for this either, I’m betting…

When asked why the game will be so much more expensive in the UK than it is in the US, Kay cited VAT and the higher price of consumer electronics generally. “These are definitely not excuses so much as contributing reasons,” he stated.

“I can’t talk to the explicit pricing – how it gets split down between retailers and distributors and the whole chain – because I don’t actually know that much about it.”

In other words, no.