shinny

Jeez, next it will be "football" (but I might have to pop back for that, especially since it's down to the last games of this season this Sunday)

I'd prefer Liverpool to win, but since they are out of contention, I'm backing Chelsea !

See, I can talk "boy"

shinny

Bala, Casper doesn't live in the USA. You crack me up sometimes, lol

shinny

Yeh, I saw the crest. I used to be a big Liverpool fan probably during the 90's, but haven't really followed them in the last few years. They are still my team though !

shinny

It's in stock here and they ship to Cyprus.....Grand Theft Auto IV

They are in Canada, works out about 38 Euro / 30 Pound for the game.

shinny

Check it out with them because I got this from an Irish website where someone had bought it from them. Now, they could have bought their xbox overseas too, but worth checking it out.

shinny

Ok so that website doesn't specify the compatibility so you'd have to mail them. But play asia does. They are not back in stock until May 20th but that's only 10 days away.

It's compatible with NTSC-J (Asia) and PAL (Europe) www.playasia.com/gta

shinny

For instance, the PS3 is not region dependent, which means you can get the games anywhere. The Xbox is not region free which means that it's left up to the game makers whether they region specify it or not.

On the electronical side too the voltage in the States/Canada is much lower than here. So, some of the electrical goods bought in US/Canada will not work properly here unless you have a converter (not an adapter, that's different) to convert the voltage.

The adapter works for the plugs (because they are different) - So for instance if you bought a laptop in Australia and brought it back to Ireland, all you would need is an adapter (for the plug) as we are on the same voltage. If you bought it in the states, you'd need a converter to break down the voltage otherwise it will burn out the laptop.

Our electrical goods work in the states, but at half the voltage. So, a hair dryer will be much much less powerful on the 110 voltage than it would be at home at 220 voltage. It basically cuts it in half. So, last time I was away I bought a US hairdryer that I bring with me.

[ Last edited by shinny at 5-10-2008 13:32 ]

shinny

They are not that expensive anymore, pretty much run of the mill here now. I have one and it wasn't expensive at all.

shinny

Yeh, it's all about money.

I suppose not much can be done about the voltage differences because it would cost way too much money for countries on the 110v to upgrade to 220 and for the rest of us to downgrade wouldn't really make sense.

But NTSC and PAL really should be standardised or at least make the consoles/players accept all versions, like the PS3 is now, as part of the norm.

shinny

Yeh, my DVD player was around the same price. Cheap as chips now.

That's true about the laptop adapter because it has the built in surge control (or voltage converter) - I know some other electronical equipment has this, but unfortunately a lot of it doesn't !!

I bought the nintendo DS lite in New York when I was there last year because it's so much cheaper than here and they tried to sell me a converter for $50. I was like "eh no thanks, do you have any car chargers?" - which they did, at $9 so I just charge it up in the Car !

shinny

Actually, I call it multi-region too. I only starting referring to region free when the new PS-3 came out !

shinny

Wow, we could be here all day trying to explain where MPEGs and .MP3 and MP4 etc came from, seriously !!

I don't have an I-Pod because I just didn't want to buy into that whole monopoly to be honest. So, I have a Sony MP3/4 player. It means I can download (via a USB cable, so no software required) Audio, Video, Pictures etc. The introduction of MPEG-4 allowed for Video/Pictures to be downloaded onto these players. So the extension .mp4 allowed for a distinction on what was in the mpeg file.

Actually, MP3 files started out way back when as midi files which were used a lot by musicians as "back tracks" and we've come a long way since then.

shinny

Yes, it doesn't have to be an I-Pod. That's just a brand name. There are loads of really good mp3 players that you can buy for a steal. Creative Zen have an MP3 player that is also a USB key which means you don't even have to buy a cable, you can just insert it into the USB slot and download your music to it.

[ Last edited by shinny at 5-10-2008 16:34 ]

shinny

Well, it depends what you want to put on it. If you just want music, then 4GB is fine. If you want Video and Pictures, then I'd go for bigger.

shinny

Well, you don't need a laptop to transfer via USB keys. Your PC will have a USB port also, so you can do it now if you wanted to.

shinny

I don't follow what you mean?

You don't need a laptop to use a USB key is what I'm saying. You can do that straight on your PC using the USB port on the hard drive.

shinny

Great. Sure PM if you ever want any advice on them.

shinny

That's because you have great motorways. For me to drive from Wicklow to Kerry could take between 5 to 5.5 hrs and it's only 320 Kilometres (200 miles)

Some routes are better than others because the Motorway is great, but some a terribly long !

*Edit*
Oops, did you mean Cyprus or the UK?? Haha, not sure now. I suppose technically the UK isn't an island anymore, so you must mean Cyprus !!

Ok, I just realised how stupid that sounds now. 2hrs to anywhere in the UK - Doh !

[ Last edited by shinny at 5-11-2008 18:53 ]

shinny

Quote:

Canada ranks 4th in the United Nations' Human Development Index (pdf file). The HDI measures life expectancy, educational attainment and adjusted real income of nations. Canada ranks behind Norway, Sweden and Australia. In the same index, the USA ranks 8th, the UK 12th, France 16th and China 94th.

Ireland ranks 5th in the 2007/08 listings => HERE

shinny

Haha, yeh I know. Our Motorways can't really compare to the highways and Freeways!!