On the scrounge

Does anyone have a low profile PCI graphics card going spare?

The old PC I've picked up has very slow integrated graphics, and almost anything is going to be an improvement. I'm also not really interested in 3D performance, but the ability to do 1280x1024 x 24 bit would be good.

Unfortunately, the dinky form factor (it's smaller than the microATX case of my new PC) means that a normal height PCI card won't fit: it bangs against the floppy drive when you close the case.

I can swap for a TNT2-era AGP card...

Morning thoughts #2

Ah yes - the second 'invention' was to sell RFID tags, cheaply, to consumers along with a simple 'is this tag within 1m?' reader. You stick tags to things you don't want to lose, and programme the reader so it knows when you say 'is the DVD remote control near here', it looks for tag #7624536358453.

Of course, you'd need to have another way of finding the reader :) You'd also need some way of stopping burglars going 'show me where all the valuables they've tagged are hidden'.

But for people with a habit of mislaying things, like us, it'd be invaluable. I'd pay £10 - £20 for something like this, and I know the tags cost a fraction of a penny.

What prompted invention #2

... was mislaying the remote control for the DVD recorder we bought after Christmas. For about a week. And without its remote, it's just a Not Very Good player - you can stick in a disc and press play and that's about it.

It turned up this evening :)

Not long before, I was googling to see what it'd cost to replace. A bit much, it turns out.

It also turns out that there's a region-free hack for the recorder using the remote. Well, you more or less expect that nowadays.

It also also turns out that it will play DivX/XVid files. People pay extra money for this feature, because you can stick downloaded .avi files on a disc and watch them on the TV rather than on the PC.

Yet, incredibly, there's no mention of this feature on the box or the manual. Even the maker's main website doesn't mention it. But I've tested it - and I'd never have stuck an .avi disk in it without reading this - and it works.

Maybe the chipset to do this is now so cheap every modern player can do it. Perhaps the makers were too cheap to pay for the 'DivX' logo / certification.