British Comedy Guide

Things that piss you off Page 528

My favourite bit of comedy about wrong phone number calls was in 15 Storeys High, where a bloke phones Vince asking to speak to Mandy. After wasting the caller's time prevaricating about whether or not a Mandy is in his flat, Vince then phones the bloke back a few times during the episode just to annoy him.

This is much funnier than I have just described when you actually see the show... Errr but I can't find the appropriate clips on YouTube... Errr :(

Quote: Moonstone @ October 19 2009, 11:14 PM BST

It would seem so. I use Utorrent and there's a checkbox in there for it. You can only connect to other users with encryption enabled though, but I think many have, so it's not too much of an issue really.

Ah, interesting. Of course, you're still relying on connecting to other people. If one of those is 'the man' then you're f**ked, no matter whether the traffic between you is encrypted.

Quote: Dolly Dagger @ October 20 2009, 9:29 AM BST

And you never know whether to call the number back or not in case it's a conversation you don't want to have.

I always know: the answer is no. If they didn't leave a message then it's possible it was a wrong number. If it wasn't a wrong number, they'll call back if it was anything remotely important.

Quote: Dolly Dagger @ October 20 2009, 1:11 PM BST

Really? I'm from a big family so always used to people round.

As am I. Perhaps that's why I like being alone.

Quote: Aaron @ October 20 2009, 3:27 PM BST

Ah, interesting. Of course, you're still relying on connecting to other people. If one of those is 'the man' then you're f**ked, no matter whether the traffic between you is encrypted.

Ah, now that's a good point. Maybe I should stop using torrents. I tried usenet seeing as everone raves about it, but the very first prog I downloaded from there was a virus, so it put me off.

If you use a reputable source for finding the stuff to download, that shouldn't be a problem. The worst I've had is a few things that were password protected. Extremely annoying, but my own fault for not checking properly.

As for torrents, I pretty much never use them anymore. Not worth the hassle.

Quote: Aaron @ October 21 2009, 1:00 AM BST

If you use a reputable source for finding the stuff to download, that shouldn't be a problem. The worst I've had is a few things that were password protected. Extremely annoying, but my own fault for not checking properly.

As for torrents, I pretty much never use them anymore. Not worth the hassle.

Thanks, but how do you know what's a reputable source? Can you recommend any groups or whatever? Also, how could you tell if the file was password protected seeing as there aren't any comments from other downloaders (one of the best things abot torrents)?

There are often comments if you use certain sites. You can never be sure if anything is safe, but use a virus scanner (if using Windows) and be wary of small executables masquerading as programs, songs, videos, etc.

Pirated software is always risky, but music and videos are safe as long as they aren't packaged with some sort of executable file.

Quote: DaButt @ October 21 2009, 2:08 PM BST

There are often comments if you use certain sites. You can never be sure if anything is safe, but use a virus scanner (if using Windows) and be wary of small executables masquerading as programs, songs, videos, etc.

Pirated software is always risky, but music and videos are safe as long as they aren't packaged with some sort of executable file.

Thanks Dabutt. Yeah I think I was looking in the wrong places.
And actually I did notice a lot of media files with an exe extension which triggered a few alarm bells. Also, some files were far smaller than they should've been which is also a bad sign. Some were far bigger - not sure what that was about!

There are numerous different standards for file size. Generally you're looking at 180-200mb for a half hour (21 min) American show, and 233-250mb for a half hour (24-28 min) British one. 45 min and above varies wildly, but 350mb and 500mb for an hour aren't uncommon. If going HD, then a half hour will be around a full gig.

Quote: Aaron @ October 21 2009, 6:51 PM BST

There are numerous different standards for file size. Generally you're looking at 180-200mb for a half hour (21 min) American show, and 233-250mb for a half hour (24-28 min) British one. 45 min and above varies wildly, but 350mb and 500mb for an hour aren't uncommon. If going HD, then a half hour will be around a full gig.

Well some were about 400kb!! That's definitely fishy!

Par files, perhaps?

I remember them being exe or avi etc, but if I went back and looked now, I could be wrong. What the hell's a par file?

Quote: Moonstone @ October 22 2009, 1:26 PM BST

I remember them being exe or avi etc, but if I went back and looked now, I could be wrong. What the hell's a par file?

wtf are you doing downloading exe's that size? your asking to be shafted

T. She's here today and she pisses me off.

Quote: Gavin @ October 22 2009, 1:28 PM BST

wtf are you doing downloading exe's that size? your asking to be shafted

Have you been looking for an excuse to post that clip Gav? :P
I didn't download any though. I'm silly but not that silly. Some of them were avi etc too, which is also stodgy for that size. Or maybe I'm getting mixed up and it was just in the description - either way I wasn't touching them.

Quote: Moonstone @ October 22 2009, 1:46 PM BST

Have you been looking for an excuse to post that clip Gav? :P
I didn't download any though. I'm silly but not that silly. Some of them were avi etc too, which is also stodgy for that size. Or maybe I'm getting mixed up and it was just in the description - either way I wasn't touching them.

Took me long enough to get the BB code working Stupid half baked html-lite f**king coding grumble grumble Good, because knowing is half the battle.

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