back to article A little image magic gets Curiosity's wheels turning again

The Curiosity Rover is not about to become a nuclear waste dump on Mars as the trundling science lab has become mobile again after a glitch put it in safe mode last week. The root cause of the bug is a little mysterious, but NASA reckons an image transfer mode brought about the glitch, so the agency will avoid using that mode …

  1. Ru'

    Who would've known the rover is a whitesnake fan...

  2. Rich 11

    "...Like a hobo I was born to walk alone."

    It's all too likely that NASA have the American Hair Rock remix playing in their heads. Philistines.

  3. CeeOfGee

    So nice to see 'data are' instead of 'data is' !

    Such a rarity nowadays.

    1. Hollerithevo

      As the (no doubt made up) Chinese apothegm has it:

      "If a thousand people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."

      And if a million people use 'data' as if the word were a singular noun, they are still wrong.

      1. Ru'

        Re: As the (no doubt made up) Chinese apothegm has it:

        Glad you're so sure you're correct.

        I think that treating "data" as a singular mass noun sounds better. But that's just me :)

        1. Fr. Ted Crilly Silver badge

          Re: As the (no doubt made up) Chinese apothegm has it:

          And indeed, all the bases are belong to us...

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: As the (no doubt made up) Chinese apothegm has it:

          Data are plural - or are they?

          Up to a point, Lord Copper.

      2. Wommit

        Re: As the (no doubt made up) Chinese apothegm has it:

        Maybe not. Language is a dynamic tool after all.

      3. The Nazz

        Re: As the (no doubt made up) Chinese apothegm has it:

        No doubt about it, at all, of course it's made up.

        It didnt just appear out of the Big Bang.

        Being far removed from any form of Boffinry, i much prefer the Billy Connolly version :

        "She shouted get him Rover and he jumped over ..."

      4. P. Lee
        Paris Hilton

        Re: As the (no doubt made up) Chinese apothegm has it:

        >And if a million people use 'data' as if the word were a singular noun, they are still wrong.

        I would usually agree with you, but I think it is used as a collective noun rather than a singular noun. Even if not, it is so difficult to determine what is singular in IT.

        Take, 65 (decimal) for example. Is it a single byte or is it a collection of 8 bits or is it two nibbles or is it the letter "A"? Perhaps its just part of a word or two digits. In the real world, it may be an abstract concept, whereas in IT, it may be many different things.

        So is it a datum or a particular set of data (a collective noun)?

        I'm not sure its all that important. What we should really be doing is hating those who use "of" when they mean "from" and those who use "was like" instead of "said" and those who use "like" instead of "um" or "er."

  4. earl grey
    Pint

    Love that Rover

    Hard to believe all the good stuff from it and still running. Well done Boffins!

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