* Posts by Dave

18 publicly visible posts • joined 26 Sep 2007

Sysadmins get Quake tools

Dave
Thumb Up

@Col

yep, the good old "this is unix" line.... makes me think sony stole it for "this is living" in the ps3 ads.

the software you're talking about is FSN pronounced 'Fusion', and it's a file browser for IRIX, where the size of the folder/file gives you a bigger tower, and you can navigate in 3d.

i still use it occasionally, but i personally would use this new software more (if i could get away with it), as seeing system processes running like that would be more useful.

unfortunately, we've already written software with 'traffic lights' status indicators for our machines, so the likelihood of me not getting fired is pretty low.

(New) dirt-cheap bots attack Hotmail Captchas

Dave
Coat

turing test games

i agree with the idea of turing tests on outgoing emails - if you turn the spammers off sites like hotmail and gmail, and secure windoze boxes a bit more, they'll be forced to use limited IP addresses, which are easier to stop.

i've thought for a while that a game would be a good turing test for gmail/hotmail - every time you send an email you have to drive a car around a track (10-20 sec. etc), or use your mouse to guide a person through a maze (inside a time limit).

chances of a computer doing that aren't worth calculating, and it makes email more fun.

it'd be like taking the crap parts of facebook (messaging tossers and playing rubbish games), and putting them together to form something useful. who' have thought.

How an app called WarmTouch nailed a grenade-stockpiling cyber extortionist

Dave
Coat

@Jason Edmunds

maybe they could call it 'PhormTouch',

its only a small addition to the phorm code thats needed... instead of discarding the SMTP and POP3 packets, you scan them to find out what type of incendiary device you can advertise to the sender. (no phorm, this isn't a valid business plan)

...on second thoughts, what would warmtouch output if you gave it one of George Bush's infamous quotes?

"technically inept monkey, shouldn't be older than 10, has trouble boiling a kettle or speaking to members of its own species.... with a stockpile of weapons"

CIA demands UK halts interrogation tactics

Dave
Coat

at least this was an april fool...

i read the guardian website and saw 'mugabe told not to declare victory'.

i nearly spat my (fairtrade) coffee all over the keyboard. then i realised it wasnt an april fool.

bugger.

Government set to 'destroy' UK radio astronomy

Dave
Linux

@Anonymous Coward

could you please show me evidence of gravitational waves then?

being an ex-astrophysicist i know about the bullshit surrounding most 'astronomy research', and i know a nobel prize was given for 'proving' the theory of grav. waves, but that doesn't change the fact that it's mostly mathematical masturbation, the majority of which is fallacious.

if you really have an open mind read the original papers again (Schwarzchild, 1916 for example) and compare Schwarzchild's solution with some of the rubbish that's published now. Schwarzchild's original (correct) solution does not allow for the existence of black holes.

consider this with the fact that none of the grav. wave detectors have seen what they're looking for, and you'll realise why i refer to myself as an ex-astrophysicist.

...and Tux, because no one ever picks him.

Apple sued over iPhone caller ID

Dave
Paris Hilton

patent law doesn't need reforming

... its just that he can't claim the iPhone infringes his patent.

you can't patent a concept or idea, you can only patent an invention. if he designed the circuitry for caller ID, and apple used the same one, then he's got a court case.

but unless someone is using his exact design, he's wasted a lot of time and money, and i wish i was his lawyer.

it's like Intel can't patent the 'idea' of a CPU, but could (and do) patent their particular design.

considering the amount of ridiculous cases that are emerging out of the USA, i'm surprised this one made the news.

...and Paris because although she's never had an idea, i'm sure she could patent her particular way of 'doing it'.

Facebook loses a few bitches

Dave
Coat

...they've only got the same problem as northern rock

why do venture capitalists keep giving money to people with crap business ideas?

i agree completely with the people who says facebook's useless; their business plan is to get you in touch with people who you've already met, but didn't like enough to keep in contact with.

what makes mark z(s)uckerberg think that introducing two people again is a good idea?

hence the link with northern rock.... which idiot thought of the business plan 'let's buy sub-prime debt'. come on, the clue's in the title.

and now we have to deal with the government bailing out a company because their business isn't viable (why?!!), and our girlfriends bookmarking Facebook on Firefox 3 Beta 3.

come on love, the latest release candidate's only been out a few days and there's already a facebook button on my screen!

mine's the smoking jacket lined with tin foil.

Critics chuck MS 'friendly worm' plan on the compost heap

Dave
Thumb Up

nice, but

shouldn't that be

'bounce people who have *up*graded to XP back on to Vista'

Automated crack for Windows Live captcha goes wild

Dave
Black Helicopters

@Simpson

sounds like you're in need of 'git' for your source control needs. secure, distributed, and you can treat branches like redundant copies.

take a look at the source code, its just as good at database work as it is source control.

... the black chopper cause if everyone knew how good it is, Oracle would send round some thugs to shut me up.

Brits can't distinguish history from the TV listings

Dave
Thumb Down

...the polled populace

if you make the assumption that most people on el reg have jobs, and that no one here has been polled (or at least admitted to being polled), then you can safely conclude that this poll was performed during working hours.

if anyone was watching tv between 9-5, and was so busy they phoned/texted in their answers, i'd put money on the respondents being benefit thieves.

er.. i mean... "long term sick".

ahem.

maybe if the last question was 'have you paid any income tax this decade', you'd get a fair idea of the type of people you're polling.

on second thoughts, if the penultimate question was 'are YOU a mythical person', you'd probably realise why this questionnaire is utter bullshit.

... the leather one with the tweed patches. (like homer simpson, i ruined *two* perfectly good jackets)

Civil servants still sticking unencrypted data in the post

Dave
Joke

they can do better than cd's.....

steve jobs showed that the new macbook air can fit inside a normal envelope.

you'd have thought they'd stop mailing cd's and leaving laptops in cars, when they can just mail the laptops and kill 2 birds with one stone.

</encrypted usb drive>

</coat>

</taxi>

Her Light Materials, Volume I

Dave

Does that mean...

the title of the third book becomes 'The Amber pyGlass'.

Coat.

Pipe.

London Cab.

Dwarfs threaten Kepler and Newton

Dave
Paris Hilton

actually...

"Mateo, on the other hand, prefers a model of dark matter that modifies the force of gravity itself according to the accelerations within the system".

actually, modified newtonian dynamics isnt a dark matter model, in fact it's original author Mordehai Milgrom came up with it because the dark matter models have too many weaknesses (read: gaping holes) that can be adequately explained by a modification to F=ma.

also, the fact that MOND explains the rotation curves of dwarf galaxies quite well is already fairly well documented, just google for

"MOND and Mass Discrepancies in Tidal Dwarf Galaxies"

which is a paper by the author of MOND.

</science>

and finally.... a 2 page article, and not a single mention of paris hilton, whats going on?

Paris Hilton exits missionary position to save Universe

Dave
Happy

Paris Hilton Spreads Her Wings.

Sub: STI's rise in Japan. Now called 'yeast in the east'.

Jordan mulls mamtastic epitaph

Dave
Paris Hilton

how about....

...titillating conversationalist.

can we vote for peter andre's epitaph to be "he was a perfect tit"

Bank and mortgage scam nets ID crooks thousands

Dave
Boffin

Re: Plastic Crime Unit?

shouldnt that be

Dehydrated Instant Serious Crime Organisation

...think of the acronym

taxi for one.

Corporate computing going thin to go green?

Dave
IT Angle

how exactly are planes getting faster, more comfortable and less 'green'?

30 years ago, you could fly in a commercial airliner at faster than the speed of sound. later on, concorde was updated to reach over twice the speed of sound.

30 years ago, even the russians had a supersonic commercial airliner (although it was retired in 1978 as it crashed at the paris air show, which sort of stopped anyone wanting one).

the aircraft nowadays run on such tight budgets that they have to cram as many passengers in as possible, so i don't think the comfort factor is even worth talking about.

and the new aircraft coming out (boeing 787, airbus a380) are generally advertised as being more economical per passenger mile than a family car.

perhaps el reg has a new intern starting who didnt do any research?

What's 77.1 x 850? Don't ask Excel 2007

Dave

talking of cumulative rounding errors....

python 2.4.4 gives the answer

>>> 77.1 * 850.0

65534.999999999993

or maybe excel '07 is the reason the financial markets are in trouble. it's not sub-prime lending, its sub-prime software.