Posts by John H Woods
970 posts • joined Wednesday 14th November 2007 11:44 GMT
Re: BMI is garbage
ITYM waist measurement should be less than HALF height LOL
Re: Enough bickering you lot...
Theme park? Film set? Brand new kind of sport? You might be on to something.
Re: ... Pluto
Basic knowledge is not subject to the whim of a committee; our understanding of the solar system changes. In this case it was not some discovery about Pluto (OMG it isn't a planet after all) but a discovery that there were quite a few objects out there with just as strong (or weak) claim to be called planets.
So there were three choices
1) regard "planet" as meaning "things we used to call planets"
2) keep the existing notion of planet and accept that we have many more planets in our solar system
3) formalise the definition of planet causing there to be (one) fewer planets our solar system
Imagine if we'd found not just the Higgs but a brand new unexpected boson. Would it be sensible to change the definition of boson to "bosons we had discovered (or anticipated) up till 2012"?
Re: Pedantry excused
A la recherche du timbres perdu?
Posted in HTC bags UK win in patent war with Apple
Re: Take note america!
David138: "Thank god the UK justice system works....unless its deporting Terroists."
... or punishing twits ... or not punishing multi-gazillion pound fraudsters. But this is a jolly good result.
I'm interested that Apple felt able to say what they said afterwards . If I'd taken someone to court for shoplifting and, on the basis of the evidence, the case had been dismissed, I think it would be frowned upon if I were to come out and say "See, it just shows people can steal from me with impunity".
No, but...
Labour may not be able to take the moral high ground, but possession of that notional landmass is largely irrelevant: if my fat GP tells me I need to exercise more, it is a bit of a cheek, but it doesn't really invalidate his argument.
@skelband
"I can't imagine what you could fit into a Twitter message that would be subject to DMCA takedown notices."
I'm guessing URLs to copyright content?
Great Big Sea
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FM9UyBQELc
The Germans already have ...
"Handy". I've also heard "Smartie". Both of these seem a bit infantile.
Increasingly my kids refer to tablets and phones - at least the ones that can't be called iPads, iPhones, or Blackberrys - as 'droids, which sounds a little better to my ears. But I think El Reg got there first with 'Slab'.
Re: Technicalities
+1 paralipsis
Dics too big
The main problem with autocorrect, imho, is that the dictionaries are vastly huger than the optimal size. After about 3 autocorrect muff-ups I swyped 'this is ridiculous' only to end up sending 'this is Tuscaloosa'.
Similar problems with spellcheckers in word-processors or browsers. It's much better to question a new word (with the option to add to the user's personal dictionary) than to consider it a correctly spelt obscure or archaic word. Only crossword-solving dictionaries need to be big.
Re: The case for the defence
"Don't much care whether I buy this stuff on Amazon, John Lewis, Dixons or PC World/Currys"
Probably doesn't matter as much as whether you buy it in a shop or by mail order. If you do the latter, you can send it back if you don't like it, even if it works perfectly; if you do the former you may find you have to argue your case unless the item is faulty (or sometimes, even if it is).
Re: At the same time lets
Richard Rae: "You shagged without a contraception, you have a kid you TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR ITS EDUCATION!"
More than happy to. If the government will let me.
{in}experience of ONE person...
... is not a good enough reason for this fiasco.
Consider: "a lone terrorist hacked the system / posed as an employee / whatever and caused a banking crisis affecting nearly 20m people for nearly 2 weeks"
Even if the poor bugger had done it ON PURPOSE there is NO EXCUSE for what happened next. It is a system failure on every conceivable level and therefore the ultimate blame must absolutely lie with management.
Miek...
... be fair! There's a difference between writing pseudocode before you go to the computer and writing it before the bloody thing has even been invented :-)
BTW: match is at http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/garry-kasparov-versus-alan-turings-1950-chess-program, worth a look.
Re: How much does RRAM cost?
There's a million square cm in 100 square m. So your chum reckons you need a zetabit to "fully describe every atom in a human body"
IS2R there's about 10^26 atoms in a kilo of meat, so around 7e27 in a body. A zetabit gets you about 1 millionth of what you need for 1bit per atom, which is hardly enough for a "full description" (say, which element it is, and its 3D coordinates at a sufficient resolution). Even 100m x 100m wouldn't be enough - I reckon you are going to need 6e12 cm^2 - 600 square kilometres - just to get a bit per atom.
Posted in DDR 4 sets the pace for fast memory
Not much need ...
... to correct you either, because you were almost right - certainly close enough to make the point.
How long until...
... we get themepark style air blasters capable of battering one with hot air full of the smell of burning?
All that 3D stuff gives me a headache http://xkcd.com/880/
Re: Intentionally Weak passwords
Check out #4 in " 8 Websites You Need to Stop Building" http://theoatmeal.com/comics/websites_stop
Re: It's amazing
"We the voters must take responsibility of our part in this"
What - because we are too gutless to start an armed insurrection? Democracy - certainly as practiced in the UK - does not give you anything like the fine-grained control we need to prevent this sort of behaviour.
1) Politicians are not bound to stick to manifesto promises - in fact, they are almost bound not to.
2) Politicians are increasingly self (career) oriented, rather than state and/or society oriented.
3) The FPP system restricts the choice of government to two parties, both of which behave similarly in this respect.
I could go on. I believe in free-market capitalism, though I admit to being a bit of a small-L liberal. The problem we have had is that we will allow industry (e.g. 1970s British car industry) to go to well deserved oblivion, then we distort the market by preventing the banks from doing the same. This prevents them from doing proper risk analysis, because it us who bear all the risk, despite the fact we have no real means of relieving ourselves of the burden of doing so - nobody we can realistically elect will allow us to.
Re: mandatory...
@A J Stiles. Cool - can you tell me what this means? WHOOOSH!
Posted in Turing Machine brought to life with Lego
Re: Sir
Officially a 'posthumous pardon' is not applicable - he was convicted under the (bad) laws of the time, and pardons are reserved for people whose convictions are found to have been wrong, rather than whose prosecution is.
But I can't see why they can't find some official form in which they could apologize for ruining his life, and prematurely depriving us of a genius who played no small part in ensuring the continuity of our own state.
Re: If God had wanted us all to be vegetarians...
... he wouldn't have made animals out of meat (by Jo Brand, IS2R)
Re: Or just use buses
Cheaper for whom? I live 4 miles from Stratford-upon-Avon on a main road. There is a bus stop outside my house. It is covenient, true, but It is cheaper for me to drive my daughter to town in 4.6 litre 4x4 than it is to buy one adult and one child ticket.
In other news ...
... Smalltalk has yet to be bettered ...
Posted in Ten... celeb headphones
Re: Why?
I'll tell you why - the very same reason that even the rubbish reg articles are worth a look - the comments are priceless.
Re: @Nightfox:
Maverick - by CodeSector
misdial
isn't 111 a bit close to 112? Surely they wouldn't have chosen 998 as a good number?
Posted in Stephen Fry's Pushnote goes titsup
Re: Yep...
... but I would say Julie Burchill is a clever person's idea of a stupid person.
Posted in Volkswagen Up!
Re: Fuel economy
Thanks for the admission - my comment that it was thirsty cost me a downvote - despite the fact that loads of people agreed with me! I feel better about it now :-)
Look here, you foreign chaps...
... that's just not the right way to go about things. BAE, Saudi Arabia and the Serious Fraud Office can advise you on how to do it properly.
Posted in Volkswagen Up!
Surprisingly thirsty?
My Audi A3 cab (140bhp 2.0TDi) has averaged over 50mpg in its first 15,000 miles, despite the fact that I sometimes enjoy driving it. It's fairly easy to get >60mpg even with the lid off on any trip over about 10 miles. I would have thought it would be reasonable to expect 80-90mpg out of a car like this?
non-technocracy
Absolutely. Makes one wonder if its a short step from a society where there is a lack of social mobility to one that is effectively antimeritocratic.
memcmp! FFS!
As a someone familiar with testing, I can see how something like 'sometimes the wrong password is accepted' doesn't get tested - I don't think I've ever seen a security test plan that just keeps trying the wrong password in a functional security test! However, the weakness should have been discovered during non-functional security testing - an obvious way to attempt to DDoS a DB (or any other app) is with repeated bogus login attempts.
But what I'm really struggling with is how a function like memcmp can have (a) been screwed up and (b) have its screwup missed in regression testing. How can one have any confidence in a library where a function to compare two sequences of bytes does not work properly?
More fake choice ...
... just like with state schools, where the only availably strategy to exercise that choice involves moving house, this is about the illusion of choice. If the practice you'd like to join is full, or nearly full --- and there is a sensible prioritisation of places for those who live locally --- you'll have to go to the practice that is in your own town, whether you like it or not.
Game over ...
a) game fails to catch on, nobody gives a toss what's in the cube, no movement of news through social media to track.
or
b) game goes crazy, winner announces contents to media, everybody finds out at once, no movement of news through social media to track.
Schoolboy error...
... what makes you think that any of this is for customers?
Re: Shit laws should be ignored
'These sorts of laws should be run by engineers first so that we can say "No, you dipshit, that is complete bonkers, this is how the problem can be solved simply and cheaply"'
Steady on, now, Tom38 - imagine if we took that approach to government IT projects?
Re: Dear Reg editors :-
Urban Legend Alert: 'still got bowfingers' is considered unlikely as the source of 'the Vs'
I see the future...
... twenty SIX databases.
Posted in ITU adopts two ultra-high def TV specs
Re: Happy with TV as it is - but want awesome Virtual Reality goggles
Sony already make some: http://www.reghardware.com/2011/10/21/sony_3d_goggles_get_priced_up_for_uk. Not really VR afaics tho, to me that implies movement of the picture correlating with movement of one's head.
Re: "As Joules are very small people..."
you aren't but maybe you're the only one who missed the earlier excellent sarcasm about commas :-)
Re: Dimensional analysis
Actually it's not quite meaningless. If you do the division the other way, you get an area. That area is the cross-sectional area of a 'solid tube of fuel' that a vehicle must 'nibble up' as it goes along in order to sustain its motion.
Re: Ace science...
Rob,
I completely agree but that's my point. This is useful technology for genetics - just not informatics.
Re: Patent lawyers... IN SPAAACE!
Not at all. As long as they don't have ships, tethers or suits I'm happy.
Re: Is this why Bee's are on the decline...
Agreed but a more sensible evolution for the relatively recent invention of the apostrophe would be to dispense with it altogether, rather than treat it as part of the letter S and sprinkle it liberally all over the place.
Re: They have Software Tokens?
"Kind of" with RSA as well, for the reason you say.. But it is RSA who provide the S/W token; like a locksmith who sells you a lock and, when it's compromised, says "oh, everyone knows those aren't secure"
