Posts by M. Poolman
54 posts • joined Monday 19th March 2007 11:16 GMT
Mutant Camels on the Starboard Bow
All very strange. Guy seeks $150k but admits "he lacks the technical skill to design and build the machine," - what could possibly go wrong ?
And why does anyone want such things ? I (I'm sure like many Vulturistas of a certain age) cut my teeth on a C64, and I have fond memories of it. It's still in my loft, but for some strange reason I can't be arsed to fire it up. What I really would like to see, is some of the genuinely innovative ideas around at the time (ask SID about the title), implemented on modern platforms.
Mind how you go
Re: I happen to have experience transporting radioactive material across international borders.
I had a couple of those key-rings, both now sadly defunct. Could El Reg do them again ?
Re: As an American...
"what is this Scart cable you speak of?"
what is this Scart cable \emph{of which you speak} ?
Yeah, the asbestos coated one thanks.
Not only
Proper old skool, but also playing lemmings - the only game that held my attention for more than 5 minutes.
Re: ... a power density of 7.4mW cm−2 μm−1 ....
Not quite: cm^2 . μm yields a dimension of volume so overall we get power.volume^{-1} (power density), but multiplying cm by μm looks definitely a bit odd.
However, it's W, not Wh, so we have power, not energy, density that is being described. It's a critical difference, if our ant size battery can only supply this power for a fraction of a second it's a non-starter. If it can sustain that for several hours, then we have something pretty spectacular.
@zmodem
Yes, very good. Now go and find some water melons to explode, the grownups are talking.
Re: Another example of why Linux fails to gain market share
'Ubuntu is the leader, so everyone please just promote that, even if it's not "best", to try to win some market share, and don't let the zealots and purists and FOSS radicals define the entire movement.'
Ubuntu depends on Debian, by "winning" - as in destroying all competitors, it would be effectively destroying it's own life support. Having said that, I'd certainly recommend Ubuntu to anyone wanting to dip a toe in the water.
Nonetheless FOSS is a bit of an oddity, inasmuch as there is lot of mutual interdependence between players that in other spheres would be seen as rivals: talking about a a distro as being "leader" really doesn't make a lot of sense.
Re: "Comfortable with the terminal" (nvidia drivers)
Have to agree with OP on this one. Recently having to install them on a couple of debian boxen recently was the single most horrible task I've ever undertaken, and I'm by no means a noob.
BUT
This is not the fault of Linux, but of nvidia for releasing their drivers with an appalling installation script.
Happily in 99% of scenarios the free (nv) drivers work just fine. To anyone reading this who is wondering about whether or not to give Linux a spin, I'd say "sure, go for it", but if you've got an nvidia card, stick with the drivers that come with the distro, until you've unless you've got access to some local expertise.
@ mods
Why delete the OP ? He didn't seem to violating posting guidelines, and it make my comments look a little one sided !
Re: yawn
"This is the 3rd time this issue has been covered here"
Yes, it's a _developing_ story.
"the problem's ramifications have been clear from the outset."
To some, yes (or at least probably). This story provides provides evidence for what had heretofore been an assumption (ie that it is generic problem).
Are you really suggesting that El Reg should not waste our time reporting it ?
Re: yawn
If you think a story is boring then don't waste your time, or that of readers, by commenting. Just go to somewhere you think you might have something useful to say. And did you really mean to deploy the IT? icon ? this being a story about computers ?
Posted in Who ate all the Pis?
Re: The vi thing
"I only ever use Linux".
This being a thread about editors for *nix systems and all.
Posted in Who ate all the Pis?
Re: The vi thing
"I usually make the point that it's the one editor you're likely guaranteed to have available to you. "
10 years ago I might have agreed with you, but nano/pico has been (IIRC) has been ubiquitous for at least that long, and it's fair to regard it as the basic editor which will always be available.
Re: And that is why
We need proper technical education in schools, not simply messing about with office to make documents "interesting and exciting" by the use of da-glo orange comic book fonts or whatever.
Upvoted
Cos at least my sense of humour is still functioning. Joke alert for the overly literal.
Corrupt their way of living
Yeah, like it was westerners who first thought that having a light source when sun went down was a Good Thing (tm) ?
Posted in MIDI: 30 years old... almost
the gradual switch to MIDI over USB
shouldn't be a a problem, midi<->usb adapters are only a few quid.
@ AC 1239
All well and good, but how do you identify the reason(s), and what do you propose could be done about them ?
Yes, but
That is now a tautology. Something is unique or it is not, hence any qualifier must either be a contradiction or tautology, and so shouldn't be used.
Re: @AC
What is your point here ? (and who is "they" ?)
Every new release of windows generates pretty much the same stream of pro and anti arguments. If you just modify them to match the current release name/number, they're almost indistinguishable. What really matters is users reactions 6 months or so down the line.
I don't use windows myself, but I know plenty who do. Wasn't Vista the most hated version of windows ever ?
Pah !
Beat me to it. Reg - you may have a red top but this is supposed to be a tech site. Unimpressed.
Re: @M. Poolman
The phrase usually implies dire consequences from revealing the secret. e.g. Accidently allowing the wielder of authority (and the cat) to discover some breach of the Kings Regulations deserving of summary punnishment is to let the cat out of the bag.
Re: Indeed...
That's one explanation of the saying. The other is that it's nautical. The cat in question is the cat o' nine tails. Thus an action that lets it out of the bag is one that is going to lead to Big Trouble.
Erm
"... or it pleases some people to think so. I personaly don't consider myself to be particularly niave, but hey - it's all depending on how much you know (or at least, think you do)."
??
"My Uncle gave me one of the most useful (and profound) pieces of advice I ever had when I was young. "The worsth crime in the world, is getting caught". Sadly, it took me a long time to really understand how true that is, and what it really signified about human nature."
How profound that is. I got caught for riding my push-bike with out lights (at night would you believe). I hear about the massacres at (e.g. srebenica, rwanda, etc.) committed by loads of people who never got caught. I 'd look up to them if I wasn't hanging my head in shame.
"I'm not going to waste your time stating the obvious - I'm not even going to bother to vote a certain post down. I"
Good
"I'm sure there are many here as 'clueless' as me who know what I mean."
I doubt it.
WTF
Has Assange got do to with whether or not it's OK to access the voice-mails of murdered children, for the entertainment of the Great Britisish Public ?
Back in your hole, troll.
I don't want to get into a political row.
Then STFU
Posted in DEC founder Ken Olsen is dead
And another thing
Some years later I found myself at University and learned C & Unix on DEC Ultrix personal workstations, so I suppose I owe quite a lot to Ken Olsen and ilk.
Raise a glass to his memory !
Posted in DEC founder Ken Olsen is dead
Good 'ol days
I too cut my teeth on a PDP 8. It was the size of three wardrobes, had two mag tapes, a hard disk and hi-res graphics (A total of 600 spots on a B&W CRT). Booting consisted of entering (40 odd ?) binary numbers on a toggle panel (loads of really cool flashing lights) to be able to read a paper tape, then load a paper tape to get instructions off the mag tape, finally load a mag tape, and after an inordinate amount of clicking and whirring you were able to start using the teletype. All long term storage was on paper or mag tape. The disk only held a few k and that was used for the focal interpreter.
It really did look quite impressive when both mag tapes, the teletype and all those flashing lights were going 19 to the dozen.
But you tell the young people today, ...
Posted in What’s new and improving about IT today?
The best typo in the world
Probably. The mind (amongst other things) boggles. Made my Friday afternoon.
title
memcpy(dst, src, sizeof(*dst))
might help. Better to use abstract data types with dedicated copy functions. If done properly problems like this will be manifest at compile time, not run time.
JM2CW
@@M. Poolman(s)
OK it's quite a few years since I was drinking at the OGs and doubtless rail service, like so much else in this once fair country, will have declined somewhat. But +/- ~10 mins in comparison to the figures quoted above might appear a little pedantric.
King insanity
The picturesqe market town of Wellingborough is about 10 minutes bus journey from Kettering and has direct rail link to the big smoke that will get you there in ~3/4 hr. Northamptom, one time cobbler captial of the empire is about 20 minutes by bus and has an equally good rail link.
Surely this is some bizarre and belated April fool, Really. Honetstly. Can't be anything else.
Coughs'n'sneezes
Spread diseases, as my old Granny used to tell me. A saying doing the rounds in the 1918 flu epidemic. Good to see medical progress over 90 years !
The one with pockets full of hankies please.
Posted in Boffins build omelette-making android
Earth to Mars
What do you know of KoenigsEggs?
Only that they go so fast they're likely to ovaturn and you'll end up cracked with your brains scambled. Either that or you'll be pecked up in a speed trap by the coops, and get brought before the beak, which is exactly the sort of eggistential crisis I want to ovoid to have any chance of getting layed.
Oh for the wings of any bird, other than a battery hen - that's just the soth
Posted in Boffins build omelette-making android
Egg-citing development in robotics?
Nah,
Just a bunch of eggotistical eggcentrics eggstrapolating eggstraenous eggsperimental eggology without eggonomics, eggscuses or eggcitement.
(all white, it's only a yolk)
Mines the shell suit top.
Erm..
OK, lets get this straight. A single false alarm costs $14k and 20 (thats what the man said, count 'em TWENTY) computer specialists seven hours to correct it , while the state of California faces imminent melt down.
So thats 140 man ^H^H^H person hours to find the reset switch. And replace the broken glass. Someones taking the peace out of someone here, but I can't quite see who. Hence the gratuituous Paris emoticon.
@RE: Unlike a computer
nth root of x = 10^(log(x)/n)
Most likely done using 2 as the base of the log though,
and a Taylor expansion to calculate the log (iterative, not recursive).
Posted in Gibson plugs in self-tuning roboguitar
Silly gimmick
Any fule kno that page 1 of "How to play guitar like Frank Zappa for dummies in 24 hours made easy" has "how to tune your guitar" on page 1.
If your going to spend thousands on a real Gibson you'll probably have got the hang of that bit. If not, you just have more money than sense.
...Oh wait, I get it now ...
I chose Paris because she's a
Bismuth nanotube ?
Reminds me of
The "Spitmeth" story that cropped up here a week or so ago. Sorry to bring that up again.
@Gerrit Tijhof
If you refine the search to ".bbc.co.uk" (note leading period) you find that just one of the ~120 servers run a windows variant (jobtest.bbc.co.uk) which redirects to to a page starting:
Server Error in '/' Application...
This begs so many questions that I really don't know where to start.
(PS @ el Reg. icons/emoticons suck - drop 'em)
Just as long
"...or choking on vomit"
as it's their *OWN* vomit.
Posted in Root-locked Linux for the masses
Shurely shome mishtake ?
Aw c'mon, how many bits of Linux advocacy have you seen containing the phrase "would you buy a car with the bonnet welded shut" ?
See also http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/14/microsoft_dispels_stealth_update_rumors/
and the related comments.
Who in their right mind is going to want a box that you can't control but someone else can ?
What happens when you stop paying the fee ?
What happens when h8krz publicise ways to break into it ?
/etc/* /etc/* /etc/*
Can't see it myself.
The lunatic
... was on the grass ?
re Dr. Stephen Jones
"Lockwood and Frohlich should be sent back to the remedial class"
Well spotted, I suggest you get in touch with the Royal Society (who published it) and request that they withdraw and/or re-review it.
Puny humans
"Hortibot boffin Claus Aage Grøn Sørensen told the Daily News that the flamethrower and deadly energy beam were only for use on weeds, "
Pah ! In the eyes of the uber lizard master race, *ALL* puny humans are no more than weeds
Who pays ? Who gains
Who pays for the BBC, content + tech. devel ?
UK licence fee payers.
Who gets any commercial adavantage from BBC using Windows only format for iPlayer ?
Microsoft. Only Microsoft.
What overwhelming technical reason is there for this ?
None.
Thus the BBC has become a conduit to channel money from (almost) every
UK household to the richest company in the world ever.
I find it hard to believe that even at her most insane Maggie would have proposed
such a thing, and this under a labour (A LABOUR !) government.
Roll on the revolution !
Posted in AT&T sued by poor man's Formula 1
Pretty birdy
Mummy, mummy, what kind of bird is that ?
It's a vulture dear,
But what kind of vulture is it mummy ?
I think it must be a greater troll vulture darling.
