* Posts by SpeakerToAliens

59 publicly visible posts • joined 12 Feb 2008

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SETI's mega alien hunt shovels more data onto IBM's cloud

SpeakerToAliens
Alien

"There may well be intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, but somebody, somewhere had to be first"

-- Carl Sagan

Sinclair fans rejoice: ZX Spectrum Vega+ to launch October 20

SpeakerToAliens

Re: Hmmmm...

>"You'd need a BBC Micro emulator to do that one justice."

No, you really wouldn't.

I played Elite on a BBC B, Spectrum, Amstrad 6128 and Atari ST. Each version was better than its predecessor.

Elite: Dangerous 'billionaire' gamers are being 'antisocial', moan players

SpeakerToAliens
Unhappy

Re: Tickets

> When Frontier actually gets around to sending the game to the 25,000 Kickstarter

> backers, things are going to get really tough.

They have, I was a Kickstarter backer. I'm also unable to play the game I've downloaded (v1.03). Once I get out of the menus all I get is blank screen.

I raised a ticket (numbered in the eleven thousands) more than 2 weeks ago. I wasn't expecting an instant reply, or even one within 2 days - it being Christmas and so on - but waiting 2 weeks and hearing nothing makes me wonder how far along the now 20,000+ tickets they've gone.

They could always give some statistics (# raised, # duplicate issues, # fixed in next release, # fixed by changing Users PC config), but I suspect that would just be giving us a stick to beat them with.

SpeakerToAliens
Black Helicopters

Re: Just like real life then?

Once you are rich... you can hire assassins to make you're problem go away.

Coughing for 4G, getting 2G... Networks' penny-pinching SECRETS REVEALED

SpeakerToAliens
Boffin

Why wouldn't the phone companies use it if your phone supported it?

It lets them provide twice as many simultaneous calls per cell tower at an acceptable audio quality, so why not?

In crowded locations/during emergencies that would be a real boon. Also, doesn't it increase the phone's battery life as the phone would only have to transmit/receive in a half-size time-slot instead of a full size one?

Doctor Who becomes an illogical, unscientific, silly soap opera in Kill The Moon

SpeakerToAliens
Facepalm

Re: Spoilers!

Why the hell did you read this far if you don't want to know what happened?

SpeakerToAliens
Alien

Re: There's something wrong with the gravity

The moon *had* to be magically heavier because simulating 1/6th gravity while everyone is walking around (and The Doctor was playing with his yo-yo) would be far too costly for a BBC budget.

In order to give the moon the same surface gravity as the Earth you'd have to add 6 times the Moon's mass without making it any larger. That would also give the Moon a density similar to uranium, so what on Earth (sorry) was the creature made of?

X-Men boffins demo nanomagnets to replace transistors

SpeakerToAliens

Re: Core memory

One reason they were nervous was because core stores have power-off retention and RAM (back there and back then) did not. If there's been a power outage - not unknown in military applications - when the power comes back on a core store based computer can continue running its program where it left off with no lost or corrupted data.

LOHAN seeks stirring motto for spaceplane mission patch

SpeakerToAliens
Coat

Closest I could get using Google Translate

Omnes vacuums hereditatem datæ sunt nobis

(All your space are belong to us)

Physicist proposes 1,000-foot state-sized walls to stop tornadoes

SpeakerToAliens
IT Angle

Where to get the material to build it?

Where to get the material to build it? Dig a trench in front of it! The trench doesn't have to be the same dimensions as the wall. It could be wide and shallow. Fill the trench with water (that'll probably happen anyway) and move in some wildlife, ducks, fish, etc. for the huntin', shootin' and fishin' crowd and sell licences. Build docks for speed boats and sail boats and jet skis (more licences). And yes, put windmills on top; and grass and trees and and maybe a path suitable for runners in a mega-marathon.

Tech that we want (but they never seem to give us)

SpeakerToAliens
Childcatcher

Smart phones where *you* decide which Apps are on them.

Smart phones where *you* decide which Apps are on them rather than your Service Provider and where *you* decide what information the Apps can send elsewhere rather than the phone or App provider.

ENTIRE UNIVERSE created in supercomputer. Not THIS universe (probably)

SpeakerToAliens
Pint

Elite: Dangerous (by David Braben) coming to a PC near you soon!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/1461411552/elite-dangerous

Think drone delivery is hot air? A BREWERY just proved you wrong

SpeakerToAliens
Coat

Nice advert. However, ...

... that box is definitely empty. Why? 1) Watch when it first takes off and moves forward. The box has very low inertia. 2) Look how far the thing tilts when going at speed. If the box wasn't empty there's no way air resistance at that speed would tilt it that far.

Of course, it could be a very "light" beer they're shipping...

Watch the MIT MER-BOT – half droid, half soft 'fish' – swim by itself

SpeakerToAliens
Unhappy

Firefox: "Error #2035"

Firefox (v27.0.1) - I get "Error #2035" instead of the video. I have Adobe flash player v12.0.0.55. This error seems to be "URL not found", though the video does play if I use MSIE.

Anyone else suffering this with Firefox?

Anyone know a solution (that doesn't involve using a different browser)?

Is Google building SKYNET? Ad kingpin buys AI firm DeepMind

SpeakerToAliens
Happy

Re: We can build you: ROBOBLAIR SOON!

You should read Isaac Asimov's story "Evidence" (http://www.ebook2u.org/sf/Isaac13/27320.html).

NASA pic: DOOMED ice Comet ISON literally had snowball's chance in hell

SpeakerToAliens
Coat

If you can't stand the heat...

...stay out of the solar corona.

Coroner suggests cars should block mobile phones

SpeakerToAliens
Childcatcher

Using a phone while driving?

Think of it as evolution in action. The average intelligence of the human race goes up by a small fraction of a percent.

Mars defends: HUMANS to SEND UFO to Red Planet by 2016

SpeakerToAliens
Big Brother

They have to call the colony ship "Ark Fleet Ship B"

And the crew of reality TV stars should be called the Golgafrinchans.

Dawn of the X-Men? MUTANTS swarm AMONG US, say geneticists

SpeakerToAliens
Holmes

Re: Moties!

In America "The Moat Around Murcheson's Eye" was published as "Gripping Hand". It included maps of various star systems and their Crazy Eddie Points.

I knew I had to read it when I saw a short extract published online - very short in fact - it was just a few lines from a message Bury was writing. He signed off with "Horace Hussein Bury, aboard the starship Sinbad, somewhere in the Mote system. "

Intergalactic speed demon stars bid Milky Way farewell

SpeakerToAliens
Flame

Re: Puppeteer homeworld perhaps

No the Ringworld wouldn't be left behind, provided the accelleration was very very low. It could be higher though, if they augmented it with the Attitude Jets and higher still if they added a few (lots!) more.

<Flame image as the business end of an Attitude Jet>

Death Star SUCKS PLASMA FROM SUN in NASA riddle vid

SpeakerToAliens
Coat

Don't worry, it's just Rama refuelling.

... And on far-off Earth, Dr. Carlisle Perera had as yet told no one how he had wakened from a restless sleep with the message from his subconscious still echoing in his brain: The Ramans do everything in threes.

-- Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke.

Flag-waving Lego Canuck soars to 80,000ft

SpeakerToAliens
Alien

What is the object seen in the sky from 1:01 to 1:03?

Just wondering...

Paul Allen latest plan: Space rockets on MEGA PLANE

SpeakerToAliens
Thumb Up

It looks like something out of Thunderbirds!

Can I have a go?

Boffins one step closer to Terminator vision

SpeakerToAliens
Terminator

"You've got DreamTime Technology in your contact lenses?"

From "The California Voodoo Game" by Larry Niven and Steve Barnes. Part of the "Dream Park" series of stories.

http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=1496

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_Park

Harry Potter director takes on Doctor Who movie

SpeakerToAliens
Thumb Up

Who should play Dr Who?

Benedict Cumberbatch of course.

Duck and cover: ROSAT is the next re-entry

SpeakerToAliens
Alien

Does anyone remember the T.V. series Dead Like Me?

A comedy series in which a girl (Ellen Muth) is hit by space debris (the toilet seat from Mir) and becomes a Grim Reaper.

CPU cycles for stars: theSkyNet wants your sandbox

SpeakerToAliens
FAIL

It wont work for me!

I downloaded the app and as part of its install the latest version of Java (v6.??) was downloaded. Then the app refused to run as I didn't have at Java v1.6 installed! WTF?

Sandi Toksvig puts the 'n' into cuts - on the Beeb

SpeakerToAliens
Pint

And it's all in the best possssssssssssssible taste

Damn! you beat me too it!

SpeakerToAliens
Big Brother

This obviously caused political rather personal affront.

Stephen Fry told this joke on "I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue" in the game "Uxbridge Dictionary" (where you give new definitions for words) a while ago:-

"Countryside" - "Killing Piers Morgan".

Nobody complained then.

Hadron Collider 'could act as telephone for talking to the past'

SpeakerToAliens
Terminator

Time Travel is impossible because...

...because seen from outside the universe has a single fixed amount of Mass/Energy that can never change. If even a single particle were to travel backwards in time from time T2 to time T1 then the amount of Mass/Energy in the universe would increase because there would be two copies of the Mass/Energy of that particle in existance between those 2 times.

To an outside observer the Mass/Energy in the universe would be seen to have increased during the interval T1-->T2 and then drop back to normal again. It would never be less than it had been so where did that extra Mass/Energy come from?

(I long ago read "The Theory and Practice of Time Travel" by Larry Niven)

Volvo demos automobile auto-pilot tech

SpeakerToAliens
IT Angle

Open the Pod Bay door please Hal.

Says it all really.

Raygun 747 to fight 'one-off' tag with twin '09 missile fryings

SpeakerToAliens
Happy

@NASA Beware

> By the way, the words you're looking for are "Oh good grief"

Jed Bartlet got all the best lines.

DARPA at Phase 3 on solar powered surveillance strato-ship

SpeakerToAliens
Coat

What would the US do if ...

...some other "World Power" built one of these and then flew it in range of their territory? Would their laser or railgun equipped warships be able to down the thing?

While reading that article something was tickling the back of my mind. Anyone read "Orion Shall Rise"? Remember the thing that hovered over Paris throughout most of the story?

Mine's the one made of radar absorbent material.

Mexico? US? Just don't go there, warns EU health chief

SpeakerToAliens
Dead Vulture

Yes but will the airlines play ball...

...or will they simply tell you "No refunds!" because the government hasn't actually banned travel there?

Stargazers peer into the 'Eye of God'

SpeakerToAliens
Coat

Can I be the first to say...

"Clams got legs!"

Oh. Sorry. Wrong cartoon.

Mine's the one with the "Footrot Flats" compendium in the pocket.

Crypto hash boffins trip on buffer overflow

SpeakerToAliens

@Wolf

> How about using a language that does memory management, with an interpreter or compiler that knows how to optimize to the bare metal? It's a lot easier for a specialist to create a solution everyone can use, right? That's the whole *point* of code reuse..

We've been using the same home grown C utility libraries for more than 10 years. They are thoroughly debugged, run in every O/S and hardware combination we've tried them on (even Windows) with little on no modification and are very *very* fast. Certainly faster than those in the standard libraries. [At least with C (and C++) you can override the built-ins and use your own.]

That *is* the point of code reuse. If you aren't still using code you wrote 10 years ago then you need better code and better local procedures.

Happy Birthday, Turing's universal machine

SpeakerToAliens
Coat

@@AC 00:30

> Windows IS the universal OS.

Windows isn't universal. You mentioned Linux but you forgot many others, the MAC OS for instance. Isn't that around 5% penetration? Plus, there are several versions of Windows. What's the %age penetration of Vista, Win98, NT, 2000, XP, 3.1, 3.0? Shall I power up my Atari ST or my TSR-80? How about my ZX81? None of those run Windows (Ok, the TRS-80 runs MS Basic, but its still *not* Windows).

> It's Darwinism at work - the best of breed succeeds.

So you're equating Windows to bacteria and viruses then. They've succeeded better than anything.

Mine's the one with the role of punched paper tape in the pocket.

Mankind to detect alien life 'by 2025'

SpeakerToAliens
Alien

There may well be intelligent life...

... elsewhere in the universe, but somebody somewhere had to be first - Carl Sagan.

E-voting fears run high as election day looms

SpeakerToAliens

Its not who votes, its who counts that matters.

-- J. Stalin.

Plasma rocket space drive in key test milestone

SpeakerToAliens
Thumb Up

A warp drive did you say?

Here's one, or at least a mathematical model for one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_metric

MoD's London brass resist job cuts

SpeakerToAliens
Coat

Draft the civil servants into the Army

(yes, I did mean "Draft", as in, legally forced into the army, even if against their will).

They would have to come in as grunts of course, then they can be given 6 weeks basic training and shipped out to Iraq or Afghanistan.

Make sure the ex-civil servants get the soft skinned "snatch" land-rovers that they were so keen to tell us were up to the job and make sure they're at the back of the queue for body armour, so that the proper soldiers get the proper kit and the civil servant get the kit they were willing to pay for.

It will actually save money too, 'cos soldiers get paid a damn sight less than civil servants.

Mine's the one with the extra 7.62mm ammo in the pocket.

US judge rejects lawsuit against God

SpeakerToAliens
Coat

But God wouldn't be able to ...

...defend herself in court. After all, look who's got all the lawyers!

Mines the one with the book of 1,000 year old jokes in the pocket.

Peruvian football team has really bad day

SpeakerToAliens
Dead Vulture

Not *the* worst day though.

Just Google for "Busby babes".

Meat Loaf gets Q gong

SpeakerToAliens
Coat

@Tony

> We need a flat cap icon for all the grumpy old men (like me) out there.

I've got one with a Bat symbol on the peak (a cap that is, not an icon). Got it when he did the Albert Hall a couple of years ago. Meat Loaf, with full orchestral backing. Magical.

Mine's the one with a Meat Loaf key fob in the pocket.

Orange sees broadband subscriber exodus

SpeakerToAliens
Pirate

Orange suck...

...in my experience.

Their 3G coverage sucks!

Their Broadband/ADSL service sucks! (It stopped working completely in the evenings.)

Their Customer Service sucks! - and when you can get through to complain all you get is apologies and broken promises.

I'm with Talktalk for home phone and broadband now. They're cheap and it works all the time. Not only does it work but they rang me up out of the blue last week to see how I was getting on with their service - Yes! THEY RANG ME!

I told them the phone was fine but the broadband was a little slow (650kb/s at 3 miles from the exchange) and they said they'd get an engineer to check. Ten minutes later they ring back and I've now got 1.3mb/s free, gratis and for nothing.

I'm with 3 for my mobile phone now - it works great - coverage everywhere I go, its cheaper than Orange and I could get 3mb/s data (capped at 3GB/month) if I wanted it, for just £5 extra per month.

Orange, as a company will be dead soon. Lets hope the other ISPs learn their lesson.

Hacker murders Facebook word game

SpeakerToAliens
Pirate

Lets hope they don't go after PHPDiplomacy too.

I'd use the "knife in the back" symbol of Diplomacy if there was one, but there isn't, so Pirate will have to do.

Blighty's electro-supercar 2.0 uncloaked today

SpeakerToAliens
Black Helicopters

I want mine to play...

...Ride of the Valkyries.

Black helicopter because... well, you know.

Telegraph falls to the Tw*t-O-Tron

SpeakerToAliens
Linux

A girl I knew at school emigrated to Canada...

... and she posted an article on Friends Reunited about her life over there and how nice it all was. She finished with

"The only downside is, its the middle of October and its already bloody snowing!"

Penguin 'cos they like the snow.

Gas crunch: Jatropha, kudzu, algae and magic to rescue

SpeakerToAliens
Coat

Manhattan Project == Nuclear Fusion!

Isn't a lot of money being spent by many countries on a Nuclear Fusion reactor in France? Isn't that, quite literally, the modern equivalent of the Manhattan Project?

Mine's the one with the "Ready Brek" glow around it.

iRobot Roomba 560 robot vacuum cleaner

SpeakerToAliens
Thumb Up

We've had a Roomba for a couple of years...

It works fine, we just hit the "Clean" button on the way out the door in a morning and its done and back on its recharging station by the time we get home from work. We use the lighthouse things to keep it out of the kitchen (it got into the cats' food bowls and made a terrible mess the first/only time) but it does the rest of the ground floor (2 rooms plus hall) no problem.

We could use it upstairs (it will detect the edge of the stairs so it cleans up to the edge but doesn't fall down them) but the junk on the floors - especially in the kids' rooms - makes it more hassle than its worth. Bonus: That means the hoover lives upstairs now, so I don't have to lug the thing up and down stairs.

Ours came with a voltage converter (240v-110v). I'm surprised the one on review didn't But then again, we got ours from a UK importer (via ebay).

You must remember to empty the small dust container (and wipe/clean the filters!) every day. I also have to cut the long black hair from around the bristles every few weeks (my wife must be moulting). Our normal hoover has the power to cope with long black hair wrapped around the main drum, but the motor on the Roomba isn't powerful enough.

The Roomba goes under the furniture just fine. It scared the hell out of the cats though, they used to hide under the chairs!

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