* Posts by lIsRT

187 publicly visible posts • joined 13 May 2008

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Outside-the-box thinking literally can't be done inside a box, say profs

lIsRT
Joke

"five-by-five-foot"

If it's meant to contain a human, I'd have used something three-dimensional myself.

ICANN snubs critics, opens domain extension floodgates

lIsRT
Trollface

.corn

One can hope it will either be http://www.ncga.com/ or http://www.corn.org/ who get it.

Boeing backs biofuel boffinry

lIsRT
Go

It nearly happened.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair_X-6

US 'space warplane' may be spying on Chinese spacelab

lIsRT

Isn't most education paid from the state budgets?

Virtual sanity: How to get a grip on your home PCs

lIsRT

Out of interest, how do you manage system-wide settings?

I'm able to keep most of my settings in my home directory, but have ended up with far too many customisations sitting in /etc/, which I've occasionally forgotten about when formatting the non-/home/ partition at re-install time.

FCC (finally) cracks down on BLARING! TV! ADS!

lIsRT
Thumb Up

An especially attractive option in the UK, ever since I got my own place, I've been able to ignore the increasingly stern begging letters from TVL.

TomTom axes 10% of workforce

lIsRT
Thumb Up

oh well

I actually liked using their car navigation kits; I would have bought one by now, if it was possible to load new maps onto the thing without having to run Windows or OSX.

Looks like the company might be circling the porcelain at the moment, so I doubt it's worth choosing one of theirs no matter what they do...

Free Ride: Disney, Fela Kuti and Google's war on copyright

lIsRT
Happy

Full Circle

Heh, needing a proxy or some sort of other work-around to pay for music...

That put a smile on my face.

Police arrest alleged LulzSec hacker 'topiary' in Scotland

lIsRT
Meh

possibly

I'd guess that those buddies have been a bit more careful with their proxy use - which is probably why they haven't been picked up at this time.

Of course, it all depends on whether or not they've been so careful about casual chat amongst themselves; I guess we'll find out soon.

Space scope spies soggy, stupendous Saturnian doughnut

lIsRT
Alien

That's no moon!

These look like some sort of RCS, using water as the reaction mass...

TSA to revise nudie scanner software

lIsRT
Facepalm

The possible responses scare me more than the threat.

Maybe it's because any competent terrorist now realises that the only practical way to conceal a bomb is not under clothing, but under skin (and preferably some fat/muscle layers too).

Sort of like that fat bloke the Joker got to in the last Batman movie.

All you need is a friendly surgeon.

Should be interesting to see how they respond.

X-rays, ultrasound? - too slow and/or dangerous.

Stitches == no fly? - horrifically discriminatory.

No fatties on the aircraft? - this would actually have a pleasant unintended consequence, but probably wouldn't stop a smaller bomb that could still do some damage.

LulzSec say they'll release big Murdoch email archive

lIsRT
Meh

really?

If it was as easy as that, why don't they just release the emails themselves, but under the banner of "Anonymous"?

Oh...

Brussels acts to ensure arrival of new, unknown legal highs

lIsRT
Meh

I am really not sure how serious I am here.

Good idea - they can ban addiction while they're at it.

Cleaning up the Bitcoin act

lIsRT
Happy

deflation is nice

One of the points is to have a currency which does not permit inflation.

There are only a finite number of bitcoins which can be created, ever.

(Assuming it all works as planned of course.)

This would have the effect of rewarding savers and punishing borrowers; it's a matter of opinion whether this would be a good thing or not, I would say it is.

OCZ fails to kill off Blue Screen Of Death issue

lIsRT
Thumb Up

Phew.

Ordered a vertex from Amazon, fortunately it hadn't shipped, just cancelled it right now.

Top level domain explosion could wreak MAYHEM on NET

lIsRT

I suppose not.

OK, deleting might be an overreaction (I suspect this might not even be possible for some of the default Windows fonts); but, if you care about having unambiguous information in your browser's address bar (or anywhere else), then make sure to use a suitable font.

Trebuchet seems to be an acceptable compromise, it's not too serif-y, but at least the l isn't just a vertical line.

lIsRT
Go

Hilarity.

I love this (no sarcasm whatsoever), just for the comedy that may ensue.

For example, why register a .xxx domain when sooner or later someone will be offering .fuck ones?

Or, imagine the Corn Farmers Association of <Wherever> decide to register .corn (squint at it, and imagine what happens when you start to need glasses).

lIsRT

No, you're not stupid, but many MANY font designers are.

If:

Ian

and:

lan

look the same on your system, delete whichever font you're currently using.

Sometimes serifs are there for a reason.

'Dirty' Hari defends radical interview mashup technique

lIsRT
Meh

Own up.

Who else thought tabs (abbreviation of tablets? - I suppose I could be wrong here too) and pills were the same thing up until now?

Google bypasses admin controls with latest Chrome IE

lIsRT
Trollface

But, but, but...

...I thought we were *meant* to make sure that, where possible, our code never actually needs root^H^H^H^Hadmin privileges!

Seriously though, Google's "customers" are the users - not the owners. What else do you expect?

Bitcoin slump follows senators’ threats

lIsRT
Trollface

addendum

Incidentally, to previous contributors: If you are sure the value of bitcoins will eventually crash, shouldn't you profit from it by figuring out a way to short-sell them?

From what you say, it's a sure thing.

lIsRT
Thumb Up

hmm

I'm thinking about buying some, just an experiment - a non-inflatable currency sounds like a really nice thing to have, and if it gains traction *might* prevent the central banks and governments fucking with our money.

(Economy in a slump? - Print more money. - Didn't work? - Do it again lol!)

As long as no-one holds more than they can shrug off the loss of (unlike Falkvinge...) there should be no catastrophe.

Spending them seems to be a bit of a convoluted process e.g. on spendbitcoins.com (not tried it, so caveat emptor) you first create a shopping cart with an affiliate, buy a gift card from them, and spend that.

Looks like "loopholes" like this will be the main route for bitcoins into the real economy until/unless they get too big for the main retailers to shun.

Like henchan, I'm wondering what the Reg will call them - containing, or ending in, "tard" is probably required, but "bitcointard" doesn't really trip off the tongue that well. Oh well, I guess we'll find out soon.

Dam Busters dog dubbed 'Digger'

lIsRT
Joke

(mis)quoted from The Office

Well, it was racist, but that was back before racism was bad, so it was OK.

Pixmania users report scam-spam bombardment

lIsRT
Thumb Down

me too

Bought (and RMAd) a monitor from them at least 5 or 6 years ago, and got an odd (as in, addressed to my real name) work-from-home spam yesterday.

'Great Reversal' as world's forests stage a comeback

lIsRT
Facepalm

abc and/or 123

Groan.

German cops unleash corpse-hunting vultures

lIsRT
Thumb Up

"concerns that the flying Ironsides might swoop down and feast on the evidence"

Better than not finding it and having it finished off by the local crows, rodents, maggots, etc.

Tragedy nurse's boyf fined over medical records abuse

lIsRT
Facepalm

Priorities

"He was ordered to pay a £1,050 fine, £1,160 towards prosecution costs, and a £15 victims’ surcharge."

The State gets 47.19%, the lawyers get 52.13%, and the victims (note plural) get 0.67%.

See icon.

Stealth-cam software snaps laptop looter

lIsRT
Happy

remember this?

Similar situation, with a desktop:

http://www.grisby.org/burglar.html

Naked cyclist streaks through Suffolk village

lIsRT
Stop

Read the article please.

"The co-ordinator of the speed watch group, Vincent Humphries, tended to agree. The 61-year-old told the court: "It's not every day you see something like that. I was laughing. It didn't offend me at all.""

Linux Foundation chief dubs MeeGo 'unstoppable force'

lIsRT
Go

Like a serious reply to a sarcastic question...

It goes straight through, without any effect, and comes out the other side.

Popular gamers 'should play for free' – Valve boss

lIsRT
Thumb Up

This could work, but probably not in the way he's thinking.

Successfully impersonate (underage) girl.

Play for free.

BMW tests laser-guided car junction buddy

lIsRT

boring

Putting a line in the code like:

while(isObstacle()) laser_power++;

would be more impressive.

(requiring better lasers and a Mr. Fusion style power source, obviously)

Teenage duo sentenced over credit card Ghostmarket

lIsRT

all of the above

I suppose there are multiple reasons for whatever action is carried out in response to a crime, ideally it should satisfy all of the following:

1. personal deterrence (i.e. discouraging the perpetrator committing the crime again)

2. preventing recidivism (making it *impossible* to commit the crime again, distinct from point 1)

3. deterrence by example (i.e. discouraging everyone who finds out about it from committing the same crime)

4. restitution/compensation (all damage done in committing the crime is repaired, all losses are returned, where not possible, alternatives such as financial compensation would be indicated)

(probably more, but that'll do for now)

Prison would:

probably be OK for 1

2, temporarily (or not, if there are computers for prisoners to use in prisons)

3 - yes, probably

4 - definitely not - it would be the opposite, as it puts everyone's taxes up slightly

It would be good if judges had to show that any sentence satisfied all these criteria, although that's likely impossible.

Reg ed rattles the Red-Headed League

lIsRT
Unhappy

disappointing week

A good FoTW should include more spelling mistakes than that, I only spotted "naritives" and "carfully" - any others I missed?

Mentally ill file-sharer had 'low self-esteem'

lIsRT
Welcome

advert

I suppose a small proportion of the many who saw this in the Metro today will be reading about Tor and similar programs now.

Microsoft Skype: How the VCs won and Ballmer overpaid

lIsRT
Happy

Don't worry.

Microsoft are still committed to supporting Skype on Unix platforms - based on rumours from inside the company, Skype for Xenix is just around the corner.

Microsoft poised to make biggest ever buy – Skype

lIsRT
Unhappy

Please no.

I remember liking hotmail.

Maybe now I'll see if the people behind Ekiga have figured out how to make it work for people who use routers.

YouTube to launch paid video-on-demand service

lIsRT
Thumb Down

Proxy Required

Based on what some other news sites are saying, it looks like it will be US only.

Calling all readers: Want some new icons?

lIsRT

multiples

Could we have multiple icons per post?

Sometimes more than one would be apt.

Brussels threatens to name ISPs with 'doubtful' market practices

lIsRT
Stop

abc and/or 123

"What she is inferring is that services like Skype must be carried, gratis, by the ISP and said ISP must continue to support more and more bandwidth hungry sites and services, for next to diddly squat in returns."

Good grief.

Trying to fully express what I think of that post would probably result in an incoherent rant leading to justified moderation.

I do not expect my ISP to "carry Skype gratis".

I do not expect them to "support more and more bandwidth hungry sites and services".

I do not expect them to do all this "for next to diddly squat in returns".

I expect them to allow me to use the Skype program (and others) to send and receive up to 50GB of data packets in exchange for giving them £19.99 plus VAT per month.

If an inferior ISP lets its marketroids write the publicised terms and conditions (which can only be profitable with underhand tactics like throttling certain types of packet and imposing secret caps on the amount of data transferred), then they deserve whatever Neelie can throw at them.

Hopefully it will drive customers to those businesses who are actually honest about what they can deliver.

NASA funds commercial Shuttle-replacement spaceships

lIsRT
Thumb Up

Like John Glenn, but the other way round.

They did send John Glenn up, ostensibly "to study the effects of space flight on the elderly"; presumably we'll eventually have to know how it affects children too.

H2O water-powered shower radio

lIsRT
Flame

slightly off-topic

I'm wondering how much the electric bills would go down if I figured out how to hook up several of these little turbines to the cold water inlet and a wall socket and then just kept the taps running...

Red Dwarf to blast off on new adventure

lIsRT
Unhappy

oh dear

Yet more.

It lost its way after series 6, icon says it all.

Energy crisis over - for 250 years?

lIsRT
Boffin

.co.uk

The clue is in the URL.

SCO trading suspended in US

lIsRT

abc and/or 123

I think there are people who have bought SCO shares just for the hell of it - buy one, frame certificate, put on wall.

The fees would probably be several (hundred?) times the cost of the actual share though.

Anonymous hacks Sony PS3 sites

lIsRT

abc and/or 123

"Anonymous" f**kwits (can I say that on El Reg?)"

Regrettably, you can; I believe the correct word is "fuckwits".

Operation Ore was based on flawed evidence from the start

lIsRT

abc and/or 123

Probably "for legal reasons".

DARPA: Send limbless troops back to war with robo-arms

lIsRT

It's already happening.

(for lower limbs)

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4522136

WTF is... 3D printing

lIsRT
Thumb Up

but, the price of the cartridges will be the killer

Sometime in the next few decades, the people who brought us the "You wouldn't download a car." anti-piracy advert are going to look very, very silly.*

.

.

.

.

.

* Well, a bit more than they already did.

Mobile phones immobilise bones

lIsRT
WTF?

Crap. I need to buy a manbag now.

Could you clarify the following please?

"the fellows with phones showed "significantly lower" bone mineral content (BMC) and bone mineral density (BMD) between the upper right femur - near where the phone was carried - and the upper left femur."

As it stands, this appears to be saying the BMC/BMD were lower in the pelvis (i.e. between the upper left and upper right femurs).

I suspect it means:

"the fellows with phones showed "significantly lower" bone mineral content (BMC) and bone mineral density (BMD) in the upper right femur - near where the phone was carried - compared to the upper left femur."

...or am I just being pedantic?

In any case, I'm now wondering where I should keep my phone, there aren't really any places someone as skinny as I am can put it that aren't near any bones.

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