* Posts by Michael Dunn

615 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Jul 2008

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Oz pedestrians fall to 'Death by iPod'

Michael Dunn

Canada?

Emergency vehicles fitted with a vibrator? There's a novel idea! It might be tough in A & E, but getting there is half the fun!

Michael Dunn
Unhappy

Total Raod Deaths

Perhaps total road deaths are declining because all those who would be killed in road accidents already have been.

Ubuntu 10.10 released to beta

Michael Dunn

Sorry!

Must be a senior moment - I read that as providing a "lunch menu" down the left-hand side!

Note 10/10 (as a date) is a big day in Taiwan - National Day (when the revolution led by Sun Yat Sen started.)

The Large Hadron Collider's mega-pic churn

Michael Dunn
Coat

@Sureo

Yes, my question precisely.

Er..I've got a Fujifilm one-off camera in the pocket - more like one picture every 40 million seconds!

Drunken employee pops cap in server

Michael Dunn
Thumb Up

Fleeting reminder

This story makes me think of the Emo Philips one-liner:

A computer beat me at chess, but was no match for me at kick-boxing ;)

How extreme is your pr0n? Depends on your lawyer

Michael Dunn

Pics of inflicting pain?

Is there going to be a pogrom of all the churches and galleries that depict crucifixions?

Government lunatic magnet goes live

Michael Dunn
Unhappy

@Rollback

By the same token, of course, all the laws - bye-laws - orders-in-council etc, etc put in place by a government immediately become rubbish when that party moves into opposition!

Pity the current opposition cannot rescind the invasion of Iraq/Afghanistan - I'm sure they all disagree with those ventures. Of course it won't bring out dead soldiers back to life - might give even Gordo a frisson at the idea of Blair getting the Liberty Medal, though.

Redback spiders provoke BAE lock-down

Michael Dunn
Thumb Up

@Thorsen

Can't stop laughing - you owe me a keyboard (with Greek keys).

Supersonic stealth jumpjet achieves its first mid-air hover

Michael Dunn
Happy

Job for life

Brit test pilot balances on roaring columns of hot air

So he'll be a politician when he retires.

Chips make you chipper: Official

Michael Dunn
Coat

Pseudoscience?

Just how does one measure a 10% to 13% increase in calmness?

There's a textbook on PseudoStatistics in the pocket, I could certainly use a Grant (A brand of Whisky, as in the New Yorker cartoon from 1965?)

New inside out hover-magnet fusion reactor debuts at MIT

Michael Dunn

@Ben Raynes

Ben wrote

Sadly, we need to start thinking of ways to limit the population growth worldwide, and to keep it at a more sustainable level for the future.

It is interesting to observe that as access to goods and energy has increased in the western world, the rate of population has tended to decline. Perhaps the same will be true for the rest of the world?

NASA Nebula - Obama's own private cloud?

Michael Dunn
Coat

@Arthur 1

Arthur wrote:

(no doubt you have a parent, uncle or somesuch that qualifies here)

Now just a minute! I'm a grandfather, spent much of the '70's working with George II and George III (ICL's job control language), graduated with a computing degree at the age of 50 and have been using Linux ever since the first Slackware version on its 50 odd floppies. Never heard of "Silver Surfers"?

It's got the latest Solaris 10 DVD's in the pocket, for entertainment during slack periods.

Outrageous new means of megastar demise spotted

Michael Dunn
Happy

Galaxy and Milky Way

Yes, Kablooey, but I only realised it when I came to live in Greece!

LHC pulverises previous record: 2.36 TeV surprise collision!

Michael Dunn
Paris Hilton

@Steve X

Yes, why do the French always get their acronyms backwards? (But they always manage to get their benefits from the EU the right way round)

C'est la gloire as de Gaulle would have said..

Paris, obviously.

Michael Dunn
Coat

Hey, it's our money

According to Wikipedia, 1 TeV is 1.602×10-7 J, the kinetic energy of one flying mosquito.

All this money to achieve such a pathetic level of energy output? UI'd happily trap a few mosquitoes for you for a couple of Euros/pounds.

I've a mosquito net in the pocket.

Darling promises IT cuts, years of pain

Michael Dunn

Language skills

Personally I am learning Dutch and German!

You'll probably find Mandarin more useful.

Michael Dunn
Coat

Oh, boy!

He said investment in technology and bio-tech industries would help the recovery and avoid a lost generation of unemployed young people.

So a whole generation of illiterate and innumerate school leavers will be able to take up posts as molecular biologists, C++ programmers, network engineers? Who's he trying to kid?

Yeah, I've got a copy of the human genome printout in the pocket - but I can read it.

Brit space agency to probe 'crackpot' antigravity device

Michael Dunn

@Bah Humbug

Surely the myth of belief in a flat earth has been exploded? Didn't Eratosthenes of Alexandria actually calculate the radius of the globe back in Ptolemaic times, and fairly accurately too?

Hypnotist expands breasts, cures irritable bowels

Michael Dunn
Coat

@Stratman

That's the best comment I've read in ages!

Yes, It's got Daniel Jones in the pocket.

Proles told to get online to save economy

Michael Dunn
Grenade

@AC 12:56 GMT

Save 1 bn? Now that Gordon has signed up to the Lisbon Treaty, we can save a hell of a lot more than that - we don't need a govmint or civil service in Westminster any more!

Nation's parents prepare to be vetted

Michael Dunn
Coat

@Ponmyword

You wrote:

Ofsted, a quasi-autonomous governmental organisation, was created originally to be the watchdog for standards in school education.

Yeah, and how successful have they been at their own job? Of youngsters leaving school these days, 35% can´t read and the other 75% can´t add up!

OK, there is a ready reckoner (remember them?) in the pocket.

Home Office makes nice cartoon ID card ad

Michael Dunn
Coat

@nomen publicus

You wrote:

Will MPs and labour party officials be paying for their own ID cards before the nationwide roll-out?

Of course, but they will then claim reimbursement on expenses.

A nice line of fake ID cards in the inside pocket.

'Exomoonologist': NASA can detect forest moon of Endor

Michael Dunn
Coat

Exo....

No, Jason Exo is a Greek prefix, luna is a Latin word and ology is a Greek suffix, so as pointed out above it would be exoselenologist, or exofengariologist.

Mineś the one with the pedant badge on the lapel.

Brit diplomats' mission to expose Scientology's 'diploma mill'

Michael Dunn

@AC

AC wrote "fantastical (is that a word? it is now!)"

Yes, it is, cf Chesterton's "Lepanto" - " From evening isles fantastical rings faint the Spanish gun."

/pedantry>

PC repair shop caught trying bank fraud

Michael Dunn
FAIL

@Jack4

Oh, dear! Codes of conduct! It's just because the financial services industry is governed by codes of conduct and guide lines rather than laws that bite, that the world is in the state it's in now.

Tech can make Britain Great again

Michael Dunn
Flame

@AC

AC (one of them) wrote: Even the government has been elsewhered out to Europe.

Yes indeed, so why are the taxpayers still supporting this huge drain on resources? Clear Westminster, and appoint a High Commissioner and a staff of 12. We'd make billions selling all the vacant real estate to Arabs and Russians.

Bank fined £3m for data loss

Michael Dunn
Pint

@ steogede

You lightly suggest a couple of weeks' gaol as adequate punishment - perhaps it would be, because it would then give the careless blighters a criminal record, which would ensure that they were no longer in a position to vote themselves pay rises or bonuses.

This would, like the famous case of Admiral Byng, definitely encourage the others.

Italian bride's bouquet downs ultralight

Michael Dunn
Thumb Down

@ Robert Moore

And how!

Imagine! Government to legislate against badness

Michael Dunn
Coat

@ Hollerith 1

Yes, just what they have in Scotland, which our Scottish overlords in Westminster deny to those unfortunate enough to live in England.

It's the plaid coat (I wish)!

Michael Dunn
Happy

@ Beelzeebub

Oh, yes!

I hope to be reborn Japanese.

Coppers prowl Sheffield's Letsby Avenue

Michael Dunn
Happy

@Tony Rogers

Oh, you bring it all back to me - my pleasant days in Crookham Barracks - Ray's a Laugh - "Ee, it was agony Ivy!" - "Dad's lost all his faith in human nature, Dad has," "Has Dad?" and so on!

Call for heads to roll over failed spook IT system

Michael Dunn
Linux

@ Thinkingoutloud

Have you read Chesterton's "The Napoleon of Notting Hill"?

Polish Spitfire shoots down BNP

Michael Dunn
Happy

@ Don Sinclair

In recent years, the Polish/Ukrainian deli on Oldham outside market was the only place left in Oldham where you could get decent rye bread.

UK.gov to tap BT as data harvester

Michael Dunn
Coat

Escape?

Fortunately managed to escape from America's "unsinkable aircraft carrier".

Seems to me that "unsinkable" is a relative term. Sinking into the sea would be unfortunate, but not nearly so bad as sinking into the depths of moral depravity that NULab seems determined to plunge the country into.

There's a copy of Fowler in the pocket, and I know I shouldn't have ended a sentence with a preposition - but who cares any more?

Beta-blocker 'erases' unpleasant memories

Michael Dunn
Thumb Down

@Mike Crawshaw

They'll just put it in the water.

Water? Never touch the stuff!

Amazon pulls Japanese rape simulator from shelves

Michael Dunn
Coat

Government sponsored

Steve Swann wrote:

"It's the same thing as the current ridiculous debate about drug classifications in the UK. Hundreds may die each year as a result of Class A drug abuse, its true, but THOUSANDS die from alcohol and nicotine abuse, ignoring the effects that such have on the functionality of society! Why the difference in treatment? Because one is state-sponsored and the other is not."

Presumably you equate "state sponsored" with "tax-generating"? Any government that banned tobacco would soon find itself unable to pay its law enforcement organisations - or its politicians' pensions!

I've got bootleg cigarettes in the pocket - ofcourse I'm not stupid enough to smoke them myself, but they're a nice little earner.

Michael Dunn
Happy

Games and simulations

I have to confess:

My gaming is confined to Freecell - it's the only one I can really manage, though I have occasionally had a go at ShisenSho.

I once managed a whole game of Freecell without having to put a single card in the reserve - is this a record?

MSI mobo ditches Bios for EFI

Michael Dunn
Thumb Up

@David Shepherd

David Sheperd wrote: At least for those of us old enough to remember keying in a bootstrap loader via front panel switches BIOS seems perfectly fit for purpose.

Yes, or the engineers' box on ICL 1900 kit! Great days.

Firm touts anti-radiation chip for phones

Michael Dunn
Coat

Ha ha!

According to those who live in neighbouring countries, it's April 1st in Belgium all the year round.

Mine's the one with the quantum radiation interference shield in the pocket.

MIT boffins crack fusion plasma snag

Michael Dunn
Happy

@Max

The nearest we have to "infinite supply" is, of course, sunlight. By the time that runs out our own situation as regards energy needs may well have changed.

US prosthetic todger pair plead guilty to conspiracy

Michael Dunn
Coat

That could result in an interesting analyis

Reminds me of the story of a certain country's beer, which was sent to an analytical lab in Switzerland - and the report came back: Your horse has diabetes.

Mine's the one with the Bob Monkhouse joke-book in the pocket...

Michael Dunn
Coat

The manufacturer, not the user?

So are all makers of axes, hammers, kitchen knives........ liable to prosecution?

Really, there are no weapons in the pockets, though I do have a complete set of meat cleavers.

Deleted

Michael Dunn

PS

Of course, she's not Seven of Nine.....mmmm!

Michael Dunn
Paris Hilton

Cardassians

Dammit, David, I was going to make that comment!

I guess she'd look good in a Cardassian outfit.

Ancient galaxies pose for the camera

Michael Dunn
Coat

Joe Cooper

"The stars in the photo have four spokes"

Yes, Joe, this is an artefact introduced by the fact that the secondary mirror of the telescope is suspended in the telescope tube by a "spider" of four struts.

There's a copy of "Amateur Telescope Making" in the pocket - but you really need a warm coat when observing, so mine is adapted from one of the space-suit modules used in the moon missions.

Nasty Toryboy bloggers ate my politics, claims Blears

Michael Dunn
Coat

@og

"it's called ...

... free speech, Blears, and you haven't banned it yet"

But soon will!

There's a ticket to somewhere democratic, Canada perhaps?, in the pocket.

Sarah Palin's words get data mined

Michael Dunn
Coat

Conserve?

And here was I thinking the "conserve" meant somethinmg made from raspberries.

Mine's the one with a jar of jam in the pocket.

Panasonic to demo 20-hour laptop-friendly fuel cell

Michael Dunn

200 ml of methanol.

That means that with methanol having an upper band price of about $4.25 per US gallon, this will cost 22 cents to run, however, if it really gives only 10 to 20 W what's the viability?

Still using methanol in this way is probably better than drinkinbg the stuff!

NEC intros retro-look netbook

Michael Dunn

Retro portable

Thank goodness they didn't look at the Osborne Portable!

Govt ponders proof-of-ID law for future phone purchases

Michael Dunn
Coat

Wow, another database!

Surely there's some _consultant_ at the home office, unelected, overpaid, who has a database fetish.

Nulab high-ups have obviously been reading "1984" not as a piece of satire, or a warning, but as a text-book for the art of government.

A poster on another topic has suggested that "The United Kingdom..etc" be renamed; "Airstrip One" seems a good alternative.

There's a stolen passport in th pocket, so that I can escape to Oceania.

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