Posts by Eugene Goodrich

Waiting for the swallow...

... because I want to see an ornithopter with a fair load-carrying capacity, e.g. a coconut.

Paris, because of the foregoing.

Lewis is the best poster ever

He's like a shark who won't even come shallow until there's twenty swimmers on holiday and one of them cuts a foot on a bit of glass.

Can I be automatically notified of Lewis Page's future comments, please?

Paris, because since the inclusion of her icon here I've generally found nothing else satisfies.

Funeral director's point of view

"... I think trying to save money due to the death of someone's family member or friend is a bit sick."

Yeah, folk selling $4,500 coffins do tend to think that way...

Afghani Ballast

When offloading in Afghanistan, could one of these ships fitted with some oversized shopvacs simply slurp up some sand and rock? You'd only be able to unload where the ground is sandy, but that might be plenty of places over there...

Paris, because she'd suffer no such restrictions...

@"Hammer and anvil"

Is this comment title also a reference to the Harry Turtledove novel of that name (0-345-38048-7) in which the main character has intimate relations with his cousin? Or is that a coincidence?

Paris, because I'd sure like to see her try to put on those red boots...

And thanks to my father for giving me this book in the first place. I suppose he had to thin the library and (oblig.) he at least kept the book in the family.

dies or dice?

[[... the NAND dies below ...]]

Should this be "NAND dice" instead of "NAND dies"? Just wondering - this is not a pluralization question which comes up very often for me. :)

(Paris, because she rather _is_ a pluralization problem which comes up very often for me...)

@@Rush

"I wonder how long the reg will persist with the reprisals aimed at Rush... it is most amusing."

I imagine for as long as he'll keep asking for it. If I know one thing about the hacks at El Reg (and I probably don't), it's that they'll write whatever they can at least tenuously link to IT for as long as it keeps paying. (I believe the insider quote I'm looking for here is "We'd cover your mum for a fiver.")

Tubular Bells? A Passion Play? Thick as a Brick?

I like my 35 minute Prog-Rock fretboard-wankfests...

Wedge

[[I don't see the problem with the scanners. I would rather that that being blown to smithereens at 35000 ft]]

Wait until they get to addressing the problem that these scanners can't see inside body cavities.

I demand El Reg follow up with the police!

Dear Reg: please inquire of the appropriate police personnel how they recommend one proves half a million in carry-on luggage was legitimately-gotten when traveling. Don't forget to include in your followup article some special cases, e.g. whether being an MP automatically proves it was criminally obtained, and how best to document the money simply being carrying-around cash for a famous heiress.

How do we avoid using trademarks?

These trademarks are plain English, and there's no telling how many there are, and are being added every week. We need some way to search an online always-updated database. If only there were an app for that...

The Reg needs to make a poll.

The poll would check how badly the term "Boffin" makes readers feel. Options should be colorful.

Nice sentence

Six minutes' community service for each home he connected up fraudulently? Sounds like he spent more time committing the crime.

Word meaning

[[ "non-personal information - data in a form that does not permit direct association with any specific individual," ]]

It all depends on what one means by "direct association." Surely, pulling data multiple times and generating a mode of some values then fetching data from another site mustn't be "direct" to the querying audience member in the story. Perhaps because he doesn't have the app for that.

Where's the right to speedy trial here?

A year, on these charges and with that evidence research needed? How does that satisfy the sixth amendment to the Constitu... oh, right.

Reasons

It's funny that the author can't think of a reason for regular folk to have tasers / stun guns, but the Ads by Google apparently can.

Might be eternal yet, actually.

It might not be able to fly eternally everywhere (it would probably have a hard time making it through a single winter's night over the North or South Pole, for example) but it might still stay aloft indefinitely if it traveled North and South as the seasons change, so it was always flying in local summer. As it's an airplane and it takes months for the seasons to switch hemispheres, it might be able to make the trip.

I suppose that would also give it the record for annual robot migration distance.

Russian Quality Control?

Perhaps one of the tubes burned out?

Do they make expensive toys for poor people?

"... an expensive toy for rich people ..."

Head-mounted lasers for sharks - an interim solution

Perhaps the huge laser equipment could be mounted in the floor above the shark tank, and light-conductive output cables (and trigger switches) can be dangled to the tank and affixed to the sharks.

Certainly there would be some trouble keeping them untangled, but I think two sharks should be manageable, and that's a good start. I dare say it sounds about right for proof-of-concept.

Positively brutal punishment

"... shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable for fine."

So they'll kill you, and then fine you? Oof.

What is "air transpiration"?

Is this things that happen in the air? Or is this to do with plants sweating?

Rails

"Bribery is a crime that undercuts competitiveness, derails honest companies and distorts the marketplace,"

Funny that in a comment about bribery/crime/anti-competitiveness, a railroad metaphor should show up... ;)

El Reg, tell us your faves!

How do some of the more interesting/interested folk in your office* hope/predict things will go?

(* I understand, from reading the reader mail, it's really more like an abandoned car park / public lavatory full of cast-off Packard Bells, but I do like to be polite.)

Shortage of power and...

"There's no such thing as a shortage of fresh water - just a shortage of power."

... and desalinators.

I'm thinking that in some places, give people a single huge desalinator and a power source to drive it, and someone will take both apart for scrap because it suits them.

But give everyone a small, cheap desalinator they can power themselves, and they'll fight to defend it, although that shouldn't be necessary if it doesn't contain any scrappable parts and if it's reliable enough that everyone who might want to steal it already has one. That's where I see this device might be headed.

Accessibility

Will you be able to pay your bribe to bypass this check online?

Didn't know...

... that St. Patrick's day, to the Irish Catholics at least, required websites to run green decor.

Are the colorblind Irish Catholics upset, too?

current environment

"need to be vigilant in the current environment"

Well, glad to hear it's only temporary.

Skin-diseased animal CPU?

[[AMD's imminent "Mangy-Cours" Opteron]]

Surely this should be "Magny-Cours"? Thank goodness that "a" didn't get altered into the bargain...

What does it do if it gets tired?

What's the plan if it runs out of loiter? Check for lower-priority targets in the area?

Paris, because she can loiter practically forever.

*drool*

I trust they fixed editing 64-bit code while debugging, too...

Government

Surprised the government hasn't yet figured out that this unrefundable credit belongs to them.

2+2 does equal 5...

... for sufficiently large values of 2.

Sounds like an opportunity...

... for someone in the community to learn how to post these notices and provide that service to these blogs for a reasonable fee.

Paris, because, ...

Probably is a favorite

["arguably one of the public's favorite planetary objects". We'd argue that this is only true for some residents of Illinois, ]

I think Pluto's probably in the top-ten for most people in terms of local planetary objects.

@Tony Barnes

"HATE the way it says iTablet on the front, totally ruins the look."

Electrical tape fix. I use it all the time for devices with blinding blue power lights apparently designed to keep aircraft from flying into them at night. Should work equally well for non-emissive display ugliness.

Paris, because she's easy on the eyes, isn't she?

What's the % on email?

Isn't email 98% spam? But for some reason we keep using it. It's almost as if the legitimate uses somehow, despite being outnumbered 50-to-1 by the crap, make it worth struggling on with. Sounds like torrents are in that same area.

Paris, because she's at least as good as email.

@huh

I agree - my mother smacks me with the Wiimote while playing tennis, and it's not at all clear whether it's accidental. (Not so bad we live so far away, then.)

Paris, because playing with her works out much better - I'm always the one doing the smacking with the Wiimote.

The little Japanese water-bottle scanner

For all the readers here who understand security theater, I'm surprised to see multiple comments about how great it is having their water bottles taken away, put in a magical scanner with a beeper and a green light, and being returned to them. You have no idea what that scanner did or didn't do. The US TSA might, and that might be why they don't use that.

Paris, because I'm sure she approves.

Nobody makes you read them

Web 2.0 is highly ignorable to most of us... thank goodness.

Bummer if you're paid to care about what the mob says.

Paris, for that reason.

Transcript

(erstwhile) TSA guy: "Haha, just kidding; relax - you can get on the plane, you aren't going to be detained in one of the hidden white rooms here in the airport where we'd strip you naked and cavity search you until the police arrive and handcuff you and take you back to the station where you'd be put in a cell and interrogated for thirty-six hours until they decide to assign you a lawyer who will convince you to plea-bargain for a shorter felony sentence to commence a few months from now during which you'd be intimidated, beaten, and possibly raped by fellow inmates, mercifully culminating in your release in upstate New York penniless, creditless, friendless, homeless, and as an ex-convict nobody will hire.

Yeah, this was just a little bag-of-powder joke me and the guys like to pull, heh."

Paris, because she'd never frighten someone like that just for fun.

"new and improved versions" won't be...

[[[... does not yet support videos with ads, captions, or annotations, but Google says: "We will be expanding the capabilities of the player in the future, so get ready for new and improved versions in the months to come."]]]

Sounds to me more like they mean "take this opportunity to enjoy a few months of videos unmarred by ads, captions, and annotations telling you about the other version of the video by the same poster with different also-unlicensed soundtracks". Because as these overlays became possible, I never once found them improving the quality of the video. (OK, except perhaps to tell you what song you are [Ed: might be] listening to on the video so you can go put it on your iPod.)

Paris, because she has fewer ads, captions, and annotations than YouTube.

It's called an air-brake.

" ... though it could make an impressive glider, the more so as its props would be able to act as turbines in forward flight, recharging the batteries as the Puffin glided down."

Running the props as turbines while gliding is _not_ going to make the glide more impressive. Unless your definition of impressive is "how steeply can I get to the ground".

Paris, because she has an impressive glide, due no doubt in part to her not running her props as turbines to recharge her etc. etc..

re "Won't Catch On"

If surgery in general heads in the direction of robotic, then of course scrot repair surgery will end up going that way too.

Boffins, because I did Paris without interruption all of 2009 and I need a change. (Sorry, luv.)

Where's the...

Where's the pictures?

I mean, "IT Angle?".

Paris, because I know where that is.

Syringe of failure

What if the syringe is mistaken about the drug it contains? This is how many health care personnel accidentally kill or maim people now.

Paris, because... well, let's just say she's smarter than a Smart Syringe.

Guilt?

"you'll obey its 'copyright' in an effort to avoid spending the rest of your life wallowing in guilt."

It was my understanding that if you wanted to avoid spending the rest of your life wallowing in guilt, you stopped being Catholic.

I think the actual threat here is you'll have to do penance. Unless violating the Pope's copyright is a Mortal sin...

Paris, because I assume she'll play ball and refrain from wearing counterfeit papal vestments.