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* Posts by Muscleguy

171 posts • joined Friday 15th August 2008 15:03 GMT

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Muscleguy
Facepalm

None of them have a clue

Recently reactivated online access to RBS. They sent me an unsecured email welcoming back with my access number plain as day in it (as well as my postcode). I replied (after removing the number) pointing out the security risk of it, and surprise, surprise no reply.

And this after all it took to get back online was to put some personal details then it told me the number and asked if I had taken note of it and wouldn't proceed until I had clicked yes. So telling it to me was more than a bit redundant.

Loggin in however is a silly security theatre nightmare. I never have to put in my fiendishly though up password, only count on my fingers for the 3rd, 7th and 11th digits. i suppose it still case sensitive.

Muscleguy
Go

Re: Mexican deathmatch

I realise this is a niche activity but I've always found getting up and going for a run cures a hangover. Mind you this is after the Scottish precaution of necking as much water as you can hold before retiring to bed. One effect is to wake you early enough and get you out of bed anyway so you may as well go for a run. Length depends on age and fitness. Time was I swore by 9miles as doing the business but the other week I could only manage 5 after a day spent drinking while watching the rugby 7's followed by wines with dinner.

Must do better.

I think it works partly because it deals with headache nicely probably through the blood being required in your muscles not pounding around your temples and partly because your body lacking breakfast (I really meant first thing) turns to the alcohol and metabolites as urgently needed fuel. The raised post run metabolism deals with the remainder. You can substitute an endurance exercise of your choice though. A weights session might work but I expect that might make your headache worse, not better.

It also has the advantage that you can tuck into a fry up for breaky afterwards with a clear conscience.

Muscleguy
FAIL

Re: Two things

No. You have forgotten that stale bread can, and should, be used to make bread pudding. A quantity of cold tea is also required and sugar and raisins/sultanas as well (to add a Spanish element). Lovely filling stuff, will stick to your ribs nicely too.

I have to remember it fondly though as being now gluten intolerant means I can no longer eat it. GD bread is not suitable, ends up a soggy mess instead of something delightful.

Then there is the one where you cook the slices of stale bread in egg custard with sultanas. My mother would do it with a meringue topping and we called in Queen's pudding. Some adulterate it with jam between the slices but there's no accounting for taste.

And of course stale bread can be made into breadcrumbs which have a multitude of uses.

Muscleguy
FAIL

Investment Fail

The 'invest and stay' thing has been in place for some years. It was first put in place to lure nervous Hong Kong Chinese during the handover to China. Many of whom have apparently gone back to China after things have not gone pear shaped (for the rich, anyway). If you have a spare NZD10m you too can gain permanent residency status. Citizenship however has different criteria. But Dotcom did not preferential treatment unavailable to any passing millionaire. I understand for eg that Shania Twain who bought a property near Wanaka got in by that route.

Muscleguy
Stop

Re: any other accelerator built by humanity

But, but, he clearly states when the mice cancel Earth 2 in favour of probing Arthur Dent's mind that he has a thousand glaciers ready to roll. He was clearly a naturalistic landscaper.

Muscleguy
Boffin

Re: I tried reading about it, via the link

That is a good layman's description. This Biologist applauds your de-technilsing of biological terms. Although DIG is an abbreviation rather than a TLA.

Muscleguy
Boffin

I paddle, but I know I can't swim

I'm a biologist. I'm pretty good at using the macro language around FileMaker Pro. But I also know the difference between that and programming. I'm married to a woman with a CompSci degree (with another in Maths) and when it comes to coding she wears the trousers in the house.

I could see the advantage of perhaps teaching a module on algorithms in Maths class. The idea of algorithm is a useful thing in many ways and I wasn't taught it but could have found it useful. Growing up as computers did helped mind as you absorb stuff by osmosis but learning it formally would still have been nice. Coding though? not necessary. Just teach the general idea. Those whom it causes lights to go on behind their eyes can then take it further.

Muscleguy
Boffin

Re: Go KiWihttp://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/go_32.png

Different population distribution over the geography, Canada has a very large and diffuse hinterland, NZ is filling in the bits between the quite well spaced cities. Also NZ is a long way from anywhere and not really on the way to anywhere else and this has long been recognised. Back in the day NZers owned more fax machines per head of population than everywhere except Japan. Having the net and good net is a part of that desire to connect to the world. Mind you I'm told by relatives there that the net is pretty crap and people realise this and so there is popular support for upgrades meaning cross party support for the spending. Important in a PR legislature with coalitions and minority govts.

Another example of the mindset was my dept at university in Southern NZ. They had a fund to pay for academics in their discipline who were passing through Auckland (often induced to on their way to Sydney) to fly down to us to give us a talk and have their brain picked. You have to think about such things when you are at the arse end of the developed world and you know it. Oh and you also refuse to lower standards as a result.

Muscleguy
Happy

Re: re: ANOTHER APPLE VIRUS

I think we should be grateful El Reg doesn't allow us to post in any colour text we like. Time was we lived opposite a house with a large, fluoro pink roof, not something helpful to look at first thing after a hard night.

Muscleguy
Thumb Down

Wired Cans

Seriously, wired headphones? I bought the Missus a pair of wireless Senheisers several years ago so she can game to her heart's content at full volume. I also note they don't seem to be noise cancelling, so not much use for a noisy environment then.

Muscleguy
Holmes

Re: Mixed feelings

Because the twitterer was easy to find and arrest. The light fingered person who robbed your mother presumably much less so (I assume she didn't notice so cannot give a description).

Muscleguy
Boffin

Indeed, but note just because his heart could not beat on its own doesn't mean his brain and other organs were deprived of circulation for all that time. As you see, hats off to the medical team, and the biomedical research underpinning what they did to keep him not just alive but not brain dead.

Muscleguy
Boffin

Be noticed

Making yourself noticed is good advice. I'm a scientist and my first post graduation job after a while the boss took to telling me I wasn't working hard enough because to him I left just before 6pm to pick up the kids. What he didn't see was me coming back in the evenings. So all I did was make sure I was in the visible part of the lab when he came up to his office from boozing in the institute bar. I worked no harder, I just made sure the work I did was noticed. It may as well have been presentism as the comments stopped while my productivity remained much the same (there is only so hard you can work).

I have almost always worked for a boss who does not understand a major part of what I do and who doesn't much care to know. This meant making the boss appreciate the nature of work a hard task, but still worth attempting, without being obsessive about it.

Muscleguy
Boffin

Re: yes but (@LarsG)

"Science is littered with great ideas that have no value or no application."

One of the roles of science is to explore avenues that are ultimately fruitless. Better that is discovered in the science lab than after expensive mistakes are made in the technology or economy. As a biologist I was involved in research that enabled advice to be given to a BigPharma NOT to proceed with a particular gene enhancing drug because it would likely make bowel cancer worse. We don't need another foreseeable mistake like Vioxx.

Also any experiment where the outcome is known is not worth doing by definition. Please oh all seeing one tell me how to tell in advance of an experiment how to absolute tell the outcome without doing it. Then I can give up and take up something fulfilling like landscape gardening or pontificating from ignorance like you are.

Muscleguy
Alien

Re: "Our new Tree Lobster Overlords"

Is it just me or do they resemble, at least while young, the aliens that live in the vertically challenged apartment in MIB II? or is it I? the one with Rosario Dawson, that one.

Muscleguy
Boffin

Re: Heard about these before

Nah, it's mate tending. Making sure your genes are the only ones fertilising her eggs. Of course that is the base condition for pair bonding and if the males are motivated by a hormonal/neural signal that is likely to be a 'feeling'. Now ask if they are self aware enough to notice.

The interesting thing is they pair bond but don't care for the offspring. This leaves mate tending as the only viable explanation for the practice.

Muscleguy
Facepalm

BCC, CC and email lists

These stories, other than the laptop theft, just scream people not checking email address headers as well as those forever not understanding the difference between CC and BCC (some of those 'personal details' were email addresses. As well as shortcuts like hitting reply in a message when making a new message instead of using the address book and failing to notice you are replying to a group or that there is an attachment that will be included.

It only takes one moment of inattention and council staff are increasingly harassed as their numbers get cut. We will see more of this.

Muscleguy
Black Helicopters

unattached electrode lonely

The electrodes were not 'attached' to the patient's brain they were merely placed upon it. It is just about impossible to attach an electrode like that to the surface of the brain without damaging the very structure you are trying to record from.

BTW this means even if the govt forces you to have your head opened and electrodes placed on your brain you could frustrate it by thinking nefarious thoughts while flinging your head around violently (which will cause the unattached electrodes to move around). Or just pretend to sneeze will do it. Who would have thought possession of snuff would become a subversive act?

If you are worried about less invasive methods, there are reasons why they didn't do this years ago with an EEG net placed on the head. Think insulation, signal to noise ratio and lack of spacial resolution all combined. Not coming to a black helicopter near you soon.

Anyway, haven't all you paranoid people had your brain enveloped in tinfoil already? It's so much more convenient, and less ridicule inducing, than an old fashioned external foil beanie.

Muscleguy
Pirate

Not a local crim

The thing is, he isn't a Kiwi. Don't know his immigration status, but even if he has citizenship, unreported criminal activity could void that quickly. The NZ courts have a good record of dealing with Kiwi's found hacking US assets. One judge even described the claimed damage done as 'frankly laughable'.

In contrast to the UK's failure to prosecute people like Gary McKinnon, NZ does quite well by it's people. Mr Dotcom however is a German immigrant. Why he thought NZ would be a good base of operations to host terrorist instruction videos and kiddy porn I'm not sure. It'll be the kiddy porn that would do for him.

Muscleguy
Pirate

It's Classic

It's a classic Poverty of the Commons situation and such will always happen without regulations and control. It's why humans invented regulations and controls on usage. The only people who bleat about the necessity of such things are those who fancy themselves one percenters and want to go fill their boots at everyone else's expense.

Muscleguy
Boffin

Step away from the fruit and nut

No. That chocolate bar contains lots of sucrose (cocoa is bitter, remember?) whereas your tangerine is largely full of fructose. As I explain above, fructose is low GI and eating it encapsulated in acid, fibrous goodness lowers the GI further. This is not true of tangerine juice, no fibre to speak of, no cell walls to break down and may have added sucrose. Eat the tangerine.

BTW not all fruit is low GI, pineapples for eg are high in sucrose. Look at the GI tables, use them.

Muscleguy
Boffin

Sigh, not so high

'High' fructose corn syrup is only high in fructose compared to untweaked corn syrup which is very low in fructose. The tweaking doesn't boost the level even near 50%, which is the level of fructose you get with cane sugar, which is sucrose: one glucose monomer bound to one fructose monomer. So in the past, with cane sugar, there was actually more of that nasty fructose in your Dr Pepper than there is now. The difference is that in the past you didn't drink soda by the bucketfull.

BTW eating your calories in the form of sugar makes you fat because the spike in blood glucose overwhelm's your body's ability to store it as glycogen (assuming you have exercised recently to make some space for it in your muscles) so it gets stored as fat instead. Now in the case of your corn syrup vs cane sugar you have a point here. That is because sucrose (cane sugar) has a higher GI than HFCS. This is because firstly your body has to break the bond in sucrose (though saliva will do much of that) whereas HFCS is very largely monomeric glucose, with some monomeric fructose. Secondly, your body can't use fructose directly so it has to go through the liver where it gets converted into glucose. This makes fructose quite low GI because it only dribbles into the bloodstream. So the HFCS is worse than cane sugar, but not for the reasons you think.

Muscleguy
Mushroom

Look in the Kremlin

The culprit is probably Putin for insisting they do things on a shoestring. If you cut corners then things stop working. It also leaves less money for testing.

Muscleguy
Unhappy

Theory must bow to the data

I was educated in science to follow the data. In a contest between theory and data backed evidence, in the absence of any good reason to doubt the data and evidence then so much the worse for theory. Remember Relativity has been tested by experiment, so it is not just some mathematical construct that exists perfectly in Platonic space. It also breaks down when considering very small things, like oh, neutrinos. If we are talking about a massive space vehicle or a hunk of space rock I would agree, but subatomic particles? I say Einstein may not apply here, and that is why this is interesting. So just as Newtonian physics will get you to the moon and even Mars (Demon permitting) so Einstein may be good for speeding chunks of stuff, galaxies receding from us etc but not so much for speeding neutrinos, through rock. Maybe there is some unappreciated property of the Alps? Whatever there still remains the issue of the results. They cannot be wished away by saying 'they violate theory'. If they didn't violate theory we wouldn't be discussing them. Move on and figure out what is happening.

Muscleguy
Boffin

I foresee

An increased interest in low tech smoke shells again, not to hide what you are doing, but to screen the Yanks you are attacking from their communications blimp. Black smoke would be preferred I would think.

Muscleguy
Big Brother

Not for fighting big boys then

This suggests Uncle Sam does not foresee itself fighting an opponent with an operational airforce in the near to mid term future as this beast would present a pretty big target that doesn't move around a lot. Plenty of modern day Biggles who would love to shoot it down.

Muscleguy
Happy

Lucky Me

I'm married to one. She wasn't one when we married as Halo wasn't invented in '86, but I did encourage her to ditch Chemistry for CompSci as a major, to which she then added a separate Maths degree.

Muscleguy
Devil

What that be?

Excellent headline Vulture Central subs.

I knew there were other good reasons why I have, so far, managed to avoid joining any of these info hungry behemoths. Seems every other site I need to log into to use is now bugging me that my 'profile' is missing or extremely scanty.

Fine if you must make me turn ABP off to access the site, I'll oggle your advertisers' flash heavy crap. But you ain't getting my private info.

Muscleguy
Stop

Age dependent with dependants

I gave up my bike on marriage and procreation because being under 25 and male the insurance cost was insurmountable. It was 15% of the value of the bike, per annum. As a single guy that was wearable, as a married undergraduate with a child it was very much not so. Especially since we then had a car to run and finance as well.

There is also the issue of responsibility to your family. Riding a bike is riskier than driving, I wish it were not so but on a bike you will always be more vulnerable in a collision and you cannot always avoid collision.

I gave my bike up for both reasons, I couldn't afford it and I wanted to see my kids grow up. I didn't ride like a maniac either, I just had too many incidents where drivers clearly didn't see me, even fitting a driving light atop the wimpy headlight and having it on in daylight didn't entirely stop cars at intersections only just stopping in time.

Muscleguy
Happy

in the future . . .

When the iPad goes 3D you could have iFrog, a 3D frog which hurls a 3D tongue at errant flies and scares them away. I offer this idea for an App free of all rights and patents.

Muscleguy

Multi user machines

This machine has two user spaces and as a result the likes of Google and Amazon show me the sorts of things my wife has been looking at and vice versa, unless you are logged into them that is then they become truly personal.

Our cable modem is always on and barring long term power cuts that cross over the DHCP reset window will mean a static IP address. On top of that the wireless router allocates a static IP address to each device connected which will stay the same regardless of the IP address fetched by the modem.

Muscleguy
Boffin

There's gold in black smokers too

New Scientist just did a piece on this, only not for rare earths. Turns out there's gold and platinum in the plumes from black smokers too. They report that there's a defunkt field off the north coast of Papua New Guinea that is being lined up for a test mine. So Tim, get yourself down there and do a deal to snaffle their outflow once they have pumped it up for you and concentrated it a bit.

Muscleguy
FAIL

X-wind, that reminds me . . .

Some years ago now I was proceeding southwards in Southern New Zealand on a motorbike with my fiance on the back. There was a strong westerly wind which was not a problem until we were going along the top of some hills where the road went through a series of cuttings. This made riding very dodgy every time we came out of the cutting and were exposed to the strong crosswind.

At one point we got blown across the road and I only just managed to stop on the verge, poised above a steep bank with a nice barbed wire fence at the bottom. Never in my life have I been more grateful to finally descend to Balclutha (a nondescript agricultural town). So I agree, landing a two wheeled road flyer in a crosswind would not attract me. Not as a fixed wing machine anyway, make it a mini copter so landing could be done vertically at low horizontal speed and I might consider it.

Muscleguy
WTF?

Bummmer

Maybe because past experience or when they actually apply they get: application denied. With no explanation forthcoming? I bet the council would like to operate like the system that created tramps here in the UK: no homeless person can stay in a parish for more than one night (otherwise the parish became responsible for their welfare). Presumably the council think homeless people are like pigeons and feeding only encourages them. Hmmm, must become homeless just for some free meals at the soup kitchen, what do you reckon?

Muscleguy
Thumb Up

Aha

Thank you, I knew it looked wrong but familiar.

Muscleguy
Facepalm

Did you read it?

Because the article clearly states that the panel assumed the expected sea level rise was true. So at century end, even with the sea level rise, the reduced number of storm surges would reduce flooding events. Also that the current flooding events are largely due to storm surges. Obviously reading comprehension is not your strong suit, or you have the concentration span of a gnat and didn't bother to read beyond the first sentence.

Muscleguy
Boffin

Obviously

You have been asleep recently. Since you have not heard about the El Nino/La Nina climate cycle in the Pacific. Not to mention that

1. you are relying on personal memory. I can remember cycling down the hill in Dunedin to get to school with my wheels in the gutter and using my feet as brakes in the frost, so my memory trumps yours.

2. If you are 70+ then you will likely feel the cold more, duh! Never noticed that the elderly tend to wear more clothes in a given temperature than younger people?

This kiwi (resident in Dundee, try that for cold) is ashamed of you.

Muscleguy
Boffin

Discipline Fail

Sigh, 'trick cyclists' is a term for psychiatrists which are like, different from psychologists. If you are going to write an article sneering at a group of people it helps not to appear ignorant about it.

Also psychology straddles the boundary and includes people working on such things as neural nets (made with wetware neurons) and other hard core neuroscience. In my alma mater you could do it either as a BA or BSc with the two streams differing in their study areas after the introductory courses. Did those doing the study differentiate?

Muscleguy
Boffin

Don't

My experience is completely other than yours, so my anecdote trumps yours. For eg last year when our gum tree blew down and broke the cable connection I had to put the engineer off till the afternoon so we had time to get the tree out of the way, I was offered an almost instantaneous slot. I don't call that bad service.

Muscleguy
Boffin

Except that

The moon is moving away from the earth so it's tidal pull on the earth is steadily diminishing and it will escape earth orbit before it has extracted enough energy from the earth's rotation. So it isn't going to happen unless you can magically keep the moon where it is.

Muscleguy
Boffin

NO!

Lone nutter with a radio station spends several million dollars and possibly more to buy advertising over as much of the planet as they can reach. Also sending out missionaries to spread the world in places like Turkey. This wasn't a media beat up, it was a genuine phenomenon which the media duly reported, while sniggering appropriately.

Muscleguy

Hard, not impossible

Well I did a drive swap on a RevB iMac and I've done one on this G5 iSight iMac AND got it back together again. But I agree that the tower Macs were wonderful. At work I once swapped the drive bay from one to another to enable the installation of more drives on the second. It was a doddle.

I'm sure there will be a workaround found, someone will hack the firmware for eg. As for the previous machines and the HD fan, no problem on this beast, prized the sensor off and then put it on the new drive with no problems.

Muscleguy
Joke

Oook!

Your post is offensive to all the great apes and gorillas in particular. In future please restrict such epithets at gibbons who are too frivolous to bother noticing anything (comes with having a ball and socket joint in the wrist) or safer still, Lemurs (but not the cute ones).

Yours

The campaign for all great apes to be included in the genus Homo

Muscleguy

Different B

I think you are thinking of Borders.

Muscleguy
Boffin

It's still an ecology

Yes I'm aware we are not 100% bullet proof secure, but for the reasons stated I can do no better without denying my wife access to the PSN network on her PSP (oh wait! . . .). But the point about the neighbours is still valid, I can currently see 3 other networks from this static location (leafy suburbia). With such prey on plain view, the camouflaged animal is still at an advantage even if it is über vulnerable if detected. So your objections apply only to those determined to do us personal harm and we are universally loved by all, of course.

Muscleguy
Alert

Theoretically

I know the PSP (latest version using discs) can, theoretically do WAP. That is no help in getting it to actually work though (Airport Express). Eventually Mrs Muscleguy wanted her console back and for it to connect, or else and she almost never leaves the house without it so I have ceased my attempts to make it work and am not interested in resetting the entire network whenever she wants to connect with it.

At least the XBox connects if you use enet pretty seamlessly.

Muscleguy
Pirate

To WEP or not to WEP

Our network is WEP protected, but also non visible. You have to know it's name to connect and have your MAC address registered. It's the best I can do. I would like to WAP protect it but Mrs Muscleguy's PSP won't connect if it is set to WAP (don't mention connecting her XBox to it wirelessly).

Besides the neighbour's BT Openzone is a far more tempting target ;-)

Muscleguy

Re: high value only

The other category will be fragile things that to boost into orbit on a rocket need big, heavy cushioning systems to handle the gees. A spaceplane doesn't have to have the same gees as a vertical takeoff rocket.

Muscleguy
Boffin

Low risk?

Don't make me laugh.

1. Auckland is still in an active volcanic zone, a new vent could open just about anywhere around Auckland just about any time. Ask NZ Civil Defence they have plans in place for various scenarios.

2. I hope it's tropical cyclone proof.

3. Auckland is just as much at risk of earthquakes as low risk places, like oh, Christchurch was believed to be until just recently.

Conclusion: the 'low risk of natural disasters' quote was written to keep their insurance quotes down. An offshore insurer one presumes. Also I wouldn't want their air conditioning bill in an Auckland summer.

Muscleguy
Boffin

A look over the ditch

To New Zealand will show he is wrong. Ebay doesn't exist in NZ, a local startup called TradeMe does instead. I have no doubt that Ebay has the financial muscle to take them on, but they haven't. Why not? because they are not interested in any market they cannot dominate.

Besides which Amazon has stolen much of Ebay's thunder by operating an easy to use portal to sell pretty much anything second hand. I have a shop on there where I sell my wife's finished video games from various platforms. She uses the income to help fund the purchase of more. Sometimes I even make a profit on a game if it was bought used. It isn't an auction but that doesn't mean you can charge what you want either, get the price wrong and your item will just sit there unsold. It also has the advantage of the customer knowing they have bought the item there and then instead of having to bid and not being sure of getting it.

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