Posts by Michael H.F. Wilkinson
1887 posts • joined Tuesday 24th April 2007 14:31 GMT
Page:
What a beautiful example
of Engrish!!
We collected quite a few on our trip to Japan, but this must be the best.
Thumbs up, because, well, where else would it point
Posted in Russia’s space telescope in orbit
Sounds like a machine from a Bond movie
but great instrument once it gets operational. Very Long Base Line Interferometry (VLBI) is about to become ULBI (Ultra Long Base Line Interferometry), fitting, given ULTRA was a British (counter)-espionage unit involved in radio snooping and code breaking: Ultra meets Spektr-R.
Yep!
see title
or all three at once?
or am I being obstructively cynical?
Why is it obvious
we tapped their phones, obvious, init?
Neat shot
My scope only shows a speck, moving slowly between the stars
The century of the fruitbat
is nearly over
try to keep up
;-)
B u t i f I s l o w d o w n
to reach a high age, will that not be very boring?
Re: what
that's a nasty thought, cannot get the image you just conjured up out of my head.
Beer needed
Posted in NASA
Though you never know if NASA is not interested in geese
goose-powered space ship, anyone?
Mine is the the space suit
Can I patent pitching a brick
as a means and method for permanently switching off any television, or any audiovisual playback or recording device, or any other device controlled by IR remote control, or any other electromagnetic or ultrasonic means, without any learning involved?
Just a thought
I always thought
People in chaos theory were paranoid due to the shadowing lemma right behind them
Maybe Stephen Fry's explanation of GPS was used
init?
He said hello on the wrong hailing frequency
maybe?
One in a million chances
always crop up, well known fact
Just ask Sergeant Colon
Actually
as an amateur astronomer, with a long log of sunspot counts, I am seeing a very quiet sun in the last few years. The last minimum was very deep, and much too long, the current maximum is occasionally throwing up fireworks, but I have also seen some very quiet periods, unlike anything I got in the late 1970s, early 1980s when I started observing.
The current low activity may be a glitch, but it seems to be part of a trend. We may well be in for a prolonged period of low activity, which could be similar to the Maunder minimum.
Pity for those who invest heavily in a hydrogen alpha filter for their scope if it is true, because the fireworks they will get to see with this expensive kit may be less than hoped for.
Sounds very interesting
I can almost fit my entire image (1.5 terapixel remote sensing stuff) into main memory
;-)
seriously, really interesting machine given the performance and power draw
Remarkable guy, this Rutan
for an encore, he will make this flying car go into space?
then all he has to do is invent slood for us.
Posted in HP TouchPad 32GB WebOS tablet
Shame about the delays, I liked the look of WebOS
but settled for an android phone nonetheless (to replace both a regular phone and my good old Tungsten T3).
Just a bit of advice
Both Balmer and the Windows OS need to go on a diet. Balmer for continued health, and the OS for this plan to succeed.
HERETICS!!!!!
EMACS is the one true editor!!!
vi is venom incarnate
;-)
Sounds like mr Creosote would like these
Put it all in a bucket, and have another bucket on stand by.
Posted in Asteroid hunter achieves Vesta orbit
Nah, the colour is all wrong
for vindaloo. It looks more like some dreadful, congealed concoction made from whale blubber. Nutritious, no doubt, but it rest on the stomach like a lead bowling ball.
Beer, because, well, in goes down well with vindaloo.
Agreed!
In true GNU style recursive acronyms should be prefered.
As opposed to adding a really fat goally
as in the case of anti-virus software in the MS world
Google docs is rather limited indeed
For really complex documents I really prefer LaTeX
You try automatic numbering of equations with numbers in parentheses BEHIND the equation in word, plus automatically referring to them. Real nightmare.
Besides, one earlier MS-Word version packed in after you tried to create more than 128 equation objects (which means these "links" were stored in a fixed size array in the file format (after all who needs more than 640 kB RAM)). It was not my document, but a PhD thesis of some student at our department years back. He scorned all the rest of us for using old-fashioned LaTeX, instead of something modern. When he hit the 128 equation barrier, the tables were turned.
Grilling is WRONG
given Murdoch's age he should be left to stew until tender!!
Flame should be set to "simmer"
The irritation stems from the voice on the other end
for me at least
Just a few questions
- Since many are bashing organized religion, should we encourage disorganized religion instead?
- If the CoFSM is a true religion, how many schisms has it had? (any organized religion worth its salt has had many)
- Is there a prize for the best use of a pasta strainer?
Gluten intolerance?
In his great wisdom and kindness, the FSM gave us buckwheat, to make gluten-free soba noodles!!
Praise be!!
can we have an FSM icon?
Weren't these used to produce dried frog pills?
You know, the ones that in the right dose make mad people hallucinate they are sane?
They now no longer say NI !!
they say "Ekki, Ekki, Ekki!!"
I'll get me coat
Kroket bitterbal and frikandel
Just a typo there, the German frikadel (meat ball) is very different from the Dutch frikandel (sausage of the CMOT Dibbler type).
BTW a bitterbal is just a kroket but smaller, and round rather than cylindrical. They are usually served at cocktail parties and receptions. The correct etiquette after biting one is to say "Eeeeeeeeuuuuuuuuuuuh" with your hand in front of your mouth.
Thumbs up to "savoury napalm"
The RG flying cra desk now how to reduce the weight!
PAPER!!!!
worked for PARIS
I finally got a SFW excuse for the use of this icon
"I can't see Redmond buggering it up this time, but you never know."
I can.
Really, even with my eyes shut.
This is not simply MS bashing, I simply have an undying faith in the ability of people anywhere (and that includes myself) to get things terribly wrong in ways we never could imagine. This is a kind of inverse creativity embodied in Bergholt Stuttley (or Bloody Stupid) Johnson on the Discworld.
However, MS might get it beautifully right.
Posted in Insider says doom looms at RIM
If problems are opportunities
could someone please solve my opportunities for me then?
Posted in Do we really want 100Gig Ethernet?
Spot on!
Latency kills distributed computing far more than pure bandwidth.
Still remember coax though, and 300 baud connections to the Cyber 170/760 (AARGH)
Or
I am not as think as you drunk I am
Somewhat better images
than with my 8" scope.
Brilliant stuff.
At least they are up to speed with some things in the world
It's not in Latin, after all.
Is there an award for best Terry Pratchett reference in a comment?
This should win this year's award
Still a candidate for an IgNobel prize
You know, research that first makes you laugh, and then makes you think.
I could well imagine that church-going people get more help from their surroundings, from those who practice what they preach, and apparently understood the bible better than certain raving fundamentalists. I remember attending the wedding of friends of ours in the US, and after the exchange of vows, the congregation was asked to rise and promise they would do all they could to make this marriage work. I thought that very touching. That is a practical side of Christianity (and many other faiths) that is very valuable. I did get some puzzled looks from some church-goers when I told them I was an atheist. I almost felt they wondered how that could happen to such an apparently nice man, and anyway, where were my horns and cloven hooves?
The researchers should check whether there aren't stronger correlations between well-being and the degree of care or conversely social isolation of those with brain trauma.
Rest assured, your data are safe with us
Customer: Wanna bet?
The Goddess has spoken
evidently
A doctor I know has a very interesting opinion:
If you have survived to the ripe old age of 80, relax and don't worry too much, you are probably hard to kill.
That's the kind of science I like to hear (as does my dad)
So it does use power
it is just generated by bacteria.
Neat, that.
It was more of a case of
it didn't fit, so we forced it,
it couldn't be force so we used a bigger hammer
it broke, so it needed replacement anyway
Actually
Jury-rigged comes from for "injury-rigged", a phrase used for any lash-up of remnants of masts spars and sails allowing a ship to creep forward after damage. Jerry rigged seems derived from the same. However, this mouse is hardly a crudely made (though it is improvised), it is pretty cunning.
Mini-computer inside a mouse?
Calling the microcontroller a "mini-computer is a bit curious, as the last mini-computer I worked on (PDP11-70) was rather too big to fit inside the mouse (or even a rat)
Re: Some detection possible?
Various presenters input both mouse-like and keyboard-like commands, and you would not want to prohibit them. In the end, if someone really really wants to break in, it is almost impossible to keep them out.
