Posts by Michael H.F. Wilkinson
1888 posts • joined Tuesday 24th April 2007 14:31 GMT
Page:
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.
May I
be the first to welcome our digit manipulating Borg overlords?
Posted in 'Robots can save America', says Obama
But robot beancounters
could show more signs of humanity
Posted in NATO site hacked
It was so top secret
even their ads were classified
mine's the one with the Dr Strangelove DVD in the pocket
Larry Ellison might brush up on zoology
The cheetah comparison might just mean blisteringly fast, but no good in the long run. This might actually be a good description of current SSDs, when compared to spinning disks.
Race horses only cover short to medium distances at high speed. All servers should really aim to be camels: excellent average speed in the long run, heavy load capacity, don't break down under extremely difficult circumstances.
Besides, turtles live much longer than cheetahs, and the latter have previously nearly gone extinct.
I don't want to go in that coffin
Don't be such a ninny
Posted in So, how many rhinos does a tram weigh?
see reference to swallows
African or European (in terms of coconut carrying capacity)
Really should have a Monty Python icon
You do wonder
whether really thick blocks of cooled, highly polished, solid aluminium would do (can reach 95% reflectivity, going up to 99% in infrared). They might last long enough to do serious damage.
Now that would be a cool set-up.
Having said that, scattering by dust and vapour droplets (clouds, steam) hinder lasers, though infrared is much less affected.
Something for Annals of Improbable Research?
or even an Ig Nobel prize (for research that first makes you laugh, and then makes you think)
Posted in Top500 founders talk big
Agreed!
I would love to test drive my giga and terapixel image processing routines on that beast. 93% efficiency is particularly neat, and I should consider these sparc processors for our next machine.
Posted in Top500 founders talk big
Re: and it's rubbish
this is why the Blue-Gene here really hasn't much of an OS at all (on the compute nodes that is, the front-end does have an OS). This does generate a new set of problems (OK, challenges) for programmers.
Re: *nix is almost as silly with its messages
Never got that one. I did see someone so irate at Cyber-NOS that he typed in the command
> F**k off
which got the reply:
Task not in system
I have said it before and will say it again
Adding hay does not make finding needles easier. Indiscriminately adding data (especially when including fingerprints) concerning ALL passengers to a database which is intended for analysis of crimes will lead to a disproportionate number of false positives, as anyone with any knowledge of pattern recognition should know.
I suggest we follow Brazil, and take the finger prints of ALL US passengers visiting our shores (and not with fancy scanners, use ink!!)
BTW, HOLLAND is not an EU member; The Netherlands is. Calling Groningen where I live Holland is like saying Glasgow is in England.
So we can get mobile guru meditation errors?
thumbs up to a system that can make you smile at a system error message
Nice idea
but the finish on some of the woodwork seems a bit sub-par for the era it attempts to mimic.
Posted in Tilera throws gauntlet at Intel's feet
Sounds interesting
Given the speed-up we get on 24 core machines, I would like to pit them against these machines
I may not be the first to post,
but still seem to be the first to welcome them
Definitely
(more letters)
Posted in WTF are... connected appliances?
Can't you just hear
the last sausage whimpering in its package because it is all alone
May I be the first to
welcome our fungal overlords
Posted in WTF are... connected appliances?
Share and enjoy!
This stuff always reminds me of Sirius Cybernetics' GPP feature (Genuine People Personality, thank you, Douglas Adams). As I told one "ambient intelligence" guru at a conference, I don't want chatty (and smug) doors, fridges that order beer for me (and thus have access to my bank account!!) and least of all a Nutrimatic Machine (which, despite its intelligence, only makes cups filled with a liquid which is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea). A system that automatically puts on "my favourite" music when I get home is likely to get a reprogramming it will never forget (with a very large ax) if it gets it wrong (yet again).
</rant>
Simon Travaglia, is that you?
Elephant laxative, just brilliant!
Spam books could be called
Bookalikes?
Mine's the one with the hardback Terry Pratchett
Posted in Apple iMac 27in
Expensive?
My first PC (386 @ 25MHz with a (then) staggering 4MB of RAM, 1MB of video RAM, 88MB SCSI hard disk cost something like 5000 euros in todays money.
Will still be going for a PC upgrade rather than a Mac now. For that price I can get a compute beast with latest NVidia board and HUGE memory and a pretty serious 27" monitor. Not for gaming, but GPU accelerated volume rendering and analysis. We are getting more and more macs in our institute though. A lot of people like them.
"reverse polarising the bit pattern"
Trek-speak applied to (CSI-)IT!! Brilliant stuff!! I should try this here some time
Posted in Dam Busters dog dubbed 'Digger'
Still better than U571
otherwise it would have been an American squadron of B17s or the like, and Barnes Wallis would be from MIT.
Where is a bomb icon when you need it?
Hey, psst,
wanna buy an IP address?
Can't you just imagine shady types approaching you in the street?
Coat, well, because, the shady types will be wearing them
Calling the VVD liberal
is like calling Margaret Thatcher a moderate conservative. On the other hand, they are probably as liberal in practice as Nick Clegg is today.
But the highest paid academics are
software architects and engineers.
Tell this to potential students and you suddenly have their attention.
And for the kids
an inflatable bouncy castle?
Seriously though, nice idea!
What is the price of goodwill?
For any company, being seen to be a "good guy" in the (often simplistic) public image is worth a lot,even if it cannot be expressed in money. Ethics and corporate responsibility are becoming more and more important in shaping that public image, if nothing else. This too may be seen as selfish, but it is not expressed either in terms of money or contractual obligations.
Monastery of the Holy Crotch
rather than Holy Cross.
Easy mistake to make
I wonder
what an Iranian court would mete out in punishment? Hand cut off for using the phones? Knees cut of for being used in steering? Cut the whole lot of just to be sure?
Questions, questions.
If he had plastered himself against a wall
he would be clear Darwin Award material. Room temperature IQ apparently.
That's not a moon !!
Actually, it is, as far as I can see
Better still,
give the eight bottles of wine to the boxer. He would then miss, or simply fall over (and claim "You're the bessshht palllll I've EVER had !!!")
But there are voluntary organizations
on most planets to help you rehabilitate from drinking a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster.
So my virus scanner
no longer needs to scan for this?
Standradization of whinges: a valid point
Indeed, if you shout it's not a whinge, it's a complaint. A mega-whinge is either a whinge that that has high temporal extent, or one that is just extremely annoying, despite being brief. A standardization committee is required to make this more precise: the words kilo-, mega-, giga- and tera-whinge should not be used frivolously!!
I'll get me coat
I know what's missing in the picture!
The EeePC girl!
(Actually you could get all these stories the same day).
On the same page, side by side
Requires different icon
<--- more appropriate.
ARRH
Terry Pratchett knows
It was concocted late at night under the influence of large quantities of beer. You know, the same school of culinary thought that gave us deep-fried pizza.
(See "The Last Continent")
Think of the children!!!!
Please, think of the children
Posted in Steve Ballmer window-dresses Windows 8
"chair throwing tosser"
Would that not be simply "chair tosser"
I'll get me coat
May I be the first to
Welcome or Skylon overlords
