Posts by detritus
31 posts • joined Monday 22nd December 2008 13:37 GMT
My understanding from the video here and from what else I've seen (here on Reg in some BAE rant? :) is that the laser needs to maintain an amount of time on the same, or at least proximate, spot. The area at target is probably less than an inch, so I imagine that the accuracy of which you speak of at the turret's end could also apply to the drone, which has a lot more control over its immediate domain.
Once these lasers can burn a hole within a second or so, of course what I'm saying is moot - but these current systems aren't *that* powerful, no?
An array of heat sensors, coupled to logic that makes a drone capable of high G manouevres dart about, should be enough to get around this and the next couple of generations worth of offensive laser turret.
Given the extensive trading networks and 'gift sharing as a means of peace offering' culture in that part of the world, how do the researchers in this instance know that the source location of the swords is the same as the source of the teeth?
Re: Already debunked?
To be fair, El Reg is in good company... http://www.technologyreview.com/view/512381/astrobiologists-find-ancient-fossils-in-fireball-fragments/ , and it's not like most of us come here expecting the editorial staff to have fully-fledged astrobiologists ready to pick apart such stories. It is predominently an IT rag, after all.
Although, perhaps a little less credulity would've been in order...
Re: Way to go, SpaceX!
...or investigating ways to surreptitiously undermine/break SpaceX's progress.
Posted in SimCity 2000
The cynic in me wonders whether you guys are trying to hint at me to buy something today..?
:)
Re: Ho hum
You're somewhat conspicuously ignoring the Apple-shaped elephant in the room you just made that statement in.
Posted in North Korea releases first computer game
Re: Animation
Jesus Christ, I rescind everything I've ever said about everyhing!
Posted in North Korea releases first computer game
I thought the Norks had a good rep coding mobile apps and games for Fox network and such?
Or did I just imagine that?
Re: The Real Story here...
And then some - I have to keep a copy of CorelDraw on hand for laser cutting purposes.
The shame is, although it's a grossly outdated piece of software, it has a couple (practically literally) of nice features and still, after all these years, represents Illustrator's only real competition out there for vector design packages.
Adobe really could use a little more competition...
Posted in Help-desk hell
Tidying up
I'm only tech support to friends and family (*sobs*), but..
Years ago, in the days of Windows XP, an anally-retentive friend of mine phoned up in a fluster, complaining that his new computer had stopped working. Working through what the start up sequence was doing over the phone didn't really highlight anything and was simply confused matters, so I enquired what (if anything) had happened before he turned it off last time. “Nothing — I'd just tided a load of files away and then turned it off - nothing was wrong” was the reply.
“What do you mean you ‘tidied a load of files away?’”
Turns out the overly-fastidious numpty had decided he didn't like how his C:\ drive was organised, so made his own file system, moving around Windows folders and such 'til it looked neat.
A little knowledge is a terrifying thing.
Re: No
May I ask what you would suggest instead, Richard 12?
I just agree with your assertion is all — AutoCAD is useless to me with the way I work.
I clearly need a proper cup of tea this morning—my brain hung when reading ‘unionized labor’, trying desperately to work out how on earth one might strip ions from effort.
Not really a ‘car’, is it?
Am I the only demiGeek out there who thinks this is a pointless waste of effort? I appreciate the endeavour isn't quite as simple as ‘strapping a rocket engine onto wheels and letting rip’ but the functional end result is as good-as.
A ‘car’ entering a land speed record should have directly-powered wheels, at least.
I guess, by that measure, tiny rockets affixed to trims a la Catherine Wheels would count. A lot prettier too.
Both this and the BBC article linked-to are light on details of the plans - Dassault are visibly mentioned - but no word on the British partner(s). Presumably not BAe, so then who?
Wait.. what? We haven't actually any proof of the existence of any exomoons yet though, right?
Or have I missed a fairly amazing announcement sometime recently?
This page (August 2011) seems to imply not..
http://www.paulanthonywilson.com/blog/exomoons-about-the-moons-of-exoplanets/
Thorium..
Thorium thorium thorium, thorium Thorium? Thorium! Thorium, thorium thorium thorium, thorium - thorium thorium.
Thorium thorium, lol - thorium thorium thorium.
WHEN?
I'm torn on this - on the one hand, what the hell is going through her goddamn first-world-spoilt mind? On the other - what the hey? We're all part of Gaia's great bonanza, all flesh and blood, all creatures born without morals or guidance, so as long as no earthly suffering was felt by any party, what does it matter?
Back on to the other hand— what the hell?!
Posted in Google dumps + from Boolean search tool
Aside from realising there was a door to close after the G+ nominative problem horse bolted, this is an absolutely and entirely incomprehensible decision.
Absolutely stupid.
Not UK's 'first'
First ‘widely-commercially available UK-made’ bamboo bikes, possibly.
There've been at least three or four other groups of people making and selling UK-made bamboo bikes over the past few years, including a friend of mine who made and sold a handful around North London last year, and would be still if he didn't have other responsibilities (much to my chagrin - I was supposed to be swapping a website for my own bamboo bike, grrr!)
Also, does your second image there not show an American-made bamboo bike, made by Calfee?
Anyway, that aside - if you ever get a chance to try one, do. They're an interesting, surprisingly comfortable ride.
oh no.. oh dear God, no.
I was just about to post this myself... the code is... horrific. Awful. Loathsome. Disgusting, even. It appears to have an entire copy of the site structure, commented out but lumped in with the html, just in case a user is on IE9.
Never mind the labyrinthine stacks of nested and redundant DIVs, each apparently with its own class.
God forbid a client ever gets their hands on this, then expects a ‘quick change on the cheap’, “You know, because I've done most of the work myself...”
'XRG-25'?
And, coïncidentally..
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/12/10/xm_25_2014_timeline/
More info, please?
"comically, several years ago, a physics student built one in his university basement, as a hobby, that far outstripped anything the navy had built up to then".
I don't suppose you've got a link to this handy, do you? I'm interested to know more! :)
title
Whilst 4:3 is fair enough for the drawing area itself (similar to typical paper ratios), the advantage with a widescreen interface would be in the side docking of the tool panels in Illy or PS - personally I can't abide hiding tools away under rollovers.
Does anyone have a take on why these things are so darned expensive?
.
As for games - I tried my old and non-displayed Wacom years ago on a few - as you'd imagine, totally useless in FPS, but it was pretty damn good for RTS.
Now then, a large displayed version of Apple's Magic Trackpad thing along with the whole gestural handtweaking thing would (in the gamer parlance) 'totally pwn' RTS.
Posted in Newtonian Rock shop leaks iPad prices
Gib
I'd just like to add that, despite Gib's reputation as a cheap booze and cig stop off on the day tours around southern Spain, its shops suffer from eye-wateringly expensive, typically outmoded computer tech.
Afaik, people there tend to either order from mainland UK or pop over to Spain for computers and such. Conversely, Spaniards pop in to Gib to stock up on cheese and umbrellas, illicitly stuffing 200s of ciggies into their grunts as they wobble back across the border.
Typo or Sardony?
"Recently News Corp has been mulling blocking Google from displaying its news, but no such action has been taken against the media giant yet."
Carbon Harvesting?
Couple a field generator module with fleets of this kind of tech .. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/20/eatr_veggie/ .. and we're descending into the murky depths of Real Time Strategy game dystopia.
Posted in Ares I-X trundles to launchpad
Why Mars?
I don't get the fixation with trapping ourselves in another planet's gravity well.
Local orbit, the Moon and asteroids should be targets for human space exploration, as springboards toward practical resource development. It'd be cheaper in the short to medium term and more likely to offer the potential for commercial gain.
Philosophically, it's space itself that we're going to spend the bulk of our far off future in - we'd be wise to start learning to live in it. I mean, it's not like we're likely to be able to terraform Mars in the near future, so what advantage does sending humans there offer us?
Posted in Hands on the Sony Vaio X
@RegMV2009, @shades
Just as a counter point - my 5 year old Sony Vaio endured about 2 years of daily cycle commutes to work in my backpack and has since been my 'communication machine' - on for at least 18 hours each and every day, getting lugged around my studio. I vastly overpaid for it at the time (I never did do any heavy grunt work or game playing on it as I had intended), but given that it'll likely troop on as my on-going heavy-use second machine for another couple of years, it'll equate to just over £200 worth of mobile machine per year. Not bad, for a well-made, aesthetically pleasing bit of tech that I enjoy using. Better than a sodding Dell, anyway.
As for Shades - whilst I wouldn't buy this machine, I know of at least three monied friends who wouldn't even blink at 'paying over the odds' for a beautiful machine like this. Were I equally monied, neither would I. Neither would you if you were honest with yourself, I'm sure! :)
Additional blobs?
I wonder what the similar-looking entities in the top-left corner of that image are?
Posted in Register Hardware revamped
Not a fan, I'm afraid.
Looks like a badly-finished generic web2.something blog template - angled stripes? Check. Sheen buttons? Check. Lazy nav typography? Check. All this bound by disparate elements that don't really fit together and feel slapdash and unfinished..
Most importantly - Where's the brand? Where's the red masting? 'Reg' only means something when it's coupled with The Vulture or wearing its clothes.
I see the need to distinguish your sections a bit more to provide light to the wealth and breadth of your content offering - but I don't think you've focused on the cohesion enough, nor invested enough effort in the form of the final product.
Who benefits from this in this form, exactly?
Signed, a slightly pretentious designer-type person who's read and loved The Reg daily for nearly 8 years now and feels a little bad about only writing to criticise.
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