Posts by frank ly
2117 posts • joined Wednesday 10th June 2009 09:17 GMT
Page:
Can we have more please?
Thank you for that interesting comment. You say that your four months in China have totally changed the way you look at it; I'm sure they would have. Could you spare any time to write a blog (or do you already have one?) to give us an insight into life there and to highlight any 'surprises' for us back here in the West?
Posted in NASA funds laser tractor beam research
The importance of background research.....
"Though a mainstay in science fiction, and Star Trek in particular, laser-based trapping ...."
Star Trek tractor beams use a subspace/graviton interference pattern for their effect. I'm surprised that a scientist working in this field wasn't aware of that.
Normalisation?
Can we see these figures adjusted for population and then for rates of PC ownership?
I for one.....
...welcome our wall traversing overlords.
Posted in Sony Tablet S
And if you want to transfer files you'll need the SGP-UC1 adapter cable......
Or, install the 'AndFTP' app (FTP client) and run an FTP server on your PC. Or, store your data files on a NAS box and use its built in FTP server; for Wi-Fi transfer of files between your NAS box and any Android device.
And more.....
It's A about F, or A over T. (It's your day for corrections isn't it?)
I suggest that he insists on being tried by his peers; ...
.... i.e. a jury of lonely 28 year old men who live on remote farms.
"... spin my own propeller "
What does this usually mean? (I'm having mental images that I'd better not tell anyone about)
A man off-screen provides commentary.
Was it David Attenborough? If so, I'm sure it would have been educational and informative.
The wonderful thing about being very rich ...
... is that you can wear what you like and it doesn't matter what anybody thinks about your clothes.
WHSmith - former glories
If I could browse the top shelf for free, for five minutes a day; that would work for me. Ah, memories.
" all 4 servers on the same PSU, in the same room."
Yes, stuff like that happens all the time in lots of places. I've seen dual redundant, critical data feeds get run in the same trunking in one place I worked at. Hence my belief that an independent technical assesor should be invited to examine critical systems and their report be made available to shareholders and regulatory authorities. (I know, it's not going to happen.)
I hope it's RAID-1
... or even that you have a backup copy in a geographically remote location.
Posted in Amazon Kindle 4
re, converting ePub to .mobi
I think that the majority of Kindle users will not know how to do this and not even be aware that it can be done. Data format and file wrangling is a rare skill among the general population.
If there was a ready market for nude photos of me.......
.... I'd be selling them to the highest bidder. (It's not going to happen though.)
My interpretation....
If I devise a method of computer simulation of wear on a drill bit assembly (and associated equipment), and use that as part of a process to optimise drill bit design; then I can use that method in-house to make my own drill bits but can't sell the bits, or my services as a drill bit designer, to anyone else (unless I pay licensing fees to Halliburton) because they now 'own' this method of optimising the design of drilling equipment.
Not good.
Posted in Android apps now playable on Windows PCs
I was wrong about needing to be logged in
When I wrote my comments, last night, I think that BlueStacks was being hammered by lots of people trying it out. Hence, it was very slow to respond. I assumed that it was my logging in to the Bluestacks website and the Android CloudConnect app that made it start working, but this seems to have been a timing coincidence.
This morning, I fired up the Bluestacks gadget on my laptop (without being logged in to ther website and without running or being logged in on the CloudConnect app). It worked within about five seconds and I was able to use my Android apps on the laptop and see editing changes appear on my Wildfire and my Vega after a manual sync on the apps.
It's all relative
"...they are the most professional and have the highest standards that exist."
You can say the same thing about sucessful assassins.
Posted in Android apps now playable on Windows PCs
It's good, in parts
It installed first time with no problems on my Windows 7 laptop. It appears as an enormous Gadget on your screen. To 'subscribe' to apps, you need to log in to the Bluestacks site using a Facebook identity; during which you have to give Bluestacks permission to see all your Facebook info (including your friends) and also give it the ability to make post on your behalf (that's what it read like). I was willing to do this since my Facebook account was set up just to see what it was about.
Then, with the Bluestacks Cloud Connect app, from the Android market, on my Vega tablet (not my phone, I'm not that trusting), you can choose which of your installed Android apps to sync over to your PC. To do this, you need to enter a PIN than is provided to you on the Bluestacks website after you've signed in via Facebook.
Syncing over an Android app takes time, maybe a couple of minutes before it appears as an icon on your PC, so be patient. I synced over the RealCalc app, so I had a giant scientific calculator running on my laptop..... cool.
Android calendar apps will transfer over and run but (in my case) do not show any events, claiming that no calendars are selected. I assume this is because they expect to read that information from the phone/tablet itself and cannot do this when running on your PC.
In fact, for any Google calendar/maps/docs/mail/reader, etc application, you'd be better using the PC browser in the first place. (I don't have games and am not interested in them so someone else can comment on those.)
Where Bluestacks is useful is for Android apps that need lots of typing. For this, I synced over ColorNote and PostEver. These work fine at fullscreen and I could create and edit ColorNote notes with full functionality but using a proper keyboard on a PC. These were then available on my Vega tablet and my Wildfire phone after a manual sync at both ends. This is useful if you want to do lots of in-app typing. You use mouse click/drag control as you would use your finger on a touch screen.
Apart from apps that benefit from use of a big screen and a real keyboard, I can't think of anything that would benefit from this in a big way (except for games maybe).
As far as I can tell, you need to be logged into Bluestacks on their website and on your Android device (entering the PIN) for it all to work. Even then, it took about a minute or more for functionality to become available. If you decide that an Android app is not suitable for this treatment, it takes a while for it to be removed from the PC based app menu after you tell the website to 'Unsubscribe' you from the app. I've often found myself thinking that the entire thing had stopped working, but I just had to be patient and give it time to sort itsefl out. It may be that you need to leave it logged in all the time instead of firing it up when you want to use it.
On the Android tablet Bluestacks Cloud Connect app, it's easy enough to select any of your Android apps for connection and syncing, but I can't 'unconnect' those apps that I've decided are unsuitable for the task.
It's impressive that they've managed to do all this and any app that may need lots of typing and would benfit from a big screen is a good candidate for trying with this. Apart from the Facebook login thing and the clunky slowness to get going, I was happy with it.
.
"... a single government web domain ..."
... and in the darkness bind them.
Posted in Cornish villagers treated to 4G trial
I am puzzled...
"... something new in providing both fixed and mobile wireless over the same infrastructure."
Surely, a fixed subscriber is the same as a mobile subscriber, exept that they don't move?
In which case, they don't present any 'problems' with handover; so what is special about this?
(I've probably missed something and I'm sure it will be pointed out to me.)
Welcome to the modern world......
... where enabling an old man to talk to his old friend on his 80th birthday is a 'political act' that makes people twitchy and angry.
I wonder.......
When a nervous, asthmatic old man with a heart condition goes into the system, how long will it be before five security goons taze him then sit on him? (It'll be a 'precautionary measure' that was fully justified by scan results and system heuristics.)
Luton Airport ...
... is about 25 miles north of London, England. I didn't know they had a Microsoft shop there.
I'm glad I read all these ...
They're much more entertaining and educational than iOS/Android/Windows comparison comments. Thank you everybody. I've been inspired to make something 'special' over the weekend.
The situation may have changed
I too used to think that it was the act of uploading that was illegal, not downloading. Howerver, I believe that recent changes in UK law (and perhaps US law) have had an effect on this.
Can someone who has knowledge of this please comment?
Posted in The plane story of galactic clusters
It sounds like.....
... your dark matter is backing up inside you.
"... is not Christian or atheistic .."
You mean " ... Christianistic or atheistic .." (If you use derived adjectives, they should be of the same 'order'.)
Interesting and Fun
http://chromium.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/samples/audio/o3d-webgl-samples/pool.html
The pool game is addictive, but makes my laptop get hot.
More stuff here:
http://chromium.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/samples/audio/index.html
It gets more surreal...
From the link kindly provided by Willington:
Rather than activate Ford’s suspended sentence, Mr Stobart [the judge] decided to “make it more onerous” by barring him from going to Scotland for three days.
(There is no indication as to why this could be considered as punishment.)
Me Too...
Can somebody please get a copy of the Lincolnshire Free Press and let us all know what the quotes were?
re. pairs of measure
Could you give examples of these 'unceratinty' pairs (or give a link to a suitable article about them.)?
I assume that the link between momentum and position is because if a particle has momentum then it's position will change (and vice versa). I'm wondering which other pairs have this link and if they are similarly related.
I was going to make a joke...
.. about an iApp to cure erectile dysfunction; but it got too tacky.
(Mines the one with the Kleenex to wipe the screen.|)
Thank you Richard,.......
for introducing me to the word 'stouch'.
(Mine's the one for getting out more, which is what I need to do)
The Modern Solution:
Tell them to get an Android phone or tablet and do their Facepalming and Twattering on that.
The Answer...?
Why not Zip it up with password protection (AES 256-bit) then talk to the recipient by phone and tell them the password. If it's important (of course it is) then it's worth putting a little bit of extra time and effort into it. (I realise that this needs staff at both ends who 'know about computers')
re. free limitless energy
You should patent that idea.
Bruce Springstein sang about this:
"There was fifty-seven channels and nothing on."
I do
You mean Georgio at the House of Asdana.
Posted in Biofuel boffins pimp panda poo
Consequences?
"... put the genes responsible for this efficient digestion into yeasts, which could be grown on a commercial scale ..."
I for one will not welcome our yeasty, plant consuming overlords, after a few of them escape from the vat.
Carry On Please
I've patented that particular business process and method. Sue you later.
@Steve Oliver
That sounds good for use in my Android phone running Froyo, which will act as a Wi-Fi hotspot (with up to five users, I think; or was it three users...?). As I understand things, '3' are Skype friendly in that they don't get snotty if you use VoIP over their data service (unlike my current provider who forbids it in their T&Cs).
I don't understand...
.. why people write this kind of thing in e-mails. They should have a meeting in a basement room that has been swept for bugs. Has the cone of silence been invented yet?
Shagbook
My first thought was that it's a spotters guide to sea-birds.
Posted in Exogear Exomount universal gadget mount
It could work.....
"... to stick it to your desk, wall, dog or ..."
If you clipped it (with a bit of padding) to the scruff of a dogs neck, the dog wouldn't feel any discomfort and different people in a family home could then call the dog to them so they could use the phone (or maybe a tablet) for a short time.
I'll take that with a pich of salt
A little Wikipedia would take you a long way.
Ahhh, memories
I remember making 'fireworks', using potassium nitrate, charcoal and sulphur, back in the '70s. Those were the days, when you could make small and simple explosive devices and nobody minded provided you didn't cause damage or inconvenience. Those were also the days when pure and unadulterated sodium chlorate could be bought by the pound at a garden supplies shop.
I don't remember being able to buy detonator cord or anti-personnel mines though. Maybe I wasn't old enough.
What is this limited and expensive world in which you live?
My contacts and calendar (more than one, with different names and colours) are stored in a google flavoured cloud. If I get a new phone, I'll have them all within a few minutes of setting up.
If I wanted to, I could sync one displayed calendar to a PC based one but I see no need for that since my PC based Lightning/(Thunderbird) calendar will store any number of local calendars for me and I can then convert local storage calendar events to Googly cloud calendar events as I require.
My music is stored on my home NAS device (which has an FTP server) so I can transfer music files to my Android phone using the Android FTP client. If I wanted world-wide access at reasonable speed, I could transfer some music files to a web-hosting facility and use the Android FTP client to download them from there, (but that would be silly since I have a removable 8GB SD card in the phone).
All the 'apps' to do this on the phone and on my PC were free. Give it a try :)
Mine's the one with the money saving, inexpensive and very capable phone in the pocket.
