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* Posts by frank ly

2186 posts • joined Wednesday 10th June 2009 09:17 GMT

frank ly
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Happy

Put it on eBay

You might want to wait until the post-Christmas Used price slump has lifted.

frank ly
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Facepalm

No password, but an email address?

Instead of typing in a password which you keep as a secret, you type in an email address (which you ought to keep secret)? Have I understood this correctly?

frank ly
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Coat

Is it any surprise .............

...... that a team led by a man failed to find the G-spot?

On my way........

frank ly
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Is this related to Diogenes in a barrel?

Just wondering; because I can see a pattern emerging.

frank ly
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Facepalm

@IanBruce

Thanks for sharing your incredibly condensed (and confused) 'knowledge' of cultural stereotypes.

frank ly
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Somebody has to do it......

.... because there is an observed correlation between the posting of amusing cat videos and incidences of civil disturbance.

frank ly
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Facepalm

...... waste time commenting every line of code

Indeed. The less time it takes to produce code to be used by someone else, the better that code will be.

Posted in TV Guide UK
frank ly
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Happy

@dotdavid

I'lll stick with 'kinematograph', until something better comes along.

frank ly
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Facepalm

NoScript temporary enable.....

On NoScript: Options>General tab, you can allow top level domain temporary permission by default. This means you can open website.com and it will temporarily allow scripts from website.com for that session. It saved a bit of wear and tear on my fingertips when I found that out.

frank ly
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Unhappy

I can't wait 'til this gets released into general use....

.....oh, wait a minute.

frank ly
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Happy

All the people from Arcturus are cute.....

..... which is maybe why you called them 'Arcutians'.

Personally, I'd like to see the cat-nuns from Doctor Who. There's something about watching a woman take her wimple off.... and all that fur!!

frank ly
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Facepalm

About not being noticed.....

"...umbrella of warplanes prevents normal aerial reconnaissance from locating it."

Anybody who goes around with an umbrella of warplanes is asking to be noticed and the centre of the umbrella is probably where they are.

frank ly
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But in my case.....

....with my cable IP address which has been the same for over two years, it got my geographic location correct but said that I had never downloaded anything. I have in fact been busy using BitTorrent to download movies, TV series and music for a long time. Could this be because I use Peer Block and a firewall and only open up the BT transfer port for the duration of the download session?

frank ly
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Facepalm

As a matter of interest....

.. what is (would be) the legal status of extraterrestrial visitors? I don't think the law is ready for them even if gun toting survivalists might be.

frank ly
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Yes indeed

I was wondering if it would be possible for anyone in the UK, nowadays, to own a collection like that - and practice indoors or in the garden.

frank ly
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Happy

The Russian Mars probe.....

... is dangling by its ankle, from a low earth orbit, after becoming shagged out.

frank ly
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Happy

Wow...

Your final paragraph sounds like a Doctor Who - Red Dwarf - Star Trek amalgam. I'd watch it!

frank ly
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Stop

... like warm baby oil off the back of a transgender pole dancer.

Pics, or it didn't happen.

frank ly
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Thumb Up

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?

frank ly
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Boffin

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.

frank ly
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Normalisation?

Can we see these figures adjusted for population and then for rates of PC ownership?

frank ly
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Coat

I for one.....

...welcome our wall traversing overlords.

Posted in Sony Tablet S
frank ly
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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.

frank ly
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Happy

And more.....

It's A about F, or A over T. (It's your day for corrections isn't it?)

frank ly
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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.

frank ly
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"... spin my own propeller "

What does this usually mean? (I'm having mental images that I'd better not tell anyone about)

frank ly
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A man off-screen provides commentary.

Was it David Attenborough? If so, I'm sure it would have been educational and informative.

frank ly
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Facepalm

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.

frank ly
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Happy

WHSmith - former glories

If I could browse the top shelf for free, for five minutes a day; that would work for me. Ah, memories.

frank ly
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Facepalm

" 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.)

frank ly
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Happy

I hope it's RAID-1

... or even that you have a backup copy in a geographically remote location.

frank ly
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Happy

Oh, the irony

It tought me something for sure.

Posted in Amazon Kindle 4
frank ly
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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.

frank ly
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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.)

frank ly
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WTF?

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.

frank ly
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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.

frank ly
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Unhappy

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.

frank ly
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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.

.

frank ly
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Devil

"... a single government web domain ..."

... and in the darkness bind them.

frank ly
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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.)

frank ly
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Unhappy

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.

frank ly
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Unhappy

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.)

frank ly
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Luton Airport ...

... is about 25 miles north of London, England. I didn't know they had a Microsoft shop there.

frank ly
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Thumb Up

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.

frank ly
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Facepalm

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?

frank ly
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Happy

It sounds like.....

... your dark matter is backing up inside you.

frank ly
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Headmaster

"... is not Christian or atheistic .."

You mean " ... Christianistic or atheistic .." (If you use derived adjectives, they should be of the same 'order'.)

frank ly
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Just call yourelf Noel

see title

frank ly
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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