* Posts by frank ly

6077 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2009

Microsoft shows off South Korean PC-on-a-stick

frank ly

lucomsamerica.com

I've just had a quick look at their website. As usual for websites like this, I ask myself why the heck they don't get a native speaker to rewrite at least their headline paragraphs. It's a mess. If they can't be bothered to get that right then it leads to doubts as to whether they can be bothered to get anything else right.

Borg to assimilate Square Kilometre Array data

frank ly

Just wondering

"... Cisco says is worth more than $74 billion in profit to Australia over the next decade."

Are they saying this loud because they're getting generous tax breaks and won't be making any taxable profit in Australia for the next decade? I get more cynical every year.

Internet Explorer LIVES ON, cackle sneaky Microsoft engineers

frank ly

If Microsoft are doing it, you're buggered either way.

Are you clever enough, and brave enough, to give a Register lecture

frank ly

Pies and beer, mmmm.

I've just watched the last Christmas lecture by Prof. Mark Whitehorn, on databases and 'big data'. It was actually interesting and the application he discussed was unexpected and fascinating (to me anyway). The audience really were eating pies and drinking beer, in a quiet and sober way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkJ4xcXzpRk

Aged 18-24? Don't care about voting? Got a phone? Oh dear...

frank ly

From Weve.com:

"A leading provider of mobile marketing and commerce services in the UK, Weve is a joint venture between the three largest mobile operators, EE, O2 and Vodafone, who collectively represent over 80% of UK mobile users."

"Weve has the ability to reach up to 23 million consent-based customers ..."

It's ok, they get the target's consent first. That is what it means, isn't it?

Flying cars will take to the skies in 2017, if government allows

frank ly

Re: Lordy

"... grass runways could be built beside roads ..."

Imagine the possibilities. You probably have.

Cheers! .Irish drinks to St Patrick's Day

frank ly

re. dotirish.co

They should let him have dotirish.irish

.Free domains at Amazon while Google says bye to .family

frank ly

Re: Finding it difficult

What about .shit? (ian,court@tough.shit would be cool, no?)

NASA wants you to help space mining corp strip mine the Solar System

frank ly

They can use my computer

Dual quad core Xeon, 3GHz, 8GB. Will they pay cash now or shares in asteroids for later?

Vodafone Pay TV launch rumoured for November

frank ly
Happy

Re: TV?

What's the extreme opposite of a Luddite?

Brute force box lets researchers, Cops, pop iDevice locks

frank ly

"... evidentiary purposes ..."

Is that a constructionary error or is it a valid word?

Bride legs it from wedding after groom proves unable to add up

frank ly
Coat

Re: Eh?

Gormless reject of ordinary maths?

Fujitsu SPARCs up liquid cooling for smartphones

frank ly

Re: difference between this and heat pipe ?

I think that this being formed as a loop is the difference. That leads to other questions of course.

Princeton boffins sniff Tor users' IDs from TCP ACKs and server sweat

frank ly

Mitigation Methods

Hasn't this technique been known 'in theory' for a while? If I remember correctly, a mitigation method would be for the Tor server to buffer data packets and then 'stutter' the timing in a random way, even allowing a recent packet to be relayed on before a previous packet. (I might be getting this mixed up with something else).

Boffins brew up FIRST CUPPA in SPAAACE using wireless energy (well, sort of)

frank ly

Re: Will nobody think of the pigeons (and microlight pilots)?

" ... they want to use a microwave not contained inside a faraday cage."

They're developing a technique to also generate a large plasma cylinder that encloses the microwave beam. That should make it safe.

We're not sure what it is, but we like it: Lexus NX300h hybrid SUV

frank ly

re. braking

Isn't there even a small discs/pads arrangement to deal with fine low speed braking and holding on a slope?

The front end is a muck trap and would need jet washing regularly.

Wham! NASA claims 'picture-perfect' blast-off for tricky MAGNETIC EXPLOSIONS mission

frank ly

Re: Shapes

I suggest that we call it a 'teabagging' formation to avoid geometry arguments.

frank ly

Shapes

"The four octagonal disc-shaped spacecraft – working as a science lab – are now said to be flying in a loose, pyramid formation"

It ought to be called a tetrahedron formation (or a triangular pyramid).

This isn't the one-stop EU data protection you're looking for

frank ly

"Nothing is agreed, until everything is agreed.”

Is that Alice, standing on the viewing platform of the Wonderland maze? A wonderful choice of picture for the article.

Sir Terry remembered: Dickens' fire, Tolkien's imagination, and the wit of Wodehouse

frank ly

Re: Sadly missed

From Wikipedia and other sources, it appears that the book completed last year is called The Shepherd's Crown and is part (the last) of the Tiffany Aching arc of books. (Publication date seems to be July, or autumn, 2015.) These books are set in the Discworld and were intended for a 'young adult' audience. Personally, as a quite old adult, I found 'I Shall Wear Midnight' to be a very mature story, wonderfully told.

I'll be buying it as soon as it becomes available.

You kip kit: The Internet of Stuff innovation snooze-a-thon

frank ly

"Anna Hawryl, Chief Happiness Officer at IntelClinic ..."

Is that an enabling or an enforcement role?

US bares its net neutrality enforcement regime to world+dog

frank ly

Re: skip to page 321

I laughed, in disbelief and amazement.

Kaspersky claims to have found NSA's 'space station malware'

frank ly

"Executable timestamps ..."

Why wouldn't they obfuscate this data, at least in the 'released' version?

Legalising London's bed-hopping economy is POINTLESS

frank ly

Rules and Regulations

"In the rest of the country, residents are able to let out their homes for short periods."

Fourteen years ago, when I rented out a room to a long distance commuting colleague for a few months, I found out that I was allowed to make £5,000 a year in this way with no liability for tax on it. Is it a different set of rules for a B&B type arrangement via a third party organisation?

$17,000 Apple Watch: Pointless bling, right? HA! You're WRONG

frank ly

"Which might work in certain circles, ..."

The fact that you post coherent/cogent comments on here means that you're well outside those 'circles'. Tim however, he seems to get it. I'm sure it's because of professional study and analysis.

Mattel urged to scrap Wi-Fi mic Barbie after Register investigation

frank ly

Reducing development costs

"The SF upstart says it has its eyes on a larger prize: developing an accurate voice recognition system for children."

So, they targeted a group of children who are almost guarenteed to be all girls and get the voice samples for free instead of paying people to bring their children in to make recordings of conversations in controlled and guided situations.

Clinton defence of personal email server fails to placate critics

frank ly

When politicians fail

"I thought it would be easier to carry one device for my work and personal email account,"

Is she being disingenuous, or is she really so (technologically) dumb? I suppose she could blame the decision on one of her 'technical advisors'; she probably needs a small army of them.

SoftLayer doubles its bit barns in large, climatically-extreme, resource-rich nations

frank ly

Picture Competition: What's that Skippy? .......

(Please complete the query.)

Consumers beware! Ofcom's seen a scary new mobe nasty: APPS

frank ly
Windows

Re: Thank you so much

I've always thought it was important to patronise my local pub. Now I understand why they keep throwing me out.

Boffinry listicle MADNESS: ONE THING you need to know about CHAMELEONS

frank ly

The deeper you look

From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chameleon

"Some species, such as Smith's dwarf chameleon, adjust their colors for camouflage in accordance with the vision of the specific predator species (bird or snake) by which they are being threatened."

How do they do that??

Hurry up and just SLAP GOOGLE, MEPs fume at EU commish

frank ly

Re: Three years of hard state employee work for NOTHING? Roman Salute Now!

I'm not sure about "just" but I can understand the appeal. (The uniforms are usually stylish too).

Cyber-whizs partake in mass eye-roll event over latest leaks: CIA spies 'spying on iPhones'

frank ly

Who can you believe?

That's a rhetorical question.

MOOCROSOFT tosses seven proper tech courses online at edX

frank ly

"At $90, a Verified Certificate is ..."

I assume that the Certificate comes with another certificate to verify that it is authentic. Would that make it an Authenticated and Verified Certificate, or just a Certificated Certificate?

'Roly poly' soft, wobbly robot BANGS EXPLOSIVELY, leaps 0.5m in air

frank ly

Re: Where

Yes, if it's not on YouTube, it didn't happen. Wake me up when there's a video.

P.S. If that exhaust port is self sealing and flexible, it will also be a farting robot. Put it on YouTube!

Infiniband Association adds control freakery to Volume 1 spec

frank ly

Other possibilities?

“being able to query the cables – to find out whether they're passive copper or active fibre – ..."

What if they're active copper or passive fibre?

Can't pay $349 for an Apple Watch? Get a Chinese knockoff for less than $50

frank ly

The D-Watch is £34 on eBay

3-5 week delivery is estimated from China. I'll wait for the El Reg review. Hurry up please.

Apple slips out security patches while world goes gaga over watches

frank ly

It gets better - apparently

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/ios-82-iphone-update-installs-useless-apple-watch-ad-on-home-screens-10097151.html

Teen sex pic swap shop SnapChat seeks Saudi cash to keep selfies flowing

frank ly

The second picture

They thought they'd be getting some kind of cloaking device for their birds of prey.

Apple Watch: HOT WRIST ACTION plus slim $1299 MacBooks - and HBO TV

frank ly

"... Apple has no problem finding our phone number for off-the-record chats ..."

You weren't supposed to mention that!

Quantum computers have failed. So now for the science

frank ly

"... rather like stringy knots ....", "... the harmonics of stable and unstable atomic configuration shapes ..."

Did you nearly start talking about string theory?

Oi. APPLE fanboi! You with the $10k and pocket on fire! Fancy a WATCH?

frank ly
Headmaster

@PNGuinn Re: Solid golf neklace

Hello

Menopausal killer whales are wise old birds

frank ly

Trick-Cyclist <-> Psychiatrist

It's a lot easier to spell it.

frank ly

You signed up just to complain about the local 'culture'? That's sad. You'll never get a badge with that attitude.

NASA: Curiosity rover's BROKEN ARM doesn't SPELL DOOM for Mars mission

frank ly

Stay at home siblings

I'm sure that NASA builds exact replicas of Curiosity (etc) to keep on earth for examination and testing/diagnostic purposes. Do these get to trundle around in a suitable desert environment and drill into rocks to check wear rates and possible failure characteristics?

OK, they're not ROBOT BUTLERS, but Internet of Home 'Things' are getting smarter

frank ly

Re: This is just stupid

"... check that the light actually does go off."

That's what small children are for. If you don't have one, borrow one.

Give biometrics the FINGER: Horror tales from the ENCRYPT

frank ly

Vertical Thinking

"... and (3) gradually alters by itself naturally over a period of time?"

I immediately thought of a relatively short period of time and started having ideas about a suitable receptacle and testing/measuring device. However, I'm not sure if my ideas are suitable for this publication.

Will NASA's Dawn spot ALIEN LIFE on asteroid belt dwarf world Ceres?

frank ly

Power

"The Dawn spacecraft has used its three xenon-powered thrusters, ..."

The 'power' actually comes from a solar cell array that produces 1.3KW. (I'm just being picky here).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_%28spacecraft%29

Litecoin-mining code found in BitTorrent app, freeloaders hit the roof

frank ly

"Your humble hack was offered Skype ..."

So, Microsoft have some kind of arrangement with uTorrent?

Shove off, ugly folk, says site for people who love themselves

frank ly

Just wondering

"The UK was the county with the second most members expelled ..."

Which country had the most members expelled? Does this indicate wishful vanity or a robust sense of humour?

Massive gravitational lens flare unveils EINSTEIN CROSS SUPERNOVA

frank ly

Space ...Time ... Looking back

“this deceleration took place around where this supernova is located.”

Should that be "... around _when_ this supernova is being observed" ?