* Posts by frank ly

6077 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2009

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! Friday is Pi Day

frank ly
Pint

I prefer to celebrate Pie day.

I decide when Pie day is. (As often as possible.)

(beer: goes well with Pie, or pasties.)

Not sure if you're STILL running Windows XP? AmIRunningXP.com to the rescue!

frank ly

Why ...

... did Kristina Libby have to register this domain herself, at GoDaddy? Why didn't the mighty Microsoft corporate machine take care of that for her? Is it also hosted by GoDaddy?

Reporters without Borders confirms, yes, lots of nations are spying on their citizens

frank ly

Re: Am I getting tired?

" After all, government already does spy in the real world: That's what the police is for, traditionally."

No. Traditionally and currently, the police are for upholding the law and protecting citizens from criminals. (The cynical among you might start laughing at this point.) Government spying is a totaly different function and a different organisation.

Battery vendors push ultracapacitor wrappers to give Li-ions more bite

frank ly

Ifs

If the ultracapacitor has enough energy storage capability and can respond well to transient charge/discharge, this could also be useful for storing large charging surges that the Li-ion would be incapable of accepting efficiently. (e.g regenerative braking surges, etc?). Despite this apparent advanatge, it doesn't seem to make sense to integrate the ultracapacitor, with monitoring and control electronics, as part of the battery housing, unless you're very sure you have a mass-market application which is well understood and for which the control electronics, ultracapacitor size and battery capacity have been 'tuned'.

Nipper rolls up at nursery with 48 wraps of HEROIN

frank ly
Facepalm

Re: No Tommy...

But I thought you said DIAMORPHINE power rangers

Parliament network prang: 'Supplier done it', no Office 365 yet

frank ly

Huh?

"... freezing or slowing down of your web browsing, video via the web ..."

What is your reaction to our employees/servants browsing the web and watching videos in their place of work?

It's BANKS v TELCOs: Mobe payments systems go head-to-head

frank ly

So, on the balance of trust ....

,,,, do you entrust a mobile phone company with your money, or do you entrust a bank with your mobile phone number (which they'll probably pass on to their offshored reconciliation and telesales division)?

Finally! Some actual, novel tech: Apple patent to revive geriatric gear

frank ly

But, but ....

Who will look after the ADC to make sure it isn't getting old and cranky and taking bad measurements and making bad decisions?

Top UK e-commerce sites fail to protect 'password' password-havers from selves

frank ly

Re: security education

My password used to be "password", but after the security awareness campaigns I've changed it to "1StrongPassword".

ICO issues guidelines on #FOI #requests through Twitter, Facebook

frank ly

Are Facebook and Twitter 'serious' channels?

Isn't this like making a FOI request by sticking a PostIt note onto the notices board outside the town hall? (Choose your own equivalent analogy.)

LOHAN chap hooks up with busty stratominx in cosmic pleasure cruise

frank ly

It was all good fun but ....

... the project needs a theme song or 'anthem'. Can aynone compose/sing one and record it on You Tube (or similar)? I suggest the El Reg board set up a competition and publish the links to competing entries in about a month's time, then we can vote on them.

Can you smell bacon? Yes! And it's coming from your iPhone!

frank ly

" ... that is a beard and an a mouth ..."

Thank you for saying that.

China to blow away smog with DRONES

frank ly

Amazing

They have over a hundred years of freely available Western industrial and economic history to study, to see what can go wrong - but they do exactly the same thing, even worse than we did.

I NEVER DONE BITCOIN, says bloke fingered by new Newsweek

frank ly

This is interesting

" ... the creator of Bitcoin – whoever he or she is – has by public record amassed a $400m stash in the virtual currency ..."

Is this because the visible structure of the data shows an origin point and an associated amount before a new 'mining' operation started? Additionaly, does it also show that the first amount of Bitcoins were never transfered to a different wallet? Does this have implications for anonymity if enough computing power is applied to analysis of the Bitcoin 'ecosystem'?

Care Bears... share: NHS England promises to heal careless data-sharing plans

frank ly

Re: National Service Award

I have a feeling that you actually live in Colorado. If so, I would like to visit at Easter.

Winklevoss twins say their Bitcoins will take them to SPAAAAACE

frank ly

Symmetry

The photographer should have got that light fitting directly above Branson's head. Maybe rearrange the furniture as well .....etc.

Japanese space boffins set to map the world in 3D

frank ly

Acronyms

It's neat that they used PRISM as an acronym for something involving 'panchromatic'. It also 'spies' on the world, just like a recently revealed PRISM project.

Very fabric of space-time RIPPED apart in latest Hubble pic

frank ly

Space is BIG ...

... and it's absolutely amazing!

BT's IPv6 EXPIRED security certificate left to rot on its website

frank ly

" ... failed to spot ..."

Somebody should introduce them to 'calendar apps' and 'event alarms'.

Chillax, cranky commentards: Anger can KILL YOU

frank ly

Isn't it even worse for you ....

...if you keep your anger bottled up inside?

Dark matter killed the dinosaurs, boffins suggest

frank ly

If Sol is orbiting the galactic core ....

... isn't the other matter (dark and normal) orbiting at the same angular velocity?

HTML is a sexually transmitted disease, say many Americans

frank ly

USB was thought to be shorthand for a European country

United States Bailiwick - obviously.

Triple-headed NHS privacy scare after hospital data reach marketers, Google

frank ly

Placing the patient at the centre of healthcare

It's actually "Placing the patient at the centre of the feeding trough."

Microsoft to get in XP users' faces with one last warning

frank ly

Re: so... friends and relatives...

I installed Linux (Mint 13 LTS) last May as dual boot with Win7 and spent 3-4 weeks getting used to it. After that, I used Win7 less and less and then got rid of it by fitting my laptop with a shiny new 60GB SSD and Linux Mint. I never looked back since then. I also put the same Linux on my old desktop, old laptop and old netbook. There is a learning curve and a swearing curve but I'd recommend it.

Before you try it, read the Linux Mint forums and other forums to get an idea of the problems that people have and how they work around them.

UK.gov back-office battle may see British Justice offshored

frank ly
Thumb Up

Re: Utterly fantastic

Nice use of the true meaning of the word.

Japanese boffins build 'earring PC' for hands-free computing

frank ly

Potential Problem

" A built-in accelerometer could then detect if the user falls over ..."

What if BBC Radio 2 starts playing some metal and the wearer starts 'headbanging' around the room?

Frenchman eyes ocean domination with floating, mobile Bond villain lair

frank ly

Anthropomorphism

I see an elongated face with glaring eyes, a shouty mouth and sticky-out ears. The shoulder pads and tutu suggest a flamboyant and deranged personality. I don't want to talk about the rest of it.

Australian bureaucrats to journalist: 'Give us back our bits'

frank ly

Would it be acceptable ....

... if the documents were returned as an email attachment; or would they require hard copy printouts via the postal service?

Your CIO is now a venture capitalist and you work at their startup

frank ly

Re: self-serve checkouts example?

Is it wrong of me to start giggling when it says, "Please wait; the assistant is coming." ?

Winklevoss Twins' Bitcoin index provokes angry wails from rival

frank ly

Re: Since when

The MP3 compression algorithm is just a mathematical formula but is patented and a licence is needed to encode audio to MP3. The argument is that a lot of work went into inital studies and testing to find a suitable set of weighting factors to give a balance between compression ratio, ease of operation and fidelity. The MP3 encoding technique (and just about all codecs) is based on decades old mathematical research that is free for everyone to use (the formulae), but you'd better not copy the mix of methods and the internal weighting factors of a well known one, or you will be sued.

It sounds like the Twinkle Twins have copied the basic technique (time varying, multi dimensional weighted averages, whatever...) and I'm sure they did a lot of original work and much testing before they hit upon their own unique weighting parameters.

Samsung and Apple BEWARE: Huawei is coming to eat your lunch

frank ly

Just wondering ...

How do you mould or machine BMG to sub-micron precision unless you have the moulds or cutting tools which have sub-micron precision and stability in use? It seems like a 'chicken and egg' situation.

China's web giants unite to defuse Windows XP bombshell

frank ly

Just wondering ...

" ...the Chinese government has tried to intervene by persuading Redmond to continue support for the legacy OS."

Did they intervene, in any useful way, to prevent the use of pirated XP installations?

(I am not a Windows fanboi and I do know how easy it was/is to clone an XP installation or get a key.)

LinkedIn censors self to launch in China

frank ly

Re: Oh great

Or many more than twice the number of notifications of a conference on urban renewal in Beijing. You may know these conference speakers.

Battle of Bletchley Park: TNMOC chief calls for review of museums' Mexican standoff

frank ly
Mushroom

"... chaired by ex-MI6 chief (or "C") Sir John Scarlett "

The review will find that TNMOC has produced weapons of mass destruction which are capable of reaching the Bletchley Park Trust. As such, there will be no choice but to send in troops to shut down TNMOC.

Nokia launches Android range: X marks the growing low-cost spot

frank ly

... the new, less patronising way of saying "emerging markets"

.. which used to be the less patronising way of saying "all those (relatively) poor people".

Climate change will 'cause huge increase in murder, robbery and rape'

frank ly

@dogged Re: Time to get the calculator out

It's not nice but it's not as bad as being murdererfied.

Something rotten stalks the Cloud Kingdom

frank ly

I was hoping that a dragon would appear

I'll read any further story development, just in case.

Sanity now: Gnome 3.12 looking sensible - at least in beta

frank ly

It doesn't matter, dammit.

I've been a Linux-at-home user for 9 months now and it was a stressful time for two weeks (serious swearing) then a bit stressful (mild swearing) for two weeks; then it was fine. I used MS-DOS then Windows for 25 years and I haven't touched Windows since last November; I don't have it anymore except on the old spinning rust disk in a bag in my desk drawer. (SSD all the way now). I've tried MATE and Cinnamon and XFCE and a couple of weird lightweight ones and I've settled on MATE. Whatever you choose will work for you, because that's the reason you choose it - duh.

I don't startup my newish laptop, or desktop, or netbook, or 8 year old laptop (yes, it's great, with PATA SSD) so that I can admire MATE's system panel or the way it presents notifications. I startup my computer so I can run a browser, or an e-mail client or GIMP or splice audio files or play some music. I did spend some time setting up my pop-out panels and loading them with drawers and the drawers with apps and folder locations etc. - but then I started using my computer to do work. (Also, the great thing is that I can migrate/clone my MATE desktop environment over to another computer).

As for the Windows fanbois talking about 'fragmentation'; it's 'choice' and it's free :) I install Thunderbird or the latest GIMP from the same source whatever DE is used. If for some strange reason, I want to try Cinnamon again (I didn't like it), I can load it up and start in Cinnamon (Linix startup gives you that choice at a button click) and it still runs the same installed programs.

Magnets to stick stuff to tablets: Yup, there's an Apple patent application for that

frank ly

My favourite was the new paint for the high speed trains in the UK wich was advertised as bonding to the metal by 'quantum forces'. (At a stretch, it could have been Van Der Waals forces.)

frank ly

"augment the functionality of usefulness"

How much training do you need (or what do you drink) to come up with phrases like that?

Facebook pays $19bn for WhatsApp. Yep. $45 for YOUR phone book

frank ly

empty Contacts in my phone

I don't use the Contacts functionality on my Android phone, since I know they will be sniffed and copied by Google and many other apps on there. Many apps need permission to access your contacts in order to work - god alone (and the developers) know why. I use ColorNote which has the ability to recognise a phone number in a Note and highlight it and push it into the dialer for you. Interestingly, Evernote used to have that capability, but it was removed with an update about a year ago.

How do I know that Colornote won't sniff the phone numbers in my Notes? I don't, but at least it's only one organisation to trust, instead of many.

Google gives Maps a lick of paint, smears it over screens worldwide

frank ly

I remember the last time

They changed the UK motorways from blue (standard colour code on UK maps) to orange. They also messed up my ability to store offline maps on my device, so I had to have a data connection to even see a map. I very much doubt that they will improve it in any way.

Mathematicians spark debate with 13 GB proof for Erdős problem

frank ly

Proof by induction

This is effectively 'proof by induction', where you say (sort of): if it's true for this, it must be true for that, and I've just shown it for this, so it must be true for all that. It works if you dig deeper into it. Proof by induction can get messy because you have to show (sometimes laboriously) that it is true for a certain case or cases.

IBM, AT&T ink global Internet of Things tie-up

frank ly

...is pitched as having “privacy in mind”

Oh yes, we thought about it.

Fine, you can mock us: NSA spies back down in T-shirt ridicule brouhaha

frank ly

"... and reaping donations to the cause via PayPal"

I wonder if they tried leaning on PayPal to freeze his account I also wonder if they accessed the PayPal database to find out who had been making donations

Robots demanding equal API rights? It's just a matter of time

frank ly

Re: no, just no

The lifts will all sulk in the basment.

Tata says USA rejecting HALF of Indians' work visa requests

frank ly

Re: Damn americans, staying over there, working their own jobs

Yes but .... the workers they hire locally and pay locally, don't buy goods and services from Tata Consulting Services. Also, you raise the issue of 'long term sense' .......... TCS would be concerned with short and medium term costs and profits.

Samsung flings sueball at Dyson for 'intolerable' IP copycat claim

frank ly

The picture ..

When I saw that, I thought it was a picture of Dyson's range of vacuum cleaners. I wonder where Samsung got the idea to make a vacuum cleaner look like that. Or maybe it's obvious and form follows from function :)

London calling: Date set for launch of capital's very own domain name

frank ly
Coat

Re: dangleway.london

How about .... yahoo!.london ?

Who wants to start a Kickstarter for a more secure Kickstarter? Account data hacked

frank ly

But,

"... Kickstarter retains the last four digits of non-US credit cards .."

So they are involved? Or do Amazon pass this data back to Kickstarter?