* Posts by Peter Simpson 1

1443 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2009

50 years in SPAAAAACE: Telstar celebrates half-century since launch

Peter Simpson 1
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There's a Telstar High School

In Bethel, Maine.

I went on a field trip to the Telstar ground station in Andover, Maine as a kid. Last year, on a hike in the hills nearby, I saw clearly why the site had been chosen. The station itself (yes, it's still there) is in the center of a natural bowl, a valley, surrounded by woodland and a ring of hills.

My dad found the Higgs boson! Reminiscences of a CERN kid

Peter Simpson 1
Happy

Why isn't Lucy working for the Special Projects Bureau?

She'd have LOHAN sorted in a few minutes...or be able to phone someone who could!

Anyway, thanks for a great story, Lucy. Some kids have more interesting childhoods than others, I guess!

RBS collapse details revealed: Arrow points to defective part

Peter Simpson 1

Re: Sort of...

Getting rid of staff who have a vested interest in getting it right, and replacing them with outsourced staff in a foreign country, who have no proprietary interest in the organization to which they are contracted *might* be part of the problem here.

Stonehenge WASN'T built by ALIENS - Boffins' shock claim

Peter Simpson 1

Re: Not calculate!!!

Well, they tried doing it with a simple stick, but Zog kept knocking it over, so they decided to use some stones big enough not to be knocked over by even the most clumsy villager...

Vatican subtly shifts its position on The Blues Brothers

Peter Simpson 1

Re: No digital tech?

Elwood: Man, I haven't been pulled over in six months. I bet those cops have got "SCMODS".

Jake: "SCMODS?"

Elwood: "State County Municipal Offender Data System."

Peter Simpson 1

Re: I always thought they would like the Nazis in it

I *hate* Illinois nazis!

FCC: Let's kill analogue early, fob diehards off with converter boxes

Peter Simpson 1
FAIL

I made my digital transition in January of this year.

Returned my cable box and cancelled the service. Apple TV, online video rental and High Speed Internet service give more value for money. There was nothing on cable anymore that justified $70/month (same price as internet?)

Bill Gates' used car sells for $80,000

Peter Simpson 1
Happy

Re: no5

Porsche is just a tarted-up VW Beetle anyways...buy a Karmann Ghia and save!

Police called after Romney's email and Dropbox accounts cracked

Peter Simpson 1
Pirate

Re: Really?

"...help moving some unclaimed funds in a Massachusetts bank account..."

No help needed, the Commonwealth is quite capable of moving your funds themselves.

On the news this morning they are saying the concrete paving (estimated lifetime: 30 years) in the Big Dig is now failing and will need to be re-done. This translates to much excitement in the tunnels leading to the airport for the next 2 years...

(They're really quite rigorous about publishing lists and holding funds until you or your heirs claim them...apparently there's no time limit)

//MA resident, didn't/won't vote for Romney

Transit of Venus, live-ish from Australia

Peter Simpson 1
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Re: Sonoma, CA reporting in ... No need for tech when it comes to this kind of thing.

"I wonder if I can convince her to allow me to grind a 20" mirror ..."

Only one way to find out, mate!

I recently built a D=102mm F=1525mm refractor from a surplus objective achromat I bought online. When I got it finished, I called my wife out to see Saturn and its rings. She later said to me, "I can't believe you built a telescope that let me see Saturn's rings!"

Sometimes being a nerd is fun.

WTF is... Li-Fi?

Peter Simpson 1
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IrDA failed because

it was slow as molasses.

Worked with some guys who had tried this (data network over LED) in the early 90s. The worked at it for a good while but never managed to get it working. reliably or at speed. It's that pesky box in the diagram labeled "Signal Processing"...too much multipath, too many nanoseconds and picofarads to get a decent data rate. Not to mention all the optical interference.

Mars rover Opportunity spots WALL-E in crater ramble

Peter Simpson 1
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Re: Very proud

"Made in the USA"

By Real Engineers. Designed to last a month or two, and still going strong. Now, *that* is good design, no matter what nationality.

Zuck weds self to lady friend in surprise ceremony

Peter Simpson 1

Why

...do they have a wire with lights on it going through their heads? Is this some new kind of Facebook thing?

Virgin straps on phone masts for the flying upper classes

Peter Simpson 1
Stop

Re: So this means...

Probably. Except during that extremely tricky phase of the flight, where the pilot is trying to avoid other planes, line up with the glideslope while fighting the up-, down- and side-drafts and gently ease the aircraft onto the runway, thereby saving you all from a nasty death.

I'll be turning all my stuff off as requested. No sense in tempting fate.

Peter Simpson 1
FAIL

I was recently on a plane that still had those seat-back phones with the credit card slot. IIRC, the cost was in the high units of dollars ($5<cost<$10) per minute. Pretty much like international roaming rates. I never (well, maybe once) saw them being used either.

I wonder if the company that installed all those handets on all those planes even broke even? My guess would be "no".

Grab your L-plates, flying cars of sci-fi dreams have landed

Peter Simpson 1
Mushroom

Re: his engineers have found batteries that could power a flight for 100km (62 miles).

Attached to a Mr. Fusion...

Peter Simpson 1
Happy

Re: Parking on a skyscraper

You just push a button and it folds up into an attache case.

Java jury finds Google guilty of infringement: Now what?

Peter Simpson 1
FAIL

Other shoe...

"The jury found Google to be unequivocally guilty of copyright infringement on the major charge, copying the "overall structure, sequence and organization" of Java for its mobile operating system Android. "

That's a true statement. However, the judge instructed the jury to assume that the APIs were copyrightable. The judge is going to rule on whether or not this is actually the case at a later time.

So, Google is guilty of copying the API, they never denied that. And the EU courts just decided that APIs are not copyrightable. So, the judge has yet to drop that other shoe...whether APIs are copyrightable in the US.

MSFT kicks Chinese partner over security leak

Peter Simpson 1
WTF?

Gratuitous Capitalization

I read somewhere that it's a sign all is not well in the head department.

Chair-tossing Steve flings surfer Steve onto Microsoft board

Peter Simpson 1

How long will he last?

Before he "Leaves to pursue other business interests" and SteveB "Wishes him success in his future endeavours"?

Praise for slick six's entries in dirty snaps compo

Peter Simpson 1
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Well done!

Real computers have switches and lights.

Swedish men ordered to present cervices in database flub

Peter Simpson 1
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Our Motor Vehicle Dept changed my gender

I went to renew my driver's license. When I got home, I noticed that they'd changed me to an "F". Mustache and all. It's one of those data fields you wouldn't think would be changeable...but you'd be wrong. When I next renewed the license, I said nothing, to see if the would notice. Nope.

The third time, I mentioned it. I was a bit nervous that I might (as advised in the renewal notice) be required to show proof before they would make the change. Thankfully for all concerned, that wasn't required.

I should mention, that I had several encounters with the police during the years I was driving with an "F" license (during at least one of these encounters, the license was "run" through the computer). Nothing was said about it, and I didn't get ticketed, either!

Still have the license in a drawer somewhere...

Basic instinct: how we used to code

Peter Simpson 1

BASIC...we could only DREAM of BASIC!

*I* learned FOCAL.

Digital's language for beginners: (C)FOCAL-1968

Teletype, paper tape, time-shared PDP-8 (or so I was told at the time).

And we were grateful for it.

Chinese web tat bazaar takes profit hit, 'invests in quality'

Peter Simpson 1
FAIL

I gave Alibaba a try

Figured I should give it a chance. I was looking for a cheap power transformer, the kind you find as part of a small DC power supply, 24 watts or so. In my query, I provided fairly detailed electrical and mechanical specifications.

What I got back was basically junk. Lots of spam from Alibaba itself, spam from freight forwarders, a couple of replies offering power transformers of the kind you find on concrete pads outside manufacturing plants...and one or two legitimate replies.

My conclusion? Far too much filtering required to find anything I need. And the communication barrier, of course. Bare minimum (and sometimes, not even that!) product information. Formulaic responses, repeated verbatim in response to my follow-up emails. English comprehension minimal (well, it *is* China, after all), but you'd expect better given that they were advertising their product in English.

Teens break up with Facebook

Peter Simpson 1
FAIL

Re: You've nailed it!

My objections (aside from lack of granular control over who gets to see which of my posts) are the "just for you" ads that appear on the right side, for things I would not, in my wildest dreams, be interested in.

//most annoying is "Free Pictures of Girls!"

//always there, can't get rid of it

Big Four US carriers vow to switch off stolen smartphones

Peter Simpson 1
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Apple already does this

My daughter left her iPhone 3 in a cab. Of course, the driver didn't bother to turn it in. She tracked it, sent a couple of texts to it with her work phone # and a request to call and arrange a return, then it was switched off.

So, she went to the Apple store, they happily wiped and locked it. Next day she gets a call about returning it. She ended up getting it back (with a new bumper case on it) and took it to the Apple store again, where they happily un-bricked it for her. She then restored her backed-up content and was on her way...until one of the buttons dies and she needed to get a new phone!

TITANIC 'UNLIKELY' TO SINK AGAIN, says prof - apparently

Peter Simpson 1
Unhappy

technical difference: liner vs cruise ship

At the end of it all, you're still drowned, though.

Eight... Rugged Cameras

Peter Simpson 1
Thumb Up

Canon S90/95/100

All are good choices if you can find one used. The 95 and 100 add video. I have the 90 and paid US$400 for it. You can probably find it for half that now, and it would be a very good choice. Takes excellent low light shots and has good resolution. Very flexible settings including all-manual and will automatically take a 3-shot HDR sequence at user set exposure increments.

//not water/shock/bite proof, I'm afraid

United Nations gifts NORTH KOREA with tech worth $50k

Peter Simpson 1
Mushroom

Umm...

Aren't the Norks international pariahs? As in, nobody in the Free World is supposed to be dealing with them? They ignore all international standards of behavior, so what on earth makes the WIPO folks think that they will respect others' intellectual property?

//of course, the patents on missiles and spacecraft will probably come in handy

iPad app that lets mute kids speak menaced by patent lawsuit

Peter Simpson 1
Facepalm

Re: It's not about milking the parents of disabled kids.

"someone has infringed on the patent of someone else here."

In a fair world, "someone else" should have their patent invalidated for obviousness. I mean, honestly, a keyboard of symbols that get strung together to form a spoken sentence?

LOHAN demonstrates impressive sucking skills

Peter Simpson 1
Mushroom

Low pressure only until ignintion, right?

As the motor fires, the pressure in the (formerly) evacuated vessel will rapidly rise (from the gasses produced). So you're just testing that the motor will ignite in a low pressure environment.

Or do you plan to continue sucking the hot discharge?

Munich's mayor claims €4m savings from Linux switch

Peter Simpson 1
Flame

Re: hmm

"Then there arrives a point where a product is mature, and the R&D runs out of new features it can add because all features that are useful to 95% of users have already been added. MS Office reached this state probably around Office 2007, Open Office would have caught up with that around 2010* and from then on it's a no-brainer to get the free version instead of the paid one."

Completely agree. Very annoying, however, to be "upgraded" to Office 2010 at work (due to that old bugaboo, incompatible file formats), and to discover that the R&D team at Microsoft, while looking hard for something to justify their continued existence, has decided it would be a Good Idea to completely change the UI. This does not make my life easier, and does not endear the R&D team to me. They are now First Against the Wall When the Revolution Comes.

Peter Simpson 1

PDF manipulation

PDF X-Change works well for me under XP. It's reported to also run under WINE, and that's on my list of experiments to try. I haven't found anything as good which is native Linux, though.

Amazon boss finds Apollo 11 engines on seabed

Peter Simpson 1
Linux

BillG personally came round and installed Windows on your machine?

No, but when the registration screen comes up, I always enter "Bill Gates" and "Microsoft Corporation"...

TSA bars security guru from perv scanner testimony

Peter Simpson 1
WTF?

Re: false security theatre

When my son went to Iraq...they x-rayed his (carry-on) weapon.

When he came back...they confiscated his bottle of water.

Giant kangaroos wiped out by humans, not climate change

Peter Simpson 1
Alert

Re: Cool story

"Won't the dingos die from eating cane toads?"

No, they'll become venomous dingoes!

//you clearly don't understand how Australia works....

Google cools data center with bathtubs, dishwashers

Peter Simpson 1
Mushroom

Re: Effluent temperature

From the diagram in TFA, it appears that the water used in cooling goes through a treatment process before discharge into the Hooch. Perhaps it cools off a bit during processing?

So, what IS the worst film ever made?

Peter Simpson 1
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Anything with the number 2 in the title

JAWS 2 for example

4G hobonet stunt was riddled with flaws, doomed to ridicule

Peter Simpson 1
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Not as cut and dried as it seems

Public Radio in the US had an interview last night with one of the homeless guys ("Dusty", IIRC) who had been part of this. He said that he and the other guys had volunteered for this and had a good time doing it, enjoyed meeting and talking with the people who used the hotspots.. He was well spoken and said he had only been homeless for a few months. They were proud to have been part of the experiment and to have made money for their shelter. After the recent financial unpleasantness in the US, "homeless" no longer equates to unwashed and mentally ill.

Pub landlady's footie sat-TV battle moves law's goal posts

Peter Simpson 1
Pirate

Everything?

The foreign decoder manufacturer had presumably paid for the right to decode the broadcast, no? Complete with logos, anthems, extras and commentary? Granted, they bought the rights to the broadcast for showing in Greece (or wherever she got the decoder from), but they did buy the rights to the *entire* broadcast, not just the action on the field.

Windows 8: Thrown into a multi-tasking mosh pit

Peter Simpson 1
FAIL

Tablet UIs on work PCs...

Bad Idea.

This is going to be the Microsoft Bob of the new century. Someone in Marketing has decided that the UI should be the same across platforms. Someone in Apple Marketing has seen what Someone in MS Marketing has done (or vice-versa) and someone in Canonical Marketing has decided likewise.

What they have all missed, is that people do not use a Desktop/Laptop the same way they do a tablet or a smartphone. And they never will. Desktops (which may look like laptops or tablets with an attached keyboard and mouse) will always exist, because they offer more than a tablet can: more storage, more ergonomics and more CPU horsepower. The use of a Tablet/Smartphone UI on a desktop is just plain silly. It doesn't make you more efficient, it makes you LESS efficient.

WTF is... White Space radio networking?

Peter Simpson 1
WTF?

White Space...WTF?

The term is used in the first three paragraphs before it is defined. Perhaps a bit of an overview would be a good idea?

I consider myself fairly up on technology, and in the US, "White Space" has been used as a term to describe the spectrum (700-800 MHz) vacated by the TV broadcasters when they switched over to digital and moved lower in the UHF TV band . The level of the article is fairly low (not all that techy) so your readers probably aren't up on the nuances of WTF "White Space" actually is. A bit more of a definition would be nice, before you start getting excited about all the networking you might be able to do there...

.

Human 4G masts assemble roaming hobonet for pennies

Peter Simpson 1
WTF?

An advertising agency has broken boundaries...

Actually, the first three words tell you all you need to know.

GPS jamming rife, could PARALYSE Blighty, say usual suspects

Peter Simpson 1
Pirate

Re: Re: Re: A British solution - Timing the bells

This is beginning to sound far too similar to the proposals made to the Longitude Board before Mr. Harrison invented his Marine Chronometer.

//Longitude -- great book!

Wang charged in inappropriate electricity socket use

Peter Simpson 1
Megaphone

Cleaning machines

You mean those industrial-size floor polishers that are all motor? Those things must use kilowatts of power. Hard to understand how a mobile charger could bring down a whole station when a cleaning machine doesn't affect it in the least.

(aren't the ticket machines on a different breaker than the cleaning outlets? One would certainly hope so)

More like the station management being d*cks about people using their outlets. And perhaps a small safety concern about people tripping over folks huddled by the outlets during rush hour, I guess.

//Megaphone for station manager

Satnav blunders blamed for £200m damages

Peter Simpson 1
Happy

"Recalculating...."

Pope's PR says Vatican in grip of WikiLeaks-style scandal

Peter Simpson 1
Flame

Turnabout

*is* fair play, in this case, certainly!

Peter Simpson 1
Mushroom

In the US

Dick Cheney's right here, planning more mischief, not stalking the corridors of the Vatican

N Korea mobile phone subscribers top 1 million

Peter Simpson 1
Holmes

they struggled to sell themselves as a fun, holiday destination

I can understand that. "fun holiday destination" and "North Korea" are two phrases not often seen in close association.