Posts by James Hughes 1
1487 posts • joined Friday 12th June 2009 07:50 GMT
Seems to me
that the liberator designer is too stuck in the rut of gun design. Why make a gun look like a gun, why not make something that still uses a bullet* and firing pin, but that is designed to be made, much more solidly, in a 3D printer.
Whichever, as the tech and the designs improves (and they both will, that's the way of the world), this probably will become a problem, even if it isn't at the moment.
*Yes, you still need a bullet. But for how long?
Re: Paraglider and helicopters @<ike Richards
Rotary Rocket used a helicopter approach, and Armadillo Aerospace are using paragliders to return the STIG to the launch site.
What goes around comes around.
Re: wasting money
The Raspi Foundation has always said from a pure power point of view, clusters of Pi's do not make sense.
However, they do make sense as a teaching tool. As this student has so helpfully shown.
Re: London centric obsessing
What he said.
Re: EC1 ~ £600pd, E1 ~ £??? @Buzzword
Actually, there is such a thing as a lack or skilled workers. You pay more, then a skilled worker moves to your place. But he leaves a gap where he left, which needs to be filed with another skilled worker.
If there are fewer skilled workers than jobs, the amount paid is irrelevant to making up that shortfall in the short or medium term.
The SD card corruption is actually quite rare - I've never seen it in many months of overclocking. It is being looked in to though, as it's is definitely there. It may be power or interference related.
Re: It might be interrested once the main processor is usable
No, not really. The GPU runs at 250Mhzx, and is a twin core 16 way vector/scaler unit (not a DSP). It's not hugely faster, and is ONLY faster when you can SIMD your code. Which is not easy in itself, and harder since it's all done in assembler.
The realtime OS on the GPU is threadx btw.
Opening it up wouldn't get the benefits many seem to think it would. There would be some, but not much for the majority of users.
Re: Norwich University?
UEA has never been known as Norwich University. Ever.
It's just happens to be in Norwich, which is quite a nice city for those who've never been there (i.e. most people who are detrimental about it)
(Biased UEA Grad)
Re: @druck (was: Question.) @Jake
@Jake. Try looking stuff up. Then try and achieve what HH has done (and is still doing). Amadeus would be a good starting point.
Re: Google and vocal chords
Er, what has your post got to do with the fact the LP has a medical problem with his voice box which explains why he has been unable to make many long speeches recently?
Or are you using someone's medical misfortune to make some unrelated point?
Here's my unrelated point. If you don't like Google's business practice, don't use them. Will no-one think of the mosquitoes?
Re: I'm not sure what the point it. @Ian Johnston
If it's all so well known, where is the documentation on the last *car* that did 1000mph so they can refer back to it? Would save a lot of time.
Or how about a comparison with normal cars? The material science and systems have been well known about for years on those, and yet, every year, we get improved models.
Twat.
I would bet a considerable sum that if you had a medical problem, and a shit load of cash, you also would spend it on your medical problem. You should judge people by your own standards, not some arbitrary moral standpoint you would not adhere to yourself.
Re: OK, so that's my next phone sorted then
Not going to happen in the near future - the 41MP sensor is too big for the current crop of SoC/GPU's/ISP's that run Windows. I'm biased, but I think the only GPU that supports a sensor this big is the Videocore4 (808 Pureview, RaspberryPi), and that doesn't support Windows.
Re: and now over to Eadon...
Looks like Eadon downvoted you thirteen times...
Posted in Review: Samsung Galaxy S4
Re: Skateboard requires 2 hands to operate
What make you think you need two hands to use this as a phone? It's not so big you need two hand to lift it to your ear for example. Or two hands to type in a number (unless you have really small pixie hands - Beedle sized for example). Or you could use a BT headset and voice recognition if you are really desperate enough to need to phone someone whilst cycling along.
Re: How to make Windows 8 look good. @AC
Piss off tarring everyone with the same brush. I get it. YOU don't like Unity. But, and this is where you might have to actually listen to what others say and get a fucking clue, a lot of people DO LIKE Unity. However, they don't feel the need to fling out (derogatory) comments every time Canonical make an announcement.
I use Unity every single day, and yes, there are some rough edges (but a lot less than when it first came out), but I can do EVERYTHING I need to do on the machine with it. Browse, email, dev work. EVERYTHING. It doesn't get in the way, it's easy to use, and it's pretty damn stable. My 7 years old gets on fine with it, as does my 11 year old. Compared with my experiences on Vista and to a lesser extent Windows 7, and it's been a delight.
Cost of 'spinning up a commercial version'
Probably $500-750k. But why do they need a commercial version? Are there features missing? Do they want the radio built in?
(Note, the Raspi CPU is a Broadcom SoC)
Re: Hmmmm
A bit sweary, but I think I agree...
Musk...
I have few people who I look up to (I'm not a hero/celebrity worshipper), but Musk is one of the few (only?). He really does seem to have a knack for this sort of thing.
I don't get the this Landfill Android meme
The implication is that these devices are pretty much worthless and should be consigned to landfill.
But they are not worthless - they work fine, and most people are entirely uninterested in S/W upgrades etc, so will continue to use these cheap and cheerful devices just as long as they would use any other cheap and cheerful device - irrespective of whether they run Android.
You may as well use the phrase "Landfill phone that isn't a top of the range smartphone". It's nothing to do with Android.
Re: Yawn....
Yes, I would count 1% of desktop a success. That's a hell of a lot of desktops.
(It's a success on most of the desktops I use certainly).
Surprising...
...the hatred that Glass seems to have engendered (Bad here, much much worst on Slashdot). Most upsetting are the number of people who seem to be willing to punch the first person they see wearing them in the face.
Now where I come from, if you are in a public place, using a camera is perfectly legal at any time. Whereas punching people in the face without provocation is most certainly not.
I can only assume these people are quite happy to say they will do these things, but actually bothering to leave the parents basement probably means they won't be able to.
That notwithstanding, this is prototype tech, and quite interesting tech at that. I have a feeling it may well become mainstream - there certainly seem to be a lot of possible applications it could be put to, some mentioned above. Battery life is the killer, esp. when using camera as those really soak up the juice, but I think its going to be an interesting couple of years for Glass.
Re: This is journalism?
Agreed. I started reading the article and immediately thought it was an advert.
I did read the whole article, to make sure, and it still read like an advert.
Re: "head of software design"
@Dan 55. But its his job to say 'make it so'. He doesn't need to know about API's, scheduling, or any software at all. He designs, software monkeys code. It's the monkeys who need to know about API's, and if necessary tell him what he wants isn't possible,. Then implement it anyway.
In many ways designers should NOT know about the underlying tech, as it will pollute the design process. It's their job to design, not implement.
Re: ah, schoolday 'pranks'
Oooo, I forgot the compo ration trick. Get a tin of sugar, drill/punch a hole in the top. Insert banger. Light banger, Retire to safe distance. No explosion but my god it makes a loud noise, and the tin ends up a funny shape. Some guy did that on a CCF weekend I was on (sorry Lake Windemere), teacher wandered over wondering what the noise was. Wasn't that bothered in the end since nobody was maimed.
Re: @Simon Ward
Still laughing - bunch of Korean's in office around me must wonder what the hell is going on.
Bungle's finger, measureable gravitational field...snigger....
@Badvok.
At no point did Lewis say bleach was harmless. But then, neither is crossing the road, or climbing trees, or driving a car, or owning a gun (well, it is America), or boxing, or flying, or running, or...well, I could go on.
In this particular case, if care is taken, then the experiment is almost certainly harmless. Just like all the examples in my previous sentence.
Re: That Ass. Principal
Argghhh.
Re: Engadget noticed too
Actually I think we hit peak Reg about a year ago, quality of articles has noticeable declined since about then, although there are occasionally some decent ones. Seems the journo's are now more interested in catchy headlines, and continual puns in the text rather than, you know, actual decent and accurate writing.
Re: Keep current or become unemployable
All very well, but when do you update your skill set? I'm at the older end of things, and my main problem is not having time to learn anything new. Works is busy, home is busy.
Re: We'll soon see...
@Elmer Phud
Are you a recent arrival on Earth?
Re: Yay!
I have just got to assume that NomNomNom is taking the piss.
If not, WoeWoeWoe.
Re: Kids should NOT be allowed.
@Martin Budden.
With regard to the comment on the 3 people killed and 3 injured by the rocket engine test accident, I hardly think an accident on a test bed on the ground with a prototype engine which has since been tested many many times quite safely is a valid point. Especially since I think the accident was unrelated to the actual engine..
"On 26 July 2007, during the early rocket testing phase, an explosion occurred during a propellant flow test at the Mojave Air and Space Port. The test included filling the oxidizer tank with 4,500 kg (10,000 pounds) of nitrous oxide, followed by a 15-second cold flow injector test. Although the tests did not ignite the gas, three employees were killed and three injured, two critically and one seriously, by flying shrapnel.[9]"
Re: Sending kids?
Branson is the 4th richest guy in the UK with a net worth of over $4B. I hardly think he's worried about the waste. And what do you get your children as a gift when they are in their late 20's? I don't think a happy meal is going to cover it, and I'm pretty sure they already have enough ponies.
First COMMERCIAL FLIGHT. Not first full scale flight. It will already have been in to Space quite a few times, so its going to be pretty thoroughly tested by the start of the commercial program.
Although I wouldn't put all my eggs in one basket. Some people even split their family between aircraft when flying abroad.
Re: I'm not all that excited about this one
Hmmm, I think this is certainly interesting although SpaceX is more interesting. This has lots of future interest once the money starts coming in. It also gets the general public a bit more enthused about Spaceflight - SpaceX is still a minority interest to most, whereas with Virgin behind it, this stuff is always in the news.
Re: Powerglove
@Don Jefe.
You've made Google's point with "They're a pain in the arse". With glass, they are NOT a PITA.
I can see a multitude of useful stuff you could do with these. Not just identifying JimmyBigCock, although I've never had problems being recognised before. Your argument is a bit like saying cars are shit because I can't drive to to the top of Mount Everest.
Branson's Children
Since they are in their late 20's early 30's I guess they can probably make the decision for themselves... was finding out their ages too much effort for the commentards above?
Blimey
Eadon's on a role on this topic. Same old, same old though. It appears the needle is stuck.
Posted in Review: Nokia Lumia 520
Re: Well I have owned one
I have no idea why your post got any downvotes at all. Purely your experience and sensible commentary, and yet somehow some moronic commentwat has time to spend downvoting it.
I despair.
Re: Another Way to Push Out Possible Customers
@Armando 123
Just bought the wife a Kia Soul - she loves it, and with 6.5years left of the guarantee, and 3 years free servicing so do I. I'm going to save a lot of garage time. Drives OK (Not race car handling of course - and yes, I have raced cars), full featured, looks funky. Pleased so far.
I like Unity
There, I've said it. I use it at home and work for dev stuff and it's absolutely fine. Once you get the hang of it there is no real difference between it and any other desktop, just a different usage model. Never had any performance issues, and one things I really like is that it get better with every release.
So there you go. I'd like to thank Canonical for actually trying to shake things up a bit, and, for my purposes, succeeding.
@Me !
Sorry, I said Mali 400 there (was thinking of Cubie) - It should be SGX530 I think. Which means no decent 3D or, I think, video encode/decode (it's a 7 year old part). It's about 1.6GFLops 3D (according to WIkipedia), whereas the Pi is over 15GFlops IIRC.
Re: Crikey...
What?! On an article about the Raspberry PI, Beaglebone and Arduino? Really? Who would have thought it!
Re: Ahh @MrMur
Perfectly possible to do dev work on the Pi itself, esp. teaching. Scratch works pretty well, as does Python (and C etc). You wouldn't use it for main line dev work, but then, you probably have a desktop if you work in that area anyway. I use a Ubuntu desktop and cross compile to the Raspi, simply because I have the ability to do so. The work could just as well be done on the Raspi itself, just slower.
I believe it has uHDMI out. The Mali 400 isn't too bad - not quite as good as the VC4 on the Raspi in some areas though.
Re: Headline misses
Upvote on the Full Linux thing- the article is wrong - it's not a cut down version - it's a full version. In fact, I'm not even sure what a cut down version of Linux would be, or if it even exists. As to speed - well, that's in the eye of the beholder. Quite a bit of the slow speed stuff has some interesting improvements in the pipeline...
This BB looks pretty good. As I said elsewhere, they must be selling close to break even at those prices - 5 chips on board compared to the Raspi's two must almost fill the $10 gap. TI might even be putting this out as a loss leader. I'd be surprised if the price stays this low.
Re: They would be silly to do so.
Yes, I do think it was an accident. Irrespective of the of the level of the fine.
Re: It runs Android?
Hmm, well, it's entirely possible that it was running plain old Linux, meaning less overhead running the Android layers, and hence requiring a less powerful CPU.
But hey ho, looks like its Android.
Posted in Review: NetAtmo Urban Weather Station
Re: Toytown
Did he explain why it's a waste of money, I'd be interested to know.
