* Posts by Paul F

72 publicly visible posts • joined 10 May 2007

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F-35 'sovereign data gateway' will stop US reading pilots' personal data? Yeah right

Paul F

Hi - You appear to be out of missiles. Would you like to subscribe to Armed Forces Prime? For a mere $99 million (per plane) a year you can have free delivery on qualifying ordinance.

Don't you see these simple facts? Destroy Facebook and restore human Liberty

Paul F
Paris Hilton

Bottoms up

Well that's sorted then. I miss the FOTW, and wonder at its absence. Could it be that we have a better class of commentard these days, or is the staff too pissed to be bothered? Either way, I've wanted to rant at the distinguished Mr. O myself once or twice, but then I was too pissed to be bothered.

Another pint!

Fake Flash update malware targets gullible Apple users

Paul F

Mostly what we've seen in the wild is AdWare, which MalwareBytes for Mac takes care of very nicely. Plus people falling for the "your computer is infected!" variety of popup and calling the number.

Lots of naive people out there.

All eyes on the jailbroken as iOS, Mac OS X threat level ratchets up

Paul F

Re: Apple store hosting malware

That was principally in China, where dodgy developers were downloading poisoned copies of Xcode from pirate sites due to China's restrictive web policies.

So it was a people problem, not a systematic one: People who used pirated copies of poisoned software made poisoned software. Surprise!

Apple's iBackDoor: Dodgy ad network code menaces iOS apps

Paul F

So it's a people problem. Someone has to consciously decide to do things the wrong way.

People. What a bunch of bastards.

Ballmer's billion-dollar blunders: When he gambled Microsoft's money and lost

Paul F
Trollface

Isn't it past time to start including "beleaguered" in all headlines concerning Microsoft?

Microsoft WINDOWS 10: Seven ATE Nine. Or Eight did really

Paul F
Alert

Let's just call it Windows Future Space OS and be done with it already. Besides, naming things 10 is so Apple from 15 years ago.

iFixit boss: Apple has 'done everything it can to put repair guys out of business'

Paul F
FAIL

Total BS

I work for a small shop and we have a great working relationship with Apple. The two stores in our area refer customers to us all the time. We worked hard to get Premium status, and are doing just fine. If other shops are having trouble, it's because they aren't up to snuff.

Yay for iOS 6.1, grey Wi-Fi iPhone bug is fix- AWW, SNAP

Paul F
Meh

Mine works fine.

If you have that problem then it's a defective phone. Go get it exchanged and restore from backup. Simple. Lots of whinging for a simple fix.

Retina Display detachment

Paul F
Gimp

Skate to where the puck has been

The MacBook Airs started as an overly expensive, feature poor laptop - and look at them now. Still feature poor, but affordable, popular, and being copied all over the place.

You want the industry to stand still? By all means keep on holding to legacy things. That's the reason why XP is still the dominant OS in the workforce.

Keep skating to where the puck has been, not to where it's going and you'll do just fine.

I'll get off your lawn now.

New iPad can't get its Wi-Fi up

Paul F
Thumb Down

No problem on mine.

I think news outlets are trying to make crap up about the new iPad as sour grapes.

HD glitch for Apple TV punters

Paul F

You can't think of anything that can challenge HBO?

Torrents?

LOHAN's flying truss: One orb or two?

Paul F

probably unfeasible

What about an accelerometer or two rigged to an Arduino that's set to sense the angle of the platform, so that as it inevitably swings back and forth it senses an appropriate launch trajectory?

Planet-hunting Kepler hits EXOPLANET JACKPOT

Paul F

We can only measure mass accurately - that's how we find most of them

Nope, we are talking mass.

DH Tau b is a planet, and is 37 times Jupiter's mass. See the link below

http://exoplanet.hanno-rein.de/system.php?id=DH+Tau+b

The entire list is at the link below and can be sorted by mass, which you'll note is measured in how many times of Jupiter's mass. Jupiter is the standard unit of measurement for exoplanets, since the vast majority that we have found are in Jupiter's range or greater. It's easier to detect them when they are that big, and they are definitely not brown dwarf stars, which start at 75 times Jupiter's mass.

http://exoplanet.hanno-rein.de/complete.php

Paul F
Stop

there's a bit more...

There are currently 755 confirmed planets that have been observed by one method or another, and an additional 1235 candidates from Kepler alone. And those are just the boring candidates that NASA has decided to release. There are as yet more candidates that NASA is holding on to pending additional verification, that are likely to be far more interesting than Jupiter and "Super Jupiter" class planets. I suspect that's where the 2300 figure comes from.

The gentleman above who said that Jupiter is the largest a planet can get is wrong, I'm afraid. they can get much bigger and still not be "failed stars" or whatever the common myth about Jupiter is. There are planets that are 25 times Jupiter's size out there that we've observed.

Further, there are far more multi-planet systems out there than the article indicates. I think the author was talking about just Kepler.

I suggest visiting http://exoplanet.hanno-rein.de/ for a nice visual database of all confirmed planets out there. :)

Paul F
Stop

I'm afraid that you are incorrect. Planets over 25 times Jupiter's mass have been found. I believe that there is even one that is 37 times Jupiter's mass, at DH Tau B.

iPad users 'risk shoulder pain', say US gov, Microsoft boffins

Paul F
FAIL

Really.

Because books have been so terrible ergonomicslly.

Russian Mars mission launches after multi-year delays

Paul F
Alien

Looks familiar...

Kinda looks like the old Venus probes the Ruskies landed back in the 60's. Heck for that price it might very well be a leftover from that age.

In any event, I wish them luck. Any human exploration is good exploration.

Dell intros world's thinnest 15in laptop PC

Paul F
FAIL

Plastic, not aluminum

And that hinge looks weak.

Another year, another iPhone time slip

Paul F
Jobs Halo

No problem here.

My girlfriend's iPhone 3G running 4.2 changed over just fine, as did my iPhone 4 running 4.3. And my roommate's iPhone 4s, and my coworkers...

I cry bullshit.

Yes! It's the Reg Hardware Mass iPad Case Test

Paul F
Boffin

What no Dodo?

Dodocase? Anyone? Anyone? Beuler?

Fanbois howl over 'hang a lot' Safari 5

Paul F
Boffin

Works here.

mmmyep.

Ringback tones outselling ring tones

Paul F
Thumb Down

What Piloti said

With the additional observation that I want to harm people who have ringback tones by shooting them in the face, with a bear.

NASA projects IBEX heavenwards

Paul F
Alien

Wait, what?

So if this thing can reach a high orbit after being dropped from a plane, what's the big deal about Space Ship One's delivery method? Seems less of a big deal now.

Portsmouth Historic Dockyard: Further poster outrage

Paul F
Coat

Well, that's one ad campaign buggered.

mmmyep.

Apple faces lawsuit over wobbly 3G claims

Paul F
Jobs Halo

No iTroubles here

eh heh.

er.... yeah. Anyway.

My iPhone 3G has no volume or 3G problems. Nor does it crash when using Safari, third party apps, etc. It does exactly what they say it does, and it does it well.

The only places I have signal trouble are places where other AT&T users with different phones have trouble.

Anecdotal evidence isn't evidence though, so until someone comes up with a substantive study with actual numbers, this debate is bollocks.

ISS toilet fails to suck

Paul F
Coat

To Boldly Go...

Surprised it took this long, really. Mine's the dirty mac.

Scientists create Chewbotca robot muncher

Paul F
Black Helicopters

Yikes! There's a Robot Cook!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvoJxmaoi8A

So, Robot Cook, plus Robot Chomper, plus Robot Digester, plus Bacony Goodness =

This is getting worse for us, isn't it?

Paul F
Black Helicopters

Robots think we taste like Bacon, Remember?

http://archive.southcoasttoday.com/daily/09-06/09-03-06/03business.htm

So, Robot Chomper, plus Robot Digester, plus Bacony Goodness =

DARPA in search for five-year-mission solar wingship

Paul F
Coat

What's with the Cheesy Music?

Wow! We gotta fund this one! I was tapping my toes!

Mine's the one with the headphones in.

Drunken Korean attempts to cook landlady's Chihuahua

Paul F

re: dog soup

No stock that I saw, but yes on the soup. It's the preferred way, as a matter of fact. It's called bo-shing-tang.

Paul F
Coat

I lived in Korea for two years...

... as an English teacher. While it is true that some Koreans eat dog, it's supposed to be a special breed that's raised for the purpose, and it's also not as prevalent as stereotypes make it out to be. In fact, there is a portion of Koreans who believe that eating dog is bad luck.

The others though think it's good for "stamina" by which they mean fido = viagra.

Maybe the old bloke was randy for his landlady, or was short on rent money.

Boffin says Astronomical Unit should be binned

Paul F
Alert

Does he want to redefine years?

Since the orbital period of the Earth is changing, why not change that too? How about Days? Those are slowing as well!

Cigarette ash proves a drag for Nintendo's Wii

Paul F

Tar covered innards

In the last ten+ years I've been working on computers, I've done thousands of repairs. I've had a few come through that were simply discolored, and a few that were absolutely and irrefutably damaged due to smoke.

In some cases the drive cables became brittle and cracked. Given that I've ONLY seen that kind of damage in computers in heavy smoke environments, I call that a logical inference of causality.

The tar also contributes to a different kind of dust-bunny. It's a denser, more massive kind of thing than usual, and harder to remove.

I once sickened a coworker who was cleaning a tar-encrusted-dust filled computer my mentioning that all that tar had been in someone's lungs.

Brits can't distinguish history from the TV listings

Paul F
Thumb Up

Seems America doesn't have a monopoly of stupid people after all.

Perhaps it's just Humanity as a whole that's abysmally dim-witted.

Blade Runner replicant checks into rehab

Paul F
Coat

Leave Sean Young Alone!

aaand I'm outa here.

Dallas man accidentally shoots self in head

Paul F
Alert

The only thing more dangerous than a loaded gun...

... is an unloaded gun.

Spirit discovers life on Mars

Paul F
Alien

Golly.

And it must be related to Bigfoot and Nessie, since it's out of focus (always a guarantor of authenticity).

Star Trek XI teaser trailer beams onto web

Paul F
Thumb Down

Ret-con galore.

Don't mess with TOS.

Not looking forward to this at all.

/old school Trekkie.

Lightsaber voted top movie weapon

Paul F
Stop

@ Webster Phreaky

Umm.. Star Wars was never presented as a Science Fiction series, but as a "space opera" or "fantasy that happens to be set in space" kind of thing.

It was never intended to be scientific, or to "propose" anything as a new technology, but just a pretty good B action film. Lucas has always been very clear on that.

Perhaps instead of taking them seriously, you should instead watch the films as adventure movies meant for enjoyment.

US Army proto-Dalek combat robots enter testing

Paul F
Boffin

@ Gianni

Air density is a real problem. Mars has 1% the atmospheric density of Earth, so the rotors / fans would have to be huge. Granted you have some help from the lower gravity (38% Earth's) but your mass remains constant so control is an issue due to inertia. You'd have blades rotating at extreme velocities, barely catching air, and be unable to redirect your course due to inertia. It's much harder to shove the thing where you'd want to go. There'd be a huge amount of wasted energy even trying.

The rovers, on the other hand, run on less power than it takes to run a light bulb for a day.

I've read that NASA is working on something that could fly on Mars, but so far it's more on Dragonfly model than on a hoverbot. Of course it may have to hover somewhat, because a normal landing at velocity would result in a crash. 38% gravity isn't much to get purchase with for tires or skids. Again, inertia would be the problem.

US biotech firm in new human cloning claim

Paul F
Paris Hilton

I'd like to place a takeout order please...

Yes, I'd like you to vat-grow a harem for me from this DNA sample. No, I won't tell you where I got it, and you can't share.

Tom Cruise Scientology vid leaks onto net

Paul F
Alien

Hail Xenu!

Ha! Once again our Thetens corrupt your puny human souls! We spit upon the Cruise and his minions of drooling sycophants! Even now our DC-8 Space Planes circle, ready to deposit alien prisoners upon your hapless world of Teegeeack! The Electronic Ribbon is eternal!

All glory to the Galactic Confederacy!

(this is all real Scientology doctrine, for those of you who didn't know)

It was the MacBook Air sub-notebook

Paul F
Thumb Up

For Enthusiasts Only

Obviously this isn't meant to appeal to anyone who doesn't own another, bigger computer. It's a travel device only, kind of like a spider. You have the wagon for utility, the sports car for joyriding. You'd have to be daft to use one as your primary computer.

Also - Ethernet is an option as a $29 USB dongle.

Big minus for me? No exchangeable battery. Bzzzt!

Car crash driver blames pterodactyl

Paul F
Coat

Well, Cincinnati's go Leprechauns...

... so why not?

mmmyep.

Smurf gives Paris Hilton a mouthful

Paul F
Thumb Up

HAR!™

What a great way to start my day!

Americans can swear at toilets, judge rules

Paul F
Coat

Bollocks.

And I'm out.

US gov silent robot white (?) helicopter prangs itself

Paul F
Joke

@ P. Lee

What do you mean that unmanned "just isn't scary?" Good grief man, haven't you been paying attention? There are killbots everywhere! This thing will be directing them! It's the Rise of the Machines! Don't be lulled into foolish complacency! They are planning our systematic eradication!

EVERYBODY PANIC!

Paris Hilton cavorts naked in middle of desert

Paul F
Paris Hilton

How 'very.'

I guess all the binge drinking bimbos will want to start doing Champagne Bongs ("sparkling wine bong" just doesn't scan, sorry frenchies*).

Isn't there a facebook thing called "30 Reasons Girls Should Call It A Night” in which drunk girls in various states of shame and undress showcase themselves? I'm sure that crowd will love this stuff.

*not really sorry at all

NASA Mars droid in ET life discovery shock

Paul F
Coat

MARS NEEDS WOMEN!

'nuff said.

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