Posts by Dave 62 255 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Aug 2009
So in a sense.. Britain already did it? I mean.. they're a colony so.. *shrug*
Right, let's clear up some details. While that article is rather interesting it's an unpowered glider, now I imagine LOHAN will be gliding back but I presume a rocket booster will be used to achieve greater altitude?
Now the airframe.. I guess carbon fibre is a might-as-well?
Gosh this is so frickin awesome.
But the descent is going to be the hard part. Assuming it survives the ascent.
Can't wait.
Essentially it is all down to the presenter (Re: my above comment, this guy is boring by the way.. he does what for a living?) and bad presenters will lean on powerpoint making the presentation worse. Then there's slide design. I recently interviewed for a pretty darned good graduate job (which I got) one of the other candidates gave a presentation with a red-blue gradient background, it was illegible... but I don't think he performed too strongly in any other aspects, presentations reflect the presenter.
Let's not forget Colonel Lawrence Sellin who spoke out against powerpoint briefings in the joint-watchamacallit thingy in Afghanida.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Colonel-Lawrence-Sellin/155619744453235?sk=info
How about a hydrogen producing bacteria, wasn't there something on El Reg about that the other day?
You could even carry out some kind of clever effect-of-space-on-living-stuff experiment like what seems so trendy these days.
The real tough bit is getting the rocket to shoot in the right direction, as any PARIS fan will know, them balloons do tend to wobble about a bit, what with all the wind.
..you mean stomb noxes?
It could be vaguely useful in say.. entering phone numbers in a database, particularly on a numpad free lappy keyboard.. but I imagine I'd end up having to slow down to remember where they are much as I do when entering numbers on a keyboard, take into that the minor confusion of switching from hands to feet when going from numbers to letters or tabbing to the next field.
Then we get on to the size of the thing for it to really be tactile. F**k it, I'll make do with my keyboard thanks.
butthurt psychologist detected.
From what's said in the article it doesn't seem any imaging was done, I agree that neuroscience, especially imaging, is very interesting and a valid area of study.
But "psychophysicists" sounds like a title designed to give the impression that the field is something other than what it is, I don't think it's really physics and I don't think this study in particular is particularly useful nor do I think it adds anything to scientific knowledge, I'm sure this pattern tracking stuff has already been done, although I could be wrong. Anyway I know that any study that feels the need to justify its self with ridiculous assumptions as to practical implications is probably a load of bullshit.
coolguy because I'm cool.
Seems like another case of arts academics pretending there is some hint of science about their work.
Although we shouldn't necessarily discount the theory of camouflage patterns causing difficulties in tracking a target simply because this study was complete and utter bull, there is a possibility that it could maybe be useful, but I agree that it's better to not be seen at all, that said how easily can you hide a land rover in a big open desert? It's still got black tires, shiny windows, engine noise, tire noise and probably a plume of dust behind it, even at speeds below 90 kph.
I'm sure our feeble defence budget could be better spent than researching this crap (i.e. on more proven armour).
Another fine article from LP.
bootnote: mfw El Reg is using crappy new icons. You even got the trollface wrong, it's only trollface if it's facing right, facing left is coolguy and "D'oh"? You best be trollin.
while we're going on about "windbags" the author and indeed all you fine chaps should check out the Robinsion creations of one Professor Seamus Garvey who thinks we should stick great big bags under the sea to store compressed air from wind turbines. Not sure how feasible it is but it is an entertaining idea.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUhlsV32iHk
Otherwise I do largely agree with the article, hippies are killing the planet. Ideally developed nations would finance the irrigation and/or solar-panal-installation of deserts, thorium reactors everywhere, but people have greed and pride, that's what it all boils down to.
I want to start my own political movement with the sole objective of spreading peace, love and understanding (what's so funny?), something clearly not practised by many "climate" protesters who seem to be in it because they like to feel superior or like to be part of something, maybe it's human pack instinct. Gosh I'm awfully verbose today.
I had the chance to try the 3DS when Nintendo set up a trailer in the middle of town, to give it a bit of an exciting atmosphere they put in disco lights.. which obviously mixed well with trying to focus on a small screen, combine that with the novelty of focusing on the screen while what you're looking at appears to be behind it but isn't and I just ended up straining. That said there'll never be any serious games on it. It's kinda neat but I think it's not so much a puzzled public as an apathetic public.
Well, let me see, I've never struggled with running out of memory, forgetting to defrag the harddrive doesn't exactly jam it up and is easily remedied with.. well defragging the harddrive, not to mention scheduled tasks.
And finally, CTRL+Z does work in notepad, as do the delete key, backspace key and highlight>righ click> delete. Now how do you delete an error on a mechanical type writer?
Why AC? Oh, because you know you don't know what you're talking about.
9, Lean to use a computer you dolt, this is a bloody IT news site, what are you doing here?
Non-fillable PDF? I just printscreen and paste them to an image editor if I really feel the need to have printed text on them. You see computers are not some big scary complex thing, you've just got to engage the old grey matter a little and you'll soon have a solution simpler and more elegant than pissing about with type writer ribbons, realising the damn thing has jammed up because someone left the dust cover off, waiting for tipex to dry because CTRL+Z doesn't work.
I know you're just trolling but really, this is pathetic.
Personally I find operating a motor vehicle using two thumbsticks and a bunch of buttons easy enough, or say.. handlebars, a front brake lever, clutch lever, rear brake pedal and a foot operated gear shift.
There is a name for those who consider any new means of operating something a bad thing "Luddite".
The ribbon is not hard, actually it's very fucking simple.
At the risk of sounding an utter twat, I actually find the Office 2007 ribbon fairly easy, aside from the fact that the damned print button is hidden under the "office" button rather than being on the home tab and the fact that things like table borders and fill colours are repeated on various tabs, with cells sometimes getting stuck with a fill colour which isn't set anywhere.. other than that it's all good, I'm not afraid of a simple UI change, it's no big deal and I don't know why people always have to whinge when something changes.
Oh and yes I think it does speed up workflow. Particularly for things like citations, document reviews, table settings (no opening and closing dialogue boxes for this!). I'm all for hating on "M$" but.. eh, it works, mostly.
Back in Windoze (lol, see, "doze", I'm hip) 98 I had multiple tool bars for different program groups, office type thingys, web design things, various games and associate modding tools, a/v players, a/v editors, media burn/rip. If I could have tabbed them I would. Actually tempted to see if I can do something like that to my XP now.. give myself multiple pseudo start- menus, who wouldn't like tabbed program groups? My start menu programs list fills half my lappy's screen at 1280x800.
PSN was flakey last-last night for me and a few others, don't know if it's related, don't know if they're targeting relevant doo-hickeys.
Not sure where I stand on this, sure I want my PSN running smoothly but Sony removed other OS capability and it's not like it was an "optional update", either you installed it or you couldn't go online, utter pricks, you can't blame the homebrewers from trying to break it and they shouldn't be quite so harassed as they are by Sony, why not work with them to find a solution that both fights piracy and allows homebrew content?
This goes to the long running "do you own the hardware you just payed a fair wad of cash for" debate. If I bought a CD player and a year later I was forced to update the firmware so that I couldn't play non-authorised CDs (remember the rootkit scandal :D) I'd be pretty pissed off, not all burnt CDs are pirated, it might be my own music, a friend's music, free (beer) music.
tl;dr fight the powa
What is this complete and utter wank?
It's like I don't even know where to start with the flaws in this "story"
"Almost a quarter of us believe teleportation can be done."
CAN BE DONE != IS BEING DONE
I don't understand what is going on here. Is this a joke? Are you trolling? Are the apes running riot while the editor is out?
Appropriate icon, if time travel isn't possible, how did the terminator get back to '84?
I wasn't implying Michael Dell should be knighted.
At least my iRiver and Senheisers reproduce high quality sound, not to mention the better build quality. Believe me it's not audiophilic posturing, it is noticeable, when people try my headphones the usual reaction is "I must get a pair of these". My iRiver ifp899 has lasted me 5 or 6 years of heavy use.
If you really can't tell the difference, I feel bad for you son.
fanboi much?
Granted honours have somewhat lost their credibility but I don't see why a chap who makes billions out of exploiting Chinese workers to manufacture kitsch trinkits for the fashionably unaware and technologically clueless should be honoured.
White headphones don't look cool, they make you look like a douche and the audio quality.. well let's not go there.
No A/C required.
haha, that would be nice. Google ads I can deal with.. as far as I know they're based on page content and not tracking me? Since the big version 10 update, flash seems to be awfully resource hungry in FF, it's improve a little but it's still a real pig, actually the main reason I went and got ABP. Ads that cover up a page will often make me leave and never return.
Simple static images are fair enough (provided they aren't too scantily clad, snorg tees I'm looking at you.. honestly I'm paying more attention to the model than the product, so you lose).
But El Reg has some pretty abysmal ads at times, although I do have this site white listed in ABP, most of the time at least.
super article.
So many formally useful programs I no longer use since they've become cluttered with "crap ware" (love that phrase), remember Nero? mutorrent is supposedly f*kd now (sticking with an older version), demon tools is dead, AVG is a bloated pile. VLC and ABP are still must-haves for me, spybot is nice to have too. My poor brain can't really imagine how they might monetise these projects without quality going south, but if they can, good stuff.
The way I see it, somewhat naively, people need to learn to be smarter and nicer. I expect most companies could improve productivity by using FF and ABP purely by reducing page load time (and hence employee stress levels), this is the smart part. These companies should then put some of their increased profit back into the tools that helped them.
So how is this different from running CookieMonster and AdBlockPlus on Firefox? ABP blocks many ads entirely so they can't even set cookies and CM makes it far easier to blanket deny cookies then only allow the ones you need.
I'm more worried about flash based tracking.
fantastic article, every automotive big wig should be forced to read this and they can give up on their ridiculous "look at how green we are" electric models and focus R&D money where it's really needed, efficient ICEs, energy recovery and "hybrids" that work (yes it's possible). Bring on F1 2013, expect energy recovery systems of various types to surface. I can't wait. Really awesome stuff could happen soon and I'm having kittens.
yes, some of this is true, it is mostly a matter of whether or not you need the range, electric cars are fine for stay-at-home school-run and grocery shopping soccer-moms who mostly drive SUVs, but perhaps what is needed then is an electric MPV, which looks cute and has the same pose potential as a Prius but is also affordable. Good luck with that.
But I think we can make massive improvements in ICE efficiency and I think doing so would offer an immediate improvement rather than the painful and drawn out process of trying to introduce electric vehicles to a sceptical public until battery tech is viable.
Apologies for triple post, this thread is already a bit busy :/
Sputnik on a budget, sounds like a plan.
El Reg should be looking for sponsorship though me thinks because "a budget" might be a big budget. I see no reason why not though. It's only like, 100 miles, that's like a 50 min. drive down the M1, traffic permitting. Maybe helium isn't suitable for that though. Should we maybe check with NASA and that lot? I don't know how low they put satellites but it might be considered rude if we sort of.. hit one.
I would like to insure Mr.Scratcher that we have no plans for invasion, that is of course unless the smoking ban has yet to hit Martian pubs.
On the beeb, no mention of El Reg, just "amateur space enthusiasts".
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/11734434
Thanks for that you c**ts.
I think the next step is to have an onboard cam and/or get it higher.
As for the acronym, Low Orbit Helium Ascent... Nnnsomethingsomething?
Put something into orbit guys, put something into orbit. Pwease?
Is that possible with a helium lifter? Perhaps some kind of a semi-rigid envelope?
Poor Coco - Me likey ekranoplan! I want to make one of these to attempt to fly over the local boating lake. Good luck to you, should liven up that silly pig bladder game.
Nexox Enigma - liking the sandwich structure idea, I wonder are there any commercially available all paper sandwich solutions? I have a vague feeling there might be. If I had any degree of manual dexterity I might attempt to make some paper honeycombs.
Lester, old pal, why not give us what plans you have made and we can look them over?
Because.. otherwise we might have to do real work.
As for the skin, maybe if you ask Rizla nicely they will provide large sheets. Would be nice to see it in Suzuki style Rizla livery too. Metallic gold paint might help with ballast and radar reflectivity :-p
I have to agree that the BBC have done rather well and made you look like rank amateurs.
El Reg should know that sometimes stock photos are good and El Reg should have made the educated guess, as I did, that a large organisation like the BBC might have some..er.. time-based deal with the big stock-photo provider.. people.
Cheaper and easier to go to http://www.gettyimages.co.uk and search for "bbc building" than to go out and take a picture. Seriously, that took me about a minute. As it happens, lighting for me, here and now, would be piss poor for photos, so if I wanted a picture of my house, I'd sooner use a good one off Getty, of which I'm sure there are many.
I'm surprised more of you didn't go troll the comments on the BBC, I think there was only one other besides me.
oh god, there's a reason for getty!
Not only has it got hideous glare, it's uneven, not to mention it looks like a faded newspaper clipping. Teaboys with iPhones can't take decent photos. Bad Reg! *slaps El Reg on the wrist
Although you would think they could...
(a) have one of their own photographers take a picture of their building (they must have some!)
(b) not put a picture on an article which doesn't need it.
(c) not put a picture on an article which doesn't need it.
(d) seriously guys, sometimes the pictures aren't even relevant, what's the point?
(e) seriously guys!
(f) I think the TV license is as good as a tax you fuxtwits.
ah, uhm, apologies, seeing that "Lori Drew" was charged with "three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization", Maybe there is a bit of a double-standard here.
But this was a deliberate attempt to upset the girl, whereas you would hope any FIB agents would observe rather than incite people to commit criminal acts.
At the end of the day, posing as someone else is social engineering, rather than computer mis-use. Social engineering is what Feds do, and rightly so. If you're stupid enough to fall for it, that's your problem.
Fail icon is for me :-/
There was some talk a while back of pardoning ww1 deserters, whether or not it happened I can't remember and cba finding out, but I believe it is at least possible, even if the government refused to do so.
It seems many deserters have been pardoned in many countries.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4796579.stm
Although I don't know if that was a case of "well the law was dumb" or a case of "well we bent the meaning of the law a bit to make ourselves look good"
Turing was an accomplished marathon runner.. narrowly missed being selected for Olympics.. despite being a kick-ass mathematician. Also, centenary. Connection made, thankyouverymuch.
Turing may not have been the only codebreaker at BP but he was the only one to be a good marathon runner, possibly the only one who was born in 1912 and probably the only one to be persecuted and driven to suicide by the country he saved.
Lets not try to sweep it under the carpet, he was a great man, the fact that we did him wrong doesn't make him any less of a great man.
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