Posts by VeganVegan
227 posts • joined Tuesday 27th October 2009 01:53 GMT
But..
For the text, it looks like if we wait long enough, the whole asteroid will fall into our laps anyway.
I'd propose a mission that waits until it does so, and then spend the hopefully well-invested mission funding scooping up whatever bits that survives Earth entry. (Oh yes, and help pay for whatever damages it causes)
Have a well-deserved one, tomorrow!
Ignore the nabobs of neg. As they say, no good deed goes unpunished.
btw, it's a large genus, and on this side of the pond, it's the American robin.
Re: What will they do with the overseas assets?
They have a huge amount of cash overseas, accrued profit from their operations there (generated from working cash flow: pay for expenses, collect revenue from sales).
Maybe they will use a big chunk of that cash to buy back their own stock, a move that was announced in parallel with the increased dividend payouts. One can envision Apple UK owning a piece of Apple USA, etc..
Re: Just how many do you need to register?
also, what's with the definite article? Did the Reg pull a Gambia gambit (not just any old Gambia, but THE Gambia)?
Re: Just how many do you need to register?
Out of curiosity (I know, it killed the cat), does anyone know why "The Register" is named the way it is?
For example, www.register.co.uk is clearly not www.theregister.co.uk.
I can't imagine that The Register came late to the game when registering domain names, but then, the vulture being a scavenger...
Posted in British bookworms deem Amazon 'evil'
Re: queueing for half an hour to speak to a 17-year-old fuckwit who can’t spell or use a mouse
Nice rant, Sir, nice rant, and so very nicely just that little bit off topic.
Have a beer on me.
Posted in British bookworms deem Amazon 'evil'
Re: Re "famous Neil Gaiman"
I believe the issue is'nt not knowing how to find out,
it's not wanting to know at all, as in:
"I'd be ashamed to know that".
Posted in Ants have careers; you don't want them
If you had to work close to her fat highness
you too would gravitate to the relative freedom of the outsides.
Did they measure the disgruntlement index of the nurses versus the cleaners and foragers?
(icon has some remote semblance to an ant...)
Bong!
Is it really wise to add one more Sativa to the Bong, when it is already stuffed full with the other sativa (Cannabis)?
And, what happened to your Thai stick, มาลัย?
(light it up)
Avoid the problem in the first place
Granted, there has to be wires for setting off the rocket, but I'm not so convinced of the elegance of wrapping LOHAN's motor in a heating blanket + its trailing wires, and somehow contriving to have the blanket+wire not get in the way of launch.
Think outside the box for a moment. Actually, within the box:
Put LOHAN and her rail within a styrofoam box, just like the electronics. Keep the interior nicely warm with a heater blanket glued to the walls of the box: no worries about wire and such. A side benefit is that it should protect LOHAN somewhat from the wind buffeting.
The tricky part is: how does LOHAN get out of the box come launch time?
Perhaps put a hinged door at the exit end of the box , with a motor that opens it a minute or so before the ignition signal is sent to get LOHAN on her way.
Alternately, have the door hinged on the bottom side, and a solenoid that releases a latch, to allow the door to swing down by gravity.
One could also include crafty, purely mechanical capture latches to ensure that the door stays open once it is opened.
Another possible advantage of an insulated box is that LOHAN can now ride on top of her rail, instead of hanging her there. Further, the rail need not be so protected from icing, etc..
Nice April Fools article.
Could have asserted that the original social media, Usenet, especially its alt.sex groups, were some of the first to trigger the nsfw daemon.
Then again, maybe copyright claims that were violated & left un-protested for so many years may be deemed abandoned, much like spam, kleenex and xeroxing had entered the lexicon, to the chagrin (or tacit approval in the case of spam) of the respective owners.
At the risk of being too pedantic,,
Beyond just being tired, what does the pilot do about food and water, and what about going to the bathroom?
In comparison, pity the poor Germans come WW3
The "joke":
Q: How far apart are German towns?
A: 1 kiloton.
Re: 'How to avoid huge ships'
I'd imagine it's about avoiding more than the ship itself, but the inevitable wake. Depending on your relative position to the huge ship (same/opposite heading, larboard/starboard side), once you've avoided actual collision, you'd still need to change course to ride over the wake, else potentially turning turtle.
Re: There is a simple explanation
There's a simple explanation for that as well:
That's how they force people to but new versions.
All it takes is some idiot to adopt the new version, and all of a sudden, incompatibility problems rile up the entire organization. To restore peace, everyone is forced to upgrade to the new version. M$ is not mis-named.
Even this is almost forgivable, after all, they have to make a profit to deliver us new and better software (right!).
The madness is when they move commands and options hither and yon, some in the ribbon, others in the toolbar, the formatting palette, a dozen special option windows, toolbars, galleries, menus, (am I forgetting any other?).
More than that, the commands that work on a particular object are frequently split up & dumped in various places, that makes it like a game of treasure hunt.
If Office was a horse, it would have been humanely put down a long time ago.
Now I need a beer to calm down.
Re: Galactic scale canival (sic) ride
Perhaps a galactic hamster ride?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10Biunzk1sU&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Posted in LOHAN slips into tight rubber outfit
A hangar for LOHAN?
Perhaps it's time to rethink the whole setup, what with all these appuratances anticipated to be wrapping around her, hanging off of her, sticking up her rear end, and such, potentially hindering her free deployment.
How about an insulated box / hangar, where she can be protected and warm, with some cunning exit portal that she can easily pass through on her way out. Maybe one of those millions-of-bristls type.
of course, the hangar must have a name: The commentards can be find a good backcronym for JAIL. Oh, and the portal might be called COURT?
I smell collusion
And the bot master make money, how?
I presume that advertisers pay the web sites where the ads are displayed, how does the money get to the bot masters? Kickback? Fake web sites just for harvesting ad revenue?
Posted in LOHAN hooks up with top-flight rocketeer
Bombs away!
I am of the same sentiment.
Perhaps the SPB is limited by the miserly budget el Reg provides?
Here's a comic to help give a lift to LOHAN:
http://wondermark.com/919/
& another (caution: the other comics at the site are highly NSFW!):
http://oglaf.com/trapmaster/
Microfiber cleaning cloth
Finger grease is surprisingly present, even soon after a good hand wash with soap and water.
It is also surprisingly tenacious on these supposedly oleophobic screens.
The solution: microfiber cleaning cloths. I bought a package of 20 10"x10" disposable ones from a hardware store, and they work great! No cleaning fluid needed. Two or three good swipes & the screen looks new (much too shiny).
The only caution is to make sure the cloths do not pick up abrasive grit (which is hazard regardless of cloth type).
Re: Correlation != Causation
Obligatory xkcd
http://xkcd.com/552/
Russian humor, or someone making fun of them?
Did you see the names of the registrants of some of the C&C domains?
Sergej Dumkovski
Denis Dumkov
Denis Ustuygov (used-to-gov?)
Igor Shaven
Posted in Boffins develop microwave weed-zapper
Re: Accidental operation...
Boom!
Guinness Book of Records: The biggest batch of popcorn, EVER!
Re: A bit ironic, really.
What about the other user-interface, the part that gets wet...?
Maybe when they get their current production under control...
Economics 101: Why would they bother with a cheap phone (lower profit margins) when they can't keep up production rates for the regular (higher profit margin) version?
If and when they get production capacity up to levels to meet the demand, they might look to the cheaper market segment and see if they can make some extra money there.
In the meantime, they are likely designing and testing a cheap version now, just in case they need to go to market when the time is ripe.
Re: re. Bootnotes
and if you hang around that bar long enough, you will get a laugh when someone simply mentions the XKCD number.
iPhone 7.2, iOS 7.3
Dear Reg,
Please check your web logs.
You should see an 'iPhone 7.2' running 'iOS 7.3' as the user agent.
You too can boast of visits by shiny new devices & software!
You are welcome.
Re: Biggest mistake ever in the history of the internet
No worries: snow.crash
<-- snort this!
Frank Zappa - Dynamo Hum!
Zappa finally has IT relevance!
http://www.justsomelyrics.com/763646/Frank-Zappa-Dynamo-Hum-Lyrics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOj41ex9ryg
GIGO and more
The crux of the issue is the accuracy of the data source, that might have accumulated all kinds of cruft during the non-digital era, but now subjected to accuracy checks by massive number of eyeballs.
Curiously, during the old paper map days (and even today!), one way to know if your competitor map publisher stole your map info is to introduce an small, intentional error in the map you publish...
Size of that beast
I read somewhere (forgot where) that the two fuselages of the carrier aircraft are converted from a pair of old Boeing 747.
My parents drove a Ford Anglia
I am forever damaged.
Posted in Badges for Commentards
Re: Great - a Bore's Charter
Any chance of a scarlet letter being awarded?
PIPO
Instead of GIGO, now it'll be PIPO (poo in, poo out)
The weakest link
The project is going great!
It seems that the weakest link now is the balloon itself: will it be able to make it to the desired altitude? Or will it suffer premature deflation?
Should we start a collection to help make the balloon much more reliable?
Re: Ummm
not a joke:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/12/amd_firepro_s10000_gpu_card
<icon>heat produced by these cards</icon>
Pax Romana
'nuf said.
Thomas Crapper
Obligatory wiki link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Crapper
Floppy drive controller
He did come up with a cute way to run the floppy drive (the integrated Woz machine).
Now he is just a Was.
Pay him no mind.
Posted in LOHAN plugs into some hot LiPo treatment
May I suggest
LiPosuction for the code name of that experiment?
<coat, many sizes too large afterwards...>
Amidst all the complaints about 'bucks & tips,
A tip of my hat to the author for the brief history lesson.
Re: Pirogi
That's what I remember form the old country. Especially the hard-boiled eggs: massive amounts of cholesterol compensates for the fact that pirogi's should be baked, not fried.
Re: LOHAN could be doing too much swinging....
You are suggesting that we limit the extent of LOHAN's pole dance?
Tut tut.
Putting multi-colored lipstick on that pig
It's still a pig.
Re: Eeek!
Good one!
Strange coincidence:
http://static.regretsy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/wtf_who.jpg
Someone in Lompoc will be a very happy camper now that the SSURC is available.
Vacuum tank considerations
While a vacuum tank can be made to work in principle, it does require some possibly troublesome-to-meet requirements.
To a first approximation, suppose the gases generated by the igniter occupy a volume of x cc at atmospheric pressure (about 1000 millibar) and 'normal' (ambient) temperature. Boyle's law (PV=constant) allows one to predict that the same gases will occupy a volume of x * 1000/20 cc = 50x cc at 20 millibar. Depending on your best guess of the volume of ignition gasses at 1000 millibar, you will need a 50-times larger vacuum tank for the gasses to expand into, to minimize pressure changes.
This then leads to the second design issue: constructing a vacuum tank of the necessary size that can withstand the vacuum to be used. A weak tank will provide much excitement if / when it collapses*!
Since we know that at least some of the products of igniter combustion are easily condensible (witness the lexan lid getting sooted over), a cold trap is the much easier solution. I don't know if there are any moonshiners in the Spanish hills, but a copper distillation coil (or a segment of a car radiator) stuffed into a dry ice-ethanol slurry in a styrofoam box should work quite well. Protection of the expensive pressure gauge can be had by closing it off at the manifold when ignition occurs.
<icon: inverse = implosion>
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-3cu_Q119s
Posted in LOHAN breathes fire in REHAB
Buffer vacuum tank, or cold trap
I'd like to echo the concerns about the pressure increase (plus build-up of flammable volatiles) during the igniter burn, facilitating ignition of the rocket motor. You will not have that assist at altitude.
A large tank under low pressure can be used as a vacuum buffer, but, to make a meaningful difference (PV=RT), it needs to be awfully large.
The alternative, once you have dry ice available, is to use a cold trap: put a small, copper or metal vessel or coil between the vacuum pump and the REHAB chamber, and chill down the vessel with dry ice plus a bit of ethanol added to the dry ice to improve thermal transfer (what to do with the surplus ethanol?!). Most of the products of the igniter should condense out well above the -72C temperature of the cold trap. You can now keep the pump running throughout the ignition and burn sequence. If you are paranoid about any residues making its way through into the vacuum pump, a quick oil change will take care of it. Also, it is a good idea to clean out the cold trap between runs.
Posted in Micron mass-produces Phase Change Memory
Something doesn't compute
2 Gb of storage per 1Gb of RAM?
So if I want a 32 Gb storage, it comes with 16 Gb of RAM?
