* Posts by robin48gx

108 publicly visible posts • joined 12 Oct 2010

Page:

It may be poor man's Photoshop, but GIMP casts a Long Shadow with latest update

robin48gx

Re: Forget the geeky stuff, sort out the user experience.

The gui is awful. As soon as you go outside editing a simple photo it basically just won't do things and won't tell you why it won't. It seems to be getting worse as well. I'd be happy with a version for ten years ago tbh. It used to work predictably then . Now its more a case of it won't

Uncle Sam's nuke-stockpile-simulating souped-super El Capitan set to hit TWO exa-FLOPS, take crown as world's fastest machine in 2023

robin48gx

Re: Is it just me?

On the PDP-11 in RSX-11 you could tell when the OS was idling because of the LED pattern.

Boeing aircraft sales slump to historic lows after 737 Max annus horribilis

robin48gx

Re: Accountability

thanks, yes. it just adjusted the stab trim.

robin48gx

Re: Accountability

Have any angle of attack to pitching moment graphs from the 737-MAX been released?

Does it have a sudden change in pitching moment?

robin48gx

Re: Accountability

MCAS. Did it drive the trim, or just load the column? I was under the impression it moved the stabilizer trim; but reading other stuff, it seems it was altering the control loading. I guess hitting the stabilizer would have the effect of loading the column anyway, but I'd like to know the full/real story.

robin48gx

Re: Level D?

Have they re-classified the simulators? What level is FAA Phase 3 from say 1990?

Blackout Bug: Boeing 737 cockpit screens go blank if pilots land on specific runways

robin48gx

yes dropbear. No infinities as with tangents and no divide by zeros that come with matrixes...

robin48gx

Re: ...

CFM56 ?

robin48gx

Just a guess really. I did see some flight simulation code that had a bug like that. If you flew directly over the north pole (and were unlucky) you miraculously appeared at the south pole and visa versa. Grown-ups should really use quaternions...

robin48gx

not if they only checked for 90 degrees and forgot 270

robin48gx

270 degrees ?

hmmmm

tan(270) error infinite result?

Boeing admits 737 Max sims didn't accurately reproduce what flying without MCAS was like

robin48gx

Re: So the simulator disagrees substantially with reality?

Prob not faa certified

robin48gx

When I worked on SIMS years ago we used to play disaster landings as a game after work on an faa phase 3 757 in Miami airport. Put the plane 5 miles out heavy mist. Then as they are lining up on descent path put an engine on fire, then give them micro burst (massive downward wind) then maybe a tough crosswind for final landing. We never even thought of automatically making the elevator tri m keep slamming the nose down with the pilot straining at full strength to pull up! That would have just been too silly to believe!

Yorkshire cops have begun using on-the-spot fingerprint scanners

robin48gx

citizens card

this is pretty much what a citizen card is already. Just costs 15 quid instead of free. But it does allow you to buy beer in sainsburys

Prison hacker who tried to free friend now likely to join him inside

robin48gx

Re: Enough is enough

\u2006

Trump's visa plan leaks: American techies first

robin48gx

Re: "SV companies ... weren't willing to offer adequate compensation"

did it have USB3? some versions of windoze don’t know about those drivers (even though the bios seems ok with it) and you have to make your own install image on a USB stick...

Pentagon anti-missile-on-missile test actually WORKS, for once

robin48gx

Re: Shooting down satellites

Maybe since 1962 when the US proved it by detonating a nuke in LEO, the resulting X-ray show killing every satellite in the vicinity.

robin48gx

Re: Good news or bad news?

Read the book "Preventing the unthinkable" by James Martin.

Its not some namby pamby pacifist script.

Its full of physics and strategy; probably written for senior civil servants and intended

military staff of rank colonel and above.

A large scale nuclear war is quite complicated. One major physics factor in nuclear war is

most of the initial energy from a nuclear explosion is X-rays. In air these form a large fireball in the sky. In space they fly unimpeded.

Ballistic missiles (those flying in space) are very vulnerable to x-rays from space detonated

atomic weapons i.e. if you keep dropping H bombs above the country you are attacking all the missiles they launch are destroyed in flight. This has a technical term called "X-ray" lock down.

But it does not take care of cruise missiles effectively hiding from the x-rays by being in earths atmosphere.

So thats why anti ballistic missile shields (ABM) can be viewed as first strike weapons. They kind of enable a first strike as well as protecting from the odd stray north Korean missile.

Also Putin, because of ABMs, has simply increased the number of cruise and stealth nuclear delivery systems. my pennies worth. But anyone really interested should read the James Martin book

WTF? Francis Ford Coppola crowdsources Apocalypse Now game

robin48gx

HL2 already has the story line, bloke goes through war zone up a river, takes out eveil command rouge outpost

Oh, the things Vim could teach Silicon Valley's code slingers

robin48gx

If you first used vi and are annoyed that vim does not go back into command mode

when you hit a cursor key put this in your .vimrc file.

For poeple who started using vi in the 1980's this makes vim usable.

"

" go back to command mode

" as soon as a curcor key is pressed

"

inoremap <left> <esc><left>

inoremap <right> <esc><right>

inoremap <up> <esc><up>

inoremap <down> <esc><down>

Silent Nork satellite tumbling in orbit

robin48gx
Trollface

jus step a lirrell to the left hans...

NOxious Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal: Chief falls on sword

robin48gx

Re: Very unfortunate

They just nead a urea ssolution tank, and you top it up every few housand miles.problem sorted. And I am not taking the piss either !

Why won't you DIE? IBM's S/360 and its legacy at 50

robin48gx

SDS-930

The first to use transistors instead of valves, and a binary front panel.

24 * 24 bit multiply too, and if you paid extra you got FORTRAN (I only used assembler

on it though)

SourceForge responds to GIMP grump with crowdsourcing caper

robin48gx

Yes Oracle that bloody annoying ASK search bar.

I thought you were reputable sensible database company, not some dodgy web outfit foisting stuff on us.... lost alot of credibility from me with that annoying/difficult to remove ASK toolbar, its made me very suspicious of anything "oracle".

Volvo: Need a new car battery? Replace the doors and roof

robin48gx

Re: Bang the car, short the battery

Yeah, you have a crash and there gonna be a fucking great FLASH!

Maybe even cause a fire

HALF of air passengers leave phones on ... yet STILL no DEATH PLUNGE

robin48gx
Happy

Re: Never any danger

Learn about EMC and testing and EN standards.

Safety critical equipment is heavily tested for `radiated immunity' as they term it.

JPL wants to fire a laser at MARS!

robin48gx

We should be nuking it not lasering it

http://www.marspapers.org/papers/Mole_1999.pdf

Nuke plants to rely on PDP-11 code UNTIL 2050!

robin48gx
Happy

Re: Sigma Series

On the SUNOS debugger program, adb (a debugger---of course)

you can type in hex 32 bit numbers and it converts them to human readable dates

$ adb

0x80000000=Y

2038 Jan 19 03:14:08

robin48gx
Happy

Re: Sigma Series

I worked in flight simulation in te late 80's and wrote assemblers for SIGMAs 2, 3, 5 and 7.

Very nice reliable old computers, size of a fridge freezer.

Bet alot are still working away, doing stuff correctly using binary scaling to do stuff we would noe do in floating point

a bit faster, but actaully with less precision...

robin48gx
Happy

Re: Pah

I used to use a PDP-11/73, and it was multi-user unix, there were about ten people using it most of the time, working on C or with a Z80 cross compiler. vi was in use, a fantastic leap ahead from ed.

robin48gx
Happy

Re: if it aint broke....

sparde parts, 74 logic series is still made/

Standard Model goes PEAR-SHAPED in CERN experiment

robin48gx
Happy

Re: Matter/anti-matter

Exotic matter. Lets build a stargate!

UK.Gov passes Instagram Act: All your pics belong to everyone now

robin48gx
Headmaster

you could I suppose use an MD5 sum

If you have an original work, you could register it (by posting it to flickr say) with an MD5 sum of the full size orginal, with the exif data in it. That way you could proove it was your image at such and such a date

Federal lawyers, MIT threatened following Aaron Swartz' death

robin48gx
WTF?

It was a gross overreaction though, threatening prison for what really was a university prank involving computers. Anyone with a uni account can download papers, and its common practise to email them to people who you want to read them after that.

It was the criminal justice systems weapons designed for hardened criminals aimed at someone intelectual and sensitive. A criminal criminal justice system IMHO.

IT Pro confession: How I helped in the BIGGEST DDoS OF ALL TIME

robin48gx
Meh

Re: You are right.. and wrong

Ah I thought DNS worked by looking at /etc/hosts and then always doing a recursive if it was not in there.

The plot thickens, thanks for explaining this point.

GCHQ attempts to downplay amazing plaintext password blunder

robin48gx
FAIL

Re: The sound you hear

Its probably like the archer cartoons in there

Ten serious sci-fi films for the sentient fan

robin48gx
Meh

the matrix

how did they miss that one.

US lawmaker blames bicycle breath for global warming gas

robin48gx
FAIL

Re: Wrong, but not ridiculous?

I cycle and drive, and 99% of the time what holds me up when driving a car, is other cars....

(cars hold me up occasionally cycling as well actually)

robin48gx
Meh

Re: Facepalm... @ AC 12:26

Are your elderly disabled neighbours physically fit enough to drive a car safety ? Also 8 months pregnant congrats, but should she not have her husband/partner help out ?

robin48gx

Re: UK: Cyclists already pay for the upkeep of roads, as do pedestrians

Lots of people cycle the A27 near where I live. When it rains we all get in our cars.... and guess what, congestion gets worse...

robin48gx
FAIL

Re: On this logic

fatties should be taxed, they produce far more CO2 at rest than a fit person, and they are a burden on the NHS, with demands for heart/diabetes/blood-pressure/anti-inflamatories/stroke medicine.

robin48gx

Re: I seem to recall...

I pay VED but cycle about 4 days out of 5 (well it rains sometimes and I like to go for a 2k swim now and then).

robin48gx
Joke

Re: This is it!

I am a cyclist and have a resting HB of 45. This means that for the 2 hours or so of cycling to work, I may output a little more CO2, but the obese person is worse, They produce more than me when they are at rest. Nd I bet they use a car too. Tax the unfit!

robin48gx
Happy

Re: This is it!

I am a cyclist and have a resting HB of around 45....

Moscow's speed cameras 'knackered' by MYSTERY malware

robin48gx
Meh

Re: 3.2 Million reasons to love speed cameras

I have seen someone die trapped in a car in front of my eyes in a road accident.

It was a very upsetting experience.

Not silly talk. 3000 deaths a year on our roads is pretty amazingly high.

Any other `industry' would be shut down. Back to the incident I saw...

The police got there first, I was putting out the fire on the dripping exhaust pipe on the upside down car.

The ambulance and free service were probably lost (I hear they are pretty bad at navigation generally

I guess Rabiit80 if your are really an ambulance driver, you mostly arrive too late)

But I do think, on a lateral tangent here, that technology may well be the only thing to

reduce road deaths. Automatic braking systems to aid the awful human reaction times, and

monitoring via GPS to prevent people speeding (and doing a runner).

All things just around the corner so to speak.

robin48gx
FAIL

you obviously never used FORTRAN, or DEC plot, or gnuplot ...

robin48gx
FAIL

Re: 3.2 Million reasons to love speed cameras

Its mostly third parties that get harmed by speeding car drivers---speed cameras in theUK are placed where someone has died. often a child. Imagine, the child in shock half under the car mangled crying for mummy... but you would rather get from A to B 3 mins quicker....

Page: