Posts by 4ecks
48 posts • joined Tuesday 14th December 2010 18:31 GMT
Posted in Want faster fibre? Get rid of the glass
What's the tog rating?
←the winter one with the hollow fibre filling please.
Re: "Elderly"?
Zaphod, I think this would be a more appropriate picture for use on El Reg...
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm4187790080/nm0000402
LHC Collider?
Why do we need to collide Lettuce, Ham & Cheese with Layers of Extra Pickle and Squeezy Mustard ?
http://www.vivaciti.net/
Title says it all !
Just had look at the "License"
Now I'm confused, can I or can't I install the software on a VM. The MSLA appears to contradict itself, and if so does it then invalidate the MSLA?
Re: Kickstarter/motorbike
As long as it's a 74-Z speeder bike :-)
Re: LED lighting instead of fluorescent 'haz mat'
I supply lighting for a living, and IMHO most customers don't have a clue as to what different light sources are available & to what use they are best suited. Most new houses have halogen downlights 'cos the "designer" thinks they look good, but the latest generation of LED sources are much better suited and although the initial cost is higher, more cost effective over their expected lifetime. Megaman GU10 retrofit at 4W and 6W dimmable (£12) & 50000hr life, or Aurora AU-FRL series @ 9W & 75000hr are viable candidates to replace 50W halogens.
However the main benefits of LED's are in commercial premises, where reduced maintainance costs will often pay for the initial outlay over the expected life of the installation, and then some.
Nice test
I wonder how well this would work on Selene or Mars?
Meh! Call that a "Denial of Service"?
HSBC unavailable for only a few hours - Anon DDOS = Fail.
The other banks appear to be able to do this much more successfully to their own customers - just put RBS into the search box for El Reg and see the list returned!
Hypotheticals
"Send All" is great for "Happy New Year" messages, but as this case shows, dangerous beyond belief.
Other hypotheticals - you leave your phone unlocked & unattended or it gets stolen - somebody else sends a compromising text or picture from your phone to everyone in your contacts list - you end up in gaol and on the SOR.
Was the message sent from your phone? - undeniably yes(*).
Was the message sent by you, the accused? - prove it beyond a "reasonable doubt", but I don't think "It wasn't me!" will go down well with the Judge and Jury.
(*)_ and don't even think of accepting the plea offer from the CPS to make it easy, 'cos they might offer you a "slap on the wrist", but you'll get the maximum instead!
Re: The end of anonymity
" I assume govt has something in the pipeline for that." - finger-tip ID chip implants for everyone & NFC scanners on all internet enabled computer kit, means you have to digitally (geddit) sign all posts.
Posted in Vote now for the ULTIMATE BACON SARNIE
Re: None with Ketchup 'n' mustard?
Sorry, I kept eating it before remembering to take a piccy & submit it, but here's the text only version :-
2 x Rind-on Middle Back Unsmoked (best of both worlds back & streaky) , White Bread, Welsh Butter, Colman's Savora Mustard (or French's Classic Yellow) & either Heinz TK or, if available 1x fresh tomato.
i) Open kitchen window/turn on extract fan & close door - unless you want the smoke alarm going off !
ii) Trim rind from bacon & start to fry in a hot non-stick pan with a dash of oil, the fat from the rind will render down & you get excellent "Fried Crispy Worms" to crunch on.
iii) Add sliced tomato (4 slices) to pan & remove "Worms" before they burn & eat while cooking bacon.
iv) Add bacon, after 1-2 minutes turn over tomato & bacon.
v) Butter the bread and add mustard to lower slice.
vi) Arrange bacon on bread and layer with tomato then top slice of bread.
vii) Eat & Enjoy!
viii) Buggrit, forgot the camera again! ;)
Units & scales
If your not going to use El Reg units i.e. Norris - No & linguine - lg, etc. then please remember that the 1930's Richter Scale is not the same as the now used 1970's MMS Mw, especially for large magnitude quakes.
Nevertheless, that was one big mutha of a quake - guess the bod's at HAARP got a bit too carried away!
Posted in Smack your phones up, says Microsoft
Re: Mantis Shrimp
Yes they can crack tanks, some Mantis Shrimp can "punch" with the equivalent force of a .22 caliber pistol round.
I can remember tales of a sudden spate of unexplained tank failures when I managed an aquatics shop around 20yr ago. They were later attributed to a batch of imported "living rock" that contained baby Mantis Shrimp which grew in to angry adults!
Flashback to Flashforward
So how many times were episodes of Flashforward or Heroes downloaded in the UK ? I would guess very few times compared to Stargate, Dexter, Eureka or Warehouse 13. Not because they weren't popular, but because they were aired so shortly after their US showing that there wasn't much point in using p2p.
I can understand that TV companies can be wary of buying shows with no track record of viewing figures, or as is the case with many programmes, no second series because the Nielsen ratings were poor - but as a viewer/consumer/customer, I don't want to wait for a year or more.
Oracle ... did not respond when contacted for comment by The Reg.
Oracle PR Dept. outgoing voicemail announcement :- "La la lah! We can't hear you!"
Posted in Neil Armstrong dies aged 82
Respect
One of my personal heroes, a man who truly had courage running through his veins.
I am sorry that we have not built upon the great foundations he and his ilk laid for us,
Mankind appears to have stumbled upon taking the giant leap, and is now scrabbling around in the dust instead of striding confidently toward the stars.
It's a shame that we're now so dumbed-down that raising generations inspired by "X-Factor" instead of "The Right Stuff" is the future.
New Backronym ?
M arital
A rgument
S hed
E nhanced
R esearch
Geothermal will kill all life!
OK, here's the sciency reason against Geothermal -
Extracting heat-energy from the planet, converting it to "useful" energy (electricity), and then eventually back to heat will, due to entropy, kill everything.
The atmosphere will heat up and the oceans boil away. The big ball of molten iron at the earths core will become solid, we will lose the magnetic fields protecting us from solar particles and all life will cease to be.
Earth will become as barren as Mars !
/very small print on
This of course won't happen for many millennia, and the Earth will probably get hit by a "planet-killer" lump of rock first.
/very small print off
p.s. this research is (c) me, and may not be used by any ecomentalist greenies to argue their case - they've got to come up with their own absurd spin.
Re: Possible Copyright infringement by the US then
Damages should be awarded to Megaupload using the RIAA formula, this should result in a figure larger than the annual GNP of the whole planet ;)
Re: Return of the clones?
And so the Clone Wars began...
The words "Mainframe" & "Bank" make me think of...
Salami slicing & logic bombs, but I was a very prolific reader at age 10.
Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves.
http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Computer_capers.html?id=SbkiAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y
$9000/day storage cost?
How do they work that out then? By my rough maths, 25PB is approx 8500 x 3TB drives.
This is 120 odd BigYellow Medium cardboard boxes & some bubblewrap (£400ish). Storage approx £50/pw.
Success from failure
In the best traditions of science and invention.
Failure to make one thing leads to understanding and discovery of another.
Re: Moral vs Legal
Have an upvote, you're the first one I've noticed to state that companies have a legal obligation to their shareholders to reduce taxes paid.
They don't have a moral requirement to do this, it may even seem that their legal requirements are immoral.
This required action now also applies to Facecrack, so don't be too surprised when they register in whichever country is most favourable.
What's the difference between immoral and illegal?
One you know is just not right, and the other is a sick bird of prey.
Back of an envelope design
Three balloons on a ¥ frame.
Rocket underslung on the 'l' , nose down a few degrees.
Q O O
\ l. /
\ l./
=~~
Inflate the balloon (Q) on this leg more than the other 2, also counters the extra payload mass on this leg.
This should cause this one to fail first, at which point the frame should swing around the center point, bringing the rocket (=) up into launch position...
O O
\/
l/
*
The balloon ties can be of different lengths to allow clearance to be maintained with a smaller frame.
KISS principle, no altimeter, no GPS, just a tilt switch to ignite the motor.
Apologies if the ASCII artwork is poor.
Posted in What is SpaceX Dragon's secret cargo?
My guess...
Several pints of Bitter, a few packets of salted peanuts, and most important of all - a good towel.
You should never leave your home (planet) without your towel, especially if you might meet a ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal.
Re: abandon the imperial and metric...
Would that be the Northern or Southern Pint glass - real ale with a head or lager?
A properly poured and rested Guiness topped off just before serving would probably be the most accurate measure.:)
I was taught metric at school, and educated in Imperial by my parents.
I use both systems daily with no problem, although it is mostly the metric-inch of 25mm and metric-foot of 300mm. E.g. box of Cat.5 , 1000ft or 305mtr.
Like many people I think in Centigrade/Celcius for cold weather and Fahrenheit for hot weather, afterall I know that 0'C is freezing cold, and 98.4'F is average body temperature.
"Match in a hurricane"
Well there's the reason it's taken the boffins so long to get it to work.
They started from the wrong analogy - after all most people would use a Zippo (tm) in a hurricane.;)
Great idea.
A rent-a-tent in orbit, but I don't fancy the walk to the shower block.
Re: Ah, the usual anti-Sony fanbois are out in force.
Main point from your post - "You had a choice, buy or do not buy."
My choice is to not buy Sony branded items, not even the £2.49 CD's at Lidl. It may seem irrational to you, but it is MY choice & MY money, and I won't give it to a company that I have no trust in.
Asprin please.
Q1) If you can receive the information before it's sent, what happens if you receive it but then don't send it?
Q2) How long until I can can get FTLTTC instead of just FTTC?
Maybe I'm a cynic.
Why don't we build the desal plants next to the nice new shiney nuclear power stations that we started building 10 years ago to replace the nasty old dirty CO2 emitting fossil fuel stations that will soon be at their end-of-life status....
Sorry, what did you just say? ....
What do you mean, "We don't have the new nukes."
So basically what you're telling me is that we had a bunch of complete fuckwits running the country for years who couldn't even play "Civilisation"?
But then can you get a C&G or NVQ in actually running a country and not just an election campaign?
Oh well, no point in fitting the electric shower, no power to not heat the no water. :(
Not a global effect...
This research applies to everywhere except the UK...
'cos it doesn't allow for droughts, hosepipe bans, and flood warnings in the same week.;)
Re: France
Not What but Where TF.
I've noticed that whenever I go to St Ishmaels SA62 Pembs., my HTC phone GPS suddenly decides that SW Wales has moved to northern France, but my TomTom is ok. If you do go to France you just use the excuse to the police that you were following SatNav directions from St Ishmaels to Milford Haven - perfectly believable, 'cos no-one ever doubts the GPS voice!
To all our colonial brethren...
Please sign this petition, as being a resident of Airstrip One I'm not eligible, even though "my" Government has bent over backwards to subject me to the rule of American Laws & Courts.
Posted in Toads predict earthquakes: Official
Headache...
Will 2 giant aspirin applied to a tectonic fault prevent an earthquake?
Artists impression or Impressionist art ?
Unfortunately for us, the cameras have been powered down. However at the range they are at now, the resolution probably won't be much better than an old 640x480 slow-scan image. Now if only NASA could work out how to mix Hubble optics with Voyager reliability & Vasimir engineering we might get that image in our lifetimes.
Not only phones...
Phones may be upgraded every couple of years, but how often do you upgrade the 42" HDTV with Internet connectivity, or the various cable/satellite/pvr boxes?
If the manufacturers can have a bit of common ground and stability to work with then if an issue is identified in their version of Linux, it would hopefully be rectified across many more products & manufacturers. After all, would you like to find out that your Wi-Fi'd fridge is actually a backdoor into your home network?
Posted in DARPA drops another HTV-2
Smokescreen story...
They did manage to open a hyperspace window successfully, but don't know where it came out.
logistics ?
So how many stubbies can you fit in a Falcon 9 & who's going to empty the recycle bin?
Problem solved
So if you put up a notice that states "No Crap allowed on the network" everything will be ok?
and that's
Numberwang!
should be read as a voice-over
These are the voyages of the strato-plane Enterprise, it's 5 year mission -
To covertly soar where no other UAV has gone before.
To seek out new forms of surveillance, and to spy on those below.
All hail the Rise of the Machines.
DON'T PANIC
How long will it take to evaluate "42" ?
May I recommend Vivaciti.net
I've got an LLU (MurphX) service with "All-you-can-eat" bandwidth. No silly added extras that I don't need or want, just a nice dumb pipe. Only had to call them once during activation a year ago, due to typo on my login details at their end. They answered promptly at about 9pm on a Saturday, and solved the issue immediately. No call-center drones, but a really helpful honest human being! They even had the courtesy to contact me a few days later to check if everything was Ok, as their stats showed my router kept re-synching, but that was just me using DMT to tweak the line.
Now BT keep mailing me with their latest deals as a new FTTC box has just gone up 100yds from home, but at least they finally got the message to stop calling me until someone is in the dock over Phorm.
