Re: big rig suddenly stops

You're so close behind it that there's very little speed difference at impact ...

re: That's how you do proper security

Actually that's a failure to manage security effectively: people are given access to secure systems because they need it in order to do their jobs - a user locked out is a job not done.

re: with a stylus and no fingerprints

Because multi-touch works so well like that ...

re: Just out of curiosity

Where were nano-tubes or bucky balls mentioned?

Re: Kind of why Linux and Macs are secure

It's a good job that all those Linux servers and embedded devices, without which the interwebs wouldn't run, don't exist otherwise according to you they'd surely be incredibly vulnerable.

re: few people had firewalls installed

I had a Linux box doing NAT when we were still on dialup. :-)

Re: how would you know if a Linux system was running unauthorised code?

As one of the first things you do is change the default admin ID and password, and limit the scope of any remote login facility (if you don't disable it completely) you won't need to worry that your router has been compromised by this sort of attack, will you? You did change the ID ... ?

Re: there has been no public test of an online Cherished Transfer system

IME online Vehicle Excise Duty (car tax) payment has been working well for several years. Also tickets for minor traffic offences (parking etc.) can generally be paid with a few clicks. So DVLA have shown they can provide services that require cooperation with insurers and councils. That's a whole lot better than medical and welfare benefits service providers, both of whom I've had to deal with recently and neither of whom had much of a clue what was going on even when I eventually got to talk to the appropriate people - either case could have been easily dealt with by a couple of emails, but that facility just isn't available. So you wait for an age listening to "your call is important to us ... we are less busy between 5am and 4am on the third Thursday of the month ... plinky plonky music ..." then have to explain everything twice before they decide you need to talk to someone else, because they don't have access to that part of the system, and go through the whole painful experience one more time ... and it was hard enough finding even a vaguely relevant phone number online in the first place.

Re: Isn't there any way the heating circuit can be energized via induction?

Yes, but it involves a big heavy copper winding on the rocket.

Re: you should open up some old disc drives

Use those magnets and the rocket's going nowhere.

Re: No mention that other distros even exist

They'd never publish anything like the two OpenSUSE articles I saw on the front page just now.

Re: Similarly, trying to remember the goofy names of many Linux tools is painful

Indeed, that's why I add ClassicMenu Indicator to my default Unity desktop - it restores the functionality of the pre-Unity menus.

Re: rallying round to help new users

We can only do that if he asks a question in the first place, rather than just deciding it doesn't work because it's not the same as Windows. In fact if he'd even bothered to type "task manager Ubuntu" into Google he'd have found that the first hit is "is there a task manager in ubuntu or do i have to install it ?" and the first line of the first reply is "Go in your menus to System> Administration> System Monitor". Does this say more about him or experienced Linux users?

Re: The fact that driving becomes an automatic skill is a good thing

Wrong - it deserves/requires more attention than that.

Re: how do you define drink driving?

Blood alcohol content - simples.

Re: are they going to make talking to passengers illegal too?

Apparently talking to passengers is less demanding - the compression used in mobile communication is lossy and your brain has to work at filling the gaps.

Re:Microsoft has deliberately balanced the Surface's availability

Yeah right, cunning strategy to encourage their valued partners to produce loads of Windows tablets, by showing how popular they are.

re: in a French Lidl there was a 'TV simulator'

Available in UK Lidl a while ago, might still be some in the remainder bin.

Re: One might ask why you're going so slow...

Because he's a "utility" cyclist rather than a "sporting" cyclist - he doesn't wear Lycra, and doesn't want to get his clothes sweaty. He's still going faster than a pedestrian, parking pretty much wherever he wants and not waiting for a bus.

Re: I could be wrong of course

But YouTube is never wrong: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2XVNFzNlZ8

Re: Which is a disturbing thought..

Calm down, no need for panic - they've put those antiseptic gel dispensers everywhere so we're all safe. Until a resistant strain grows on the dispensers.

Re: evaporates to leave no residue

Actually the ATF requires that rubbing alcohol should contain about 0.3% soluble solids - this will be deposited when the alcohol evaporates.

Re: I don't eat from it, wash in it, or drink the water from it.

But you do atomize some of the water every time you flush ...

Re: crappy default colour scheme

I suspect that people who will whinge about the default, instead of changing it themselves, just aren't very high on the list of priority users. I've never bothered to change from the default, I hardly ever see any of it apart from the unremarkable grey-on-grey window decoration.

Re: With a PC it is generally straight forward to replace the OS

You're really not up to speed on Secure Boot, are you?

Re: Toyotas definitely shut down if you hold down the start/stop button

So you press Start to stop - any Windows user should be familiar with that concept.

Re: people who like sugar in their tea and smokers

Bah, all this talk of ritual and flavour has got me wanting a nice roll-up with my tea. I gave up smoking 5+ years ago but I still get the occasional craving.

re: slightly brown milk

My best mate from uni did it like that, but he used to swear that he loved a nice cup of tea. Weird.

Re: At least the old PS/2 plugs could be located by touch

... and then rotated until the pins were bent and wouldn't fit in any way.

IFTFY

Re: did you mean their Bada system?

ITYM Tizen - Bada has been in production since 2010.

Re: Heard something about it on the radio last year

Lotus has been developing active noise control for something like 20 years. ISTR the technology was initially used to reduce cabin noise and improve music playback, but then they added realistic, adjustable engine noise to improve the driving experience. :-)

Re: In the first case you are limited to what is officially offered for your system

That's incorrect - you can add third party repositories to your package manager, which will then allow you to install and update the unsupported software as if it were included in the distribution.

Re: I can't wait

X86 Linux Wine means I don't have to boot Windows or run a virtual machine for any of the Windows apps that I regularly use. This version may be an early proof-of-concept demo, but it's potentially a very powerful tool for non-X86 tablet/mobile platforms.

Re: If wine could some how work on non-x86 platforms

It can ... if you run an X86 emulator, and speed isn't an issue ...

Re: if Hello Kitty had gone in the drink

She was sitting on a chunk of expanded polystyrene, so wouldn't have a problem as long as the electronics survived.

re: Well done to kids, teacher and school.

I was under the impression it was one kid and her dad - no school involved.

Re: wikipedia doesn't have the German meaning

"He also told me about something called "Plombe"" - lead (Pb) seals:

http://www.geohewitt.com/lead_seals.html

Re: stored in plaintext or reversible form

There's no need for passwords to be blatantly trivially accessible - given access to the hashes, knowledge of the "secure" system and the necessary computing resources, a brute force attack will usually yield some weak passwords.

Re: Those aren't that bad

I had a small frog jump on my foot once, that was right next to a PC on the floor. The cat brings me all sorts of interesting things.

re: Why were they stored in a copyable format?

There has to be a hash somewhere to compare with the submitted password - how else would the system know it was correct?

Re: Memo, Samsung to Mr S Balmer, Microsoft

"working perfectly" ... apart from the easy workaround, you mean?

Re: if the OS is *that* destructive

It's not the OS - the machine's firmware is self-destructive.

re: more vulnerable to shoulder-surfing

Except the spy would have to note the number of each pressed key, rather than just its position on the keypad - swings and roundabouts?

Re: If it was that popular ...

It was very popular on netbooks, dominated the market for a while, but that was a small market compared to desktop and laptop, and most netbook manufacturers were quite heavily invested in the laptop market.

Re: Laptop manufacturers need to add touch

For most users touch only works well on tablets and kiosks.