Posts by Alain Moran
105 posts • joined Wednesday 18th July 2007 15:57 GMT
Seven years?
Am I the only one who is wondering why on earth he navigated these systems manually?
Speech recognition software might not be 100% accurate, but you could automate navigating the options and record the prompts for later manual correction & have an up-to date map in a couple of weeks!
Posted in The ten SEXIEST computers of ALL TIME
Where is the QL?
You list the ugly ZX-series but not the gorgeous QL ... are you mad?
Poor
Could do better.
Re: Finally a use for QR codes
Possibly, however that's something they can work towards solving ... after all if they're only up to creating a couple of transistors, then how useful is that really? An entire ATMega48 on the other hand could be really interesting!
http://ch00ftech.com/2012/10/27/qr-clock/
Finally a use for QR codes
Just have the display generate a QR code containing the data - scanners are ubiquitous and don't require contact.
Simple solution ... have a nice standard jack output and then bundle free adaptors with the product itself!
According to google
All of the Nexuses are sold out ... the 7's and the 10's too ... despite them still being apparently on sale.
Simple solution
Dig up their roads and bury the boxes ... not only will this require their street to be closed for a week or so while a hole big enough can be dug so that engineers will have access, but will also hide the boxes and allow the telco's to add a surcharge to their bills to pay for the extra work.
No doubt when they realise that it will not only inconvenience them but also put them out of pocket then they may change their tune ;)
Or...
Could be the work of a disgruntled (ex?) employee?
google not blocking
Google is not blocking searches for this ... a quick look turns up www.sambamobile.com
Re: new for old
MS-Agent was the base technology behind clippy ... "it looks like you're writing a letter" ;)
Even weirder ...
What would be weirder than basket weaving kits arriving at your house? ... being in a chat room about basket-weaving that's suddenly invaded by thousands of apple bots talking nonsense to each other! :o
Coming to a browser near you soon
Google River-View & Google Canal-View ... you heard it here first!
PS: No I don't have any inside information, but it's a bit obvious if british waterways are talking up new ways of promoting the rivers and canals.
Posted in Atlassian seeks geeks in Europe
Gotta love em
I've seen these guys buy a beer for an entire java conference before ... they really are great blokes.
Posted in Nokia: No Belle download for Apple users
Not the only one...
Nokia are by far and away not the only hardware supplier that does this!
For example Neato, makers of fine vacuum cleaning robots, still can't be bothered to supply the binaries that they push down the wire to the robot! Despite, from what I can gather, them using nothing more complex than 'dd' to do the transfer!
One Question
So if we go with the atomic time & ignore sunrise, does this mean that at some point we'll end up with '12 midnight' some time in the middle of the afternoon? Or maybe starting work at '9am' - two hours after sunset.
IMO, despite the difficulties behind a computer fix, fixing people's perception that 9am should be in 'the morning' and midnight should be 'at night' is going to be much much harder.
3UK
Three's billing systems have been up the creek since 2001 ... I had a handset with them back then and they botched my billing so badly I swore I'd never ever go back to using them even if they did have a handset/plan I wanted.
The complete buffoons also told me at the time that "People dont want the internet on their phones" (as a way of explaining their walled garden approach) ... and we all know how that turned out ;)
Yay, what a great way to motivate your people
For sure, I've always found that standing over your employees shoulders and threatening them is a great way to get the best work out of them ... NOT!
Recycling?
OK, so this isn't such a 'sexy' explanation, but is it possible that the block is actually the result of the mayans re-using an incorrectly carved block? - by putting the carved side on the inside 'nobody will ever see it' ;)
Gerlach
Transported to Nevada ey? ... let me guess, it'll be tested around the last weekend in August/first week in September!
They *will* ask for your fully informed consent
However that informed consent will boil down to a choice between a 2% interest rate and a 29% interest rate.
nyelvmark
The way I understand karma & reincarnation is that if you dont have enough 'good' karma then you are reincarnated, however when you reach enlightenment (ie have enough good karma) then you are freed from the cycle of birth, death & recincarnation ;)
Caution!
"Myrica gale is listed as an abortifacient and, therefore, should not be consumed by women who are, or might be, pregnant"
Hmm ... enough alcohol to open the legs, and enough added ingredients to ensure you get away with it too :o
Why bother with a bigger room?
Why not swap out the filing cabinets for a scanner and an old machine with a big hard-drive?
Bolt everything to the floor, disconnect the usb sockets, dont bother with a network connection and you wont have any problems with the data going walkies!
Next time you run out of space, just buy a bigger hard-drive, copy the old data across and swap out the old disk, once you have checked you have copied all the data over you should then take a standard steel drill and put a hole through the old drive casing & platters.
Data security is only as complicated as you make it.
Just lock them in the room with a reference manual
Why not use the same method us fogies used to learn to code when we were 7!
Give them some magazines with listings of games in them that they can type in ... the listings inevitably have bugs in them requiring the students to either debug the code, or admit to having wasted hours on typing the stupid thing in!
Give them a reference manual and let them sort it out for themselves - they will be better coders for it!
Never mind being caught on CCTV, I would imagine they have her bank details already anyway!
Posted in LOHAN team buried under ballockets
Centre of Aerodynamic Pressure
Surely that should be the Centre of Relative Aerodynamic Pressure?
Already had my coat on, the door is now swinging shut behind me :D
Master Book Record?
Erm...
Weather talk
IMO people talk about the weather as a way of discussing their innermost feelings!
If on a hot day, someone says how wonderful the weather is then you can be pretty sure they are happy inside, if they complain about how awful the heat is then there could be a deeper explanation ;)
Those people who ramble about how great it is to go running through the fallen leaves, or crunching about in deep snow probably have a different outlook to those whingeing about the overcast skies, or freezing cold ;)
@bristolBachelor
Aha ... that sounds like the piece of information I was missing ... thanks :D
Sorry I should have been more explicit ...
If they remove the CO2 and replenish the O2 then they can retain the N2 they already have.
I'm probably missing something here...
Why on earth (or even why on the ISS) do they take 'air' up with them ... surely pure oxygen would be more efficient?
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/ATV/SEMOP432VBF_0.html
"and 100 kg of air (oxygen and nitrogen)."
Cool!
So that's my reading ilst sorted ... sod the movies, gimme a book anyday (just finishing Holy Cow by Sarah MacDonald at the moment - really good, hard to put down, reading 'just another chapter' at 3am kind of book)
Control Rods
I could be wrong, however I always thought that control rods were inserted into the reactor to speed the reaction up not slow it down.
Nuclear fission generates high energy neutrons, however these high speed particles tend to pass straight through the fissile material. To make the reaction sustainable a moderator such as graphite is lowered into the reactor to slow the neutrons down and encourage them to cause further fission.
So to shut a nuclear reactor down, you withdraw the control rods.
Of course I could be totally wrong here and have completely mis-remembered my nuclear tech lectures.
Posted in Malawi poised to outlaw farting
beggin for a prankin
Oh boy, those chaps in the Malawian government are just ASKING to have their lunches topped off with a dusting of farting powder, followed by (of course) what every right-thinking and decent Malawian citizen would feel is their partiotic duty - a quick call to the boys in blue to tip them off about the indecent & criminal activities of the ruling classes ;)
Grenade because you can bet that politicians in Malawi dont have to go outside to smoke ... KABOOOM! (Guy Fawkes should have thought of this first)
Posted in How I invented Desktop Publishing
TRS-80
IIRC there was a DTP-alike package on the TRS-80 ... it used a very much 'zoomed in' view to cope with the fact that the graphics hardware wasnt capable of displaying what was printed, but if you could cope with that then it was very much a WYSYWYG interface.
Posted in Robot teddy bears attack Alzheimer's
Now I know what I want for christmas
Yay, that's pretty cool .. I want one :D
Write once run anywhere?
You're having a laugh aren't you?
That should be 'Write once, debug EVERYWHERE' ... sigh :s
Posted in Reg hack celebrates happy event
IT Angle
I would have thought the IT angle was obvious - the owner works for the best IT news site on the web :D
Where did you get x-rays from?
Given that they are talking about paedophiles it makes a lot more sense that they are looking at the relative lengths of bones, ie: the ratio between the length of your forearm to your upper arm (think facial recognition but applied to your body)
This kind of information could easily be manually digitised from pictures of abuse and then compared against a digital model derived from your movements ... no doubt it will be using a similar technology to the gait tracking stuff, so a more reasonable assumption is that it will be fed by basic cameras not x-rays!
That said, some shoulder, elbow & knee pads and this code would likely be as broken as a facial recognition is when eye makeup or prosthetic noses are applied.
Ooops!
@Rob Farnell ... Hanging chad? Dimpled chad? ... punch-card systems are flawed too!
FFS: Just stick an X in the box and count it already, it's worked for years ... if it aint broke ;)
Besides if all the election results came in instantly it would ruin election night & all those natty graphics :D
I do worry for India though, they are trying hard to be viewed as a first-world country, but clapping people in irons for standing up for democracy is going to ruin decades of hard work.
Stun the imagination
Yep, that pdf is stunningly awful!!!
Quality Control
I recently had my MBP fixed due to the nVidia graphics chip bug, it's a known problem so Apple replaces the main-boards for free.
Mine was serviced by a third party service agent listed on Apple's site, and it took them almost three weeks to fix the problem due to Apple repeatedly sending out already fried main-boards!
Talking to the service agent this is a pretty common problem - it's cheaper for Apple to just keep sending out unknown quality boards than it is for them to kick their suppliers into touch and have them sort out their quality issues :s
Posted in Why we love to hate Microsoft
What would Microsoft need to do and say to you for you to be happy to call yourself a fan?
1. Hand over their entire patent pool to the FSF
2. Open-source everything
3. Make their software free and charge for support
4. Provide a compelling support offering that is worth paying for
Posted in Leica Pinmaster rangefinder
Sigh
Did anyone actually read the rules before posting?
"A manufacturer should submit to the R&A a sample of an item to be manufactured for a ruling as to whether its use during a stipulated round would cause a player to be in breach of Rule 14-3. "
So basically, as long as you submit a sample to R&A and pay off the right committee members you can have your device approved even though it 'should' break 14.3
Still ... not being able to switch bewteen yards/metres/cubits/linguine/brontosauri is a bit pants!
OoooooKaaaaaayyy
So, IE is more secure than Chrome or Opera eh?
Note to self: ensure you don't have any money in a bank owned/operated by Chase - they are quite clearly smoking crack!
Posted in German net crippled by top level glitch
Today is a very special day
For today we witness the creation of a brand new word 'verkrumpen' - a technical term to describe a knackered knetwork ... we've all used them at one time or another (often accompanied by a liberal sprinkling of lotus notes & IE6), and now we have a word to describe them - WIN!
Posted in Outsourcing goes inside
No change there then
The banks are already run by a bunch of criminals, so I guess it makes sense for their call-centres to be staffed by their mates.
