Thank Ulmo it resurfaced as planned.
Otherwise it would have meant a serious loss of face.
Posts by Richard Scratcher
483 publicly visible posts • joined 31 Aug 2007
Boaty McBoatface sinks in South Atlantic on her maiden deployment
Manchester pulls £750 public crucifixion offer
Bloke whose drone was blasted out of sky by angry dad loses another court battle for compo
Spammy Google Home spouts audio ads without warning – now throw yours in the trash
GCHQ dismisses Trump wiretap rumours as tosh
Get a GRIP! Robolution ain't happening until TOUCH is cracked
Mars orbiter FLOORS IT to avoid hitting MOON
Did your in-flight entertainment widget suck? It's Panasonic's fault, claims software biz
Saturday 4th March 2017 17:17 GMT 
A common mistake
"If CoKinetic's claims are true, air passengers either get crippled third-party software for their in-flight entertainment, which sucks, or Panasonic-supplied software that has no competition, and thus faces little to no pressure to actually be any good, which sucks."
This is a common mistake when talking about pressurised aircraft. The correct term is "blows".
Finally proof that Apple copies Samsung: iPhone 7 Plus halts, catches fire like a Galaxy Note 7
Pack your bags! NASA spots SEVEN nearby Earth-sized alien worlds
Microsoft ups Surface slab prices for Brits. Darn weak pound, eh?
Naughty sysadmins use dark magic to fix PCs for clueless users
Friday 27th January 2017 15:48 GMT
Virus!
A senior manager once called me over to sort out a "virus" on his PC. Whatever he typed in his document immediately scrolled up and off the top the window. He was in a bit of a panic. There was an open ring binder folder on his desk and I slid it forward slightly, so that its corner was no longer pressing the space bar. "Should be okay now", I said.
I tried to joke about the "magic touch" but had to tell him in the end.
I'm deadly serious about megatunnels, vows Elon Musk
Make America, wait, what again? US Army may need foreign weapons to keep up
Congratulations – you're looking better than ever this morning!
Euro space agency's Galileo satellites stricken by mystery clock failures
Flight 666 lands safely in HEL on Friday the 13th
Monday 16th January 2017 14:33 GMT
Not a bit of it!
The foreskin was added by the creator precisely so it could be cut off by the chosen people as an easy indication that they are one of the faithful. It serves no other purpose, which is why we don't see foreskins on animals. There is no equivalent removable label on the female body because women don't really count.
It's all in the book.
Microsoft's Blue Screen of Death dead in latest Windows 10 preview
Vinyl and streaming sales offset CD decline in UK music sales
Tuesday 3rd January 2017 19:03 GMT 
Too warm
Vinyl is crap and always has been. It just can’t replace the wonderfully scratchy, tinny sound of shellac played on a decent wind-up gramophone, fitted with a medium-tone steel needle.
Listening to Blind Lemon Jefferson on my VV 8-30, I feel like I’m right there in the same century. When I close my eyes, the audible perspective of mono is eerie. I could almost point to the chair he's sitting in.
Sure you can approximate the tonal qualities of shellac by listening to an LP with your head in a tin bucket but it’s just not the same and it makes it hard to drink your beer.
Meat pies in SPAAAAAAAAAAAACE!
Amazon's first live drone delivery flew last week in Cambridge, UK
Plastic fiver: 28 years' work, saves acres of cotton... may have killed less than ONE cow*
'Pavement power' - The bad idea that never seems to die
Married man arrives at A&E with wedding ring stuck on todger
BT will HATE us for this one weird 5G trick
Sudden explosion in reports of exploding phones
BBC detector vans are back to spy on your home Wi-Fi – if you can believe it
Saturday 6th August 2016 09:14 GMT
Grab a granny
"This seems like a pretty ridiculous amount of effort to go to, surely just linking TV licenses to an iPlayer login would solve all of this nonsense? You pay, you get a login. You share the login and it's logged into more than x IPs simultaneously the account gets blocked."
I agree. This would be the best idea. Then I could visit some of my elderly relatives (people over 75 currently get a free TV licence) and cadge their licence details.
Avoiding Liverpool was the aim: All aboard the world's ONLY moving aqueduct
Friday 29th July 2016 20:49 GMT
A wonderful piece of engineering.
Contrast that with the new road bridge that's under construction a little way up the ship canal. When finished it will take some pressure off the old swing bridge and allow cyclists and pedestrians (and trams), from the towns of Irlam and Cadishead, to get over the water to the "Shopping Cathedral".
The new bridge consists of four concrete pillars that lift up the road deck and allow boats to sail under it. Unfortunately it recently fell down and blocked the ship canal for several weeks. Luckily nobody was hurt in the accident.
Milk IN the teapot: Innovation or abomination?
Friday 29th July 2016 20:17 GMT
M.I.F
Tea contains polyphenols, which give it a bitter flavour that some people prefer. Milk binds to some of the polyphenols making the tea taste less bitter.
Pouring a small quantity of cold milk to a large volume of hot tea will "scald" the milk and denature it before it has time to bind with the polyphenols.
Pouring tea into a cup with milk in will slowly warm the milk and result in a less bitter drink.
So, putting milk in the teapot will give you all the disadvantages of milk with none of the benefits, which is why it's just not done old boy.
Rejoice, fatties: Giving chocolate electric shocks makes it healthier
Earth's core is younger than its crust surface
Airbus to build plane that's even uglier than the A380
Flying Scotsman attacked by drone
Spanish cops discover illegally parked flying car
Photographer hassled by Port of Tyne for filming a sign on a wall
Mañana: Nokia’s in no hurry to go back to phones
NASA charges up 18-prop electric X-plane
What the world needs now is Pi, sweet $5 Raspberry Pi Zero
Doctor Who's The Zygon Invasion shape-shifts Clara and brings yet more hybrids
Future civilisations won't know how the universe formed
Thursday 22nd October 2015 11:55 GMT
A piece of cake
"...since every piece of matter in the Universe is in someway affected by every other piece of matter in the Universe, it is in theory possible to extrapolate the whole of creation - every Galaxy, every sun, every planet, their orbits, their composition, and their economic and social history from, say, one small piece of fairy cake."
- The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Universe
Wednesday 21st October 2015 15:00 GMT
Cobblers.
"We know all this because our own ball of rock formed early enough in universal history for us to gather "observational evidence for the big bang and cosmic evolution, encoded in light and other electromagnetic radiation".
Yes, our planet's inhabitants had to work it out from cosmic background radiation and doppler shifted spectra. But future life forms will simply tune into the TV signals we've been blasting out for decades and get all their info from the Open University broadcasts and suchlike. Bloody TV licence dodging alien bastards!
Elderly? Disabled? You clearly need a .38" Palm Pistol
After Burner: Sega’s jet-fighting, puke-inducing arcade marvel
Ten years on: Ronnie Barker, Pismonouncers Unanimous founder, remembered
BAN the ROBOT WHORES, says robot whore expert: 'These AREN'T BARBIES'
BAD things happen to GOOD robots in America: hitchBot DECAPITATED
URRGH! Evil app WATCHES YOU WATCHING PORN, snaps your grimace
Apple iPhone 6S: Same phone, another day, but TOTALLY DIFFERENT
Thursday 10th September 2015 17:09 GMT
Re: Pressure sensitive?
Apple already have this tech working in their newer MacBooks. The glass touch pad is fixed solidly to the casing but it has an electromagnet underneath that gives a small kick when the pad senses the pressure required for a "mouse click". The effect is that you'd swear the pad had moved - I had to shut the laptop down to convince myself it hadn't. A similar gizmo is fitted behind the glass of the new phone.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
