Posts by vonBureck
37 posts • joined Wednesday 5th September 2007 12:09 GMT
Re: Really?
>>> That's not a lot considering that land is rising with up-to 1 cm / year in Scandinavia. Just during my 30 years I can see the difference.
Just to be pedantically accurate, in Scandinavia that's primarily due to post-glacial rebound, not so much tectonic movements. However, it could well be that the same phenomenon applies to a some of the sea-rise data, so the point stands.
Re: Tongues untied
> I cannot imagine that linguists do too much "manual" work in this area as there are software tools for almost every intellectual pursuit.
Reconstructing ancient languages requires linguists to compare vocabulary items (including related words, homonyms etc.) for multiple languages and multiple time periods, so there's actually a huge amount of "manual" effort involved. Also, consider that people tend to specialise in selected languages or language families and might not have the resources to research multiple other languages, so it seems like a natural use for computers. As long as they manage to digitise and properly process all the required data, retrieving the entire historical evolution of more or less any word in any documented language (which you don't even need to be familiar with), presumably with cross-linking and related items, will be a huge aid to dictionary-wielding researchers.
Also, bear in mind that all such reconstruction results are ultimately hypothetical, so the more languages can be referenced, the more plausible the end result. In any case, exciting stuff for the cunning ones.
Re: Not the revolution you were looking for
Google Translate says: You deserve this Alkellmaty:?!
Made me shiver, to be honest.
Re: Determining you age over the internet
> My last attempt to find the answer to how to determining the age over the internet is some sort of an quiz.
Ah, so you do remember the "age verification" in the old Leisure Suit Larry games :) Is Pia Zadora: a) short b) sexy c) a singer d) all of the above
Though nowadays that probably only tests googling prowess, so that rather defeats the object :)
Icon compulsory
I wrote to him once...
... asking his opinion on some of my ideas for my school D&T project. I was absolutely stunned to receive his reply, typed on a filing card (now I know what the typewriter was!) and signed. Life-changing stuff when you're 14... I still have that card, somewhere.
Sir, this starry night I raise my glass to you.
Re: Re. "But more importantly..."
No different to reading the EULA before opening the packaging it's in, and THAT obviously works.
How to fool French peasants into thinking that you're English in one easy lesson
Fa faa fa faa fa fafa faa faa, faa fa faa fa faa fa faa faa
You must mean Physics of Heineken advertising?
There, fixed that one for you.
Posted in Icelandic town demands vulva museum
Open from dusk till dawn?
I can just see Cheech Marin reprising his role as the doorman from the Titty Twister with his "Come on in, pussy lovers" banter... in Icelandic :) Now THAT might draw crowds.
I expect they were just holding it wrong
Someone had to say it...
Have you seen their prices?
2000 Euros for a set of lingerie... now THAT is exploitation of women. Scandalous and reprehensible, that's what it is. Spoils the yoof, too.
Re: Re: pushy galore
Now that'sh what I call a one-liner!
The rotor in the motor? Isn't that like...
... the candle with the 'andle on the gateau from the chateau? Looks like prior art to me.
Nearly right...
Let's just call it "1 gerald" and be done with it (with extra anorak points for the Blackadder reference).
Playmobil, or it won't happen
A wallchart is required, and must be based on Playmobil technology.
OS? It's not even a PC
Worse still, in the tutorial video the resident chick says "available for both PC and Mac". Now I can't begin to tell you how much that phrase PISSES ME OFF every time I see it on my Ubuntu box...
X-ing the Y sounds good to me
Let's not get too fussy here, nothing wrong with "X-ing the Y". Maybe except for the potential mispronunciation as "waxing the I" (eye?)
Yes, yes, I was just leaving anyway.
Posted in Air Conflicts: Secret Wars
Not the "Horton"
It's the Horten Ho 229, not the Horton. Also known as the Gotha Go 229.
Pigeon, I think you'll find
"Stool pidgin"? That would be a simplified language used to discuss excrement, then. Might be something to do with that cow crap methane article...
Posted in Verity Stob and the super subjunction
And the award for the best use of Chaucer in an IT-related work of literature goes to...
Stob, FTWly. Cheerse!
Lucky bastards
Well, that's them set up for the rest of their lives. I do wonder, though, if there are any search-related start-ups that are actually created with the aim of operating successfully, and not just getting bought by Google/Microsoft/[insert your own megacorp here].
Holy crap, works here as well
Pinpointed me right down to the street address, and there's not even been an Android in use in the house since last year. Scaaa-ry. You want one of those touchy-feely phones, but don't fancy spying by the Church of Jobs or Chocolate Factory? Check out Samsung's Wave - very touchy, and not yet accused of covert surveillance.
Did he say "scalable options"?
Having just watched the excellent http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/6995033/mongo-db-is-web-scale linked from Stob's latest outpouring (also excellent), I must say I find this scalability thing most disturbing coming from a military type person talking about weapons systems.
Posted in Judge flips $625.5m Apple patent payout
Re: I don't understand...
Presumably they just threw out the $625m amount, so everything will go back for another round of backhand dealings to arrive at a new amount for damages. Even so, looks just right for a retirement fund...
Posted in The Bayeux Tapestry archiving model
Oh do come on
You mean you went on holiday to France and all you could think of was storage performance? Now THAT'S one dedicated tech hack.
Mind you, could be the start of an all new section on El Reg: a geek's-eye view of the world's tourist attractions, or how to make something commonly held as interesting mind-numbingly boring to all but the geekiest techs. Could even be made into a TV series, with James May to host it... Can't think of a suitably pun-laden title, though. Ideas, anyone?
Paris, obviously, as that's one tourist attraction all techs would like to cover.
Posted in Paramount buries Dune remake
Fixed that story for you
Droid meets droid, droid becomes chameleon, droid loses chameleon, chameleon turns into blob, droid gets blob back again. Blob meets blob, blob goes off with blob and droid loses blob, chameleon and droid.
Mine's the furry-collar anorak with "Jupiter Mining Corporation" on the back.
Let the tech people handle this
Bravo! After the last days of media hysteria, scaremongering and pseudo-expert guest panels, finally someone has presented an actual technical analysis of what happened (and is still happening) at Fukushima. For some reason, world+dog seems to assume that if the authorities say that any nuclear incident is under control, they are quite obviously lying and we will all die (or at least grow in the dark, or spring an extra organ).
Solid work, Lewis, you deserve to be linked all over the interwebs. The first time I regret not running a blog... Get that man a pint.
Posted in Exciting company seeks Linux engineer
Careful with the service tickets here...
"The Engineer will also be responsible for Supporting maintaining and troubleshooting the clients hosting environment, network, IP traffic and sewers."
Troubleshooting sewers? Probably a better name for it... still, IT is everywhere these days.
In Soviet Britain...
the party crashes you!
@ Free Windows?
It's called ReactOS, actually. It's not Linux, and no, I haven't tried it.
Posted in Don't call me Ishmael
Re: And the award goes to ...
> Paris - because she is an airport and deserves to be on the list ...... (ok I know paris has two
> airports - infer what you will)
Actually, Paris has three main airports, plus an extra one just for cheap lines. Make of THAT what you will :)
Paris, because you'll always find your landing strip.
(Gotta dash, mine's the one with "Paris in a day" in the back pocket).
Posted in Don't call me Ishmael
John Ronald Reuel who?
Hard to believe, but I appear to be the first geek to file a complaint against the spelling "Tolkein". It's TOLKIEN, fer chrissakes. Get your biblical references right :)
Posted in Don't call me Ishmael
Here's another one
My uni admin used the names of Vangelis albums for all the school servers - how's that for obscure :). And yes, one of the servers was indeed called chariots-of-fire.
What about OpenOffice?
And here I was hoping that IBM would finally get Sun's finger out and give OpenOffice.org that final, long needed push to create a truly realistic rival to M$ Office, even on Windows boxes. If OO gets fully "released" to the community, that may well be its end. And yes, I do know OO is formally already a community project, but let's face it - without Sun's engineer's the project would be nowhere.
Also, I wonder what's going to happen to VirtualBox - Sun only bought that last year :)
Not bulletproof... no need apparently - see photo :P
Having delved into the subject elsewhere (go on, say you haven't), I can say it seems the uberbrassieres are not actually bulletproof - just a comfy and extremely un-kinky sports-type undergarment to be worn underneath the bulletproof vest.
Even found a photo of one in action... http://m.onet.pl/_m/c50971f91e08dd1685f3513b079e6f34,24,1.jpg
Admittedly, it does seem the uberbosoms can cope well enough with most conventional projectiles, vest or no vest :)
Jailbird jetsetter jumps jejune jungle job, judges Jap jubs
Didn't come through before... moderator discriminates 'j' sensation
Posted in Germans plan 578m-high überpyramid
Ye olde IT angle...
... only just cunningly squeezed in at the very end to shut up the "Where's the IT angle" crowd. Well done! Keep it up.
