Posts by Steve Crook

Re: I had a smart meter fitted last week

When (if?) you change energy supplier I hope it'll continue to work :-)

Re: I slipped on muh snake oil

"but lady nature doesn't like her no-go areas lifted"

Thing is though, we don't know where the hard limits are. The history of science and technology is littered with definitive statements about what is and is not achievable. Most turn out to be wrong.

Re: It's not installing the bloatware that's the issue

"If I go to a Ford dealer and say can i have it without the CD radio or the silver trim"

Not been to buy a car recently have you?

Last time I did, there was a wide range of choice of options, some factory, some dealer at additional cost. All to be added to the bare bones model. Or I could buy one of their specials that had a whole bunch of special stuff in it already at a special price. To which I could add extras at my own expense if I wanted.

Given the prevalence of internets these days it would be relatively easy to provide a base version that then upgraded as per customer request as part of initial setup.

Re: IntelliJ

Been using Intellij for years. Always thought it was the dogs nuts. So much so I was happy to pay for my own version rather than use the free Eclipse. Always thought Eclipse sucked and I *never* found a developer who'd used both and preferred Eclipse.

Re: In addition

Invade Austria?

Aren't Rods odds the same?

If the risk of being struck is x, then even if he's been struck once or twice or whatever, his risk of being struck again are still x unless being struck makes him do something to change the odds?

Re: Shame

PFI School. Plans drawn up, school built.

Cloakrooms have no coat hooks in them.

Education authority complains about missing coat hooks.

Contractor examines plans, no coat hooks in plans or other specs.

Contractor says they weren't asked for them, EA approved & signed off plans.

Contractor says they'll charge to fit them.

EA outraged because *everyone* knows you can't have a cloakroom without coat hooks and they shouldn't be charged for them because they *should* have been there regardless of plans.

Draw your own conclusions...

Re: I doubt it's hard to prank them

"The Telegraph has lurched so far away from journalistic standards"

Yes, it's a good job we've got the Guardian, that bastion of unbiased, rigorously fact checked journalism on hand to counter the evil that is the Telegraph...

Re: Completely and utterly bonkers

If you haven't, go and look at the WEB site for the project. It's fascinating, board construction, component layout, testing, managing connections. Amazing breadth of skills the man has.

From his site:

"I spent a bit of time trying to work out how to do the 7-segment display using discrete transistors but the answer is vast. Really, really big. It would have near doubled the size of the thing and the circuitry for the display would have obscured the circuitry for the processor which would have undermined what I was trying to do. As its only for debug and not proper function I went for chips. This is definitely NOT cheating, it is just for debug. It is irritating though."

And

"The RAM's turning out to be quite sizable. A square inch per bit ! I'm hoping to do 64 bytes, but that translates to the best part of two square metres."

Really, I had to laugh. Sizeable? Not half it isn't.

Re: Sigh ...

Surprised? Oh how I wish I was. I would have chosen an icon except there wasn't an "I'm so weary of this sort of thing I can barely summon the energy to type" icon.

Re: Comparing with a 'competitive' project

"This situation should be compared to the private finance deals that the Tories give to their chums"

PFI: Invented by Tories and stretched to close to breaking point by Nu-Labour.

Leaping Cow

Had one in the garden a few years back. It had done a bunk from a herd moving along the road. I was working from home at the time, and looked up to see cow legging it down the garden pursued by three blokes. Took a few seconds to wonder if there was something in the water and decided the sight was real so kept watching.

The blokes thought they'd got the bovine cornered, but it made a dash for it and hurdled a 3 foot fence+ditch to make it into the field next door. Very impressive.

Re: Why Why I always asked myself for Surface

I can't work out if the concept is flawed or the implementation. After all, it looks like a neat idea. It's one where I see the adverts, and think yes, possibly. Then I read the reviews and mmmm, possibly not. Then I look at the price and think, nope, not a chance.

Re: Neonicotinoids

No, please, lets.

The ban on neonics is probably going to be responsible for the deaths of more bees this year than neonics ever were. My local beekeeping association has already warned that we should expect more of our bees to be at risk because farmers will have to resort to legal but far more noxious insecticides and have to use them more often because they can't use neonics.

It's more likely that the problems we've seen in recent years are the effects of imported diseases and habitat loss. In the US commercial keeping involves moving thousands of colonies around the country to follow the pollination season. It's ideal for spreading nasties around at super high speed.

Just wait until the asian hornet turns up. They'll have to fight it out with resistant varroa and small hive beetle.

Re: manufacturers are to blame 100%

It's not just the computer. It's the TV, printer, that streaming box you purchased a couple of years ago and a bunch of other network connected kit that appears to be running Android or BusyBox.

The manufacturers customise the software, do a couple of updates during the first 18 months to fix the most shocking bugs and, perhaps, introduce a few new features. Then that's it. Support is finished and the world rolls on.

I'm not sure what the answer is, I did wonder if manufacturers should be forced to open source their code/build environment for each device as it gets to the end of its support life...

Who trained the Japanese to torpedo bomb?

I did read somewhere that it was the RAF...

Re: QTE's

"When PC gamers are willing to pay the amount of money it costs to fund a high quality modern AAA title"

Perhaps it's the other way round. Some ports from console are rubbish, reviewers tell us they're rubbish, so the publishers know they can't charge £50.

But sometimes I think it's just too much like hard work to provide the textures and frame rates that can make a game look good on PC. Sometimes I think it's might be done deliberately. If console gamers could see just what could be done with a PC they might be inclined to walk away from consoles. Which upsets Sony and Microsoft who have hardware to sell...

That makes more sense

I'm reminded of those photographs they used to show on "Ask The Family" and then pull back and back and back and back...

Re: I find business finance so unintuitive

Dunno. If at the end of it, their costs are lower and they're doing the same stuff with fewer bods, just with better organisation, that's gotta be a good thing for the business if not the people they fire. Right?

Better to do it when you've got the time and space to make sure things are done properly, than to be forced into some sort of 'operation firefight' on the back of continuing bad results. Been there for the latter, and the results are *always* ugly.

Re: And the price will be?

Depends on how long you're likely to want to keep it.

I'm still using my HTC Desire, the version of android is too old and the CPU struggles with my satnav program. So I'm going to buy a new phone this year. I'd not expect to change it unless it breaks because the tech has reached a point where it's likely to be able to cope with everything I need for the foreseeable. So I'd be prepared to spend more for something I really like and that's going to last.

Anal probes all round then?

This post is disembodied.

Re: Halftruth?

If you've not got the latest version it's still a whole truth.

When I read the code I was wondering if I'd fallen into a wormhole and it was 1980. Again. Anyone seen a groundhog recently?

Re: one film edit

Hmmm. Could be we have a directors cut DVD is actually shorter than the version released to ciinemas? My friend Guy (or Mark depending on where he is) told me once that the directors cut of "Bloodshack" also had this honour...

Hated the Jackson LOTR version, won't bother to watch any of this, I'll stick with faint memories of David Davis (*NOT* the M.P.) reading "The Hobbit" on BBC R4 and the book itself.

You are not alone

It's not that uncommon. There will be a significant number of people who will be denied access to a buggy, insecure and 'out of date on install' smart meter that will save them almost no money at all. But they'll still have to pay for it through their bills. That's progress for you.

See: http://www.nickhunn.com/uk-smart-meters-delayed-again/#more-1585 for a completely depressing view of the whole UK smart meter fiasco.

Re: IT angle? Who cares?

"Can we now hope for some valve electronics hackery?"

Man in France makes thermionic values from scratch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzyXMEpq4qw&feature=player_detailpage

Re: weighing the options...

Approved by the PKD estate as most likely to make money?

Hated the original film, and while the directors final, final, absolutely final, never going to be a better version (sorry, did we mention 4k?) cut was an improvement, I still didn't like it that much. I keep watching Blade Runner in its various incarnations expecting (hoping?) to like it, and always being disappointed.

Don't hold out much hope if the Alien 'prequel' was anything to go by.

Re: Well Done...

My first reaction was that it was all very unlike an American. More British. Not exactly Heath-Robinson or Eddie the eagle, more Cavor. Then I thought that it's probably killed any ambitions Vulture Special Projects might have had in the same direction.

Impressive none the less.

Re: Something more intertesting

I'm sure if we look harder we'll be able to see the tongue marks. That rock is probably a chocolate chip.

It's not the character

It's the people who write the stories and those who play the part. All we've done is switch actor, they all play the same character rushing around in the same old story fighting the same old enemies using the same old sonic screwdriver all the while grimacing at the camera and ultimately using the same deus ex to complete the story.

It might have been more interesting if the current doctor *did* have the hots for his assistant at least it'd add *something* new. At the moment it's hard to tell the last three apart if you squint. The doctor has become invincible like Superman, and, like Superman the stories are equally uninteresting. A bit more Batman Dark Knight might be appropriate.

Moffat has turned out to be a one trick pony, ok if you really like the trick, but dull and repetitive if you don't.

Re: Want to see the film version?

"The idea of a film version is just too horrible to contemplate."

We all know that film versions are never as good as the book.

Also, consider the possibility of being able to buy the film of "The Gods Of War" and "Battlefield Earth" as a DVD double bill.