Posts by phuzz

They didn't call it the Bristol Olympus (as seen used in the Vulcan, and Concorde) because it was made in Kent mate.

Re: What's all the fuss about?

"Is it a religious thing?"

Well, it seems like a matter of life and death to true believers, and basically impenetrable to outsiders, so yes, it is very similar to religion.

Mint does seem to have less of the bullshit that some of the more militant OS's (or rather their users) have though.

Re: Lead time on new CPUs?

Why keep looking at Intel?

Early reports are that the kernel patches for part of this problem are causing 5-30% performance loss on Intel processors, and AMD chips tend to lag Intel by only about 5-30% for less money. So just go AMD.

Re: AMD not vulnerable

"If you control your own computer, it doesn't really matter if you can read the kernel memory from user space."

Until you go to a website that has some dodgy javascript running in user space (natch), which can then start reading stuff in kernel memory (or presumably anywhere else).

Unless you're writing or auditing every byte of code that runs on your computer, you have to start hoping that you truly control your computer.

Re: Popularism, much?

Yep, much as I'd like to see the end of scalping, there is more important things they should be getting on with.

Re: "the first new computer form-factor since the iPad"

It's a bit much to claim "the first new computer form-factor since the iPad" when a lot of the appeal of this device is that it's an homage to the Psion organiser.

The fact that it is very much not a new design, but instead a tried and tested one is the selling point.

Re: Their solution to a $5m fine?

Don't forget step two! You then have to either outsource your current workers, and/or change their job descriptions enough that they don't qualify for overtime.

Otherwise they'll rack up the overtime as they try and keep up with the extra workload.

Re: Business model

I wonder at what point it sank in that if they'd not made a fuss than probably about ten people total would have read the CQC, and now everyone's wondering what else they're trying to hide...

Re: Doesn't seem too bad

"Keeping communists out of government"

Blimey, looks like Joe McCarthy is still alive and kicking! Have you checked under your bed recently? You know what those pesky reds are like...

Re: I don't get it

"To some rabid lefties, yes. To most reasonable people, no."

Sure, an individual might not need healthcare every day (although some do), but across an entire nation, healthcare will be required every minute of every day.

Re: AI of?

Isn't "a big database with lots of computing power" a pretty good definition of AI anyway?

Re: 'gloves were forbidden'

Ah yes, Exeter uni physics department, where, due to a couple of MRI machines, they have their own gas liquification plant out the back. What this meant for us students was effectively unlimited amounts of LN2, stored by the back door in massive dewar flasks.

Of course, as budding scientists we used it to investigate things, eg, can you touch the bottom of a bucket of LN2? (yes you can, if you're quick, and all you get is a slightly chilly hand). Another fun experiment was testing what happens when you freeze the various ingredients in someone's lunch box, with the extension of "what happens when the subject tries to eat their now solid sandwich". Of course, this was best performed under blind conditions, ie we wouldn't tell someone that their entire lunch was now two hundred below...

Re: Poor sods?

Depends on your nationality. If you're from the UK, then you should be checking the British Antarctic Survey jobs page regularly.

Otherwise, the US bases are managed by Raytheon (yep, that Raytheon, the ones who make missiles and stuff) (not any more), Leidos (a different US defence contractor). They have their own jobs pages.

If you're not from the US or UK, your home country might have their own Antarctic bases, or you might be able to get a job with the yanks.

Bare in mind though, there's many more people who want a job on the ice than there are open positions, so don't get your hopes up.

Re: Meatbag option

Councils are the ones who are supposed to fix pot holes, and yet they don't get any of the road tax.

Re: Phone Batteries

Plus, any improvement in battery technology is subsumed by the device using more power than the previous generation due to a bigger screen, faster processor, extra-loud speaker or whatever the new generation of phones are touting.

Re: Hidden meaning

"Some would tell you that mortgages are ransoms."

Yes, but "loan" would be a far more accurate one-word description.

It's unlikely that they got the passwords from gmail. Either you reused the passwords somewhere (don't reuse passwords!), or you've got a keylogger on one of your devices.

Re: Gaming with a low-end Pentium Gold CPU?

I've not tried gaming, but the more recent dual-core Celerons are ok. Perfectly adequate for a point of sales machine, although the application that seems to require the most grunt is actually Outlook Web Access. Ever since Microsoft got rid of the low bandwidth version, they seem intent on creating a website that's as big a performance hog as the desktop app used to be, or maybe that's just what it's like in Firefox on linux.

Re: So what happened to the 12,000 ton Chelyabinsk meteorite?

You can actually collect some of the dust for yourself, from your guttering.

Just scrape out some of the mud you find there, and sort it with a magnet. They examine it under a microscope and you have a good chance of finding some tiny fragments.

Re: So glad...

Well of course human rights are top priority for them.

After all, politicians and BAE directors have human rights as well, things like the right to a massive salary, and maybe a bonus too. So they're making sure that those human rights are the ones being given priority.

Re: Visible pass after launch

A few years back I saw an ISS pass (from the UK), with the Cygnus spacecraft visible as a much smaller dot just 'behind' it. It was due to dock a few hours after I saw it I think.

Re: DevOps is still snake oil

I love the way that every reply in this thread has different ideas of what devops means, and most of them disagree.

Sums it all up really.

Re: Nice story, bro.

"It also has practically zero mass compared to the disk pack."

Really, because from the pictures it looks like it's made of cast iron. What did the disc packs weigh in that case?

Re: Don't drive into a raging wildfire...

"...Don't reach into the woodchipper with your hand to clear a jam even if you are 'fast enough'. Don't take the toaster into the shower with you..."

Look, anyone stupid enough to try any of these things doesn't deserve to be in the gene pool any more. Unless they really are quicker than a woodchipper, in which case that's exactly the sort of thing we want in the gene pool.

Re: Any point?

Same here. If I'm actually out and I need internet then it takes a few seconds to turn on LTE, but generally I'm only a few minutes from a wifi network, which gets the job done quicker. Leaving my phone on 3G really helps the battery life.

(the password for my local pub's wifi? "greatbeer", nice advertising there :)

Re: Linux?

I also use linux a lot, which was why my biggest question about this was hardware support. I've yet to find hardware that's less than 6 months old which works out of the box with most distros.

As for the mythical laptop with a twenty hour battery, isn't that still a myth? (Some older laptops are big enough to fit multiple batteries in which might get you closer though) And again, I wouldn't count on the power-saving working correctly under linux at launch.

Re: More of a loss for Google

"You pay in shops? Oh, you must be one of those people that doesn't sneak past when no-one is looking."

I get what you're saying, these fine upstanding companies have paid money to google with the assurance that their adverts will be shown to someone. If I adblock them, then presumably google still take their cash, but don't even have to cover the bandwidth of showing me the video.

Mind you, by that logic, if I walked out of the room when the ads were playing, I'd also be stealing? Adblocking is just a technical replacement for me shutting my eyes and sticking my fingers in my ears while the ads play.

Wait, there's a free cloud based Windows 10?

Ohh, my mistake, you were just being particularly uninspired in your choice of microsoft bashing. May I suggest you aim at something like their free cloud-based antivirus, it makes your joke actually work.

Re: Can't blame 'm for trying but...

I'm guessing this is primarily for the children of employees.

Hooray, we have company schools now! Do you think employees will be able to pay with OracleBux soon?

And at least little Jimmy wasn't trying to use noSQL for his backend. That kind of stunt should get you detention at any school.

Does anyone use DMARC and/or SPF for anything other than spam (and phishing) filtering?

We use it's presence on incoming mail for spam filtering, and make sure it's present on outgoing mail in order for our mail not to be flagged as spam by other companies. I'm pretty sure this isn't an unusual use case.

The problem

Well, the nub of the problem is that the QE class doesn't have a catapult or arrestor system, and fitting one now would cost about as much as new carrier (we're told).

This means the only fixed wing aircraft that can be used on them are V/STOL aircraft, and that limits the choice to:

Yak-38 - Soviet design, out of production, Uncle Vlad probably won't sell us any.

(Sea) Harrier - 1960's design, out of production.

F-35B - Modern design, very pricey.

So, given that there's only one aircraft that is currently being produced that can actually be used on the QE, that's the one we're going to have to get.

(Whether or not this situation of being stuck with only one choice of plane could have been avoided is a separate rant for a different day)