Posts by Naadir Jeewa

That explains why

It asked me how my Alt-Tabbing was going the other day.

Right, OpenReach still haven't done the works to get our properties connected. Next update is on Day 162. I live in London. I can really see OpenReach rolling out FTTC to rural Scotland, can't you?

Meanwhile, it's been 4 months and OpenReach still haven't installed copper for my flats. In London. Next to a FTTC cabinet.

Most exciting news since the trailer for Microsoft 500 Nations with Kevin Costner

I'm surprised El Reg hasn't picked up on the fact that Windows 8 is the first release that has the option of English with correct spellings, or as they call it "English - Great Britain"

Yet another silver bullet

An iPad receiving enough incident sunlight to charge at 10W is probably an iPad that is also overheating.

He's a ghost

Presumably, in the ending he wakes up and "it was all a dream".

He walks out of his house to find it painted green and the screen fades to black with the words "or was it?"

MS strategy almost makes sense...

I think what Microsoft is attempting to do is this:

WM 6.5 as natural successor to Windows CE, since this is what faces competition from Android as an embedded OS platform.

WM7 is more mobile centric, possibly with less backwards compatibility, and not designed to encompass both mobile phones and embedded applications.

You say social security, I say...

I for one am glad that the SS is bankrupt.

Ballot fail

The ballot screen runs in IE.

Infinite FAIL.

Open Access version

Open access version of paper is available at http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~amatoe/

El Reg's spin makes two major errors:

1. Confusing local trend studies with global trends.

This paper specifically deals with the North Atlantic. The authors clearly state that temperatures are higher than those predicted by CO2 forcing models by a further 0.3C.

2. Confusing short-term with long-term

The paper specifically talks about decadal variations, not the long-term CO2 forcing.

@Time:

Here's the last few paragraphs in full -

"Over the last 30-years temperatures in other tropical ocean basins have been rising steadily, but at a slower rate than the Atlantic (31). At the same time projections of surface temperature increases under a doubled carbon dioxide climate suggest that the Atlantic should be warming at a rate slower than the other observations (32). We suggest this apparent disconnect between observations and models may be due to the influence of Atlantic dust cover. Our results imply that since dust plays a role in modulating tropical North Atlantic Ocean temperature, projections of these temperatures under various global warming scenarios by general circulation models should account for long-term changes in dust loadings. This is especially critical as studies have estimated a reduction in Atlantic dust cover of 40-60% under a doubled carbon dioxide climate (33), which, based on model runs with an equivalent reduction of the mean dust forcing, could result in an additional 0.3-0.4°C warming of the northern tropical Atlantic."

Missing the point

The end product of the DiDA, or the Diploma in Digital Applications is the e-portfolio. Specifically, the e-portfolio is a website.

It's not a matter of resaving the documents - the teacher has fundamentally misunderstood the requirements of the course. Hence the need for evening classes for the students involved.

As usual, RealClimate has the details

RealClimate's 18 November posting "Mind the Gap!" shows why there has been an upward trend in the data, and goes into all the gory details that have been omitted here.

Points of View

"There is no IT angle to this story. What is it doing here? I am removing The Register from my bookmarks. Please cancel my subscription. I am also dissatisfied with today's weather. Please make the weather the way I like it. Goodbye."

Academic norms

You do, from time to time, come across articles like that plagiarized piece of nonsense. It's important to recognize that this problem isn't limited to postmodernist journals, like the infamous Sokal Social Text affair.

I've done Computer Science to masters level, and I don't think I've once been assigned a nonsensical paper. I'm now doing a degree in politics and sociology, and the quality is still high. The choice of course materials invariably reflect on the course designer, and it seems that the damage limitation began from the beginning - with new levels of damage limitation introduced as each preceding one failed. I.E. Epic fail!

I wonder if there's anything in the quantity of nonsensical papers being indirectly proportional to the age of the discipline involved. Postmodernist social theory and computer science (separate to mathematics) are similarly young disciplines. Also, note the wide variety between mathematics-heavy computer science courses taught at Russell Group universities, and the business-oriented approach of new universities. Computer Science is simply not well institutionalised, but the bar would probably be higher if it was.

Paris, because she's jealous of Britney's PhD in semiconductor physics (google it).

A question

So, is Obama a crackberry addict?

Public faith schools

More evidence methinks that publicly funded faith schools do more for kids than forcing religiously conservative parents to resort to private schools whose curriculum can't be standardized.

PDF

Someone forgot to use Adobe 8's redaction features?

Divide by 8 loop error.

There's an argument to be made against having a delay on these comments.

PS: 1024Gb = 128GB.

Ethics and guidance

Another question to be asked is if faculty had clear research guidance for the use of sensitive materials when dealing with such a subject.