* Posts by Benjol

200 publicly visible posts • joined 29 Nov 2012

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The next big thing in medical science: POO TRANSPLANTS

Benjol

Interesting, maybe Catherine Kousmine WAS onto something. Following trials on mice she was convinced that (some) cancer is related to diet, via the complicated relationships between the immune system and gut bacteria.

Renewable energy 'simply won't work': Top Google engineers

Benjol

Re: Then we're fucked

So you're planning on cutting down trees to heat your home and cook your food?

Isn't that exactly what you keep telling Africans to stop doing?

Benjol

Re: I seem to remember

Re "Every little helps", may I point you to this book: Sustainable Energy – without the hot air.

This 125mph train is fitted with LASERS. Sadly no sharks, though

Benjol

Doesn't just save money on maintenance. TOCs pay to use the railway lines. If you're maintaining the line, you're not billing your customers. So the quicker you get in and out, the better you are.

I'M SO SORRY, sobs Rosetta Brit boffin in 'sexist' sexy shirt storm

Benjol

Re: Your comments confirm misogynist attitudes in IT

As someone commented elsewhere: you're saying that he chose to wear those clothes so he had it coming to him? Sounds familiar.

WATCH: Rosetta astroboffin TATTOOED with PHILAE from the FUTURE!

Benjol
Trollface

Re: Agreed in the bad taste/old fuddy duddy

Dress code is used when it is not possible to objectively judge someone's competence.

Prevalent in banking, management, and interviews...

SEX BEAST SEALS may be egging each other on to ATTACK PENGUINS

Benjol

This is the kind of story which explains why this kind of story drives me up the wall...

Are MPs smarter than 5-year-olds? We'll soon find out at coding school – Berners-Lee

Benjol

Re: OMG

Quite. I wouldn't want that principle applied to anything like... weapons...

Microsoft fitness bands slapped on wrists: All YOUR HEALTH DATA are BELONG TO US

Benjol

Re: So, when can I have the one I need?

@Kristian

Getting the insulin into the pump could be a challenge...

Benjol

Re: So, when can I have the one I need?

@Neil

You tried the FreeStyle Libre? I know, still a hole, but only once every 14 days.

Unfortunately not available here :(

Men who sleep with lots of women lessen risk of prostate cancer

Benjol

http://gizmodo.com/289159/ultra-sleek-samsung-yepp-yp-p2-has-touchscreen-bluetooth-video-playback

Swedish 'Future minister' doesn't do social media

Benjol

Criticising her on Twitter and Facebook isn't going to achieve a great deal, being as she isn't reading them.

Voyager 1 now EIGHTEEN LIGHT HOURS from home

Benjol
Pint

"The craft is not fitted with brakes" brought a smile, have a ------>

Why weasel words might not work for Whisper

Benjol

I think the last three bullets in the article pretty much nails it

Meet Mr Gamification: He's got a NUDGE or two for you

Benjol

Maybe I don't understand what everyone else means by gamification, but Stack Exchange seems to be working ok. And the Google image labeller thing worked quite well (I believe)

Oh, and my kids have to solve maths problems to gain extra time on the computer, otherwise it logs them out, though I guess that could count more as child abuse than gamification :)

World govts elect Swiss big cheese as their new ICANN point man

Benjol

Swissland is definitely a cheesy paradise, but http://www.distancefromto.net/between/Switzerland/Brie

NSA spying will shatter the internet, Silicon Valley bosses warn

Benjol

Re: What a waste of time.

Torn between downvoting for your pessimism, or upvoting because I fear/suspect you're right.

UPGRADE your CHILDREN with KANO: All you need in one box

Benjol

But did you have any exposure to computers before that?

Kids these days are accustomed to touch screens, full-graphics games, lots of swishy stuff.

I suspect there are very few who have the patience to hang around while you try to explain the subtleties of goto and line numbers. By the time you've remembered it for yourself, they'll already have wandered off to do something else.

Back in the day, 10 Print 'I am the greatest' 20; goto 10 was the height of cool, because it was pretty much the first time I actually got to touch a computer and get it to 'do' something.

------------

Actually, the main added value is that the Kano comes with instructions and a step-by-step guide to putting the hardware and the 'software' together.

So, for example, the first 'step' after setting up the OS is to play the classic snake game, but the instructions guide you through running it via the command line, progressively adding parameters to modify the game play.

At each step you get 'points' and 'badges', which can help to motivate the kids to continue.

I think they've pitched it about right. I bought a Pi a couple of years ago, but couldn't really figure out what to do with it (see the 'wandered off to do something else' above). With the Kano we were up and running in a short space of time. Early days yet, so I can't give a definitive conclusion.

LTE's backers vow to KILL OFF WI-FI and BLUETOOTH

Benjol

Re: Another 'systemd' moment?

Or they can start removing ingredients from the pie.

Or pay the cooks less.

Uni boffins: 'Accurate' Android AV app outperforms most rivals

Benjol

"Nice beaver"

"Thank you. I just had it stuffed."

Just reading the Wikiquotes brought tears to my eyes.

Linux systemd dev says open source is 'SICK', kernel community 'awful'

Benjol

"I'd like to be a nice person and curse less and encourage people to grow rather than telling them they are idiots," Torvalds said during an online chat with Finland's Aalto University in April. "I'm sorry – I tried, it's just not in me."".

I hope for his kids' sake that he tried a bit harder with them...

Benjol

Can't believe it. Taylor 1 gets more downvotes than upvotes just for recounting his experience, with no insults involved.

Kind of confirms what he says.

Want to see the back of fossil fuels? Calm down, hippies. CAPITALISM has an answer

Benjol

Re: Tim's hopes for solar and wind are doomed

Depends if the criminals are charging less than the lawyers and accountants, I guess :)

Benjol

Re: Clean energy NOW

(in answer to @imanidiot)

I love it when amongst all the opinion-spouting commentards, someone turns up who actually knows what they're talking about.

Not that it stops any of them, but anyway...

US team claims PARIS paper plane launch crown

Benjol

Re: Have any contacts at SpaceX?

Sounds like a good candidate for xkcd's What If?

Spies would need superpowers to tap undersea cables

Benjol

Especially as in that article they *also* talk about allegations of tapping, though admittedly not specifically underwater.

Found inside ISIS terror chap's laptop: CELINE DION tunes

Benjol

Re: You'll never escape the puritans

I should do your damnedest to keep them away from your throat.

Snowden shouldn't be extradited to US if he testifies about NSA spying, says Swiss gov

Benjol

Re: Would the US risk a diplomatic incident?

Of course, it might just be that the Swiss banks were competing too well with other tax-evading places?

Jony Ive: Apple iWatch will SCREW UP Switzerland's economy

Benjol

Try looking up "Nick Hayek iwatch". Big boss of Swatch group. Has some interesting things to say: the 'no competition' argument that Tim lays out here. Also that it could even open up new markets in the "don't need nuffin on my wrist I got a Smartphone" generation. And also that quite a lot of the technology that goes into these smart watches is supplied/invented by watch makers.

And that he doesn't wear a watch at night.

Experimental hypersonic SUPERMISSILE destroyed 4 SECONDS after US launched it

Benjol

Re: Why?

You forgot torturing them.

http://detaineetaskforce.org/resources/timeline/

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2009/04/20/torture-doesnt-work.html

China building SUPERSONIC SUBMARINE that travels in a BUBBLE

Benjol

Re: Daft concept.

I don't get it. Didn't you previously say you were the pope at that time?

This is how I set about making a fortune with my own startup

Benjol

If you've got the option of building a new house, you could do worse than this: http://www.tonyshouse.cowlings.org.uk/

Cutting cancer rates: Data, models and a happy ending?

Benjol

I read recently that there is a similar debate concerning screening for prostate cancer, can't remember where.

Hello, police, El Reg here. Are we a bunch of terrorists now?

Benjol

Re: Two girls and a cup

I didn't know.

Now I do.

I confirm your suspicion.

Chrome update to raise alarms over deceptive download bundles

Benjol

Just in case anyone has not seen this yet (and if anyone still uses Java);

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft]

"SPONSORS"="DISABLE"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\JavaSoft]

"SPONSORS"="DISABLE"

Microsoft: We're making ONE TRUE WINDOWS to rule us all

Benjol

Re: @ P. Lee One OS

That's the theory, but have you ever done it in earnest?

My (limited) experience is that these abstractions tend to 'leak'.

Uber and Lyft sitting in a tree, 'c-a-n-c-e-l-l-i-n-g each other's rides'

Benjol

Looks like the 'normal' taxi drivers just need to hang in there until these companies have finished their fight to the death.

Nuts to your poncey hipster coffees, I want a TESLA ELECTRO-CAFE

Benjol

Coffee 'goes off' in a way that can be difficult for a nation of tea-drinkers to realise. There's no point having 'freshly ground' beans if those beans have been oxidising for weeks.

I once worked for a few months in a coffee factory. The bog-standard automated coffee dispenser was stocked directly with freshly roasted beans. The coffee was delicious, full-bodied and 'round': closer to hot chocolate than the acrid stuff that we are supposed to delight in.

Totally spoiled me.

Microsoft throws old versions of Internet Explorer under the bus

Benjol

"As Microsoft points out, however, most consumers won't have to worry about much of this – (...) – because they don't use IE"

FTFY

Remaining Snowden docs will be released to avert 'unspecified US war' – ‪Cryptome‬

Benjol

It was Afghanistan, and so cack-handedly redacted by the Intercept that I suspect they wanted it outed (though I can't work out why they'd go about it that way).

Code Spaces goes titsup FOREVER after attacker NUKES its Amazon-hosted data

Benjol

Another advantage of git...

Is that you have an 'automatic backup' of all your history locally.

How practical is an electric car in London?

Benjol

Re: On Street Parking @Psyx

Also, if you find a solution for power station pollution, you only have to apply it once. Applying it retroactively to all the ICE cars is mind bogglingly expensive. That or you could just switch to a new, clean power station, still without changing the cars at all.

Women are too expensive to draw and code – Ubisoft

Benjol

I hope they also provided an option for a blind avatar, and one with a wheelchair, and...

UK govt preps World War 2 energy rationing to keep the lights on

Benjol

What have they done with David MacKay?!!

Flying cars, submarine cars – Elon Musk says NOTHING is beyond him

Benjol

Hyperloop

I'd love to see that become a reality, far more than flying cars.

And miniature self-contained nuclear power as well.

Plucky Playmonaut bails out of smoking Vulture 2

Benjol

Sorry if someone already noticed, but

I thought that name rang a bell. It's he of git 'fame' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git_%28software%29).

NSA: Inside the FIVE-EYED VAMPIRE SQUID of the INTERNET

Benjol

At first thought your argument seems persuasive, but as (I believe it was) Edward Snowden said: Google have the power to advertise to you, the State has the power to put you in prison, and potentially execute you.

Beam me up Scotty: Boffins to turn pure light into matter

Benjol
Happy

I misread the opening phrase as "a trip of theoretical physicists".

Thought that would make quite a good Le Reg collective noun.

Venus Express to get final acid bath before crashing to surface

Benjol

The soundtrack on that video is... rather OTT. Which film trailer did they pinch it from?

World loses mind: Uber valued at TEN BEEELLION DOLLARS, Pinterest pegged at $5bn

Benjol

This tweet says it all

https://twitter.com/MattMickiewicz/status/467336222348570625

SpaceX achieved orbital flight, with less capital than Pinterest has raised to allow people to pin photos ($764 million).

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