* Posts by Ed Blackshaw

627 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Aug 2007

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US comp-boffins claim fix for multicore 'concurrency bugs'

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Coat

Multi-threaded code can suffer concurrency issues?

Really?

Who'd-a-thunk it, eh?

Blighty surrenders to Street View

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Boffin

Hmmm

Didn't think riverford delivered as far as Surrey, what with their main farm being in Devon...

UK is safer from al-Qaeda 'bastards', says security minister

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Big Brother

Not only this, but the other...

"Terrorism is as great a threat to my life as falling out of a tree, or being struck by lightning."

And considerably less of a threat than me being killed by a dangerous driver whilst commuting to work on my motorbike. Maybe we should press the government to enforce greater controls and surveillance upon drivers of Audis and BMWs?

What do you mean, 'not politically expedient?'

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Black Helicopters

Subtext:

What he says:

"There is a lot of talk about us being a police state," he said. "I think people who say that have obviously never lived in a police state."

What he means:

"There is a lot of talk about us being a police state, I think people who say that have obviously got no idea what we still have planned to make us even more like East Germany was in the 1980s."

Tories ask: Why BBC3, BBC4?

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Stop

but why not scrap BBC3 and BBC4

get rid of the tripe that has taken over BBC2, and put the decent programming (such as NewsWipe) back there. The problem is more that the stuff worth watching that might once have half-filled two channels is now spread thinly over four, with filler in between. I mean, the entertainment news on BBC3, FFS, who do they think they are, Channel 5?

I watch being human occasionally, just because it is set in Bristol, where I happen to live. it is reasonably entertaining, however some of the acting is appalling, especially from the werewolf bloke with the funny ears.

Microsoft rejiggers EU browser ballot after complaints

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Boffin

I'd be very impressed indeed.

Generating a non-deterministic outcome from deterministic inputs is logically impossible, so if they have a _truly_ random number generator, free limitless energy, practical interstellar travel and world peace can't be far behind!

Daily Mail reader out-tw*ts the Tw*t-O-Tron

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

I really really really hope that this comment is ironic

and is in fact taking the piss out of other commenters.

Ubisoft undone by anti-DRM DDoS storm

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

It's funny

Software houses seem to periodically forget the lessons learned from previous forays into DRM. At the end of the day, they will never stop a determined cracker who has the will to decompile and reverse-engineer the DRM to get around it.

DRM measures like this that achieve nothing other than inconveniencing the end user will never gain acceptance. If the software house has a big problem with piracy, then surely it makes better sense to go after the few people who are cracking the DRM on the games in the first place, rather than punishing the legitimate users.

As mentioned above, Valve seem to have got the balance right with Steam, and although I'm sure their games still do get pirated, I strongly suspect that they suffer from it less than Ubisoft do.

MEPs told to vote or else as US data row deepens

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

Why do we give the Yanks this information?

Unless I am mistake, I don't believe we get anything in response, or indeed any benefit from it. Scrap it, the world will keep turning; just maybe not revolving around the North American continent so much.

'Snowball Earth': Glaciers, ice packs once met at Equator

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
FAIL

As a rational interjection

Might I suggest that whilst certain members of the scientific community have acted in a less than scrupulous manner, that doesn't indicate that man-made global warming is entirely invented. There is a lot of good scientific evidence to support the fact that increased atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases cause warming. Note my use of the word 'fact' there. It can be demonstrated from first principles with a little knowledge of physics and chemistry that pollutants such as carbon dioxide and methane absorb solar radiation and re-emit it at shorter wavelengths, leading to a larger portion of the incoming heat being retained, which leads to a warming effect in the atmosphere. It is only the measurements of the effects that are in question. If you doubt this, read up on the subject until you understand it. And by read up, I mean learn the science behind it, rather than the rhetoric.

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Boffin

I fail to see what their new findings are.

The whole 'Snowball Earth' thing gets trotted out every couple of years for an article in New Scientist, it's not like it's a new theory, and it's not like there isn't already known geological evidence for it, which is so well established that it was mentioned in undergraduate lectures I attended fifteen years ago. What have this lot at Harvard brought to the table that is worthy of an article in Science?

Aussie hoaxer strikes again

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Happy

The real spider-man!

He is my hero. Even though he can't count the legs on a spider...

The copper in question should be at the very least demoted for wasting time.

Oscars can Sacha Baron Cohen Avatar skit

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Coat

It's not that the man isn't funny per se

It's more that fact that he only really has one joke, which goes along the lines of: pretend to be member of a minority social/ethnic/gender* group, find person who is ill-informed about said group, preferably famous and proceed to embarass them.

This worked well the first few times he did it with the 'Ali G' persona, and I will admit to finding it amusing at first, but that grew repetative, so he tried out 'Borat', which was amusing precisely once, and then 'Bruno', which was funny precisely zero times. It's a perfect example of the law of diminishing returns.

Unfortunately, SBC seems to have no talent beyond rolling out the same archetypical comedic character dressed up in different clothes and with a different 'comedy' accent.

I confidently predict that he will disappear from our screens entirely within a few years at most, possibly after a fourth and final incarnation, which will be even more tasteless than the previous ones. He will then be forced to eke out a living doing low-grade comedy nights, and runs at Butlins before he finds it increasingly difficult to find work, eventually culminating in his dying alone in a one bedroom flat in a tower block somewhere in some god-forsaken South-London suburb.

That, or he'll surprise us all by displaying some geniune talent. I know what my money's on though.

* Delete as applicable, etc...

NASA flying car engineer shoots down Reg coverage

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Flame

I've seen better flames

I suspect this chap was just having a bad day...

PR outfit trumpets NHS deaths 'crisis management'

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Boffin

To be fair,

it is called clostridium difficile for a reason - that being, it is very difficult to get rid of, even if you are practicing good infection control techniques.

BT blamed for Davina McCall spamcalls

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
FAIL

This would be the same BT

That has been sending me monthly 'Come back to BT' mailouts for the last two years, as well as quarterly emails with my 'bill' for £0.00?

Really, IMHO, the best thing to do is to leave BT for another carrier, preferably one that carries out LLU, and to encourage others to do the same, so that this unwieldy, morally dubious and suspiciously politically connected organisation can be allowed to die.

No doubt, however, if this were ever to be the case then a 'bailout' of the sort given to our glorious banking brethren woudl be winging its way towards BT...

Old PS3s locked out of PlayStation Network

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Boffin

AFAIK

There is no such thing as a 'chipped' PS3. The encryption technology they use has yet to be properly broken*. This doesn't necessarily make it 'stronger' than that in the Xbox, although I suspect it is.

*Before anyone says it, making hardware modifications in order to be able to peek at the memory behind the hypervisor when running Linux doesn't really count as breaking the encryption.

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Paris Hilton

I haven't tried it on mine yet, however, does this fix it?

This sounds like a 'leap year' issue. If the clock is resetting to 31/12/1999, is there any reason it can't be manually set to 01/03/2010, and does this fix the problem?

More workers poisoned by supplier for Apple, Nokia

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Boffin

The question really has to be why anyone would use n-hexane as a solvent

The toxic properties of n-hexane are well known, and pretty much any other similiar alkane solvent such as n-heptane or isohexane does not have the same toxicity.

BT could face criminal case over Phorm trials

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Stop

Somewhat disingenuous

Not once have I read any examples of "My life was ruined because BT ran a trial that showed me an advert for a pony instead of the XXX porn I'm used to"

It's not about the advertising, most people will accept that adverts are a fact of life and, like it or not, they are what pays for most of the internet.

It's about the fact that BT collected potentially detailed information on what people were using the internet for. It is their job to carry the IP packets from your home to their destination and vice versa, in much the same way it is the job of the Royal Mail to carry letters and packages from post boxes and post offices, via sorting centres to homes and businesses.

People would be up in arms if RM started opening letters in transit, taking notes on who sent them and their contents, and then resealing them and sending them on their way. This is analogous to what BT have done.

To stretch your faulty analogy, it is as if someone at RM had opened your unmarked envelope containing XXX porn and inserted adverts for ponies into your dirty mags and then resealed them. Really, you wouldn't be fussed about the adverts for ponies, you'd be more worried that someone now knew you liked horsie porn. There's then the added bonus that they could pass that info onto your local constabulary and you'd get arrested under extreme porn laws.

Hero corduroy overpowers US school gunman

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Stop

I think you may have failed to control for the fact

that most people who are seeing a doctor already have something potentially life-threatening wrong with them, and that most of the time the doctor solves this problem.

I can't think of many situations where being shot would actually save your life.

"hold still, while I shoot your inguinal hernia back in"

Large Hadron Collider in multi-magnet quench hiccup

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Boffin

Why odd?

If you look at the magnet temperature graph for sector 78, you can see a sudden increase in temperature for some magnets from 2K to 5K at around 18:00 yesterday.

http://hcc.web.cern.ch/HCC/cryo_main/cryo_main.php?region=Sector78&sector=78

Google eyes hypegasm fuel cells for 'whole data center'

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Boffin

More importantly

How does the thermodynamic efficiency of this fuel cell based device compare to the typical efficiency of a diesel generator (45-50%)*?

The theoretical maximum for a hydrogen/oxygen fuel cell is 83%*. In practice it will be less. If this turns out to be lower than that of the diesel engine, then the fuel cell is technically worse for the environment in terms of efficiency, although it is unlikely to be pumping out the nasty particulates that burning diesel generates.

Also, bear in mind that although this might be using magic ceramic fuel cell technology, it still produces good old fashioned carbon dioxide as a waste product.

*Figures quoted are gleaned from the internet, caveat emptor, etc.

Council backs down on CRB checking grown-up lecturers

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Megaphone

I Call Godwin!

What do I win?

Chuck Norris botnet doesn't infect routers...

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Coat

Chuck Norris has no chin...

...Underneath his beard is another fist.

Apple strips top shelf, leaves corporate smut in place

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

Umm,

You might want to mark this one as NSFW?

Interpol issues arrest warrant for fake passport hit team

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
FAIL

Mr Godwin called

He wants his fail back.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwins_law

Minister deploys 'dodgy' DNA case study

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Coat

The government fabricating statistical data to support their agenda?

Surely not.

US sorority girls in booze-fuelled orgy of violence

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Joke

We're not in Kansas any more!

So blame it on movies like the Wizard of Oz!

Miniskirt outrage Brazilian becomes Carnival queen

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

That is interesting to hear

and certainly differs from what I read in the press. Turns out you shouldn't believe everything you read, eh?

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Flame

I'm guessing Brazilian academics are still living in the middle ages then?

Surely the ones being kicked out of university should have been those shouting 'whore'. If you don't like what you see, don't look, etc...

Apple to stick padlocks on books for iPad

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
WTF?

This was kind of my point

Why would a freetard, who is after something for free, be complaining about the DRM on ebooks that are only available on an expensive, locked in product, which her (or she) wouldn't buy in the first place?

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Troll

Freetards?

Isn't that word a bit of an oxymoron to describe a person who has just gone and spent $800 on a device that does less than a $400 laptop?

Wreck of 1930s flying aircraft carrier dubbed 'historic'

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Boffin

The ship in question...

...was the Skyship 500, which flew out of the Cardington air hangars in Bedfordshire in the 80's. Living in Bedford as a child, I remember seeing the airship flting overhead on several occasions during the summer months. You could always hear it coming before you saw it, due to the distinctive hum from the props.

The air hangars at Cardington (also rather underwhelmingly known as the Air Sheds) were built to house the R101, and are still the largest hangars in Europe.

BOFH: The PFY Chronicles

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Pirate

PFY finally getting the better of the BOFH?

It can't be true. I sense some truly epic and mephistopholean revenge finding its way towards the PFY a few episodes hence...

'Electronic fags' are useless - US prof's startling claim

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Stop

I won;t for one minute suggest that ciggies aren't bad for you

However, there are certain groups who have taken the anti-smoking idea and run a little too far with it. Whilst there is a clear and definite risk from smoking, and a clear, but lesser risk from second-hand smoke, there is no statistically proven risk from so-called 'third-hand' smoke, i.e. smoke on clothes, etc. Some folk are just pushing an agenda for the sake of pushing an agenda.

Researchers rip iPad apart to reveal Apple's profits

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Stop

Okay, lets do a little maths here, shall we?

Lets say that these ar assmebled by hand, and that a worker is paid $20 an hour to assemble them. Lets say it takes a whole hour to assemble one device. That gives you an assembly cost of $20. In reality, they will be made on a construction line in an existing factory, so the cost will be a tiny fraction of that.

In terms of R&D costs, the software is essentially the same as that on the iPhone, the R&D for which has already been done, and presumably paid for several times over in profits. I calculate the cost of this to be approximately zero.

I don't know how much the magic pixie juice they fill them up with costs though.

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Stop

They don't make a 50% profit on it though

It's 100% profit; they buy the components for $400, inject the magic cult juice into them, or whatever it is they do, and sell them for $800. I seriously doubt the manufacturing costs approach anything like the $400 markup.

PS3 sales up, says Sony

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Troll

Cue X-Box trolls

in 3... 2... 1...

Appeal Court: TV menu decision was irrational, but not unfair

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

Titles? We don't need no steenkin' titles

Lets hope they allocate JML some channel numbers beginning with Z. I don't want to see their trashy shopping channel anyway...

Hubble snaps space conker bonk aftermath

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

Funny

I was thinking the same thing but thought it might _just_ be a little too geeky to say...

Hong Kong Taoist masters still hard at it

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
FAIL

You fail on three points...

1) Atheism is not a religion, it is defined as being the absence of religious beliefs.

2) Animal farm was an allegory pertaining to Soviet communism, closer to Marxism than the Maoist variety they have in China.

3) It's 'their', not 'there'. you claim to be able to read books, you should know the difference between two simple and common homophones FFS.

Remote tribe discovered worshipping iPad

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

Is is April already?

^this^

Obama to scrap Moon, Mars expeditions - report

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

Ummm

Buck rogers would have died following his accident in space, not woken up 200 years later. You appear to be conflating fantasy with reality.

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
WTF?

What angers me? Well, what amuses me is...

"PLEASE!!! The climate is not changing! OK?! Get that straight. Global warming was a global scam. BUSH's people came up with "climate change" because they knew they'd already missed the normal solar heating cycle and will soon have to start talking about Global Cooling. EXACTLY like they were doing in the 1970s - we were headed for another ice age."

Please, please, please tell me that was irony. Apart from the fact that there is a huge weight of scientific evidence to show that you are talking bollocks, do you really think Bush, of all people, with his well known strong ties to the oil industry, would promote some sort of vast conspiracy, the result of which would be to damage his own not insubstantial financial interests?

Eejit.

EU damns scanners, Facebook, MySpace and Phorm

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
WTF?

I'm confused

I find myself agreeing with, and supporting a politician.

I think I need a lie down in a darkened room for a while...

Regulator sniffs around stonking iPhone game bills

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
Jobs Horns

Complete bollards!

It would appear that Apple have implemented a function in their API which allows third-party software to connect the user to any phone number wthout intervention. To me, that looks like a gaping security hole.

There is advertising software, built into free games that exploits this. That is their business model, however despicable. The fault lies with the temple of Jobs.

UK authorities' inability to seize counterfeits brings EU court referral

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
WTF?

Not quite so simple...

IANAL, however, the offence in question is the sale and distribution of counterfeit (not stolen) goods. If the knock-off-nokias were going to be sold in this country, HMRC would have, correctly, seized them.

However, since they were only in transit through this country, from and to other countries that do not have the same treaties regarding copyright and trademarks as us, they were not subject to our trademark laws. HMRC could have got themselves in quite a lot of trouble if they had impounded the phones, from their rightful owners.

As an aside, as I understand it, if I were to make my own mobile phone and stamp 'Nokia' on it, I would not be comitting a trademark offence until I tried to pass this off as a genuine Nokia, by either advertising or selling it as such. There was no 'passing on' as you put it, presumably the items in question were in a shipping container or similiar and happened to be on ther way from their point of origin to their destination via the UK.

I can understand the point being made by the HMRC that the law should be changed to allow the goods to be impounded in such cases. However, I disagree. If that container never passes through customs, except as part of its onward journey, it is none of our business whether or not the contents infringe someone else's IP. If the container were full of something more dangerous or highly illegal, such as human slaves or highly enriched uranium, the situation would be different. I suspect there are already laws that cover such cases.

Which? warns on pirate letters

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

I think it's time the word 'piracy' went back to meaning something more like its original meaning

such as demanding money from innocent people via the use of threatening behaviour.

On the high seas, of course.

Verified by Visa bitchslapped by Cambridge researchers

Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
WTF?

Hmmm

Mastercard also blocked my GF's card because they thought there was a suspicious transaction. She was paying her council tax online, so apparently now paying your taxes is 'suspicious behaviour'.

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