Posts by mark fernandes

Purpose of RFID finally discovered: It's for pairing up socks!

Already done on Big Bang (prior art?)

Sheldon Cooper already did this for his socks prior to going on a trip (Big Bang Theory)

Bazinga!

Boffins bone up on rover skills as Curiosity speeds to Mars

Big Bang Theory comment

Just don't let Wolowitz near the rover controls...

ESA's first Vega rocket blasts off without a hitch

Apples & oranges

Vega's final stage can stop/start multiple times to deliver different payloads to different orbits from same launch. Also, another player in the field means that there will be more opportunity for cube-sat launches i.e. cheap launches that can do good science for smaller outlay.

The price difference (compared to Soyuz) delivers more flexibility...

Also, the money spent on launches remains in European economies (admittedly, a political advantage).

The moment a computer crash nearly caused my car crash

Obligatory Big Bang Comment

"Your check engine light is on..."

US quakes before MENACING TURKEYS, snow globes

Dammit Jim, I'm a cook not a fireman!

Try the shatner advert on how not to deep fry. Y-o-u c-a-n n-o-t b-e-l-i-e-v-e t-h-e d-a-n-g-e-r...

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/eats/william-shatner-teaches-thanksgiving-turkey-frying-safety-state-farm-insurance-video-article-1.978564

IBM chips in with '60s Golfball anniversary

Fondest memory of golfball

Is of the one in the title sequences for Gerry Anderson's UFO series...

Vid clip for UFO featuring golfball

The obligatory youtube link to UFO title sequence...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TQUdcYk82U

Crypto shocker: 'Perfect cipher' dates back to telegraphs

Greek previous art

Remember this from school history classes...

Spartan Cipher Rod (Message Stick; Okytala)

A simple solution to insure the security and privacy of messages.

A strip of paper or cloth was wrapped in a spiral around a round wooden rod. Message was written on the paper and then unwrapped and dispatched to the intended receiver.

If unwrapped paper was viewed, the message was incomprehensible but when re-wrapped

around a wooden rod of the same diameter the message became clear.

Dig deep! Radio asks taxpayers for blank cheque

Raising money

Couldn't Doesn't Always Broadcast(DAB) just get a business loan from one of our

successfully bonused-to-the-gunwhales banks?

No? Oh well, cap in hand to the tax-payer then...

Supermarket techie in mega loyalty-point blag

Billion Dollar Bubble

Probably Billion Dollar bubble (1976) Equity Funding Corporation of America(Los Angeles) fraud.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074206/

Watched that at school in O-level Computer Studies as probably did the Script-writer of Sperman III...

Stormtrooper helmet sales still legal in Britain

obligatory quote

These aren't the knock-offs you're looking for.

He can go about his business...

Elonex £99 Eee PC rival to arrive in June

Hope competition leads to better deals

I'll probably go for an eeepc but hopefully competition will be good news in the price stakes (Several manufacturers are aiming at this niche now that Asus have shown how lucrative it is).

For those who've expressed a preference for blondes, Elonex has that covered too : http://www.elonexone.co.uk/overview.html

Sellers price up 8GB Eee PC

eepc ssd

Hope that this is helpful.

SSD is surface-mounted to motherboard (so not easily upgraded)

SSD is faster than flash memory e.g. USB sticks & SD

Some people have reported that later model (sold in UK?) eeepcs no longer have second pcie slot connector installed, just the pads (possible parts shortage?)

Mars rovers can keep on rovin'

re: Operating system

Afraid not - they use the VxWorks embedded OS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VxWorks)

It's still a pretty impressive & ingenious gizmo - I hope that the Martians are equally impressed :-)

More on the Rovers systems on the Whacky Wiki Web:-

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