Posts by Death Boffin

Academic showdown as boffins biff-baff over when Version 1.0 of Earth's magnetic core was released

Re: That's

If you don't believe that the earth is flat, you have never been to Kansas!

Uncle Sam is asking Americans if they could refrain from slapping guns on their drones

Re: But...but

The Second Amendment is not the place to look for this. In the main text of the Constitution, the Founders contemplated private armies and navies. Look up the sections on Letters of Marque and Reprisal and captures on land and sea.

Indeed during the Revolutionary War and War of 1812, wealthy individuals would supply their own units including artillery, the weapons of mass destruction of their day. Privateers were also sanctioned at times.

Praise the lard! Police hook up with Microsoft to school us on National Phish and Chip Day

Different 'round here

On the west side of the Pond it was National Doughnut Day. Icon for as close as I could get to a golden doughnut.

IPv6 growth is slowing and no one knows why. Let's see if El Reg can address what's going on

Re: Internet task force takes IPv4 behind shed...

Internet task force takes IPv4 behind shed...

....shot fired.

And IPv4 walks back out.

That's going to be the only way to drive things forward IMHO.

Given how well the internet task force works.

FTFY

NASA’s new exoplanet-spotter survives sling past the Moon

Streaky

I noticed a number of streaks in the photo. This should also be an excellent asteroid hunter. Icon for avoiding it, hopefully.

Get an eyeful of the stunning galaxies near us in ultraviolet light

NSFW

Just don't Google "hot blue stars" at work.

NASA is pretty pleased with its pulsar-sniffing intergalactic GPS tech

Re: Any benefit

This is extremely useful for deep space probes. Navigation in the outer solar system has been by using very long baseline interferometry to determine space craft position. The problem is that the farther you get away from earth, the worse the position accuracy. Now you can determine spacecraft position to 3 miles anywhere within a few light years of Earth. This will allow much closer approaches to the outer planets as the spacecraft can be located much more precisely. I assume that the accuracy will improve as they refine the system and add more pulsars to the positioning catalog.

Samsung topples Intel as semiconductor top dog, but lead 'literally built on sand'

TSMC?

I wondered why TSMC wasn't on the list. According to their latest financial figures, they should be number 3.

Apple Cook roasted for Chinese app takeaway

Whataboutism

Really? The 10's of millions killed by the PRC in the revolution and Cultural Revolution beg to differ.

"I'd say that killing people is worse than restricting the freedom of speech. USA is in no position to criticize China on its human rights record."

That is the great thing about China, you get the best of both worlds; killing people and restricting freedom of speech. /s

Pirate of the Caribbean to play Hacker of the Caribbean

In so many ways

Mel Gibson

The best of Reg readers' David Hockney-style logo redesigns

The quiet option

The Register - putting the SHHH in IT.

Elon's SpaceX gets permission to blow up another satellite or two

Weather likely not permitting

From the US Weather Service forecast for Lompoc/Vandenberg:

Sunday Night

Rain. The rain could be heavy at times. Low around 54. South southeast wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%.

Monday

Rain likely before 10am, then a chance of showers, mainly after 4pm. Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 63. South southwest wind around 10 mph, with gusts as high as 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%.

Visibility is a big problem in these conditions.

Chinese boffins: We're testing an 'impossible' EM Drive IN SPAAAACE

The best theory I have seen of how it works can be found here: https://arxiv.org/abs/1604.03449

Makes for interesting reading. As far as I can tell the theory of operation implies that the universe is not a closed system, neatly sidestepping the First Law of Thermodynamics.

A criticism of the idea can be found here: https://arxiv.org/abs/1506.00494

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Ham-fisted: Chap's radio app killed remotely after posting bad review

Not open source, but close

DXLab by AA6YQ covers most of the functions of HRD. Dave is pretty responsive on the DXLab mail group on Yahoo. I use it for both general logging and radio control.

The N1MM software is good for contesting and integrates well with DXLab.

73

Russia accuses hostile foreign powers of plot to undermine its banks

Re: RE: modern warfare is fun

Really? Seem we had to fight your lot here a couple of times. The reason we have a White House, is that it was sacked and torched. Then there was the little fracas in 1865. Lost a great-great-grandfather in that one.

Fortunately we haven't had to deal with one lately.

San Francisco's sinking luxury Millennium Tower: Tilt spotted FROM SPACE

Re: Not the developer's fault.

Pompous Git:

"I somehow don't think San Francisco is in the 3rd World."

Yet.

The city council is working very hard on getting there...

Have some sympathy for the AT&T devil

Really?

"This essentially cuts down the amount of video you are going to use, to around 30 per cent of what is usual, because of the amount of time you are in reach of home or work Wi-Fi."

If you work for me, don't expect to be using the business Wi-Fi to be streaming videos.

Smoking hole found on Mars where Schiaparelli lander, er, 'landed'

Re: It's WAR!

Slim Whitman?

Today is the 211th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar

Re: 1805: British fleet manned by migrants!

"The crews of the ships that fought at Trafalgar included sailors from America, Ireland, Prussia, Sweden, the West Indies, Africa, and even France and Spain against whom the British were fighting. On Nelson's ship HMS Victory there were 22 nationalities involved in fighting on the British side."

The Americans on there were one of the reasons that we had the War of 1812.

King Tut's iron dagger of extraterrestrial origin

From Atlantis

My first thought was the "Tritonian Ring".

The paperless office? Don’t talk sheet

Wrong Trousers

"Blow technical hacks, a smile and a little (OK in her case a lot) of tech knowhow can go a long way towards breeching security."

You have a breach in your breeches. That's just pants.

SPACED OUT: NASA's manned Orion podule pushed back to 2023

Re: Like having a Carrier Group without a nation state to support it

"Once you think about how long the production chain and how large the capital infrastructure must be to produce something as simple as an electric motor from raw materials in a friendly environment and a kinda-optimizing kinda-working economy and how rapidly disrepair accumulates even in organizations where funding can be forcefully secured from the populace..." -Destroy All Monsters

The thing is for space exploration, you do not need all that capital infrastructure. The reason that infrastructure is there to make the electric motor is that you are making them by the boatload; hopefully cheaper than your competitor's factory. On Mars, you only have to make it cheaper and faster than you can get it from Earth. So some kind of very inefficient, but very flexible fabricator is needed to produce the parts you need. This starts the process of building your own capital infrastructure on Mars, a little bit at a time.

Post-pub nosh neckfiller: Fancy a ham and cheese 'dry tree trunk' sarnie?

Rare?

Judging by the picture, in most of the Midwest and Texas, that there steak would be somewhere between medium rare and medium, bordering on becoming beef jerky.

Drone delivery sparks Ohio prison brawl

Re: Damn conversionitis!

You forgot the obligatory calculation of a street value of $4.3 million dollars (with the obligatory conversion to £4.3 million [that's the obligatory software/hardware conversion rate innit?]).

Post-pub nosh neckfiller: Bacon and egg sushi

Bacon Abuse

Bacon should never be paired with the taste of fish! This is heresy against the holy order of the pig.

Windows 10 is due in one month: Will it be ready?

Re: huh?

I thought "bugger all" was one of the install options...

GAMIFY your FRIDAY with our Public Sector Innovation Bingo!

What?

Thought I stumbled on an unlabeled Bong! episode here...

Small cells are like DRUNKS. They don't use lamp posts for light, they use 'em for support

Re: Ongoing drive,,,

Considering its mostly Silicon and Carbon with a smattering of Aluminum, Gallium and Nitrogen, quite a long time. That's GaN on SiC for those of you looking at the LED ads.

DARPA's 'Cortical Modem' will plug straight into your brain

Re: Interesting...

It used to be the Department of War, but some goody-two-shoes got their panties in a bunch and changed the name. So much for truth in advertizing.

Thailand: 'The nail that sticks up gets hammered down'

Tonal

Try the word "tear". Are you leaking water or rending something?

MYSTERY RADIO SIGNAL picked up from BEYOND our GALAXY

Local Sources

Given that the burst seems to peak in the 1200-1300 MHz band, I would suspect that it come from some anomalous propagation. The source could either be military radar or ham radio, as both occupy that band. A particularly robust meteor trail could provide the necessary source.

Trickle-down economics works: SpaceShipTwo is a prime example

Government Tied up in Bow

Chances are very good that right now you are using a technology that government developed and then had it all tied up in a bow for commercial use. That technology is Gallium Arsenide. It is in most cell phones and WiFi access points. In the 1980's it was a laboratory curiosity, then the military started to develop it for their needs, funding the development and infrastructure to produce it. They also realized that to keep their costs down the producers needed a commercial market to get volume up and prices down. So in the 1990's, it began to be commercialized and entered the cell phone market. By the 2000's the commercial market led production.

Microsoft on the Threshold of a new name for Windows next week

Re: Privacy and Clouds are big buzzwords these days.

How about Windows Fogged? Has cloudy, privacy and cool!

US cyber-army's cyber-warriors 'cyber-humiliated by cyber-civvies in cyber-games'

FANGs

This happens pretty often. The Guard and Reserves generally have people with a decade or more of experience and a similar amount of time working with each other. They are up against a Regular workforce that moves every two years and is highly tilted to inexperienced newbies and careerists. What happens is that the reservists usually win the first year's competition and then the Regulars' brass rejiggers the playing field to favor the Regulars.

Thirteen Astonishing True Facts You Never Knew About SCREWS

Re: Serious torque?

Every garden shed mechanic knows that to really get the torque, you have to take a round shank screwdriver and apply a set of vice-grips to said shank.

Things that make you go hmm: GlobalFoundries hires ex-IBM chip fabber

Re: 300mm fab? what are they making, power tubes?

Umm, that's the diameter of the wafers they will be using.

The Windows 8 dilemma: Win 8 or wait for 9?

Re: Time for some truly revolutionary GUIs?

All I want to do is go back to the 1950's:

"Mildred take a letter to Mr. Leadbum."

"Dear Mr Leadbum, your offer is seriously lacking in detail and does not have a realistic price."

"OK Mildred, take that, clean it up and prepare it for my signature."

What is so difficult about that?

DON’T add me to your social network, I have NO IDEA who you are

Re: Simple

"Don't go, the drones need you."

ET hunter: We will find SPACE ALIENS in 20 years

The Fermi Paradox still stands

The Fermi Paradox still presents a big problem here. It appears reasonably easy to colonize the entire visible universe with technology not very far beyond what we have currently. Anti-matter drives may not be possible by the laws of physics, but all the others are engineering problems. See the following PDF file for full details: http://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/intergalactic-spreading.pdf

Dark matter killed the dinosaurs, boffins suggest

Re: Why Scotland?

Scotland? I thought that was the 3M theme park!

Yes, the one with the Post-It on the back...

It's a scientific fact: Online comment trolls are sadists

Re: stuck in my head

Time to go nuclear on this thread...

"Its a small world after all"

US mobile telcos: All right, ALL RIGHT, FCC! We'll redo phone unlock rules

Re: Why the military?

The difference is that the multinational employee can refuse to go or quit. The military member faces jail time (military equivalent of a felony) if they refuse to go.

Want to go to billionaire Sun kingpin's beach? Hope you're a strong swimmer

Re: Well, if it's no longer a public road...

Yharrg! Santa Cruz is NORTHERN California! And I always see posts lamenting the geographical ignorance on the left side of the pond. Please figure out where on the Left Coast you are talking about.

Oh, shoppin’ HELL: I’m in the supermarket of the DAMNED

Re: Over here

Which is fine until you ask for Polish and end up with Indonesian.

Douglas Adams was RIGHT! TINY ALIENS are invading Earth, say boffins

Re: Moonlighting?

>OK, so who's going to talk to our intrepid Playmonaut about his covert second job?

Um, you mean panspermia?

Climate change made sea levels fall in 2010 and 2011

Re: Climate Change = climate speculation

Even if there were not change in sea level, most pacific islanders would be underwater eventually. The technical term for it is isostasy; the tendency of geological formations to find their own level. The Hawaiian islands are currently sinking at a rate of 2mm per year. About the same sea level rise as attributed to global climate change. For the final result, look up the term guyot.

Minty fresh Linux: Olivia hits the virtual shelves

Color me unimpressed

I spent nearly a day faffing around trying to get the wifi working under Mint 14. This was on a Dell laptop with a Broadcom 4311 card. Its a good thing that I remembered a lot of the CLI commands from my HPUX days in the 80's, because I had to spend a lot time in there trying to get things to work.

I was also unimpressed with upgrade instructions for the new distro that started with: "Make a backup of your data and applications": Looks like it will be a while upgrading to a new distro.

Finally, I left the system running overnight downloading software. When I went to check on it in the morning, the system was completely frozen. I had to hold down the power button to reboot.

I had been using Unbuntu, where things just worked, but did not like the Unity interface. Heard good things about Mint, but did not experience them.

Global perils of dirt, glaciers and lizardocalypse overblown, say boffins

Re: Not so surprising to me

Agreed @btrower. The feedback loops in question have kept the planet pretty stable for the last couple of billion years. The average world temperature has not deviated more than about 10C plus or minus over that time. This despite some pretty big perturbations from asteroids, super volcanoes, oxygenation, etc. The current increase in carbon dioxide levels should be corrected in due (geological) time.

Supreme Court sides with FCC in NIMBY wireless tower spat

Interesting court split

It is interesting that Justice Thomas did not join Justice Alito on this decision. Usually the decide the same way. I do like the decision as it helps with the PRB-1 ruling for ham radio towers.

Sun lets loose with THREE record eruptions in 24 hours

Re: Massive

The sun has been remarkably stable for 4 Billion years. If it had been shooting off life threatening flares, well life would be gone and you wouldn't be here.

Technology is another issue. Another Carrington event would do bad things to our technological society. The human race would probably recover, but it might take a while.

Nothing like a thermonuclear eruption to ruin your whole day...