Posts by Steve Crook

Natural geothermal heat under Antarctic ice: 'Surprisingly high'

Re: Heat balance

"I've always been puzzled"

There's been no debate because many feel that *any* debate as to the extent of overall warming from various sources will inevitably allow 'deniers' like me to pop up and argue that, although CO2 is a problem, it's a problem that we have time to deal with.

Of course there's some truth in that argument. Also, the fact that politicians won't do anything unless their feet are held to the fire doesn't exactly help matters when it comes to fair and balanced debate.

If there's a continued recovery in north pole ice over the next few years it's going to be an interesting time for nu-statistics.

Sorry, say boffins, the LHC still hasn't sucked us into a black hole

Not a black hole.

But an Alternate Universe. One where the Tories won a completely unexpected overall majority in the general election. It all makes perfect sense.

We tried using Windows 10 for real work and ... oh, the horror

Re Odd Number Versions

Are you sure that's not Star Trek you're thinking of?

I just tippexed over 'Russle' on the screen and wrote 'Eadon' on top. It made perfect sense after that.

Are you ready? Probably not.

The more I read, the more I think I'll wait for the second service pack. No matter how much I loath Win 8 (about 5 on a scale of 10) Win10 looks scary and a heavy price to pay for access to the new DirectX.

I can understand that a development this large must require a good deal of integration and testing, that it must be farmed out to any number of disparate groups and that some drift in aims and objectives is inevitable no matter how tight the specification. But...

What I can't understand is how anyone at Microsoft thinks they're going to avoid a shitstorm if they release this in three weeks time. At the moment it looks like a particularly lurid stick of rock with FAIL written all the way through it.

Is Eadon still a thing?

Smart Meter biz case still there, insists tragically optimistic UK govt

Re: I had a smart meter fitted last week

When (if?) you change energy supplier I hope it'll continue to work :-)

Phew! Brits escape Azure price hikes as rest of world bears the brunt

Coffiest

Fredrick Pohl...

"...here's what makes this campaign great in my estimation - each sample of Coffiest contains three milligrams of a simple alkaloid. Nothing harmful. But definitely habit-forming. After ten weeks the customer is hooked for life. It would cost him at least five thousand dollars for a cure, so it's simpler for him to go right on drinking Coffiest - three cups with every meal and a pot beside his bed at night, just as it says on the jar."

Boffins demo 'memcomputer', plot von Neumann's retirement

Re: I slipped on muh snake oil

"but lady nature doesn't like her no-go areas lifted"

Thing is though, we don't know where the hard limits are. The history of science and technology is littered with definitive statements about what is and is not achievable. Most turn out to be wrong.

Samsung, Oppo collared in smartphone bloatware probe

Re: It's not installing the bloatware that's the issue

"If I go to a Ford dealer and say can i have it without the CD radio or the silver trim"

Not been to buy a car recently have you?

Last time I did, there was a wide range of choice of options, some factory, some dealer at additional cost. All to be added to the bare bones model. Or I could buy one of their specials that had a whole bunch of special stuff in it already at a special price. To which I could add extras at my own expense if I wanted.

Given the prevalence of internets these days it would be relatively easy to provide a base version that then upgraded as per customer request as part of initial setup.

Re: I want bloat. I demand bloat!

"You overestimate the bravery, desire and technical ability"

Nope, that was entirely my point. I'm also a coward and have no desire to risk borking my phone so have avoided rooting it. But I deeply resent not being able to just delete all that guff.

Please don't tell me I should have /sarc'd the op.

I want bloat. I demand bloat!

I want my Android phone to be filled with largely useless applications.

I want a UI skin that adds little or nothing.

I want to wait longer (or in vain) for the release of the next version of Android because of the work involved in porting that software & UI.

Forcing people to root the phone seems a perfectly reasonable for the downright cussedness and lack of gratitude shown by some users who want to uninstall it.

I very definitely don't want a guarantee of Android updates being supported for a period of at least two years after the release of the phone.

Assange™'s emotional plea for asylum in France rejected

Greece?

Perhaps he could get asylum there. With the way the story changes from moment to moment, he'd be a shoe-in for the current Greek cabinet.

UH OH: Windows 10 will share your Wi-Fi key with your friends' friends

Just tell me it's going to be switched off

by default. Please.

As for the 'opt-out' feature, SSIDs are limited to 32 bytes AFAIK so we'll only need few few more idiot decisions and the whole SSID will be opt-out strings.

Fucknuts.

BBC (sort of) sorry for Grant Shapps Wikipedia smear reportage

Ahhhh. The Guardian

The shining example of journalistic probity. Perhaps they were too busy concentrating on their perfectly legal offshore tax avoidance schemes to get around and do their normally rigorous fact checking.

As for the BBC? It may be that Shapps has the last laugh...

Android's sun sets on Eclipse

Re: IntelliJ

Been using Intellij for years. Always thought it was the dogs nuts. So much so I was happy to pay for my own version rather than use the free Eclipse. Always thought Eclipse sucked and I *never* found a developer who'd used both and preferred Eclipse.

Gates: Renewable energy can't do the job. Gov should switch green subsidies into R&D

Re: In addition

Invade Austria?

Bloke called Rod struck by lightning for second time

Aren't Rods odds the same?

If the risk of being struck is x, then even if he's been struck once or twice or whatever, his risk of being struck again are still x unless being struck makes him do something to change the odds?

UK.gov spaffed billions into IT projects at 'high risk of failure' last year

Re: Shame

PFI School. Plans drawn up, school built.

Cloakrooms have no coat hooks in them.

Education authority complains about missing coat hooks.

Contractor examines plans, no coat hooks in plans or other specs.

Contractor says they weren't asked for them, EA approved & signed off plans.

Contractor says they'll charge to fit them.

EA outraged because *everyone* knows you can't have a cloakroom without coat hooks and they shouldn't be charged for them because they *should* have been there regardless of plans.

Draw your own conclusions...

Pirate MEP pranks Telegraph with holiday snap scaremongering

Re: I doubt it's hard to prank them

"The Telegraph has lurched so far away from journalistic standards"

Yes, it's a good job we've got the Guardian, that bastion of unbiased, rigorously fact checked journalism on hand to counter the evil that is the Telegraph...

This whopping 16-bit computer processor is being built by hand, transistor by transistor

Re: Completely and utterly bonkers

If you haven't, go and look at the WEB site for the project. It's fascinating, board construction, component layout, testing, managing connections. Amazing breadth of skills the man has.

From his site:

"I spent a bit of time trying to work out how to do the 7-segment display using discrete transistors but the answer is vast. Really, really big. It would have near doubled the size of the thing and the circuitry for the display would have obscured the circuitry for the processor which would have undermined what I was trying to do. As its only for debug and not proper function I went for chips. This is definitely NOT cheating, it is just for debug. It is irritating though."

And

"The RAM's turning out to be quite sizable. A square inch per bit ! I'm hoping to do 64 bytes, but that translates to the best part of two square metres."

Really, I had to laugh. Sizeable? Not half it isn't.

Completely and utterly bonkers

But I hope he manages to complete it and find a home for it because it'll be a wonderful achievement.

I'm assuming it'll go abroad because that's where most great British technology ends up...

Virgin Media starts its broadband-of-the-gaps fibre rollout

Re: Sigh ...

Surprised? Oh how I wish I was. I would have chosen an icon except there wasn't an "I'm so weary of this sort of thing I can barely summon the energy to type" icon.

Nobel bro-ffin: 'Girls in the lab fall in love with me ... then start crying'

He should start a research institute with

Rajendra Pachauri. I could see them co-operating on a series of novels where misogynist professors are besieged by attractive, eager, emotional, young female researchers desperate for the sort of sex you can only get from elderly scientists...

I strongly suspect alcohol may have been involved, I gather the speech was 'after dinner'. The man is a fool.

Elon Musk's $4.9bn taxpayer windfall revealed

Re: Comparing with a 'competitive' project

"This situation should be compared to the private finance deals that the Tories give to their chums"

PFI: Invented by Tories and stretched to close to breaking point by Nu-Labour.

Re: how capitalism is supposed to work??

"But only a fool would truly believe that only Elon Musk benefits from governmental subsidies"

Is that what he said? I think he was just saying that Musk appeared to run a business optimised for the collection of money 'harvested' from the public.

The Sage Of Omaha has also said that the *only* reason he invests in wind farms is because the government cash makes it worthwhile. So Musk isn't the only one, it's just that his businesses all appear to do it with efficiency and alacrity...

Nothing wrong with that, either, if the subsidies are driving investment into the right areas. But the one thing we can say about governments is that they're always happy to spend taxpayers money on the basis that, generally, they can always squeeze the tit a little harder if they need to.

Milking cow shot dead by police 'while trying to escape'

Leaping Cow

Had one in the garden a few years back. It had done a bunk from a herd moving along the road. I was working from home at the time, and looked up to see cow legging it down the garden pursued by three blokes. Took a few seconds to wonder if there was something in the water and decided the sight was real so kept watching.

The blokes thought they'd got the bovine cornered, but it made a dash for it and hurdled a 3 foot fence+ditch to make it into the field next door. Very impressive.

Microsoft's Surface 3 is sweet – but I wouldn't tickle my nads with it

Re: Why Why I always asked myself for Surface

I can't work out if the concept is flawed or the implementation. After all, it looks like a neat idea. It's one where I see the adverts, and think yes, possibly. Then I read the reviews and mmmm, possibly not. Then I look at the price and think, nope, not a chance.

BUZZKILL. Honeybees are dying in DROVES - and here's a reason why

Re: Neonicotinoids

No, please, lets.

The ban on neonics is probably going to be responsible for the deaths of more bees this year than neonics ever were. My local beekeeping association has already warned that we should expect more of our bees to be at risk because farmers will have to resort to legal but far more noxious insecticides and have to use them more often because they can't use neonics.

It's more likely that the problems we've seen in recent years are the effects of imported diseases and habitat loss. In the US commercial keeping involves moving thousands of colonies around the country to follow the pollination season. It's ideal for spreading nasties around at super high speed.

Just wait until the asian hornet turns up. They'll have to fight it out with resistant varroa and small hive beetle.

Noobs can pwn world's most popular BIOSes in two minutes

Re: manufacturers are to blame 100%

It's not just the computer. It's the TV, printer, that streaming box you purchased a couple of years ago and a bunch of other network connected kit that appears to be running Android or BusyBox.

The manufacturers customise the software, do a couple of updates during the first 18 months to fix the most shocking bugs and, perhaps, introduce a few new features. Then that's it. Support is finished and the world rolls on.

I'm not sure what the answer is, I did wonder if manufacturers should be forced to open source their code/build environment for each device as it gets to the end of its support life...

Attack of the Digital People: The BBC goes fully Bong

House of Fail

Take a Raspi, some of the available commercial components and distributions, create a few more to fill gaps if needed. Mix the lot together with a series of TV/WEB programmes that provide the detail on how to write the code that interfaces w, x, y to get a working z.

FFS they could have gone to the Raspi foundation and handed them £10m to produce packaged kits. But no, like any monopoly, the BBC only sees good in things it has complete control over.

It's about time they stopped looking back at the BBC micro. It was a different world with different rules.

Nest seeks audio talent to delight … someone

Who is Taylor Swift?

I'm too busy being Shpongled to find out.

Hated smart meters likely to be 'a costly failure' – MPs

Hated smart meters likely to be 'a costly failure'

Hated smart meters certain to be 'a costly failure'

There, fixed it for you.

Paul Allen hunts down sunken Japanese WWII super-battleship

Who trained the Japanese to torpedo bomb?

I did read somewhere that it was the RAF...

The Order: 1886 – Round Table gaming's all right on the knight

Re: QTE's

"When PC gamers are willing to pay the amount of money it costs to fund a high quality modern AAA title"

Perhaps it's the other way round. Some ports from console are rubbish, reviewers tell us they're rubbish, so the publishers know they can't charge £50.

But sometimes I think it's just too much like hard work to provide the textures and frame rates that can make a game look good on PC. Sometimes I think it's might be done deliberately. If console gamers could see just what could be done with a PC they might be inclined to walk away from consoles. Which upsets Sony and Microsoft who have hardware to sell...

BBC: SOD the scientific consensus! Look OUT! MEGA TSUNAMI is coming

Re: Mega Tsunami?

Is it the worst thing the BBC has done? No it's not. But clearly there's a slide down hill. Perhaps this will eventually lead to a tsunami that'll engulf the BBC license fee leaving a smaller subscription service that's easier to ignore and much less dominant in the market.

It's depressing that the trust don't seem to see the problems with this particular programme and the appallingly low bitrate of most BBC science and technology programming.

This optical disc will keep your gumble safe for 2,000 YEARS

Re: @Dave126

By that time Astley will have been recognised for the cultural deity that he truly is and and the discovery will be celebrated around the globe with barbecues and drinking vintage Brawndo...

Watt the CHIP!? ARM pops out THE most powerful 64-bit Cortex for mobes'n'slabs

Change of venue

"The company's presentation of the blueprints to industry analysts and press this morning in San Francisco"

I know there are good reasons for doing this sort of thing in SanFran, but if they're a Brit company it would be nice for once to have them make the announcement from somewhere else. For instance...

"The company's presentation of the blueprints to industry analysts and press this morning in Budleigh Salterton"

Samsung gets KINKY with new Galaxy in 50 SHADES OF GREY

That makes more sense

I'm reminded of those photographs they used to show on "Ask The Family" and then pull back and back and back and back...

Citrix: Hmmm, profit down 30%? Right. 900 HEADS WILL ROLL

Re: I find business finance so unintuitive

Dunno. If at the end of it, their costs are lower and they're doing the same stuff with fewer bods, just with better organisation, that's gotta be a good thing for the business if not the people they fire. Right?

Better to do it when you've got the time and space to make sure things are done properly, than to be forced into some sort of 'operation firefight' on the back of continuing bad results. Been there for the latter, and the results are *always* ugly.

LEAKED: Samsung's iPhone 6 killer... the Samsung Galaxy S6

Re: And the price will be?

Depends on how long you're likely to want to keep it.

I'm still using my HTC Desire, the version of android is too old and the CPU struggles with my satnav program. So I'm going to buy a new phone this year. I'd not expect to change it unless it breaks because the tech has reached a point where it's likely to be able to cope with everything I need for the foreseeable. So I'd be prepared to spend more for something I really like and that's going to last.

This could be a case for Mulder and Scully: Fox 'in talks' to bring back The X-Files

Anal probes all round then?

This post is disembodied.

Re: I'd rather see another Chris Carter series

I'd vote for that too. The one condition for an X-Files reboot would be new cast and a proper story rather than the shaggy dog nonsense we were stuck with first time round.

Perhaps they could get together with David Lynch and merge with Twin Peaks?

But really, I'm still waiting for a new series of Blakes 7...

Scary code of the week: Valve Steam CLEANS Linux PCs (if you're not careful)

Re: Halftruth?

If you've not got the latest version it's still a whole truth.

When I read the code I was wondering if I'd fallen into a wormhole and it was 1980. Again. Anyone seen a groundhog recently?

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Thin plot, great CGI effects

Re: one film edit

Hmmm. Could be we have a directors cut DVD is actually shorter than the version released to ciinemas? My friend Guy (or Mark depending on where he is) told me once that the directors cut of "Bloodshack" also had this honour...

Hated the Jackson LOTR version, won't bother to watch any of this, I'll stick with faint memories of David Davis (*NOT* the M.P.) reading "The Hobbit" on BBC R4 and the book itself.

Spanish scraper scrapped: Google axes Google News

Otto who?

The whole point of the copyright levy is to protect poor wittle European monopolies from those ghastly predatory American monopolies.

So I'd say it was working exactly as Herr Oettinger wanted it to.

What a pity: Rollout of hated UK smart meters delayed again

You are not alone

It's not that uncommon. There will be a significant number of people who will be denied access to a buggy, insecure and 'out of date on install' smart meter that will save them almost no money at all. But they'll still have to pay for it through their bills. That's progress for you.

See: http://www.nickhunn.com/uk-smart-meters-delayed-again/#more-1585 for a completely depressing view of the whole UK smart meter fiasco.

Hi-torque tank engines: EXTREME car hacking with The Register

Re: IT angle? Who cares?

"Can we now hope for some valve electronics hackery?"

Man in France makes thermionic values from scratch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzyXMEpq4qw&feature=player_detailpage

Blade Runner sequel might actually be good. Harrison Ford is in it

Re: weighing the options...

Approved by the PKD estate as most likely to make money?

Hated the original film, and while the directors final, final, absolutely final, never going to be a better version (sorry, did we mention 4k?) cut was an improvement, I still didn't like it that much. I keep watching Blade Runner in its various incarnations expecting (hoping?) to like it, and always being disappointed.

Don't hold out much hope if the Alien 'prequel' was anything to go by.

Breaking records: Google exec in terrifying SKY PLUNGE DRAMA

Re: Well Done...

My first reaction was that it was all very unlike an American. More British. Not exactly Heath-Robinson or Eddie the eagle, more Cavor. Then I thought that it's probably killed any ambitions Vulture Special Projects might have had in the same direction.

Impressive none the less.

'MYSTERIOUS PYRAMID STRUCTURE' found on COMET beyond Mars: Landing planned

Re: Something more intertesting

I'm sure if we look harder we'll be able to see the tongue marks. That rock is probably a chocolate chip.