Posts by Matt Piechota

Trekkies detect Spock's Vulcan homeworld ORBITING PLUTO

Meanwhile, at the spaceport:

I'll have a round-trip ticket to Kerberos, thanks!

Profitless internet biz Pinterest seeks $2.5 BILLION valuation

"They pin pictures for one another, my wife gets artsy-craftsy ideas from there (the loft bed I built for my daughter came from a picture my wife saw on Pinterest). No real use for guys though."

Seems that way. Lots of good recipes floating around in there too. Think a community-driven version of Marth Stewart's Living Show. Although my wife has a bunch of pinned motorcycle pictures as well (which is kinda awesome, really).

Empire says ‘primitive’ Earth not ready for Death Star

Jedi

Jedi Force-talkers, duh!

Bletchley Park boffins start trailblazer EDSAC computer rebuild

Re: Hats off guys

"Every time we turn around, the british are rebuilding another historical computer. Great job!"

Well, you can't really expect the Brits to build a modern computer, right? :)

GE boffins build micro-lungs to cool PC innards

Test Cycle

"We tested the devices in Mil-STD-810G sand and dust testing environment. They were blasted with really fine grain dust from many different angles," he said. "After four days we had all six devices still working with no problems."

Wow, 4 whole days! :)

I think most tech folks will note that it's not sandy dust that they find in computers but that nasty, sticky, skin-based grey stuff. That's where the testing needs to be.

Schmidt: Microsoft will never be as cool as the Gang of Four

Re: But...

"don't want cool, I want something which works with what I already have, is fairly tough, not too expensive, will be supported after the first six months and is expandable."

So what you're saying is you want a new horse when everyone else is buying these new-fangled auto-mo-biles.

The Times offers subsidised Nexus 7s to get subscribers

"But does that package include a Nexus 7 that actually works?"

The one I got last week worked fine. Took it out, played with it for an hour or so (update to 4.2, etc, etc.), did a factory reset on it and put it away. It's a Christmas gift.

What's funny is how impossibly small my 4.6" phone screen seemed when I picked it up after using the nexus.

Antarctic discovery: ALIEN LIFE may be FOUND ON MOON of Jupiter

GFX

"Is that picture wallpaper for the Windows 8 desktop?"

It's a screenshot from a Wii U. :)

US petitions Obama for better policing of its mega-cities

Hmmm

That sounds dreddful.

Google starts rolling out Android 4.2 to select devices

Nexus S?

"I wasn't on about top sellers. If you read what I wrote I was on about flagship devices. The Nexus range are supposed to be the raised bar device for each Android release that others aspire to beat, but sadly the last one didn't make it as far as a .2 OS release."

I think you (or I) am confused, the Nexus S is two devices ago (Current: Nexus 4, Previous: Galaxy Nexus, Prior: Nexus S). The Nexus S was released with 2.3, and has been updated twice so far (4.0, 4.1). It was released 2 years ago, which coincides with most people's upgrade cycle. I don't love that cycle, of course.

I'm just hoping Verizon sees fit to push my CDMA Galaxy Nexus to 4.2 at some point. I don't need it to be right now, but I'd like at least one more upgrade. At least it's pretty easy to flash it to something else if I get really excited about it.

'We invented Windows 8 Tiles in the 1990s', says firm suing Microsoft

AfterStep

Sounds a lot like my mid-late 90s AfterStep configuration with xload, xeyes, etc. docked on the right side of the screen. And Windowmaker in the later 90s.

Apple scrambled to hire iOS 6 maps engineers DAYS before launch

But... wouldn't it make sense for Google to delay that app, just a bit? Yes, they'd forgo some proximity-based business ad revenue. But think of all the people who may opt for an Android instead. Tasty! Why pull Apple's chestnuts out of the fire?

Google doesn't really care if Android wins, they just need ad revenue. Although you do have a point for the most point, Apple can (and probably will) lock Google out at some point. For Google it's a calculation of whether they'll get more out of providing the app vs. the number of people that *may* switch. How many fanbois are realistically going to switch to Android?

And, as far as no-network/caching map software goes, I nominate PocketEarth (paid app & not to confused with an older celestial app of the same name) which uses OpenStreetMap.

Before this, I didn't realize Google Maps on iOS doesn't cache. That is crap.

Apple Java update fails to address mega-flaw – researcher

"And some prominent developers still insist that we should rewrite all software in Java or other managed languages. It's all about security and safety, they say, which one can never achieve with the C/C++.

Well, I'm glad to see the people being repeatedly proven wrong.

Worst part is of course the fact that the managed language VMs themselves become the targets. Considering complexity of e.g. Java VM I think we are going to have a bumpy road ahead."

I think there's a baby and bathwater issue here. If you write in C/C++, you're going to have pretty close to full access to the system (barred only by OS user permissions). With this Java flaw, you get pretty close to full access to the system (same user permissions as above). So Java, at worst case with a giant flaw, is as secure as C/C++ on a given system. The only issue I see is that people might feel "Java is secure" and run things they wouldn't normally run.

Gunman takes potshots at Dell HQ, chopper search ensues

Re: What is a "breakout room" ?

"IIRC, it's the bigger version of a huddle room. It's part of the new corporate architecture... where everyone lower than VP sits in a cube, with varying sized meeting closets (a.k.a. huddle, breakout, etc) replacing where all the manager offices used to be."

In my day, we called them "Conference Rooms". :) Unless you mean they had a table-top version of the arcade classic "Breakout" in there. That'd be awesome.

The 'experts' who never see BBM will never understand RIM

In the US

In my (probably limited) experience in the US, the only people that *do* have Blackberry devices are middle-aged men since that's what the corporate IT dept issues for work stuff. Everyone else has Android or iPhone devices.

I've heard my corporate IT dept is investigating sandboxed Android Apps for corporate email. No cut and paste in or out of the app so there's no data leakage to the unsecured portion of the phone.

How talent-spotting boffins help Team GB bag Olympic gold

Re: Trivia Fact

"What you say is generally a good enough approximation, but that's all it is and is demonstrably wrong in many cases."

Yep. My monkey arms are 80" fingertip to fingertip, but yet I'm 6" short of being 6' 8". Rule of thumb but not accurate.

Barnes & Noble: You won't need a Nook to read our ebooks

Ummm

There PC, Mac, iOS, and Android Nook apps, and they've been out for quite awhile (at least a year, probably more).

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/free-nook-apps/379003593/

They were pretty hard to find, I had to Google 'nook app' and click on the first link.

Raspberry Pi used as flight computer aboard black-sky balloon

"LiPo will not perform well in the cold, might even damage the cells. Maybe LiFePO4 could cope, but even that is usually only rated to -20C."

Use the batteries as part of the heat sink. ;-)

Nasa guides Mars Rover with Kinect

So,

It's xlander?

Asteroid miners to strap 'scopes to new Virgin Galactic rocket

Tittle

You had miner, rocket, scope, strap, and virgin and that's the best title you could think of?

FunnyJunk lawyer doubles down on Oatmeal Operation Bear Love

Thanks!

"I, for one, respect Mr. Orlowski and Page, and appreciate their take on this subject. It's very easy to side with every other blog joint out there, but it takes some special balls to rise above the "I read it on the Internet, so it must be true" mentality."

Thanks Mrs. Orlowski, you should come 'round for tea some time.

Apple silences mute kids' speech app in patent blowup

Press release

The Press Release (in the comments above) notes:

"The founders of the company marketing this app are speech-language pathologists who were trained by PRC, and who used their knowledge of the Unity system to develop a Unity-like app of their own and market it in the Apple iTunes store."

That's a horse of another color. We can talk about how crap software patents are, but that's different than "we just happened to make something similar".

Hitchhiker shot while researching 'Kindness of America'

Re: Nice stereotype.

"You have my condolences. Come visit Buffalo, New York as we don't just shoot people here."

Unless you're hanging around Busti Ave. :) (Nice to see a fellow Buffalonian on here)

OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 240GB PCI-E SSD

Re: This is the future

"Which means a dedicated SAN will be dead. I mean, seriously, if we have 20, 50, or 100TB on a PCIe card close to the northbridge of the CPU, and 10GigEth networks for the 4 way DRBD, why wasting more money on a separate SAN system."

Unless you want to run a cluster (especially VMs). Or have failover hardware. Or want to manage backups centrally.

WTF is... Li-Fi?

Re: I predict ultrasonic networking

"Light is good, its the fastest thing we can "control" in our universe and therefore ideal for data transfer. But in a cable makes sense because optic fibre can carry the light and there are no issues with line of sight. But wireless, all you'd need to do to corrupt a file is throw a mirror in the way."

Excuse me, you're standing in my network.

Also, how are you going to power the 'bulb' when you cut power to the socket?

Google officially buys Motorola, hits refresh on CEO

Re: "Many users coming online today may never use a desktop machine"

"Is it just me, or does that comment remind anyone else of the "Paperless office" comments of the '80's and '90's? I think it's going to be a while before people do everything on their phones and/or tablets."

Depends on whether he meant desktop as in desktop OS (Windows, OS X, etc.) or desktop PC (iMac, tower+monitor, etc.). Desktop OS is BS, but if you think about it, there's an interesting point about desktop PC vs. laptop, in that you can pick up your 'computing life' and take it with you, something far less common 10 years ago.

VIA outs $49 Raspberry Pi-alike

Re: Size?

"quote "1708 x 85mm"

Is this thing really nearly 2m long?"

That's a big banana.

Mole sheds light on incoming illuminated Amazon Kindle

B&N not announced, shipping

A friend recieved her GlowNook last week, so it's shipping not announced. :)

Death Star dinosaur aliens could rule galaxy

Re: And then...

"Actually any space-faring culture would have to be industrial [1], and any industrial culture is going to leave traces that should still be visible - even after 65 million years."

Duh, the earth was a hunting preserve with a very strict "Leave no trace" policy. :)

Apple's Messages beta will self-destruct on Mountain Lion launch

"No programmer should ever make a program that does what this program does as humans do not need to be hounded down by twatter & facecrack feeds at all hours of the day and night."

What if that's exactly what the user wants?

NASA launches Facebook game for space nerds

Audience

"No argument there, but maybe they are simply playing to their audience, which in this case is Facebookers."

Or, you know, kids. As in trying to get kids excited about space so they'll think about working at NASA when they grow up?

Apple: Yes there are horrendous accidents, but we CARE

"The Big Pile of Stupid is the fact that the domestic production costs would be only very slightly higher - probably no more than a grand total of $30 - but there would be more money floating around in the US or Euro economies from taxes and discretionary worker spending."

While I don't disagree with the last statement, $30 x 10 million iPhones == $300 million. That's not exactly chump change.

iPhone users get iJustHadAShag bedpost-notch boast app

That's it.

Android just can't compete with high quality apps like this, I'm switching.

2011's Best... Cars

"A car almost entirely designed for London?"

Considering how large a percentage of people live in and around large cities in the world, kinda makes sense to design cars for them, no?

Obama says his birthplace is 'in Asia'

US-born

"In a recent press conference given in Hawaii (the US state where Mr Obama was born), the president said "here in Asia", a statement which – had he been correct – would have disqualified him from office."

Not true. Any person born within the borders of the US *OR* to a parent that is a US-citizen is considered a natural-born citizen. Obama's mother was born in Kansas, QED. This comes up most often births on overseas military bases.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 13.3in Core i5 notebook

@ Chris Wilson - Dell laptops have TrackPoints too

But only the Latitudes.

Americans' right to hang fake balls on trucks left dangling

Sigh.

Really, we're not all like that.

Earth escapes obliteration by comet

"Remember, kiddies, F=MA ... It doesn't matter how many chunks you cut it into, the mass and vector remains the same. If it hits the Earth, the total energy transfer will also be the same. Think about it."

While true, the increased surface area means much more will burn up in the atmosphere.

Binned PCs were stuffed with MoD and Sun staffers' privates

Boom

"Personaly dumpstering ex-MOD kit would not be wise on many levels, heck one day those storage modules for milatary could very well have tampering explosives in which if connected to a normal controller would cause the storage module to explode. Not that I'm aware of such items, but they are certainly not beyond the realms of reality in some MOD situations."

You've seen too many movies, I think. Data storage devices are taken out of the machines and send to the shredder, the rest is recycled or junked.

And, have none of you heard of DBAN? http://www.dban.org/

Motorola sharpens smartphones with revamped Razr

RE: Clamshell

"Yes, no way I'm going to have a bare piece of glass lying around in my pocket amongst the coins, keys etc. I'll wait until the stupid non clamshell fad passes thanks."

I've had a original Droid (milestone UK and other places) for nearly two years now, and put the first scratch in the screen yesterday. By dropping the phone face-down on pavement and sliding. Gorilla glass is really, really tough.

Zombie mobile Linuxes mate

Custom

""LiMo 4, under LiMo’s proven collaborative governance model, enables flexible disaggregation of the device platform and the service propositions such that operators and device manufacturers can more freely shape attractive user propositions and secure sustainable long-term value," said Morgan Gillis, LiMo executive director, in a canned statement announcing version 4 earlier this year."

That's pretty terrifying, frankly. I think operators and device manufacturers have pretty much proven they shouldn't be allowed to design interfaces in the Android world.

Google+ opened to world+dog

"For Android users having a social network that actually works on their phone AND gets realtime (most of the time) notifications is a big win for Google."

That's pretty interesting. On my phone (US Verizon Droid Classic, I think that's the Milestone in .eu), after installing the Plus app I noticed all my Google stuff suddenly had delays getting to my phone. I mostly noticed it on Gmail and Gtalk, where it would take between 1 and 20 minutes for stuff to show up. After I uninstalled, everything seems to have gone back to normal.

Haven't had time to go back and retest to see if I can replicate the behavior.

NASA releases stunning new moon-landing snaps

tracks

"i see the wheel tracks of the LRV, going towards it's final resting place... but there's no footprints returning to the landing site?? is the astronaut still sitting in the driving seat? or maybe, they forgot to photoshop in the footprint tracks"

Perhaps the driver walked back in the wheel tracks, like you'd do if you were walking in deep snow.

Much of the human race made up of thieves, says BSA

There are some problems with your post.

"Cryptographic licensing ins't that hard, but none of the major software only players use it - because a pirate copy still has positive value on their business plan, it promotes the software, and perpetuates lock-in."

Exactly. That's why in the good old days, 1234-1234567 was a valid product key for Windows NT.

No pain, some gain: Ubuntu Oneiric Ocelot examined

Sidebar

"Windows has always allowed its taskbar to be dragged to any edge of the screen, but I've never seen anyone move it from the bottom edge - so it's a solution looking for a problem."

I use it that way right now. Granted, I just started within the last few months, but I was getting sick of having no veritcal resolution. It only makes sense with todays wider and wider screen displays.

That being said, I used of WindowMaker and Afterstep (set up with one column of buttons along one side of the monitor) for quite awhile. I see to remember running a command to move the Apple dock to the left side of the screen on my housemate's Mac some years ago too.

VW Scirocco BlueMotion Technology TDI 140

CVT

"why has no one developed a modern day variomatic yet? surely that would cane anything else, set the engine to its optimum RPM and let the infintely adjustable 'gearbox' (two cones on a belt) do the rest?"

Nissan, Subaru, Dodge, and Ford (at least) do CVTs (constantly variable transmission) over here in the US, do they not sell those in the UK?

Ex-gf had an Nissan Altima with one, it's the only automatic I've ever liked. Not enough for me to not buy a manual, but it worked pretty much as you describe. A Dodge Caliber CVT I had as a rental was less interesting. Apparently Dodge thought that people still need 'gears' so it would (very lazily) pretend to have gears unless you had the throttle pinned.

Mobile operators: US quake proves we need more spectrum

Really?

Really? I friend of mine couldn't call his daughter in Philly (from the Philly suburbs) for at least an hour. That sounds like a failure.

Room-temperature brown dwarf spied just 9 light-years off

Slack

Who knew these guys were astronomers so in tune with modern developements.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=my05ssEhcZQ

(music video)

Celebrity Google+rs do need steenkin' badges

Pity?

Why, they can get on Same Name!

http://www.cbs.com/shows/same_name/

Apple changed shape of Galaxy Tab in court filing

Title!

"Widescreen came about because t.v.'s were using the same 4:3 aspect ratio that films were using. To distinguish itself from television and maintaining it's market, the film industry began to move to widescreen. It also began to expand the use of colour.

Hard to justify the cost of taking the family to see the newest film when you can just wait and either rent or own it for much less."

I think you give the movie industry far too much credit to have forseen video rentals in 1953 (when 'widescreen' format appeared in major pictures).

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Academy_ratio