Posts by Tim Parker

Gnome cofounder: Desktop Linux is a CHERNOBYL of FAIL

@another coward Re: Huh.

"No matter what you do on GNU/Linux you *ALWAYS* have to spend time trawling the 'net trying to interpret poorly written and out-of-date guides."

No you don't. That is all.

Torvalds asks 'Why do PC manufacturers even bother any more?'

@streaky

"Some of us work at a desk and play.. games.. the last one being a novel idea to Linux kernel people I know."

Eh ? What has the kernel to do with the display resolution ? (aside from general issues like scheduling, multi-threading etc for which the Linux kernel is already perfectly fine for gaming)

US lawmaker blames bicycle breath for global warming gas

Re: Wrong, but not ridiculous?

"

"the wind assistance of passing traffic"

WTF ?

Yep - it's true. Ask any competitive roadie if you like - there is a definite effect. The fact that some of the fastest Time Trial courses use busy roads is no coincidence."

Oh ok.. interesting. I've had some assist from traffic but it's usually from the frontal wave off a large vehicle or a small train of them.. the dominant effect is lateral in my experience. I understand some of the fluid dynamics of why it can help, but I would have thought that dissipation would have limited the benefits... perhaps the roads i'm on don't have a regular enough flow or something.. i'll keep on eye on that.

"And re: 500watts...yes, that pretty close. However, aerodynamics are crucial here. At that speed you won't be sitting bolt upright like Mary Poppins...Think closer to 350watts with traffic assist, which most amateur riders can hold for extended periods."

Yep aerodynamics matter, agreed - 500W ? that's a figure (estimated) on the hoods, so not bolt upright but, yeah, pretty sloppy but what you'd expect for commuting (which is where this started from). It's a bit over 400 on the drops on the same calculation. That said, 350W over an extended period is most certainly not what the vast majority of cyclists can manage - that's nearly 5W/kg for a 75kg person and is in the very top of Cat2 and into Cat 1 territory for functional threshold in the Coggan chart for gents (with all the caveats about that)... and if you're talking extended periods then FTP is a fair guide.

Anyway - I guess this is going a long way away from talking about an average Joe cycling to work, which is a good thing to be encouraging anyway.

Re: road tax for bikes

"If I have two cars, I pay two road taxes. Why should cyclists get a free ride? Pay up."

Oh do fuck off you stupid twat - as has been pointed out again and again in this thread, and indeed every time this comes up - cyclists, and others, don't get a free ride. Also, if you have any conviction in your beliefs then why don't you try posting as someone real, not a coward. FFS.

Re: Wrong, but not ridiculous?

Oh yes - nearly forgot...

"the wind assistance of passing traffic"

WTF ?

Re: Wrong, but not ridiculous?

"Actually, that's only < 22mph. With flat roads and the wind assistance of passing traffic, this is easily achievable with a modicum of effort. With a bit of training on a road bike/"racer", 27-28mph is perfectly possible to maintain on more open sections."

Thumb in the air - 28 mph would require not far short of double the power to maintain than 22 mph, which in turn would take 25% more power than 20 mph. Quick online calculator says for a 75kg person (not that heavy) riding on the hoods of a 10kg bike (reasonably light) you'd need about 210W for 20 mph, 270W for 22 mph and 500W for 28 mph. If you can do 500 W for any length of time after "a bit of training" you should consider a change in career (assuming you're not already a Cat1 or Pro rider).

Review: Livin' in the cloud with Google's new Chromebook Pixel

Re: No HDMI?

"I don't care how good the screen is, it is not 40" and shareable to the whole room."

Whatever else its shortcomings, it is shareable on your TV - you just don't want to buy the cable for it by the sound of it (fair enough I suppose, it's your money).

World+Dog don't care about climate change, never have done

Re: @Mad Mike

""Nope. Never has been, and is not now. Here's a hint - what covers around 70% of the Earth and is very deep."

Indeed. But, ocean also has a surface and therefore can have a surface temperature. I've just looked up various surface temperature maps and they cover the oceans as well as the land. So, what's the issue with surface temperature?"

Nothing in particular, it's part of the picture .. my point was it cannot be used to say what the short term trend is in the global energy budget because it's effected in the short by other factors, e.g. La Nina/El Nino. Look at the data you linked, look at the papers and discussions about this - and why the energy sink in the deep ocean is not in lock with what happens on the surface. Don't take my word for it - go and have a look at some information about this.

""No i'm not - i'm just pointing out that surface temperature is not the only indicator of global energy retention."

No it isn't. But, it isn't following the pattern they thought it would."

What makes you think that ?

"So, you're just saying oh well, this one doesn't follow what is expected, so I'll choose another temperature."

No i'm not - neither are the scientists behind the papers i've seen.

""Don't be an arse."

It's not me jumping around, accepting one temperature and drawing conclusions from it and ignoring another because it doesn't support my argument."

Neither am I - the original statement I questioned was that global warming had stalled in the last 2 decades.. as has already been pointed out in this thread, data seems to indicate that the increase in surface temperatures has slowed - partially or wholly on the expected impact of a reasonable robust La Nina (as we have seen before). You then linked some data of surface data which actually demonstrated the rise in surface temperatures over the last century. Even so, although demonstrating nicely this trend, this is not the same as the energy buildup in a global sense (atmosphere, surface, ocean) - again then are plenty of places available out there which discuss this. So - did I jump around ? I don't think so - I questioned a specific point (global warming stalling vs. surface temperature) which you then pointed out more surface temperature data, to which I pointed out exactly the same issue - and then you started talking about me 'jumping around'.... do you see my point ?

On another accusation of yours - I am not ignoring any "temperature", whatever that might mean - what makes you think so ? Is it lack of clarity in my comments (quite likely), a lack of your understanding of the issue (it would seem quite likely) or something else ?

I'm more than happy to debate things and I have a healthy dose of skepticism about a number of things - but repeatedly telling me i'm changing tune when all i've discussed from the start is the difference in global energy retention vs short term surface temperature measurements is not really helping. Enough people in this thread have pointed out issues to look at that might be relevant to this conversation, but i've not seen any evidence that you have explored any of them. Pity.

@Mad Mike

"Yes they are scientists - and they probably understand the difference between surface temperatures and "global warming"."

So, now global warming is being limited to only a specific type of temperature is it?

Nope. Never has been, and is not now. Here's a hint - what covers around 70% of the Earth and is very deep.

All you're doing is exactly what gives the man made global warming crowd a bad name. You're changing definitions all the time.

No i'm not - i'm just pointing out that surface temperature is not the only indicator of global energy retention.

Oh dear, this temperature (whatever it may be) seems to have stabilised. Oh well, we'll simply say we meant this other temperature instead.

Don't be an arse.

"No it hasn't - regardless of whatever you may wish to attribute that to. Please go and read the science you talk about."

Are the met office scientists? I rather thought they were.

The graph is very interesting also for the flattening around the 50s.

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/monitoring/climate/surface-temperature

Yes they are scientists - and they probably understand the difference between surface temperatures and "global warming".

"And let's not ignore unfortunate truths such as the last couple (ish) of decades where global warming has stopped."

No it hasn't - regardless of whatever you may wish to attribute that to. Please go and read the science you talk about.

That Firefox OS mobe: The sorta phone left behind after a mugging

@diodesign : Re: Can I have Andrew's MWC ticket?

"I thought it was pretty hilarious.

C."

I thought it was laughable too - perhaps just not for the same reasons as you did....

Climate scientists link global warming to extreme weather

@Dr Stephen Jones Re: Dispassionate

"But Rik ignores the hard evidence (not models) that extreme weather events have decreased. eg, hurricanes at a 40-year low."

Citations please, as the only stats I have found so far indicate that that is not true for Atlantic or Pacific hurricanes (which are not all, but makes me wonder if where the discrepancy is going to be). I'll keep looking in the meantime.Thanks.

This 320-gigapixel snap of London is size of Buckingham Palace

One for the rubgy fans...

http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=179.1652&view.vlookat=6.2859&view.fov=0.4875&imarkerath=179.1652&imarkeratv=6.2859

Typical forward in the line-out, facing the wrong way - but that's not the worst of it. Just to the left of that, coming back onside is another of their forwards looking somewhat the worse for wear, presumably from an off-the-ball incident (someone might get cited for that).

Still worse above them - city boys, or maybe even colonials, misunderstanding that 'protective gear' in rugby normally just means a small piece of squidgy plastic in your mouth. Shame on them :)

Ngghhhhhh - reversed mouse.

(Nice picture though)

Google stokes hype machine over Project Glass robospecs

Skeptical

"Some of Google's ideas for the glasses look promising, but here at El Reg we're taking a skeptical line."

"We" ? What, you mean Alistair Dabbs saying "I don't like wearing things" a few times ? Incisive.

Dell's Ubuntu dev laptop gets much-needed display boost

@mmeier

"Fosstard" ?

Oh do grow up FFS

Capita bosses defend £30m migrant-poking IT deal with Border Agency

Re: What about the 300 000 back log of asylum seekers.

There is also option 5 (which could be used with 2 or 3, and presumably is by some) - apply to the UKBA for cash support. It's not much but at least non-zero. More details from the UNHCR and other organisations, e.g. Turn2Us.

There is, theoretically, the option to apply for contribution based benefits - but this would presumably only be applicable to a tiny proportion of applicants, e.g. someone who has legitimately lived and paid contributions in the UK before attempting to apply for refugee status as an asylum seeker.

Samsung laptops can be NUKED by ANY OS – even Windows: new claim

Re: Why Linux could trigger a bug that Windows might not

"@Tim

Please reread my second phrase

>Therefore as long as an OS can interact with a processor or interface of some kind ( RS232) etc then in theory any OS has the capacity to trigger firmware functions,.

I am quite sure than I am being explicit enough in detail in order to understand that that no one particular OS is any more capable than any other ....."

As far I am concerned that statement is fine - I have no problem with it.

"Yes, I agree that the instruction will come from User Space, I did not state otherwise."

Good - however the slant of your post seems to indicate that Microsoft devs (or presumably OSX or any other OS) just wouldn't use the API in the same way. I suspect you may be right that proportionally more Linux developers may be dealing with board level programming, however this issue came to light not due to some devvie hacking an API but a professional programmer using the interface as it was intended, and further more to spec. My point is that this could easily have been a developer from Microsoft, Apple, Solaris, HP-UX, QNX blah balh, writing an official driver or utility and the same thing could have happened, i.e. the issue is not with the philosophy of the development culture, but with a firmware that is not just buggy (that's too be expected in any code base) but is broken in respect to a mandated, and extremely important part, of the specification with rather drastic consequences.

Re: Why Linux could trigger a bug that Windows might not

"This I believe could differentiate why one system would trigger bugs but another would not. Linux devs might write code and functionality that remain in the overall scope of the Linux way of thinking whereas MS Devs would simply ignore the existance of such and such an API because it does not fall into the scope of their requirements.."

..or it could be that someone wrote some code that conformed to the UEFI spec and because the firmware had bugs it bricked the laptops. That someone in the first instance was a Linux developer writing a kernel driver but, as appears to have been demonstrated, the choice of OS is irrelevant and the code can come from user-space (so any developer, not necessarily one from the institution responsible for the OS, could potentially trigger this).

I'm not sure some strange theory about how and why certain organisations write the code they do is particularly useful in this instance.

Wind now cheaper than coal in Oz: Bloomberg

Re: I have a proof of concept solution

"That should keep them quiet for a century or two."

Wow - is it really getting to you that wind might actually be a viable part of the solution to some people in certain circumstances ? If it works for them, that's good isn't it ? It doesn't have to be a universal answer to power generation of all types to have benefits - neither should it be hyped as such by it's more vocal, and often blinkered, proponents... but that doesn't make it any less useful where appropriate to use.

Cable Cowboy lassoes Virgin Media with HUGE £15bn deal

Neil Berkett - who already appeared to hint at his exit in a reflective statement about Liberty Global's planned merger - has confirmed he will leave the company once the deal is completed. He said: "I am not a very good number two."

Strangely enough I always thought of Neil Berkett, especially after the Phorm comments, as a bit of a number two...

Ten 3D printers for this year's modellers

@Lee Rowling Re: Cost

"Though there are a couple of models in the "affordable" range there, they seem to be the cheap junk that has poor quality output."

How are you judging the output ?... from the minimum feature size ? Have you seen the output from all these ? Enquiring minds want to know..

"They literally look like someone's attempt to make their own inkjet printer and though I don't doubt they work and are "good enough" for a lot of things, that's all I think of when I look at them. What are we talking about? Three stepper motors, a control board, some supporting struts, belts, chains, gears, and a heated nozzle with a box of raw plastic on top. Just what is in there to cost several thousand pounds?"

The cheap and nasty looking ones don't cost several thousand pounds.

"Honestly, I expect to pay £50-100 for a "homebrew" one of these (i.e. the price range of a half-decent commercial inkjet, or some large homebrew lego project), and £300-500 for a full commercial-quality one."

May I be the first, on behalf of the rest of the world, to apologize for things not yet being what you expect. The nerve of those manufacturers.....

"Until then, I don't see what market they serve."

Evidently not... though i'm left to wonder to whom this reflects more on.

Java open-source frameworks 'pose risk' to biz - report

Re: Big News - Software Quality Varies!

"I suspect the quality has little (probably not zero) to do with the framework chosen and more to do with whether the team - from management on down but especially management - know what they're doing."

Agree completely - even by El Regs low standards this is a piss awful bit of 'reporting'.

Tiny tech ZigBee harnesses puny power of the press

@Dave 126 Re: Car keys?

"21 bits won't other the security you would want from your car keys fob"

It's 21 bytes Dave (but agree with the rest of what you said).

Microsoft blasts PC makers: It's YOUR fault Windows 8 crash landed

Re: Microsoft's conceited arrogance...

"I mean whose smart idea was it to hide Settings etc. under a completely undiscoverable hot-corner?"

...possibly a break-away faction from the GNOME 3 developers ?

Inside the new climate row as Mystic Met Office goes cool on warming

Re: The meme that there has been no warming in 16 years is false

"Right now, globally the oceans are cooler than they have been for a considerable while. For example see this: http://www.osdpd.noaa.gov/data/sst/anomaly/2013/anomnight.1.14.2013.gif. Over half the marine surface shows a cool anomaly."

I thought the SST anomaly was the short term indicator (last day of the previous 2 week average) used for things like upwell anaylsis ?

Some of the long term indicators, such as global upper ocean temperature, can be found here (and related links on that page)

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/indicators/

Re: The meme that there has been no warming in 16 years is false

"Secondly the network of buoys recording sea temperatures is not actually recording any increase in sea temperature."

Figures from folks such as the NOAA seem to indicate a rise in global upper ocean heat content, and a rise in sea-levels consistent with that (inter alia). Could you provide some links to the buoy records you're referring to please ?

A pre-ticked box in web forms should NOT mean consent - EU report

Re: @Gav - All seems very sensible

"For me, as the owner of about 400m of wooden fencing, the last straw was the EU banning creosote. "

The EU did not ban creosote - they regulated its use (restricted to professional users under certain circumstances). No massive hardship either way - creosote is fucking horrible stuff and a pain to apply properly to wood in a domestic setting and there are endless replacements for it of varying efficacy and ease of use (most considerably easier and more pleasant to use than creosote in a domestic setting, such as yours sounds).

Sensible choices of wood types for particular uses also helps - e.g. woods such as Azobe or Jarrah for posts, buried structures and submerged (or partly) sub-merged location. Properly pre-treated timber, whilst not protected forever, should help keep maintenance to a sensible level as well.

The carcinogenic issues of creosote are far from proven in humans, although a 'probable' or 'possible' rating is not completely without merit - but even so, given the amount of viable alternatives that are drastically less toxic overall and far more pleasant to use, i'm not convinced it's that bad that its use is restricted to a group of people who supposedly should know how, where and when to use it.

Bob Dylan's new album is 'Copyright Extension Collection'

Re: A curiosity only worthwhile to Sony and collectors

"For those that actually listen to music, it's likely that they already own or "own" these tracks."

Given the amount of previously unreleased material, I doubt it (at least prior to being published).

"I fail to understand why anyone except maybe the most die-hard audiophile or collector still buys music in this format. "

..perhaps you have a very limited imagination ? Who knows.... *shrug*

Sculpted 66-pound jubs survive lightning blast, 26ft drop

"Everything disintegrated but the breasts - all that's left is what's under her hips," [Mr Finlay] added.

Her breasts were under her hips ?... is that typical of goddesses (or Australian women) ?

Google, Microsoft go head to head in Santa-tracking tech race

Grinch

"Google is being a downright Grinch on the mobile front. While NORAD has released Santa Tracker apps for Android and iOS in addition to Windows Phone, the Chocolate Factory's tracker app is for Android only."

Yep - and Microsoft is being a Grinch for only releasing a map component, unless i'm missing something about the Android, iOS and Windows Phone applications being developed by VisionBox (perhaps they had some assistance from Microsoft with the Azure integration ?).

That said - hey, it's Christmas and all these trackers are free - so how about less of the un-necessary, snidey comments and more mulled wine and mince pies.

UK.gov hires data-handling privatisation point man as CTO

Correction

"If the costs of storing information by Government is of several orders of magnitude greater than the industry then the case for privatisation of this service is compelling."

..how about..

"If the costs of storing information by Government is of several orders of magnitude greater than the industry then the case for getting rid of the idiots that designed this service and replacing them with someone with half a clue and a pulse is compelling."

Falling slinky displays slow-motion causality

@Kris

"If it's hanging, then the bottom rings have round equilibrium between the "up" pull and gravity. If you turned off gravity, it would spring up from the bottom, much like when sat on the table.

But they're not switching off gravity, they're releasing the top."

Indeed - hence the description of viewing it from a free-falling reference frame (same as the spring itself).

"Therefore, you would expect that on the instant that the top is released, the bottom (which now has the same gravity pull down, but less force pulling it UP therefore balancing the gravity), should start to fall immediately."

The bottom of the spring is being pulled up by the spring tension and down by gravity (along with all the rest of the spring), so it should start to fall but slowly initially (in the static reference frame). In the free-fall reference frame of the centre of the spring it will appear to contract toward the centre - or at least that is what I was pondering ! I've been talking myself around a few - mutually contradictory - scenarios ever since :)

Re: @John Latham / xyz Seems overcomplicated

"have someone pick holes in the analogy above."

Answering my own question a bit, but of course the strain distribution would be different. Hmm - thinks....

@John Latham / xyz Re: Seems overcomplicated

"Thinking about it again, you might be right, the bottom end of the slinky isn't just sitting in the air, it's trying to collapse up towards its other end as the other end is collapsing towards it. "

I must confess to agreeing with you two - that is precisely what I always thought was happening. Running a thought experiment of a spring lying on a table, held at both ends - release the ends and the spring contracts towards the centre of the spring (due to the tension in the spring). Make the force used to hold the spring equal to the force experienced by the end of the slinky when hanging in equilibrium, and the same thing happens obviously.

Back to the hanging slinky, if we could arrange to be in a free-falling environment, observing the centre of the slinky in front of us and starting from rest when the top of the slinky is released (say in a tiny lift with a port-hole) - surely we should see the same as the spring release on the table above ? (modulo friction, air resistance etc).

Or would we ? The paper seems to say no - but i've not read it yet - but i'd be intrigued to know more, and to have someone pick holes in the analogy above.

Stroustrup on next-gen C++: I didn't want to let go of my baby

@Phil O'Sophical Re: Sounds good

"> now that you can move a 10K x 10K array with two pointer assignments.

Two? In ANSI BASIC you can just use _one_ assignment operator..."

One ? That sounds like aliasing rather than moving to me....

Apple TV demand may drive Samsung-sapping sales

Price

"Let’s say Apple prices its TV at $999, a nice, round number of the kind favoured by Apple."

I would wager they would favour a significantly higher (yet equally round) number.

Rogue IT employees - give us the down and dirty

Re: That's "Hoist with" That's "Hoist by" ... (was: Hoist with own petard)

"So the peasant (or what was left of him) would be thrown into the air by the device. However, as the remains of the petard would be heading skyward with him, both could be said to be grammatically correct;"

The petard is the tool of the associated action (hoisting), so we might expect 'with' (not used here to imply 'accompanying') rather than 'by' - but this does appear to be a gray area.

"although I doubt that the poor peasant would be overly concerned about the niceties of grammar in this case!"

Very true !

That's "Hoist with" Re: That's "Hoist by" ... (was: Hoist with own petard)

Pet peeve. Dunno why

Me too.

Hamlet Act 3 Scene 4

There’s letters sealed, and my two schoolfellows,

Whom I will trust as I will adders fanged,

They bear the mandate. They must sweep my way

And marshal me to knavery. Let it work,

For ’tis the sport to have the engineer

Hoist with his own petard.

Both 'with' and 'by' are cited, although arguably the former is more correct.

England and Germany square off for FIFA goal line tech prize

@werdsmith

"There isn't the money in the game, at grass roots level. FIFA wanted to keep the actual playing of the sport consistent regardless of what level was being played."

As an outsider to the wonders of the internal politics of FIFA, it would seem that what theywant to do is whatever a tiny, select group of aging has-beens grew up with and/or think is "proper". IMO of course. I reckon there's also a big difference between competitive international games and your average Sunday league knock-about - there is a similar usage in tennis at the various levels of the sport, and increasingly cricket, and that doesn't seem to have ruined it at either extreme (IMO again).

"Introducing tech where it is affordable starts to creep toward having different rules at different levels."

The playing rules are the same at any level, regardless of the technology - it's just the degree of assistance that the officials and players can turn to that is different. Whether you approve of the tech is, of course, absolutely up to you - but there is no requirement for change in the core regulations one way or the other. It might seem like it's creeping towards a change in the rules to some, fair enough, but that's not really born out by experience in the sports where such technology is used.

Google's ethics, cosy UK.gov chats under Westminster scrutiny

Tolerance

"The music industry had been able to tolerate private copying without compensation"

That's mighty big of them, allowing us to take a back-up copy or play (usually solely) from a digital copy without paying out again. I wonder where I can send my immense gratitude ?

P-P-P-Pick up our PENGUIN-POWERED Pi PIPER of Python

Re: Pi–oneers

"Ah, but therein lies the rub.

Unless you're a business, you have to stump up the VAT and aren't able to claim it back"

Partly true - one of the bigger markets the Pi is aimed at is the educational one, much of which would be able to claim back the VAT (as I understand it anyway, but i'm not in that sector - section 33B of the VAT Act 1994 seems to have the legal basis for this, and there are other allowances).

"Also, as far as I am aware, both RS Components and Farnell are mail order only retailers."

RS, certainly, used to run a counter service but i've not used that for years...and it would mean them adding a 'Collect from trade counter' option for them on the website when checking out - looks like that's not the way they've got the ordering set up for the Pi however. Might be worth asking them.

"[*P&P charges are a complete rip-off. Posted out in a jiffy bag, standard post. It must cost the suppliers under a quid to send them out, yet both charge around a fiver P&P]"

Totally agree.

Re: Pi–oneers

"I'm sure we'd all love to hear where you can p-p-p-ick up a Pi for twenty quid."

The Model A is $25 (compared to $35 for the B) plus local taxes... and ex VAT the new Model B is only £ 21.60 from RS and about a pound more from Farnell, so it's not that far out to be fair (but perhaps a teeny bit misleading).

path separators

"the code had to be altered to change the path separator"

The Python 'os' and 'os.path' module have abstractions for things like the path separator, which means that you shouldn't need to change anything once you've coded it up to use the right variables - although generally you shouldn't need to get even that low-level as there are a wealth of helper functions to split, join and otherwise manipulate path names. It's a very useful module to get to know even, or perhaps especially, when you're starting out.

HTH

LHC CMS yields unexpected 'new stuff'

@Sorry that handle is already taken.

"I wonder if they used the word "glass" because the explanation they gave is convenient, despite being incorrect, or whether there's actually some other explanation?"

IME in physics 'glass' is typically used just to indicate an amorphous solid phase of something, rather than anything specifically related to 'normal' lime/silicate glass.

Microsoft dragging its feet on Linux Secure Boot fix

"Microsoft has previously denied that Secure Boot is designed to lock Linux out from Windows 8 PCs, but the open source community's ongoing difficulties with UEFI have led many to doubt that claim. The Linux Foundation's latest woes are only likely to add fuel to the speculation."

Much as I detest much of what Microsoft has done, I am reminded of the old adage

Never ascribe to malice that which can adequately be explained by incompetence

Why do Smart TV UIs suck?

Re: They should embed Windows Media Center

"Why don't TV manufacturers embed [Windows Media Center] in their sets?"

That's meant as a serious question, isn't it ?

@AC

"They suck because they are designed by the same morons who design Android user interfaces."

Android UI ?... the one we're told is a rip-off of the iOS one ? =:o)