Posts by Paul

Boffin builds better display from... a cuttlefish

@TeeCee

LMAO I cant get the image outta my head!

(Also a bird owner, but a cockatoo is just plain destructive, and likes to corner the dog too ;-)

DARPA working on inertial-nav 'Smart Boot' tech

Wii shoe anyone?

How long before its a game controller? Mind you, it'd be good for all those little roomba spawn that we'll get someday.

2060: Humvee-sized, bulletproof meat-eating spiders attack

Giant rolled up newspaper

Duh! Obvious solution to the problem!

Pig plague 2.0: Can't spell 'pandemic' without 'panic'

@David Ralston

"Pan (dem) ic .. Odd.. Those dem's are in the middle of a panic."

Dem from demos, people, pan all. In this case its got to be so apt. People in panic.

Adobe users imperiled by critical Reader flaw

The usual suspect

Why is it always javascript?

Mac and Linux Bastilles assaulted by new attacks

Physical Access

Its funny seeing all these posts about having physical access to a machine means its comprimised.

Physical access means its about to be "NICKED". This is a pretty good Denial of Sevice attack if you ask me.

iPhone's Wi-Fi problems cause heated speculation

Freezing Bits

No its sheer desperation, and it works for some items.

Chilling components has been around for years. Got a faulty hard drive? Its worth a try I've had luck getting a clients Accounting database off a dead drive. No they were not a client before the incident (otherwise they would have had backups). The chilling caused the drive elements to contract ( back into tolerance ranges) for ~15 min. ;-)

Final countdown to Conficker 'activation' begins

Like climate change, bad guys effects are global, hard work needs to be local

I was reading the report http://mtc.sri.com/Conficker/ It's interesting but eye glazing stuff.

Its appendix Appendix 1 Cumulative Census by Country

Am I reading this right at their honeypots they detected the following breakdown of the drones?

Browser Breakdown:

IE5=26,525, IE6=7,494,466, IE7=2,988,039, FireFox=893, Opera=150, Safari=166, Netscape=12

So, as a guy who goes out and fixes PC's for a living, I should be getting my clients to use IE6 for repeat business, and anything but IE if I want to be able to sleep at night.

Sigh, no wonder I'm just barely making the bills.

Microsoft promises IE web-standards love

Embrace Extend Extinguish

Nothing new here, move along.

If you believe that malarkey, then I'm sure you'll love the new Silverlight extension that will be shipped as part of the new version of windows. All your problems will disappear into a cloud of sweet vapour.

Us poor drudges that make websites work will just have to cop it in the neck as usual. Anyone want to bet how long it'll be before flash gets broken or UAC'rd by an update?

Supercar maker pitches 'leccy sportster with stunning spec

Flow Batteries

Interesting concept, last information I could dig up on these beasties vanadium flow and ones with boron is part of their cycle, they still had poor power to weight characteristics. (A Little worse than lead acid). Would have thought it would be perfect though for domestic alternative energy systems.

Anyone have any more info?

Stargazers spy elusive binary black hole system

So how fast are they travelling?

Correct me if I'm wrong ( been a while since I've wanted to do any maths), but doesn't that mean that the orbital velocity would be ~10% the speed of light?

@Michael Chester. I agree, it should lead to some interesting analysis.

Oz runs Romero-themed zombie awareness week

Brisbane photo opportunity

There's an annual zombie march in Brisbane (Queensland) both events could have been coordinated, and well 'fed off one another'

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/queensland/undead-take-over-city/2008/05/25/1211653837812.html

& photos

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/photogallery/2008/05/25/1211653839056.html

Sat scope discovers Earthlike 'sauna world'

Ground shattering research

Wise men used to debate how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. Now its how many planets in a flicker of star light.

How far have we come. I'm still waiting for my super luminal drive, Bloody Einstein! Someone should have introduced him to a porcelain shower., oh hang on I guess that explains his hair

Silverlight 3 and 4 to 'open up new areas' - Microsoft

@AC

Sounds more like the standard MS, viruses exploits etc, "whole new areas you can't do today will start to open up".

Since when has MS passed up the opportunity to embrace, extend, and extinguish. And when have they EVER sandboxed an application properly, oh thats right they'll get it right in the next version. Ha!

(Afraid to touch such a product from such a diseased source)

Logitech Harmony 1100 universal remote control

@overpriced wierd features

Two other problems are due to the 'one remote to rule them all'.

When the damn thing has 'gone walkabout' you spend so much time trying to find the damn thing. It really needs a page button.

Also the tears of grief, once its fallen of the couch one to many times. Thankfully it only cost ~30 quid. It needs to be ruggedised. (yes the spell checker flagged this is not a word, too few know the concept)

At 350, I think this is for those 'special' people who would pay 100+ for those audiophile patch cables.

Paris, cause she lives off those 'special' people

US prof undermines foundations of Aussie firewall

Follow the money

The current Australian government is a joke. It was elected due to a massive scare campaign over workers rights. The previous lot introduced AWAs (Australian Workplace agreements) which gave employers lots more control over job entitlements, being able to sack employees easier, etc. Employers didn't worry so much about hiring people that would play the system, it was a boom time. If you had problems the government recommended you find another employer, unemployment was a all time low.

Current government gets in renames AWA's to Individual Transitional Employment Agreements (ITEAs),

much more forgettable, doesn't really change anything much in the details. The current government is heavily controlled by the local unions. People who paid into the campaign funds have access to the pollies. Result. Ideology.

-They campaigned to support the environment. Result - killed the local solar industry, $3.5 billion to support coal producers as they implement a 5% reduction on CO2 emissions by 2020.

-Blown the national savings on a few feel good ideas.

This firewall is just to appear to be doing something, to protect the kids. You'll find what it really does is kills smaller isp's that could possibly make a dent in the current market dominance of Telstra

Oh yeah :-) the current government is implementing a multi billion dollar program to roll out fibre to the node. ( that does not mean to the house/business) Telstra owns close to 100% of the copper in the ground for the local loop. Result the incumbent telco monopoly, kills its own bid on putting the network, result it gets a free upgrade and can still charge whatever the hell it likes.

I hope that this government is only incompetent, unfortunately I don't think they are.

Oz net censorship apparatus to target BitTorrent

Current Govenrmnet = EPIC FAIL

Its Ironic that a lot that was elected to save us from draconian labor laws. That promised to be conservative with the budget that was well in the black.

Has

1. Spent all the savings

2. Raided the piggy bank of protection scheme against rural aust falling too far beind with communications.

3. Killed the nascent domestic solar industry just as it was starting to find its feet.

4. Put in stone C02 reductions of only 5% by 2020, regardless of what the population actually does to try and reduce their footprint.

5. Put more out of work, unless you work in one of the bazillion quangos they've setup

6. Buggered up lots of things in only 12 months !

7. And come up with that many 5 point lists that most of us just want to strangle the nearest person when hear a another one.

Oh.. Im doing it now [Arrghhh..... !!]

Pilots survive night on Hudson Strait ice sheet

RE: J

I know I've only done basic flight training, but when you've got an engine failure you've got your hands full. The only loose items you want in the plane are the doors, you open them so you can get out... Everything else sure as hell should be stowed otherwise it could take your head off. Between attempting to get the Mayday out, with the details of exactly where they are, trying to get the dammed engines started, and actually picking out someplace safe to touchdown... err ditch. You don't have time for... Hmmm is there a rocket in my pocket. The gear is there you know exactly where it is. You'll grab it when you can.

I for one think they were dammed fortunate, and well trained to have the "Gahh the plane sank awful fast Im glad im out of it." experience, and live to tell the tale.

DARPA seeks Hitchhikers Deep Thought program

Blamegame

I guess a few hundred million in development costs is worth it. The pollies will have to admit they ignored the advice next time they wan't a little dust up in a foreign country. The forces an intel services can point the all knowing DARPATron.

The computer says... Nawh!

Scammers making '$15m a month' on fake antivirus

EULA Rules

As long as they go with the industry standard boilerplate license, aren't these scammers doing something perfectly legal? I'd love to see someone legally take these crooks down. It'd scupper a good 20 years of it precedent, errr... all the normal vendor shonky practices.

Mars Lander shows rock who's boss

I love Nasa

Cash starved government bureaucracy. How many years of work and they still can't make a good margareta.

Mines the one with the igloo on the back

Did the width move for you, darling?

Don't like it.

Why not? Well I used to be able to open a page and READ just about the whole lot easily. Yes I have a 23 inch flat screen on a resolution of ohmygod x youreyesmustbegood (for screen real estate). I used to find that most stories would load up and be easy to read.

Now I have to scroll scroll scroll... Why? on the my normal settings half the page is grey gutter and a third of the rest is reserved for your adds. I guess I could increase the font size to a more comfortable level, but then I'dd have to scroll some more.

If I want to keep reading el'reg I guess Id better do some jiggery with the CSS. If I do that I think I'll make sure ads dont come up either

Why do people insist on new layouts that make stuff harder to READ, pretty (Yes) Readable NO.

YUK

John Glenn blasts Moonbase-to-Mars NASA roadmap

Fallout.

All you need to get to the planets is a Lagrange point, you just go there, add a little thrust at the right point and start falling to the destination. Long and boring trip but efficient in fuel. Getting to Mars, Jupiter or Uranus is not the problem. We all want to see space travel take off, man kind not be stuck on the one rock to get wipe out by the next cosmic event. To do that we have to put industry up there. Its got to be worth it. The moon is not the best spot for industry, but if we can get them started there then the heavens open up to us. Otherwise its just another white elephant, spending billions for a flag waving exercise... Kinda like [Insert your favourite government program here]