Posts by Martin Budden

You thought watching cat videos was harmless fun? Think AGAIN

Re: Cat food?

And what about baby food?

(cue Soylent Green comment)

They didn't predict that: Astrologers! blamed! after! Yahoo! hack!

Where's Eadon?

This article is like a red rag to a bullshit artist.

Always wanted a robot: why not DIY?

Re: Whoa...OK that is cool.

"love you long time"

You could even print whatever parts you fancy for it. In uncommon combinations, if you so desire.

Waiter! There's a phone in my soup

Re: Splash proof cover needed...

Rock to the beat, you say? Might I humbly suggest the following....

The Noodle Doodle Man

Now Spanish sperm takes a kick to the cojones

Re: Darwin in action ?

"Darwin in action ?"

"I doubt it, he's fucking dead."

I can't say I approve of his choice of recreational activity.

Huddled immigrant masses face 'British values' quiz

I can't believe nobody has linked to this yet.

The best test ever:

http://realcitizenshiptest.co.uk/quiz.php?n=1

Panasonic: We'll save Earth by turning CO2 into booze

Re: Excess oxygen

"...which allowed things like six-foot dragonflies to exist. This sounds very nice, but I suspect the four-foot cockroach and the two-foot ant would be a concern."

Dragonflies generally do have six feet. Personally I'd prefer cockroaches with only four feet, they'd be a bit slower and therefore easier to stomp on. An ant with two feet would have serious trouble carrying twenty times its own body weight and this could lead to problems with numerous ecosystems which rely on ant's garbage disposal work.

LOHAN premieres intimate REHAB vid

Re: Question

Yes it can. Better question: can it be used safely during foreplay?

Re: Rehab in the States is usually drug withdrawal treatment

Yes, the joke was intentional, and completely lost on you. It goes something like this: "LOHAN enters REHAB".

Climate shocker: Carry on as we are until 2050, planet will be fine

Re: So does this mean...

"So does this mean that the Government will drop its green energy plan that no other country appears to be bothered about, except Germany"

and Australia

City heat leak can disrupt high-altitude winds

Insulation will help.

Even if you don't care about global warming, insulation is still a good idea.

Nokia turns a PROFIT. Sort of

Re: Still not going to buy Nokia Windows phone

If everyone applies your logic then yes Nokia will fail. On the other hand if everyone buys a Nokia then Nokia will do very well indeed.

less ≠ fewer

China wants eight new Lenovos by 2015

Well, it's been working out pretty damn amazingly for the Chinese over the last couple of decades. I wish them all the best.

Alien space rocks EXPLODE in fireball over Japan

Re: Video Fail

Thanks for the correct link, that's pretty awesome. Hope life is good outside the asylum.

Opportunity celebrates nine years on Mars

The Little Rover that Could

obligatory xkcd

Re: Cleaning Crew

All future solar-powered rovers should be equipped with windscreen-wipers on the solar panels.

NASA joins ESA dark stuff hunt

Forever eclipsed.

"L2 is a spot where the gravity of sun and Earth will keep the spacecraft in a stable orbit in Earth’s shadow."

Except that it's not in shadow: L2 is too far away from Earth for the Sun to be hidden behind Earth. L2 sees a bright ring of Sun around Earth all the time, a permanent annular eclipse. L2 is in Earth's antumbra.

Wireless performance will collapse, prices rise: Deloitte

Re: nbn to the sticks

1. Conroy is the one who's job it is to know about these things but is clueless.

2. The massive price of the NBN is John Howard's fault: he's the idiot who sold off the national infrastructure so now using it has to be bought back at a huge loss.

Moar Wifi!

Abundant wifi hotspots could solve this "problem".

Here is an idea: carriers can stop adding more cell towers in cities and instead add wifi hotspots in high-people-density locations: surely it must be possible to have a system where all users of CarrierX connect automatically to all of CarrierX 's hotspots and get the data charged in the same way as data passing though a cell tower. It won't matter then if your phone/tablet happens to be near a rural/suburban cell tower or a town/city hotspot, your surfing experience is the same, and there's plenty of bandwidth.

Or have I missed something?

Victims of 'revenge pr0n' sue GoDaddy, smut site

Re: Ban Society

I have one member, and it does the job very well thank you.

Boffins take the temperature of the cosmos

Big Bang Theory has the disadvantage of being about some miserable blokes being miserable. Nothing funny about that.

Public genome databases can leak identity

idiots!

Which numpty thought it would be ok to publish people's fucking NAMES????!!!!!!!!!!

Raytheon to build low-orbit, disposable satellites for DARPA

Re: @Ragarth ... $48M a Pop

"The interesting thing would be if you could place a mini sat in geo synchronous orbit over the target."

Firstly: I think you mean "geostationary", because any other "geo synchronous orbit" moves around and doesn't stay over the target.

Secondly: it costs a bloody fortune to get something into geostationary orbit, because geostationary orbit is so very very very high.

Thirdly: picture resolution of the target will be terrible, because geostationary orbit is so very very very high.

Fourthly: geostationary orbit is over the equator, which is fine if the target happens to be on or near the equator, but is increasingly useless the further the target is from the equator.

Red supergiant Betelgeuse heads for SMACKDOWN with 'dust bar'

Re: Betelgeuse.

"Unless you're 'down under' of course, then it's his leg or something."

No, it's still in his shoulder, it's just that he's upside-down. Also, his 'sword' is standing erect, presumably because he's on top of the seven sisters.

Squillions of bytes in one cup of DNA

Memoirs

Now I can write my memoirs, encode the book in DNA, insert the DNA into my (presumably in-vitro fertilised) children, and my memoirs will be passed down to all my descendants, forever!

Oz library finds Lance Armstrong books a new home: The fiction section

Re: Manly Library

There is a simple reason why Manly is called Manly: Captain James Cook thought that the locals there looked particularly manly, so he named the place Manly Cove.

Entire Reg readership would fill 205 Olympic-sized swimming pools

Re: Well blended

"You might notice that we’re ignoring the pockets of space between the moles. In a moment, you’ll see why."

(b)arf!

Pubic louse falls victim to eager Brazilian strippers

Re: Interesting stats...

I take it you haven't seen Priscilla Queen Of The Desert?

ESA, NASA agree on Orion module supply

Re: Anyone else a bit worried:

Maximillian from Black Hole? When I was a kid that was the scariest robot ever!

Re: It's a Brand New Colour TV!!!

I won't be at all surprised if one of the private mobs gets there well before NASA gets (back) there.

Nipper's toy train enjoys journey to edge of SPAAAAACE

RUN! IT'S AN ALIEN!!!!

Aliens always land in cornfields. Dead give-away.

Google denies smacking Botswanan ass

Re: Barbequeue time

I've eaten African donkey tripe curry. Mind you, that was in Kenya not Botswana.

p.s. It was very tasty indeed, and not too chewy. Icon indicates accompanying beverage.

Alternatively, Google could blur out the entire ass, or just the ass' arse.

Do you see, Americans? Do you see the difference? Ass ≠ arse.

Fatty French Kilogram needs a new-year diet, say Brit boffins

Re: "Just how do you convert a physical entity to a mathematical scribble?"

"a kilogram is the weight of a volume of pure water 0.1m x 0.1m x 0.1m. The trick is getting pure dihydrogen oxide, of course"

And because that was the original real definition of a kilogram (the current reference kilogram made of platinum and iridium is only an approximation of this) we have a simple way of defining a proper kilogram by mathematical means: calculate how many dihydrogen monoxide molecules fit into one litre and multiply that number by the mass of one molecule.

Oz astronomical observatory survives firestorm

Re: You'd think there would be a vegetation free zone around this expensive sensitive equipment

The main problem with bushfires down under is radiant heat. This radiant heat will kill a person in seconds and cause metal to melt and nearby wood to burst into flame. A few hundred metres without trees exploding into flame will drastically reduce the radiant heat at the building, saving the building and its occupants. Fortunately the radiant heat problem doesn't last long, only a minute or two as the main flame front passes: shelter inside during that time and you'll survive (be careful though, it arrives very suddenly, so go inside early because getting caught out may well be the last mistake you ever make).

The second biggest problem with bushfires down under is ember attack. Fortunately this can be dealt with by proper preparation (e.g. clearing leaf litter from gutters, removing combustible material from next to the building etc) and by post-main-fire-front mopping up of ember fires with a bucket of water.

p.s. I used to wear the uniform and hold the hose and have felt the heat.

Unbelievably vast quasar cluster forces universe-sized rethink

@Silverburn

less ≠ fewer

Re: Space is big.

Adams named the character after the business.

Climate watch: 2012 figures confirm global warming still stalled

Re: One of these is false

The whole "since 1998" thing is a problem because that's only a short period, whereas climate change (if real) would be a long term thing. So, instead of cherry-picking "since 1998" let's look at a much longer time period.

All your audio, video kit is about to become OBSOLETE

Re: What's New?

<--- Here's your icon.

Mozilla to Adobe: PDFs don't need no more steenking plugins

What about the other way round?

For many many years ColdFusion (shudder) has been able to convert HTML into Pointless Document Format. Will Firefox be able to do the same? (not that there's ever any need whatsoever for making a PDF out of anything)

Drop that can of sweet pop and grab a coffee - for your sanity's sake

Re: Correlation != causation @ Psyx

Of course there's no reason to pollute your system with lager!

Real ale, on the other hand...

Boffins develop microwave weed-zapper

Can they make it zap mozzies?

It might be an alternative to the mosquito laser, which works well but still hasn't been commercialised.... come on Intellectual Ventures pull your finger out!

Safety goggle icon to prevent cataracts.

Astronaut yells FIRE ... from SPAAAACE

Re: Where's Lewis Page when you need him?

2003 was Canberra, not 2006. It will be the 10 year anniversary the day after tomorrow, and it still gives me the horrors.

Re: Geometry fail

"Are you all stupid?

Assuming north is up, and the river flows from north west to south east,..."

I can confirm that north is up in the pic. Unfortunately for your assumption, the river actually flows from south east to north west.

Baby sharks are so HARDCORE they avoid baddies like tiny ninjas

Re: Evolutionary mischief

If sharks are famous for one thing, it's BIG SHARP CHOMPY POINTY TEETH!!!

(icon is the only one with pointy teeth)

Latest exoplanet discovery is a virtual CLONE of Earth

Re: just call me picky

Book you a flight? Please tell me which kind of craft you have in mind, I'd love to know!

So long, and thanks...

There must also be fish there if there are very clever dolphins there. There might even be bowls of petunias. Definitely mice.

'Doomsday' asteroid Apophis more massive than first thought

Re: "It certainly doesn’t sound as ridiculous as sending Bruce Willis up there."

"Could we use him to knock Apophis into a different orbital plane, thus ensuring that it would only cross our path once every several thousand years?"

Yes, but he'd have to hit Apophis from above/below the current orbital plane, which means we need to accelerate him two times: the first to move Bruce above/below the current plane (this can be a smallish acceleration), the second for the big hit to knock Apophis into a different orbital plane. TBH once we have the tech for the second acceleration then the first should be fairly trivial.

All in all it would be a moving experience.

Fireflies donate gut feelings to LED research

"relection" ?

Have another beer from me, as one was clearly not enough ;-)