Posts by James Hughes 1

Samsung Gear VR is good. So good 2016 could be year virtual reality finally makes it

Re: Moving on

Why?

Hacker predicts AMEX card numbers, bypasses chip and PIN

Tesco petrol stations do.

Suck it, Elon – Jeff Bezos' New Shepard space rocket blasts off, lands in one piece

Re: Wankers, all(most) wankers

Absolutely.

I never failed to be surprised by the total lack of imagination and technical knowledge showed by the commentators on this site - allegedly a technical site at that.

I can only imagine they spend too much time trimming their hipster beards rather than learning about this sort of thing, about the what the various companies are doing, the technical challenges and so forth. All the information is out there, it's not difficult to find, and it's not difficult to understand (most of it anyway!)

Re: Err... no!

Grasshopper never got near Space. Although the F9-R that replaced it probably could have done.

Re: Oh boy. Yet another sounding rocket.

DCX went to....3km. This went to.....100km.

Not really a fair comparison.

Tesla recalls every single Model S car in seatbelt safety probe

Re: "...on a par with his entrepreneurship."

Hmmm. No profits. Just like Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, and most American car makers.

On the other hand, Tesla has a good reputation generally, and actually makes a product, a product designed to sell to rich people in order that funds can be pushed to design and built a mass market electric car. Which will make a lot of money. So, short term profits now, or loads of money later. Musk's choice, but I suspect I know what the shareholders are doing.

Re: Very troubling

Troll icon for troll.

What has SpaceX got to do with Tesla? They are completely different companies, albeit with the same CEO. Practically the definition of a strawman argument surely?

Whilst there are some issues with Tesla's (which unlike other car, get fixed very quickly - see article) the general consensus from owners is that they would buy another one in a heartbeat. I regard that as a more relevant metric than consumer reports.

Patent and trademark troll stung for £500k after fake renewal blitz

Re: What is wrong with assassination?

Hardest bloke I ever met was undergoing SAS selection. He didn't drink as he worried what he might do if he was drunk.

He failed selection.

Thanks for playing: New Linux ransomware decrypted, pwns itself

Re: On Linux?

Much as I hate to say it, but

Citation.

Royal Mail mulls drones for rural deliveries

Re: So what does this driverless van do....

But the ascent/descent from the Long Mynd is pretty damn scary to be fair. Certainly wouldn't fancy reversing up it.

Re: Pros and Cons

They have been reading PC's for years. They used to have OCR's systems at big offices, then print on a ultraviolet bar code that represents a more easily readable barcode for smaller offices. So only the big sites needed the very sophisticated readers, the rest could use cheaper ones.

BP04 barcodes. I wrote the original software (much modified since I suspect) on the industrial ink jet printers used to put them on. Ran at 5m/s, so pretty fast.

This was 15 years ago at least. Probably all different now.

Re: Adds a whole new meaning to interception

Almost all shotguns are licensed - the rules are very strict. There are always outliers.

Re: To be fair posties do suffer more than most when it comes to dog bites ...

In a previous life, I used to deliver coal. One of the guys I worked with was having problems with a Jack Russell - kept biting him. SO the customer was phoned before deliveries to ask them to keep the dog indoor.

Of course, they couldn't be arsed, not realising that the coalie has 25kg of rock on his shoulders. Next time the dog bit him on the ankle, he dropped the coal, almost by accident.

You can fill in the rest.

Posties, sadly, don't have the nuclear option.

BLAKE2 hash authors post code as RFC

Re: BLAKE2?

As long as it has Glynis Barber in it, why not!

Lithium-air: A battery breakthrough explained

Re: yawn

What's the point of knowing?

Shit. If you don't know the answer to that, well, despair would be one way of putting it.

Biggest problem with virtual reality: It can be a little too real for people

Re: But didn't @mi1400

This is an English language site. Please use English.

Halo 5: Overhyped, but still way above your average shooter

Re: Rating

Games that score 10.

MrDo!

Defender

Gauntlet

Star Wars (Atari vector version)

Although I may be showing my age (or the fact I've finished my Picade)

Linus Torvalds fires off angry 'compiler-masturbation' rant

Patch required

The advantage of Linux is that you can go and fix the problem you have described, submit it, and see what happens. If the peer review is successful, well done!

Re: There is code smell in here

I'm not anon, and was also surprised on the comment about sizeof, which has always been calculated at compile time as a constant, and I would expect even a slightly experienced C programmer to know that.

Northrop wins $55bn contract for next-gen bomber – as America says bye-bye to B-52

Re: A few comments

How dare you come and comment here with all your so called facts. This place is for unsubstantiated here-say and biased non-fact based commentard opinion.

Raspberry Pi grows the pie with new deal allowing custom recipes

Re: Charity

Covered in Eben's interview with Rory CJ.

But in précis, Raspberry Pi trading is a fully owned subsidiary of the Raspberry Foundation, and as a charity, all profits go back in to the charity. It' where the Foundation get all the money for educational outreach they do, which is quite a lot, as well as support for OSS, teacher training etc.

Rosetta probe delivers jaw-to-the-floor find: Molecular oxygen

CHON food.

Western Digital's hard drive encryption is useless. Totally useless

Re: "a pseudorandom number generator that .. only cycles through a series of 255 32-bit values."

Impressively stupid appears to be an understatement....

Bosch, you suck! Dyson says VW pal cheated in vacuum cleaner tests

Re: More Dyson spheroids...

Hmm. My Dyson get an occasional filter wash (maybe 6 monthly to a year., then filter gets put back - hence the lifetime of the machine). It's not falling apart either. I did have another Dyson that my parents broke, bad looking after rather than a fault with the machine - they NEVER emptied it, and the motor filter was badly inserted after a wash which I suspect led to the motor failing. It was just within its 5 year warantee, but TBH, I couldn't be bothered as I stole parents replacement Dyson which my mother found too heavy.

My Henry does't clean anywhere near as well as either of the Dysons.

So you take your choice.

A thousand mile Atom merci mission: Driving from Monaco to London in an open-topped motor

Re: Track yes, road no

No arguments from me.

(Had a home built Westfield as only transport for 18 months - nice commuter car! No heater, but hot air from transmission tunnel was welcome when it snowed. You could tell when the thermostat opened)

Re: The Rolls is a sweet-ass ride, I'm sure...

Yup, the Prisoner titles have a BRG 7, yellow nosecone IIRC.

WD40. It is NOT a lubricant. The clue is in the name, WD which standard for Water Displacement.

Use a proper lube. You know it makes sense.

Linux kernel dev who asked Linus Torvalds to stop verbal abuse quits over verbal abuse

Re: Torvalds is a dinosaur (personally)

I think he probably is a bad manager.

One can only wonder how far the kernel would have come had he been a good manager, considering how well it has succeeded even given the current shenanigans.

Seems to me that a lot of people commenting here are doing exactly that.

From my reading., she is not worried about being told off for technical issues, but for the more personal insults that are accompanying them.

I don't like being slagged for bad code, but will go away and fix it (if I think it needs doing!), but a raft of personal insults? No way am I (or anyone else) should stand for that.

Hmm, the number of I's seems to be appropriate for the sentence. What's your point?

GENUINE STARSHIP as used by PRINCESS LEIA sold for just $450k

Re: Good gawd/ess ... @Jake (again)

You can buy a copy of the Venus de Milo for $35. The original is worth an awful lot more.

Have you got the point yet? If not, the clue is in the word 'original'.

Silicon Valley now 'illegal' in Europe: Why Schrems vs Facebook is such a biggie

Re: Let me count the ways...

Encrypted emails are private - but on the whole the expectation of a vast majority of people is that email as is, is private. Just sending an email is not the same as publishing information.

Re: Now this is just hilarious

Hmm. I suggest DaveDaveDave gets out more, or at least listen to the Panorama interview with Snowden from last night.

Did Snowden actually sell any information? Was all the knowledge already open? Why are the USA so keen to put him in jail if everything he announced was already public?

Hyundai i30 Turbo: Softly, softly, catchee Audi

Re: Hmmm

I suspect this car is not for you. But thanks for telling us what you would prefer, it's helped the thread greatly.

Ubuntu 15.10: More kitten than beast – but beware the claws

Re: I feel someone should say.

I use it when I can, I like it.

Elon Musk unmasks Tesla's Model X – the $132k anti-bioweapon SUV for the 1%

Re: Elon's Anti-Bioweapon to Compensate for his Bioweapon!

Troll icon is right.

A rocket launch has an insignificant effect on the atmosphere compared with airliners. Look it up.

Idiot.

NOxious VW emissions scandal: Car maker warned of cheatware YEARS AGO – reports

Re: The VW Diesels pass the emissions test

Agreed. They passed the tests. That much is fact.

Also a fact, they don't emit levels of NOx when driven that match the tests.

So, does the regulation actually say that although they pass the test, they must ALSO maintain the same levels of NOx emission when being driven, or is that an assumption.Or does it specifically say that you are not allowed to do anything different in the test to real world conditions?

Blighty's Bloodhound 1,000mph rocket car unveiled ahead of record attempt

Had the pleasure..

of meeting an engineer on this at a party a few weeks ago - also was an ex-F1 engineer. Showed us a camera phone video of the completed car a bit in advance of the launch. Hadn't been paid in two months - money is very short....Noble is one of those people you either love or hate, which makes fund raising either easy or very hard. Engineer was a very interesting chap!

NOxious Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal: Chief falls on sword

I suspect that same power, consumption and emissions as per spec will be impossible. Otherwise they would have done it before they sold it....

Volkswagen used software to CHEAT on AIR POLLUTION tests, alleges US gov

Re: Long Overdue

I think it was over ten years ago that a friend who used to work on diesel ECU software said this was happening - and also in petrol engines as well (gaming the system by recognising when a test is underway). They also used to try and deliberately burn nitrogen to NOx to improve fuel consumption. IIRC.

I would be quite surprised if all the other manufactures are currently getting rather worried. If I were VW, I'd be testing some of these other manufacturers cars, so when it all hits really the fan they can say who else is doing it too...ie likely everyone.

Re: One surprise...

MOT test is being upgraded to ensure that all emission reducing devices originally installed are still present at the test. So you would need to reinstall the DPF and EGR for it.

Most people are not going to want to go through that pain.

BBC Micro:bit delayed by power supply SNAFU

Re: Why not a Pi

With regard to the comment about the Pi being a specifically commercial venture.

This is not the case. The Raspberry Pi foundation is a charity, which fully owns the Raspberry Pi trading subsidiary which does the tech development. All profits go to the charity. The charity itself spends a HUGE amount of money of educational outreach, as it's says in it charity statement.They also fund development of relevant open source software (e.g. Scratch, Sonic Pi etc). In fact the charity is overwhelmed by demand for educational help and is expanding all the time to try and meet that demand. As an example of outreach, they fund a completely free training course for teachers, held once a month, which almost everyone who has been on it says is the best teacher training they have EVER been on.

So before making 'accusations', please look at the facts.

Batteries on wheels are about to reshape our cities and lives

Re: Batteries?@CHris Miller

Surely the 'mpg' equivalent will be much higher in stop start due to much (much) lower aerodynamic loses, and regenerative braking? And of course not using energy (unless heater or AC) when stationary saves a lot.

Stick your finger in another Pi: Titchy-puter now has touchscreen

Re: First?

As above - the first to use the DSI connector. And its not just branded, the PCB etc were all developed by the Pi people, they just bought in the screen. Read the blog post for more information.

Re: Foundation / Trading

Yes, he is, but they are all in the same office. The charity side concentrates on teacher training and outreach and so on, the trading side on HW development. Note that the commercial HW side is a fully owned subsidiary of the charity, so all it's profits go to the charity.

Not correct. This is the first screen that uses the DSI port on the Pi, rather than HDMI or the GPIO's. So you get to retain all the GPIO's plus, you can actually connect a HDMI screen and one of these to get a full speed (60hz) dual display setup. (three, if you use the GPIO's with yet another panel, as you describe, which is much slower but possible)

Re: DEs

I believe the touch screen works with X, so, all of them?

Re: Poor resolution (@gerdesj)

The whys and wherefore's are all covered in Gordon's blog post - its down to safety of supply and cost.

Ubuntu Wily gaggle builds 15.10 beta beachhead

Re: "No Dibble or Grub"

Trumpton....

Daredevil Brit lifts off in 54-prop quinquaquadcopter

Re: Daredevil?

re: Trike with fighter engine. Thrust SSC was not a trike, it had four wheels,in case that is what you were talking about.