Posts by The First Dave

Who do you want to be Who? VOTE for the BBC's next Time Lord

Re: Alternative choice

Don't think the Cheeky Girls are committed to anything just now...

HMS Queen Elizabeth is delayed, Ministry of Defence confesses

Presumably the estimated delivery times for these planes are at least double what you quote to any other customer?

Dark web hubs paying workers to leak corporate secrets

Re: Insiders as a threat

Where do I sign up?

Tesla sues ex-manager 'for stealing 100GBs of Autopilot secrets'

More to the point, evidence would suggest that there is (still) no such file.

Trump signs 'no privacy for non-Americans' order – what does that mean for rest of us?

Re: Trump has become more deranged

@Pen-y-gors

Today's kids probably _won't_ live through it ...

UK.gov tells freelance techies to slap 20 per cent on fees as IR35 tax hike looms

I'm a permie, but I would answer NO to all four of those questions, so think again.

I'LL BE BATT: Arnie Schwarzenegger snubs gas guzzlers for electric

Re: Hydrogen powered cars

No, the really sensible option, and its one that is already available, is Ethanol fuel.

Boffins explain why it takes your Wi-Fi so long to connect

Re: I don't suppose

No, but tell us which one you've got so we can all snigger

Re: 5 - 10 seconds wait...

Nice try, but I know you faked that, 'cos you didn't include "actually", but did have time to use an actual comma (see what I did there?)

Welcome to the Wipe House: President Trump shreds climate change, privacy, LGBT policies on WhiteHouse.gov

Re: The *people*

The Electoral College system may well be a part of the constitution, but it is still bloody stupid in this day and age, much like the "right to be part of a militia"

Re: @AC

Besides, I get the impression that Reagan knew his limits, and made sure that he had _good_ advisers around him...

Seven pet h8s: Verity is sorely vexed

Re: Rejection Criteria

Anyone who can garner a reputation higher than ten clearly has too much time on their hands, and/or some other terrible issue that means they should be Struck Off immediately.

College fires IT admin, loses access to Google email, successfully sues IT admin for $250,000

Re: Chicken & egg?

Yes, that really is what they are saying, but a half-way competent admin would have taken the extra five minutes (if he hadn't already) to set up a throw-away account (preferably NOT with Google) purely for this sort of thing, precisely so that it wasn't entangled either with his own shit, or with the main email/network provider.

Google harvests school kids' web histories for ads, claims its Mississippi nemesis

Children? I thought a K-12 school must be some sort of adult-learning thing for dogs?

Canada fines Amazon seven hours of profit for false advertising

Re: Next, they could tackle the definition of "Two-Day"

I _really_ wish that retailers would tell you who their courier company is, up front, and better still give you a choice.

Flight 666 lands safely in HEL on Friday the 13th

Re: Well, it didn't crash...

Of course it didn't crash - the son of satan was on board!

Microsoft sued by staff traumatized by child sex abuse vids stashed on OneDrive accounts

Re: poor widdle snowflakes... wait, what?

"Nobody has been traumatised."

With hindsight, I seriously wish I hadn't watched "Sherlock" the other day - I wasn't in a great mood at the start, but "traumatised" very neatly covers how I felt at the end.

BBC surrenders 'linear' exclusivity to compete with binge-watch Netflix

If you are watching Ch.5 the you are a moron, and in any case technically still need to pay the licence fee.

Slim pickings by the Biggest Loser: A year of fitness wearables

Losing weight quickly has always been easy, but surviving can still be a challenge.

Seagate performs upgrade transplant surgery on LaCie external drives

Who cares who the designer was? Why does he need to be mentioned in the article as well as on the drives themselves?

Kaspersky fixing serious certificate slip

Re: OK

I _really_ don't want any 'great new things' in an AV tool, just stick to the basics and try to keep it lean.

'Upset' Linus Torvalds gets sweary and gets results

Re: Linus needs to start looking for his replacement.

Automated testing is what will be the downfall of the next generation, who will have no idea what to do with code that passes all testing, but still fails to work.

Sysadmin figures out dating agency worker lied in his profile

Re: Bless....

Printable water-slide decals?

Printable vinyl decals?

What's the first emotion you'd give an AI that might kill you? Yes, fear

Re: This'll probably backfire.

Do you mean like the "Dead Man's Handle" on that tram in london a couple of weeks ago?

Heard of Brexit? The UK vows to join Europe’s Patent Titanic

Re: How many brown envelopes???

You mean you want to move the entire UK off the EurAsian continental plate??

Or did you not actually intend that particular 'leave' ?

Re: "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers"

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that the good king was being somewhat ironic?

Three certainties in life: Death, taxes and the speed of light – wait no, maybe not that last one

Re: Creates more problems than it solves?

"All models are wrong, but some are useful."

BOFH: The Hypochondriac Boss and the non-random sample

Re: Culling the herd...

Then presumably you are going to negate it all by using a trustworthy internal email address...

Trial date set for Brit police 'copter coppers over spying-on-doggers claims

I can't believe I am the first to say: "Pics or it didn't happen" !

Shhh! Shazam is always listening – even when it's been switched 'off'

Re: Pedantically...

Not at all - a speaker and a microphone are essentially the same device, though optimised in two different directions - making a standard speaker vibrate will cause the driver coil to excite, and exciting a mic will make it vibrate.

Britain must send its F-35s to Italy for heavy overhauls, decrees US

Re: Oooh. Italian maintenance!

"many terrific cars"

I say: Name Them!

A cardboard desk? I won’t stand for it (actually I will)

Re: Portability

An ISO shipping container is portable, doesn't mean you can fold it flat when you're done.

Smoking hole found on Mars where Schiaparelli lander, er, 'landed'

Re: That reminds me...

That's nothing - I remember playing Doom on BABY

Pair programming – you'll never guess what happens next!

Re: Why don't you

I'm not quite sure what you are getting at there - no Linus won't like it, but will it improve his output? Probably.

Don't panic, but a 'computer error' cut the brakes on a San Francisco bus this week

"There's no such thing as acting directly on the brakes."

Yes there is - I had to teach this to my daughter a couple of months ago - quite scary, but still:

Top of a hill, 30MPH

Turn off the engine.

Apply the brakes, release.

Apply the brakes, release.

Apply the brakes, panic when nothing happens, press REALLY hard and the car WILL stop.

Boffins eschew silicon to build tiniest-ever transistor, just 1nm long

Re: "eschew silicon"

No, that would be shown as Si ...

Zilog reveals very, very distant heir to the Z80 empire

Re: Oh Reggie! Don't sell yourself short!

Did a tiny bit of welding just yesterday (assuming that was what 'weilding' was meant to say)!

After baffling Falcon 9 rocket explosion, SpaceX screams: Hands off our probe!

Re: Fight fire with fire

Downvoted for the mention of beans.

SpaceX searches for its 'grassy knoll' of possible Falcon rocket sabotage

Re: Who said it was ULA wanting to take out a competitor

I think it was the double-bluff - Elon knew that particular rocket was duff, so thought it would be more useful to make it look like sabotage...

Unlucky Luckey: Oculus developers invoke anti-douchebag clause, halt games for VR goggles

Re: Deeply sorry?

Yeah, that was a "Politician's Apology" if ever I heard one!

Hubble spies on Europa shooting alien juice from its southern pole

Definition

So, from the article, can anyone tell me what an "undersea ocean" is?

MoD confirms award of giant frikkin' laser cannon contract

Re: What happened to the free market?

RE: China

I think you will find that very many people are _NOT_ fine with that.

Assange returns to Earth

Of course you can orbit a flat earth, you just do it in the same plane, i.e. go round and round the rim.

Elon Musk says SpaceX Falcon 9 fireball investigation is 'biggest challenge yet'

Re: not the rocket engine’s fault?

" there was no apparent heat source."

There had to be something - even LOX + FUEL requires an ignition source.

Just not cricket: Microsoft's big data Googly called No Ball

Re: It's a game

@terry6 - If you've just thrown six balls, then you still have another six to _bowl_ , as the first six won't count (No Balls).

Penetration tech: BAE Systems' new ammo for Our Boys and Girls

Re: And the point is?

The penetration of the 556 round is dependant on the target, but according to the test video we were shown when it was introduced, was _better_ than 762 against anything solid, due to the steel tip.

And against flesh, it really doesn't matter; besides for a squad weapon you are mainly shooting as a deterrant - no man has ever stood up when rounds are passing overhead, measured one, and then said "its ok, they're only 556!" - so what matters is being able to keep bullets in the air for as long as possible, not something the SLR was up to, even if you had enough ammo.

Re: And the point is?

The longest sight setting on an SLR was/is 600m

More gums than Jaws: Greenland super-sharks live past 400 years old

Re: The Greenland shark [...] can grow to over 400 years old

Which makes it highly appropriate as a "term of endearment"

$200,000 for a serious iOS bug? Pfft, we'll give you $500,000, says exploit broker Exodus

I think you will find that when you try to claim one of these bounties, they will say something (in a Nigerian accent) along the lines of: "Thanks, could you just confirm your bank details so we can make the transfer."

London's Met Police has missed the Windows XP escape deadline

Re: Government investment in the Police

Sorry, did i forget the humour flag?