Posts by Fred 4

GNOMEs beat Microsoft: Git Virtual File System to get a new name

Topic on Git closed but...

I think "Gitty McGit Virtual File System" (GMVFS, or GMGVFS) might work...

Mines the one with the autonomous submersible in its packet

Dark matter: Good news, everyone! We've found ... NOTHING AT ALL

Re: thinking...

yes and no.

we can "see" a light/particle cone of ~13.7 billion lightyears. This is the "age" of the universe. This cone is all the material, from which there has been time since the inception of the universe, for light emitted from it to reach us.

We can reasonably assume that the universe is not cone shaped, and there is more universe then we can see, but due to the limit of the speed of light we can not "see" this material.

According to Relativity, as I understand, material that is outside of this light cone. (~13.7 billion year long cone which stretches from here -> Big Bang) can not affect us, nor can we affect it.

However... as a thought experiment(?)

We can imagine a particle Po (for Particle Outside) that is just outside of our light cone. There is material inside our light cone Pi (Particle Inside), where Po & Pi can interact.

Pi can/does interact with us as it is inside our light cone.

Po affects Pi.

Po affect us 'by proxy' through Pi.

I do not know how this is explained away, as I believe it is.

CURSE you, EINSTEIN! Humanity still chained in relativistic PRISON

Re: Us2them

probably for the best.....

Re: Gravity Propagation Question

c

if our Sun exploded the moment you read this. It will take ~8 minutes for the gravitational change to reach us.

Re: Relativity --the non existent theory.

manfrommars??

unless...

you can't go back in time past the first existence of the time machine.

TM created in June 5th 2050.

on June 6th 2050 you can go back to June 5th, but no further.

Re: Stupid question

see this video - at about 50 secs. (sorry I haven't figured out how to link to a specific time)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsytnJ_pSf8

the effect on your 100 million mile long rod would about the same, except it would take a bit longer to propigate.

Microsoft: You want Office for Mac, fanboi? You'll pay Windows prices

Missing the forest for the trees

all of this talk about Office 365, Google Docs, and other cloud services -

is missing a very important issue -

THERE IS NO EXPECTATION OF PRIVACY

with any cloud based service. If you (collective you) are a Gov't, or business putting your daily correspondence and business documents in a cloud service is ASKING for trouble. Gov't (inter agency as well) spying*, competitor spying*, police spying*.

This is not to mention the issue of directed adverts, looking at you Google

* spying - in this instance, reading copying documents/information that the originator did not intend to for the 'spy' to see/read/have.

Any storm in a port

Re: Also, Ethernet sockets & USB ports...

>USB, despite its poor design in terms of plug orientation and power, is though pretty damn good and the closest thing we've ever had in terms of one-port-to-rule-them-all.

at the risk of starting an Flame war -

USB has not ever been the 'one-port-to-rule-them-all' -- actually Firewire was/is.

with 5w of power, you can run 3.5" hard drives - without external power - you can daisy chain devices, I forget the length but I think it was 16 devices.

it is faster at data transfer then USB 1 or 2 (for sustained transfer).

oh yes... I almost forgot, a plug/port which only fits in, in one direction -- even though it still often takes 3 tries :)

Prisoner found with phone + charger in anal cavity

Upon opening the link to this story...

the first article & picture in the (right) sidebar is the 'US Condom rules' article and the associated scrunched up face - which is perfectly fitting for THIS article :)

Event Horizon Telescope spots source of black hole jets

Re: Falling into a black hole.

>Do the math

That is fairly difficult math, as most calculations involving black holes resolve to various infinities...

>you would enter into the dimension of time and all eternity would have to pass by before even one atom of your existence could penetrate the event horizon.

This is not entirely true.

Black holes evaporate. Hawking radiation.

Depending on the size of the black hole, the time to complete evaporation might be a week or two, or 10^1000 years, this time scales according to the cubed mass of the black hole. :)

But, the black hole can evaporate. When/as it does 'you' would not exit, but particles which might have been you could. However, as far as we can tell there is no way to know for sure as the information seems to be lost.

For reference <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawking_radiation>

and for the math adverse, I apologize, have an ale or 3.

Virus lab blogger collared by blundering copyright cop bot

encrypted?

according to article, as I read it, the DL site was encrypted. How did the bot even 'see' the content??

Native Americans arrived to find natives already there, fossil poo shows

This whole 'Clovis first' thing has been hogwash for years:

excerpt from a 2004 article:

"Topper is the oldest radiocarbon dated site in North America," Goodyear says. "However, other early sites in Brazil and Chile, as well as a site in Oklahoma also suggest that humans were in the Western Hemisphere as early as 30,000 years ago to perhaps 60,000."

<http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/11/041118104010.htm>

excerpt from another article, talking about cave/rock art:

"It shows that about 11,000 years ago, there was already a very diverse manifestation of rock art in South America, so probably man arrived in the Americas much earlier than normally is accepted," Neves said.

<http://www.livescience.com/18602-horny-man-rock-carving-giant-phallus.html>

again 1 more excerpt:

What are the artifacts and ecofacts from Monte Verde?...[snip]...

An even bigger problem was the radiocarbon dates placing the site at over 13,500 years oldø older than nearly all the North American evidence and a millennium before Clovis. A much earlier layer that even Dillehay was unwilling to consider a cultural zone, but could have been, was dated to between about 33,000-34,000 years ago.

warning - very long -

<http://www.indiana.edu/~arch/saa/matrix/saa/saa_mod02.html>

So... we have multiple sites across the America's showing human habitation Long before Clovis. So why was Clovis still considered to be "First"???

Apple's Mountain Lion to offer automatic security updates

Re: Next week in the register: Apple to support colour monitors!

as has been said already - the update manager already does all of this -

What I **hope** is meant is that the computer admin can authorize the update engine to INSTALL the update(s) without requiring an admin to actually touch the machine each time. Again, as already suggested, ala Windows update.

As for Server push... this is nice feature IF :

- you have extra $ for extra equipment (a server computer and OS)

- you have a server (and the requisit hardware) for EACH version of the OS you want to push. I.E. OS X 10.6 server wont push OS x 10.7, and vise versa.

where I am working currently, I have the following versions of Macintosh OSes running:

- OS 9 - software to operate equipment, cant upgrade, vendor has not provided updated sotware

- 10.3 - software to operate equipment, cant upgrade, vendor has not provided updated software

- 10.4 - software to operate equipment, cant upgrade, vendor has not provided updated software

- 10.6 - current machines

- 10.7 - newest machines, have problems with software that wont run, see above re:vendors

Users still slack about passwords: Trustwave

Re: KeePass is your friend

and so can google, and anyone else

Dad sues Apple for pushing cash-draining 'free' games at kids

I dont see anyone mentionng

that Apple did not design the game. Some 3rd party iOS developer designed the game, built the game, setup the in app purchase process etc etc etc.

All Apple - probably - did was make sure that the application did NOT do things like get out of its sandbox, collect/send personal data where it shouldn't, and of course make sure that Apple got it's piece of any in game sales.

Nowhere in the article or in these comments do I see anyone pointing at the developer and saying - shame on you - here is *your* class action suit. In the comments there are some vague references to the developer but not specifically, just generically.

Par-runt is just trying to get $ for free (aka lottery winnings)

Flames because Im sure I get a few....

WTF is... UltraViolet

All of this handwringing is missing another point

that of who is watching *What* you watch??

So... Big Brother wants to see who is a likely threat, real or imagined... scans UV content list looking for (for example) those who own/watch 'V for Vendetta'. Or any version of '1984', or 'Brazil', or 'Animal Farm'..........

Those are obvious, what about "soft porn" - 'Videodrome'

The list and reasons go on and on and on...

This doesn't mention the data that will be sold to various advertisers...

This whole UV concept is a Fail.

If you think I should be wearing a Tinfoil hat then fine - come aback and re-read this comment 3 or 4 years after UV goes live.

BTW - totally of topic - why is it 'Tin foil' hat, when tin is not used for foil any more??

Paris - because she is the only person I can think of who would be fool enough to fall for this.

Record-breaking laser pulse boosts fusion power hopes

@Hunched back assistant

or at least to make sure that they get the right brain! Abby.... Abby something..... :)

I can think of one OTHER use for this tech

there is a design for an interplanetary/interstellar drive called a Daedelus drive - see :

Lucifer's Hammer, Niven & Pournelle also see : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_pulse_propulsion

But in both of these instances, the propulsion was fission - however, hydrogen is plentiful in the universe in general, and a pulsed FUSION drive might be a workable concept, at our current level of technology. Sort of a mix between a Bussard Ramjet (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bussard_ramjet) and Daedelus drive.

btw - just to complete the sci-fi references :)

Tau Zero, Pol Anderson - is an interesting story about the use of a Bussard ramjet

icon for obvious reasons :)

The Facebook job test: Now interviewers want your logins

Re: I deleted all my previous post

far simpler -

JUST DONT US THE SHYTE!

and NO - I dont have a facebook, linkedin, myspace or any other social media account.

Asteroid could SMASH INTO EARTH in 2040

This ones a small practice target

140 meters - it is big enough to warrant intervention, but small enough that we can try various things - including a nuke - to deflect/destroy it.

A nuke, or other destruction type attempt wont be such a bad thing - at 140 meters - it will break up into smaller pieces all having the same (sum total) kinetic energy of the whole, but even the biggest piece would likely burn up, or only cause minor damage.

of course if we manage to deflect it that would be best from a 'lets see if we can do this, for when a bigger one comes along' point of view.

And since it seems that US has taken it upon themselves to impose their laws world wide, then by al means it should the US that does this.

now - back to reality programming....

the UN will take this matter up, and by around the year 2050 have come up with a solution that will make everyone (and no one) happy, with an expected implementation time of about 10 years. In the mean time, the rock will have hit, set off a good sized tsunami, and wiped 200-300 million people from the world.

Hubble snaps exploding star's near-fatal weight-loss bid

Closeness... too close for comfort??

a supernova releases a LOT of high energy photons... 7400 light years is not that far, galatically speaking.

What is the chance that the radiation is of sufficient quantity to damage our living quarters (Earth)?

NASA shuts off Voyager 1's central heating

> path out of the galaxy,

ummm think you mean

.... out of the solar system...

the galaxy is bit larger, and will take a bit more time for either of the voyagers to leave.

Oz skeptic offers prize if Rossi’s E-cat works

Not taking sides here - but -

>“As the invention seems, at least at first, to offend against the generally accepted laws of physics and established theories, the disclosure should be detailed enough to prove to a skilled person conversant with mainstream science and technology that the invention is indeed feasible..."

so-- a person with a 2nd grade education, through what ever means, invents a device that does something. S/he has no idea how the device works, from a physics or any other 'learned profession'. Yet the device does work, and it does do what the inventor says. Does this mean he cant patent it? as he cant explain how it works??

for a simple example:

meat goes in here -> I turn this handle -> sausage comes out there ->

it is possible, has happened in the past, will probably happen in the future, person wants to do something, doesnt know "Its Not Possible", through trial & error, and blind luck, they actually *do* the 'impossible'. After which the theorists come in look at said device and figure out how it happened.

Feds propose 50-state ban on mobile use while driving

This will get lost.... but....

F- it all

ALL phones have GPS (or similar) in them - you may not be able to get access to it, but it is there.

If the phone/fondleslab is move more then - I chose 10mph/16kph, pick a slow speed number - the device no longer communicates - EXCEPT FOR EMERGENCY calls.

There - done.

For those that complain - what about......

what the F did they do before cell phones - do the same thing now... wait!!!

icon - for the firestorm that is sure to follow - if this is read..

Netflix set to make your video history public

consumers will be able to give a one-time consent -

at the time of service signup - in the terms and conditions on page 435 paragraph 97.

Netflix : Hi, thank you for calling netflix support. My name is <fill in your favorite Indian name>. How can I help you?

You : I want to turn off the 'share video history' option.

Netflix : Oh you didnt want to share your netflix movie history with everyone in the bleedin world?!?!?! I am sorry, you can not opt out, once you have opted in you cannot opt out.

You : Please cancel my account.

Netflix : You want to cancel your account??

no problem, you no longer have to pay us a monthly service charge, and you will have to return "Douglas does The Cowbooys" before the account closure will take effect. However this will not stop your history from being shared to every 'friend' we skimmed from your facebook account. Nor will this stop our access to your facebook account. Nor will this action stop your video history (and all other personal data we have) from being sold and sold and sold yet again.

Have nice day.

<sounds of phone call - or email or chat>

Facebook : Hi thanks for contacting Facebook support. My Name is <same person from above>, how can I help you.

You : Hi there, I would like to delete my facebook account.

Facebook : You cant do that. Thank you for your inquiry <click>.

US nuclear aircraft carrier George Bush crippled by toilet outages

Seems appropriate...

No Working Head, just as the carrier's name sake, and progeny.

Voyager 2 finally agrees to a long hard thrust

Let me be the first to say...

.. at least for this article...

They Don't Make them Like They Used too....

Mines the one with the Clovis point in the pocket :)

The Register Guide on how to stay anonymous (part 2)

HOw I deal with a lot of this - prevention

how do you do prevention?

simple -

Lock the bloody directories into which the various pieces mentioned in the article are written.

(mac, safari)

for example: the directory to which Flash writes its various files is locked. The browser CAN NOT write to it. The site works, as all the information is kept in the browser. Upon exiting the bowser - there is nothing left.

BT gets 14 days to block Newzbin2

Im not sure...

from reading the article -

Is this decision from a High court? (in the US it would be the Supreme Court), or is this some local constabulary court making this decision??

in other words, is there an appeal possible by BT?

Chocolate weighed in Schwarzeneggers: Official

158kg - a very large person...

Well, in this season's First Pittsburgh Steelers vs Baltimore Ravens Football (U.S. football).

The Ravens fielded an Offensive Tackle - <something> McKinnie who the announcers claimed showed up at training camp at 400lbs or about 181.4 kg or 42.95 jubs, and took the field at 372lbs or 168.7 kg or 39.94 jubs -- at 6 feet 8 inches, 2 meters, or 14.5 linguine.

He is indeed a VERY large person, and out weighs the falling debris by a bit. :)

Shuttered SETI reboots ET pursuit

@Invasion

c is a speed limit.

That doesnt mean that there are not ways to effectively move about trans-luminally.

I am not saying these methods exist, or even if they do that a living creature can survive but...

- Star Trek's concept of 'warping' space - the ships dont travel faster than light, they shorten the distance to be traveled.

- inter/trans dimensional transport - 'hyperspace', it might be possible given String Theory is correct, to 'open' one of the extra dimensions and traverse it, then return to some (to us 3D'ers) very far location, having traveled 'faster then light'.

Videogames caused riots says plod

The root cause?

the same one that is going to fuel similar activity in the US -

MASSIVE disparity in income and wealth ownership, coupled with the existing and future economic failure.

The prols revolting against the corp-tocracy

Jupiter spacecraft mounted atop bloody big rocket

What about radio

Jupiter , outside of Sol, is the largest radio emitter in our solar system. Why not have a power system that turns the radio emissions into power? either as a main or secondary power source.

Also Jupiter has a quite large magnetic field (partially responsible for the radio noise) you have a metallic object circling through it - cant you generate a few watts that way too?

now where is that lightening bolt icon.....

Sorry, time travelers, you’re still just fiction

Not necessarily so

some ideas, on time travel speculate that time travel into the past, before the time travel device was created, is not possible.

So, if on 1/1/2012 a time travel device is created, no one could come back to today and see, first hand, what is happening.

As to the article, As may have been mentioned elsewhere, while the speed limit for an object with mass is c , when the object "reaches" c the mass of the object has increased to a point where it is infinite, and hence needs infinite power to accelerate. Which is why c is the limit.

That said, there are no restrictions on APPARENT FTL travel.

For example the concept used in Star Trek's various Warp drives - they do not allow the ships to travel faster then c, they warp space bringing 2 distant points closer together, then the ship travels the now shorter distance normally.

Other hypothetical options would be:

- "hyperspace" - basically moving through a different dimension allowing the effect of FTL. This would be similar to a being able to move in 3 dimensions, to a citizen of a 2 dimensional world. Start here, disappear, reappear there.

- worm holes - similar to warp drives, a shortcut across a vast distance - ignoring getting crushed by gravity.

Insurance firm pushes out iPhone app that rates driving ability

@Col and others

im in the US, but doesnt the UK have "Quite cars", where you are not supposed to talk on the cell phone or have your music device blasting?

if that is the case, then there is ALREADY a demand for this - no cell phone use on public transit.

Additionally, it seems to me that we (as race) managed just fine when there were NO cell phones, and even on occasion managed to !! OMG !! talk one another - in person -

on a personal note - if your in my car - as a passenger, you'd better have the politeness to talk to me and not your phone, else youll be doing a LOT of walking. I know when im a passenger in a private vehicle, I talk to the other person (people) and not to my cell phone.

Maybe you find it quite OK to have your passenger(s) blabbing away to the misses, or mistress or dominatrix...

Proof of my concept

I have been saying (although no one wants to listen) that all phones (at least in the US) and smart phones, regardless of country of use, can use location information to determine how fast they are moving.

From this information - movement rate - they can, should IMHO, stop ALL out going and incoming calls and texts, excepting emergency numbers, when they are moving above some predetermined speed - I usually suggest 10 mph/16 kph.

You do this - and there is no longer an issue with driving while talking or worse driving while texting.

This application, is proof that my concept is completely implementable.

of course it wont happen, as dead people make better news stories then, "no one crashed or was killed today because some Fukwit was texting while driving"

Flames for the followups this is sure to get......

Hubble celebrates 21st with gorgeous galactic 'rose' snap

For $2.2 billion...

according to Wikianswers :

<http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_did_the_launch_of_the_Hubble_Space_Telescope_cost>

$2.2 Bilion, even with the cost of maintenance etc only $4.4 Billion (US billion - 10^9) is nothing for the returns.

The first day of the Lybian invasion, alone, cost nearly $250 million (112 tomahawks @ $2mil each). One year of the Iraq (or Afghanistani) wars would provide 100 of these, with full support for 21 years...

what a waste...

It's the oldest working Seagate drive in the UK

probably too late to be seen...

I have a Mac 512k (that is the model stuffed between the original 128k (and those numbers refer to RAM in the computer) and the Mac Plus. THe case still had the signatures of the deisgn team embedded on the interior of the case.

This oldie has an external, SERIAL port connected, hard drive which was called "HD-20".

A 20 megabyte hard drive that connected via the serial port (and had a pass through so you could put an external 400k floppy drive on the Mac too). Access times were in the 1500 millisecond range.

All of this still works :)

Men may be able to grow a new pancreas from their testicles

Doesnt work as promised

Problem: no insulin producing cells (beta cells)

Question: why?

Answers:

1 - type 1 diabetes

2 - pancreatic cancer

3 - severe pancreatitis

re - #1 - Type 1 diabetes is an auto-immune system failure. The person's own immune system is/has attacked the insulin producing cells - killing them. Producing more cells from testes or else where from the same person results in - guess what - more auto immune system based destruction of Beta cells. ergo - sooner ( more likely) or later no more beta cells -- again.

re #2 - well.... the only time in which the teste based replacement therapy might be useful would be when the pancreas was removed, other wise the cancer is likely to spread to the 'new' pancreas.

re#3 - this is one place where it will be useful. The lab I work in is doing an experimental therapy, for patient's who's pancreas is being removed. We take the removed pancreas, remove and isolate the beta cells, then re-inject them into the patient into the liver. Where they function normally. However, this is a stop gap measure, as eventually they will all die off; as there are no more pancreatatic stem cells (no pancreas) there is no renewal of the beta cells. So... when they die they are gone.

This new therapy could be very useful here. Although, I suspect that root cause of the original pancreatitis will return and damage the new organ.

Diary of a Not-spot: One man's heroic struggle for broadband

Tethering?

in the States, dont have a clue about the writer's side of the Pond, you can get USB 3G and 4G(?) "dongles" which give you an internet connection via cell service. I dont know what sort of speeds these provide, but they should be stable.

The adverts ive seen put the cost at (depending on company) 50-60 USD/month

US may disable all in-car mobile phones

As Ive said before

to stop cell phone usage while driving :

(in the US ALL call phones have GPS or similar - required for emergency call location)

Since this is ALREADY THERE - take advantage of it.

If the phone is moving at move then 10 mph (16kph) it shuts itself downNo incoming no out going calls/text etc. With the exception of emergency calls.

NO new tech, no jammer, just a firmware/software update. - Done

BOFH: You just can't go around killing people

look ones moving....

Famous last words??

PA school district avoids charges over webcam spy scandal

complete buggery!

if this had been done by an individual they would be getting years to life.

58,000 child images, from web cameras in laptops - this were most likely in the users bedroom.

There is surely at least 1 (if not many more) "inappropriate" images.

As the trouser snakes that perpetrate idiot rules and regs say : "... think of the children..."

prosecute them ALL -

Minimally fire them ALL

Shopping mall mulls Supreme Court bid to back no-speaking ban

my view summarized by others

1 - "A corrupt society has many laws."

- Tacitus, Roman Senator

2 - We are both atheists. When you recognize why you have rejected the multitude of other possible gods, you will understand why I have rejected yours.

- unknown

Google experimenting with spy drones, says German maker

how much of the air space do I have rights too??

over my land of course....

Its Duck Season!

Its Wabbit Season@!

Its Duck Season!

.

.

.

Shoot 'em now, Doc. Shoot 'em now!

<Bang>

Oops! Thought it was duck 8 )

Penguin - closest thing to a duck available... Where is our Warner Bros Icon :)

Council's school-snoop-op ruled illegal

laws...

@ Dr Ellen and Timemaster :

"A corrupt society has many laws."

- Tacitus, Roman Senator

iRobot cops US Army droid order, aces Q2 results

if it works as well...

as their carpet cleaner then there are going to be some badly injured "warfighters" out there.

iRobot roomba - didnt make 3 months, replacement made < 2 months. I gave up - it still drive around -just doesnt do anything - kinda like I expect this thing will do.

MS Office for Mac 2011 out in October

Alternatives

iWork - $39 (usd) when purchased with a computer at education store, $79 straight retail

open office - free

either one is as good as or better than MS's ribbon encrusted piece of shyte

Google Chrome will block out-of-date plug-ins

and what about...

the situation where a plugin becomes 'old' (what is that 3 weeks?)

and there is no replacement?