Posts by Minophis

Ten classic electronic calculators from the 1970s and 1980s

I had a Casio FX-7000G, the battery started dying during my Physics A-level exam. I had to switch it off for a minute just to be able to calculate the log of a number. Other than that I loved it. I still have it somewhere.

How d'ya make a JPMorgan banker cry? Ask him questions on Twitter

Social media is not always your friend.

I am shocked that the execs, PR and social media bods at JPM could be staggeringly Naive. I can't help thinking this serve as a lesson for other corporations thinking of doing the same.

Just spotted this.

https://twitter.com/AnswerJPM

Fantastic

Headmaster calls cops, tries to dash pupil's uni dreams - over a BLOG

Re: We Don't Need No Education

Yes you do, you used a double negative.

Upgraded 3D printed rifle shoots 14 times before breaking

Re: Someone who has *no* failed to maintain his weapon.

If you look closely you will see that the 'plastic rack' is actually a bench vice. The dark metal cylinders are the guides used to keep the vice jaws aligned and the screw used for tightening or loosening.

Google Glassholes can't take long walks off short piers thanks to Merc app

One Vision

"Mercedes told the Silicon Valley Business Journal about its vision of a world in which no one need ask for directions again".

As visions of the future go that is pretty unimpressive. I know they are not in a position to bring about a world without war, starvation or disease. However having to say hello to a stranger and have a short conversation doesn't strike me as even a minor blight on mankind that needs solving.

May the fourths be with you: Muso John Williams returns to Star Wars

Re: Surprised...

Jar Jar Binks makes the Ewoks look like Shaft.

Out with a bang: The Last of Us lets PS3 exit with head held high

Citizen Kane

Gaming’s Citizen Kane moment? Maybe, if Mr Kane was being chased by zombies.

If he was then rosebud could come in handy for a quick getaway.

I just read the article with the game sat on my desk still unopened. Can't wait to start playing tonight :-)

Ten ancestors of the netbook

Re: Dell Mini 9

I still have mine and use it on a regular basis.

Swedish linguists nix new word after row with Google

Mmmmmm how odd

Google didn't seem to mind when OED and Webster's added 'Google' as a verb in 2006. It almost looks like they only object when the word suggests Google not working. But that can't be right, that would be 'evil'.

iPads in education: Not actually evil, but pretty close

Re: Why do people put forward the idea that iPads are good for art?

"You need accuracy for some sorts of art"

For other sorts of art you need a big piece of paper, some pots of brightly coloured poster paint and your fingers. That is the sort of art that tablets are well suited to replace but they usually stop teaching that when you turn 6.

Paying a TV tax makes you happy - BBC

Re: A tenner a month for...

A bargain is only a bargain if it's something you actually want.

Re: I stopped paying the TV License in 2008 and haven't watch TV since.

Same here, haven't watched TV for 5 years or had licence for 3 years. Although I do watch DVD's and have Lovefilm and Netflix PS3 subscriptions.

Not having to pay for something I don't use makes me very happy.

Amazon yanks SimCity download from store

Is it just me

or did anyone else enjoy the irony of reading this story on a page plastered with Sim City ads?

I'm sorry are you saying that video game piracy has rendered the offline single player game business model obsolete? If so it will come as a surprise to the many companies producing great games that operate offline and still make a profit.

EA has a well established history of screwing over their customers and not because of freetards but rather because they can.

Also if someone has a bad experience of a product and says so on Amazon, etc they are not idiots, they are doing the right thing. It assists other people in making what I like to call an 'informed decision' when choosing whether or not to buy. However if you want to to spend your money on items with a rose tinted set of reviews from corporate shills go right ahead

SimCity 3000

Re: Dons cynical hat

Agreed, there does seem to be a bit of theme recently. Well I suppose it pays for the other stories. I just wish EA had console versions of the new one, I refuse to run anything but linux on my desktop.

Samsung's next smartphone to scroll by watching your eyes

I am trying to work out how the lawsuit will go. Steve Jobs had eyes and he did used to look at things. Apple will say that Samsung blatantly copied this concept. It makes about as much sense as the rounded corners.

US lawmaker blames bicycle breath for global warming gas

Republican science strikes again

Another fabulous hypothesis from the people that brought us intelligent design and vaginas that can identify evil penises.

Leaving aside: -

The fact that the driver's car will be spewing out far more CO2 than the cyclist (not to mention other pollutants).

The fact that the cyclist is causing less damage to the roads that will cost taxes to repair

The strong probability that the cyclist will be healthier and use up less healthcare resources in their life.

The important point is that the CO2 the cyclist gives off came from the food that they ate. Which in turn was absorbed from the atmosphere while the food was growing. The net carbon increase in the atmosphere is 0. Meanwhile the car is giving of carbon that was dragged out of the earth and has not been part of the atmosphere in millions of years.

Why can't politicians leave science to scientists.

Evernote joins the notably hackable club

Getting hacked does not look good but : -

They came clean quickly

They stored passwords as salted hashes (with what I hope would be individual salt for each password)

They got their users to reset passwords

Other organistaions have handled the same situation far worse.

Apple 'insider' explains why vid adapter hides ARM computer

Re: Genius!

"better implemented by creating an industry standard and minimal cross-licensing to encourage adoption I think."

This is Apple we're talking about.

Re: Just get a Raspberry Pi

"And just how am I ^H^H^H^H is a hacker supposed to convince someone to hook up their iDevice to a raspberry pi to steal their credit card info?"

You could put the raspberry pi in a shiny case and charge a small fortune for it.

US woman cuffed for 'booking strippers for 16th birthday bash'

Can't remember what I did for my 16th Birthday.

But I am certain it would not have been as good as this.

Unwearable tech: Five ways IT garb's gone HORRIBLY WRONG

Wearable tech hmmmmmm. 2

If anyone is interested in makeing their own wearable tech Adafruit make a cool line of in house designed Arduino compatable wearbale devices that can be sewn together with conductive thread. They call it Flora.

http://www.adafruit.com/products/659

Much cooler if you make it yourself :-)

Wearable tech hmmmmmm.

I found myself a bit torn when it comes to Google Glass. Part of me thinks it's really cool and part of me thinks that the only thing it can do that my phone can't is make people point and laugh at me. I don't think I would want to go out wearing it until it had been around long enough to be considered normal, which might take a while.

The main problem with wearable tech (apart from making you look like a weirdo) is that it seems to be a solution in search of a problem. I can't think of a single practical use that I would have for it.

Woman nails 'cheating boyf' on Russian 'Street View'

spent ages trying to come up with a comment based around the line: In Soviet Russia [SOMETHING] [SOMETHINGS] YOU!!!. I failed. Anyone care to lend a hand.

Linus Torvalds in NSFW Red Hat rant

Linus tells it how it is.

His 'rants' do sometimes seem a bit extreme but he usually has a good reason and he doesn't pull any punches. I respect that.

$195 BEEELLION asteroid approaching Earth

Re: estimates are a tad pessimistic

There are people who pay to get a certificate saying that a star is named after them. If you could prove that bottled water was safe and sourced from an asteroid people would pay what ever you ask and they would probably be happier if you make extra expensive so it seems exclusive. If it happens at all the entire future industry of asteroid mining is likely to be kickstarted by the novelty bottled water drinkers.

US company aims patent-gun at Australia’s e-health system

Once again we see how the world would be a measurably better place if the US Patent Office was bulldozed over the edge of a cliff.

Curiosity raises mighty robotic fist, punches hole in Mars

Re: Funny

If they really want to impress us Curiosity could drill a few more holes and then put up some shelves and maybe asemble an IKEA flat pack wardrobe as a peace offering to any passing martians.

Curiosity photographs mysterious metal object on Martian rock

Re: Periscope.

'motoring their submarines through solid rock'

So in Jamie and the Magic Torch Mr Boo was actually an ancient martian submarine commander.

El Reg contemplates the ultimate cuppa

I think this explains my feelings about tea

Cup of Brown Joy by MC Elemental

The worlds only rap song about tea by an englishman in shorts and a pith helmet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eELH0ivexKA

BANG and the server's gone: Man gets 8 months for destroying work computers

He wouldn't have had to face the jail time if only he'd made a clean get-away.

Google donates 15,000 Raspberry Pis to UK schools

Re: "how many Pis is each school involved getting"

I would think Pi's were at price point were rather than the school getting a few to share each child could be given one of their own. After all they do cost about the same as an average text book.

The things that still need to be worked on for this are more teaching materials, volume of production and a decent curriculum to make use of them.

Apple confirms 128GB iPad. A hundred bucks for an extra 64GB

I have always thought of iPads as the Fisher Price Activity Centre of computing devices.

Waiter! There's a phone in my soup

Re: Oval?

While versica piscis is an acceptable generic term for the shape, when used correctly it refers to the shape between two overlaping circles of the same diameter overlapping by where each circle has its centre on the perimiter of the other. The name for the biconvex shape between any two circle overlapping by any amount is simply a 'lens'.

IBM brains ponder universe, say kids will go nuts for STEAMPUNK

Re: Glaring omission

The Diamond Age?

Soot forces temperatures more than thought: AGU

Solutions in the 3rd world

Roughly 3bn people still cook over an open wood fire producing rougly 1bn tonnes of carbon emmisions/year. Cooking smoke is also responsible for about 2m deaths/year. If you want to reduce black carbon emmisions then helping people in the 3rd world with cooking tech (cleaner burning stoves such as biolite or solar cookers) might be a good place to start.

Boffins develop microwave weed-zapper

Re: Can't wait ...

Agreed. Something like this wouldn't be in consumers hands for more than a week before some old dear looks closely at the emitter to see if it's working and burns their face off.

While microwave radiation seems better for the environment than many of the herbicidal chemicals it does look a bit dangerous for domestic use. Better to stick with a tough pair of gardening gloves a trowel and a fork.

Re: I am curious as to why....

' you don't need to detonate the plant, merely heat it enough'

True but there are advantages to detonating the plant: -

1. It gives a clear visual indication that the plant has absorbed sufficient microwave radation to kill it.

2. It's probably quite funny for the first few goes.

Dad hires online assassins to slay game-obsessed son

Re: Only 23?

The job of a parent isn't to coddle their children endlessly, it's to teach their children to be self reliant and able to cope and indeed thrive in the real world. If someone without severe disabilities is not capable of managing that by 27 something has gone wrong and something should really be done. Booting out does seem a bit harsh but that sounds like a problem case. Anyway if the counterstrike playing pothead is shocked into at least attempting to cope on their own then following up with a bit of parental support wouldn't go amiss.

If a bird is going to fly for the first time it has to be kicked out of the nest

Patrick Moore: Lived with cats, accompanied Einstein on the piano

irreplaceable

A man cut from the same cloth as David Attenborough. An endearing and commited educator with an infectious passion for his chosen field and an inspiration for so many.

He will be greatly missed.

Revealed: The Brit-built GRAVITY-powered light that costs $5

@Rob Kendrick

'this light is not powered by gravity. It's powered by the human who lifts the weight onto its hook.'

The light is powered by a conversion of stored gravitational potential energy. You are simply taking whatever energy conversion process came before and claiming that that's the one responsible. You could just as easily say: -

'this light is not powered by the human who lifts the weight onto its hook. It's powered by the chemical energy in the food eaten by the human.'

or

'this light is not powered by the chemical energy in the food eaten by the human.. It's powered by the nuclear energy of the sun that grew the food eaten by the human.'

Archaeologists uncover 'Unicorn's lair'

I can't spot any flaws in their logic

The scientists reportedly unearthed "A rectangular rock carved with words 'Unicorn Lair' ... in front of the lair."

That is some pretty compelling evidence, I'm convinced. Now we just have to see what excuses Seoul come up with for dodging this glorious manifest destiny.

Automatic Facebook couple pages: Nauseating sign of desperation

Re: angry much?

I hate Facebook as much as most people but I have to say that they are not responsible here.

No Facebook != couple not violently murdered for unfriending murderers daughter on Facebook

No Facebook = couple violently murdered for ignoring murderers daughter at party/insulting her new dress/splashing mud on her shoes/doing almost any trivial thing that upset her enough for her clearly unstable father to take dispropertionate retribution

If a company makes hammer intended for hammering in nails and someone uses one to bash someones brains in it is not the companies fault. You can't say that the murder would never have happened in a world without hammers, because the murderer would have found something else.

Also people managed to plot and incite murders, riots and all kinds of mayhem long before Facebook and Twitter. I imagine that if you took social media sites away the people who do these things through facebook twitter would be doing the same thing with email, or text messages, or notes passed round and quite converstaions in the pub

ROGUE PLANET WITHOUT A SUN spotted in interstellar space

@jcrb

'Moon Base Alpha come back in time through a worm hole in space.........'

Back in time from the year 1999?

You might want to rethink that....

Naughty-step Apple buries court-ordered apology with JavaScript

Re: Stupid, stupid move.

I'd go even further and get them to do it comic sans

Foxconn: Worker who lost half his brain in accident must leave hospital

Re: Sounds like (AC 18:08)

I have been in full time employment since I left University over 16 years ago and you certainly don't speak for me. Someone unlucky enough to be born with cerbral palsey or severe Down's syndome may never be in a position where they are able to hold down a job or even care for themselves. If my taxes can help pay to support these people and ensure they have a decent quality of life then I am happy. After all it means that I am paying for the privilage of living in a society that is at least partly based on comapssion, emapthy a dignity rather than being shaped by by callous, cold hearted fuckers like you.

I imagine that many of the people in this position would give anything to be able to work and contribute to society However being born different or a chance accident that changed their lives means that they are not lucky enough to be able to. That's all that separates us from them, Luck. Try remebering that.

Boffins prescribe SNAKE VENOM as future pain killer

Re: New Process

That's an excellent plan with no obvious drawbacks. May I suggest that to avoid any potential road accidents getting the snakes to the decommisioned military base they should transport all the snakes on a plane (possibly with Samuel L Jackson on board to prevent mishaps).

Apple, Samsung brass hats' patent spat chitchat falls flat

Re: or maybe

Where as Apple are happy to get their phones manufactured by a company who's response to workers hurling themselves to their deaths off the factory roof was to install nets. When it comes to being the good guys and not harming people I don't think Apple can take the moral high ground.

Re: What are you mumbling about?

Agreed multi-touch did exist long before apple got hold of it. However Apple do seem to have a habit of submitting patents along the lines of : -

Thing that has existed for ages for which there is a ton of prior art but on a [phone/tablet/mobile device].

I can't help feeling a lot of problems could be solved if the US Patent office was bulldozed into the sea.

EA kills Medal of Honour arms deal

Re: Hanlon's Razor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1rHNyJO_dw