Posts by ravenviz

Smartphones cleared for launch as NASA loosens the rulebook

Re: Age appropriate technology

Helen Sharman used a film camera when she went to Mir in 1991 and got the photos developed in Boots.

Bork ventures to the Middle of Lidl

The Middle of Lidl

“It don’t make sense, wanted some milk, came home with a fence”

- Goldie Lookin’ Chain

YouTube

Challenger at 40: The disaster that changed NASA

Re: Compulsory podcast plug

The second O-ring “doing its job” is justification enough for adding a third O-ring to the design.

Re: It's All Down To The Romans or What Have The Romans Ever Done For Us?

Don’t do it again, or I’ll cut your balls off!

The Roomba failed because it just kind of sucked

I’ve been using Roomba’s for years in my flat, I’m still on a 5-series after my 3-series disintegrated, like anything does with constant use.

Aside from side brushes which have a tendency to eat themselves about once a year, all the 5 has needed is a replacement battery.

The key is servicing them every few months to clean all the hair and dust out.

Look after gadgets and they will look after you.

Irish Excel whiz sheets all over the competition in Vegas showdown

Re: Next logical step

Don't knock it, there could well be a medical use case in sending people to sleep quickly and painlessly.

China using AI as ‘precision instrument’ of censorship and repression, at home and abroad

Re: Hey, what’s up Doc Simon?

All the anti-Cihna comments have got downvotes, looks like a bot to me!

Windows keeps obsolete strings forever to avoid breaking translations

Re: I remember...

Or more useful:

[Ctrl] [Alt] [Delete]

Re: Ah yes, unnecessary strings

"640K ought to be enough for anybody"

Baikonur's only crew-capable pad busted after Soyuz flight

"The first rule of Government spending: why have one, when you can have two at twice the price?"

- S.R. Hadden (Contact, 1997)

Microsoft wedges tables into Notepad for some reason

Re: Why do people still choose to use Windows

Many don't choose, it's forced on them.

25 years of meatbags permanently in space on the ISS

Re: One step forward, two steps back!

Indeed, the statement, “The same might not be true when they're 30”, equally might not be true either.

China's president Xi Jinping jokes about backdoors in Xiaomi smartphones

My fitness tracker has a back door.

It's where I put the micro-USB plug to charge it!

Re: Before I got my Apple Watch

I'm still using a Polar A370, ever since my Microsoft Band carked it.

Simple and does the job.

SpaceX shows off progress on its lunar Starship

Re: space is hard

Space is hard.

You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly hard it is.

I mean, you may think it's easy to get people to the ISS, but that's just peanuts to getting people to the Moon.

Get ready to squint! World's smallest pixel is just 300 nm

Re: Eye of a Needle artwork

He’ll just make smaller ones out of Plancks.

Re: hydrogen silsesquioxane

#ericmorecambe

The Chinese Box and Turing Test: AI has no intelligence at all

Autopilot is the brain doing exactly that, undertaking routine tasks subconsciously, but it still knows its objective.

This is volition.

Apple's ultra-thin iPhone flops as foldable iPad hits a crease

Re: 13 is my lucky number

My 8 had started struggling when with some apps, occasional lockouts and freezes, plus the camera had started going “wobbly”.

Re: 13 is my lucky number

I just upgraded from an iPhone 8 to a 12 mini, the 12 is actually physically smaller, but with a larger screen.

I’ll no doubt have this 12 until at least after iPhone 22 comes out, at which point I’ll probably switch to whichever more modern one is not much bigger, and less than £200 second hand.

Boris Johnson confesses: He's fallen for ChatGPT

Because he's more in the history books than you are.

Re: Oxford Greek Professors May Roll In Their Graves In 3... 2... 1...

I'm gamma get my coat!

Windows 11 update breaks localhost, prompting mass uninstall workaround

Hey!

https://youtu.be/Ifleu0VVAc0

Locked out of your Gmail account? Google says phone a friend

I almost got locked out of a Gmail account after changing phone, the Gmail app presented and authentication code which I needed to type into the Gmail app that I was already in! Fruit loops anyone? Solution was to open Gmail in a web browser and generate the code from there. While that was OK for me to figure out, a lot are not going to be able to.

Microsoft veteran explains Windows quirk that made videos play in Paint

On a related note, I remember getting extra memory for my 3K Vic-20 by addressing the screen memory, which came in handy as an extra 1K RAM. It did put loads of gobbledegook on the monitor though!

Vodafone keels over, cutting off millions of mobile and broadband customers

Re: Oh my days

How many condoms did it dispense?

Mars’ powerful whirlwinds blow dust everywhere, could affect future missions

Re: "It's difficult to understate the importance of the dust cycle."

Suggested name for the Mars Sample Return Bot: “Tobermory”

(my bet is the samples will never be recovered, except by a distant descendant of Sir Tony Robinson in the year 3000)

Re: Prediction

“Mars Guy” Buzz Aldrin gave a very reasoned hour-long interview* about the extremely high risk of any attempt of humans surviving any Mars landing, not mentioning coming back again.

Such an achievement would require immense human cooperation and focus far beyond anything we have ever seen.

I believe humans are capable, but a given our levels of infighting and sovereign oneupmanship, it seems we are not able.

*the video since disappeared off YouTube

The chances of man-made climate change are a million to one, but still, it comes!

Blood-red bot stalks the burbs armed with . . . groceries

How about people actually get off their butts and go out for groceries?!

Hell, they might even get healthier!

Engineers successfully reboost International Space Station after early Dragon abort

Re: Putin

"At least Putin sounds intelligent"

Not really, Isaac Asimov spoke a truth that "violence is the last resort of the incompetent".

Economic wars would be much more preferable than wholesale mass slaughter. Indeed, if Putin wanted somehow to procure Ukraine in terms of resources, a trade alliance would have made a lot more sense, and such agreements are usually mutually beneficial when arranged by the competent.

Instead an attempt to procure territory by force has just led to a decimation of the aggressor, itself which will leave yet another regime to try and pick up the pieces.

Re: Moonbase building material

The ISS is not fit for purpose, it would be like trying to take a houseboat across the Atlantic Ocean.

Submarine cable security is all at sea, and UK govt 'too timid' to act, says report

Re: Socialise the costs

Most of it is rubbish bought on Ali Express and Temu.

Re: Munching sharks

“a shark did take out the major link between Australia and the US”

Did it bite it? Or shoot it with a frickin’ laser attached to its head?

1,200 undergrads hung out to dry after jailbreak attack on laundry machines

Our vending machine at Hatfield Poly had a bug where if you chose a Toffee Crisp, it gave you your money back!

Toffee Crisps all round!

Terminators: AI-driven robot war machines on the march

A Taste of Armageddon

Perhaps “AI” could be used more creatively (albeit without the disintegration chambers).

Star Trek

“we'll soon see AI drones and armed robots killing innocents. After all, we do”

This is the key observation right here.

We can only imbue human “intelligence” which is coupled with human intention, volition, and fallibility.

The 0th law of robotics is highly subjective.

No more waiting for lines: New Windows keyboard shortcuts output em and en dashes with ease

I love that three underscores in Outlook creates a <hr> tag! Brilliant!

That's just a hyphen though, a key for which is provided.

Junk is the new punk: Why we're falling back in love with retro tech

I use an HP IPAQ as a remote control for my TV, with a stylus and everything.

Trying to use the built-in Wi-Fi crashes it though!

The Unix Epochalypse might be sooner than you think

Re: slightly off, but on topic

It was Base 12 counting knuckles with a thumb on one hand, then the other hand selecting successive fingers as a base multiplier. Being a visual counting system this was useful in noisy market places.

Re: Attitude problem

My car shows me the date, but I doubt it knows it.

Microsoft keeps adding stuff into Windows we don't want – here's what we actually need

Hit ‘Windows .’ (dot, period, full stop, etc.) and there is a popup with a little clipboard on it that shows your copy/cut history ready for pasting. You can even remove items you don’t want. I think it stores about 20 or so of your most recent clipboard adds.

The real reason why Trump is killing the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawai'i

That’s why it’s posted in Offbeat > Science

Behold! Humanity has captured our first look at the Sun's South Pole

Re: Southern side?

They can’t see it from there because it’s upside down. Or nighttime. Or Christmas in July. Or something.

Re: Other bright stars

Seeing the Plough upside down on the horizon from Zimbabwe was quite odd!

“I am not expendable, I’m not stupid, and I’m not going”

- Kerr Avon

Kawasaki and Foxconn build robot nursing assistant to tackle hospital scutwork

All your bum are belong to us.

Cold without the compressor: Boffins build better ice box

Indeed, as about as resource hungry as using livestock for food.

Re: Room temperature?

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