Posts by Dr. G. Freeman

Spending watchdog doubts UK is capable of managing Brexit and coronavirus info campaigns at the same time

I doubt very much the government could run two information campaigns at once.

Not because they're incompetent (they are)- either by design or just naturally - but rather, the general population.

We've had, for however long it's been now, the slogan "Stay Home" thrown at us incessantly, and still people of all intellects from World-renown writers (Neil Gaiman),down to the village idiots, and as far down as Prime Ministerial advisers have ignored it- it couldn't have been simpler, even my dog understands it.

So, going by the lowest common denominator, they'd be throwing too much information out there.

Executive Summary- people too thick for two bits of information.

Publishers sue to shut down books-for-all Internet Archive for 'willful digital piracy on an industrial scale'

Re: But what about...

I can see my local public library from my window.

But due to "something" it's been shut for the last twelve weeks,and probably won't be open again, by current estimates, until the day after the heat death of the universe, or as the government call it "phase 3".

Same with all the bookshops- closed until then too,.

Laughing UK health secretary launches COVID-19 Test and Trace programme with glitchy website and no phone app

So, the Track, Isolate, Test for Suspected Unprecedented Pathogen (TITSUP) system has gone live.

Means they can open the pubs now, right ? right ?

Baby Diesel? Little d'Artagnan? There is another child of Musk in the world

Dad's Elon G. Musk

so kids' name is Elonger Musk

Grandkid could be Elonger Still, or Elongest Musk.

NASA mulls restoring Saturn V to service as SLS delays and costs mount

If it wasn't today, would take this seriously, as why not use what they already have ?

Thought it would be a good start anyway, even as a proof of concept.

Whoa, someone actually texted you in 2020? Oh, nvm, it's just Boris Johnson, telling you to stay the f**k at home

Re: "It's not clear why progress on this faltered"

About 1214 in England, 1235 in Scotland, before parliaments were formed.

Grab a towel and pour yourself a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster because The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is 42

Re: fun facts

As a fellow Dundonian, (Who managed to escape North), the only time I knew of cricket was when one of my learned colleagues in the great learning establishment Whitfield High, acquired a cricket bat for our continued disagreements with, well every other school in the area.

More leathering Willo than "leather on willow".

Didn't stop me writing my Higher English report on Hitch-hikers'.

BOFH: Here he comes, all wide-eyed with the boundless optimism of youth. He is me, 30 years ago... what to do?

I been called cynical since my teens too, usual response is " No, I'm a realist, if I was cynical, I'd be a lot worse."

Roses are red, Chocolate is Brown, I expect nothing, and I'm still let down.

Starship bloopers: Watch Elon Musk's Mars ferry prototype explode on the pad during liquid nitrogen test

Good they're getting the bugs out of the system now, rather than when they've got fleshy things in it.

I'd be worried if things like this weren't happening- on or off camera.

BOFH: Gosh, IPv5? Why didn't I think of that? Say, how do you like the new windows in here? Take a look. Closer...

Trying not to in case my chair is wired, could tear something muscley

If you're struggling to keep new year resolutions, try NGTS-10b, a mere 1,000 LY away. One year is just 18 hrs

This must be the place where recruiters go for those people with five years experience of things launched last year.

Will Police Scotland use real-time discrimination-happy face-recog tech? Senior cop tells us: We won't... for now

Re: All wee neds look the same

Ah yes, remember when I went for an interview for Strathclyde Police as it was then, and was asked if I was a Catholic or Protestant Mormon.

Didn't get the job.

And if you turn to your left, you can see the walls of Amazon Web Services' vast server farm. And next to it, a gift shop and visitor center

I'm looking forward to the day Amazon decide to have physical stores where you can buy their products off the shelf, or even just pick orders up without having to deal with the delivery companies.

I can but dream...

Clunk, whirr, buzz, whine. Shared office space can be a riot and sounds like one too

There's a annoying hum here in the lab office.

sadly can't fix it as it's coming from one of the undergrads.

BOFH: You brought nothing to the party but a six-pack of regret

Re: 'You brought nothing to the party but a six pack of regret?'

So that isn't "hair of the dog" then ?

Hate speech row: Fine or jail anyone who calls people boffins, geeks or eggheads, psychology nerd demands

My official job title is "Nuclear Resonance Geek"

So, do I have to change it now ?

Hit one up on Insta, would you? Her Maj is after a social media manager

You're paid in Her Majesty's Selfies.

BOFH: I'd like introduce you to a groovy little web log I call 'That's Boss'

According to my timesheet, it's classified as "Work."

UK political parties fall over themselves to win tech contractor vote by pledging to review IR35

RE: Smoke and Mirrors

"The current tax system is not fit for purpose"

yes, we're still paying for the Napoleonic war in 1799 (Income tax) , maybe time to rethink things.

Space-wrecks: Elon's prototype Moon ferry Starship blows its top during fuel tank test

TSB Test, Sometimes Barely.

No wonder cops are so keen on Ring – they can slurp your doorbell footage with few limits, US senators complain

Re: Jump to the not to distant future

They walk past my flat all the time as there's the coffee shop downstairs, must be one of the safest places in Aberdeen with all the visits.

Astroboffins baffled as Curiosity rover takes larger gasps of oxygen in Martian summers

Re: Easy option

We wouldn't understand the answer

What could go wrong? Redmond researchers release a blabbering bot trained on Reddit chats

"After all most of us seem to be actual humans...."

*Sob.*.. thank you....

That's the nicest thing anybody's ever said about me.

FYI, we're now in the timeline where Facebook decides who is and isn't a politician on its 2bn-plus-person network

Can I sue Facebook for Slander if it thinks I'm a politician ?

Uncle Sam demands summary judgment on Snowden memoir: We're not saying it's true, but no one should read it

Re: You cannot get the toothpaste back in the tube

It's already out in ebook form, got it a month ago (date of publication) off Russian library site.

Haxis of evil: Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are 'continuous threat' to UK, say spies

Are we the Goodies or the Baddies ?

That lithium-ion battery in your phone or car? It has just won three chemists the Nobel Prize

Re: Isn't Chemistry, Physics?

There's not a gap, sometimes we use physics stuff, sometimes use chemistry stuff. Mostly depends if the atoms are connected to each other or not. (stuff refers to equations, theories, et al.)

I work in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, the machine itself is in the chemistry department, while I'm paid (poorly) by the physics department.

So we're going back to the Moon: NASA triggers countdown by firing up spacecraft production

If they need any test subjects for extraterrestrial living, I'm in.

Don't want to live on this planet anymore, the natives are annoying me.

First water world exoplanet spotted – and thankfully no sign of Kevin Costner, rejoice!

Re: "by studying the star’s spectrum with algorithms"

From what I've heard*, team are hoping to develop program commercially to finding data "needles in haystacks", so are being vague on details for IP reasons.

*friends with someone who used to be on project, but left.

Geo-boffins drill into dino-killing asteroid crater, discover extinction involves bad smells, chilly weather, no broadband internet...

Shetland has Broadband.

Gets it from the Faroes.

OK it maxes out at 7mb, but it's broadband

Raspberry Pi head honcho Eben Upton talks thermals, stores and who's buying the kit

Re: Watch you back Eben.

I use a Pi3 as my day to day desktop at work for the last couple of years. No complaints from me, but the others in the lab moan as its not microsoft and so are confused by it.

Gov flings £10m to help businesses get Brexit-ready with, um... information packs

Be nice to have a leaflet to know what to do when Brexit happens.

Do we paint the windows white, build a shelter under the stairs, and put a bag over our heads, or what ?

Uncle Sam is asking Americans if they could refrain from slapping guns on their drones

So, if I read this right, can't arm bears ?

Take it sharks with lasers is right out then ?

Brits are sitting on a time bomb of 40m old electronic devices that ought to be recycled

Re: But remember folks...

I find giving any data storage a hydrofluoric acid bath until they resemble a soup is usually secure enough

Dry patch? Have you considered peppering your flirts with emojis?

Re: Proof that emojis don't work

My condolences for being in my hometown.

Would be better if they offered English classes to some of the locals, especially those of the bohemian suburbs of Menzieshill and Whitfield whose accents could fail a test of English as a foreign language.

Astroboffins have spied the largest star that has gone supernova and it's breaking all the rules

Re: Soup

As wise man knows he knows nothing.

Quick question, what the Hull? City khazi is a top UK tourist destination

Re: Pedant's corner

Who's there ?

Look at me. Look at me. I'm the El Capitan now: Cray to build US govt's $600m cray-cray exascale nuke app super

Obvious question- can it run Crysis ?

Summer vacations put an end to rampant desktop crimewave

I have always found it odd that people in the lab would often ask to borrow my pen (or in one case snatch it out of my hand mid-writing), rather than get one out of the box of over 500 we have that were given as freebies to be given out- where I had got the pen from in the first place.

Found out that it was they weren't sure the freebie pens worked, and wouldn't test them to see, but rather wait until I'd "broken them in" and just steal them

Incognito mode won't stop smut sites sharing your pervy preferences with Facebook, Google and, er, Oracle

Between this and the IoT nappy thing yesterday, is there anything left that they don't monitor ?

Bulb smart meters in England wake up from comas miraculously speaking fluent Welsh

I'm not allowed to speak Welsh,

one mispronunciation and you get a Lovecraftian horror, who won't leave the break room, even if you ask nicely.

Don't know how this connects to smart meters, another unspeakably evil thing that drives me mad looking at it

Scientist, war hero and gay icon Alan Turing is new face of the £50 note

The last time I got a £50 it was green.

BOFH: On a sunny day like this one, the concrete dries so much more quickly

Re: Informal poll on whether you've ever had to do something like this

What's the option for knocking up/off an auditor ?

(She's knocked up, and knocked off being an auditor ?)

Introducing 'freedom gas' – a bit like the 2003 deep-fried potato variety, only even worse for you

Re: Can someone tell me how.....

I'll ask my colleague, who has skills at biological weapons; probably have to pay him in food for his husky

Nick's knack at Novichok gives his dog a bone.

Wanted: Big iron geeks to help restore IBM 360 mainframe rescued from defunct German factory by other big iron geeks

"I can't imagine what my wife would say if I dropped 3 grand on a mainframe."

Mine would say, "At least it's not another Motorbike, isn't it ?", before returning to her Reality programs and prosecco.

Guess who's working on a health data-slurping digital tool? Bzzt! Nope, it's the UK Department for Work and Pensions

yes, the custom assessors who asked my good friend, who has only leg (having misplaced the other one) to prove his disability.

What's Farsi for 'as subtle as a nuke through a window'? Foreign diplomats in Iran hit by renewed Remexi nasty

What's Farsi for 'as subtle as a nuke through a window'

به عنوان ظریف به عنوان یک هسته از طریق یک پنجره, if you were wondering.

Is your kid looking at GCSE in computer science? It's exam-only from 2022 – Ofqual

Next, because of health and safety, GSCE Science will no longer involve doing experiments

Friday fun fact: If Stegosauruses had space telescopes, they wouldn't have seen any rings around Saturn

If Stegosauruses had space telescopes, ....

Who's to say they didn't ?

lots of gaps in the fossil records (maybe haven't found them yet) and , and they lived for 63 million years, 100 million years ago so they could have developed stuff, and it hasn't lasted- look at our civilisation, only 5000-odd years old, and a lot of the older stuff has gone already.

The Large Hadron Collider is small beer. Give us billions more for bigger kit, say boffins

Re: New name needed

That's the plan.

For those wondering why we need a better ring, means a bigger "running track" to get the particles going faster, so there's more energy in them when they crash into each other, meaning smaller bits are made in the collision.

Think when two cars collide at 2mph in the supermarket car park, the bumper falls off, when the F1 cars crash together at 200-odd mph, you get little bits of carbon fibre all over the place.

Hopefully means new electronics to play with, like better CCDs, that are used in camera phones, better magnets for speakers, and other magnetty things., etc.

And who knows, JJ Thomson didn't think of electronics when he found the electron, so what will "Bosonics" bring ?