Posts by The lone lurker

Torygraph and Currant Bun stand by to repel freeloaders

Re: The Sun

You'd only make about £3 then, perhaps £4 if you didn't linger on the pictures.

Google improves Chrom’s spel checkr

Re: Oh look, it needs a constant connection to the net @ Dan 55

Then just don't use Chrome! If you are really this paranoid about Google then you're certainly not using any of their other services like search, Gmail or Drive are you? If this is the case then this has absolutely no effect on you and makes your posts ultimately pointless.

Firefox and Opera have had multiple spell check add-ons for donkey's years, use them instead. They both also have an offline mode so you can continue to do your web-browsing without an internet connection.

I fed the troll and I liked it.

Dragon capsule makes fiery entrance, safe splashdown

Re: Bah! "Who scooped it out of the ocean?"

The people taking the picture?

I assume they had a boat or something...

Ubuntu support periods slashed

Re: With Unity being pushed down the throat, who cares

It's been a while since I played with Mint but is there not a version based on Debian?

Brussels 'mulling probe' into brutal Apple negotiations with networks

Re: If Only They Made usable Telephones For a Sensible Price

No-one makes you buy an iPhone or any other phone with 'touch rubbish'. Nokia for example makes a complete range of phones that still follow the older form factor. Try this:

http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/mobiles/mobile-phones/NOKIA_100?colourCode=BLACK

Or, if that is still not to your liking then Doro make phones with even smaller screens with huge buttons for those who just cannot stand to look at their phone. With one of these you stand a good chance of hitting the right button even with your eyes closed.

http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/mobiles/mobile-phones/DORO_506?colourCode=BLACK

I realise now, after re-reading your comment, that I may well have been trolled softly but I'll let it stand in case you really are this much of a Luddite!

NASA chief: Earth is DOOMED if we spot a big asteroid at short notice

It's based on estimations and models of what should be left after the Solar system formed and has been ticking over for the last 4.6 billion years.

Short answer is: They're guessing.

Samsung Galaxy S 4: A slim stripper with palms hovering over its body

Re: Build it and they will come @Thomas Wolfe

I saw a similar article... The one I read was parroting information from an interview conducted with Gene Munster (A senior analyst apparently) by a clearly Apple biased reporter from Bloomburg who actually said that he normally only covers Apple. At no point was there any mention of Google being worried Gene Munster mentioned that he thought Google might feel this way later down the line.

I took it as FUD in the same way that the claims of Android fragmentation becoming a serious issue are periodically trotted out.

Why would Google care that one vendor has the majority of the market anyway? We'll all still be using Google's services regardless of the vendor/manufacturer. If Samsung make the decision to fork android and try to lock everyone into their own services then I think many people would stop buying Samsung phones.

If Google were really worried then they would be using Motorola's hardware division to flood the market with Nexus devices to counter Samsung.

PC market to spend ANOTHER year soaked in blood, warns IDC

Re: the majority of people that use computers to work with

I'm not denying that, I'm just refuting that tablets and mobile devices are the best replacements for 'full computers'

As I said before I own several examples of these devices. In all cases I have bought them and then managed to find a use case for them to justify the purchase rather than the device itself filling a requirement.

I've just sat here for five minutes trying to think of one thing my tablet does better than my laptop and can't actually think of one.

I suspect this is the same as a lot of other people whether it is conscious or unconscious. I view the whole tablet craze as a collective ''Ooh, look at the shiny!'' ( and I LOVE me some shiny!)

Re: Just wrong. (@AC 18:37)

I think you missed the point. YOU obviously have managed to convince yourself that a tablet is a full desktop replacement but I would feel confident in saying that is not the case for the majority of people that use computers to work with. Yes, the iPad comes with up to 128GB, but what happens when you need more? on my full computer i can simply use a USB thumbdrive or even upgrade the hard disk. I have an iPad and a Nexus 7 but would never consider either the best tool for anything more involved than web browsing or watching iplayer.

In a pinch it is true that most computing tasks can be accomplished on a tablet but my experience doing so has been painful and the apps always appear to be attempting to work around the deficiencies in the system. The article never said that productivity was impossible on a tablet but stated that the focus was elsewhere. Count the number of items in the app store and compare the number of entertainment/games apps to the number of productivity apps and then come back and deny this.

I cannot address the other points in your comment as I stopped reading properly at ''App-centric" which you somehow think is a good thing. Windows 8 is "App-centric" but that is roundly hated it seems.

jabbing at a small screen with sausage fingers on a crippled OS is never going to be better or easier than using a full computer to complete actual work.

You sound like a manager who has had to defend his new shiny toy.

How do they not get this?

High res screens at a decent ratio! I want to upgrade my laptop at the moment but when even > £800 will not buy me a laptop that has a vertical resolution better than my 4 year old one it's a no sale!

I'm sure that I'm not alone in being in this situation. If you walk into a retail outlet at the moment, there is really nothing that differentiates the top end machines from the low end to the average buyer to whom price is the most expensive factor.

I find myself in the insane position where I want to spend some money on a laptop but no company can provide a compelling reason to.

Unbelievably it would appear that Apple are the only one's to see this. I really don't want a Mac but may end up buying a 'Retina' ( I hate that term) at their incredibly inflated prices just to be able to have a decent resolution.

Nexus 1 put in orbit to prove 'in space, no one can hear you scream'

Re: Windows Phone was too heavy to put in orbit

Please stop now, it was funny for a while but you're trying too hard now and I'm starting to feel embarrassed for you whenever I see your posts.

Apple said to develop curved glass iWatch with Foxconn

Re: iWatch or iPhone ?

Nice plug Theo..... but that article is just fucking bad - seriously, I don't like swearing even on the internet but I just cannot figure how else to express my disgust.

You tell me that "The mobile phone form factor as it is today is dying". I say bullshit. A quick Google shows that in the last quarter of 2012 smartphone sales alone have accounted for massive growth (47% compared to 2011) in the mobile phone sector.

Almost everyone I see has a smartphone and even my Luddite father who still has a Nokia 6310 has finally started talking about how he'd like a phone that "does something".

You then compound your nonsensical drivel by stating "Nobody really wants screen real-estate in a device we talk into, it’s senseless and unnecessary." Go and sit on a bus, take a train or even go a coffee shop. almost all people there will have a smartphone and it will appear to be glued to their hands.

Are you seriously saying that people will want a phone only if it's small and wearable? That apple will release this shit and the whole industry will collectively slap their forehead and see where they've all been going wrong?

Smartphones have their place in the world at the moment and have got there by combining features that people want, not by isolating a single subset. By your logic we'd all be walking around with a dumbphone and a tablet and that the original iphone should have failed.

I can see the point that a device to supplement your phone may be a good idea - on paper. However, if it was actually a good idea then the myriad of other devices that do the same job and are already on the market would be selling in the millions. please explain why, in your twisted vision of the near future the 'big' companies (Samsung et al) are not already all over this?

The rest of the article appears to be the deluded wanking fantasy of a 'futurist'. I wasted my time reading your article and it made me angry enough to write this, I'm not angry at your opinion just in the way that you've neglected to announce it as complete fiction at the beginning.

I sincerely hope that I never stumble across any of your other work.

Space Shuttle Columbia disaster remembered 10 years on

Re: Why not? @Stevie

No need to improvise.... NASA actually built prototypes of the Personal Rescue Enclosure. This was an inflatable spherical "spacecraft" that had just enough room for one person and enough oxygen for 1 hour. It was intended that space suited crew from a rescue shuttle would use these to ferry unsuited crew from the damaged orbiter to the rescue craft.

Developed in 1984 and never used and there is very little information on these past the challenger disaster possibly suggesting that they may not have been feasible but it certainly suggests that rescue from a damaged shuttle would have been possible.

http://www.capcomespace.net/dossiers/espace_US/shuttle/1996-2005/rescue%20ball/rescue_ball.htm

Re: Why not?

Back in the golden age of space heroes (AKA the 1960's) there was serious thought given about escaping from a crippled ship and how to return to earth from orbit. Project MOOSE (Man Out Of Space Easiest) was one proposal. It basically consisted of an astronaut strapping on a backpack full of expanding polyurethane that would fill an inflatable heat shield that he would 'sit' in, he would propel himself out of orbit with a strap on booster attached to his chest along with a high altitude parachute. The polyurethane would partially ablate during re-entry and absorb some shock of landing.

As far as i recall this got to the stages of testing it in a firing chamber at re-entry temperatures and it appeared that it would work. It was, however, ultimately cancelled along with the X-20 Dyna-soar ( a much cooler looking spaceplane).

There's tons of info about this online but there are some nice conceptual drawings here:

http://www.astronautix.com/craft/moose.htm

Re: Killed by numeric overflow?

The Block 2 Apollo CSM design also benefited hugely from the loss of three astronauts during a 'plugs out' pad test. The subsequent investigation turned up massive deficiencies in the design ultimately leading to the robust design that you speak of.

It's interesting to note that STS-1 (the first real test flight) had a similar issue where the thermal protection system was damaged on launch and hot gas was allowed to duct into the landing gear well severely damaging part of the wheel brace. John Young has gone on record as saying that if he had been aware of this he and Crippen would have bailed out of the orbiter rather than attempt the landing.

Zuck on it, Google: 'Public' Facebook events are dead to you

Re: Christ-on-a-Bike! @ SuperHoopMango

And nothing of value was lost.

RIM extends BB10 port-a-thon after dev stampede

Re: Is there an optimum level of apps?

If it's anything like the Playbook OS then it will be completely drag and drop. It will even show up as a drive on my PC when connected to the wireless network.

China seeks ‘Oceanauts’ for deep sea exploration

Re: Welcome to Atrantis!

Mining is a bit of a misnomer, most of the mineral wealth referred to here is in the form of manganese nodules. These concretions cover an estimated 70% of the abyssal plains and tend to look like knobbly potatoes buried in the sediment. There would be no digging involved and certainly not enough waste to cover the entire ocean and it would almost certainly be less than the western sea mining impact; Deepwater Horizon anyone?

Most major nations of the world including the UK, USA, France and Germany have already attempted mining of this resource back in the 60's and 70's but the cost of retrieving the nodules was not financially viable. These attempts did however, lead to development of other useful tech like towed side scan sonar. If China can make this work then let them go for it!

As an aside there are five major gyres in the worlds oceans all of them have accumulated rubbish, we're all to blame!

For anyone who is interested here are some images of nodules:

http://www.whoi.edu/science/B/people/sbeaulieu/H2O_new/H2O_images/mn_nodule.html

Last moon landing was 40 years ago today

Re: Last man

There's a really nice quote from Jim Lovell after Apollo 8:

"Issac Newton was doing all the driving"

I envy you and others who got to see this first hand - I was not even a twinkle in my father's eye back then!

Re: Last man

You have to remember that the Apollo program was never completed, Apollo's 18,19 & 20 were already planned and they hoped for at least 21 & 22. All of these later missions would have had at least one scientist on board. The budget cuts were something as a shock for NASA and they reacted correctly by bumping Joe Engle from the LMP position as soon as it was clear that 17 was to be the last of the manned landings.

Gene Cernan fought the decision to send a scientist to the moon very publicly for a long time, but, he has since said that Schmitt proved a 'capable' LM pilot - grudging praise indeed!

Also the fact remains that none of the scientist astronauts were actually ready for a mission until this time, just logging the flying time required by NASA at the time took years!

Regardless of the backgrounds of any the people who walked on the moon good science was carried out on all missions in the Apollo program barring 13 as they had more pressing matters to attend.

It is a crying shame that the political support was so transient for this program had it continued we would have had a manned Mars - Venus flyby by 1985 rather than the anticlimax of Skylab and the final 'get Deke into space' mission in 1975.

Better I think than the

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite review

Re: Still no buttons

I can use gloves too! The Sony touchscreen - at least on the PRS 650 - uses IR sensors embedded within the bezel to detect input, the older ones used a resistive layer but this made them absolutely awful to read on!

I've just remembered that it has a stylus too, how quaint!

Re: Still no buttons

Do you not have to stick your thumb in front of the text to turn a page on a real book?

I've never really noticed it before, I have a Sony E-reader and the swipe to turn action feels natural as it's similar to flipping pages. The Sony has buttons to change pages also but I don't think i've ever used them.

One in four don't clean their stinky old browsers - especially Firefoxers

Re: Because they keep breaking things

Downvoted because without the link that you've referenced but withheld your post is drivel.

Also because you care about downvotes whilst Anonymous Coward

Mozilla: Windows 7 browser bungle cost us nine MILLION downloads

Agreed!

I have one window open with six tabs... Firefox process currently reports 335,236K memory useage... what the hell does it do with it all?

Icelandic town demands vulva museum

Re: A rather small collection

If only the arctic fox is indigenous then what the fuck did they eat?

Curiosity clears things up

Re: It's looking right at me!

I think Pareidolia is probably more likely unfortunately.

Listen up, Nokia: Get Lumia show-offs in pubs or it's game over

Re: Well....

I'm still not certain why anyone cares about downvotes. It doesn't hide your post or anything.

Are you so insecure that you really care what some faceless name thinks of your opinion on an internet forum?

I'm tempted to downvote you simply for your banal post but i'm worried it might affect your real life too much.

The world's first Windows Phone 8 hands on – what's it like?

Re: too big

Thats only 0.7mm thicker than the current iPhone ( or an incredible 700 microns in marketing speak).

Stick one of those shitty bumpers on your iPhone and its already ~1.2mm thick, more if its a 'protective' bumper.

So, just what is the ultimate bacon sarnie?

You don't fry bacon, you grill it...

...after trimming the fat off with scissors then preferably over a grill pan so all the fat can run off the bacon

Robot rover Curiosity sets out on first long Mars trip

Re: Why so slow?

They chose Gale Crater as a landing site to avoid this. The area around Mount Sharp is believed to show a good sample of Mars geology from the last two billion years with the added bonus of having the whole thing covered by water at some point in mars' history.

They did this also with the Apollo landing sites, it's important to maximize the science gains in the shortest time possible as equipment failure or accident could be lurking just around the corner.

Angry Sunfish in piscene boss battles

Re: Me Too.

Are these people related to the people that decided calling fish 'Sea kittens' would stop fishing because no one wants to hurt cute kittens?

http://features.peta.org/PETASeaKittens/

Nutters.

Goldeneye

Look at his face on the box!

What has been seen cannot be unseen!

Mars rover seeks perfect suntan spot to survive winter

not required for the original design

I would guess that the cost to develop and test such a system could not be justified for a mission that was intended to last no more than 90 Sols.

There's also the weight penalty to factor in as well, the solar panel cleaning system would probably have meant that a science experiment would have to be left out.

Microsoft mum on leaked Phone OS plans

@ Bob

Have you tried it? or are you basing this opinion only on screenshots?

The paradigm is that the mobile screen is in effect a window into information that is too large to view. Your butchered sentence makes no sense when you realise that the whole sentence in WP7 would be visible simply by scrolling sideways. the lack of submenus in WP7 is refreshing!

I was sceptical until I bought an HTC Titan (4.7 inch screen with 2.5 - 3 days use between charges - Amazing.) after two years of Android. There's no way I'd go back now - Everything just works. I've not found an app yet that I've needed that hasn't been present, there is however, a lack of fart apps wich must also mean it's rubbish right?

Backyard astronomer snaps Beta Pictoris dust disk

Papyrus...

The thinking man's Comic Sans!

Falklands, Cardiff lie beneath track of rogue Phobos-Grunt

UK Space Agency

Ha Ha Ha........Wait, whats that? You're not joking?

What the fuck do we need this for? To the best of my knowledge Britain has had zero lauch capability since the 70's.

What do they actually do, throw things at the sky and hope they don't come back maybe?

NASA working on nuclear rocket for manned Mars trips

Tsien landed on Europa and everybody died....

Hunt for long-lost Apollo 10 moon lander adrift in space

That's exactly why all of the later missions had very serious and patriotic names for the command and lunar modules.

Not quite as bad as Apollo 9 - Spider and Gumdrop!

Jupiter spacecraft mounted atop bloody big rocket

Re:Reason for end-of-mission de-orbit?

Probably the same reason Gallileo was deorbited. There's a small chance that any dead spacecraft around Jupiter would impact Europa, and, if there's anything alive down there we should do everything we can to avoid contaminating it.

Apollo 14 'naut attempts to flog Moon camera for $80k

re:Don't believe him?

Actually back in those days almost all NASA astronauts were test pilots first and scientists secondly. Schmitt on Apollo 17 was the first and only 'true' scientist to fly to the moon.

To be fair though, Mitchell is not the only astronaut to have said this kind of thing. Gordon Cooper ("Who's the best damn pilot y'all ever did see?") was quite vocal in his later years about seeing alien spacecraft being tested by the military in Germany.

As to "You think they choose crazy people to go in space?" all I can say is look up Lisa Nowak.

Endeavour bids adios to ISS

Did you think they'd change their mind?

The program should have been abandoned decades ago. It's never fulfilled its design goals, was comprimised by USAF requirements that were never needed and has needlessly claimed lives due to known design flaws. The potential for thermal shielding failure was identified after STS-1, I read that John Young said that if he had known of the damage caused by thermal protection failure he would have ejected from the orbiter during the descent.

The original design called for the shuttle to be refurbed and reflown within two weeks of landing. The current record stands at just over eight.

The money could have been far better spent on a continued Apollo applications program. With further production runs of the Saturn V the white elephant of the ISS could have been finished in under 5 years - without the frequent, risky and costly servicing missions. It's not inconceivable that a reuseable re-entry vehicle like the X-15 using an S-IVb for orbital maneuvers could have been devoloped for a fraction of the cost as a continuation of the AAP.

The hubble repair mission stands out as a high point of the program. can't think of any more right now though.

Wills and Kate to wed live on YouTube

I'm not keen on the hype

and please take this as someone playing devils advocate...

If you consider yourself English then you accept the monarchy. The Eldest grandson of our Queen and our future head of state is getting married to someone who will in theory produce the next king or queen ( if Cameron has his way)

We are, as Englishmen, duty bound to support the wedding.

Not so long ago comments like the above would get you a stay in the Tower!

On a side note I had the opportunity to work for several months in Malaysia, The former colonies are even more rabid than us - to the point that the prime newspaper in Penang was speculating on the current state of the Royal Virginity!

Samsung threatens Apple in response to patent lawsuit

Or

Samsung would simply just keep on selling to Foxconn, Pegatron or any of the other myriad chinese production companies that do production work for Apple.

Profit is profit... especially in Asia

World pays tribute to Yuri Gagarin

I wouldn't be too sad...

You're quite likely to see some firsts in your lifetime although it will almost certainly be China making them.

iPhone 5? You might be waiting till 2012

Am I the only one...

Who read the 'Ordinary people" comment as sarcasm?

I think you've all been trolled, hard.

No stranger to the moleskin trouser

Got your sarcasm,

but HAL was let down by the poor quality of his programming!

A fifth of Europeans can't work out how much a TV costs

I always base my buying habits on a single review.....

and blame others when I don't get the best deal.

Twat.

Correction for thedweeb

I would assume you are one of those people who take pride in their superior intellectual skills. Despite this your sentence lacks the correct grammatical rules.

I'm guessing this is better you pedantic bastard? Yet I think that you may still find some issue with my post.