Posts by Ugotta B. Kiddingme

Really weird quantum phenomenon spied lurking near neutron star

Re: @somewhat OT AC regarding Verlinde Gravity article

Thank you. That was a most fascinating read - one which, remarkably enough, I actually understood.

Re: @allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Plus one! It's been quite some time since I heard that album.

Brit upstart releases free air traffic app for drone operators

Re: Ulp!

given how flimsy are the plastic bags currently available from local proprietors such probing would be far less problematic than the more conventional means...

Inventor of McDonald's iconic Big Mac dies

"McDonalds like what it saw..."

um... not initially it didn't. Only after it was hugely successful for three years at the local level in Delligatti's franchise locations did they give in and take it national.

"Jim Delligatti told The Associated Press in 2006 that McDonald’s resisted the idea at first because its simple lineup of hamburgers, cheeseburgers, fries and shakes was selling well.

“They figured, why go to something else if (the original menu) was working so well?” Delligatti said then."

Delligatti was also famous for inventing several other well known items on the McDonalds menu including, IIRC, much of the original breakfast menu.

What's the first emotion you'd give an AI that might kill you? Yes, fear

Is "fear" the correct word?

DISCLAIMER: what follows is my own opinion. IANA boffin, theoretician, psychologist, etc, nor do I lay claim to the appropriate credentials/education/training to speak on such matters with authority. I'm just a regular bloke with questions, trying to broaden my own personal horizons. That being said...

Is "fear" really the correct word to use here? I accept that it's a convenient shortcut to promote brevity and understanding but I wonder if it leads to oversimplification. It seems to me* that in order to truly "fear," some level of self-awareness is required. It is true that a cornered animal might attack if threatened but is that truly FEAR or merely instinct for survival. And if the latter, where is the line and how broad the grey area between the two?

To my limited understanding, actual emotional "fear" implies conscious thought - not necessarily rational but conscious thought - about the situation and the consequences of potential outcomes. For example, I fear death by drowning or burning, two particularly unpleasant forms of demise. I do not fear burning my hand in a candle flame. I have learned via experience that putting my hand in candle flame causes pain and damage and therefore I should not do that. Is that truly "fear" or merely a learned response. The article speaks of risk/reward and risk/consequence. These certainly seem valid discussion points and tools for machine learning but I don't know that I'd call the learned response "fear."

* remember, I did state at the outset this is my opinion - and quest for further illumination. Please don't be too harsh.

Microsoft's Neon project to redesign Windows for nerd goggles – reports

By Jove! I think he's got it!

"Having first annoyed desktop PC users by forcing them to use a phone UI (Windows 8), and then annoyed phone users by forcing them to use a desktop UI (Windows 10 Mobile), perhaps Microsoft’s cunning new plan is to annoy everyone at once, instead."

Google declares victory for its Wifi router before it's even shipped

so then the only real difference between this

and the less expensive Ubiquiti Unifi series is the level of technical knowledge required?

My home is very similar to their test setup (two story, 3000sq.ft.) and I get along quite well with ONE Ubiquiti Unifi AP. If I could be arsed to run the wire for a second one, I'd have blistering speed everywhere. As it is, with one AP centrally located upstairs, I get strong signal and very respectable speeds in the most commonly used sections (kitchen, den, master bedroom). To be completely fair, the level of knowledge required to truly get the most out of it is well beyond the grasp of the average user but that's not an issue for those of us here. Even my half-arsed attempt was setup in about ten minutes. The only reason it took THAT long was because I changed the default IP range and actually bothered to setup the restricted "guest" network.

Facebook Fake News won it for Trump? That's a Zombie theory

Thanks, Andrew

for a cogent, informative, and "even" article. How illustrative of the problem that I had to come to a British IT news organization to get such an article about the US election result.

Symantec doubles down on consumer security by buying LifeLock

Wow

and here I thought Lifelock sucked BEFORE... Silly me.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I have in the past been a customer of both Lifelock and Shitmantec er... Symantec - although not simultaneously. I have since wised up.

Pythons Idle and Cleese pen anti-selfie screed

Re: @lukewarmdog

"Therefore they're an affront to God and should burn in heck. And another thing, where are my slippers."

Your slippers are on the lawn - exactly where those damned kids shouldn't be.

A cardboard desk? I won’t stand for it (actually I will)

"Olympic-standard swearing"

Indeed. When assembling several pieces of flat-packed DIY furniture for my son's first apartment, I was swearing long and loudly enough that the neighbors popped round to see if everything was OK. My son greeted them at the door with a rapid and complex series of shrugs, gesticulation in my direction, and various silently-mouthed apologies. They responded with a slightly less complex series of knowing grins, silent nods, and dismissive hand gestures. It was a brief but enlightening (and mildly amusing) glimpse into modern methods of non-verbal communication.

CERN also has a particle decelerator – and it’s trying to break physics

mind boggled

"In antiprotonic helium one of the atom's electrons is replaced with an antiproton – it stays in orbit because, like an electron, it carries a negative charge."

That's some particularly clever precision atomic "surgery" to swap an electron with an antiproton. Although EXTREMELY unlikely I would understand any of how they managed to do that, it might be an interesting read.

A British phone you're not embarrassed to carry? You heard that right

if only we could get them on the left side of the pond...

see title. Sad Yank is sad.

Dark matter? More like diet matter: Super-light axions may solve universe's mass riddle

another potentially stupid question

Please bear with me. Just trying to learn.

Why is the mass of subatomic particles expressed in eV - by definition, a unit of energy? Yes, I understand that energy can be exchanged for mass and vice versa using (e=mc^2) but why force the conversion calculation? Why isn't there a mass standard to apply?

The gram would seem to be far too large a unit for this particular task and I suppose expressing something as "0.000000001 yoctograms" is cumbersome, but still. Please enlighten me.

What should the Red Arrows' new aircraft be?

Jaguar or Tornado*

I've always liked the lines of the Brit version of the Jaguar and seeing Tornados changing their wing geometry while in a diamond formation slow roll would be a really neat sight.

*Yes, I know they are retired designs and therefore highly impractical BUT no more so than, say, the Mozzies/Lancasters/etc others have suggested...

Hm, is that a minefield? Let me just throw my magic bomb-sniffing spinach over there

Borg spinach?

injecting nanoparticles into a biological lifeform. If the spinach begins sprouting ominous looking hardware, RUN.

Of course, I suppose the adaptive shielding WOULD be very practical for surviving the odd mine detonation.

Smartmobe made 'intermittent bright flashes and a hissing noise' in Biz class seat

+1 for history lesson

My knowledge of WWI is significantly less than my knowledge of WWII but, today that gap is closed a bit. I was previously unaware of "Von Rintelen's cigars" and their role in history. Thank you.

Galaxy Note 7 flameout: 2 in 5 Samsung fans say they'll never buy from the Korean giant again

already doing that

I refused to buy a Samsung telly after their snooping scandal. Bought Vizio instead and never looked back. I was going to replace my aging Moto G phone with a Samsung around Christmastime but have since decided I'd rather have some other brand of device.

ExoMars arrives at the Red Planet on Sunday

Re: re. the surly bonds of Earth

You might also try throwing yourself at the ground, hoping to miss. I've read that sometimes works.

BOFH: The Idiot-ware Project and the Meaningless Acronym

Re: One, no, two down.

"But how many more to go?"

new PHBs and their sycophants are like cockroaches: step on one or two and three more jump out to take their place.

Google's home tat falls flat as a soufflé – but look out Android makers

Re: SD cards and batteries

@Milton: removable battery, SD card slot, AND waterproof? What phone do you have?

'My REPLACEMENT Samsung Galaxy Note 7 blew up on plane'

Re: things that make ya go hmmmmm.

@paulf: "If that's true why does everyone think AT&T are greedy robber baron scumbags?"

Now that's a fairly grievous insult to greedy robber baron scumbags?

Partnership on AI to Benefit People and Society... Doesn't sound sinister at all

Re: answering the "really difficult questions that are arising within the field."

"Do people want fire that can be fitted nasally?"

History will show...

that in the early 2020s, the "Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society" was renamed to "Sirius Cybernetics Corporation." And that their marketing division was first against the wall when the revolution came.

Avast closes AVG buyout

curious to see

if they will start dumbing down (or even eliminating) the free version, now that there are fewer choices.

4K-ing-A! Roku bangs out broad range of new streaming boom boxes

Re: Why?

Hear hear! I regret that I can only upvote you once. As you say, "Why update something that works very well and is well understood? If it ain't broke, don't fix it." I sincerely wish more companies would understand that. New features or capabilities, definitely. If they want to change the OS because of user feedback, that's one thing. But "Change simply for the sake of change"? How about a great big "NO!"

My Roku3 is fine just the way it is. The only change that might be nice is the ability to add new channels directly from the Roku without having to use my phone or laptop. When I get a 4K TV, I'll update my Roku. Until then, I'm happy with things the way they are.

Pull the plug! PowerPoint may kill my conference audience

Re: A perfect Friday Afternoon Treat

Thanks, JP. As a Yank unfamiliar with some of the less well known (over here, anyway) British bands of my youth, you answered the question I intended to ask. Have one on me.

Shopkeeper installs forecourt khazi to counter mystery Dublin dung dumper

Thank you, said the reader gasping for air

Thank you for starting my Friday on a bizarrely humorous note.

TV industry gets its own 'dieselgate' over 'leccy consumption tests

Re: Eco Mode

And even if Full Garish mode, my current LCD TV uses significantly less electricity than the smaller Plasma TV it replaced. That assessment is based upon actual power consumption readings from one of these

AT&T tries broadband over power lines again

And another thing...

How do they plan to address areas like mine with UNDERGROUND power distribution?

The neighborhood I live in is rather large. At just over 2200 discrete single family homes (i.e. no condos, apartments, duplexes, or other multi-family structures), the area was once the largest such development in the southern US and covers several square miles. In fact, living close the the geographic center of it, I often have trouble getting a decent cellular signal inside and must step outside to use my mobile phone. For that reason, I must maintain one form or another of "land line" phone. Yes, there is a power transformer pedestal in my back yard. However, if the wave is propogated along the lines themselves, most of that is roughly two meters below grade.

Rosetta probe's final death dive planned for just after last call next Friday night

"So long and thanks for all the science"

Somehow, I think Douglas would understand and approve such a misquote.

Uncle Sam rules on self-driving cars

"Who it is?"

"It's Marvin. He just phoned up to wash his head at us."

Re: "self-driving systems can be considered a driver"

"This is something the US courts will agonize over for years" in one of those all-too-frequent situations where the only winners are the lawyers.

OK, clarified my comment.

"self-driving systems can be considered a driver"

IANAL, but... This has very interesting implications in the lawsuit-happy climate over here. And by "interesting" I mean pretty calamitous for everyone except those in the legal profession. If the car itself is legally considered a driver, then it could be legally responsible for any accident or injury it causes. Since the car is not legally a "person", then one presumes the owner and the manufacturer become jointly responsible. On one hand, the manufacturer probably wouldn't be held 100% responsible for the same reason that firearms manufacturer Colt isn't (currently) legally responsible for person A using a Colt firearm to kill person B. On the other hand, the car in this scenario is, by definition, capable of autonomous action, something the average firearm is not, and therefore COULD render the manufacturer and vehicle owner fully responsible. The only real argument would be which percentage of responsibility is applied to the owner and which to the manufacturer. And then, of course, there is the probability of "remote control hack/attack" which may or may not be provable in a given situation.

This is something the courts will agonize over for years and the practical upshot for us regular folks who just want to get from point A to B is that a legal quagmire could set this entire process back decades. I sincerely hope to be proven incorrect.

Two Sundays wrecked by boss who couldn't use a calendar

scheduled power down actually went well, until...

In the mid 1990's, I'd been on the job about two years and was stuck on nights in the corporate data center. We had a scheduled power maintenance event that was properly planned and executed. Everything went perfectly fine until the power came back on...

The high rise I work in was erected in the late 1960s and was built without a sprinkler system for fire suppression. A year into my gig, we were told that our "grandfathered" status no longer applied and the building would be getting sprinklers on all floors, including mine which housed the corporate DC. We were told we would get a "pre-ack" system - no water would be in the pipes over (or under the raised floor of) the DC. Instead, those lines would contain pressurized air which held a rubber stopper in place against the water. In the event of an alarm, the pressure would automatically be bled off and water would then and only then be allowed into the pipes. This pressure was maintained by a small compressor housed in a room across the hall from the DC.

It is important to point out that the entire DC had a massive UPS that could keep the whole thing running for about half an hour. The UPS itself was backed up by a diesel generator which activated within a minute or so of power loss. All in all, a reasonably well thought out setup. Monthly testing of both the UPS and generator ensured that both worked properly. At the beginning of that night's shift, I switched everything over to the generator feed and notified the building maintenance people they could begin.

It is equally important to point out that the aforementioned little compressor maintaining the pressure in the DC sprinkler lines was NOT on the UPS/generator feed. I was blissfully unaware of this fact until the power came back. Only two of the overhead light fixtures were on the backup power feed so light levels were significantly subdued. I settled in for a quiet shift and, in between hourly checks and overseas helldesk tickets, I relaxed with a good spy novel. And when I say relaxed, I mean getting quite drowsy.

So imagine my surprise at 4:45am when the power came back on the the HOLYMOTHEROFGODWHATTHEFUCKISTHAT?!? ear-splitting klaxon alarm, which I hadn't previously noticed was thoughtfully placed directly over my workstation, announced the fact that the pressure in the pre-ack lines had dipped during the outage. So jolted was I that I was out of the chair (book flying), 20 feet across the room, and hand on the exit door before my brain actually registered the sound. If I hadn't been a reasonably fit 30-something at the time, I probably would have dropped right there from cardiac arrest. On the bright side, my heart had received a week's worth of cardio workout in about 20 seconds so I could skip the gym for a while. A day or two later, my co-workers noticed the pair of gym socks and several feet of duct tape covering the pre-ack pressure alarm...

Curiosity rover likes big buttes but it cannot lie around

Re: Just to stop the sophmoric "humo(u)r" ...

no blame assigned. We generally DO mispronounce it. And if your use of "bute" is intended to rhyme with and use the same implied "y" sound as "cute" then please note that is, in fact, the way most of us pronounce it. "byoot"

"If it's shoes, we might be in trouble..."

Oh, I don't know about that. I can think of quite a few politicians who could do with a run through the Total Perspective Vortex.

NASA's OSIRIS-REx is off to nick some rocks from asteroid Bennu

OR...

"Of course anyone who doesn't know/remember the Benny Hill end episode sketches will be wondering wtf is he on silly and wonderful entertainment have we been missing?"

Which can only be answered thusly

Star Trek film theory: 50 years, 13 films, odds good, evens bad? Horta puckey!

Re: Abrams made it very clear his films were a different timeline

"But there was really no need to "reboot" ST such a way - there was ample space for new stories - it just demonstrates the lack of new ideas in Hollywood"

100% agreement from me. I was merely pointing out that at least Abrams acknowledged that's what he was doing and clearly pointed that out inside the story.

liked them all up to but not including Enterprise

What galled me about ST:Enterprise was the total disregard for "history." There were plenty of times where ST:E strayed from established "canon" and usually not, in my opinion, for good reason.

The ONE thing positive I can say about the recent films of JarJar Abrams (thank you for that, LDS!) is that Abrams made it very clear his films were a different timeline and that everything else previously DID in fact occur, albeit in a different reality. Using the two Spocks to differentiate one from the other was a well conceived and executed attempt to placate long time fans who don't like rewriting existing stories. That being said, his "Re-wrath of Khan" story blows chunks.

Asteroid 'FreddieMercury'

no pleasure cruise either.

Reports: Autopilot will go on strike if you're not paying attention

Re: one possible but definitely PARTIAL solution

"Does the US not have different limits for different vehicles?"

some places, yes, but not all

"Likewise, we have a "keep left unless over taking" rule (that would be keep right for most of Europe and the US of course)"

Again, some but not all places. As I have stated elsewhere in this forum, the US is not one homogenized unit with uniform laws that many outside the US are led to believe. The 50 state governments wield considerable power within their jurisdictions, including traffic laws. Some adhere to the common sense rules above and some don't. In a few remote places such as Montana and some parts of Texas and Arizona, the controlled-access freeways or toll roads adopt the Autobahn model - right lane for slower traffic, left lane has very high speed limit or none at all.

one possible but definitely PARTIAL solution

is to limit the maximum speed while autopilot is engaged. Under human control on the Interstate (motorway), I can legally drive 70 MPH (~113 KPH). Reality is usually 5-10 MPH above that, if one doesn't mind risking an expensive citation. If speed under autopilot were limited to, say, 50 MPH (80 KPH), that would allow more reaction time for the meatbag to resume control. Definitely NOT a perfect solution, but a workable one. And while I can't speak for anyone else, I would certainly be willing to occasionally trade some travel time for the ability to do something other than watch the countryside roll by. Not every time, but definitely some time.

FAA powers up an invisible hand, groping the skies for rule-busting biz drones

Re: Drone bullets

proximity or altitude fused fragmentation devices designed to be fired from a 12 bore - essentially, consumer-grade Anti-Aircraft munitions

Re: "Try the Series 4 Deatomizer"

The Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator is vastly superior to the Series 4 Deatomizer. However, there are occasional difficulties in achieving that Earth-shattering Kaboom...

Pump-priming the new ampere: NIST works to count electrons in silicon

"Show me the way to go Ohm"

definitely best sub head in quite some time. Have one of these ---->

In about an hour, you might need a lie down.

SpaceX Dragon capsule lands in Pacific carrying 12 moustronauts

mouse organ?

Will the mice be arranged on a rack so that they can squeak 'The Bells of St. Mary'?

Mozilla's trying on seven hot new spring/summer logo looks

need an eighth option

"None of the above and where can I send my optician's bill?"

Ford announces plans for mass production of self-driving cars by 2021

Re: Fusion Hybrid?

unless you simply forgot the Joke icon or thought it implied and therefore unnecessary, "Fusion" is a Ford product line of passenger vehicles available with conventional petrol engines or hybrids with smaller petrol engines and electric propulsion together.

Re: Is there no icon on El Reg...

"And into which market will they be selling these cars exactly?"

The same one in which the offices are truly paperless...