Posts by Chemist

Here – here is that 'hoverboard' you've wanted so much. Look at it. Look. at. it.

Nice touch..

to have the first flight by a PR person - don't want to waste a skilled test pilot !

'B' Ark next !

Re: Oh dear

"The Tesla model S charges in under 10 hours from a standard outlet, so you are looking at a substantial power bill for 6 minutes of fun."

I'm not sure what you are trying to say - without intending to be patronising : not all batteries are equal, the battery in the Tesla has many, many times the energy storage capacity of the 'hoverboard' hence needs much more power from the charger.

Feeling abandoned by Adobe? Check out the video editing suites for penguins

Re: Very interesting, advice please

"I have a lot of material in DV AVI format, and a growing amount of material in HDV.I need to capture both formats."

Not a lot of help I'm afraid. Kdenlive should capture a number of formats by firewire including DV AVI & HDV - did you want to use USB ? No real experience as I changed from tape to flash quite a while ago. There were certainly several other programs that would capture via firewire Some people seem to have had success with USB using the program dvgrab which I've also used for firewire which I think is it's default.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1138629&page=2

Re: Kdenlive in Mint is steady for me!

Note no blank line between the file`names - I can't seem to get rid of of them here !

Re: Kdenlive in Mint is steady for me!

Can I suggest generating smaller files - say ~15 mins and then concatenating by generating a file e.g test.txt , in the same directory consisting of :

file './file1.mp4'

file './file2.mp4'

save it , cd to the same directory and run ffmpeg

ffmpeg -f concat -i test.txt -c copy output.mp4 - that will add the .mp4s and sort out the timebase

One kdenlive gotcha I've just remembered is that I find that kdenlive, ffmpeg, melt. mlt need to be from the same repo. ( Packman)

"It would be extremely bad if web servers needed rebooting more than once a year or so since they've been pretty much doing the same kind of things for decades."

Sorry I should have explained. My 'fileserver' is also a print server, compute server ( for scientific software ), SSHD entry point for my network and is also used for video transcoding (1080p/50-> 720p/25 ) as well as a load of misc server tasks including a daemon to my PIC micros and a media server.

I repeat Kdenlive often used to crash but has been rock steady for ~3 year (for me on my systems). I have some form in running high-intensity software as ~12 years ago I was running protein modeling software ( on RH linux ) on a dual Xeon at ~100% cpu for days

"Surely software on all systems crashes and has random bugs"

Maybe so but, for example, Linux runs my fileserver 27/7 for months only rebooting for kernel updates or power-cuts.

Re: Kdenlive in Mint is steady for me!

"If the author was using 0.9.10 they would likely hit troubles. "

Just to note I'm using 0.9.10 without any issues . I also rendered a 4K video yesterday just to try it - no problems.

Certainly linux has been 'blessed' with many authors trying their hand at software. Some programs have interesting either in utility, speed, ease-of-use, scope etc. Most don't manage everything . Also most don't have the time/resource/knowledge to polish, or even plan how their creation will develop. Many indeed are treating it all as a learning exercise.

However in almost all categories of software there are example that stand out. In the graphics areas I find :-

Kdenlive for video editing

Darktable for RAW photo development/editing

Inkscape for vector graphics

to be exceptionally good, stable and well-documented. There are others, I'm sure, but given the time required to become completely familiar with programs of some complexity/subtlety and indeed the concepts they are implementing I tend to stay with trusted tools for routine use.

Re: Kdenlive

@ Martin an gof

I'll clarify on the rock-solid - that's what I mean. (Using 1080p/50 source and outputting the same as H264 mp4 usually with a file size of ~1MB/sec)

4-core i7/8GB/spinning rust OpenSUSE 13.1/KDE renders in ~twice real-time. To convert to 720p/25 for my lesser devices I use ffmpeg

"Kdenlive does have its quirks, including the fact that it seems to be very crash-prone on Linux Mint, so much so that I ended up doing my testing in Debian 8, where it worked fine."

Certainly I've used Kdenlive for ~6 years including 1080p/50 for the last 3 years. In the early days its stability varied but its been rock-solid for ~3 years (under OpenSUSE/KDE)

Microsoft in 2015: Mobile disasters, Windows 10 and heads in the clouds

Re: The game is up Microsoft - your code is crap!

"The VMS OS created to run on Dec Alpha CPUs. It was even better than most UNIXes."

Having written code for VAX/VMS and for Alphas I can tell you your chronology is wrong.

VAX ~~mid-70s

Alpha ~ 1990

"affing about in the console to remove a directory ~/. is not something an average or below par user is going to do to fix a problem (I'm looking at you mint)"

Merry Xmas - why would you need a console to do that ? It's just another File Manager op. Dolphin (FM), Show hidden files from the menu, right-click on directory, delete from menu

That's for Mint/KDE

Boffins unwrap bargain-basement processor that talks light and current

Re: Shame about the paywall

"The continuing practice of publicly funded academics publishing their papers behind paywalls ..."

Not always their fault. Some journals, in fact, require the authors to pay a charge to be published.

Microsoft releases major PowerShell update after long preview

Re: A shortsighted view

"Basically, you give someone a shell on the remote system and from that on he can attempt anything."

Basically, you give an authorized user access to one account on the remote system and from then on he can use anything that he is authorized to use.

Juniper's VPN security hole is proof that govt backdoors are bonkers

Re: humble pi

Here in Indiana, USA, pi is no longer 3.14159265359...."

Apart from the obvious madness, how many people would use pi in mental or long-hand arithmetic and 'need' it to be simplified ?

I think legislating petrol as carbon-neutral might be next !!

Windows for Warships? Not on our new aircraft carriers, says MoD

"I've done quite a few translation/merges of data using Excel and Word for partial automation,"

We routinely moved 1-2 million records between databases - due to mergers of companies.

Re: Sadly only one upvote to give.

"The Git remembers drooling over a Silicon Graphics Indigo machine running Irix and some interesting mathematical/graphical software."

We used to use SGI with 3D graphics and a lot of backup horsepower (compute servers & Linux farms) for protein modeling etc - around ~~2003 we changed to Linux/Dual Xeons and saved a large amount of money on hardware - although the 3D graphics card and LC spectacles added a lot to the cost. Some experiments were done with porting some of our in-house software to Windows (W2000) but it almost always crashed. (We ran on SGI or Linux at ~100% CPU for 2-4 days or more so we gave it some stick. Once we had a 2048 core Linux farm it became a lot easier to do more speculative runs very rapidly )

Re: Sadly only one upvote to give.

"And its no good bleating about how manufacturers "should" provide non-windows alternatives"

I didn't but there again I didn't mention anything about medical environment either.

On the other hand a quick Google suggest that most areas of specialized medicine that involved detailed analysis of MRI, CAT etc does use software that is often available for Windows, Mac & Linux. It seems to be in the areas of databases and messaging that Windows is used solely.

If you want specialist areas I know of dozens of scientific programs only available for Unix/Linux some of them are eye-wateringly expensive. I'd also point out that MPLab is highly specialized.

Re: Sadly only one upvote to give.

"Who is going to pay that extra cost?"

Well Mozilla ( Firefox & Thunderbird), Google (Chrome, Google Earth) Gimp, LibreOffice , VLC, Skype, VirtualBox, Apache, MPLab (PIC dev/programmer) and a number of others.

Newspaper kills 'what was fake' column as pointless in internet age

Re: If its on the internet...

"Sounds like the unofficial news sources are now just as bad as the official ones. The horror of it all!"

I think the 'official' news sources seem to be getting worse - maybe reflecting less rigorous research or lack of knowledge/skepticism. Certainly some of time that they report areas of which I have in-depth knowledge the ignorance displayed can be breathtaking. Of course then cut-and-paste journalism multiplies the errors rapidly.

Microsoft steps up Windows 10 nagging

Re: I'm waiting until it goes to 11.

" any computer you don't assemble yourself is going to come with a valid Windows license"

That's certainly not true in the UK. I'm writing this on a very similar laptop to yours (minus the NVidia graphics) which was bought new without any OS and has had OpenSUSE 13.1 on it from new

Physics uses warp theory to look beyond relativity

Re: thicko amused by ftl boffins

"@Chemist, there are plenty of mechanisms for getting to distant places, only a matter of time."

That is so obvious it wasn't worth mentioning. I assumed people wanted to travel to the stars within their own lifetime.

Re: thicko amused by ftl boffins

I might add that personally I'd be delighted if there was some evidence for potential mechanisms for distant travel but realistically it may be that the physics of this universe don't allow for such things.

Wishing for something may drive technology but not science.

Re: thicko amused by ftl boffins

"It's no wonder we're stuck where we are right now with people like you and your 'It's impossible because we know it to be so' attitude."

To be fair the skepticism is due to a lack of any theoretical framework to give any hint as to how this all might be achieved. Idle speculation can only achieve so much.

Re: No theory

"Just because sodium fizzes under water here doesn't mean it won't sprout flowers in space."

That's NOT science that's mere idle speculation

Part of the world's IT brought down by Azure Active Directory issue

"More like a migraine strategy"

I vote for 'micturition-about' strategy

Can't get a break: Pwned Linux ransomware pwned again, infects 3000

Re: @chemist - only ONE attempt to attack SSHD?

"and need to look up something on my home computer. I can ssh via my phone"

Well I don't know what phne you are using but I generally access files from home using a file manager via fish protocol. My home file system is just another folder in my file manager.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Files_transferred_over_shell_protocol

Re: @chemist - only ONE attempt to attack SSHD?

"I get them all the time, just ignore them"

Staggering isn't it. I have, as I say, just had the one on the non-standard port. I get attempts against the usual suspects all the time.but no other ports are open. I do other things when I'm being paranoid -like limiting the time the port is open to a small time window every day. But I do use it for real all the time when travelling.

Re: Does it infect Linux destops?

"Downvoted 10 of millions..."

Say 1.5 billion desktops at @ 1.5% Linux - that's >20 million

Re: Does it infect Linux destops?

Suggested reading :

"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_malware"

I know you are joking about "the six of us" as there are 10s of millions of desktop Linux users. The infection vector is content management systems that have been fixed already. So unless you are running such unpatched and exposing the same to the internet it seems very unlikely that you will have to face such problem.

I've been running SSHD for >10years and in all that time only one attempt has attacked the (non-standard) port without success, I add. But that is the only internet-exposed port I have. Indeed I have all lower ports blocked at several points my ISP, router and firewalls. If you expose ports to the internet you need to be responsible enough to maintain configs/software/logs as well as the usual care with installation sources, permissions , e-mails etc.I usually browse in a VM as well.

Little bang for the Big C? Nitro in the anti-cancer arsenal

"To my personal knowledge Thalidomide was certainly trialled against multiple myeloma around 2001"

I've never worked directly on cancer but I know a number of cancer areas have been interested in Thalidomide over the years

Microsoft rides to Dell's rescue, wrecks rogue root certificate

Re: Wont't stop me hating on MSFT!

" surreptitiously"

Sorry dogged, that's not how I'd define 'surreptitiously'

What the world needs now is Pi, sweet $5 Raspberry Pi Zero

Re: Overpriced

"a compute with _NO_ network connectivity is rather useless in this day and age."

Certainly I have several PIC 18Fs connected by RS232/USB converters to my file server and laptops and they are very useful - and accessible over networks by running a daemon to control/interrogate them.

Why Microsoft yanked its latest Windows 10 update download: It hijacked privacy settings

Re: people's unique advertising ID numbers

"and want to serve adverts in your application or game, you need some way to uniquely identify the user or player"

Luckily not in my world !

people's unique advertising ID numbers

As someone with no interest otherwise in MS software my interest was still raised by the above ID business.

What is it ?

Microsoft chief Satya drops an S bomb in Windows 10, cloud talk

Re: Newspeak from Nadella?

"I am consequently looking hard for replacements for those few programs I still have to run under Windows (8.1, 10 will not be installed)"

Care to share what they are ?. I understand they might be specialized programs for your line of work. My department had to run for years with two desktops each , one for the specialized Unix then Linux scientific software and one for the corporate guff (email and IE only websites on our intranet)

Refined player: Fedora 23's workin' it like Monday morning

Re: Accident waiting to happen.

"However, when you do start interacting with files, they do act in a native way. That is, clicking a .ods file will load LibreOffice Calc - as you would expect"

I do something similar with Dolphin file manager on OpenSUSE only I connect to my own fileserver when traveling via fish protocol (file transfer over ssh) which gives an icon for my fileserver directories within the file manager and likewise an icon for my filespace on my ISP vis ftp. All seamless + NFS icon for use at home.

In response to another post I've used rpms under OpenSUSE/SUSE for years without any issues.

Microsoft rolls out first 'major update' to Windows 10

Re: These Days...

"To clarify I had already tried out the iso in Virtual Box and it had worked fine, so the problem was in the burning process."

Can I enquire if you used the 'check installation media' option from the boot menu of the .iso. In my experience that shows up all flaky disks ( unless they are so bad that they don't boot ) Also - was the .iso checksum correct ?

My experiences over many years with OpenSUSE, installing on all sorts of machines is completely positive.

Re: These Days...

"The Suse download produced an errored dvd that stalled mid way through the install"

In my experience if there's any kind of error on a DVD then installation is probably a waste of time

Was the .iso checksum OK ?. If it was and your hardware will support it why not use a USB install ?

Leap is 42.1 is very new - I'd use 13.2 - I've installed that on a number of machines with no problems at all. I'd also use a liveDVD or LiveUSB to check everything out and then use the install option from that.

Re: These Days...

" then just stop using the terminal and see how you get on with your Linux installation"

Oh, not again !

See : http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/containing/2685979

Royal Mail mulls drones for rural deliveries

"fierce mastiff dog"

So the golden eagle going for the drone .....

Einstein's brain to be picked by satellites

Re: Improved GPS accuracy?

"will an improved understanding of GR lead to better GPS accuracy?"

Assuming the corrections applied now are those of GR theory only if something is sig. wrong with the theory will corrections need to be changed

Here's the little-known legal loophole that permitted mass surveillance in the UK

Re: ...nearly 30 years ago

" past 50 and 1984 seems like only yesterday."

I'm rapidly approaching 65 but I think yesterday was Sunday !

Coding with dad on the Dragon 32

Re: re : The CPU

" it wasn't the 6809 it was actually the MC6809E in both the TRS-80 CC & the Dragon 32"

Rather pedantic as the registers, instruction set and addressing modes of the 6809 & 6809E were identical AFAIR

Re: Ah... fond memories...

"And tell t'kids that these days?"

AND I had to solder it together AND when it didn't work debug it with a xtal earpiece AND replace the 7400 that was faulty - we used to do that sort of thing in those days.

(and the bloody MS BASIC had a bug in the garbage collector !)

A broken router ! - we used to dream about a broken router ... etc. etc..

Re: Ah... fond memories...

"and something about residing in a cardboard box in middle of t' street."

My first 'serious computer, (UK101) resided both in the cardboard box it came in and indeed in the north.

Re: Made in Port Talbot

"The Dragon 32 was powered by a 6809,"

Got a disk drive for it and then a FORTH. Start of a very long relationship with both FORTH and 6809 assembler. Still have a home-made system around here somewhere.

Lithium-air: A battery breakthrough explained

Re: @Itzman Oh look, another magic battery technology

"3 kw/kilo Li air battery would equal a gallon of fuel. Li air has the potential for 10 kw/kilo"

Can you clarify your units - you are using power when you should be using energy.

Petrol is ~32MJ/L or ~ 44MJ/kg - it's a rapidly moving target but a Li-ion is ~~ 1MJ/kg . Now I take your point about efficiency but given the very variable sources of electricity , transmission distance & losses, charging/discharging efficiency and motor losses I'd guess we are a long way from 90% overall at the moment. On the other hand it's good to see such a potential improvement.

Just seen a report of potentially 'cheap' magnesium/iron batteries for non-traction uses :-

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/11/151104095223.htm

Re: Source of Oxygen? How delicate is it? etc

"so can't the Oxygen left over be used? I do realise the quantity available may not be enough!"

In theory it could be used but the practical problem would be storing it during charging until it was needed.for use. I mole of oxygen is 32g but occupies ~23 L A vehicle battery would require a huge storage volume or a lot of energy to compress it and a weight penalty for the cylinder. .