Posts by Loyal Commenter

TERROR in ORBIT: Dodgy rocket burp biffs International Space Station off track

It didn't happen to release a series of transparent plastic globes into the atmosphere, presumably containing some sort of spore, did it? Is that the sound of laughter I can hear from within Vladimir's hollowed-out-volcano lair?

Your servers are underwater? Chill out – liquid's cool

Re: Heat capacity

I seriously hope it's not alkane-based, or you're going to be able to toast marshmallows from half a mile away. It's more likely to be silicone based.

Couple sues estate agent who sold them her mum's snake-infested house

Re: "Broseker is Van Horn's mother"?

I know an old woman who swallowed a horse. She's dead of course...

Re: My God:

Not poisonous = perfectly good to eat...

Windows 10 upgrade ADWARE forces its way on to Windows 7 and 8.1

Re: Universal applications

So they want to run the same program on PCs Consoles Tablets and Phones?

Erm don't think so. Can't see how it would be possible for one program to work on multiple OSes.

I would have thought that what they mean is, "on Windows PCs, on XBox consoles, Windows Tablets, and Windows Phones", not on your Linux box, PS3, Android tablet, or iPhone.

Re: I'm confused

I'm getting a bit tired with all this windows 10 griping so I'll jump on this instead. I think you will now find, if you look at some real academic researchers, that there is now not much doubt that Jesus did, indeed, exist. What there IS plenty of is doubt about his divinity. I.E. he was just a man like you and I.

There's also some pretty compelling evidence that the 'divinity' aspect of JC was back-ported from the cult of Mithras, which was contemporary to the rise of Christianity in the first few centuries CE (I'm not using AD, as nobody is my 'lord'), and has its origins at least 1400 years before then. After all, it IS historical fact that the Bible was written by several authors well after the death of the historical figure that was JC, and subsequently heavily edited by various 'official' churches a number of times thereafter to suit the social and political climate of the time.

Unicode wonks are bringing home the BACON, as an emoji

"I want to be called Loretta"

I'm not oppressing you, Stan. You haven't got a womb! Where's the foetus gonna gestate? You gonna keep it in a box?

Microsoft's certification exams: So easy, a child of six could pass them. Literally

Re: Nice

You must lead a charmed life because bucking the boss is a sure fire way to become unemployed.

Conversely, pointing out (tactfully) a better or more efficient way of working to your manager is often the best way to obtain career advancement, as long as your boss isn't a complete fuckwit, in which case you are probably better off getting fired for your 'insubordination'.

Re: Poor kid

If I could upvote you more than once for the Uncle Buck quotes, I would.

The word exams must be a lot easier than the SQL Server ones then

The 70% pass mark makes them far from simple, and this is coming from someone with a masters degree in a proper 'hard science' subject, and ten years first-hand every-day experience in developing against SQL Server.

I do suspect it's a case of certain MCXY^* exams being easier than others. I'm willing to bet that this particular exam didn't have any questions on scripting or automation. Looking at the syllabus (here) indicates that the amount of material (and complexity) is about 1% as much as the 'real' MS qualifications, so all this really demonstrates is that there is a 6-year-old with a parent gullible enough to shell out the exam fee for a certificate which will be ten years out of date by the time the child is old enough to get any conceivable benefit from having it. Either that, or the dad is going to be shelling out the fee again every 2 years to keep it up-to-date...

^{*whatever 4-letter acronym MS is calling them this week}

Hacker 3D prints device that can crack a combo lock in 30 seconds

Re: Brings back the memories

"Mr. President, we must not allow a mineshaft gap!"

Lost WHITE CITY of the MONKEY GOD found after 500 years

Re: WTF is this?

I don't think the conquistadors just strolled into the centre of the South American continent through thick rainforest and took everything they found. For starters, it's quite difficult to travel through thick rainforest when there are no roads, new and exotic diseases to catch, unfriendly natives, and several thousand miles of it to cover when hauling back whatever you happen to find. If the city in question was already abandoned, it would have already been far less accessible than those that were still populated and actively fighting the Spanish invaders.

Re: Primeval rain forest?

I hope 'grammer' is ironic.

My favourite law is Muphry's law...

BARMY bio-boffins are growing DINOSAUR SNOUTS on CHICKENS

Re: It tastes just like chicken

Prove it wasn't (metaphysics exam question.)

Prove this answer isn't correct.

UK safety app keeping lorries on the right side of cyclists

Re: The main problem here..

Last year, not half a mile from my front door, an elderly pedestrian was knocked down and killed by a cyclist on the pavement. Cyclists have no business on the pavement, especially not on busy city streets. Pavements are used by all, from the youngest to the oldest. Pedestrians can stop instantly if an infant runs in front of them, cyclists cannot, and it is illegal for anyone over the age of twelve to cycle on the pavement, for good reason. Yes, it might be safer for the cyclist, but it certainly is not for everyone else.

I can't help but wonder

whether the money might be better spent on providing some proper road safety training for cyclists. Many cyclists just seem to not know that when a lorry turns left, it's not safe to be next to it.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying that the cyclist is always to blame when there is an accident - there are plenty of bad and downright dangerous drivers out there.

However, I am holder of a class A (motorcycle) driving licence, and part of getting that licence (and the prerequisite CBT) involves being highly aware of the hazards on the road, including knowing when you're in someone's blind spot, the importance of shoulder-checks before changing road position, and assuming that every other road user is out to kill you at all times. Cyclists are even more vulnerable than motorcyclists - they are smaller, less well protected, and less able to get out of trouble quickly. Anything that applied to riding a 600cc bike should also apply to riding a 0cc one tenfold, but there is no prerequisite training, or test required to get on a bike in a busy city, and go and try to get yourself killed. At the very least, there should be some sort of crackdown on the very worst behaviours seen by cyclists (cycling the wrong way, jumping red lights, cycling on pavements, etc.) The same rules of the road apply to all road users, if you jump a red light in a car, you (quite rightly) get a fine and three points on your licence.

F*cking DLL! Avast false positive trashes Windows code libraries

Re: When did DLL Hell come back then?

"I thought DLL Hell had allegedly been sorted by assemblies and manifests and other SideBySide (SxS) related stuff, implemented in 98SE and Win2K and later?"

Well for one, .NET assemblies are DLLs.

The issue in question isn't confined to DLLs, however. They are just the container. It is in the nature of dependencies.

For instance, I have seen the same thing in Linux software where X depends on A and Y depends on A', but A and A' are incompatible versions of the same library.

Good software design mitigates the issue to some degree, where newer versions of a library should always add to the functionality of the older version, and maintain what was already there for backward compatibility. However, if a newer version of something implements its functionality in a wholly different way this is not always possible, and if the library is providing some core functionality, such as disk IO or graphics rendering, it is probably not at all wise to have more than one library attempting to do the same thing at the same time.

Since the article describes the problem occurring whilst installing certain software, it would be reasonable to assume that the library DLLs in question are not core operating system files, but optional libraries (otherwise they would already be installed).

It's still not great that it flags these files, but there are a LOT of library DLLs out there provided by various entities, for example OpenXml DLLs for working with MS Office file formats, etc. etc.

It is entirely possible that if you were to try to install all potentially affected DLLs on one machine for testing purposes, you would get into a situation where there would be some serious compatibility issues, which would make this impractical if not impossible.

For instance, DLLs often have dependencies on other DLLs, and if one DLL requires one version of a dependency, and another requires a different version, it is not always possible to have both versions installed. Later versions of things are not always backwards compatible, for various reasons, from poor design, to needing exclusive access to some resource.

Three's 'Home Signal' femtocells fail, restore mobile black spots

Maybe I'm missing something

But I'm struggling to see the point of femtocells.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but these give a mobile signal via your DSL while you're at home. Presumably, if you have DSL, you also have a functioning land-line, and these days Wi-Fi, so you need neither a voice nor data connection for your mobile.

So what am I missing? I'm sure there has to be a use-case in there somewhere...

Hey! Want a FREE TOASTER that makes BITCOIN? What? You DO?

"I mean, come on, really? The larger the installed base of bitcoin mining ASICs, the quicker they will become obsolete, and at that point, they're just burning electricity with no meaningful return."

I'm pretty sure that commercially available ASICs passed that point about 12 months ago. I'll stop running mine when the weather gets warmer (at the moment they are acting as a small heat source in the corner of the lounge), and find another use for the RaspPi that's controlling them.

Where does the electricity go?

The short answer, of course, is it ends up as heat. I fail to see how this is a problem in a toaster, the primary function of which is to direct heat at bread.

Pi based kid-nerdifier Kano buried under freak cash avalanche

so...

£25 for the pi, £5 for the cables (an overestimate, as you can get identical ones in Wilkos for £1.50 each), another £5 for the dongle, and £5 for the case and speakers, and lets be generous, £20 for the keyboard. That makes £60.

Where's the other £60 going? The cardboard box?

Facebook serves up shaved, pierced, tattooed 'butterfly' as CAPTCHA

Re: From the Notebook of Lazarus Long

This is because medical terms come from Greek, and the Greek word for testicle is orchid. The flower is named after that, not the other way around, AFAIK.

The Apple Watch: Throbbing strap-on with a knurled knob

Re: I'll...

"For a tech website it's amazing how many of the commenters seem to hate technology."

Apple isn't a technology company, it's a marketing company.

Most people with any appreciation of technology, and how things actually work, don't like arrogant marketeers.

Calamity cargo capsule DOOMED: Space station pod in fireball re-entry

Re: Gaining altitude?

If you throw something in the air, it continues to rise after it leaves your hand.

Unless you throw it REALLY hard, though, it'll come back down.

Re: satellite tracker

If you ask me to picture that...

...I'll just have to give you a declination.

DRM is NOT THE LAW, I AM THE LAW, says JUDGE DREDD

Foooolsssssss

You cannot kiiiill what doesssss not liiiive.

Trading Standards pokes Amazon over 'libellous' review

Re: But what will become of the other "creative" reviews?

I think in the case where a review is clearly parody (of which there are many, of varied quality on Amazon), it is obvious to the reader that it is such. The famous examples (sugar free gummi bears, hideously expensive interconnect cables, three wolf moon shirt, etc.) aren't defamatory because they aren't claiming to be factual.

On the other hand, a review which does claim to be factual, but is factually incorrect, and clearly so (as in this case) can't be anything other than defamatory. One wonders as to the motivation (and identity) of the reviewer - for example, do they have a vested interest in the product being reviewed negatively because, for instance, they are the producer of a rival product.

RADIOACTIVE WWII aircraft carrier FOUND OFF CALIFORNIA

Re: @ Ian Emery (was: humans)

it really depends on whether you are counting height above sea level, which Everest wins, by being on the Tibetan plateau, or height from base to peak, which Mount McKinley wins, or if you count bits that are underwater, in which case Mauna Kea wins. Or if you count mountains not on Earth, in which case, you get Olympus Mons...

Someone set us up the bomb!

All your boat are belong to us!

iPhone vs. Galaxy fight hospitalises two after beer bottle stabbing

Re: This wouldn't have happened…

"since when were guns capable of defending themselves ?"

...Megatron...

NASA probe sent to faraway planet finds DWARF world instead: Pics

Re: Can't wait

I can also see three other 'blobs' off to the left. Is it possible that these are Pluto's other satellites* (there are apparently four others, and four dark blue areas in this picture), rather than just image artefacts?

_{*Although the term 'satellite' here is a little iffy, because the centre of mass of the Pluto-Charon system is outside the radius of Pluto, so the both orbit a point in-between.}

It's 2015 and a RICH TEXT FILE or a HTTP request can own your Windows machine

Re: Flash Player - or a Prayer?

Easy solution (in Firefox at least):

Tools - Add-Ons - Shockwave Flash - Change the drop-down to 'Ask to activate' and only activate it on those websites that won't work without it, and even then, think about whether you need to use that site...

Pre-order consumergasm will leave Apple Watches out of stock for months

Just goes to show...

...idiot hipsters really do love the '80s, including bringing back the concept of being mugged for your watch.

National Grid's new designer pylon is 'too white and boring' – Pylon Appreciation Society

Re: White pylon

"If we keep burning fossil fuels because renewables arn't up to the job then the kids will have more urgent things to worry about than a few hundred tons of nuclear waste which could happily fit in a few railway wagons."

Whilst I agree with you on principle, it's probably only remotely sensible to put the low level waste in this sort of containment (stuff like gloves used to handle the outsides of the containers of higher-level stuff, etc.)

With high level waste, like spent fuel, you might find you end up with a couple of railway-carriage shaped holes emitting a strange blue glow.

Rand Paul puts Hillary Clinton's hard drive on sale

Alright the lot of you

Get back on the bus!

Cybercrime taskforce collects huge botnet scalp on first go

Good work all round!

I wonder if there are any clues as to the source of the malware from such things as original domain registrations fort eh C&C domains, IP address logs etc.

It's nice to see something being done an an international scale to tackle this sort of organised crime. It would be nicer to see the culprits identified and stopped.

El Reg offers you the chance to become a Master Investor – for free

"Now, this isn't one of those pyramid schemes you've been hearing about"

"It's more of a truncated rhombus... Oh shit, the Feds!"

ALIENS ARE COMING: Chief NASA boffin in shock warning

Re: Actually....

Was it a rush job? Looks like you got the wrong size skin for the head...

Idiot thieves walk free after stolen iPad uploads pics of them with loot

Re: Prison is about 45% effective

@Graham Marsden

Restorative Justice is a very effective method of re-engaging offenders with society, allowing them to see their actions in a broader context.

Sadly, it can only work if the offender admits guilt; if they plead 'not guilty', then even when convicted, they cannot engage in restorative justice unless they later admit their guilt. A core principle of restorative justice is the contract between the offender and the victim; there obviously has to be an agreement for them to meet and discuss the impact of the crime, or the concept cannot work. Compelling either party to engage against their will is only counterproductive.

Re: Prison is about 45% effective

It's worth remembering that the US has one of the world's highest per-capita prison populations (just under 1% of the US adult population is in prison), and its judicial system is also heavily race-biased (about 5% of the adult black male population of the US is in prison!)

Now, these are quite startling numbers, so here are some figures to back this up*:

(wikipedia article)

Now, you have to ask yourself whether incarceration works as a deterrent to crime, when around 10,000 people are killed by hand-guns in the US each year.

Sure, rehabilitation within society doesn't always work, but it is cheaper than incarceration, and when it does work, the offender can re-enter society, whereas prison institutionalises inmates, especially those with long sentences, making it more difficult to re-enter society when the sentence is complete.

Personally, I'm all for evidence-led policy on crime and punishment, and you won't often find that those who have a criminology degree are the ones shouting to 'lock them up and throw away the key'. Tackling the root cause of crime (most often poverty) does a lot more than punishment to reduce the societal impact.

_{*Yes, I know this is Wikipedia, but the figures here appear to be accurate}

Ding Dong, ALIENS CALLING

Re: Build it out of dark matter

I'd better put on my peril-sensitive sunglasses right now.

Re: A baseball can do 30 megatons of damage?

Methinks someone has been reading Randall Munroe's 'What If?'.

_{edit - Here}

Isn't the idea of any kind of 'warp' propulsion that it moves a 'bubble' of spacetime rather than the contents, which effectively stay stationary. This is also known as 'frame-shifting'.

This might be bad news for anything in the path of that bubble, which presumably would get either bumped to one side, or torn apart, but the whole notion of accelerating anything to near the speed of light as a means of moving it astronomical distances is obviously a non-starter.

Relativity tells us that this would involve impractically (if not impossibly) vast amounts of energy for one, rising exponentially as you approach C. Your mass would increase accordingly, and time would slow down, which would be a definite problem if you wanted to go to another solar system and still stay in touch with your friends at home, who would all be long dead by the time you get there.

So what these guys are saying, is that if you tried to use an impractical method of transportation, it would be impractical. Nice tautology there...

$17,000 Apple Watch: Pointless bling, right? HA! You're WRONG

Re: Yellow gold is pure gold

That's not strictly true, as the carat measure is done by weight, not molar amount. It depends what the gold is alloyed with. The atomic weight of Gold is 197, silver is 107, copper is 64, so 18 carat gold alloyed with copper contains significantly less gold than 18 carat gold alloyed with silver.

Re: I'll pass on the expensive version

JL has certainly kept her value a lot longer than anything Apple have ever produced.

Re: Not intended for you

Since when have Apple done anything to encourage things to be upgradable, rather than disposable? From changing form factor to type, size, and layout of connectors. My money is on the iWatch 2.0 having a different form factor (thinner, and with a different aspect ratio) for starters.

Re: Perceived value

But he is also saying that we should care what such people do. Personally, I couldn't give a tinker's cuss what such people get up to as long as I'm not forced to share their presence.

It's quite simple

This will appeal to arseholes. It will attract to them women who like arseholes. Nobody who is not an arsehole wants to be around that sort of woman anyway. As far as I'm concerned, they can all disappear up their own...

As much as I dislike Apple, good on them from extracting money from those who do not deserve to have it.

Universal Credit could take 10 YEARS to finish, says Labour MP

"Our current plan is on track"

Their current plan, presumably, being that of funneling as much public money into their own pockets as possible until they get voted out and someone else gets a turn.