Posts by Bodincus

Dev creeped out after he fired up Ubuntu VM on Azure, was immediately approached by Canonical sales rep

Erm...

RTFT&C & STFU.

It liiives! Sorta. Gentle azure glow of Windows XP clocked in Tesco's self-checkouts, no less

XP? Pfffftt.... Amateurs

Last time I worked on night shift at Tesco, admittedly a few years ago, the PCs used to print the pricing labels for the shelves were running Win98.

Every store has at least one kiosk with a printer below. Look for it.

Boffin's bot spots red light jumpers before they kill

Proactive or reactive

Most of the commentards here vouch for a capital punishment of the offending driver.

As per speeding fines, reactive actions are TOTALLY ineffective at AVOIDING the danger / accident.

If an idiot jumps a red light and splatters a driver of another car, taking away the idiot's licence and imposing a hefty fine / jail term is the least of the problems.

If a speeder mows down a child near a school, the fine and the points on the licence for speeding doesn't save the poor boy/girl.

*Reactive* actions, taken after that the dangerous behaviour has taken place, are totally ineffective at avoiding accidents happening: the deterrent from possible punishment had no effect, as the action has happened already. We need to take *proactive" and "pre-emptive" action.

On railroad crossings we're used to barriers stopping cars from entering the crossing, and trains have early warning signals that tell the train driver if a crossing a few miles ahead is malfunctioning and/or blocked by traffic.

I support the idea that cars should be fitted or retrofitted with a system to cut the engine and apply brakes, to stop the car causing damage or risk to other road users.

Some high end cars already have an automatic emergency braking system, albeit driven by proximity or radar sensors: I guess using this system to stop bad drivers will be the next step.

Nevertheless, corporal punishment and public humiliation for those who don't drive properly should be enshrined in law.

Driving too fast towards a red light to stop safely before entering the crossing?

1. Automatically:

1.1 Cut engine;

1.2 Apply brakes to max;

1.3 Deploy airbags;

1.4 Lock doors;

1.5 Sound horn;

1.6 Flash hazard lights.

2. Wait patiently for the angry mob to:

2.1 Tip your car over;

2.2 Smash windscreen to smithereens;

2.3 Pull you out of the wreck;

2.4 Quarter you on the spot.

There goes.

OOo's put the willies up Microsoft

Two Clicks away.

"Can you do a mail merge from a source database that contains the information in stored queries or views?"

Open an existing or new text document, click on "Tools", and select "Mail Merge Wizard".

Follow the easy instructions to connect to any database you have access to.

Done.

I mean, if you are not a lazy M$ drone, that is.

If you learnt how to do such "advanced" tasks on M$ Office, it'll be a doodle to learn again how to do it in OOo.

Spam blacklist snafu prompts global gnashing of teeth

Amateurs

Title says all.

I've always kept well clear of 'em, just a single idiot flagging your message as spam with them - as a stupid joke - lands you in a week's communication limbo.

I don't like spammers, no. I HATE them. I want them nailed to a wall, quartered and buried at the four corners of the universe.

But there's more sophisticated, advanced tools to filter spam when you manage a mail server.

Collective intelligence is an example: If more than 5 users on your platform get the same message around the same time, the likelihood it's spam are VERY high.

I know this should be the principle on which SORBS relies upon, but why should I rely on an external source to determine what is spam on MY mail server? Sorry, I don't get it.

To me looks a "I've dun summat" for a lazy mail server admin.

Much of recent global warming actually caused by Sun

Sun activity NOT changing, just "swinging" up and down?

From the point of view of a total ignorant, it appears that the Sun is not changing intensity of the output, but simply changing up and down in the spectrum of rays it emits.

At a period of higher activity, the light spectrum shifts up, to the blue side of the spectrum, and during lower activity shifts back to the lower part of the spectrum, towards red.

As our atmosphere filters out the rays in the upper, blue range of the spectrum (that's why our sky is blue), when the energy of the sun is emitted more in that range, we overall get less energy, so the climate is cooler.

When the spectrum concentrates on red instead, there's less filtering done, and more energy hits the surface of the planet, thus more heat.

It happens the same with an electrical bulb, when the current intensity (energy) is low the light emitted from the burning filament is reddish, and becomes whiter and whiter (to our untrained eye) when the current intensity grows.

Also, we physically perceive more heat from a red flame than from a blue flame, try that empirically.

Light a candle and put the palm of your hand at one side of the flame at a safe distance.

Now turn on a gas flame (e.g your kitchen hob) and do the same as above.

Which flame do you perceive as hotter, obviously proportionally to the size of the flame?

You got it. Now go ask for more funding.

Microsoft gets Speedos in a twist over half-naked 'Meter Maids'

It took a while...

...but eventually Sarah Bee chimed in.

Thank you for a clear insight into your irreprehensible stance.

Now we need the support of pictures, y'know m'lady, to address our morale around Your Supreme Highness.

Don't be so sarcastic, female (and male!) beauty has always been used to make the world a better and nicer place, singe Greeks' and Romans' times, with beautiful statues of naked bodies decorating private homes, streets and buildings.

Many other world renown and celebrated artists have portrayed naked bodies, and they are proudly on show in the most prestigious art galleries and museums throughout the world.

What is wrong with Anglo-Saxon derivative cultures that see a naked body as a shame, a disgrace, demeaning and wrong?

Get your facts right, y'all: we're all born naked.

P.S. BTW it's "risqué", it's French, and without the accent is the USofA spelling.