* Posts by 4ecks

117 publicly visible posts • joined 14 Dec 2010

128-bit crypto scheme allegedly cracked in two hours

4ecks
Coat

Re: New Uncrackable Crypto

Or -

1) Put plaintext through Google Translate into Klingon.

2) Create "Klingon plaintext" document in Word95 and then add lots of formatting, different fonts and text sizes.

3) Open with Office2013/365

4) "Save as" .docx

5) Rename file type to .doc

Instant double encryption including an obscure proprietary method, unfortunately you'll probably never be able to unscramble it. ;-)

Scots team builds SONIC SCREWDRIVER to repair damaged nerves

4ecks

Re: Intriguing device.

Another small step from Sci-Fi to reality, I refer to the body-knitting scene from The Fifth Element.

However the future medical possibilities are interesting - improved healing with less scar tissue, nerve repair, retinal repair, how about bio-mechanical/bio-electronic implants assembled in the lab with no chance of tissue rejection, coupled with nano-tech and stem-cells the myriad uses could do so much for human well-being.

Beam me up Scotty: Boffins to turn pure light into matter

4ecks
Joke

Re: Gooooooowld

Why don't they use some of the guests from the Jeremy Kyle show - cheap & dense !

Stop bullying SUPER FAT GODZILLA, urge movie stars

4ecks
Joke

Re: Organic Chobham

Is that known as "Chubby-Ham"?

Supposedly secure Dogecoin service Dogevault goes offline

4ecks

Why do I always read it as

Dodgy-coin ?

Cold War spy aircraft CRASHED Los Angeles' air traffic control

4ecks
Unhappy

Re: Vintage planes

Probably for the same reasons the RAF isn't flying TSR2's -

politics, stupidity and money troubles.

FTC: State laws blocking Tesla's direct sales are 'protectionist'

4ecks
Coat

Err..first car in space?

4 wheels - check

steering - check

seats - check

chassis - check

motor - check

sounds like a general description for a car?

I think the honour of 1st (+ 2nd & 3rd) car in space goes to GM & NASA with the LRV aka the Moon Buggy.

Did a date calculation bug just cost hard-up Co-op Bank £110m?

4ecks
Facepalm

Hanlon's razor

8 is above 5 on a numeric keypad, fat finger syndrome strikes again!

Hubble 'scope snaps 200,000-ton chunky crumble conundrum

4ecks

Re: Guess I won't be seeing this then

If you're running Firefox + NoScript, just allow jwpcdn.com and reload the page - works fine for me now.

I do wish The Reg would also put up a link to the video embeds in their stories, as not all browsers (esp. mobile) have the required plug-ins.

Jury: Samsung must cough $290m of $379m Apple wanted - NOT in 5 cent pieces

4ecks

Uncle Sam sings Samsung

But will Apple have to pay tax on this? Flipside of the coin, is this a tax deductible amount for Samsung?

Indestructible, badass rootkit BadBIOS: Is this tech world's Loch Ness Monster? VOTE NOW

4ecks
Black Helicopters

Paranoia ?

See Icon -->

Wanna run someone over in your next Ford? No dice, it won't let you

4ecks

No more Ford product placement...

in those high speed Hollywood action movies, or Zombie apocalypse stories unless the sensors can tell living from living-dead and will let you plough them down.

On serious note - will the parking sensors leave enough gap between parked cars so that you don't box others in?

Lighting bods blind designophiles with LED-powered lounge lamps

4ecks
Happy

Re: I'd be happy with ...

LED lamp technology has advanced very rapidly, what you bought a couple of years ago is "old".

The new COB sources have improved thermal management and hence higher lm/w output.

For retro-fit applications try the Megaman GU10's (( http://www.megamanuk.com/products/led-lamps/professional-series/reflector/gu10/ ) for dimming I recommend http://www.varilight.co.uk/products/vpro.html ), and the Crompton GLS style lamps ( http://www.cromptonlamps.com/cat2.asp?cat1=15&cat2=115 ) . For new downlight installations the Ansell Titan has a 7 year registration-free warranty ( http://www.anselluk.com/products/Titan-LED-9W-LED-White/p1045 ) and for around £40+vat will more than pay for itself in 50W lamps that you don't have to replace over its rated life, let alone the 80% reduction in 'leccy used.

Just my tuppence-worth, from personal usage. YMMV.

DARPA: You didn't think we could make a Mach 6 spaceplane, so let us have this MACH TEN job

4ecks
Mushroom

Re: Once something become possible

http://nuclearweaponarchive.org - nearly all you need to know about basic weapon design and construction, it's fairly easy to make a nuke. Weaponising it takes a bit more effort, harder still to get it to fit the pointy end of a missile. However it is not like you want it to come back and land for reuse once you've lit the blue touch paper.

Making a reusable & reliable rocket/space plane takes mathematics, engineering, physics, chemistry, materials science, electronics, computing etc. AND more political desire than for using these to make bombs.

A lesson from history -

“ All modern aircraft have four dimensions: span, length, height and politics. TSR-2 simply got the first three right. ”

— Sir Sydney Camm

Hypersonic 'scramjet' aims for Mach 8 test flight

4ecks

Re: So if the autodestruct doesn't happen.

At that speed impacting water is not much different to concrete, I personally know it hurts at 30mph, so at M1+ all you are likely to get is something like a mosquito hitting your windscreen.

Microsoft and Google unite to sue US gov't for more transparency

4ecks
Big Brother

Full disclosure method

Why don't Google, Microsoft and the others use the proper "Government Approved"©®™ method.

i) Put all the information that they have in a PowerPoint presentation for the legal teams/courts.

ii) Burn a passworded zip file to CD/DVD.

iii) Put post-it note with password in with disk, clearly labeled with the contents.

iv) Lose in public area frequented by journalists.

British spooks seize tech from Snowden journo's boyfriend at airport

4ecks
Big Brother

Re: Poisoning the well

I'm not sure that I would want back or trust any of the hardware after the secret police had their mitts on it. Who knows what "little helpers" they might leave you with?

Scientists investigate 'dark lightning' threat to aircraft passengers

4ecks

Specially sheilded?

So how much Lead do you need to make a Zeppelin resistant to "Dark Lightning"?

KEEP CALM and Carry On: PRISM itself is not a big deal

4ecks
Black Helicopters

colour me suspicious but..

"A specially equipped nuclear submarine, the USS Jimmy Carter, carries cutting, tapping and interception systems to lie on the sea bed. The submarine has been in active service since 2005" - and how many undersea cables have suffered "anchor" damage at the times she has been in the area?

Want faster fibre? Get rid of the glass

4ecks
Coat

What's the tog rating?

←the winter one with the hollow fibre filling please.

Carrie Fisher dusts off THAT bikini for Star Wars VII

4ecks
Paris Hilton

Re: "Elderly"?

Zaphod, I think this would be a more appropriate picture for use on El Reg...

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm4187790080/nm0000402

LHC spots mesons flipping between matter and antimatter

4ecks
Joke

LHC Collider?

Why do we need to collide Lettuce, Ham & Cheese with Layers of Extra Pickle and Squeezy Mustard ?

Official: Sky to buy O2 and BE's home broadband product in £200m deal

4ecks
Megaphone

http://www.vivaciti.net/

Title says it all !

Microsoft: Office 2013 license is for just one PC, FOREVER

4ecks

Just had look at the "License"

Now I'm confused, can I or can't I install the software on a VM. The MSLA appears to contradict itself, and if so does it then invalidate the MSLA?

Rogue Squadron: Unit of X-wings Kickstarts in response to Death Star

4ecks
Go

Re: Kickstarter/motorbike

As long as it's a 74-Z speeder bike :-)

The amazing magical LED: Has it really been fifty years already?

4ecks

Re: LED lighting instead of fluorescent 'haz mat'

I supply lighting for a living, and IMHO most customers don't have a clue as to what different light sources are available & to what use they are best suited. Most new houses have halogen downlights 'cos the "designer" thinks they look good, but the latest generation of LED sources are much better suited and although the initial cost is higher, more cost effective over their expected lifetime. Megaman GU10 retrofit at 4W and 6W dimmable (£12) & 50000hr life, or Aurora AU-FRL series @ 9W & 75000hr are viable candidates to replace 50W halogens.

However the main benefits of LED's are in commercial premises, where reduced maintainance costs will often pay for the initial outlay over the expected life of the installation, and then some.

Rocket 'Grasshopper' leaps higher than tall building in single bound

4ecks

Nice test

I wonder how well this would work on Selene or Mars?

Anonymous cell: Shove off, credit-hoggers, WE took down HSBC

4ecks
Meh

Meh! Call that a "Denial of Service"?

HSBC unavailable for only a few hours - Anon DDOS = Fail.

The other banks appear to be able to do this much more successfully to their own customers - just put RBS into the search box for El Reg and see the list returned!

Bloke jailed for being unable to use BlackBerry Messenger freed

4ecks

Hypotheticals

"Send All" is great for "Happy New Year" messages, but as this case shows, dangerous beyond belief.

Other hypotheticals - you leave your phone unlocked & unattended or it gets stolen - somebody else sends a compromising text or picture from your phone to everyone in your contacts list - you end up in gaol and on the SOR.

Was the message sent from your phone? - undeniably yes(*).

Was the message sent by you, the accused? - prove it beyond a "reasonable doubt", but I don't think "It wasn't me!" will go down well with the Judge and Jury.

(*)_ and don't even think of accepting the plea offer from the CPS to make it easy, 'cos they might offer you a "slap on the wrist", but you'll get the maximum instead!

Draft UK libel law forces websites to axe mudslinging comments

4ecks
Big Brother

Re: The end of anonymity

" I assume govt has something in the pipeline for that." - finger-tip ID chip implants for everyone & NFC scanners on all internet enabled computer kit, means you have to digitally (geddit) sign all posts.

Vote now for the ultimate bacon sandwich

4ecks
Go

Re: None with Ketchup 'n' mustard?

Sorry, I kept eating it before remembering to take a piccy & submit it, but here's the text only version :-

2 x Rind-on Middle Back Unsmoked (best of both worlds back & streaky) , White Bread, Welsh Butter, Colman's Savora Mustard (or French's Classic Yellow) & either Heinz TK or, if available 1x fresh tomato.

i) Open kitchen window/turn on extract fan & close door - unless you want the smoke alarm going off !

ii) Trim rind from bacon & start to fry in a hot non-stick pan with a dash of oil, the fat from the rind will render down & you get excellent "Fried Crispy Worms" to crunch on.

iii) Add sliced tomato (4 slices) to pan & remove "Worms" before they burn & eat while cooking bacon.

iv) Add bacon, after 1-2 minutes turn over tomato & bacon.

v) Butter the bread and add mustard to lower slice.

vi) Arrange bacon on bread and layer with tomato then top slice of bread.

vii) Eat & Enjoy!

viii) Buggrit, forgot the camera again! ;)

Mighty quake shook ENTIRE PLANET, broke tectonic plate

4ecks
FAIL

Units & scales

If your not going to use El Reg units i.e. Norris - No & linguine - lg, etc. then please remember that the 1930's Richter Scale is not the same as the now used 1970's MMS Mw, especially for large magnitude quakes.

Nevertheless, that was one big mutha of a quake - guess the bod's at HAARP got a bit too carried away!

Smack your phones up, says Microsoft

4ecks
IT Angle

Re: Mantis Shrimp

Yes they can crack tanks, some Mantis Shrimp can "punch" with the equivalent force of a .22 caliber pistol round.

I can remember tales of a sudden spate of unexplained tank failures when I managed an aquatics shop around 20yr ago. They were later attributed to a batch of imported "living rock" that contained baby Mantis Shrimp which grew in to angry adults!

Content convenience squeezes freetards: Swinburne Uni

4ecks

Flashback to Flashforward

So how many times were episodes of Flashforward or Heroes downloaded in the UK ? I would guess very few times compared to Stargate, Dexter, Eureka or Warehouse 13. Not because they weren't popular, but because they were aired so shortly after their US showing that there wasn't much point in using p2p.

I can understand that TV companies can be wary of buying shows with no track record of viewing figures, or as is the case with many programmes, no second series because the Nielsen ratings were poor - but as a viewer/consumer/customer, I don't want to wait for a year or more.

Oracle knew about critical Java flaws since April

4ecks
Holmes

Oracle ... did not respond when contacted for comment by The Reg.

Oracle PR Dept. outgoing voicemail announcement :- "La la lah! We can't hear you!"

Neil Armstrong dies aged 82

4ecks
Unhappy

Respect

One of my personal heroes, a man who truly had courage running through his veins.

I am sorry that we have not built upon the great foundations he and his ilk laid for us,

Mankind appears to have stumbled upon taking the giant leap, and is now scrabbling around in the dust instead of striding confidently toward the stars.

It's a shame that we're now so dumbed-down that raising generations inspired by "X-Factor" instead of "The Right Stuff" is the future.

British boffin builds cool maser after argument with wife

4ecks

New Backronym ?

M arital

A rgument

S hed

E nhanced

R esearch

Greens wage war on clean low-carbon renewable energy

4ecks
Trollface

Geothermal will kill all life!

OK, here's the sciency reason against Geothermal -

Extracting heat-energy from the planet, converting it to "useful" energy (electricity), and then eventually back to heat will, due to entropy, kill everything.

The atmosphere will heat up and the oceans boil away. The big ball of molten iron at the earths core will become solid, we will lose the magnetic fields protecting us from solar particles and all life will cease to be.

Earth will become as barren as Mars !

/very small print on

This of course won't happen for many millennia, and the Earth will probably get hit by a "planet-killer" lump of rock first.

/very small print off

p.s. this research is (c) me, and may not be used by any ecomentalist greenies to argue their case - they've got to come up with their own absurd spin.

Breaking: Megaupload seizures illegal says NZ High Court

4ecks

Re: Possible Copyright infringement by the US then

Damages should be awarded to Megaupload using the RIAA formula, this should result in a figure larger than the annual GNP of the whole planet ;)

4ecks

Re: Return of the clones?

And so the Clone Wars began...

RBS collapse details revealed: Arrow points to defective part

4ecks

The words "Mainframe" & "Bank" make me think of...

Salami slicing & logic bombs, but I was a very prolific reader at age 10.

Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves.

http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Computer_capers.html?id=SbkiAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y

MPAA sympathetic to returning legitimate Megaupload files

4ecks
Joke

$9000/day storage cost?

How do they work that out then? By my rough maths, 25PB is approx 8500 x 3TB drives.

This is 120 odd BigYellow Medium cardboard boxes & some bubblewrap (£400ish). Storage approx £50/pw.

Resistance is futile? Memristor RAM now cheap as chips

4ecks
Thumb Up

Success from failure

In the best traditions of science and invention.

Failure to make one thing leads to understanding and discovery of another.

Facebook's Eduardo Saverin: I'm not a tax-dodger

4ecks

Re: Moral vs Legal

Have an upvote, you're the first one I've noticed to state that companies have a legal obligation to their shareholders to reduce taxes paid.

They don't have a moral requirement to do this, it may even seem that their legal requirements are immoral.

This required action now also applies to Facecrack, so don't be too surprised when they register in whichever country is most favourable.

What's the difference between immoral and illegal?

One you know is just not right, and the other is a sick bird of prey.

Vulture 2 trigger triggers serious head-scratching

4ecks

Back of an envelope design

Three balloons on a ¥ frame.

Rocket underslung on the 'l' , nose down a few degrees.

Q O O

\ l. /

\ l./

=~~

Inflate the balloon (Q) on this leg more than the other 2, also counters the extra payload mass on this leg.

This should cause this one to fail first, at which point the frame should swing around the center point, bringing the rocket (=) up into launch position...

O O

\/

l/

*

The balloon ties can be of different lengths to allow clearance to be maintained with a smaller frame.

KISS principle, no altimeter, no GPS, just a tilt switch to ignite the motor.

Apologies if the ASCII artwork is poor.

What is SpaceX Dragon's secret cargo?

4ecks
Alien

My guess...

Several pints of Bitter, a few packets of salted peanuts, and most important of all - a good towel.

You should never leave your home (planet) without your towel, especially if you might meet a ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal.

Pints under attack as Lord Howe demands metric-only UK

4ecks
Pint

Re: abandon the imperial and metric...

Would that be the Northern or Southern Pint glass - real ale with a head or lager?

A properly poured and rested Guiness topped off just before serving would probably be the most accurate measure.:)

I was taught metric at school, and educated in Imperial by my parents.

I use both systems daily with no problem, although it is mostly the metric-inch of 25mm and metric-foot of 300mm. E.g. box of Cat.5 , 1000ft or 305mtr.

Like many people I think in Centigrade/Celcius for cold weather and Fahrenheit for hot weather, afterall I know that 0'C is freezing cold, and 98.4'F is average body temperature.

Fastest-ever hydrocarb scramjet hits Mach 8, doesn't explode

4ecks
Boffin

"Match in a hurricane"

Well there's the reason it's taken the boffins so long to get it to work.

They started from the wrong analogy - after all most people would use a Zippo (tm) in a hurricane.;)

SpaceX and Bigelow sign deal for inflatable space stations in orbit

4ecks

Great idea.

A rent-a-tent in orbit, but I don't fancy the walk to the shower block.

Sony stock slides to 30-year low after record loss

4ecks
Go

Re: Ah, the usual anti-Sony fanbois are out in force.

Main point from your post - "You had a choice, buy or do not buy."

My choice is to not buy Sony branded items, not even the £2.49 CD's at Lidl. It may seem irrational to you, but it is MY choice & MY money, and I won't give it to a company that I have no trust in.