Posts by The last doughnut

Flash zero day under attack

People still use Flash player?

I've been using my newest xubuntu lappy for a while and it was only yesterday I realised it isn't even installed.

MYSTERY RADIO SIGNAL picked up from BEYOND our GALAXY

I would like to know how they determined the distance of the emission at 5G light years? The terrestrial HF via meteor burst would seem the more likely explanation.

Spammers set their sights on WhatsApp – that's that ruined then

It's fb now anyway

Service has noticeably declined in quality since the buy-up. Time to find another messaging platform already.

Forget Google's robot cars, now it's on to ANDROID cars

Re: That's nice.

If it moves, funk it!

India's heavy launch rocket passes flight test

Re: At last a British funded rocket takes off

Also, they may be a lot of poor people in that country but I think its a long time since they starved in large numbers.

Did rock-hard aliens turn young Earth MOIST? New probe data emerges

The extraterrestrial sample size is very small. If each and every asteroid and comet had a different H20/HDO mix it would be no surprise that our mixed planetary water was an agglomeration.

Car-crash IT: HUGE write-off for Universal Credit - PAC

Hah haw hoe

Sometimes its just nice to see someone else's project going up the Swanny for a change.

Microsoft's dodgy new Exchange 2010 update breaks Outlook clients

This is good

If it carries on the open source community will put together a reliable and secure replacement for Outlook and Exchange, then world+dog will finally be able to ditch the Redmond monster.

Splashdown! Orion lands safely in the Pacific Ocean

Please don't feed the troll

SCIENCE LAB TERROR: MYSTERY of the MISSING BRAINS

Friday pint

Thanks for that I had a well needed chuckle. Thumbs up and a Friday pint for you.

Post-pub nosh neckfiller: Masala omelette

Re: You'll have had your Scots Dal

Both true,

You'll have had your Scots Dal

If you are feelng experimental try replacing the eggs with freshly cooked porridge oats.

Under the Iron Sea: YES, tech and science could SAVE the planet

It's a complex issue

The whole climate change and man-made global warming issue must be like any large thing. Its big and scary but there are lots of sides to it, lots of angles. Some see it as a threat to their existence, others want to worship it as some kind of vengeful natural spirit. Some see it as an opportunity to eek out a living or something to pin their own political agenda to. Some want to address it as a series of technical or organisational problems that may be solvable.

Blade Runner sequel might actually be good. Harrison Ford is in it

Re: What's so great about Blade Runner?

Epic themes such as life, death, god, love, servitude, retirement, animal bothering. Spectacular visuals and an immense soundtrack. Not one, not two, but three replicant hotties.

Retire me now

The original book was one thing and the film quite different. It was stylish and original (at least as far as a sci-fi/noir crossover can be). But quite different to the source material, somewhat over-rated and flawed in many ways. As a part-time OCD-er I loath its inconsistencies but still love it as a film.

Regardless of this, any modern day sequel is pre-destined to be utter sheeite and I fail to see any reason to expect otherwise in this case.

We have a winner! Fresh Linux Mint 17.1 – hands down the best

xubuntu again

Agree with you. Was using xubuntu until recently on the 14.10 ubuntu base and its better for sure. Thinking of ditching Mint 17 Mate now.

xubuntu

I went from xubuntu which features XFCE to Mint after replacing the old laptop. There are significant losses in going from the 14.10 base ubuntu back to 14.04 including the loss of suspend. Light locker is also sadly missed. MATE is my preferred desktop on Mint - and its easy to switch - mainly because Cinnamon would not let you have the menu bar down one side, which is essential on a letterbox laptop screen. Will try the upgrade to 17.1 but really want the 14.10 base to arrive.

Boffins find Jackie Chan's SUPERCOP is good for something

Re: Surely there were more appropriate films to use?

Face/off

Forget the climate: Fatties are a much bigger problem - study

Lewis clearly you are a very, very bad man, so have a Friday pint on me. Cheers!

When androids dream of baseball fields

If they can make a robot actually throw a ball they have already beaten the girls. Sorry girls. Have a beer?

Texas boffins put radio waves in a spin

Its a clever invention to be sure

But not going to shake up the world of mobile comms. This is always going to be dominated by the fundamental constraints of handset battery life, radio frequency allocation, and basestation costs.

Antares apocalypse: Orbital points finger at turbopump FAIL

Turbo pumps

Remember seeing a documentary about the Russian moon programme some years ago. They went for a design of rocket motor with some kind of very powerful but not-reliable-enough turbo pump system. It always blew up and they never got to the moon. Amazed that anyone bought the left-overs second hand?

Benedict Cumberbatch in The Imitation Game: Glimpses of Turing's life, but that's all ...

- sigh -

Why do so many modern films have no-name directors?

Ex-Soviet engines fingered after Antares ROCKET launch BLAST

Re: Depressing

Agreed but I would merely refine the assertion: You don't get what you don't pay for.

The Russkies never made it to the moon because their efforts were based on this unreliable rocket engine.

NASA: Spacecraft crash site FOUND ON MOON RIM

So they smashed LADEE into the backside of the moon? Seems so wrong.

It is effectively Friday for me so beers all round

Samsung gets virtual with tiny S5 upgrade and goggle grab

Slower clock speed does not always mean less data processing or throughput. That's why we have benchmarks. Of course it must increase the profit margin ...

Boffins who stare at goats: I do believe they’re shrinking

Re: It has been speculated

@codejunky

He's suggested there may be a middle ground between warmists and deniers! Burn him!!

America's super-secret X-37B plane returns to Earth after nearly TWO YEARS aloft

They built it under orders and are testing in preparation to start the controlled de-orbit of our most highly celestial overlords ... I for one etc.

On Nov 12, a human-made space lab will try to HARPOON a COMET and land on it

Just tremendous

That is all. Friday pints all round!

'Theoretical' Nobel economics explain WHY the tech industry's such a damned mess

Economists

Has anyone ever heard of a case where an economist has admitted making a mistake? Even a really trivial one that didn't have negative consequences for millions of ordinary working people??

Open source and the NHS: Two huge disorganised entities without central control

Arrgh that be a roight shambles that be, arrggghhh.

Save a whole lot of money and abolish all the beauracracy. Return it to what is was always meant to be, a national health service for all, free at the point of use, paid for through taxation. Abolish all the pointless levels of management, the accounting, the trusts, the profit centres, the management comitees, the accountants, the accountants (double entry, y'see, arrghhh). Pass me that rum there would you boy - me wooden legs playing up again. Arrrggghhhh.

India's MOM Mars mission makes final course correction

Re: Nail on the head.

Have a downvote for your obvious strawman tactic.

Before I Go To Sleep turns out tense enough to keep you awake ...

I read somewhere that Hollywood films are often shown to a trial audience or two before general release. Comments and feedback are taken from the popcorn-munchers and often as a result the film may be re-edited, partially re-shot or even re-written.

You do wonder why we all expect more from this sort of thing, when in reality its creative drive originates in the spreadsheets of a vertically-integrated entertainment business.

Finally, a USEFUL smart device: Intel boffins cook up gyro-magneto-'puter bike helmet

All very good just don't add any extra weight to the helmet. Carrying extra weight up top can exacerbate any neck injury.

And sorry all you lycra-clad freaks out there, but you are already disqualified from having an "Intel inside" sticker.

Check your Clungene, Irish women warned

Wha?

It does sound rather like a sanitising product. I could be very rude about Irish ladies but I won't go there.

Astounding: We're about to stick a probe in orbit of a COMET

Re: What is the orbital period of 67P, and can Rosetta's batteries recharge from zero?

Sorry chap not thermonuclear power sources. That would be a bit much! Try radioisotope thermoelectric power source. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_generator

BAD VIBES: High-speed video camera records your voice from trash

Re: Er....

Using a laser and opto-electronic detector to pick up vibrations from a reflective surface and convert the resulting signal into something you could listen to is pretty basic and could easily be done with no need for any fancy processing. Just some analog electronics.

This is a lot of very complex image processing and I for one am glad that the article did not try to reproduce any of the formulae involved!

Flamewars in SPAAACE: cooler fires hint at energy efficiency

Re: How useful is this really!?

Company has to return profits to shareholders at the same or higher rate they can earn putting it in the banks. And the banks found many ways of breeding money that didn't involve investing in anything real that actually grew. And that's where we are today.

Ethicists say Facebook's experiments not SO creepy

Similar to recruitment agencies who will offload their most inept candidates first - thereby pulling the same trick on the understaffed companies who pay them for their services.

Meet the 'smallest GPU' for wearable gizmos ... wait, where did it go?

You clever buggers

New leaked 'Windows 8 screenshot': The Start Menu strikes back

Its all very nice looking but

Where the hell has it stuck all of my documents now?

Boffins urge European Commission to reboot electric brain project

The El Reg neuroscience desk

Not only is the post vacant but the comments section glistening green brain icon is still missing.

HP and shareholders to gang up against 'Brit Bill Gates'

Buyer beware

It is the responsibility of the buyer (HP) to check that what they are buying (Autonomy) is worth what they are paying for it. They failed. Now the shareholders have agreed not to hold them responsible.

SUPER EARTH possibly home to life FOUND in our 'solar backyard'

Amayzing

Truly amazing now that we know the universe is teeming with planetary systems of all sizes, composition and relative positions. There must be other forms of life out there.

Shine on you crazy diamond: Distant dwarf may hide space jewel

Re: Arthur C Clarke strikes again?

I do - and in fact its a body-centred cubic structure. Same as Silicon. Rather like two interspaced cubic lattices.

One amazing reason why NASA boffins are celebrating Curiosity's 687th day on Mars

Re: Call me a science fangrrl if you will

humans are the most amazing monkeys _yet_

Corrected that for you

US spanks phone-jamming vendor with $34.9 MEEELLION fine

I am guessing you got a downvote because of what you said.

Auditors blast Blighty cops over binned multi-million pound IT project

Sargeant! Where is that software we ordered eight years ago?

It er - it fell down the stairs, sir.

London Tech Week: All for the luvvies and the joke's on you, taxpayers

Re: Shock

I note with interest that Triumph Motorcycles was reborn during this period

But for a journalist to complain about junkets .... the vulture does like to take a bit of a nibble from the hand that feeds it, eh?

The Force of tax breaks brings Star Wars filming to Blighty

Do Abraham's initials really stand for Jar-Jar?