Posts by Hope Spirals

'Bulls%^t! Complete bull$h*t!' Reset the clock on the last time woke Linus Torvalds exploded at a Linux kernel dev

Re: Git

Up for -> Stockholm syndrome

ESA astronaut decelerates from 28,800kph to zero in first bumpy landing

Can someone explain...

I'm sure it's an optical illusion I don't understand but, at around 2' 18" into the video a helicopter flies behind the parachute and is approximately the same size as the parachute.

As the parachute is closer to the camera, doesn't this imply that it is smaller than the length of the helicopter?

Is this something to do with extreme telephoto lenses?

Brexploitation? Adobe gets creative with price hikes

<Shame> I was employed by Adobe </Shame>

As such entitled to very cheap copies of InDesign amongst other things.

Time passes and so my job left tearfully for Noida leaving me behind; only with an option to take up a subscription.

So I've use Scribus ever since.

Joint Committee on UK Snoopers' Charter: Make like a dictionary and give a definition

How do you spell Apoplectic?

Here is one bullet point from the BBC's report

'The Wilson doctrine - preventing surveillance of Parliamentarians' communications - to be written into law'

Care to guess just how peeved I am?

Forget Tiger Woods – here's Cyber Woods: Robot golfer hits hole-in-one during tournament

Have we found a weapon?

Regarding an earlier post about the return of Robot Wars...

I like the idea of a Robot armed with a Brassie for long range biffing and a Niblick for the coup de gra

Virginia man charged in intriguing 'suspicious bacon' case

Re: Makin Bacon

And it had rind... where has that gone? Even my butcher (also in the 'WATER IN MY BACON!!! wait till I get my cleaver' camp) looks at me as if I'm mad when I ask.

Apparently, I'm in a minority of one and it's easier to remove the skin before slicing the bacon.

Please think of the children who believe scummy over cooked tasteless 'stuff' in a sweet subway roll (Oh please don't get me started on that) covered in gloop is a bacon sandwich.

GCHQ spies quashed this phone encryption because it was too good against snoopers

Just a thought

GCHQ is pushing a broken system for use of Joe Schmo (of which I'm one). But as pointed above the bad guys (ie criminals, terrorists, unfriendly governments etc) will use a different more robust solution.

Perhaps this is the idea - it'll act as a win win filter for GCHQ & its cronies and pose a problem for the bad guys - 'Hmm do we use the good stuff and be part of the 0.1% of traffic and thus easily spotted for meta data analysis, or do we use the bad stuff and hope to hide in the other 99.9%"

In the meantime of course Joe and I are compromised (a bad thing).

Note: Figures are 'MADE UP' don't confuse with government statistics.

SpaceX: launch, check. Landing? Needs work

Re: Netting / cabling?

Or why not land in a suitable hole - perhaps created by taking hollowing out an extinct volcano?

El Reg mulls entering Robot Wars arena

Use of weapons

It should be constructed from the bones of long dead robots.

We don't want to fanny about tripping things up or giving it a shove; no lets go for a meaty weapon and a proper delivery system.

Bangalore torpedo

Kamikazee slave bots

Dad's Army sticky bomb

BTW I like the idea of magnetically anchoring to the floor.

Turn-by-turn directions coming to Ordnance Survey Maps

Bing maps has an OS overlay (No offline mode I know, sorry)

I've used it for a while now - screen snapshot and print.

Give biometrics the FINGER: Horror tales from the ENCRYPT

Just not found the right 'biometric' to use yet

Lower colon, that's the answer.

Of course the 'scanning probe' is a touch invasive. However, I'm envisioning a suite of work cubicles all with the patented iSecureChair - logs in when you sit down, logs out when you go for a break.

Cash point? Please back into the hole in the wall Sir/Madam, what could possibly go wrong, your money is safe with us.

3D printed guns: This time it's for real! Oh, wait – no, still crap

Re: Plastic + Adhesive + Ceramic = Composite = Strength of Steel

Commercial 3D printers can supply parts in a variety of materials including ceramic and metal. Their websites also detail the physical/mechanical properties - including manufacturing tolerances, which may be more of an issue.

I wouldn't fancy firing such a weapon if the barrel was 'just a bit tight'.

I'm not saying this makes the idea of a 3D printed gun any more viable. A blade of some sort is more likely. Non metallic, it could be built into something harmless using 3D's ability to make fully enclosed parts and broken out when required.

NASA tests crazytech flying saucer thruster, could reach Mars in days

Re: LENR works!

Have an upvote for Lave & Diso

LOHAN's stirring motto: Ad Astra Tabernamque

Consider the Aliens

Please continue the good work and testing using London Pride.

However, I beg you to find a decent pint for the dry run onwards. Consider the implications of allowing LP to escape into the know universe - it might just be the last piece of evidence the Vogons require.

Israel's Iron Dome missile tech stolen by Chinese hackers

Playing with numbers

Consider...

Hamas launches 10 missiles

Iron Dome's actual hit rate 10% - thus 9 missiles 'get through'

Iron Dome's claimed hit rate of 80% - thus Hamas must have launched 45 missiles.

Oh Lord let your chosen people smite them mightily.

What's it like using the LG G smartwatch and Android Wear? Let us tell YOU

Re: Integrated Strap?

proper 'hunter' case...

Excellent, I'd buy one even though it's tricky to keep balanced on the wrist. But isn't that just an iPhone with the patented rounded corners taken to the extreme?

Snowden journalist's partner gave Brit spooks passwords to seized files

Don't read this - it's depressing.

Having read this and the other articles suggested by those above, I've become very depressed and concerned.

This will not be an isolated case. When officials make what they consider to be a mistake - they attempt to fix it. The Guardian article states they were threatened by the UK government, and had to respond by agreeing to destroy data and kit in their basement, but then somewhat sadly pointed out to the spooks that reporting, as with most things now, was international and that it would continue from non UK locations (New York/Brazil) (What a condemnation of the UK that is). Spooks are international but they operate within multiple jurisdictions - this gives them problems. Want to guess where this is going...

'One ring to rule them all'

I've changed my mind. Now I agree with Scottish independence (save yourselves from our overlords, get your own, get different laws); I love Europeans spent most of my life working with them, but just how dangerous would a politically integrated Europe be. I look back at my younger sci-fi reading self and shudder at how brilliant I though world government would be.

Might be our only chance - but then again... "Ireland - please vote again, you got it wrong last time"

Obama appoints intelligence boss to run 'independent' review of NSA

Eco system

Anecdote: I was in Africa some time ago, usual shown around by nose stuff, but ok nontheless.

Guide: See that big log in the lake.

Us: Oooh yes.

Guide: That's an enormous crocodile. We call it 'bigger black'.

Us: (Pace back) Oooh really, why?

Guide: That spot used to have a large crocodile in it. We called it 'big black'. Park rangers reckoned it was a danger to you tourists - so they shot it. Didn't change the ecosystem though and 'bigger' moved in.

I too had great hopes for Obama, but the ecosystem hasn't changed.

Peter Capaldi named as 12th Doctor Who

Re: Thnaks a bundle, Register

No no - you miss the point, it's a game.

How long can I go without finding out about _______?

This one was Dr Who but there are others.

General Election - just over 2 days is my best.

The budget is a good one for beginners - avoid the results and news for 48 hours then see how long before you actually notice something that affects you and you can definitely attribute to the chancellor.

It's not news, it's (mostly) gossip.

Netbooks were a GOOD thing and we threw them under a bus

Dead men walking

I recently took a Toshiba NB550D away for a week of meetings on a clients site. After the second day I stopped taking the power brick (itself only a few 100gm) just didn't need it even though power sockets were not an issue. Not a recommendation - I was happy, but I'm easily pleased.

I agree with "... I don't care about winos macos linux etc etc - just want to do stuff"

But I have to face it, just wanting to do stuff makes me a dinosaur - the market is now 'mature', owned by Joe Schmo the average consumer who has a different set of requirements and owning this years shiny shiny fondle stuff is something he can be convinced of.

McDonalds burger app gives it to you straight from the horse's mouth

Mmmmm tasty marketing

'Use our apps, and we'll tell you all about our products... honestly'

I won't eat their crap - and I certainly won't swallow their (or indeed anyone else's) bullshite.

Bangor University touts 20 Gbps access tech

Copper Cable... I wish

I'll try to keep this short...

May - Internet connection running at a very low speed - hmm why?

7 months later accumulated knowledge from ISP (Zen - damn helpful, BT engineers mostly good, BT itself FU)

Connection to exchange consists of multiple sections of cable, on poles and underground. Cables are both Al and Cu. Al? yup, I've seen the cable maps (thanks BT eng.) with annotations. These cables laid at least 20 years ago, some older than that. Cable is begining to break down with multiple faults (thanks BT eng.) and should be replaced. Will be replaced (thanks Zen). Nope won't be replaced (FU BT).

Want a bigger laugh. Connection Loop Attn goes from 51db to 60+, connection drops. Router tries to re-connect, connection still bad, so connection established at 150Kb (yup less than an old modem).

Punchline alert: Exchange is not optical, Exchange is not 21cn - Exchange is 20cn so takes 72hours to do a retrain before connection can be reset - during which connection drops again.

BT have refused point blank to do anything about this.

My ISP can't force them - because the rate of drops averages less than one per day (where did that metric come from - I've been cc'd the mail from BT)

Fibre, you were lucky.

McKinnon will not be extradited to the US, says Home Secretary

Connect two seemingly isolated events.

The UK government has not extradited a terrorist to the USA - the UK is a legitimate target.

Oil has been discovered in the Irish Sea - a tasty one at that.

USB charges up to 100 watts

I agree.

My other post along similar lines crossed.

So at least there's two of us that are on a similar page.

Size of Desire outweighs solution advantages

I think we can all agree that power bricks are a right royal PITA.

This proposal is constrained because it comes from the USB Promoter Group, within that constraint it's OK, maybe - others can argue the nitty gritty.

I'd like to see a solution that has the same ubiquity as mains power so that carrying a brick becomes pointless, ideally the outlet would then be built in to the mains socket itself - and you just plug in. Thus the source of power is not a USB socket (it's special*) - the consuming socket is ... well whatever you want USB, phono etc.

Of course this is so much fairy dust and USB has all the traction.

Custard pie activist slams IPCC 'grey literature' habit

@CmdrX3

I do 'buy' the climate change stuff - but I agree with you here.

What is wanted is proper peer reviewed science so that we can have a proper peer reviewed response.

Bear with me while I presume we have a problem. Then we're going to need a solution and that'll cost - us the tax payers. Watching the subsidies going into a spiral of self congratulatory back patting/scratching helps no one.

Well except those with an axe to grind.