Posts by Wombling_Free 468 publicly visible posts • joined 15 Sep 2011
Our Glorious Leaders are completely in favor of the kind of censorship China uses - just look at Senator Luddite Conroy, with his expertise in the field of internet communications.
Our government would LOVE to have the kind of surveillance control China has - lets face it so would the UK & US governments, not to mention a few media outlets *cough* MURDOCH *cough*.
"This is a dangerous, unprecedented design error."
The OBOGS is the design error. Apart from a stupid acronym (Would you fly in an aircraft, no matter how good, if the avionics suite was designated EL-CHEAPO-CLUSTERFUK?) it's clear that whatever chemical-based tech they are using (some nasty peroxides most likely) doesn't like either high altitude operation, negative Gs, positive Gs, vibration, heat, cold or all of the above. Or was built by the cheapest bidder, and is overly complex and difficult to maintain, is poorly cooled so it overheats, has pipes and ducting made out of incompatible materials which corrode etc. etc. etc. all the REALLY BASIC STUFF engineers are meant to take into account for a mission-critical item.
If and when the details of the faults in the OBOGS are revealed, they will of course be obvious, simple and likely down to the kind of faults RR have in their A380 engines (bad bearings in that case - probably an $800 part out of an $8x10^6 engine)
When it comes down to it, the whole bloody F22 is a design error - it only won the competition due to pork-barreling.
There are three kinds of people who use RIM phones in Austfailia:
1. corporate types who are forced to - it is the only thing on offer by their firms. Suckers.
2. Hipsters. iPhones are too mainstream; "Yeah, like, I've been using my RIM like since like way before the like iphone, like."
3. Nobody else.
4. Bloggers who are paid to make idiots of themselves outside Apple stores. (see 2. above)
Ok, so that's four.
What Australia lagging in uptake of cloud-based services? Who woulda thunk it?
Maybe the lack of decent broadband connections? Perhaps? Maybe? Do ya think?
Well, at least we won't have to worry about it once the Liberals get in - we'll be back to the good old bush telegraph just like maw and paw had back on the sheep station!
Austfailia - what's that smell? You're standing in it!
Boring list - mostly men, mostly academia.
What about Jennifer Ringley?
Who? You may ask... remember JenniCAM? 1996? She really was a pioneer for what is now commonplace on the Internet, whether you think such a thing is 'dirty' or not.
How about Gene Ray, aka Otis E. Ray aka TIMECUBE.COM - peddling woo-woo-crackpot-hokum since 1997, and to this day hasn't worked out his blather is not only hilarious but unreadable. Quote" Belly-Button Is Signature" - I can't make it 30pt text though.
How about Paris Hilton? As a major topic on the Internet, surely she deserves... exposure!
I never owned one, but I coveted the Sinclair Spectrums for their awesome design aesthetic.
They are such pretty little things! They design still looks futuristic today, and makes Apple look quite conservative and pedestrian by comparison.
Sinclair's own logo? - Classic. Utterly devoid of whale-music. Copied by ad nauseum by the demo scene it was so good.
Happy birthday Speccies!
*sigh*
You are thinking like a 220-yr-old Colonial; a platypus is NOT a 'primitive' animal.
Just because it looks like a duck bill is simply evidence of co-vergent evolution, although I have yet to meet a duck with an electromagnetic-field-detecting bill (Platypuses can sense *really* small EM fields with their bill).
Also, no ducks I know of have venomous claws; platypuses do. (Male ones, at least)
Also, platypuses are quite successful creatures - visible in the wild, even within Sydney if you know where and when to look.
Also, Vista actually worked pretty well.
So; your point, sir?
"but not happy to say, "God did it but we don't know how."
No; because saying 'God did it' at any point is proof-by-faith, which is an invalid proof.
"where did RNA come from?" - being unable to provide an answer is NOT proof-of-god.
If you look at things from a scientific perspective it is very hard to actually 'prove' the existence of god-as-creator-of-all.
Exercise for the reader - propose an experiment that proves the existence of god. Take all the time you need.
The whole proof-denies-faith discussion is a circular argument anyway - saying your faith proves there is a god denies god. Please be careful crossing the road!
" If these are required for DNA replication we've got a serious chicken and egg situation going on." - no, you just don't understand molecular biology. That's OK though, that's why it's still being researched. There are a whole bunch of entirely plausible pathways to what we call life; research continues. We will probably never know for certain which pathway led to our life - but not knowing exactly how or when is NOT a reason to throw our hands in the air and say 'It must have been Big Electric Sky-Daddy-Shepherd-Tooth-Fairy'
Why not just encode a z-channel into normal photos?
I bet most decent modern DSLRs with multi-focus sensors could do this, I am sure it could be rigged up with an IR laser too.
The film & special effects industry has been doing this for 20 years or so by encoding the z-channel (image depth) into images. The pictures are rendered with an aperture of infinity (hey, because you can!) which makes everything crystal clear, then you choose what you want your depth of field to be, and where, Gaussian-blur filter by z-channel mask and presto!
Same effect, easier, quicker, all the advantages of DSLR or even PAS cameras, standard image format (TIF) and images only 25% larger (4 channels instead of 3).
Hmmm, maybe I should patent that.
I wouldn't worry too much - look how long Duke Nukem was vapourware, and look at the resulting product. Just because it has been in development a long time doesn't mean it's good.
Narrow depth of field images have very limited uses - mostly arty effects in film and art photos, and food blog photos by hipsters.
For the rest of us, we prefer images actually in focus - I can't think of too many times I've actually WANTED to have to sit down and focus my pictures, badly, after the event.
I can imagine doing that to the alleged 750 pics on the camera would result in an afternoon of spectacular tedium. Coupled with only even being able to view them with the special software it looks like too much trouble.
I can see how media-arts-and-food-blog hipsters who find aperture settings hard to remember will love it.
"says a certain amount about their mentaility and business sense"
Actually they have quite good business sense. Make a mediocre product, tart it up in fancy packaging, lock users in to your service, market to a demographic renowned for massive amounts of cash and very little sense = PROFIT!
By about page 2 I was thinking:
"wow, a GBP$400 camera! So cheap! Why not buy TWO? Shiny colours, square design, super minimal buttons, no apparent use except to wealthy hipsters doing media or arts degrees, can only view pics on special website; surely these guys thought to pitch it to Apple."
Then I read on page 3 - "At the moment there is only a Mac version available"
Close enough.
Data write (storing charge) and data erase (removing charge)
So... this RAM can only store 1's?
Does that mean it can only store data that uses "zero-compression"? - you know, the compression where they fit a movie onto a 5.25" floppy disk by removing all the 'useless' data - the 0's.
Yes, thats my jacket with the highly illegal terrorist weapon (green laser pointer) in the pocket. Back off man, I'm an architect.
Ask for your money back - it's NOT Kevlar(tm) it's boring old ordinary carbon fibre.
Kevlar fibres are a pale goldy-yellow, and as a matted laminate are most often a bronzy-brown colour. There is a reason why Kevlar sails on yachts look copper-brown - that's what colour kevlar is.
"in part, on inadequacies in Australia's Copyright Act that may need to be dealt with by Australia's Parliament."
What, you mean like the inadequacies that exist in our other laws, such as 'You can't hold a car manufacturer responsible if their car is used in a hold-up" or "You can't even hold a GUN manufacturer responsible if someone shoots someone" - they aren't laws, but basic principles of common law.
I can't see how a company can claim 'piracy' anyway - it implies loss of income; if they aren't even selling this to Australians how the hell can they claim loss of income?
The High Court made the right decision, NOT due to inadequacies (in whose view? Hollywood's?) in our law, but in spite of them! Our High Court is actually well known for mostly getting things RIGHT, likely because it is a 6-person panel, not a single judge.
Department of Mining Surveying at Taxpayer's Expense for Large Wealthy Companies
Department of Sheepdip Engineering
Department of Rainmaking
Department of Remembering When We Launched Rockets
Department of Yet More Fiscal Jiggerypokery For Government Enquiries Into Fiscal Jiggerypokery
To be fair, the CSIRO do some wonderful work, but unfortunately they are largely directed by Earth's lowest form of life - Austfailian politicians.
.. except you'll all be LIVING IN CAVES!
"then discover that pretty much every bit of software they could want [apart from the latest games] is available from the Repositories, "
Name one decent CAD package available in any Linux repository. Name ONE. Come one, I'm waiting...
So while everyone crows about how great Linux is, no-one will be able to actually design anything physical. No cars, planes, new CPUs, computers, laptops, coffee machines, pubs, houses - NOTHING, we will be back to the grande olde dayes of pen-and-paper drafting.
Thanks Linux. EPIC EPIC EPIC FAIL.
I think you mean...
2 Enter sudo apt-get install windows7-session-fallback
3. Warning, removing windows8_start_screen will break dependencies in explorer, internet explorer, cmd, wmp, xcom, activex, driectx, iss, networking, csrss, dwm, winlogin do you want to proceed y/n?
I don't see that listed.
A shame, because Win 8 runs better than 7, snappy, boots fast, just has the UI From Hell, that makes Ubuntu's interface look sane - something I thought was impossible. Bloody hell even iOS would be better.
Also - x86 (32 and 64 versions) - I though x86 IS 32bit (confusingly illogical) and x64 IS 64bit (confusingly logical).
Oh great. This is game over, man, this is fucking game over.
Its pretty certain the Liberal 'tards are going to waltz in the next fed election, and it's pretty plain to see they will just rip the NBN to shreds with the same thinking that gave Australia freeways with only two lanes, no high-speed rail and CSIRO research into sheep dip and rainmaking rather than satellite and digital computer technology.
Yes, every time it rains the internet drops out to most homes because of crappy old copper- such as today in the Sydney CBD - our alleged Telstra ADSL2 connection is down to 128kbps with the rain - while our latest software upgrades were made available by Autodesk today - it's only a 14GB download, at 128kbps can we skip this year's upgrade and just start downloading NEXT YEARS one? Thanks Telstra, thanks Austfailian government, hey Mr Turnbull you animated turd, we can't keep up with modern software because our ISP is too fucking slow! We would choose another, but oh! thats right! Telstra have a monopoly on the infrastructure!
Without fibre to homes and businesses Austfailia will be left behind as the rest of the world embraces cloud-based software and proper connection speeds.
Bloody hell I hope that oxygen thief Turnbull drowns in his money-bath tonight.
Not if they are Intergral Trees with a liquid methane / ammonia metabolism, or something equally exotic.
Try some Robert L Forward for some exotic metabolisms - neutron star matter!
Robert L Forward worked out the parameters of the Smoke Ring for Larry Niven, by the way. The physics actually does work - a Smoke Ring is truly possible; we should be looking for them - Neptune size planets in close orbit around ancient neutron stars should be pretty common by all accounts, especially on globular clusters.
Those of you who haven't tried a Phillipe Starck Juicy Salif juicer would be well advised to avoid it.
It is not actually meant to be used, it is meant to sit on your mantelpiece to show guests what a trendy, design-concious hipster you are.
The juicer does not work. Well, no thats not quite right, it does work, but in a useless way.
Firstly - it's too tall. You have to press hard and twist to get juice out of an orange, and doing that on an object with only three legs, and is tall and narrow, with a very high centre of gravity? What could possibly go wrong? There is a good reason all other manual juicers tend to be low with wide bases!
Secondly - surface tension. The theory is sound, juice runs down the spike and drips elegantly into your Alvar Aalto-designed tumblers. In practice - surface tension makes the liquid stick to the spike, and as the liquid runs down the spike it acquires a sideways vector as well, and streams off the end int eh direction of the slope of the spike - so if you aren't using a high-ball glass that contains the end of the spike, the juice ends up all over your bench, making it wet, slippery and messy, and... see above.
So what can we expect from a merging of Apple and Starck? Maybe a circular glass & titanium keyboard? A perfectly cubical mouse with nice precise sharp edges? Whatever it is, it will certainly allow Apple to add another 700% or so markup to the same old tat.
It's not the warranty, it's the Sony PSN system being the digital equivalent of leaving your wallet on a park bench with a note on it with all your passwords, PIN numbers and a big flashing red light saying 'Free Money Here'
Another ex-Sony customer who will never, ever buy their products again.
Why amazing?
Stephen Baxter wrote about a Space Shuttle getting into trouble during atmospheric entry (Titan 1997) and then it actually happened in 2003! How could anyone have predicted that a Shuttle would crash as a result of problems like that?
OH! Look! ANOTHER coincidence - TITAN!
This PROVES that fiction authors are actually TIME-TRAVELLERS!
I thought the whole point of Dark Matter was that we didn't know what it is?
Thus it should be impossible to say it hits us once a minute? It could hit us N times a minute, and the whole point of it being weakly interacting means it would make bugger-all difference, right?
So how does the number once a minute come up? It sounds suspiciously round to me, why not 3.1415 times a minute?
And surely a better standard could be used, say DM / ZD (Dark Matter particles per Zooey Deschanel - the voulme occupied by her at least)
...is Our Glourious Leader's financial records for the CSIRO during the 802.11 discussion era - at about the time of the Sydney Olympics, I think the CSIRO's total budget was about $23.47
It's not the first time Australian Government & Industry indifference and reluctance to spend money has seen Australian designed products get exploited by others. For our Goverment, if it's not Sport or Old US Weapons Tech we hate spending. In the case of Australian industry if the money could be spent on buying the CEO a bigger house / car / boat / aircraft / island / media empire, that's where it will go. Heaven forbid we invest in innovation, or deity forbid, give credit where it is due.
Thanks for the C64 Jack - my love for tech started there, and my lifelong enjoyment of tinkering has kept me from purchasing a Mac ever since; I've got close, but dammit I love pulling things apart.
Thanks for the vision to include wonderful things like the MOS 6851 SID chip - in my view one of the most important pieces of silicon ever designed.
Thanks for the machine that allowed me to enjoy things like Elite, Mercenery, Ultima 4, Uridium, Paradroid, Impossible Mission, Flight Simulator 2.
Thanks for an architecture a 17-year old of medium intelligence could work out assembly for, letting me discover things like fractals all by myself, two years before James Gleick's book.
Thanks, Jack for your works.
RUN STOP.
Windows 3.1 worked. Often quite well. I did most of my uni work on it. Once you learned how to keep a lean, clean PC it was a joy to work with.
I learned a lot with Win 3.1 that still serves me well today - install ONLY what you need (seriously, you don't really use more than about 4 main apps) and thats it. Keep it clean, keep it lean, and be amazed at the performance, whether it is Win3.1, Win 8 or OSX.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
