Posts by Charles Manning

Prof develops football-match scheduling software

I did this on punch cards....

in Fortran, in 1981.

I can think of many more useful Uni projects than this.

Tesla speeds to $1m profit

@ Tom Simnett

The press release says they are profitable at the corporate level (ie. this is nett profit, not gross profit).

Since the 465M is a low interest loan, that will be accounted for separately, like any loan. However, since they're getting this at low interest, it is worth probably $10M per year as direct bailout.

ie. They're really in a $9M hole.

@Reg Sim

Hydrogen Cars, fuel cells.... Grabbing at straws mate.

Hydrogen + fuel cells don't fix anything really, it just moves the problem and makes it more complicated.

I'm sure 12k will get you a fuel cell... probably enough to run the lights and TomTom.

Brit firm sells hi-tech fabric vehicle armour to DARPA

@Balefire

I though it was Amway supplying 30 testicles. No doubt stacked in a pyramid.

Apple denies censoring App Store swear words

N*zi

Even a BBC History podcast's description got censored because it contained "N*zi".

One in three Europeans never been online

re: "But its not all bad news"

Bloody good news!

Do you really want these people on the internet? They're the type that plug in an unprotected Win box and leave it there to join a bot farm.

IT grad sues school over failed job hunt

Some courses are over-sold

While she's probably going overboard, I can understand her point to an extent.

Manny colleges etc go on recruiting drives and tell prospective students that all their grads get employment and it's a guaranteed job.

Student graduates but doesn't get job. Perhaps the college has oversold and are not living up to their promises.

UK teens bullied into sending sex texts

re: Easy fix

"unique ID) tattooed in the immediate vicinity of their naughty bits".

Great idea. When you lose your virginity the finder can post it back to you!

Microsoft craves iPhone developers for Windows Mobile

Fool me once,...

A few years back, MS encouraged software vendors to get onboard the WinCE train. That even included tools vendors.

Given the way MS treated the likes of Borland on the PC platform it is no wonder very few people have taken them up on the offer.

Mars rover stalks mystery space alien object

Cobblers

These NASA speculators should talk to some Earth-side geologists.

Such sights are reasonably common on earth with local explanations.

For example, if there is water in the ground and it freezes, then it can push up boulders.

Ballmer: People don't 'get' Microsoft's Yahoo! marriage

Ballmer predicts own failure

"The greatest source of wealth creation is being in the right market early enough. If you aren’t in early enough, you aren’t going to grow with the market."

Quite.

So why bother with Zune or bing?

The only way to successfully enter a market which is already established is to come up with a very significant disruptor. Half-baked "me toos" and "me threes" like Zune and bing don't cut it.

XBox worked, to the extent it has, because MS poured huge money into it and subsidized the hell out of the operation.

What meds is he on? I want some.

Microsoft-Yahoo! pact hit with anti-trust question

Going from one to one == no change

MS and Yawho both been irrelevant for a long time. They can fiddle for as long as they like without changing the competitiveness of the market.

Opera chief: history will silence Unite doubters

re: I fully agree that Unite is revolutionary

So you have to keep your PC running just in case granny wants to show her friends some pictures of her grand kids? Apart from tree hugging power use concerns, that's a security nightmare. Ever running PCs make for nice bot farms. Nothing provides better security than encouraging people to turn off/disconnect their PCs when not in use.

If you really think your photos etc are so valuable that FB is going to sell them then you're either a brilliant photographer (and should probably have a commercial website) or you're deluded.

Landlord sues tenant over moldy Tweet

re: Is no-one else a bit worried...

The flip side... would you want a tenant that tweets?

ARM doesn't lose self and leg

Silly article

Bah! USA Today could have done this better.

Used in iphone. They're used in pretty much every cell phone and most smart phones etc will have multiple ARMs (main CPU, phone module, GPS, wifi module,..). ARM are also used in all kinds of kit unrelated to phones.

Chip designer: No, they design cores, not chips. Chip designers that the ARM designs and glob them together with other IP to design chips.

Blueprints: Nobody has done chip blueprints since the 80s.

I guess I could have politely forced myself to laugh at the ARM + leg pun if a four year old had made it.

Truck drivers! Don't go texting now

I can use VoIP legally!

The problem with specific laws is that they cost far too much to keep up to date and that they don't pass any common sense test.

Making cell phone calls illegal, but allowing VoIP or TETRA radio calls or whatever is plain nonsense.

Banning text messaging, but allowing people to use email or the www to make comments is equally stupid. Then where do you draw the line? Is reading cnn.com really any different to fiddling with your TomTom?

Foxconn answers critics over suicidal iPhone engineer

@@Charles Manning

You miss my main point:

It is nearly, if not completely, impossible to boycott Foxconn et al and use the www or a phone etc, since they make everything from ethernet cables to routers, PCs etc. Therefore submitting a comment that you're boycotting Foxconn is just plain retarded since you're using their products to say that you won't use them. Then you're using them again to read the comments.

Gettit?

Sure, I agree that we, as an industry, should exploit these people less and do more for them. But to do that requires that we be prepared to pay more for products or demand that companies take better care of the workers in their product streams. You can achieve that by approaching companies, particularly the big brands, and telling them what you feel.

The same goes for all products that you buy that are made in China etc.

Stupid boycotters

If you're boycotting Foxxcon and their ilk then how the fuck are you watching TV, reading the www, accessing the internet, making phone calls or even typing your ignorant comments?

The Foxxcon workers get treated a lot better than the workers that made most of the stuff you're using to keep yourself comfortable. They'd also rather that you shut up and keep buying the stuff so they have what they consider a bloody good job.

But the truth is that you're going to do nothing! You'd love to make a grandstanding moralistic statement so that you can feel less guilty about your indirect involvement in the process. The part that hurts the most is that this has all been made public. You'd rather all this gory detail was kept hidden behind a factory wall in China and not dragged out in full view.

Your moralistic positioning is as daft as someone that cries about the cruelty in killing animals while chomping into a steak.

Morons the lot of you!

Apple-apeing Microsoft spins out retail store prototype

re Surface

The whole point of surface is to mesmerize so that you don't realise how shit the stuff they're actually selling you is.

I wonder whether they will offer free Zune carrying beige totty to help liven up the parties. I can see the party room now.... Big screen with Ballmer shouting: party, party, party,party, party, party,party, party, party,party, party, party,party, party, party,party, party, party,party, party, party,party, party, party,party, party, party,party, party, party,party, party, party,party, party, party,party, party, party,party, party, party,party, party, party,party, party, party,party, party, party,party, party, party,party, party, party,party, party, party,party, party, party,party, party, party,party, party, party,party, party, party,party, party, party,party, party, party,party, party, party,party, party, party,party, party, party.

Feminist org declines nude calendar cash

*ists == narrow minded

racists, feminists, communists capitalists,.... all are pushing a barrow or some sort.

If you want equal treatment then *ism is not the right approach.

Kent Police clamp down on tall photographers

re: Never, ever, EVER ...

At 6ft6 that would skin me out of most jobs.

It is fine to have the vertically challenged people in positions of power, but make sure you don't push them around so that they feel forced to play the power card. The Napoleon gene is ruthless.

One of the reasons that tall cops were prefered in the past is because taller & bigger people tend to exude an aura of power without having to assert themselves. A small cop needs to show a bit of agro to get respect.

Government promises low carbon future

re:bright, green future

Well you might first consider that most jobs are complete bullshit anyway and do absolutely nothing productive. Greening the way these people work only gets you half the saving. It would be better to get rid of these jobs and services completely.

A lot of emissions reduction is just creative accounting. Should you consider emissions at the point of generation or point of consumption? If you want to think globally then it has to be at the point of consumption. Politicians often prefer point of production since if a factory is shut down then they can claim a reduction even if the citizens are still consuming the same products made elsewhere.

New Zealand set to join internet blocking club

re: No need for censorship

So you're saying that there is no need to block access to kiddy porn, just take the kiddy porn site down.

Ummm that's quite hard to do if the site is on the other side of the world where your government has no power. The only way to deal with issues like that is to cut access.

Microsoft invests $1m in IT girls

re: Carrie

up it sure looks like you got done over badly, but that was then and things have moved on a bit. I think most places will be a lot more female friendly now. We can't correct the injustices you might have suffered 20 years ago by giving modern women preferential treatment.

Perhaps though your experience is not just due to being female. Perhaps you're just abrasive etc. If the office culture was to use the Atari for games at lunch time then just saying 'the boys nicked it' is you making sex into an issue.

If things are going in the right direction then government or think-tank interference is quite likely not helping. Society can often fix itself without interference. Here in NZ, most graduate doctors are now female. We don't have many female garbage people, but no doubt that will equalise too with time.

Twitter's underwear exposed after Google Apps hack

Who cares?

Within a few months twitter will shut down and all the disks will be for sale on eBay.

Ballmer gets tough with girly Microsoft partners

More than 50% where the money is

Well it depends who you're talking about.

Most people could do most of their stuff through a browser: writing docs, email, etc., even if they don't yet.

Gamers will spend more time outside their browsers, as will software developers.

But most of MSs money does not come from selling to software developers or home users/gamers. They make their money from office workers - and almost all office related computing can be done through a browser even if it isn't yet.

In fact, most offices would work better through a browser-only interface since that can be locked down tighter. That would make BOFHing simpler too: better security, no viruses, easier backups.

Office 2010 tech preview: Expect the expected

Video in a word doc!

That's enough to motivate me to buy a colour printer.

Rosetta Stone rocks Google with trademark lawsuit

Easy fix

Google should just tell Rosetta that, due to trade mark concerns, they will refuse to link to any Rosetta www material.

Intel cozying up to Google Chrome OS

Linux on ARM + another Louis flame

There are far more Linux -on-ARM systems than there are Linux-on-x86 systems. All those Linux-based phones, of which there are many millions, are running Linux on ARM.

The whole point of Chrome OS is that it hides the whole OS from the user. You don't need to understand grep or bash or anything like that, much like Android or a Motorola Linux phone all that hairy-hacker stuff is hidden. You just deal with a nice UI.

Perhaps Louis is right perhaps we need to move away from threads to some functional programming model. But then again perhaps he was just dropped on the head as a child. Dunno about anyone else, but all my attempts to write a device driver in Haskell failed badly.

Easter Island dirt may hold key to longer life

@jake

You're right. The primary purpose of medical research is to make more money.

More and more money is spent on medical procedures than ever before. Twenty years ago hip replacements were rare. Now they're as routine as kids getting their tonsils out. Society, through NHS or private medical insurance, really can't afford to give every citizen an artificial hip.

Keeping people alive beyond their natural lifespan requires exponentially more medical intervention.

Feeding people longevity pills will just keep them alive longer. If the pill also delays aging then it will just delay that ultimate decay.

The only way this technology could reduce expense is to feed people the stuff until they're 65 or 70 - delaying aging and reducing medical expenses - then take the stuff away so that the decay is swift and death comes fast.

Mobile co fails to stump up for pointless structure

Still a folly

Considering that most mobile chit-chat is pointless, this thing would still be a folly if it housed cells.

Steve Jobs snubs LSD daddy

re: Summary: Gates is beter

I don't know where to start...

Gate's "philanthropy" always comes with strings attached. He's trying to buy karma and little ego-boosting trinkets and cause confusion.

When you're skint then you might buy yourself a coffee cup with your name on it and you have to pay for the whole thing and the sales clerk ignores you.

When you've got billions, then giving $20 million to CMU and they pitch in the rest ($30m+) to buy yourself naming rights on "Gates Center". Every time you go to CMU they roll out the red carpet and generally lick your balls.

Teen cuffed for bomb threat webcam pay-per-view

Wrong approach

The cops should just set up in competition. Use fake call outs as a training exercise and charge pay per view to defray expenses.

Apple preps iPhone face recognition

The patent system won't change.

It is very easy to get a patent for an existing idea by just changing the usage scenario.

Even though face recognition on a computer is well known, and you and I know that a mobile phone is just a computer in a different box, face recognition on mobile phone is sufficiently novel to get a patent.

Of course many people will say that this is a problem with software patents, but the same issue applies to all patents. Whenever a new widget or technology comes along there are a rash of new patents.

Gluing table legs to table tops is well known, but invent these new things called chairs and suddenly you can patent gluing chair legs to chair seats.

It's not just software patents, it is the whole patent system that's broken.

USPTO makes pots of cash for Uncle Sam and patent lawyers make pots of cash through applications. But the real money for patent lawyers comes when a patent is challenged.... that's the big win. Thus crap patents are worth more to them than good ones.

For any change to happen, the patent system experts, ie the existing practitioners, would be consulted and they would have to want the change. Since the status quo is serving them very well, they won't steer the USPTO towards change.

Google's vanity OS is Microsoft's dream

@Slow witted wanker doser

You're quite right that grep awk fuk -9 does hinder the uptake of Linux. However that shit can be readily wrapped into something hidden from the user. That is something that is particularly easy to do if distros are custom rolled for netbooks etc. Look at Android phones. They run on Linux and you don't need to grep or awk them.

Something like Android on a netbook could be great. That does everything most people need most of the time.

The only thing that keeps Windows a "must have" in the household are games. Linux can do everything else.

To make netbooks a reality, we need to dump x86 and move to ARM. That is possible with Linux but not XP.

Linux patch sidesteps Microsoft's TomTom patent

The patch

config FS_FAT_FLYING_CHAIRS

bool "Do you want to violate Microsoft FAT patent?"

depends FS_FAT

default n

help

Enable to annoy Ballmer

Petrol station robbers cuffed after running out of petrol

Rather obvvious how this all happened.....

Scene: Perp 1 and Perp 2 are driving along...

Perp 1 (passenger) :"We need some money. We need to rob somebody. I wonder who?"

Perp 2(driver): "Let me think a bit...".

[Little yellow petrol pump lights up on dash]

Perp 2: "Hey! A little gas pump just lit up on the dash."

Perp 1: "It must be a message from God. We need to rob a gas station!."

...

Marie Curie voted top female boffin

@Steven Jones

Real Computer Science is a real science and explains the fundamental limitations to sorting efficiency, compiler theory etc. Turing et al. (he could half get this prize).

It's just that real computer computer science is not taught.

Learning to program at university might be carried out by the computer science faculty, but that does not make it computer science. Computer science, as taught at universities, should really be an engineering discipline (ie. computer engineering or software engineering).

Microsoft distances self from IE 8 puke ads

"piece of creative"

Now verbs are nouns?

"piece of creative"

Now verbs are nouns?

Opps! Sorry adjectives.

<--- flames to self.

Bing slips into bed with Twitter

@Chris King

Mummy?

Do you really think either bing or twitter will last another 9 months?

Joining Zune with Cuil makes more sense.

Apple patents karaoke lessons

RF power amplifiers?

Hopefully to sterilize any off-key karaoke singers! That will provide feedback through genetics. By 2570 all karaoke will be on-key.

Buzz Aldrin weighs into NASA

Space is boring

The 60s might have seen a lot of interest in space, but that was for two main political reasons:

* The Space Race was a contest between USSR and USA. USA started on the back foot and wanted to show it was better than USSR at a time when the USA population were very frightened: digging shelters and teaching nuclear drills at schools. Big rockets provided a satisfying feeling of power.

* USA politicians wanted something to divert eyes from Vietnam.

The result of this was a huge national uptake of space fixation. A model orbiter hung from the ceiling in 60% of boys' bedrooms and kids would dress up with tinfoil and goldfish bowls to go to show and tell or fancy dress parties.

All the excitement helped bring kids to science and engineering.

But space is of itself relatively boring and pointless and the excitement soon wore off. Apollo 11 got lots of TV coverage etc, but by Apollo 12 it was yawns all around and back to regular programming.

Going to the moon again, or another planet, just won't capture attention and there's no real payoff.

DARPA: Can we have a one-cabinet petaflop supercomputer?

No problem

How many dwarfs can you pack in a rack?

Apple ups stake in UK mobile chippery

re: Idea

ARM don't own any chip manufacturing and don't want to. They get a cut from everyone using ARM designs in their chip manufacturing.

Ecopocalypse causes giant fish ears

It's sonar

Just like rock concerts and ipods make the yoof deaf, naval sonar does the same.

Fish compensate by making bigger ear trumpets.

QED.*

[*By using QED, this is very clearly a scientific proof.]

Mystic Met Office predicts neighbourhood Thermageddon

The models are broken

A picture of a turd is still a picture of a turd whether shot with s 2Mpixel or 32Mpixel camera.

Running the models faster and to higher precision will just give more accurate garbage.

'Overweight' people live longer than those of 'ideal' weight

Anecdotal evidence

All the people I know that have died of diseases before reaching 40 were fitness junkies that died of various cancers etc.

All the under 40s I know that have died of other causes were also fit. The 2 guys that got killed in the Army were fit, but we can probably discount death by high speed metal from this survey. The motor cyclist was fit too, even the suicide bloke was fit.

All the fat bastards are still going strong.

Nokia to develop Intel-based pocket internet gadgets

x86 equivalent of iPhone

I don't know how Nokia are going to make a phone with a laptop size battery, cooling fans and 2 hour standby time sexy and trendy,. but no doubt they know their business .

Top 500 supers - world yawns at petaflops

@ Don Mitchel

Server farm != super computer.

Server farms distribute the load after which each server is reasonably independent.

A super computer still tries to act and work as a single machine, crunching on a single problem.

I expect many super computers are involved in crunching climate models. If you're modelling the atmosphere as (10km)^3 parcels of air in increments of 1 day, then changing to (1km)^3 at 1 hour requires 24000 x more calculations to crunch the same basic model and allows more precise calculation. Some of these models crunch for months at a time.

GIGO of course, unless you precisely understand what all the variables are, you'll just get bullshit results to 20 decimal places.