* Posts by HippyFreetard

120 publicly visible posts • joined 1 Sep 2012

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Buses? PAH. Begone with your filthy peasant-wagons

HippyFreetard

It's a society ffs.

Can't we just get along?

Can't we just take a look at everything when we're spending on roads? Why can't we acknowledge that car drivers, taxi users, bus users, and cyclists are all citizens and public services should serve everybody?

Space Commanders lock missiles on Elite's Frontier Devs

HippyFreetard

Here's the plan.

Everybody buy Elite Dangerous. Then, when Braben's a gazilionaire, we all pester him for an offline mode.

If he doesn't agree, we'll start our own Open Source version. With hookers and blackjack.

Ten excellent FREE PC apps to brighten your Windows

HippyFreetard

I'm a Linux, but...

Any time I set up a Windows PC, or do any of that post-cleaning stuff, I have a list of software that I shove on almost automatically.

I put MSE on my own non-professional Windows box, but I put Comodo on my partner's web dev box.

Then goes on MalwareBytes and SpyBot S&D. Haven't used AdAware for about ten years myself, but I'll have to give it another look. :)

Also, Total Commander for filing stuff. Git and git bash are great too, I've started using it even for ordinary backups. XAMPP, Notepad++, FF/Chrome, 7-zip, GIMP, Inkscape etc. are all available as portable apps too.

I used to use these things called Little from Sourceforge. There was Little Registry Cleaner, and Little Defrag. They were great, but then they went all bad with dodgy malware. Maybe they've learned their lessons, but I'm still mad at them.

NHS slow to react as Windows XP support nears the end

HippyFreetard
Linux

Re: Ach, just pay MS more money

I agree. The NHS should be looking into moving away from lock-in. I see this as a perfect time to roll out a proper Open Source solution across the NHS.

The UK government have declared OpenDocument as their official format, the NHS already use a combination of Red Hat and Oracle for most of their database work, and there's no reason why this couldn't be extended to the rest of their system, perhaps eventually replacing Oracle with an Open Source database system.

As a taxpayer-funded service, they should at least be looking into this sort of thing as a matter of course, hopefully they won't be just buying the first shiny box a vendor plonks onto the desk.

Microsoft buys Minecraft for $2.5bn. Notch: I'm getting the block outta here

HippyFreetard

Kerching!

That's a lot of cash.

Hopefully they'll still release a Linux version...

KER-CHING! CryptoWall ransomware scam rakes in $1 MEEELLION

HippyFreetard

scumbags.

It's funny how I've seen hundreds, probably thousands of adverts on TV telling me not to drink too much, not to drink and drive, to put my seatbelt on, not to fly kites round pylons, to wear a bike helmet, and other "stay safe" adverts on TV.

I don't think I've ever seen an advert that warns me not to click on email attachments, or that popups telling me I have malware might be scams. I've never seen an advert that to warn me that MS doesn't call customers randomly telling them they're infected. Never.

I mean it's fine for us who know, but they just sell PCs and laptops to anyone, and there's no responsibility at all. I remember cleaning a neighbour's PC and saw a weird thing in the tray. This person was paying a subscription to their own malware. I'm not kidding. It was heartbreaking to tell them that. They had a direct debit set up and everything.

Businesses are business. They should be training their staff anyway, but every time I get a phone call from "Windows support" I'm sure the people down the road can hear the tirade of vitriolic abuse I give them.

But ransomware is particularly nasty. These guys have made a million bucks and STILL no ad campaign. Malware signatures and detection should be open sourced so that if Comodo finds something, keeping it secret from Avast is not an option. They should be made to compete on features, not on security.

Indie labels: 5 reasons why we're hauling YouTube before Euro antitrust watchdog

HippyFreetard

Re: Google Mottos

"For once Benjamin consented to break his rule, and he read out to her what was written on the wall. There was nothing there now except a single Commandment. It ran:

"ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

"BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS

"After that it did not seem strange when next day the pigs who were supervising the work of the farm all carried whips in their trotters..."

Snowden defends mega spy blab: 'Public affairs have to be known by the public'

HippyFreetard

Re: DippyFreetard Faye Kane, unused brain self-delusional loudmouth

"?!?!?!? OMG"

Clearly from context I was referring to your use of "The Greens I met" as an argument.

Patrick Moore is one person, and you accuse me of cherry-picking my support? Well done. Do you want me to list names of right-wing politicians who are in power, forming policy based on their belief in an ancient Mesopotamian deity? I have more than one.

"ROFL"

Yes, they are ecologists and social capitalists. You haven't lifted any lid at all. And yes, science helps us out here. But like I said, the Greenies aren't anti-science-itself. That's the realm of the Christian right-wing, who believe science is wrong because the bible says. The Greens are anti-some-science, in particular, fracking and animal testing, but are pro-some-other-sciences, such as sustainable energy, and ethical agriculture and horticulture. There isn't a Science Party. All parties have religious people who belong to them. There isn't even a Science-based political stance out there, except perhaps Fresco's techno-communism, which is impossible under current technology.

I haven't tried to divert the failings of my party. I have laid them out myself and always do. But they are paltry in comparison to the delusions that the right wing are under, and which form the backbone of their policies.

Soviet Russia was not a Social Capitalist state like Norway or Iceland. The Social Capitalist model is economically viable.

Also, a paywall is how most peer-reviewed science journals operate. I do my research on Google Scholar, and my subscriptions often lead me to forget this, so my apologies for the link.

Here's a more recent article that you won't need to dip into your pocket money or pester your dad for.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/27/intelligence-study-links-prejudice_n_1237796.html

HippyFreetard

Re: DippyFreetard Faye Kane, unused brain self-delusional loudmouth

Ad hominem. Contains no rebuttal, only insult.

Straw man. Ask me, I'll tell you.

Again, just rubbish. Socialist economics are proven to work. Redistribution creates growth.

Once again, nonsense. Their members talk about it all the time.

No, I can't ignore people I can't see. They are not in a position to be evidence in this debate on account of the fact that you could have just made them up, or exaggerated their position, or be falling for confirmation bias. I cannot accept people you claim to know as evidence, therefore you cannot use them to debunk me in this debate. That you didn't even know this speaks volumes about you.

Again, they are Social Capitalists, not scientists. Feeding the poor and mitigating damage to the environment are their priorities. This is a natural way to feel about your fellow citizens, so it is a valid democratic stance.

If you ask a scientist to name a party that is often ignorant of science, he may name the Green party. But there are really right-wing people (a lot of them) who believe that 6-day creation talking snake thing. It's right-wingers that are suppressing scientific teaching in schools, and medical procedures from being researched. Greenies often believe in gods and goddesses and angels, but it wasn't a Greenie who stood in front of the world and said "God is on my side." before invading the living shit out of Iraq.

The right-wing are the anti-science people. Sure, we may get the odd homeopathy care centre, and restrict animal testing, but this is not on the same scale or level of damage. To be actually anti-science is to decry the scientific method itself, preferring the dogma of a Palestinian cult, with it's talking snakes and it's Revelations brimstone.

That is anti-science. That is the realm of the right wing.

The most intelligent people go left. Fact. Because I know smart lefties? No, only an idiot would use unverifiable people he "met" as an argument!

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289609000051

HippyFreetard
Mushroom

Re: DippyFreetard Faye Kane, unused brain self-delusional loudmouth

Let me know when you debunk something :)

The Green Party manifesto is online and has been for years. They're not anti-capitalist, they're just social capitalists. They believe in higher taxes and higher public spending, not the abolition of the monetary system. It's a valid stance in a democratic system. Also, the Greens you met don't count as a debunk!

Norway and Switzerland are the more affluent side of Social Democratic Capitalism, I'll admit. But bear in mind that Norway's economy isn't based solely on oil. The money they've made so far puts them at one of the richest nations in the world per capita, and when the oil economy needs to change, they'll be one of the most ready nations.

However, over in Iceland, they chose democratically to abandon the austerity measures that were recommended by the IMF, and support a ground-up growth. It's been tough for them, but now their economy is back on the rise again, so it was definitely a valid decision, and one the population are largely pleased with. Even the IMF later admitted that the austerity measures had negative effects. It's not really anybody's fault, we hadn't had a crash like this before, and economists were just making educated guesses. They couldn't have done that without their president giving them the choice in referendum, and for that the IMF and austerity nations called him a terrorist. They love their president in Iceland, they won't let him retire!

In 2010, Labour voters abandoned Labour because they were too right-wing after the Iraq war. The Lib-Dems were the next hope. Up in Scotland, they got the SNP in, who are another Social Democratic party, run by a successful oil and banking economist.

As for Switzerland, again, we're talking about a democracy that the rich have to share with the poor. So unless you instigate a fascist government that's only there to serve a small percentage of the population, what can you do about it? Good or bad economically, they're making a democratic decision. As we saw in the 70s when people like the Beatles and Pink Floyd buggered off to America, there's only so high you can tax the rich. This is something the people who fill in their referenda every week have to learn, and if it doesn't work (and their elevator guy clears off), they will have to make that decision themselves.

Also, thanks to modern technology, I can talk to you directly from my wigwam. I'm there right now eating hemp and weaving beans with my pet whale. I know you right-wingers can be a little slow sometimes, but we're all special in our own way, right ;)

HippyFreetard

Re: Faye Kane, unused brain self-delusional loudmouth

It's funny, though, how us Greenies actually check out as having the highest IQs. We're a leftie bunch. Not surprisingly, the lowest IQs are among the BNP voters. Seems the left/right divide corresponds to the high/low scale of IQ testing.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/2008/nov/03/greenpolitics-liberaldemocrats

Most modern democracies are a mix of capitalism and socialism. Even that flagship of the capitalist world, the USA, has a system of food stamps and social care.

Similarly, a nation like Norway, who has high taxes and high public spending still allows a socially responsible form of capitalism.

If you look at the Corruption Perceptions Index, you'll see that Norwegians also feel themselves to be in one of the most democratic nations in the world. So their socialism is a democratic constitutional consensus. They pay tons of taxes, and they have one of the best healthcare systems in the world, and have the lowest crime rates and the lowest levels of poverty. They're not exactly "lefties", though.

In some parts of Switzerland, they have a system of Direct Democracy, where the citizens vote on decisions in a system of weekly referenda polls. They still vote to raise their own taxes when they feel they need to.

I wouldn't exactly call Switzerland and Norway anti-capitalist, though! They're not struggling nations. Sometimes the socialist thing is the best thing, whether you're a capitalist or not. Utah have recently found out that simply housing the poor - ie giving them houses unconditionally, forever - actually works out lower in cost for the taxpayer, when given the crime, health, and other costs of homelessness. Also, welfare concepts that seem almost communist, such as Guaranteed Basic Income, have been championed by right-wingers like Sarah Palin and even my personal arch-enemy, Milton Friedman himself.

Being smart can certainly help one become rich. So can confidence, a posh accent, and good posture, if truth be told. But being smart doesn't necessarily mean one desires to be wealthy. Many of the world's top scientists (and lefties) prefer to give what they can to humanity and do what they enjoy rather than accumulate wealth.

Studies have shown that the more wealth one accumulates, even in a divisive unequal system where the odds are stacked in your favour from the start, it is a psychological phenomenon that one will always believe it is due to one's own skill and intelligence.

http://nymag.com/news/features/money-brain-2012-7/

There is very little evidence sociologically, psychologically, politically, or economically, that you are smart because you are right wing, or even that your success is due to your own intelligence.

HippyFreetard

If it had been really necessary, we might have deliberately voted in a statist government. We would have turned out our pockets and allowed cameras into our homes. We'd be making cups of tea for the engineers who installed our spyware and everything.

This is a completely different situation. We gave no government mandate to be spied on. Our democratically elected leaders did it completely and utterly behind our backs. The collection was unwarranted and against regulation, even for post-9/11, torture-legalising, Patriot-Act USA. They were wrong, and Snowden was right to reveal that. It is wrong to criminalise whistleblowers who reveal illegal activity.

Drone's drug airdrop mission ends in failure for Irish prisoners

HippyFreetard
Trollface

Re: If I may...

Well you've certainly provided an excellent definition of a drone.

HippyFreetard
Pirate

Re: Just drop the damn thing when above the point you want to be above...

Yeah, that's what I was thinking, some sort of electromagnet. Would need an extra channel for remote control, or some sort of time-delay could be set up. Or some sort of movement-triggered thing, like a sudden sideways lurch that knocks a loop of string off a hook. You could also just see how long a battery lasted and time it to that.

Sounds like a Kickstarter project.

"Give us £100,000 for our great new startup, BuzzMulez.onion"

Is Steve Bong about? I need a venture capitalist of his calibre to pull this off...

HippyFreetard

Hm.

Needs a release switch. Then it would drop the package silently from above.

Er, I mean, how terrible of them etc...

Google starts selling Glass to Brits – for £1,000 a pop

HippyFreetard

Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic...

They're ugly, and they're expensive.

Call me when it's a nice pair of glasses with augmented reality.

I want to be able to slip a pair of these on, and have GPS arrows on the road, or a terminator-style HUD with scrolling emails, text messages, calendar reminders etc. Then if I get on a train for a long journey, I should be able to turn up the opacity and watch a movie in 3D. All on a nice pair of designer sunglasses or glasses (why not both, with LCD).

In fact, if you think about it, Google's self-driving cars have to have in-built hazard perception. A pair of sunglasses that were sensitive to peril could be a money-spinner...

Elon Musk: Just watch me – I'll put HUMAN BOOTS on Mars by 2026

HippyFreetard

Re: Off topic

Totally agree.

Really efficient petrol cars exist now, and yet people still buy Lambos and Porsches.

Electric cars are at that stage. It's new, it's cool in it's own way, so there's no reason why they won't sell enough for a small niche market.

They also look good. It shouldn't be important, perhaps, but it is, and Musk has done a good job of making a car you wouldn't be embarrassed to drive.

Formula E starts in a week or so, so that will probably boost the "cool" of electric cars a little. Because at this stage in the market, it isn't really about efficiency or cost. That will come later, when the technology matures.

Actually, maybe we should just forget total reliance on battery, and build our cities into a giant Scalextric set, with a little metal strip running down the centre of every road. Or big poles like bumper cars...

HippyFreetard

M'arse

I like Musk, he's a forward-looking person. He's like the capitalist reading of Ghandi's "be the change you want to see" ethos. Love his work so far. Electric cars, spaceships - cool stuff.

Not too sure about Mars though.

(TL,DR: I want rotating spaceships first)

It seems a little too far off. I mean, we have no knowledge of what the reduced gravity would do to us over the long-term. Would we want to adapt, and visit Earth in wheelchairs, or would we want to go around in elastic suits and heavy robes to counteract the effects while on Mars? I was watching one of those fun-fair rides with the spinning chairs on chains, and I thought maybe you could have cabins hung from a huge tower that could top up your gravity a little in the evening.

Personally, I'd put that money into a rotating permanent space station. Maybe Musk knows that Bigelow Aerospace looks like they'll acheive that, so he's thinking further. I think that's the way to go. Just one, capable of housing a few construction workers comfortably, and you've got a space revolution. It will be easier to mine asteroids and comets and build stations with AG in Lagrange points and orbits all round the solar system. A city on Mars will be a much more acheivable goal from there.

The reasons NASA aren't concentrating on this are quite logical. They want to run zero-G experiments, and gauge the effects of zero-G on station inhabitants. Sure, they want to go to Mars, but they don't want to go until they know whether it's possible without bothering with AG. That's why private enterprise is so important here. Asteroid and comet mining could actually be profitable for companies down on Earth, so we'll need the equivalent of an oil rig or something. Somewhere where you can sit down and forget you're at work, even if your work is in space.

We have Musk already working on his spaceship. Branson's got his own in the pipeline, and there's also a lot of talk about the Skylon spaceplane. With Bigelow making inflatable space stations, as well as a few other weirder contenders (like JPAerospace!) developing their own stuff. Even Copenhagen Suborbitals are acheiving their goals.

Internet of Things fridges? Pfft. So how does my milk carton know when it's empty?

HippyFreetard

Damnit, yes! I'm sick of hearing about stupid applications for cool tech.

Massive shift in the way we do things coming up. Everything connected. What will you do?

"Oh, I dunno. You could, er... something with a fridge?"

How practical is an electric car in London?

HippyFreetard

Re: On Street Parking

The real problem with electric cars right now, is the VHS/Betamax problem. Nobody wants to buy a car until the charging stations are everywhere, and nobody wants to build charging stations until they know which system everybody will use.

The recent patent airdrop by Tesla has the power to kick-start the industry. I would say 20 years is realistic. Some cars already go 100 miles before needing charged or swapped, so I only see that improving.

40% of Scotland's electricity comes from renewable sources, and there is investment in more. Reducing our reliance on oil (be it American, Russian, Middle Eastern, or our own) and other finite fuel sources has got to be a good thing.

I don't think it will totally replace petrol in 20 years, but I think the industries will run concurrently until petrol cars occupy the same classic niches as horse-drawn carriages, steam trains and sailing boats (which are still thriving industries, if reduced from their heyday).

I would say using a combination of solar, wind, geothermal, tidal, and hydro, we could eventually make all our electricity renewable. Efficiency will increase. With car companies competing for custom and more customers bringing better mass production, the price of the technology will come down. 20 years is quite realistic.

Tesla is bringing out a budget model next year or so. It won't be long before those start being sold second-hand, and we'll all be buying them. If his system wins out, other companies will develop their own compatible versions, and the technology will become standard.

'THERE'S BEEN A MURRRDER!' Plod probe Street View 'slaying'

HippyFreetard

Re: I'm just stoked...

I lived in that car-park of a street for a year!

The fresh Mint of dwell there: This is a story all about how 17 is here for a while

HippyFreetard
Thumb Up

I'm a Linux, and Mint 17 was my idea.

Actually responding to the needs and wants of their inexperienced users? It's certainly a novel concept in the FLGPLOSSRTFM world. So crazy, it might just work!

HippyFreetard

Re: How do you pronounce Lefebvre?

Leh-feh-vruh. With a "Guttaral R".

Now, should we pronounce his first name as Cleh-ment or Cloh-mo'?

Google's driverless car: It'll just block our roads. It's the worst

HippyFreetard
Trollface

Re: But what about ... ?

Thanks for clarifying ;)

HippyFreetard

But what about ... ?

All these questions are great. You should compile them and send them to Google in case they've missed one. You know, just to prevent the case where they're rolling off the production line and off to their customers' car parks and garages, and a Google exec shouts "Potholes! We forgot about potholes!" If you guys get this stuff to them in time, you'll save them a fortune in potential Total Recall of all their Johnny-cabs.

I'm amazed nobody's asked the elephant question. If there's no driver, who will drive them? Computers? Well think again because computers don't even have hands and feet! They have the typewriter bit and the TV thing and the clicky thing, but no hands! How could they use a gearstick? These things will just crash everywhere, guaranteed.

It's like that other dead-end technology, the Google Glass. As if anyone would risk having an earful of red wine every time they turned their head...

Tesco to tout its own smartphone – now THAT'S an unexpected item in the bagging area

HippyFreetard

Re: High End?

The Hudl was a success because it was affordable and in time for Christmas (actually, I think they sold out). The Hudl is pretty much a Tab 7" or iPad Mini clone, visually. This means that those in poorer families are able to afford a "high end" looking item, even if it's not a "high end" example of that type of hardware. iPad Mini is £200-400, the Tab 3 7" is roughly the same price as the Hudl, but with slightly less spec.

I don't think Tesco will be able to repeat this with their phone. Apple's nice, but it's still out of budget for a lot of people. Same with the higher-end Samsung Android phones. Even with the best specs in the world, Tesco isn't exactly a status brand. Rappers won't be boasting about their Tesco phones. If they're going to be successful, they should make a budget phone that looks nice, but crams as much spec as people can afford for Granny's first smartphone.

Stephen Hawking: The creation of true AI could be the 'greatest event in human history'

HippyFreetard

Yeah, the Borg always annoyed me. Why not just have an artificial intelligence? If the reason is that having intelligent brains connected makes them more adaptable, then why not embrace the individuality of the person and gain even more adaptability? This is seen in the Internet world, where memes work like thoughts and individual creativity makes the whole stronger.

Grey goo will probably become just another arms race we have to stay on top of and eventually learn to live with, like security or medicine. We'll have headlines like "Grey Goo Strains Can Now Eat Bricks!", with another a few weeks later saying "Scientists Invent New Kind of Brick!" with the vast majority of people unaffected.

HippyFreetard

Re: Re. AI

Yeah, and the neurons in my brain aren't really that different to the signals sent around some slime-mould colonies, just faster. However, I am definitely more intelligent than a slime-mould.

Sure, a computer chip isn't intelligent, any more than a dead person's brain is intelligent. It has to be running the right software.

There are real problems with the whole Turing system. The inability to detect an infinite loop in code, for instance. But how do we detect infinite loops in code? We're not running simulations of infinity in our minds, we simply detect a logical criteria. In the case of complex infinite loops, or those we detect while running, we let it go for a while and stop. Does our brain work like a Turing machine, with all the same limitations but a few software hacks added?

All CPU's for years (apart from a few very modern ones) can only do one thing at a time. But a time-share OS is just one thing. It's a hack that gives the hardware capabilities it wasn't made with. It's a similar hack, perhaps, that enables consciousness to emerge from mere bioelectric signals. Maybe our brains are simple Turing machines, but the way they're wired gives us consciousness and intelligence?

HippyFreetard
Mushroom

There's different types of intelligence, but the singularity AI will be an all-rounder. It will probably emerge from the Internet, likely as a combination of artificial intelligence projects sharing a grid. These are the things that need to be intelligent. The Google crawler and indexer, for instance. Datacentre analysis tools. Just as it's difficult to ascertain where consciousness and intelligence begins (in the scale from trees that communicate chemically through fish, mice, all the way to Stephen Hawking), it will be difficult to ascertain where the line of no-consciousness/consciousness lies in these applications when they start getting even more powerful.

The Blue Brain project and other neuron emulators will become useful in a financial sense, and will continue to grow. It won't be long before we can emulate a whole brain, or do weird things like grid-thinking, and brain emulators that run virtual brain emulators.

As for the HCI aspect, the technology behind Siri, Cleverbot, ALICE etc. will continue to improve. This will happen before we know it.

The human race is pregnant with a new life form. The next stage in Earth's evolution. It might not even be silicon, but it will be artificial, and it will be intelligent. Life, but not as we know it, Jim.

10 PRINT "Happy 50th Birthday, BASIC" : GOTO 10

HippyFreetard

Re: BBC BASIC FTW

Yeah, DEF PROC and DIM!

[

and 6502 assembly :)

]

HippyFreetard

Re: The BASIC of today

No, BASIC was a real programming language :P

Python is BASIC's modern successor (if you don't count VB - which I don't)

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS: Great changes, but sssh don't mention the...

HippyFreetard

Looks Good.

I wasn't a fan of Unity when I was first looking for a desktop Linux. The others all seemed to be a bit saner - LXDE, Xfce, Gnome. Coming from a Windows background and all ;)

Nowadays I'm a Mint fan, but I have found Ubuntu to be great for my little netbook. The Mac-style menu bar rocks my 1024x600 screen, and I've never felt the need to plug in a mouse. I just wish it would remember that I like my save dialogues maximised (otherwise I can't see the button) but it only takes a tap on the trackpad to do that.

I haven't installed this yet (I usually wait a few months for the initial bugs to be ironed out) but I'm hoping it'll be a bit faster than 12.04

LOHAN and the amazing technicolor spaceplane

HippyFreetard
Pirate

Re: Union flag

Union Jack and Union Flag are both correct (at sea and on land), and have been interchangeable throughout the history of the flag.

I think the alternate side of the plane should be our new flag. It's a lot nicer and has a cheerful sunshine on it...

WOW! Google invents the DIGITAL WATCH: What a time to be alive

HippyFreetard

The future is both.

We've worn watches for over a hundred years now, they're not weird. The size and shape of cuneiform correspondence and ancient wax writing-boards are pretty much iPhone and iPad shaped, so these are natural things to physically hold.

A HUD is not there yet. Some people (like the armed forces, emergency services, bike couriers, taxi drivers etc) might love things like Glass, but for most, I don't think so. If you're a proper smart-wear nerd you'll already have shutter-glasses for your home 3D TV, perhaps a portable DVD player you wear on your face on aeroplanes, and a Google Glass for kicking about. When those devices are consolidated, we'll see an explosion in their use. There may have to be laws about secret filming (a compulsory red flashing light?) but putting on a pair of sunglasses is more natural than a thing poking out of your head.

I think there's a bigger market in smartwatches than head-up, but only for now.

Haribo gummy bears implicated in 'gastric exorcism'

HippyFreetard

We live underground now...

I washed these Gummies down with a gallon of Tuscan milk while driving home from work (The stuff was propped up on a proper steering wheel desk, so no moaning about safety!) When I got through the door the trouble started. I was on my iPotty for literally hours, with no internet connection, so I couldn't email for help. I grabbed a pen to write a note I could throw out of the window, but tragically it was a Bic Her, and my "masculinity" shriveled before my eyes (since then, I have found a Rubber Testicular Exam Model that makes an excellent substitute). Leaning over as much as I could (god I wish that thing had wheels), I thought I could hook a nearby microphone up to my PC to Skype for help. Alas, the audio cable was of such an unnaturally high quality that the EM waves travelled faster than light, hurling me aeons into the past. My Three-Wolf-Moon shirt was too much for the primitive peoples I encountered, and terrible wars of jealousy ensued. Now we live in caves, with nothing but whole skinned rabbits to eat. I'm not sure this message will get through...

Army spaffed millions up the wall on flawed Capita online recruiting system - report

HippyFreetard
Black Helicopters

Re: Same old suspects every single damn time..

Wrong.

Follow the money.

Between 2000-2010, £1,500,000 in Tory donations from Capita.

It's nothing to do with safety, with reliability of an established firm. It's old-boys mutual back-scratching.

This is the case with pretty much all the crappy companies paid millions by the government to do nothing, Atos included.

Thought sales were in the toilet before? Behold the agony: 2013 was a PC market BLOODBATH

HippyFreetard

I'd still buy one

When you buy a device, you kind of "fill it up" before getting a new one.

When I first got into PC building, it was a case of upgrade the software until it ran slow, then upgrade the hardware until this was unsustainable because the RAM was maxed, the MB had the biggest CPU, but the OS and utilities were becoming too much, even before you tried to open a real app.

Now, with 64-bit, MB's are being built with an incredible amount of RAM space etc. It simply takes longer to fill a build up to maxed, and it will take even longer for the software to make that insufficient.

It's similar to the argument made about 3D movies or electronic music. As if the play, the novel, or classical music, or horse-riding, or painting had actually died as a result of new technologies.

The PC market "ate'nt dead". Not yet.

Virgin Galactic's supersonic space ship in 71,000-ft record smash

HippyFreetard

Re: What is the long term goal?

Yeah, it's just a big buzz-trip. If it makes a profit, it will provide the basis for further expansion of the technology.

There are plans for Virgin to go orbital, they have an adaptation called Launcher One for small orbital payloads which essentially launches a rocket from the top of their White Knight Two spaceplane.

It's certainly an exciting time to be a space nerd, like me!

Intel ditches McAfee brand: 'THANK GOD' shouts McAfee the man

HippyFreetard

Re: They all have different personalities

I have to grudgingly agree about MSE. It's not amazing, but wherever it doesn't have to be, it just works, and keeps out of the way. Plus it updates with Windows, so you just forget it's there.

I set my (web dev) partner's Win 7 PC up with Comodo. That's my favourite for Windows machines. I haven't used the others for years...

Lyrics upstart Rap Genius blacklisted by Google for Justin Bieber SEO scam

HippyFreetard

Re: I hate to break it to you

This is not legitimate SEO you are describing.

There are legitimate SEO practices. There's simply the technical optimisation, i.e. robots, sitemaps, and there's growth, which involves directing searches towards relevant info that wasn't there before. My blues harmonica blog was turning up in people's search results for folk harmonica, so I wrote an introduction to folk, and it boosted my rank. This is the kind of thing Google wants you to do.

Google's whole business depends on the strength of their algorithm. If Google doesn't return good results, then people will not advertise with them.

If it is possible for a website to seem to Google to be more relevant than it actually is in reality, then eventually Google will block that site, and will find a way to detect these hacks automatically. This is not draconian, this is protecting their business interests.

Search engines just used to count words. Then some bright spark decided that simply writing the word a million times in an invisible coloured text would trick the engines. If this had been left alone, the top results would all be those sites whose owners had more words. The same happened with inbound links. People just made millions of duplicate sites all pointing to theirs. This had to be written out of the algorithm.

If this Bieber spam scam had not been corrected, Google's web results quality would have been ruined again.

Get a real job, not one where you're paid to fool a robot into thinking your information is important. Here's a novel idea, why not just produce important information?

British Second World War codebreaker Alan Turing receives Royal pardon

HippyFreetard

Re: All hail Turing, but pass the sick bag for royal connection

Completely agree, historically.

But we have even further evolved ideas that are being worked out by other countries. Some countries in Europe have kept their monarchy as nothing but a symbolic tradition with no political power. Some have got rid of theirs altogether.

It all seems to be moving towards anarchistic autonomy. Sweden has a powerless monarchy (since 1975), and some cantons even have a system of Direct Democracy, where every citizen is involved with political decisions.

To keep corruption out, simply take a look at the Government Transparency indices (e.g. Corruption Perceptions Index) at the countries at the top - i.e. Denmark, New Zealand, Sweden - and find out what they're doing better than us. Incidentally (or perhaps not), they also top the democracy, quality of life, and low poverty indices.

There are better ways than what we have now, and we need to move towards them.

HippyFreetard

Re: All hail Turing, but pass the sick bag for royal connection

That said, the Queen retains power over the military, retains the power to veto any laws we try to make, and will be taking £33,000,000 of our tax money this year, despite already making a killing with the Crown Estate, and despite hospitalised malnutrition doubling over the last few years.

IN 1999, an anti-Iraq-war politician put forward a bill to remove the Queen's military power, and it was vetoed by the Queen. And we went to war, with hilarious consequences.

So yeah. Some over-privileged old warmonger in London forgives Alan Turing for being gay? Pass the sick bag.

Parents can hide abortion, contraception advice from kids, thanks to BT's SEX-ED web block

HippyFreetard

In a few short years they will be 18 and have access to everything.

Trouble is, the internet bullying and access to porn doesn't stop when they turn 18 and move out. It gets worse.

If you hold their hand every time they cross the road, they will get run over the first time you don't.

There are predators In Real Life too. In schools, in libraries, in churches, and within the family. Do they know this? Do they know the signs? The internet should be a simple extension of that.

If your son was curious about his sexuality, would he know the difference between "LGBT teens forum", and "live gay teens"?

Microsoft: Don't listen to 4chan ... especially the bit about bricking Xbox Ones

HippyFreetard

Re: I genuinely do not understand...

Neither do I.

I also don't know how those Microsoft snotrags have been getting away with it for 30 years...

Boffins devise world's HARDEST tongue-twister

HippyFreetard

My gran taught me the Siamese National Anthem when I was little.

It goes "Awa ta-Na Siam" to the tune of "God Save the Queen"

Also, in school we wrote 4Q on every wall. Imagine the head teacher (thick welsh accent) "Who's been writing 4Q on the walls? What's 4Q supposed to mean?"

Mexican Cobalt-60 robbers are DEAD MEN, say authorities

HippyFreetard

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/06/21794583-six-released-from-mexican-hospital-but-detained-in-theft-of-cobalt-60

Reg man inhales the smooth, non-cancerous, taste of USB nicotine

HippyFreetard

If you hold it in for 10 seconds, there's nothing to breathe out, by the way...

If you want to really annoy the fascists, though, hold it like a fag, wave it about publicly, occasionally tap the filter end on the bar, but don't ever take a draw. If they say "you can't use that in here" just tell them you're not. You will destroy them inside, visibly sometimes.

Watch out for policy that says "No smoking, and that includes e-cigarettes". They don't listen when you tell them (puff) that's it's okay (puff), you don't have a lighter (puff), and the thing would probably melt plastic everywhere anyway (puff). Would probably make a person very ill, too (puff).

HippyFreetard

I like nicotine.

I use nicotine, and I enjoy it. I just don't want it to kill me. That should be reserved for something cool like a rocket-powered skateboard or something. When I'm 80.

I was a chain-smoker, and now I'm a chain-vaper. Not much has changed, but I'm fitter and healthier for it. They're also satisfyingly cyberpunk.

Post-Profit Prophet RUSSELL BRAND is the HUMBLE CHRIST of STARTUPS

HippyFreetard

The Brand brand is very profitable right now...

RB's saying some stuff that's true, like poor people have no money and rich people have lots. That businesses are contributing to this situation while destroying the planet is also true.

But the way to solve it is fairer taxes and better regulation in the business world, as well as innovation that makes production more efficient.

What Russell is advocating is a complete mass drop-out. We did this already, in the 60's. It did exactly what Timmy Leary wanted it to. We rewrote our culture a little for the better. By the time the 90's came along, things like the Fairtrade brand and global warming awareness were the result.

We don't have the luxury of dropping out anymore.

Hey, I'm a full-on card-carrying hairy hippy and even I think he talks a lot of crap.

He seems to be doing well off it though, lots of coverage, lots of controversy; it's all good for selling tours, movies, and bookie-wookies...

Richard Stallman decides Emacs should go WYSIWYG

HippyFreetard

Re: Tell you what I would like...

I've worked in and out of admin for a while now, and I'm convinced the whole MS Office culture needs a complete rewrite.

I thought about all those hours making Powerpoints, wrangling with Excels, and the millions of letter templates for Word.

I'd like to see it completely replaced with a monolithic system that's a combination of Database, Imagemagick/GD and LaTEX/PDF. All presentations, letters, memos, completely automated. All branding and graphics coded in. No need for a million windows open, just the Company Software. No hours wasted getting an Excel chart right, just have it all automated.

Calendar and email all part of the same system, and modular so no Outlook necessary (although could still be used on eg roaming laptops and phones), also Gantt charts etc...

This would mean admin staff would have to be a bit codery too, so my plan is to adapt a Scratch-style interface for add-on modules, or prototyping new algorithms (tax codes, etc), or for cases where a Spreadsheet might have worked before.

WYSIWYG is an inefficient nightmare that only encourages OCD fiddling with margins and fonts. Replace it with GWYGALI (Get What You're Given And Like It) and admin efficiency will improve.

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