Posts by Vociferous

Robowagons roll! US Army tests all-drone supply unit

Re: Or just

Well, they're still drones, i.e. remote piloted by a human, not robots, but it's a sound plan.

Yahoo! Mail! users! change! your! passwords! NOW!

Re: Baffling

It's UKIP's home away from Stormfront.

(Seriously. Read the comments section.)

Two-factor authentication =

"GIVE US URE PHONE NUMBER! U CAN TRUST US!"

Like hell.

Well, Google's been doing it for ages, it was only a matter of time until Yahoo decided they needed to sell ads to phones too.

Thing is, I don't need secure. Anyone could hack my gmail or yahoo or facebook or TheRegister accounts, and I couldn't care less, so having to jump hoops for a "strong" protection I don't need is really fucking annoying.

Snowden: Canadian spooks used free airport WiFi to track travellers

> I don't remember reading anything about that in the news

Here's an article in the New York Times.

Par for the course.

It's long been known that the Chinese government track(ed?) people through airport wifi and also used it to infect travelers with spyware, and I would be surprised if not many other governments, including the UK, Russia, France and Iran, had done this as well -- it's an obvious and risk-free way to access businessmen's & official's computers.

'I had a rare Twitter handle... I was extorted into giving it up'

Hiroshima got nuked,

and a mushroom cloud fell over NASA.

ISS astronauts to grow tomatoes and rice …. IN SPAAAAACE

Re: Of course they are safe.

> Their next batch of test subjects

...are not examples of this, and there is zero reason to think they would be.

The ISS was never built to do science, and god knows it's done precious little of any value, but that's just all the more reason for media to NOT breathlessly repeat every inanity NASA releases.

Re: Of course they are safe.

> Do you have the details of any papers which would back this assertion up?

Yeah, tons. It's not like it's hard to subject seeds to radiation, or like wasn't a big research subject in the 50's. There's even some characteristically pedestrian crap from the ISS: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1134/S1022795407080066

Re: Of course they are safe.

> You have obviously never worked with any sort of space based plant research --- small variations in the concentrations of chemicals in the plants and their seeds/fruits can turn something which is perfectly harmless (and quite tasty) on Earth into something quite poisonous in space.

Give me ONE single example of this.

> produce strains of plants which can grow (and multiply---) in zero gravity

If billed as such, i.e. straight-up product development, then the "research" might have had some merit -- but what's in reality is more pedestrian junk science from the long line of pedestrian junk science produced by the ISS is billed as important food-safety research.

Re: Of course they are safe.

> Radiation could have damaged the dna of the plants.

No, not really.

> Micro-gravity could have affected how they grow.

It does affect how they grow, but it does not make them toxic.

> There's a whole bunch of things to consider like how much water they need. How fertiliser affects growth rate etc etc.

There really isn't anything of interest there -- the basic physiology of the plant hasn't changed -- and certainly there is nothing wrt the safety of the plant.

If the research had been aimed at developing the technology then it might have had some merit, but the safety of the produce? Junk science.

Of course they are safe.

More ridiculous "research" from the ISS.

El Reg BuzzFelch: 10 Electrical Connectors You CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT!

Mumbai Multiway

That's what every pole along every mains line looks like in South East Asia. I'm amazed they ever have any electricity.

Hot naked Asian racks in Cali: El Reg snaps Open Compute servers for all

OCP?

Really?

Yes, Google can afford to lose $9bn in Motorola sale. But did it really?

Re: Ireland...

> The Irish economy is doing fine without a respirator

No, it isn't. It's held under the arms by EU subsidies and EU special rules allowing it to offer golden deals to non-EU companies to set up shop (and pay very little tax) in Ireland.

There isn't a country in the union which should love the EU as Ireland.

Re: Ireland...

When the Irish economy stops being in need of a respirator to stay alive.

Google's ad-slinging juggernaut gobbles more BEEELLIONS in revenue

This is what happens when you use Linux.

Boffins build electronic tongue that can distinguish between BEERS

Outdated snark

Some of the best beers in the world right now are American. The era of "love in a canoe" is long gone.

Yes, HP will still sue you if you make cartridges for its inkjet printers

Re: Few things

> I really like the Brother brand printers.

At least a couple of years ago Brother was the only manufacturer who's inkjets did NOT have an automatic "out of ink" counter which, regardless of actual ink levels, triggered low ink warnings after X pages printed.

Considering that inkjets have a "out of ink" counter which triggers after just some 40-50 pages, that'll still be quite expensive printing.

Go laser instead.

HARD ONES: Three new PC games that are BLOODY DIFFICULT

Europa Universalis IV

Ridiculously difficult. I refuse to believe people actually manage to conquer the world in that one, except possibly on the easiest setting and after six months (of real-time) gaming.

Hello Moto: Lenovo grabs Motorola biz for $3bn. But Google's KEEPING the patents

Hmmm... Should probably order that Moto G I've been thinking about.

Sounds like its days may be numbered.

UK internet filtering shouldn't rely on knee tappers, says Tory MP

I used to not be family friendly like you,

then I took a tap to the knee.

Yeah... Where's my coat?

Stephen Fry rewrites computer history again: This time it's serious

Re: El Reg 28/01 editorial objectives

I must buy an iphone, then i've checked all the boxes on The Regs shitlist.

Re: Overreaction?

> he's a stupid person's idea of what a clever person looks like!

No, he's a clever person's idea of what an educated person looks like.

It's Stephen Fry, a humorist with a degree in English literature.

He's not a tech-guru, he's not even Wikipedia, and anyone who get their tech-information (or their panties in a twist) from Stephen Fry is barking up the wrong tree. He does light entertainment, and is very good at it.

Globe grabbin,’ sphere slammin’, orb-tossin’, pill poppin’... Speedball

Re: No, that's *not* how Amiga gradients were generated

> having the graphics co-processor update one or more of the colour registers (i.e. changing the palette itself) every few lines

Good point. I had forgot about copper gradients.

Re: Amiga graphics

> As I recall a tiny, windowed version of Doom did appear on the Amiga

I don't know if Doom was ever released on the Amiga, but a few 3D shooter clones were -- however, they had to "cheat" pretty heavily to get acceptable framerates (like only rendering the top or bottom half of the environment and then mirroring it). The ones I saw were impressive from a programming point of view but ultimately did little but highlight that 3D gaming was not a job the Amiga was suited for.

> how long did it take GTA5 to make a million smackers?

It was a different world. A top-selling game of the era sold perhaps 50 000 copies.

Re: Amiga graphics

> How did it do this?

Good artists, good programmers, lots of dithering and the blurring effect of CRT screens. HAM-mode (4096 colors) was too slow to be used in most games, and the ECS chipsed didn't support 8-bit mode (256 colors), so various tricks were used to make the ECS chipsets 32 colors seem a lot more.

The Amiga held its own pretty well. The Amiga games clearly had prettier graphics than PC games, even though the PC had started sporting 8-bit graphics, up until the 3D games came. The Amiga evolved far slower than the PC and did not have the horsepower to run games like Doom and Tomb Raider, and this led to its death.

Oh man, the aggression level!

I could only play Speedball for like 15 minutes before I had to take a break because I had built up so much rage I was one missed shot from pounding the joystick and keyboard to pieces. Not bad rage, not like being ganked by a cheating 12-year-old in Counterstrike, but fun, wholesome, berserker rage. So I kept going back.

Can't recall ever having played any other game which had that effect.

Tunguska object came from Mars say Russian boffins

How to spot junk science:

1) the paper makes spectacular claims about something spectacular.

2) the paper is an analysis of objects which no-one but the author has seen or think exist.

3) the paper has not been published.

Vile Twitter trolls thrown in the cooler for rape abuse tweet spree

Re: Appropriate punishment?

> I'll answer that for you: no. Torture isn't "right". I thought this was a position that we could all get behind...

I'd hold that there is a difference between torture and punishment, and that incarceration is no picnic either.

The guy in the article had walked along a row of parked cars and smashed their windscreens, for fun. I would hazard a guess that the owners of those cars would be more likely to feel justice had been served after this caning than if he'd been given fines, or a couple of weeks in juvenile detention.

The perpetrator clearly didn't enjoy the caning, but on the other hand he recovered in a week, and I wonder if he's not less likely to offend again than he'd have been if locked up with other minor criminals for some weeks?

Seems like a pretty good outcome to me.

Re: Would it be too much...

>The people on the bank notes are those who have made a significant contribution to the country/society.

Darwin and Watt sure, but John Houblon?

I'd put Jane Austen or Millicent Fawcett (women's right to vote movement) way above Houblon in the "contribution to society" category.

Re: It's trolls.

> Unlike these charming feminists, you mean?

There are feminists who are rabid asshats, I've never said otherwise. I said that I have never seen a single "Men's Rights" activist who wasn't.

Another poster suggested it's like with libertarians, that it's just the online Men's Rightists who are mental. That is possible, but even if offline Men's Rightists are normal and well-adjusted, it doesn't change that the online ones take bigotry and hate to a level rarely seen outside Stormfront.

Re: Appropriate punishment?

> jail is rarely the appropriate punishment for one-off and non-violent crime, but we do need something simple and easy to deal with utter dickheads

I've often wondered if maybe Singapore doesn't have it right. I may be a heartless fiend, but to me it seems a better response to minor-but-not-trivial crimes than short jailtime or high fines.

Re: It's trolls.

> Men's rights campaigners are interested in things like health and child wellbeing. Trolls talk shit because they're bored.

You know, I've only seen them on-line, and I can't tell them apart, neither in style nor content.

Re: Would it be too much...

> a Swedish study that found men get more abuse online than women

I'm a man, but judging from what I've seen on the net, both gaming and in fora, that study isn't worth the toilet paper it's smeared on.

Re: Before & After

The only way they could look the part more would be if he got a neckbeard and a cheap replica samurai sword, and she cosplayed as Princess Mononoke.

China's Jade Rabbit moon rover might have DIED in the NIGHT after 'abnormality'

This calls for a conspiracy theory!

Clearly the Chinese rover was silenced because it came too close to the soundstage where they faked the Apollo moon landing!

Altcoins will DESTROY the IT industry and spawn an infosec NIGHTMARE

Aren't the ASICs so fast because they're, well, ASIC?

As in "application specific"? Can they really be repurposed as general code-cracking machines?

As for the graphics cards, nVidia and AMD both cripple their floating point maths performance because they want to sell their (much pricier) computing cards which use the same chips. That is, even if nVidia Titan got so common that second hand prices were forced down, it's not really all that hot when it comes to cracking codes.

EDIT: Also I'm not at all sure there are all that many miners compared to gamers. But what do I know.

Valve showers Debian Linux devs with FREE Steam games

Re: Linux as a game platform??

> Perhaps this will move things from Windows based platforms for games

That's the idea. Since Microsoft intends to close Windows for distributors like Valve and Origin, those distributors are trying to get gaming to switch to Linux. That's what this is about, that's what the whole SteamOS and SteamBox thing is about.

Re: GabeN can afford to give away....

> Valve have managed to create a system where their "subscribers" have paid retail price for products that can be removed from their use tomorrow

I've been a Steam user since it was released ten years ago. Haven't lost a game yet.

> M$ restricting WinRT applications to M$'s app store

That's the whole point of the Microsoft Store: Microsoft takes 30% commission for every item sold, and the plan was/is to force all software to be sold through it. That's why Valve developed SteamOS to begin with: Microsoft's plan would kill distributors like Valve.

> He admits he has had a free ride up until now but is unwilling to support his old mentor

I have no idea what you think you're saying here.

> the "games" industry hardware and software seem to be chasing their tail atm as people do not seem to be buying into the "quick! upgrade your hardware to run the latest M$ OS so your kids can play X"

It's not a case of "people not buying in to it", it's a case of there being zero reason to upgrade. There isn't a single game which requires Windows 8 to run, and since all PC games are written for console (8 years old hardware) then ported to PC, the hardware of a five year old PC can run all present titles. Games no longer push PC hardware evolution.

> a return to open OS and hardware computer innovation

There was innovation and variety in computers in the early days because the technology wasn't mature. You see the same kind of pattern with any new technology: tons of companies with unique solutions, then gradually the market gets consolidated, and eventually you have one clear winner + one or a few niche players. It's what happened with cars, it's what happened on PC, and it's happened with mobile devices. And there's no going back.

Apple plans to waggle iNormous 4½-incher in fanbois' faces

The important question:

Does it come in bling?

The internet is 'a gift from God' says Pope Francis

Best pope since... well, ever, I think.

He seems a genuinely good guy, sincere and intent on dragging the church into the 21st century, and has in a short while done a lot of good things, from kicking out hundreds of pedophile priests and fighting corruption in the Vatican to furthering the cause of women in the church. He's worlds better than any of the recent popes, and that includes the arch-conservative and bafflingly popular John Paul II.

If he keeps this up I may have to stop disliking the catholic church.

Facebook debunks Princeton's STUDY OF DOOM in epic comeback

"this is either very poor science or just another attempt to gain 15 minutes of fame"

Both are distressingly common in science, I'd estimate that in my field somewhere between 20-40% of all published articles are junk. In this particular case, considering that these two guys were PhD students, I think it's a case of Baby's First Publication.

That students publish junk isn't really their fault, they're learning and still don't really know what they're doing, the real fault lies with their supervisor, who should have supervised, coached and advised them, and with the reviewers, who should have rejected publication.

Prof Stephen Hawking: 'There are NO black holes' – they're GREY!

> Scientists who write books accessible to a wider non-scientific audience are doing a good job in "spreading the word"

Absolutely. They're needed to counteract the constant stream of 'Dancing Wu-Li Masters' type pseudo-science. The criticism that those writing the best books aren't necessarily the best scientists in their fields completely misses the point.

Re: How could we have been so stupid?

> A quote that sums up for me the gravy train of science

Yeah, because reality should conform to your ideals.

Let me guess, this being The Reg and all: you're talking about clima1e science, right?

Re: Nice one Mr H

> He will defend his position until he's proved wrong

That's ALSO how good science works. If you don't believe in your results you shouldn't publish them, if you believe in them you should defend them, and if it turns out you were wrong you should admit it.

Re: When you consider...

> I wonder if slapping a new idea into a major cosmological theory like you are welding up a hole in a Lancia's subframe could be referred to as "good science"

That's exactly what "good science" is. That's what progress looks like.

I suspect people get confused about what is good science and what (and how) science is covered in mainstream media -- there is an overlap, but it's not big.

Developers: Behold the bug NOBODY can fix

Re: Alright, folks. I know my limitations...

It's a fork bomb.