Posts by Parax

Allen telescope array begins alien hunt

Alien Telescope Array

Typo Surely?

after all it is for SETI...

El Reg deploys (extra) comment icons

What about the..

'Pink Elephant' Icon..For those special occasions where it's lurking but no one is saying!

or the '10' types of people Icon, those who understand and those who dont.

or the 'I have more to add' to the story icon that I need now!

Sun grabs patent for magneto-hydrodynamic heatsink

Scale?

Perhaps this is a design to move heat betwean stacked cores? or otherwise within a cpu package, and not actually a heat sink??? might be useful then.

Teeny tiny ozone hole for 2007

SI units or IS Unit!

in order to prevent confusion withall of these different standards may I propose an universal, nay, Ideal Standard unit of measurement:

http://www.plumbworld.co.uk/images/pwis0806l.jpg

Note you can use this Ideal Standard as a unit of height (floor to seat) , length (wall to edge of seat), bredth (width of seat) weight (self explanitory I hope), volume (cystern only!), and even time (ie flush cycle)

Note: I only have a twice (sometimes more) daily affiliation with this company.

Hospital's brand new '£1m' server room goes up in smoke

Obvious

Well NHS IT is speced to have extra fans and cheap power supplies...

Now the whole lot will have to be scrapped.

I know of at least one make of mobo that has just the one fan controller to drive the Cpu fans even though it is advertised as dual cpu for redundancy! anyway the box gets hot the fans spin faster it draws too puch power and piff paff poof the magic smoke is released, and neither cpu fan works, only then do they hit overtemp and shutdown... D'oh.

Best Buy adds disclaimer to 'secret website'

Caveat emptor

Oddly enough the other day I went to PCW for an urgent item, oddly it was cheaper instore than on the web... but when scanned at the till the web price came up, after I showed them the quick mobpic I took of the shelf label, they let me have the 'managers special' price as listed...

Apparantly all of PCW Managers are special.

Whats the point of putting prices on when you'll get charged a random amount? and isn't it a good sign when any staff can change the prices... Alert Alert...

New bird takes to the skies for Digital Globe

Flying Car

Did anyone actually solve the flying car mystery?

IMO Its not a shadow its a scorch mark from a burnt out car, which someone has parked next to. (Notice poor regrowth in the later pics from the area.)

Kazaa tech chief joins BBC future technology team

iPlayer is not File Sharing

last time I checked Kontiki did not allow me to share it just took...

Pentagon to hold event prior to battery tech prize

You put it where??

Isn't There a Stirling Engine/Linear Alternator Entry in this contest, All the soldier has to do is keep one end of the device warm, and the other end cold...(just dont ask where he's stuck it!)

Thats the beauty of the stirling engine, the only requirement is a difference in temperature... Place next to camp fire, in a cold stream, Or even in sunlight (with parabolic reflector), or use body heat....

Reference kilo shows mysterious weight loss

not a problem..

They'll just have to redefine it like they did with the Metre.

Trojans besiege online gamers

Legend of Mir...

Ahh that takes me back.. all the way to 2001!

So many hours... so many levels...

Bichon.... Sabuk...

but GameNetwork were so bad!! - except hober alaria of course!

shame about QGO..

Better gadget battery-level readouts in pipeline

Phillips?

"A phone won't ever get as close as a phillips." Not even a Motorola Razor?

IGMC...

Hurricane Dean menaces Jamaica, sends shuttle packing

What's wrong with Edwards Air Force Base?

no posting the shuttle back to florida is the bitch... you know how many stamps that needs?

Nasa is trying to save money!

can I point out just one lil thing

isnt the landing approach to Florida directly over the Yucatan?

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts118/landing.html

They'll get a really 'good' view if they come down on 202.

Google Adwords dive-bombed by American Airlines

Trademarks Relate to Industry

Since google does not ask what industry you are searching it does not violate the trademarks. AA and AA are both trade marks in different industries.

However, They probably will win against every airline using AA as a google keyword. as this is the same industry and is trading on anothers name. ie direct trademark infringement.

For example You dont see bottles of pepsi with coke written on them! so why when you ask google for AA should you get Delta's home page. (this is just an example none of this happened!)

'Portable' CD player puts MP3 into a spin

errr.... part 2

damn it, I'm a fool, yes ok, Constant linear velocity does mean it spins at 500 rpm over the shorter centre track and 200 rpm over the longer outer tracks (in order to cover the same distance per second) picking my self up off the floor in shame :( It did seem like it was a bit too torsionally twisted.. and yes 500 rpm is only 8rps... but still hardly any momentum whith such a light disc. Not likly to be dangerous bit youd have to rip on a table and go later. and who would want to wait an hour to rip at 1x speed... unless it did rip at 50x at 10,000 rpm then it would be dangerous, (and would no-doubt be mains powered!)

errr...

"500rpm (centre) to 200rpm (edge)"

Haha fell off my chair what an idiot..

BTW folks this is not a 48X data disc its a 1x Audio Player!

de ja vu

Im sure I've seen this method before?

Ah no I remember it was a half a walkman cassette player from hong kong in about 93-ish. it had half the tape sticking out the side... damn if only i could find a link to a picture...

Get your Ultra Wide Band from Monday

Power Networks?

What happend to Network over mains?

Why bother with a wireless link when my network printer is already connected to the same (power)network as my PC?

Or is this just another way to withhold useful technology so they can sell it to us again later?

The only use for wireless usb is so I dont have to get my phone out of my pocket, but then dont I have bluetooth for that?

Fatal explosion hits Virgin space programme

I bet it happened when they shut the valve!

Water hammer effect as valve closed, causes dieseling in pipe causing backpressure leading to decomposition in tank.

(needs a pressure release valve at shutoff valve - or a slower shutoff)

See this one:

http://www.hobbyspace.com/AAdmin/archive/SpecialTopics/Misc/eindhoven.pdf

'Ads-funded' Microsoft Works pilot barges onto your PC this year

Preinstalled versions

I was impressed (not greatly mind) to see works on a new computer recently (shame its not office!) however i suspect that all new computers now will have adverts all over thier pre installed versions....this is yet another bad move!

Adobe embroiled in War of the Fed-Ex Kinko Button

hardly rocket science

If i'd have built it, it'd work like this:

1) Printers pay a listing subscription to adobe.

2) Customer wants to print so clicks button and enters zip code.

3) Adobe prtesents available (subscribed) printers in the vicinity

4) Customer chooses which print shop to send docs to.

5) Customer chooses to collect, or pay online and recieve in post.

6) Customer rates printshop.

Simple.

OECD: broadband is unequal

FTTH

if companies like BT intend on offering services like BT vision then they are going to have to pull there fingers ount on this one.

Bear in mind, I aint gonna pay to get tv near my home! its TO my home or not at all!

Astronauts chuck fridge off space station

@Brendan

"Can an astronaut give a 31lb fridge enough of a shove to ensure it enters an elliptical orbit, with a perigee deep enough inside the earth's atmosphere to slow it down? Or is it going to come back and collide with the station on a subsequent orbit?"

Define Deep Enough? the answer is yes.. look at it like this.. 0.001 Newton of resistance at first orbit, 0.002 second, 0.004 third, etc.. (increases each time as orbit decays and no thrusters to correct orbit) now calc how many orbits until it comes around again - bare in mind it will be a very long time, it was only shoved by an astronaut afterall say 3mph differential? means once around in approx 364 days.. then it becomes clear that the cumualtive drag of each 91 minute orbit is massive enough to sink it at least enough to miss the station by the time it comes back, @3mph approx 5700 orbits later.