* Posts by allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

6157 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Oct 2015

Hear, hear: The first to invent idiot-cancelling headphones gets my cash

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Extra points for the IPCRESS reference!

Not a death spiral, I'm trapped in a closed loop of customer experience

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: Eggmaster

You might know it as "The Rollie".

No need to buy one, just watch this product test video by Fafa & Mario (Glove and Boots).

https://youtube.com/watch?v=TxaSnVVV-QU

'We go back to the Moon to stay': Apollo vets not too chuffed with NASA's new rush to the regolith

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

In celebration of this year's 50th anniversary of the first humans on the moon, the Ohio State Marching Band staged this wonderful performance on Saturday:

https://youtu.be/RIN45HwRx88

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: Technological advance is not the point here

Well, there are six plaques on the Moon with Nixon's signature already, why not put another one with Donnie-Two-Bibles' scrawl there.

Computer says no: An expression-analysing AI has been picking out job candidates for Unilever

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

And now for a bit of pedantery:

Unilever doesn't make Persil.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henkel

Fantastic Mr Fox? Not when he sh*ts on your lawn, kids' trampoline and your soul

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Related:

Jasper Carrot - The Mole (animated)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=fePU5CIHpas

Summer vacations put an end to rampant desktop crimewave

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: Disposable income

If your place of work has

a) terrible bog rolls

b) the type of holder that holds two rolls side-by-side

... bring a roll of high-quality TP and your labelmaker.

Replace one of the terrible rolls with the premium one.

Stick a label saying "Management ONLY" above the good roll.

Sneak back to your desk and wait.

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: Umm

Ask your mum. It's a grown-up thing.

Guess who reserved their seat on the first Moon flight? My mum, that's who

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

"But back in the 1960s, at the height of Apollo fever, when space exploration was funded and directed exclusively by USA and USSR governments [...]

I'm sorry, but this is not correct. At the time, Britain had a programme to put a man in a tracksuit on top of a very tall ladder.

Loose tongues and oily seamen: Lost in machine translation yet again

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

"Step up with your intelligent leg" does have a certain je ne sais quois.

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: Prior art

Mein Luftkissenfahrzeug is voller Aale.

BOFH: On a sunny day like this one, the concrete dries so much more quickly

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: concrete curing

This. Concrete doesn't need any heat to harden, the hardening is an exothermic reaction in itself.

Letting the surface dry out too soon will result in a visible piss-poor quality - which might prompt an auditor (yes, they occasionally roam building sites as well) to take a closer look. And you don't want that.

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Correct. Concrete with organic (read: biodegradable) matter in it is not up to code.

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: Informal poll on whether you've ever had to do something like this

OR Question 2 : how could the opponent have wiped clean a number of floppies - shove them in the microwave? Place a dynamo magnet on top of the pile?

Or did they just hand over a stack of unused, blank floppies with the right labels slapped on?

ALIS through the looking glass: F-35 fighter jet's slurpware nearly made buyers pull out – report

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

So, you spend a shitload of money on a plane that may or may be not the bee's knees.

And then you spend another half-shitload of money on something that

1. could probably be done cheaper and more efficiently by a couple dozen of seasoned NCOs with phones, faxmachines and microfiches

2. may or may not have an "remote off-switch" feature

3. when hacked (no, not "if") will tell your adversaries precisely what missions are planned when and where, state of readiness, full system capabilities, performance, what have you

That it?

Atari finally launches its VCS console. Again.

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Well, the box looks nice.

Lip-reading smart speakers: Just what no one always wanted

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

"He also hopes you enjoyed this week's 1980s electropop."

Yes. Yes, I did.

How politics works, part 97: Telecoms industry throws a fundraiser for US senator night before he oversees, er, a telecoms privacy hearing

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Nothing to see here, move along...

I am just a mapper: Solar drones take to the skies above Blighty

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken
Pint

You know, I'd love to read Lester Haines' take on this. Alas...

(A pint or two to raise on absent friends.)

Ever used VFEmail? No? Well, chances are you never will now: Hackers wipe servers, backups in 'catastrophic' attack

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

This kinda feels like a dress rehearsal / sample of someone's work.

How I got horizontal with a gimp and untangled his cables

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

"I'm too old for this shit."

I used to be a dull John Doe. Thanks to Huawei, I'm now James Bond!

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Alessandro McLeod really sounds like a character in an Ian Fleming novel.

Well played, Mr Dabbs, well played.

SpaceX sends Iridium-8 into space while Musk flaunts his retro rocket

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

In other news: SpaceX has just laid off 10% of its employees.

Mixed messages...

https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-spacex-layoffs-20190111-story.html

Official: Voyager 2 is now an interstellar spacecraft

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

JPL really knows how to build stuff.

Wow, what a lovely early Christmas present for Australians: A crypto-busting super-snoop law passes just in time

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: !@#$Fsg34=#5^GSHJ+ASdgAE$_wfaewgefH

"Just sent a load of old hash irregularly thru any of your usual messaging apps, make it look like some encrypted messaging - it'll drive them nuts, provided they suspect you of something of course."

Of course they'll suspect you of something if you seem to be using encryption.

Why would you do that in the first place unless you're a Bad GuyTM who has something to fear because he has something to hide, hmm?

Waymo's revolutionary driverless robo-taxi service launches in America... with drivers

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Some of the investors must be getting impatient.

As sales slide, virtual reality fans look to a bright, untethered future

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

I'm still waiting for all that cyber sex I was promised 25 years ago.

Blighty: We spent £1bn on Galileo and all we got was this lousy T-shirt

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Totally worth it.

Oh, I wish it could be Black Friday every day-aayyy, when the wallets start jingling but it's still a week till we're paiii-iid

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

TBH, "TV sets built in 2006" doesn't sound bad. You could probably find one with decent enough specs, but without any "intelligence" or connectivity.

Bird, Lime, and Xiaomi face scooter sueball

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

https://bbs.boingboing.net/t/why-lime-scooters-can-be-dangerous-safety-tips/132108/3

Happy 60th birthday, video games. Thank William Higinbotham for your misspent evenings

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Cathode-ray tube amusement device... I like it.

Take my advice: The only safe ID is a fake ID

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: Terrence

You wrote that poem, didn't you.

NASA to celebrate 55th anniversary of first Moon landing by, er, deciding how to land humans on the Moon again

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: Spielberg or Bay

Capricorn One (1977)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077294/

Why are sat-nav walking directions always so hopeless?

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

I'm quite fond of HERE at the moment.

Far from perfect, but gets the job done and works offline if you want (and have the space to keep the maps on your device).

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: what our USAnian friends have against people with a love of walking

Maybe it's not so much 'anti walking' as being extremely 'pro car'.

My theory is that it has something to do with the considerable percentage of US citizens that have been conceived on the back seat of a motorcar.

I want to buy a coffee with an app – how hard can it be?

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: Am i missing something?

Now that's just crazy talk.

First Boeing 777 (aged 24) makes its last flight – to a museum

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: Is "designed by computer" better ?.

On paper, anyway.

Boeing's accountants are at least as good as Boeing's engineers.

Pork barrels don't come for free.

New MeX-Files: The curious case of an evacuated US solar lab, the FBI – and bananas conspiracy theories

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: RE. Re. aliens

Explorers?

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089114/

How an augmented reality tourist guide tried to break my balls

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

"Normally, Mme Le Dabbs and I turn down the offer of audio guides at tourist sites because they always go wonky on us – crackle, cut out, play the wrong track, lose battery power, expire completely and so on."

Always, always, always. If there is any tech worse than IoT crap it is this. Ah, well.

My regards to Mme Le D, and have a nice weekend, everybody!

Post-silly season blues leave me bereft of autonomous robot limbs

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Dear Dabbsy,

please give my regards to Mme Dabbs.

The gym audio CD swap is brilliant.

Neutron star crash in a galaxy far, far... far away spews 'faster than light' radio signal jets at Earth

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: Electric Universe

Great band name.

UK getting ready to go it alone on Galileo

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: How did that turn out?

Worst. Honeymoon. Ever.

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: All a bit unnecessary? / booklet

The booklet would be a truly British solution.

Probably including having it printed in France, like the blue passports.

Space station springs a leak while astronauts are asleep (but don't panic)

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: You do know....

... and European Space Agency (ESA), Canadian Space Agency (CSA), and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

Ownership & jurisdiction:

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/International_Space_Station/International_Space_Station_legal_framework

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: lowest bidder quote

Usually attributed to John Glenn, but according to Gene Kranz (in his book 'Failure Is Not An Option') actually Alan Shepard. Both good.

http://books.google.com/books?id=slQZ3JOUSKQC&q=%22The+fact+that+every+part+of+this+ship+was+built+by+the+low+bidder%22&pg=PA201#v=onepage

Don't mean to alarm you – but NASA is about to pummel the planet with huge frikkin' space laser

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: I'm not worried...

"I can kill catering with a thought!"

Self-driving cars will be safe, we're testing them in a massive AI Sim

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

I think we are missing the key point of all this. In effect, they want to create a whole electronically synthesized simulation of 32km of Oxfordshire roads in one of their offices so they can go and research autonomous vehicles during the day and still go to parties in the evening. Yeah, bloody clever, of course, but it’s got nothing to do with the real Oxfordshire has it? Nothing to do with life.

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

[...] £900bn for products and services associated with crash damage repair [...]

I thought one of the big selling points of AVs was that they don't crash (as much), thereby severely reducing the market for crash damage repair.

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: mockups

Needs to be approved by The Committee to find impressive things for the Minister to stand in front of at photo ops first, but I think we're on to a winner here.

Space, the final Trump-tier: America to beam up $8bn for Space Force

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Covfefe in Spaaace!