Posts by andrew mulcock

NASA tests amazing bailout rocket which will never be used

Apollo

Ok

so now do a look at the apollo eject system, the difference is ?

Californian university drops Gmail over privacy concerns

NTLWORLD

And to think

Ntl world / Virgin media are 'updating' form their own servers to using Gmail !!

'R2' robot to join space station crew, says NASA

space suit

So stick it in a space suit,

and it can go outside.

As it does not breath, should be no problems of the bends.

I guess it just needs the heating / cooling of the back pack.

Discovery team wrap first ISS spacewalk

CFC

An interesting thought,

could the ISS be used to reduce the CFC

instead of ammonia, use ozone or such like CFC, and take it out the atmosphere !

Get ready for the revolution: internet TVs

DLNA !

DLNA Ha,

don't make me laugh,

it's not a standard, it's a wrapper for standards,

two devices can both be quite rightly DLNA badged, and not work together.

DLNA is a waste of time, we need a spec that says things will work together.

Opera alerts EU to hidden Windows browser-ballot

windows update

And when you run windows update, you get asked if you want to make IE your default browser,

guess what, the default answer is yes.

until you do not need IE to perform windows update, then this is going to be a problem.

and MS won't take that option unless forced to, another delaying tactic or good American business policy.

MS sees Windows 7 leap, but XP workhorse refuses to die

sp3

and from a few months will you be able to get sp3 from microsoft

Humax HD-Fox T2 Freeview HD receiver

HD ?

I think I'd rather have more bits on all the existing chanels to up there quality than one or two in HD , the rest in Low D,

MSI tells 97,000 customers to 'Read The F***ing Manual'

well done

I'd support the person who came up with the chip idea.

I wish some sites I use had one,

BT ordered to share telegraph poles for fast broadband

Virgin pipes

Round here,

we have pipes in the ground from virgin, ( was NTL world )

but BT lines direct in the earth.

so here there is no competition, low speed twisted pair from BT or high speed cable from virgin.

so will BT open reach be able to use Virgins ducts to offer a competitive edge.

Microsoft confirms IE9 will shun Windows XP

And for MS update

So when will MS update only work on IE9 or above ?

that will kill XP fast ,

Mole-cruiser planned to attack Iranian nuke bunkers

FEA

I'd imagine a FEA would be a great war head for this,

Microsoft rejiggers EU browser ballot after complaints

Update

Does it matter ?

As soon as you have to do the monthly windows update, IE has to be installed and updated to the latest version no mater what.

So what are you balloting on ?

NASA sniffs out (yet more) lunar ice

bugs

OK

so follow the water is the search for life from nasa.

http://www.astrobio.net/index.php?option=com_retrospection&task=detail&id=1709

So there could be / was life on the moon ?

So how are we not going to cross contaminate it and our selfs ?

and we thought SARS traveled a long distance fast !

BBC Trust won't probe iPlayer open source gripes

copyrigth date

Have you noticed the copyright date at the bottom of the screen of the consultation ?

https://consultations.external.bbc.co.uk/departments/bbc/bbc-on-demand-offerings/consultation/intro/getNextPage

they can't even get the date right,

Microsoft spits out 'browser choice' update to appease EC antitrust probe

and updates

So does this mean I do not need IE to run the microsoft update ?

If I do need IE for that, then I'm not really selecting one over another am I.

Sony ships Freeview HD Bravia TVs

DLNA , laugh

And I bet the DLNA is only compatable with the Sony version of DLNA, like the earlier sets.

And DLNA over WI-FI. What are they using so as to get HD TV over wi-fi reliably ?

Seagate Barracuda XT 2TB Sata 3.0 HDD

SSD

Now, when SATA 3 and SSD drives go together, that could be fast.

The return of the Psion-sized PC

Old Psions

Well,

I used psions from the psion '11' , through to the 3mx,

never go t into the 5 series, the 3 did all I wanted it to do.

Number 1, was reliability. Don't think I ever had to re boot the thing,

Number 2, battery life. A month or two normal use,

Number 3, connectivity, connected to the PC fantasticaly easily

Number 4, instant on. Open , press button and use.

It just worked, always there for me when I wanted it, had all sorts of information on it , stored and sorted as needed. Spread sheets and note pads as needed.

Perfect.

Then they went and tried to get into the mobile market and blew it.

And this new thing only seems to tick the connected button, the rest it seems to fall over on big time.

If they could make a Psion 3 or 5 that connected to the PC, I'd get one.

Superconductor forcefield to shield re-entering spacecraft?

how hot is plasma

Just wondered how hot the friction / air has to get to become plasma and thus conductive for the EM shield to work ?

I guess up till that temperature, then normal heat shielding has to be employed .

NASA: the Moon is a hydrated mistress

Bugs from space

Now, a few lines of thought here that sort of collide.

a) NASA is following the rule follow the water to find life in the universe.

b) NASA came back from the moon and said there was no life.

c) NASA et all now say moon has water all over it in different amounts.

d) Apollo equipment et all is covered in this stuff, and is on general display in various places.

I can remember long cues at the Smithsonian institute Washington to 'touch' a bit of moon rock.

Does that mean that we have all been exposed to moon bugs in the water they bought back with them ?

CIA / Black opps , X files on hold here !

Legless woman falls onto Boston train tracks

red rectangles

Question

what are the red rectangles that are not around moving people, what is it seeing moving ?

Ares I: What's the point?

Looks

And the thing looks dammed ugly,

Buffalo Linkstation Pro

DLNA , don't make me laugh

What does "DLNA-certified media streamer" mean.

I have various bits of kit that are all officialy DLNA certified ( v 1.5)

will they talk to eahc other, wil they heck,

the latest is sony, who now say they are DLNA , but only between Sony kit.

Ha

what a laugh

Virgin Media network goes down down south

Cambridge as well

Looks like all email is out as well ,

Cambridge has no email service, and web access through virgin is gone, as is the old www.ntlworld.com re direction.

Windows XP customers positive but split on Windows 7

xp ?

ms are in a problem,

xp mainly does what people want now,

drivers work, programs work, support works.

so people ask, why change ?

I forcast, only when you can't get drivers for new equipment for XP will it change.

Orbital refuelling stations could rescue NASA Mars plans

Boil off rocket

And what did boil off could be feed to control / boost rockets to counter the effect of gravity.

Microsoft railroads little man with Office Live U-turn

Contract

Is this not breaking the contract terms,

do they have the equivalent of a small claims court for small business's ?

Brit firm sells hi-tech fabric vehicle armour to DARPA

Like the harrier ?

So I guess,

like the harrier, supersonic wings, RR rockets et all,

As US are our 'special partners', US will taker a small order 'improve it', then make their own version and sell it to the world.

Like the harrier ?

Well done , but I'm sorry for them

like the harrier, supersonic wings, RR rockets et all,

As US are our 'special partners', US will taker a small order 'improve it', then make their own version and sell it to the world.

X-51 ordinary-fuel scramjet to fly in December

Planes

So,

use normal jet to get to high altitude, then DIVE like .... to MACH 4, and start scram JET.

Now that sounds a fun plane ride.

maybe try it out on the shuttle ?

Sky switches on 3D TV channel in 2010

Compression ?

Are they transmitting two images ( L and R )

I'd have thought that there is going to be a lot of similarity between the L and R, and so only the difference would have been transmitted.

After all, MPEG uses I, B and P frames, is there not a 3D equivalent standard that is used to minimise the extra band width ?

Microsoft offers EU choice on Windows browsers

and ms update

and will we be able to access and install updates without IE ?

VW confirms e-car plans

lead free fuel.

was it not that long ago that the UK had lead in most of it's petrol,

"it will never catch on, can't be done, will cause to much of a problem" was the call,

then the government under what ever reason decided to drop prices on lead free, and within 6 months we were all driving lead free cars. no fuss.

I only drive 30 odd miles a day, no public transport possible, so i could easily get an electric car, but won't because "it will never catch on, can't be done, will cause to much of a problem".

we will see in 10 years.

Satanic blob beast menaces North Carolina

Tube worms ?

Quick look at that well known nest of truth, wiki, shows these things to be worm like. Can't see any worms on this video,

Brit firm stops anti-tank warheads with cloth

fire ?

Why use fire,

Hit the thing with a AK47 firing in auto mode, will cut the cloth into shreds that the RPG will then go through. The thick "chicken mesh" currently used is very hard to hit with the AK47.

The article does say the cloth has to be taught to work, after being hit with from the AK47, it won't be taught.

Behind Microsoft's IE-free, Windows-for-Europe ploy

Microsoft update

Is this not rather a none chat.

Until Microsoft do not force you to use IE to run Microsoft update, then IE Will be required.

El Reg Street View snappers caught on camera

picture quality

interesting, the quality of the pictures taken of the cars is quite high, whilst the ones of the people taken by the car is quite low.

Most of the people seem to be using mobile phones, maybe the cars should be equiped with mobile phones to take better quality pictures.

MS coughs to hokey-cokey IE8 option in Windows 7

mozilla

Well

I bet you will still have to use IE to access all of the Microsoft update systems.

'No Office 14 this year,' says Ballmer

New office software ?

Ha

most people don't even have office 2007 , they stay with previous incarnations, why change to offic 14 ?

Hydrogen motoring too heavy for pundit

does it matter ?

To be honest, does it matter ?

we're going to run out of petroleum, sooner or later. so we're going to have to change something.

we did not get lead free petrol for a long time after it was easily possible because 'the cost of conversion was too high', then one tax change later, and ha presto, it's done.

we did not want north sea gas, it would only last a few years, so why change from town gas ? but we did because some one said lets do it.

Same can be said for mercury, once upon a time we used to use it allover the place, now if I break a mercury thermometer I have to evacuate the lab. Just because some one decided so.

Same will happen for the petrol vehicular, it and us will evolve, when we want to.

VIA spins mini-mobo disk array

via boards and hard drives

I use via a lot, but a few features I have found in the past.

This size box is great, but very noisy with the 6 small 40 mm fans on the hard disks. Plane taking off sort of thing. Not for use at home, unless you have a room you can lock it out the way in.

Via boards all seem to have a very low Sata count, two being the typical on ITX boards. They do special NAS boards, but they cost a bomb, and are much less common.

mini-ITX boards in general, the ones with the 40 mm fan on, are horribly noisy. Starts off ok, but gets worse over the months. Some one has got to make a BIG heatsink one could put on the in place of that fan. The ones without fans are obviously quite, but less capable.

Fence plan to save Tasmanian Devil

infectious cancer ?

Did I miss a trick some where,

so 'cancer' is infectious ? wow, so we can stop it,

BTW: when will the DARPA guys get hold of it as an idea ?

What's wrong with tape backup?

And home backups

Tapes, you just can't back up peta bytes of data to tape, for 10 years, tapes don't last that long, unless you keep reversing them and giving them TLC.

Even the small office I'm in , has 100 plus pc's each with 500 G plus of drives, how do you keep that backed up ?

The thing that worries me , is home backups. The kids both have machines with T byte drives, how do I keep that backed up, apart from using more hard drives ?

US, UK deploy manned unmanned aircraft to save bandwidth

bandwidth , what bandwidth ?

Just trying to get handle on which bandwidth is in question.

Is it satalight or ground based problems.

just thinking, the predators et all need to talk over the horizon, so tend to use satalights, but

could they not be set to use a more local relay like another plane near by but far enough away, which then uses microwave link to connect to ground based fibre optic internet,

thus no need for satalight bandwidth.

Heidemarie 'Toolbag' Piper set for second spacewalk

up or down

Was the bag dropped ?

dropped impies downwards, in micro gravity is there such a thing as dropped ?

do we need to invent another word ?

now NASA is great at EVA, and ALSEP TLA's, so whats the new word for dropped in space going to be.

BT threatens to pull plug on better broadband

so

So

BT will not invest in the UK, they are a multinational company so why should they.

So if we want a national infer structure, let the UK government purchase BT and rent the facilities back to the company,

Is this not what happens on the railways ?

Virgin Media wields mighty jobs axe

how much per year

so does that mean each person costs Virgin an average of 54K per year ?

US admiral wants pain-rayguns for Gulf fleet

heat ray

Well, lets just declare a no go area around the ship, and assuming the beam is directional ! leave it on all the time, get to close to the ship you get fried, end of story.

Be great on the big carriers as they have plenty of free electricity due to the reactors,

Astronaut space dump pong-bomb frag shower today

rocket belt

On the assumption we're going to keep chucking large lumps back down to earth, would it be practical to have a rocket pack, which could be 'joined' to such stuff, and used to make a more predictable impact area ?

I'd imagine over a year, a very low amount of thrust, maybe even from solar cell's would be sufficient ?