Posts by Kingbob

Microsoft to use Windows 11 Start menu as a billboard with app ads for Insiders

Never gonna happen

I'm still annoyed they put ads in with Freecell and Solitaire! Give me the simple games back!

Euclid space 'scope's first color snaps pull back the curtain on cosmic mysteries

Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space.

Ask a builder to fix a server and out come the vastly inappropriate power tools

ChopChop

Once had to do a site refresh at a remote office that was getting new servers, switches, UPS, the works.

But we also had to replace the little 12U rack with a full height one, so it was appropriately ordered and delivered, and waiting for us when we got there.

Problem was the network cable people had routed all the cables through a little hole in the top of the rack, and wired them into the back of the patch panel, meaning we simply couldn't get the patch panel out of the rack without ripping all the cables out and having to get it all re-terminated.

One trip the site workshop saw the application of a power saw to simply cut the top/rear of the rack out so the cable loom could be removed with the panel intact.

Luckily the new rack had a full size slot on top we could easily pass the patch panel through.

Fed up with slammed servers, IT replaced iTunes backups with a cow of a file

Same Issue

Used to have the same issue with the iTunes library in users Windows profile which was stored on a server getting clogged up with music.

The IT manager at the time had a policy of "if its clearly music, just delete it. No warning, no notification, just delete.".

Then to prevent it coming back we just denied the user write permissions to the folder.

Japan makes online insults a crime that can earn a year in jail

What constitutes an insult?

How is an insult defined?

Presumably if someone said "You're an a$$hole", that's an insult. But if they said "In my opinion you're an a$$hole", is it an insult since its an opinion?

Boffins' first take on asteroid dust from Japanese probe: Carbon rich, less lumpy than expected

And as we all know, million to one chances, work nine times out of ten!

Japan sticks the landing: Asteroid sample recovered from Hayabusa2 probe

Re: Trepidation....

A mutated space blob probably did leap out... just that the local dangerous animals got to it first!

Adiós Arecibo Observatory: America's largest radio telescope faces explosive end after over 50 years of service

Times like this i really wish people like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos etc would put their hands in their pockets and throw some pocket change at them.

I'm sure they could each cough up $50M without even scratching their bank accounts.

Grav-wave eggheads come closer to nailing down Hubble's Constant – the universe's speedy rate of expansion

That'd be 3198.3 Brontosauruses per second per 3.28 quadrillion double decker buses. i think.

Re: "this approach relies neither on the cosmological model nor the cosmic-distance ladder"

It may not agree 100% with either, but the previous estimates were 65 and 75. This one got 70, bang in the middle. So i'd say its pretty damn close.

Re: All of this assumes...

That the universe is expanding isnt an assumption, its a measurable fact. Thats what the whole thing is about, determining that measurement!

Bad news. Asteroid 1999 KW4 flew by, did not hit Earth killing us all. Good news: Another one, Didymos, is on the way

Re: Actors

Whilst nuking it in space while its still a long way away would be ideal, i wonder what the effect of detonating a nuke in front of it as it enters the atmosphere would be?

Obviously the timing would have to be exact as it'd be moving fast, but it would slow down a lot once it hits the atmosphere. Could launch a string of nukes at it, with a small distance and delay between them.

Amazon may finally get its hands on .amazon after world's DNS overseer loses patience

So do Amazon (the company) want to own the entire .amazon tld? or just amazon.amazon?

Surely Brazil can have Brazil.amazon, and Ecuador can have Ecuador.Amazon?

What's the fate of our Solar System? Boffins peer into giant crystal ball – ah, no, wait, that's our Sun in 10bn years

Photino birds

Does this account for the effects of Photino birds? :D

My PC makes ‘negative energy waves’, said user, then demanded fix

Reverse the polarity!

“sending out very negative waves”

Thats where you point to the 2 pin power connector on the laptops power supply brick, let them see you unplug it, rotate it 180 degrees, plug it back in, and say you've "Reversed the polarity of the power supply, so any negative waves should now be positively charged" :D

What did we say about Tesla's self-driving tech? SpaceX Roadster skips Mars, steers to asteroids

Re: But sir

Yeah but Million to One chances work 9 times out of 10.

Epic spacewalk, epic FAIL: Cosmonauts point new antenna in the wrong direction

Havent they watched Wall-E or Gravity? Just attach a fire extinguisher to it!