Posts by Corwin_X

Aussie immunology legend consults Twitter for his local off-licence opening hours

It works for me! Who wants to be sober right now?

I have a great love of Aussies and Kiwis. I think they have a better perspective on life than most of the western nations. A perspective I share.

Apollo 13 set off into space 50 years ago today. An ignored change order ensured it did not make it to the Moon...

Re: Lucky 13

You're obviously a steel eyed rocket man! ;-) :-)

Yeah - engineers can and do make mistakes. But if a serious $hitshow happens it's usually the management! ;-)

Re: Lucky 13

That's what NASA was doing - or at least thought they were doing - and it still went pearshaped. Many people don't have enough respect for a) Murphy's Law and b) Plan B.

Re: Lucky 13

Yeah sorry - should have said Columbia. Point still stands though: both were caused by tiny little failures in the systems. Hope Elon Musk has more luck!

Re: Lucky 13

As an engineer I can tell you it's never the big stuff that's had a lot of spadework put into it - it's always the tiny little things missed that'll bite you on the ass. Challenger for example - a single insualation tile knocked off.

A masterful analysis - bravo. Looking forward to part two!

Take DOS, stir in some Netware, add a bit of Windows and... it's ALIIIIVE!

Ahhhh! The heady joy-filled days of handcrafting Autoexec and Config.Sys files to achieve over 512k of useable memory (including networking).

[Wipes a lone tear from eye]. ;-) :-)

Ancient Ore Crusher or KillBot 2000? NASA gets ready to pick a name for its Mars 2020 Rover

Re: A Roger Zelazny reference - Ancient Ore Crusher - bravo!!

Ah ... yes. I mixed up the 1842 act (42 years for date of original publication) with the later acts that start a 50-70 year period from the author's *death*, not publication.

Apologies for misleading anyone here.

I revise my recommendation to buying "The Last Defender of Camelot", an anthology book of Zelazny's short stories including the ones mentioned here.

Re: A Roger Zelazny reference - Ancient Ore Crusher - bravo!!

Try "Comes Now the Power" - easily available online since most of his stories are out of copyright.

Have a box of tissues to hand.

Socket to the energy bill: 5-bed home with stupid number of power outlets leaves us asking... why?

Re: @AnonSACoward

They're only shuttered until you stick a screwdriver into the earth socket and open them.

You can then insert a couple of live wires.

This is a strictly temporary and emergency fix I've used a few times in extremis and not at home.

It appears to be a human trait to want to insert things into other things.

What if I poke it here, maybe it'll start working? BZZZZRT (or maybe not if you insert the correct device into the correct socket). ;-)

And yes, I am punning here!

Re: Bathrooms?

You don't put outlets in bathrooms except for specialized shaver outlets. Big no-no. This actually looks to me like a pretty professional, if messy looking, job to me.

Let's recap reCAPTCHA gotcha: Our cunning AI can defeat Google's anti-bot tech, say uni boffins

Re: Catcha is the most annoying piece of crap ever

Have to respectfully disagree - the text ones you can just do a renew to get one you can read.

The picture based ones need to be killed with fire. Especially since it's all yank based and, as someone mentioned, not everyone around the world knows what a "crosswalk" is. It's the rough equivalent of a pelican crossing in the UK BTW.

Re: The most annoying CAPTCHAs are those that are absent

I've had quite a few instances of this. Firefox nope. Chrome nope. Edge nope. The only way I've been able to get it to dispay the actual Captcha is to use IE6 (may the goddess preserve my soul!!!).

Today in tortured tech analogies: Mozilla lets Firefox loose in the hen house, and by hen house, we mean the tracking cookie jar, er...

My one grouch is they keep effing about with what functions are supported userChrome.css.

Just installed (then uninstalled) v69 - and yes: my tabs moved yet again to the top instead of the bottom.

They seem to be on a messianic mission here - it's against God and nature to have the tabs at the bottom just above the page!

I'll reinstall when I find the latest fix for tabs on bottom.

You'll take my Firefox when you pry it from my cold dead fingers! ;-)

I'm a greybeard - first browser I used was Mosaic, then through Netscape, Mozilla, Firefox

Comes down to a matter of trust - Firefox 8 v Chrome 1. Do I want my browser tied to an advertising platform with murky privacy settings or a somewhat independent software producer?

I uninstall Chrome when another application install pushes it (happens a lot these days, without them asking first) and haven't touched IE (any version) for over a decade.

Senior slippery sex stimulator sales exec sacked for shafting .org-asmic cyber-space place, a tribunal hears

Re: Well, still an idiot

He's an utter idiot. I got the .org[asm] pun instantly, as would many of their customers, and appreciate it.

Ca-caw-caw: Pigeon poops on tot's face as tempers fray at siege of Lincoln flats

High power air rifle and a cleanup crew for a few weeks

Falcons work as well but are more expensive.

Birds do learn when an area becomes too dangerous for them.

Crispest image yet of Ultima Thule arrives on Earth, but grab a coffee while the rest downloads

Re: Look very hard!

I think we're still getting data from at least one of the Voyagers? And they've left the solar system! Elon and Co will have to go a long way to match 70's engineering for sheer stamina.

When real men and women knew the AT command set off by heart! ;-)

No, seriously, why are you holding your phone like that?

Those who play music and videos, loudly, on public transport without headphones should:

a) Be publically flogged; and

b) Have said device surgically installed into their anus.

I've come close to a few actual fights - but the twats always back down unfortunately.

Whois privacy shambles becomes last-minute mad data scramble

WHOIS should just be taken behind the shed and shot. Anyone who thinks that kind of personal information should be publicly available, in this day and age, is an idiot. If anyone's up to no good on their domain then there should be a process for the police to get the info from the registrar - it doesn't need to be public. My WHOIS registration for my domain shows my old address and an old phone number. And ICANN can go swing if they want to show my current info to the world.

Navy names new attack sub HMS Agincourt

Re: Naming things

Just saying - We like giving the finger to the French and they equally enjoy giving the finger to us "rosbifs". Friendly rivalry. But Agincourt (or to give it it's proper name Azincourt) is a bit on the nose while we're trying to build a new relationship with the rest of Europe.

Re: VMWare?

They can make the most of the kit they have in the smallest space. VMware can run multiple systems on one hardware box instead of having a whole bunch of seperate servers taking up space. Subs don't have the room for racks of servers, they're cramped as it is. I know because I know someone who's a sub driver and I got a tour once.

I wonder if anyone else here feels that naming our latest nuclear sub after a famous French defeat by the English might not be entirely diplomatic in the middle of Brexit negotiations?

A bit pedantic, but it's "we happy few" not "we merry few".

Windows 10 April 2018 Update lands today... ish

It landed for some people last night UK time. I was round a mate's yesterday afternoon and wanted to show him something on the net. Fired up his PC early evening and got (paraphrasing) updating please don't switch off, etc. I knew what was going on so didn't bother actually reading the words. He told me the PC had been trying to do "whatever" since the previous day. Finally after a beer and a fag it finally fired up and there was a whole "Welcome to Windows Creator Update" marketing blurb before I could get to the desktop. Which I also naturally didn't read. All he was interested in when I explained was if Stardock Start 10 was still working. He nearly threw the PC out of the window when first introduced to the Win8/Win10 interface.;-)

That's no moon... er, that's an asteroid. And it'll be your next and final home, spacefarer

"Generation ships" (to use the common SF term), where multiple generations are born and die in transit, are probably the only way humans will reach the stars.

There is no perceived IT generation gap: Young people really are thick

That picture of "doughnuts" is quite possibly the most horrifying thing I've ever seen. And that includes actual bloody horror movies!

'Housemate from hell' catches 24 new charges after alleged nightmare cyberstalking spree

If all the charges are proved - I don't want this guy on the streets ever again.

Brit cloud slinger iomart goes TITSUP, knackers Virgin Trains, Parentpay

I stand in awe of you guy's ability to create TITSUP backronyms!

10Mbps for world+dog, hoots UK.gov, and here is how we're doing it

God and Godess - a billion pound government tech scheme.Most of them don't understand how a 3-pin plug works. [Holds head in hand and weeps].

MY GOD, IT'S FULL OF CARS: SpaceX parks a Tesla in orbit (just don't mention the barge)

Re: ******g A, Elon!

The *title* track was Life on Mars and I recently re-watched the whole series - can't remember Space Oddity anywhere.

I suspect Musk may be a fan of the "Soft Landing" opening sequence of the Heavy Metal movie (animation film 1980). A 57 Chevvy, released from a shuttle making re-entry with an astronaut at the wheel.

Sounds crazy but it's cool as hell with some great music!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI-7MZMZhyM