Posts by Chris Thomas

Anonymous coward, tell us more

Hey mate,

you seem to actually know stuff, you should write it up and post it, we'd all love to hear someone with ACTUAL experience, I know I'd like to hear a few things that you guys know about, I mean stuff like you put here, about the F3 vs F18, that sort of stuff we never hear about.

Also, what do you mean plug and play in the eurofighter?? I know a friend who worked on the jaguar and said that the entire piece of kit just unbolts and pulls out on a frame, like a socket in a computer, just unplugs and bingo, you replace another in 30 minutes. Is this what you meant?

write it up, put it out, educate us all, thanks for a well informed comment to a stuck record article.

@Chris Matcheet

Dont run a 64bit environment then you muppet. Answer me this one genius, are you SERIOUSLY USING IT FOR ANYTHING? Other than to substitute your girl pulling abilities so you can impress your geek friends down the pub?

I reckon like all good stats that are made up, you're gonna see about 0.0001% of the market actually uses it for anything because they need it, that microscopic percentage, is people just wanting to jack off cause it's cool.

I used to be like you, I really did, I installed 64bit windows as soon as it came out, then I found out what my penis was for and all these girls, wow, it's awesome!! Then I realised I didnt give a flying fuck anymore.

Word to the wise, nobody gives a fuck, THATS WHY you might never see 64 bit until your mother start running it and before you say it, if she is running 64bit windows or linux, but you installed it, it doesnt count.

nerds, get with the program

@Now that she and her husband are out of a job...

Interesting question, what do they do now that they are unemployed, go back to what they were doing before? teaching perhaps? or perhaps trolleypushing at tescos?

could be a good deterrant: fuck with us and you'll be back at tescos by lunchtime.

@No duh?

you have a point and whilst I usually roll my eyes and think, ANOTHER snake oil company. They actually have deployments? So, it can't actually be that bad if people are actually paying for it and seeing results.

Admittedly, it might just be a small improvement, but enough to get clients and earn money, so more power to them, if you see my point.

@Daniel Palmer

In some respects you're obviously correct, others you miss the point.

PHP is a car crash of a language when compared to other languages, the language has almost no structure or what structure it does have is built like a skyscraper using duct-tape, sure it's 100 storeys high, but holy shit WTF have you done????

As for most programmers, they are awful, in my entire 10 year programming experience, I have seen ONE project that was written "correctly" as in (incidentally, it's my current project), didnt look like a pile of shit, sql everywhere, dead bodies by the roadside that nobody knows how or why they are there.

I think a lot of people can resonate with what ted is saying here, that by far, PHP has the worst programmers of almost any language except VB, the only reason we use it is because like ted says, in the hands of RESPONSIBLE people, it can be used properly, it's just that 99% of people are not in that category.

So whilst he does blow things up, he is also correct in what he has said. At least give him the benefit of the doubt before replying.

Evaluation was probably all wrong

I maybe got this all wrong, or all right. But I think the evaulation was probably all wrong. You have to take the way we link information together in order to create what we call intelligence.

Your intelligence is mostly built upon experience of actual events, connections between related or unrelated data in order to create an approximation of the answer. Absolutely, in the case of mathematics and relatively, in the case of catching a ball.

The problem with search engines and this will always be the case, is they are trying a top down approach. To just create an algorithm which approximates a complex action and display the results, so we build the computer to recognise the words we understand and give them meaning without the computer knowing why, then just tell it to return certain results when we accept certain input.

This is a critical problem, because the computer will never truely understand what it is trying to acheive. So I believe what you might be seeing here, is not an attempt to create a google killer, but an attempt to model how to link information together at the most basic level, it's very primative, remember, because the top down approach gives you results like a fully grown adult *MIGHT* W|Alpha seems to be giving you answers you'd expect from a very basic intelligence.

This might be the first steps at trying a bottom up approach, where you are not so interested AT THIS STAGE, in giving correct results, but building the model upon which to rebuild the system a stage higher on the intelligence scale.

If this is true, then it's premature to judge the engine based on it's current level of intelligence (I use the term lightly) but might be better to see it as a primative experiment in driving the next level, if and once they start to get results from data associated together and they can obviously view the results and see whether the behaviour is correct or not, then we can start to see where they might go.

However, the idea might be not to produce something that gives the correct results, remember, humans might actually know the correct result by performing an inverse search for the correct result, using the incorrect data. We know how NOT to catch a ball, surely there are 1 million ways to NOT catch it, therefore it limits down how to ACTUALLY catch it. we know that throwing our leg into the air, will not result in a catched ball. So perhaps teaching the computer to recognise a WRONG answer, is more useful than teaching one to catch a CORRECT answer.

Just a few thoughts. Maybe we are looking at it in the wrong way, perhaps the idea is not to build a google clone, but to experiment and get free testing from the public about their ideas and how to create the next level.

could be??

Antialiased graphics!!!!

The 1990's called, they want their football, it's stuck in the tree at the back of your garden. They also mentioned that you suck, thinking that in 2009 AA graphics is a big deal.

@so what happens to MySQL now???

You have to find the real mysql before you can answer that question.

@Three things

Seeing as you sound like you are fun Sun I guess this might come as an example of what sun lacks, is the ability to count, like you for example (lol, three things).

So considering you can't count to three without making a mistake, whats the chance you'll make some money some day? Counting is required to make money I believe.

Revolting french workers huh?

wow, I know people dont like the french much, but I guess calling them revolting is a little harsh don't you think?

LOOOL

IE8 by default???

ok, one day it's default, the next you have to add a tag, the next it's by default, the other you have to add a tag....this is confusing, THAT is why I've not done anything so far.

so, can someone clarify for me

with NO TAG, what mode does ie8 render in? standards, or no standards mode?

and WITH A TAG, what mode does ie8 render in?

cause I was sure that I read that actually they had seen the light and was going to render in standards mode BY DEFAULT, then everyone who wants compatibility, can add a tag to get IE6 or 7 rendering done.

So now I'm confused, microsoft are wondering why other people dont have the tag or not, maybe it's because we're told one thing one day and another thing another day and we dont actually know which is which.

sack of stones?

Don't you mean sack of pancakes?

Compensation Culture or Deserved Reward

I aint sure about this one, I mean, on the one hand, he stopped one of their vans from possibly killing people, cause lets face it a van moving at 20mph only has to knock you under it and you're pretty much a goner (better if you go over the top, at least you're precious face and skull doesnt get squished).

But on the other, did he have to ask?

I think they should have offered him a reward for what he did, but I also think that he shouldn't have asked for it, because by asking, don't he paint himself as a ambulance chaser? It's kinda easy to see their point of view on this, I mean, nobody asked him too and maybe they were going to give him something, then got this letter asking for compensation.

It's like arriving at a birthday party only to be asked for your present for the birthday boy, when you were about to give it, now doesnt it feel like your purpose at the party isnt to celebrate the birthday, but just to provide presents? If you had given the present from your own hands, it feels better, cause you "gave" it, not "handed it over" because it was asked for.

Although nowadays a company can't admit fault in any way cause then they open themselves to liability from people who are less than honest, so what is a company to do? say thanks, give a gift, perhaps pay for some treatment (thanks for NOT getting us a lawsuit for manslaughter and putting that idiot driver in jail) THEN open themselves up for "HA HA!!! I'm in your bank accounts, cleaning your moneys!!" Cause by giving the gift, you acknowledge the fact that something happened and you feel responsible, some people would just jump all over them, what if the gift wasnt enough for the guy, ok, hire a lawyer to get a better gift.

So of course the company won't do anything because they, like others, are afraid of people suiing them, which is completely understandable. But at the same time, the guy does deserve something for possibly saving lives

Catch-22 I think, what you reckon?

@anonymous coward

since nobody cares about EPOC anymore, and libjpeg and friends compile on pretty much any platform, I would say that it's incredibly stupid to think that writing your own is a good idea, like the commenter above says it. Some smarty pants thought he was clever to write his own and it includes bugs whereas the standard ones which are like 10 years old, all have them squished out, why? because of sheer time and exposure eliminates these things.

(I'm almost sure you could compile libjpeg for EPOC as well)

it's all been done before, EXCEPT in a brand new, completely untested codebase.

I am thinking that this isnt the "better expereicen" that you're referring to, but it's only that almost all coders know a brand new codebase will give their users.

Opera: FAIL

hashed passwords

ok, can anyone explain to me the security risk of having someone's hashed password? considering when sent to the webserver, it'll be hashed and compared against the one from the database.

so ok, say you have the hash, you send it, it'll make a hash of a hash and it'll wrongly compare to the database, therefore preventing anyone from accessing the account.

it's only sites which access passwords without transformation which are in problems afaik. maybe I am wrong, but thats the way I see it.

also, what kind of website returns to the browser an entire user row from the database including that information in order to harvest it? I mean, dont we all accept the username+password, store the memberid (primary key row id) into the session and THATS it. Only in the client area do you show the rest. So, the only way you could extract that information, is if it's being transmitted in the first place, in some way, if you dont transmit, you can't copy. Simple, right?

so what they hell were they doing at Spotify????

lol@boris

that guy always makes me laugh, he may have a funny way of talking sometimes! very! funny! indeed! but I believe! that! he is! a nice! guy! (must have shares in yahoo! or something)

what amazes me

is that they couldnt just restrict what autorun can do, I mean, what exactly could it possibly need? it needs to open a program that can do what, install a program? ok, on demand popup a dialog asking for permission and bingo, problem is resolved.

oh wait, windows can't reliably do that.......

Nouveau?

Isnt that for NVIDIA chipsets and Not intel ones?

who reads the reg?

your mother does! now what time are you getting home tonight sonny??

I think everyone is missing the point

hmmm, I aint sure why you're all blabbering on about who's got the best plane, air combat as well as most of modern warfare died with the advent of nuclear weapons anyway, like it was also said in this article.

the main benefit of all these super jets, is the technologies they bring with them, you make lots of interesting advancements when building military kit and this isnt a new saying either, so think of it like this,

1) you HAVE to have the best equipment IF you ever fought a war

2) but you never will, but you still have to have it

3) you build it and keep the best tech to yourself

4) commercialise all the cool stuff you can sell (radar? gps?)

5) ???

6) profit!!

think of it like a way to keep our level of tech constantly increasing without ever having to require that level of technology, better to keep improving and spend your money on something than let it sit in the bank and do nothing, right??

so, it's not about wars and planes, it's about planes and tech :D

get it right boys. I'll leave the rest to you guys :D

But lets all be honest

whilst we all think that these things should be given without attachment, she used her new lease of life to betray him and run away with another man and withhold access from their three daughters, all of this in repayment for him giving part of his body to save her and she totally shits all over him like that.

most people are cynical enough to say that well, just because it's your kidney, shouldnt mean you have control, or influence of that person's freewill, that would be like imprisonment, cmon now, she didnt act in any way respectably, she shit all over the guy in the worst way and now he probably feels like maybe he should have kept the dammed kidney and let her die and keep his dignity AND his family, now because he was a nice guy and saved her, he's lost everything.

What a bitch, totally deserves to lose just on principle alone nevermind if she actually broke any laws

@Flamebait?

"Sure, in an idealistic purist world we'd tell developers of non-standards-compliant sites where to get off, and backward compatibility would be dropped altogether. On the other hand, why piss off the many businesses who have intranets that serve their intended purpose perfectly well even if those intranets do use a few non-standard techniques to accomplish the desired functionality."

how about because I don't think we should allow those who can't be arsed to do a good job to hold us back from getting further down the track of progress, how about because if you're too fucking stupid to realise how important standards are, you can just deal with your own shit and not force me to, I mean, hell, if you developed the piece of crap that apparently works so well, then keep IE6 and your intranet to yourself, nobody forces you to upgrade, just stay with winxp and ie6

for the rest of us, fuck em, if you're on the net with a site that does that, then you deserve to burn, wheres my marshmellows

drivers for windows as well?

Has anyone not realised that whilst this really does apply mainly to linux, this code would also be useful to create a driver for windows as well? I mean, it's hardware control documentation right? so if you can use it to create a driver for linux, then surely you just create a wrapper which allows you to swap it out for the win32 layer and bingo, windows driver?

anyone find a problem with that? Might help us get better stability from windows as well as linux :D

tank vs hellfire, who wins?

Matt, I guess the point of the question is, you'd have to hit the helo first, if it's hidden behind a hill, not much chance you'll be threatening many apaches in the long run.

would you care to elaborate on this rather odd celebrity deathmatch? Who do you think would win.

jason

you're right on the project management side of things, technically they are like coders, we love to do the fun stuff, but we hate to do the management side of things ,cause it's boring.

but the problem then is that people who do project management, arent really very good at anything, thats why they manage and not create, those who can't, manage, amirite?

Unfortunately it seems that nobody has the same keen interest in management as they do the cool stuff, so they leave that for the boring guys (the ones without a clue), so their cool shit, actually gets turned upside down and they'd probably like to take a minute right there, to tell you how they'd all prefer to move with their aunt in bel air than deal with boring managemetn

Irony? Hyypocrites the lot of u!

the real irony here is that sometimes the reg has these errors and the timesonline.co.uk as well, everyone who doesnt know how to use a spellchecker, or how to spell words WITHOUT ONE, makes these mestakes.

:D

Reg editors too bored?

They spend an awful amount of time discussing and writing about the issue of extreme porn, I wonder if there is any reason for it, perhaps a particular bias that might be played out? (extremely of course)

slow motion?

is it me or is the video in slow motion, because the object falls and bounces very slowly for something I expect to be heavier

Told you so

said so in a previous comment to the ABL article that the aim of the ABL is not to build 747 based weapons, but to improve on the tech so to reduce the size and fit into fighter aircraft.

try dodging a laser beam hitting your fusilage, you'll wish for the days of missles when one of those beams hits the cockpit, or even better, the fuel tanks of your SU-27

You all miss the point

The point of the ABL for those who seemed to haved missed it, is not to put a fleet of 747's with huge massive chemically toxic lasers in the air, but to verify than you can do it.

Like all things, the first computers were massive, what happened to them? they shrank, A LOT.

The 747 is the collosus of the laser weapon world, it's aim, to do the job with the tech we have and prove a lot of things possible, then afterwards, reduce the size, possibly the power and refine the idea for replacing some weapon systems on smaller fighter aircraft, what about in 10 years time, we find this mounted on a A10, then maybe with the size down, increase the power using more modern tech (from 10 years in the future of course) and then you've got bullets and missles eliminated.

The only thing that stops a laser, is being destroyed, or being out of power, If you can solve the power problem, you'll have sufficient ability to stop yourself from being destroyed

making any plane with them, almost invunerable.

Admittedly, this isnt tomorrow, but this is where it's going. Forget ABL's and think about what happened with computers. You'll find your analogy quickly enough.

Die?? Are you crazy!!

Dudes, SCO is the biggest source of lulz in the computer world and you want it to die???? OMG!!! Keep it going man, relight the fires of destiny and continue the lulz.

this "reporter" has no technical skills whatsoever??

"Even more troubling is the discovery that administrative pages for both sites are linked to Google Analytics. This is a hard configuration to make sense of. It means that Google, a private company with important business before the US government, has complete administrative access to one of the government's most important websites."

Too much beer or what? You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about, do you. Maybe you should take Computer Science III and come back to us when you're reporting about something you know about.

kthxbye

@Jason LoCascio

You might like to think that, but considering most of them are actually racist and not just plain ordinary people who want equality in both directions, if you're "coloured" (cover all, generic term), in an accident and the person in the ambulance is a supporter of the BNP, are you going to say it doesnt matter when they treat your white friend more than you, increasing your chances of dying?

Might change your perspective if you ever found yourself in that position huh.

Pansies

Did the explorers of old have such tiny balls? you want to come home?? You an explorer or a pansy, get in the boat, sail on whatever you can and if you survive you'll be a hero, if not, you'll be forgotten.

is the only difference between then and now is that we "assess" the dangers and know too much about the dangers in order to grab our nuts, get in the boat and start rowing??

Whats the problem with these people?

Remember kids, dont help nobody

People need to wake up and realise that "helping" is a point of view, not an absolute, you might be helping the people on the list, you might be helping to improve security, but you're stoning to death the administrator who now looks like a complete idiot and might have to fight for his job or be unemployed.

So what happens is people filter the information so that it looks good, if that administrator is doing the filtering, what do you think he will do? thats right kids! he'll filter it so that YOU HACKED THE SYSTEM and you're a terrorist!! you threatened him, he has the <clickety click> emails right here!!!!

I wrote a blog post about this, I think it's pretty much in the vein of the comments above, so I'll let you all read it.

http://chris-alex-thomas.com/blog/2008/10/28/remember-kids-never-do-the-right-thing/

@Richard Tobin

Man, sex is something that's existed since the first of us and you go and blow all your chances in one go by writing this? Couldn't you just have gotten absolutely wasted like the rest of us and boned some ho's instead??

NASA Programmers on the Windows 7 team!

I've got an idea, put the NASA programmers responsible for the hubble on the Windows 7 team, at least then if it has a bug, they will analyse and tell you EXACTLY with absolute certainty what the problem is and what the fix is. None of this maybe yes maybe no, oh shi- just bsod'd again

it'll probably run in a smaller memory footprint and on a radiation hardened i386 as well, I know its a joke and I hope everyone else does too, but is anyone NOT in awe of these guys, they can debug and fix a broken computer in orbit, with limited availability and limited attempts and these guys always seem to get it right.

Who is microsoft employing down here????

Muslims with common sense??

Holy crap!!! SATIRE ALERT!!!

I demand to know where the crowds burning effigies of the sony directors are!!?!?!?! How dare a muslim act reasonable!! Thats not what I learned on Sky News or BBC, I learned they are all bloody thirsty violent thugs and I demand to keep my world view!!

On a lighter note, I wonder if any muslims in pakistan are at this very moment calling for this guys head on a plate because he's not deranged like they are.

Just a thought: World calling Muslims, this guy might actually be showing you how to act in a democracy.

Oh dammit, ok, lets start from the beginning. "Democracy" is a system where people can....blahblahblahblah

Proxies anyone?

who knows how many proxies he used and how many he should have? he'd be home+safe if he used proxies.

what is the world coming to!!!!

Serves him right

He never used 7 proxies, longcat never protects the weak, he is too looooooooooooooooooong

10 minutes?? You lucky bastard

10 minutes!?!? I've heard a 20 minute EXTENDED EDITION

omg, what drivel, the song isnt even that good, it just goes on and on and on and someone ban tht fat bastard cause I'll be dammed if I wanna listen it again, let it die already, you got your money, fuck off to the carribbean and live out your days surrounded by hot women like all the other hard rock people did.

lets make this more VISIBLE

right now, ifyou type "nvidia gpu corruption" or other similar terms into google, you find almost nothing, I've found a total of two screenshots from about 2 hours of googling which shows the same problem, we dont want WORDS, we want PICTURES, all I found were words, words words, but nobody seems to put up any pictures to describe the problem.

I think we should change this, on my blog, I have an article on this very problem, I also have pictures too, if anyone is interested to look go here

http://chris-alex-thomas.com/blog/2008/09/11/nvidia-and-the-burned-out-gpu/

if you want to send me your comments and if you can email pictures, I'll attribute them and update the article, cause I really want to know more about this, I want a body of evidence, so when I go to claim my free repair/replacement, I will get it without a fight, the only way I can see that happening, is by making them have no doubt that we all KNOW what the problem is and we all KNOW who is resposible.

Chris

@By The Other Steve

pfff, is that the best you've got to something I wrote in less than a minute, ok, iptables with drop+block on all "bad" connections

bingo, you're system is foolproof again.