Posts by Herby

Jewelry

Nothing more, nothing less. Its like watches. In watches anything over about $40 or so is just status symbol jewelry. Sure you can buy a nice $multi thousand Rolex, but does it keep better time than the nice $30 or so (prices have gone up a bit since I last got a watch) simple Seiko (add about $10 for the nice Twist-o-flax watchband I like).

Sure you can avoid silly (thankfully we don't have them here [yet] in sunny California) congestion charges, but other than that, what's the point. Given the fact that silly plug in funny stuff doesn't work for long drives (it is about 300+ miles from the bay area to the LA area), and vacations are even a bit more (I plan a trip over 1000 miles this summer), they really don't make sense.

Of course what do I know. my Mom (bless her 94 years!) has an older Prius that she likes simply because she doesn't like going to the gas (petrol) station that much. My dad was always amazed at the fancy display that showed what energy was going where that was in the middle of the dashboard. My take (having driven it a couple of times) is that the silly one button start-stop thingy is a terrible user interface (kinda like Windows shutdown being under the 'Start' button.

Such is life.

In other news...

Google opens up a news agency in France so it can link to itself.

Of course France already links to itself, but that is another matter.

Irony of the week: Using Bing to translate a Google story.

What I'm waiting for is...

...Some mention of El Reg in a Bond film. Look, British is everywhere.

Sorry to say I'm a Felix Leiter fan being from the USA. (Say "book'em Dano" if you need to).

Patterns?

Let's see:

W95 - OK

W98 - NG

W98se - OK

Wme - NG

WXP - OK

Wvista - NG

W7 - OK

W8 - A pattern is developing here! My coat is on the hanger, I leaving now.

60's cars??

While those "English" cars are nice, I prefer good German engineering in the form of a nice Porsche 356 (the 1964 Carrera 2 liter one is pretty good). My dad had to settle for a 356SC. It was a convertible, and quite nice. Unfortunately, he did total it, but saved all the nice parts for his "other" car the one from two years before. Four wheel disk brakes with a nice independent rear suspension, and it does preform quite nicely, even if limited by a small (90 HP or so) engine. Unfortunately the local highway patrol doesn't take nicely to driving with the top down at 90 MPH (I believe it was a full moon as well). It was nice until the red lights from the rear spoiled it (it was 1971 or so).

Ah, the 60's. As the saying goes: If you remember the 60's, you weren't really there.

As for UPS's

The most important part is the first 'U', that being Uninterpretable. Unfortunately the bean counters don't understand this concept, and it becomes just a 'PS', or as one might put it a Piece of S***.

So make sure those batteries are all up to snuff!!

Just remember...

The Artists/Songwriters get very little from the pie, something around 3-5% of the gross, which isn't much. If you are in the selling of CDs, which go for around $15 each (plus minus $5), the distribution channels get almost 50%, and the record labels get maybe 40%, and the crumbs left over (10%) gets divied up for those left over, which isn't very much AT ALL.

So the rate of royalties for artists can make a difference, since lots of the costs are eaten up by those who push the product. Production isn't cheap, nor is things like inventory and advertizing to get people to like/buy the product.

Oh, well. Live and learn.

Security is pretty simple...

You need to have authorization by three factors:

Something you have: Like a token

Something you are: Like a fingerprint

Something you know: Like a password.

Unless you have all three, you get nowhere. Of course having "portable" documents (those residing on the mobile device) is VERY problematic, so you need to transfer these EVERY time you want to access them. Anything else is VERY insecure.

Maybe the solution is to go to police boxes to get the data. Yeah, that's the ticket!

What is in the box?

Probably lots of air and a DVD (it needs a bunch of space!). Now if you can get the money back if you don't want W8 on your brand new laptop that would be a real deal.

Then again, is there an upgrade from W98se? Why not??

They are a bit scary!

A couple of years ago I was accosted by one of the hand held green laser pointers from a car that was in front of me. Most likely by the passenger. It was very frightening and at first I didn't know what it was for a while (they intermittently flashed it). This was all at 65+ MPH on the interstate freeway. It wasn't very fun. My only solace was that I did get back at them. I went behind them (real close) with my bright lights on, ending in a less occupied lane. Then I sped away. I don't think that the driver had clean pants after my maneuver (which was the idea anyway).

The bad thing (for me) was that it woke up my wife, which was an untended side effect. I gave a good story and all was forgiven.

Airplanes? I don't want to think about it. I have relatives and friends that are flight (cockpit) crew for major airlines. They probably don't appreciate it AT ALL!

Instead of rating various Bond's

How about rating the films themselves. There are a few.

Another rating is the supporting characters played by various people.

Note that the original Felix was played by Jack Lord (Hawaii 5-0 fame).

Of course nothing beats Desmond Lewellen [sp?] as Q

Maybe they Democrats need more Botox

The best example is "pass it to see what is in it" Ms. Nancy Pelosi. The bummer is that I have to put up with my wonderful congress critter Atherton Anna Eshoo.

One will note that Ms. Pelosi is pretty well off, even to having a country estate in the Napa County Wine Country of California.

This might be filed under the "Why Bother" folder.

Take the old shuttles out of the Museum

And back to the Cape where they belong!

Unfortunately the USA's chief apologist doesn't think they are green enough, and hasn't gone through with the replacements (Orion project).

It may take another "space race" (China?) to start it up again.

(*SIGH*)

Sending a rover to obtain samples?

Look, they could use the bunches of $$$ that they have to buy a few moon rocks from NASA. It might be a little cheaper.

Another alternative would be to spend a buck or two and contract with NASA to go (again) to the moon. Look, we here in the USA could use the money, going broke and all that......

Just sayin'...

Maybe...

If Microsoft attempts to sell these 'surface' tablets with flappy keyboards, one can repurpose them to be Linux tablets.

New Headline...

Sales of hats up 100%

Malware copyright?

If the malware people DO copyright code, don't they have to register it to do enforcement action? If they DO register it, then we know WHO they are and can counter them in a "trespass" type action.

It kinda goes into the "Go ahead, make my day" style of stupidity!

Shades of Scott McNealy

"You Have Zero Privacy Anyway. Get Over It."

Words to live by!

P.S. Please follow standards Microsoft, not morph them into your own perverted self serving lock everyone else out dictates.

Smart?

"You'd imagine someone creative enough to run the e-trespassing defence could figure that out."

This is assuming that criminals who behave in common burglary are smart. Fortunately this is NOT the case. We here in the wonderful USA have TV channels that show all sorts of "Dumb Criminal" TV shows. They take from a variety of places around the world.

That being said, the REALLY smart criminals don't get caught, so you never hear about them!

The court at least got ONE thing right...

They said: "High Court is not competent to rule on questions of science.".

I wish other courts would follow this edict, but alas I don't think so!

How hard can it be?

Look, if you ARE going to take pictures, get a sponsor. I'm sure that any fruity company would pay BIG BUX (that's a technical term). to have their logo done as tire tracks in the Martian dirt. Maybe JPL's budget for computers (they use the fruity kind) would be greatly enhanced.

You never know!

Of course, we could use...

...ballistic missiles. The only power they use is on take off, and if you do it right the time saved could be enormous. Then you save all expenses by making the flight vehicles "recyclable".

Of course we did this in the last century and called it space flight. It was fun, but our president decided to stop playing in the sandbox. Oh, well.....

Look at it this way...

Life is a terminal disease. Fatal to everyone. So, having been on this planet 62 years, and having parents that have/are living in their 90's and quite lucid, I feel I've got a ways to go.

Now where is the power switch???

What IS organic?

It seems to me that the only thing that is constant about "organic" foods is that they are more expensive. Now I wonder if money itself is "organic" with all sorts of nice inks, pigments, and paper.

I can see it now (being from the USA): Organic Dollars, on sale for $1.25

Seems logical to me!

Live & Learn!

Government sponsored?

From the looks of it, it might have been done by the "food police" financed by "sugar taxes" in New York City. Probably a campaign promise by Mayor Bloomberg.

This just in, stocks of Maple Syrup companies up by 20%.

Then there is the "camera" fix.

Here in the USA, we had (note had) speed cameras that would flash to take the picture of the license plate. Some inventive person built a detector and flashtube that would flash when flashed at. This would blind the speed camera and just have a white blotch where the plate should be. Then there was the multitude of court cases that indicated that you needed to identify the driver of the vehicle to issue the citation. All of these complications led municipalities to drop the camera altogether. They were more trouble (and didn't generate much revenue) than they were worth.

So I guess we are a bit luckier than the UK.

Yes, I still consider speed limits a mere suggestion. But there ARE sections in California that have a posted limit of 70 MPH, thank goodness. We also have a freeway that has loads of '85' signs, but they aren't speed limit signs like everybody assumes.

Just remember...

Legislation AND sausage are similar. You don't want to know how they are made, but sometimes the hot dog is pretty tasty, even though there are groups that don't want you to have it.

In this case, lots of people had their fingers in the legislation, and the other rule applies: The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Will programs...

...be limited to 140 characters?

Or could that be the limit on the data. The final hope is that the ads will be limited to 140 bytes of content (I don't think you can fit a banner ad in that much space, which is a "good thing").

The new space race...

Will those who have experience on the moon (a previous post indicated that there are 8 of the 12 left) die off before we return?

Right now the experience dying off is ahead in the battle, which is a real shame.

Me? I consider myself lucky to have at least shaken the hand of the third man who landed on the moon. Pete Conrad was a VERY interesting guy. A little more flamboyant than Neil, but still an interesting guy!

Look at it this way...

Apple didn't make the rules (Patent law in USA), it just knows how to play the game to win. Oh, yes, Apple DID win BIG!

Stock market update for Monday morning: Apple stock up around $10/share on the news.

Me? Those shares that were bought for me at around $7.00 or so look mighty good.

I suppose it only be a matter of time...

Until stores such as Circuit City (Circus city), or Best Buy (I won't go there) start popping up.

Thankfully places like Fry's electronics here in sillycon valley still exist (not that I'd ask a sales droid the time of day). They still have components so you can get some (non ROHS!) solder and make it work.

Now that the Raspberry Pi is on its way (they just billed me!) I can play some more!

Two sayings:

The difference between Men and Boys is the price of their toys.

He who dies with the most Toys wins!

Other materials??

Like crude oil?

That mineral finances LOTS of conflicts. I don't know if that is on the list, but it is in LOTS of stuff we consume.

But black and white are

shades of grey.

Of course there is gray code encoded grey!

Dull/Sharp??

Maybe if they would make a real CRT television with a 16x9 format it might be enough of a specialty item that it might even sell.

As far as I know neither CRT televisions, nor 4x3 ratio televisions are made any more. At times I wish they were! (even though they would be heavy beasts).

Inaccuracies?

Just about ANY movie/TV show has them.

Most of the CSI Series (there are others as well) have errors in them. The problem is that they have only 45 minutes (if you take out the commercials) to tell the story on a TV show. This causes them to take SEVERE shortcuts just to move the story along.

We all get used to it, it happens all the time. Deal with it (*SIGH*)

Ultimate...

Compression. No more of this MP3 stuff. Just the notes please, add a voice synthesizer and you are all set. Can they carry a tune??

As the saying goes...

A fool and his money are soon parted.

The problem in addition to the suckers that "buy" the service want to believe in it, but those who "sell" the product also believe in it (I had a previous girlfriend in that category, now "ex" for good reason!).

Maybe they can sell the services to the CIA (same EX-gf said they paid!). So logically the CIA may be the clearinghouse for such transactions. Now there is a plan!

1.5 inches per second?

I thought it would be at least in proper units, like 229 furlongs per fortnight. These seem better units for the rover anyway, as it might take a while to get to the first objective.

On another scientific front, relating to genetic diversity...

DNS needs some varied implementations, there might be predators out there.

I couldn't resist...

Reminds me of a saying my mother told me...

Never feed Coffee (caffeine) to a drunk. All you get is a wide awake drunk, and that is not a desirable outcome.

The combination if a couple of Vodka-Red Bulls just make a nice LOUD wide awake drunk.

On the other hand, I see a BOFH story here. Stay tuned.

We could wait for...

A NEW Microsoft implementation. But the problem with that is that given "Computer Darwinism" it would have been breed out to the system by now.

Blue screens, and bad answers. Oh wait, that is why people use BIND (I thought it was Berkeley Internet Name Daemon, but it turns out I was wrong).

By any other name...

As was said before: "Security Theater". No more, no less. For a trip from the SF bay area to the LA area (300 miles as the crow flies), it almost takes as much time to fly (arrive hours before, one hour plane ride, fetch rental car at destination, etc...) as it takes to just drive down there (5.5 hours using a "Top Gear" style lead foot: "How hard can it be?"). Given the costs of gasoline (petrol) at even $4/gal (probably going up after the refinery fire!), it is really much cheaper as well.

So, the choice is pretty obvious: Air travel is a pain in the butt. And by the way, TSA is just idiots (read minimum wage dolts at $8/hr) who just annoy you with SILLY policies: Take off your shoes, remove your belt, empty the change from your pockets, etc...)

So now the magic words are...

"Project K"

I suppose that this has many implementations, but the result is the same.