* Posts by Christoph

3314 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Dec 2007

Galaxy is teeming with homeless planets

Christoph

Re: Re: How do they confirm the planet?

They could do that if they had sufficient warning of the event to train a lot of instruments on it. But since it's effectively random there's no way to predict it. You have to know that the planet is there before you can look for the planet!

Also these events are often a *long* way away - it works much further than the other planet-finding methods. So there would be very little difference between different observations.

Christoph

How do they confirm the planet?

As I understand it they confirm planets they've spotted by the microlensing method by seeing regularly repeated events (at the orbital period of the planet). With nomad planets they would presumably see only a single event, so how do they confirm it isn't just a glitch?

Male dinosaurs failing on social privacy

Christoph
Facepalm

Hardly surprising

A man can post personal details on the net with very little worry.

A woman cannot - she is almost certain to attract idiots who will harrass her on the assumption that if they are annoying and stupid and aggravating enough she will fall on her back with her legs apart for them.

Xeroxiraptor: Boffins to print 3D robot dinosaur

Christoph
Megaphone

Scaled down? Scaled DOWN?

1> Build scaled UP fricking giant lizard

2> Fit it with motors and controls

3> Attack Tokyo!

LOHAN's fantastical flying truss cleared for lift-off

Christoph
Holmes

Double balloon with tension lines

Take the double balloon setup, run tension lines from the bottom of each support line (at the end of the truss) to the top of the other support line (just under the balloon) . Launch at a slight angle to avoid hitting the crossing lines.

That should fix the problem of one balloon going higher than the other.

Nominet to launch .wales and .cymru

Christoph
Joke

Re: So will...

Nid wyf yn y swyddfa ar hyn o bryd. Anfonwch unrhyw waith i'w gygieithu.

( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7702913.stm )

Court claim slapped on bloke via Facebook in landmark case

Christoph
Holmes

Room for a new legal speciality

There's an opening here for someone who can write a document which fulfils all the legal requirements for serving a claim but is almost certain to be blocked as spam or ignored on sight as spam, so the recipient never reads it.

Freedom-crushing govts close to ruling our web, fears FCC boss

Christoph
Black Helicopters

Obvious danger

I'm not surprised that the US is terrified of someone taking over the Internet. After all, there's one group that has made it very clear that it is entirely determined to do exactly that.

Err, it's the US government.

Brit student locked up for Facebook source code hack

Christoph

Re: Great British Justice?

You mess with Facebook's data - 8 months jail.

Facebook messes with everybody's data - tough luck.

Lumpy nanoparticles improve thin film solar cells

Christoph
Facepalm

"invisible plastic solar cells" ... "nowhere near as efficient" ... "at gathering light."

You reckon?

UK crime-busters knock hiphop site off the Internet

Christoph

Expect a whole load of faked links directing people to that site and getting them on the police records. How are little old ladies going to react when they see that kind of threat when they were looking for pictures of fluffy cats?

CERN boffins to lift LHC beam power

Christoph
Boffin

And Blinkenlights

We must have Blinkenlights!

Cable thieves wreak havoc for cops, BT punters

Christoph
Holmes

Charge them for the cable theft. Add on the cost of repairs.

Then charge them separately for the disruption and inconvenience caused to each individual user in the disrupted area (I don't know if that could be done at present - would it have to be civil cases?).

Tot the lot up - the final bill should keep them out of circulation for a bit.

Music fans not welcome in RIAA-backed .music

Christoph
Unhappy

Industry Only

Yes, it's not aimed at the pirates, it's aimed at the music industry's worst enemies - the artists who are stealing royalties from the industry by selling their music directly.

They unfortunately have to have some artists still, but they had it all nicely arranged so they could allow them only the minimum trickle of money, and pay even that many years later.

After all, it's well known that starving artists produce the best art, so they were helping art by keeping the artists starving.

And now those same artists are setting up their own sites, recording and producing their own music, and selling direct to the public. Obviously this must be stopped.

Look out for the US government being ordered to bring in new laws that any site not in the new domain can be shut down at will with no evidence.

Met thumbed through Oyster card data up to 22,000 times in 4 years

Christoph
Black Helicopters

Met misusing their powers?

So where's the news story? It would quite frankly be news if the Met *didn't* exceed their powers.

Oh well, at least they haven't (yet) connected the system up to remote controlled weapons so they don't need to send an armed squad next time they spot a Brazilian on the tube.

StreetView disappears Dutch office tower

Christoph

It happens in the heart of the City. If you look here you can see the part-built One New Change, opposite St Paul's:

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ll=51.514562,-0.096796&spn=0.002494,0.005112&t=m&z=18&layer=c&cbll=51.514539,-0.096679&panoid=53qs--l7YLuTNXEzXPerBg&cbp=12,133.47,,0,14.47

Back away one click and it vanishes.

Airport bomb Twitter joker in second fine appeal bid

Christoph
Headmaster

One minute court case

"De minimis non curat lex". Case dismissed.

Christoph

> "only" lost their airline tickets' value

They've also lost the ability to ever enter the USA again for the rest of their lives. Including the woman, who had not even sent the tweet.

Path runs screaming from privacy snafu

Christoph
Devil

Everyone is doing it

According to this story a lot of apps are uploading user address books to their own databases:

http://gizmodo.com/5883544/apples-failure-lets-developers-steal-your-address-book

I wonder if they have allowed for someone including Little Bobby Tables in their contacts list?

Christoph
Facepalm

What could possibly go wrong?

“notify them when friends and family join Path.”

And their employees. And their ex-spouse. And anyone they're stalking ...

"But it's for your own good! (which we have decided for you)"

Eolas claims royalties for browser apps and plug-ins

Christoph
Flame

"University of California (part owner of Eolas)"

Then the University of California should be bloody ashamed of itself.

"many businesses choose to relocate to Texas and to Tyler, Texas each year for reasons that are unrelated to venue."

Such as the ease of landing their flying pigs at the local airport.

USER-TRACKING Firefox sparks Mozilla civil war

Christoph
Stop

Bugger

What other browser has equivalent security to NoScript, BetterPrivacy, and HTTPS-Everywhere, and does NOT collect this kind of data?

Google goggles with Terminator HUD 'coming soon'

Christoph
Pirate

With these gadgets you'll have all the information you want all the time - except the little detail that there's a lorry bearing down on you while you're wandering across the road watching your display instead of the traffic.

Scientists weave battery into clothing

Christoph

Thermoplastic

What happens when someone irons the shirt?

French court lays le smackdown on Google Maps

Christoph

"subsidize a loss-making service in another area, and in doing so stifle competition."

Unless you're a farmer.

Boffins out earbuds that sound right when inserted wrong

Christoph
Joke

What about the third one?

For real Star Trek technology they also need to detect the Final Front Ear.

Cosmic rays blamed for Phobos-Grunt fiasco

Christoph
Alien

Aliens ate my homework!

(title says it all)

Virus-slingers abuse WordPress vulns, dose punters with exploit

Christoph

Standard stuff

"emails querying an unfamiliar bill"

Who gets fooled by those these days? I get several a week, they'd have to do a lot more than that for me to even look closer at them.

US Senator: 'Retest airport scanner safety'

Christoph
FAIL

Labratory tests, real world operation

The tests might well show they're "safe". In the laboratory, newly assembled.

The exposure is out in the real world, in uncontrolled conditions, wrongly operated, worn out, unmaintained or wrongly maintained with the wrong parts, probably not even cleaned of accumulated dirt and dust inside.

If they are so completely safe why have they refused to allow independent testing? What are they hiding?

Look what happened with electronic voting machines: The manufacturers stated that they were completely secure, but refused independent verification. When researchers got hold of some, they found that they were riddled with security holes.

Now the scanner manufacturers state that the scanners are completely safe, but refuse independent verification.

Brit pair deported from US for 'destroy America' tweet

Christoph
FAIL

Nice to know that the US wouldn't ever, ever do anything so nasty as to throw innocent people in a vile jail for many years with no trial. Well, apart from them doing exactly that of course. And Guantanamo is the one we know about - there were lots more 'rendered' to anonymous torture chambers in other countries.

Media groups propose anti-piracy 'code of practice' for UK search

Christoph
Trollface

Translation

"We demand that the entire internet works solely for our personal profit"

Boffins make graphene micro-distillery

Christoph
Boffin

Balloons

Can they line the envelope of helium balloons with this stuff? That would give you much longer lifetimes. You could put things like relay stations up in the stratosphere.

Two million-degree matter from SLAC laser

Christoph
Mushroom

That's got to be a better way

Pumping the x-ray laser with the SLAC laser has got to be better than the previous method of doing it - pumping it with an atom bomb.

EU commissioner unleashes draft data protection bill

Christoph
Black Helicopters

You forgot to add:

The extra point that got missed:

All these rules are null and void if the CIA or Homeland Security order us to hand over everything we've got on you.

MPAA threat sparks White House petition for bribery probe

Christoph
Joke

Looks like he's been watching too many movies

Vizzini: DID I MAKE IT CLEAR THAT YOUR JOB IS AT STAKE?

Russia and NASA plan to COLONISE the Moon

Christoph

Base, not colony

They seem to be talking about a lunar base, with personnel having short tours of duty. A colony would imply people living there permanently and having children there.

By the way, although we know that humans have long-term problems in 'zero' gravity, has any research been done on what's likely to happen long term in lunar or martian gravity?

Redmond campaigns for gay marriage rights

Christoph
WTF?

Ye gods and little fishes!

" A spokesman for the Family Policy Institute of Washington (FPIW), which seeks to “impart a biblical worldview for those committed to Judeo-Christian truths,” told The Register that Redmond was sticking its nose into other people’s business. "

He is complaining about someone else "sticking its nose into other people’s business"?

While demanding that people he has never met and will hopefully never meet be banned from doing something that does not harm him in any way?

American search team fails to find women's G-spot

Christoph
Joke

That's even better

If it existed but was very hard to find, then it would be easy for women to blame men for not finding it.

But if it doesn't exist at all, then it's *always^ all the man's fault for not finding it!

Work from home, find a new hobby, buy a fountain - UK.gov

Christoph
Boffin

Running water?

"there’s nothing quite as relaxing as the sound of running water".

There's nothing quite so likely to make yo need to go for a pee every few minutes instead of working.

Nuclear Mars tank thrusts hard into perfect position

Christoph

No point

The whole idea is to climb the central mound and compare the various layers, as high as possible.

Apple legal threat to Steve Jobs doll deemed 'bogus'

Christoph
WTF?

Why Apple?

I can see that his heirs might possibly have some rights to his name and image, but why should the company that someone works for have rights in them after their death?

Duff Russian Mars probe spotted flying in reverse

Christoph
Joke

As Spike might say ...

"I'm flying backwards for Christmas"

'Mobiles bake men's balls' bog ad is cobblers - new ruling

Christoph
Boffin

Idiocy

A phone in a trouser pocket has almost the entire width of the thigh between it and the fertility bits. If there was any actual danger from that, a phone in a top pocket near the heart would be far more dangerous - enough to be noticed and confirmed long ago.

US military's non-lethal weapon plans revealed

Christoph
Facepalm

How long before one of those gets nicked from the police? And how long before some idiot then uses it on an aircraft?

Christoph

Petty

They should use Disaster Area's rig. The one they controlled from a spaceship off-planet.

Christoph

That's terrible

"the Feds can now hold American citizens indefinitely without trial or charges."

You mean they can now treat real American Citizens just as if they were foreigners and therefore had no human rights whatever in US law?

Christoph

Well of course it will

"We've invaded your country, trashed your infrastructure, stolen your natural resources, put a load of corrupt thugs in to govern you, and are now charging you for letting our companies make a vast profit by 'repairing' the damage we did. But we killed rather fewer of you than usual. So BE GRATEFUL YOU SCUM!"

UK space agency to boldly send techies ... behind a desk

Christoph

More opportunities

As well as support staff for the British Space Program, there are also vacancies for support staff for the Swiss Navy.

Latest El Reg project: Rise of the Robot Sheep

Christoph
Boffin

Navigation

Equip the thing with a cheap cell-phone camera, use existing software which can locate and read bar codes or QR codes to find the codes stuck on a few things round the garden. Then triangulate off these. Should give you very accurate positioning.

UK.gov to require you to opt out of data-sharing plan with drug firms

Christoph

Look in the basement of the hospital

Behind the door marked "Beware of the Leopard".