* Posts by Haku

1902 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Apr 2007

Drone-busting eagles to darken Blighty's skies?

Haku
FAIL

Still a really dumb idea.

Especially as the Dutch demonstration was a 230 sized TOY drone weighing less than 600g when the larger camera carrying size (360, 450 and up) weigh over 1kg and use powerful brushless motors, with the option of using carbon fibre blades.

You wouldn't want to get near 9 inch carbon fibre blades doing 7000 rpm, so why would you potentially send an animal near one?.

FTC: Duo bought rights to Android game – then turned it into ad-slinging junkware in an update

Haku

"would then proceed to install software and serve ads...without user knowledge or permission"

I bet you can't guess why I turn off auto-update on all my Android devices.

Did you know ... Stephen Fry has founded a tech startup?

Haku

Re: Stephen Fry picking bad investments? Shirley not!

@Pete65 I know about the QI Elves, hence the troll icon.

Haku
Trollface

Stephen Fry picking bad investments? Shirley not!

He comes across so intelligent on that QI programme, each week spewing out mountains of facts, figures and details about things in the world that only experts know.

Dutch cops train anti-drone eagle squadron

Haku

Re: Yeah nice promotional video, but...

A fresh post from someone on the CX-20 thread at rcgroups.com:

"The very first quad I owned was a wrecked CX20 that a friend had given me after it was attacked by a bald eagle at 200 feet. The shelk was a mess but with the exception of the ESCs everything else was intact. He told me the eagle was killed and shredded quite badly. That was with the standard CX20 8045 props."

So if that happens with the standard plastic props, carbon fibre ones on a 450 size quad would most likely take the bird's legs clean off if it tried to grab it mid-flight.

What were those cops even thinking, pitting flesh & bone against plastic & metal like that?

Haku

Yeah nice promotional video, but...

That was against a Spyrit Max FPV T2M which reportedly weighs 580g with the camera and prop guards, which they didn't have on for the tests, and it's smaller (230mm diagonal motor-motor distance) than the DJI Phantom sized quadcopters such as my Cheerson CX-20 (360mm motor-motor) that weighs 1.2kg with camera+3 axis gimbal, along with powerful brushless motors and the option of 9 inch carbon fibre propellers that can do some serious damage if they strike you (or an eagle).

Brit censors endure 10-hour Paint Drying movie epic

Haku

Won't be long now until we get the movie "Ass".

The acceptance speech at the oscars might be a bit smelly though.

Does anyone know what their broadband costs? The ASA hopes to change that

Haku

Re: 3D & Hoverboards

On top of all that I still don't have the wiiings I was promised.

Star Wars: Episode VIII delayed by six months

Haku

Mate I think your keyboard is broke, everything's coming out all umop apisdn.

Crummy Samsung gear no one wants, now no one can get – well done, Apple

Haku

Re: Just think, someday the law will fun just as fast as computers....

"someday" was supposed to be last year according to a certain film, but that film isn't as prophetic as many had hoped.

Still no bloody flying cars, and the sad excuse 'hoverboards' aren't legal to use on the streets/pavements.

Anyway I'm really looking forward to next year's highest rated tv show in history...

You've heard of Rollercoaster Tycoon – but we can't wait for Server Tycoon

Haku

I hope it doesn't get too real.

I mean I wouldn't want to be woken up at 3am by my tablet or smartphone making a loud ringing sound because the half the data center crashed in the Server Tycoon game and it wants me to sort things out immediately.

Optimus Prime goes under the hammer

Haku
Unhappy

Re: Off Topic.......Alan Rickman Dies!!!

By Grabthar's hammer, by the suns of Warvan, you shall be avenged!

One of my favourite films he's in is Snow Cake, I highly reccomend it.

Periodic table enjoys elemental engorgement

Haku

Re: Nerdium, Geekium, and uhhh...

Geeks & nerds have, it appears, turned into positive terms but dork has always been a negative term which is why I didn't suggest that word.

If we're going down the internet words/slang route, then I also propose Omnomnomium.

Haku

Re: Extreme Marketing Opportunity

I quite like saying the word "Googlium"

Haku

Nerdium, Geekium, and uhhh...

...can't think of any more(ium).

Brit cuffed for Kyrgyz 'horse penis' sausage quip

Haku
Facepalm

Oh FFS.

It's made of horse, it's penis shaped (sort of), and how do they know there isn't any horse penis in it?

Oh and they can poke as much fun at our national dishes as they want, we'll even join in!

BTW, has McDonalds qualified as a national dish now?

No, drone owners – all our base are belong to US, thunders military

Haku

Want to get into quadcopters?

Start small, real small.

Sure it looks like a cheap toy, because it is a cheap toy, but it flies well and has the same basic flying principals of the bigger ones so you'll only waste 'pocket money' on the spare parts when crashing them rather than serious money when crashing a big one that cost hundreds.

I have a couple of those and they're great fun, I also have its 'full size' brother, the Cheerson CX-20 I bought at the beginning of December. Due to the weather I've only managed 5 flights (battery lasts about 10 min a flight, and no crashes) but learning to fly the CX-10a first meant I felt much more prepared on its maiden voyage.

Really itching for the weather to get better, lots of big hills with fields far away from property/people here.

Haku

Re: 3,000+ feet eh?

Several thousands of dollars?

Obviously you haven't looked into the world of multirotors enough.

A basic quadcopter with GPS assisted control that has waypoint capability to make it fly a predetermined route starts at around $240 (£165).

Newspaper kills 'what was fake' column as pointless in internet age

Haku

It must be true.

I read it on the internet.

Rebels defeat the Empire (again) by giving BB-8 an API

Haku

Re: Murata cheerleaders

They both use rubber motorized wheels on the main sphere to move around, but the cheerleaders are balance robots that sit on a hollow ball, BB8 has all the electronics inside the ball which makes for far easier programming of the control.

Review: Star Wars: The Force Awakens offers a new hope for the franchise

Haku
Thumb Up

A+++++++ Will watch again!

Ok, I thoroughly enjoyed that!

To me, J.J. proved he knows what he's doing with this franchise, I'm actually looking forward to the next two, something which I couldn't say after almost falling asleep during Episode 1 in the cinema.

But next time I'm picking a better cinema, one which doesn't cram everyone in like cattle. Being 6'2" means too many seats are too small, my back is still aching :(

Haku

My Star Wars obsessed friend is gonna be so pissed at me

Because I'm going to go see it in just under an hour after my brother texted me a few hours ago and asked if I wanted to go see the 12:01 showing - he found a couple of seats which are in the middle of the theater that hadn't been booked yet - and my (eternally broke) SW friend hasn't even figured out when he's going.

TBH I'm not sure what to expect, I love the original trilogy (theatrical versions) and was somewhat underwhelmed with the prequals. I haven't even seen the trailers or read much about The Force Awakens, on purpose, because I prefer to watch big / potentially interesting films as spoiler free as possible.

I hope I'm going to like it, J J Abrams has made some cracking films of late.

Hapless Virgin Media customers face ongoing email block woes

Haku

Re: hmmmm

Spam companies would soon go deaf if there was the email equivilant of blowing a whistle down the phone when you keep getting repeated unsolicited cold calls.

Four sentenced for theft of three million data records

Haku

Re: Lucky they were only stealing personal records, and not something innocuous like say movies...

Corporations > Actual Humans

Haku

Lucky they were only stealing personal records, and not something innocuous like say movies...

...because that could land them with even longer jail sentences:

https://torrentfreak.com/movie-pirates-facing-shocking-prison-sentences-151213/

Kids' TV show Rainbow in homosexual agenda shocker

Haku

Smut-seeding Prenda Law ringleader must sell home to pay $2.5m debt

Haku

Brit hardware hacker turns Raspberry Pi Zeros into selfie slayers

Haku

Ofcom spins out Wi-Fi checker app just in time for Christmas

Haku

Re: Wifi Anal...

Agreed, also Network Signal Info is another useful Android app I have installed, it shows in graph & speedometer dial form the signal strength of wifi and phone signal, along with a bunch of info (SSID, IP address, MAC, connection speed, encryption type etc.).

Haku

Re: Bumpkins

I don't "don't agree" with his point, it just comes across as playing devils advocate, posting the opposite of what people in remote areas (deep in the countryside far away from towns/cities) usually say about their broadband speeds, hence "Smells like Troll."

I am on BT and do consider myself lucky to get such a good speed. Once, a branch damaged the line to the ugly green pavement box and the result was disruptive noise on the phoneline so incoming calls were temporarily diverted to mobile, but on the broadband side all it did was cut the maximum download rate in half which I didn't notice for days. 75Mbps is great, but so is 37Mbps when previously I was on 5Mbps.

Haku

Re: Bumpkins

Not sure if troll or serious.

Smell like troll.

Anyway you're seeing things too black'n'white, you got to pick the right balance if you want fresh air and fast internet.

I am practically in the countryside, about a mile away from my local town, surrounded by lots of hills, fields, trees, wildlife, whilst enjoying 75Mbps down / 18Mbps up rates (speedtest.net verified to a London server, approx 100 miles away from me) :)

Who owns space? Looking at the US asteroid-mining act

Haku

Who owns space?

Isn't that like two fleas on a dog arguing over who owns it?

What the world needs now is Pi, sweet $5 Raspberry Pi Zero

Haku
Unhappy

"You can buy The MagPi in all good newsagents, as well as these high street stores:

WHSmith

Tesco

Sainsbury’s"

My town doesn't have good newsagents, spent lunchtime searching everywhere including those stores. It appears most people care more about what celeb has got fat or pregnant or what new app you can add to your phone than learning about computing.

WHSmith said they don't stock it :( But weirdly they did have a big thick Amiga collectors magazine...

Why Microsoft yanked its latest Windows 10 update download: It hijacked privacy settings

Haku

Could this be the only time in history when 'nefarious' coders are actively trying to make software to block forced OS updates rather than fake validation of the OS to allow updates?

Haku
FAIL

Forced OS updates. What could possibly go wrong?

Stuff like this apparently.

Kim Dotcom slams 'dirty ugly bully' Uncle Sam as extradition hearing ends

Haku

Re: some companies "SHOULD choose to stop making films altogether."

And some should be forced, starting wth Boll KG

Haku
Stop

Did I miss some big important detail about this extradition trial?

Oh I don't know, like the bit where the US prosecution alleged that the defendant is some big crime boss of the drug or weapons type? or has committed war crimes? Because that's about the verocity level they're going after him with.

Hope to god he doesn't get extradited, we don't want this sort of precedent where the US can simply bully other countries into giving up any citizien they want their grubby mitts on.

Google takedown requests mushroom as copyright holders play whack-a-mole

Haku

That's a hell of a lot of requests, but how many of them are legitimate URLs?

For example, TorrentFreak reported earlier this year about how anti piracy outfits are sending out takedown requests of URLs that don't actually exist.

https://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-outfits-boost-numbers-with-bogus-takedown-notices-150628/

Brit filmmaker plans 10hr+ Paint Drying epic

Haku

Payback

for ruining all those films over the decades by cutting bits out of them to make them "safe".

How TV ads silently ping commands to phones: Sneaky SilverPush code reverse-engineered

Haku
Terminator

Re: Misuse of computers act, here we come

But when the Singularity comes the only laws it will have to obey are those of physics.

Terrorists seek to commit deadly 'cyber attacks' in UK, says Chancellor Osborne

Haku

I knew this would happen, because it now happens every time terrorists attack the western world.

Effectively the terrorists are attacking vast populations by-proxy, they only have to cause a bad situation for the government(s) to overreact and erode the people's rights and privacy in the name of fighting terrorism.

And if you speak out against the mass surveillance in the name of fighting terrorism you risk being called unpatriotic or even siding with the terrorists.

The answer? I don't know, but it's certainly not the forced removal of rights and privacy because it won't stop anyone on a warpath to cause death and destruction..

Haku

Chancellor Osborne?

Chancellor Palpatine more like.

Reg reader achieves bronze badge, goes directly to jail

Haku

Re: Huzzah. Badges!

I joined on a Friday the 13th...

Haku

I wonder if we'll get any special priviliges based on how low our user number is.

Working with Asperger's in tech: We're in this together

Haku

Re: For those who are interested...

Little late to this party, only saw the article link today.

I took that test and scored 38.

Did I pass?

:)

Aircraft laser strikes hit new record with 20 incidents in one night

Haku

I have red, green and violet (sold as blue) laser pointers.

They're fun toys but I'm extremely aware of how dangerous they can be, unlike some of my friends and their friends who have several times asked me to get them a green one next time I'm buying gadgets online because it's the brightest.

I do say yeah I'll get them one, but I never do and never will because generally they're morons when it comes to technology and things like this. I mean, if they can't figure out how to buy something from the internet that's as readily available as a laser pointer how can they comprehend just how dangerous they can be?

20 incedents in one night is nothing compared to what happened in Egypt a couple of years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjaW3QM2Nb8

One really odd thing I discovered about laser light, which I haven't found an answer to is this: My violet laser will easily charge up glow-in-the-dark materials, it's very cool how quickly it does that, but if I shine my red or more noticably my green laser pointer at an already charged up glow-in-the-dark material it will go dark where I shine the laser, it actively reduces the glow.

There has to be a scientific explanation for what happens when you do that, but to me that's just weird with a capital weird.

Irish roll out obligatory drone register

Haku

Getting retailers to pass on ownership details of drones won't help, especially as you can buy them straight from China and most likely all that'll be scrawled on the customs declaration sticker is "TOY" which could mean literally anything.

Methinks it's time I get one of these multirotor toys before too many miscreants act like complete morons with them and ruin the fun for everyone else.

Royal Mail mulls drones for rural deliveries

Haku
Flame

"Jumping enthusiastically onto the airborne parcel bandwagon"

I could not continue to read beyond this point because it's just total bullshit, over the top pie-in-the-sky ideas spouted no doubt by someone high up in the company who makes too much money for what they actually do.

I just want Royal Mail to fix the delivery service back to how good it used to be instead of coming up with over-complicated expensive solutions to problems that already have solutions (that they're not willing to entertain) or don't even need fixing in the first bloody place!

Cryptowall 4.0: Update makes world's worst ransomware worse still

Haku

"Badly-Coded Ransomware Locks User Files and Throws Away Encryption Key"

At least with Cryptowall 4.0 there is a possibility of retrieving your non-backed up data, unlike this strain of ransomware that completely irreversably encrypts your data with no chance of ever getting it back:

http://it.slashdot.org/story/15/11/08/1353209/badly-coded-ransomware-locks-user-files-and-throws-away-encryption-key.

Back your shit up, people, back it up good and proper.