* Posts by Stevie

7282 publicly visible posts • joined 12 Jun 2008

Blade Runner 2049: Back to the Future – the movies that showed us what's to come

Stevie
Pint

Only if you are George R. R. Martin.

eBeer for Midnight.

Russia, America dig into tug-of-war over Bitcoin laundering suspect

Stevie

Bah!

We should just solve this by using the gordian! operator.

Cut him in half down the middle and let each side have some.

What?

Hipster disruptor? Never trust a well-groomed caveman with your clams

Stevie

Re: The really great invention was the roller

I disagree. The really great invention was the Silent Mammoth Whistle, but it was crushed along with the inventor when Gak Eisenberg tested it.

Stevie
Pint

Re: Something I've always wondered ...

Beer for you, Jake.

I work with someone with a tenuous (but real) link to JH.

Stevie

Re: first video (original "2001" monolith scene)

My fave is the Terry Gilliam take on 2001 in which the cavemen tosses the bone high, it turns into a spaceship which sweeps through space until the music falters, when it falls back to earth and hits the caveman on the head, cold-cocking him.

I'd link it but have had no luck finding it.

Support team discovers 'official' vendor paper doesn't rob you blind

Stevie
Pint

Re: "Speed tape"

Oooh, thanks for the steer collinsl. This is relevant to my interests.

eBeer for you.

Stevie

Re: Back in the 60s

Forget the sixties. Race teams to this day carry purpose-made colored duct tape for quick body repairs.

Stevie

4 coffee-less AC

"But you do have to ask why would a third party vendor supply labels that don't work and if they were then this would have to be the first time the company had found the problem. "

I've seen the third party vendor thing first hand, and for me it is easier to believe that a purchaser would buy generic label stock that just happens to be incompatible with the reader than that a vendor would manufacture paper tape that was so shiny the tape-reader's pinch-roller couldn't grip it, yet I saw that very thing happen in 1979 to the embarrassment of the ops manager still fresh from his back-patting for cost-cutting. Cost a pretty penny to rush the Right Stuff to the plant so the unionised and militant workforce could be paid on time.

And why couldn't this be the first recorded incident for that robot vendor? There has to be a first time for each problem.

Stevie

Re: The story is ...

"Consider the reflectivity range of the materials that the barcode scanner at your local supermarket has no trouble reading."

I see barcode read failures due to media problems every time I'm on line to buy, whether at a supermarket, my local hobby shop or Home Despot.

Sorry Jake, judging by my own real-world everyday experience your initial premise is flawed.

"The guts of the tape robot's scanner are exactly the same as your supermarket's scanner. It doesn't take a passing grade in Critical Thinking 101 to doubt the anecdote."

Guts: not so much really. I think what's needed is more actual engineering knowledge of supermarket scanner works and robot scanner works. Critical thinking needs to be based on hard facts, not "I guess this is true". The robot arm could never support the mass of a supermarket scanner, nor does it need to.

As I see it, this is a case of two very different machines that happen to use the same scientific principle to get their very different jobs done.Comparisons should be done with care.

Stevie

4 Lee D

"Hell, put a barcode at the BACK of the empty slot and if you read that barcode - yeah, it's fair to assume it's empty. "

So if I understand this suggestion correctly we need to print new labels (on the right sort of paper though we don't know that yet), somehow stick them in the back of each hopper in just the right place for the laser to see it - assuming we don't need to re-engineer the laser assembly to fulfill this new use-case, then rewrite the firmware so the new decision tree is implemented.

How is this easier than buying the right labels? I mean, we work with what we have, right? We can make suggestions to hardware vendors but how many have you ever seen implemented? Post-sales?

As for the tapes already loaded: The issue as I read it wasn't that the arm couldn't find the silo hopper, it was that the firmware couldn't read the barcode of a tape loaded in a hopper. I dunno, but I'm not prepared to call the author a big fat liar on the strength of the tapes already in the silo because been there, seen that. Tapes might have been labelled with old, non-shiny label stock. Might have been loaded the hard way. The article speaks of doing just that.

Sorry. Respectfully disagree with your analysis of the story.

Stevie

4 DJ Smiley

"Now if they weren't reading at all, and to robot thought there was no tape, then surely it would of become very obvious once the robot went to retrieve the tape from the drive, and failed because 'I can't find the tape!'

Yes, that is pretty much the article's text. But it also talks about the chaos when a new tape needs to go into a slot already occupied.

Been there, seen the carnage.

"Terrible debugging and reporting is what caused this problem, exasperated by a customer using unsupported hardware."

Nope, wrong in every way possible, including the word exasperated.

What caused this problem was cheap, unfit for purpose labels bought to cut costs.

A situation cannot be exasperated because it does not have emotions. I can be exacerbated though. I imagine you bought the word "exasperated" cheap to save costs and now are ruing the day, much like the boob who bought the shiny label stock that were the same size and orientation and fitted the printer so what's the diff?

8oD

Russian spies used Kaspersky AV to hack NSA staffer, swipe exploit code – new claim

Stevie

Re: "no self respecting spook would be caught using Microsoft Windows to do their spying"

"Given that almost 90% of all desktops these days are still under Redmond's rule, I don't see how you can realistically avoid using Windows all the time."

Plus, if you are going to write a compromise for windows (reason: see first clause of quote), best to test it, doncha think?

I keep telling our clever young things that they are never as clever as they think they are and to measure twice before cutting code. I even have our own very messy crash-and-burn example to point to. But there are a couple just one USB drive from doing something stupid who won't listen.

Used to be three but one shut his dick in the door last month and now he's gone.

Lenovo spits out retro ThinkPads for iconic laptop's 25th birthday

Stevie

Bah!

Wot, no butterfly keyboard?

Foiled again! Brit military minds splash cash on killing satellites with... food wrapping?

Stevie

Re: Bah!

Why would you think poly foam needs air? The foaming agent could be solid - glass beads for example. Why would you assume a foaming gas couldn't be supplied at the low psi required? As for the cold, we know how to get round that long enough to get the shell made, and I expect that NASA can find some material that can stay flexible enough at low temperatures (although the collisions with crap will generate heat).

You lot weren't thinking the idea was working off the sticky, were you? Not aerogel, rigid foam.

Item only cold when in shadow. Insolation will keep it warm most of the orbit.

Metal frame - missed the expanded metal honeycomb bit in the original post?

Also, not launched into orbit, fabricated there as per the original post.

But thanks for pointing out some of the challenges.

Stevie

Bah!

For cleaning up space junk of the "paint flake" kind, how about a device consisting of a core that has an expanded metal honeycomb shell surrounded by polyurethane foam (the stuff you use to seal door frames)?

Let it sweep around the earth for a few thousand orbits gathering microcrap, then drop back for a meteoric re-entry. Some stuff would be too fast due to wrong orbital vector wrt the crapcollector mk1, or too big to stop of course, but you'd be aiming for several missions with different orbits over a number of years to clean out the fog of microstuff making life difficult.

I envisage something several hundred feet in diameter that gets assembled/piped in orbit (ISS?) and then boosted to where it can do the most good.

No doubt this is a stupid idea for reasons I haven't thought of. Must ask the NASA bods when I'm next in the area.

Dumb bug of the week: Apple's macOS reveals your encrypted drive's password in the hint box

Stevie

Bah!

So what?

I bet 90% of these passwords are either correcthorsebatterystaple or itjustworks.

Spy vs spy vs hacker vs... who is THAT? Everyone's hacking each other

Stevie

Re: Ah, memories

"emulators?"

Ptui! I only play Real Spy vs Spy on vintage original NES equipment.

Emulators indeed! Thrashing's too good, in my day, Mafeking, Nintendo Seal of Approval etc etc

Stevie

Bah!

Given the subject matter I'm appalled that the author couldn't be arsed to make sure he wasn't using the correct form of your/you're, forgot to misspell the as "teh" and left out all the greengrocer's apostophe(')s called for.

For shame!!!111!!!!

Stevie

Re: Ah, memories

Still have the NES game too, mint in box. Fancy a game? We'll need to figure a way to couple the NES to the TV but after that, look out for spring-loaded boxing gloves in the closets and buckets of water balanced on the doors!

Web uni says it will get you a tech job or your money back. So our man Kieren signed up...

Stevie

Re: But the premise is pure horseshite

Yes.

And companies really don't need CS Degree graduates to fill most positions.

I could train a high school leaver to do most of what the average SA does vis-a-vis server builds in our shop. Ditto SAN admin.

The CS degrees are needed for those positions involving tech solution architecture of course. My school leaver could gain that CS degree, perhaps with substantial financial aid, in a work-release program tied to the position.

They would be working their way from an entry-level wage scheme to very nice indeed and thanks for the education too over a few years, becoming along the way a valued employee who knows the business we do and is trained in the tech we use and need rather than an expensive retraining exercise for the first three months followed by endless "you don't know what you're doing" in some cases - requiring cutting losses and starting again.

Of course, that is so 1960s thinking.

India's national internet registry breached, but says heist was trivial

Stevie

Bah!

"The company also says the information it's seen could lead to disruption of “Internet IP allocation and affect Internet services in India.”"

Argh! Now all my vindows will be infecting the internet with viruses with no-one to warn me!

Li-quid hot mag-ma: There's a Martian meteorite in your backyard. How'd it get there?

Stevie

Re: Bah!

No beer for I ain't Spartacus.

It was Justin Hayward, *not* Richard Burton.

Though it *was* Richard Burton's voice that made me stay for half an hour in HMV while it played over the P.A. instead of ducking in for a quick buy on my way between dentist appointment and work, and he was responsible for my buying that record when the side was finished instead of the one I went into HMV for.

Stevie
Pint

Re: Bah!

Beer for adrianww. Got it in one.

I was hoping for someone to snap back "but still they come!"

Tsk! Youth of today, no idea, wet behind the wotsits, fought wars, Rourke's Drift etc etc.

Stevie

Bah!

The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one.

Hollywood has savaged enough sci-fi classics – let's hope Dick would dig Blade Runner 2049

Stevie

Re: Bah!

There was mention of random dialing in that sequence. But the *point* was if Deckard selected upbeat first, his wife would almost certainly select depressed. The joy for the reader wasn't the fact of the mood selection, but that of the sword Mrs Deckard was holding over her none-too-stable husband's head, knowing that he needed to dial an upbeat mood just to get on with his depressing job in a world gone "meh". Neither could function at that stage without the mood organ.

My favorite part of the novel is when Deckard gets picked up on suspicion of being an android by counterpart using a completely different test than Deckard does. Each works out of a different (police?) precinct. Deckard's test works on empathy (as in the movie) but the other guy's works on measuring reflex timings, a test Deckard has never heard of. Deckard spends a few pages arguing his humanity with someone he isn't sure is human (because he was "shopped" to this precinct's staff by someone he strongly suspected was an android). It is all very PKD.

Stevie

Re: Hollywood being moribund

Hollywood deals in visual spectacle first and foremost, so if you wish you favorite novel on them be prepared for the results (coughDunecough).

Slightly off-topic: When my office pals and I were all reading the hot new novel "The Hunt for Red October", *they* held the opinion that it couldn't be made into an enjoyable movie. *I* said that if they dropped the first third (which is full of internalized back and forth) and filmed what was left (the action sequences of the chase), it would make a dandy movie. I reckon they did a good job. But if you loved the book you would no doubt have a different take.

Personally, I'd like to see some bright young things give the Game of Thrones treatment to Dragonflight. It would lend itself very well to the CGI-heavy mini-series model, given that it has several action sequences, a love story, a young boy made king (sorta), a riches to rags to altered perspective heroine and dragons in flight, fire and all.

I'd also love to see Delany's Nova on screen. Weird body-mod tech. Space Opera grail quest. Towering villains. Smouldering hero. and a band of loyal "misfit" followers. What's not to love?

Gotta Dream.

Stevie

Bah!

"Deckard and his wife bickering over which setting to have on the Penfield mood organ"

The sequence in the book actually has Deckard wanting to dial a "happy" mood on the mood organ but not wanting to have his wife then dial "moody and depressed" - provoking an argument and souring his own mood. The real joy of this is the dialogue between them which pretty much defines "Emotional Blackmail". The lengthy drawn-out pun is definitely my bag, baby.

"Any sequel needs to have a premise stronger than our need to know whether Deckard really was a replicant and what that might mean."

Mostly because this is the *least* interesting question posed by the movie.

Consider: If Deckard *isn't* a replicant (or that status is undefined), and he is bonking Rachel who definitely is a replicant, then a number of interesting points arise, not least of them having to do with the two axioms "Rachel is almost indistinguishable from a "real" human being" and "Rachel is less than six years old". Now we are asking "Is Deckard a child molester?" among other things.

(Rutger Hauer and Brion James do a wonderfully obscure job of conveying that Batty and Kowalski are five going on six in their periodic immature exchanges interpolated into their more adult conversations. Kowalski's reaction to the VC tester's question about his mother is pure elementary schhoolyard stuff. It's instructive to note that Deckard *never* does this.)

But if Deckard really is a replicant, he and Rachel are just two bio-machines bonking and that's about that. BFD.

Rosetta probe's final packets massaged into new snap of Comet 67P

Stevie

Bah!

Rosetta probe's final packets massaged into new snap of Comet 67P

Clearly seen is the leaking refrigerator now deemed responsible for all the Freon in the Vacuum of Space.

European Commission refers Ireland to court over failure to collect €13bn in tax from Apple

Stevie

iBah!

iGood iluck iwith ithat.

Oath-my-God: THREE! BILLION! Yahoo! accounts! hacked! in! 2013! – not! 'just!' 1bn!

Stevie

Re: Porridge

No doubt Yahoo! had retained the services of a number of former Volkswagen computer specialists who followed their historically-established nefarious criminal urges when it came to designing the data security measures.

Stevie

Re: She has her detractors, but shareholders fared pretty well under her.

How about now?

I thought record levels of remuneration were because of assumed risk of being thrown to the dogs in the event of malfeasance. This level of "mis-statement" of the company's vulnerability to litigation would seem to invite criminal investigation.

Stevie

Bah!

"The investigation indicates that the user account information that was stolen did not include passwords in clear text, payment card data, or bank account information."

Two months from now: "There was a misprint in our last public statement regarding the one three billion compromised user accounts. The word "not" should be removed from between "did" and "include". Oath Shredded Foot Inc sincerely regrets the error."

Bad news! Astroboffins find the stuff of life in space for the first time

Stevie

Re: Bah! (4 David Nash)

"But at least the Freon is up there out of harm's way, rather than in our atmosphere enabling ozone depletion."

It occurs to me that the Ozone depletion we see could be caused by the Earth sweeping

through this sea of Freon we once called the "vacuum of space", it's ozone fizzing away in an ablative reactive scream that no-one can hear (because, space, right?). Confronted with the gigaliters of Freon lounging about in the Earth's orbital path, the odd squirt from one's window air-conditioner seems trivial.

Scientists need to start addressing these conundrums:

a) Maybe the reason space has no ozone in it is due to all the Freon there.

2) Maybe that's why space is so cold.

Stevie

Re: Word Salad vs Gobbledegook

Please stop feeding them. Please.

Stevie

Bah!

All that fuss about fridges and air-conditioners and it turns out space is full of freon anyway, thanks to comets with leaky seals.

So much for science.

Thomas the Tank Engine lobotomised by fat (remote) controller

Stevie

Re: 236 carriages?

"I think they use a different term in the USA"

Yup. "Cars" in the generic case. "Hoppers" if they dump using floor hatches. "Gons" if they are just open wagons (short for "gondolas", pronounced gon DOH las rather than GON duh las).

Dunno about the Oz terminology though.

Stevie

Re: What's that Skip?

But they did run Crocodile Dundee, so the reference will make sense even in the hated US.

Stevie

"Kangaroos are generally smart enough to avoid the trains"

Worrabout that stupid kangaroo that "E's a grumpy snake" Steve the Crocodile Whisperer pulled out of a flooded cable culvert? Two hours of human effort vs uncooperative kangaroo in a World Gone Mad, kangaroo free for two seconds, jumped right back down the hole.

Stupid doesn't begin to plumb the depths here.

Brit prosecutors fling almost a million quid at anti-drone'n'phone ideas

Stevie

Re: Trained Pigeons

Eagles.

There must be some that Moonbase isn't using.

Stevie

Re: would a

You don't need a wire net to block cell signal. You need the little black boxes they put in the Albert Hall.

Typical El Reg Commentator overthink.

Stevie

Bah!

Hire that bloke from Tennessee with a shotgun.

Stevie

Bah!

Wouldn't two of those self-aiming machine cannons from James Bond's Aston Martin Vanish be the quickest option? I mean, we've had that tech since, what, 2002?

Dildon'ts of Bluetooth: Pen test boffins sniff out Berlin's smart butt plugs

Stevie

Bah!

Arse!

Twitter to upgrade from micro-blogging to milli-blogging with 280 chars

Stevie

Bah!

8op

SPARC will fly: Your cheat sheet for cocktail banter at Oracle's upcoming shindig

Stevie

Bah!

I think this uncertainty over SPARC plays into a general dissatisfaction rising in the Oracle user community over the quality of support they get.

My own upline has gotten VERY militant and hostile to Oracle staff over demonstrated failures to deliver product features and resolve issues in a timely manner, and we've been a loyal customer of both Sun and Oracle for decades.

We have a couple of IBM power series "mainframe" stacks only because of the lack of directional strategy coming out of Oracle regarding their plans for Sun-legacy software and hardware in the six months after the buy-out, and that move was so popular we had an SA who outright refused to work on them. (Fortunately for him and his family he had his work cut out on our remaining Sun kit.)

It is obvious that big computer companies want to go the appliance or cloud routes - that way they get to sell you the kit AND dun you for the SA work needed to get it all humming.

It's funny that after all these years I see the industry returning to the "agency" model of computing that was a very popular option when mainframes rules but only the very rich could afford them.

The power JavaScript: 'Gandalf of JS' Wirfs-Brock on ECMAscript 2017

Stevie

Shot in the Head

Yep, and "Gandalf" is best understood in the context of the annoying NPC from DM of the Rings -> https://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=1108

Shock! Hackers for medieval caliphate are terrible coders

Stevie

Re: Bah!

Congratulations on your new fatwa.

Cat Stevens will be along momentarily to enforce it.

Hotter than the Sun: JET – Earth’s biggest fusion reactor, in Culham

Stevie

Re: Happy memories

Heck, anyone can make plasma with a pin, a test tube, some string and a cork.

1) Prick artery with pin

2) Direct spurting blood into test tube

3) cork tube

4) Apply band-aid to wound

5) Well you should have bought some when you went for milk on Sunday

6) Use some of the string for a tourniquet

7) Tie the rest to the test tube and whirl it round your head really fast

8) Uncork and sip delicious plasma

No need for grants from GE or neodymium magnets and liquid helium.

Stevie

Re: Splitting Euratom

Indeed yes, and the Bozon count is through the roof.

Stevie
Pint

Re: final PACER reactor concept was: make a big cave (4 cray74)

Beer, but would have been an entire crate if you'd posted a "let me google that for you" link.