Miraculously
the forecast is clear over here in the north of the Netherlands! What next, flying pigs?
Posts by Michael H.F. Wilkinson
4257 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Apr 2007
Page:
Skygazers: Brace yourselves for a kick in the Aquarids
Ex-HP boss Carly Fiorina sacked one week into new job
Wednesday 4th May 2016 10:20 GMT 
Re: Good news !
Staying with the HHG theme: this just proves that those people who most want to rule people are ipso facto those least suited for the job. So maybe the president's job is to distract people from where the actual power is. Donald Trump could be as successful as Zaphod Beeblebrox in that case.
I am Craig Wright, inventor of Craig Wright
F-35s failed 'scramble test' because of buggy software
Quad-core coffee table trumped by dual-Mac garden furniture
It's 2016 and now your internet-connected bathroom scales can be hacked
Must listen: We've found the real Bastard Operator From Hell
Europe's Earth-watching sat beams back icy first pic
SpaceX is go for US military GPS sat launch, smashes ULA monopoly
Your mother has a smooth forehead, Klingon language lovers roar at Paramount
Friday 29th April 2016 06:30 GMT
Initially?
"In fact, at least one child was initially raised as a native speaker of Klingon."
Does the "initially" mean that some child-care agency stepped in, or did the parents come to their senses? I am quite a Lord of the Rings (the books), and Discworld fan, but I didn't name my kids Frodo, Galadriel, Havelock, Carrot, or Glod, nor did I teach them Quenya, Sindarin or Adunaic. I certainly wouldn't dream of teaching those as their first language.
I prefer to just stick a fish in their ear. Works for me and my friend Ford Prefect
CERN publishes massive data set
Europe's Earth-watching sat rides Soyuz to orbit
Tuesday 26th April 2016 10:00 GMT 
Every time I see a rocket lauch
it reminds me of the Apollo era of my youth, and puts a smile on my face. Wonderful really to see a Soyuz lift off a western satellite. It shows that despite the troubles we still have, differences can be overcome.
You could of course argue that free market forces simply made the Soyuz the best bang (or actually, "not bang", the last thing they want to see is a rocket go bang) for your buck. However, in 1969, as I sat watching the moon landing WAY past my normal bedtime, these free market forces weren't allowed to work.
So, I'll raise a pint to the successful launch, and further collaboration (there are worse causes).
À votre santé!
and
Поехали!
Planning to throw capacity at an IT problem? Read this first
Monday 25th April 2016 09:09 GMT
ONLY throwing capacity at any problem might not be optimal, but with the sheer volume of data processed in many applications, capacity is certainly needed. At the risk of winning a prize for pointing out the bleedin' obvious: you need to find the right tools first, and then assess how much compute power you need, given the optimal tools. Big data really requires you to think hard about tooling. I have seen people throw weeks of compute power of a large section of a Blue Gene machine at a problem that the right algorithm could solve in a couple of hours on a desktop PC. This wasn't even a big data problem, but it really demonstrated the difference in performance between O(N2) and O(N) algorithms.
Of course, in many cases you must also wonder whether you really need all that big data. Bigger isn't necessarily better
Romania suffers Eurovision premature ejection
NASA saves Kepler space 'scope by turning it off and on again
Dutch students serve up world's first 'drone café'
Friday 22nd April 2016 15:31 GMT
"Oh dear.
I work in IT end even I'm not that sad. Anyway, it can't lift a pint, so is disqualified straight out the gate."
My thoughts exactly. These students may be too young to remember Sirius Cybernetics "Your plastic pall who's fun to be with" definition of a robot, i.e. they do not know their classics, and will probably be the first against the wall when the revolution comes, as a consequence.
The drone might be able to lift the miserly little glasses they sell beer in here in the Netherlands, however. Fortunately I have found a pub where they sell good beer in proper glasses (see icon).
How IT are you? Find out now in our HILARIOUS quiz!
Friday 22nd April 2016 12:59 GMT
Re: I went to university down in Brighton...
I once had a scientologist wanting to inflict a questionnaire on me, so, being a good sport, I went along with it. Answering all the loaded questions in slowly increasing psychopath mode wasn't the only thing that got to him. I think it was the combination of my slightly too bright smile, the way I kept staring fixedly at his right ear, and developing a slight twitch in my left eye that really did it. I was careful not to overdo it, I just subtly built it up. He bolted at the end.
I had just been rehearsing a part as an insane Columbian taxi driver in a student play, so I could keep the act up all day, if needed
BOFH: Thermo-electric funeral
Friday 22nd April 2016 12:05 GMT
Lovely episode. I must say the line:
"Well the only way we can cool it down quickly will be to bring it into contact with something cool with a dense thermal mass I guess,"
had me expecting the boss ending up with burn marks on his forehead. The word "dense" must have triggered that mental image, but I suppose the world "cool" would argue against it.
I do like the notion of a cooling hammer, and my 2.7 lb lump hammer I have lying around the office for demonstration purposes during certain computer vision lectures might be assigned a new role
Friday 22nd April 2016 11:54 GMT
Re: as if owning IT antiquity was one of those positive character traits
Antique? I have still got an 8" floppy disk lying around, with a whole 128 kB of storage (CP/M 2.0 from Digital Research is on it, according to the label).
128MB USB stick antique! Youth these days
Erm, .... has anybody got an 8" floppy drive with USB interface lying around?
Storage with the speed of memory? XPoint, XPoint, that's our plan
Kent Police handed domestic abuse victim's data to alleged abuser – a Kent cop
Thursday 21st April 2016 14:03 GMT
Re: Sir
"...
What were they thinking?"
There are two option:
a) Not a lot. This assumes no malice in the perpetrator
b) They thought they could get away with it. That implies malice
In the first case the person may not be suitable for working at the police.
In the second place the person is certainly not suitable for working at the police
FBI's PRISM slurping is 'unconstitutional' – and America's secret spy court is OK with that
Thursday 21st April 2016 12:55 GMT
"US govt was required to retain any data that may be evidence of a crime"?
Well, anything could be evidence of a crime, couldn't it? Every humorous video of a kitten might have hidden information concerning some heinous terrorist plot. Storing only part of the information on the interwebs is really not enough! We should demand that the US government retain ALL data generated anywhere. There might be a slight storage problem, of course ......
HTC 10: Is this the Droid you're looking for?
Wednesday 20th April 2016 14:12 GMT 
Hmm
Not sure I will upgrade my M8 just yet. I rather like its 2 day battery life (even after 2 years) under my usage conditions, and more importantly, using it in the kitchen to blare out Rammstein, Blue Oyster Cult, System of a Down, Rory Gallagher, or Rush. Clears the kitchen in no time, so I can cook in peace. Very soothing ....
Should it give up the ghost any time soon, I will turn elsewhere, it would seem. Pity, I always liked my HTCs (starting from the old Desire)
Utah declares 'war on smut'
EU: We're splashing out €6.7bn on a giant scientific cloud
Tuesday 19th April 2016 14:45 GMT
Certainly not novel, there are similar efforts in the US (also amongst scientists). It's just that we do not necessarily want to have our scientific data on US-owned clouds. Commercial clouds are geared to particular classes of (business) problems, which are very suitable for distributed computing (often embarrassingly parallel). Scientists often have different requirements for which commercial clouds are not that suitable (I have a couple), so scientists may come up with different technical solutions. These solutions may well be of use to industry. My data? Less so, I would say
Tuesday 19th April 2016 12:56 GMT
This could be very useful. I collaborate with many fellow researchers, mainly in the EU, on various projects increasingly involving massive data sets. A platform that would allow more efficient sharing and processing of data could certainly help in many such projects. We will see how this pans out
Academic network Janet clobbered with DDoS attacks – again
US anti-encryption law is so 'braindead' it will outlaw file compression
Monday 18th April 2016 07:17 GMT
Re: Maths v the Law
Following on from the spirit of this Bill, I think they should declare Pi=3. It would save all the hassle of trying to work out all the other digits.
(Yes I know it's been tried once, but the technology wasn't as advanced back then.)
Just call in Bergholt Stutley Johnson!
Might even get the mail sorted before it was sent
Chilling evidence emerges of Kilocat weapon
Saturday 16th April 2016 13:00 GMT
Very nice indeed!
Have you ever considered sending this stuff to a scientific journal? Like Annals of Improbable Research? Fits right in with classics like "Feline Reactions to Bearded Men"
Canny Canadian PM schools snarky hack on quantum computing
Saturday 16th April 2016 11:41 GMT
That pleasantness makes the political debate sound so much more grown-up than the childish bickering so many other politicians go in for, in particular when they disagree with someone, purely because he is member of another party, even when that person is proposing the very same policy the other said he were backing. I find that such puerile behaviour (not limited to a single country, alas).
Well done to these Canadians for showing politicians can be polite.
Linux command line mistake 'nukes web boss'S biz'
Flying Spaghetti Monster is not God, rules mortal judge
Prof Hawking to mail postage-stamp space craft to Alpha Centauri using frickin' lasers
Wednesday 13th April 2016 09:38 GMT
Tricky!
They might impact on the local planning office in Alpha Centauri. Still, they might also find information on any demolition plans
More seriously, simply dust along the way could seriously damage a craft flying at that speed, even if cosmic rays miss it. Still a fascinating project. We need people doing weird science, and hey, it's got frickin' lasers involved. All we need is sharks
HTC 10: Flagship goes full Google – but the hardware's top notch
Tuesday 12th April 2016 14:56 GMT
Re: I have a question....
My HTC One M8 normally lasts two days on a full charge (it is two years old now, still works fine). No complaints there. By contrast, my wife's Samsung seems to be dead after (way) less then a day most of the time, by comparison (the kids' Samsung seem to last longer). I would hope the new M10 has similar battery life to the M8 (no guarantees of course). The Sonys have a good rep on that count. I might well consider one when I upgrade
Russian boffins want to nuke asteroids
Tuesday 12th April 2016 09:35 GMT
A modest proposal
Could we send the politicians to the asteroid, concentrate them on one side, and let the emanations of hot air deflect the asteroid gently?
Tell them they are going to make history, and will get an unrivalled degree of visibility amongst the electorate.
Regrettably, a return journey is impossible due to budget cuts they proposed (information on this will only be divulged on a need-to-know basis).
Win-win situation in my book
Europe's biggest radiotelescope in fast-burst-finding upgrade
Monday 11th April 2016 08:49 GMT 
Title?
The title is somewhat misleading, it had me thinking this was an upgrade to LOFAR, which is the biggest radio telescope in Europe. The first paragraph puts things straight however. LOFAR and WSRT (among others) are FAR bigger, fully steerable scopes, but they are not single dishes. LOFAR does beam forming digitally (it is a huge phased array), whereas WSRT consists of 14 steerable dishes, which have recently been upgraded with an array antenna at the focus of each dish, similar to the Effelsberg upgrade. Surveys can be done much faster now. We live in fascinating times.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
