* Posts by Michael H.F. Wilkinson

4248 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Apr 2007

Lenovo shipped lappies with man-in-the-middle ad/mal/bloatware

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

I recently found a company nearby

that will build a laptop to my specs for a very reasonable price AND you buy the OS separately. No bloatware, nothing you did not ask for.

Sounds sweeter every day.

I'll check the (older) Lenovo machine, in which I already deinstalled a load of stuff after buying it, for superfish

After Brit spies 'snoop' on families' lawyers, UK govt admits: We flouted human rights laws

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Black Helicopters

"and even those were considered void if "extremists" were involved."

And who exactly got to decide that somebody is an extremist? MI6? Any other spooks?

Thought so.

Is that a black helicopter I hear?

UGH... opposable thumbs are so tiresome! Why not mount your iPhone on your face?

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

Maybe you could implement peril-sensitive sunglasses this way ;-)

BLOOD STAR of the NEANDERTHALS passed close to our Sun

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

Re: Timely...

I thought the Toba super-volcano eruption took care of that

That fact won't stop Hollywood/Discovery Channel/History Channel/BBC, etc making a new disaster movie/"documentary" along the lines of WHAT IF A RED DWARF CAME WITHIN 0.8 AU OF EARTH, WERE ALL DOOMED!!!

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Boffin

Flares would have to be HUGE to be visualle impressive for Neanderthals

Hate to pour cold water over the nice idea that Neanderthals would have been startled by flares of Scholz's Star., but a little back of the envelope calculations shows this is unlikely:

The star would have been about magnitude 10.3 in the night sky at shortest distance to earth, apparently. This means that to be visible a flare would need to raise the brightness by 4.3 magnitudes to reach magnitude 6 (drop on the magnitude scale = increase in brightness). This is possible in the blue band, but in the visual band (roughly corresponding to the rods in the retina) it is more likely to observe just one or two magnitudes increase, keeping the star well hidden. Only a 6 or 7 magnitude increase would make the star noticable (but still rather mediocre), and something like 12 magnitudes would be needed to rival the planets. This is VERY unlikely

Still a very interesting report

BBC: SOD the scientific consensus! Look OUT! MEGA TSUNAMI is coming

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

We're doomed, DOOMED, DOOMED, I say!!!!

At ease, Fraser!

Watch: FIRE-SPITTING time-lapse images of Sol showcase NASA's sun-gazing highs

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Thumb Up

Wonderful stuff

The sun almost always provides a lot of fireworks. It must have been difficult to select the best bits

You can actually sample the solar dynamics from down here: this shot was taken from the pavement across the road from my house (74 pane mosaic). However, whenever UK (or Dutch in my case) weather conspires against that (i.e. a lot of the time) it is lovely to visit NASAs sites which provide many such image (some like GONG H-alpha nearly at real time).

The transits seem to be Venus, judging by the size of the disk

El Reg's plucky Playmonaut eyes suborbital rocket shot

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Happy

Unavoidable Cynewulf / Tolkien link

Eala Earendel, Engla beorhtast

Ofer middangeard monnum sended

ATTENTION SETI scientists! It's TOO LATE: ALIENS will ATTACK in 2049

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Alien

Nah, we're safe

Alien's receiving the webgasm will conclude that this could not possibly come from a sentient life form, and start looking for errors in their analysis software, or check they weren't getting stray signals from some passing Teaser. You know, rich kids with nothing better to do than finding planets like ours, landing next to some poor guy who nobody is ever going to believe and strut around wearing silly antennae making bepp-beep noises (childish really)

FOCUS! 7680 x 4320 notebook and fondleslab screens are coming

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

It might well be useful for some specialists

Very big displays of very big data (actually, many images I work on are a lot bigger: 40kx40k). Having a powerful machine with massive GPU grunt and a big screen, that resolution would be very nice. On my tablet, not so much, on my laptop, a more modest improvement in resolution would be better

SpaceX HOVER-SHIP landing scuppered by MASSIVE ocean waves

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Thumb Up

Love the work they are doing

I love the way these guys keep pushing forward. It does bring back fond childhood memories of the Apollo era.

Keep at it SpaceX!

ANOTHER US court smacks down EFF's NSA wiretap sueball – but won't say why

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Unhappy

Bad day for democracy

How can people vote if the are kept in the dark not so much about what a government does (because some things need to be kept secret), but about the very reasons for the secrecy. Another important issue is that justice must be meted out in public so that it can be seen to be done, and scrutinized. Secret courts are anathema to democracy.

Bitcoin trade biz MyCoin goes dark, investors fear $387 MEEELLION lost

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Paris Hilton

Re: Does not compute...

Rich people need not have made their fortune, someone else could have made it for them. For example, they could simply inherit it. No intelligence, or indeed any other talent, is needed.

The selected icon is a "shining" example of this

(note: Paris might not be as stupid as she apparently likes to appear, but her wealth does not stem from any talent she may or may not have)

NERDS KICK PUPPY 'bot in brutal attack

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Happy

It's a good thing these are dogs

Dogs have a master

Cats (unadulterated ones, at least) have personel

SWINGBELLIES! Take heed! Drinking WINE is good for your LIVER

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Pint

Good news!

I'll raise a glass to that ---> should be filled with wine, I know

...

Wadyamean, you need a different glass for wine?

;-)

Major US news organisations to develop ROBOT JOURNALISTS

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Happy

Re: Ah yes...

Isn't that robo reader of yours simply an electronic monk? Remember not to cross link it to a video recorder programmed to watch 17 boring channels simultaneously. Can cause trouble

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Joke

Re: Listen and understand

I thought Fox News already employed robots programmed to disagree with EVERYTHING the Democrats propose

US DoJ okays IEEE's patent troll ban-hammer

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

Sounds like a step in the rigt direction

Some sense being brought to (a part of) the US patent system, that is a pleasant surprise. The fact that it comes from IEEE rather than USPTO is not much of a surprise

Lost SPACECRAFT believed FOUND ON COMET

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Coat

When philae wakes up

we might hear

"I appear to be lying at the bottom of a deep, dark hole. That seems a familiar concept, what does it remind me of?... Ah, yes! ...Life. Maybe if I lie still and ignore it, it will go away again"

Alternatively, we might just receive a message:

"I think you ought to know I am feeling very depressed"

OK, I'm going. The one with the cassette tapes of the HHGTTG radio play in the pocket please

Man trousers $15,000 domain name for $10.99 amid registry cockup

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Coat

Re: Is ifyoulikealotofchocolateonyourbiscuitjoina.club still available?

what about iamdetritusanddisismy.club?

OK, time to go, the one with Thud in the pocket please

ZX81 BEATEN at last as dev claims smallest Chess code crown

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Thumb Up

Very nice exercise in minimalist programming

especially in an age where a word processing package has minimum requirements in terms of memory and compute power equivalent to a Cray Y-MP. Hats of (the black fedora again) to the programmer.

The art of compact programming is not totally dead, of course. People working on embedded systems can do some really neat work. We also let student program Arduino boards, which also requires a fair degree of discipline in terms of memory use.

I'll get my coat – there's a dusty one flying off Comet 67P

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Joke

Re: Not so close, really

True, but then we might think it's a long way to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space. Listen....

;-)

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

Interesting stuff

Nice to see more data come from Rosetta. It will be interestig to see if and how the composition of dust particles changes as the comet becomes more active near the sun. Also looking forward to Philae waking up again as it approaches the sun.

BOO! Grave remote-code exec flaw in GNU C Library TERRIFIES Linux

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Stop

Re: Not Again

Gentlemen: Please do not feed the troll

NASA greenlights SpaceX and Boeing to carry crew to ISS in 2017

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Thumb Up

Good

Good to see progress being made. I don't care muc for all the political grand-standing, but applaud the engineering efforts that with get more people into space at lower (if still eye-watering) cost.

BOT AN ABOMINATION: Mechanical DRONE VAMPIRE spreads wings

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Coat

Re: So now we've got...

Victims would perhaps be less terrified of the robo-vampire if it wore a black ribbon

I'm going. The one with Carpe Jugulum in the pocket please

Welcome to Spartan, Microsoft's persuasive argument for... Chrome

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Joke

"MSHTML Trident engine that’s been the bedrock of IE."

I know some web developers who would argue it is not so much bedrock as quicksand. Bergholt Stuttley Johnson seems to have been involved according to some.

Doomsday Clock says 3 minutes to midnight. Again

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Joke

In situations like this, I find it useful

to consult this book I have, with some large, friendly letters on the cover.

Latest menace to internet economy: Gators EATING all the PUSSIES

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Happy

Send in Mick Dundee!

He'll sort those crocs out, no worries!!

OTHER EARTHS may be orbiting our Sun beyond Neptune

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

Re: Sky surveys

They would be very faint, and move VERY slowly with respect to the stars. Most big surveys are looking for faster-moving objects (NEOs will mmove a lot faster than trans-Neptune objects)

You'll get sick of that iPad. And guess who'll be waiting? Big daddy Linux...

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

OS wars are so last decade

I personally do not care. I have worked on (and fumed at) very many versions of Windows, Linux, Unix, Android, and OS-X. I am old enough to have worked on VAX-VMS, RSX-11 on PDP-11 and CDC Cyber NOS (nicknamed either No Operating System or Nasty Operating System), CPM (2.0 and 68K), and more DOS version than I care to mention.

I just want a tool that works. Android works nicely on my HTC phone, and ASUS transformer pad, Windows 8 (with classic shell) works for my kids and missus, and for me in data acquisition behind me telescope, and Linux works on many (non-mobile) machines I need to get my work done. Try processing some of my image and volume data on a mobile device: giga-pixel and tera-pixel range (single images, not a database that size). On the other hand, I don't do web browsing on a cluster. I have considered getting a MacBook Pro as a replacement for my ancient Sony Vaio (lack of nVidia card on their 13" bothered me, not the OS). Different tools for different tasks.

Earth-bound exoplanet hunter's eyes blink open

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
WTF?

Re: So they can see planets so far away but no high quality Moon pics ?

Unless a tinfoil hat got in the way, I really do not understand what you are getting at

There are plenty high quality moon, Mars, Jupiter, Mercury, Venus pictures about and have been for decades. The resolution just gets higher and higher.

Australia tries to ban crypto research – by ACCIDENT

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Joke

Possible solution from a place which is not Australia, but very, ... well, Australian

They really should go for the Ecksian solution: put anybody who becomes PM in jail instantly (saves time, after all). Could be extended to any political office.

$500 TEDDY BEAR teaches tots to spit up personal data

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

What odds will the bookies give on

The baby ...

1. throws it out of the cot/pram/playpen

2. manages to break it within a day

3. has it stolen by an elder sibling so it's never in the right place

4. consistently holds it in the wrong way

5. is terrified by the glowing heart

NSA: SO SORRY we backed that borked crypto even after you spotted the backdoor

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Facepalm

Well ....

"... In truth, I can think of no better way to describe our failure to drop support for the Dual EC DRBG algorithm as anything other than regrettable,"

I can think of better ways, in fact we are spoiled for choice:

"Cynical" immediately springs to mind

"Amateurish" given the way they handled it

"Wannabe Machiavellian" because it blew up in their faces, as was always likely

and many, many more

Big Blue's biggest mainframe yet is the size of a fridge

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Joke

Re: Positioned as the badass mainframe to put in your office

"At least you will know how to operate it, contrary to that darn espresso-monstrosity that nearly cost as much and now only collects dust while you suffer the humiliation that is Nespresso."

How hard can operating an espresso machine be? Does yours have black buttons labelled in black letters on a black background with little black lights that light up black to show that you have done it? We have a pretty swanky espresso machine at home, and even I can operate that.

And I don't even drink coffee (to me coffee is to my taste buds like Vogon poetry is to my ears, and no, that is not due to how I make coffee)

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Coat

Do the USAF want those?

Clearly designed with stealth technology for low radar footprint. Could be useful to a BOFH

Beancounters footprint not so small, I would guess; they would be alerted by big budget hole, but no visible kit to show for it

OK, I'm going

HTC Desire Eye: The Android superior selfie shooter

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Coffee/keyboard

Narcissism goes hi-res

New keyboard please!

Love the sub-title, just love it to bits

BTW, have an M8, and love it to bits. I have had several HTCs before, and always got on with them, but the M8 is the first I really like a lot.

Whatever rumour says, I do not call it my precioussssss,

don't I, my preciousssss?

It's 4K-ing big right now, but it's NOT going to save TV

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

I might well want a 4K screen

But mostly for images I make myself, like this moon mosaic. I do not need "Holland/UK/Lapland has got no talent" in even higher resolution.

Comet Lovejoy's greenish glow visible with naked eye this weekend

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

I have spotted it with binoculars and with small telescopes in the last couple of clear night (including tonight). Even managed to snap an image before clouds rushed in. Weather forecast not good for the coming days

Anonymous vows to avenge Charlie Hebdo massacre by blitzing jihadist sites

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

Re: Intelligence

Empathy and compassion might also be nice, not to mention self mockery; all traits that fundamentalists of all persuasions seem to lack.

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

What might be fitting

Is to plaster the jihadist sites with Charlie Hebdo cartoons, over and over again.

Just a symbolic gesture, but fitting, I think

Je suis Charlie

IBM hastens END OF HUMANITY with teachable AI 'brain'

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Coat

No, but it might make a cup filled with a liquid which is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea

Doffs hat (nice new black fedora today) to Douglas Adams

Fancy a .trust domain? How's $150,000 sound?

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Coat

Any interest in

moist.von.lipwig.trust ?

OK, OK, I'm going. The one with "Making Money" in the pocket please

Hack hijacks electric skateboards, dumps hipsters in the gutter

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

Re: ".. you could also just hit them with a car."

16 ton weight will also do nicely

Judge spanks SCO in ancient ownership of Unix lawsuit

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Coat

WHEN WILL THIS END??????

Like Reg Shoe I have nothing against zombies, but like him I hate it when they lurch and groan, and lurching and groaning is what the SCO group are doing.

...

I am getting my coat. The one with Night Watch in the pocket please

Nork-ribbing flick The Interview AXED: Sony caves under hack terror 'menace'

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Coat

Strange to see NATO back down from vague NORK threats

OK, I'll get me coat

Crossbar says it's 'one step' from delivering miracle RRAM

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Thumb Up

Very interesting read

We live in exciting times. It is great to see many different groups of extremely smart people trying to create breakthrough technologies to make impossible things possible

It's whiff, Jim, but not as we know it: Curiosity sniffs ORGANICS on Mars

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
Coat

Re: Spikes in the methane can only mean one thing.

Would that be a MAdRaS curry

I'll get me coat

El Reg's mighty rocket spaceplane Vulture 2 arrives in US of A

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

Re: Westmalle or Duvel

Westvleteren is also great. I live close enough to Belgium (the country, not the swear word ;-) ) to have access to a wide selection, and regularly sample ones unknown to me.