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some people are going to miss Eadon
Posts by Michael H.F. Wilkinson
4257 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Apr 2007
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Microsoft biz heads slash makes Ballmer look like dead STEVE JOBS
Giant human-powered quadricopter wins $250,000 Sikorsky Prize
US Navy robot stealth fighter in first unmanned carrier landings
US Congress proposal: National Park will be FOUND ON MOON
Thursday 11th July 2013 09:24 GMT 
"Now if the UN decided to give the sites protected status, that is a different matter..."
Maybe they could be voted UNESCO (Out of this) World Heritage Sites
That would make a lot of sense (and is not at odds with the National Park idea), as these sites are a monument to one of mankind's greatest achievements.
Thursday 11th July 2013 08:23 GMT
Re: @ Don Jefe - Eh??
Images have been made of the Apollo landing sites, not just by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO, from NASA, so "suspect"), but by the Chinese Chang'e-2 probe (1.3m resolution, so good enough). Some of the LRO images show the LEM base, its shadow, and tracks from astronauts and rovers.
US gov SMASHES UP TVs and MICE to nuke tiny malware outbreak
Inventor lobs spherical, throwable camera
Universities teach us a thing or two about BYOD
Star Wars missile intercept fails for fifth year running
D-Wave IS QUANTUM, insist USC scientists
At last: EU slashes mobile roaming fees
What's the difference between GEEKS and NERDS?
NASA to flip ion engine's 'OFF' switch after brilliant 5.5 year burn
Monday 1st July 2013 07:55 GMT
@Triggerfish
Absolutely! I grew up in the Apollo era, and as a seven-year-old nagged my parent's (successfully) to see the first moon landing in the middle of the night. Astronauts and cosmonauts were heroes that transcended national boundaries. They showed us we could reach beyond Earth. Almost every boy in my class wanted to follow Gagarin and Armstrong. I consider that a rather better aim in life than to become filthy rich in finance. If astronauts inspire a next generation of kids to reset their ambitions and aim for the stars (literally, not in the X-factor sense) it is money well spent.
Windows 8.1: So it's, er, half-speed ahead for Microsoft's Plan A
Friday 28th June 2013 13:31 GMT
Search as primary means of navigation?
The primary gets up my nose quickly. I may be old-fashioned, but I prefer remembering where I left things, and simply moving directly to the right location (cd under linux, or multiple clicks in windows explorer). If I forget, I just use find/grep in linux, and search when on windows (after berating myself for forgetting ;-) ).
I find hiding the "complexity" of a file system from me just annoys me. Others may like it of course.
Please note that the opinion expressed above is solely the opinion of the author, and not necessarily the opinion of those with other opinions
Voyager 1 'close' to breaking through to DEEP SPACE - boffins
Korean doctors: Smartphones really ARE doing your head in
Microsoft talks up devices, Windows 8.1 at developer shindig
Planetary data merge shows three Earth-like planets in close star system
Privacy expert dismisses PRISM-busting typeface as 'art project'
Tuesday 25th June 2013 07:21 GMT
Re: UTF-8 alternative
Just using a different fixed font encoding is identical to using using the oldest cypher in the book: simple substitution. You can easily simulate the enigma machine on your PC, and that is much better than the proposed solution. However, note that fairly old computer machinery could already crack that (with the help of some nifty linguistic trickery and a few coding blunders of the Germans)
One-time pads do a rather better job, and are easily accessible (though harder to distribute).
Using encryption? That means the US spooks have you on file
Saturday 22nd June 2013 07:11 GMT
Re: scare tactic
If you can get your hands on a good one-time pad (least significant pits of camera noise will do) you have a provably safe encryption, because the (truly random) key is as long as the message. Quantum computing does not help one jot. Trying all keys gives you (apart from a load of rubbish) all possible plain-text messages of the given length, and all possible zip/rar/tgz/bz2/... files of the same length, exploding the possible space of intelligible solutions further. Somewhere in that humongous space of solutions is the right one, but you have no way of telling which one is correct.
The only problem is transmitting the key over a secure channel. That is not that difficult: store these random bits steganographically on a DVD or Blu-Ray disc containing footage of the kids playing, and take them personally to the intended person when visiting them on holidays.
Friday 21st June 2013 15:18 GMT
Steganography?
Any image (large) might contain some subtly hidden message (just replace the least significant bits of the image with bits from a compressed, encrypted file). Even this crude method can be very hard to detect, as a compressed file is already close to noise in its bit patterns (high entropy signal). Any high entropy signal can be considered suspect for that reason (photon-noise-limited astronomical images spring to mind)
The NSA are of course aware of steganography, and could use this to suggest any media file is suspect. The only problem they then face is tracking all such data.
Me, paranoid?
SACK MORE BRITS, Symantec UK told by US supremos - sources
Apple: If you find us guilty in ebook price-fix trial, EVERYONE suffers
Top Norks bone up on Hitler
Friday 21st June 2013 09:42 GMT
Re: "practical applications be drawn from it"
Not necessarily, I am afraid.
The part where Hitler loses is not in Mein Kampf, that part is found in books on history, but I doubt any self-respecting loony dictator would allow mere historical facts to get in the way of a megalomaniacal plan. It is more likely he will be thinking (word used without prejudice) along the lines of "If only good old Adolf had waited till he had the bomb, like I have done".
Google staffing boss: Our old hiring procedures were 'worthless'
Friday 21st June 2013 09:06 GMT
Re: World's cleverest company states the obvious
Evidently, they did not read C. Northcote Parkinson's chapter "The Short List" in Parkinson's Law. It tells you exactly how to weed out unsuitable candidates, and he presents an algorithm which gets you just one applicant (the right one) obviating the need for an interview.
I find it odd they did not find that paper, as it must have been scanned by them, and a quick google got me this.
At Google, unlike the X-Files, the truth is in there.
In both cases, it is a matter of finding things
What should replace Linpack for ranking supercomputers?
Friday 21st June 2013 08:37 GMT 
An overhaul/replacement of LinPack is long overdue
Even the conjugate gradient benchmark, while very useful, does not say it all. Conjugate gradient problems are present in many optimization methods, but not in combinatorial optimization. Maybe an additional benchmark is needed for that. Some image and signal processing problems are not easily cast into an optimization framework at all, for these we would love to have a better benchmark.
El Reg rocket squad poised to select Ultimate Cuppa teabag
Friday 21st June 2013 07:21 GMT
Twinings "Prince of Wales"
If I have to use tea bags I go for this one, because the Keemun black tea it contains does not turn bitter when you forget to remove it from the mug.
I tend not to use milk, ever since my student days, when the question "how many lumps" could accurately be used for the amount of milk, from time to time.
I, for one, welcome our GIANT TITANIUM INSECT OVERLORDS
Thursday 20th June 2013 10:57 GMT
I do wonder what Steve Irwin would have said
<Aussie accent>
"Look at the size of these little buggers!
Isn't it AMAZIN' !"!
</Aussie accent>
Or Les Hiddins, the bush tucker man:
<Aussie accent>
"These bugs mighn't look very appetizin', but they're full of minerals, particularly titanium"
</Aussie accent>
Nuke plants to rely on PDP-11 code UNTIL 2050!
Boffins build headless robo-kitties
Tuesday 18th June 2013 08:53 GMT
Re: Obstacles
Much as I like cats, you really do not want a robot to be cat-like. Consider the difference with dogs when you throw a stick. The dog runs after it and collects it. The cat looks at you as if to say: "Hey, you threw it, you go get it." I consider this a clear indication of the more advanced intelligence of cats, as compared to dogs.
A simple rule of thumb is:
A dog has a master
A cat has house-mates
A Siamese cat has grooming staff
New material enables 1,000-meter super-skyscrapers
Tuesday 18th June 2013 07:19 GMT
Re: Any rope is the problem
Enter the Heisenberg/Schrödinger elevator. It tunnels to the correct destination, and allows an arbitrary (but uncertain) number of elevators per shaft. Add defocused temporal perception and they will be there before you know you want them.
The only downside is their tendency to sulk in basements.
SCO vs. IBM battle resumes over ownership of Unix
Google launches broadband balloons, radio astronomy frets
Monday 17th June 2013 11:51 GMT
Re: Hang on
SKA does not really work with steerable dishes, it uses synthetic aperture based on many small antennae. By combining the signals from many sources with the right delays, you can form a vast number of beam shapes with a vast number of different side-lobes. This in principle allows you to let a telescope be blind in the direction of fixed radio sources. If you know terrestrial sources are a problem, you can in theory create a null-sensitivity for things on the horizon, or (more easily) in the specific direction of a particular source.
Source above the antennae which drift around and are difficult to predict are a pain, and a cause of many ruined pieces of data.
When to say those three little words: 'I am quitting'
Monday 17th June 2013 12:21 GMT
Re: Caveat Emptor
Well measured response. but I would like to add one more tiem:
8. Beware of injelititis: managers who have a combination of a large degree of incompetence and a similarly large degree of jealousy, a combination known as injelitance. Injelitant people in managerial roles cause a disease called injelitis. These people actually prefer to have a third-rate team, because they know deep down in their hearts they themselves are second-rate at best. Do not think you can single-handedly change the course of such a department (key words to watch: "Yes, mr. X is brilliant, but mr. Y is more sound"). Abandon such departments at warp speed.
See: C. Northcote Parkinson: Parkinson's Law, or the Pursuit of Progress.
Who's to be the next Dr Who? Sherlock beats Maurice - says you
Pre-election phishing spike blasts Iranian Gmail accounts
Scientists investigate 'dark lightning' threat to aircraft passengers
Ex-Palm CEO Rubinstein wishes HP sale never happened
New Android plan: Gurn at your phone to unlock it
Headbangers have a gas, gas, gas in mosh pits
Monday 10th June 2013 08:35 GMT
No, just thermodynamics
The classic random walk is exemplified by a person (typically male) who is so drunk that at each step he cannot remember which direction the last one was going.
By saturating the senses with loud noise, combined with the usual quantities of alcohol involved, I would expect that those involved in mosh pits have a similar level of randomness in their motion, especially when adding collisions with other "particles."
I will submit the paper to Annals of Improbable Research for their Scientists now know corner.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
