* Posts by Tom 7

8318 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Jun 2009

Web inventor Sir Tim sizes up handcuffs for his creation – and world has 2 weeks to appeal

Tom 7

Re: Mixed feelings

And talk like an ""Illegal copying" or "Illegal sharing" day is going to be a bit shit too!

Tom 7

Re: I don't see a problem.

Really - Run up a VM and watch something DRMed in there. You can record the screen and sound with ease and you have an un DRMed copy of whatever it was. The only way round that is to make VMs illegal. You have open source browsers all over the place and the code can be hacked to record video and sound.The only way round that is signed browsers from signed sources and here be dragons.

LHC finds a new and very charming particle: the Xicc++ baryon

Tom 7

Re: The XICC++ baryon?

Baryons with inheritance? Perhaps quantum effects are the kids fighting over the assets.

Tom 7

Re: Awe

"I would offer them a beer but I suppose they would be too busy looking for the next quantamy quarky higgs thingy to come along."

Its very important to remember the brain is a complicated system and like all complicated systems it can get locked in unideal states. This is cured by annealing and the brain is best annealed with beer and similarly annealing company.

Roland McGrath steps down as glibc maintainer after 30 years

Tom 7

Re: @ allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

ISTR a lot of 'open source' software in the 80s. A lot of things were available for the cost of a tape to copy them to and delivery. From academic institutions largely and too bit to run on early PC's but loads of it.

BOFH: That's right. Turn it off. Turn it on

Tom 7

Re: Not scary - true

As someone who likes to get things right where possible I'd imagine half the code I've written has been done in secret so it got done rather than whirling around in meetings. I even wrote about 10,000 lines of code in my own spare time to save my sanity as I knew this was the only way to get the job done. And then deleted the office copy. No one ever worked out how the fuck I achieved it even though I'd asked them to let me write if from the off. Laziness truly is the mother of invention.

Sysadmin bloodied by icicle that overheated airport data centre

Tom 7

Re: Frozen winter shit.

Not IT or cold. During a hot summer we had been away for a few weeks and this had caused the outlet to our cesspitt to dry out and block up. For various reason this was in out neighbours garden and they came to complain about the smell a couple of weeks after we returned. The outlet was accessible next to a bridge where a 2ft wide concrete platform let you access the hole about 6' off the ground and maybe 10' below the cesspit and 30' long, the platform being 3' above the river. My dad, another neighbour who had rods and a house guest who had just given his first public orchestra conduction and had all had drinkies afterwards decided it was now time to sort this out. The blockage was too hard to get anything other than the rods up it. The three of them forced the rods slowly up and eventually the rods reached the far end of the cesspit. They withdrew the rods and scratched their heads over what to do next when they noticed, like very thick black toothpaste, the blockage was creeping out of the hole. They stood there transfixed until it started to noticeably speed up when they reaslised their error and, panicking on the 2' wide platform tried to get out of the way asap at which point the blockage releases and a 6' wide fan of ordure (like the ones the firebrigade use for putting out chip shops) let loose and the observers were damn near hospitalised with hysterics,

Fortunately it was still a roasting hot summer so they weren't too unhappy to stand outside while we passed out drinks and their tuxedos (WTF??) dried out and the rest of us continued to roll about in tears.

Brit prosecutors ask IT suppliers to fight over £3 USB cable tender

Tom 7

re The bureaucracy droid

I worked for one company that, after privatisation, was flooded with accountants. Before that I could have spent £5k and explained it later. After that everything went though an ever increasing cabal of accountants. We worked out that at one point it was costing them around £100 to asses whether I could have a £5 item. It got the the point where we spent £30k on overtime to meet a timeslot we had arranged with a supplier only for the work to be done on time but the slot was missed because I could no longer sign to have the tape with the design sent to the US ($24!!!) and those up the tree refused to even think about it. Apparently I should have known the procedures would change randomly and taken that into account.

Bonkers call to boycott Raspberry Pi Foundation over 'gay agenda'

Tom 7

Its true

my sense hat is showing a rainbow at the moment!

One thought equivalent to less than a single proton in mass

Tom 7

Re: Confused units

@technicalben My brain cells have been replaced by plaques. Most noticeably a blue one with 'Tom lived here'

Don't panic, but Linux's Systemd can be pwned via an evil DNS query

Tom 7

Re: Hang on, all y'all ...

@swarthy - your £5 can be claimed when you install systemd in your wallet.

Tom 7

Re: the desktop-grade init system strikes again...

Put in an ssd - my laptop shows me the grub thingy and then flashes a couple of times and is ready to go. Even without systemd I've not worked out why I turned it on yet let alone sat down comfortably,

I could get grub to go quicker but I really cant be arsed.

America throws down gauntlet: Accept extra security checks or don't carry laptops on flights

Tom 7

Re: Paris Agreement coal steamships

I guess he's secretly planning ahead so when his golf courses sink he can provide an 18 hole armada for his rich customers amusement.

Tom 7

More screening techniques?

If they are actually checking the stuff they punt into the hold then we will have to arrive at the airport a day or two before the flight!

O Rly? O'Reilly exits direct book sales

Tom 7

Re: As long as they're still publishing dead tree books ...

Nothing digital surpasses dead trees? Well given that most digital stuff is in fucking PDF or other paper and book shaped form its not surprising. But good web stuff pisses all over paper shaped stuff.

We live in a bizarre world where everyone makes their documentation in railway carriage form and is surprised when it doesnt fit into the matter transporter.

Astroboffins dig into the weird backwards orbit of the Bee-Zed asteroid

Tom 7

You cannae break the laws of physics Capn.

It transparently doesnt so its not weird to me. Unusual but not weird.

Concorde without the cacophony: NASA thinks it's cracked quiet supersonic flight

Tom 7

Re: QueSST isn't Concorde..

A couple of hrs in short legroom is acceptable. The four hours getting from the car park to the plane is another matter. And the champagne - thought the idea was self important business people could hop over, do some work and be back in time for tea. Drinks dont come into that anymore.

Its a bit like HS2 - if you dont live at one of the railway stations and need to visit another one the 20 minute saving is facile.

I used to travel a lot for business but of the things I'd consider travelling long distance on business a day trip went off that list many years ago. If it really is important jet lag and the deleterious effects of air travel take too much of an edge of to make it worthwhile. If it really is an important meeting getting to it at 100% is a must.

A lot of people do like to feel important by flying all over the place and I've accompanied them a lot but most of the time ssh would have got the work done before we left the work car park.

Australian govt promises to push Five Eyes nations to break encryption

Tom 7

Re: Conservative = tech-illiterate ?

I must admit a large number of the conservatives I know seem to want things to be simple, even though the evidence shows that simple is not the possible answer.

Researchers solve screen glare nightmare with 'moth-eye' antireflective film

Tom 7

Sunlight

is gods way of saying put the phone down and get to the pub.

PC rebooted every time user flushed the toilet

Tom 7

Re: Here's one

Had the reverse of that. In early Nmos design we had a circuit that had been tested to pump a current into the chip substrate to reduce leakage. It was used on many test designs and worked perfectly and was chosen to be used in some chips for a serious demo. The cct board of chips worked fine and was boxed up for the demo. And promptly stopped working, The cct board was removed for testing and worked flawlessly. Rinse and repeat. Then the light bulb moment and indeed a lightbulb was put in the demo box to provide the photons needed to make the pump work until the demo was over and then a frantic redesign of the pump so it could work in the dark like the rest of us.

Tom 7

Re: Sea-skimming microwave

A microwave beam has a bit of spread. When the tide is high some of the edge of the spread is bounced back to the receiver - when the path length of this bit is some multiple of half wavelength.s it weakens the signal. If you imagine a wave trough as a concave mirror you can see how it could actually focus enough out of phase signal to cause it to drop out.

Tom 7

Re: Solution (was: You want toast!)

For some random tamper proof fixings that trick with the elastic band and an Alan key can work - if you can find something to jam the thing holding said fixing safely against while you apply the enormous pressure required to force the key and band firmly into the available space. Use one on a 1/4 inch driver and not those right angled ones that can pop out the back of your hand alien style!

Canadian sniper makes kill shot at distance of 3.5 KILOMETRES

Tom 7

Wouldn't the target therefore know that he was under fire,

You do some sighting shots that are close to the target but not close enough to give the game away. My uncle was an artillery major in Burma and he used to try and work out cross winds and temperatures from different heights - you cant do this when sniping but when laying wast to areas you can get enough shots in to get some feel for it apparently. I guess modern shell would tell you all you need to know just before they hit now. Wont be long before a 0.5" can do that too!

Numbers war: How Bayesian vs frequentist statistics influence AI

Tom 7

Both methods have merits which are mathematically based.

So I can only think the arguments between the two sides are to try and confuse the punter to ensure they dont get far enough into the subject to realise when they are on the wrong side of a dutch book.

Scottish govt mulled scrapping £178m car-crash IT system

Tom 7

Re: UGHHRGHGRUHHUGR

Sorry mate - you'll be waiting for your money for eternity. One of the problems with these things is, once the UK gets hold of the stuff from the EU, the lawyers earn their keep making logically and mutually exclusive modifications to what is probably a simple system. When you point out the logical inconsistencies you will find it is your fault not theirs.

As far as I can tell the rest of Europe seems to manage its stuff OK. I used to receive some money from CAP as the whole thing was started as a way of giving small farmers a chance against the global mega corps. In the UK and only the UK are small farmers now excluded. I actually have more land than I require to receive the CAP but one of my fields was removed as I didnt want to claim in case I was being dodgy and they refuse to allow it back in, unless I let the farmer next door manage it for me?

2 kool 4 komputing: Teens' interest in GCSE course totally bombs

Tom 7

RE: Its a bit like

no it bloody isn't. Its more like saying 'If we teach you how to read a road map, some engineering, some civil engineering, some geography, and most of all some common sense and the logic behind many many human constructs, you may be able to understand why we need all the above jobs, how to fit them into an efficient system to help people move forward'

Fighter pilot shot down laptops with a flick of his copper-plated wrist

Tom 7

Re: The Middle of Nowhere is not in Cumbria

I'd recommend going up there in the depth of winter, or when there's one of those Desmond thingies about.

Use to live an hour from the Lakes and when its feeling moody its fucking dangerous! Use to get pissed in Glenridding then up Catstycam and up to Helvelyn. I wouldnt dare do that sober on a calm day now!

Tom 7

Re: Everyone missed the classic one

I was wandering around a telephone exchange and waved my finger near a unit and a 1/2" spark took out 400 lines to London. Seems leather soled brogues can generate quite a bit of static on anti-static carpet.

Tom 7

Re: not necessarily

I had a saline injection recently - to test a canula prior to a CT scan and it caused me to pass out and when I came round (thinking I'd just blinked) every bit of the room was filled with crash crew. So no only is saline not a placebo it can transport matter too.

You'll soon be buying bulgur wheat salad* from Amazon, after it swallowed Whole Foods

Tom 7

Re: Have you ever or would you eat bulgur wheat?

Yup - it takes the little bugs that really make up your digestive system by surprise. Treat like Guinness and consume till the nasty minority effects go away.

BA passengers caught in crossfire of Heathrow baggage meltdown

Tom 7

@AC amsterdam klm

I've been through Amsterdam with KLM over a dozen times. On every occasion either mine or the person I was travelling with lost baggage.

I had the joy of coming down Kilimanjaro having climbed in borrowed gear (when you are 6'5" its fucking cold at 19000' wearing shorts!) to find my bags finally arrived at the airport.

And always seem to have to run from one end of the airport to the other.

AR and VR in data visualisation – can it ever be useful to our puny human minds?

Tom 7

It doesnt matter what colour or note you give to data.

Given a pivot table seems to be beyond the understanding of most accountants and heads of sales.

I'd suggest we're pissing in the wind.

I do feel we need some kind of open-source bootstrapping business software to allow people who can understand pivot tables and more complicated things to climb up above the management canopy that seems to shade them from the energy they need to survive and grow.

Labour says it will vote against DUP's proposed TV Licence reforms

Tom 7

Re: I Think We Need The BBC

Is it acceptable that my Vehicle Excise duty goes to the maintenance of roads I never use?

I like to think of the license as something that allows us to access live broadcast TV with the added bonus of the BBC making some great programs, without which I can guarantee Sky and others would drop their standards below their already low bar.

For the price of a years Sky subscription with sport you can (if you dig around) get a week in the US watching how TV would look without the BBC.

Tom 7

Re: Assumptions

Nothing in the bible about her being a prostitute. More likely invented by misogynists to remove female influence from the religion.

France and UK want to make web firms liable for users' content

Tom 7

RE: that THEY disapprove of

you do realise this is just a <font size = "massive flashing"> squirrel </font>. This is not big government - this is wee, sleekit, cowran, tim'rous beastie government.

Norks uses ballistic missile to launch silent 'satellite'

Tom 7

Re: Iran, North Korea. Can you blame them?

In 'Animal House' Dean Wormer put them under Double Secret Probation. I guess the UN could do that to NK.

The tactics the west use are not meant to influence North Korea - they are meant to placate the Daily Mail readers or equivalent at home. If they lead to nuclear war they might think 'You see! I told you so' just before they vaporise.

Science megablast: Comets may have brought xenon to Earth

Tom 7

Comets? Why bloody comets?

Amazing that a huge planet - one as big as the earth - needs teeny weeny comets to provide it with everything.

Please do not scare the pigeons – they'll crash the network

Tom 7

Interesting.

But not as interesting as to why the fuck buying tickets is the only thing in the fucking world that needs a fucking surcharge,

Live blog: Fired FBI boss spills the beans to US Senate committee

Tom 7

Re: Confused?

Stalked.

Feeling old? Well, we're older than that: Newly found Homo sapiens jaw dates back 350k years

Tom 7

350k years?

Does this mean I'm going to have to grow up soon?

Tom 7

Religeon?

Na - they weren't that stupid! I think its more likely that peoples property was part of their identity so everything they had was buried with them. If you've ever seen a grieving person hold the dead persons property you can see how that would work.

Hyperloop One teases idea of 50-minute London-Edinburgh ride

Tom 7

50 minutes travel. 2hrs in security.

No duty free.

Going to Mars may give you cancer, warns doc

Tom 7

Re: Lots of shielding requires lots of fuel.

@roy - I think you'll find the sonic boom will pretty much make the propellant irrelevant. I would add that a railgun is likely to fry any electronics in the projectile and I dont see it being cheaper.

Tom 7

Lots of shielding requires lots of fuel.

Lots of fuel can provide lots of shielding. I still wonder whether a supergun could be used to chuck up lots of bits . Bull managed to get a 50kg shell to 40km and while I wouldnt want to live next to one of these I'm sure we could make a gun capable of launching a serious amount of shit into orbit to be put together in 0g.

I dont know how much the propellant for a gun like this is but I'd bet its a shit load cheaper than rocket fuel and you could launch several dozen fuel containers a day into orbit from the middle of the pacific and only piss off a few seagulls... and a lot of fish.

Something like this could even, after much testing, be deemed reliable enough to pop up some plutonium for some serious engine building.

No hypersonic railguns on our ships this year, says US Navy

Tom 7

Re: When the missile is doing mach 8...

There is an article today on meteors. Its worth drawing a parallel here: some meteors are shaped such that they will hit the earth, while similar sized ones explode in the atmosphere. Even a metal meteor can self destruct if it spins fast enough which it will if its the right shape. A supersonic missile hit that is hit by a bullet is probably the right shape to spin itself to bits - assuming you have someone in between the firer and the target to try and do this. Firing a bullet from the target is probably just going to achieve a bright flash before it hits.

Tom 7

Re: Railguns vs lasers

You got a laser that can shoot a ship over the horizon?

Tom 7

Re: So get rid of the barrel!

They could at least get rid of the bit of the barrel that doesnt do the acceleration bit - not quite sure what the purpose of that is.

Meteor swarm spawns new and dangerous branch

Tom 7

Re: Interesting use of statistics...

1m sized chunks and one 150m sized one.

Tom 7

I welcome our new meteor overlords

if they can flash cook a pizza for me!

Two hot Jupiters around two similar stars orbiting at similar distances look similar, right? WRONG

Tom 7

Re: Just to posit a theory...

You dont know the construction of the 'disk' the system started from. If just two stars went supernova shedding their elements across largely empty space the options available for how the two cloud fronts hit and coalesce to form the 'disk' are pretty numerous. When and how quickly the star starts burning and blows the small things away from the forming jovian sized planet opens up a whole new bag of possibilities.

When we have a better view of what other planets there are in these systems then we can start to guess whether they danced around each other.

Every planetary system found these days seems to kick another sigma out a noticeable amount.