* Posts by Paul_Murphy

707 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Sep 2009

Page:

RAF's new military airlifter finally lumbers into the air

Paul_Murphy

How sad,

We used to be right at the forefront of aircraft design (TSR2/SR177 and oh so many others) not to mention other forms of transport (hovercraft) and though there were plenty of gaffs (the Lightnings' endurance) it wasn't until the USA pulled the 'it will all be done by missiles' line that the government of the day decided to kill off the British aviation industry.

This half-arsed mucking around approach is even worse - either we develop our own stuff entirely, or we buy from over seas, trying to do both at the same time is madness.

Right - time for a coffee.

ttfn

Congressmen steam over Wikileaks TSA breach

Paul_Murphy

Because we all know that hiding the truth is best.

And anyone that disagrees is to be attacked.

How about actually developing a system that, even with all the details publicly available, worked?

Or is that too big a step?

Or is it 'better' to shout about putting systems into place that everyone (that handles them) knows don't do the job.

Maybe it's just the Americans being their usual cold-war induced paranoid selves - though to be fair I suspect that politicians in most countries would much prefer that secrets don't leak out, though my argument would be why is it secret in the first place?

In this case if the security machines can't do certain things, then put up posters explaining the fact that the security chaps and chapesses will be probing you in places that only your doctor normally sees (and why you need to be at the airport two hours before your flight should leave).

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National space agency for Blighty, says Drayson

Paul_Murphy

Hmm, if they are not going to be serious...

Space Command Uk (SCuK - just think french connection uk) could use a Britain And Dependancies Geosyncronous Energetic Rocket to achieve Orbit Related Geosyncronous Activities Space Manoeveurs.

Sorry - quiet at work ATM.

Aren't we like 30 years too late to try and drag the UK back into taking space seriously? and I would say that now is not a good time to be thinking about new projects to get the UK into more debt.

It doesn't look like I'll be living on the moon anytime soon.

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/7690/20091203backinmyday.png

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Music industry website debut turns into a mosh pit

Paul_Murphy
Paris Hilton

Sorry - clarification please.

>upgraded from IIS 6 to IIS 7 on Wednesday

As in the 9th? ie yesterday?

Who would do that? change something like the IIS version the day before it goes live? How much testing did they manage to get in before the 'big red switch' (tm) was err, switched?

Madness.

Meanwhile - where's the PH angle?

ttfn

Revolutionary triangular-key keypad out on Android

Paul_Murphy

Is there a demo?

It would be good to try it out first, before parting with money.

ttfn

Tory peers to protect kids from anuses

Paul_Murphy
Paris Hilton

How is this ever going to work?

The scope of possibilites available to a games/graphic designer means that if they want to do something 'suggestive' they will find a way.

Aside from that what's the problem with basic biological functions, or will it be illegal to piss and poo? let alone other bodily functions..

This does not sound like an adult discussion, but more like some school kids who have been sniggering when someone said 'willy'.

This is just sillly and seems like an excuse to watse a lot of peoples time.

ttfn

So, no PH in cartoon form then? just the real thing?

Bonuses all round for failing Border Agency

Paul_Murphy
Paris Hilton

Sounds as though it's all going to plan.

It's just a question of whose plan is it..

Though does the maths work out?

Deported (14% of 220,000) 30,800

Can stay (34% of 220,000) 74,800

Duplicates 4,000

Errors 88,500

EU 8,500

Total 206,600

Leaves (220,000 - 206,600) 13,400

or a little over 5%

Or am I incorrectly interpreting the figures given?

ttfn

PH - cos of her figure, not much wrong there.

Stanford prof pops lid on paint-on battery tech

Paul_Murphy
Paris Hilton

I guess it's all about the surface area.

Just like black-powder.

The smaller the particle the quicker to discharge, and charge, though overall capacity may be the same it doesn't last as long.

Sounds good, especially interesting is the places where this can be applied when compared with a normal battery.

Though I find it hard to believe that the description of 'one-dimension' can be taken seriously.

ttfn

PH - cos her personality's more likely to be one dimensional, though her physical side is clearly operating in all 4 (easily) observable dimensions.

Walking With Dinosaurs star goes walkabout

Paul_Murphy
Flame

Arroyo concluded: "Only in Mexico..."

That sounds like a challenge.. when are they coming to the UK?

I guess it would be a little after not getting into America due to dinosaurs conflicting with the bible, or of the potential terrorist threat that dinosaurs might cause there.

ttfn

flame on!

Muswell Hillbillies force BT to move broadband boxes

Paul_Murphy
Coat

Could BT subcontract the work.

To Virgin?

Cable would be faster, probably cheaper to install and less intrusive.

I'll get my coat.

ttfn

2009's Top Android Smartphones

Paul_Murphy
Paris Hilton

The only problem with the Hero

Is the battery life, it could do with a larger battery is all.

Oh, and to be supplied with noise-cancelling bluetooth headphones with a microphone in.

:-)

PH - cos while I'm dreaming..

ttfn

Beeb iPlayer blocked by Xbox velvet rope

Paul_Murphy

Where do you want to go today?

Where ever it is, it won't be on the Xbox.

Well done MS - way to raise your profile.

ttfn

EA exec punts 96,000rpm e-car engine

Paul_Murphy

So that's one jet engine...

How many more before it can fly?

Seriously good idea though, especially the range of fuels it can use (petrol and diesel as well I would hope) so pretty flexible.

Now all it needs is a useful bodyshell - and estate for instance.

ttfn

Vetting database is mighty maths mess

Paul_Murphy

I would say that having one person was too many.

I can see that keeping track of undesirables is a good thing, and identifying 'bad' people quickly is a good thing, but why is treating everyone else like a potential criminal the solution?

You can imagine the scenario where everyone has to be vetted 'just in case' being put forward, and they will be wanting people to pay for that as well (ka-ching!) I expect, after all if you have nothing to hide....

I don't suppose I'll be the only one decrying the governments approach to our 'safety'.

I wonder how many people remember the case of the portsmouth nursery abuse? - where the staff had already passed a vetting check. The point being is what use is vetting anyway? rather than assuming people are Ok because they have passed a test, why not give up on testing and just make sure that people are aware of what to look for in suspicious behaviour and allow our current laws to be used, rather than inventing new laws and regulations..

ttfn

Should you lose your religion on your CV?

Paul_Murphy

My advice would be to use a covering letter:

Use the CV as a sales document, put in items that are specifically about your ability to do the job, your education, hobbies and experiences and at the end give your name and telephone number/email as a contact point.

On an accompanying covering letter you can put things such as your full address, other areas of your personality that you feel important (disability, religion etc. etc.) which you can put forward in a non-CV way, perhaps with more explanatory text than you would on a CV (i.e. 'As part of my social group we take OAPs to Lourdes' or whatever ).

The point being that you can still inform a prospective employer about further aspects of your personality without appearing to be obsessed by them.

I personally would see religion on the CV as mildly suspicious, since I don't see it as relevant to the job, so why mention it as a discrete item.

Hope this helps.

ttfn

Google Phone: What's it gonna be?

Paul_Murphy

What about asking (potential) customers?

After all people must have some ideas on what they want their handhelds to do:

Browse web - Large touchscreen to browse, but not too large to make a phone 'brick',

listen to music - 3.5mm headphone socket,

store stuff - micro-sd card for data, music and books,

connect - wifi,

maps - AGPS,

also:

bluetooth (to handle stereo (noise-cancelling if anyone does them) headphones),

able to switch between connection systems (phone, wifi whatever) to stay connected,

Loads of apps,

I would also like to plug in my PAYG mobile broadband usb stick and use that as well - but that's probably not going to happen.

I'm sure there is more, but I'm getting bored.

ttfn

LHC smashes Tevatron record: Humanity enters the unknown

Paul_Murphy

Can't wait.

On holiday over christmas, so plenty of time to prepare for invading monsters and the like.

Be a bit of a bummer if micro black holes start rampaging around the planet though.

I was going to use the PH thumb and mention something about black holes, but thought better of it.

ttfn

Pitchfork-wielding mobs encircle smart meters

Paul_Murphy

Maybe the old meters were inaccurate?

Just a thought.

After all it's not like the americans to make unwarranted claims or anything.

ttfn

Pentagon world-sim tool making good progress, say profs

Paul_Murphy

If its anything like The Sims

It won't be long until the profs put people into rooms with no doors and a single fireplace.

Will the yanks also want a torture (sorry non-torture)/water-boarding section, just so thay can work out the best, err most effective means of torturing people.

Won't somebody think of the sub-routines?

This reminds me of the original Star Trek series, where computers fought the wars and people were told when to report to the killing booths so the was simulation was kept accurate.

Sigh - welcome to the future everyone.

ttfn

Facebook swipes user's vanity URL

Paul_Murphy

So we should register our nick-names as domains?

I guess he could register 'http://www.squaresheep.co.uk/' - oops, no he can't that seems to have been taken already, though it's not being used.

I don't use facebook anymore since it's pretty much a complete waste of time, but this sort of autocratic behaviour needs to be challenged.

I wonder if our David could challenge the gym people for using his name? how long have they been around?

hmm 'was formed on the 1st January 2008 following the acquisition of David Lloyd Leisure Ltd' from their website, so our David might have a good basis for that.

ttfn

'Alien spies live among us' says Bulgarian gov space boffin

Paul_Murphy

Gang probing is Ok as long as your name is Flanders.

Nice to see that some foreigners can be eccentric then, I was beginning to worry that it was a Labour spokesperson.

So why are crop circles the method of choice for intra-species communication? what's wrong with a piece of paper, or maybe an etch-a-sketch?

And if they were that annoyed by our behaviour then how come we are still alive (or they are still here)? Oh wait is it like one of those religion-things where people are supposed to believe what you say without asking awkward questions?

They don't make aliens the way they used to.

ttfn

London's stock exchange crashes again

Paul_Murphy

So does that mean.

That the overpaid winkers have to give some of their stupidendous bonuses back or something?

ttfn

Google flirts with new-look home page

Paul_Murphy

Not impressed.

It's starting to look messy.

If they want a side bar then integregrate the top selections into it (web, image video etc.) and make an effort to present the information usefully.

I'm stating to wonder how much like Microsoft they are becoming - does producing an OS do this to people?

Stick to clean display and present the information people want - too much stuff going on makes it confusing.

ttfn

Eat frozen food and avoid line-caught fish, says eco study

Paul_Murphy

A lot to think about here.

How to fish sustainably, how to stop illegal fishing, how to have good/ healthy (enough) fish to eat.

I would suggest that:

we invest heavily in fish farms,

we should stop sea fishing entirely, for 10 or 20 years at least, and allow stocks to recover.

any ship caught with lines, nets or non-personal fishing equipment at sea is either sunk or scrapped,

everyone gets used to eating salmon or other farmed fish - unless they catch it themselves legally, and if they don't like it then they can shut up.

Is there any other stategy that will allow a sustainable population of fish in, say, 100 years time?

From what I have read it would seem that if something drastic is not done (and enforced) pretty soon then our childrens' children won't know what a fish is.

Everything else seems to be just delaying the inevitable.

just my thoughts.

ttfn

NASA plans robot rocket aeroplane to fly above Mars

Paul_Murphy

What about a balloon?

Wouldn't a balloon be a better idea?

cruise for ages for very little power,

adjustable height,

slow enough to do some really detailed scans, and

packing a big bag is going to be a lot easier than wings that need to unfold and lock at high speeds.

I would imagine that a 'mars' propellor would have to be quite big, and as a result the torque would try and twist the aircraft around, so I can see why a jet would be more useful.

I also wonder if any consideration to hang-gliders has been given since a hang-glider could be packed really easily, give lots of low-speed lift, be nice and strong and pretty easy to control.

ttfn

Fusion-io whips out fast gov-grade ioDrive

Paul_Murphy
Unhappy

umm how much?

I guess, since I need to ask, I won't be getting one for Christmas.. :-(

O/S bloat: What's the cure?

Paul_Murphy
Linux

Can't see that happening with windows.

Just think of all that licensing money that won't need to be spent - won't someone please think of the MS shareholders?

So maybe Linux will be able to use this as the killer app - one copy of Linux sitting on a server, with multiple thin client apps accessing just the bits they need to work, rather than having a complete O/S each.

Since most of the O/S needs to be read-only I can't see how viruses etc will get a hold, and of course the O/S and apps will be virtual as well, so can be easily deleted and restarted.

The only issue with that would be any hanging apps that now don't have an O/S to use, but maybe some of the web apps technology that caches info could be used.

Maybe I should start a business to produce a linux-based O/S on a chip, maybe with a client version and apps available to use embedded in there as well.

hmmm

interesting times.

ttfn

US monster-truck roboguns to blast enemies autonomously

Paul_Murphy

Quiet day Lewis?

"the leather-clad motorcycling lone wolf your mother forbids you to have anything to do with of the metaphorical boffinry-bureau-boyfriend community."

I'm sure that these sayings don't fall out of crackers, and if they do then you are rather early.

ttfn

New 'reversible' paralysis-ray turns victims blue, flaccid

Paul_Murphy
Paris Hilton

Yes but,

Agatha and her 'boyfriends' (snigger) turn many different colours (even with patterns) and stay very mobile, so not quite the same thing.

ttfn

PH - cos on some occasions she turns green.

T-Mobile coughs to data theft

Paul_Murphy

I would argue..

>impact far beyond its real importance

That allowing this selling of customers details can't just be let go with a shrug of the shoulders.

Any release of personal information can potentially be used by others to pretend they are you, or to contact you and show that they must be an authorised person (since how else could they know this info?) thereby increasing the chances of successful social engineering.

What's the point of me shredding all the envelopes and pre-filled in forms that I get sent, only for my mobile phone provider (in this instance) from selling that same info on?

It's not even as though they are giving me a discount on the phone or contract because of the additional income they will be getting from their unauthorised use of my data.

ttfn

V-22 Osprey, stealth jumpjet 'need refrigerated landing pads'

Paul_Murphy

Surely not this simple.

Pump water (from the sea) filter out the divers and fish, send the water through a metal heat-exchanger seperated form the deck by a centimeter or so, and the gap can also have water sprayed in there I guess.

Why re-frigerate? that will cause the metal to buckle as well I would have thought.

Of course having a proper armoured deck would also do the trick, but who does that any more?

ttfn

UK.gov hoovers up data on five-year-olds

Paul_Murphy

I can see where this is coming from.

Who can see where it's going?

It seems to be the governments position that people are guilty by default, they just need to find out what for.. this seems to be fitting into that ethos quite neatly.

By the time the last survivor of the second world war dies will we be living in Hitlers Britain?

>They further added that the data would only be provided in anonymised form to third parties

Who/what are these third parties I wonder? government departments? social services? it's just one aspect of this distasteful activity which is ringing alarm bells.

Still - it's can't get worse can it?

The biggest flash drive in the world

Paul_Murphy

hmmm

>What else would need such an extreme of SSD design?

need <> want, and I suspect that it's a want, which someone has disguised as a need as in 'we don't want the terry-wrists getting hold of this technology first!'.

sigh..

ttfn

Taiwanese online hunk lures 20 women into bed

Paul_Murphy

But how is his cancer?

Cured right?

Honestly, how gullible can some people be?

ttfn

Activision leaps into Modern Warfare 2 sales figure fight

Paul_Murphy
Paris Hilton

@Tom 15

>No one uses lean anyway... they could easily incorporate lean into consoles if they wanted to.

Would be nice to have the choice,

>I've never played a good game of COD4 with more than 8 or so per team. People only play more players to XP whore.

I would say that you can have very good games with 40 or more people (I have on the previous versions to this; CoD:WaW) on many occasions and, again, it would be nice to choose, rather than such an arbitary limit being imposed.

>Whilst no LAN is slightly annoying,

Umm ok.... see my last response

>it is true that 90% of LAN games are using pirated copies.

I would challenge that since it's certainly not the case in my experience. The few occasions when someone at a LAN I have been to has not had the game someone would lend them their disk for that session only.

It is also a very good way of advertising games to those people that may not have bought them, or wanted to try them before buying.

In the past some games would allow many copies to be played from one master disk on a network, I'm sure it got many more copies of the game sold than enforcing the need for a disk in each computer.

>if you have real copies there's no reason it won't seem like an authentic LAN?

The only way that people can play this game at a LAN is for there to be an internet connection so that everyone can get authenticated on an internet machine. For a LAN of, say, 50 people sharing a 2Mb connection it means everyone will be running very slowly.

It also means that the publisher can start charging for access to internet servers.

ttfn

PH - cos she like bending over and taking it as well.

Paul_Murphy

What about the returns - do they count?

When people find out:

PC version has no 'lean' function due to the dumbing down for the consoles,

Max 9vs9 in multiplayer mode, compared with over 20vs20 on other games,

No PC dedicated server so people can run the game at a LAN,

That's when my interest in the game ran out.

So, will the returns count as sales still I wonder?

ttfn

Docs press for probe into 'designer vaginas'

Paul_Murphy
Paris Hilton

Well that's this afternoons activity sorted out.

I'm off to increase my understanding and awareness of said items, I knew if I hung around long enough a justifcation for this would appear - thanks.

PH cos there's the question of whether hers is her own or not.

NASA: the world will not end in 2012

Paul_Murphy

Excuse for a party.

I think we should have an annual 'end of the world' party in, say July (since there's not much else happening then) where we all celebrate the end of the world in 364.25 days. If for some bizarre reason we're all still around then we get another party yey!

I wonder if the world/universe really cares about the human-insipired concept of time? I suspect not.

The LHC is probably the only thing that would stand a chance of doing something like that simply because we cannot know exactly what might happen - after all if planet X is in another dimension which gets pulled into our continuum, then the planet pops into existence inside our planet, and that will be fun for lots of people.

ttfn

H Ross Perot Jr fails to grab rhino by the horns

Paul_Murphy

'I've paid for it and I want it'

Ready for the foot stamping everyone?

Tough luck you selfish idiot, with far too much (of daddys) money and no sense, let alone morals.

Why couldn't the Somalis have kidnapped him?

ttfn

'Something may come through' dimensional 'doors' at LHC

Paul_Murphy

Hmm - a distracting thought...

'My god - it's full of boobies!'

Of course we will be wanting pictures, or maybe playmobile?

ttfn

Is this the world's dirtiest PC?

Paul_Murphy

Let me guess.

Home of a smoker and computer kept on floor?

No pets though by the looks of things.

ttfn

Sony Reader PRS-600 Touch Edition

Paul_Murphy

Well Tony...

For starters how many £1 books can you carry at the same time?

How much space would they take up compared with the electronic versions, which could also be stored on other devices.

How many trees must die for you Tony?*

I have, probably, a couple of thousand books at home, on all sorts of subjects, reference to fiction. I'm guessing that around a third of those would translate into good ebooks - the reference works wouldn't certainly.

It would be nice to have those on a single device, so that I could find the book I wanted easily, or even search the whole lot to find the book that I remember a little bit about - something that would be tedious in paper world.

There are a lot of reasons why a good ebook reader is a serious investment, especially when you consider how many books you can carry around at the same time - if 512Mb translates to 350 books, then a 16Gb SD card (under £20 at Amazon) would equate to over 11,000 books.

Have I convinced you of why people might be interested?

ttfn

*not a serious question really, but I suppose there is a point there as well.

Dell details 'world's thinnest' laptop

Paul_Murphy
Paris Hilton

Still not thin enough.

I want a laptop to be as thin as paper, so that I can fold it and then roll it up to put it into my pocket. Also solar powered, and be able to detect my finger/thumb print when I pinch a corner so I don't need to log on with a keyboard.

And transparant.

and in my Christmas stocking please.

ttfn

PH - while I'm on a roll I might as well ask for her as well.

BAE mounts the Last Charge of the Light Cavalry

Paul_Murphy

@Gavin

Your quite correct - I forgot myself in the excitement of visualising 'Tommy Atkins' bouncing around the battlefield avoiding IEDs and rogue policemen.

If I recall correctly Forever War had similar suits, but were always out date, and prone to lopping off limbs.

Of course i could always be mistaken.

Where's the 'where's my flying car?' icon?

ttfn

Paul_Murphy

Of course...

What we really want are fast and mobile armoured power-suits, with jet packs.(Forever War by Heinlein)

or Gigantic armoured robots (MechWarrior)

Knife missiles (Banks) might be a little too much of course.

And lets not talk about EE 'Doc' Smith eh? no-one wants planets travlling at light-speed to be used as a weapon, though I guess BAE would like the contract.

ttfn

Hacker charged in $1m cable ISP customer cloning scheme

Paul_Murphy
Coat

I needed to spoof a mac address

When I first installed a firewall/router for my network.

Since NTL had previously stored my PC's registered mac with their servers to prove I was who I said I was I needed to get my firewall to spoof my PC's mac.

At least I was using my own mac, so no harm done.

If matey-boy there had set up account, and then used that for his customers mac addresses I wonder what would have happened, it's the using of other peoples that will be the problem.

mines the mac.....

ttfn

Aspiring model pleasures Taoist master

Paul_Murphy

Umm speechless

Good thing I can type then I guess.

Does this count as an evolutionary advantage? being able to con women to have s*x with you? If so then maybe a defense of 'my genes told me to do it' might work.

Then again does getting such a dim-witted woman to have s*x with you count? I'm getting confused now.

ttfn

Chronically ill people 'happier if they abandon hope', say docs

Paul_Murphy

What's wrong with the truth?

As title ..

Can't see why lying or 'sugar-coating' things will help in any way - unless the liee (?) is particularly gullible.

It could also lead to patients popping by every week to see if their colon is ready yet.

ttfn

Agincourt: The sensational truth

Paul_Murphy

Additional info

Just found this helpful and TOTALLY* accurate source.

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Agincourt

* for a given value of totally

Paul_Murphy

Wow - so history is interesting after all..

And there I was thinking it was boring, when all along all it needed was playmobile and rupert.

So what about the baggage train and the Genoese crossbowmen? not to mention the french foot-soldiers... oh well, I'm sure they will al make their appearance at some point or another in this moving re-enactment.

Tea break :-)

And I suppose the surfeit of messengers is because of the messenger unions' struggle against modernisation, thus leading to outmoded duplication of effort and redundant personnel? or maybe the're just friends.

ttfn

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