* Posts by Stoneshop

5951 publicly visible posts • joined 8 Oct 2009

Donald Trump promises 'such trouble' for Jeff Bezos and Amazon

Stoneshop

And people say Americans don't do irony.

Not since they invented self-ironing shirts, anyway.

Toaster cooks network and burns 'expert' user's credibility to a crisp

Stoneshop

Re: Sparky's Magic Fusebox

With point to point and the upstream RCD having a higher trip current than the downstream ones,

The codes I know don't allow cascaded RCD's; it's either an RCD with a group of plain circuit breakers downstream (here in .nl it's four maximum, ISTR it used to be six), or a combi RCD/CB per circuit.

Reminder: How to get a grip on your files, data that Windows 10 phones home to Microsoft

Stoneshop
Holmes

Re: Missing option?

There are four telemetry settings: "On", "On", "On" and On".

ITYM "On", "More On"*, "Even More More On" and "Extra Special More On"

* Space and pronunciation thereof entirely optional

'I bet Russian hackers weren't expecting their target to suck so epically hard as this'

Stoneshop

Re: Here's a signed/unsigned type conversion that got me the other day.

(Mods, is there any way to keep the indentations in code snippets?)

< code > and </ code > should do that, but the spaces (or tabs) still get eaten by the Comment Space Eater:

double heightmap[125];

for ( unsigned int i = 0; i < 125; i++ )

{

heightmap[i] = 0;

double xpos = i - 25;

unsigned int listsize = list.size();

for ( unsigned int j = 0; j < listsize; j++ )

{

if ( abs( xpos - list[j].X ) < 0.5 )

{

if ( list[j].Y > heightmap[i] ) heightmap[i] = list[j].Y;

}

}

}

Black Monday: Office 365 down and out in Europe

Stoneshop
Headmaster

Re: Any surprise?

Where?

Stoneshop

Re: Don't worry

"five nines is just a recommended uptime level."

MS: "Huh? Oops! We thought it was nine fives!"

Office nine-to-five (in a timezone that does not have this interval overlapping with your working hours).

And it was not only email that was out, you lying Putrid Relation twonks at MS. Unless you define the rest of Office to be email too.

Mañana: Nokia’s in no hurry to go back to phones

Stoneshop
Coat

Re: Manaña

They're in Barfelona, they know naaaathink.

NASA stormed by 18,000 wannabe 'nauts

Stoneshop
Go

Selection

"The most promising from this deluge of candidates will be invited for the next round of interviews and skills appraisal at the ISS in two months time"

Solution to tech bros' disgust of SF homeless people launched

Stoneshop

Re: Marketed under the Joo Janta brand name, no doubt?

The next thing that will happen is Joo Janta Inc. being sued for patent and IP infringement once these guys get their wormhole tech working.

Stoneshop
Devil

Re: Ah that's sweet

The next version will also allow the tech bros to blank out women in meetings.

They already do so, without AR. But maybe it would free up the brainpower occupied with blanking out women so they have more available to think up stuff like this.

China wants to bring home moon rocks in moon vacuum

Stoneshop
Boffin

Re: How do they get the vacuum in there?

The absolute best vacuum pumps on the planet still can't pull anything as good as the partial pressure you find up at ISS level, let alone what's found on the moon.

So, can't they run a hose up to the ISS, to pipe the vacuum down to your facilities?

Q: How many guns to arm nine coachloads of terrorists?

Stoneshop

Re: Nah!

That's actually pretty civilised.

Try riding a bus in the backwoods of Mexico or Colombia (would probably apply to all of Middle and South America, but these I know from experience). But then you need to add a conversion factor from pigs, chickens and other livestock to passengers annex terrrrists..

Brits unveil 'revolutionary' hydrogen-powered car

Stoneshop

Re: Supercapacitors - "No battery. ..plus supercapacitors"

(rockets don't have to travel on bumpy roads, or be reliable for 160000km).

Hmm. I suspect the forces on a rocket (and its payload) during launch are well beyond what a Volvo is subjected to, hurtling down an potholed öljegrus road in northern Scandinavia. And reliable? You can't pull over with a spaceship and call roadside assistance if the engine goes phut.

Stoneshop
Facepalm

Re: Sounds great !

Once upon a time that was a standard size for a car.

I can't readily find the car's dimensions on their site, but once upon the time you refer to, cars that size had four seats while some even managed six (Fiat 600 Multipla), not two.

El Reg blows chow down at Justretch.com

Stoneshop
Go

[citation needed]

Penisland.com was/is a prank.

A shufti with whois against whorepresents.com returns

Registrant Name: LEVERAGE COMMUNICATIONS

Registrant Organization: WHO REPRESENTS INC.

so that's likely to be real, and the joss song and whalesmoke whiff emanating from the registrant name makes me think they themselves are blissfully unaware of the alternate interpretation.

The others you can investigate the same way, and decide for yourself.

Triple-murderer prisoner keeps mobile phone in his butt for a week

Stoneshop
Facepalm

Re: Semi sensible question

Because staff want to be able to make calls?

And this can't be done with POTS?

New NASA theory: Moon radiation drops so HULK RIP MOON LIKE SHIRT

Stoneshop
Boffin

Re: Same old NASA

A not quite spherical iceberg of not quite uniform density (probably).

China 'evacuates' 9,000 around monster radio 'scope

Stoneshop

worlds biggest Wok

Why don't they build an array using a beeeellion standard woks?

Stoneshop

Re: how many bottles of wine fit in a double decker bus

$ units

Currency exchange rates from www.timegenie.com on 2014-04-02

2890 units, 109 prefixes, 79 nonlinear units

You have: 7e9*5*0.7 l

You want: funbag

* 1.430931e+10

/ 6.9884571e-11

You have: 7e9*5*0.7 l

You want: pool

* 9788.7715

/ 0.00010215787

You have: 7e9*5*0.7 l

You want: grapefruit

* 4.6791444e+10

/ 2.1371429e-11

You have: 7e9*5*0.7 l

You want: pinch

* 7.84e+13

/ 1.2755102e-14

You have:

Good thing this dev quit. I'd have fired him. Out of a cannon. Into the sun

Stoneshop
Windows

Re: I am allergic to VB6

I never understood wtf was ON ERROR ... RESUME stuff was all about.

It was meant as a message for the maintainers: ON ERROR UPDATE RESUME, but MS found they lost too many programmers that way.

Stoneshop
Mushroom

"and give him a piece of my mind"

Sorry, no. Or rather, hell no. My mind is mine, and it's not yours to think with*.

And yes, I had someone expelled from the place where I was contracting for trying to use my mind for doing her thinking.

* yes, I know what the expression is meant to convey.

Ordnance Survey unfolds handy Mars map

Stoneshop

Next step

Uploading it to Curiosity's satnav system.

Virgin Atlantic co-pilot dazzled by laser

Stoneshop

Re: One way mirrors

I have just written to Airbus and Boeing suggesting they replace Windows

Most of the stuff in the cockpit nowadays is either based on Linux, or embedded. But it was a useful suggestion anyway.

When asked 'What's a .CNT file?' there's a polite way to answer

Stoneshop
FAIL

Re: cd trays

But my recollection is that 5.25 in floppy drives were history long before CD drives were introduced

Your recollection is wrong.

Send tortuous stand-up ‘nine-thirty’ meetings back to the dark ages

Stoneshop

Re: RE an unlamented fragment of my past

"where do you want to be in 5 years"

On a motorcycle, probably somewhere in Africa.

Caused brain sprain with the interviewer.

Stoneshop

Re: RE an unlamented fragment of my past

didn't have the heart to tell him that my last interview was half an hour

Half an hour? The shortest one was two questions, maybe a minute: "Can you start tomorrow, and are you always wearing those silly clothes?". Both were answered in the negative; because it was only the next Monday that I could start, and I don't wear interview clothes except at interviews, and only when pressed.

Microsoft quits giving us the silent treatment on Windows 10 updates

Stoneshop
Big Brother

And now they can retroactively re-word an upgrade

"Anyone upset with Microsoft's pushy attitude with forced Windows 10 upgrades and mysterious data slurping will assume any and all nefarious changes are omitted from the feature lists – or are disguised as innocent-looking tweaks."

Descriptions on a website can be easily changed or even removed.

"This patch has always been at peace with your system."

FTDI boss hits out at 'Chinese criminal gang' pumping knock-off chips

Stoneshop
FAIL

Re: Not much sympathy

Suppose a web site only supported IE and your Mozilla browser "stole" Microsoft's agent string and claimed it was IE?

And who exactly would that inconvenience? Microsoft? Nope. Mozilla? Not at all. The web site's operator? Maybe, if he was inundated by support calls: "Your site doesn't work right. Oh, I'm not using a real IE, but Mozilla set to claim it's IE" that he doesn't reject out of hand, and probably offset by a larger number of visitors. And a visitor is quite likely more inconvenienced by being forced to use a particular browser, than having the browser fake its identity.

So, wrong analogy.

Stoneshop
Pirate

I have no idea what is technically possible, but actually popping up a warning when the device driver is loaded would be (IMO) the best way. I'm guessing that isn't possible.

With headless systems the driver could register its complaint with the system logger, but with embedded controllers you may not even have that option.

Don't you see these simple facts? Destroy Facebook and restore human Liberty

Stoneshop
Mushroom

Re: Rant?

I'd punch him in the back of the head, then in the front.

I'd punch him in the back of the head, from the front.

Security? We haven't heard of it, says hacker magnet VTech

Stoneshop
Devil

Correction

"YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT ANY INFORMATION YOU SEND OR RECEIVE DURING YOUR USE OF THE SITE MAY NOT BE IS NOT SECURE AND MAY BE WILL BE INTERCEPTED OR AND NOT THAT MUCH LATER ACQUIRED AND PUT TO USE BY UNAUTHORIZED PARTIES"

Stoneshop
Devil

Re: Who manages their legal team?

D & D Piranha Bros., Esq

Drone-busting eagles to darken Blighty's skies?

Stoneshop
Black Helicopters

Re: Security Theatre

<Sam the Eagle>I am appalled, truly appalled by this so-called Security Theater. It is not secure, and it is certainly not Theater. Neither is the Muppet Show, if I may be so bold to say so. Anyway, this abhorrent invasion of the skies by mechanical playthings, endangering us, must stop. And calling on us, the eagles, or our esteemed colleagues, the vultures, to rid the skies of this litter, is demeaning. Demeaning, I say. Let people clean up after themselves as they should and let them involve in wholesome activities such as baking apple pie.</Sam the Eagle>

(Swedish Chef enters and starts flying a drone which neatly cuts apples out of an apple tree, peeling and slicing them in the process. Sam covers his eyes)

Remember Netbooks? Windows 10 makes them good again!

Stoneshop

Re: USB - - > Serial

6551, 8250, 16450, 16550 and more, young grasshopper.

Stoneshop
Facepalm

but I don't go about recommending Slackware to everybody.

Why not?

Stoneshop

Re: Netbooks had one good use

- All the essential ports, inc. serial

Hmm. Never seen a netbook that had a built-in serial port. Even the Thinkpad X series (not a netbook, but nicely portable) of which I've had a few didn't have one, only when slapping the Ultrabase on.

Stoneshop

Re: The facts!

NC10 + Mint Mate works fine.

Norks uses ballistic missile to launch silent 'satellite'

Stoneshop
Flame

Kimchee power

I highly doubt that the Norks have the brainpower, not to mention the resources, to do it on their lonesome.

Orbit degrades, kimchee heats up due to air resistance, kimchee starts emitting fermentation gases, fermentation vessel lid opens (by divine intervention from the Eternal Leader, its exhaust is directed to correct the satellite's orbit), altitude is restored. At the same time, any nearby capitalist-imperialist running dog satellites are corroded beyond repair by the fumes.

Stoneshop
Headmaster

Re: Uh, oh. Enemy du jour detected, closing fast!

Also, Samantha Powers bleeding publicly

Better get out the first aid kit then

Stoneshop
Pint

Thermostat nukular device

"South Korea says the North is already preparing its nest nuclear test."

So, they will be hacking these things and setting them all to several thousand degrees?

(no coat please, it's much too warm already)

What's it like to work for a genius and Olympic archer who's mates with Richard Branson?

Stoneshop
Boffin

Re: @AC (was: Cray in the barn?)

The hog barn is about 100 yards down wind from all human habitation.

So, on wheels on a circular track. Nifty.

Head transplant candidate sells souvenirs to fund operation

Stoneshop

his brain will be a tad unhappy about being exposed to a situation that it simply cannot process

I don't think so. His brain (i.e. him) is totally aware of what's going to happen to it, and probably envisage several scenarios post-op, although it almost surely won't know how it all will turn out.

If he survives at all, the minimum outcome would be quadruplegic from the neck down, with whatever brain damage he incurred from the freezing. One step up may be like a stroke victim mixed with someone who's lost limbs: needing to retrain motor control and senses as well as phantom sensations. But I'm not a brain scientist in whatever way, shape or form.

Stoneshop

I'm sure some mad american rich bitch woman would pay a fortune to have a set of encapsulated genitals

fashioned into a dildo.

Which will then get used in a porn flick. (rule 34)

I love you. I will kill you! I want to make love to you: The evolution of AI in pop culture

Stoneshop
Coat

Re: "what it is that makes us human when computers and machines can educate themselves"

STR it got as far as inventing and trying to prove Goldbach's conjecture (every even number greater than two can be expressed as the sum of two prime numbers).

Did it manage deducing the existence of rice pudding and income tax ?

Stoneshop

Re: GLaDOS

Yep, he did gloss over fictional AIs from video games.

If with 'he' you're referring to the author, then you're demonstrating Natural Stupidity, especially with regard to parsing the author's name and correlating it to other articles she has written, some of which clearly reveal her gender.

Reminder: iPhones commit suicide if you repair them on the cheap

Stoneshop
FAIL

for all intensive purposes

That would be a Sonim, not an iPhone.

IoT lacking that je ne sais quoi? Try the IoTSP

Stoneshop
Go

So... the internet then?

Just what's left after the Internet of Cats.

Who would code a self-destruct feature into their own web browser? Oh, hello, Apple

Stoneshop
Devil

Re: The problem with Chrome

Google analytics is browser agnositc.[sic]

My hostsfile is too.

Why a detachable cabin probably won’t save your life in a plane crash

Stoneshop

Re: Really?

That one is a solved problem - you initially deploy a small drogue patachute which slows the payload and puts tension on the line ready to pull out the main chute.

I know that part is, the question was rather regarding how much height will the cabin have lost until the point where the speed has reduced to about where you can deploy the main chutes with the passengers being subjected to Gs that may be acceptable to the average non-jet-pilot person.

German Chancellor fires hydrogen plasma with the push of a button

Stoneshop

Re: Fusion works

Or, you could go outside and look at that really, really bright thing above you.

A street light?

There's a vague and distant memory of the thing you appear to refer to, but I may have to move back to 12°7′N 68°56′W to verify that.