Re: Years or revoltions around the Sun?
Are you perhaps thinking about the moon.
Posts by Lars
4260 publicly visible posts • joined 21 May 2007
Page:
Come off it, Moon, Earth. We know you're 60 million years older than we thought
Measure for measure: We visit the most applied-physicist-rich building in the UK
Thursday 12th June 2014 16:11 GMT 
Re: Just saying....
On the other hand it might be better to look less at history and more on today and the future. The Spitfire was important and a fine plane if not superior in any way. A short range plane and useless in supporting bombers over Germany, I think the Mustang (with a British engine) then solved that problem.
Women are too expensive to draw and code – Ubisoft
HP targets supercomputers with Project Apollo
Tuesday 10th June 2014 23:26 GMT
Re: What OS for Apollo
The logic to day, as Linux runs 96% of the top500 supercomputers, is that the OS is mentioned only if it is not Linux. The top50 are all Linux. The next "big" OS is Unix.
http://www.top500.org/
Under Statistics/List Statistics you find the graphs.
@Mark Honman you forgot to use the "Joke Alert" icon.
Everyone can and should learn to code? RUBBISH, says Torvalds
Tuesday 10th June 2014 15:55 GMT
Re: arehole
@Joefish, thanks, and I agree with the "expose", perhaps some will better understand "to be given an opportunity" or "to throwing shit against the wall and seeing what sticks". I think "In this, he differs with folks like Rohan Silva" is a bit unfair as I doubt Silva expects that everybody should or would become a programmer. I would expose kids to programming as early as possible. If you look at people who are world class, be it music or F1 or whatever quite a few where exposed as very young.
One story I find superb is about Blaise Pascal who as a kid with his class was forced, by his teacher, to add together all digits from 1 to 100 before going home. Pascal got it, wrote down 5050 and surprised his teacher. The way I like to look at it is that that task exposed him to logic, calculus in early years is not about logic but about how to do things. Also he was exposed to his teacher who took interest in him.
Evidence of ancient WORLD SMASHER planet Theia - FOUND ON MOON
Has Google gone too far? Indie labels say it's crunch time for The New Economy
Thursday 5th June 2014 18:54 GMT
Re: But the advantage of the modern age....
"the modern age..." is not about many small shops but about a few big ones. Equally "the advantage of the modern age." is about an advantage for the very few. Socialism and bailouts for the very rich and capitalism and a kick in the ass for the rest. Interesting though how Americans seem to understand that the "J" in the DoJ has disappeared and that the EU is possible more reliable.
China puts Windows 8 on TV, screams: 'SECURITY, GET IT OUT OF HERE!'
Thursday 5th June 2014 14:10 GMT
Re: You ignore China to your peril
@bigtimehustler, you are completely right, Microsoft decides about their source code, but you should also remember the fuss MS made about letting governments audit the source earlier.
As having spent many years programming in machine code or processor code if you like, I would like to point out that you cannot hide behind binary, it's all there to be studied. A tedious task yes, but doable. I still love machine code and the number of instructions I still remember from 1970 is amazing. Also in those years we used "line spies" to test and debug transmission protocols, so you cannot hide what a computer or say, a router, sends and receives either. Encrypted data would make that more difficult but I think you would still see where it's sent to.
Amazing never-seen-before photo of colourful hot young stars (Thanks Hubble)
Revealed: GCHQ's beyond top secret Middle Eastern internet spy base
Wednesday 4th June 2014 20:14 GMT
Re: September 11, 2001
"Most historians now accept". Most "historians" also accept that Kennedy was shot by Oswald or Oswald plus pal or Castro or US Cubans or Russia or the CIA or the FBI or Connally or the driver or Johnson or Nixon or his own brother or Warren or the mob or .... Must have forgotten some. just pick your historian.
Tuesday 3rd June 2014 14:59 GMT
Top secret
I remember Intel had the text "Top Secret" pre-printed on every sheet of paper in their copying machines (Inside Intel by Tim Jackson). Companies and Government will call as much as possible secret as they want to feel protected and very important. It would surprise me if governments around the world did not know all about the wiretapping by other Governments. What they might not want us to know is how much it costs and that they also spy on their own population. I suppose it would also be embarrassing if it came out that they knew very well that there where no WMDs in Iraq and that perhaps the only reason was that Iraq had started to do oil business in Euro. I suppose it would also be embarrassing if they know everything about the money held in tax heavens but are doing nothing about it as their own people are deeply involved.
In other words, no deep secrets where revealed nor by Snowden or the Register.
Amazon workers in Germany celebrate strike anniversary with ... ANOTHER STRIKE
Wednesday 4th June 2014 15:30 GMT
Re: Mystic Meg
"You're trying to connect two seperate things. Inflation is the average increase in the cost of living. Pay, as in salary, is the replacement cost of someone that can do the role to an acceptable standard. Increases in inflation don't logically bring about increases in pay."
Not all that separate when it's about your salary and your life. Nobody wants that, not the workers nor the unions not even the state. Nobody wants to increase the number of poor people in the population. Lets again remember this is about Amazon and not about IBM, MS, Google and similar who tend to pay well.
If people working for Amazon and the union they belong to think 2% is not good enough then who is to blame them, let them fight it out. A company unable to pay a decent salary should change or go bust. Americans, I think, look at unions in a different way than most Europeans (not sure about the Brits). I suppose the reason for that is that unions often where taken over by the mob in the USA. Or is that only propaganda. Unions representing the work force sit down to the table with those who represent the companies, well educated intelligent people. Some times the state will take part in the negotiation and eventually they will agree.
And as should be, they will concentrate more on the underpaid workers and their working conditions.
I was a programmer/systems analyst for 35 years. For 25 years my salary rose OK and most of us working in IT had no reason to belong to any union. When the depression stroke most people joined a union and I don't think we lost anything because of that. TopOnePercent, do we actually have anything to argue about.
Tuesday 3rd June 2014 12:14 GMT
Re: Mystic Meg
"Its not the 1970s anymore". So very true. As far as I understand the "middle class" in the USA earn less than their grandparents while the 1% earn more than ever. The rate of inflation in Germany in 2013 was very low at about 1.3% while the ECB 's target is just below 2%.
"But Berenberg economist Christian Schulz said: "We expect inflation in Germany to pass through a low in the spring and then slowly rise again towards the ECB 's target".
In other words a 2% pay rise is not much or nothing. If the inflation was say 2,5% and the pay rise 2% then it would be the American way and nothing to be proud about. You might side with the 1% but I bet you are nowhere close. Or you are just sarcastic.
Monday 2nd June 2014 21:47 GMT
Re: The final solution
I hope more under payed workers in the US went on strike, but as far as I have understood unions have more or less been killed off in the USA. In most European countries unions are an integrated part of the society and behave accordingly. On the whole I think they are needed and for the good of the society.
Came to think of it, is LIDL in Germany still the company paying the least for its workers.
As for Amazon Walmart and similar, they will never pay more than they are forced to. So apply some force.
Samsung in a TIZZY: OH PLEASE make apps for our Tizen Z mobe
Monday 2nd June 2014 21:01 GMT
Perhaps
As far as I understand they have to pay MS for using Android and depend on Google, and for using WinPhone they pay and depend on MS. Perhaps they want to become more independent. I cannot blame them. Personally my next will probably be a Jolla if my Nokia ever decides to die. As for the Apps, haven't got any, ignorance is a bliss I suppose, still the fart app caught my imagination.
What apps are people actually using.
USA! USA! ... Aw, screw it. Motorola to close Texas smartphone plant
Saturday 31st May 2014 18:28 GMT
Re: It is not Motorola's fault.
"Nokia concentrated on the larger world wide market", that is true but at the same time the mantra at Nokia was always that if a smartphone does not succeed in the USA then it will not succeed anywhere else either.
Perhaps that is true too, who knows.
However this was about Motorola moving the production abroad and Google selling the whole company to China. These moves has been going on for quite some time, and in the EU too. Multinationals have "no" homeland, money has no boarders. A multinational would be very happy if they had absolutely no homeland at all as they could then stop paying tax. Production is moved abroad because it will increase profit and because everybody else is doing it too. The downside is that the ability and technology to produce anything moves silently in the shadow too. That has already happened.
What annoys me is when some Americans are so vocal about China ripping them off, stealing and flooding the market with shit. That is a stupid smoke screen. You are destroyed from the inside no outside help is needed nor offered. To cheer you up look at this guy who has been so vocal about China and who wanted to become the President.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYoOPgeTMQc
Chinese guys study all around the globe, they are dedicated, industrious and set to succeed, and they don't spend half of their time in university on sports.
It's of course also true that the more international business and us becomes the less the chance for a world wide catastrophe. And do not mix in Russia or Russians into this, it's all about Putin and his immense ego, the fact that he has not yes shown his dick on the Internet is amazing, of course there could be some small reason for that.
London officials declare cabbie-bothering Uber is legal – for now
Friday 30th May 2014 11:05 GMT
Re: Taxi driver
@AC, I fully agree. My advice for a customer is to complain to the "head office". I have seen drivers suspended because of wrongdoing. I don't know what kind of receipt a London cab will give you but where I live everything about the car and the driver and the trip including phone numbers are on the receipt, and you should always demand one. I made my errors too, one of the most annoying was to hit the high way, by mistake, in the wrong direction, annoying because it takes a long time to correct. So what should a driver do then, I switch the taxi meter off and I admit the error and If necessary I change the fare down later. Normally you then leave the customer as "friends".
Most drivers accept that you tell them in advance what route you want to drive. Logically the response is then with the customer. Only that doesn't work every time either. Once there was a guy who gave very precise advice regarding the route in advance but then there was an accident ahead and we had to wait and wait, the taxi meter happily clicking ahead. Finally the guy told me I should have warned him as I was the expert. Go figure, or should I add stupidity hurts. And there was the old lady who got upset because I refused to take a one way road in the wrong direction and her clever route turned into a not so clever one. And there was a girl I took from the airport to home also very tight about the route. While she payed the fare, I told her, as the nice driver I am, that she should try an other route next time as she might save some 10% on the fare. Was she happy, no, I was a crook although she refused to give me her address in advance.
A rude and impolite driver is not any better than an impolite customer.
Driving a taxi is not for everybody, I have seen guys giving up in less than a week.
One thing that keeps astonishing me is when people wanting to get out of town stand on the wrong side of the street trying to stop cabs taking people out of town. The empty cabs are those returning to town on the other side of the street (late nights). Could it be that paying for the u turn feels too bad.
Thursday 29th May 2014 23:30 GMT
Taxi driver
I have followed this discussion about traditional taxi versus Uber and similar in GB and the USA.
But so far I haven't read even on comment written by a taxi driver. Having been one for some time I would like to tell you about it and you.
You piss and shit and vomit, you cut and steal, you cheat and rob and even kill. Sometimes the only way to deal with you is to call the police or other drivers for help. Sometimes several persons are needed just to get your fat body out of the cab. Now, of course, that is not all of you, but even as there are less than one bastard in one hundred a taxi driver will regularly have to deal with it. I have of course used cabs too in different countries but most if not all have been decent helpful and honest. It differs in different countries and towns. The worst to date was a mini buss driver in Egypt.
But let me continue with the “funny” guys among you. Taking customers at the airport will regularly reward a driver with the guy who tells you how far he came from and how very cheap it was. Next he wants to know how in the hell he has to pay so very much just to get into town. Stupidity hurts. So what do you say. All alone on a private plane, what a bargain. Or you should have gone with the crowd and take the public transportation, it's such a bargain too if you cannot afford a taxi.
Then there is the occasional representative of God who wonders if you believe in him. You can of course ask him which one he refers to or try with - Oh yes but I also believe in Father Christmas. I also remember a nice looking American lady I took to the airport who asked me if I believe in the “climate change”. I told her I find it more like a fact than a belief, next I had to listen to the “no change facts” all the way to the airport. Stupidity hurts. This might sound as if I am both rude and talkative, the sharpest weapon a taxi driver has is in fact silence when needed but sometimes there simply is to much shit in such a small space.
The reason for conflicts between a customer and the driver is more or less always the route and the fare.
If the fare is set in advance the driver has no logical reason to take the “poetic” scenic route unless of course it's the only one he knows or if in fact that rout happens to be the best or then he is fed up with guys who get upset when he takes the good route along roads the customer never knew existed.
I remember a guy who got aggressive because of the (good) route I took and told me he never never ever uses that route. I then asked him why he has an opinion about a route he never uses. Stupidity hurts. He was so upset that when we came to his home he demanded I would drive back to town and then back to his home along his route. If his route was cheaper then he would pay me nothing if not he would pay both and the trip back to town. He lost, and payed and his wife laughed and looked so damned happy I felt a bit sorry for him.
If the fare depends on a taxi meter then the logic is the same. Time is money as they say, There is absolutely no mathematical reason to extend the trip from A to B. If you want to make some money as a taxi you want to get your customer out as fast as possible, and find the next as fast as possible.
There are, I suppose, countries and towns where there simply is not enough customers for the cabs and that will increase the temptation for the scenic routes.
However, as a taxi you find that most people use the same familiar routes, home, work and so forth knowing hardly anything else about their town. And then there are those who normally use the public transportation and feel that it's the only route no matter how stupid it is.
I remember an old taxi driver who told me it's a rather funny profession because every customer is a better driver has a better car and knows all the routes better too.
In a way you could compare a town to a graph paper. You want to go from bottom left to top right but because of the squares you have to take on right then one up and so on. Or you can go all the way to the right corner and the right up. Or right up from the left corner and then all the way to the right. The distance is always the same although there are many different routes.
Theoretically the fastest routes are the ones along the edge of the paper. But the chicken brain sitting behind you will feel more uncomfortable because it feels like driving in the wrong direction for too long.
Any way too much text already, but let me add. As a taxi I had lots of interesting wonderful and decent customers. Still I wonder if there is any other profession where you meet the same amount of bastards and where you have to listen to the same amount of shit in such a small space alone.
Finally about Uber and similar. Driving a taxi was a profession once, a man and a cab, able to support him self and his family. Uber and similar are the McDonald's of the taxi profession, they will make a good profit, but they will have drivers as uninterested of having it as a profession as are people working at a Mac. It will be something you do for a while cheaply until you find something better.
If the old system does not change with the time they will loose.
And if you folks want to find out more about your town and its people do some time as a taxi.
Also dear Reg reader now is your chance to think about how you behave in a cab. Use a mirror.
Finally one of the positive surprises as a taxi was that young kids tend to behave better than adults.
China to become world's No 1 economy. And we still can't see why
Thursday 22nd May 2014 20:08 GMT
Re: "It can't happen to me!"
@Mike Smith. You explain what happened very well, but I have a feeling that England was never very good at manufacturing. You let the factories rust away and become old and dirty. I think that if you compared how your workshops looked like around 1960 to those in say Germany and Japan and why not Sweden you could see that clearly. BMW still make good bikes in modern factories. As for copying, I remember the British took a model train set to Japan. Japan then had their own railway system in 20 years. Still this copying thing is a bit silly. Mediterranean countries, Japan and China especially made ships long before the British. Do you fee like having copied (stolen) it. Hardly, nor is there any reason, because it would be silly.
As for China, I am not surprised at all. They will have their problems too. That reminds me that Jorma Ollila, the Nokia boss, once said that the next boss could very well be Chinese, that did not happen, a pity perhaps, on the other hand he is Indian to day and so is Nadella.
US negotiators in Singapore to unblock TPP negotiations
Tuesday 20th May 2014 21:01 GMT
Re: State Run Companies
"Private sector rob you blind, christ you're fucking mad, governments beat the private sector on that metric every time and in spades."
As far as I have understood John Major decided the privatisation of British Rail. If that was a good or not so good thing to happen, I have no opinion about, but why the hell should American companies have anything to say about matters like that. Why are matters like these pushed into a trade agreement. And why the hell should the EU accept it.
Tuesday 20th May 2014 13:24 GMT
Trade agreement
Why do they call it a trade agreement, why not a litigation agreement or "how to look at the world the right way" agreement. There is so much shit squeezed into it that serves only the few, the multinationals who want to get rid of all standards regarding quality.
There are those in the EU who keep talking about how much money it will give the EU but I really hope they will start to understand it's a Trojan horse disguised as a trade agreement.
Brits to vote: Which pressing scientific challenge should get £10m thrown at it?
Microsoft’s 'FIRST NOKIA' arrives at £89
Cisco reboots PC with $1500 'Scandafornian' Android fondleslab
Urinating teen polluted 57 Olympic-sized swimming pools - cops
ULA says to blame SpaceX for Russian rocket rebuff
Thursday 15th May 2014 02:10 GMT
Oh shit
Lets remember that this was all stared by Putin in Crimea. And then started this kids game by SpaceX about importing stuff from Russia, success for a while until not, and now the Russian will not sell unless and so forth. What a game. Perhaps there is something else of some importance the USA needs from Russia that should be pointed out by somebody like SpaceX, certainly there must be something to add to this kids game.
Comcast exec says wired broadband customers should pay-as-they-go
Thursday 15th May 2014 01:08 GMT
"People who use more should pay more and people who use less should pay less". I can see your point, sort of. But where I live I have no "cap", a router, some four computers and I pay about 25e a month with a decent speed, cnet gave me 8700 kbps, and that is not exactly local, good enough for any damned video. So now, will a ISP actually gain anything by starting to monitor every (damned) customers usage. How many persons do they have to employ just for this silly task. Some use more some less. The amount of steps you are taking on the street are not monitored (perhaps) either, nor are obese people charged more on the tube.
Republicans turn up heat on FCC over net neutrality push
Look out, FCC: R.E.M., Aerosmith, Jello Biafra, 57 others join net neutrality crusade
Russia to suspend US GPS stations in tit-for-tat spat
Wednesday 14th May 2014 00:08 GMT 
Wow, getting a bit hot here
My feelings towards the USSR was never good, but there was a time with Gorbachev and Yeltsin where you started to feel that something decent would eventually come out of it. I am sure lots of Russians did that too. Unfortunately Russia is, with Putin, back to square one. In other words it's not about Russians but about Putin and the way he is manipulating the Russian people. Still if the Americans where allowed to build their GPS stations in Russia then why should the Russians not be allowed the same in the USA. Are the Americans still pissed off and surprised that there are other "powers" who can do it, Like the EU, Russia and China. As far as I remember the USA tried to tell the EU that that effort and costs where just silly as there was already the GPS. Now I will support the EU to carry on with their project. There is a "funny" story about some South American country who was asked by the USA to have the right to build a military base in that country. That was OK as long as they had the right to build one in the USA too. Now that was funny indeed, very funny. But the not so funny thing is that the USA is running out of stupidity without running out of stupidity at all.
GM reveals how much you'll pay to turn your car into a rolling 4G LTE Wi-Fi hotspot
What's Android Silver? Samsung preps Tizen mobes 'for Russia, India'
Nintendo says sorry, but there will be NO gay marriage in Tomodachi Life ... EVER
WTF is Net Neutrality, anyway? And how can we make everything better?
Spy sat launch wannabe SpaceX fails to stop rival gobbling Russian rockets
Comcast dragged into muck in Oracle's Solaris fix-it lawsuit
Amazon granted patent for taking photos against a white background – seriously
Solaris deposed as US drone-ware, replaced by Linux administration
Wednesday 7th May 2014 13:42 GMT
Not surprised
Not surprised Linux was the choice here, nor surprised by the remains of the FUD by MS still around. First of all there is kernel space and user space and the software to the Northrop Grumman MQ-8 is most likely in user space, and that is theirs and only theirs, be that in the drone or on the ground or both. For instance if you have, say a router, probably running Linux then you will find in the instructions a text telling you where to find the kernel source or just the version number of the kernel. There was a time when some big companies, like Cisco tried to cheat but those things seem to be OK to day.
And also, I can tweak a Linux kernel to my hearts delight, it's only if I start to deliver it as a product that I have to show my tweaks to the kernel. As far as I understand Google is not forced to revel what they do to the kernel as they use it only for themselves (GPL2).
I used Solaris and other *nix versions like HP-UX, Aix, SCO, For-Pro for some 15 years. All acceptable, all sightly different but good. No Linux then but that has changed in favor of Linux a lot since then.
The thing to remember here is that there is more power behind the development of Linux than behind any other *nix version, with a question mark for iOS.
Somebody pointed out that when you compile a Linux kernel you simply leave out all the stuff your kernel does not need, that, of course, is an advantage with a compilable kernel. I did it once just for fun, but the reason I mention this is that there is still a bit left of the FUD that you have to do it, you don't.
The real time question mentioned in previous comments is very interesting too, lots of that on the web to read about. Traditionally *nix and real time are mutually exclusive. *nix systems have a "democratic" scheduler not very good at interrupts regarding processes. (and I know there are those who can explain this better). Anyway, things have changed here too. If you look at the traditional real time providers they have, more or less, all moved to Linux. It is possible to deal with the real time demands on top of the Linux kernel, as some do, and real time features have been added to the kernel for many years, faster processors have also helped.
The only thing that would surprised me is, if I actually knew how largely Linux is used to day. Its use is growing all the time, and why not, it's just a fact.
Stephen Hawking: The creation of true AI could be the 'greatest event in human history'
Monday 5th May 2014 03:04 GMT
Re: I was noodling on the idea of AI a few days ago
"in its own image" the one part of a sentence that so superbly reveals that christian religion like all other are man made. Not a surprise to me, but why is it that the church cannot develop at all. A bunch of technicians trying to service a modern airliner with specifications made by the Wright brothers. Perhaps the simple truth is that religion should be replaced by common sense, democracy and science. Of course this article was about AI, still the "I" is quite interesting. There are those studying language who claim we still have some twenty words left from the "original" language. Surprise surprise one of the words is I (in its various forms) does that not characterize us perfectly well, "I made yet an other god in my image". The Americans, good as they are as inventors, have hardly stopped. Why do we actually read fairy tales to our kids, shame on us. Do I need an icon.
Monday 5th May 2014 02:07 GMT
Re: Oh dear
@Fink-Nottle, from that article:
"There are sophisticated bone tools that are even older in Africa, for instance," McPherron said. "Neanderthals were, however, the first in Europe to make specialized bone tools.".
Apparently the Neanderthals reached Europe before "us" so there is indeed a logical link here to AI as for logic. Lots of words.
Saturday 3rd May 2014 02:27 GMT 
Oh dear
With the knowledge of human history, Stephen Hawking, don't you think, after all, that the greatest threat to us is us, the education we should provide to our children but fail to deliver. Remember we invented the stone axe, and perhaps that was the biggest event in human history. We survived that too. It's not the tool it's all about how to use it. But perhaps your nightmare as mine, is when the stock exchange is run by AI.
Oh well, still even if AI has been a very lucrative business for a very long time for the snake oil speakers at otherwise fairly honest occasions. Mostly the same AI con priests year after year. Perhaps the truth is right there in A as artificial and I as in intelligence. Quite a cake to program and run with a computer but how are we so damned stupid that we let the AI cons shit in our faces. I am sure we will have, eventually, artificial hearts running some fine program, perhaps a nice artificial penis, wi-fi perhaps. But a artificial brain, why the hell. Computers will become faster, smaller and so forth. But the AI cons are really hemorroides in the arse of IT. Don't pay those guys to have their speech, they will never deliver anything but air. And what the hell is it with you Google, have you become religious or something when you paint "arse" red. But ass bum but anus anal bottom booty asshole hole buttock is OK with your religion and then again not arsehole.
Seriously Stephen, while you depend now on computers do you seriously believe your intelligence could be put in a box.
Trans Pacific Partnership still stalled
Monday 5th May 2014 15:03 GMT
Re: Those treaties typically don't benefit democracies
"give up all your rights for our big corporations is stunning", not really considering that the USA has already done that. Why any self respecting country should sign up is beyond me. Brazil actually had to pay millions to the American tobacco industry because they decided introduce tobacco packaging warning messages. That is stunning indeed. I suppose it's now proved that those warnings actually harm the industry. But on a more positive note, I think more and more Americans have started to understand who is running the farm.
food.inc anybody. And why not Sicko
New secure OS will put Tails between NSA's legs
Thursday 1st May 2014 18:54 GMT
Hackers against crackers
Now that there are both old time true crooks and officially not officially crooks then why not up the ante and use hackers against the stately sponsored crackers. At least It will give me a reason to put Linux on a stick, quite a nice thing to have with you if you have to borrow somebody's PC somewhere for some reason. As for the honest crooks they are probably looking at black and white movies to find out how information was dealt with in old times. Came to think of it, was there not a time when a crook was able to make a deal with the state revealing the crooks. Should that not apply to Snowden too. Probably not, times they are a-changin. Poor Snowden, now he is accused of making it possible for to Putin invade Crimea. Just look at this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ibPm9qeARs
A brain washed congress man, or what.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
