* Posts by LaeMing

2410 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Dec 2009

MIT boffins devise faster Fast Fourier transform

LaeMing

Prepare to engage

Ludicrous-speed fourier transform!

Modeling-clay iPads foisted on unwary Canucks

LaeMing

When I lived in China,

retailers would routinely open the box and even show you the device working before you left the store with it. And that was years ago.

Windows 8 hardware rules 'derail user-friendly Linux'

LaeMing
Linux

Heh

Have to use the Win at work. The number of hoops I had to jump through to get a second account because I sometimes need admin access to do config and installs, but coming from a real computing environment, have no desire to be logged in admin for day-to-day work...

Two PROTECT IP sponsors drop support for their own bill

LaeMing

I was going to call weasel-words on them

But I am terribly afraid of being atacked by a mob of weasels taking offence at being compared to politicians.

The Register to publish other sites' blacked-out content in SOPA protest

LaeMing
Go

This is why I was so enthusiastic about SOPA

Imagine how easy it would make it to wipe all trace of every politician and their sponsors completely off the 'net. I can guarentee every single site belonging to these clowns has something somewhere that could be vaguely construed as infringing on someone's IP. And it isn't as if you need more proof than that!

McDonald's punters offered sex in exchange for Chicken McNuggets

LaeMing
Go

Didn't she see 'Idiocracy'

You go to StarBucks for that!

Wikipedia to shut down Wednesday in SOPA protest

LaeMing

Very offensive

My reproductive canal does not appreciate the association, thank you very much!

Child labour, lost wages uncloaked by Apple factories audit

LaeMing

Governments should tax import-goods from countries with sub-standard worker conditions to negate the part of the goods/service-cost difference arrising from the labour-abuse and spend every cent of the collected revenues on improving the working conditions in the country who's goods were taxed.

Experts: We're stuck with passwords – and maybe they're best

LaeMing
Happy

Technically,

most people have 10 password choices (20 if they take off their shoes).

I'm still not convinced biometrics are any use as a general password alternative, though.

LaeMing

Good-point, KingZongo

Assuming the system can allow for that, you then have a built-in configuration-free way to opt out of having a duress code (not sure why you would want an opt-out, but the option is free so why not).

Murdoch slams White House over SOPA in Twitter row

LaeMing
Joke

Serves you right!

Think you can dump subsidised produce on our markets without comeback? We sent you Murdoch as comeback! We're laughing now, Yanks!!

Raspberry Pi Linux micro machine enters mass production

LaeMing
Thumb Up

Yes.

I am going to get one in in a few months to evaluate with a view to getting a dozen to complement our Arduinos in our computational media lab. Probably with GertBoards or equivalent.

US killer spy drone controls switch to Linux

LaeMing
Go

It's not quite what Linus meant when he was *joking* about 'world domination'!

Australia should head-hunt Michael Gove

LaeMing
Thumb Up

I'm probably getting a TrimSlice for myself.

I need a bit more oomph than the Pi can give me.

But I will be be getting two dozen RaspberryPi for the classroom here. They give a bit more hands-in than the TrimSlice can give the students. Particularly with that GertBoard!

Sony goes inorganic for 'eye popping' OLED TV rival

LaeMing
Happy

Mainly my never-buy-Sony policy is based on the fact that everything they have produced since the end of the 80s was either no better than cheaper alternatives or complete rubbish. So iff they suddenly produce something worth my money, patronising them again works for me from that regard. From the moral sandpoint: Their media branch I find pretty reprehensible, but I don't know enough about how their CE arm operates to call that one. I probably should!

Of course my equipment upgrade cycle is so slow that there will likely be alternate sources of equal quality available without the branding-levy by the time I get to it anyway.

LaeMing
Go

..."Crystal" has that new-agey feel to it too, which is why they didn't call it 'crystaline LED' which would be actually correct.

On the up-side, this tech is likely good enough to make me break my never-buy-Sony policy when it becomes available at post-entry prices (it will be a good couple of years yet beform my current CFL-LCD warrants replacing anyway).

$18k for Aussie domain sets new record

LaeMing
Devil

The trick with these things is to get in early.

And get out fast.

Android-powered goggles bring virtual reality closer

LaeMing
Go

@Jonathon Green

But on the BUS?

Profs call for harsh taxes on sweet carbonated beverages

LaeMing
Facepalm

The researchers are underpants gnomes?

1) Switch the population from high sugar soft-drinks to high sugar 'fruit' juices

2) ...

3) Profit!

Unless you can come up with a (credible) motive for a great conspiracy, you are just blowing holes in the back of your own undies!

Hubble shows images from record-breaking 13.1 billion light-years

LaeMing
Boffin

@Where is the middle?

same place as the middle of the SURFACE of a sphere is. Just up one extra dimension.

Microsoft schedules Kinect for Windows launch

LaeMing
Go

you just raise 3 fingers at the screen in a swift motion.

Intel ignores Steve Jobs, adds touchscreen to Ultrabook

LaeMing
Trollface

Touch is so last decade!

Where is the eye-tracking?!

SEVENTY-FIVE wirelessly charged devices will demo at CES

LaeMing

They could do that with USB chargers if they wanted to.

iPad SURVIVES FALL FROM SPACE

LaeMing
Joke

Mixing imperial and metric never did NASA any harm.

Oh wait....!

LaeMing
Boffin

Weigh has nothing to do with it all-else being equal.

In an atmosphere, wind resistance to surface area DOES make a difference, which is why the hammer-and-feather thing was demonstrated on the moon - try it in your living room or off your balcony and you won't get the same result. That is what 'terminal velocity' is all about. If you want the cannonball thing to work down here, you need to pair it up with a same-size sphere of balsa wood (or polystyrine these days is even better).

Interesting asside: a mouse can fall (relatively) safely from any height as its terminal velocity is well below the point at which is would suffer major damage from hitting the ground.

Official: File-sharing is a religion... in Sweden

LaeMing
Go

Hey!

I not-collected-stamps all yesterday.

Maybe I should apply for a government grant.

Lunar mineral turns up in Oz

LaeMing
Go

It would be 'moon rock' (quotes important) paint!

You'd find a market.

LaeMing
Joke

That's always been what is was for.

*RUNS"

Kodak heading to Chapter 11

LaeMing
Unhappy

I assume...

...the engineers responsible were subsequently discouraged from further messing about in areas not the core-product.

LaeMing
Unhappy

Sad. Another star goes down.

Just couldn't wean themselves off the chemicals.

Fast food firm fields Sith sandwich

LaeMing
Go

When 900 of these you have consumed,

Look as good you will not!

Steve Jobs action figure set for shop shelves

LaeMing
Go

To paraphrase Kryton

"I thought I found the recharge socket, but the cable kept falling out."

How Apple won the West (and lost the world)

LaeMing
Go

Denegrating people for not wanting to over-spend!

It is what made the western economies what they are today!

LG to show 55in, 4mm-thick OLED TV at CES

LaeMing
Happy

I was thinking the exact opposite - no (or tiny) border would look great against the section of blank wall I would hang it on.

That Brit-built £22 computer: Yours for just £1,900 or more

LaeMing
Happy

Welcome!

LaeMing
Boffin

Re Virtual machine

We had to implement a VM to get an environment in our labs for students to program on. Beyond the hastle of getting the VM software on (via central labs management), and of maintaing a second OS image (which ceased to be maintained once the CompSci post-grad that was doing it finished his thesis), it was a nightmare to maintain in the classroom. Those things are for servers, not for that sort of on-off-on-off usage and are decidedly fragile in a classroom situation - if we can't get university-level students to learn to quit the VMed OS before quitting the VM itself, what hope does a school lab have? (Yes, it would be great if the facebook generation actually had a clue about using IT, or even for following a basic procedural instruction from their teacher, but for the most part they don't).

I am on order from my head-of-school to buy in a couple of RPi ASAP for evaluation.

LaeMing
FAIL

Clueless

Yet another self-claimed expert who saw something on evening telly or at the movies so believes bringing a board like this to market is something that could be done in under 4 weeks!

Asside from the fact that the RPi people would be about as upset by someone undercutting them as the Salvation Army would be upset by someone working out how to help the poor better than they can.

Year of the Penguin - el Reg's 2011 Linux-land roundup

LaeMing

Yes,

It is the /rate/ of change that can get people off-side. Like the difference between changing velocity by gently applying the brake, vs, doing so by smaking into a concrete pylon.

LaeMing
Facepalm

@Eeep !

Who on earth chooses their own desktop OS based on anything /other/ than its functionality?

LaeMing
Happy

"magazine cover disks"

Heh, that is how I discovered Linux existed, back in the late 90's (RH5.2).

I was just coming off Apple's canning the Newton platform, so was in the mood for someting not under the thumb of a big faceless corporation.

LaeMing
Happy

Clicking 'start' to turn off made perfect sense

if you thought of it as 'Start the shut-down procedure' (which IIRC, was a rather involved and lengthy task compared to shutting down DOS, though not a involved and lengthy as it got in later versions).

LaeMing
Boffin

@"I haven't seen a running CP/M machine for at least 5 years."

You probably have, you just didn't know that was what you were looking at (or more likely looking strait past) because it didn't have a green screen attached. Zilog still makes a good living selling into the control-systems field.

BOFH: The Explosive Christmas Evacuation

LaeMing
Happy

@Knight

Because your boss is a bastard.

But at least you respect him.

Next-generation materials for post-Christmas repairs: Reg investigates

LaeMing
Boffin

Problem with superglue...

...is it tends to cause 'frosting' (white residue) anywhere its curing fumes reach. You can remove this easily enough for glass and ceramics, but not so much for plasics and polymer paints, which may not be so good for toys and ornaments where the look of the item is part of its value/function. I have experimented with using masking tape to protect the area around the joins when fixing plastic objects, it works somewhat, depending on the complexity of the item's shape.

The join created by SG, of course, is very strong, though brittle, which is good if the material you are joining is rigid, not so much if it has some plasticity.

@Richard12: very interesting - I knew cyanoacrylate was often used in brain surgery but didn't realise it was invented explicitly for that sort of thing!

For acrylics you can't go past one of the Acrylic Joiners (I use Acryfix and WeldOn brands*). Since this doesn't so much glue the stuff as chemically-weld it. If done right (which takes more equipment than I have access to) you end up with the origional unbroken piece. Even done at work-shop level you get close.

----

*false-nail remover can work too, depending on the type - the stuff used to be exactly the same as the industrial version, but it is mildly toxic on skin-contact so it has mostly been replaced with other chemicals that don't do such a good join, but don't poision people getting frequent manicures either

Apple’s Siri gets sweary with British child

LaeMing
Happy

I only did it to my own machine,

but having just acquired a copy of ResEdit for my MacLC, the hostess in the game "Wheel of Fortune" first lost most of her clothes, then aquired a rarther large wardrobe of sleazy outfits, then became male. There were two bitmaps - one at rest, and one smiling and waving (swapped in when you won a turn). Lets just say my final version of the nude male host wasn't waving his arm (though he certainly was smiling a lot)!

Mozilla isn't a charity case - and Google's $300m will do nicely

LaeMing
Go

Umbrella some other, more cash-strapped, OSS projects?

Hope so, at least.

LaeMing
Thumb Up

Pocket change for the giver,

...significant development money for the reciever. Yes, you can't really do much better in the win-win frame.

Japanese boffins crack arse-based ID recognizer

LaeMing
Joke

Lap-top

I will patent my own version based on a biometric scan of the users lap. As the lap is a part of the body that ceases to exist when we stand up, it will be more secure than walking about all day with your password on display.

The other patent is for posterial-password-protection via a sheet of paper worn over the buttocs. Could be printed with suitable messages such as 'kick me'.

Parallel politics: Gerry Harvey, imports and taxes

LaeMing
Unhappy

Sounds like a rather cynical attempt to goad the govt...

...into wasting lots of public money to collect less money, so he can say 'told you so' and return to business-as-previous.

Of course he is still claiming it is the GST that is the cause (which it largely isn't, as noted).