Posts by Mr Sceptical

Re: That's all very impressive...

I was going to come in with the Crysis question, with a tangent:

Can it give you a realistic, learning, Turing test (of behaviour) passing, AI foe in Crysis?

And once it's beaten the best humanity can offer, time to power up the cyborgs and ROTM! --->

Re: Need both

Programmers rarely have their lives on the line at the time the +++Out of Cheese+++ error occurs.

You could always institute a sort of bonus/penalty system - bonus payments for every successful landing vs shark fodder for any fatal crash. It would probably fully concentrate their minds on the code.

Had an AI been given the requirement to pancake a plane, would it necessarily be able to work out the glide slope required to avoid bridges/ships/obstructions on the surface bearing in mind it won't be able to 'see' and understand them the way we do. You'd need to train the AI on all possible manner of objects found in the real world first.

Wot no AWACS?

For that matter, don't they just need to call up the nearest NATO AWACS to find out where it is? Don't NATO keep a very close eye on everything flying in the European Theatre becuase of the Bears?

Or did they sell them all off / scrap them all?

Re: Tatronics

+1 for Taotronics - I've been using a set of their in-ear bluetooth headphones (~£25 at the time) since Feb '18 according to my Amazon order history. They've since been superceded by fancier ones at a lower price when I just checked.

Sound is very good for price and function (but not as clear as my Audio-Technica ATH-M50X studio monitor headphones obviously).

The mic perfectly fine for the numerous conference calls I've been on recently. Battery life still quite good too, enough for a couple of days commuting (when that was a thing).

Overall, excellent value for money.

Re: Audiophiles

You've totally missed the step of running a rare earth magnet along your optical leads to get the right spin on the quantum* photons or they get stuck in the cable cause they don't know the way out.

* If it's good enough for Samsung...

Re: Consequeneces

It's quite hard to upload from your mobile when you've torched your local mast...

Still, no one's accusing them of properly thinking things through.

Should be standard HW under the hood - just take a Live USB distro along with you and try it out.

It's only if it's got a non-standard NIC/Wifi card I'd be concerned about Linux drivers.

Re: Inflated expectations

Funny how the obligatory face masks screw up the facial recognition though - wait until they insist they have a picture of your real face printed on them!

Extra points if your mask makes you look like Donald Trump.

Re: Alternatively

There's a bit of an issue there - you're assuming the highly paid 'management' are actually capable of attaining the level of knowledge to be considered 'clinincally trained' - unless you just mean getting them to mop the floors? They'd probably get the hang of it after a few months...

They'd be sitting in the corner with the Dunce hat on -->

"Jail would be too sweet for these bastards"... maybe not?

I dunno, I think being stuck in a cell with someone suffering from symptoms of opioid withdrawl + steroid abuse might be quite a just punishment.

Alternatively: "Welcome Mr Pharnaco Exec. Your new cell mate is known as Bowling Ball Bag Bob. Enjoy!"

Icon for their eventual prison 'outfit' --->

Re: Tone tracker

We just call them cable tracers - used to help try and keep Maplin in business by buying ours there.

Cheap ones are fine - just be aware they will not work on shielded cables like CAT5 (clue's in the name) until you get to the other end. Also not great on short-cicuits like loop would be.

Set the unit to pulse tone for ease of listening and some have an LED to indicate its picking up a signal.

ADSL!!!

You were spoiled rotten - we 'ad a bit 'o wet string we had to vibrate by hand to get the bauds to flow, all whilst living in a puddle in't road, etc, etc...

Thank you, I'm here all week, try the Veal.

Re: I need an electrician

To a degree, I'd say the older ones would be more likely to be competent as working with mains electricity is a bit like Russian roulette - you need to get it right all the time, as wrong might be the last thing you do.

That said, what passed for H&S 40+ years ago, might not be considered safe now.

Just look for someone NICEIC registered and has 18th Edition IET Wiring Regulations and Part P, should be as good as any other then.

Re: I wonder

A few ideas:

1) You'd like to insert yourself (or someone you know) into a famous movie scene for a laugh

2) There's a deceased person you'd like to re-animate without a very tedious cut & paste of individual frames from their previous works (dead actors)

3) You'd like to face swap a toy cat and real cat in a video without using snapchat filters

So, there'll be plenty of reasons that don't harm anyone and aren't pron related - it's just the majority of the effort has gone into various sexual fantasies. Doesn't mean we should try and ban it now.

Re: "Media Bridge, based in Virginia, and LCX Digital, based in California"

I salute your attitude on this, but surely the appropriate lesson to others would be by locking them in a soudnproof glass box (so everyone can see) and playing them an endless loop of Trump monologues until they tear their own head off to end it all?

Then have the remains devoured by thousands of bugs, Halloween style...

Failing that, then death by chemical waste, a la Robocop (80s version) sounds perfectly reasonable...

Upvotes all round on this one!

Re: Why do they call it a tech company

Answer: They've got a fancy website and talk about their fantastic, disruptive, innovative, life-affirming tech?

It's the thin end of the wedge (ooh err)

Nothing to do with this particular case, but to add:

What consenting adults do to each other, even if not your cup of tea, should not be classed as 'extreme', 'perverted' (or other Daily Fail terms) if they did not cause lasting physical injury. Yes, the participants might walk like John Wayne for a few days, but it was their choice, so leave them be.

The continued push of law-makers against private personal freedoms is something to be carefully scrutinised and resisted whenever possible - which I think most Reg readers do by default.

Frankly, you see more 'extreme' and 'perverted' injuries during sporting events on live TV - won't somebody think of the children! ;-)

Re: Is it just me?

You're on the money (see what I did there) - because you have an ability to recall history. Something that seems sadly lacking in the Finance industry.

It's not helped by the relatively short life-span of the average investment banker types who cash out nice and early and avoid the consequences of their actions while spending more qualtity time with their family, sorry, money.

Icon cause this ain't the last time this'll happen -->

Re: "I bought the law..."

"So I presume you would be very happy if Google was not allowed to link to any articles about Tienanmen Square in it's search results - maybe no articles on Wikipedia either?"

Think you're misinterpreting this - it would just mean Google China results would omit their atrocities IN CHINA (which I’m pretty sure they do now*). That would not prevent anyone anywhere else in the world knowing the truth.

A court recognising the practical and legal limits of it’s powers is a rarity to be applauded at the moment!

* i.e. on ALL search engine results in China.

Re: If the EM sensitivity thing is real..

That's why it's the London Heat Island and hardly ever snows (dammit)!

Add to that the total congestion of the radio spectrum stil hasn't fixed the mobile reception dead zones that exist in the canyons of the City and you wonder why we bother...

Re: It's all fun and games...

I'd only go in there with a full Outbreak/Contaigon/Chernobyl hazmat suit on!

Actually, make that a Black Mesa environment suit, God knows what might emerge from the sewer line. Where's my crowbar?

Re: Consistency - this times 1000!

Why do I need to wade through multiple menus/CP/settings to get to something that was only a click away before everything was 'flattened'...

How I long for the simple days of Win7 : NIC icon > double-click > properties!

Oi! Nadella! Just stop changing things for the hell of it!

Re: Aircraft 1: Humans 0 - real pilots aren't any better!

I think you'll find a trained pilot is likely to be worse than a button pusher!

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/12/watchkeeper_drone_wk031_crash_report_1m_uav_destroyed/

I'm sure I read on The Reg another article about the loss rates of US drones flown by actual pilots being higher when they land manually (theirs are 'flyable' in the manned aircraft sense) than under computer control.

Basically, Lord Flashheart types think they can land better than the computer, only to be proved wrong when they write them off... wooof!

Re: Alternatively,

Viz-style:

Got a personal transport animal with high carbon emissions and can't ride into the low-emission zone?

Simply fit a large balloon over it's backside to capture the emissions and voila - you can now say it's a zero-emissions animal!* Laughter blocking earmuffs and blinders can optionally be fitted to avoid embarrassment.

PS. Fatal injuries may be sustained whilst fitting balloons to unwilling transport animals

PPS. Smoking whilst riding your converted zero-emission animal may result in an explosion - you've been warned.

PS. Fatal injuries may be sustained whilst fitting balloons to unwilling transport animals

PPS. Smoking whilst riding your converted zero-emission animal may result in an explosion - you've been warned.

* [May also refer to non-plugin hybrid cars pretending to be 'electric']

Not just IT!

How many queries do you get from coworkers asking a question about almost any topic that can be solved in the first hit on any serch engine (Bing excepted)!

Re: Truth in advertising

By their own admission, lets start with NSA/GCHQ/Five eyes team photos. Oh wait, they only ever hack the BAD GUYS (TM)...

Seriously though, start with some pictures of an office in GRU Unit 26165 and PLA Unit 61398 and go from there.

The shoe thing was after that gullible idiot tried to down a flight to the US with explosives in his shoes.

There's still a requirement to take off boots and high heels at Dublin airport security and I recall other locations in the recent past, so its certainly not US destinations that implement that procedure.

Re: Ummm...

" just accept that he needs to do what he needs to do" - erm, destroy your property and crap on your front doorstep (literally!)?

So, Paul should leave faecal matter where he needs to walk and gve up having a trampoline?

Re: I have a great idea!

In secondary school, one of our chemistry teachers detonated (complete with smoke trails) a small lump of pure lithium dropped into a water tank.

It was very exciting considering we were sitting about 1m away peering in at it fizzing in the water before the bang!