* Posts by Chemist

2677 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Mar 2010

BBC: We'll give FREE subpar-Raspberry-Pis to a million Brit schoolkids

Chemist

Re: bbc pi is 8bit amtelmega 32u4

" I started programming on a Z80 with 1K RAM. Kids today. Don’t know that they’re born!"

(Obligatory 4 Yorkshiremen moment) -- you were LUCKY- I started on a SC/MP Mk14 with 256 bytes and a hex keypad/calculator display AND NO STACK. Raw Machine-code too

In assault on American values, Lockheed blasts pickup with raygun

Chemist

Re: @Chemist (again)

"I suspect that you (perhaps like I would have done before I worked with high explosives) looked at the numbers inferred by my post and thought that they could not possibly be correct -"

Sorry no, I'm quite happy with small energy, large power in short time. In a more relevant example for The Reg - a few Joules, giving a powerful flash of short duration in a flash tube.

My gripe was just about the use of 'energy' -( I'd just heard an idiot on radio news totally mixing up power and energy )

"Hence your incorrect assumption that you would need a RPG with a 20 tonne charge."

That was just to illustrate the absurdity of - "a miilion times the energy". Sounds like ths was a cross-purpose problem between us

Chemist

Re: @Chemist

I admit in my first reply to your original post I should have really just pointed out that the use of 'energy' instead of 'power' was the problem I had with it.

Chemist

Re: @Chemist

"a RPG delivers very roughly a million times that amount of energy"

Your workings still don't show that !

It mght well deliver a million times the power over the tiny timescale of a detnation but by your own calculations it still only delivers ~ 1MJ of energy. I'm not disputing the fact that a RPG will make a big hole in things ( and indeed in my lab days I've had very small amounts of material do suprising damage)

Chemist

Re: @beast666

"a RPG delivers very roughly a million times that amount of energy"

kW is a unit of power not energy.

If you meant 90 kJ are you seriously suggesting that a RPG delivers 90E9 J ? For comparison TNT has an explosive yield of ~4 MJ/kg.

Please show your workings ! (90E9 J is the rough yield from > 20 tonnes of TNT) That's some RPG. Shoulder launched ?

And the buggiest OS provider award goes to ... APPLE?

Chemist

Re: OSX and Linux

"A days work for me is about $1000. Go figure."

Said the AC who could claim anything !

Linux kernel dev has gone well and truly corporate – report

Chemist

Re: Snowballing

"Which is a bit annoying when you have a huge kernel and modules to use a few % of the code."

Except that you don't !

Chemist

Re: Snowballing

"hint: Monolithic does not mean "not made with modules"

This all semantics - the point is the Linux kernel does NOT have to have compiled-in drivers - most distro run with loadable modules that are selected at boot or on hot-plug. On the other hand if you want a custom kernel with a limited set and with them optionally compiled in then you can have that as well.

Chemist

Re: Snowballing

"I doubt I'll ever understand why an OS architecture with hardware drivers built into the kernel has become so popular."

Since no-one has except Phil has ( and he got a downvote for merely telling the truth) replied here goes.

Mostly the drivers are NOT built into the kernel but are loadable/unloadable modules so if I plug in a usb/serial converter I can see (if I want) the message :

[ 5743.316138] pl2303 2-8:1.0: pl2303 converter detected

[ 5743.349211] usb 2-8: pl2303 converter now attached to ttyUSB1

I didn't have to do anything - the module was found and loaded - if I unplug it the reverse will happen

[ 5786.751073] usb 2-8: USB disconnect, device number 3

[ 5786.751733] pl2303 ttyUSB1: pl2303 converter now disconnected from ttyUSB1

There's about 75 modules loaded at the moment.

Got $600 for every Win Server 2003 box you're running? Uh-oh

Chemist

Re: Over a barrel. ¿lots more security patches for RHEL?

"They were ALL in the Red Hat Linux distribution,"

So we can therefore blame Flash and Java vulns in Windows on MS ? Is that what you are really saying ?

Chemist

Re: The real reason Linux admins are smug

"Most I know just use it for webservers that no one cares much about"

Like Google, perhaps ? or maybe Amazon - anyone like to add a few more 'cottage industries' ?

Chemist

Re: Over a barrel. ¿lots more security patches for RHEL?

"of what relevance whatsoever are the number of advisories? "

Simple AC, once you dig into the details they show that of the ~2000 'vulns' reported in RHEL almost all were in 3rd party software and only one hasn't been fixed. Whereas the 684 Server 2003 vulns where almost all MS code and 22 still haven't been fixed.

The fact that you used the link to Secunia to shoot yourself in the foot, as usual, is par for the course

Chemist

Re: Over a barrel. @AC

"If you want to see the long term future of Windows, then look at DEC VMS"

I agree with almost everything you say but to equate Windows with one of the most robust OSs - NO !

Chemist

Re: Over a barrel. ¿lots more security patches for RHEL?

"Vulnerability Report: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5"

http://secunia.com/advisories/product/14052/

Affected By 204 Secunia advisories 2307 Vulnerabilities

Indeed for 2014 (for example) there were (from your ref) 29 'adv - all in Flash & Java

Indeed for 2013 (for example) there were (from your ref) 35 'adv' - all in Flash & Java & Acrobat

Indeed for 2012 (for example) there were (from your ref) 24 'adv' - all in Flash & Java

Indeed for 2011 (for example) there were (from your ref) 25 adv' - all in Flash & Java

Indeed for 2010 (for example) there were (from your ref) 29 'adv' - all in Flash & Java

Indeed for 2009 (for example) there were (from your ref) 26 'adv' - all in Flash & Java & SAMBA !!

Indeed for 2008 (for example) there were (from your ref) 25 'adv' - all in Flash & Java

Indeed for 2007 (for example) there were (from your ref) 7 'adv' - all in Flash & Java & elinks ?

None between 2003-2007. I unfixed vuln. for RealPlayer (giggle)

Shabby, shabby ....

Whereas the 400-odd MS 2003 server advisories are almost all MS code related and 22 are not yet fixed.

Boffins grasp Big Knob, get ready to go ALL THE WAY at the LHC proton-punisher

Chemist

Re: we need a black hole icon

"we don't want the page to be sucked into it"

There used to be "The Journal of Irreproducible Results" which had that title on the front cover tailing-off into a waste-bin

Ex-squeeze me? Baking soda? Boffins claim it safely sucks CO2 out of the air

Chemist

Re: Umm, so not baking soda then?

No, but I do know someone ( in fact i chaired the inquiry) who had an explosion where a glass thermometer was ejected with such force that a remenant punched through a glass window 20 feet away just missing the 'owner' of the explosion.

Chemist

Re: Carbonates are how the Earth deals with excess CO2

"Evidence shows, however, that CO2 does create an immediate threat to life at a concentration of only 15% in air due to the toxicological impact it has on the body when inhaled at this concentration"

"Depending on the CO2 concentration inhaled and exposure duration, toxicological symptoms in humans range from headaches (in the order of 3% for 1 hour), increased respiratory and heart rate, dizziness, muscle twitching, confusion, unconsciousness, coma and death (in the order of >15% for 1 minute)."

http://www.hse.gov.uk/carboncapture/assets/docs/major-hazard-potential-carbon-dioxide.pdf

Chemist

"Good thing you pointed it out - at least now I know why the OP is horribly wrong"

It was a wry comment. Unfortunately if one had to point out to a lot of posters ( who feel the need to comment on something they obviously know nothing about regardless of the fact that they could find out easily enough ) the error in their suppositions then one would be at it rather a lot.

Chemist

Re: Umm, so not baking soda then?

"explode if thrown too hard onto the back of a chair."

Well I carry a scar on my thumb from a flying bit of glass from an explosion ( it was ricochet that bounced around the safety-screen and went through a thick glove) Scary thing was it was only about 5 g of material that exploded. Will that do ?

Chemist

Re: Is this the right way round?

Vic,

CO3(2-) + H20 +CO2 -> 2HCO3-

It's an easily reversible process and it's why carbonate rock dissolves in rainwater

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbonate for info.

Chemist

"chemistry is not my strong suit "

I'm afraid it isn't !

Chemist

Re: Umm, so not baking soda then?

"the spokesman is a chemist, so probably doesn't do much baking. Or washing""

Well I am a chemist, I had a shower this evening and then baked bread ( wholemeal + brown Country Grain) but I do agree the standards have slipped

You must have at least 8 inches for Windows 10 to go all the way

Chemist

Re: I'm seeing nothing to persuade me to change back to windows

"I'm looking for in new hardware reviews (particularly for laptops) is whether, and how easily, Linux can be installed."

FYI I bought a 4-core i7, 8GB, 500GB HD, 1920*1080 screen (15inch) laptop about a year ago from PC Specialists WIndows-free and OpenSuse 13.1 installed without a problem. It's just Intel graphics but it will run 2 simultaneous 1080/50p videos using ~18% CPU so I've not found that a problem. Only complaint so far is the rather cheap case. Screen is gorgeous. All the hardware is recognised and works. Sleep works fine and I only shut it down when travelling a distance.

Ugly, incomplete, buggy: Windows 10 faces a sprint to the finish

Chemist

Re: "Hey, Camilla. What can I do for You?"

"And btw, Darktable is awesome."

Indeed it is

The new Falcon Heavy: MOST POWERFUL ROCKET since the Apollo moonshots

Chemist

Re: Not yet Saturn 5 level... yet.

"The Saturn V (or 5 if you prefer) first stage had 7,600,000 lb thrust..."

Which was more than a million times my (rather wimpy) motorbike at the time (sigh) Even my Velocette Thruxton was only 1/300000th a SatV

'Linus Torvalds is UNFIT for the WORKPLACE!' And you've given the world what, exactly?

Chemist

Re: How bad is Torvalds?

"regular people still prefer to spend money on Windows."

Regular people don't as a rule have much choice in the matter

Chemist

Re: How bad is Torvalds?

"What? The Sirius Cybernetics Corporation uses Linux?"

I think it's a fairly open secret in HHGG who Douglas thinks of as "The Sirius Cybernetic....."

Microsoft Azure was most FAIL-FILLED cloud of 2014

Chemist

Re: Math fail

"Math fail "

I too thought that but an AC above has actually been downvoted for spotting the same thing. Downvoted for an arithmetically accurate statement - what next ?

Hey, bacteria: Resistance is FUTILE – boffins grow new super-antibiotic

Chemist

"While this new novel substance seems safe to mammallian cells, human tests are still some time off. "

I wish them all well and there seems to be a lot of scope in this new area BUT most candidate drugs fail in this part of the of development phases so it's not a given yet esp. if the class turns out to have any generic toxicity which can't be worked around.

ALIEN EARTH: Red sun's habitable world spotted 470 light years away

Chemist

Re: I am not a number

"What would be amusing is if the residents then get wind of this name calling, take offence, and launch an attack...."

The whole fleet will probably be swallowed by a small dog

- thanks Douglas

Microsoft has made excellent software, you pack of fibbers

Chemist

"I still have my Dragon32 from that era."

I also had one of those Vic - don't have it now but the 6809 FORTH thst I got for it still runs on a home-made 6809 system.

(When I assembled the UK101 it didn't work - a bit of probing with a xtal earpiece established that a cheap 7400 TTL chip was faulty - phew. ~£50 was a lot of money in those days)

Chemist

"M$ did make a decent "ROMable" OS back in the 80s"

Well I had (~1980) a UK101 built from a kit with a 6502 MS ROM Basic and it had a wretched bug in its garbage collector that made any kind of complex string manipulation useless.

UFOs in the '50s skies? CIA admits: 'IT WAS US'

Chemist

Re: Who else?

THHGG states that it is "Space Aliens" , especially near Heathrow, so who are we to argue

Internet Explorer 12 to shed legacy cruft in bid to BEAT Chrome

Chemist

Re: A new browser?

"even if the six Linux users worldwide installed it"

Odd then that Firefox & Chrome ( and a number of others ) all come in native Linux versions. They must know something you don't.

Cambridge boffins and Boeing fly first hybrid airplane over British skies

Chemist

"A small internal combustion engine, sized for the cruise regime, can be quite efficient,"

Indeed in most petrol/hybrid cars a modified Atkinson cycle engine is used that has a higher fuel efficiency than normal (Otto) engines at the expense of lower output for a given engine size. The battery then provides the extra power required for acceleration/hill climb. Regenerative braking is a bonus for urban use or descents.

YEAR of the PENGUIN: A Linux mobile in 2015?

Chemist

Re: Can you easily buy a Linux desktop/laptop from a major OEM yet?

"virtually nothing comes with it pre-installed"

I'd settle for being able to buy without Windows being installed. Building a new desktop and installing Linux from scratch is easy, but laptops have been a problem. Now there seems a few enlightened smaller suppliers who will provide some quite powerful systems. I'm writing this on one such (4-core i7/8GB/matte HD screen). Case is a bit cheap but the screen is beautiful. OpenSUSE installed and runs a treat.

And that's easily powerful enough to support me logged-in as 3 simultaneous users ( for security reasons) with several VirtualBox VMs running as well as all the browsers/editors/photo processors/video editors/players....etc.

Linux 'GRINCH' vuln is AWFUL. Except, er, maybe it isn't

Chemist

Re: Me thinks

"It does already - millions of TV Box sets, SOHO routers, embedded devices etc."

And, of course, a VAST army of servers Google/Amazon etc. Even Skype

Boffins weigh in to perfect kilogram quest with LEGO kit

Chemist

Re: Great for schools

" Plank wavelength of a cat...."

I was always taken with the requirement that to demonstrate any interference in a slit experiment you'd have to have an incoherent cat-beam. Suppose that's easy enough.

Also I guess that a sleeping cat has a zero-point energy that is actually zero

I think it's de Broglie wavelength BTW

Skinny Ubuntu Linux 'Snapped' up by fat Microsoft cloud

Chemist

Re: OS size

"Still waiting for the Amigatards to pipe up.."

Indeed you could but on my A1000 it was a 2-floppy process

Linus Torvalds releases Linux 3.18 as 3.17 wobbles

Chemist

Re: Linux future

"Dunno, but the thought of it is making me want to go learn how to drive a bus"

Perhaps when you grow up

Shhhhh! It's a Swiss Sunday shutdown. Kill the lawnmower, punish the kids with CHEESE

Chemist

"Raclette is melted-cheese-on-potatoes."

With pickled gurkins & silverskin onions

Crack open more champagne, Satya, XP's snowballing to HELL

Chemist

Re: And?

"And I'm not too sure about how well Mint 'works' on old XP hardware"

Well I've got an old IBM/Lenovo laptop from ~ 2006 with a Celeron M which was donated to me after a Windows XP update borked it and the owner couldn't be bothered to sort it. OpenSUSE installed fine on it and is now on 13.1. Wouldn't ask too much of it as it only has 1GB and a wimpy processor but it's fine for traveling.

Ten Linux freeware apps to feed your penguin

Chemist

Re: Kdenlive is great, but it still crashes too often

The version I'm using reports 0.9.10, but Yast2 reports 0.9.10-16.2 64bit from Packman but I've been using older versions without any stability problems for years now - certainly before OpenSUSE 13.1. In the past there have been times when dragging a clip or rendering would crash so I took to saving ALL the time but not done that for years as I say.

I also had a problem with the program reporting that the rendering had failed but in fact the output was fine. Mind get_iplayer does that for me at the moment too.

Chemist

Re: @Chris W Haven't we been here before

"then get Windows and stop trying to pretend that linux is as good."

So in your less-than-humble opinion I should take my 6 Linux computers, install six copies of Windows 8.1 (snigger) and then install all the equivalent programs and for what ? They do all I want now ! I don't recognise your later comment that "They close their eyes to all the hoops they have to jump through to get things to work " Like all software there may be little tricks/snags or bugs but trivial and certainly no worst that comments made here about WIndows programs.

In any case why should you care, what does it matter to you ?

Chemist

Re: Chemist Darktable

"yay for Darktable, I also like Entangle."

Yes, I use Entangle as well - really good. Darktable took a little getting use to but now I'd be reluctant to use anything else.

Hugin I also like for panoramas.

Chemist

Re: Darktable

"Kdenlive is great, but it still crashes too often."

Interesting, I had lots of problems a few years ago but it's been rock solid on the 3 computers I use it on (i7 laptop 8GB, old AMD dual-core 2GB, Intel dual core 2GB) Certainly since I bought my current video camera early 2012 which is 1080p/50 so generates huge clips and rendered files. It took a few months for kdenlive to support 1080p/50. I'm using kdenlive 0.9.10 on OpenSUSE 13.1. What I did find was that all the necessary helper programs needed to be from the same repository

Chemist

Darktable

For RAW photo development

Kdenlive for video

Man asks internet for $1k for pebbles. INTERNET SAYS YES

Chemist

Re: missing the point

"Yes, but by what process? Any chemists care to comment?"

Not my field but I'd venture several processes might be going on depending on the length of time mixed & temperature.

Hydrolysis of some of the esters - not too much I'd guess but it will introduce small amount of acids.

An effect on the palate/taste receptors. 40% alcohol is a pretty wild environment for living cells.