Posts by RockBurner

"...every 20 seconds, it can take a photo with a 15 second long exposure time."

I'm guessing around about 5 seconds....

Re: NORAD is going to love this - not

They're all delivery rockets...

Re: Ahhh the joys

Whose head?

Re: Obligatory....Browncoat Icon

I was going to comment that the code obviously needed a good "scrub", but wasn't sure if that might have been a somewhat overly oblique cross-reference.

Re: Ouch

" It's like they have no clue that the user doesn't already know what they know"

This goes for pretty much every one I have ever encountered in any technological scenario whatsoever.

Having extensive knowledge about a subject seems to confer on any given human the automatic assumption that everyone else has that knowledge, it takes a particular mentality to get over that hurdle and be able to explain things to those without the knowledge.

I'll freely admit that I suffer from it myself, and often find it very difficult to "think down" to the level required to explain complicated things without sounding incredibly patronising.

Re: What' time is it, Eccles?

Ah, great stuff....

For what it's worth, there's a lot of Goon Shows now on Spotify.

Re: The PFY outshining the master?

"...spinning fan"

I think you meant "rotating localised-atmosphere distribution device".

Re: Theoretically speaking?

"it means that entire disciplines could be locked down by opportunists without the need to actually implement any demonstrable invention"

Yup - that's exactly how the US patent system works. Patents are only tested for originality or practicability when they are challenged by either a competitor, ie a holder of a similar patent, or when the holder uses said patent to crush (read: overwhelm and buyout) an "imposter" who actually gets something relatively similar to work.

From a UK perspective it is indeed a very, very odd system: only of any benefit to lawyers (guess who wrote the rules...)

Re: I see what you did there!!!

Also - no Blackadder references.

Re: "coloured pencil office"

Makes for a good woodsaw too.

Re: Just wondering....

You mean duct tape?

Re: ''split'

"But the one idea everyone seems to want to steal is the walled garden and its entrance fee"

Welcome to Capitalism.

Re: Just read this while

I think that qualifies as a no-score draw.

Re: Slow down

"the media still can't get away from Trump. Their constant coverage is surely feeding in to the hype, intentionally or otherwise."

I always find whinging about the behaviour of the media like this to be counter-productive. The media exists to sell media. Be that airtime/printed paper/bandwidth whatever - the "media" will tell any story they can get away with that will increase their sales (and, often, no, not within reason, especially these days).

If a story, or (more accurately), a story told in a certain way, will get people to consume the media, without getting the media source sued, it will be released, no matter the consequences to any person connected to the story or not.

A media source may well have an agenda, but it will always be secondary to the prime motivator.... money.

Re: Explosion proofing

I know the stuff (neoprene based at the time, the modern stuff is even better), and have tested it personally numerous times. I"ve also had accidents where I wasn't wearing armour.... and bear the scars. Now I won't ride a bike without it.

Incidentally - I once did the steel ball trick on some of the standard "foam" type armour and the ball bounced back about half the height it had dropped from. (luckily when it subsequently dropped onto the glass counter top the glass didn't break.... made the entire shop staff jump though. :D)

Re: Pedant? moi?

I'm aware, I do think the concept merits further discussion though.

Re: Going to be awkward

That's only of use if there's any form of signal at all.

The vast majority of the city closest to me (Chichester - ok, it's more of a small town than a city...) has no signal whatsoever (from EE at least), and what there is is very slow.

My first car was a BMW 316 in that colour....

Re: On the other hand...

"Never fails to amaze just how insanely mean (cheap) that otherwise extremely profitable enterprises can be when provisioning mission critical services"

How else do you think they become "extremely profitable"?

Re: NC range

Not sure who started the "modular" production approach to motorcycles but BMW certainly used it with aplomb since the middle of the last century at least.

You could probably argue that NVT (Norton Villiers Triumph) did it too, but that was more a badge-engineering effort (ie produce one bike and slap different brand/model names on them at random).

Re: Another AI image

Cheaper to ask an AI image generator for a jpb than to pull something from Shutterstock?

Re: Joaquin Phoenix

Seconded, first actor I thought of when reading the article.

You're right in one way.... however, the human mind needs to be able to deal with unpleasantness in a way that prevents permanent scarring, otherwise it simply would break down and be unable to function after a while. Humour is the release valve that allows the mind to deal with horror.

Re: The Seven Ages of Rocketry, or something

Thanks for the correction. :)

Of course I am aware of laser-sintering and other "3D-printing" methods, do'h.

Re: WTF?

"What is going in inside that trash can..."

You don't want to know....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqpak5lFxvs&ab_channel=SaturdayNightLive

Re: When it becomes possible

Define "near".

(in the context of FTL drives, London is slap-bang next to Tokyo, or any other residential area on this little blue dot).

Ah - the benefits of proofing....

I assume that term is banished from current school curricula.

Re: Why???

2 people watching the same movie/youtube whilst sitting opposite each other?

Re: Hands Free..........

One "boss" (small* company director) I had expected his minions to listen to his calls; well, his half of his calls, said half comprising mostly of single word responses: "yes", "ok", "fine", "no" etc; and then be able to pick up a new project and start running with it, assuming they'd heard (how??) everything the other party had been yammering about.

He tried it with me twice: the first time I told him "I don't listen to other people's calls, it's rude and invasive", and he filled me in on the details with very bad grace **, and luckily I moved desk away from him very soon after.

The second time, (about 10 years later when I'd finally had enough of his utterly moronic bullshit) I quit.

* in both senses

** well - he was Australian too, which didn't help matters.

Re: Off topic

"Power User": someone much more important than you.... mmmkay.

Re: less-noisy maybe but still un-sound

I might be wrong, but I seem to remember that the later variants of the F-15 can do it now. (and have fuel left over.....)

Re: Did I get this right?

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

oh, boy you make me laugh.

I live in a postcode with 4 buildings.

We are never going to get FTTP.

By a cunning irony that only modern life could bring...

The Fibre backbone runs directly past the house and there's a junction box (or whatever it's called) less than 20 metres away.

I spoke to the (soon to be made redundant) operative working on it only a week or so ago, and he confirmed that the fibre upgrades going out were for 'yet-to-be-built' estates in the next village/town, but our place (despite being less than 20 metres away, as said), would be highly unlikely to ever get fibre.

Obviously you can't just run a hosepipe from said junction box to the house.... I get that it's more complex than that, but still galling as f***.

Re: Re Not many mice make it past their fifth birthday

Not sure I've ever replaced a mouse because it stopped working.... I tend to replace them because the next new/better/shinier one comes along.

(Having said that, I don't use mice, I prefer Trackballs, and there's a limited number on the market, but they tend to all be reasonably good)