* Posts by Aqua Marina

631 publicly visible posts • joined 30 Dec 2011

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NASA to reformat Opportunity rover's memory from 125 million miles away

Aqua Marina

@ Destroy all monsters

Which bit, the wasting money, or the 10 year egg on face?

If the latter think about a group of scientists in a room right now.

Scientist 1) "I think this new Mars project will last 6 months."

Scientist 2) "What would you know, your last estimate was out by a factor of 40!!!"

So I'm back to the first part. A whole lot of money was deemed to be acceptably wasted which I find a bit strange.

Unless the idea was "Hey we're struggling to find funds to keep us in a job, lets send an RC car to Mars, and we'll tell the government that it will only last 90 days, then don't forget to act surprised when it keeps on going, they'll have to fund us for decades!!!"

PS I'm not belittling the spectacular achievement that we have invaded a whole planet with robots. I'm just surprised that the best brains of the planet couldn't come up with a way to keep the robots working past 90 days in the first place, or that no-one figured out that the weather wasn't all that bad in the first place.

Aqua Marina

Re: Dust removal

Which to me still doesn't make sense. They expected to lose the rovers after 90 days due to dust build-up, so there was a planned multimillion $ write-off from the start. A few scratches are here nor there in the grand costs.

Unless the plan was to waste that money, so now someone at NASA has had a 10 year egg on their face :)

Aqua Marina

"For solar-powered planetary explorers, dust is a killer. "

What strikes me as odd, is that knowing this someone made the decision to send them up anyway and write off the rovers after 90 days, rather than fit a wiper-blade on the solar panels.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to, oh wait....

I often wonder if there was a lone scientist in the room at briefings that said "you know guys, if we were to fit a wiper blade, we could keep these things going for at least 10 years", at which point he'd be laughed out of the room.

True fact: 1 in 4 Brits are now TERRORISTS

Aqua Marina

Democratic process

Here's a thought. If those 25% got their act together, they could become a significant majority and use the democratic process to effect real change. It would probably be more effective than any act of terrorism with the way voting apathy has been going in Britain.

Gigantic toothless 'DRAGONS' dominated Earth's early skies

Aqua Marina
Happy

You're having a giraffe!

That's not a dragon, someone's drawn wings on a giraffe.

£100m DMI omnifail: BBC managers' emails trawled by employment tribunal

Aqua Marina
Joke

In other news...

...The BBC announced today it was dropping the requirement within the organisation to archive emails. A new system of emails older than 30 days being deleted automatically has been introduced. A BBC spokesman said "Removing the burden of long time email archive will free up support time, and reduce the excessive costs associated with unnecessarily storing years worth of emails in a readily searchable way".

Lawyer for alleged Silk Road kingpin wants all evidence thrown out

Aqua Marina

Kind of reminds me of

Judge Chamberlain Haller:

"Mr. Gambini?"

Vinny Gambini:

"Yes sir?"

Judge Chamberlain Haller:

"Mr. Gambini, that is a lucid, well thought-out, intelligent objection."

Vinny Gambini:

"Thank you."

Judge Chamberlain Haller:

"Overruled."

Microsoft: We're making ONE TRUE WINDOWS to rule us all

Aqua Marina

Re: One OS

You're remembering "Horse Drives Car"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH23Om-awnY

Cave pits, ideal for human bases, FOUND ON MOON

Aqua Marina

First Men in the Moon

This article reminded me of a film I first watched in my primary school days, many many decades ago. Never seen it again since. Maybe I should download it.

http://bbbms.blogspot.co.uk/2003_10_11_bbbms_archive.html

Get an EYEFUL OF CURRY for the sake of your brain

Aqua Marina

Re: All in favour say Eye

A guy goes to the doctor. The doctor pokes and prods him, and then leaves the room. When he comes back, his face is grave. "Well?", the guy inquires.

The doctor responds, "Well, I have bad news and worse news."

The guy says, "Let's hear the worse news first."

The doctor says, "I'm sorry to say that you have cancer."

The guy shakes his head, and says, "Wow...what's the bad news?"

The doctor says, "The bad news is that you have Alzheimer's disease."

The guy says, "Ahh...well, at least I don't have cancer."

'The writing is TOO SMALL': MPs row over Parliamentary move to Office 365

Aqua Marina

Show me the data!

And where geographically is the data belonging to our beloved electorate actually stored????

Aqua Marina

@Except pee while standing up.

Go download "The Full Monty" off Bit Torrent, then come back and say that!!!!!

Doctor Who season eight scripts leak online

Aqua Marina

Erm, they have a time machine, can't they just go back and delete the files before they are discovered?

Virgin Media goes titsup AGAIN. The cause? Yet MORE DNS strife

Aqua Marina
Joke

Re: Is it because they are....

Or maybe, Microsoft have issued an ex-parte takeover of their DNS servers, got a judge to agree with it, and hit Virgin with a gagging order stopping them talking about it.....

Nah... that would be too far fetched to be credible

Sorry, chaps! We didn't mean to steamroller legit No-IP users – Microsoft

Aqua Marina

nor mine

nor mine

Microsoft's anti-malware crusade knackers '4 MILLION' No-IP users

Aqua Marina
Coffee/keyboard

MS Dynamic DNS

Am I the only one thinking that any day now MS will be announcing a new dynamic DNS service powered by Azure, and they will probably cite the downtime from the failure of No-IP as a case study for using their service compared to other less reliable suppliers.

Police at the door? Hit the PANIC button to erase your RAM

Aqua Marina

Does this mean future raid teams will be skilled in knife throwing????

The enemy can not push a button... if you disable his hand.

Medic!

OpenStreetMap declared ready for paid use after satnav app debut

Aqua Marina

"...its first inclusion in a commercial satellite navigation app."

OSM has been used in Skobbler Sat Nav for years now.

Spy back doors? That would be suicide, says Huawei

Aqua Marina

would be “commercial suicide”.

Microsoft said something similar when asked if they broke Windows on DR Dos.

Google adds a sense of history to Street View with archive footage

Aqua Marina

Dr Who

I'm now thinking, how long will it be before we spot a staged storyline in Street View like something out of a Dr Who episode, where you can see a series of events over varied locations, and through time. If you look at all the images chronalogically in the order they are recorded on the street mean nothing, but 10 years down the line, someone will spot the plot and will piece it together.

Next Windows obsolescence panic is 450 days from … NOW!

Aqua Marina

I remember that story...

This was it

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/04/12/missing_novell_server_discovered_after/

And this one is a good read

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/03/epic-uptime-achievement-can-you-beat-16-years/

OK, we get the message, Microsoft: Windows Defender splats 1000s of WinXP, Server 2k3 PCs

Aqua Marina

Re: Well...

All my crap is HP branded. Oh look, they deal with the warranty themselves!!!!

Aqua Marina

Re: Well...

No, but for the first time ever, I've been given permission by a unanimous board today to buy what I need to fix the problem, and as a result I've now spent all of our Ebuyer.com credit limit, in one purchase!!!!

I might have squoze the odd network switch replacement, SSD, and RAM upgrade into next tuesdays delivery too :)

Aqua Marina

Re: Well...

I had a similar conversation with my frothing-at-the-mouth FD this morning, after 10% of our PC base had died since yesterday, and users were sitting down twiddling their thumbs.

First I reminded him that the documented 2014 budget proposal that I submitted last year had covered replacing all XP machines by April, but that the expenditure was overruled because I was told that nothing bad would suddenly happen that could kill all of our XP machines at once.

Then I again reminded him that my justification when questioned before the board, over removing all XP machines was that once the official support date has passed, it would only take a single untested software update to kill all our identical machines (at which I used identical twins as an analogy, and how genetically an affliction that kills one twin, usually kills another twin unless the other twin seeks treatment straight away (I also discussed virus outbreaks at the same time)), I also pointed out that once the official support date had passed, it would be unlikely that software manufacturers would test new releases of software against XP, and that I joked that the cynical would suggest that MS would deliberatly build in obsolesence to XP so that it died shortly after support expired.

Luckily for me all said meetings are minuted and right now the board are pointing fingers at each other, rather than me.

Personally I believe that what happenned yesterday was a result of MS not testing against XP, or inadvertantly releasing a non-XP update for XP, because it's not MS policy to test anything against XP.

Considering that today has been a total arse for me and my department, I feel strangely liberated, smug and awesome!!!!

TrueCrypt audit: Probe's nearly all the way in ... no backdoor hit yet

Aqua Marina
Black Helicopters

Here's hoping that iSEC Partners are not already subject to a gagging order preventing them from disclosing that Truecrypt is riddled with NSA backdoors!

Wookiee! CHEWIE'S BACK in Star Wars Ep VII – blab Hollywood 'sources'

Aqua Marina

Re: WORTH THE PRICE OF ADMISSION....

No too far off the truth, Peter Mayhew has been unable to walk without the aid of, erm, walking aids for some years now. He might not be too bad if they film him from the waist up, but unfortunatly he isn't in a fit enough state to reprise walking chewie, never mind running.

Homeopathic remedies contaminated with REAL medicine get recalled

Aqua Marina

Re: Aqua Marina

Ok, but if some diagnoses of "it will never get better" are wrong, can some diagnoses of "homeopathy never works" be equally wrong?

My opinion of this topic so far, is that science and doctors can do no wrong. But... when they do get it wrong, the response is, "meh everyone is human". But they don't apply the same "meh, shit happens" when casting judgement on anything that goes against the perceived wisdom, that they just decided could be infalliable in another circumstance.

Aqua Marina

Re: What do we do for those for whom it works?

By that reasoning why should modern science expel effort try to disprove it?

Don't get me wrong, I believe in modern science. But what do we do with the people for whom it would and does work? I'm here, and my mother is still alive despite the best doctors telling her she should be dead and they don't know why.

What would you have told me and my mum to do at the time?

Everyone else If you are going to downvote, at least have the guts to explain your reasoning.

Aqua Marina

What do we do for those for whom it works?

My mother was in a wheelchair caused by psoriatic arthritis. She was told after 20 years of failed treatments that she would never walk again, and she was literally left to waste away in a wheelchair and die. She turned to homeopathy, and now 10 years later, and double the weight she was in the wheelchair, walks several miles per day and is quite energetic and well known on the car-boot scene.

I was diagnosed at 13 with an undefined skin disease. From 13 to 21 I was passed from doctor to specialist to doctor. Was filled to the brim with antibiotics and the most expensive and powerful drugs I could be prescribed on the NHS. I even went private which cost my parents a fortune. At 22 I was told that there was nothing more that could be done. I turned to Homeopathy. I'm now 40, and the only sign of a skin disease left on my body is a 1 inch square spot of psoriasis on my thigh, and a white patch of hair, about an inch square on my head.

Now in these instances, I ask non-believers what they think people in my mother's and my case should do. Should we simply accept modern sciences proclamation that there nothing more that can be done, admit defeat and wait to die, or do we go out looking for alternatives. Please provide me with your insight on what your prescription should be. What should we have done?

To me it's simple. I'll start to believe modern science, when they perform alternative medicine research, using subjects for whom all other medical treatments have been exhausted.

No Notch niche: Minecraft man in rift with Oculus after Facebook gobble

Aqua Marina

It's just struck me that the Wii U might inadvertently be an ideal VR platform. It already has a portable controller with built in screen. I bet I could take it apart and convert it into a VR headset myself, coupled with the motion plus bits of the old controllers, and come up with something useable within a few hours.

NASA: Earth JUST dodged comms-killing SOLAR BLAST in 2012

Aqua Marina

Analogue Nuclear?

Are nuclear powerstations controlled by manual technologies, so that in the event of electrical failure, an engineer can turn off the powerstation using his pliers and wrench set?

Just wondering what would have happenned if electrical control systems were fried.

Blighty goes retro with 12-sided pound coin

Aqua Marina

Re: ISIS Security

Each year the royal mint produces coins and notes with Charles's head on them, just in case the queen dies. A couple of years ago some of these found their way into general circulation. They are now worth a fortune in coin collectors circles, because they have his head, and what was the current year on them, and they are legal tender.

Beastie Boys settle with toy maker over Girls copyright dispute

Aqua Marina

Re: The hidden beauty of U.S. copyright law.

This explains it

http://www.legalzoom.com/intellectual-property-rights/copyrights/2-live-crew-weird-al

Aqua Marina

Re: Who sued who?

It's exactly what happened. The toy makers preemptively sought "Injunctive Relief" to stop the Beastie Boys from sueing them for using their song. The Beastie Boys obligingly did follow up with a lawsuit.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/28/goldieblox_apologises_to_beastie_boys_over_girls_parody/

X marks the... They SAID there was a mystery planet there – NASA

Aqua Marina
Alien

Nibiru

Maybe they should ask the ancient Sumarians for directions!

Massive new AIRSHIP to enter commercial service at British dirigible base

Aqua Marina

@ TRT Re: They almost laughed him out of the boardroom...

Here have a thumbs up for the Thunderbirds quote. And boo to the 2 people who voted you down, clearly not fans.

They should paint the airship green and stick a big yellow "2" on it.

Microsoft: NSA snooping? Code backdoors? Our hands are clean!

Aqua Marina

Piffle

I remember the UK MS Marketing Director in the 90s saying in a magazine interview that MS would never break competitors products at a binary level, because to do so would be commercial suicide.

We all know how that turned out.

Don't believe a word MS say. They didn't become the worlds richest company by being ethical and honest.

Terrifying photo special: 'Electric Cannon' anal orgasmo-probe in use ... on a BULL

Aqua Marina
Coat

Come again?

Hot Stuff! NASA mulls 'urgent' space walk as ISS cooler conks out

Aqua Marina

It's getting hot in here

Opening a few windows cools down my caravan in the sun.

Ultimate Doctor Tom Baker REGENERATES, RETURNS to WHO

Aqua Marina

Re: Prediction

I agree, it would be sad if Ecclestone still maintains his distancing himself from the role that re-launched the most successful British Sci Fi export ever. Even McGann has made an appearance on a canon mini-webisode.

Aqua Marina

Re: thrilled

Funny thing is, in subsequent interviews, he regretted not appearing in The 5 Doctors properly, and carried on traversing the Dr Who appearances circuit. So not too sure why the article says that Baker is (was?) on a haitus.

'Weird' OBJECT, PROPELLED by its OWN JETS, spotted beyond Mars orbit by Hubble

Aqua Marina
Mushroom

NIBIRU!!!!!

A few years or so late!

Cameron pledges public access to list of who REALLY owns firms

Aqua Marina

This could easily be fixed by legislation that taxes the company as an individual at income tax rates until clear owners can be identified. As a UK LTD company it would be bound by such laws and profits would be taxed before they can leave the country. Simples.

Bucket? Check. Toilet plunger? Check. El Reg's 50 years of Doctor Who

Aqua Marina

Re: Only 11 actors?

or Rowan Atkinson, Richard E Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant and even Joanna Lumley!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0212887/ (and can easily be found on Youtube)

Aqua Marina

Re: Only 11 actors?

Cushing played a human called Doctor Who who invented a time machine called the Tardis. He didn't play the Gallifreyan Timelord called "Doctor" "The Doctor" or "John Smith".

A bit like Bob Holness played James Bond once, but rarely is he referred to as one of the actors that played James Bond.

Murdoch calls for world+dog to 'expose' Google

Aqua Marina

robots.txt???

Given Googles history of treating other people's IP content as an all you can eat buffet. Does this actually stop Google doing anything, or simply tell them to acquire what they want via other means less blatantly?

Ex-Sun journalist charged with handling a stolen mobile phone

Aqua Marina

"May I remind all concerned...

... that criminal proceedings against Ben Ashford will now be commenced and that he has a right to a fair trial".

It's a pity the Sun didn't consider that in their witch-hunts of Robert Murat or Christopher Jefferies.

Google's boffins branded 'unacceptably ineffective' at tackling web piracy

Aqua Marina

Re: Ask one back

Colour photocopiers know when you are trying to copy money. Every colour copier I've used in the last 20 years has stopped this. Technical solutions are readily available for specific instances.

Aqua Marina

Re: A coherent responsible answer

Would be just as easy to block "justin bieber never say never torrent".

Space-walker nearly OPENED HELMET to avoid DROWNING

Aqua Marina

Is it a very hostile environment???

... or is it a non-existant one?

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