Oh well, it is Friday after all...
Tired of tickling the kipper? Pissed off with paddling the pink canoe? Fucked off with flicking through the furry purse?
You need iVibe! Only $4.99 from the fapp store...
703 publicly visible posts • joined 17 Aug 2013
"the general FOSS community do not produce applications that can be used to manage the millions of x-ray images that are generated every year"
That's funny - the last time I looked at the back end system that manages the millions of x-ray images that the NHS generates per year, it was a collection of bespoke applications running on Solaris and JBOSS hooked up to an Oracle database. Not a hint of MS anywhere till you get to the local Trusts themselves.
You make a valid point that there are always going to be a few scenarios where a MS solution is much easier and therefore possibly cheaper. However, it's the mindset that MS is the panacea that fixes all problems and must be used that can and does give them the near monopoly they enjoy, which in turn allows them to be the money grabbing gits they can be if they think they can get away with it.
"All your data are belong to us"
Sorry to be finicky (ha, as if, this is El Reg), to follow the meme correctly, shouldn't that be "All your datum are belong to us."
Ahem. Aaaand back to the story... DNS availability does seem to be Virgin Broadband's major weakness in my experience. Throughput and latency over cable is generally good, but DNS response times and/or availability seems to vary from just about acceptable to utter crap on a day to day basis.
Meanwhile, down in hundred acre wood...
.
"Piglet?" said Winnie-the-Pooh.
"Yes Pooh?"
"When you go up to the big house with Christopher Robin, does his Mummy play with you too? She starts pulling my ears and making funny noises, and keeps talking about me finding her hunny pot. I can never find any hunny, however hard I look."
"No Pooh," said Piglet.
"That's what Eeyore said too. Bother..."
There's also Kim Stanley Robinson's excellent trilogy Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars. While being an entertaining sci-fi read, it's also almost a study on the scientific, political and sociological implications of the colonisation of another planet.
Highly recommended for Marsophiles (shut up, it's a perfectly cromulent word...)
Well, this is cliterally what will happen if you start *fannying around in a pubic place, though at least he didn't pussyfoot around, and he must have beavered away very hard to get into that position.
I know, that wasn't cunny at all, I'm going...
*Note to Septics - never tell a visiting Brit that it's OK to pat someone else's fanny in public...
"Oh my God, the sky's falling in"
Agreed, there are much more serious problems in the world, but Sonos systems, while being good (apart from their unreliable hardware controller - yes, I'm looking at you, Sonos), are pretty expensive, so there's a tendency for users to get a little more more splenetic than you'd expect if using it isn't like falling off a log.
My first impression was that they'd let someone with windows 8 design skills loose on it, which wasn't a good start...
"Sell Stephen Fry to Latin America!"
When they call him a national treasure, I don't think they have the piratey glittery sort you can sell or plunder in mind.
Besides, I'd miss the arguments on QI between Stephen Fry and David Mitchell about who gets more facts wrong on their respective broadcasts...
Poor man, I'm afraid you are suffering from a chronic case of Rashiporciphobia, a rare but debilitating condition usually caused by experiencing severe bacon trauma as a child. Treatment is freely available from your nearest British Agricultural Society registered therapist.
As an aside, may I suggest that, as someone with an extreme aversion to pork, working in a police station is not a good idea.
Oh, er, hello officer <coughs>, sorry, yes I'm afraid that was an unlicensed cheap joke, which has also breached its sell by date, I'll come quietly, no need for the cuffs...
Agreed. I've been watching this repetitive little saga with more sadness than interest since leaving DEC years ago, as senior management right royally fucked a once great company from the top down (this was when they still had good tech like the Alpha, so there was no excuse but poor management and lack of vision.)
DEC then bought out by Compaq, who also self-destructed and started a death spiral... who were bought out by HP, who also started a death spiral...
Will there be anything left of HP to buy out and who would buy it, or will it just be a hole in the ground by that point?
I'm not optimistic.
...hoping for a future where John Anderton walks into a 2150's shopping centre, and instead of hearing some sultry corporate Lexus tart murmuring 'The road you're on John Anderton is the road less travelled', or round the corner a laddish "John Anderton you could use a Guinness right about now", he loads AdSubvertorSublimeBroadcast7 and watches in satisfied amusement as the displays and announcements around him fall into darkness and silence, only springing back into life when he's long gone.
Oh well. I must be in a minority then...
"Perhaps the man who refers to himself as the mutha-fucking D.R.E is really worried about the mutha-fucking PAYE [er, you mean corporation tax, right? - Ed)."
Yo there Ed, you be messin' with his timin',
No mutha-fuckin' way you could eva call dat rhymin'.
.....
Ahem, OK, no rap career for me, I'll go quietly...
I know I'm probably replying to Trollio McTrollerson of Trollbridge, Trollshire (and if so apologies for feeding it), but just in case I'm not, according to that august body The European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights (yes it really does exist), copyright-intensive industries account for 4.7% of UK GDP and employ 1,188,970 people.
Though of course those figures weren't really pulled out of some eurocrat's backside whilst guzzling copious amounts of wine and cheese. I'm sure they were rigorously researched. No really, honestly, they were...
And getting back to the subject of the article, I imagine they'll be employing the same people that write the TV Licensing warning letters - the way they imply that you're going to court without actually taking you to court is bordering on fraudulent...
"The additional bases are pretty useless as there are no transfer RNAs or messenger RNAs which complement them"
Maybe it's just my cynical mind, but that fact that these bases can't currently be transcribed and translated could make them perfect for the creation of unique serial numbers within genetic code.
Oh goody gumdrops, next we'll have some government numpty trying to give us all genetic serial numbers and sticking us in a database, or we'll have big pharma copyrighting our genes and tagging them with serial numbers for when they take us to court.
Maybe I should STFU and stop giving them ideas...
People talk about the failure of Beagle 2. Personally, I think I'd probably consider it the greatest achievement of my life if I managed to get half a brick to Mars, let alone a small but perfectly formed spacecraft.
Let's just hope that the ideas and inspiration he left in his wake mean a high tech future for this country based on the efforts of people who think like he did, rather than one based on the dreams of stock brokers, media consultants and silicon roundabout types.
Colin Pillinger, the best thing since Blue Streak. I raise my glass.
"Call me cynical if you like, because I am."
Cynical? I'd call it realistic.
And I notice that anonymised data isn't even being mentioned any more, it's now 'pseudonymised' i.e. 'sort of' anonymous.
What's next? "Yeah, well, we might give them your name, address, date of birth, bank account details and full medical history, but we won't let them know your shoe size or the length of your dick, honest.."
Brilliant! Have an upvote. We are now living in the future!
On a more serious note, I noticed that one or more of the legs appeared to catch fire during the flight due to their proximity to the rocket motor, which was a bit worrying. After reading the Youtube notes I realised this won't be the actual flight configuration:-
"Early flights of F9R will take off with legs fixed in the down position. However, we will soon be transitioning to liftoff with legs stowed against the side of the rocket and then extending them just before landing."
"Are Border Control saying that their passport scanners are all linked to a separate IT system than the PCs they are sitting next to?"
If the border control system is anything like other public sector IT setups I've come across, it'll be made up of disparate systems cobbled together with middleware and what might as well be coat hangers and cabbage, so your suspicion may well be correct.
"We estimate that up to 750 employees will be impacted in the UK, all of whom will be supported professionally, compassionately and with assistance, where necessary, in their transition from CSC"
I think my babel fish needs some adjustment - when I read the above phrase out loud, it keeps translating it from HR speak to English as 'Pah, minions! Sod you and your jobs - have some peanuts and fuck off...'
'"donated the craft to the Smithsonian Museum" How generous :-)'
Dear Mr. Smithsonian,
You have been specially selected from thousands of eligible entrants to be the lucky recipient of a fantastic free gift!!! Yes, a late seventies solar research satellite can be yours, gratis, for absolutely *nothing!!!
*Plus special delivery charges of $2,999,999,999.99 Terms and conditions may apply.
"Out of curiosity, do you have to sleep on the sofa very often?"
Geneticists have speculated for some time by that there is indeed a gene found on the short arm of the Y chromosome that allows the human male to sleep in restricted spaces without getting a crick in his neck.
It appears to be linked to an as yet unidentified gene that allows the male to filter out higher pitched vocal sounds when attempting to watch sport, as well as being associated with a mutation that causes an awkward delay when responding to the question 'Does my bum look big in this dress?"...
Putin - Komrade, report!
Party apparatchik - Da Komrade President! Crimea has been subdued, I mean liberated, a suitable volcano with underground complex has been located, and plans for the secret space station on ze other side of ze moon are underway. Ze Komrade Deputy Prime Minister's announcement today will provide enough confusion so zey will not suspect a thing.
Putin - And what of our old imperialist enemies, ze Americans?
Party apparatchik - We have stolen ze last of zer secret Space Shuttle fleet, so the ze Americans no longer have manned space capability. And besides, zey hate ze continental Europeans with zer smelly cheese, pongy sausages and real coffee.
Putin - And will ze British be a problem?
Party apparatchik - Nyet Komrade President, our secret plan to buy ze whole of London and its financial infrastructure is progressing on schedule (ve are well ahead of ze Chinese), so zey are powerless to resist us. And besides, zey hate ze continental Europeans with zer smelly cheese, pongy sausages and over-rated wine.
Putin - And what of ze ozer Europeans?
Party apparatchik - We supply zer gas, so zey are powerless to resist as well! And besides, zey all hate ze Germans, with zer pongy sausages, sickeningly sweet wine and EU debt repayment policies.
<Smug white cat leaps into Putin's lap, curls up, and starts purring as he strokes it.>
Putin - Those crazy Americans, zey think i don't understand them, but I have seen Dr. Strangelove!
Party apparatchik - Vill zer be anything else, Komrade President?
Putin - Da, fetch me my cowboy hat.
Party apparatchik - At once, Komrade President!
Putin - Bwahahahaaa! I love it ven a plan comes together! Россия, Fuck Yeah!
"Given that the Snowden revelations are currently uncontested and widley known, is Sir Anthony Mays a fool or a liar, or a fool and a liar?"
You might think that in trying to answer that question, there's a clue in his title. But I couldn't possibly comment. <Cough> The Rt. Hon. Sir Anthony May.
As to our glorious dolphin leader, you can almost see the string moving every time his mouth opens...