Posts by Francis Boyle

Re: I wonder

Unfortunately in the language of the Lovejoyese "gin and tonic" refers to a drink almost but not entirely like flat Fanta.

Re: Terrible episode

Looks like someone has never seen "The Pirate Planet".

Re: Disturbing the Universe

"what happens if funding for the laser beam is used up, and it gets, turned off?"

You end up with one very pissed off probe which you better hope doesn't meet some sort of vast machine intelligence.

Re: But most importantly...

She helped the Doctor fight the [SPOILERS REDACTED]. Probably. Some time soon.

Which of course explains the phone. Are there any pictures of her wearing sunglasses?

Re: Not theat simple

My car is old and falling apart. I want a new one. Ram the driverless Volvo!

Then I look forward to seeing you on "The World's Craziest Drivers - It's Not Just Russia Anymore" compilation coming soon to Youtube.

As for hacking - if you have access and intent why not just cut the brake line. It's a more plausible method of causing mayhem than trying to make a car drive on the wrong side of the road.

Grease pencil IIRC

Presumably ones without a wooden casing.

I think

it's the wolves we need to worry about. I mean they seem to be evolving to feed on radiation. The travel machines can't be too far down the line. Perhaps we should set a watch for horribly disfigured lupine geniuses.

They laughed at the inventor of the gas mask bra as well

Not really relevant - I just like to laugh at the inventor of the gas mask bra.

Re: The End of Cosplay

You buy your costume from an outfit licenced to produce it commercially or you do it properly and make it yourself. Either way you're safe from the lawyers.

Re: Duuurrrrhhhhhh.

And the mathematical description of a typical knitted article requires reference to more dimensions than my brain is comfortable with. I'll stick to QM.

In that case

I look forward to NASA discovering that one bit of Pluto that looks uncannily like a quarry in Wales. (Or possibly the roof of an office building in Basingstoke.)

except that

very few people actually believe those two things. First, reducing congestion is pretty far down on the list of proposed benefits. My number one is not being run down by some idiot fondling their phone when they pretending to be driving. The car sharing idea is an unrelated fantasy. Sure, A.I. cars might make it a little more effective, but if it were such an attractive idea we'd all be using taxis already.

Second, this has nothing to do with "strong" AI. What is making self-driving cars possible is the Google approach of throwing massive computational resources and some clever domain specific algorithms at the problem and observing what works.

Finally, I'd take an AI car that sits there confused at a show-off cyclist (or whatever) over the Natural Idiot who plows on confident that their "above-average" skills will get them out of anything their stupidity can get them into.

Re: Could be interesting

I was going to say the same thing but 1920x1080 is only something like 130ppi. Usable, probably, but a bit of a come down to what we're used to on tablets. (If you can't get up close, what's the point.)

Re: Must everything be a femenist statement these days?

Coming from the land downunde,r as I do, I can assure you, that if it's crazy Aussies you want, you'd be mad to leave out the women.

And yes that's a "femenist" statement.

Not

since they added autotune to the firmware.

Don't worry

Things will be fine just as long as we don't adopt the leaf as a unit of currency.

Re: D'Oh!

I hear they're working on a plan to trigger a gamma ray burst. They just need to find a spare supercomputer to caclulate the guide number.

Re: Call me paranoid but...

Nah, PLA Unit 61398 is the Porn Police. You're thinking of Unit 61274.

I'd have thought ricin

was more likely. Or dioxin. Gotta maintain those traditions.

Re: Am I just too pessimistic?

Thing is, if you're a well paid doctor in the first world why wouldn't you pay $200 extra for a well made example something that is after all a symbol of your profession. The desire to have something that's attractive beyond it's functionality is, after all, how Apple made it's fortune. The real shame (and surprise) is that there isn't already a cheap plastic stethoscope for situations where functionality is the only concern. Unless of course, there already is, and the article is just yet-more 3D printing hype.

Re: the "China Export" logo exists

A bureaucrat claiming they are not aware of something is on par with a politician being unable to recall.

Or indeed anyone who 'follows' her.

Re: Nice photo framing...

I might find it more Orwellian if I could stop thinking about the giant kitten.

Maybe I should watch The War Machines a few more times. That should do it.

Re: This would have been interesting a few years back.

Iceland was declared a terrorist organisation? Hell, I know Bjork's voice gets on some people nerves but it's hardly a WMD.

Re: The Internet of Things summarised

Provide an interface to /dev/random and I'm in.

About time

someone built that hyperspatial bypass then.

What do you mean, that's not how a hyperspatial bypass works?

It's an amputee

you insensitive clod.

Re: Works 4 me

A troll is a. . .

Re: 'Pay once, use forever'...?

"That might work for Adobe, but I suspect Microsoft will find it tougher going. "

"Chrome OS: All your data are belong to us but, hey, no subscription fees ever."

Yes,

with handles.

Re: Transfer Efficiency?

Overhead bus stop charging systems already exist and are almost certainly more efficient (and therefore faster) than this system. This looks to be very niche. It has the advantage of being weather sealed but where that's not needed a simple mechanical arm is likely a better solution.