Posts by Francis Boyle

Penicillin?

Florey wasn't Scottish.

Yes, but at least

the Google version will show you a selection of the worlds funniest ads before you die.

Remind me to

replace every 'less than' sign in my code with the 'fewer than' when I figure out what that is.

Seriously, mathematically speaking, integers are just a subset of numbers so I don't think the fewer/less distinction has that much utility.

You'll create a feedback loop that will generate a metastable Higg's boson and destroy the universe.

Not just Diskdrake

I miss approximately 50% of the Mandriva Control Centre features.

Harry Lime

clearly forgot about the Swiss army knife.

Let me be the first to say

as a pround Laniakean that those Persues-Piscans totally suck.

Re: Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton and Ariana Grande

"I must confess my immediate thought on reading the headline was "Eben Upton is a celebrity now?""

Well some people seem to be a big fan of his "pins".

Even in the Pleistocene

Twitter was a pain in the arse.

Re: Just a small point...

The Adafruit 2.8" touchscreen uses something less than 500 mW. Admittedly at 320x240 it's not something you'd want to use for extended periods but its shows what's possible with a little ingenuity.

Re: The B got a memory memory in a previous rev

Surely "the point" of a Raspberry Pi is to do whatever you want with it? If it works, why not?

And extra points for doing something no one else has done, like, er, putting it in a rocket plane.

Re: DDG?

Must be a slow day in Redmond.

Re: On YouTube

Try this. A little pixelated but perfectly watchable.

Re: The big problem up there

"The stuff in a polar orbit does not fly at the same altitude as stuff in an equatorial orbit or a LEO."

Have they assigned flight levels to the various types of orbit? Not that that would work - apart from being non-circular, orbits change and decay hence the need for station keeping. If something's in a fixed orbit it's because someone wants it to stay there.

I think In Oz

we call that an Abetz.

Re: uh, no

I'd go with 30mm rotary cannon like on the A10 and the first person I'd target would be whoever came up with the stupid idea of connecting a smartphone to a HUD. On second thoughts, make that the marketing director of Navdy. (The CEO would be second, then the person who thought up the idea.)

Re: "Best is cheapest"

Cheapest is usually crap because there's always a manufacturer out there willing to compromise on a critical component. Cheapest plus 10-20% is a good rule if value is what you're aiming at but as always exceptions. The trick of course is to recognise them and there's no rule for that. (Except reading el Reg comments that is.)

Re: Speed of light

or 700 thousand Angstroms. Things that happen fast tend to be small.

Re: Excellent!

I think I saw Arecibo on there once but I had to pass since there was no pick up option.

Assuming

they're not being deliberately misleading and are quoting the efficiency at 100 cycles because that's what they've tested (rather than because, say, it drops off a cliff at 101 cycles) I'd suspect that at 1000 cycles it's still pretty good. (99% efficiency is good for any technology - 99.9% is better.) But as always with these new battery technologies it's wait and see.

I don't know

but you might start by looking at the demographic stats in the country where your "perfect company" is located.

Re: I wonder how many manhours and expense ....

Didn't you know, they outsource it to the El Reg headline writers. It's a nice little sideline.

Re: Is it really metadata?

Well if you wanted to be ultra-pedantic you could argue that any data on a system that is not (directly or indirectly) user-generated constitutes metadata but have an upvote anyway.

The pics would be useless too

Who wants to see just the edges of a hot models?

or maybe

Per ardua add alcohol.

Time to arm

the fuel air self destruct system. They do have one, don't they?

Re: smashing idea, but...

Well the paintball sentry gun in the video above appears to have a colour rejection mode so I suppose you'd just have to paint your dog blue.

I'd like to see the day

when Top Gear confines its insults to the Welsh.

Re: Battery Times

"Fact is Hydrogen is the cheapest & cleanest plus fastest Tech we have today"

Pity it's efficiency is on a par with an electric powered steam engine.

Re: But what I want to know is...

Appraise it. They're probably working on sending a Death Star to disintegrate it. Can't have the price of a common form of one of the most abundant elements in the universe fall to it's natural level.

watching avidly on the tellies in their room

Don't you mean snuggled up under the covers with their phone watching Porntube.

The relevance of this comment is left as an exercise for the rader.

Well I've heard

it's Lego all the way at NASA.

I'd like to see you say that to

Tommy Flowers

Impossible

Cracked is actually funny.

Dammit, it's always Hal

Why don't I ever get the sexy female AI?