Posts by JeffyPooh

Even still...

...that's much much better than SAP.

Norton downloads 46 files to check for updates

I posted on my blog about how NIS07 has to download about 46 separate files just to check to see if there are any updates. It takes about a full minute even with high speed Internet - just to CHECK for updates. My blog post on this subject included a cut-and-paste text grab of the entire 3-foot long process of checking for updates. What was their first reaction? They disabled right-click in that update window (as if that slowed me down by even 5 seconds). They really 'fixed it' in NIS08 by hiding the details of the world's most inefficient update check process. They're not only stupid, but they also have an evil streak too.

RSS 4 PSP

I use my PSP mostly for audio podcasts. It automatically downloads a selection (RSS) every night via WiFi, and when I have time I just plug in the earphones and listen. It's pretty sweet in this application; if it did nothing else it'd be worth every penny. But it does so much more too.

I've got an idea...

I was reading up on the global warming impact of the concrete industry (which is variously reported as being somewhere between big and huge, 'up to 15% of all man-made CO2 emissions' by some reports).

The concrete industry claim (I think they mean in the best case, the most energy efficient) that 40% of the CO2 from concrete comes from the fuel / energy required to burn the limestone, and 60% comes from the CO2 expelled from the burning limestone itself.

The next claim is that the 60% portion is all reabsorbed (from the atmosphere) into the crumbling concrete over the next few (many?) hundred years so it doesn't really count in the long run.

Anyway, here is the suggestion: A concrete plant is a perfect example of a major point source. So, whatever it costs, sequester the CO2 from all concrete plants. Just do it. The plants can even be relocated to optimum locations and the concrete moved around by train. You can't ask for better than major point sources where you can even adjust the schedule of emissions (unlike power plants). It doesn't get any better.

Now, with this plan, the concrete becomes a NEGATIVE source of CO2 as it reabsorbs CO2 (the 60%) from the atmosphere over the following few (many?) hundred years.

It's 1.6 for the price of 1.0 !!! And on major regional point sources that are already a best-case. And the concrete industry need not complain because if they accept this challenge, then we will throw huge buckets of money at them. They should get rich and deservedly so if they help out in this manner.

It's a no brainer.

Send the Nobel Prize via e-mail.

Just send your secret messages ...

... in Swedish. Nobody can decipher that crazy stuff.

PS: Mig förmiddag som lurar precis dig enfaldig gås.

We have a Wii...

An|d th|e scree|n look|ed like this.

So| we |exchan|ged it,| but guess

wh|at? |The rep|lacem|ent Wii has

th|e sa|me vide|o GPU| fault. Sigh,

it'|s rea|lly anno|ying t|o have to

send th|e secon|d unit back...

Angular momentum

As Ian K mentioned, angular momentum can cause interesting effects. If these gadgets were used to replace batteries in hybrid cars, then it might be difficult (for example) to turn left. If you used two of them spinning in opposite directions to try to counter the effect, then the mount may (for example) flex up and down as the car turns left and right. Or the chassis may tilt left or right under acceleration. This sort of behaviour might be very useful for comedy cars.

Sigh...

Leslie: "...old diesel smoke belcher does 40mpg, and a new clean emissions car does 40mpg, then surely the effect on the environment is equal..."

Ah - no.

The traditional old pollutants (such as NOx) actually have significant greenhouse effects in addition to their good old fashioned air pollution effects. If I recall correctly, NOx is many many many (300?) times worse than CO2. So your old smoke belching diesel, even at 40 mpg, is an environmental pig from both the traditional air pollution view AND the greenhouse gases view. Sorry...

It is only the VERY latest clean burning diesels that are actually anything close to being green and clean. Congratulations to the engineers that made it so.

Unfortunately for the fate of the world, this fact makes a lie of the purported 'Global Warming' benefits of many public transit systems that relay on old smoke belching diesel powered buses. If those public transit systems were rapidly updated with modern clean-burning diesels, then perhaps they'd help. But I've noted that the smoke belching buses in many cities are THE prime source (by far!) of sidewalk level air pollution, not to mention noise pollution (only knuckle-dragging idiots on Harleys are worse), not to mention plugging up the roads, not to mention driving around most of the day empty. If only they provide the benefits attributed to them, oh if only...

This just in:

The CO2 output from the pine beetle infestation of British Columbia may exceed the entire CO2 output attributed to all Canadian human activities (excluding I suppose the long term mismanagement of the BC forests...).

So if humans were a logical species, we would immediately turn our attention to solving the pine beetle infestation in BC as the top Canadian priority. One single problem that would halve (HALVE!!!!) the CO2 output from Canada. But no... it's all window dressing and a primal, almost homosexual (not that there's anything wrong with that), fixation on automotive tail pipes. Even just the manufacture of concrete emits MANY times the CO2 of cars and airplanes combined.

We're doomed. And deservedly so. Because we're idiots.

I need examples...

...Lots of examples. What's just inside the law, and what's just outside the law. The government should provide these example on-line so that everyone can see them and understand the legal limit.

@Andus McCoatover

By your "Pringles" etc. comment you appear to assume that the keyfob is transmitting in the 2.4 GHz. Not every consumer electronics uses the same 2.4 GHz band. My keyfob, like most, isn't 2.4 GHz. It is, like many, in the 300-something MHz band. Makes your high gain antenna pretty unweildy. Your Pringles can WiFi antenna would have to be replaced with a garbage can size keyfob-compatible antenna.

So, beware hackers loitering on the sidewalk and aiming tripod-mounted garbage cans in your direction while fiddling with their laptop.

Always in houses with hot water heating...

Many haunted houses have been cured by simply draining the air bubbles out of the (inevitable) hot water heating system.

Houses with electric heat are never haunted.

@J

"straw man"

It's not from tabloids (No, I don't get near them). It is from otherwise-respected "Science" shows such as PBS Nova and Science, and BBC WS radio, and magazines such as Scientific American and Nature. Also, TV interviews with the guilty parties. These sources are about as good as it gets for laypeople following science. It is certainly not a strawman argument. It is a clear trend. There are more than a few paleoanthropologists making up rubbish overly-detailed theories and then vigourously defending them. At least until a new bone tips up proving them wrong and then (and this is where it gets REALLY bad) the cycle repeats.

It is exactly the same cycle as the public health safety of the 'artifical sweetener du jour': "Perfect safe", RECALL!, Next!

"...I agree that the liberties taken in imagining the past are sometimes a bit too much..."

Exactly. Thanks.

BBC 1 feed on Sirius is BORING

The BBC 1 feed found on Sirius is BORING. I actually listened to it for an hour, I actually listened to it for an hour, I actually listened to it for an hour, I actually listened to it for an hour - and that's what it was like.

The BBC World Service feed found on XM is FAR less repetative. Still extremely repetative, but many times better than the Sirius feed. It was actually a deciding factor in chossing XM over Sirius.

While we're on the subject of 3G...

Cheap mobile broadband leads to:

1) Virtually free telephone calls including international by means of VOIP+3G

2) Mobile and portable Internet radio (more or less changes everything to do with broadcast radio)

3) Almost anything else you can imagine.

The next 10 years will be very interesting. Those that just paid billions for spectrum are not stupid.

When computer-weenies design "radios"

Where's the darn headphone jack? It should be on the front panel.

One knob? On a radio? Have these people ever seen a real radio? Google Image your way to 'R-5000' (for example) to see what a real radio should look like.

Many of these products can only access Internet Radio via pay-per-month indexing services such as Live365. So if they've built one that can access anything directly, then it's a big step ahead.

But I still haven't seen a proper Internet Radio that I'd be happy with. I'm looking for a box that will make Internet radio as fun and interesting as Shortwave radio used to be.

FFT ("False Finishing Touch")

These suggestions to address the trivial are exceedingly dangerous. I call this sort of idiocy the 'False Finishing Touch'. Once you understand it, you'll see it everywhere...

It is exactly like someone putting a large 'coffee-can' tail-pipe on a clapped out Honda. It is exactly like someone purchasing expensive oxygen-free speaker cables for their modestly-priced home theater. It is exactly like someone suggesting that we need to fix the smallest end of the energy inefficiency spectrum while the larger end waits for funding - oh, sorry; that's this one.

Such idiotic nonsense wastes money (a very good measure of impacting the environment), diverts attention from issues with many more significant figures, and is a major disservice to humanity and the environment.

But it's not like I have strong feelings about it or anything...

Price isn't THAT attractive

For $600 Cdn (clearance), I recently brought home a Dell Inspiron 530 (1.6GHz dual core, 2GB DD2 ram, 320GB HDD, DVD burner, 3-yr warranty) including a nice 22-inch LCD monitor worth $300 by itself. That makes the 530 tower effectively a $300 item. So, $200 for a cut-down PC isn't so attractive.

YMMV.

Yuck.

Because of her, I STILL refuse to buy HP.

Every 4, except every 100, but every 400.

It's not the slightest bit complicated.

It doesn't have to be downloading TV shows...

What if your OS decides that NOW is the time to download some massive collection of updates? I've certainly seen a few MS Update Tuesdays that were hundreds of megabytes. What if other software on your PC decides to update itself while you're on the road? There are so many programs installed that it would be difficult to ensure that they're all switched off. And many that you do switch off the auto-update function start to get quite naggy.

One problem is that some 3G operators, and some of their stupid data plans, treat every bit as precious (i.e. expensive). Someone should write a mocking song to the tune of Monty Python's 'Every Sperm is Precious' and replace sperm with bit.

Another problem is that the ability to control such behaviour is at best akward, and at worst almost impossible.

Paying such an insane bill is not an option. It's a case where common sense should over-rule contract law.

The worst thing that could happen would be to place "reasonable" limits on such bills, such as "only" one thousand Euros per month. Because then victims might actually be expected to pay the bills. Better to see stupidly insane bills so that the insanity is more clear to all.

www.Symantec-Sucks.blogspot.com

If you get malware on your PC, then you MIGHT have stability issues and you MIGHT have performance issues. With Symantec Security software installed, you can remove all doubt.

Read it & weep: http://symantec-sucks.blogspot.com/

I don't believe it...

I went out the very next evening and looked at the time and place when the small bits and pieces should have been going over head. I expected at least a few streaks of light as some of the broken rivets and small paint flecks re-entered the atmosphere at 7 miles per second. Nothing. Did anyone see anything burn up? Nada.

So, I'm going to stick with the "Meeting the Alien Space Fleet on the Opposite Side of the Globe from the Lunar Eclipse at Exactly the Same Time While the Astronomers are all Looking the Other Way" theory for now....but I'm open minded.

www.Symantec-Sucks.Blogspot.com

Symantec. The name leaves one shaking one's head.

I've got Norton Internet Security 2007. When I run that idiot LiveUpdate it wanders off to download FORTY-SIX catalog files. FORTY-SIX!! And this is before it actually downloads any updates!! What lunatic could even think that such a scheme is appropriate? Even if there are one thousand files associated with the application, then make a damn list of the revision levels of those one thousand files and send it along. Should take 2 or 3 seconds. Not 2 or 3 minutes.

There are dozens of similar idiot design decisions.

My conclusion is that they've got a lunatic running the show. This many bad decisions, consistently bad decisions, can only come from one mind.

More details on EV-DO in NS

@Adam Williamson: The "Connect $75" plan is just left of the "$100" version (at least on my screen). As I mentioned before, $75 := $93 with all the fees and taxes.

As far as 'tethering' goes, my EV-DO gadget is the Sierra Wireless 595U and its only purpose in life is to be tethered. They can't exactly complain...

Furthermore, I've plugged the 595U into a CTR-350 "Travel" router and placed the whole kit on a shelf. The only wired connection is the AC adapter. The house is now a WiFi hot-spot. It just plain works. I'm using it now.

It makes me laugh that this whole kit-and-kaboodle could easily be installed in a car and thus make the 'WiFi Limo'. The 595U even has a jack for an external antenna. Or, it is small enough to fit under a hat and could be powered by AA cells (using an external battery pack of some sort).