Posts by Dr Patrick J R Harkin

How many Note 7s actually went up?

I know that any number greater than 1 is shall we way "sub-optimal", but the feeling in the media is that it was "lots more than other phones" but I can't get a handle on actual figures.

You've left out the most important bit.

What does STARTLE stand for?

I assume it is an acronym - generated by the Governments billion-pound What Acronym Suits This Exercise unit.

Is the "domestic level" tech capable of this?

The report at 9000 feet puts the operator (assuming he was on the ground!) nearly two miles from the drone. Do those things have that range?

It could be worse.

At least the sock doesn't use a Samsung battery...

Enter Molybdenum disulphide - MoS2 – in which electrons are “heavier”

<Blinks silently>

It's blatant copying...

First one side sues and then the other side sues them back...

I don't believe "stange states" of matter explain everything.

OK, superconductors, I give you that. And quantum entanglement, obviously. Galactic over-spinning. Event horizons. Bose-Einstein condensates. Yes, yes, yes.

But Donald Trump? Nothing's THAT strange!

Surely the CMA con ONLY be prosecuted in thge UK?

If the offence occurred in the US, then the equivalent US law is applied but only in a US court.

If I launch a piano by trebuchet over an international boundary and damage a house in another country, the laws against criminal damage of that country apply and I should face trial over there. If instead of a piano, I use a cow, then laws against animal cruelty may have been broken in two jurisdictions and charges could be pressed in both location.

Never might Sooty & Sue, what about...

Hector & Madam Zsa Zsa?

"...university students...capable of holding a...conversation..."

Well, there's your problem.

What are the options?

Do: damned.

Don't: damned.

He has not been convicted of carrying out an offence but a group of suitably qualified people are sufficiently worried about his personality that they judge him a risk to other members of society.

If he never commits an offence - the judge gets it for imposing this order.

If he does, the judge gets it for not locking him up (previous offence or no).

Quis sysadminiat ispos sysasminodes?

But I must ponder on why the final miscreant got a suspended sentence but no community work order. Obviously, it can't be her gender which made a difference in sentencing, could it?

If I lived in London...

By now I would be stood at the entrance to Kings Cross tube selling "PISS OFF AND LEAVE ME ALONE" badges for a quid a throw. I reckon by the end of the rush hour, I could retire.

Perhaps it's time to issue body cams to alll...

...football managers. And politicians.

ZX Spectrum Vega+ will ship on time

So, not full emulation then?

I want to see

PassiveAggressiveBot vs GrammarNaziBot

"I couldn't being myself to automatically change someone else's text."

"The use of the split infinitive is not good style - you should write 'to change someone else's text automatically'."

"I'd be very happy if I was as confident as you in correcting grammar."

"The conditional takes the plural form - you should write 'if I were as confident as you'"

[Ignores main issue]

They've got the Venus/female symbol the wrong way up on their feedback page.

And that, ladies and gentlemen...

....is why I have chosen to resign from my position as Member of Parliament for Witney.

Building a barrier around an entire star?

Who knew aliens had Trump too.

Having recently given up my GMC licence to practice, I shouldn't diagnose, but...

...this article might be worth reading while considering this case.

Just saying.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koro_(medicine)

I'm surprised the structure of the FBI is secret.

If you took a photo of our organisational map it'd be out of date before you got to the door.

But it's hard to change passwords...

...once they've been written down in the Laminated Book of Dreams!

Lots of mentions of TEMPEST...

...but surely that only works on CRTs and now (nearly) everyone has LED/LCD screens it's obsolete.

I'm more taken by the claim that it's possible " to .. “sniff” all the keystrokes of wireless keyboards from ... up to 100 metres away." Now, I appreciate "up to 100" includes "a maximum of 5" but this MS3000 won't do more than about 10 feet. Or is that a limitation of my receiver and they're using Arecibo-size kit?

His leg?

They seem terribly upset about a little thing like a broken leg considering he then got run through with a light sabre and dropped off a bridge. And did you see how few handrails there were round the enormous drops in the Evil Base? Health & Safety gone to lunch, if you ask me...

So...

We store the data in chlorine [www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/18/smallest_hard_disk_drive_stores_a_kilobyte_of_memory_in_atoms/] and process it in carbon. When did Computing become Chemistry?

Brighter than expected. Beyond the orbit of Pluto.

It couldn't be Mondas, could it?

Obviously a fake. It uses a mixture of cases and the punctuation marks are mostly in the right places.

And it didn't offer to upgrade my PC to Windows 10.

Why has the last picture...

...got WALL-E's head in it?

The solution is obvious.

There are characters which you can't have in a file name. Just add "p", "s", "w", "r" and "d" and

"tend to shoot first and ask questions later"

If they bother with the questions at all.

They're fixated on the smartphone screen so...

....they don't see the kerb (International sign meaning "YOUR BIT ENDS HERE. WATCH OUT FOR BRMMM BRMMMS")...

...so why do we imagine they'll see a light?

How about making smartphones where the screen doesn't illuminate as you move at walking pace? Fine in the car. Fine while stopped. But if you're walking DON'T LOOK AT THE PHOINE!

So the fix was -

Turn it off and reboot in Safe Mode?

Essential late night listening

Drving through the night once, I pulled into services and wanted something NEW to listen to. I rummaged through their sale bin and got a Buffy audiobook narrated by Charisma Carpenter (worth the 99p just to hear her attempt at Gile's accent) and "Teach Yourself Klingon". The wrapper said it was aimed "at the tourist planning a holiday or trip to the Klingon empire" but cautioned that if you wanted to trade with the Klingons, you needed the companion tape "Business Klingon for Beginners"...

Could be eviller....

The wait time is always 3 seconds. It should start at 5 minutes, then get less with each repeat until with 30 seconds to go - it resets back to 5 minutes

In the TV version of the Dalek invasion of London...

...they disabled Daleks using soup cans on elastic over their eyestalks. A quick spray with a paint and these guys are going to have problems, surely? Failing that, they don't look very topple-resistent, especially backwards.

Here is today's forecast:

Iowa: Windows 7, rising to 10 later. Linux imminent.

" wearing her father’s white funeral shroud,"

Um, if he wasn't actually buried in it, does it count as his funeral shroud?

And if he WAS buried in it - yecch! (Apart from the grave-robbing implications)