I consider all these shows
as the "Special Olympics"
for talent
Posts by the Jim bloke
149 posts • joined Wednesday 18th April 2007 05:56 GMT
major functionality loss
You will look pretty stupid if you try to use one in a bar fight
I am proud of my ignorance of facebook
.. but I vaguely recall there was something about a wall in there
any chance we could nail him to it ?
any or all of them, for that matter.
Geo stationary orbits very valuable real estatte
To achieve a geo stationary orbit there is a very limited altitude range, and specific orbital velocity and path..
the area relevant to europe is desired by anyone from South Africa up to Finland, for Australia, we need to share with Indonesia, Japan, and China.. Merkans dont need to share - anyone in the area just gets their stuff and is supposed to be grateful..
So the satellites that go in GSO are the ones that prevent airplanes from flying into the ground (WAAS) and communications etc.. not enough space for everyone.
Geo synchronous is a bit looser than geo stationary, but still competing for the same area
Posted in Transformers up for seven Razzies
The missus dragged me along to see Transformers 2
I wasnt that interested, but went along to humour her, Then she tells me she thought it was a movie I wanted to see, so she was doing it for me.
As a fitting punishment for her offence, I kept waking her up in the cinema and interupting her loud snoring, and making her watch the actual movie.
Posted in Oz banker caught porn-surfing on live TV
the ninemsn website here in oz
... has had a link to some Miranda Kerr photo shoot amongst its advertising flotsam all weekend.
NineMSN is the default news/homepage for Australian installs of IE, so it tends not to be blocked.
(I havent checked out the link myself, my current PC is fully exposed to an open plan office, so I restrict myself to browsing text articles as far as possible... and when I'm not at work, I dont bother with NineMSN at all)
fail
" even if they visit and attempt to enter data into a known phishing site."
all well and good, but what about unknown phishing sites ?
Posted in Transformers up for seven Razzies
WTF ??
"Good old American lager" ???
they wouldnt recognise good beer if they were drowning in it
They are so completely ignorant on the subject of beer, that we Australians can sell them Fosters, and they BUY it !!
All i can assume is that "good old American lager" is a code for something else, probably illegal and grown in a third world country.
Fosters.
Beer so bad, we sell it to Americans.
Australia
the price of books in Oz is so artificially inflated that Kindle ebooks are less than half retail mass-market paperback prices.
And thats with currency conversions etc.
I have been a voracious reader and collector of books, ever since I had enough pocket money to buy them, and my collection of paperbacks outmasses the rest of my personal belongs.
But.. my collection would include less than a dozen hardcovers and about the same number of "trade Paperbacks", mostly acquired as gifts or budget/sale/second-hand shop purchases, as I believe oversize books at inflated proce with no real difference in construction quality or content... is an abomination in the eyes of god, a crime against humanity, and just something that shits me intensely.
Mass-market paperback editions would either appear a full year after the initial hardcover/trade paperback release, or when the next book in the series was published.
Recently, it appears that Australian and UK publishers have moved to some kind of larger size mass-market paperback format, I can only guess as to why, but as far as I am concerned there is no good reason, and thus I dont buy those books anymore.
This reduces me to buying American published editions - with their truly trashy cover art - .. or buying ebooks.
I WANT to support my local bookseller, and do spend a couple of hundred bucks there regularly, but as far as I am concerned the publishers have declared war on me, and I am just fighting back.
/rant
(actually rant continuing, just message finished.. )
The army needs these
so that their morbidly-obese recruits arent unfairly discriminated* against.
as opposed to being fairly and responsibly discriminated against - for being totally unsuited to the job
fix it with mirrors
like those old pub videogame cabinets, with the display tube mounted vertically, but reflected to be visible from players standing in front.
I think its brilliant
The entire population of the world should each get one.
Sane people can wait indoors for a couple of days until the debris stops falling, then build a functioning civilisation.
Posted in Remote tribe discovered worshipping iPad
the article was OK
but like most stuff by, from, and about Apple, no where near as creative, entertaining or useful as the author would want you to beleive.
Isnt that what Post-Modernism art is all about?
Posted in Aussie censor balks at bijou boobs
large enough titles
So, not only arent women allowed to have orgasms, but they arent allowed to even try to look younger.
Someone set the fashion, cosmetics, and all the rest of the real female exploitation industries onto these guys. I would almost feel sorry for them - if they weren't such utter arseholes.
we need a crucifixion icon
I read someplace recently
teen pregnancy rates in USA have risen simultaneously with the shift in political emphasis towards "abstinence" as birth control.
Sexual behaviour from children will be either hormone driven, or attention seeking - from the adults reaction, same as swearing.. or just possibly, if they are provided with actual facts as opposed to superstitions, they might deal with it without developing neurosesis (however the fck its spelt)
obviously
they would all use Osama Bin Ladens cave.
Posted in Spanish towns vie for nuclear dump prize
David Brin had the solution
tectonic subduction zones.
Instead of finding the most geologically stable areas for your dump - sorry, storage facility - dump the waste into an area where crustal plates are being driven under.
Encase the waste so it will be protected for a couple of centuries, and let natural processes bury and dispose of it. Monitor the area for security purposes, to avoid the "eco-terrorist stealing some to use a weapon" cliche.
The Earth is naturally radioactive, even enriched waste wont make any difference.
Launching stuff into the sun is just too expensive and bad for the atmosphere unless we had something like a beanstalk/orbital elevator.
not all that silly really
Pirates need to get close to board a vessel, so a "less-lethal" weapon that can be used to warn them off at a distance, and melt their eyeballs if they persist, is a reasonable option.
As for Paparazzi, they may be hanging further back, but they would be looking at the vessel through telephoto lenses etc. I can see (heh) laser camera/binocular blasters becoming popular accessories wherever celebrities actually do want to discourage paparatzis -as opposed to the ones who delibrately seek the attention.
And as I mentioned in another post, if the laser itself doesnt scare them away, follow up with a laser guided missile.
in favour of the idea
as long as it isnt a leadup to providing narrower seats/cramming more cattle into the box.
.. replace the 43/46 cm wide seats with say 30 cm wide ones .. and every passenger buys one or two as required.
not a simple mirror
but a survey reflector prism is designed to reflect a laser beam back to its origin within about 30 degrees of its facing. Cheap one would cost maybe $60 ? depending on currency and availability in whichever region.
Less used these days as GPS becomes more prevalent in the surveying world, but still pretty common.
By the time the signal has traveled a couple of kilometres each way it wouldn't have a lot of strength left, especially in a sea level environment..... but Im sure there would be enough energy for some kind of laser painted targeting missile to follow "evil grin"
I'm not from over there but..
the article to me reads like someone complaining or warning about their opposition gaining an even position ?
"its not fair unless I'm in front" thinking ?
Everyone is forgetting.. China owns USA
Something that was brought up in the GFC, Chinese investment is whats maintaining the USA in the affluence they believe to be one of their inalienable rights.
USA is in economic decline, and some people do recognise that.
To boldly go where no chimp ...
It all seems very reasonable to me. Men do the beta testing on genetic variation, and wimmins who actually carry the developing fetus, stick with a more conservative version.
The fact that the obverse is not the case demonstrates that it was not evolutionarily(?) succesful.
A non-viable or less succesful male mutation is easily replaced.
Babies icon obviously
Posted in Paramount prepares to scale Dune
Roger Zelaznys "Damnation Alley" for worst movie adaption
the movie kept the book title, and maybe were within spitting distance of one or two of the books ideas, but was total crap.
Loved Franks books growing up, but a bit more critical now. Certainly I see nothing worthwhile at all in Brian Herberts milking of the franchise.
The Dune story was too big to be made into a movie even back in the eighties, now with reduced attention spans and instant gratification, there is no chance at all.
"Express the plot and culture of the dune universe, in 120 characters or less....."
Posted in Biofuels make poor people even poorer
poor people get screwed. deal with it.
If we dont go green, the sea rises and eats their land
If we do go green, biofuel farms eat there land.
if we do nothing, some local warlord robs them, rapes them, sticks them in their army and gets them killed.
if we intervene, some local freedom fighter enlists them in their cause - where they get robbed, raped, stuck in the army, and killed.
If biofuel farming was providing cash for them - the cash would be stolen by corrupt authorities - including aid groups.
if they get the bugs out of algae-sourced biofuel, and produce it cheaply, efficiently and locally in the industrial nations, then the do-gooders would be complaining about the poor farmers being deprived of a cash crop.
Conditions are probably improving for them, but there will always be a spectrum of human "well-off-ness" (happiness isnt the right word here), and while various things can make conditions worse, there isnt an easy simple way to make things better.
forcing robots to hate us
Any sufficiently advanced problem solving AI will soon realise the best solution to traffic problems is the obliteration of the human race.
ammo to defeat bulletproof vests already exists
The technological arms race is simply continuing as per usual.
weapons technology advances.. defensive technology advances...
Apart from teflon coating to penetrate armour, the simplest countermeasure is simply to use a bigger/faster bullet.. as per the dumdum article recently.
Depleted Uranium is used for anti tank penetrators.. AFAIK using it for personal weapons is still (currently) science fiction, but supposedly it converts momentum to heat more readily than conventional metallic rounds.. so if the projectile is stopped by armour the energy still gets through.
I dont think anyone these days uses a single solution for armour, everything is composites and layered materials with differing properties.
@amanfrommars
You need to go home, the earthlings are getting to you.
I think I have been able to read your recent half dozen posts and make sense of them.
or is the old totemistic magic, El Reg has bound and neutralised your powers by invoking the Mars icon?
Posted in Nvidia introduces 'G92'
so can they still make it double slot
by using a bigger, slower QUIETER fan..
the evil conspiracy
this kind of thing used to be pretty commonplace in West Oz's mining towns.
Some of the girls were local celebrities, and had their 'signature' tricks. But the moral Fascists decided that hard rock miners would be corrupted and led astray by the sight of feminine flesh (being a long way inland and away from public beaches where such is displayed freely and often so that exposure might lead to desensitization) and required the enforcement of laws from the previous century.
To make matters worse, a local businesman and pub owner, got the license to run an actual strip joint... whereupon other pubs - not belonging to this entrepenuer, tended to become subject to complaints to the morality gestapo whenever the girls working in them happened to flash a nipple or display some buttock.
Its a tragedy, another cultural artform being oppressed and effectively wiped out by small minded officials
throwing fuel into the flames
not my country, but I reckon private citizens should not be allowed to own vehicles bigger than scooters/vespa/whatever, or those smartcar things.
If you have a job that requires moving stuff around, then you get a commercial license for an appropriate vehicle.
High performance vehicles - bikes and cars, are just toys/penis surrogates, and should not be allowed to interfere with real road users.
@Building the aqueducts
..argueing with history?
it wasnt the "european enslavers"rampaging through the countryside.
No, actually they were buying the slaves at the coast, purchasing them from other black africans, who had done the actual loot-rape and pillage in the interior.
European enslavers are waaaayyy down the list in africas history of foreign contact. The Egyptians and Arabs were there long before us.
Getting back towards the actual topic. I think it was one of the Science of the Discworld books, said Africa contained over 90% of humanitys genetic diversity. Of course there are differences. Only stupid people beleive everyone is exactly equal. Even bleeding-heart mindless small-l liberals acknowledge that some groups are less capable than others - although they call it "requiring more assistance"
Posted in Ships pollute more than planes
@Lathem Gibson
How many James Bond ripoffs have been done starting with some generic evil group hijacking a generic nuclear object on some generic ocean going vessel?
Not that I am opposed to nuclear powered vessels (or wessels, keptin).. I have always considered myself to be a pro-nuclear-greenie, from long before it became fashionable.
But the Powers that Be will probably be more influenced by the Bond movies.
Larger ships arent necessarily a good thing, even todays large ships cause damage to the environment - although fewer, larger ships may balance the harm. Large ships are restricted by the facilities they can use, and the requirements of actually getting a worthwhile load of cargo to pay its costs.
Something I would 'love' to see, is high tech sailing cargo ships.. like the ones with vertical aeroplane wings for sails (vague memory).
As always, there is no one, single, fits-all-situations solution. Therefore a range of technologies and options need to be developed, and applied as appropriate.
income for obese people
What jobs -and income- are available for clinically obese people, who have trouble leaving their homes, and invalidate a companies insurance whenever they are required to walk up a flight of stairs ?
So far as urban myth has it, they're the main source of voices for the "live phone sex" industry.. that might explain why it seems to be so much more prevalent these days..
Posted in UK fast food peppered with salt
CASH
sounds like another acronym in search of an organisation.
probably sounds more "sexy" to the marketroids than something like "FFOARKU" (fast food outlets are killing us), though that sounds better to me..
Too much honesty in the name would result in a visitation by the legions of legal stormtroopers owned by the franchises.
Posted in Did MoD chopper buzz sunbathing au pair?
this entire article
is just a troll to get some mileage out of the helicopter icons.
Does Reg get payed on usage of them ?
It doesnt say much for MoD black-helicopter technology, that they had to get within 500ft of the target... unless they had already fully "scoped her out", and were moving in to make contact.
early gunpowder weapons weren't real effective either
.. but they improved.
and the western world desperately needs zero-time-in-flight, non ballistic-trajectory weapons, because all the new generation of potential soldiers wont be able to hit anything using a real rifle.
obvious solution - at least from an Aussie POV
Firstly, i would like to point out that the bulk (groan) of morbidly obese people -requiring assistance to leave their homes - are unable to work, so it doesnt really matter who gets slugged with the bill, its all going back on the taxpayer.
Nevertheless, in Aussie-land where we are coerced into private health insurance by punitive tax penalties - the obese should have a specific insurance plan which includes heavy lifting/ambulance assistance. Given the rest of the medical complications associated with obesity, it is only reasonable to put them on a separate tier to the general public. In the same way men dont need to pay for plans which include maternity options (assisted or otherwise) - if there are costs specific to the condition the are subject to, then these should be factored into their premiums.
As a healthy, careful person I am opposed to compulsory health insurance - its gambling against yourself basically, with the insurance companys as the big winners, followed by the clumsy and unlucky.. but there are limited cases where it has some use.
I have no idea what system the poms use, except they never seem happy with it.
choose your advertised party site carefully
Suggestions include meat processing plant, landfill area, major construction site..
basically somewhere that you can get rid of the bodies of 'crashers with a minimum of fuss
Posted in Britney's wares exposed online
Wrong Album title
Bratneys most recent album had a perfect name, chosen right here on the Reg.
I beleive the favoured title was
"Cupid Stunt"
as voted by Regsters
Evolution of English
I kind if wonder what basis the academics used to calculate the 'half life' - but not to the point of reading their work - given that China is supposedly the largest English speaking nation today.
China, India, other emerging powerhouses, may adopt English as a convenient 'common language', but they will treat it with even less care and reverance than the damn septics have.
Someday, people wont even understand why 'engrish' was funny.
Posted in TV for those who enjoy massacres
in my younger days
I used to buy 'Military Technology' magazine from the newsagency. I dont really think I was their target demographic, the ads in there were for destroyers, and artillery systems etc.. kind of outside the reach of generic suburbia..
This TV show sounds like a continuation of the magazine, although from the comments, dumbed down in presentation. This reinforces my opinion that TV simply isnt worth watching.
As an aside, why is this article in Science, and not Entertainment - or even Hardware ?
Posted in Canadian prof develops drunk-driving sim
accurate sim
needs real spew all over the console, and your bladder in a vise.
I know...
they need to combine this with the DARPA vomit strobelight !
Posted in BOFH: Skip diplomacy
Whiteboard markers
can also confirm the whiteboard marker trick
for a bit of a chuckle I used to swap the whiteboard markers for permanents before morning meetings somedays.
Big Record labels are Dinosaurs
..
long past their epoch in history
..
small brained and vicious.
Posted in Fifty years since Sputnik
refuting all USA conspriacy theorists
Bill Clinton, supposedly one of the smoothest presidents the US of A has had, could not keep secret getting a blowjob from a fat chick.
The american black hat groups just dont have the necessary competence to do a massive deception like faking the moon landings.
now if it was MOSSAD, maybe..
Implanted chips were causing cancer
.. last I heard, any further news on that?
I dont want to join the "phone towers radiate death rays" loonies, but there is still scope for further research on the implanted IDs.
the problem with this grid->number->keyboard system that I can see, is that it will slow down transactions. Users will have to look at the grid, work out the numbers which make up their pattern, then key those numbers in. Instead of ..keying their number in.. Sure it will be more secure, but how much more time will be consumed waiting in ATM queus behind geriatrics and slow readers?
saw it running in a shop window display
and my first thought was they were running an early Doom/Quake conversion..
It honestly looked that primitive.
support embryonic stem cell research today
"But they require an infrastructure and support which is very heavy. We have got to be sure that it is maintained at the highest quality levels - that does not come cheaply, but we have to make sure it actually happens"
So go ahead, Donate your First-(un)Born Child today...
heres a thought, what would happen if they made embryonic stem cell harvesting... retrospective ?
(feeding the troll)
not sure about "god" but I find "Active Malice" explains how the Universe functions pretty well
"The filmmakers insist they did not mislead anyone, and that the film's name was changed on the advice of marketing experts. "
Marketing/advertising people... Evil has its footsoldiers
Opinion
David McLeman
My 25 years of comical IT buzzwords
Tim Worstall
Time to take a sniff at the coffee, perhaps
Chris Mellor
Will they have to drag him back like last time?
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