[this post has been partially damaged during a server failure on Sunday 11th July 2004, and it has been possible to recover only a part of it]
Want to see me do my impression of a coconut?
[picture removed]
Tag: news
World’s Highest Bridge Completed
With it’s road surface 270 metres above ground, and 2,460 metres long, this bridge could be visualised quite well if you imagine a bridge joining the tops of Pen Dinas and Constitution Hill, in Aberystwyth. Just another impressive feat of engineering I thought I’d share with you. I like bridges. Read the full story here.
Blimps… In Space
Now here’s a funky idea – sub-orbital spaceflight in enormous helium balloons, up to a two-mile wide sub-space station (a permanant facility at the very boundries of our atmosphere). This could be used to carry spaceship components for assembly in orbit, and then launched using ion drives at a fraction of the price of rocket launches.
The designers estimate that they can have a functional prototype within seven years – given the funding they’d like – and that journeys into space could be done almost for free and much more safely (albeit at the time expense that it would take up to nine days to get there).
Marvellous.
Remember Microsoft vs. Netscape?
Then you’re old enough to appreciate this: OSNews is running an article about the upcoming fight between Google and Microsoft. Where the Netscape/Microsoft battle involved web browsers, the weapons of the Google/Microsoft battle will be search engines and e-mail services.
If you’re confused as to how companies can be fighting by trying to increase the market share of their free product, read the article.
EU To Use Quantum Crypto-Key Passing To Beat ECHELON
[this post has been partially damaged during a server failure on Sunday 11th July 2004, and it has been possible to recover only a part of it]
[further parts of this post were recovered on 13 October 2018]
Now here’s an interesting article [security.itworld.com]. It seems that the European Union is investing €11 million over four years into developing a secure communication system based on quantum cryptography.
For those of you not in the know, quantum cryptography (for passing crypto keys) works like this:
Quantum Cryptography For Dummies
- Alice wants to send Bob secret message, confessing her undying love, but doesn’t want anybody else to know how she feels.
- She fires some photons out of a special tube, so that some of them spin in different directions.
- Numbers are assigned to the different directions of spin, and she multiplies these together – along with a few prime numbers, for good measure – to get a Really Big Number.
- Then, Alice does some clever sums on the letters in her love letter, using the Really Big Number.
- Alice posts the first line of the new love letter to Bob (the line that says “Dear Bob,”). This is known as the ‘message header’. If Bob sends a message back saying that he got this, Alice will send the rest of…
Wargames As Public Acceptance
[this post has been partially damaged during a server failure on Sunday 11th July 2004, and it has been possible to recover only a part of it]
[more of this post was recovered on Friday 24 November 2017]
There’s a lot of defence for wargames, as Command & Conquer: Generals to see how far this can be taken. In Generals (set in the near future), the United States unite with a (reluctant) China in order to suppress terrorism in (you guessed it) the Middle East. All sides have weapons of mass destruction, but the wording is clear: while the American WMDs are called “Superweapons” the Chinese have “Nuclear Weapons” and the arab states have “Biochemical Terror Weapons”. And that’s not all – the American soldiers all say things like “Doing the right thing,” and “Defending our people,” in true American Hero voices. Meanwhile, the other sides are made to sound insidious and crafty. The Armerican tanks have names like “Crusader” (yeh; let’s make a reference to Jerusalem, shall we?) and “Patriot”, while the global …
Killer Cyberloo Kidnaps Kiddie
As The Register reports, a Plymouth child was kidnapped on Saturday by a public convenience. Go read the story.
Futurama’s Coming Back
Okay, it’s not certain yet, but Wired News reports that it, and Family Guy (also killed by Fox) will make a comeback on Cartoon Network, with new episodes sponsored by the channel.
Yay. And, indeed, hey.
And in other news, to celebrate the change of name from Lindows to Linspire, Lindows.com are giving away copies of Linspire. All you have to do is try to buy a copy of the BitTorrent ISOs from their online store and enter LINDOWS as a coupon code.
Girl, 15, Charged With Child Porn Offences And Sexual Abuse Of Childen
Not the usual kind of story I link from my ‘blog, but this particular case is of interest because the girl in question is both the perpetrator and the victim, so to speak: she posted pictures of herself online, performing sexual acts. From what we can gather, she did this of her own free will and consent.
Read more on The Register. No word from the BBC yet.
My New Work Computer… Won’t Be Delivered Today…
It turns out that there’s been a huge fire in a BT service tunnel, knocking out 130,000 phone lines and numerous data links in the Manchester area.
This, in turn, has caused Microland UK to be unable to process our credit card details and deliver me my new work PC, a swanky-looking Athlon 64 3GHz box.
<sob>
All We Need Is A Microsoft-Hating US Judge And…
[this post has been partially damaged during a server failure on Sunday 11th July 2004, and it has been possible to recover only a part of it]
[further fragments of this post were recovered on 12 October 2018]
First, some info for the non-geeks out there, so you can truly appreciate the irony in what’s to come:
Lindows – manufacturer of a distrubution of Linux which is designed to be easy to migrate to for former Windows users – have been in court with Microsoft in the US for some time, who claim that their name infringes upon their trademarked name, Windows. The courts haven’t been friendly to Microsoft extending their tentacles in this way so far, and so Microsoft have mostly been trying to buy time, stalling proceedings, while they bring the case to courts internationally. The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxumberg have already caved-in and declared Lindows illegal (interestingly, it’s now being marketed in these countries as Lin—-, pronounced Lindash, which Microsoft also claim they own).
Okay, now you non-geeks are up-to-speed:
Just announced – Lindows are taking …
How To Make Piracy Legal; Nobody Loses; Everybody Gains
The Register brings a report about Harvard University Professor Terry Fisher’s plan to make piracy pay for itself. Not by making it yet more illegal, but by stopping it from being immoral. Go read the article. It’s great.
Speed Camera Clocks Motorist At 406mph
As this article [The Sun] shows, a man was caught speeding in Cheshire this week at 406mph.
Quite impressive, I thought, as he was driving a Peugeot 406, who’s maximum speed is listed as being 129mph.
I suppose it stands to reason that we Brits, the nation who currently hold the land speed record of 766mph [CNN], would be the first people to have a speed safety camera pick one of us up at over half the speed of sound. And such a clear picture, too…
Despite the obvious mistake, a spokesperson for Cheshire Safety Camera Partnership has stated that they will still be taking legal action.
It’s All Psychological, Or Why Men Buy Little Blue Pills
An article on the Register amused me this morning. Go read it.
In other (slightly more geeky) news, there’s a plan to put a wireless internet point in every lamp post. It’s a very clever idea. If the market’s feeling healthy enough, it’ll grant the conceivers some venture capitalists, and it’ll go-ahead. Here’s hoping.
Banned From Driving For Life, Before He’d Even Passed His Test
As this news story from the BBC relates, a certain Alan Shirkey from Aberdeen was this week given a life ban on driving, as well as a £300 fine and a year’s probation.
He’d started learning to drive over a decade ago, but then stopped. Then, on the day in question – 10 years after he’d last been in a car and with only a provisional license – he drove (without L-plates or supervision, and with no insurance whatsoever) towards Perth. He stopped to fill his car up at a petrol station, and then left without paying. Realising his mistake, he began to reverse back down the dual carriageway, colliding with several cars as he went, and injuring several people. When he was arrested, he refused to give a urine sample.
And they only fined him £300?!?