Posts by ian

Exploit tagetting political conservatives?

An interesting idea. With a little research, I'm sure that it would be possible to target those with a given political orientation.

Would you be more or less likely to connect to a URL advertising negative information about your candidate?

Would you be more or less likely to connect to a URL advertising negative information about your candidate's opposition?

Political nastiness could reach a new level of... nastiness.

Good value for money

At a mere £2mil this database will save far more in halted/deterred crime. However I would have thought that any database worthy of the name would prevent duplicate records. Is there a good reason for permitting duplications?

"..another reassuring report which says that their machine will definitely not destroy the universe"

They would say that wouldn't they. They always do.

I'm concerned that this thing isn't built as a pentagram, to constrain the legions of hell that are sure to pour forth from the tear in space-time that it will create.

Why send portland cement + water + gravel + sand to moon?

Current construction methods with styrofoam forms (heavy industrial stuff, not insulated cup variety), and foamed concrete would likely work in a vacuum, and be much lighter than the stuff delivered by lads with wheelbarrows.

Further, the Moon's lower gravity would allow for weaker materials to be self-supporting. However, would a shirt-sleeve environment (5psi atmosphere?) inside blow out the walls?

Still, a nice little lunar summer place would cost billions.

47 megaIDs?

Brilliant! Nick each of them for 1 quid and retire to Brazil! They might not even notice. But can you nick each and every one? In fact, I suspect that it might take more than several lifetimes to nick less than 10 MIDs unless the task can be spread out over several accomplices or (best yet!) automated.

I call RoTM!

Surely there is some mistake! This is most definitely the beginning of the end (or is it the end of the beginning?).

Are we to be pounced upon by monstrous feline battle-bots, tossed in the air like playthings before expiring in pain and horror? Do DARPA not understand that cats are not controllable and learn other than what they are taught?

Visualize 50-tonne tanks with cat-like treads.

Overshoot?

In fact overshoot during a vertical landing is possible and can result in a large, fuselage-shaped hole in the deck. I would expect to see the occasional vertical overshoot during heavy seas when the deck is rising and falling.

This would seem to be a good candidate for automation. I mean for avoiding the overshoot, not producing it. In any case, any landing that you can walk away from is a good landing.

All your ISS are belong...

NASA management are dropping the ball again, as they have chosen to ignore existing, working technology (specifically the shuttle's SRBs and the huge external fuel tank). It wouldn't be (complicated) rocket science to put engines on the bottom of the external fuel tank and mount the capsule on top. With the SRBs attached to the sides, the payload to orbit of the stack would be enourmous. See http://jasonjeffrey.wordpress.com/2008/07/15/nasa-engineers-work-on-alternative-moon-rocket/

@Shawn

Erm, Shawn, I never mentioned AGW. Your comment seems to reflect what passes for reading comprehension nowadays. Global warming and AGW are two separate issues, but I would suspect that if you don't accept the data on GW, you won't accept the existence of AGW.

So you are a Bushie, then? Drunk the Kool-aid, have you?

Is this a hybrid?

Based on the above comments, only space-hippies would settle for solar powered plasma. Real men drive nukular reacters.

A reactor can be put into orbit in bits and assembled there. Fuel rods are not dangerously radioactive when first manufactured. Besides, a 12MW reactor WILL require shielding after it once goes critical, and shielding is heavy.

How long to Proxima Centauri with this rig?

Dark, Satanic software mills...

Keep them in the dark and feed them manure. It works for mushrooms, so it must work for coders.

Odd logic, that.

"Nations have no friends, only interests."

Currently, it is in the UK's interest to be attached to the U.S. The Spanish have an apt saying: "it's better to be a lion's tail than to be a mouse's head". Keep in mind that Britain is no longer mistress of the seas with an empire upon which the sun never sets, and is coasting on the wealth that empire extracted from subjugated peoples.

It's the yanks again

Is there any way we can blame the USAians for this? Surely we can find something.

"I never >knowingly< made false statements..."

Yes, bend over, here it comes again. Obviously it was just an oversight. No doubt any proof of guilt will have been dumped over the side of his bridge to nowhere- soon to be renamed the bridge to freedom.

Like a bridge over troubled waters....

Recycling?

Good of the Russians to recycle the name "Mir"- over and over again. Do they also save on newsprint and letterhead by doing this? In any case they could have had a deeper dive if Baikal were not drying up due to Soviet river diversion projects back in the last century (that would be the 20th for those who haven't been keeping up).

GIT - a propitious name

They might have sent the thing to Texas' Sam Houston Institute of Technology.

But what is the deeper meaning of America's move to failed technology from Blighty? As I recall, this design was from the start of Britain's decline as a world-beating engineering power- does this mean that America is entering a similar death-spiral?

A bastard operator perhaps...

... but NOT a bastard operator from hell! In any case, he's a tosser for 1) losing a (very) gainful position, and 2) doing it in a way that will disqualify him from employment for life.

Still, the lad's got style.

NaN - Not a Navigator

While I'm not a navigator, and only use GPS rarely and in a safe manner, I do wonder if LORAN and Decca couldn't be upgraded in a way that would make them compatible with existing kit.

And yes, I agree that multiple redundancy for something as important as navigation is important, certainly now that the Chinese have shown themselves willing and able to bash satellites.

Whats in a name

Yes, the name "Roadrunner" may not inspire fear NOW, but just wait a bit.

OTOH, if Roadrunner's audio output units suddenly powered up and said "Call me... MASTER!", I for one would immediately welcome our over-weight over-lord.

Amazing!

I'm happy the firmware was able to land with no casualties... However, I've seen WWII photos of bombers that lost more control surfaces and still returned to base (unlike some of the fleshie crew),