* Posts by Charlie Clark

12082 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Apr 2007

Way out in deep space, astronomers spot precursor of carbon based life

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The James Webb wouldn't have been possible without the Hubble. Each were miracles for their time. Let's see if the James Webb can stay in service as long as the Hubble has managed.

First pushback against EU's Digital Services Act and it's not Google

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Re: Who!?

It's one of the few online traders that is profitable.

'Joan Is Awful' Black Mirror episode rebounds on Netflix

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No such thing as bad PR

Win for Netflix, I reckon.

Missing Titan sub likely destroyed in implosion, no survivors

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Re: Titanium and compression cycles

Thanks

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Re: Titanium and compression cycles

I agree entirely and I suspect the search and rescue operation is intended to be forensic enough to provide a framework for the licensing of similar future ventures.

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Re: Titanium and compression cycles

Titanium, like Aluminium, tends to be more crystalline than steel, making it liable to fatigue. However, production methods have changed significantly since the 1970s with this knowledge, which is why we now see both metals (well alloys of both) used in cases where their liability to fatigue would previously have ruled them out.

We've got much less experience with carbon fibre, more specifically the bonding materials used, but I'd have my money on the seams between materials. At these kind of pressures, miniscule differences in the ways materials respond could rip seams apart, which is why you still see rivets instead of welds in many pressure vessels.

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Certainly agree about the hubris. However, the remark about the search and rescue effort in comparison to that of refugees is incorrect. Search and rescue is for everyone, including billionaires, and for a submersible with an oxygen supply the survival window is longer than for anyone in open sea.

The politics behind the way many countries deal with this kind of migration is contentious and evolving and possibly not in a good way. The coastguards of many countries are constantly involved in rescue activities related to refugees attempting to cross territorial waters, technically illegally. They simply can't be everywhere at once.

BOFH: Cough up half a grand and we'll protect you from AI

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Re: Quite ironic

But does the AI know that?

Mark Zuckerberg would kick Elon Musk's ass, experts say

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Re: This is apparently what the world has sunk to

Your forgot the cheating bit.

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This is apparently what the world has sunk to

It's not going to happen but, if it did, the nastiest and most aggressive would probably win. Get high on adrenaline and cheat, so my money would be on Musk. OTOH throw away the key and turn out the lights.

Inclusive Naming Initiative limps towards release of dangerous digital dictionary

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Re: Fixing things due to a misunderstanding of the origin

Don't forget that "black" was introduced as a term considered less prejudicial than coloured…

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Coat

But only if you beat them first!

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Re: abort

What? You mean the keywords in a language? I suppose so, but that's not really going to change usage; it'll just piss people off.

Tokenism is designed to fail: "we tried but the obstacles were too great". It's patronising bullshit and a nice gravy train for a few. I've sat in conferences of people wringing their hands about diversity in IT but never seen any of them offer to do much about it, like give 50% of their pay to those in need, or go to deprived parts of cities to teach the underprivileged.

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Re: abort

You seem to have simple and misguided understanding of how language changes, namely that you can somehow order it.

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Re: It's not black & white...actually it is, but not for the reason you may be thinking

Black and white are tones and not colours… but, yes, it's known/unknown that they refer to specficially.

Red is a universal colour throughout nature to signal danger (some flowers only appear red if you can seem in UV light).

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I checked the date

It's not April 1st. Is this from a long lost Monty Python?

Really, life is too short to worry about this sort of thing but no doubt some dickwad (it's okay because I want to be offensive) will include conforming with this kind of shit in a code of conduct. Remember kids, it's fine not to pay people properly and overwork them just as you use the correct terminology and respect their choice of disenfranchisement!

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Re: Fixing things due to a misunderstanding of the origin

Nothing to do with purity. Black / white dichotomy is the same as light / dark: known/unknown.

For purity related things to get upset I'll point in the direction of a milky coffee: macchiato means sullied.

Another redesign on the cards for iPhone as EU rules call for removable batteries

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Re: How about choice?

Your suggestion is easy to deal with: sell the one with replaceable bits at twice the price. The market will then "prove" you right.

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Re: How about choice?

Actually, replaceable batteries are probably no more environmentally friendly than sealed ones. But it's definitely an example of enforced obsolescence because it is known that battery capacity declines over time. Environmental concerns are best addressed by forcing companies to pay for recycling.

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Re: EU parliament has little power

Still leaves out the nation states and also, that anything passed has no legal effect.

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Re: EU parliament has little power

Lots of stuff passed by the parliament that hasn't come from the Commission or the Council.

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Re: As luck would have it....

Sure, but that wasn't really my point. Car manufacturers have got as smart as budget airlines in dreaming up charges for things they do anyway. And, AFAIK, car importers into the UK are even smarter.

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Re: Mining landfill?

Rare earth reclamation from landfill would have to be a scam. Much easier to collect and refine the ash from the furnace where most waste is now burned for heat and power.

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Re: As luck would have it....

Oh, I don't know. My mum told me about a report that everyone was outraged about a few years ago. Fact is that prices for new cars vary wildly between countries due to things like tax breaks for go-faster (or in Belgium go-slower) stripes. L-2-R conversion isn't expensive but I think fitting the converter to be able drive miles instead of kilometres is expensive! ;-)

I think some kind of cartel (sic) was discovered where something like a Corsa got slapped with a 2 grand surcharge just for crossing the channel. In the current post-pandemic, post-brexit climate lots of companies have found lots of excuses for increasing charges and customers in the UK do have less choice than before.

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Hermetic sealing is easy enough to on things with removable covers. Essentially, you just need to create a pressure differential as you do with a tupperware lid. Orifices such as headphone and charging sockets are a bit more of a challenge but these can be allowed to flood without affecting the integrity. And a real doddle if they're connected to an inductive charging system.

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Costs how much?

The last time I had phone with a replaceable battery, a replacement from the manufacturer cost around € 20 not bad to extend the phone's usable life by a couple of years.

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My S10e is now 4 years old and everything apart from the battery is fine.

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EU parliament has little power

Lots of things get passed by the parliament but rarely come into force because they have to be agreed to by the nation states.

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Re: As luck would have it....

Or, there will be an international model modified for the UK, with a surcharge. As happens with cars, etc.

Amazon Prime too easy to join, too hard to quit, says FTC lawsuit

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Re: This is in the past I assume?

The articles does refer to changes in April 2023.

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"Free delivery" == "Prime"

This is exactly the misleading tactic that the FTC is criticising. I've never liked Amazon and have bought very little (probably less than 10 items, mainly Mamil stuff) from it over the years. Now, whenever I want something from it that I can't get elsewhere, I just ask a friend with Prime to order it for me.

Elon Musk's Twitter moves were 'reaffirming' says Reddit boss amid API changes

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Re: Reddit's CEO doesn't realize

Agreed, though I think they've at least managed to stop it being a cash incinerator. The plan was to sell ads once the user data was merged with everything else… But I think they are covering some costs with the pay-to-play API for "customer service".

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Pint

Re: "reaffirmed" by Elon's actions

Comment of the day. Maybe of the week, or year but let's not get ahead of ourselves. In any case charge your thunder jug with some of this foaming nutbrown ale!

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Re: Reddit's CEO doesn't realize

Just a couple of notes but Facebook's revenues stagnated a few years. Luckily the Zuckermonster had bought Instagram (very profitable) and WhatsApp (still trying to work out how to be profitable) before investors realised they were holding a turkey.

Twitter may have been de facto the place to make announcement but that's no longer the case. Instagram has more eyeballs for celebs and messengers, particularly Telegram do a much better job.

Germany to subsidize Intel €10B for 'Silicon Junction' fab

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Re: If nowadays value-creating factories are only established if the community finances them...

Power isn't going to be a problem there. Saxony-Anhalt, like much of northern Germany, has loads of renewable capacity so marginal requirements on cold dark days and nights shouldn't really be an issue. But water most definitely is. Need to fix the pricing on that asap because, at the moment, people dig wells to avoid paying for water treatment… classic tragedy of the commons, though probably not quite as tragic as the one heading southern Spain's way once the aquifer is deleted.

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Re: If nowadays value-creating factories are only established if the community finances them...

Apart from the fact that each "job" created will cost about € 1 million, water is going to be a real problem. Chip factories require lots of water and Saxony-Anhalt has had a drought for years. What do you do when the choice becomes water to drink or for the factory up the road?

Yaccarino takes wheel at Twitter early as advertising woes become public

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Re: Is revenue the biggest problem?

Eviction followed by rerenting or selling is far more attactive that chasing up outstanding loans. It's possible landlords might do a deal and sell the property to Musk but I'm not sure if the banks would agree to that.

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Re: Is revenue the biggest problem?

You're accounting is wrong: 75% less workforce doesn't mean 75% lower wage bill. Even though there definitely was plenty of dead wood (lots of do gooders on nice sinecures), how much you save depends very much who was fired and on what terms. Then there's the settlments (after court action). The charges alone for this will weigh on the books for a couple of years.

So, what's really needed is a debt restructuring or write-down couple with a strategy for effective growth. Not that Musk needs the toy to make any money but he does need to get rid of the debt that he personally guarantees.

Out with the old, in with the new – Accenture declares AI is 'mature and delivers value'

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Re: Nice one.

It's largely body leasing to customers, which fluctuations, with completely bullshit explanations are standard.

Can noise-cancelling buds beat headphones? We spent 20 hours flying to find out

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The one thing I would say about wireless with string phones is, that of course, the string itself is subject to wear and tear: I have a Jabra sport set where the cable on one side eventually wore out and these things are not really fixable on your own, even something like a fraying wire is pretty simple to fix.

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Re: I can't wear buds/in-ear headphones for long.

You can get custom ones using a mould from your ear. I did once but I lost one of the covers… always get at least two sets!

When cycling or on the train I can have the buds in for hours without discomort. The SP500 have very odd profiled covers and I was furious when I lost those because the list price for replacement parts was nearly as much for a new set. Fortunately, I found a website in France that had them for a tenth of that price so I ordered two!

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Re: Fit issues....

See above: Aerospex, et al. They use bone vibrations so sound quality isn't great but they are ideal for outdoor use.

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Re: I can't wear buds/in-ear headphones for long.

Good phones come with different sized covers that fit different size earholes. I have small earholes and have to have small covers to avoid the feeling the doctor's trying to see if the light comes out the other side!

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Re: I'm curious

In Manchester it just had to be baanging, alright! :-D

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Re: I'm curious

When was the last time you were on public transport with some of the yoof and it's inane chat, video music?

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Re: I'm curious

I was out cycling last week, with headphones (external drivers), and cycled past a thwaite with a boombox on his bike that was easily drowning out my headphones. The temptation to give the fucker a push was almost irresistible. 100 m on it looked like the police were ready for him…

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Thumb Up

Re: Aeropex works great for outside

I wear glasses so over the ear is out for me. The Sony WI-SP500 has external drivers which means I hear nearly everything around me. Have to stop to take calls, but that usually makes sense anyway.

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With you all the way. I've got the WI-SP500 for cycling (external driver, so you can hear what's going on) and the WI-C200 for everything else. My only gripe is that the cords are little short for my bullneck.

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I have some Sony in-ear phones on a cable with 15 hour battery life while playing music. When not use, the buds stick together like a necklace, so very difficult to lose. € 30. I wear glasses, which means over the ear is out, and cycle which means cableless buds are out, though I have a different pair with external drivers for navigating while cycling so that I can hear what's going on.

Google snubbed JPEG XL so of course Apple now supports it in Safari

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Stop

Re: Google's insistence on not learning from past mistakes...

The key word in your argument is Apple: you're dependent on them to be able to switch providers. The SIM card was mandated in the EU precisely to avoid that kind of lock-in and using them in different phones was never ever a problem.