Posts by Neil Barnes
1152 posts • joined Wednesday 18th April 2007 10:33 GMT
The life that I have
Written, I believe, for Noor Inayat Khan, one of his agents. I have seen her memorial at Dachau where she was executed.
Re: British Intelligence
Further upvote for "Most Secret War".
And a further recommendation: Leo Marks' "Between Silk and Cyanide".
If you're not paying for it
You're the product, not the customer.
An interesting spin
"While many people love it, we've heard a lot of great feedback about how to make Home substantially better."
By removing it?
Surely what is being said here is 'many other people aren't interested in it, even given away..."
Re: Why not use Hydrogen?
Hydrogen for the lift; helium to give the launch team funny voices.
Or possibly Lester has a secret letch for Dejah Thoris...
And yet this is from the same EU
that only this week mandated that olive oil may not be delivered to the table in re-usable bottles, but must instead be prepackaged in 'convenient' sachets.
Anyone else reminded of
A E van Vogt's 'Weapon Shops of Isher'?
Think of it as evolution in action
If it works as advertised, those who have tried it will be around to breed...
telecoms your granddad would recognise...
Young whippersnappers!
The BBC used a lot of GPO technology and was built on those 'christmas tree' terminations; they were there in Broadcasting House until it was rebuilt and the old control room went away; they were there in Bush House when it closed; and I recall wiring to them in Cardiff in 2010.
These days it's all Krone IDC blocks - klunk and you're done, no worries about hot work permits and unearthed soldering irons!
/me suddenly remembers, er, he is a grandfather...
splashdown at 35km/h...
Ouch.
My *reserve* chute drops me at 4.5m/s (16kph) and with that I want a rolling fall in the approved manner; my paraglider drops me at around a meter a second and even then you can get bruised if you don't do it properly - say, trip on landing.
35kph is slowish car crash without benefit of crumple zones...
Re: Whoever thought security through proximity was a good idea.
Indeed.
Any payment method that does not require a positive authorisation from me - such as, say, handing over bank notes, or sticking a card in a slot and typing in a number - is broken by design. I don't care if it's limited in value - if I'm not actively doing it, I don't want to transfer cash. Full stop.
Have you noticed how many things which claim to 'make life easier for the customer' really simply make life simpler for the retailer?
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
"Yes, Manny. We can throw rocks."
Very neat
But as noted above, doing away with mag strip readers is the more secure approach, at least in the short term.
However you do it, anything which has access to the electronics or the transmission eventually has access to a man-in-the-middle attack, but at least this kills the scan'n'watch approach (which is sneaky because it works on a chip enabled reader even if the reader isn't using the strip).
Though the obvious approach is to remove the mag strip completely. Thinks: I wonder how much utility I'd lose if I killed the mag strip with a degausser or simply wrote garbage over it...
While I'm at it, what idiot thought that touchless payment technology was anything like a good idea? If I pay for something, I want it to be a positive act with at least one secret as an authorisor - not something that can take a tenner from my pocket before I've even decided which card to pay for (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22545804 - terminals reading a contactless card while trying to pay with a different chip'n'pin).
Your call is important to us...
But not quite important enough for us to devote a minion to answer it.
Meanwhile, here's some very bad Stravinsky for you to enjoy at 8p a minute.
Buy 'em all you want
If you're daft enough - or vain enough - to think that the world is an infinitely better place because you've recorded all your daily doings, you're probably beyond hope or redemption.
On the other hand, there are those of us already disturbed by the huge amount of video surveillance already around the place, who would like to be able to go about our lawful business without being snooped or recorded.
Perhaps the required protection is that citizens carry some sort of reality distorter: say, half a brick or a spray can of black paint?
Re: bottle it
As long as it's been stored properly - see the label: Store in a cool, dry, place.
Posted in What is this white van with unusual antennas doing? Spotted in the City of London near St Pauls.
It's a radio outside broadcast van.
TV OB trucks are either stuffing great 40-ton beasts that get bigger when you push the right button, or the little SIS satellite link vans with a four-foot dish on top.
Posted in This week I have reading...
Rereading...
Legacy of Heorot - Niven, Pournelle, and Barnes (no relation!)
and let’s just assume it’s a nice pal
Let's just damn well make sure it's a nice pal...
I'm really unconvinced by this concept of the internet of things. It seems to be slapping connectivity and monitoring on things that have no need - except in the eyes of the marketeers - for either...
Re: Eat PETA
PETA = People Eat Tasty Animals.
Feed the bugs to PETA. Feed PETA to the animals. Eat the animals.
A world where bacon is replaced by insects is not to be tolerated.
"not be able to open my old files"
I seem to recall a quote from years back, probably referring to Redmond at the time, but apposite now: if you can't open your data, you don't own it.
Sorry to sound like Eadon, but this is a definite call for open data standards.
Are intermediate files obfuscated/encrypted or merely undocumented?
Boys are not the most natural writers?
Shakespeare, W.
Dostoyevsky, F.
Aldiss, B.
Asimov, A.
Banks, I A.
Stephenson, N.
Dickens, C.
Zelazny, R...
Re: the trouble with auditors
What's 2+2?
Engineer: 4.00, to appropriate clearances.
Mathematician: 4, assuming a rational number line and a base higher than 4.
Auditor: Locks door, closes curtains, sweeps room for bugs and then whispers 'what do you want it to be?'
Re: I wonder how much of the opposition matches mine?
That's the point, I think, Andy.
I don't have to prove who I am. The state has to prove that I'm not.
I wonder how much of the opposition matches mine?
I am *not* opposed to an 'ID' card which must be presented to show entitlement to a social service - whether it be 'I am old enough to walk into this cinema' or 'I am a paid up member of the national health service' or things in between (though there are certainly cases where the 'ID' part of that need - and I believe should - not be displayed, nor the data logged).
What I am, and I suspect many others are, is a requirement to *carry* an ID, so that any official can demand it of me.
They serve me. I do not serve them.
Posted in Urban Farming
I'm a firm believer in evolution in the garden
... if it can't grow on its own without help it's doomed...
Herself is in charge of the pretty stuff and growing the lawn; I get to look after an 8'x6' green house and a couple of small raised beds.
Usually we get some sort of tomatoes and peppers working in the greenhouse - some curly orange Romano peppers from seeds taken from a supermarket pepper, last year, so I'm curious to see what the second generation does, and some dedo de mocha 'cold' peppers. And some strange Bulgarian tomatoes.
Outside, last year was not a great success. Some leeks worked, and some onions, but nothing else wanted to grow. Lettuces merely fed slugs, and cabbages won't grow for me at all. Even the apple tree didn't deliver, though the plums were so heavy they were breaking the branches off.
This year, there are potatoes outside (they'd started chitting in the kitchen) and there will be some beans, with luck.
We have arrived at the stage
where we require instructions on a toothpick.
Is there one single solitary instance of a use case where this is superior to a push-button?
Baen Books also
provide drm-free (and in many cases, just free) ebooks.
I've spoken to a number of SF authors, and they seem much different to the 'rent the IP' model that was pushed with music: they don't expect you to have to purchase the same thing in a dozen different formats, and indeed are quite happy for you to scan their books provided you (a) have a purchased copy and (b) don't distribute it.
Pick up handset, dial number, speak...
And then put phone down.
That's all it needs. Whatever is behind the scenes is immaterial to the user. Doesn't matter if it routes through Mars, as long as that basic functionality is present. Bells and/or whistles? No thanks.
I'm still curious to know
How many of the 'sales' have been people upgrading existing systems or building new boxes, versus those forced onto new retail PCs?
Indeed...
Even in the UK it's worth baking your own bread - it's a third of the price of the shop-bought Chorleywood process predigested pap that passes for bread in the supermarket and an improvement in every meaningful respect.
Lester, I'll sort out something on your fund page when I'm back in the UK next week.
p.s. Soak pulses in boiling water before leaving for work - ten to fifteen minutes in the pressure cooker sorts out the hardest. The salt goes in *after* that, when you add the flavours.
I begin to see a pattern
It seems to be that netbooks are going the same way as ereaders and phones. The device is paid for not in the initial purchase price but by the projected sale of applications, adverts, or content.
Such sponsorship is all very well but I see the end of small cheap general purpose computing devices - makers will be required to lock down their devices to prevent any use other than that of the sponsor.
Re: Does this £1/day include energy costs ?
He's going to have a devil of a job using solar power looking at the weather map... thunderstorms and snow yesterday, rain today... the sun might shine later in the week.
Re: Bread beans and flour...
Not unless we hang around till September... round here, even the gages and cherries are still in flower; the apples haven't opened their leaves yet.
Re: Not representative
This is true - it's not a matter of what the numeric value is, but what that dollar a day buys you. If it buys you enough to live, then it doesn't matter whether it's a dollar or twenty quid - provided that you have it in the first place.
It's certainly not reasonable to compare cost of living between two countries with completely different infrastructure and cost bases. In particular its unfair to compare food prices when the price of food has so much loading for dragging it halfway around the world...
And yet...
<blink>Blink</blink>
Bread beans and flour...
Not knowing the prices in sunny Spain, it has to be UK prices: but a 1.5kg bag of flour is 45p in Tesco: it'll make you three loaves of bread (you left it a bit late to start a sourdough, so you'll have to buy yeast - 65p for 125g, of which you'll use about 30g so you can probably fudge the numbers there if you have to.)
Dried beans? £1.09 for half a kilo, will feed you all week. Spaghetti, 19p for half a kilo.
That leaves you £2.62 for some flavour - an onion or two, couple of tomatoes, an egg perhaps.
Pudding is unlikely you be an option...
Posted in Review: Western Digital Sentinel DX4000
Did I understand that correctly:
An NAS that requires a Windows client to set it up?
Sorry guys...
Re: Less is More
Analogue dials give trend information: is the temperature where it usually is, for example. You're probably correct that many drivers won't know the difference and wouldn't take any notice of it anyway - look how many cars these days have nothing but a speedo and a red light.
But a red light is really saying 'oops, too late'... not for this engineer and car enthusiast, thanks.
Posted in 787 battery fix approved
"to stop the batteries from overhearing in future"
Presumably, then, someone spoke of the batteries and their ears were burning? That could explain it...
We're already using the freefall detect
Amongst other options:
1) target height reached
2) current height too low below previous max height
3) (possible - still thinking about this: too long without height changing)
What about something really simple: the parachute pulls an insulator from between two springs? I can lay my hands on a little beryllium copper wire...
Posted in Review: NetAtmo Urban Weather Station
But, but, but...
What's the point of a weather station that doesn't include wind speed and direction?
Re: They call it dark matter
It's probably down the back of the sofa. It's dark back there...
provided a "diligent search" is made
Presumably, through the Hub... fancy that.
Let us not forget the Perfumed Garden
Wherein one discovers in chapter 6, advertised as performed in India, El loulabi, the screw of Archimedes.
Along with the necessary instructions, of course.
Don't worry, the porn industry will kill it...
After all, they seem to drive every major technology adoption... and where's their market if you have to keep absolutely still while watching to avoid the channel changing?
Re: Resolution is less important than screen size
Yabbut... the current glo fits nicely in the back pocket of my jeans. The new size is a touch big for that... the bezel does seem proportionally larger than on the glo.
I'll second the point made earlier about the touch screen not reaching the edge of the device; that would make it unmanageable. I *hate* touch sensitive things you can't actually pick up...
Re: Meh..
Which is why I grow my own epubs.
