Posts by Henry Gomersall

not random

Its not random at all. From the New Scientist article:

"If it gains an extra 1.1 millimetres per second relative to Earth, it would vindicate a formula that reproduces the anomalies seen so far.

The formula, published in 2008 by ex-NASA scientist John Anderson and his team, hints that Earth's rotation may be distorting space-time more than expected and thus influencing nearby spacecraft, though no one can explain how."

Full article here:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18135-will-probes-upcoming-flyby-unlock-exotic-physics.html

The formula is given on Wikipedia.

YES!!!

I want one. I want one NOWWWWWW!

Re: Can Microsoft ever win?

> So I ask the previous poster - what SHOULD Microsoft have done?

Worked with the standards body on the development of ODF such that it could be integrated nicely into MS's product line.

re: Anyone else think it's odd...

You mean someone that actually knows and cares about the issues they pertain to. How novel!

plans...

1. Circle moon

2. Land on moon

3. ?

4. Generate huge amounts of energy to sell to the world.

Economics of magic

You miss the point that everybody in the magical world is fabulously wealthy, due to the incredible efficiency of everything. For this reason, its not wealth of money but wealth of soul that the Weasley brothers are after. The magical world's economy should be thought of with an eye to the Star Trek economy, rather than our economy.

Makes me ashamed

As an engineer nominally linked to to IET (well, they're the ones that accredited my degree), it makes me ashamed to be associated with them. How can any thinking person possibly advocate such a ludicrously complicated system when the solution is so simple, and already in place. Namely fuel tax.

If you want to tax how far a car has been, tax the fuel.

If you want to tax people with bigger cars, tax the fuel.

If you want to push a new tech and all its associated R&D onto a customer that will pay 3 times over budget, and still come back for more, use a satnav system. Who would think that the IET could have such a neutral pov.

The only possible draw back I can see is that its not so easy to have dynamic pricing based on location. But road tolls seem to work (well?) throughout the world and in London.

The bigger problem is the mandate these institutes seem to have acquired for themselves. Basically, they're massively state subsidised (albeit not directly) protectionist operations. They shouldn't be speaking on matters such as this. It has nothing to do with them.