Re: A4

@James 51: The format is irrelevant, it's the size (in both inches and pixels) that matters. My wife and I both read loads of academic papers and they're all formatted for approximately A4. A kindle is about A6, and tables of data, complicated multi-line formulae or complex graphs become completely unreadable, both because of the size reduction and reduced resolution. If the e-reader also tries to reflow text that's supposed to be in a fixed layout the result is worse than useless.

I used to have an iRex Iliad that was A5 and that handled A4 PDF well enough for me, but my visual acuity is slightly freakish, and my wife simply couldn't read research papers on it. In the end it died a death, and they'd gone bust by that point. Nowadays I use a 10" cheapo Android tablet that is near enough A5 size, but it's heavy compared to an E-Ink device, the emissive screen tires my eyes faster than E-Ink and the battery life is ridiculously short in comparison.

There is a definite niche market in the research community for A4 PDF based document readers. Simple monochrome would do for 80-90% of uses. However, academics aren't renowned for their huge salaries and off shore bank accounts, so the price would have to be around that of a cheap 10" tablet to get any sales volume.

Re: Pens should be banned

"And who designs stones?"

Stonemasons. A venerable and ancient craft still going strong in the modern world.

Re: effect on birds

"I can think of a lot of much better reasons to pillory windfarms such as their devastating effect on local bird populations - especially raptors and other large predatory birds. Or the way they mash bats."

A few years ago Nature published a study of all US wind farms and bird mortality. The average result over the entire US was 0.5 bird deaths per turbine per year - vastly lower than the death toll caused by domestic cats or hunters. The reason why the "wind turbines slaughter birds" meme came about was because one of the earliest wind farms was placed in a pass in the Rockies that was the equivalent of the M25 for a species of endangered raptors, and they got sliced and diced in numbers high enough to affect the species' survival. That wind farm was shut down long ago, and current wind farms on migratory routes shut down as soon as radar sees large numbers of birds heading their way.

The real problem is bats. The pressure fluctuations near a turbine can make their internal organs rupture. That's why they're trying using ultrasound to keep bats away.

Re: 3dB

An increase of 3dB is twice the power. 10dB is 10 times the power. Bels are base 10 logs, decibels 10 times that.

Re: pronounce it as "squiggle".

Remembering Prince's little snit with his record label, how about "The computer scientist formerly known as Knuth"?

Re: replace all those copper cables that the metal thieves nick all the time

Wouldn't work. In many cases they're thieves because they're too stupid to do anything else. That's why they end up nicking fibre optic cables, thinking it's copper, and get a surprise when the scrap dealer tells them second hand glass isn't worth buying.

Re: "Britain’s own geothermal investment are pretty puny"

@Andrew Orlowski: "MacKay's book is very out of date now"

Published 2009 - not exactly written in Latin. :-)

However, when it comes to geothermal power you're right about the new methods being better - the 2050 pathways document from DECC gives a "maximum technically feasible" capacity of 4-5GW. Technically feasible is always larger, sometimes much larger, than economically feasible, but even a GW or two is not to be sniffed at. The problem won't be the hippy type greens though, it'll be CPRE and Bill Bryson whingeing about how pylons spoil the rugged beauty of Dartmoor.

Anybody should be completely free to object to power infrastructure in their area, but only on the condition that they have smart meters fitted and can be cut off whenever the grid needs to shed load. Nothing like bringing home the consequences of one's choices. :-)

Re: Geo exporting

There's talk of a power interconnector between Iceland and the UK, and another to Norway. They'd both be long and across hostile seabed, but they're part of the proposed european grid.

Re: REAL cyborgs are those living daily with implants

I'm always amused at people's reactions when I point out that my pacemaker has more on-board compute power than the Apollo missions. Except for under-30s, who often ask what an Apollo mission was. :-(

I'm certainly more of a cyborg than Kevin "I got chipped like a dog, which gave me cyberpowers" Warwick.

Re: Anyone who really understands cryptography

You're quite right about using this source for Monte Carlo or simulation applications, it's a good resource for that, but the original article specifically said

"It is, however, very useful for applications like cryptography."

I just wanted to warn against thinking the ANU site could be safely used for cryptography.

Re: Guaranteed ROI?

Currently once you've done the paperwork your FIT rate is guaranteed and index linked for 25 years. Like all legislation, future governments can change it at whim, but the electricity company that actually pays you the money can't.

Re: Prior Art

> Sun SunOS ND Boot + Root Partitions - late 80s

I was working on such systems in 1984, so make that early/mid 80s. We (or rather our parent company) had an agreement with Sun that meant we got Sun stuff before it went on general release to the world.

Collective noun for Lewises

A puissance of Lewises surely?