Posts by Chemist

"still only holds 1% of the market"

That's 1% of a market where almost all computers have Windows installed from new without option and users either don't care or are told what they must use.

That as many as 1% choose to install Linux is a MAJOR triumph in my book.

Well actually ...

Rossi is claiming in his provisional patent that 56 g ( 1 mole) of nickel will produce energy equivalent to 30000 tonnes of crude oil so I guess the economics would be favourable.

However I think the whole thing is nonsense

"LENR Primer "

Are we supposed to take any of this cr*p as evidence ?

"holidays on the moon"

The moon's overrated. OK the golf is easy but the brochures all go on about the seas and as far as I can see when you get to the beach the tide's always way out .

"many devices out there are not advertised to work flawlessly under GNU/Linux"

I find it just as irritating to be told by a manufacturer that some device 'only' works with Windows 'X' or maybe Apple and to find that actually it works perfectly well or better with Linux.

Recent examples include a USB 3G dongle, a firewire video camera and a USB/serial converter

"name me another distro that is relevant on the desktop"

OpenSuse !!

"the Linux share of the desktop market... less than other"

This might be true but EVERY one of those users have chosen to move to Linux.

In a world where essentially all desktop computers are sold with Windows or Apple OS pre-installed and where most people, in any case, don't care I'd count the desktop usage of Linux as a major success.

"ecause these systems insist that you enjoy doing the computer"

Absolute nonsense !

Well I kind of sympathise

but I have 6 machines running OpenSuse 11.4, a netbook, a laptop, 2 workstations, a fileserver and a desktop in our holiday home.

I don't have a problem with KDE although like you I'm quite happy with more 'primitve' managers

I don't have a problem with sleep mode

I have two printers - a Samsung laser and and Epson scanner/copier/inkjet which both work perfectly and network nicely from the fileserver.

I do agree about GIMP but I often process RAW photos with showFoto

I don't use Windows at all and expect to do everything I want in Linux - these days I find this quite easy.

Incidently I'm thinking of building a compute server to offload a lot of intensive scientific calculations & modeling and also for the transcoding/rendering of 1080/50p video

Re: "I am not old enough to have watched the first man set boot on the moon."

I am, and yes they had fuel cells for that.

As for the patent - this is shabby in the extreme. Many USA drug patents have had long lists of compounds which were only synthesised on paper but generally not reputable companies.

Even if I'd not seen examples of other mobile devices powered by fuel cells such as laptops ( and 12v supplies for motorhomes plus the Apollo capsule example this would be obvious in the patent sense anyway.

If Apple care to patent a specific design with some demonstrable advantage then that is patentable. But to just claim fuel cell power for mobile devices..........

But the battery is 24kWh...

So either the range is conservative or the something is wrong

"What's the range like if its not flat?"

I can't answer that except with a diesel example

My 2.0L Touran averages about 55mpg but climbing the 27km from Visp in the Rhone valley to Saas-Fee ( diff in altitude ~1200m )it does ~28mpg. Coming back down it's more like 120mpg. Now, of course, you can't just average the mpg but I calculate that it's about 45mpg overall.

With regenerative braking an electric car might well get quite a lot closer to it's flat value

"I reckon it won't be more than a quid or two."

It's got a 24KWhr battery so if it was flat it would be ~~ £3 for a full charge unless it's done off-peak

"They really ought to include PowerPoint training"

They really ought to discourage PowerPoint usage in science degree courses.

Fixed it for you !

"Goes to show just how heavy that ice was"

I believe that GPS based altimeter readings show the SW of England rising and falling each tide by a measurable amount due to the continental crust being pushed down by the increased weight of the sea.

"CO2 levels != global temperature."

As I've pointed out before rising CO2 levels should cause retention of more HEAT - simple physics

but the relationship between heat and temperature on a planetary scale is likely complex - a very simple example is that you can put lots of heat into ice at 0C and it will stay at 0C until all the ice has melted.

"or stops the growth"

Good question. It is controlled in normal bone repair but quite how ...

Even more astonishingly normal bone is constantly remodelled by osteoclast cells that attach to the bone, dissolve away the mineral part, enzymatically degrade the protein matrix and then the 'hole' is refilled with fresh protein by osteoblast cells . The protein matrix acts as a scaffold for calcium ions in the blood to deposit and remineralize the bone.

The process may stop naturally as all the protein is covered calcium but I'm not sure about that.

"Linux isn't an entertainment OS"

Strange - it seems to be from here.

"If you care about democracy"

Just harangued http://www.parliamentlive.tv

Ta