Posts by David Pollard

Re: Many coders live in California...

Linux would appear to provide an equivalent user experience in a great many cases with considerably reduced requirements for both memory and CPU capacity when compared with Windows. It would be interesting to know how the power savings would work out for the use of lower-spec PCs with equivalent perceived speed of operation.

Re: Electrical Smoke Event?

At first glance I'd imagined a new sort of communal vaping device, or maybe an overloaded bong at the directors' meeting.

Re: Intelligent species

Don't apologise.

Re: Maybe it was in the wrong place

Or maybe he wasn't holding it right.

Re: 5 MW?

"Didcot B can produce 1,360MW, enough power to meet the needs of 1 million households."

http://www.rwe.com/web/cms/en/320906/rwe-npower/about-us/our-businesses/power-generation/didcot/didcot-b/

He may well turn out be a good man for the job. His opposition to increased state surveillance convinced me that he was better than many in Westmister. And you don't have to be right wing to appreciate reasonable privacy.

Re: forgive me correcting your correction

I can't help but wonder where the moderatrix is now.

Re: Noice

And it's much more scenic than Area 51.

Re: If it sounds dodgy, it is dodgy

Computer counted elections can only be equivalently transparent if the source code is open to all for inspection.

Open source is vital. It is also necessary to have a permanent record of votes so that a recount is possible. Electronic storage doesn't allow for an audit using effectively unchangeable data in the way that paper and pencil does.

Re: You couldn't make this sh** up

This is precisely the sort of thing "cloud" is supposed to handle...

What they seem to have used is clod computing - cloud with U left out..

Re: Gardens for waste burial?

As it happens, I've been on record since the 1970s as saying I'd be happy to have a parcel of radioactive waste in my back garden. It needs to be monitored, mainly against malevolent thieves, so it would be better to used it in a small district heating plant rather having individual units. Piping heat to, say, 200 properties wouldn't be that expensive in city areas and 2.5 kW each would provide useful savings on the hot water and winter heating bills.

Critics always seem to bring up the question of cooling in summer. Air cooling would be fine. Half a megawatt is roughly equivalent to ten cars starting off from a set of traffic lights. No one seems to be too concened about the risks from that.

Re: Hey, what could possibly go wrong with ...

It's not immediately clear, but "pushed to 350PSI, several times their likely working load" presumably means 'leak tested well above their working pressure'.

Re: Very simple

So why not capitalise the 'I' when referring to the big Internet which spans the globe. Then usage would be similar to that of other words such as parliament and queen, which are capitalised when the reference is singular and specific.

For example; The aim of parliaments is to provide representation for the people. In Parliament today a range of views were discussed. Several kings and queens attended the event. The Queen is very fond of her dogs.

The Grauniad has ignored this rule for some while. though whether this is because the editorial team think it is elitist or that they don't understand it is not entirely clear.

... and don't you eat that yellow snow!

You'll also need one of those massless pullies and some inextensible string to get it back to the surface. These are not so easy to obtain these days.

Saddle your horses men, head'em off at the pass

Check out this video.

Nerves of steel may not suffice. After watching their video it occurred to me that IBM + Big Pharma might lead to a catastrophe worse than the widespread and growing prevalence of antibiotic resistance.

I managed to recover the afternoon by remembering that the late Prof Sir David MacKay has left us a set of lectures which he gave on Information Theory.

http://videolectures.net/david_mackay/

Re: Adblock on Edge

one browser 'open' and another with noScript

I've been wondering that a possible solution might be to use a third browser/editor to enter bookmark links into one of a set of simple HTML files, one for each topic or area of research. Though it's not ideal, this approach could provide a neat backup scheme, because project pages would be more or less self-contained and could be hived off to reduce clutter when their relevance decreases. It would also make it easy to incorporate saved links in notes to others and so forth.

Konqueror might do the job, but it's surprising that there doesn't seem to be any standalone software to provide a note-taking and bookmark indexing option from/to any browser one might be using.

Environmental directives?

I was no great fan of the 'Iron Lady' but, credit given where credit due, Margaret Thatcher's ability to understand the science of the ozone layer and to explain the dangers of CFCs on the world stage played a large part in the development of the Montreal Protocol. This secured international agreement on an international issue.

It seems to me that what is needed in the way of environmental protection is politicians who properly understand or at least appreciate the underlying science rather than teams of bureaucrats with alternative agendas.

Re: Timing?

needs constant help and tuning

Windows was boosted not only from small hordes of people who earned a generally rich living from mending it but also by the hordes of teenage Mr Fixits who knew enough to help out users when they were baffled, thus boosting their egos and social status. Both groups had vested interests and neither would have much to say against it; and many users would accept what they said. Microsoft would have benefitted by maximising their gains as well as its own.

Compare this with the situation where the software is truly first-class. Users don't need much assistance and don't replace their software as frequently. It looks as though Microsoft and its acolytes would, in fact, have been making more money by putting out optimally bug-ridden software.

Re: Sounds like a winner

Maybe someone in marketing read the story of Tom Sawyer and the task of painting the fence?

Re: 'Cannot be explained by known Physics' they say...

If the lasers were tapered rather than plain cylinders then the sharks would be able to swim faster.

Re: It's not about USB sticks - It's the release of confidential data!

the consequences that will inevitably happen

Availability and (mis)use of data in the National Pupil Database itself is only part of the problem. Features of the RYOGENS programme also seem to be being implemented, although we hear very little about these aspects. It's not hard to wonder whether this will lead to greater stigmatisation of a proportion young people and the creation of an underclass, rather than the reduction in crime claimed by proponents from both sides of the political spectrum for what amounts to computerised surveillance.

http://www.fipr.org/childrens_databases.pdf

Re: Play "chicken"

Isn't it time that someone did some work into ... the effect of a drone-strike ...?

Aalborg University is on the case:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160413084310.htm