Posts by AdamT
152 posts • joined Tuesday 7th September 2010 14:48 GMT
Well, that's kind of what happened in the UK when the head of the Association of Chief Police Officers wrote to all the police forces to tell them to calm down on the whole harassing people taking photos thing. His motive wasn't that it was wrong or even illegal (in some cases) but that "the public" were actually starting to check what their rights really were ...
"Rocket science"
A strange mix of extraordinarily advanced things (e.g. MSL/curiosity), implemented on much less advanced hardware (for reliability/radiation resiliance/etc.) and carried aloft (or returned to the ground) by some very primitive techniques indeed (set fire to this bit, add more heat shield to this bit).
Reminds me of a description in a very early non-discworld Terry Pratchett book where there is a description of what a valve would look like if technology had advanced but the transistor had never been developed. Bit like modern cars too - still basically propelled by burning dinosaur and rolling along on rubber sausages ...
Re: why
I think because her flight was as part of a private enterprise that sought some volunteers, performed some selection based on physical and academic qualifications and then paid the USSR for the launch and visit to Mir - so essentially she was a passenger. Whereas Tim Peake is a member of the ESA astronaut corps so it is his profession and he is expected to be able to carry out any astronaut-y activities including e.g. space walks.
But, yeah, there's probably a bit of official vs. unofficial, amateur vs. professional or private vs. public snobbishness going on too!
well, the common part of the genetic heritage might be quite a long way back: "Bah, humbug, who needs warm blood? Cold blood was good enough for me and your mother. These little furry things running around won't last. Although there do seem to be a few more of them than yesterday ..."
Re: Tyranny
It wasn't the ID card itself that was the problem - it was the National Database it was going to be attached to. The purpose of that was to link all possible government databases and records into one place. Most of the countries being held up as examples of ID cards working fine and being supported by their citizens have specific laws in place to say the the government is not allowed to do that so the ID card only does what it says it does: proves you are who you say you are, that you are a citizen (or have right of residence, etc.) and, perhaps, where you live. Ours would also have allowed "appropriate officials and other authorised parties" access to a whole lot more personal information than that...
so let's see if we can't pass my fundraising goal...
<achievement unlocked>
Aluminium foil?
I don't see this in the round up summary so, here goes:
Two strips of aluminium foil with a small notch in the middle at the edge of each. One end of each mounted on the truss, the other end of each on the plane. Foil strips should be slack so that they can tolerate reasonable wobble and movement of the plane on the way up. They should be clamped with the ends of the strips slightly off parallel so that as the strip pulls taught the initial tension passes through the edge with the notch. Then you should get a nice tear straight across each strip which shouldn't require much tension along the strip (i.e. holding back the plane) to achieve.
I'm not sure I can diagram this with ascii art though - hopefully the description is clear! I guess it's a bit like tearing a sheet of paper by putting a good sharp crease in it, starting the tear at one end of the crease then pulling from the corners that are on the edge where you put the tear.
Might well be some better materials than kitchen foil but I'm not sure what the materials science description of the relevant properties would be. Needs to be flexible, can be cut to take a good sharp notch and have a very low resistance to the notch propogation when perpendicular tension is applied.
Re: Amazing!
ooooh - you don't want to say that in front of the SPB! They get a bit tetchy ...
Re: Amazing!
Indeed - amazing!
But check out the colour of the top of the gas tank - that's not helium, it's something lighter ...
interesting
So, I like the simplicity but the two bits that would make me nervous are (a) you need to make a hole in your firewall for the peer-to-peer bit to work, and (b) it still does need central control via the supplier. If you really do want a setup that has no supplier involvement then you have to deal with (a) but if the supplier dissappears one day then (b) is still a problem. Well, I suppose you still have the files on each of the Transporters but you'll have lost at least some (if not all) of their interconnectedness. Although I guess they could let you remove that risk by selling the command and control software too so that you could host that yourself if you really wanted.
0.666
The number of the milliBeast...
All Hail Telstar 1 !
<letters>
How does the loan give MS "influence"?
As long as Dell keeps up with the payments, I don't see how MS get to exert influence over them. With an equity stake they would get actual powers to vote, appoint directors, etc. but I didn't think that was the case with loans.
Or, perhaps, when the loan is $2B you can't really compare it to a loan that you or I could get. Otherwise it would be like your mortgage company phoning you up and saying "We know you're keeping up fine with the payments but we'd still like you to change jobs. We think you should be a telephone sanitiser"
"Liquid Metal"
I'm sorry but I just can't read that without hearing it in a Austrian accent...
"It can't form complex machines ... but it can form form solid metal shapes"
"Like what?"
"Knives and stabbing weapons"
The rescue options?
I have to say, getting another crew to go up in another shuttle which you now know to be at risk of the same failure would be a pretty tough ask. Although given the military background of a lot of the astronauts I suspect there would be a "we don't leave anyone behind" attitude. But imagine having to make that call: "leave them up there or attempt an incredibly dangerous sideways reentry? Or send up even more people who could end up needing rescuing too?"
Re: Missing the point
c.f. Rule 34 by Charles Stross where he has come up with VR system for the police, "CopSpace"...
"You are all individuals!"
"Yes! We're all individuals!"
(I'm not)
Not quite. There are also the buried power cables within/near the farm to install and remove. And the grid connection cables (maybe not buried). I'm not sure the "no chemicals" is quite right either. There is high voltage equipment which can involve various toxic chemicals for cooling and there is "high mechanical load" machinery which certainly involves flamable liquids (find the youtube video where the overloaded turbine actually catches fire). So, the eco heritage argument might still be weak but I don't think it's fair to call it total bull...
Re: Lovelock
Well, he wrote this in March 2009: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/29/lovelock-wind-farms. The eoctricity link says they only started planning this particular turbine last year. So, no, this is not NIMBYism.
"... I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal"
"Good point."
Re: Refuelling geosynchronous satellites.
Well, I guess one response is that new satellites, at least, can be given that capability. But I guess that if you have a sufficiently adaptable refuelling robot then it's just a matter of how much you need to dismantle a satellite to get to the necessary plumbing. For owners of satellites which are about to need their final boost into retirement orbit it could be worth a shot especially as, by then, DSI will have the tech to take it to retirement orbit if they break it (or there are too many spare nuts left over)
Time for the gaffa/duck/duct tape (mis)quote: "It has a light side and a dark side and it binds the galaxy together"
Re: Sorted
Found it! (I need to get out more). http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/19/police_raid_glitch/
Re: Sorted
Vaguely recall a similar situation (probably reported in The Reg) where a SWAT team had a dummy name and address for their exercises that turned out to be the real name and/or address of an elderly couple who got their door kicked in several times. Ended up with their address being flagged in the police database as "they're innocent, leave them alone". Inviting the obvious suggestion that it was an excellent time to set up some kind of criminal enterprise.Or something like that...
First time a man-made object has penetrated the bedrock of the Red Planet ?
Really? Some of the various probes and orbiters arrived unexpectedly fast and, one might assume, left some pretty good craters: Beagle 2, Mars Polar Lander, Mars Climate Orbiter ...
Still, "the first time a man-made object has penetrated the bedrock of the Red Planet in a controlled, deliberate and intentional manner" hasn't got quite the same ring to it !
Hmm, an app on your phone ...
... to make it be a phone. It's all getting a bit recursive. What happens if you use it to call your phone?
<IT Crowd> if you type "Google" into Google you can break the internet </IT Crowd>
Posted in Boffins develop microwave weed-zapper
Re: 2KW of power...
Yes, in a domestic environment it does seem kind of dangerous doesn't it?
Of course on a farm where the living things are be-spiked, be-hooved and/or large and cross all the time and the machinary all seems to involve Spinning-Blades-of-Death (tm) and/or Crushing-Wheels-of-Misfortune (tm) it probably doesn't add much to the overall risk levels. Not forgetting the Unpleasant-Pit-of-Sh... well, anyway, you get the picture
Re: Evolutionary mischief
Pretty sure they would vociferously object to being "fixed" too...
Being a paranoid(ish) type ...
... I tend to always have the NFC, Bluetooth, etc. turned off and the screen lock/code enabled. So that is always a bit of a barrier to this kind of potential convenience. Am I overly paranoid? Seems that, with this kind of thing, someone's phone must be becoming an ever more attractive thing for a ner-do-well to want to get their hands on ...
Re: Hypocrite
there needs to be a distinction between designed, manufacture and assembled. As Dave 126 says, the (very) low paid grunt work got off-shored but the high(er) paid design work, etc. stayed in the UK and grew.
Also, FWIW, Dyson does put his money where his mouth is, when talking about the UK. According to this indie article (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-billionaires-who-do-pay-their-bills-including-james-dyson-and-jk-rowling-7873607.html) he makes no effort to be "tax efficient" and in 2006 at least, was responsible for paying more than half of the tax revenue contributed by the 54 billionaires in the UK at that time. Similarly his company pays most of it's tax in the UK too.
don't forget the 26%
They could also work on getting those 26% back into engineering. I'd actually quite like to do that (I only got lured away when the engineering company I worked for went bankrupt - so I do actually have some experience as well as the paper qualifications) but the salaries do need to get a little more realistic. I'm not suggesting parity with e.g. the finance industry (to pick a totaly random - honest! - example of where someone might get lured to) but for practical/personal/family reasons many people just can't take the kind of salary cut or relocation that would be likely. Would also need employers/recruitment agents to be more flexible with people who can't tick all the boxes for "must have 5 years experience with x,y and z". Perhaps Sir JD should set up some kind of agency to do that ...
Re: Was it just me or
upvote for that last line - genuine LOL making colleagues look round ...
Posted in OpenTV slaps Netflix with patent lawsuit
Re: dont people get penalised...
I _think_ this can happen in the UK at least, but that you have to be a very persistant offender and eventually a judge can label you as a "vexacious litigant" that will then make it much harder for you to bring any case at all, no matter how legitimate - so it's used as a last restort. But I don't think there is any means for your "first case" to be attract that penalty, it will just be thrown out on the first day. Obviously I've got no idea about the US ...
Re: Burn to depletion experiment
The only quote I've yet seen was "more than expected"...
Re: Service plan?
I have to admit I was thinking it was quite courageous that having suffered a pretty serious problem they just lobbed the spare in and went ahead anyway.
But on the other hand, I guess that when your in the Antarctic and have presumeably a pretty limited window to get anything done, there is also an element of "use it or lose it" so you might as well have a go ...
A sudden outbreak of common sense?
First the green light to build some nuclear plants and now this? What's happening?
Posted in Cassini spots Titan ‘mini-Nile’
well, he'd probably have taken some with him? For the breathing and everything?
Re: WTF?
well, just based on the wikipedia entry alone (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Day_UK), this sounds _awesome_. Hope you find the tape!
Re: WTF?
and no mention of his starring (well, via video tape) role in Return to the Forbidden Planet ?
Re: Political
Actually I'm sure I read recently that a lab in the US (Oak Ridge?) had been given permission/funding to restart Pu238 production. Having said that, I'm having difficulty finding an actual link other than a mention in this Wired article: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/11/radioactive-stirling-engine-exploration/ (last few paragraphs)
Wow, it's dusty in here again? Really making my eyes water...
Posted in Smear campaign
Re: And have you not yet tried the wonderful new science
or of looking in the event log (or equivalent) and seeing who logged in?
Posted in Badges for Commentards
Re: Great - a Bore's Charter
How about only counting posts that have a certain number of upvotes to the total?
Or looking at average upvotes per post?
(biased suggestion because I don't post much but like to think I score reasonably on this measure!)
it does seem a bit "single point of failure" doesn't it? Reminds me of the incident where some grandma in a remote bit of an eastern european country accidently dug up the primary internet connection. Ah, here is is: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/04/06/net_killing_granny/
Re: may I be the first to....
or a steam engine? (pretend it's driving a "difference engine" for the IT angle)
Re: facetweet plus
a "2.0" would cover this and the OP's suggestion?
Posted in Skyfall makers 3D printed Bond's DB5
Re: Shut up and take my money
suspect they also wouldn't have been able to go for the world roll record in the older car. At least, not with a stuntman actually inside at the time ...
Posted in Skyfall makers 3D printed Bond's DB5
Exactly! It was bad enough watching the Top Gear JB Cars special where we got to see the the film crew "touching up" the Audis and Land Rovers with a sledge hammer to get "damage continuity". (plus the car park full of the totally trashed ones).
Re: Compared to recent Quatermass remake?
Well, I have seen both. Albeit the original a long time ago (well, a re-broadcast, I'm not that old). I agree with Alpine above and found it pretty scary. The DT one was, well, different. Not least because I was 30 odd years older and our expectations of TV have changed, but I think the whole thing was treated more as an experiment or a re-enactment. i.e. "this is how a lot of TV used to be done. i.e. live. I wonder if we can still do it?". Obviously theatre actors have to cope with being live and having no second chance if you fluff your lines but it was pretty clear from the expressions of some of the cast that they were absolutely terrified! There was only one completely obvious line-fluff and a slightly humerous bit where they all tried not to react to some hapless off-screen crewmember demolishing a bit of the chemistry lab set but the real giveaway was at the end. They'd obviously allowed quite a lot of time leeway so it finished early and the celebratory bit at the end which I presume ought to have been "Woo Hoo! We've saved the Earth!" totally came across as "Woo Hoo! We've made it and no-one screwed up too much!".
So, it was "interesting" to watch but more as an academic exercise. I wouldn't have said it was "good". And the answer to the question is "yes, we can sort of still do it but we're going to need a lot more practice" with the obvious followup "but does anyone want us to?"
Re: Am I missing something here?
I think it is because it is actually assembled from a lot of individual photos. Presumably for each individual photo they could keep the arm out of the way. Although it still seems a bit odd that there isn't some glitch in the image where that just wouldn't be possible.
Anyway, another write up here also talking about the choices they had to make to map the whole thing into 2D: http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2012/11011716-curiosity-self-portrait.html
