Posts by Stratman

"Doncaster Council had to deal with an abandoned speed boat last year."

Bullseye has a lot to answer for.

Is the full stop in R. Kelly meant to be pronounced and if it is, is it "full stop" or the more edgy "stop"?

If I were the Ecuadorean ambassador

I'd wait until he was delivering another Sermon From The Balcony then lock the window behind him.

Many years ago

in the days of analogue telly, we were covering a football match for MOTD as we did most weekends. At the time I was a vision engineer and during the match our main function was exposure and colour matching of the cameras. The cameras themselves were Philips LDK5s, which had a Camera Control Unit and power supply unit in the truck. The PSU was basically a big FO transformer (and some electronics in a separate narrow unit) and two fitted side by side in a ninteen inch rack. They had one control on the front panel, an illuminated push on push off switch which required a decent bit of force to operate. They were mounted just above floor level.

Being Philips, there was a guard around the switch to prevent accidental operation. Being Philips they often bent or fell off. The engineer sitting next to me, let's call him Billy, was bored with the game and had a mid-half stretch which included his legs. We all heard an ominous 'click' as his size nine planted firmly on the guardless switch, and laughed as we knew what was coming next. The switches didn't change state until released, so Billy had to spend the remaining twenty minutes of the first half keeping the switch pressed in and therefore the camera operational.

How we laughed.

Before they pontificate

on ways of regulating it, shouldn't they first explain why it needs regulating?

It's not a tapestry...

...it's an embroidery.

[/pedant]

It would be interesting

to see if there's any correlation between the issue of 'slow down' updates (downdates?) to older iphones and the imminent release of a new model.

What would be the result

if two instances of Libratus were to play each other? Would the best hand always win?

In my wage slave days I used to work as an outside broadcast engineer for a world famous broadcasting corporation based in Britain. An upstart satellite company used to pitch up at sport events and ask for a feed of the core coverage and 'black and burst', a video timing reference signal which as its name implies consisted of sync pulses, a colour burst and black. Plug it in to a monitor and you got a black screen. We gave him a couple of video leads with the signals and off he went.

Just as we went on air he came into our truck and reported "There's pictures on the reference wire and nuffink on the pictures one".

True story, it happened to me. Not a mate's mate but actually to me.

Of course their request has been refused

Allowing Uber to skip the Court of Appeal and go straight to the Supreme Court would set an alarming precedent for the legal industry, effectively rendering an entire layer of troughs redundant and their snouts homeless.

Ain't gonna happen.

More than one in the car?

Which one is the driver?

How far

down the "this person works for you and is staff" road is it necessary to go before employer's National Insurance needs to be paid?

The finder

was so concerned with national security he took the stick straight to the Sunday Mirror.

I suppose they pay better than the Police.

Working on a Blockchain Gang

Sorry Sam

Amazon told to repay €250m

I bet it won't be next day delivery

One such fake payment, for £17,912, was labelled as being for "Scottish Fuels".

That's a lot to spend on Bucky and Special Brew, even for a Jock.

From Twitter

HaveIGotNewsForYou‏Verified account @haveigotnews 5h5 hours ago

As search continues after US ship/oil tanker collision, President Trump says his thoughts are with the oil companies at this difficult time.

"For those of you reading this..."

Boozy ice cubes?

Centrifugal force?

Whenever I read about centrifugal force throwing stuff outwards, I find myself wondering if the person in question knows as much as they claim.

In this particular case, 'centrifugal force' would imply a black hole pushing matter outwards away from itself.

Shouldn't her lawyer have some explaining to to to his professional body?

I would have thought making use of privileged information, namely the exchanges between her husband and his lawyer, would be high on the list of things lawyers shouldn't really be doing.

If the alleged 'intermediary'..

..was running away, why was it lawful for him to be shot?

Should I be surprised

that NK's missiles don't seem to suffer 'unusual software anomalies' quite soon after lift off?

Something puzzling me

To measure something with an accuracy of 13 parts per billion, how accurate do the parameters used to make the measurement have to be?

I'm thinking of the current in the current balance for instance. Is it possible to measure a current to a sufficient accuracy? Or the velocity of a moving coil in a known magnetic field. How accurately is it possible to measure both the coil's velocity and the magnitude of the field?

Spinny things with loudspeakers?

The Doppler effect must be wonderful, with everything sounding like Edith Piaf.

I wonder what Donald Leslie would have made of them?

"The universe is made up of about 23 per cent dark matter and 72 per cent dark energy"

Is it. Is it really.

Never pass up an opportunity to link

Dilbert

I suppose it's the audio equivalent of

the squashed up, fine lined font over a fussy background they all use on television to prevent you reading the legal stuff they don't want you to know.