At last - Pi(e) in the Sky

Lovely thought.

Vivat Elite

I do hope the new version will be as much fun as the original and not be bloated to the extent that playability is sacrificed to just a demonstration of graphics programmers' skills. Sadly, a lot of modern games concentrate on excellent and jazzy graphics while managing to create a very impressive but ultimately boring game with little or no satisfaction.

I still have my ‘Beeb’ model B in storage complete with second processor and dual floppies (5¼ and 3½-inch) plus my library of discs – I’m going to open it up, dust it down and cross my fingers.

Plugs

With apologies to J. R. R. Tolkien -

One plug to rule them all, One Plug to find them,

One Plug to bring them all and in their Laptop fry them.

Cutler Ridge, FL

I drove through Cutler Ridge on the Atlantic coast some a long time ago on my way to the Keys. Back then the sign proudly announced

Cutler Ridge, Pop. 97, Elevation 3ft

I thought then that if a supertanker went by a bit too close and a bit too fast it would swamp a fair amount of Florida.

If 'i' Ruled the World . . .

. . . we'd all be very sad.

Sweepstake

Divide that part of the world's surface, where the bits are likely to fall (that's most of it), into a grid and have a sweepstake or similar where you can predict a likely impact area. Score one point if it's in the sea or an unpopulated area, two points for a populated area and three for an impact on a human. Charge each entry a Pound, Dollar, Euro or whatever and share the total take amongst the winners, minus a small administrative charge of course. More fun than a lottery.

Early Unit of Measurement - just for interest

In earlier days (long before ISO), experiments with X-ray sources the radiation strength was quantified as so many 'Gillett’s'. One Gillett being the level needed to just pass through a standard razor blade. Stronger sources were measured using a staggered stack of blades on a photographic plate and the strength determined by counting the shadows.

Cutting-edge eh?

Parking

Just beyond and to the right there's a small blue plate on a post. It has a large white 'P' on in and underneath the words 'Permit Holders Only'. I expect the authorities towed the vehicle away and ordered it to be crushed for non-compliance.

Welsh codes

They've been using Baa-codes to identify their sheep for a long time so they have plenty of experience.

Grand Unified Theory of Multinational Procurement

Once upon a time some clever chaps in MoD (PE) decided to test a theory. It had the right feel to it and went something like this:

If one nation can design, develop, produce and maintain a weapon system for £X then the total cost for 'n' nations would increase by the root of the number of nations. For example, for two nations to the total project would be 1.7 time more expensive. And there's a nice 'but' here – they would share the bill which meant they would actually get the weapon system for half of the total. In other words they'd get it for %70 of the original solo-nation procurement (cost 1.4X). Tempting. Increase that to three nations and the total cost would be 3^0.5 or 1.7 times the cost shared which equals %58 of the single-nation cost. Even more tempting.

Extend the theory to four nations and they'd each share the total cost of twice the original or %50 each. The more the merrier because no single nation was responsible for the overall project costs and they'd all get part of a very expensive result at a good discount.

What they didn't expect was that government and industrial management and bureaucracy costs for each nation would increase steeply because of the complex multi-national relationships most and differing work practises. Each company would use its own standards methods, standards and work practises but English would be 'the Language' for everything; they'd need more committees and more complex management to deal with the three other nations. Why care – they'd still be paid and, with no single nation in charge, they couldn’t be told how to do things. With hundreds of companies involved came many hundreds of methods. Remember, there was no leading design authority. At the time it was not thought important – like buying a Sony TV for use with a Panasonic PVR.

The technical requirements were far from ideal – vague and poorly often worded but perfectly well understood by each company in their own context and so there was no end of confusion. It was clear the requirements had needed a re-write at a more 'atomic' (non reducible) standard. Fair enough but it didn't happen until after contracts had been let and of course everyone wanted more money to adopt the re-written requirements.

A central authority was necessary to make sure the bits came together correctly but the companies were often reluctant to divulge their rationale for the way they did things. This resulted in countless disagreements and a fair amount of bullying.

How on earth did the ISS turn into a successful project with more than 20 nations and world-wide input get off the ground? Answers on the back of a postcard please.

Eurofighter is still a very good weapon system, it's a pity it's been smothered and strangled – a bit like the rest of the UK I suppose.

Does it 'Tweet'?

Interesting demo - I expect there'll be a big following on the birdseed, sorry - birdbrain, site.

Congrats to the developers, it must have been fun developing it.

Missed point

Interesting how so many experts can jump on the content for criticism and so few applaud or even acknowledge the effort put in to making this work of art for our delectation. It must have taken ages - good camera work, choreography, editing and direction. How many rehearsals there must have been.

Congratulations to all involved - Encore, encore.

Add a VR Headset

I don't see why this idea shouldn't be commonplace in the not too distant future. If the purpose is simply to locate hotspots a relatively low pixel count will suffice. I can imaging a phone clipped to a shoulder strap with the video fed to a Head-Up-Display as used in so many applications today - attached to a pair of glasses or a hat. Add to that the phone's video recorder with GPS data and sound plus the ability to use visual and/or IR or even mixed imagery and you'd have quite a nice little self-contained low profile surveillance system. I'd have thought that mass production would make the cost of small quartz, ZnSe or other IR-transparent material lenses low enough for general use. An application for remote control would fairly trivial to produce.

Déjà vu

Dave: Shut yourself down, Hal.

HAL: I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that.

Arthur C Clarke's forward-thinking was iconic but I don't like the thought of anything which will increase the amount of moronic jabbering into mobile phones on the trains, on the busses or in the street.

Bon Voyage

Dear Chris,

I'll be sorry to see you go as I've always respected and enjoyed your views, opinions and reporting style. I wish you all the best for your future with the Telegraph and I'm sure you'll be a tremendous asset to that mighty organisation.

Make it work and don't let the standards slip.

You've been a stalwart member of El Reg – thank you for being here.

Astarte

The Archers

I think it was the BBC Archers radio program where, in one episode, a baby-sitter made the same mistake with a group of young children in her house. She went to make tea and saw the mistake when she returned. The kids described it as 'People playing games with no clothes on'.

Procedures

Having been involved in transmission of sensitive information the recognised correct method is to telephone the intended recipient, confirm their identity or authority to receive such information and confirm their fax number then ask them to wait at the fax machine. The fax is then sent and the recipient has to confirm receipt. If the confirmation is not received an investigation can be initiated immediately and appropriate action taken. The first step in this case is to send a statutory notice to the same number regarding how to deal with the fax.

It is the sender's responsibility to confirm correct receipt of the fax. The sender's fax machine should not have automatic re-send activated.

This is a simple procedure which should be in the sender's job description along with a notice regarding action to be taken if the procedure is not carried out.

Think about the children.

I assume there will be a similar law prohibiting children entering any area within 1500 ft of the antennæ.

Beta Version?

I'm sure MS would have done some research and field testing on this product before 'The Day'.

I mean, I can't imagine a prestigious company like MS releasing a faulty untested product to the world with such a glitzy and loud fanfare, only to watch it fail at its first public showing.

Says a lot for the "team of smart guys and girls" employed by MS (Sorry, I know that's unfair on the "team of smart guys and girls").

Perhaps they should have named it Icarus, then they could have blamed the failure on (the) Sun.

Image Clarity

An interesting experiment. It could have been a good test of a camera's image stabilisation system.

Smart Dust

1996 Arthur C Clarke and Mike McQuay: Richter 10

Smart dust played a significant part in the espionage activities employed during earthquake research. Good read, weak ending but still a good read. Earthquakes, Tsunamis et al.

Good use of technology

I see it as a scaled-down version of the equipment use to place eggs in their cartons. Kidding apart the idea of self-assembly is attractive and highly cost-effective. With a predicted six-fold increase in areal density, the larger problem will be with the mechanics - how to produce a read-write system capable of coping with not only the positional but also the magnetic accuracy plus dealing with I/O bandwidths.

Good development, and one that sounds highly promising.

What's in a name?

'Piles' is the cut-down version of another program; it was going to be called ‘HaemorrhoidsLite'.

Blind Stupidity Rules OK

People

will

only

think

for themselves

if

you

Tell Them To!

Around the Circle

Wonderful stuff and good reporting. We Need More.

As an aside, reading the article, having just returned from Slims Throat Emporium, the mention of muons and anti-muons seemed to settle in my brain. Could this be a covert reference to cats? Mewing and anti-mewing or simply mews and anti-mews. Schoedinger knew all about cats and by association mewing or muon(ing). The chaps at LHC might need to stand back from their discoveries just to apply Schroedinger's and Heisenberg's theories. I'm sure they do, but do they really/

I'd suggest that bottoms and tops exist simultaneously until one attempts to investigate one of them.

Ok, Back to the pub.

No enough states

Keep increasing the number of values that can be carried on a single conductor and you'll end up with a new computing concept - maybe call it Analogue (or Analog for those that can't spell). For specific applications they are still much faster than any digital solutions yet invented.

Mine's the one with the patch cords haning out of the pocket.

How flexible?

I mean, can you hang it on a nail in the outside lavvy?

@ Julian 4. Re.: The Standard Pint?

Don't bet on it Julian 4 - US pints are about 473 cubic centimetres (16 fl. oz.); UK Pints are 568 cubic centimetres or 20 fl. oz.

That's also why one US gallon is only 0.8 of a British gallon.

I do agree that it’s about time the press stopped pandering to the US parochialism of pretending that everyone else in the world uses ‘their’ standards

Incidentally, my beer comes in half-litres, very nearly a pint.

Getting back to the ISS I’d have expected a general standardisation of docking and ingress/egress points for emergency access, as they have on submarines. Unilateralism in these things does not bode well for future cooperation in space exploration missions

Progress

Keep banging the rocks together chaps - look what happened when that was tried a long long time ago. We'll end up with either income tax and rice pudding or expose a portal through which unstoppable hoards of Auditors come marching through. However I'm sure Gordon and (Her Ladyship) Alyx can deal with it - until the next time.