Posts by Chris Miller

Re: 'utilise our resources to leverage the actioning of the process-driven outcome'

Don't forget to "counterpoint the surrealism of the underlying metaphor".

@Credas

You can use a very similar argument to 'prove' that you don't pay income tax.

Re: Crucifed

The class action lawyers (in the US) are already recruiting. This is going to cost Equifax a minimum of 9 digits.

The UK is the second largest satellite manufacturer (after the US). So not too ridiculous.

Re: Eek!

Hornets (the European ones found in the UK, anyway) are much less aggressive than wasps. They have little interest in your picnic sandwiches, either, their main food source being other insects.

@Voland's RH

The Argentinians not having the capability to buy (or get as a present) the data from the Chinese, Russians or anyone else who keeps an eye on them from space.

If the Russians could spot submerged nuclear subs from a satellite, we'd have bigger problems than Argentina to worry about. But they can't. They can tell how many boats are in port (as can a tourist with a pair of binoculars), and that's about it.

At least at one point this year there was not - the Admiralty unintentionally leaked the fact by stating which one is in for repairs and which one is participating in various junkets (all away from there).

There are three commissioned RN nuclear hunter-killer submarines, with three more under construction in Barrow, and a seventh planned.

The problem with the Falklands in 1982 was that there was only a token military presence (a couple of dozen Royal Marines) and no way to reinforce by air (the runway being relatively short), allowing the Junta to calculate that they could quickly occupy the islands with minimal risk of casualties on either side. This is no longer the case.

Re: "Prices start at £1,299/US$999."

True, but when the exchange rate was ~£1=$1.50 IT kit was still (often) priced at $1=£1. 'Twas ever thus!

Whether you call it "appetite for risk" or "tolerance of risk" is not a big deal. But the point is that this isn't (shouldn't be) a purely IT decision, because security is not purely an IT issue. Businesses exist in order to take (and share) risk - but how much risk they're prepared to take is a question that is ultimately for the owner(s) of the business to decide.

Re: Out of Date Discussion

IBM has had in various forms an active and successful policy of employing and promoting strictly on merit since the 1920s

The argument is not about whether such a policy is a good idea, but whether you look at a resultant situation where there is a significant disparity in male:female ratios and conclude that therefore we are not promoting strictly on merit and must apply different criteria to male and female candidates in order to rectify the perceived discrimination.

Re: Quid of dark matter then ?

Should have added that there's been a lot of searching (looking for transient gravitational lensing events) for MACHOs (MAssive Compact Halo Objects) with largely negative results. This would be much more likely to find brown dwarf sized objects rather than black holes (simply because there'd be a lot more of them). Which is why the dark matter search remains focused on WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles), but with no more success :).

Anyway, these putative (this is only a computer simulation, no-one's actually found any!) black holes would, as stellar remnants, be mostly within the disk of the Milky Way; which isn't where the dark matter needs to be in order to account for the observed anomalies in galactic rotation rates (it would need to be in a halo surrounding the galaxy).

Re: Given that no matter to speak of ...

All matter and energy was once contained within the 'big bang', as was all our space-time, so it's correct (or at least, not wrong) to say that the big bang occurred within the local galaxy (and within your living room, too). All of the hydrogen and most of the helium we now observe was a product of the big bang (some helium has been created in thermonuclear processes within stars, and some is the result of nuclear decay of heavy elements created in supernovae) as was some of the lithium. The observed ratios of these elements in the universe provides strong evidence for the existence of an initial big bang.

Re: ICAN has Cheese?

Wisconsin = America's Dairyland

Re: "without PGP"

Yes. I'm probably just missing something obvious, but I can see how you can mess up PGP (accidentally deleting your private key, for example), but not why it would take 4.5 months to correct the error.

Re: Ok, so France can't claim the tax cash

Some of it is paid in Ireland, who are often chosen by multinationals as their European HQ (which in EU law they are required to have) because their CT rate is relatively low (see also Luxembourg). But international tax treaties imply that taxes on profits are due where the profits are made - and in the case of Google, it's hard to see that the bulk of their profits are not generated in California.

The US (and California in particular) has one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world, but it becomes payable only when the money is repatriated. This is why Apple, Google etc have vast piles of cash sitting in 'tax havens' in the Caribbean - they're waiting for a US government to reduce the corporate tax rate to something closer to the global average, a change that the Donald has promised to make.

Re: Hmmn.. interesting..

the densest that matter can get short of being crushed into neutronium

White dwarf (degenerate) matter is ~1,000,000x density of water. They're much more massive than this object, of course.

We've got two 'adjoining commons' near me (in the Chilterns). One is shown as a 'green space', the other isn't. I think most people would struggle to tell when they cross from one into the other.

Re: Choo Choo!

Bringing a new station, that's 15 minutes from any onward rail connections, in Birmingham 20 minutes closer to London is essential for London.

FTFY

Re: "discovering an increased value for Planck's constant"

In theory, yes, but an adjustment of a few parts per billion won't affect very much. Many other key cosmological values are know only approximately - Hubble's 'constant' to just two significant figures, for example.

Re: In all Fairness

TV in the uk is crap.

I can't disagree (and getting worse), but it's still pure gold compared to anywhere else in the world (that I've visited, at least).

I also agree that there's plenty of useful stuff on YouTube, it's not just cat videos. I have three webcams streamed via YouTube running more or less continually while my PC is on, so that's several thousand hours a year of 'watching', right there.

@AC

If you want to claim that terror attacks are the result of the West meddling in the Middle East (interference that I'm certainly not trying to argue a case for), how do you explain the attacks on (e.g.) Coptic Christians? What part of Irag had they invaded?

That's the migration project from Win2k, I assume?

Re: They could do a real brexit tour

As this BBC graphic demonstrates, apart from Scotland and London (and a few associated commuter towns), almost every area of the UK voted to Leave.

Re: Why?

They were probably unpaid interns, like everyone else on The Grauniad, except for a handful of enormously overpaid 'columnists'.

Re: swaying elections

I'm not sure this is the point "when it can do the most damage". A week or two ago, giving time to analyse the massive cache, would have been far better.

"wine has become more alcoholic"

Some wine, and by up to 20%, not 4x.

@00113.1537

And there was a Libertarian candidate who polled 4 million votes (absent which I imagine most would have gone to Trump). If you're going to have direct presidential elections, you either need a run-off system (à la France) or a transferable vote - otherwise you run the risk of the election outcome being decided by which third party candidates decide to stand. Had either of these been in place, Trump would probably still have won, though turnout might well have been different (there's little incentive for a Trump voter in California under the Electoral College system).

Sat-nav?

Re: Steal a Hyundai?

Fair point. My primary 'anti-theft device' is living between drives, one of which holds a shiny new Mustang and the other a fully tricked out M3. I doubt anyone would target my boring SUV.

The full quote:

“Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, but the highest form of intelligence.” Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde